It is a tremendous honor to speak to this great Assembly this morning. I can think
of no greater honor than to be chosen to preach the Word of God at the Assembly
of the Churches of God of the Mountain Assembly.
Nehemiah 2: 18-20, "Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon
me. As also the King's words which he had spoken unto me. And they said,' Let us
arise and build." I like the emphasis placed on the word "us."
I am titling my sermon, "An Ounce of Prevention," because I believe that it sums
up what I am going to talk about this morning. I want to present to you what I believe
is the greatest challenge facing the church in our generation. The church has faced
the challenge of materialism, modernism, formalism, and many other ism's. But I
believe that there is a challenge confronting the church today, that is greater than
any the church has ever faced since it's beginning.
One great challenge is to have a more effective personal, soul-winning program
in all of our churches. Another great challenge has been to get every church
involved in our Missions program. Another challenge has been the bus-ministry.
But the greatest challenge we are facing today is the need for Christian
Education. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, spent more time teaching, than He did
preaching. Satan is using the ministry of teaching to cause great devastation in
the world today. Teaching is powerful! Teaching can be greatly used to build
God's kingdom if its importance is recognized and implemented properly.
Yes, I truly am convinced, with all my heart, that we need to get a vision of the
importance of the next generation. A vision so clear that no burden will be
considered too heavy, and no sacrifice will be considered too much, in bringing
the vision to fulfillment.
I. REASONS WHY WE NEED CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
1.The Effort Satan Is Putting Forth To Destroy The Next Generation.
The devil is putting forth an all-out effort to seduce and poison the mind's of our
youth. He is out to destroy their faith. To persuade them that the 'old time religion'
and the power of God, is out dated and not necessary. The devil is going to
extremes to tear down the foundations upon which the church was built! And, 'if
the foundations be destroyed,' our nation will collapse, and society, as we know
it today, will cease to exist. The traditional family, Sunday worship, Morals..all a
thing of the forgotten past.
(1) Television.
There are two institutions that Satan is using to poison the minds of our youth. The
first is television. Can you still remember what they aired on t.v. when you were
a child? I remember when television first came out. The preacher's called it, "the
devil's box!" We were too poor to own one so radio had to suffice. But after I was
grown, I purchased one. I really enjoyed watching shows, taking for granted their
innocence. My children watched cartoons such as Donald Duck and Mighty
Mouse. But now, coming into our home on a daily basis is a deluge of filthy themes, filthy scenes, filthy language, and atheistic agendas. Even the cartoons
have a devilish, atheistic philosophy interwoven. Millions are watching television
without realizing that they are cooperating with the enemy as he effectively uses
t.v. programing to destroy the sanctity of marriage, promote premarital sex and
extramarital sex, and make it sociably acceptable. He is destroying moral
absolutes, and all standards of good and evil taught in God's holy Word. He is
using t.v. very effectively to destroy parental discipline and authority. Parents are
sassed, cussed, and rebelled against on most t.v programs. And all the while,
the parents are portrayed as the villains instead of the heroes.
(2) Public Schools.
The second institution that the enemy is using as a lethal weapon to poison the
minds of our youth is the public school system. The devil is on the rampage in
our public education system. Horace Mann, with an idea he got from article 10
of the Communist Manifesto,that whoever controls what is taught the children,
can control society, fought a difficult battle to get legislation passed in the state
of Massachusetts,(1852) making a free and compulsory education available to
all children. I'll tell you what, if you thought that you could control society through the
minds of children, you'd pay for their education, too!
Then in 1963, a lady named, Madelyn Murray O'Hara, succeeded in taking
prayer and Bible reading out of our schools. When you and I went to school, we
were taught about how our nation rose to greatness because it was founded on
the principles of the Word of God. Our curriculum was God-centered. But not now.
The curriculum in our public schools today is Man-centered. Man is the highest
entity in existence and everything is built around man. And we weep when one
of our children wind up in prison or become prostitutes on the streets, or end up
in a cemetery at a young age.Yes, we weep bitterly, and say, "God why?"
(ILL:) Dr. Howard, a prominent Christian educator, gave an illustration talking
about a mother feeding her children. He said a mother is very particular what
she puts into the mouth of her little baby. She knows how sensitive it's little
stomach is. It'll get colic or some other disease, it's very important that a little
baby be fed the right diet. Dr. Howard said, "You wouldn't allow just anything to
go into your baby's mouth, what if somebody brought a big bowl of Texas cock
roaches and tried to feed them to your kids,you would say, "nothing doing!"
Then he asked the very thought-provoking, "What is more important,
what goes into your baby's mouth, or into his mind?"
It's time we wake up and face reality. We cannot act like ostriches with our heads
in the sand. We've got to face up to the devil. We can meet this great challenge
successfully. The twentieth verse of our text says, "...the God of Heaven, He will
prosper us." New Testament scripture declares that, "greater is He that is in you,
than he that is in the world." The prophet proclaimed that, "when the enemy
comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard against him."
When the history of the twentieth century is written it will be seen that television
and the public school system combined, has been the most powerful force in
shaping human values and changing patterns of society unless the church does
something about it.
Dr. Donald Howard made an alarming statement. He said that, "the gospel of
Jesus Christ is just one generation from extinction!" That is true. This is why I
feel that the generation to come is the greatest challenge facing the church today.
I believe that the success of the church depends on it. Not only is the devil
putting forth an intensive effort to seduce our children, but the true success of our
evangelistic endeavors will be weighed on whether or not we reach our children
with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
