as always it's it's a tremendous privilege to be with you let's go to the Lord in prayer father we come before you in the name of your son oh God you know you know we have no hope but you your word your spirit your son oh God so many words so little power please help us please help these young people that they might know you they might be totally and utterly devoted to your son who has been my savior for 40 years oh dear God help us in Jesus name amen people have said that uh that my father's generation was the greatest generation people say that yours is the worst theologically that's incorrect We Are All Sons and Daughters of Adam we were all born with the same corruption but what I will say is this in my scant knowledge of world history I would have to say that there has never been on the face of the earth a generation more bombarded with deception as a matter of fact when we look back at the Tower of Babel it was a judgment but you have to understand that even in the Judgment of Adam and Eve the Tower of Babel there is an element of Divine Mercy how was Mercy shown at Babel God divided the Nations they had different voices different languages so they could not intercommunicate which meant that they were separated so let's look at it this way with regard to a human body if if my hand has cancer that's it's a horrific thing but we could cut off my hand and then I'm saved the rest of my body is saved and in some ways that's what happened in the Tower of Babel the nations were so divided that if one fell into corruption to the point of Romans 1 reprobation well they were separated from the rest of the Nations but now we see something of a Recreation of the Tower of Babel so that some reprobate filth that is spawned in Hollywood at eight o'clock in the morning will be around the world by 12 o'clock noon also um you're bombarded with information information information and yet most people are not giving the skills to practice discernment the systems of logic and such that built the Western civilization as we know it are all but destroyed even the simplest things such as the law of contradiction of non-contradiction and so what you see now is a perfect case scenario for evil we are not a thinking people we are not a quiet people we are not a people who are well read in scripture or even the classics and so what we've done is is what what even secular philosophers prophesied 50 years ago has now happened it is a new Dark Ages I was asked a while back you know about sending children to public school and I said no no stop you have to understand something when I went to school as a little boy remember my teachers we recited the Pledge of Allegiance and and we prayed in my school so even though there was a abundant supply of evil even in my era today to send someone to public school is simply to send someone to a pagan Temple just a pagan Temple and so there's never been a generation I think like your generation because the evil is so Global so pronounced I've said this many times in prayer to God interceding that there was a time when in many nations in the west your son's name was honored and then came a point where your son's name was blasphemed now it's not even worthy of honorable mention not even on the lips of his enemies but here's the thing in the midst of a first century Darkness you have the opportunity to live like first century Christians but then how will you live how will you live I want us we're going to go around before we get to our main passage I want us to first of all go with me for a minute to First Corinthians chapter 13. verse 11. now he's he's this text has to do with virtue not getting lost in the trivial but being mature and the greatest sign of maturity of course is love but it has application much broader application he said when I was a child I used to speak like a child think like a child reason like a child when I became a man I did away with childish things so here we see something just like when it says in the Bible God created them man and woman we have a foundational principle there are men and there are women another text that we could pull from First Corinthians 15 you know act like men that means men act a certain way women act a certain way they respond differently to things and it doesn't make one more right than the other they're just different created that way in the image of God here we see something very very important is that there's a difference between a child and an adult now a child is a beautiful thing I'm 61 years old and I have a daughter who just turned seven and everyone says to me she's it's a beautiful granddaughter you have and I say well she is my daughter and she is Grand so I suppose that yes that that's good it's my granddaughter it's a beautiful thing for me to walk in the park or even across a parking lot holding my daughter's hand because she's seven years old but it's ridiculous even a bit disgusting if I'm walking in the same park walking across the same parking lot with my 21 year old son who is six foot five there is a difference I relate to them differently now you young people need to understand something again I want to iterate that you are not more corrupt or more lost than any generation but you have been bombarded with lie after lie after lie it's got to the point where actually well let me share something with you that happened to me in the University many many years ago since God was discipling me and I looked up to him and we had the same psych class he had it the hour before me I had the hour of course after him and the the teacher was Antichrist I mean literally he would stand up in front of 500 students and just mock God I mean it was unbelievable well one day as I was going into class my friend was coming out he was smiling I said what are you smiling about he says I love this class I absolutely love this class and I said why it helps me know the will of God when I was a young believer so I'm like what do you mean he goes I listen to everything that professor says I write it all down I do the opposite and I have the scriptures [Music] that's the culture that we live in it's not turned right side up but upside down and it's not our job to accept that to be passive or to moan are to Circle the wagons I suppose little children would do that but we're not little children you are called to be men and women and you are to pass through the stages of childhood you are and each one of those stages is delightful but you can't stay there but your culture is telling you to stay there it's absolutely astounding when I look at your culture and how childishness and foolishness and absurdity is exalted let me give you an example A friend of mine one day an older man uh very very kind very Godly Man what saw a group of girls in his church and they were all talking together as a group of about 10 girls very Godly very serious about their walk and he just kind of you know kind of in a grandfather way jokingly said well young ladies there's a lot of uh young men here you know who love the Lord are you praying and they said no he said why and with one voice they said well you know they read their Bibles they go to Bible studies and they're moral but we would never entrust Our Lives to these young men I mean they hang out together when they get a little extra money they buy Nikes or a video game they're little boys and so you see you can be a Bible reader and you can be moral but you have not taken upon yourself the mantle of manhood and you are to do that with an urgency you are to do that as quickly as possible when I look at Western civilization and I see young men who went off to war in World War II 18 years old some of them lied about their age 16 15.
I've met men in the aguaruna tribe in Peru who when I would talk to them you know see a young guy 16 years old and find out he was married he'd built his own Hut and had his own garden and was a good Hunter now what you need to see is that everything about your culture is wrong and it's over the last probably five or six decades it is just pecked and pecked and pecked and packed until now the dam has entirely well it's broken one time in Peru up in the mountains I was in this one Village and these Villages have hephis bosses Chiefs and if they tell you to do something you have to do it doesn't matter who you are so I was staying there I was preaching the gospel and they came in one day and said you're going to do road work tomorrow all day gave me a pickaxe so get up in the morning and one of the things that's most amazing you see men out there and they've got these big pickaxes and they're just slamming away with sledgehammers and pickaxes at these big boulders you see these women and they've got these bars that are about two meters about this big around made out of solid iron and they just stand on top of the boulder like this lift it up and go like this boom boom boom you think I mean an hour and a half nothing's happening and then all of a sudden the huge Boulder just cracks in half relentlessly relentlessly and that's what's going on in your culture and it has impacted you far more than you know now I know that some of you were raised far better than I could ever imagine I know some of you come from faithful faithful parents I want to acknowledge all that but you need to understand it has impacted you far more than you will ever no and one of the things is not necessarily immoral but immoral it's an old saying that we have difficult times make strong people strong people make good times good times make weak people do you see it's time to grow up it is time to grow up it is time to grow as quickly as possible not in a ludicrous manner not as Paul said beating the air not running around in circles but with an urgency and an earnestness it's time to lay aside childish things it doesn't mean that we cannot be joyful does not mean we cannot play it does not mean we should you know pass over certain stages in our development doesn't mean we we shouldn't have fellowship and Delight in one another but it does mean we need to get serious you are living in a world that is on the verge of Destruction you are living in a culture that is reprobate most of you have read Romans 1 is that correct you've read Romans 1. you see the sin of sexual perversion and then it goes on from there and you see violence and animosity and and no faithfulness and hatred for one another and hatred for God a lot of people look at Romans 1 and they go man those things the Judgment of God is coming that's not true that's not what that passage teaches not at all that passage teaches that when you see those things the Judgment of God is already fallen he's already turned the culture over well why what greater sin could there be than sexual perversion and all these you know taking the very foundations of creation and twisting them and destroying them what could be a sin greater than that oh if you ask that question you don't understand much about God what could be a greater sin than all those horrific sins that are listed in Romans 1. well it's simple although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks you see the biggest sin that can ever be committed is not responding appropriately to God the one who made you who sustains you which to me is absolutely it's even it's it's bigger than creation he not only made you Every Beat of your heart comes from him every breath comes from him do you not see that on top of that it's his own character even if he had done nothing for you he in himself is Worthy of all worship honor and gratitude and so now we're living in this culture in which God is not even mentioned it's definitely not feared where those who believe in God are treated as though they were some sort of prehistoric imbecile young people please understand apart from some extraordinary Act of Mercy a storm is coming unlike anything any of you unlike anything I have ever seen do you want to talk about counting the cost let's go to Jeremiah for a moment chapter 12.
verse 5. now Jeremiah is complaining I understand this well I shamefully even in my old years I do the same the attempt to live a righteous life is extremely difficult when you're Behind Enemy Lines in a world that is under the power of the evil one but look look what he tells Jeremiah if you have run with foot men and they have tired you out then how can you compete with horses if you fall down in a Land of peace how will you do in the thicket of the Jordan what is he saying he's saying Jeremiah this is only chapter 12. if you think you've suffered buckle up you haven't even begun to suffer if these little afflictions at this moment are getting you off keel causing you to grumble weep and moan how will you stand when the real battle starts yeah now I praise God for most of you many of you were raised in in Godly families with fathers and mothers who fear the lord and Who Loved You and yet you have to acknowledge your Romans 7 battle with sin sometimes has been tremendous you're in gratitude you're moping you're moaning the idolatry right of unmet expectations What's it gonna be like when you can neither buy or sell what's it going to be like when you are cast out of society what's it going to be like when you are slandered and accused and abused what's it going to be like when you have to make a choice between whether you fit in or whether you follow Christ or let's go even further whether you live or follow Christ or even worse because there's something worse than death it's a life of suffering that your life will be nothing but suffering will you bail if you're struggling now if you're on the line now if sometimes you're in and sometimes you're out now in these calm Waters what is it going to be like when all of a sudden for lack of a better phrase all hell breaks loose these are the worst of times these are the best of times again as a first century paganism approaches as a first century persecution approaches the opportunity to live like first century Christians approach and know this many of your brethren are already suffering that's part of what heart cry does we are constantly working in countries trying to get Christians out of certain places out of jail out of that border across another into safety in a safe house hide them everything we have Brethren all over the globe and so it's don't think it's unusual that I'm telling you you will suffer it's unusual that you haven't heard a story years ago someone asked a Chinese Brethren about when did he think the Great Tribulation would start the Chinese brother answered we've been going through the Great Tribulation for the last hundred years what do you mean when is it going to start my point is not to make a point about eschatology but just make a point that it is not unusual in the kingdom of heaven when we suffer for the sake of Christ it's unusual when we do not now what must you do prepare prepare for what prepare to survive yes survive but not just to survive to go forward this is not a time for small hearts and tight spirits shabby little egotistical I want my best life now kind of Christianity this is a Time to do great things heroes are not made in times of peace there are no acts of Valor in calm Waters out of I don't recall who it was but a a military man on the field a commander his man came up to him and said I believe it was Captain the enemy is to the north the enemies to the South the enemy is to the east the enemy is to the West we are surrounded and the captain said wonderful there's no way they'll get away now let me show you a passage that someone ought to write a book about because it's been lost because it seems well let me just let me read it let me read you and I would guarantee that if I read this and didn't tell you it was in the Bible some of you would think that I got it from Spartan literature look how Paul describes a Christian now just listen to those who by perseverance and doing good seek for Glory and Honor and immortality does that not sound like something pulled out of a a Spartan you know book of War I am so tired of this effeminate passive pitiful Monkish Christianity the kind that does this and cowers it's not what we see here what do we see seeking for Glory you know if this wasn't in the Bible immediately some of you says no we're not supposed to seek for Glory we're supposed to seek for the glory of God well actually Jesus talks about it being good to seek Glory from God not just seeking the glory of God but seeking Glory from God just look for a moment just just look over at John 5 44.
