Is Your Kid READY?

The following program is recorded content created by SteveNobleShow.com.

And now here's your host, Steve Noble. If you're on social media at all, you probably noticed over the last week, the unending supply of graduation pictures. Now people spend like $600, $700, $800 for graduation pictures.

That's just normal. It's going to cost you at least $500 to get graduation pictures made, which what do we do with those? I mean, did you give those out?

Do you put them in a frame? I don't know. But it's graduation time all over the place. And if you've been on Facebook or Instagram, whatever, or if you have a son, or daughter, grandson, granddaughter that's making that move from high school to college, perhaps college into their career, or they're finishing high school and just going right into the workforce, whatever the case may be.

This is something that I talk about often. I've been at two homeschool conventions over the last couple of weeks, one in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, the other one in Columbia, South Carolina, and was talking about the situation. The situation with high school students coming up out of the church growing up in homes, well, like mine, believing parents, good evangelical churches, homeschool, private Christian school, whatever the case may be. And to be quite frank, this is me speaking after 11 years of teaching these young people with about over 800 students now that I've taught personally face to face in a phrase, to keep it short.

I'm not that impressed. There are occasionally some outstanding young people. That are really strong in their faith and very engaged. And you can just tell that they're going to do amazing things for the Lord and soon, sooner rather than later. But most of them are just kind of like, yeah, I mean, they're kind of going through everything.

You know what it's like. Todd Von Helms is here with me, my good friend, Dr. Todd Von Helms, who's the author of Before You Leave for College, Career and Eternity. Todd has spent years talking to young people as well, not just in high school, but at the college level and parents.

And so we both are going to we're going to kind of compare notes today. And we don't want to I'm not going to throw everybody under the bus. I do think there are some young Christians growing up in our context and in good churches, good schools, homeschool, whatever the case may be, that are really in good shape.

We're not worried about them. So when you ask them the question, are you ready for college? Are you ready for career? Are you ready to enter into eternity? Their answer would be yes to all three.

They'd be batting 1000. But I think most of them are not there. But then there's a continuum.

I don't want to say they're all this or all that. But I'm I'm concerned about it and have dealt with this as a as a father, your father with your two sons. But it's great to have you. Welcome back. Thank you. Great to be here, Steve.

So so where do you jump in on that? Because you've been dealing with students for how long? Oh, man, about 25 years. You're the senior advisor here next to me. Yeah.

And I'm only 35. So right. Yeah, good one. That's no, I mean, each each one of us is on a journey. And, you know, the reality is, if we're really living for Christ, hopefully the foundation is in place. But we're going to have opposition. Yeah. In this world, you will have trouble. Yeah.

But Christ said, Fear not, have overcome the world. But what does that look like for the young people? What does it look like for the parents?

Yeah. And I think it has to start at home, whether it's a single parent home, hopefully both parents together. But we've got to model that for our kids. You know, of course, we rely on the youth group.

We rely on the you know, the schools, homeschooling, in your case, but it takes a village, sometimes one or two. Yeah. You know, we don't often quote Hillary Clinton here on the show. But yeah, I'm with you on that, that we are in a Christian community. That's the body of Christ. That's the church. Yeah.

But I think the majority of it has to start at home. They go ahead. So when we talk about when you mentioned opposition, what if we're going to make a list, because I'm a list kind of person, if we're going to make a list of the things that we should be concerned with as Christian parents, Christian grandparents, for our sons and daughters, for our grandsons and granddaughters, because, you know, you know, the Barna stats.

I know the Barna stats. They're not pretty. 75% of kids that grow up in the church context tend to stray away from the faith by the time they go off to college or they leave the house, whatever the case may be. But what are what are kind of the main players here when our kids drift and struggle or reject the faith at these homeschool conventions? I talk to a lot of people and many stories of, yep, my oldest daughter is a total atheist. My son is this, my daughter. And they were raised in good homes by good Christian parents.

But good Christian parents can have children that make bad decisions. Yeah. But what are what are kind of the big things on the radar screen from your perspective, based on all your years of experience?

Yeah, I think identity is at the forefront of the issues. Who is who is God? What is God's word? Who am I?

And those are all under attack. And I like to go straight to Matthew Gospel of Matthew, Chapter four, because Jesus has just been baptized by his cousin, John. He comes out of the water, hasn't done anything yet, hasn't started this earthly ministry. The father says, this is my beloved son with who I am well pleased.

You go into Chapter four. Here's the enemy. Yeah. Jesus is vulnerable. He's tired. He's hungry.

He's thirsty. All the above. And in a sense, I see college students coming in, you know, when they these kids leave home, they go into the wilderness, if you will. Right. I do think they're there. You know, the two loneliest segments in the American population today are those entering college and those entering nursing homes. Really?

Yes. You know, my son moved to New York City. Twenty two million people within the five boroughs. I remember him calling home a month in and said, I just feel so lonely trying to find the fellowship. Well, what happens if they're lonely? They're made to think that they can they either had to go with the flow of the crowd or that they're standing alone and they're not alone. Right. But they're made to feel alone. And I know earlier we're talking about your oldest daughter.

And I said, how many? You know, who is in her life? Yeah. Yeah. And she lives up there, too. She's in Manhattan. And she has some Christian friends.

But it's not like it's this iron sharpening iron concept. It's like, you know, you're in a constant. You're in the you're in the battlefield together.

You're in the foxhole together. She doesn't have that. Right. And that makes the difference. But one thing we both talked about, which I want to encourage everybody to remember this, that you are on a journey. This is a journey. Like we're talking about my kids in this case. The oldest one's twenty seven and twenty five.

I wasn't even I didn't even become a Christian till I was twenty eight. So there's a journey there that's going on. But identity is huge.

Of course, that takes us into the whole world. The world of LGBTQIA. And your identity is in your sexual identity.

And now of all that stuff. But yeah, they're the loneliest. I did not know that about the retirement homes, folks.

But the loneliest generation is now a Gen Z. It's called because they're connected by this. Exactly. But they're not right.

It's an illusion. All right. So identity. That's a big one. What else? Yeah.

Again, I think the roots need to be deep because the storms will come. And I know when I went off and had my faith challenge, I would go back to the well, many people in my life. And oftentimes the responses I would get to the questions were I've either never heard that before. And then I thought, oh, well, what else do you not know?

What else was I duped about? Right. Or they would say, oh, the devil's behind it. And, you know, stay away from those type of people, you know. But yet, you know, it's a big deal. Yeah.

Yeah, it's a big deal. We're talking to Todd Von Helms is the author before you leave for college, career and eternity. If you have high schoolers, college students or just young people that are out there trying to make their way through life, they've made a profession of faith. They grew up in the church, whatever the case may be. These are questions that you have to deal with.

You can go to Amazon. I'll put the links up on Facebook and Rumble. We'll be right back. Welcome back at Steve Noble, The Steve Noble Show, a very, very important topic today as we're talking about young people, the young people in our lives, be them your son, your daughter, your grandson, your granddaughter. And you're probably I think we're all pretty aware of the fact that we have a lot of kids growing up in the church context that walk away to get off to college. They walk away, which, by the way, that's not as a word of encouragement. That's not the end of the story. It's not over till the fat lady sings. We remember that one. In this case, the fat lady is the Lord himself, and it's not over until their life is over and when the Lord says it's over. But before that, there's always hope.

So don't forget that. I think a lot of us, many of us, half of us, I don't know how many have gone down the road of a prodigal child or maybe not super prodigal. They're just really worldly. They still make a profession of faith, but they're not walking with the Lord.

They're not growing. They're living and doing things that you're like, oh, no, here we go. But that story is not over. And it's a journey.

Todd's been, Todd Von Helms is here today, my good friend who's also an author before you leave for College, Career and Eternity, which is an incredible book that you should bless any young person with when they're transitioning, whether it's from, not that transitioning, relax, everybody, from high school to college or college into the career or they're in their mid 20s. Maybe there's students that I know, Todd, that I would give this book to them as just a way to kind of maybe help them reconsider the faith that they've chosen to walk away from. And so we have that problem. And then just preparing our sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters to go out into a world that is increasingly becoming more hostile towards Christianity and the notions of Christianity and a set biblical truth that overrides everything.

That talk about an unpopular T-shirt, that would be an unpopular T-shirt. So we're going to go down all these different roads. But if you happen to have some questions today, just in terms of your own sons or daughters, grandsons, granddaughters worried about them going off to college, them graduating college.

Maybe they went to a Christian school and now they're going to go out into the world and you're concerned about that or you have your own student that you're dealing with and some of these challenges. We're both wide open to have that conversation with you. If you want to ask a question, we can give you our own input from our own experiences and our own wisdom.

And we're happy to share that and point you to the gospel and point you to the word of God, because that's the only sure foundation that we can bring to the show. But if you want to call in and if you have a comment about that or a question, feel free to do that during the show today. 866-348-7884 is the number.

866-348-7884 or 866-34-TRUTH. Todd, you were mentioning we were talking about kind of the biggest obstacles out there. Identity is obviously huge.

Who is God? Just the Bible and then identity of self. That's a big deal today.

That's the whole LGBTQIA world is the identity of self. And then a faith model. You said that a lot of students should talk to the ones that have walked away. They said to you, quote, there wasn't much to walk away from.

Unpack that a little bit, because I think there's a whole lot in there that we need to consider. Yeah. Initially, when I would hear that, I would say, well, tell me more about that, because in my mind, I was thinking, you know, they were at this Christian school or they were involved in the youth group, but I know their parents and they're walking with the Lord. And when I start pressing them, what I realized was they were never taught how to study the scriptures for themselves. They had never developed, you know, a prayer life.

Right. It was just praying before the mills, before bed or whatever. And it just that relationship, it was it was as if it was maybe in the heart, but the mind and the heart didn't connect along the way. And so then then when their faith is challenged or what we would see as the foundation in their faith, again, there was not much to walk away from for them. In other words, it was not important enough. The roots were not deep enough to where they felt like what was being presented was better than what they were walking away from, which is is so sad. That's so sad because they really didn't really thought they had a cream puff.

They didn't realize they actually had a porterhouse. That's a lot more to it. And when you said that, Todd, it made me think of one of the things we all know about public education is that we just kind of move them through the turnstiles. Then you get to end of end of end of college testing and standardized testing and everything just goes off. And their ability to read, to do arithmetic, all those things are like horrifically low. Yet they graduate.

How did that happen? Because they're just kind of passing them through. Right. Are we to a certain extent doing that in the church? I think I think we have done that. I think we assume way too much at times just just based on the on presence or attendance as opposed to. And I think that's why mentoring is another topic there. I think that goes on that list is that, you know, not only who is in this journey of discipling my kids along with my wife and I, you know. But when they leave home, who will be discipling them? Who will continue to build on that foundation? And I just think it is of utmost importance as you're considering that that college for your child to think about whether that's a, you know, a state secular school or a Christian school is who specifically can you connect them with? That will continue that that process and that journey that they're waiting on them, that they're greeting them before they even get there.

Yeah. And a lot of parachurch groups would none would love nothing more than parents, grandparents, youth ministers to contact them. I mean, to say, hey, my child or my grandchild is coming incoming. You know, you may think that's awkward, but it's really not.

They would love for you. And whether that's, you know, here in North Carolina or elsewhere, it's it's not hard to find those places and those churches dedicated to be there to just to to continue this process of discipleship. Yeah. And I think that challenge there is would be self-evident once you suggest that to your graduating senior. And they're like, oh, come on. Yeah, because there is again, I mentioned this earlier, the human heart is not naturally bent towards God.

It's naturally bent away. And so even though you grow up and you go through all the motions and you go to church and your home school to private school, public school, whatever the case may be, a great youth group. You got baptized 22 times. You went to summer camp every summer, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

If they say enough already, I'm going to go to college. I don't necessarily need to jump right into church. I think, again, because we're at the answer is a program as opposed to discipleship. Right. Where it's never really been personal. Well, it's the relationships. And I think, of course, don't wait until senior year, senior year to then identify that person.

I would say when they're even in middle school into early high school years is that you and your spouse pray about who will come alongside you to be that other voice. I mean, you know how it is. You know, if I've talked to one of your children and they're like, oh, that's what my mom or dad said. Right. And it's like, yeah, but they need to hear it.

And we've been rejecting that for 5000 years. Right. What mom and dad said. Yeah.

That's why you need to hear it from somebody other. Yeah. And then as hopefully as they get older, you know, they'll realize, right, you're wiser. Yeah. You actually know something. Yeah, exactly. And that takes time.

It does take time. And again, it's about it's about relationships, relationship with Christ, but with those who are modeling what it looks like to love God supremely and to love his word more than other books. Now, God has taken you into. And by the way, speaking of other books, Todd is also the author of an excellent book. Before you leave for college career and eternity, I've got the links up for Amazon at Facebook Live feed as well as the Rumble feed. But if you just if you just Google that before you leave for college, that would be enough. You'll find it.

It'll pop right up on Amazon and you can get a copy. That's something you want to give away. Sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, neighbors, kids, people that are especially young people that are moving from one season of life to another in. Now, one of the things that God has allowed you to do, Todd, is you've gone on to college campuses and been able to meet college students in unlikely circumstances like a frat house. Mm hmm. And what are you running into there? What are you finding?

Yeah. So I was invited. And again, relationships I had.

There was a former student of mine from St. David's that went to University of Georgia. He invites me to come speak to, you know, hundreds of guys. And I show up in there are 12. The next time I came, there were 50. Wow.

And they want to talk. All right. Hold that thought. Yeah. See, now that's a phrase I use that one in my in my classes. This is a safe space. I always couch that with saying I don't believe in safe spaces in terms of like free speech issues, but in terms of a place where you can bring up your doubts and your questions.

Yes. My classroom is a place when you're speaking. It's a place we'll be right back. Welcome back at Steve Noble, The Steve Noble Show, a super important topic today. This is one of those conversations you want to not only invest in yourself, but share with other people.

The podcast, Facebook, Rumble, whatever the case may be, because we're talking about something that will touch most of our lives before it's all said and done. And that's our sons and daughters, grandsons, granddaughters struggling with their faith, maybe walking away from the faith, going off to college, going off into the into the, quote unquote, real world. And we see all kinds of carnage there in terms of kids walking away from the faith. They grow up in a good Christian home, which, by the way, good Christian parents can have children that make really bad decisions. OK, so if you're going to take the blame for every bad decision your kid makes, does that mean you're going to take the credit for all the good decisions they make? And where in that story does God exist? Be very careful with that.

God, the perfect father in the perfect setting, paradise. How'd that go with this first two kids? Just let that sink in for a second, because those kids had a free will.

So do yours, so do mine. So cut yourself a little bit of slack there. I struggle with that topic myself, but we all need to remember Grace and God is the big player. He's the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Not me, not Todd Von Helms, not you.

God is. So remember that to keep hope alive with whatever situation is going on with your son or daughter. But Todd wrote a great, great book before you leave for college, career and eternity. I'm so tired of looking at everybody's graduation pictures, but this is the perfect time of year to have this conversation. And so get a copy of that book for your son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter, their friends, anybody, young person that's kind of going from one season to the next. It's an incredible book, and God has been using it for several years now before you leave for college, career and eternity.

You can get it from Amazon. I've got the links up on Facebook Live and Rumble. All right. You mentioned that a former student of your St. David's is a private school here in the Raleigh area, and he goes off to University of Georgia. He's going to bring you down. You're going to come talk. Hey, there'll be a couple hundred guys there.

And there's 12. Well, he said there's a couple hundred in the fraternity. I had no idea who will come.

A lot of fish in the pond. And I said, well, God will bring who's supposed to be there. Sure enough, as we're there, I recognized another former student from St. David's that was not in that fraternity. Hadn't seen this kid literally in a couple of years.

So we're in. I just greeted him, but really didn't get to talk to him. So here I am talking to these guys about, you know, the spiritual realm.

Do you consider yourself a spiritual person? Well, tell me about that. You know, and they just they just start talking.

And so, you know, we're minutes into it. And all of a sudden, this kid, David, literally speaks up and says, guys, look, I know I'm not in your fraternity. Thank you, Robert. We went to the same high school. This guy was our chaplain.

And I'm here. And he says, guys, look, he said, I grew up in a Christian environment, St. David's school, heard the gospel all the time. I had teachers that modeled the faith for me. You know, I went through the motions.

I get to the University of Georgia. I was double major 4.0 partying all the time. You know, I had a girlfriend, everything. And he said, my world just started to kind of cave in. I had all kinds of issues.

I was drinking all the time, led to other things. And he said, one night, you know, I'm leaning against the bed. I look over at this mirror against the wall and I saw myself. And he said it was if God God was looking at me and said, this is not what I created for creating for so much more this.

He said, guys, I cried like a baby. I remembered the gospel. You know, and I think about Paul saying, you know, summer planting, summer watering, God brings the growth, the growth.

God brought the growth. And he said, guys, I cold turkey quit it all. The Lord is is everything to me now. And I'm living for him. And it's so contagious. And he says, if you guys are struggling when I talk about this, let's talk about this. Wow. That guy starts a Bible study in his fraternity. And they're looking at him going, dude, this joy, what you have. Right.

Don't brag. Which sounds like. We've heard that story.

We think we've heard that story before. Right. But in that context with a kid that's just willing to speak up and share. And, you know, because we're all prideful. Most people are struggling with various things.

Absolutely. No, but nobody wants to talk about it. And now you're in the loneliest generation because of the cell phone over here. And finally, somebody just shares.

They cut themselves open a little bit, bleed in the room. And now there's some honesty. OK, because most people are searching, aren't they?

Of course they are. And how many people? I mean, so many of these people don't have anyone in their life that they can truly be transparent with. Another another thing that I'm involved in are professionals in recovery. Alcoholics Anonymous.

Another God thing. I was invited to a Bible study in Little Rock. The next thing you know, a guy that was in it that's been sober eight years said he wanted to start a Bible study for these guys. And so once a month I go there. And when I walk in, I'm telling you, they don't know if I'm part of the group, officially or not, or even who I am. And yet the transparency, the brutal honesty, the grace that's shown there is the way the church should be.

And yet there's this perception, unfortunately. And I want to tell you the story about Atlantic Beach. Yeah. Coral Bay Club. Country Club.

A couple of years ago, I was asked to speak there for a summer series. It was mostly people over 65. It was a lot of people that members of the Raleigh Country Club or members there. They're awesome people.

Part of that, you know, that study a couple of years ago. Well, post covid this past summer, I was invited to go back. I get there's about 100 people. They're bringing in chairs as I'm about to speak. I see these this group of like 12 girls, 20 something's coming in.

They're tatted up, pierced, whatever. And I'm thinking, I don't remember seeing them before. I'm glad they're here. And so I'm just talking to them about identity and about grace. And I said, look, are we the product of some Darwinian means to where there is no soul? There is no no life beyond the grave. There is no God who determines right from wrong.

It's those in power, whatever. Or I said, or what if if we see what God's word says that were made in his image in Psalm 139, that you're fearfully and wonderfully made, that you're unique and like no other. You're cherished, that you and I are in the thoughts of God. And I look in these girls are getting emotional. And so when it's over, I said, look, and it doesn't matter if you remember this country club, it doesn't matter who your parents are. I said, salvation is it's a gift by grace, through faith, through safety, you can't boast.

And it's open to everyone. And these girls were so emotional. I said, when it's over, come talk to me. Two of them made a beeline to me when it was over. And I looked at them and I said, I'm so glad you were here. And I said, are you members of the country club? They said, no, we've never been to a country club. And I said, well, are you members with a church group? Did you come in?

They said, no, we don't go to church. And I said, well, I'm glad you're here. How'd you get here? They said, they said, we're addicts.

We're in a rehab program up the road. Someone came in this morning and said, hey, if you want to get out of here for a couple hours and hear some guy talking, get a free breakfast, you know, here you go. So they showed up, someone invited them to come and they came and what happened was they heard the gospel. They heard about grace. But I said to them, what was it that I said?

These girls are crying. They said, I can't believe that God would really love me. Right. Despite what I've done. And I said, well, have you ever heard, have you ever been to church? Have you ever heard that church? And they said, no, we have not. And they said, in fact, I didn't think I'd be welcome at any church.

Right. And I said, well, what are you going to do with your life? I said, because God does have a plan for you. And they said, well, look at us now.

I mean, we've got a long ways to go. I said, well, let me ask you something. If you had a young girl in your life that was going down that path you've been on, wouldn't you want to stop them and say there's a better way? They said, absolutely. And I said, that's going to be part of your ministry. And all of a sudden they're now smiling this tears of joy because I realize that's part of your ministry. So they will be able to relate to that to those people in ways that you and I never could.

That's right. And yet they're giving them this authenticity that they were given. In other words, they were given a space could have never planned it this way. But they heard the gospel.

Someone met him where they were. And it took a lot of people involved in this process. And so for those young girls, but these other people, these college students, how many of them have this place in which they can go and ask those questions, express those doubts and not feel less than or judged or whatever? Because sadly, when they're just hearing that don't do this or don't do that, they don't understand why.

You know, and that's the identity question, because when they come in there and that's why I want to throw my phone into the wall. Right. Because the whole social media digital world is you're never good enough, never pretty enough, never thin enough, never strong enough, never athletic enough.

Don't have enough of this. Nobody measures up except a few people at the top of the charts and everybody else. You're a loser. And that's going on with all of these young people. And it's even worse for girls. The CDC study, which I've referenced so many different times that came out a couple of months ago.

Suicide ideation, planning attempts, daily mental health struggles are up 40, 50 percent for teenage girls. In the last 10 years, nobody feels valuable. Nobody.

And so you go down the road of gender identity, you go down the road of sexual exploitation or exploration, whatever, because you're trying to find your value, which was established on a hill a couple of thousand years ago. But they've never heard that. They've never heard that. And I think one of our challenges is that we think, well, the world isn't interested in the gospel anymore. As long as the world's got human beings on it, they're going to be interested in the gospel because it's bred into them.

Right. Because they remain in the image of God. They're spiritual beings, whether they want to admit it or not. And just as we think about Romans 10, when Paul says if they can't hear the gospel, they can't believe it. Well, it's the same issue with identity. I mean, every one of us is guilty of putting something above Christ to receive our ultimate allegiance, whether that's sports, it's money, it's our income, it's our occupation, it's our family, it's a relationship or, you know, whatever it may be. And we're all guilty of it in the issues of identity that we're talking about that the young people are struggling with.

It's that false lie. I mean, back to Matthew four. Jesus is led into the wilderness. The enemy questions, did God really say? And then he says, if you're really the son of God.

Right. And for these young people, they're being it's in a similar way coming through the culture to say, does God exist? Is God's word really true? Are you really a child of God?

Are you even this particular gender that in which you were born? And yet if they if they see that, you know, the ethos of the culture telling them there's something better, many of them are so empty. They're looking to be accepted and be loved. And yet you and I both know only Christ can provide the ultimate love and identity. But who is in their life that can help them process this?

That's right. The deception and the confusion. Confusion is there. And so they're they're looking for meaning. They're looking identity for identity.

And they look everywhere. They don't go to the church because they assume they wouldn't be welcome. That's the whole lesson from the Jesus revolution. That's Chuck Smith and all the hippies.

He was the first one in Southern California to open his doors. And the next thing you know, you've got the Jesus revolution. The awakening takes off across the country. So much more to talk about with Todd Von Helms. We'll be right back.

Welcome back at Steve Noble, The Steve Noble Show. It's kind of. Well, it's not fun.

It's kind of sad. I think that with most of my students over the years, I've had 160 just this year alone. I've had over 800 in the last 11 years, all high school age students and in homeschoolers. And so but I think I could pretty much for most of them, based on what I've seen and what I've experienced, spending two semesters with them, four semesters with them, six semesters with them, depending on how many of my classes they take. I think it would be pretty easy to, if not wreck, then seriously damage most of their faith.

And I just have to ask them like one question. Why do you believe the Bible? Why do you believe something that was written in the Middle East two to four thousand years ago by a bunch of patriarchs?

Why do you believe that stuff? It condemns so many different people, groups that you're taught to hate homosexuals, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I think that's one of the challenges that's out there, Todd, is that I think we have a lot of students that aren't willing to defend the Bible. I don't even know that they can defend the Bible for their own belief.

And that's, of course, one of the topics here in Todd's book before you leave for college, career and eternity. And so these topics, the Bible matters, which is the first chapter, which is all and goes into the things where the Bible gets attacked, which they've been trying for a couple thousand years, by the way. Then there's questions at the end of the chapter, rejecting God, speak of the devil, what the hell, and talking to God about prayer, about the devil, about the hell itself.

And it really takes you down a bunch of roads that I think that we maybe fear to travel those when our kids are still at home, because they don't want to get too deep into it because we're afraid of what we might find. I don't think that's 100 percent accurate, but I think it's significant. Yeah. Well, so much in the book, it stemmed from my own journey and just what I've learned with students. And, you know, look, the ultimate problem, it's a human problem, and it's sin. And the remedy for that problem remains the same. And it's Christ. And it's his victory over sin, over death, over hell. And when we encounter the Lord every day, the risen Lord, his grace is sufficient. We meet God in his word. He speaks to us through his word. We respond in prayer.

It's that relationship. And I think what people will realize is that, you know, your heavenly father is better than any earthly father or parent. The Lord loves you more than you'll ever love yourselves or more than anyone else can love you. And there's not a single moment in our day in which we're not in the presence of the risen Lord. Therefore, anything we encounter to think that we're in the presence of the Lord, he's with us. His last words before his ascension is, I will be with you always, is that he is with us. And sometimes we don't live that way. Are we living our life today as if we're truly in the presence of the risen Lord, that the Holy Spirit empowers us, that his word does not return void? I think about in Isaiah 40, it says, what can stand against God's word?

It doesn't return void in 55. And yet we have to be equipped. We have to, as Paul says in Ephesians 6, put on the armor of God. You know, if the Bible is not informing our daily life, something else will be. For the young people in particular, the social media is bombarding them with anything and everything that is completely antithetical to the faith. But the problem is most of us don't know we're being deceived because we cannot discern the truth from the lies because we don't know God's word well enough to know. Now, I'm surrounded by Star Wars memorabilia and I love it. And if I were to come to you with some fictitious rendition or story of one of the episodes, you would immediately immediately notice the error.

You'd probably kick me off the show. Right. And yet with God's word, I think that the young people, they're being we're all being deceived. But yet do we know that we're being deceived? They say the best lies contain kernels of truth. Back to Matthew 4, when Jesus is tempted by the enemy, all three times he responds with scripture. When we're tempted, can we respond with scripture? And I think it's just got to be part of this, that foundation that is just there. And, you know, when you bark, you know, First Corinthians, this or Ephesians, whatever, people in the world, they don't want to hear it. They don't know it's confusing. But you can still say the truth.

You can share the words of scripture. How many times have I done that? And someone goes, oh, that's pretty good.

Where did you come from? It's actually in the Bible. It's in the Bible. Right. But so I cannot emphasize that enough, and that's why I spend the majority of the time in the book early on just establishing it as being authoritative, truly inspired by God and useful for rebuke, for teaching us right from wrong. And so that we're equipped for every good work that it's there. Yeah, I think that and that's the you know, we are talking about judgmentalism and stuff.

And several people were talking about it on online during the show. And I think that that's we have to change. I would if I had if I could launch my kids again and we're getting ready to launch our youngest. Caroline goes off to UNCW University of North Carolina Wilmington this fall.

And we'll have that conversation. What are you going there for? Other than your education and to get involved and do that. She wants to serve at Young Life.

She really wants to get into local high schools. What are you there for? God didn't hire Todd. He didn't hire me.

Didn't hire anybody listening or watching. You're not the Holy Spirit. It's not your job to convict the world of its sin.

You can't. Yeah. And so you go out there with the good news. And when you get into a conversation and people want to talk about right and wrong.

OK, that's fine. But that should not be primarily what you're known for is you should be known for you go out into the world. And instead of you're the minority who's being oppressed by everybody, you're you're on a rescue mission. Everybody else are the ones that are the fools. You're not. And I think a lot of our kids are just not ready for that on their own. They think of themselves as a depressed minority, like I'm out there and I got to defend my faith because it needs defending.

I understand the reality of that, but I think we have an inferiority complex that we shouldn't. You're the EMS guy. You're Michael Jordan. You want the ball. You have the gospel.

Get in the game and go rescue help to rescue people. Yeah. Holding fast to the faith that was once delivered to the saints in Jude three. And I see this. You know, I have people ask me, they say, well, do you think my child should go to a Christian college or a secular one? I say, well, it's different for each right child. Right. And as we look at what's happening in the culture, which of course I'm concerned about, it is is everyone. But every day someone says to me, I just don't know what's going to happen in the country and everything else. And I'm thinking, well, let's think about eternity. That's forever.

Yeah. Because even the longest life is brief thinking in comparison to eternity. And everyone either knows Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior or they don't. And how do you know that your your daughter or son, God may not want to go into this, quote unquote, secular environment because Jesus says you're to be light or as most light, most evident.

Yeah, but in darkness. So as it gets darker spiritually, intellectually, to me, I think there's never been a better time in our generation to be a Christian, to shine brightly for the Lord. So don't don't be scared of that. But again, make sure that there are those people there in place to pray for them with them and continue discipling your child because they're going to get beat up. And we need that. And we need to be asking those questions before they go off to college.

Where are you at? Like, what do you believe about the Bible? And again, this is the challenge that all of a sudden you're going to go from going through the motions and going through youth group and all that stuff to having very in-depth discipleship level conversations and be patient with it. But I think you've got to you've got to create that safe space.

I know we all get triggered by that phrase. But to talk about it, because you're going to get challenged and you're going to have all kinds of ideas coming to you and your flesh is going to want to follow after those things because you want to cut the shackles. Absolutely.

And then you've got to grow. Right. You don't want something to get in the way of your newfound freedom. Right. Right. And I remember having the Bible on the dresser and it ends up in the drawer because I was convicted.

Right. You were convicted. You look at this, but we've got to submit to the authority of the scripture no matter what.

And there will be consequences. But if the decision is based on that, when you're tempted by something, if you say, what does God's word say about this? Have I sought wise counsel?

Have I prayed? I think the answer is really clear. But when you've got, you know, the majority of people going to, you know, going this one direction and I think of Romans, you know, that says, you know, but be transformed by the renewed of your mind. You know, don't conform to the world, but be transformed or renewed of your mind. And so that, again, the solution remains the same is that we, you know, Christ is as supreme as the Lord and Savior. And then you understand that his word is the guide. Right. You know, and you know, what I love about this is that when we when when God's word speaks, I mean, when the word speaks, God speaks.

Yeah, that's right. Is that we is that we truly need to understand that is that we've been given such a weapon and shield every day. He's not mysterious.

He's been revealed. Right. And, you know, if you just read the word, it will transform our thinking. And read and then apply.

That's one of the big things I'm on in the classroom is applying biblical truth to the news of the day, to history, whatever the subject. Right. And then you really do. It really is like getting the secret Dakota ring. All of a sudden, things are going to start making a lot of sense.

They do. You'll understand human depravity. You'll understand broken heartedness.

You'll understand why one country does this to another country or one person does it to another person. And then, like Jesus, you should look out at those masses and weep because you know that they're like sheep without a shepherd. Yeah. And how well are we loving people who don't know Christ? How many people are we praying for daily who don't know Christ? I'm guilty of this. Oh, man.

You know, and I'm thinking. But if and if they don't see that, if they don't hear the gospel, they can't believe it. But they also need to see it lived out.

That's right. They need to see that not just what we say, but what we do, that there's a consistency that points to the truth of the one, the only one that enables us to live for him. Yeah. So when you're when your kid goes off to a secular campus, do they show up with their nose turned up? Or with their hand out, you know, looking, looking to go be a blessing to people and to meet people where they're at.

Yeah. And to bring the love and the truth and the gospel of Jesus Christ with them, as opposed to turning your nose up and go, I'm surrounded by all these things. And one thing I love when I hear, you know, and again, for your particular child, they maybe they are supposed to go to a Montree college or a Dallas Baptist University or Wheaton or wherever. But God also may want them to go to a very worldly place to be salt and light.

And that's beautiful because odds are they're going to end up there anyway. That's the real world. That is the real world. Yes. That's the world that Jesus sent his own people into. Yeah.

And he only had him for three years. Yeah, exactly. And he did send them out, you know, Luke 10 two by two. And I think there's a reason for that. He knew there would be opposition. He says the harvest is plentiful.

The workers are few. So as we wrap this up, that every child will be a voice for Christ. That's right. And we need to disciple them the best we can so that when they go, they'll be able to discern truth from lies and be a light and shine brightly for the Lord. Equip them with as much wisdom and discernment as we can while they're here before they leave. But when they go off to college and career and eternity, if we've done that and even if we haven't disciple, be patient, pray for them, walk with them, journey with them, stay with them.

Because the God because the Lord is never going to leave them or forsake them. Neither should you. Neither should me as well. Todd Von Helms, before you leave for college, career and eternity, always. We'll do some more of these this summer.

Absolutely. Well, because this is such a great topic we need to keep talking about. This is Steve Noble. You're welcome on The Steve Noble Show, God willing. I'll talk to you again real soon. And like my dad always used to say, ever forward. Another program powered by the Truth Network.