Leading The Way

Guest (Male): Pastor and author of more than 50 faith life-inspiring books, Dr. Michael Youssef is here and ready to begin this episode of Leading the Way Audio. The normal of just a few years ago is already radically transformed. Nothing is as it was before.

Here is what I mean. Truth is more relative than ever. Truth is, more than ever, defined by political and societal expediency. Truth is now even more divisive. Family fighting family, friend against friend, neighbor against neighbor. In places where previously everyone held opinions and personal viewpoints but with respect, not anymore.

Many are holding out hope that biblical values return as the standard of truth. Up next, an encouragement from Dr. Michael Youssef to not despair when you see culture's divided stance and a biblical challenge to deepen your foundation in truth to declare hope for the generations. Let's listen in as Dr. Michael Youssef shares a message he's called Embracing Your Mission.

Dr. Michael Youssef: For years, Marxist ideologies in the West have targeted five different institutions. It's in the writing; I'm not making this stuff up. The highest among them in terms of priority was education, believing if we brainwash kids, all the other four will follow suit, which is social, political, religious, and family. I'm using their language even.

Marxists believe that the nuclear family breeds inequality in society. For equality or, as they call it, social justice to occur, the nuclear family of father, mother, and children has to be destroyed. For equality or social justice to become reality, the concept of individualized achievement must be replaced. Why do you think everybody gets a trophy for participation? That is not by accident. It didn't just happen. It's been planned for a long time.

Yesterday's brainwashed children are now the professors and the teachers. In fact, the Communist Manifesto spells it out. It spells it out that monogamous nuclear family succeeds only in capitalism, and capitalism makes people dependent on religion. Instead, they said social justice will make people dependent on the government.

Ultimately, none of their goals can be accomplished without creating a crisis. Creating a crisis, even anarchy. If you read any of the writings of the militant secularists, people like Sam Harris, you'll find that in his book, for example, The End of Faith, he unapologetically wants our children to reject the biblical faith.

There is no greater expression, he said, of the rejection of biblical faith than the acceptance of homosexuality as the norm and transgender. They say it's a matter of fairness. What they don't tell you is that 41% of those who go through the surgery of transgender commit suicide. They don't tell you that because the culture of death is who they are. That is why millions of babies get aborted—culture of death.

Beloved, God called us to implement, to encourage the culture of life. Why am I so passionate about this? Because, my believing friends, the scripture tells us that our next generation is our greatest asset. Our next generation is our most important investment.

Turn with me to Psalm 127, please, and keep it open in front of you because that is what I will be going through. Psalm 127, verse 3 says, "Children are a heritage from the Lord." Heritage from whom? The Lord. Not from society, not from anybody else, but it is from the Lord.

Children are a heritage from the Lord. He entrusted them to us. The next generation is our most treasured possession that God entrusted to us. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children of one's youth. Let me explain at the outset that this psalm has a primary application and a secondary application.

The primary application of the psalm is for the family. The secondary application is for the church. In verse 1, he begins by reminding us of the sovereignty of God—the God who has given us everything, the God who has given us our children, the God who is giving us the next generation.

God is the one who can and must be trusted to uphold the next generation. Then the Psalmist hastened to tell us our responsibility toward the next generation. The word of God makes it very clear that even our responsibility cannot be accomplished without God's power and God's strength working in us.

Beloved, the one thing we better not do is squander his gift or give that gift everything except the one most important thing of all, and that is for them to know and love God. That is to love and obey his word, and that is to honor and revere his word. I know there are so many parents who work so hard to provide for their children, and I thank God for that.

They leave out the most treasured responsibility. That is the responsibility of training them as warriors for God. That is consistently reminding them of their importance in the kingdom of God. That is continuously drilling in their mind how mightily they can be used of God. The greatest success in life is to be light for Jesus wherever they may be.

Let's look back again at verse 1, Psalm 127. "Unless the Lord builds the house." Why do we build houses? For the family. "Unless the Lord guards the city." Why do we have cities? So the families can live in them. Unless the Lord builds the house, unless the Lord guards the city, it all begins with focus on the Lord. Otherwise, we'll feel so overwhelmed. Like a mom that I talked to not long ago, so overwhelmed that she said, "I want to give up." Please don't give up. We are here to stand with you.

The Lord gave us a precious gift, an invaluable gift of the next generation. What do you do with a gift? Do you lock it up in a safe? Do you put it on the table for display? No. You use the gift, you train the gift, you deploy the gift, you exercise the gift. The first thing you do with a precious gift is to recognize its immense value.

Feel a sense of responsibility toward the giver of the gift. Do anything possible to honor the giver of the gift. Invest everything to deploy that gift. Reliance on the giver of the gift to build the next generation, to encourage the next generation, to instill a sense of responsibility for the future generation, to constantly remind the next generation that they are a gift from God. They are a vital link in the chain, the ones who will be responsible for the future generation.

They are to be an arrow. I'm going to tell you more about arrows and why the Bible uses that imagery. Sadly, there are some who let their next generation be a dartboard, constantly absorbing arrows from the enemy. A dartboard constantly until finally it collapses. A dartboard is a target, but instead, God says we are to be a weapon.

Verse 4 literally means as an arrow in the hand of a mighty warrior. In the ancient world, an arrow is the most lethal weapon used in warfare. That is why the Bible describes Satan's attack on us with arrows. He calls it fiery darts. In Ephesians, when it talks about the armor of God, it says the shield of faith makes those arrows fizzle out. Those fiery darts get neutralized before they impact you.

Please don't miss what I am going to tell you. In the time of war, you are either an arrow or a target. If you are only passive, if you are only indifferent, if you are only in a defensive posture all the time, you will keep on absorbing the enemy's arrows. That is not what we or those who are entrusted to us are supposed to be. We are to go on the offensive.

We are to learn how to aim our arrows. We are to learn how to invade the enemy's territories. I am not minimizing the defensive posture; it is important. But if you place yourself and those whom God entrusted you to go on the offensive, you will experience the unbelievable thrill of victory.

The Psalmist does not say the next generation needs to learn to be a nice dartboard. Look at it with me. Arrows. Arrows require a whole lot of different thinking, a different strategy, a different mindset, a different posture. Above all, learn to place yourself in the hand of the greatest bow holder in the universe. I'm talking about the Holy Spirit.

Let me give you some training, some help regarding arrows. First of all, the arrow is very quick. It really is fast. You put that arrow in the bow and it can go long distances. It moves with lightning speed. An arrow is not often seen. Some of your greatest impact—and we might not be able to see this until you get to heaven—your greatest impact is what you have done or will do without a lot of fanfare.

Your greatest ministry in pouring into the lives of the next generation may not be visible. But remember this: in ancient times, an arrow had a long-range capability. Isaiah 49:2 tells us basically the same thing. Throughout the scripture, it is the same concept. He speaks about the power of the word, the power of the word of life to the next generation.

The word will be like an arrow because of the Holy Spirit's power in it. Listen to what the word of God said: "He made my mouth like a sharpened sword; in the shadow of his hand he hides me. He made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver." In Jeremiah 51:11, same thing: "Sharpen the arrows." Beloved, this is the time. Sharpen the arrows. Take up the shields for defensive purposes.

Why do you sharpen the arrow? For God's glory and for our blessing. There is something else I need to tell you about arrows before I finish. Arrows used to carry messages. Sometimes you put a message in it and send it to the enemy and the enemy would read it. Other times, an arrow was used as a sign.

If you remember in 1 Samuel 20:21, David and Jonathan were close friends. David is on the run from King Saul. Jonathan said to him, "If the arrow goes to this side, it means that; and if it goes to the other side, it means the other thing." It is a sign. His arrow served as a message.

To be sure, an arrow can be used for good or for evil. Satan uses arrows as well. When we bathe our training of the next generation in prayer, the next generation will become arrows in the greatest hand of all. Don't miss what I am going to tell you. The anti-God forces, the anti-biblical forces, the anti-family forces—they are organizing, scheming, and planning their arrows to be used for evil against the next generation.

That is why you and I have no option but to train the next generation. We need to train them not just to wear the shield of faith in order to neutralize the fiery darts of Satan, but we need to train them to be arrows themselves. Train them to be alert, not to be deceived. The deception that we are seeing in our culture today—the smooth talking, the double talk, the deceitful slogans that sound so good but they have poison in them.

We need to equip them to be sharp arrows in the hand of the holy mighty God. We need to train them not to fear intimidation, manipulation, and wanting to be accepted at any cost. Above all, we need to train them how to pray and live and walk with the Lord.

Listen, this cannot be done just by speaking. It has to be modeled. Most often, it is more caught than taught. Teaching is important. You cannot say, "Do what I say, don't do what I do." They are watching what we do. That is why the Psalmist said, "Unless, unless." Say it with me.

Crowd: Unless.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Unless. Unless God's word is at the center of life, God's word is at the center of the family, God's word is at the center of the church, God's word is at the center of community. We can spend trillions of dollars in education, but we will end up with a collapsed society. Albert Schweitzer said, "Example is not the main thing in influence. It's the only thing."

Let me conclude by telling you a story. The year was 1871. In that year, there was a man by the name of Henry M. Stanley. He was a reporter with the New York Herald newspapers. The New York Herald wanted to send Stanley to Africa. Henry M. Stanley was assigned to go to Africa to report on the missing missionary statesman, Dr. Livingstone.

From 1865 to 1871, nobody heard from Dr. Livingstone in Africa, and so many people thought he was dead. Five years had passed and they had not heard a thing from him. Remember, he was the first white man to go into the interior of Africa and see Victoria Falls. After his wife's death, Dr. Livingstone just threw himself totally into his mission and his work and his serving in Africa.

In 1871, Stanley finally went to find him. He traveled in Africa and caught up with him on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, which now is Tanzania. For over a year, Henry Stanley shadowed Dr. Livingstone. Morning, night, evening—every minute of every day, he shadowed him. He followed him everywhere he went.

Among other things, he was really there to try to persuade Dr. Livingstone to return to England. After spending considerable time with him, Stanley wrote the following words: "Had my soul been of brass and my heart of tin, the powers of my head surely compelled me to recognize with due honor the spirit of godliness which manifested itself in him.

Had there been anything of the Pharisee or the hypocrite in him, or had I but traced a grain of meanness or guile in him, I would have turned away a skeptic. But my everyday study of him during health or sickness deepened my reverence and increased my esteem. He was, in short, consistently noble, upright, pious all the days of my companionship of him."

My beloved friends, if we are to pray and guide and train the next generation, we will be doing great exploits for God. If we are going to do great exploits for God in the lives of the next generation, we better learn how to model Christ to the next generation. We had better set our lives as role models so that they can see, not just hear, how to do great things for God.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Embracing Your Mission, a special message from Dr. Michael Youssef on Leading the Way Audio. Before our time is completely gone, this reminder that if you ever want or need to speak with a Leading the Way pastor or counselor about spiritual things, the place to begin is LTW.org/Jesus. Go there today. LTW.org/Jesus.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Friends, we all live busy lives and we are running around. What becomes a victim of our busyness is our time with God. I have a resource for you: The Daily Way. It's a few moments every morning or night to bless you, to encourage you, and it will motivate you.

Guest (Male): Begin your day with the timeless wisdom of scripture and be encouraged as you reflect on Dr. Michael Youssef's daily devotional, The Daily Way. Journey with Dr. Youssef into the very heart of God through 365 daily Bible readings and devotional reflections designed to help you grow in Christ.

In The Daily Way, you'll be reminded that God's grace is for our past, present, and future, transforming us into the people he intends us to be. The Daily Way is available now for your gift of any amount to Leading the Way at LTW.org. That's LTW.org. This is a limited-time offer, so do it now.

LTW.org is the place where you can submit your secure order, or one of the ministry representatives at the call center would be so happy to help you. Call 866-626-4356. Once again, that's LTW.org. You can always write to Dr. Youssef as well. Leading the Way, Post Office Box 20100, Atlanta, Georgia 30325.

That's Leading the Way, Post Office Box 20100, Atlanta, Georgia 30325. This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Connect further with audio and video content at LTW.org.