Proverbs 22:6 (KJV)
6Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not
depart from it.
We are a nation at war! Not a war of bullets and missiles, not a war of
tanks and planes, but a real war nonetheless. It is a war that is fought
out in the lives of our most precious commodity, our very children. It is a
war that is insidious in nature, devious in implementation, and disastrous
in its results.
We are concerned with a war that is destroying our nation, killing our
children, and causing us to lose our way. It is a war that is being waged
from within and is laying waste to our cities, decimating families, and
causing heartache for tens of thousands each day. This war is the war upon
morality. The casualties are to be found in our integrity, our honesty, and
the respect we hold for all of God’s creation. This war is going to destroy
our country. If we as God’s children do not win this war we will preside
over the destruction of our nation. Today we shall talk about the
"DeMORALization" of America.
Day after day our children are bombarded with ideas, thoughts, and images
that are contrary in nature to the ideals that you and I grew up with. Our
children are faced with challenges and obstacles that you and I would never
have dreamed of in our own childhood. We grew up in a time when getting
high meant climbing a tree!
Day after day we read about, or hear on the news of schools that are
inundated with drugs, or schools where our children’s very physical safety
cannot be assured. This morning I’m telling you that we must do something
about it. We must put a stop to the assault waged on our children. We must
take our children back!
To this end we recognize the work of the Girl Scout organization. Girl
Scout leaders across our nation, and indeed throughout the world spend time
teaching girls to be upstanding citizens. The Girl Scouts is the world’s
pre-eminent organization dedicated solely to girls, where in an accepting
and nurturing environment, girls build character and skills for success in
the real world. In partnership with committed adults, girls develop
qualities that will serve them all their lives - like strong values, social
conscience, and conviction about their own potential and self-worth. In the
Girl Scouts, they discover the fun, friendship, and power of the girls
together; and through the many enriching experiences provided by the Girl
Scouts, they can grow courageous and strong. Girl Scouts. Scouting is where
girls grow strong.
Yet for all the good that the organization does, it can only do part. There
are other things that must be taken care of as well.
Our government decided that God has no place in education. Our children
should not learn about God in school. Recent events at schools across our
land, beginning with the horrible tragedy in California this week, and
spilling over even to local schools in Central Florida, show the fallacy of
this idea. Our kids need some sense of direction, and they aren’t getting
it. Children in today’s schools are being taught a humanistic philosophy
that denies God! It was not enough to simply remove Him from the curriculum,
He has been denied in our school system. Today’s moral decay is a direct
result of trying to raise a generation of children to believe that we can be
good without God.
No longer are our children taught absolutes. Everything is a shade of gray
and we must be tolerant of all other lifestyles and philosophies. We pride
personal choice over and above personal responsibility. We pride popularity
over reliability; we pride the freedom to do as we choose over the
obligation to do as we should.
Our scripture this morning says for Parents to train up a child in the way
he should go.the remainder of that scripture promises that when he is old he
will not depart from it.
Tragedies like the one in California are occurring today because yesterday
we decided to remove God from our schools and our homes. If we allow the
world to teach our children that alternative lifestyles are acceptable, or
that adultery is no big deal, or that lying is ok if you have a good reason
we have failed in our responsibility to be the salt of the earth. If we are
not holding our selves and our families accountable to God then we are
contributing to the downfall of our great nation.
How do we reverse this trend? What can we do to bring morality back to our
nation? How can we take back our children?
We Must Reacquaint them with God! (Exodus 20:1-3)
Exodus 20:1 through Exodus 20:3 (KJV)
1And God spake all these words, saying, 2I am the LORD thy God, which have
brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3Thou
shalt have no other gods before me.
We must turn back to God. We must teach our children that God’s power is
absolute, and that he and he alone is the arbiter (or judge) of human life.
We have so many senseless killings in our schools today because children no
longer respect life. We must teach our children that only God can take a
life, we don’t have any right to do so.
We must make God our priority. All of the jobs, groups, schemes, and
opportunities that have drawn us away from God must be given a secondary
consideration. If we expect for our nation to return to God we must first
return to Him ourselves. When we fall away from God, sin enters our lives.
When we break the first commandment it is but one short step away to begin
to break all of the others. When our relationship with God suffers, so does
our relationship with those around us. So does our relationship with our
children.
We must put our children first and remind them that they are special,
created by God, and each person has that uniqueness. When we make God a
priority, then our lives will change.
We Must Reacquaint our children with us! (Exodus 20:12)
Exodus 20:12 is the forgotten commandment.
Exodus 20:12 (KJV)
12Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land
which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
In our hurry to climb up the ladder to that nebulous rung we call success we
have let our families disintegrate. In today’s two wage earner society we
have allowed the pursuit of our material happiness to destroy our families.
A couple of years ago two boys built over 70 bombs, sawed off shotguns, and
maintained an arsenal big enough to outfit a squad of Marines, then marched
into Columbine High School and killed other children, and their parents
never knew it??? Our families have taken a mortal blow in our society and if
we are going to change the tide we must bind up the wounds inflicted upon
our family life.
We must make our children a priority in our lives. I realize that many
families must have both parents working. In these situations, it is
paramount that we make the time we do have available for our children even
more sacred. We must teach our children the morals that have served us
well. We must teach our children to value life. We must teach our children
the great tenets of our faith.
Parents, it is time for you to be parents. It is time for the parents in our
land to once again accept the responsibility of parenting. We have shoved
off that responsibility to the state, and look at the results. It is time we
as parents expect obedience from our children. Not ask for it, not suggest
it, but rather to demand it. It’s time we took to heart the biblical
admonition that to spare the rod spoils the child. We aren’t to let the
children rule us, we are to rule the children. If we don’t return to that
model in our society we will never take our children back from the brink of
destruction. Our children don’t need best friends. They will find friends
at school. At home, our children need parents.
Children, both young and old, it is time we took seriously the commandment
in verse 12. We must honor our parents. We must respect the family.
Children wouldn’t do many of the things that they do today if they were
honoring their parents. By the same token, the honor is accorded because of
the parents accepting responsibility for parenting.
We cannot continue to allow our families to decline. The family unit is the
most important part of a young person’s development. We must provide stable
families for the next generations of children if we are to ever take our
children back.
We Must Reacquaint Our Children with Love (Exodus 20:13-17)
Exodus 20:13 through Exodus 20:17 (KJV)
13Thou shalt not kill. 14Thou shalt not commit adultery. 15Thou shalt not
steal. 16Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 17Thou
shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s
wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor
any thing that is thy neighbour’s.
We must teach our children to love, but showing them love. When Jesus was
asked which commandment was the most important, he said the first was to
love God, but He said the second was to love one another. There is no
respect for each other in our society today. We have traveled so far down
the ME highway that it’s difficult to turn back. We do all that we can to
build ourselves up, even if it means tearing someone else down. Life becomes
less special, especially if it is someone else’s life.
When we neglect to love each other we don’t care as much. We aren’t as close
as in times past. We become immune to the sadness that sin wreaks upon a
community. It takes much, much more to shock us even to the point that
nothing surprises us anymore. How many more Littleton type tragedies must we
endure before we realize that the status quo isn’t making the grade? How
many more must die before we realize that all life is precious before God?
How many more men must be drug behind a truck before we realize that every
man is our neighbor? How many more are to be left to starve in the streets
before we give of ourselves and of our wealth and help a fellow man?
The scriptures tell us that they will know we are Christians by our love. BY
OUR LOVE! Do we truly love one another today? If we cannot bring an
atmosphere of Love back into our society we can never hope to foster change.
2 Peter 2:5 through 2 Peter 2:8 (KJV)
5And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher
of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6And
turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an
overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live
ungodly;
7And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
8(For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed
his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
Peter mentions two men, Noah and Lot. Noah lived in a day when the thoughts
of men were "only evil continually." Lot lived in a city in which men
"burned in their lust one toward another." Both men are called righteous. We
would call them "Christians." They were righteous because they were rightly
related to God. Noah is called a "preacher of righteousness." He cried out
against the lawlessness of his age. Lot, on the other hand, merely "vexed
his righteous soul." He was grieved over the unlawful, wicked deeds of the
men of Sodom. But he took no stand against it. He never separated himself
from it. He put his comfort and prestige before God.
One man took a stand, the other merely wrung his hands and lamented the
deplorable conditions of the society around him. Noah "saved" his family.
Lot watched his family be broken and destroyed. Having accommodated
lawlessness, he saw his family divided in their love and overcome by the
sins of Sodom.
Every Christian has a choice to make. We can be like Lot, in-different to
the rebellion, tolerance, and delusion which is contributing to the collapse
of our nation. Or, we can be like Noah - taking a stand against the
unrighteousness of our day.
--Pastor David Zimmerman
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/5487/Default.htm
Our world is awash in unrighteousness, what will you do about it? Will you
place God first, make your family preeminent, and finally begin to love one
another? This is what we must do to stop this out of control deMORALizing of
America. This is what we must do to take our children back!
