Daniel's Committment To God as a Teenager Kept Him Secure for the Rest of His Life.
A wonderful message was given on the occassion of over a hundred teenagers making a public committment to remain chaste and pure. The theme of the morning was from a national effort called "Love Waits Until Marriage". It was wonderful! Teary eyes and warm hearts and fullness of joy was everywhere. Girls and boys who had strayed were strengthened in new committment to trust God for purity in their life.
Highlights of the message include: Committment, Flee Temptation, Not Being a Basket Case, Being an Example for Others, and The Longer They're In Public School The More Bad Morals They Hear.
Committment: Daniel's committment to God as a teenager is an example for us to follow. Even as a stranger in a strange land, he did not follow the saying "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." Instead Daniel did what was right for him according to his faith towards God and his memories of the word of God. Examples include the food offered him to which he said "NO." The idols to which he said "No, I will not bow down." And the woman to whom he said "No." And fled from the temptation so it could not overcome him.
Daniel was an example to his three friends. The strength to follow through on his committment gave a lasting example for his friends to follow. Daniel did not cave in to peer or crowd or society pressure, but instead he gave them an example to follow.
FLEE FROM TEMPTATION: Obedience delayed is disobedience. Scripture says to flee from temptation. It is honorable to leave the area of temptation. Let us remember the warning of scripture to flee from the people or place where you are being tempted.
When you realize God's word instructs you to flee temptation, then you can have faith toward God to leave the scene. You can realize that leaving the scene is God's way for you to not be overcome. That if a young man or woman fails to leave the scene, to flee temptation, then they are falling short of God's pattern for deliverance.
Woe comes to those who foolishly walk into the temptress den saying to themselves that they hope God will keep them strong. Woe to those who eat poison of their own free will and ask God to keep them healthy, or ask God to use the poison to make them stronger.
NOT HIDEN IN A CLOSET! Are you a basket case? Is your Christian faith hidden under a basket? Is the light of Christ in your life kept under a basket where no one can see it? Do you call that 'wisdom'. Do you call that 'not being foolish'? Daniel didn't use the excuse so common today. He didn't say, "I can keep my faith private." He stood up and let all Bablylon see that he would not bow down to the golden idols. Basket cases need to be ripped open off your life so they no longer act as a case that is closed so no one can see your faith. Let the basket cases cast off their basket and cease hidding their lamp under a basket! Let all the believers come out of the closet and lift up the standard of Christ. Everyone else is coming out of their closets. It's way past time for Christians to obey God and cease hiding their light under a basket.
BEING AN EXAMPLE FOR OTHERS: If we cave in to pressure from society to conform to the world, then we can not be an example of Christ for others to follow.
If we remain silently opposed, then others cannot draw strength from hearing our boldness. Jesus said we are to be the salt of the earth. But salt that is not noticed is salt that has lost its flavor, there is nothing to make it stand out, and therefore it is good for nothing, useless and might as well be thrown away.
Pastor Dial said seventy percent of thirteen year old girls said they expected to remain virgin until marriage, but that only 30% of seventeen year old girls made the same statement four years later.
The public media bombards the children with advertisements of so called safe-sex. Children are considered uncontrollable animals who cannot restrain their passions and so they just need to be told to use a condomn and to encourage them they are given condomns for free so they can use them when they do have sex as the world expects them to do.
The question is raised, how do the state funded schools contribute to this moral degradation of our children during those years? How is it that the longer the children are in a public state-federal funded school system, the looser they get in morals? If you study the situation, you will see how the schools flood the children with literature of bad morals.
The youth group of Evangel Temple led by youth pastor Richard Norris studied on the issue of sexual purity for a long time prior to this event where the parents gave a ring of observance for sexual purity. Everyone was blessed, and the congregation joined hands accross the isles around the church and prayed for the youth.
Message given by Jack Dial, Pastor, Evangel Temple, Wichita Falls, Tx, Feb 9th, 1997
Summary as presented here was written by a father who was invited to attend the meeting on behalf of his two teenagers, a freshman and a senior. Sincerely, Larry A. Rice , ... IHS