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Newington Three Angels Church

Eric Walsh

A Back to School Message for the Last Days

Just got back from the Michigan conference and we spoke, Jackie sang, I spoke for the teachers, all the teachers in the entire conference, and it inspired the next 2 sermons.

This week and next week are going to be back to school sermons.

And so I hope it's a blessing, especially to those with kids.

What we found, and I wanna really give a shout out to the superintendent of schools for that conference, Jeremy Hall, who really leads a Christ-centered program there.

And they have many schools in that conference, and I just praise God that we still have schools that are functioning and doing well all over the country but you know I'm really was really inspired by the time we spent with them and so we wanted to really deal with the issues if you have young people these messages this week and next week are designed for teachers and also for parents because of what our children are facing today.

So our scripture reading, as Donnie read so well, is found in Isaiah chapter 49 and verse 25.

Isaiah 49, 25, the Bible says, But thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away The prey of the terrible shall be delivered look at what God says for I will contend with him that contends with you.

This is the promise each parent should pray and claim for their children.

Our message this Sabbath is entitled Back to School Message for the Last Days.

Back to School Message for the Last Days.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

I pray once again, Lord, that you make me just a nail upon the wall, a rusty, sorry nail, Lord.

But upon that nail, Lord, I ask that you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ.

Instead, Father, let us hear a word from the throne room of grace.

As our prayer in Jesus' precious and holy name.

The children of Israel had now conquered much of the land that they were supposed to take.

And there was a risk that God's people would fail the covenant they had been given.

Joshua 24 verse 13, God says, And I have given you a land for which ye did not labor, and cities which ye built not.

And ye dwell in them, of the vineyards and olive yards which he planted, which you planted not do you eat." God said, listen, I set you up.

I gave you land with olive yards, olive groves and vineyards.

I set you up that you moved into cities that you didn't build.

Let me tell you, spiritually, many of us have moved into places we did not build.

Some of us come from homes with families who are Seventh-day Adventist Christian who believe the Bible.

Some of us moved in and God set us up to know this great truth without having to go and discover it.

1 of my favorite verses in 2 Timothy chapter 1 is where Paul says to Timothy, when I see the unfamed faith that Was in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice he says of Timothy He says and I know is in you all also if there is a legacy of faith that some of us have That legacy must not be squandered Verse 14 Joshua 24 14 now therefore Fear the Lord Joshua says, and serve him in sincerity and truth.

And put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and serve ye the Lord.

And I like what he says in Joshua 24 15 he says, And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites in whose land ye dwell.

But as for me and my house, We will serve the Lord.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

I hear feedback, we'll just use this microphone.

I want to talk a bit about the what the challenges and where we see young people today.

First of all, let me show you some of the leading causes of death to 50 for 15 to 19 year olds.

Number 1 is accidents or unintentional injuries, which are tied to something we're going to discuss next week.

So in the second part, we're going to do a talk called Lifestyle for Learning.

I'm going to talk about how, what lifestyle attributes, the science, the scripture and the spirit of prophecy show best lines up for your child to do well, not just academically, but spiritually.

You don't want to miss next week because it gives you all the pointers on how to have the most intelligent child who's able to critically think and make wise decisions.

15 to 19 year olds, the third leading cause of death is suicide.

And in fact, a new international report on healthcare, US Suicide rate is highest among wealthy nations in a country with as much as America has Disproportionately our people harm themselves It goes to show you that just having a lot of stuff does not make you happy.

I can tell you as a physician I've seen many working in the psychiatric ward at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida as a medical student.

I remember sometimes dealing with people who were there because they were harming themselves or looking to end their own lives.

And I remember some of them being quite wealthy, successful people.

See now the percent of youth who meet the criteria for a mental disorder diagnosis anxiety, disorder 31.9% anxiety is a major major problem behavior disorders 19% mood disorders 14% look at this 1 substance use disorders 11.4% This is from the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

And this is telling us that we are facing, in our children, a mental health crisis.

Now, let's first deal with the public schools.

You look at the number of issues you see on the screen the teacher Is now not only asked to teach a child many times the teacher is also a therapist The teacher also a nutritionist I mean the teachers have to deal with so many aspects of the child's life because children are Missing in so many ways so many things vital to being a healthy child This is a major depression and youth has increased 4.35 percent over the last 6 years now over 2 million youth have depression with severe impairment 2 million you heard me say this before when I talk about the Time I did When I was doing addiction medicine at the veterans hospital at Loma Linda and out of the veterans there would chant God made the human heart so big only he could fill it The challenge in America is that they people are walking around our children our young people are walking around with God-sized holes in their heart that are not being filled.

Really, 1 of the biggest challenges young people have is that they have a lack of purpose.

This is his book, The Path to Purpose by William Damon, helping our children find their calling in life.

Let me read a little description of the book here.

In the Path to Purpose, Helping Our Children Find Their Calling in Life, Stanford University psychologist William Damon shares the first wave of findings from a study in which he and his graduate students have been surveying 1, 200 young people between the ages of 12 and 26 over a five-year period.

There have always been kids that drift, Mr.

Damon, a noted scholar on children's moral development and contemporary child-rearing practices said in an interview.

He says, But I do think we have a special problem today in the number of kids and the kind of trouble they're having in finding a sense of direction.

This secular, I'm assuming he's secular, he teaches at Stanford, a social scientist says, something different is going on today than in any other time in history where children have a hard time finding a sense of direction finding purpose Let me tell you something and part of the reason is if there is no God There is no purpose We believe evolution and we believe that all of us are the product of a cosmic accident No real direction.

No eternal plan if there is no God there's no purpose As we listen to children's story we're talking about the caterpillars and how they turn into butterfly I ask you How could that have evolved?

How would the how would the first 1 have known to come back as a butterfly You understand what I'm saying clearly that's that is a process that had to have an intelligent designer a divine designer And so they have stripped from our children and I grew up in public schools and I was taught the same thing I didn't go to Christian school until I was 17 and I went to Oakwood University I hope with then Oakwood College now Oakland University and I was taught remember they gave me the book the story of evolution and it was a really well done book and I was reading and I went home to my Jamaican mother and I said mom we evolved My mother didn't take very kindly to that.

She sat me down and we studied the word of God as to why the book could not be true.

If there is no God, hence no purpose, then, watch this church, pleasure becomes the highest of all callings.

If really all you are is a sack of organic material That just so happened to come on earth and is gonna pop up and then 1 day Disappear and there's that's all to the story Then it only makes logical sense that you stimulate the dopaminergic the reward pathways of the brain as much as you can As often as you can and while you're on this earth What else matters but pleasure if there is no God or no purpose?

So does this economics article they say pleasure is the goal of life This is what they say.

The purpose of life is the pursuit of pleasure And the quest for those objects and experiences that will make our life more enjoyable You know what Jesus says he says deny yourself Take up your cross and follow me.

He says exactly the opposite of this Yet this and I'm telling you I remember I sat on a committee I used to sit on these committees at the CDC and at the White House and With former surgeon generals and I remember sitting on 1 of them with 1 of the former surgeon generals And I remember being in a meeting where we were discussing similar issues and 1 of this guy He was a supposed to be a theologian and he literally said listen people need pleasure pleasure is what we need to give people He said whatever they need to get pleasure I said I said cocaine gives people pleasure But I want you to go back to my old neighbor to all the houses Ruin all the lives destroyed all the families broken up all the kids I saw overdose our young people overdose and die of that drug I want you to go and tell them that all that matters in life is pleasure This is 1 of death the Satan's great Deceptions it started I won't get too Heavy into this stuff on in this talk, but through this guy Alistair Crowley, he was a Satanist He says do what that wilt shall be the whole of the law Right Anton Levy the head of the Satanic or founder of the Satanic Church John Lennon of the Beatles famous John Lennon said the whole Beatles idea was to do what you want, do what you wills, as long as it doesn't hurt somebody.

And Jay Z, the greatest of all rappers says, has on his shirt, do what thou will, the same law of Aleister Crowley.

Our society, and especially through media, Has been penetrated with the idea that what matters first and most is pleasure It's literally the lie or 1 of the lies satan told eve in the garden of eden The bible says and when she saw it was good for food Appetite the desire to be pleased rose up in her and she sinned and Adam sinned as well.

Those who would not fall a prey to Satan's devices must guard well the avenues of the soul.

They must avoid watch this church reading, seeing, or hearing that which will suggest impure thoughts.

She says, the mind must not be left to dwell at random upon every subject that the enemy of souls may suggest.

The heart must be faithfully sentinel, watch this, or evils without will awaken evils within and the soul will wander in darkness.

And I tell you, it's challenging because never in human history have young people been more barraged by what the world wants them to hear You see when I was a kid, you didn't have 1 of these things If we were gonna get something we'd have to buy a magazine and read the whole thing to get information like this There was no you if you wanted to you don't have to read the whole thing.

You just have to get the information Again, we had I told you this before we've had we had 4 channels on our television NBC CBS ABC and PBS that was it And we didn't have my mother wouldn't get cable television for us we we we had to get hangers and Pulling out.

So now I have to have my brother hold a hanger just so I could catch.

Our remote control was a pair of pliers because the knob fell off.

You had to stick the pliers and turn the channel.

We tried to do it with our fingers, it wouldn't work.

But nowadays, our children can watch thousands of television programs on their phone, on their iPad.

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A Back to School Message for the Last Days

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