The Battle for Our Children

May 21, 1989

Isaiah 49:23-25 "... and thou shalt know that I am the Lord: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? But thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children."

[This past week Pastor Nielson and I sat down and deliberately watched a "video" on MTV. It was by the rock star Madonna, and I believe the name of it was "Like a Prayer." It was well-planned, full of symbolic meaning, calculated to appeal to the people who are least equipped to defend themselves against temptation, and it was hellish, demonic.]

By some estimates, the "average" young teenager watches TV, and many of them MTV, three or more hours per day!

[Illus: What does that have to do with our families?: I'm reminded of a cartoon I saw recently in Christianity Today— a father and mother are watching their children watching TV and saying: "I sure hope the government bans that program soon! It shouldn't be on the air!"]

But as evil as much of our culture is today, I want to do more just now than say: "Let's agree, isn't it awful! Shame!" I want to prayerfully consider: What can we do in this life-and-death struggle for our children?

I. THE NEED AND THE PROMISE ARE CONNECTED: "WAITING ON THE LORD"

  1. I don't know too much about the times in which Isaiah wrote: times of captivity and idolatry and pagan worship that threatened the worship of Jehovah God.

    But I believe I know something of our times: I see a tidal wave of Satanic influence. And while the violence and the sex and the drugs are "out front" where we can see them— the abortion on demand— the hard attitudes of "Me-ism"— the root cause THAT IS NOT SO OBVIOUS just might stem back to the way our children have subtly been taught for the last seventy years or so.

    The Word of God has been supplanted, and made "irrelevant." This exactly parallels the first attack of Satan in garden of Eden: (1) God has not really said that! (In our "culture" we do not talk about "right" or "wrong"— we just talk about "values" and "what is right for you" or "wrong for you." But the idea that a thing is right or wrong on the basis of the authority of God is to be ridiculed.

  2. So— what do we DO about this captivity?

    God says (in direct connection with this promise: "The people that wait hopefully for Me will not be put to shame."

    God's people must wait on HIM. The need to WAIT. Certainly we must "do something!" But before we "do" we must be "endued." This does not mean then that we will do nothing BUT wait. That quite the contrary, we will work harder than anyone else, perhaps.

  3. What does "waiting" mean? A certain amount of hours in prayer? Waiting is itself hard work. How do we pray? [I am not now "telling" you how to pray; I am asking!] Do we have to say the words? Out loud? We had better be working on our own answer for this! We had better learn to WAIT by ourselves, in the quiet hours! And we had better learn to WAIT together, when the crises comes, and we need the help of one another, to call and say: "Will you WAIT with me?"
  4. The Lord says: "They shall not be ashamed that wait for Me!" I'm pretty sure that we can't "do it wrong" if we keep at it!

II. THE PROMISE: IF WE ENGAGE IN CONFLICT FOR THE RIGHT, GOD WILL FIGHT WITH US! AND HE WILL SAVE OUR CHILDREN!

  1. CLAIM THE PROMISE

    Please don't tell me this isn't what these words mean! I believe they are MINE! And I want them to be YOURS, too!

  2. PRESS FOR SALVATION

    We must believe that our children need to be saved. We must believe that there is a Lamb's Book of Life, and "ark of safety." We must ourselves be saved. Backsliding is so subtle! It is so easy to become "intellectual" and "casual" about really important things!

  3. GO ON A "WAR" SCHEDULE

    We must accept the fact that as long as we live this side of eternity we must be on a war-time mobilization; either we are part of the solution— or we are a part of the problem.

  4. DON'T GIVE UP!

    If our precious loved ones are saved it will not be by accident. No merely casual, hope-so approach will do for this most important of earthly assignments.

[Illus: A young lineman brushed a high tension wire one day and was electrocuted, and fell senseless and lifeless to the ground. His fellow-workers rushed over to him and did what they could to revive him; but they found that he was beyond help, and they grieved.

But at that very instant a jeep pulled up and the supervisor saw what had happened, and what is more, he saw that it was his own son lying on the ground. And he would not accept defeat without making an heroic struggle; he applied the CPR techniques and kept at it— and the life began to flicker and the boy revived. The difference here was love.]

Whatever your age, or the age of those you love— let's accept the challenge to be partners with God in setting people free from the captivities of evil! God has promised that, if we wait for Him, He will fight FOR us— fight along WITH us— and that He will save our children! I believe Him!

EH #58 Soldiers of Christ, Arise