Topic: Youth
Since Adam and Eve felt into the temptation of the serpent, Satan has overcome to control the world that God created. Jesus said, in John 14:30, before He would face His death by His people, "I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me."
In previous message, we brief studied on bad and good sides of the young people that they have impacted in this world. Before we would look more into the good side of the young people, we study on the bad side. If you miss the first part of this message, please feel free to read it on MGJC Home Page at mysite.verizon.net/jrappkor.
Satan loves to attack our young people, so they wouldn't become children of God. He would love them if they learn to hate everything that God provided for them, so he could control them and send them into his kingdom, Hell. Even Satan loves to attack infants. In fact, they are two historic records that he killed infants.
Before we look into the two passages, please don't get mix up when God dealt His people by murdering their infants. Although God did these acts toward to His chosen people to lead the nation, He did this for reason: He disciplined His people to turn back to Him from the pagan gods and sins.
Read with me Exodus 1:8-22:
8Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9And he said to his people, "Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; 10come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land." 11Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel. 13So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. 14And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage--in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.
15Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah; 16and he said, "When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live." 17But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive. 18So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this thing, and saved the male children alive” 19And the midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them." 20Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. 21And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them. 22So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, "Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive."
In this passage of Exodus is where the new King Pharaoh began to have jealous on the Israelites, because he may don't know who Joseph was or the previous King Pharaoh, who gave Joseph to be the governor of Egypt (Gen. 41:37-57). However, this new King Pharaoh would probably took over the land of Egypt many years after Joseph's death. And he didn't know about what Joseph had done.
Now, let me read the study note of Exodus 1:8 from The MacArthur Study Bible. Sometimes, we would need to look different view to get more information of Scripture, but not too often.
Now let's read the note of Exodus 1:8: "This king is either to be identified as one of Hyksos kings during the period of political disintegration, or as Pharaoh Amose I, founder of what archeologists have designed as the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom period in Egyptian history. It is probably best to take this new king, who knew not Joseph, as a Hyksos ruler. Furthermore, the term "rose" signifies "rose against," which accords well with a foreign seizure of the Egyptian throne. The Hyksos (ca. 1730-1570 BC) came from outside Egypt (cf. Acts 7:18)."
So, now we read that this new king did not have relationship with the previous King Pharaoh, and did not know about Joseph and Hebrew people. As we read in Exodus 1:8-22, we see that this new Egyptian leader wanted to have contest against the Hebrew nation, so that his nation would become much stronger.
Ok, we'd understand that King Pharaoh had an issue with Hebrews, but why he wanted let Hebrew women to kill their boys and not girls. We would probably think this was the strangest thing that ever heard. But, if we read throughout the Bible, God choose His men to lead their lands, families, and businesses. King Pharaoh wanted girls to be alive, because they are weaker than boys and more beautiful than boys; and if they are married, women would become men's partners or supporters. But, this king would probably want let women would become his servants while men are working hard at the hot sun.
In the New Testament, King Herod wanted to kill children, so he can find the Messiah to kill Him and let him to be the ruler of Israel (see Matthew 2).
In both cases, we see that Satan was involved with these two kings, so that he can control God's people. Unfortunately, he lost the war. By the time Satan tried to use two different era kings to kill the young people, God already saved His children.
Now let's go to our generation, which is right now.
Our society has become more like disastrous world. If we look through the past history, we would see that America was built by Christianity and by founding our national fathers, who’d believe that they were firm believers in Jesus Christ. Before the mid 20th-century, American was built by Christian. We heard that students had the freedom of prayer and reading God’s Words in their schools, which the court/ACLU set up. Many children TV programs were probably had less violence for them to watch. Now we come to the 21st-century and look what we have done to make our young people miserable.
We still carry King Herod’s legacy, which we call “abortion.” Now, the court/ACLU released the freedom of right to kill the unborn child before he/she would come out from the woman’s womb. In the entertainment industries, producers create more action TV programs and movies for children to watch that contain violence, sex, alcohol, and occultism. In schools, our government gave the right for children to learn what the others produced in the entertainment industries. “Thus, un-Godly influences aimed directly at our young children are pouring in daily through TV, movies, videos, magazines, books, and tapes. However, one of the most important avenues by which Satan is trying to capture children's hearts and souls is through our public school system.” (See Cutting Edge Radio Transcript on “Our Children in the New World Order” at http://www.cuttingedge.org/ce1010.html.)
Why is Satan attacking our young people through the public school system?
The Cutting Edge Radio Transcript continues, “The first step is to destroy the old system, which in America is based on Biblical Evangelical Christianity. This system permeated all aspects of society, especially the Family and the Schools. Children received foundational home instruction in religion, morals, discipline, and normal person-to-person relationships as modeled in the home. The child came to school with this protective and sustaining foundation, and was thus ready to receive an academic education. Parents supported the education of their children in all these ways. Without this parental involvement and support, no child could properly learn.”
The Goal: Satan wants to destroy our young people’s souls. Thus, they cannot see the light from the darkness of sins.
Not we only need to blame these disasters on our young people to our public school and court systems and to our enemy, Satan; we also need to concern what we teach our youngsters in their own family and church family. The hardest thing for kids to have is on showing bad examples from their own parent(s). For instant, if the children see that their parents would decide to divorce from each other, they will start to collect unpleasant emotions and confusions in their lives. As they would get older, kids would follow the same methods of living as their parents, but their problems would get worse than what their parents dealt with.
Divorce within a family is the number one of America issue today. Most of them are from the Christian family. Why? Even though we hear more messages on the Christian family from our pastors, we may not hear often on how we need to live our lives as Jesus lived. Messages on family, money, and Christian life may seem great, but there is more to how we need to live a Christian life. We need to go to meat of the Christian life as we would lead our youngsters, whether we are married or not, have kids or not in our homes, to the next generation of their lives. Thus, leading them into Jesus Christ by demonstrating them our examples of how we need to live as Christ did. That doesn’t mean we need to die at the cross or speak in different language to them. Instead, we need to bring God’s Words into reality in their lives by loving and caring to our young people’s needs as Jesus did for us.
If you don’t have children as yours or you’re young adult, you still can reach into other children, teenagers, or other young adults into Jesus Christ with His love and care.
Are you saved? Are your love ones and friends saved in the grace of God through Jesus Christ? The purpose of this study is to help you to become closer relationship with Jesus Christ. As Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:1-3.)
If you are lukewarm in your relationship with Jesus Christ and want to know Him as your personal Savior and Lord of your life, please consider asking Him to forgive your sins and invite Him into your life. Paul says, "That if you confess with your mouth, `Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believed and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." (Romans 10:9-10.) If you have done in your private room or workplace, then you need to tell to your friends or love ones about what you have done, so they may rejoice with you and want to have that relationship with Christ in their own life. There are many occults in the world, which do not know the love of God and His great plan for those who believe in Him. As it is written in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
