<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

ABC Prayer Crusade

Glenn Coon

Youth Week of Prayer

1 - Youth’s Thrilling ABC Prayers

2 - Jesus Delivered Dorothy

3 - Positive Assurance in Christ

4 - Sex, Sins and Other Stuff

6 - Questions Young People are Asking

8 - More Questions Young People Ask

Dear Lord, make each one of us a nail, a humble nail on the wall, fastened securely in our place. Then from these things so common and so small, hang bright pictures of thy face. Thank you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Before we have a couple of our young people read some of the questions that have come in. In fact, they're gonna read a lot of 'em. One of the students came to me this morning and said he wasn't able to be here yesterday. He had some problems with with studies. So I thought maybe I'd just share one experience of my own regarding studies and how God answers prayer. I was 16 years of age and I was taking algebra. Anybody ever take algebra? I hated algebra. My teacher was taking algebra two and teaching algebra one, but he didn't know algebra one. At the end of the six weeks we had an exam. Two of my brothers were taking the same algebra that I was taking and one our six weeks exam papers came back with a grade. One of my brothers had the grade of zero. That's rather cool. The other had 16 and I had 16. Between the three of us, we had 32%. Both of my brothers dropped algebra. I invited the teacher to come up to my dormitory room and helped me with algebra. He worked the two hours on one problem and didn't solve it. As he left, I fell on my knees. I'm telling you the truth. I fell on my knees and I used the principle of the A of prayer. I told the Lord that there was no hope if the teacher didn't even know the solution. How in the world could I, if the teacher couldn't get the answer, how could I? And then I think in the background was this promise, ask it, she'll be given you. And I rose from my knees believing though I was trembling, believing that the Lord was somehow going to gimme an answer and claiming it in my heart. I climbed in the bed and began to sleep. Now I have thousands of dreams. I've remembered about five of all of them. But immediately I began to dream. I dreamed that I was working on that problem and of all things I dreamed that I found where the teacher missed the mark. And in my dream I corrected it and immediately the Lord awakened me. I seized my pencil on paper and I did the correction and was perfect. And I took it to the teacher the next morning. I wish I could remember how he looked. I know how I was looking. The Lord had come to my rescue. I decided to stick my algebra and I came off with a C. I see that's not too bad. What do you see? And I've thanked the Lord ever since that when you have a problem in school that you can't solve, God has the solution. That wasn't the end of my school problems. Later I was studying French under a teacher from New England and in New England, you know where we say Isaiah? They say Isaiah. And why? We say remember, they say remember. And in French, I didn't know Whethers. Ah, or whats are whethers? Remember? Ah or what? Remember? And I got so confused with that French. And again, I fell on my knees. I said, Lord, this French is all Greek to me. Please come to my rescue. And you know, the Lord helped me through that Wasn't the worst. Then I came to general history. I've never contacted a general that I hated, like general history. I couldn't see any sense to it. You must remember that one army came up, came up on the right side of the mountain, the other came up on the left side. I didn't care where they came up on any side of the mountain and what they did. I said, horrors, I don't care whether it was even an army. And now you're supposed to know, 6 0 6 is when it happened. That made me sick. Lord, help me. I would study two hours for that history class and come down with a big fat D. Finally, I fell on my knees. Dear God, I'm helpless. This thing is hopeless. And that wasn't the worst part of it. The teacher was a great long, lanky fellow. He had a neck and he had ears and he had eyes that pierced my soul. And when I saw him, I forgot all that. I didn't know. I want to tell you it was a horrible experience. I fell on my knees and I said, Lord, there's nothing beautiful about this. It is all terrible. Please help me. And while I was on my knees, and you'll want this, you'll like it. The Lord's thought voice said to me, you can get a better grade with less study, but concentrate. Don't let your mind wander on the girls. I had a roommate that would have one eye on the book and the other on the street. Why? You see the girls come along, put your mind on this, this one thing you do and you can get good grades with 40 minutes instead of two hours. And you know I did it and God saw me through. That wasn't the end. When I was in college, I was introduced to Greek and that was Greek and I wasn't doing well. I fell on my knees again. I said, Lord, you helped me in algebra. You helped me to get X at horrible X. You helped me in French. You helped me in general history of all things. You will help me in Greek. And God taught me how to come down with as in Greek. And one of the big things was to concentrate this one thing I do. Alright. God hears an answers prayer. And whoever that young man was that said he'd like some help with studies, you don't hesitate to fall on your knees. Tell God you're helpless. That's the A of prayer. Tell God that you believe his promise that says you can do all things through me. Philippians four 13 and then thank you Lord. You're doing it. As I concentrate now for our questions, we're gonna ask our good young man and the good young lady to just take turns and read the whole batch of those on six. Thank you. Okay, the first one has two parts to it. How old should you be before you should date? And what if you think you are old enough to date but your parents don't? Thank you. Next, Should you date someone of a different religion? If not, why? Good question. This one person is trying to steal my boyfriend. What can I do about it? It's a good question. Now the one that's trying to steal that boyfriend, don't say anything right now. Next one. What can you do when your parents are hard on you? Like going out with a guy and that guy goes to school or going to a party. Thank you, I hate my mom. What should I do? How can you get your parents to let you date? What can you do on a date? And what does the Bible say about dating? Thank you. Huh? Is it wrong for someone to kiss someone of the opposite sex of on the first date? That's a good question, isn't it? Next one. Can someone fall in love the first time they meet someone else? Can an can anyone fall in love the first time they meet someone? Okay, Are you ever too young to fall in love? How are you sure you're in love? And there's a little bit on this. I'm going steady and I care for the person, but not sure just how much people say that the person I'm with loves me. Sometimes I feel that they are the only one I want. But o, other times I feel I need someone else. What should I do? Should two kids of the opposite sex be allowed to have a strong relationship? Why is it so bad to make relationship with the opposite sex? If you love the person and you're not married, Is it wrong to hold hands with your boyfriend or girlfriend in school? How can you prove to your parents that you won't do anything wrong on a date? What is your stay on premarital sex? Is premarital sex worsen smoking a pack a day? Is drinking really bad? How do you feel about unwed mothers who love Jesus and want to start a new life? And what does God think of this? Is it possible to be in love with two guys? I'm 14 years old and I often like to take walks by myself or with a friend. My parents always make me take a walk with them and say, I should be with the family more. It's not that I don't like them, but I just want to be with my friends. What should I do? What is the solution to peer pressure as a teenager? What does the church as a family expect from us? Should we thank God where money is needed and the father and the Father withholds the monthly income and the mother uses once a month checks to cover monthly expenses? How can you get your parents to trust you and visa versa? Alright, thank you so much. Maybe I better just take one of these, shall I? And thank you. Now you notice that that is a acad of questions and every one of them is sincere. We have looked over pages, we took these questions as they came in, and Nancy new hearth typed them out, pages of questions. And if we were to take time on each question individually, we couldn't answer them all in two weeks. So we're going to sort of give some some principles and ask the Holy Spirit to interpret these principles to each one who has raised these questions. You see, first of all, let me give you the story of two lovely Christian Young couples. And we're talking about sex, we're talking about dating, we're talking about holding hands, we're talking about kissing. We're talking about premarital sex, we're talking about the whole gamut. How shall we be guided? How shall we know what to do? Dad isn't mothers, in some cases won't let us do what we want to do. And somebody handed me another question in this same line yesterday, dad and mommy don't want me to date and I, what shall I do? I'll share with you the story of these two couples. And both of these couples were young people from two wonderful Christian families. And these two young couples were wonderful Christians. One couple, the young man was preparing for the ministry. Now I wanna make real clear that neither of these young couples, neither one were, were cussed. Neither one was worldly, so to speak. They loved the Lord. They'd given their hearts to him. They were planning to be in his ministry. But the one couple meaning to do right, loving the Lord, eager to follow in his way. One couple were faced with a question of abortion. Now what are they gonna do? Just for a moment, let's forget all about religion just for the moment. Now, here's a teenage girl. She meant well the girl, the boy who got her pregnant was a wonderful Christian boy, a wonderful Christian Young man. They had no idea that it would lead to what it did. But now she's pregnant. Forget religion for the moment. What's, what is a 17 or 18 year old girl going to do when she finds she's pregnant? She has not arrived at the age where she can even support herself. Yet that's not against her. It's just because she has not gotten that far. She can't even yet support herself. Can she support the child? No. What will she do with the child? I knew these two families, they're Christian friends of ours. What will they do? Well, she can either keep the baby. Well, if she keeps the baby, then her mother will really be the one that'll have to keep the baby. She can abort or she can arrange for some Christian family to take the baby. The agony through which that girl passed and the young man, I can't describe. Finally they came to the conclusion that the only thing to do was for her to abort. And so she did. Now here you have a young couple. They're not cussing. They love the Lord. But there's one thing that daddy and mother and their daddy's mothers didn't make clear to them. And that was the law of human magnetism. When I was a little boy, I came back from school one day, two of my brothers and my older brother had a magnet under the table and he had a sheet of paper here and he had iron filings and we hadn't heard much about the magnet. And he said, now I wanna show you Lester Glenn, I wanna show you that I can just tell these filings where to go and they'll go anywhere. I tell 'em to go. We didn't know he had the magnet right under me. He said, no iron filings, you go over here. There they started. Now you go over here. They started. We said, what in the world is this? And finally it dawned over us. There's a law of magnetism. And the nearer those iron filings got to the magnet, the more they lost their self-control. That's just a simple law. And we finally said, Hey, you're just trying to bluff us. There's a magnet under there. The other young couple were equally wonderful Christians. They wanted to do right, they loved the Lord. But nobody had explained to them the law of human magnetism that the closer you get physically, the more you are liable to lose self-control. And the girl in this case was pregnant. Now forget for a moment, religion. What are people going to do? Well, shall I abort? Shall I keep the child? Shall I, what shall I do? And about that time, some religion came into the picture of one of the parents and one of the parents said, you can't abort, that's murder. The parent of the other one said, that's the thing to do, otherwise you're bringing shame on me. I say, shame on her. She ought to have thought of the, she ought to have thought of her daughter's happiness instead of herself. There's so many people only thinking of, what will people think of me? She said, you must abort. The mother of the other one said, huh, but you're killing your, you're killing. Can you imagine the agony through which that young couple passed? The story is this. There's a law of human magnetism. And the more we can keep from this bodily contact, the happier we're going to be. A fellowship between male and female can be one of the most beautiful things in all of God's creation. Just so long as they understand the law of human magnetism. You see, there's another feature too. And that is the law of Philippians three 13. This one thing I do, it's awfully hard To love a lot and study a lot and learn a lot. A lot of people can do that, others can't. I fell in love as a student. In fact, I've had quite an experience. I was engaged three times before I was married, but I fell in love as a student when I was in the third grade. I looked across the school room and there I saw a beautiful redheaded girl. Her name was May I like that name. I thought, may I kiss her? And I really liked me. My, she was worth more than all the studies really at my age because I was quite mature, you understand? But the Lord came to my rescue and my brother Lester took me away from me. Then I could learn my lessons. The next year I went to another school. May wasn't there, but Louisa was there. She didn't have red hair, but she had beautiful brown hair, beautiful brown eyes. I was reared on a farm. Father had a lot of cows. And I want to tell you, Louisa's eyes were as pretty as any cows eyes I'd ever seen. They were beautiful. And I looked and I looked at Louisa and she flashed a smile at me. And I was taken in. I want to tell you, I studied arithmetic. I was in the fourth grade. I studied arithmetic two times, two equals Louisa. I studied grammar sweetheart, Louisa Louise had everything. I studied geographies they called it. And I said, ah, the map of Louisa is worth more than any other map. And so I was looking at Louisa when I should be looking at my letter. Really? I was. And I didn't know it there I was looking at Louisa and the teacher said, Glen, is there something wrong with your eyes? I knew there must be another Glen because I knew my eyes were working all right. And then all the students looked at me and I I, I just wanted to go through the floor. About that time, my mother said something that gave me hope. I had been writing notes, barrels of notes in those days, it's outta date now. But in those days as you'd write a note, you'd put on the back S W A K. They don't do that anymore. People don't even know what it means. Now I have to tell them, isn't that right? S w A k sealed with a kiss. You'd even kiss the note, You see. And I wrote barrels of notes. My brother Lester wrote barrels of notes. One day I heard my mother say to dad, I dunno what we're going to do about Lester, but she said, Glen would never write notes to the girls. That was the last note. I wrote Her faith in me. Now, what are we trying to say is this, those who go too far in their sex relation before marriage are taking a big chance not recognizing the law of human magnetism. They're also taking a big chance at their studies and preparation for life. And then in addition to that, they're taking a risk at their marriage. You'd be surprised how mar many married people, you see, we a lot of people come to us over married problems, marriage problems. And they people, people have come to me and they've said, because what I did before marriage, I've looked upon marriage relationship as nasty, almost ruined. Not everybody, but many have actually almost ruined their marriage relationship. I've come to this conclusion that a male female relationship is one of the most beautiful things in all God's creation. As long as we recognize the law Of human magnetism, now the Holy Spirit will reveal to each one of us how that applies in our own lives. Do you see? I thank the Lord for what my mother did. I went on through the academy without any dates. I went into college before I had any dates. I think I went too far in the opposite direction. I think I should have had some dates. I think it'd been better for me to have had some, but I went to that extreme. We don't have to go to that extreme. Now, the Holy Spirit will say to you, you see each one of you, he'll say to you how he wants you to interpret this for yourself. And that's why you say, Lord, you've promised me wisdom. You've said, if any of you like wisdom, let him ask of God that give us to all men liberally and pray. If not, it shall be given him. Let me add this also concerning the sex problem. I have found in my ministry, and very few people may know this, I have found that appetite and sex usually have a very close relationship. I have found that as a rule, and it's not always true, but as a rule, the individual who learns how to eat carefully finds it much easier to control his sex urges. Jesus started on the point of appetite. Now, not merely that Jesus was a young man and Jesus never once sinned, and yet we read in the Bible, in all of the affliction, he was afflicted. I think if there's any area of life in which God especially understands us and loves us and wants to help us, it's in the area of appetite and sex. So as the Lord helps us to learn to abstain from food that is naturally stimulating, it'll help. It's not the full answer by any means. The promises of God are to be used when these tremendous urges come. And anybody that says they're not urges, they've, they're either a fool or they're lying. Appetite urges and sex urges are tremendous and particularly so with youth, and Jesus understands. Now, you might be interested to know that there are three chapters in the book, desire of Ages that have meant very, very much to me. One is entitled Days of Conflict. The Other has to Do With Christ on the Mount of Temptation. I see our time is up. Dear Lord, may the Holy Spirit use what I've said in faltering, in a faltering way to every one of these blessed young people and their teachers that we may know how you want us to relate to you, Lord, to appetite to the opposite sex so we can have an abundant, happy, joyful experience in Christ. Thank you for hearing us. In Jesus' name, amen. This media was brought to you by Audio verse, a website dedicated to spreading God's word through free sermon, audio, and much more. If you would like to know more about Audio Verse or if you would like to listen to more sermons, please visit www.audio verse.org.

Back to Menu

Series

Youth Week of Prayer

4 - Sex, Sins and Other Stuff

Parent Series

Sponsor

Other Teachings in Series

1 - Youth’s Thrilling ABC Prayers

2 - Jesus Delivered Dorothy

3 - Positive Assurance in Christ

4 - Sex, Sins and Other Stuff

6 - Questions Young People are Asking

8 - More Questions Young People Ask

Sound Doctrine