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Ep. 270 - How to Guide and Inspire Young People · The Living Waters Podcast

• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Are you the kind of person that's like, ah, these young whippersnappers, they know nothing, blah, blah, blah blah, and then you don't invest in them, or do you see a problem and you wanna be a part of the solution?
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: I think I've said it before Years ago they did this survey and they surveyed older generation people and they were like what do you think about the youth?
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: And they had all the complaints in the world.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: And the second to last question was do you think they need a mentor?
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: And they answered yes.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: They went to the younger generation.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: They asked them do you think you need a mentor?
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: And they answered yes.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: They went back to the older generation Would you be interested in mentoring the youth?
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: And it was an abysmal percentage that said I would be interested.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: that said, I would be interested.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: In other words, to disciple, to love, to invest time and affection towards them is the beginning to a fruitful relationship.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Call me psychic or call me psycho, but check out my pinpoint, perfection and perfectly painting a picture of the past.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Actually, friends, don't call me psychic because that would be pagan and we highly discourage paganism.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: On the Living Waters podcast.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Here it goes Ray, when you were in school, you played hooky Mark.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: When you were in school, you played hooky Oscar.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: When you were in school, you played hooky Oscar when you were in school you played hooky Right, maybe once.
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: You see how I?
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: How did you know?
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: I only did it once.
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: I got a piece of paper and folded it the size of a dental card and walked out holding the dental card, so no teachers would stop me.
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: Is that seriously how you did it?
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: And I went surfing.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: But I thought you used to always play hooky and go surfing.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: No, no, you only did it once.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Only did it once.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's still true, and right, I felt guilty.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: That's still true and right.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Mark, did you play hooky?
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: Once with my mother's permission.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: Well, that's not hooky.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: No, that's not a rookie.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: I never did you never, ever played hooky.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: You never ditched class Ever.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: No, why would I do that?
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: You're serious, right?
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: Yes, wow, I was serious.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: I was a serial class ditcher.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: Well, you were kicked out of three high schools.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Most of us were not Two, but hey, who's counting?
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: I thought my education was stupid yeah.
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: The whole thing was stupid.
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: I learned French for three years years and they told me at the end this isn't real french, it's good, this is school french, not real french yeah, just kidding.
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was like after three years of learning this is fake french yeah it was, it was school you did that with math.
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: This isn't real math I didn't like math either.
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: I didn't do any good in english.
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: No, I hate common core.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oscar, you played hooky like me.
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: Oh man, listen I, I didn't do any good in English?
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: No, I hated school.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Common core math.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oscar, you played hooky like me.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Oh man Listen, I didn't really have parents to tell me when to go to school, and so I would go days without going to school.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: I mean, my attendance record was atrocious.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: I too got kicked out of multiple schools.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: I do remember one time they asked for a signature and I brought something.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: My mom was like, hey, can you sign this?
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: She's like I'll just go ahead and sign it for me, like she asked me to forge her signature.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: So yes to say I've missed, I played hooky.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: I did that multiple times.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Did you guys ever pretend to be sick and stay home?
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: No, why would I do that?
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: I did it once when I was a little kid.
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: I got a hot water bottle and put it on a thermometer that my mom had put in my mouth Like ET, and it went over 100, so I got to stay home then, Wow, that's Celsius, by the way friends 160.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Do you remember ET?
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: When he does that, he puts it up to the light bulb.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, in the movie.
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, my revelation in school was this has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with memory.
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: Every time they have an exam that was to do with memory the guys with great memories they'd spit it out on a piece of paper and get great marks.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, intelligence is writing out an essay or solving some massive problem.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: Mark, I'm really taken back why?
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: Who's taking?
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: you back Because you strike me as the loser type.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Oh, I'm really taken back.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Why?
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Who's taking you back?
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Because you strike me as the loser type oh.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: I was.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: I definitely was a loser type.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: But, mark, was it for you?
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: I mean seriously, just because it was so common.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Well, maybe I don't know, when I got kicked out of my first high school, went to my second and I became a gangster, that's when I really I mean, I hardly went to class.
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: So you must think it was just normal.
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: But it was just you and Oscar, no one else.
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: And I can't even remember.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: I didn't know if they called my parents or not.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: No, you know, to play sports you had to have a certain GPA.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: That's what I was going to say.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Was it because of sports, for you, probably, and I didn't hung out with one, they hung out with one, yeah, no, but I, I man, I hated school.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: I loved the social aspect of it, uh, and that was basically it.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: But after I got saved, obviously it changed.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: I mean, I went from four f's, two d minuses 0.32, to straight a's.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: After I got back into my first high school, I got kicked out of and it just became and it's crazy like when I speak at homeschool conferences and stuff, I'm like I should not be here, like I'm talking about education.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: Education was my worst enemy and it was just because I wanted to mess around and do my thing, but when Christ gets a hold of, you and sanctifies you it, just it changes everything.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: I used to.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: I used to always ace my tests, but I would never turn homework in and I'd rarely show up for class.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: But I, I I lament on it because I really value education, I really value reading and learning.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Like I, I love to learn and I wish that that value was instilled on me when I was still a student.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: It didn't happen, similar to you, it didn't happen until I got older.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Well, that's what.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: I've tried to tell, I pleaded with my kids understand, like, the value of learning.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: You know, don't just fly through this because later you grow up and you're like I wish I would have paid attention to that, you know.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: So your kids homeschooled yeah, we're about to graduate.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Well, kylie's going to be a senior.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: This will be five kids we've homeschooled, same with Mark Eden's going to be senior.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: And boy, our wives.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: They deserve major, major awards because it's a lot of work.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: I mean they do the bulk of it, of course, where we fill in.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: You go out and do the hunting, yeah, but of course we fill in.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: You go out and do the hunting yeah, hunt and gather.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: But, ray, I kicked my teacher in the face.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: No, it wasn't, it was my principal.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: You've got to qualify that.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: But it's true, ray, how dare you kick your principal in the face?
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Is it true?
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Is it or is it?
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: not Did you or did you not?
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: No, I did not.
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: It Did you or did you not?
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: No, I did not, it was not a singular kick.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: I did multiple kicks.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: What happened?
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: Mucho kicking.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: You don't know the story, mm-mm.
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: We had a school teacher named Mr Kirk Benand.
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: He was a music teacher, nice guy, elderly, and he was partly deaf.
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: So when he was teaching his music he had his back to us playing Bach and Beethoven and behind him was Art of Chaos.
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: It was just the guys in the class in high school and during one of these sessions I saw some guys fighting up the front and one guy crawled under the pew and grabbed a guy by the leg and he was pulling it.
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: So I crawled under the back pew, grabbed this guy's leg and I was pulling it and we had this line of leg pullers when some clown with a firm grip grabbed my leg and began pulling it.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: So I thought I'm going to teach this guy a lesson.
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: And I went and kicked towards his facial area and turned around and saw it was the principal who had hold of my leg.
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: And he said get to my office, the three of you.
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: So we went to his office and we stood there.
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: We didn't say a word for 10 minutes, that's 600 seconds.
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: We waited for the wrath to come and he came in.
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: This was the days where they really cared about kids.
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: He came in, he didn't say a word, he just says bend over.
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: And he got this piece of cane about three feet long and gave us two each.
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: And I can't tell you how painful that was.
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: But the pain of the cane, or waiting for the pain of the cane, was just about as bad as the pain from the cane when it came, was just about as bad as the pain from the cane when it came.
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: And the point of telling that whole story is to say that I'd rather receive 1,000 canes a day by the right hand of our most robust football player than be in my sins on judgment day.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: I can arrange that, Ray what?
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: No, no, no.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: That was hyperbole Look you can up my story, Go it.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: No, I have a very similar story but a very different outcome.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: The first time I ever got kicked out of a school I believe it was a math class and I was playing club soccer at the time and there was a guy that was on a different club soccer team and we were like rivals and his desk was at the very end against the wall and I was one row over and so the teacher was busy or whatever, and we started kind of like smack talking towards each other and he said something that I don't know what happened.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: It just it lit me up and I mother I maybe.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: I jumped over the row, pinned him against the wall and started hitting him and someone grabbed my arm and I threw my elbow back and gave my teacher a bloody nose.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: But what grade?
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: As this would have been seventh grade, seventh grade.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Wow what grade nosebleed or what grade?
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: And because I had gotten, I had a five day suspension, like weeks before, for fighting.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: I got expelled.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: That was it.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Wow, I got kicked out of my first school.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: I remember one time it was justice, absolutely.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: One time someone threw like a little rock in my head.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: I picked up a boulder and I threw it behind me on them and it was on the president.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: It was crazy.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: The United States, yeah, the.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: United States was crazy.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: It was so, so crazy.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Okay, all right, friends.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: I've walked on the moon.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: I've walked on the moon.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Another cool, classy comment.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: This is from podcast at livingwonderscom.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Please tell Easy that I said he is proof that weirdness can be sanctified by God.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: The Lord continues to bless you guys and the ministry he has given you, despite Easy's weirdness, or maybe because of it.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: That is true, yeah, just think, because just think, based on Romans 8, 28,.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: God can even use that for his glory.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: At the least it will make people curious enough to want to tune in and listen Praying for you.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: Brother Stephen Send him a one-year supply of tracks.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was crazy.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: Well, hey look, I talked about calling me psycho.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: I guess that's what Brother Stephen is calling me.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Stephen.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: We really appreciate that.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: All right, friends, Time for one of your radically revolutionary resources Tough Questions.
• 11:31
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• 11:33
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• 11:36
  Speaker 4: What Tough questions with weak answers?
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, pathetic answers Apologetics course, friends, on DVD in MP4 format with me, mark and Ray Comfort no Oscar Five sessions approximately 25,.
• 11:48
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  Speaker 2: It's got a 72-page study guide and additional study guides if you want to order them, and 400 gospel tracts to get you out sharing the gospel.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: I had fun recording that.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Guys In a coffee shop yeah, that was at Restoration Roasters.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: Oh, good memory Back in the day.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: That's one of my favorite products we have.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: I think it's super useful yeah.
• 12:18
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• 12:21
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• 12:30
  Speaker 4: Living Waters, all right, friends, I wonder why people don't know what our website was.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: Do they know that Easy starts it and Oscar finishes it every day?
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: That didn't sound like it was so good.
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: I know it was so good, that's.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: our goal is to harmonize such that no one can tell us apart.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: To finish each other's sandwiches.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: Sandwiches.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: All right, friends.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: Today we're talking about how to guide and inspire young people.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Ray, do you guys still call them young whippersnappers?
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: Anyone under 60 is a young person.
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: That's funny isn't it.
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: Whippersnappers.
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: I think it's American as well as New Zealand, isn't it?
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: You little whippersnapper, that's a whippersnapper.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: We don't use that Whippersnapper Never.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: No, you little whippersnapper.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: You little whippersnapper.
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: Boy, young people, the youth.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: We talked about the elderly in our last podcast and I think it's fitting for us to talk about, yeah, how can we now some of us here, the elderly guide and inspire young people?
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: We will never do a program on the middle-aged, because you can't tell when someone's middle-aged that's a good point, because you never know when they're going to die.
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: You have to know when they're going to die, to know that they're middle-aged 50-50.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, ray, why do you?
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: Why do you pinpoint stuff like that?
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: Does it bring you pleasure and joy?
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: It does, it certainly does.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Stop it.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: No, I really love it.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Actually, like I said on the other podcast we did you're so predictable, ray.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: I knew you'd say that, yeah, I knew you'd say that All right, friends, okay.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: So, guys, the youth, y'all, y'all.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, boy Great.
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: You can throw an um in with yeah, boy, yeah boy, yeah boy, yeah boy, Boy Boy.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: See Oscar, I beatboxed without even trying.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: That was it.
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: So what is the synonym Not?
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: what is that?
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: What's?
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: the cinnamon for Um cinnamon cinnamon cinnamon, cinnamon.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we got to.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: We got to come up with some different.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: Uh, we did one on the last oh, not foo foo or something.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: But guys, the youth of our day, I think of 1 Timothy, 3, 1 through 5, where he talks about hey.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: He says, but know this in the last days, perilous times will come, for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving slanders without self-control, brutal despisers of good has strong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: And we think of the different generations throughout the ages, and all of them have had their remnant of wicked people.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: All of them have had their remnant of youth gone awry, right, but I think we see it accentuated today.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: I think technology has helped accelerate that, I think that wickedness upon wickedness has helped to accelerate that, and I think the vacuous kind of self you know is so.
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: I don't even know what that means.
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, come on.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: You don't want to hit or miss.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: You want to talk about things that are vacuous.
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: It's like something to do with a vacuum.
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah, the void, the void.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: People get sucked into it.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the void of the life of God and the empty self of just.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oscar, you talk about this often and I know you have stuff to say, but I don't want you to say it.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Ray.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Go ahead, that's good Please.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I think I love talking about this, I don't know what it is.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: You know, I think I love talking about this, I don't know what it is.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: My wife pointed out to me the other day that younger individuals tend to gravitate towards me.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: I think that's mostly because, like, I spend a lot of time at the gym playing basketball, and so these young, I'm playing with guys that are in their twenties and some of them are believers, most of them are not, but I've shared the gospel with them, I've prayed with them, and then they'll, randomly, even if they don't become believers, I'll invite them to church and randomly, I'll get a text message for them hey man, I just need somebody to talk to and I'll be out to coffee with them.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: And I'm talking about relationships, life, parental struggles, financial struggles.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Ultimately, what I'm doing, I think, in that situation is is discipling the unbeliever, and I think that's that's something that's actually paramount.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: You know, when we do our ambassadors Academy, I do, I do a lecture I don't know if you can really call it a sermon a lecture called five things we can learn from the early church about reaching the next generation.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: And I'm really intentional with that because, as I see the early church you just brought up the situation with our culture today.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Our culture today pales in comparison to the Greco-Roman culture that the early church faced 2000 years ago.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, the sexuality and the things that were accessible and okay, you know, there's a, there's a.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: They believe that Nero was married and had a male, uh, a servant, um, you know, a partner, and that wasn't like hidden under wraps.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: You know, if a politician today came out secretly in a gay relationship, it would.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: It would have to become.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: It would have to come out because they were hiding it.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: But back then, it wasn't in hiding, it was your right as a Roman citizen if you had power.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Their views on abortion or on child infanticide was extreme.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: We can go on and on and on comparison.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: The Roman world was poised to be in opposition to the early church, and yet it was in that cultural context that Christianity exploded, and so I'm curious, I want to know more about what they were doing to reach that generation, because I think we can learn a lot from the early church about reaching this next generation too.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, oscar, I do have to say you are a standout in my mind of someone who really, like, gives his life over to serving people, and I've especially seen that with young people.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: And you're right, they do gravitate toward you because I think they see a genuine love in you for them, a genuine care and man.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: It's beautiful to behold because I know you've impacted a lot of young people and I think the Lord has just given you a kind of a personality that gives itself over to being relatable, you know, and that hits people, and I love seeing that in your life.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: Blah, blah, blah.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so anyway, just kidding, oscar, there it is.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, but seriously, man, it really is beautiful to see, and you know but I hear what you're saying too, about how wicked the Greco-Roman world was.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: I think the uniqueness I see in our age and maybe, mark, you can speak to this is I think that even back in that time there was a level of respect for authority that I see that I have a hard time imagining was as bad as where we're at today.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: I think there is such a revolt against authority and, you know, we're seeing kids murdering their parents, beating their teachers down, and we're seeing kids murdering their parents, beating their teachers down, female teachers sleeping with their male students.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: I mean, again, sin has always existed, but, mark, there seems to be a situation We've removed the paddle, like Ray being spanked in school.
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: I was spanked in school in fifth grade for getting into a fight.
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: Wait, public school, the public school.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: They were spanking back then.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, I didn't know when I was in elementary.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: I mean we're a few years apart, but yeah.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I got spanked for being in a fight, but, truth be told, I wasn't in a fight, I was just being beat up.
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: So you got beat up twice.
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I don't remember starting the fight, but yeah, I think that there's a lack of discipline that we had when I was younger, and so there is no respect for authority, because what are you going to do?
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: I mean, I could not imagine being a public school teacher today.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: You know, stop, or else, or else what, or what.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Well, I talked to a teacher friend of mine who I asked him about profanity and he said oh, he's like no, we don't even stop it anymore.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: He said, unless it's like kids cussing at each other, but dropping the F-bomb just generally.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: Oh no, Seriously.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it is like what is the F-bomb?
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: Flabuxy, Flabuxy.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know Flabuxy.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: Henry Schugel.
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: He said youth is a time of life wherein we have too much pride to be governed by others and too little wisdom to be governed by ourselves.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: And so, guys, here is the issue at hand how do we reach the hearts of the young people of our day and age?
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: Ray, I mean, you had a heart for youth from the time you were younger.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: I've got a heart for anyone that will listen, yeah, but I'm saying, like you actually took the practical steps, even with kids.
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah, we had a good time club, hundreds of kids.
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: I used to have a dummy, a little easy, I didn't call him easy, he was called.
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: Charlie, but I used to do ventriloquism and I was the worst ventriloquist in the world.
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: Hey kids, this is Charlie.
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: It was kind of like that.
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: But I used to get a hundred kids at each of these three clubs.
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: I ran one after the other and then I'd have them on Fridays.
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: They'd come to our garage and I had all this huge padding rubber padding I put on the floor of the garage and the kids would sit there and I'd throw candy to them, tell them Bible stories, sing Bible songs, do a memory verse, throw more candy at them so they see next week when they're all still excited about it.
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: And they'd be back next week.
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: Except for one day when some angry parent was there to pick up his kid and I didn't open the door, didn't know he was there.
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: But everything worked out good.
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: But yeah, I've always had a concern for kids.
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: Someone once said youth is wasted on the young, and it's so true.
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: I don't know if you guys have gone on YouTube and there's a whole slew of videos of the police stopping arrogant people.
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: No, and you cannot believe the arrogance of these young people.
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: And a police officer says come here, why should I?
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: Exactly, that's how they begin with a police officer and he's got a gun.
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: They don't have any fear of him who has a sword.
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: And I'm just with my mouth open, just saying you foolish person, just show some respect, because the officer's trying to do the right thing, because this guy showed up.
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: When someone's complaining, they're scared.
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: The guy's going to and he's just saying can you tell me what you're doing?
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: Give me your, I don't have to.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: No.
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: Ooh, it's just asking for trouble and the whole seems the whole generation's almost like that.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: Well, I think too, you know.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: Something that's different again than, like, the past eras is oh no.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Ray, it's been like 20 episodes.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: How long will this keep happening?
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: I dropped my iPad.
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: I didn't know it today.
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: Let me see if I can do it.
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: That was supposed to be foolproof, no it's not my iPad.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Is that the same one?
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: that was foolproof, no, I purchased another one, but I figured out how this one would stay up without, did you?
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: yeah, it's, it's backslid right, but but, like I was saying, uh, past generations before, before the modern technology that we have, are we still on that?
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: You know, get it done, but, um, mark, uh, this is going to go to you, so pay attention, past past generations didn't have the technology we have.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: Those that didn't have the technology we have Didn't have that constant example that they're getting, with thousands of videos Of seeing young people.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: I mean this stuff that was happening in New York when they're coming up and sucker punching people, young ladies.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: I did not see that I don't want to.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it was a thing, right, mark?
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's still out there.
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know you don't have.
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: Kids are being engulfed within the technology.
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: I was doing a FaceTime call with one of my brothers coming home from work and I turned the phone around so that he could see what it's like when I was pulling up to my house and inside the front of my house there were four people my wife and my daughter, her boyfriend and two of my other kids were just in the front and they were throwing the Frisbee around.
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: And he goes wait, you guys do outside activities.
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: And it was like this novel idea, like what are you guys doing?
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: I go well, yeah, and then we're going to go down to the park and you know, we have these light up, uh frisbees and this light up ball that we throw.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: He's all wow, I just I miss that time of being outside with my kid and just playing.
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: Catch right, because that whole adage of kids should be uh seen and not heard, right?
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: You know, is is so true today.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: And how many times do we see inside restaurants where kids are not part of conversation but they're engulfed in some sort of an iPad or watching a movie with headphones on?
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: It's such a red flag to me whenever I see that it's so bad, you know.
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, I think technology has grabbed a hold of our kids' attentions, and they're what?
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: Are they watching?
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: Parents have no idea attentions and what are they watching?
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Parents have no idea, right, and that is the tragedy.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: Honestly, how many parents end up later saying we had no idea they were watching this or seeing this?
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: And so even some parents maybe that are trying to guard their kids right, they're homeschooling them, but what they don't realize is that unfiltered sewage pipe that's coming into their house called the internet.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: Their kids are traveling the world, man, while they're inside those four walls, they're seeing the most disgusting, despicable, unthinkable things, and if you don't think their impressionable minds are being affected, you're deluded Parents.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: You have to guard.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: This is love.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Oh, I don't want people going to think I'm like elixir, strict, great.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: Let them think whatever they wanna think.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: You love your children by being proactive, and one of the things, guys, that we regularly try to highlight for people here is the importance and the indisputable significance of the local church and the life of the family, and what we need to start doing is stepping up and discipling the young people in the church and having a positive influence on them by being there for them.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: I'm talking about even if they're not your kids, but just whenever you're interacting, whenever you're visiting, whenever you come across one of them in the church.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: I got convicted years ago when people would come over and their young kids would come over and I would just maybe do a quick hi, but I wouldn't pause and look at those kids and ask them questions and talk to them and interact with them.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: And I began to change that and I just saw these kids would light up and they'd come over the next time and they want to talk to you.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: It's like whoa, they care, I'm not just like invisible, and I think we can do that with kids sometimes.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: You know, yeah, but Titus 2, 6 to 8 says likewise exhort the young men to be sober-minded in all things, showing yourself to be a pattern of good works and doctrine, showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: That cannot be condemned.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: That one who is an opponent may be ashamed having nothing evil to say of you.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Ray, do you think sometimes lowering the bar for kids contributes to young people not growing up robust and sober-minded, because it's like, oh, they're kids, but recognizing they're actually intelligent, we can pour into them?
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: Oh, absolutely.
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: I've learned that when you show kids attention when they're little, they remember it.
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: When they're big, some guy comes up to you and he's like 19.
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: He said I remember when you talked to me when I was six.
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: I've never forgotten that.
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: And you think oh, kids are adults in little bodies.
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: That's all they are, and don't make any jokes, all right.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: What was that thing you would say about me, ray Comfort's a little wait.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: What was it?
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: I Ray.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Comfort's a little wait what was it?
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: I can't remember what it was oh Ray Comfort's like a little boy in a little boy's body.
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: That's right.
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: So what you're saying is reminding me of when I met a new doctor.
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: His name was Dr Yoon.
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: I'd never seen him before.
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: He was Asian.
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: He was very sober and I thought I want to cheer this guy up.
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: And so he got this little machine and he looked in my ear and he turned the light on and he just must have spent 60 seconds.
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: I said well, are you looking for a brain or something?
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: He just kept on going and then he stood in front of me with a very sober face.
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: He said I would like you to reach out and take hold of the airflow firmly and pull it down.
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: That's what I did.
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: I reached out, grabbed his airflow and pulled it down and he burst out laughing.
• 29:17
  Speaker 4: And since then we've been great friends.
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: But we're talking about ministering to children within a local church.
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: But we've got to get the aloe over the whole generation and there's a way to do it and I've learned it through going to local college that you can get someone who's got no interest in God at all and you've just got to say to them are you afraid of death?
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: And if you can get someone to say yeah, I am say Are you afraid of death and if you can get someone to say, yeah, I am Say did you ever read the owner's manual for humanity?
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: It's the Bible.
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: I like that, ray, it's the owner's manual.
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: If you get a car or you get a bike or you get a computer, you get an owner's manual because the manufacturer knows how to make it run best.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: God's your manufacturer, and he can release you from the power of death and the fear of death and that's the way to get the attention of a generation.
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, speak to their will to live.
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: It's good.
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: You know, see why I do gerbombo right.
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: Whenever you do that, I take a photo and I send it to your wife.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, rangers, they everyone disdains what I do, but it's glorious.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: Look, friends, for those of you watching, this is gerbombo.
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: See when he does it for 20-year-olds.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: I just feel so embarrassed 40-year-olds Gerbombo yeah, kids love it.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: Anyway, the other day I was talking to Easy on speakerphone.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: You heard him in my background.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: My son goes how's Gerbombo?
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: I was like don't encourage him See, bro yeah.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Ray, you remind me of something which is an illustration I gave in a sermon one time years ago, which is my wife has this old 40-year-old Ford Explorer.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: She still drives it.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: It's got 280,000 miles on it right now.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: 40 years isn't old For a car, it is.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: We passed the 280,000-mile mark the other day driving a Joshua Tree, but years prior, every two or three months these coils would break inside the cylinder of the car and so we'd go and we'd get them replaced.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: And every time we had to replace it was like $300 for one coil there's eight of them $300 for another coil.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: One time five or six of them broke at the same time and I went and got all five or six replaced.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: You know a couple thousand dollars and so fine.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: I mean it's just over and over again.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: Every three months a coil would break and finally one broke and we were close to a Ford dealership.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: See, the thing is to save money.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: I kept going to just whatever mechanic out there and you know they would just sell me the I would.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: I was like give me the cheapest coil you got, cause it's going to break.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: I don't want to spend a bunch of money on it.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: And they were coiled.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: They were coiled.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: We went to the Ford dealership one time and we're in there and the guy tells me he goes.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: You know, I see that you're putting aftermarket coils in here.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: I'm like, well, yeah, because they break every three months.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: He goes no, you don't get it.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: The aftermarket companies don't know how to make these coils.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Well, right way, and it won't break again.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: And I was like, all right, give me the Ford coils.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: They have not broken since.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: To your point, we are not going to the maker, the one who designed us.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: We know something in us is broken, but we're going to aftermarket lowercase g gods to get what we need.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: And what we need is the grace of God.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: We need to go to our maker, because only he can fix the problem.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: Amen, amen.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, that's what Deuteronomy 6, 4 to 8 is speaking to Hear O Israel, the Lord, our God.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: The Lord is one.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and these words, which I command you, shall be in your heart.
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you talk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: You know, mark, we talk about devotional time with our kids and how great that is.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: But living life in such a way where not just our kids because we've done one on parenting before, but this is just reaching all young people but just discipleship happens as we live.
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think that is the proper definition of discipleship.
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: Discipleship is not necessarily just going through a book with someone.
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: We've said it a lot.
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: It's living life.
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: Hey, I'm going to the grocery store, I'm running errands, I'm going to this memorial service.
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: I'm living life, and so the conversation is not necessarily so structured on something very specific.
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: I mean, there's a lot of books where you can just get that information, but it's the rising up and it's the sitting down that we are always discipling our kids or anybody that we are with.
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: So if you want to disciple somebody, whether they are young in the faith or just young in age, well then just hang out with them, invite them to come alongside for a cup of coffee.
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: I'm told that, oscar, you're going to be doing that with my son Nathaniel.
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: Who, oscar, you're going to be doing that with my son Nathaniel, who just got a job here at Living Waters, going to get a cup of coffee.
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: And it's just living life, talking through things and answering questions that they may have.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: And man, young people will remember that, like Ray alluded to earlier, you know, I remember the people in my life when I was young that made me feel a certain way.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: Right, we've talked about that.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: Of course, we always encourage people to be careful with feelings, but there's a reality that, as it's been said, most people won't remember what you've said, but they'll remember how you made them feel, and it was those people who had that warmth, that care, that kindness, that graciousness, and what that does is it opens the ear canals which are channeled to the heart.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: That's 2 Peter.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: 2 Peter 1, 5 through 8, says this, and this is what I had like a verse, as you're thinking through caring for younger people.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: For this reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and with virtue, knowledge and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and with godliness, with brotherly affection and with brotherly affection, love.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: In other words, you want to be effective and fruitful towards the younger generation, or any generation for that matter.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: Look at the fruitfulness of your life.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: Are you the kind of person that's like ah, these young whippersnappers, they know nothing, blah, blah, blah, blah, and then you don't invest in them?
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: Or do you see a problem and you want to be a part of the solution?
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: I think I've said it before.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: Years ago they did this survey and they surveyed adult, you know older generation people and they're like what do you think about the youth?
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: And they had all the complaints in the world.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: And the last question, the second to last question, was do you think they need a mentor?
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: And they answered yes.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: They went to the younger generation.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: They asked them do you think you need a mentor?
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: And they answered yes.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: They went back to the older generation.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: Would you be interested in mentoring the youth?
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: And it was an abysmal percentage that said I would be interested, In other words, to disciple to love, to invest time and affection towards them is the beginning to a fruitful relationship.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's big.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know there was a commercial years ago I think it was with the Big Brother program where people would sign up to mentor a young man or a young girl who didn't have a parent.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: That's what I was saying.
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: The church is full of that and we need to be out there reaching the lost.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: But are we even reaching the lost within our churches?
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: Because there's a lot of young kids that aren't saved.
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: We'd be surprised what our words do with the youth.
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: I remember using the F word twice inside my life, once in sixth grade and the other time I was a senior or junior in high school and I was playing football and I used the F word inside of a football game and the referee came over to me and he had said look, I'm not going to throw a flag because you're using the F word.
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: He said I just want to say that you could be better than that.
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: And I don't ever remember saying it since I wasn't a Christian at the time.
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: But I don't ever remember saying that because this gentleman it's like he believed in me or he just spoke like life into me.
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: And I went.
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: You know what he's right, anybody can do that.
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: And I remember another time a coach had said to me, a track coach.
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: He said all right, guys, you're about ready to go on a five-mile run and I just want to say I want you to not cut any corners.
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: Sure, I'm not going to be there to see if you cut any corners.
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: Sure, some of you are still going to cut the corner.
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: Don't be that guy, don't cut the corner.
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: And I remember thinking all right, I'm never going to cut the corner when it comes to exercise.
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: I didn't cut the corner, I hid in the hedge until they came around the second time, ray, actually hid as they were running.
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: He just joined them in the last lap.
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: But it's also.
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: There's a scriptural text here, right 1 Thessalonians 5.11,.
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing right.
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: So encouragement, it plays a vital role inside of our kids.
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: To speak life.
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: You can do this to keep trying, get at it, get back in there until you master that.
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: I did it with my son today.
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: Before I left I said listen, son, make sure you redeem the time in what you're doing.
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: I want your hobbies to be something that are fruitful, not just hey, I'm gonna play basketball and that's good bodily exercise that profits a little, right, ray, but we need to exercise our minds, and I gave him examples of what I want him to do, what his hobbies can be.
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: Wow, that's good and, again, that's that guidance that young people need.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: But even as parents, so often we're in our zone, right, we're getting ready to work, we're getting ready to leave.
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: If we just pause for a moment and thought, life and death are in the power of the tongue.
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: I can right now, in the space of 10 seconds, speak life into my child's life.
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: 10 seconds yeah, I'm seriously right of my child's life.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: 10 seconds, yeah, I'm seriously right.
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this whole stuff, I'm busy Again.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: We're always thinking in big lumps of time, but no, you can, right there, just speak something, true, son, I can't tell you how proud of you I am and what a delight you are to my soul.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: It doesn't always have to be corrective, it can be just encouragement and it's like man that sticks in their heart and mind, even a game of ping pong, yeah, where you beat them and destroy them.
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: I love you, son Ray.
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: Speak to this.
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: Ecclesiastes 12.1.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: Yes, Remember now your creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come and the years draw near when you say I have no pleasure in them.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: And then verses six to seven remember your creator before the silver cord is loosed or the golden bull is broken, or the pitcher shattered at the fountain or the wheel broken at the well.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: Then the dust will return to the earth as it was and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
• 39:44
  Speaker 4: Remember the 91 year old Presbyterian minister reading that to me and talking about the silver cord and how, when you leave this life, you go into eternity, and how the days come where you find no pleasure in life, and even climbing a ladder will terrify you and the sound of birds will wake you early in the morning, and without the Lord, I would be depressed every day, absolutely depressed, and I'm so, so grateful that we have the gospel.
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: And how Ecclesiastes ends by saying here's the conclusion of the matter Fear God and obey his commandments, and that'll bring you to the foot of the cross.
• 40:26
  Speaker 4: If you fear God and look at those commandments and want to keep that law, the only way you can do it is in Christ.
• 40:31
  Speaker 4: And so we have a glorious message for this sad and sinful world Wow.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: Oscar.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: You know before I've talked on the program about how it really dawned on me one day as I was reading Ephesians 4, 30 to 32, and do not grieve.
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: The Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption, let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, be put away from you with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: And it dawned on me.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: I'm like.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: You know what this is.
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: My wife is also my sister in Christ, which means all scripture applies to her as well, and oftentimes we don't see young people as our brothers and sisters in Christ and a part of the family of God.
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: And I want to hit this scripture here that I think would principally apply Psalm 78, five to eight, where he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they might arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God but keep his commandments and may not be, like their fathers, a stubborn or rebellious generation, generation that did not set its heart aright and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: That multi-generational type of mindset and thinking, in that these are our little brothers and sisters in Christ, whether they're our children or not, we can impact them.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: You know what's.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: Something else too is, I think, people who have a desire to impact the youth.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: They tend to try to water down the transcendence of God, the glory of God, and I think we've actually seen this happen in churches over the years.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: Like you know, you look at churches that were built in the 1500s, all the way up to the 1800s, and you read the architects that were putting those buildings together.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: We're talking about those incredible buildings that you see over in Europe.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: You know places like Rome and London, places like this, where you walk in and it's just this gigantic cathedral with these beautiful ceilings and glass painted windows that are all just pointing to something.
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: It wasn't just for like self-glory.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: When you read the architects, they were writing in their journals.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: We want people to get a sense of heaven to be transcended to something bigger than what's out there in their regular.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: We want people to get a sense of heaven, to be transcended to something bigger than what's out there in their regular daily lives.
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: And you look at the way churches are set up now many churches, not all, sometimes out of utilitarian purposes, I get it, but there are these big box churches.
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: It has more of like a consumeristic mall vibe right when it's built around entertainment and the creaturely comforts that we all desire.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: And you walk in and you just feel like you're in an auditorium.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: There's nothing transcendent there.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: Now I recognize it's really hard to make a difference in our church buildings, but I think that that's an example of the way we present God to younger generations sometimes.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: We want it to be hip and cool and relatable, but actually there's evidence showing that the younger generation, they want transcendence and, matter of fact, in a bad way.
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: There's been a major move, a new discovery amongst younger people that are heading towards Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism and when you listen to why, it was like there's something about the transcendence that they had a liturgy, that they had these beautiful buildings, that they had process.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: In other words, all the things that some Christian evangelical churches are moving away from thinking they're going to reach the next generation.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: Other churches are capturing them from it.
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: In other words, what our generation, when this next generation, needs more than anything else, is to get a sense of the glory of God, to be made small because their phones make them feel like gods.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: They can, to your point earlier, go anywhere, learn anything, consume whatever they want at all times, but to set up our liturgies in a way that makes them feel small and give them a sense of the transcendence man, bring them to a place of worship, amen.
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: Well, mark, I remember years ago we were meeting with a young man who was about to go off to the military and you gave one of the most powerful exhortations I'd ever heard to a young person and in fact, you basically said I firmly believe you're going to depart from the Lord, I firmly believe you're going to give yourself over to sin.
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: That's exactly what happened with that young man, but he had the opportunity to heed those words because they were sober, they convicted me, they were really heavy.
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: I just would love for you, as we wrap up, to just give your best counsel to young men, young girls, right now in their youth, just about what they need to think about as they move forward in life, in terms of what matters.
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: If I had the ability to speak to a 16-year-old you know, mark Spence, you know what advice would I give?
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: It's just very practical, you know.
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: Advice, you know, first is to draw near to the Lord and the Word and to get to know God through His Word.
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: Study commentaries, you get to know, so you have a proper understanding.
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: You must worship Him in spirit and in truth, so you need to know all that there is to know about God.
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: I would learn the guitar.
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: I would take vocal lessons, you know, in order to lead the family well, or even just to go to a park or sit inside of your car and to sing to the Lord.
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: I would study apologetics because I wanted to be able to defend the faith, and I would be gung ho on evangelism.
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: You know, more so than I am now.
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: I would just surrender myself to be able to sit at the feet of people that have gone before me.
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: These are just very simple, very, very practical things to be able to do.
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: I would get more into poetry and I would take more writing classes in school and pay a little bit more attention.
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: I would read more books, because as I get older, I don't have the ability to read as much books as I did in the past because my time is very, very tight and valuable, right, you know.
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: So I would do something very, very practical when it comes to that.
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: The poetry would just be for the Lord and writing songs to God that nobody would ever hear but him and I, and take God out for a cup of coffee, if you would, knowing that he's always with me, but just mindful that he's with me, and I think that that's kind of lost today.
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: Amen, that's really good, mark.
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, orei.
• 47:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, this podcast is called how to Guide and Inspire Young People.
• 47:10
  Speaker 4: Judas was a guide to Christ for the wrong reason.
• 47:13
  Speaker 4: We need to be a guide to Christ for the right reason, that they might be saved from the wrath to come.
• 47:19
  Speaker 4: And I think the key to reaching a whole generation is through youth.
• 47:22
  Speaker 4: The way to reach the youth is through youth, because youth have something they take for granted, don't even think about it, but it's something they won't always have, and that is energy.
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: Didn't Hitler say something like give me the youth.
• 47:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, he did.
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: And I'll give you the world, yeah, he did and I'll give you the world.
• 47:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and so the sacrifices of God are broken spirit and a contrite heart.
• 47:39
  Speaker 4: It's great to understand what a broken spirit is when you look at a wild horse it's useless to man.
• 47:44
  Speaker 4: But if you break its spirit, you can put a bridle on it and harness its energy.
• 47:49
  Speaker 4: You don't take away its character, you just harness its energy.
• 47:53
  Speaker 4: So you can say, go this way or go that way, and we'll do what you want and that's what God wants of a generation.
• 47:58
  Speaker 4: And we as a ministry exist to put the tools into your hand to make that a reality.
• 48:04
  Speaker 4: I don't know if you've ever had the wrong tool at the wrong time and you try and screw a screw in with your thumbnail or try and unscrew your thumbnail.
• 48:10
  Speaker 4: I've tried to do that.
• 48:11
  Speaker 4: You say, oh man, I wish I had a screwdriver, because you need the right tool.
• 48:14
  Speaker 4: So we have the right tools because they're based on Scripture, to help this generation of young people reach this generation of young people.
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: Amen and friends, that's why I do my silly voices and stuff when we talk about the resources, but our only motive in doing that is to get you equipped.
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: That's why we exist as a ministry, and so when I share the resources, and often you'll see they tie into something we read about you know, maybe a letter or whatever, but it matters, and you know those of you young people listening, and we just got a letter from a nine-year-old, a very articulate letter.
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: I hope to read it soon here on the podcast, but a nine-year-old that loves a podcast and listens, and even as I was hearing you speak, mark, and just talk about what you would tell you.
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: If you can go back, and that's because you've grown in wisdom, you've learned.
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: You're like I wish I could go, but it's like we're jealous for these young people.
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: You have the opportunity to do it.
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: Can you imagine being saved at nine and listening to a podcast where you're getting the word in you?
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: You have parents that love the Lord and are discipling you the word in you.
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: You have parents that love the Lord and are discipling you.
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: If you guys invest in the Lord, you can explode.
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: Ray shared wisdom.
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: He's lived a life that has been filled with experiences and God's word daily.
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: So wisdom is listening and we want to exhort you in 1 Timothy 4.12, let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers.
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: And that word can be translated of the believers in both to and of believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: You don't want people to despise you.
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: Then walk with the Lord and determine to grow in truth and these sorts of things.
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: And I'll wrap it up with a few quotes from JC Ryle.
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: He said stop being so sure that you're always right and others wrong.
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: Don't trust your own opinion when you find it contrary to that of older men and especially to that of your parents.
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: Age gives experience and therefore deserves respect.
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: Listen, older people are not always right, but oftentimes they are more right than you.
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: So be wise to talk to them and get their input.
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: A wise young person is someone who goes to those that are older and tries to get advice.
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: He goes on, he says experience tells me that people's hearts are seldom changed if they are not changed when young, seldom indeed are men converted when they are old Habits have deep roots.
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: Once sin is allowed to settle in your heart, it will not be turned out at your bidding.
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: Once sin is allowed to settle in your heart, it will not be turned out at your bidding.
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: Custom becomes second nature and its chains are not easily broken.
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: Right, ray, you said it earlier.
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: I wish you know like you were talking about that man and saying, oh, I wish I was saved when I was younger or whatever.
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: But yeah, because those that get older like man, it's hard to change, you know, get older like man, it's hard to change, you know.
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: So in your youth, be wise, seek after the Lord, determine to listen to wise counsel and make the most of these days.
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: You have more energy, more time, more opportunity than you will when you're older to grow in the Lord and to get yourself rooted and grounded in him.
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: Well, there you have it, friends.
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: Don't forget tough questions.
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: Apologetics Made Simple, the apologetics DVD course, living Waters mug, the Evidence Study Bible all at livingwaterscom.
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: And remember, podcast at livingwaterscom.
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: We want to hear your thoughts, your suggestions, your feedback and go on that platform where you listen like the podcast, share it with others, subscribe and keep this growing so people can be reached.
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us, friends.
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: We'll see you here next time on the Living Waters Podcast, where we have no idea what we're doing.