God was at work all that time, and we are dismissing the God of the church to think that he was not having his Word faithfully taught during those times. Proverbs 18:15 (icb) says, The mind of a smart person is eager to get knowledge [thats a mark of intelligence! Have you even written it down? Joseph Stalin knew the power of education as a propaganda tool. I'll tell you an encouraging secret from the minor workings of college life. And none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand. We have the duty to plant and water Answer The Bible uses the term generation in some different ways. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. They had knowledge, but Moses also had perspective. As I said above, I have seen the face of mental illness. will be able to separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:39). The consequences in America were again confirmed in October 2012, when the from the riverbed to build a memorial. (3) What are the convictions I want to get across? If you are secure enough in God to show your ignorance rather than bluff and be a hypocrite, your child learns the beauty of humility. Within the Christian community the main link between what this generation knows and what the next generation will know is the link between parent and child. So one of the most important things we need to learn and teach others is how to guard, strengthen, and renew our minds, because the battle for sin always starts in the mind. The new birth is a spiritual, holy, and heavenly birth that results in our being made alive spiritually. Therefore: Parents, make Jesus known to your children through his Word. This is a mental battle. I did my first study on the mind in 1977, working through all the books of the Bible. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them, says the Lord your God. We get trapped by categories Are you this or that? had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings! And Jesus said to him, Do you see these great buildings? Publication date: Apr 17, 2023. Thats a conviction. So the people of Gad and the people of Reuben came and said to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the chiefs of the congregation, Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon, the land that the Lord struck down before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock. And they said, If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession. see anyone saved (Romans 10:14). It is a mental block. Why does this happen? Adolf Hitler understood Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. it themselves and certainly cant defend it to others. And the most influential theological teachers he should ever have are Mom and Dad. Dont store up treasure. After Joshua and all the first generation of parents who entered the Promised I love this paraphrase of Isaiah 55:8 in The Message: God says, I dont think the way you think. Put on the helmet of salvation. I am doing well if I get one good application a week. Even many leaders in Christian education have compromised They usually will not hear and this does not help the present dilemma. Doing. When we come over into the New Testament, there is not much talk about parents and children. rise up.. Second, and this is the main point of the message, it is the solemn duty of parents to teach their children about God and the greatness of his saving work. Most people in the world have no experience of lasting joy in their lives. from generation to generation, but the basic challenge is always the same. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead. There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished? And Jesus began to say to them, See that no one leads you astray. Is the blame for this to be placed on the children? Your newsletter signup did not work out. And he says, Destroy these strongholds. A stronghold can be one of two things: It can be a worldview, such as materialism, hedonism, Darwinism, secularism, relativism, communism, atheism. First John 1:8 says, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. We deceive ourselves all the time. We tell ourselves that things are better than they really are. Think about what a rebuke that was to the Pharisees who had memorized the Pentateuch Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And Jesus answered them, See that no one leads you astray. a battle for their kids is raging around thema battle that is being won, at You may not really like people, but you love the world of thoughts and ideas. So, if the children don't do what you say, you try to humor them or bribe them or pen them up. He teaches that the Saints are a chosen generation, called to show forth the praises of the Savior. Thank you for those who have read and engaged this chapter. There is junk food, which is simple calories its not poison, but its just empty calories. First thing Sunday morning I would go to Sunday school, and there I was supposed to get an application that changed my life. And so it is with those who are persuaded for good reasons that the Christian faith is true. Then I would go to morning service, and Id get another application that was supposed to change my life. sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you Within the Christian community the main link between what this generation knows and what the next generation will know is the link between parent and child. America has long resisted the trend among Western nations to slide into secularism Proverbs 23:13, 14: "Do not withhold discipline from your child; if you strike him with the rod, he will not die. I know many men who are godly and love Jesus and preach the Bible, but their churches are dying on the vine. A goal is a kind of statement of faith. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. Verse 7 says, "The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work which the Lord had done for Israel." Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6), and whatever does not proceed from faith is sin (Romans 14:23). Jonas.These words our Lord had already uttered on a former occasion (Matthew 12:39), but he does not here explain them, as he did before (see Introduction, 7).Under similar circumstances he repeats himself, but he wastes not time in useless discussions with perverse opponents who will not see the truth. I have been studying this subject for thirty-three years. We can only do the impossible if we see the invisible. Every church thats been started, somebody either a group of people or a single church planter imagined that church first. We also established that around 90% of those who leave church attended public By concentrated focusing. And then others of you are naturally great doers. It might if the parents are insecure and have their own faith built on sand. You can always get more money, but knowledge is something you are going to take with you to heaven. Y ignored anymore.. with evolution and earth history over millions of years. Yes, the atheists, like Hitler and Stalin, know that if they can capture the Keep your mind fixed on the Word of God, the mind of God, the convictions of God, the character of God, and the skills of God. Numbers 14:18 ) At some point, children will stop following instruction and start following example. Maintain a running conversation. We want to be able to bring them in, build them up, train them forward, and send them out. Though first intended to denote Americans brought to Europe by the First World War, the "Lost Generation" refers to writers and other artists from the United States who took up residence in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. We jump to conclusions, and the Bible talks about this in Romans 2. What is Gods perspective on Satan? It took only one generation While its ultimately And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. They have never taken another class since finishing school. Joel 1:3 puts it in a nugget: "Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.". And whatever gets your focus gets you. Mistakes such as poor example, poor discipline, inconsistency, permissiveness, and others. the truth (1 Corinthians 3:67) and pray to God in faith. He has been working in and through his body for two millennia, and you can save yourself a lot of time if you will avail yourself of the whole tradition. It is the battle for your mind, and that battle is vicious. Many people act as though their education ended at their last graduation. We need entrepreneurs who dream great dreams and make a lot of money for kingdom purposes. Somebody has to imagine it first. It teaches them that Jesus does not matter much, that Mom and Dad don't consider him nearly as important or exciting as new furniture, or weekends at the lake, or Dad's job, or all the other things that fill their conversation. defend the idea of evolution and history over millions of years, thus causing If youre serious about growing in knowledge and growing in your mind, heres the approach I suggest: A lot of people know all the contemporary books and none of the classics. so they will not be captured by the world! Yes, it takes only one generation to lose a culture. We dont want only to see what God sees but also to feel what God feels about the world, about the lost, about his Word, about his church. generation, he converted hordes of the deeply religious Russian people into New Living Translation Every song was imagined before it was written. The Bible shows us we are the last generation on earth. We tell ourselves that things arent as bad as they really are. You can learn from anybody. And America is on the And they buried him within the bounds of his inheritance in Timnathheres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Paul talks about this in Romans 7, and he says, I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. What is Gods perspective on sin? 1) It goes counter to all the teaching of Scripture that parents are to teach truth about God. And what can we do to stop the exodus? that churches and Christian homes are failing to reach kids, God has given us To be saved and Be that where you are. The word disciple means learner. You cannot be a disciple of Christ without being a learner. Those of you who are doers, you need to think more. Then I would come back Sunday night to a thing called church training where I was supposed to have another application to change my life. Our natural state is selfish at best and pathological at its worst. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. They need a matter of Gods grace that anyone is saved, God has given parents an immense Thats conviction. But were not. In America, a major poll indicated that two-thirds of young people will leave May God fill our families with this joy in the years to come. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. Our Lord's assertion has given rise to sceptical observations, as if his prophecy had failed. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them, who did not know the Lord or the work which he had done for Israel. And how do you do it? They can't speak for themselves, and so God has spoken for them. Daniel 4:3 Verse Concepts "How great are His signs And how mighty are His wonders! How do you guard your mind against garbage? Many fathers today are not carrying Many parents approach parenting with a "do as I say, and not as I do" attitude and then expect faithfulness. And to do so, we must be able to teach people not only to love the Word but also to do the Word (James 1:2225). (2) What is the perspective Im teaching them in this sermon? If you know hardly anything about history, you can still know that the people who have had the greatest impact on our world for good or evil were not the smartest, not those who had the most knowledge, not the wealthiest, not the most talented, but those who have had the deepest convictions for right or wrong. young adults (one in three). the church once they live on their own.3 Answers in Genesis It comes from simply asking the right questions. Psalm 101:3 says, I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I know you would never invite a couple to come over to your house and ask them, Why dont you commit an act of adultery right here in front of us? But you do it every time you watch a TV program that has adultery in it. One of the implicit lessons of that text is: Parents, bring your children to Jesus. telling young people answers from the Bible. to be missionaries in the system) have by and large become churches of secular Friend, our lives do not change that much that fast. For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord. Please refresh the page and try again. C True faith must be built upon a knowledge We cannot change that much that fast. 5) Skill, The first two have to do with knowing. Jesus did not just begin building his church in the year 2000. Christianity) have been thrown out. Just because you get a thought doesnt mean its correct. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them; and sold them into the power of their enemies round about, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. The Bible says God expects not only faithfulness but also fruitfulness. Eugenie Scott retired as executive director of the NCSE in January 2014 and was succeeded by Ann Reid. Then we need to add to that Gods perspective. survey.5. Over and over again, the Jewish fathers were E Test every thought. next generation (through the education system, media, etc. 2 Peter 1. Yet that Become a lifelong learner. The old clich from the early days of the computer GIGO, garbage in/garbage out is still true today. If you have a dull ax, it takes more energy to cut the wood. walk with God, every believer first must know what he should believe and why. What are these stones? then you shall let your children know . They are a perfect picture of the character of Christ. . are saved is quite clear: Christ died, was buried, and rose again according I think I could teach on this subject for an entire week. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates. We must declare an end to the vicious cycle that caused the loss of children in ages past and fight to keep our children now. Then and only then will they be faithful. And again in Deuteronomy 11:18, 19: "You shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul . the Bibles authority, it will make sense of the world around them. Land died, the next generation served false gods! And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. In summary, there was a sequence like this: first, the people revered and served the true God because Joshua and his generation kept the memory of God's mighty acts alive among the people. Oftentimes, parents who have lost their children to the world failed to see the error of their own ways as their children were growing. You do it all the time. Then the Lord said to him, Not so! Try me and know my thoughts! 00:00 02:17 The moral fibre of society as broken down, and there seem to be no consequences to the injustices and inhuman behaviour that this group of lost people are inflicting on others. Every thought obedient to Christ. To be a disciple means to be a learner. organization begun in 1983 for the explicit purpose of attacking the influence In Proverbs 22:6, the wise man wrote, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." responsibility to do their part. after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel. K stands for keep on learning. We dont only need to know the Word of God, but we also want to have the mind of God and the heart of God and to develop the character of God and we want to do the will of God. We must apply the Word of God. All of our resources exist to guide you toward everlasting joy in Jesus Christ. It is a mental shift. Myth #1: It happens by osmosis - that our children will catch our spiritual values by simply being around the parents and the Church. followers of atheistic Marxism. One final objection some parents may raise is: My children won't sit still long enough to listen to a Bible passage or receive instruction. With arms outstretched and nail-pierced hands, Jesus says that the cross is how much he and his Father love us. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me (Matthew 11:2829). You lighten a load. 3) It is not true that teaching children about God has to make them close-minded and irrationally prejudiced. We must spend more time teaching our people how to fight the battle of the mind. For many years, I read a book a day. It will be true a thousand years from now. Proverbs 22:15, "Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it from him." Paul talks in 1 Corinthians 7 about being settled in our own minds, which means having godly convictions. Because the humble are teachable. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. The environment? They saw the doves and the manna and much more. And finally, God brought the judgment of his wrath upon them. that the atheists today are out to get our kids. But all I want to do in this chapter is give you four simple principles four of the many, many principles that I have tried to teach to others over the years for living like Christ and being effective for him. the Lord That might be a good verse to write on a Post-it note and stick on your television. Im constantly reading. The moment you stop learning, you stop leading. This is one of the keys to overcoming temptation: dont merely resist it; replace it. We tell ourselves that were doing okay when were not doing okay. day, giving a couple of thirty-minute lessons at church or home isnt enough. But he answered them, You see all these, do you not? It is unrelenting, and it is unfair because Satan never plays fair. We must pray continually for wisdom to make wise decisions regarding our children and the strength to be good examples for them. Knowledge is knowing what God does; wisdom and perspective are knowing why he does it. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. He had brought the people of Israel into the promised land of Canaan, had led them through many victories, and had set them a good example of faith in God. What is Gods perspective on our past, our present, and our future? And then there are toxic foods, which are poison. And what we need today as much as ever are men and women of godly, biblical convictions. Give us a new generation of imagineers. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.. Rick Warren is the founder and senior pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. What is Gods perspective on evil? One of their arguments is that the word begat, as used in the time-line from the first man Adam to Abraham in Genesis 5 and 11, can skip generations. The most important commandment in all of Jewish Scripture is: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." I can think of two. Just as the general time of summer has arrived, so is the restoration of Israel to her land is a sure sign that the general time of Christ's return has arrived. (By the way, we need great Christian intellectuals today more than ever before people a lot brighter than I! We need great dreamers, great Imagineering people. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Jesus said, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden [by the way, that sounds like a felt need! Its both-and. They had memorized it, yet Jesus says that their problem is that they dont know the Scripture. . Then I was supposed to come back to midweek prayer and Bible study and get another application. And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Its not an opinion; its a conviction. Because we must outthink and out-dream and outsmart the world for the glory of God not for our private good but for the glory of God and the good of others. Try downloading another browser like Chrome or Firefox. ", By Jonathan L Perz From Expository Files 7.12; December 2000. Youre figuring out how to do it winning people to Christ, baptizing them in large numbers, planting churches, equipping servant leaders, assisting the poor, caring for the sick, educating the next generation, going out into the hurts and highways and byways of life and taking up the cross where people least expect it. Now the people of Reuben and the people of Gad had a very great number of livestock. The Israelites had moved about in the wilderness forty years until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died, since they had not obeyed the LORD. Thank you for signing up to receive email newsletters from Answers in Genesis. O the present time, by those who seek to destroy the next generation spiritually! . We cannot say we have the character of kindness unless we are habitually kind. And, of course, Satan makes suggestions all the time. A violent battle is raging around us twenty-four hours per day. You can learn from anybody if you just know the right questions. W We will never be mini-gods. So many different suggestions can come into the mind. We must have the right skills. Skill comes through doing something over and over and over. His words reflect rash, deluded (Leviticus 5:4; Isaiah 32:4 NIV). Jesus gave the how-tos; he taught people how to do it. Where does innovation come from? I am begging you: dream great dreams for God, and teach others to dream great dreams for God. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals; and they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; they went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were round about them, and bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger. It showed clearly [Nothing] . This message appears as a chapter in Thinking. Who has heard such a thing? among the gods of the people who were all around them.. Learn about our culture's newest tactics in the battle for kids' souls, and discover what you can do in your home and church to reclaim our youth for Jesus, the Creator. So Most Christians realize they need to proclaim the gospel if they want to Unfortunately, these parents are in the minority. While statistics indicate show them the Bibles ultimate authority, and to share the gracious promises His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom Jesus said to him, You have said so. The second thing we need is perspective. "The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice; and he that begets a wise child shall have joy in him. Now look at the very last phrase in the passage: take every thought captive to obey Christ. Take captive every thought. If that's your situation in relation to your children and the Bible, then do like the college teacher: just stay a day ahead. Thats why you need to question your own thoughts and teach others not to believe everything they think. Proverbs 19:18a: "Discipline your son while there is hope; do not set your heart on his destruction." Protect them from the Evil One. 6:6-7; Eph. They have turned up missing in the sight of God, lost forever to the ways of the world. humanism. upon which it stands. It is clear, then, that if we parents neglect this duty, we serve not only the ignorance and unbelief of our children, but also their destruction. Learning from your enemies is a way to be smarter than your enemies, because if your enemies learn only from themselves, but you learn from them, then you will know more than they do what they know plus what you know! Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. And as I heard all these sermons, I would write over and over again as I was taking notes, YBH, YBH, YBH yes, but how? ], and I will give you rest. The last paragraph of the article reads, What we can do is work toward the When I want to think a certain way, it wants to go another way. Were telling ourselves its no big deal when it is a big deal. That would be heaven for them. Second, if we parents allow our children to grow up without this knowledge of God, we serve not only their ignorance and unbelief, but also their destruction. Teaching young people how Gods Wordrather than the atheistic worldviewmakes I can outdo that.. The most important school a child should ever attend is the home. You dont really know something until you apply it. First, some might say that parents have no right to prejudice a child regarding what he will accept as true. Hes called me to be faithful. Thats just not true. A generation goes, a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. If I were to say to my wife, Honey, Ill be faithful to you twenty-nine days of the month, she knows, and I know, that partial faithfulness is unfaithfulness. than any other country in history, America as a culture is becoming more secular While the memory of God's greatness and the work he did for Israel was alive, the people maintained their devotion to God. The Greek word aichmaltiz there means to control, to conquer, to bring into submission. We take captive. This is a part of the battle. Gods people need to wake up and understand But if you are going to really learn, you need one quality in particular: humility. We are never wasting our time when we are sharpening our ax. And when people say I dont want to think about this, what are they doing? The second reason your sense of inadequacy should not stop you is that some tremendously valuable things can be taught when you don't know the answer to a child's hard question. Logic will get you from A to B, but imagination will take you everywhere. It is often very rebellious. and defend their beliefs. There are four problems with that objection. And when you begin to build a library of godly, Christian books, you are leaving a legacy for the next generation. In 2009 I read through twenty-six volumes of Jonathan Edwards.
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what does the bible say about the lost generation