High-School Gospel Invitation

My name is Nathan Colestock. I currently live in Dubuque. It’s crazy and so much fun to speak with you briefly tonight (I get about 20 minutes, so don’t worry, I won’t be too long) because I sat where you are now not very long ago. I graduated from high school in Minnesota in 2016, just three years ago. So I remember this, and I still think the way you do. So as I speak tonight, know that I’m telling you the things that I should have heard when I sat in the chairs you are now.

The first thing that I had to hear was that life is about to happen. You haven’t had to be independent. You’ve made plenty of significant decisions, your life has been valuable and has mattered all the way to now, and you have been dependent on your parents. You were able to get to your first job because they filled your car with gas. And you could afford to buy your car because you didn’t have to pay rent. We wouldn’t have made it to here without them. So thanks parents!

And now you’re being launched into independent life, many of you. You’ll move out, you’ll live a while away, you won’t have to answer to your parents about how much time you spend doing homework or how many Diet Cokes you can have with dinner. This might happen faster than you think.

I moved to college with my high-school sweetheart, and we were married the next summer. We had to pay rent, and insurance, and show up at school. It was crazy, and I thought I was ready. I was not. Now, two in my third year of college our first child was born, a daughter, who is three weeks old, and I graduated from college five days ago. In ten days I move back to my hometown to begin my masters program. I don’t say this to show off, I say this to scare you. Life is about to start! Maybe not as fast as it did for me, but it’s about to get real, and I wasn’t ready for it sitting where you are now. I needed to hear someone say, “You’re going to be a husband and father in three years! So grow up!”

The truth is, that we’re all the same. We want to live significant lives. We want them to count for something. We want a cause worth living for, in fact a cause worth dying for.

Have them start undoing the twine.

Why Live Significantly?

You likely take that for-granted. Take a second and think, “Why does it matter that I live significantly? Why does it matter that I do good things and not bad?” What’s the point?

Rope: Two Choices

Imagine with me that this twine is your life. There’s a lot of left huh? Tons and tons and tons of time. Years and years and years ahead of you. Now here’s the thing. This little colored part, this is your life on earth. Your quick eighty years on earth is right here, and then there is forever. The rest of this twine is ___ years. But there’s forever and ever after your quick eighty.

So, the way I see it, you have two options.

Live for the now

You can live for this quick eighty years and do everything that you can to enjoy it. You can look at the rest of this ____ years and say that there’s just nothing there. You can look around this world and call it a happy accident, you can look at your friends and be happy that the universe, in a big fluke, accidently ended up with earth.

If you want to live for the this quick eighty here’s what you’d be thinking: “I’m going to work hard because that’s what I’m supposed to do. I’m going to apply to a good school and do my best and then get a good job and work as hard as I can. I’m not going to cheat, and least not when I have the time to study hard. And I’m not going to try to hurt anyone. I’m just going to try to take what I need to be comfortable and happy. Hopefully I meet someone so that I don’t have to be alone, and at the end of working and sweating and showing up to work I’m going to finally quit. I’m going to work really hard here so that that this part is really really fun, and then eventually it’s all going to end.

But some of you might see the problem here…what’s the point of this working hard? Is breaking my back for forty years so that I can take a cruise and catch a flight overseas worth it? Why am I going to do so much good stuff when it’s so inconvenient? You’re about to be unaccountable but to yourself right?! So why do all this good stuff? The only person you have to answer to is the one in the mirror. So you’ll decide that you don’t have to be a good person, you just can’t be so bad you can’t face yourself the next morning.

Without anything coming next, and with no God you won’t be able tof ind a convincing reason to be courages and lay your life down for others, because then you lose your eighty! And without a God or anything coming next you won’t find a good reason to live selflessly, you don’t have long! You need to get everything that you can! In fact, with no God and nothing coming next, who’s making all the rules about life that says I can’t lie and cheat? Because I don’t care if you made them! Who says you get to make rules for me? And who says that this society gets to make rules for me? And eventually you’ll turn off the conscience enough to get to do what you really want to, but not so much that you wake up to find a monster behind your own eyes.

You’ll run after stuff and money so that you can get all the pleasure that you can now, and avoid all the pain you can. You’ll try to get satisfied in the people around you, so you’ll look for them to meet your needs, and you’ll look to try to get satisfied by the stuff around you, so you’ll look to buy all that you can. You’ll use those people and buy that stuff in the hopes that around the next corner there is a life worth living where you can be as happy as you want to be.

That’s what living for this quick eighty years will be like. You can probably tell, I’m entirely uninterested in that. I don’t want that. I want meaning that goes past this quick eighty into this ____.

Live for the next

So, you could also live for this next part. This ____ years. You could structure you quick eighty here around a solid and sure hope that one day it’ll be over and you’ll enter this part. If you’re living for this, you don’t think that your desires are too strong and you need to tame them. You don’t think that your want for good food and drinks and sex and satisfaction are too big, you think that your desire for satisfaction is way to small. You think that you’re like a hungry kid digging in the garbage can when the fridge is right behind him.

So you go looking in this next ___ years and trust in a God who’s there. You hear :

English Standard Version Psalm 97

The LORD reigns, ylet the earth rejoice;

let the many zcoastlands be glad!

2 aClouds and thick darkness are all around him;

brighteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.

3 cFire goes before him

and burns up his adversaries all around.

4 His dlightnings light up the world;

the earth sees and etrembles.

5 The mountains fmelt like gwax before the LORD,

before hthe Lord of all the earth.

6 iThe heavens proclaim his righteousness,

and all jthe peoples see his glory.

and :

English Standard Version Chapter 40

Do you not know? Do you not hear?

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,

and its inhabitants are blike grasshoppers;

cwho stretches out the heavens like a curtain,

and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;

23 dwho brings princes to nothing,

and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

and :

English Standard Version Chapter 38

“Where were you when I ulaid the foundation of the earth?

Tell me, if you have understanding.

5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!

Or who stretched the line upon it?

6 On what were its bases sunk,

or who laid its cornerstone,

7 when the morning stars vsang together

and all wthe sons of God xshouted for joy?

8 “Or who yshut in the sea with doors

when it burst out from the womb,

9 when I made clouds its garment

and zthick darkness its swaddling band,

10 and prescribed alimits for it

and set bars and doors,

11 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,

and here shall your bproud waves be stayed’?

12 “Have you ccommanded the morning since your days began,

and caused the dawn to know its place,

If you’re living for this part seeking satisfaction you see this God and you’re speechless. In this God there is a wonder and awe that settles over you. You know how good and pleasurable this world is, so when you encounter the one who made and are faced with the reality that all the pleasures of creation can’t possibly rival the pleasure of knowing the creator himself! So you’ll go looking for this creator and you’ll find :

ou hear :

You know how good and pleasurable this world is, so when you encounter the one who made and are faced with the reality that all the pleasures of creation can’t possibly rival the pleasure of knowing the creator himself! So you’ll go looking for this creator and you’ll find :

English Standard Version Psalm 97

The LORD reigns, ylet the earth rejoice;

let the many zcoastlands be glad!

2 aClouds and thick darkness are all around him;

brighteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.

3 cFire goes before him

and burns up his adversaries all around.

4 His dlightnings light up the world;

the earth sees and etrembles.

5 The mountains fmelt like gwax before the LORD,

before hthe Lord of all the earth.

6 iThe heavens proclaim his righteousness,

and all jthe peoples see his glory.

And you’ll read that last verse and recognize that the heavens and earth and animals and trees and the people, even you, they were made to proclaim the glory of God! They are made to shine forth, loudly and brightly and clearly how magnificent this God is! You’ll find that you were made to do just that. You are the image of God, a living breathing snapshot of a piece of how He is and your job is to take his glory and share it with everyone so that not just you find delight in him but every corner of the earth is filled with his praise in thousands of languages from cultures we can’t understand. All of us united looking at this God proclaiming, “The Lord reigns! Let the earth rejoice!”

And as you realize that you were created to honor God, you’ll realize that you don’t do that sometimes. Actually you don’t do it kind of a lot. You don’t listen to what he says and show that you don’t care about him or don’t think that he’s strong enough to do anything about it. You decide that you know better than he does and disagree on what he says is right making him look unintelligent. You and me, we’ve dishonored that God who laid the foundations here. The one at whose right hand is pleasures forevermore, we’ve spat in his face.

And that means that you and me, we deserve punishment. That God is good, which means he cares about justice, which means that those who do what’s wrong deserve to be punished, just like we want criminals to be caught and punished. And we have offended infinite majesty, which means we deserve infinite punishment. We deserve to spend all these years being punished!

But then you’ll find something amazing. Though you ought to be punished you’ll find that the majestic God you’ve come to be so amazed at, the one who is writing this whole grand story of humanity and the world and everything has actually written himself in as the hero. And He came about 2,000 years ago, and about that many miles from where you sit today he took your punishment so that you don’t have to. You don’t have to be punished anymore! Instead you live all these years with that God, the incredible majestic God. The one worth dying for. The one for whom you could give anything and everything and gain him and count it all gain! The one before whom every pleasure pales and points back to him. You can spend all this time with him if you believe what he says, that he is the most incredible being ever and you can find complete satisfaction with him and Jesus died so that if you believe him and delight in him you can live these eighty years looking forward to the next eighty-thousand years with him.

You’ll find it’s not about working. God chose you just because he loves you, not because you do good things. It doesn’t have to do with your good works, it has to do with the good God who loves you, and wants to give you a heart that loves him so that you can be satisfied with him instead of rummaging around in the trash of treasures we are now.

And when you look to find what this next life will be like, you’ll find :

English Standard Version Chapter 21

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, fthe dwelling place1 of God is with man. He will gdwell with them, and they will be his people,2 and God himself will be with them as their God.3 4 hHe will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and ideath shall be no more, jneither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

5 And khe who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I lam making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for mthese words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, n“It is done! oI am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. pTo the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 qThe one who conquers will have this heritage, and rI will be his God and she will be my son.

And then you’ll see what else it could be,

English Standard Version Chapter 21

8 tBut as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, utheir portion will be in vthe lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is wthe second death.”

and a deep longing will set in to tell those who don’t believe what this God says and delight in him yet, because you want them to taste what you’ve tasted, and see what you’ve seen and hear what you’ve heard and join you for the day every tear is wiped away and not be separated from the God of all pleasures forever.

Only True Significant & Satisfying Life

The life is knowing and loving and being close with God is the only life here worth living. Retirement is such a puny pleasure next to eternity receiving the water of life. You’ve started to live when you find something that’s worth devoting your entire life to. Something that’s worth dying for, enduring any torture and pain, paying any price relinquishing any treasure. And the only thing worth that is God. He’s it.

Invitation

So if you’ve never heard this before, or if you’ve never responded to this before, I’d invite you to find me or one of these pastors after I close in prayer. I want for you to join me living for what comes next, not wasting yourself on a quick eighty of pathetic pleasures. I want you join me satisfied forever and ever and now worshiping and waiting for our God and king to come back and bring us to that new life.