Welcome to The Journey Church. I'm Pastor Paris Pasch.

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Last week we heard some powerful testimonies of how Satan can work effectively to destroy people’s lives, but more profound is how God rescued them and many around them in the nick of time.  Often this moves us to respond in ways that we might not do without provocation.  We give generously to causes and seek to encourage others who struggle.  This month we are focused on MNATC as our monthly mission.  Every dime directed to missions goes to MNATC. 

 

Seeing people be pulled back from the brink of disaster is what keeps our great story tellers in movies and TV dramas in business.  We are drawn toward the underdog and Christians are captivated by the Davids who slay this world’s Goliaths. But today I want to tell you that not all testimonies are rags to riches, heroin addict to wall street tycoon.  In fact, the Bible doesn’t teach us to raise up our children to first go through hell in order to enter heaven.  It doesn’t encourage a tip toe through the tulips of unrighteousness before entering God’s courts with praise.

 

Proverbs 22:5–6 (NIV) In the paths of the wicked are snares and pitfalls, but those who would preserve their life stay far from them. 6 Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

 

In fact, the Bible instructs us to train our children to walk in God’s ways early and forego the treacherous walk of rebellion.  It’s not good that we expect, even encourage, the rebellious teen years.  The fact is that many people who are in church with us never did drugs, never car jacked a KIA and never lived immorally without God before coming to saving faith.  The Bible has numerous examples of those who stayed pure, lived wholesome and refused to seek the dark side.  Abel, Joseph, Daniel, Elisha, Abraham, Noah, Timothy, Cornelius and Elizabeth to name a few.

 

Let’s clarify the foundational truth that raising merely good kids and nice people is not the goal.  Good people that are not following the one and only savior of the world are still far from God and will not be in heaven.

 

Romans 10:13 (NIV) for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 

 

Mark 16:16 (NIV) Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

 

John 14:6 (NIV) Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

 

The testimony we must pursue however is the one that can say, I didn’t sleep with someone I wasn’t married to, I didn’t speak against God, I didn’t cheat my fellow man out of anything, and I didn’t withhold kindness to others.  Instead, I did find Jesus and make Him Lord of my life as soon as I heard His voice.  We must raise the bar of our hope and our expectations rather than accept the lie that our children must first be dragged through the mud of humanity.

 

Help our young men to stop trying to be accepted by being rebellious teens.  Help our young men refuse to believe young women are objects to use for a season.  Renounce selfishness in the home and tell our young ladies to refuse to seek after the boy who lives outside the lines.  God says parents are the true teachers of their children, and parents must adjust their children’s thoughts and actions when they move toward rebellion.  Rebellion in the streets and in the home according to scripture must be driven out of our children not expected, supported or condoned like we do today.  Stop supporting criminals by calling them victims.

 

Psalm 34:11–14 (NIV) Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. 12 Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, 13 keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies. 14 Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

 

My testimony is simple.  I lived my entire young life without God as my savior.  For the most part I avoided the typical path of teen rebellion, not because I knew Jesus, but more because it was counterproductive and, in my view, stupid.  Watching my peers get drunk, stoned, steal, break the law, back talk their parents, boast about shacking up with a classmate and defy every authority was simply something I had little time for, but I still was as lost as those who found that lifestyle adventurous and daring.  Every one of those acts of defiance came with a consequence I didn’t want to incur.  However, my sins were just as destructive, just as lethal and just as defiant to God, I just didn’t know who God was. 

 

It was only when I became a parent myself that I heard the savior’s voice as to how lost I was.  My life had only burden in its future if I didn’t find help.  I knew I was now responsible for a life other than my own, and this child must have a better life than I did, or my life would be a failure.

 

As parents, Vicki and I tried everything we knew to help our children avoid the typical path of destruction the world offers to every child.  We removed our kids from public school for a while, removed them from the negative impact of some of their social groups and even avoided most of their exposure to this world’s traps, but Satan still found a path to their doorstep.  Remember this was even before the evils of social media.  We enrolled them in every Godly activity in order to fill them with goodness and learn how to reject evil.  We never conceded and never gave up, but our children still went through difficult times, sometimes simply because they were preacher’s kids.  Peer pressure didn’t overlook them; ungodly friends became their biggest downfall as the world looked slick, fun and more enticing.

 

Our nation and its parents and grandparents must stand up for righteousness and refuse to support the selfish pursuit of entitlement, and freedom to become a hateful, critical, rebellious, self-serving consumer.  We must model decency, kindness, hard work and a life of honor.  We must raise up strong young men all the while avoiding the supposed mystique of the bad boy illusion.  We must reject the idea that single motherhood is a norm we just need to live with.  We must renounce all forms of immorality that this world and even some churches make room for.  We must resist the forces of divorce as a solution to difficult circumstances and the belief that self-medicating is the same as self-discipline.

 

Recently a young future leader was assassinated for his faith and proclamation of it.  His loss must be met with courage and conviction that somethings are worth giving your life for, and like him we must use our lives to help the younger among us meet Jesus.

 

What I’m trying to emphasize this morning is that Vicki and I never hoped our kids would have a great and exciting testimony of rebellion and eventually salvation in their future.  I would have preferred it was as boring as could be.  The exposure to evil is not the path to righteousness and we should refuse to allow Satan even an inch.  Satan has lied to parents who have conceded this destructive lifestyle for their teenagers.  They believe it’s normal to sow your wild oats, but that’s somebody else’s husband or wife.  We believe it’s normal to try several potential spouses out before acquiring a semipermanent one.  We believe it’s normal to explore our sexual orientation when God has already revealed it at conception.

 

We should boldly seek to adjust our children’s path as soon as we see it deviate from righteousness and with every ounce of our last breath refuse to allow Satan to have his way.  We must stand up against the hatred that this present culture is fostering toward those who think differently and at the same time teach them to think, speak and act honorably.

 

Philippians 4:8–9 (NIV) Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

 

Parents and grandparents, we need to stand up for God in our nation.  Stand up for righteousness in the face of the foolishness that some people think is just kids being kids.

 

Proverbs 22:15 (NIV) Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far away.

 

This is not a scripture to establish the use of corporal punishment.  Discipline is doing what’s necessary to change the course of the life of a child.  Children according to God are not the teachers of adults and are not filled with inherent wisdom, but rather are prone to foolishness.  We are responsible to teach and train right thinking into them with a loving motivation.

 

At the end of the day the one truth that Vicki and I held on to dearly, was the truth that our children could never say they didn’t know who God; Jesus and the Holy Spirit were.  Today this is still the anchor in our soul.  But living a godly life is filled with constant battle.  Satan hates everything God loves and that’s you.

 

2 Timothy 3:12–15 (NIV) In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

 

So, do you desire to have a great and dramatic testimony of near destruction and being pulled from the fires of destruction?  Thank God He rescued those MNATC folks from themselves and Satan’s deception.  If you have a catastrophic testimony of historical evil, then run from it toward God and be saved.  My hope after today, is that you’re persuaded that the best testimony is a life filled with God from an early age?  The best testimony is refusing to bend and bow to this very broken culture and its beliefs.  The best testimony is that we resisted Satan and his lies even when it became very hard.  Now get busy passing that truth on to those who are younger than you.  Our culture is waiting for godly people to declare the truth to as many as possible.

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Next week Pastor Ben will instruct us on warfare preparation

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      Message Questions

 

1. Is a good person the same as a saved person?

2. How can comparison to others prevent us from seeing our personal sinfulness?

3. Some people try to shield their family from the world by avoiding all interaction with it, while others allow their family to conform to the world and cultural norms. How does this differ from the biblical calling to be in the world but not of the world? (John 17:14–16)

4. How does scripture teach us to cultivate righteousness among future generations?

5. What makes a testimony powerful?