Tearing Down The Wall Series

Introduction:

I. If you are a subscriber to the Bucks County Courier Times, you may have seen this article in the Tuesday edition.

A. The article deals with a survey that was conducted at Council Rock High School.

1. Now, correct me if I am wrong, but is not Council Rock High School like the top rated school in all of Pennsylvania, and maybe even one of the top in the United States.

2. Do not some parents get all “puffed up” when they say, “My child goes to Council Rock.”

3. I would even venture a small wager that some parents are living beyond their means, just so they can say, “We had to live in the best.”

B. I do not know what all the questions on the survey were, but the two that the Courier Times article give may give a slightly different interpretation of that “Best” high school.

II. Are you ready for this small sampling,

A. 200 plus teens surveyed,

1. 65% are sexually active

2. The good news, I suppose; 51% used some form of birth control, the first time.

B. I have a nephew that attended Council Rock for the last 2 or so years of his high school career, after spending the first years of his life in England with his missionary parents.

1. He told me once that not only did he see more BMW’s, Hummers and Mercedes Benz automobiles in Newtown than he had in his entire life, he also saw more drug usage than he had ever imagined possible, and why not,

2. Alcohol and drug use in Council Rock High School, 95%.

C. And aren’t all of us saying, “Not my child.”

1. Don’t I pray that my child lives in that 5 per cent.

III. Dare I say that the world in which we live, seems to be living with an ever lowering moral compass.

A. Wrong seems more right than ever, and

B. Right is all to often portrayed as all to wrong.

IV. It cannot be right to be a “40 Year Old Virgin” in this day and age.

V. Things are certainly changing in the world, and not for the better Really.

A. Two thousand years ago this conversation took place, - “He *said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus *said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.” The woman *said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.”

B. Today the woman might well have said, “Sir, I perceive that You are a fruit cake.”

VI. When I look at survey’s like that, two thoughts come to my mind,

A. One - “I wonder what they are really looking for?”

B. Two - “I should be asking the question, ‘What should I be doing in light of this information??’”

VII. There are only two options in the world today,

A. ATTEMPT to run and hide from the depravity around me, OR

B. Learn from Christ, and engage THIS world with the good news of salvation.

VIII. And there is only one question that we must answer

A. “Which will I choose to do?”

B. Or perhaps, “What is my responsibility, in light of these facts?”

IX. We pick up the gospel of John in chapter 4, verse 1.

1. Christ gave us this admonition in Matthew 28, “Go therefore into all nations and make disciples....”

a. All nations, even Council Rock High School, even Falls Township, even wherever you may name.

b. If we learn anything from scripture, it is that sin is not new, even sin of the lowest form.

i. Sex outside of the context of marriage,

ii. Homosexuality,

iii. Lying, cheating, murder,

iv. It has been happening since the dawn of creation, and it is to that truth that Jesus said, “Go therefore into all nations and make disciples...”

2. So are we?

3. I offer this picture of me as representative of the so called, believer in Jesus Christ, the one to whom those words in Matthew were spoke, of the church today, even our church.

a. I offer that what Mark wrote, and what Jesus said, gave us instructions to share the good news of salvation, with the intent of leading this lost world to the cross of Jesus Christ.

b. And I ask, “How are we doing with being obedient to the command?”

4. Let me ask you this,

a. What are the barriers that claim keep us from obedience to God, in this aspect of life?

b. What are some reasons that we are tentative to share the truth?