Sermon : It Didn t Just Happen and It Won t Just Go Away Page 1

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1 Sermon : It Didn t Just Happen and It Won t Just Go Away Page 1 It Didn t Just Happen And It Won t Just Go Away Text : Titus 2: 3-5, Deuteronomy 6: 1-9 S#1 S#2. A. By common consensus we are dealing with some major cultural changes. S#3. 1. Christian people are appalled at the shift away from all we view as good and moral. 2. The media is full of Christians lamenting in near panic terms. a. How could this have happened? b. It has happened so fast, where will it all end? 3. The blame machine is cranking out excuses at full throttle. a. It s the fault of the media, of rap music, and of videogames. b. It s the school s fault; they just let anyone teach these days? c. It s the churches fault they don t have enough activities for the young. B. The rate of cultural degradation has gathered momentum to an alarming S#4. rate but it is not something that started only recently. 1. Popular culture has always responsed to significant events by changing. ( Remember : Popular culture is the ways most people do or feel about things. ) 2. Thus, when history became unstable culture also became unstable. 3. Consequently, it s hard to lay the blame for our downward spiral at the feet of any single event or any one group of people. C. However, it s important that we come to understand the problem. S#5. 1. We cannot find a solution until we clearly and accurately define the problem. 2. And we cannot solve the problem until we identify the source of the problem. * The plague wiped out a third of the population before it was linked to fleas. S#6. D. Cultural problems can only be resolved by consensus and communal action. S#7. 1. Consensus does not mean unanimous consent. 2. Change in any collective generally requires consensus among a significant portion. E. As a rule... moral values stem from religious values. S#8. 1. By and large Christians are ( were ) fundamentally in agreement on basic morals. 2. As long as religion was respected moral values were respected... if not observed. 3. The enemies of God are steadily eroding the respect for Christianity in America.

2 Sermon : It Didn t Just Happen and It Won t Just Go Away Page 2 How did we come to this point? How can we turn it around? S#9. I. All evil on the earth is the work of Satan.. S#10. A. Satan caused the first cultural change on the earth and most sense. 1. Satan deliberately engineered the separation of mankind from fellowship with God. a. Gen. 3: 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which S#11. the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Indeed, has God said, You shall not eat from any tree of the garden? b. Satan came directly to the woman and did it when she was alone. 2. Knowing that God would have to respond, Satan was malicious in his intent. B. Satan now occupies a position of power and influence in this world. S# Most Christians ( 59% ) do not believe that Satan even exists. ( Barna group polled 1871 Christian households in ) a. 40% dogmatically believe that Satan does NOT exist. b. 19% do not believe Satan exists, but are open to be persuaded. ( agnostic ) c. 24% of those Christians polled do not believe the Holy Spirit exists. 2. John twice quotes Jesus calling Satan the ruler of this world. S#13. a. John 12: 31 Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. b. John 16: 11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. c. Both pre & post incarnation Jesus had interaction with Satan. ( Cf. Matt 4 ) 3. The Apostle referred to Satan as a ruler of the spirits that cause evil. S#14. a. Eph. 2: 1-2 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. b. Notice : Satan is actively working in people, i.e., he is wielding influence over. 4. Satan is actively causing people to reject God and His gospel. S#15. a. II Cor. 4: 3-4 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. b. This is a direct influence on the thinking of specific people.

3 Sermon : It Didn t Just Happen and It Won t Just Go Away Page 3 II. God established ways to counter the influence of Satan.. S#16. A. God created the home and family to produce children to serve Him. 1. God created a family in the garden. a. The couple was bound together by the very flesh ( rib ) of Adam. b. The structure of the family was created to protect it from Satan s temptations. 2. The act of procreation has always been limited to the bonds of marriage. S#17. a. Before the Law of Moses was given, Joseph knew adultery was a sin against God. Gen. 39: 9 How then could I do this great evil and sin against God? * What Potiphar s wife wanted was in conformity to social norms of the time. b. When the Law was given the 7 th command forbad sex outside marriage. Exod. 20: 13 You shall not commit adultery. c. This moral absolute is strongly emphasized in the Christian tradition. 3. Jesus extended the prohibition beyond the body to include the mind. S#18. a. Matt. 5: You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery 28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. b. Lust must not be allowed to impregnate one s mind. ( pornography facilitates lust ) 4. Christians are forbidden any sexual pleasure outside marriage. S#19. a. I Cor. 6: 9-10 that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. * That dear people is a clear statement of dogmatic, absolute truth. It is a clear moral imperative from God s lips to your ears. S# Why would God be so strongly opposed to this particular category of sin? a. The ongoing nature of mankind and the progress of humanity depends upon it. b. There must be NO chance of children being born outside of a family unit. B. It s within the family structure that children are to be trained to follow God. # Some make much of the fact that Mary conceived the Son of God while single. a. This was necessary in order to fulfill the promise of a miraculous virgin birth. b. God made sure His Son was born into a nuclear family. ( Mat 1: cf Lk 1 ) c. God also made sure that both adults in the family were righteous. * Thus, being a single mother was NEVER endorsed by God for any reason. S#22.

4 Sermon : It Didn t Just Happen and It Won t Just Go Away Page 4 2. Children are to be train up as they grow physically. S#23. a. Prov. 22: 6 Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it. b. Training involves instruction and the bending of the will to insure conformity. 3. Children are not born knowing right from wrong or naturally bent toward good.#24. a. Prov. 22: 15 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of discipline will remove it far from him. b. Prov. 29: 15 The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. 4. While developing, even Jesus had to be trained and matured in wisdom. a. Luke 2: And He said to them, Why is it that you were looking for Me? S#25. Did you not know that I had to be in My Father s house? 50 But they did not understand the statement which He had made to them. 51 And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, S#26. and He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. b. Increasing indicates a developmental process. Jesus was not born with all wisdom. C. The training of a child is not something that can be delegated. S# Deut. 6: 7 You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 2. Communicating the ways of God are to be part of the daily family culture. a. Devotional periods with every member present must be a part of it life. b. The family must have times in which every member is required to participate. c. Teaching occurs along the way, day by day as life is lived. D. People are not born knowing how to function as a part of a family, it is taught. 1. Titus 2: teaching what is good, 4 so that they may encourage the young S#28. women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. a. Women are not born knowing how to be a wife and a mother. b. There is more to being a mother than changing diapers and doing laundry. c. There is more to being a wife than cooking supper and meeting sexual needs. 2. The bible commands teaching because there is a need to learn. 3. People are born with the desire to procreate, but not with the knowledge to be family

5 Sermon : It Didn t Just Happen and It Won t Just Go Away Page 5 III. Satan figured ways to remove people from the protections God established.. S#29. A. Cultures have become increasingly unstable since the industrial revolution. S# The formation of industry began breaking the bonds to the land and to the family. 2. The assembly line took industrial production from small shops to larger factories. 3. People migrated to the jobs. B. Industrialization resulted in urbanization. 1. When people are crowded together, it tends to bring out the worst in man. a. Evil can always find reinforcement from likeminded individuals. b. Vices are more readily available... alcohol, gambling, immorality, etc. 2. Fatigue... Factories do not observe winter. Agriculture fluctuates with the seasons. 3. Factory schedules isolate children from their fathers leaving mothers to raise kids. 4. Larger schools expose kids to increasing influences outside the home. C. The great depression changed the national psyche 1. During the depression great migrations took place. People moved to survive. 2. Those who came through the depression were hard working and determined. 3. Escape from poverty and the desire to acquire became an obsession. 4. It became increasingly important to provide one s wife and children with things. D. World War II exacerbated the problem. 1. The men went off to war and the women went to work in the factories. 2. More people were taken off the land and extended families broken up. ( This day people who are normally here are in far places visiting their mothers. ) 3. Men came home eager to make up for lost time and did not return to the farm. 4. Women who had been out of the home were unwilling to give up their jobs. 5. Children were left largely without nurture, emotional support, training, etc. 6. Mothers come home tired so they aren t emotionally prepared to mother children. a. Children come home to an empty house with no supervision. b. The nature of a child has not changed since the world began. Prov. 22: 15 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of discipline will remove it far from him. Prov. 29: 15 The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. S#31.

6 Sermon : It Didn t Just Happen and It Won t Just Go Away Page 6 E. Children became a luxury or a liability rather than a blessing. S# In the city children were not needed to help on the farm. 2. Family sizes dropped to the point we are not maintaining population. ( immigration ) 3. Children replaced the family pet as something to be played with and enjoyed. F. Technology became the childcare solution of choice. 1. Set the child in front of the TV. 2. Then came video games and personal computers and smart phones. 3. The TV networks had a social agenda which continues until this very day. a. They used to call themselves liberated, but now they claim to be progressive. b. They clearly stated they want to change the traditional American social values. c. They want people to be open to all manner of things long considered immoral. 4. One day people woke up to find out that their children have a different set of values. G. Since we re too busy to train our children, we ve relegated it to the schools. 1. But schools are forbidden to teach religious values so the children don t learn them. 2. Because society is now open and accepting, all manner of twisted teachers are hired. 3. Are children are taught immoral things by immoral teachers which things are then reinforced by immoral media outlets. CONCLUSION : A. Prov. 14: 34 Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a disgrace to any people. #33. B. We seem to be in a death spiral... can there be any hope. S# God will grant repentance if we will turn from our wicked path. S#35. II Pet. 3: 9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 2. We must return to the family values and structure that is taught in the scriptures. 3. Our greatest need today is Christian mothers in the homes training children. S#36. C. In all of this we must remember that the church is the family of God... APPLY. 1. The church must be the source of Godly mothers. Titus 2: The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. ( Church as well. I Tim 1:5 ) # God needs an army of godly cradle rockers. S#38. INVITATION : S#39.

7 Sermon : It Didn t Just Happen and It Won t Just Go Away Page 7 Lesson Text : Titus 2: Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, 4 so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. Deuteronomy 6: Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the LORD your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, 2 so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. 3 O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. 4 Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.