If this young king could preach today's message, he would challenge high school graduates and the rest of us to take three actions. First: ask God to make your life significant, no matter your age.

David was a boy when he killed Goliath and saved Israel from the Philistines (1 Samuel 17). Joash was only seven years old when he became king of Judah and "did what was right in the eyes of the Lord" (2 Chronicles 24:2). Joseph was 30 when he saved Egypt from famine, and Israel with her (Genesis 41:41). Mary was 13 when God chose her to bear his Son. When Timothy became pastor in Ephesus, the largest church in Christendom, he was of such an age that Paul had to warn him, "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young" (1 Timothy 4:12).

Bill Gates wrote his first computer program when he was 13, started Microsoft when he was 20, and became a billionaire when he was 31. Steve Jobs invented the Apple computer when he was 21. Bob Mathias won the Olympic decathlon in 1948 at the age of 17. Yehudi Menuhin was hailed as the most gifted natural violinist ever to have appeared on the concert stage, at the age of 11.

On the other hand, Moses was 80 when he led Israel out of Egypt, and Joshua was 80 when he led the people into the Promised Land. It is never too soon, or too late, to ask God to use your life for something significant.

Second, ask God to make your life significant, no matter your circumstances.

Josiah's father has been assassinated, and he finds himself in charge of a nation on the edge of extinction, at the age of eight. He is surrounded by pagan priests and idolatrous people, with wicked Assyria breathing down his neck. But this young man saved his nation, by the power and grace of God.

The circumstances our youth face today are no less discouraging. Most of us have no idea how tough their lives can be. During the Leave It To Beaver generation, teachers were asked to describe their top disciplinary problems. Their answers: talking, chewing gum, making noise, running in the halls, wearing improper clothing, and not putting waste paper in the trash can. In the Beavis generation, the same question was asked, with these answers: rape, robbery, assault, burglary, arson, bombing, and murder.

Nearly half of our nation's 20.7 million middle and high school students drink alcohol every week. Alcohol-related car crashes kill nine teenagers every day. At least 15 Highland Park High School students have died in alcohol-related accidents in the last ten years.

45% of high school seniors say they've tried illegal drugs. Between 1992 and 1995, the number of eighth graders using illegal drugs doubled; among tenth graders, it jumped by two-thirds; among seniors, by half.

On every side, our youth are assaulted with violence, immorality, and despair.

Every school day at least 100,000 students take guns to school. Gunfire is the second-leading cause of teenage deaths.

40% of America's teenagers are sexually active. One teenage girl out of ten becomes pregnant every year in this country. 40% of all girls will be pregnant before they reach the age of 20. Three million teenagers are diagnosed with a sexually-transmitted disease each year. 20.1% of America's teenage girls have had an abortion.

2,000 teenagers commit suicide every year. And for every suicide, there are 350 failed attempts.

But you don't have to become what your culture is. Like Josiah, you have a choice. You can ask God to make your life significant, no matter how much pressure our society puts on you, no matter how unpopular righteousness is.

I found this week a powerful statement: to lead the orchestra, you must turn your back on the crowd. Make that choice, today.

Last, ask God to make your life significant, until it is done.

Josiah's end was tragic. His astounding spiritual and political successes birthed in his soul the self-sufficiency and pride which always lead to ruin. The king whom all the pagan priests and Assyrian warriors couldn't touch was killed by a single Egyptian arrow.

If he could stand here today, he would plead with every one of us: ask God to make your life significant, until it is done. You are not finished serving God until he calls you home.

In 1946, the National Association of Evangelicals published an article on men who were "best used of God" during that organization's first five years of existence. The article highlighted the ministry of Chuck Templeton. Billy Graham was never mentioned. But five years later, Templeton was out of the ministry and no longer even believed in the divinity of Jesus Christ. And God has used Billy Graham to touch more lives than any person in Christian history.

His secret? I asked that question this week of Dr. Sterling Huston, a member of Dr. Graham's leadership team for 35 years. Dr. Huston says that Dr. Graham has never lost his sense of inadequacy, his knowledge that he must depend on God for his life and work to be significant. Dr. Graham's greatest fear is that, at the end of his life, he will do something to bring disrepute on the cause of Christ. And that is why he never will.