How to Ruin Your Life

We’ve finished our little mini-series on evangelism, and I am going to get back to the Psalms eventually, but what I would like to do for a little while is just speak for a few minutes on Wednesday nights on something that popped out to me in my devotions this week. So for the next, lets say, two months on Wednesday nights, I might talk about anything and we’ll see how that goes.

This morning I was reading my Bible and I read a passage every day that has nothing to do with what I’m preaching, so right now I’m reading Jeremiah. Then I read a chapter in Proverbs. This morning I was reading chapter 13.

Proverbs, of course, is a book of wisdom and a lot of it is specifically aimed at young people. This is a young people sermon tonight. It’s applicable to everyone, but specifically I want the young people to listen up.

This is going to be very practical. I’m in a how-to mood. So I’m titling this little message “How to ruin your life.”

You see, in Proverbs 13 it tells us three ways that young people (and old people) can ruin their lives. All I want to do tonight is share those with you so if you were considering it, you would know what to do.

So if you want to throw your life away - listen up. If you want to end up in jail or in a gutter somewhere - take some notes. If you want people to look at your life and say words like: “sad”, “loser”, and “waste of potential” then this message is your message. Because the Bible tells us exactly how to do that here.

Before I give you the outline, let’s pray.

So you want to throw your life away, you want to be a loser, you want to be a waste and a junkie. Here is a step by step. Three things.

The first one is…

1. Choose terrible friends and influences.

Look at verse 20

”He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.”

There you have it. ”A companion of fools will be destroyed.”

If you want to throw your life away, the Bible has some hot tips. Here’s a big one - hang out with foolish people.

You are who you hang out with, so if you are wanting your life to be awful, sinful, wicked, raunchy, and pitiful - start hanging out with people who are awful, sinful, wicked , raunchy or pitiful.

And do you know what, modern technology has made this so easy. You don’t even have to actually go out and find those people anymore. That’s hard. No, you can pipe them into your living room with your TV set or load them up on your phone or crank them up on your radio. Want to be trashy - listen to trash. Watch trash. Read trash.

Fill your mind up with all of the garbage of this world and let it just flow all over you.

When you do get out and be social, hang out with people who are doing nothing with their life. Teenagers, you can go find some friends who are halfway to teen pregnancy or halfway to the party and alcohol life and just ride their coattails and they’ll take you right in.

Because you are what you hang out with. He that walketh with wise man shall be wise. So you wouldn’t want to walk with the folks at church. You wouldn’t want to walk with the wise men of scripture. You wouldn’t want to get around people who are actually trying to serve God and do something with their life. It might rub off on you and you might get wise and if you get wise, you might have a blessed life.

So pick terrible friends and influences.

But that’s not the only tip this chapter gives us on how to throw away our lives. I mean, that one will work all by itself, but this gives us even more terrible, I mean great, advice on how to throw your life away.

The second tip it gives us is if you want to throw your life away…

2. Don’t listen to your parents, teachers and authority figures.

Look at verse 18:

”Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction: but he that regardeth reproof shall be honoured.”

Poverty and shame. Now we are talking!

Seriously, all those people always telling you what to do. All those people getting onto you. All those people telling you to straighten up. Just ignore them.

They are just out to get you anyways. They don’t understand. They are picking on you.

If you really want to destroy your life you can’t have anyone criticizing you. Who gave the preacher the right to point out sin? Who gave your parents the right to tell you you are lazy? Who gave your teacher the right to push you? Who gave your boss the right to tell you to work harder or not come in late?

You want to through your life away, so you aren’t going to listen to them. You aren’t going to think about the fact that they probably have seen a lot more than you have. You aren’t going to think about the fact that they probably care for you and love you very much. You aren’t going to think about the fact that they have no reason to ruin your life and only want what’s best for you. You totally aren’t going to think about the fact that they are a gift from God to you.

No, you want poverty and shame - so you are going to plug your ears and assume that all of those people telling you things you don’t want to hear are out to get you and just being mean.

So if you want to throw your life away choose terrible friends and don’t listen to the council of your parents and other authority figures.

There’s another tip here on throwing your life away.

3. Ignore God’s commands

Look at verse 15.

”Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.”

A transgressor is someone who breaks God’s laws. They ignore the things the Bible says you shouldn’t do, and if you want to throw your life away, you should definitely be a transgressor.

Because you want hard right? You want poverty. You want shame. You want to struggle. You want to be surrounded by seedy characters. You want to never have enough and never get a leg up. You want to always be wondering when your sin will come to light.

So the Bible. Bible-shmible. You don’t need it. It’s not going to help you throw your life away.