Battling the World for the Next Generation
by Pastor Barry Parsons Barry Parsons is the pastor of Landmark Baptist Church in Haines City, Florida “Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teachest my hands to war, and my fingers to fight: My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me. Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him! Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away. Bow thy heavens, O Lord and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them. Send thine hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of strange children; Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood. I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee. It is he that giveth salvation unto kings: who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword. Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood: That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace: That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store: that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets: That our oxen may be strong to labor; that there be no breaking in, nor going out; that there be no complaining in our streets. Happy is that people that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.” (Psalm 144) We live in a day and age, whether we realize it or not, when ou churches are losing entire generations of our young people. It has been said over and over again that our churches and our children are leaving the old-time religion in droves. We could try to philosophically describe and fill in what is missing today, but a lot of times, it is not what is missing in the church that is the real problem. Rather it is what is missing in our children is the problem. What is happening is that they do not have any depth, no conviction based upon Bible truth. So what they are looking for in the church is not what they should be looking for. I want to take an Old Testament passage and teach a New Testament application. This passage of Scripture is written by the psalmist, King David. It is called in many places the Warrior’s Psalm. Folks we are in a fierce fight every single day, battling this world for the next generation. It is a battle, I don’t know if you thought about this or not, but it is a constant battle. It is a fight. The world is out to get us, the world wants to destroy the church and every single servant of God, and wants to tear everything down. In a Christian publication, just this week in the news, some people had gone up to a family’s farm where they were having Bible study on their farm, at their house, and they went up there and the officials told them that they needed to cease and desist having Bible study on their own property. There are criminals on the streets who are not in jail for the crimes they have committed, yet Christians are now being treated as criminals that they will come after and threaten to prosecute just for studying the Word of God together. That is the day and age we live in, and that was out of one of the original colonies, a place that was established so that people could worship free a long time ago, and now it is one of the very first places that is telling citizens, “We are going to have to rezone you if you keep reading the Bible to people on your property.” We have got to be careful, we need to suit up in God’s armor, get in the battle, and realize what is going on in our world, and realize that the world is not in favor of us. Christianity is under attack. The world did not love Jesus, He said that they are not going to love us, and we need to prepare ourselves for battle and prepare our children for the battle of the Christian life. Parents, we already know that our children will not grow up in the America that their parents and grandparents grew up in. They will not grow up in the same attitude and similitude of Christianity. They are no longer growing up in a culture that has respect for the Bible and the church and Christianity. They are growing up in a culture where people are at best apathetic toward the Christian’s faith, and many times they are actively in opposition. As we look at this Psalm and the primary application, the speaker David, under inspiration, is writing a song that the Israelites would sing again and again. But to us, the New Testament Christian, I want to put it in perspective. Psalm 144:1 says “Blessed be the Lord my strength which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight:” I think we often do not realize that the pen is mightier than the sword. But we live in a day where now our fingers can type all kinds of things and we can post and comment, and put things out there. How about your Christian faith? How about penning things that actually go to war with the anti-God, anti-Bible ideology of today? When they come out about homosexuality and abortion and how they think we need to bow to it, friend, we need to speak up with a scriptural rebuttal. The reason this Bible is no longer in the public school is because Christians did not stand up and fight for it. The reason that prayer is not welcome in the schools like it used to be was because we did not stand up and fight. The reason homosexuality is all over the television is because we did not stand up and fight against it when it first began. If God’s people are going to have children who stay faithful, that stick it out and stay in God’s church and live for Him, it is not going to be because of lace panty, laid back Christians that are going to cower and remain silent. It will be because of God’s people who will let the Lord teach their fingers to fight. They are going to allow Him to tell them when the time is to go to war. Nobody wants to go into tribulation and persecution. I do not want to be a part of trial and tribulation. But tribulation worketh patience and what is patience? It teaches us experience. You know that every company in town, every business around the world looking for workers, they want somebody with experience. What churches need more than anything, they need young people to grow up in church and to have some experience by the time they are mature young people and get plugged into their church. They need to learn that Christianity is real and personal, and establish a walk with God and His word. That is what a church needs, every ministry needs that. What happens is we come to a place we no longer think it says, “Blessed be the Lord, my strength,” because we have forgotten where our strength comes from. We think our strength is in getting in the gym and pumping some iron so we can be strong enough for the battles we face. We have to learn this Book, and know this Book, and be able to fight for this Book. We have got to be able to teach this Book to our young people, and they have to know why. There is nothing wrong with people asking, “Why?” We ought to be able to use the Bible and give them the answers. Sometimes the reason we get upset with children asking that question is because we do not know why ourselves. We have not gone to the Book to tell them why. Everything that we believe is bound up in this King James Bible, everything that is taught from this pulpit is bound up in this Book. Every rule that is in the handbook is found right here. There is a Bible reason. We are battling against the world for the next generation, and the church, just like David, needs to have the right view of God. “Blessed be the Lord, my strength...” we need to see God as our strength, but let’s go on. “...which teacheth my hands to war...” We’ve got the right Teacher, “...my fingers to fight: my goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me.” Now that is David writing as the king. We need to understand that we have to see God as our strength. He is my Goodness, He is my Fortress, He is my High Tower, my Deliverer, my Shield. He is all the protection I will ever need. So many times in the Christian life we get down in the dumps and think we do not have the strength to go on because we are looking to other things to give us strength. One preacher said, if everybody at church would dump out our pocketbooks, we could probably skate from the back to the front on all the pills, because too many folks try to go and get something else to give us strength or peace. There are other people that trust in the flesh to give us strength, and it’s true we need to take care of this body, it is the only one we are ever to be given to live in and to serve God. But to win this spiritual warfare, it is not our body that has the strength, but the Lord is my strength, this battle we are talking about to protect our children, it is not about the flesh. This battle is going to be about my spirit. The battle we face is going to be about the Holy Spirit of God, trying to get a hold of their heart and their mind, trying to teach them the Word of God, trying to teach them that strength does not come from this body, it comes from God Almighty. We have to understand that, and teach them that the right view of God is essential in the battle against the world for the next generation! The right view of man is essential, as well. “Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him! Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.” We understand what man is, that we are just a blip on the radar compared to God. You and I, the Bible talks about our life as a disappearing vapor that passes away. You and I need to come to the place where we realize that. This man that I am, I cannot destroy the soul, but there is a God in Heaven. So often we are scared to death of our political leaders or somebody that is willing to stand up against the Bible and Christian faith, and we need to get some holy boldness about ourselves and realize that they are just a man. But there is a God-man that died on Calvary and His message is worth preaching and is a lot more powerful than they could ever be. It is an eternal message that does not need to die with my generation. It does not need to die with the next generation. This is an eternal Book, but I believe if we do not get some boldness that we will just shrink back. I look out and think this is a pretty good crowd, and preacher says, “There isn’t anyone here tonight.” Why? because there was a day when we had to come early to find a seat in this place. Even though we think this is pretty good, we think it is enough. But it’s not enough for Pastor. The zeal of God eats him up and he wants to, not go backward, but do more for the Lord. He wants one more. This morning Pastor stood here, just like he did in days of old, and listened to the Holy Spirit of God. Then he said, “I believe there is someone here and maybe this is what is happening to you. Maybe there is a little voice in your head saying, ‘You ought to do that. You ought to step out and walk down there and trust Christ. Something is urging you to come to the front,’” and it happened again, somebody finally stepped out and walked the aisle and got saved. Thank God for a man of God who is not satisfied. He was not willing not to listen to man that says, “We want to get out of here, and go eat our lunch. The crock pot is done and we are ready to punch the clock.” No, he was listening to the Holy Spirit, and there was somebody in this place that needed to be saved. We need to get to the place we are not concerned with what man thinks anymore, but we care about what God thinks. He is the Supplier of all, He is my Shield, He is my Fortress, He is my Strength. I do not care about man. Man is vanity at best. This old world, everything that it thinks is good, climbing the corporate ladder, or making some man happy, God help us, that we as Christians fall into that trap and allow that mess to run our lives. We need to realize the right view of help. To be in this battle, we not only need to have the right view of God, but the right view of man, and the right view of help. Look at the Bible, it says: “Bow thy heavens, O Lord and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them. Send thine hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of strange children;” We get to the place where we see that He is even more than my strength, my fortress, my shield, though He is all these things. But he is more than just the defense folks. God is my offense as well. I read through the book of Joshua and some of those battles, I mean that day-long battle where he prayed and the sun stood still, that’s not happening without God fighting for us. We like to preach about how He held the sun still, but God was not happy with just that. The Bible said that He rained down stones upon the enemy, God was in the battle and God killed more enemies that day than the Israelites ever killed. I want to tell you that my God is an awesome God, and He has the power to defeat every enemy and win every battle! He is not some guy who just cares and tries to strengthen me and send me into battle alone. God will strengthen and equip me to face the enemy, and once I am in the conflict, He wants to get in it with me. He wants to defeat the enemy. He wants to get that out of my way, He wants to help me. God wants to help me put on the armor of God and fight the battles that need to be fought. Every time my preacher tells the story about standing up against the government and all the attacks through the years, I’m not sure I would have wanted to be there. I would not want to have been him in the middle of it. They came to get our pastor and put him in shackles. Oh, it is nice, after the fact, to hear all about the battles and how God gave the victory, but I guarantee it was scary when it was going on. I guarantee in the middle of it, the devil introduced the thought about just backing down. “Well, maybe it would be better if I just let them come on to the camp, and walk in here.” But I am here to tell you, it has taken a man of God to stand for right and follow God’s vision and build a place like this. To stand up and to believe that God could strengthen him, and that God could take care of him. Who in the world could have guessed that the governor’s granddaughter was on the property? That was God. That was God getting into it. We need to get to a place where we say, “God rid me of this mess! Give me wisdom and strength and leadership to stand for right and keep doing what’s right.” Rid out of the country this horrid plague of homosexuality. Because that is what it is, and I hate to even call it that, cause that even makes it sound like it could be something people can’t help No! It is a choice and a sin against God. It is not something they caught. God help us, we not only have to have the right view of help, and who is going to help us, but the right view of separation. The right view of separation. He says in verse seven “Send thine hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of strange children; Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.” We have got to be separated from this wicked world and rid me of this stuff. We have got to get separated from the world. We cannot dabble with the things of the world. We do not need to allow the things of the world to come into the church. The church does not need anything the world’s got, the church does not need the world for anything or anybody except to win souls out of it and bring them into the church. We do not need that foolishness, we need to separate ourselves. One of the main things that is killing this generation that is to come is that we just mix and mingle and wallow in the world. We as God’s people, we want to be halfway in and halfway out. We do not want to be separated from sin. We do not want to throw away the things of the world and worldly influences and separate ourselves. We think, “You have to have some common sense.” I told you before and I’ll tell you again, I hate that foolishness. This is God’s business and He commands us to come out from among them and be separate. That is not just an Old Testament command, that is in New Testament as well. “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,” (II Corinthians 6:17) We need to get rid of the worldly clothes, get rid of the world’s music, get rid of the world’s mindset, get rid of the world’s games and entertainment, get rid of the world’s goals and get godly goals and godly music. We need to realize that true gain in God’s plan is not the same thing as gain in the world. True success for God, some of you need to change your own mind. The world has permeated you, and parents, what you want for your kids might not be what God wants for them. You might be driving your children to be something, and to do something that is not God’s will for their life. God help us. The right kind of worship, he says in verse nine. “I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee.” The world’s got it messed up. Everybody comes to church for praise and worship, when it ought to be worship and praise. They’ve got it backwards. These worldly churches have got it backwards. They come and praise God, and then they say that they worshipped. But we ought to come with the spirit of worship and reverence toward God, and then praise God for what He did in the midst of His church. You see, this praise and worship foolishness has taken good people that used to be godly, and torn them all to pieces. They get hung up. They think after the song service is over that they’ve already had church, and now they’re ready to go home. With very little preaching, or they just get up and read a verse and go home, and they are killing our nation with that foolishness, because people are coming to church and punching a clock. “I showed up. I put in my time.” There are churches in this country that you buy a ticket to get a seat for the entertainment at church. God help us when we come to a day where people buy their ticket or they reserve their seat for church. There was a day when Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and I’m not trying to say he was the best, but they had tickets because the house of God was so full, the normal church members got a ticket so that they could invite someone else to take their seat, so that lost people could come in and hear the gospel. God help us that we can get back to a day when we would have to stand on the edges, so that lost people can take our seat. Where we would have people come in because they know that there is something going on down at the Landmark Baptist Church, though I do not know why those people are different. I do not understand why that place is on fire. I do not understand how different they are. They are not hateful, they are helpful. I’ve got to see what that place is about. Would to God that you and I would have to say, “Here, you can have my seat. Just sit here.” We get so staunch and old and set in our ways that we get mad when people take our seat. “I sit there! Do not be sitting in my seat.” Young people, you ought to give your seat up if somebody needs it, amen! But I am here to tell you if somebody you do not know comes into the church, you ought to say, “Why don’t you sit with me? We’ve got plenty of room.” Thank God for people that when visitors who have never been here before come in those doors, you try to welcome them and help them understand that they are wanted in this place. So many times God’s people are so caught up in their fellowship with each other. They do not even notice when new people show up, maybe feeling awkward and unsure. We ought to be on the lookout for those visitors and make it our business to give them a smile and a handshake and warm welcome. God help us. Most of those ‘praise and worship’ centers are just Hollywood and a rock concert with a Bible verse. We need to be separated. We need to listen, worship God, and praise Him for what He does and what He is, not get caught up with the world’s version of praise and worship. Then look at this, we need to have the right view of salvation. I love how he says this. “It is he that giveth salvation unto kings: who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword.” I know this is Old Testament and I understand where we are now, but listen, in the New Testament we make an application, because we get to be made kings and priests with Jesus Christ. Salvation brings us a whole new inheritance when we get saved. That verse to the New Testament Christian means a lot more than it ever did to David back in the Old Testament. He was looking forward to salvation. But today I can look back and I can see all that my Savior did. I’ve got the Scripture to back it up and all the things I got when I received Him. Bless God, we Christians, why in the world do we ever need anything else from God after we get saved? Why are we looking for so much else for God to bless us with? He only gave His only begotten Son to die and saved your never dying soul! You will never spend a day or a moment in hell! But we are always looking for one more thing from God. One more blessing, and friend, His blessings are new every day. I know we need those things, and God has told us to ask and to pray for our daily needs. But even if He never gave us anything else, we ought to be praising and thanking the Lord because He has been so good to us. We ought to serve Him tomorrow. Even if He never shows up with another blessing, and the rest of my life was hardship and tribulation, He is still good enough for me to serve everyday of my life. Some of us get sorry and sulk in our own self-pity. It makes me so angry when we get to the place we get sorry on God because we think God did not give us something that we deserve or treat us as good as we think we deserve. If you got what you deserved you would go to hell, and He has already given you better than that! We have to have the right view of salvation. There are so many other places that are preaching that there is salvation in other things. No! Salvation is only through Jesus. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) We were joking around about there being another religion about the Pastafarians, so we can start our own, the Pizzafarians, or whatever else people can worship. There are a bunch of people that worship all kinds of crazy and unscriptural things. But salvation is only in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is only His death, burial and resurrection that we can trust in for salvation. We have got to realize this world is preaching everything else and we’ve got to preach it over and over again to a lost and dying world. Because the truth is getting drowned out by all kinds of voices, not just the world saying there is no God. Those are fools, but a bunch of other fools are also preaching everything else but Jesus Christ. We have got to tell people about salvation. We have to have the right view of it, the right view of separation. Not just separation from the world, but separation from worldly, wrong people in the church. I am just going to tell you that you cannot hang out with everybody who is worldly and grow. You cannot get around critical people and grow, you cannot get around people whose focus is not God and His message. You need people with the same mindset of Christ’s commission, that want to see people saved. If all they are worried about is some other thing and they are always busy about themselves or gossip or whatever else, then we need to separate ourselves from other people that do not want to grow, and that want to keep one foot in the world and one foot in the church. They want the blessings of God and they want the approval of the world. You’d better separate yourself and distance your family away from that family, because they will hurt you. You will not drag them up, they will drag you down. The only thing that is repetitive in this whole passage of Scripture, is verse eleven, “Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood:” The world has permeated the church, and whether you know it or not, I guarantee, as many people as we’ve got, there are people in this place that are still lost and going to bust hell wide open. They are trusting in their good works, they are trusting in baptism or church membership, they are trusting in something else to get them to heaven other than true salvation paid for by the blood of Christ. And they are going to try to get their hooks into other people and drag them down with them. They’ve heard the truth and decided they are not listening. You better separate yourselves from them, you better protect your family. “Really, inside the church?” I am not saying that you should not be cordial. I am not saying that you should not be a witness. But I am here to tell you to separate yourself from a family that is not a true witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is doing what the Bible says to do, separating yourself. I would not let my child go over to somebody’s house that watches filth on TV that I do not approve. I would not let my child go over and be at someone’s house and listen to ungodly, wrong music. I would not let my child go to one of these places. Why? Because I love my children and I want them to grow up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I came to an altar with my children and told the preacher, and told God, that I would raise them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. That I would take care of them and watch over them and protect them, and not just from the world folks, but also from other people in the church that would damage my children spiritually. You say, “It is not really like that.” You’d better watch out and guard your young people. I’ll say this, the reason we battle, the reason we have to get the right view, the reason we are going after salvaging our next generation, is number one, because of our sons. Look at Scripture, “That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace:” Number one, the reason that we must fight this battle, and learn how to war, is not just because we are commanded to. We have got to fight for the next generation. It says, “So that our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth.” We live in a day and age, that right now we have a problem in America and in our churches, because our young people are allowed to be kids way too long. The reason that we must battle the world is so that our young people grow up to be strong and principled adults. He says, “be as plants grown up in their youth.” You know when I go in to Lowe’s and buy my tomato plants, I buy one that is still pretty youthful, but I want one that has got some tomatoes growing on it already. I do not want to buy one that is just a tomato plant. I want to see the tomatoes on the vine. I want my young people, I want my sons to grow up to be men. I want them to grow up, to mature, and I want them, as a young man, to have fruit unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Our young people ought to be able to win somebody to Christ by the time they are a young teenager. By the time they are a young teenager they ought to be able to function for themselves and take care of themselves. They ought to be able to leave the house before they are thirty years old and make a living on their own. Nobody in this world has ever done anybody any favors by letting them milk off of mom and dad. Over and over again the problem is this is what the world does, and it has permeated the church! When I was twelve or fourteen years old, I could have worked and lived on my own. I just still liked the benefits of living at home and mom’s cooking. I liked the fried chicken. I could have done it myself, but I loved mommy and daddy and I wanted to stay there, and finally when I got old enough, when I fell in love with my girl, then I wanted to have the kind of home that my mommy and daddy had, then I left. There was not anymore living in mommy and daddy’s house. There was going out and taking responsibility and getting my own home. Now about daughters, I am just going to tell you from the outside looking in. “That our daughters may be as cornerstones.” Now I do not have time to go to Titus right now, but if you would, read what it says about young ladies. One of the things it says is “keepers at home.” That is something of a lost art. One thing the world stole from the church and Christians is that of our ladies being the cornerstones of the home. The one that kept it and kept it held together. I am not saying that Jesus should not be the foundation of everything, but the cornerstone of the home is the mama. We have been “unisexed” from the 70’s all the way up until today, and God’s plan for the family is being erased from our understanding. I want you to understand that moms are the cornerstone. Mom is the one. The reason that the world and everything else is flying to pieces is because mom had to go to work. Titus chapter two, read it and understand that I am not trying to be hard or ugly with anybody, but a problem that we live with in our day and age is this, the old Bible that is here is still true and it did not just say the cornerstone, but it says polished, like a polished cornerstone in a palace. Can you imagine how beautiful a cornerstone in a palace was? How nicely decorated that was? How nice the polished edges of it were? We live in a day where our ladies are no longer feminine. It is no big deal for a teenage girl to burp and belch right in the middle of everything, and I’m not just talking about at camp. I mean things happen at camp! But it is a lost thing for young ladies to be feminine, being the lady that they ought to be. We need that back, and that comes with separation and having the right view of the Bible and all the things that come with it. Having the right view of the home and family. That is not very popular today. Look at it with me, verse thirteen. Now I’ll make a little bit of a stretch, and you go along with me, all right? But the Bible in Malachi, it talks about bringing the tithes into the storehouse. “That the garners may be full.” The garner was a place that you brought grain and stored it up. I want to make a New Testament application that the garners are the church house, where the church comes in, to be together. That “our garners may be full,” not the coffers full okay, but that the church may be full. If everybody that got saved in the last 50 years, and their families got saved, and their children grew up and married and stayed here, we would have to build a building three times this size to hold them all. But they are all over Haines City and Polk County tonight, because they did not get in on what we are preaching tonight. The next generation. The past generation is gone to the world, and we have got to get to a place where we preach, and believe, and live this out, that the house of God might be full of the generation that was born in the church, that grew up in church and in our Christian schools. And then live out their Christianity in the same church where they grew up, believing and practicing the same old time religion. He goes on to say this: “affording all manners of store” that means that there isn’t any kind of grain that isn’t welcomed. We live in a day where a lot of times, depending upon what the person believes, they might say, “I am glad I do not go to a church like that.” But the church ought to be a place that it does not matter what race, creed, or religion that you used to come from, but when you walk in the door, you are welcomed to hear the preaching of God’s word, you are welcomed at the door. “affording all manners of store.” Yes, we’ve got to be guarded when someone tries to steer our young people away from the Lord. But people ought to feel a real welcome when they come to church, and have a chance to hear the preaching of the Word and the Gospel. That we afford all kinds. He goes on to say: “that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten-thousands in our streets.” I believe the “sheep” there is talking about the disciples of Christ. The everyday disciple of Christ, the ones that get saved and start to get discipled to the place where they can tell other people about Jesus Christ. That is not some far-fetched thing. That is what everybody used to do. People that got saved, they got excited and they told other people. They wanted everybody to hear what Jesus had done for them. Can I ask you, when was the last time that you, not just with a tract, but with these old lips that God gave you, you told somebody about the person that you love: The Lord Jesus Christ. When was the last time you went out of your way to give them the Gospel, whether they wanted it or not? I’m talking confrontational soul-winning. We ought to all be grown up in Christianity to the place where we can do this. You say, “Well, not all of us have the time,” I’m here to tell you, all of us have the time. We all have the same 24 hours each morning, and the same choices of how to use it. Somewhere, some way, across the gas pump, at the door, on the job site, at lunch. Somewhere we have got to take time to give somebody the Gospel. We need to be busy about it, and that is why the sheep are not multiplying like they used to. He goes on to say: “that our oxen may be strong.” In the Bible Jesus says “Take my yoke upon you.” Get in the yoke with Jesus Christ. I believe this could explain leaders in the church: the oxen. Listen, we don’t want people breaking into the church to confuse our young people and new Christians with wrong doctrine, and that is why we have strong leaders to keep those people out of here. Strong leaders to help people so you do not have a church split. “That there be no complaining in our streets” Every time you take time to complain, you are complaining to God about the people He put over you. That old saying goes, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” But somehow, we think that it only goes halfway up the chain. It goes all the way to the top friend, not only to your pastor, but all the way to Jesus. If you are bucking the leadership of the church, you are rebelling against God. We ought to pray that our leaders are strong. That they labor well in the church, and care for the people. Every time we decide to just go out on a limb and start griping and complaining about everything, we are tearing down the house of God, and everything that God has built. But we are also tearing down our children when we complain about the things of God, the house of God, and the ministry of God. We are not just tearing down the church and leadership, but also our own families when we go to complaining about things we don’t agree with in this place. Stop the complaining and start thanking God. “Happy is that people that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.” This term of true joy in this Old Testament passage of Scripture is “happy.” We live in the New Testament, and we can plug “joy” in its place. Trials and tribulations can come and we can have joy, even in the rough patches. He is saying that if everything was done right and following God’s plan, you can be happy, with no complaining. If we line up and just do what the Bible says. In the New Testament we realize that I’m a sinner, looking at a bunch of sinners, and we probably won’t do it all right. But we can have joy anyway, and we can give it to God. We do not have to complain, we do not have to destroy our homes and families, we do not have to tear down the church and leadership. We can decide that we are going to war with the world. That’s the problem with the church today. We are at war with the wrong people. We are taking shots at people on the inside of the church instead of working together with God’s army, getting busy about taking it to the world, the flesh and the devil, our real enemies. Letting God teach us, and using our fingers to war, instead of taking your Facebook time to attack the church, the people of the church, the areas of ministry, and things that are going on, why don’t you get after the sorry rascals that are out in the world that are tearing this place down? Why don’t you complain about the ABC TV show that you watched the night before and how it sickens you how they had at least three homosexual couples in it? Complain about them and that would change the world. People watch that stuff and never make a peep about it, but instead will get online and talk about, and tear down the things of God. That’s right where we live. We don’t like it, do we? We do not like that at all, but young people, sons you need to grow up and get to work for God. Ladies, you need to be more feminine, realize that being a keeper at home with the man God has for you is right where you belong and it is the highest calling. In this Christian school, my daughter told a teacher, “I just want to stay home and be a homemaker” and she was belittled for that in this place. Because a worldly mindset has permeated even the church. God help us for running people down for just wanting to do what God said. Help us for running people down for just doing right. God help us. We need to get to the place where we decide who the real enemy is and go after him with all that God gave us to fight this warfare. We need to Battle for the Next Generation. |
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