"And the king said unto Cushi, Is the young man Absalom safe? And Cushi answered, The enemies of my Lord the king, and all that rise against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man is. And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept; and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!
I want you to notice particularly those words in verse 32: "Is the young man safe?
The hour is not far off when the world’s attention will be drawn from Wall Street, turned from the political arena, and from many of the things that ocuupy our attention now, and will be focused on the youth of our land. If Jesus tarries for just a few more years, one of the most dangerous, explosive, uncontrollable forces that is in the U.S. will be it’s youth.
There was a king named David and he was a man of power. He had advanced the kingdom to its greatest glory and he was concerned about many things but there came a time in his life when the duties of the state came to the halt. He was no longer concerned about the throne, or the riches and prestige that went with his office, and suddenly his wives and companions were of no interest to him. There was only one concern that crowded out everything else and he asked, "Is the young man safe".
I pray that the hour will soon reach us as a church, when we will take a fresh look at our children and young people. I want to tell you that we stand in the door of opportunity today, but we also stand at the door of disaster. The enemy is on the prowl. He hasn’t come for our building, or for our logo. He hasn’t come for our moms and dads. The enemy the devil, the evil one, the one who knocks at every door, seeking whom he may devour has come and he has come for our children. He has come for our boys, he has come for our girls who are not yet established in the faith. He’s come for those who do not yet have the equipment that they need to deal with the pressures in this life.
And the enemy has come, and he doesn’t just want to take your children, he want’s to make bond servants out of them. He want’s to make slaves out of them. He wants them to be the slaves of sin, the slaves of sexual disease, the slaves of drug addiction, the slaves of alcohol, the slaves of homosexuality, the slave of every putrid thing that he can come up with. He wants to capture our kids. So I ask you in this message, “Is the young man safe?”
There are 3 areas that I want us to consider.
1. IS THE YOUNG MAN SAFE MORALLY?
Is the young man safe in the new morality. We have a new ethical code, a new standard of what’s right and wrong set by the crowd right on the spot. Is the young man safe? The idea is that there is no permanent moral standard, but all behaviors are relative.
There are persons who can leave a service where God is, and can have God in their lives. But when they get in an atmosphere where the crowd takes charge, where the individual is absorbed by the mob which rules, where right and wrong is not dictated by a code of standards, but by whatever the majority decides to do, are they safe?
They tell that 70 - 80 % who leave home and go to a secular college campus their first semester. Backslide and stop going to church. In 90 days of secular campus attendance they lose everything they ever learned about God.
I’ve been approached by dozens of young people who say to me, "I don’t have any trouble living for God in the church.” “I don’t have any trouble contacting God in the altar.” “I don’t have any trouble testifying when I’m in a service where the Spirit is moving, but my trouble begins when I get on the outside.” “When I begin to rub shoulders with the corruption, the unbelief, the cynicism, and the ungodliness.”
These things have reached an all time high in the days and many precious young people have been swamped by it. The have gone under as the waves of sin have washed around them. We hear a new term now, "situational ethics," Where there is no right or wrong but you simply act according to the situation. In other words, what you would do today might not necessarily be suitable tomorrow. The situation might have changed, and so would the ethics. No fixed standard of right or wrong. Ideas that are based upon the Bible are considered outdated. Honesty and integrity have been scrapped and character is no longer considered to be an asset.
A recent scientific survey by Josh McDowell’s “Why Wait?” campaign shows some astonishing results from CHURCHED YOUNG ADULTS.
43% of teens have engaged in sexual intercourse by age 18.
36% of the youth said they were NOT able to state that sexual intercourse was morally unacceptable before marriage.
At least 40,000 pregnant girls drop out of school each year, not returning and jeopardizing their future.
EMPHASIS HAS MOVED FROM
“Are you doing it?” to “HOW are you doing it?”
Each year almost 2 million teen girls will become pregnant in U.S.
Over 500,000 of these will seek and get abortions.
STD’s are running unchecked, many without sufficient medication.
Almost 80% of girls become sexually active (intercourse) by age 18.
Teens lose their virginity at average age of 16 years.
USA News and world reports that every day in America 2,753 girls impregnated during their teenage years. 1099 of those will commit an abortion today.
Why stop at giving them condoms? Why not set up little bordellos in the schools - little rooms with double beds and clean sheets every day. I mean people are gonna do it, you can’t stop them. And why don’t we leave a pack of Marlboros - for after the event?....Maybe a half line of coke, rather than a full line so we can make sure they don’t overdo this...And we’ll have the school nurse and dean come in there and show them how to use the condom.” - National radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, at a “Rush to Excellence” rally in Long Beach, California, cited in Insight, August 19, 1998.
It’s not just the unemployed, despondent adult who drinks to relieve stress and boredom. A new study conducted by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services found that many of today’s college student’s drink for the same reasons, and there by pave the way for alcoholism. Of those who admitted drinking, 40% reported that they drink when they are upset. More than 30% drink by themselves; 25% drink when they are bored; 25% drink to get high. More than 450,000 go on a binge of five or more drinks in a row at least once a week. (AP, June 7, 1998)
It’s time as believers, as the church of Jesus Christ that we get under the anointing of God, and get a fresh vision of our youth. We need the spirit of God to flow not only in our lives, but out of our lives and reach to those young people. And show them there is something greater than a rock concert, greater than what this world has to offer. The attitude most people toward church is that it’s dead, boring, a terrible place to go. Where super spiritual people look down their long Spiritual noses at people who don’t dress, walk, or talk like we do. And we go in there and watch the saints of God sleep while some preacher tries to preach. That’s not the church that Jesus Christ died for. This thing is alive and it has glory and honor and power, vision, destiny, that no other Institution in the world has. We have a generation of young people who want to see who Jesus is. IS THE YOUNG MAN SAFE?
I read recently of a young man who was working in an office, but the work had become slack, and there wasn’t much to do. So the boss, who was leaving town for a few days, instructed the young man to report to the boss’s house to do some odd jobs that needed to be done.
It wasn’t in a ritzy part of town. It wasn’t a mansion with large lawns and lots of shrubbery. This young man was to put in his time doing whatever needed to be done to the yards. When he got there he was met by the lady of the house who had no intention of permitting this Christian young man to do his job as he was expected to do.
From the very first moment he arrived at the house she began to make advances to him and they finally became so strong there was nothing left for him to do but run. He fled and was picked up by the local police. He was jailed and charged with assault upon this woman. She appeared in court and accused him of attacking her. He was carried through a kangaroo court and convicted. I’m talking about a young man who knew God, but wickedness, and ungodliness, and circumstances had suddenly trapped him.
The next thing he knew, he was serving a jail sentence and through it all he maintained his experience with God, and you can read all about it in the book of Genesis and the secret of his steadfastness is given in chapter 39 verse 21 "But the Lord was with Joseph.”
God had been with him in the hour of foul play when his brothers sold him into slavery.
God was with him when he was enticed by Potipher’s wife.
God was with him when he was falsely accused.
The secret to safety in this ungodly hour is to keep the presence and the Spirit of God upon your heart. God is able to protect you. God is able to keep you. God is able to give you victory over the enemy. There is a safety and a security found in His arms. He is able to keep you from Falling, and we have the same access to the throne room of God that every generation before us had. I challenge you young person, to find me any scripture in the bible that will justify any less standard, any less spirituality, any less communion with god, than they had before us.
2. IS THE YOUNG MAN SAFE IN THE AREA OF EDUCATION?.
Is the young man safe where educators declare to every new class that all is relative?
Is the young man safe in a system where Satanic and New Age values are clearly shown?
Is the young man safe in a system where organized Christian activities are often banned in the name of separation of church and state?
Where they frequently sponsor assemblies, and classes on alternative lifestyles, new ageism and witchcraft.
Where God values are mocked and ignored.
The theory of evolution is taught as fact. The world believes we came from monkeys and I interviewed one at the zoo, and he said I wish you would stop blaming us for all your problems.
If Jesus Christ is acknowledged at all it’s merely as a man of history who lived and died. Those who are with the times belong to the new age. Those who believe in the bible Belong to the Stone Age.
Spiritually in this world of unrest there is a growing hatred in this country toward Christianity. Remember I didn’t say religion, but Christianity.
Recently I attended a see you at the pole. I was amazed as I walked outside of this high school, only to see grown men, educators, mature men, walking up and down the lobby ringing there hands. Why were they scared? Because I was a preacher and they were afraid that I might preach the gospel to this American public high school. I wasn’t there to peddle the occult, or to peddle some off the wall philosophy, or peddle my drugs, or to abuse or attack young people. But if I were there to do any of those things they would have been tucked away in their offices sitting there in peace. But because I was a minister they were standing there scared out of their minds.
I’m not here to tell you to write your congressman to break the walls of church and state. I’m here to show you how far we have come from the foundation we laid 200 years ago. When a mature principal would stand scared stiff at an evangelical preacher my God have mercy on us.
I trust you realize that the devil’s crowd is getting angry. It’s not going to be anymore will you do your thing, and we’ll do ours. It’s us against them, and the lines of demarcation are being drawn today. I’ll trust as God’s people that we’ll do what we can do. And you ask what is that? It’s simply to look at the word of God in 2 Chronicles 7:14 "If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from there wicked ways. Then will I forgive their sin and heal their land.
Deuteronomy 6:1-7 "These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God Directed me to teach you. To observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you children, and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live. By keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, so that you may enjoy long life. Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
The two verses in Deuteronomy were immediately after the Exodus. They’ve seen great things, the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. And now they’re given the task of communicating the reality of God to a new generation through words, through teaching.
The responsibility of teaching the kids rest on the parents.
40 hours of T.V a Week
56 hours of sleeping
3 hours of church
36 hours a week at school
We emphasized school, we emphasized sports, we drag them out of beds 5 Mornings a week, and made them go to school. But we wouldn’t get them out of
bed on Sunday morning because they were to tired on Saturday night. You lose their soul, and educate their brain. You have to go to soccer practice, piano practice, softball practice, but I understand that your to tired to go to church on Wednesday night. The devil has infiltrated our minds and has planted a whole bunch of ignorance in our parents. I’m a parent and it’s dawned on me if my kids are the finest educated kids in America and go to hell, I’m a failure as a daddy.
We cannot deny that as Christian teachers we have a big hand in teaching these kids. And that which we teach must be from our heart. It will give them an ever growing experience with God that will combat doctrine, and combat the attacks on the mind and thoughts.
3. IS THE YOUNG MAN SAFE IN THE AREA OF THEIR FUTURE?
There is a spirit in the land that makes young people not think about the value of their mind, body and health. The spirit is feel good now cause you don’t have tomorrow. You’re not sure if you have tomorrow. You hear people talking about despair. They don’t want to wait, halt, stop cause they feel this: THAT THE FUTURE IS SO BLEAK AND TERRIBLE.
Even the news media has painted such a picture of darkness of our youth today, that there’s no point in waiting for marriage, no point in holding out. The bible say’s "IF YOU GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD BUT LOSE YOUR OWN SOUL, YOU’VE BEEN RIPPED OFF!
Here’s the common feeling that a lot of people have. Our children lack confidence, confidence and aggressiveness to achieve. IS THE YOUNG MAN SAFE in our secular world where they are overcome by the least challenge. They are frightened by graduation, they are afraid to make a commitment. And it’s in the church. We don’t see our purpose or destiny. Our youth in this country are seizing the opportunity of life tentatively. They hold on to the steering wheel of leadership tentatively. They are frightened by responsibility.
America cannot have a generation that will inherit our nation that is afraid of doing great things. We need BOLDNESS, CONFIDENCE, lawyers and judges and who afraid of no one, and who will stand up for what is right. We need men of God who will stand with Holy Ghost boldness. But the building blocks of it are not going to the right school. It’s not important to go to the right school, or have the right genetic structure. It’s wrapped up in one thing. Children have got to feel confidence on the inside. Our kids receive this from their parents.
1 Samuel 22:2 speaks of everyone that was in DISTRESS, or in DEBT or DISCONTENTED. Young people wonder, God how are you going to use me and why? We don’t see our purpose or destiny. They’re looking in the mirror and they don’t feel good about themselves and there’s nobody at home to give them a blessing. There’s a generation looking for the Old Testament blessing and they’re not getting it. Under Saul’s leadership the blessing was not passed to the people. David gave them destiny and challenge, and purpose. And the people swarmed to David, and Saul couldn’t handle it. All the Distressed, and in Debt and the discontented are looking for an answer. Debt is not disfinancial. Young people today feel debt cause you feel you have nothing to offer. You don’t feel good about yourselves. No one has given you the blessing.
Many of you that are seated in this room can track you inability to consistently hold a career together to the start of the building blocks in the absence of love that you received from either an absentee father, or an indifferent mother, or a broken marriage.
We cannot begin to understand the significance of the first few years of life when a child is told that they are loved. And a child should never be told mommy is not going to love you if you don’t do this. That is garbage from the pit of hell.
If you take two people and one of them is a genetically superior. And the other is a normal child who was loved from birth, the 2nd child will succeed because you do not achieve success by heaping talent and ability and hours of work. It must come from an inner sense of emotional security and feeling loved as a person. A child who has inferior ability, who can’t read as well and can’t grasp things very quickly, but mom and dad are loving that child, that child will make it. That’s the key to success. It’s not what you do when you get A’s. It’s what you do when you’ve worked and failed. And only the loved person will handle that situation properly and keep on going.
The greatest problem in America is spiritual orphans. We’ve not been raised by parents, we’ve been raised at day care centers, by an electronic baby sitter’s. Youth are being destroyed in their communication with their parents. They were never told they were wonderful, valuable.
I’ve read how parents in the world can give there children confidence. How powerful it is for a little girl and her father to say I love you. So much of the abuse, immorality, hurt, devastation comes from the break down in that. The cornerstone to self-discipline is self worth. You’re not going to get it out of a bottle, or a drug. You’ll get it from getting alone with God. When God says your valuable, you are.
I ask you again, IS THE YOUNG MAN SAFE?
