Guiding the Younger Generation to Go God’s Way

Guiding the Younger Generation to Go God's Way. That is the topic we'll discuss today, right here on the Christian Worldview Radio Program, where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians, including young people, and to share the good news that all people can be reconciled to God for those who repent and put their trust and faith in who Jesus Christ is and what he did on the cross.

I'm David Wheaton, the host, and our website is thechristianworldview.org. Well, thank you for joining us today here on the Christian Worldview Radio Program as we discuss guiding the younger generation to go God's way. In America, it's the emerging generation, the younger generation, that calls the shots about where the country is headed.

And the older is indeed very stark. For example, only 30% of those aged 18 to 38, that's the millennial generation, said belief in God was very important. 30% only said that compared to 65% of those aged 55 to 91 who said belief in God is very important.

Big difference there. 42% of the younger generation viewed patriotism as very important, compared to 79% of the older generation. Now, there are several other differences in values that we will discuss today on the program, but they all point to a bigger question, a question that's been asked, I think, over the millennia. Why do younger people tend to eschew the values of their elders? Now, this is seen regularly in Scripture with the children of notable faithful characters like Eli, the high priest, and Samuel, and King David.

Kids did not turn out well at all. And this is experienced today by Christian parents who raised their children only to see them walk away from the faith when they get into their late teens and off to college in their 20s and beyond. So today in the program, we're going to examine the results of this poll, try to explain why this happens, why children or younger generation goes their own way and not the way their parents try to teach them. And then look to Scripture for guidance in raising the next generation that will love and honor God. So just to summarize this poll a little more, it was from the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, it was done in late August, August 25th.

And there was an article about it, we have it linked at our website, thechristianrealview.org was the summary of the findings, I think from the Washington Examiner. And the younger generation was defined as the Millennials or Generation Z 18 to 38, so basically under 40. And then what they call the silent generation and baby boomers are now over 55. I'm not sure why people between 40 and 55 weren't polled, but at least I didn't see that in the report in the poll.

So it's kind of younger generation is under 40, older generation is above 55. And here are the six values that were presented to the people who were polled. And here's the percentage of those who say the following are very important. So on the issue of patriotism, 42 percent, as I mentioned, think patriotism is very important, while 79 percent of the older generation think it's very important. Believe in God, 30 versus 65.

Having children, here's one I haven't mentioned yet. Only 32 percent of the younger generation believes that having children is very important, while 58 percent of the older generation feels that's very important. Financial security, this is the one where it's almost identical. 79 percent versus 80 percent of those, doesn't matter whether they're young or old, believe that financial security is very important, but again, compare that to belief in God, much more important to them than belief in God or having children or patriotism.

Finance, money is far more important. Tolerance for others, this is where it flips. The younger generation, 82 percent of the younger generation believes that tolerance for others depends how you define the word tolerance. Tolerance often means affirmation or acceptance, which the word actually doesn't mean.

I mean, just respect for someone to have a different view than you and not going to punish them or hurt them, physically hurt them for it. 82 percent of the younger generation believes that tolerance for others is very important, while 80 percent, just about the same again, of the older generation. Self-fulfillment, again, here's where it flips again. The younger generation sees that as very important. 78 percent versus 60 percent of the older generation believes self-fulfillment is very important. Now, this is really, I think you can look at polls sometimes and you can think, well, there's lots of polls that all the time and why is this one different or just say anything new than others. But I think this is very significant because the poll is about values and it's about generational values.

And the quote at the beginning was absolutely correct. In case you didn't catch it, it was done by one of the pollsters. It was done by, this poll, by the way, was done by one Republican pollster, one Democrat pollster.

So it was a bipartisan poll. And the quote was, again, there's an emerging America where issues like having children, belief in God and patriotism are far less important. And in America, it's the emerging generation, the younger generation that calls the shots about where the country is headed. There's the significance here is this states where this country and really the subset of that is where the church is going to be headed, where dismissing these important values of most important belief in God and the initial institution of marriage and children and patriotism, nationalism, dismissing those things is not very important.

Well, financial security is. This is very bad news and bodes very poorly for the for the country, because ultimately what this is is is a rejection of the institutions. At least some of these these values are is a rejection of the institution that God established from the very beginning. I mean, take that take the most important finding of this poll, I believe, is the belief in God category. Only 30 percent of younger people believe that belief in God is very important. I mean, that that is that is tremendously troubling.

I mean, this is fundamental. The most important thing about a person, it has been said, is their view of God and whether that view is accurate. Well, they don't even think a belief in God is even important at all. That's very, very bad, because once you depart from that, that you don't think that's important, you're just everyone's going to do what's right in your own eyes.

And then chaos ensues. I mean, the Bible, right from the very first verse, Genesis 1-1 establishes that God exists. And not only does God exist, but He speaks. We don't serve a dead God. He didn't just create the world and go away and hide. But we serve a God who exists and look at the creation around you, look at your conscience within you, look at the communication He has in His Word, look at the person of Christ as evidence as that God exists. In the beginning, God right there, fourth word of the Bible. It's not even there's not even an apologetic there, like, well, here's why God exists. It's just assumed.

It's just stated. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. You already have the second person of the Trinity in the second verse of Scripture. Verse three, then God said, Let there be light and there was light. God said He exists in the beginning, God. And verse three, then God said, you know, we have a God who is not an impersonal, distant God. He's a He's a God who exists and He's a God who reveals Himself. So saying that belief in God is is unimportant.

Well, certainly the Bible is is, you know, compels us to think the exact opposite of that. Psalm 14. What does the fool say in his heart? The fool says in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt. Look, look what happens when you're foolish enough to say there is no God.

Look at the results. The fool says in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt. They have committed abominable deeds. There is no one who does good. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.

They have all turned aside. Together they have become corrupt. There is none who does good, not even one. So this lack of belief in God leads you to a self-driven, self-centered, godless rejecting of God and all His values and morality. And this explains exactly why we are where we are today in America. Not believing in God leads ends in everyone doing what is right in their own eyes, as it mentions in the Old Testament. So that is the most critical, I think, report of this poll that belief in God for the younger generation is just not very important. And the inexorable, the end of that, that it will lead to, there's no diversion. Once you go down that road, once you fail, like Romans 1 said, to acknowledge God any longer, there are terrible consequences to that.

That's a really bad one. The second one that is this rejection of God's original institutions is having children. This is right there in Genesis 1 27, God created man in His own image. Again, first chapter of the Bible.

Interesting how this poll goes back to dealing with the original institutions or values that God set forth in the very first chapters of the Bible. God created man in His own image, Genesis 1 27. In the image of God, He created him. Male and female, He created them. So God creates us either male or female. He doesn't want us to try to change that. He wants us to embrace that, embrace how He creates us.

Verse 28, God blessed them and He said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Here's the divine command that you're to be married and you're to have children. Again, quick caveat, marriage and children are not for everyone. New Testament talks about singleness is just as good as marriage and so forth.

I'm not trying to go down that road. If you're single today and listening to this and you need to get married, no, no. Marriage and children is the expectation for most, but not for everyone. And it's not necessarily better than being single and being devoted to serving the Lord.

So make that very clear. But for most people, that's what God put in us, to be married and have children. And so for this poll to say that having children, only 32 percent of younger generation believes that having children is, quote, very important. While 65 percent of the older generation do, frankly, that seems even low for the older generation.

And that's the propagation of humankind to be married and have children and to raise children. So, again, another fundamental rejection of one of the institutions that God established. Third one, third part of the poll that I think is very troubling is the issue of patriotism. I think, oh, wait, wait now, why is that one so important that it's being rejected? Again, patriotism, only 42 percent of the younger generation believes that's very important.

While almost 80 percent of the older generation, big, big discrepancy here. Well, patriotism is rejecting that, is rejecting God's establishment of the nation state. Okay, that's what God established in early, again, in Genesis at the Tower of Babel in Genesis chapter 11. That's how he separated sinful humanity by coming to the city. They were building the city and tower for themselves.

Let's make a name for ourselves, they said. And the Lord came down and says in Genesis 11 and saw this and he said, nothing will be withheld from these. I'm going to confuse their languages because a people united together is a people that's going to reject me. He knew that it's a separation of powers, basically. That's what the nation state is, just like government has needs to have separation of powers. And so God separated them by confusing their languages. And they all went out and they spread across the earth and they formed their own nation states, their own tribes.

The different languages kept them apart. That's a biblical concept, the nation state, not globalism, where things end up in the end times under one world leader. We'll take our first break. We'll come back and talk more about guiding the younger generation to go God's way instead of their own way. I'm David Wheaton. The next Christian worldview speaker series event is on Sunday, September 15th at 7 p.m. at Grace Church Eden Prairie. It features Darryl Harrison presenting on how social justice impacts the gospel and the church. Darryl is a former fellow of the Black Theology and Leadership Institute at Princeton Theological Seminary and an expository Bible teacher. He has a passion for helping Christians understand what they believe and why. He'll do just that with the issue of social justice, followed by a Q&A moderated by host David Wheaton.

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So you can just show up as they say and come. Today in the program we're talking about guiding the younger generation to go God's way. In light of a recent poll that says the younger generation is not going God's way. Younger generation does not believe that belief in God is very important or having children or patriotism. Some of the fundamental institutions of scripture that God established in the early chapters of Genesis.

They just think those are not important while the older generation to varying degrees does. And so after going through God's plans are optional. He gives us the choice of there's a test of obedience, test of faith, whether we're going to believe him at his word. That's what faith is. It's a test like God's revealed something.

So here's the test. Are you going to obey it and follow it or are you going to reject it? So his commands are optional from a standpoint that he doesn't force us, at least in this life, to obey him. But they're consequential.

His commands, whether they're obeyed or rejected, there's consequence for better or for worse for either obeying or rejecting him. And that's the case with this. You can't go for. I'm not really going to follow that one.

That's not really that significant to me. So and not have serious consequence for that. There is serious consequence for that. Lasting eternal consequence for that. And so.

Or the issue of having children, I mean, think about the difference in a society when a society decides not to have children. Please stand by as we're experiencing some technical difficulties. It shouldn't take longer than a minute or two to get the connection reestablished.

In the meantime, did you know that you can. Sorry about that. Sorry about that blip and drop that we occasionally have that we lose our connection to the studio down in Dallas. But we're back with a different connection.

Hopefully that's OK. So apologize for that. So saying that there's consequence.

When God and his commands are rejected, you know, things often go very badly when this is the case. And so why has this happened and why are we becoming more like Europe? This this secular relativistic stand for nothing except for humanistic values. Yeah, there's a big there. There's conviction still in America.

There's conviction. You can see in this poll that we don't believe belief in God's important having children or patriotism, but they do believe that tolerance for others and self fulfillment and financial security are very important. So how do these how do these values get flipped like they have in Europe? Well, it's not surprising and not new why this happens. Nations do this.

Individuals do this. I regularly hear from other Christian parents whose children have gone astray. They've raised him in a Christian home. So in a sense, I don't really get that shocked anymore when I hear about this, because it seems like it's sort of the natural progression of whether nations or individuals or children from Christian homes. I mean, look at some examples from scripture on this.

And it's pretty striking. Look at the high priest, Eli. It says in 1 Samuel 2, now the sons of Eli were worthless men. Here's the high priest of Israel who was really venerated, who was favored by God. But his sons were worthless men.

I mean, how did that happen? They grew up in the home of Eli around him and he was serving in the tabernacle at the time. How on earth did his children turn out to be worthless men? It says they did not know the Lord in the custom of the priest with the people.

When any man was offering a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come while the meat was boiling with a three-pronged fork in his hand, and he would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron. And they would take it for themselves, and they were immoral men. And thus the sin of the young man was very great. This is Eli's sons before the Lord, for the men despised the offering of the Lord.

It goes on to say in 1 Samuel 2 that now Eli was old. He heard that all his sons were doing to all Israel and how they lay with the women who served the doorway of the tent of meaning. He said to them, Why do you do such things, the evil things that I hear from all these people? He says, No, my son, for the report is not good, which I hear the Lord's people circulating. If one man sins against another, and here's the consequence, if one man sins against another, God will mediate for him. But if a man sins against the Lord, who's going to intercede for him? But here's what the son's response was. They would not listen to the voice of their father, for the Lord desired to put them to death.

There's consequence for rejecting God and his word. Now the next verse, verse 26 in 1 Samuel 2 is very interesting. Now the boy Samuel, there was a boy, remember Hannah had a child named Samuel, and she wanted the child so badly she couldn't have children, she finally had one. She said, Lord, if you give me a son, I'm going to dedicate him to the Lord.

And she did that. Samuel was born a little boy, and she brought him to Eli, and Samuel was raised basically around Eli to be a high priest someday. And it says that in contrast to the sons of Eli, now you have this young boy, Samuel was growing in stature and in favor both with the Lord and with men. So how did Samuel turn out that way, but not the sons of Eli? But then the story changes.

Just crazy twist of the story again. In 1 Samuel 8, six chapters later, now we find out about Samuel's kids. Samuel was this man with a great heart and served the Lord, but his kids were not. And it came about when Samuel was old that he appointed his son judges over Israel. The first name was Joel and so forth. His sons, however, did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after a dishonest gain and took bribes and perverted justice.

And this is very interesting. Verse 4, Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and they said to him, Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.

Isn't that incredible? Eli had these kids. His sons were just rejected God, went their own way. Samuel grows up, has a right heart before the Lord, grows up under Eli, basically, because he was raised around Eli, but then his kids go astray. And that is the impetus for why Israel demands a king. Remember, they went from the judges to a king. They wanted to be like the nations around them.

And then, of course, the horror story of all the kings of Israel, leading him further and further into idolatry and sin and disobedience. It all started here with the sons of Samuel being rejected by the elders of Israel. So why does this happen so regularly? I think there's probably many reasons for this. There's many factors.

There's not just one thing. Oh, well, they didn't send him to Sunday school enough or the television and media is really strong and so forth. I really think it's a conglomerate of a lot of things that influence the generation. Really, if you want to summarize it fundamentally, it's Satan at work in our sinful, corrupted world.

And it's an assault to ruin, to seek and destroy that which God has created. But I divided it into categories that contribute to this sort of walking away, away from God in His way for the younger generation. I think, first of all, there can be bad examples of parents.

I mean, we have to be honest about this. There can be parents who are maybe professing Christians but don't possess genuine saving faith. It's just something they do on Sunday. They take their kids to church and think we're Christians because we go to church. Or there's really big problems in the home. There are just unbiblical divorces and there's lots of self-centeredness and materialism and a pursuit of self-fulfillment.

There's worldliness. There's no difference in the home between a Christian home and a non-Christian home. And the kids grew up seeing this and they're like, well, obviously this isn't Christianity or the belief in God or pursuing Him is not really important. Obviously because they go to church for a couple hours on Sunday morning but then go home and live completely different the rest of the week. That's a complete recipe for raising kids who will not go God's way as they get older.

They'll go their own way. Or I think you have some parents who maybe do live the Christian life but are very permissive in their parenting. Raise your kids in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. They may instruct them but there's no discipline.

You need to have both. There's a permissiveness. They've been influenced by the culture that children don't need to be disciplined. They need to be affirmed and need to keep things positive with your kids. Positive reinforcement.

But that's not biblical. There needs to be positive and negative, punitive instruction for children. And so the home is the most influential incubator for how the younger generation is going to turn out. So if there are problems in the home, bad examples by parents and the faith isn't being lived out soundly in the home, there's going to be problems downrange as they say with the kids. That is the first and most important factor that contributes to a younger generation that just discards the beliefs of the older generation. Now there are a few more things. I think the church has a role in this.

There's an influence of the culture and there's just a general rebellion in the heart of man. We'll get to those after this second break of the day in the Christian Real View. And then we're going to open up the phone lines today and hear what you have to think about why the younger generation goes against God's way, but how we can guide them to go God's way. I'm David Wheat and you're listening to the Christian Real View.

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It happens over and over again. We mentioned the examples of Eli in scripture, his own sons, high priest of Israel and Samuel, same thing. Or just take the nation of Israel even. Here they were led out of Egypt miraculously in the ten plagues God miraculously did on Pharaoh. They're led out and what do they do? They begin to rebel and go their own way against God's way right away after being led by a cloud during the day and fire by night and see the Red Sea parted and manna being delivered to them and quail and all the incredible miracles along the way. They departed and went their own way. And the same thing, they get into the land, the younger generation all of a sudden loses their fidelity and their following of the Lord.

So what contributes to this? Well, I think it starts in the home as I mentioned in the last segment there. The home is the most influential place. If there's not a rock solid faith and commitment to God and his word in the home, I think it's quite unlikely, although not guaranteed. Oftentimes you see young people grow up in homes that are totally less than ideal and God works upon that heart and that child grows up to love God and follow him despite the fact that his or her parents don't.

So again, it's no guarantee. There's no guarantees here in any of these categories, but certainly the home is the most influential for passing along those values. As it says in Deuteronomy chapter 6, walk with them and teach them all day long. That's where the incubator is for passing on biblical values to children. Then the second category why I think this happens is because there's weak churches. You have soft preaching. You have very little emphasis on sound doctrine. Church is made to be fun and games for the younger generation.

Church is so entertainment driven today. It treats lightly the biggest issues of life. It focuses instead on felt needs and how to have a better marriage and how to be self fulfilled and how to deal with this, that, or the other.

But it doesn't deal with the big issues, who God is, how he wants us to follow him, sanctification, what the gospel is, what are the big doctrines of the faith, justification, sanctification, imputation, glorification, the end times. All these things are the big issues. And those things are just seemingly people think, well, the people aren't going to want to.

Those are too hard to understand. They're too debatable. So let's not discuss them. And so you get examples of this coming from the biggest names of the biggest Christian leaders in the country. Someone like Andy Stanley says, well, we need to unhitch the Old Testament from the New Testament. You know, he said this a couple of years ago. And I still am in disbelief that a Christian leader would say something like that because the Old Testament is all about pointing to the coming Redeemer in the New Testament.

I mean, that is just undermining, no matter what he meant by it, the lack of clarity there undermines the sound teaching of the whole counsel of scripture, Old Testament and New Testament. You had the whole situation at Willow Creek in Chicago, the influence of that church and its leader, Bill Hybels. And to see the seeker movement that resulted from that just completely crumble. And what kind of impact do you think that's had on this country that that church was so influential? And then kind of what happened to that in the end? The Hillsong movement, the Be Blast Celebrity Entertainment Christianity that's just taken over so much of Christianity around the world has been so influential.

The New Apostolic Reformation, the Word Faith movement, Joel Osteen, the Prosperity Gospel, Signs and Wonders movements. I mean, Christianity, I mean, to be honest, is a wasteland of either complete error or half-truths, error and deception. And so you have the influence of that and the younger generation sees that and they're just either confused about it. It seems impossible to understand.

It seems down like strange and unbiblical. And so they don't want to go that way. And in some ways, I don't blame them for many of those ways I just mentioned that they don't want to go.

And then there's a third category of influence, and that's just the broader culture and the educational system and so forth. And the messaging is just omnipresent and unbiblical, just constantly. I mean, I've been listening recently to some of the political candidates for president for next year. I mean, just look at what some of these folks are saying. I mean, here's Bernie Sanders talking, answering a question about overpopulation.

Listen to the question, listen to the worldview and the question that's asked him and then listen to his answer. Human population growth has more than doubled in the past 50 years. The planet cannot sustain this growth. I realize this is a poisonous topic for politicians, but it's crucial to face. Empowering women and educating everyone on the need to curb population growth seems a reasonable campaign to enact. Would you be courageous enough to discuss this issue and make it a key feature of a plan to address climate catastrophe? OK, if that's not a loaded question, I don't know what is. It's built on so many false assumptions that the world is overpopulated, that we need that we need.

There's a call to curb population control. Notice who it is. It's a younger woman asking this question. This is someone who has swallowed the humanistic lies of our generation. Now, how is Bernie Sanders going to respond to this question? We'll find out what the answer is.

Yes. And the answer has everything to do with the fact that women in the United States of America, by the way, have a right to control their own bodies and make reproductive decisions. And the Mexico City agreement, which denies American aid to those organizations around the world that are that allow women to have abortions or even get involved in birth control, to me is totally absurd. So I think especially in poor countries around the world where women do not necessarily want to have large numbers of babies and where they can have the opportunity through birth control to control the number of kids they have.

Something I very, very strongly support. He considers abortion birth control. OK. He didn't talk about birth control earlier in the answer. He talked about abortion. So these two folks, the younger generation and the older generation, Bernie Sanders, this is a death cult. And that messaging has been completely accepted by a large, very large percentage of our population today.

Oh, that sounds right. Yeah, the earth is overpopulated. We're destroying the environment. How do we stop from don't have kids? That's a bad thing. Don't have kids. They consume resources and you're being irresponsible by having children.

So therefore, it's important to have more abortion so we don't overpopulate the world and and hurt the environment. I mean, this is this is insanity. This is this is not just insanity.

This is a complete rejection of God and his word and so many levels. So there's one. Now you go to you go to Beto, Beto O'Rourke, Robert O'Rourke, the former congressman from from Texas. He's asked about climate change. Here's his response. Notice what he compares the climate, quote, the climate crisis to. One of the reasons I love the framing of the Green New Deal is it uses some of the language that we might associate with the way that we met the response of Nazi Germany in World War Two. All of this country coming together with a singular focus of making sure that we overcome what was at that time an existential threat to this country and to our democracy.

Whoa. I mean, he's comparing the climate situation to the way that the world needed to confront Nazi Germany, where Hitler was exterminating Jews and others, millions of them. That that's the situation here in America.

I mean, it's just it's incredible. But you know what? Beto is young and he's thin and he's good looking and he's charismatic and he stands on tables and so forth. So therefore, young people get attracted to that, that charisma and influences their worldview.

Just play one more by Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Now, he's one that is a professing Christian. He's an open homosexual. And he's trying to redefine how Christians perceive the doctrines of their faith. Here's what he says about faith in politics and faith in life. GOP has gone a long way over the last generation of trying to make themselves the Christian party or the party of faith. Where do you see faith properly influencing your your your job as a politician? Well, I think Democrats have been a little allergic to talking about faith. And it's largely for a very good reason, which is that we passionately believe that when you're running for office or when you're in office, you have an obligation to treat people of any religion and people of no religion equally. It's a basic American principle. That was just the separation of church and state so that you shouldn't bring your your your beliefs into public office. And if you do, you're somehow hurting someone else who has a different belief. There's just so many fallacies and errors and lies in what these people are saying. But they're very, very good at couching them in the way they speak. Let's move on here.

Listen to the clap after that particular comment. But at the same time, as we see some of these figures on the religious right embrace behavior and I think policies, but definitely behavior that flies in the face, not just of my values, but of their own. Then it reminds me of all of the parts of scripture where there's a lot about hypocrisy. And I think we have an obligation to call that out and to speak about how, you know, not just the Christian faith tradition that I belong to, but pretty much any religious or non-religious moral tradition I've ever heard of tells us that it's really important how we treat the least among us, the most vulnerable, the marginalized, that we are obliged to serve the poor and heal the sick and clothe the naked and welcome the stranger.

Stranger, by the way, being another word for immigrant. OK, so social justice, Pete Buttigieg is saying, is the gospel issue, not just a gospel issue. It's the gospel issue to be a Christian primarily is about social justice. That's exactly what our event next week on Sunday, September 15th, 7 p.m. is going to be about social justice in understanding that important topic.

That messaging is incredibly seductive to those who aren't discerning, especially the younger generation. And we'll come back with discuss more on this topic about guiding the younger generation to go God's way. The next Christian worldview speaker series event is on Sunday, September 15th at 7 p.m. at Grace Church Eden Prairie. It features Darrell Harrison presenting on how social justice impacts the gospel and the church. Darrell is a former fellow of the Black Theology and Leadership Institute at Princeton Theological Seminary and an expository Bible teacher. He has a passion for helping Christians understand what they believe and why. He'll do just that with the issue of social justice, followed by a Q&A moderated by host David Wheaton. No cost, no registration.

Just come. The event will also be live streamed on the Christian worldview Facebook page. For more information, call 1-888-646-2233 or visit the Christian worldview dot org. The Christian worldview speaker series with Darrell Harrison, Sunday, September 15th at 7 p.m. at Grace Church Eden Prairie. Call 1-888-646-2233 or visit the Christian worldview dot org. The prosperity gospel is a prominent false gospel that God offers health, wealth and prosperity. If you just have faith and give money. Costi Hinn grew up on the inside of the prosperity gospel movement.

His uncle is world renowned prosperity preacher Benny Hinn. Costi saw it all, the manipulation, staged healings, luxuriant lifestyles and perversion of scripture before God opened Costi's eyes to understand sound doctrine and believe in the true gospel. Now a pastor, Costi has written an important book entitled God, Greed and the Prosperity Gospel, which chronicles his own experience and gracefully points the reader to the truth of scripture. For a limited time, you can order this 224 page soft cover book for a donation of any amount to the Christian worldview.

Normal retail is $17.99 without shipping. To order, call 1-888-646-2233 or visit the Christian worldview dot org. Final segment of the day here on the Christian worldview radio program, I'm David Wheaton, the host. If you just joined us or just recently joined us on the program, we're talking about guiding the younger generation to go God's way because that's not what the polling is saying. The Wall Street Journal, as you first said, we talked about this poll from the Wall Street Journal and NBC News that the younger generation, let's say those under 40, don't believe that patriotism, belief in God or having children are very important at all.

But they do believe that financial security and tolerance for others and self-fulfillment, that's very important to them. Whereas the older generation believe that patriotism, belief in God and having children are very important and they're the same on the older, the financial security and tolerance for others and self-fulfillment as well, although not quite as high as the younger generation. So we asked the question after the poll, is this as bad news as it seems?

And it is, it's very bad news. And the younger generation is where the future of the country is going and that's very bad news. And then we talked about why this has happened and some examples from Scripture from Eli and Samuel and how their kids, these were faithful men, Eli and Samuel, but something was going on, whether the way they parented or just in the hearts of their children, that did not turn out well. And then we've been talking about factors that contribute to the younger generation going their own way, not God's way, and it starts in the home. That's obviously a big part of this, what's going on in the home, that's the most influential place. And then what's going on in the church, the soft preaching and the shallowness of the evangelical church today.

And then we went into the influence of culture and education, played some sound bites from some of these politicians and the type of ungodly, unbiblical worldview they're presenting as morally right and the things they say every day and how influential that is on young people. And finally, the last factor is there's just a rebellion in all of our hearts. We want to do it our way, we don't want to do it God's way. And so kids grow up and just naturally in our hearts, we don't want to be under authority.

We don't want to be under the authority of God or our parents, we want to do things our way. There's a permeation of sin in the world and in our hearts. And then you get the influence of the world, this is the default direction of mankind actually. So again, I don't think there's too much to be shocked about this, but there is something for us to do.

Final question is, are there any positives or opportunities here? Well, you could say that some people will say things are cyclical and they'll turn around or different political leadership will change people and it'll turn around. I don't think there's any basis in either history or fact in saying something like that. If you look at the history of nations and individuals in the past, a descent into sin, a rejection of belief in God and so forth, that tends to run its course until something catastrophic happens in a country and then that changes everything and there could be revival again. And occasionally there is revival, there's a repentance and revival, but that only happens when the word is preached very strongly and boldly. It doesn't happen through soft preaching, which is really I think what is largely taking place in the evangelical church today. I think the good news here though is that as things become darker, things tend to go man's way and not God's way, that makes the gospel and the Christian faith stand in stark contrast. And so as believers pursue holy lives, as we pray, as we take every opportunity to explain the gospel and disciple others, there's going to be such a stark contrast there that I think there's greater opportunities, there's greater, I think even inside people, people no matter what direction things are going, God has created in us that will never be satisfied unless He takes up our life.

And I'm actually just speaking with a woman yesterday and I asked her just about some kind of real light spiritual question and so forth, and it just all of a sudden elicited such a strong, you know, like, thank you for asking me that. And so there's such an emptiness inside of her. And I think this is the case, everyone walks around and looks good and goes to the restaurants. But you know what, people, if you don't know Jesus, you don't have anything. You're not designed to live without God, you're designed to be in relationship with God. And so there's so much emptiness and this is an opportunity as they go away from God and away from His institutions, there's an opportunity here for us to be very clear, very gracious and very truthful about who God is, who Christ is, who man is and the call to repent and believe in the gospel. So don't think, though, that we can outsource to change the younger generation. You can outsource this to your Christian school or your church, or that you can completely isolate them from the world and things are going to turn out okay.

You can't do that. You have to be engaged in this battle. It is a battle for the souls of the next generation. Deuteronomy 6, I mentioned this passage earlier. Just look at the level of engagement that Moses is calling the people to do in this passage, because he knows if you don't do this, you have no shot.

Even if you do do it, it may not work out well, but at least you have to be engaged to this level. Here, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. He starts with you, the older generation. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart.

Okay, so it starts with you. You have to love the Lord your God with all your heart and your soul and all your might. And these words need to be on your heart. If you don't have it on your heart, you're never going to be able to transmit it to someone else's heart.

Then it goes to verse 7. Then what efforts on your heart? You shall teach them diligently to your sons and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and you shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

In other words, you need to do this. Your discipleship of your kids, your evangelism and discipleship of your kids needs to be an omnipresent situation. Not to the point of being so overwhelming to them that they just want to get away from you, but you need to take every opportunity and wisely explain constantly the Word of God to them. You can't force it on them.

You can't make them go the right way. You have to know that God is sovereign in salvation. That's what the Bible teaches. It's He who opens the blind eyes to believe and follow Him. Yes, that's the case, but we as salvation is an act of God, but also we are called to respond to repent and believe.

So is discipling the younger generation. We must have it inside of us and we must do it and trust God for the results. That is the only way, because otherwise things are going to continue to go the wrong way. But each of us can do these things. We can get more serious and draw nearer to God and love Him more. Not just do Christian things and go to church and check off boxes and read the Bible more.

No, we must do those things in order to ask God to develop a greater love in our hearts for Him. We want Him, not just things about Him, not just religious things, but we want Him. We want His Son. We want to be more like His Son. And then we need to really diligently try to pass these things on to the younger generation.

That's the only way that poll result is ever going to turn around. Thank you for joining us today here on the Christian Real View Radio Program. You can miss doing the program. Go to our website, thechristianrealview.org. Find out about our events.

They're next weekend, September 15th and 16th. We'd love to have you come to those events because we do live in a changing, as this poll says, a changing and challenging America and the church as well. But there is one hope for all of us. Jesus Christ and His Word, they're the same yesterday, today and forever.

He is the answer to people going God's way and living in a way that honors and glorifies Him. Until next weekend, think biblically and live accordingly. Call toll free at 1-888-646-2233. The Christian World View is a weekly one hour radio program that is furnished by the Overcomer Foundation and is supported by listeners and sponsors. Request one of our current resources with your donation of any amount. Go to thechristianrealview.org or call us toll free at 1-888-646-2233 or write to us at Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. That's Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. Thanks for listening to The Christian World View. Until next time, think biblically and live accordingly.