Youth culture and the future of youth in ministry

Larry D. discusses the importance of youth in the church and the future of ministry. He introduces his new book, "Pop Culture," which focuses on understanding that we are all created on purpose for a specific reason. Larry emphasizes the need for a community that grows under the concept of being purposed on purpose. He believes that the youth today face identity crises due to the influence of popular culture and social media. Larry suggests that adults should remain consistent and model a strong foundation in faith to help the youth navigate through the changing culture. He also highlights the importance of training children in the way they should go and shaping the youth culture properly. The future of preparing youth for ministry lies in adults being genuine and teaching according to a solid standard. That's Josh from Authentic Life again. Today we have Mr. Larry D. He's back in studio with us. He's going to talk about the importance of youth in the church and in the future of ministry. So this is something that's near and dear to both of our hearts. We worked together at Agape a little over a decade ago, reaching the youth, and he still reaches out to the youth, and I still like to reach out to the youth. So that's what we're going to be talking today. So Mr. Larry D., he just came out with a new book called Pop Culture. So Larry, why don't you give us a little bit of insight about what pop culture is all about? Yes. Well, thank you, sir. Pop culture really is an acronym. Well, P-O-P, the way I say the title is P-O-P, Pop Culture, Purpose on Purpose. And that's what the P-O-P stands for. And it's a really simple concept. It's understanding that we were all created by God for a specific purpose. And when we recognize that we are on purpose, that means we're intentionally designed in place here. Psalms 139, verse 14, I believe it is, he says that we were fearfully and wonderfully made by God. And in Jeremiah 1, 5, he says, before you were formed in your mother's womb, I knew you and I appointed you. So when we look at what the world says is pop culture, we look at popular culture. Well, when we have an understanding that we were all created on purpose, we are purposed on purpose, and that is a new pop culture, which is a new popular culture, because culture simply means to cultivate or grow a community, a community that grows. So when we have a community that grows under the concept that we are made for a reason, that we are purposed on purpose, then we have a pop culture. So it's a three-volume series. The first volume, which is out now, is Pop Culture, Who Am I? The second is Pop Culture, What Is My Value? And the third is Pop Culture, Where Do I Fit? So once you find out who you are, and you find out your value, then you also find out how you and your value fit in the grand scheme of society and how God originally placed us here on this planet to be an impact. So that's the long and short of it. Thank you for bringing that up, sir. So I think it's convenient that you wrote this book on pop culture as we are going to be discussing the youth culture of today. I think it's really relevant, and I'm excited to get into this today. Larry was a, and is a, a near and dear friend to me. Like I said, we worked together at Agape in Dayton, Ohio, for a little bit, and we get along quite well with each other. And both of us have something very much in common with each other, and that's the love for the youth. And we love to see them praise the Lord, and we like to see them shine rather than, or thrive rather than strive within the youth culture. So today we're going to go over what we think is the importance of the youth in the church. And I'm going to lead off with asking a few questions, Larry, and I'd like to get some insight to what you think, where do you see the youth culture today? What do you, what do you think is, two parts, sorry, what do you think holds the culture back for the youth, and how do you think we can see them move forward? Great questions. The first part where I see culture, or at least where the youth is now in this generation, it's really a lot of identity crisis, you know, at least I would esteem it as such. We're in this social media age and craze to where a lot of what we find is based on what we see, or excuse me, should I say, a lot of what we find our identity is based on what we see. And that was part of the inspiration behind the pop culture understanding, which I call it not necessarily a movement, but an understanding, is that if we don't know who we are, then popular culture will identify us, you know. And we see it as a common thing from generation to generation, age to age, decade to decade, where there's been different type of fads, I mean, clothing styles, hairstyles, genres of music, things are progressively and constantly changing. And I believe that if we were formed for a reason and we were formed for a purpose, then our purpose does not change just because our circumstances do. And I think that a lot of the youth is caught in that bear trap, if you will, of being a prisoner of the moment. And so if they don't have an idea of who they are and where they're supposed to be, then any road will get them there, you know. And so they find themselves chasing rabbits a lot. And the second part of the question, what was the second part? The second question? Where do you what do you think we could do to maybe fix the situation, maybe help the culture grow properly? OK, great. So as adults, more importantly, I think we also have to know who we are, you know, a lot of times we search for relevance within the younger generations and we find ourselves basically shaping ourselves or reshaping ourselves, if you will, to their mold for the sake of, quote unquote, impact, you know. But I believe that our consistency as adults and as men and women of God, if we remain steadfast, immovable, abounding in our faith, that consistency is something that this generation can trust, you know. And so it's like if we change every 10 minutes the same way the culture changes, then we become just as untrustworthy as the culture, you know. So at that point, it's like, why should I change to follow who you're following if all you're going to do is do what I'm doing? You know what I mean? I agree. Yeah. So that's that's kind of where I say I think consistency to answer the question in full, knowing who we are and through the word of God and expressing that on a consistent basis and modeling that, more importantly, I think is what's going to create the change that we're looking for. I like how you used modeling in there. And the one thing that I mean, I raised my kids up in this way. And I think when we were in the youth group together at Agape, I think one of the things that really helped us in understanding is Proverbs 22, 6. Proverbs 22, 6, train up a child the way he should go. And even when he's old, he will not depart from it. Now, that doesn't mean that he's going to be perfect or she's going to be perfect in what they do. But I think it's that passage is not more for the child. It's more for the youth leader, for the household, the church. It's for the parents training children the way they should be. And it's it's not training up the child in just morale and ventures, but creating a solid basis, a foundational basis of Scripture in them and understanding of who Christ is and understanding of what the church is really about. It's not about just sitting in a pew on Sunday mornings and maybe listen to the preacher for a short hour or two and have some good worship songs and maybe go to a youth group. I think it's on us as adults, like you said, to help shape that culture properly and not be deceived by the way culture swings from one moment to the next. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I think that was a strong Scripture that you pointed out because it's actually been more of a revelation or should I say enlightenment that the Lord gave me behind that Scripture in regards to purpose is that the training of a child in the way that they should go. Right. And so when we look at a child, notice he didn't say raise up children in the way they should go. He said raise up a child. So when you when you're talking about a child, then that is a specific individual. Right. So that will go to show us that not all of us are destined to go the same place or accomplish the same things. Right. So there's a there's a specific reason we are all formed. For a purpose. But the issue that we have is we tell a lot of teenagers and even even children, you can do and be whatever you want to be just so you put your mind to it. And that may be true, but is that what they're supposed to be doing? You know, it's like when God gave animals the same free will that he gave humans. And we told a fish, you can be whatever you want to be as long as you put your mind to it. And a fish looks up in the sky, sees a bird flying, says, that looks like fun. I think I want to be a bird. Well, how long can a fish survive out of water? You know, what if what if we say the same thing to a bird? And the bird see a fish swim and say, that looks like fun. I think I'm going to be a fish. And he dips down into the water and then drown. You know, right. Like how many times have we have we led our children astray by simply leaving choice to them completely? And it's not to say we're to be dictators, but we are to be guides. You know, and so with us as parents and adults, we have to understand the foundation before we can learn what type of building is supposed to be built on it. You know, so, yeah, so I think it's still I think that was a strong scripture to bring out because we have to understand as adults and as leaders understand the foundation, which Jesus is the chief cornerstone. Right. And and so it's on his foundation that we have to just that everything is built upon. I agree. I agree. I think if we if we look at it, well, we could get into a long conversation about the the state of the of the house and the marriage and parental guidance. But I think I want to focus mainly on. Us as youth leaders, as youth pastors, youth leaders, or even just in general, wise adults in the congregation, what do you see as our future as trying to prepare these students and these youth for up and coming ministry, not necessarily in the church, but just in the church, but just in their lives? Well, I think that it really a lot of it has to reflect on how and I use the word model earlier and you echo that, but I believe it simply is being who we are, understanding our role and position that we play in teaching according to that standard. So my point is, is overall we don't. Reproduce what we know we reproduce who we are. Right. Right. So when it comes to building the body of Christ, we have to understand what the scripture says about the body of Christ is that we're many members, but one body. So keep in mind, as we are all individual bodies, we all have the same body parts. Right. So if I'm a young pinky, then I'm a girl to be an old pinky. Right. So if I'm teaching and training someone to be a member of the body based on the member that I am within the body, I can't teach a pinky how to be a thumb. Correct. You see what I'm saying? So overall, I believe that when it comes to us as leaders, it comes to knowing who we are and really playing our lane, you know? Yeah. And I think a lot of times we as ministers sometimes, sadly to say, we try to be Jesus Christ superstars. So we try to be everything to everybody in every way, you know what I mean? Right. Right. Yeah. And so there's levels and then there's limitations, I think. And it's kind of ironic because I have a vision over limits. But the reality is that the limitations comes within what we're called to do, you know? I agree. Yeah. Yeah. So I think if we teach the young people the same way, then it's not that we don't want them to have lofty aspirations, but we want them to have high expectations for what it is God expects for them to do, you know, and believe that they can actually do it. So I think teaching against the discouragement and encouraging them to be the best that they can be is what's important. I agree. I wholeheartedly agree. I would like to put this out there that we as adults, rather we are leaders, rather we are just members of the congregation. I think we have to, we keep circling around this word model. Yeah. And I find it ironic because I think the whole thing is based on how we are supposed to model, like you said, towards them. And it works on both instances. If you read Galatians 5, it's known for being the fruit of the Spirit. But if you go just a few verses before, you could see if you don't follow by the fruit of the Spirit, you go the opposite direction where you're talking about jealousy and strife and all the things that go against the fruit of the Spirit. I think if we go into the church and we look at it, I think a lot of the problems we see with the youth today and the culture today is the adult generation doesn't know how to act properly. And they don't model because maybe they weren't modeled to properly. But at some point, as adults, the biggest issue is that we're not in our word the way we should be as a whole in the church. A lot of the problems is we practice not the fruits of the Spirit, but the opposite of the fruits of the Spirit because we don't know what the Word of God says. And if we don't take the opportunity to model that to the youth, how do we expect the youth to grow in Christ and model themselves to the future generations? For sure. For sure. I think that if we look at the adult congregation, I see sometimes that the youth is teaching the adults just by example. And it's not supposed to be that way. It's supposed to be the opposite of that. Like the adults are supposed to be sitting down and showing them. Rather, if it's not necessarily through the word as far as preaching to them, but just like their livelihood, like their marriage, how they treat their kids, how they treat other kids, just rather they're strict or rather they're lofty or in between. I think as a congregation or a youth leader, I think the biggest thing that we can do is model, just like you said. I think if we start to model that properly, we create a whole new culture. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. But I think we've got to let the youth know to not to be afraid to step into what their calling is and try to discover that. Yeah. And I see sometimes that that can be shut down by some adults towards youth when they start seeing things happen. Have you ever noticed that in your years of experience? You ever seen youth being shut down by adult believers? Well, yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's been that way since we could think about, you know, I mean, we look at King David before he was he was king, you know, he was basically told to go tend to the sheep, you know, don't worry about these affairs, you know, like, I mean, he stood up before the nation of Israel to defend them against Goliath, you know, right. And it was after a while. I mean, I think even sometimes we can be silenced simply by being put on equipment that isn't meant for us. Right. Correct. Like almost to prove, hey, you aren't ready for this. Can you get can you can you bear the armor that we bear, you know? And so it's almost like with the exception of David, um, I think in a lot of cases, we bite off more than we can chew. Right. You know, but but overall, I guess the major point that I want to make is that a lot of times we're we're we're a prisoner to our own sight. You know, we we have fear based on the things that we see and it keeps us from progression. And even if it keeps us personally from progression, it will cause us to teach others against progression because of our lack of faith. Right. You know, and so I think a lot of times and it kind of goes back to, like I said, knowing who you are, knowing who you are in Christ, because if you understand who you are, you understand also what he's brought you through. You know, and if we truly believe the word, the way the word is written, and the way our lives should model said word, we should be more encouraging to those that are coming up after us to know that, hey, I've trusted in the Lord. This thing works. You can trust in the Lord as well. But if we don't have that relationship ourselves, then how can we teach about someone we don't know? Right, right. I like how you use David and the armor as an example. And it made me think of Ephesians when they talk about the armor of God. How can we expect the youth to put on and preach the armor of God if we as adults aren't utilizing this armor ourselves? Right. So if we can't fit into the armor ourselves, how do we expect somebody to put on the same armor that we are trying to portray on them? Yeah. Well, and it's not that I don't think that we don't fit the armor. I just think that we don't know how to properly put it on. Correct. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. And so, but when it comes to the children, or should I say the youth, in aspect to the armor being too big, is that sometimes we may throw an expectation on them that isn't quite, they don't have that measure to fulfill yet, you know? Like the Bible says to prophesy according to your faith and this, that, and the third. So there's different levels to righteousness, salvation, knowledge of the word of God, you know, walking in peace. You know, it all comes through progression. So when we don't empathize and understand where a person is, whether they be young or old, we really don't know how to meet them where they are and instruct them in a way that's going to be beneficial for them, you know? Like God is gracious. He's merciful. He said his grace is sufficient for you, you know? So he understands that there are also levels that we just haven't reached yet, you know? Like the one man saying, Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief, you know? So I believe that there's a lot of times where we want to believe, you know, but our life experience doesn't really give us the faith to increase it to that point of supernatural belief. Like, you know what I mean? Miracle working belief, you know? So I think the same goes with the way we walk in life. I mean, there's just certain steps we're afraid to take simply because we're just uncertain of the next step or what's to come. Right. Do you think that, I would say that probably goes back again to Proverbs where we haven't been trained properly in our past, rather it's by somebody before us, or we're not training ourselves properly. And I think that the main goal of that is training. How can we grow or how can the youth grow or how can we expect them to grow if we're not properly trained or they're not getting the proper training? And I think that fits well with your analogy of the armor, not being able to not fit into it necessarily, but they have to train to grow into the armor. Yeah, absolutely. It's not their armor. They have to train to grow into their armor, not necessarily, you know, the king's armor like David had to, they try to put on David. And I like the analogy because David shined, shone without the armor. Right. He was able to shine in the time that he needed to shine with the plan that God put on him, not with the plan that the king was trying to throw at him. Yeah. So I think as we continue to grow our youth, I think we need to remember that they need to be trained properly and we need to start training ourselves properly to understand what their training needs are. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I'm sorry. Go ahead. No, go ahead. Go ahead. Well, I was going to say, I think there's still a two-way street when it comes to training because not only is it the responsibility of the teacher to teach what is right, it's also the responsibility of the student to learn and exercise and practice what it is they're being taught, you know? Absolutely. So, I mean, it's one thing, I mean, I believe I think it's James, in James it says to be not just hearers of the word, but be doers also. Right. Right? Yeah. And so one thing, and it's kind of a point that I started to make within the last recent years, is that school isn't necessarily a place to learn. School is a place to be taught and learning is a decision, you know? I mean, how many years have we seen people go to school for 13 years from kindergarten to 12th grade and leave with marks that are less than average, you know? Simply because their diligence behind study was poor. It wasn't that they weren't smart, it was simply that they just weren't driven, you know, they had no initiative and motivation towards understanding the information that was coming through. So that's where the word says with all you're getting, get understanding, you know? So I don't want to, and I don't think you're doing this either, I don't want us to indict the teachers as much as we don't put responsibility on the students, you know what I mean? Oh, yeah, yeah. You can't lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. Oh, for real? That's a good analogy. So, but I think, like, we hit this a few weeks ago when we were talking about Jeremiah, where he was, you know, he was afraid to speak. But as youth, they got to learn that sometimes you got to overcome your fear. They're trained, these kids, when they're training, at some point, rather than nine, 10, 12, 18, all the way up to 40. At some point, you got to put your training into practice. Absolutely. And it's not training, it's purposeless if you're not utilizing the training that you're gaining. For certain, yes. So, I mean, in Matthew, Jesus' great commandment, the great commission, you go out into all the world and preach the gospel. Yes. How can we stand behind that if we're not modeling that ourselves? And if we're not putting the training into practice, the evangelism into practice, it's pointless. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And I think you bring up a strong point with all of that. And the other aspect of training is, like, you mentioned fear, right? And for one, I believe it's 1 John 4, he said, there's no fear in love, but perfect love casts out all fear. And as well as what 1 Timothy, he says that God has not given us the spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind. And so when we look at what sound mind translates to, sound mind translates to discipline, right? Which discipline is actually a fruit of the spirit, which is self-control, right? So when it comes to us learning to move forward, we have to be disciplined to remain consistent under being a disciple, which a disciple is a student, you know? So when God has given us the power, which is ability, love, which is his fruit, and discipline, he's given us the ability, the power to love and be a disciple, you know, to operate under all of the attributes of the spirit. You brought up Galatians 5, and if you notice where it says, the fruit of the spirit is love, but then it lists like eight other attributes, right? You know, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faith, you know, temperance, self-control. It mentions all of these things, different things, but it says fruit, which is singular, right? And so when it comes to understanding what the fruit of love is, the fruit contains vitamins, right? Right. You know, I believe it's John 15. I want to say around about between verse 10 through 12 or something like that. He says that to keep these words in you for if you do, my joy will remain in you and your joy will become full or be made full. So if he tells us to eat the fruit of love, guess what happens? We receive the nutrients that's within that fruit. So if we have a cold, you know, people tell us to consume vitamin C. Well, what fruit do we eat to get vitamin C? Most commonly, we eat an orange, right? So we have the fruit of an orange, but if you eat that, then your deficiency of vitamin C will be where the vitamin C will be in us. And then our level of vitamin C will be made full, you know, but that comes through one confidence to know that eating this is the right thing. And two, the discipline to continue eating it until it becomes full in us, you know, so that goes back to the training is that we can give all the information in the world. But if the student is not disciplined enough and doesn't trust in the information enough and thirdly, doesn't want to move forward, then a lot of our teaching is in vain, you know? But I think a lot of the times through modeling through our lives that, hey, this stuff actually works, you know? Yeah, yeah. That's got to be the point. I think a lot of times, other than, you know, the training, I think the youth are afraid. You know, and that's, I think that's trained into them because rather than seeing some of the adult leaders or the adult's congregation, whether it be their parents or a friend or just a congregation in general, they don't see it modeled. We're back to this word again, modeled, and they're not going up to pray for somebody, you know, afraid to step out in faith and say something or even evangelize. Or even evangelize. I mean, how often do we see people going out and, you know, doing street discipleship or street evangelism? It's a rarity anymore. I mean, I'm guilty of that myself to a degree. But I think the youth, when they're afraid, should not embrace their, you know, or be content with their youth and be discouraged but be encouraged because they are youth and because they are followers of Christ and they're at a good point where they can learn continuously and put into practice what they learned. I think that if we continue to move forward and we start to set a precedence on who Christ is and how we are to reach Christ, that shines through and it'll affect the youth and it'll change the culture that is beginning to happen today. Yes. Yes. Well, I think that's strong, Josh. That's really strong. And you brought up the, you can't lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. I personally have adjusted that statement to, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them thirsty. Right? You know, and a lot of times I think what we're finding is that not just youth, but people in general aren't thirsting for the right things. Right? Like you mentioned Galatians 5, once again, we're talking about the spirit of the flesh, you know, and what the deeds of the flesh are. And a lot of times we find ourselves craving and desiring those things. I mean, if we didn't desire those things, there would be no need to bring it up. Right? And so it'd be no need to say and encourage us to walk away from those things, turn away from those things, in fact, run from useful lust. Right? But the point that I'm trying to make is that Jesus said, those that hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be filled. Right? And what's the best way to prove to someone that they're hungry is, in my opinion, is to take all of their food options away. Yeah. Right? Like it isn't, you notice that it isn't until we fast that we feel like we're going to die if we don't eat something. Right. Right. You know, and so many times we'll go around, we're just snacking on random stuff, things that aren't even filling us up. It's just, we're just eating for the sake of eating. But are we even really hungry for the things that we're eating? You know, it's like our flesh doesn't get enough of feeding itself. Right? But what is it that should we be hungering and thirsting for is what's important. And so when we strip ourselves of the things of the flesh, of course, the flesh is going to desire what the flesh wants. But when we allow the Holy Spirit to come in us, to dwell in us, we feast on his word, which he said, man should not live on bread alone, but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Yeah. When we become accustomed to that diet, and guess what? Our palates change towards a different type of nourishment, you know, and honestly, I believe that it really comes with exposure. I believe it's Psalms 34, 6, if I'm not mistaken. I get that mixed up between that and 37, but the scripture is taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Right? So the optive word is taste. Right? So with our five senses, we have five different ways to see. You know, we see with our eyes, we see with our ears, we see with our nose, we see with our mouth, we see with our hands. Right? So we don't have a lot of times the exposure of the bread of life. So we instantly say, if we're judging according to our flesh, oh, I don't want that. You know, like, man, that's not going to satisfy me. But you never tried it. You never taste it to even see or perceive if it's something that you would even enjoy, you know? So I think that, once again, modeling the life that we want to see people live is important because, I mean, how many times have we bought something simply based off of the demonstration that we saw or the commercial that we watched? Right. You know? And so I believe if we are God's commercial, then more people will be attracted to what it is that we're demonstrating. You know? I agree. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like you, just going back to the analogy of the fruit of the spirit, where you said about the orange. It's just like if you're going to the grocery store, just like everybody else. You can put all kinds of junk in there, and all you're going to get is junk. Like, if you eat a healthy diet, then you become healthy. And I think that's where the fruit of the spirit comes in versus the fruit of the flesh or the spirit of the flesh. Yeah. And I think that it begins with, you know, we have to learn to transform who we are in Christ. And that's coming through like a renewal of your mind. Right? So, Paul says Romans 12, where Paul says, you know, renew your mind. You're transformed by renewing your mind. Correct. And it happens by canceling out the bad fruit in our life. Yeah, absolutely. And modeling the good fruit. And when we transform our minds as leaders or as adult congregants, that begins to take hold of the youth. And the youth begin to want to see that because, once again, we're modeling. Yeah. But like your analogy of, you know, or not your analogy, but you said that they can't be taught unless they want to be taught. Yeah. They have to begin to transform their minds as well. And the basis, that's where the church comes into play. And I think the church itself is great for the youth, but it's more important for the adults. So, when the adults are over the children, outside of the church, there's no change, rather they're in the church or outside of the church. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when a person is hungry and starving, they'll pretty much eat anything. Right, right. You know? And so, it's what is the meal that we're preparing for the youth to consume? Right. You know, because the world has a big smorgasbord out there, you know? Absolutely. I mean, man, they're grabbing snacks, quote unquote, from anywhere at this point. Right, yeah. And I mean, identity crisis, they're trying to find identity, they're trying to find purpose, they're trying to find sense and meaning, they're trying to find relevance, you know? And so, they're pulling from, that's where we get the various winds of doctrine. I mean, we even find it in the church where we're teaching with feathers as tongues. Yeah. You know? We're itching their ears, we're tickling their ears. But when is our tongue going to become a sword? Yeah. You know? Yeah. And so, at the end of the day, I think that we, as leaders, sometimes we take too much caution as not to offend someone that we withhold the food that's necessary for them to eat. Right. Instead, we sugarcoat it and give them chocolate-covered carrots. Right. You know? And it's like, well, I'm giving them vegetables, but yeah, how much nutritional value did you strip from it by putting all that candy on top? Right. You know what I mean? And so, I think, I mean, I believe that we're kind of running around the same tree, but at the same time, there's many ways that we can look at this topic because, I mean, the proof is in the evidence of the fruit that we're seeing within this generation, you know? And unfortunately, we're seeing a lot more of the wrong fruit, you know, than the fruit of the good tree. So, I mean, it really comes with first plucking up that bad tree, planting new seeds, and cultivating it so that it brings forth good fruit. Because if you can bring forth a bad tree, there's nothing wrong with your soil, you know? Right. Yeah. So, I mean, your heart is ripe and your heart is ready to receive the good seeds. It's just that you've been planted with a bunch of bad ones, you know? Yeah. So, you know, like you said, Jeremiah, you come to up to, I sent you to uproot to build into plant. Right. You know, the uproot is an important part because we got to get rid of those bad trees in order to see a different fruit. Because plucking off all the fruit is not going to change the fruit that's going to come from that tree. Right. It's just going to produce more bad fruit. Correct. Correct. I think, like you were talking about sugarcoating candy and providing just junk food. You know, Paul hit that when he was talking about these people who weren't ready for, you know, meat and they need to feed milk. I think nowadays we're assuming too much and we're feeding too much milk and not enough meat. That's good. I think at some point, we have to start diving into the youth and providing more scripture and a better understanding of a development of scripture throughout their lives versus just, you know, Christ died for you, which is extremely important. Don't get me wrong. For sure. But what do you do after that? Right. You know, Paul said, go and sin no more. You know what I mean? Or Paul said, should I, should you keep continuing to sin even though you've been, you've got grace? No, you shouldn't. It's the worst thing in the world you can do because you're just crucifying Christ over and over and over again for a repetitive sin you know you're doing. Yeah. Yeah. So until we get to that point where we're feeding on meat and less milk, we're going to, like you said, we're going to keep going around the same tree and the youth aren't going to grow. And it's our, it's our jobs as youth leaders or adults just in general to provide that kind of substance for the youth and a place for them to grow. Yeah. So the earlier we hit them with the word, the longer they'll be engrafted in the word and the more of a foundation it will become on their heart, you know? Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, I think a lot of the problem is that from a young age, you brought this up from the very beginning of this episode, that to train up a child in the way that they should go. So that's a consistency in providing information and developing understanding, you know? So that's, I think that's the principal point is to gain wisdom. You know, the only way we can gain wisdom is through experience, knowledge, and good judgment. And so if we're not giving them the right information, then they're only going to grow wisdom in the wrong direction. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. All right. Well, Larry, I've really enjoyed the conversation, sir. Likewise. And, you know, I could probably, we could probably beat this bush for another couple hours for sure. Definitely. But for those who want to learn more about Larry's book and the upcoming series that he is getting ready to throw out, Larry, why don't you just give us a little information of where they can find that? Well, thank you. Simple enough. You're going to just go to amazon.com, go to the library, and look for p.o.p.culture, colon, who am I, question mark, purpose on purpose. And that is the title of the Volume 1 of the book series. And when on November the 17th, Volumes 2 and 3 will simultaneously be released. And you can collect the entire series at that time or grab Volume 1 now and get the other two later. But that's where you'll find it is Amazon. It's available on Kindle, ebook, as well as paperback is available as well. All right, guys. It's good to have Larry on the podcast. For those who don't want to just type in amazon.com, I will be putting it on the website. That way you guys have easy access to it. So stop by the website. And don't forget to subscribe to the podcast. Tell your friends, tell your family. The more we get out, the more we are able to reach, the more we are able to live authentic lives together. And remember the mantra. This podcast is about real people in real time, discussing real problems, trying to apply real biblical solutions. And one of the ways we can apply them is by living them out in our day-to-day lives. And that's what we're here for. So, guys, I will see you guys later. And you guys have a blessed day. Thanks for joining us. God bless you.