So departure from the words of my father, from the voice of my teacher, from those that instructed me will always bring me despair and regret.

I have but one life to live for Christ and I have wasted that life.

What other conclusion can be reached than that of regret.

The pleasures of sin are but for a season but the price of that pleasure is for an eternity, its wages are death eternal.

Notice how the remembrance of the past brings misery to the one who departed from the words of life.

Every gift of God such as memory can be a curse of God to those who refuse the path of life.

This is not a man who never heard of the path of life but from a man who rejected the path of life in favor of sin.

But God will see to it that in the later days of life the memories of rejected opportunities will flood in and cause heartache and sorrow and despair and remorse.

"Oh that I had never heard of the path of life" will ring in their minds as Peter in 2 Peter 2:21 reminds us,  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. ²²But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

How important is the ownership of a good past, a past that includes faithful service to God and his work, for the:

What peace that kind of remembrance brings but its absence brings only despair, misery and regret.

The pleasure derived from the present moment was sought to the sacrifice of the remembrance of the past moments in service to God and Christ.

Oh, how important it is to not sacrifice the permanent on the altar of the immediate and how we need to teach that to our children.

There ought to be a caution to catering to the immediate in our lives in favor of that which truly satisfies, that which is on the path of life.

Everything today is toward immediate gratification, all technology is aimed at the provision of needs immediately.

Children’s needs are immediately satisfied without being encouraged to wait.

We wait a few minutes for service and we are peeved at the wait.

But God always interjects in his word, to  Wait on the Lord, wait I say on the Lord.

There is a great value in having to wait.

But the devil says, don’t wait.

I have what you need today, no money down, no monthly payments, no waiting for some pie in the sky dream.

Get what you want today exactly sized with the exact right color to fit your every mood.

But the fine print in Satan’s contract will tell you that death is the ultimate price of that immediate satisfaction.

Death eternal, apart from the father, is what that sacrifice demands.

The god of this world is the god of the temporal, the god of the immediate, that which provides for the now and now, but our God is the God of the eternal, the God of the sweet by and by.

Dr. Bob Jones Sr. said "Don’t sacrifice the permanent on the altar of the immediate."

This means wait on God.

Don’t lean to your own understanding but in all thy ways acknowledge him.

To Acknowledge him means get in line and wait, just wait and wait and wait until he provides.

We, as people of faith, are not to be caught up in the pursuit of happiness by satisfaction of the immediate but we are to keep our minds and our hearts upon God who is the permanent.

That is what those who believe hold too and that is what faith gives us the sight to see.

We are to be a looking people , we are to be a waiting people.

As Paul wrote to the Hebrews and to Titus in: Hebrews 12:2,  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Titus 2:13,  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

And Jude in Jude 1:21,  Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

Looking people, not looking at the things of this world to satisfy but the things of God to satisfy.

Our beloved dog Rusty was a looking dog.

Oh how he was able to look a treat out of my hand.

He could stare and stare and wait and stare and wait some more until I felt his gaze and it compelled me to give him his heart’s desire.

During all that wait he would not take his eyes off of his eating master knowing full well that his time would come.

That is the message that this father impresses on his son.

Wait on the Lord for the permanent.

Otherwise his son will find himself saying when life is near end:

Either a life of regret in the pursuit of self gratification or a life of joy and peace in the pursuit of knowing God and his word.

And God’s word provides a way to go instead of the way that in which youthful lusts point.

And that is the way of marriage.

So the father continues instruction to the son regarding where to put his efforts, where to expend his energy.

And that is not in the way of the strange woman.

Today we say that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

But you cannot affect the grass on the other side of the fence within lawful means for it is not your grass.

What is the right thing to do?