GYC 2014: At The Cross

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Raising the Remnant

Scott Ritsema

1. Schooled and Media-Addicted: The Out-Sourcing of Parenting and Its Tragic Results

This message was presented at the GYC 2014 conference at the Cross in Phoenix, Arizona.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

Father in heaven, we thank you so much for children.

What a joy they are, but what a responsibility we have as the people of God.

Lord, as we think about raising up this last generation, this remnant of children, we pray that your Spirit would do the teaching, that you would remove from our minds and thoughts any of our preconceived notions or opinions, including especially my own, that your will would be made known.

Can you name the 3 biggest events in the history of redemption?

The 3 biggest events in the history of redemption, past or present and future.

Certainly the first coming of Christ would be up there, right?

First coming of Christ, cross, resurrection, all of that.

How about what we're in the middle of right now?

The judgments and the soon coming of Jesus.

Something that happened in the Old Testament that was hugely pivotal in launching the redemptive movement of God's people.

I would rank those 3 as the top 3 biggest most important events in redemptive history.

The Exodus, the first coming of Christ, and the judgment and second coming of Christ.

Now what's interesting about these 3 is they all have something in common.

When you take a look at the Exodus, it was a child, Miriam, who played a key role in saving her brother Moses and bringing about the leader of God's people.

Children also announced Hosanna to the Son of David.

So if this pattern holds child, children, what about right now?

And not just this, but we read this in Councils to Parents, Teachers and Students.

As the children sang in the temple courts, Hosanna!

Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord!

So in these last days, children's voices will be raised to give the last message of warning to a perishing world.

This is what I was trying to get across on the stage in my 20 seconds.

It's like, how do you communicate anything in 20 seconds?

When heavenly intelligences see that men are no longer permitted to present the truth, The Spirit of God will come upon the children and they will do a work in the proclamation of the truth which the older workers cannot do because their way will be hedged up.

In the closing scenes of this earth's history many of these children and youth will astonish people by their witness to the truth, which will be born in simplicity, yet with spirit and power.

In the near future, many children will be endued with the Spirit of God and will do a work in proclaiming the truth to the world that at that time cannot well be done by the older members of the church.

Do you remember reading the great controversy about the children in Scandinavia during the time of the Reformation and the Advent Awakening that would just be endued by the Spirit of God proclaiming the Gospel message?

And we have the privilege of raising up that remnant.

It just gives me chills to think about what's coming.

So you might say, well, I'm not a parent.

First of all, if you're a church member, then this issue of parenting matters to all of us because the children of the church are the responsibility of all of us and not just the parents.

But also, before taking upon themselves the responsibilities of father and motherhood, I'm talking to the youth now, before you look into this thing of hey, maybe I'd be of marriageable age soon and I'd be looking for a potential spouse who I would want to train and educate children for the Lord with.

Before you do that, men and women should become acquainted with the laws of physical development, with physiology and hygiene, with the bearing of prenatal influences, with the laws of heredity, sanitation, dress, exercise, the treatment of disease, they should also understand the laws of mental development, moral training, to assume this responsibility of parenthood without such preparation is a sin.

So, pretty serious statement that we don't head into adulthood without thinking about the issues at stake and becoming prepared.

You might say well that's a lot, that's quite a list, how am I supposed to do all that?

Parents may well inquire who is sufficient for these things.

Becoming a parent is kind of an intimidating, scary thing if you think you're doing it in your own strength.

Because you're going, I can't pull this off.

I can't form and develop a little child's character and do all of these things and be a Bible teacher and be all of these things to my children.

Well, Parents may well inquire, who is sufficient for these things?

Now, another thing though, what else happened?

Exodus, first coming of Christ, second coming of Christ, what else happened at that time that should make us take up and sit up and take warning?

In the time of the Exodus, you had the Pharaoh issuing the edict to throw all the Jewish babies in the Nile.

Yes, killing the children in and around Bethlehem.

So my question is, if at the first time around, the children were under the attack of the enemy, can we expect that same thing?

And that's what this session particularly is about.

I hope you're staying throughout the 6 sessions.

This session will be very different from the others in that session 1, we are looking at the outsourcing of parenting and its tragic results.

What American families have done to hand over the parenting of their children to the media and to the schools of our land.

And it is Satan's attack upon our children.

The powers of darkness strive to gain control of the human mind.

Now, this is not just something Satan is doing, it's actually the parents themselves give their children to Satan with their own hands.

Like the apostate Jews, making them pass through the fire of Molech.

That's a pretty serious comparison, isn't it?

Just like the Jews of old would hand their children over to be sacrificed to Moloch, we are doing the same thing in the 21st century in our time.

Parents handing their children over to Satan with their own hands.

Letting the media, letting strangers raise their children.

But we should be watching with jealous care the first approach of the wily foe." This is a serious quote.

You are not secure a moment against the attacks of Satan.

You have no time to rest from watchful, earnest labor.

You should not sleep a moment at your post.

Now that 1 really brings home to me the seriousness, the significance of this issue of parenting.

I can't just go into this in a cavalier manner thinking that it's no big deal.

So for the remainder of this session, we're going to pull from 2 seminars of mine, Media on the Brain and Schooled.

Now I did this 1 last year at GYC, so I'm going to do very little on media this morning.

2. What Successful Parents Do Differently: Spirit of Prophecy and Recent Research Meet Again – Part 1

Father in heaven, we thank you so much for the privilege of caring for and discipling these little ones.

We know you love them infinitely, infinitely more than we do And our hearts go out to them as we see how the enemy is attacking them on every front.

And we know that that's a fulfillment of prophecy in the last days.

But we also know that you are raising up a generation to share the final message of hope and warning with the world as children.

And so Father, we know that we are not to put afar off the close of time, that your coming is imminent and soon.

And our children today, we expect them to go through the very last days as children.

And so we pray that you would prepare them, strengthen them, give us a bond of love and unity and purpose that we as your people may go into these last days with confidence, with joy and purpose.

Adventist home, page 31, has a phrase that jumped out at me when I was reading it.

It says, guarding the home against satanic influences.

Now the second I saw that phrase, I said immediately, I need to read the rest of that sentence.

Because I want to know how to guard my home against satanic influences.

Raise your hand if you want your home guarded against satanic influences.

You ready for the first part of the sentence?

It says other families will mark the results attained by a godly home.

So you mark the results attained by a godly home and you follow the example set.

In their turn guarding the home against satanic influences.

So how do we guard our home against satanic influences?

But this is saying you will actually guard your home against satanic influences by looking around at families that have had positive results in their parenting.

And then doing, marking the results and following their example, so long as it harmonizes with the Bible and spirit of prophecy.

And that is exactly what we're doing for the next 3 sessions.

This session is called 21st, 19th Century parenting councils meet 21st century research.

And you see the research again and again, whether it's in the science and health field or the parenting field, all of it is confirming what we've known all this time.

George Barna is the man that did the research in the evangelical community.

He went out in search of the spiritually strong young adults of America and the churches.

The people who read their Bibles, who give more than their tithe and offering of money and time.

You're spiritually strong people, the kind of people we all want to be.

And he found them and asked them and interviewed them and asked how were they raised?

What kind of parenting produces 1 of these fine young adults who stay in the church but doesn't just stay in the...

That's setting the bar way too low, stay in the church.

You can be a, you know, a Laodicean Christian in the church.

Spiritual strength is something altogether different.

He found out by interviewing and surveying not just the young adults but their parents what kind of parenting produced this spiritual strength as they headed into adulthood.

And Which brings me to a major disclaimer, because when we look at certain strategies that have a tendency to produce positive results, there are no guarantees in a world of free will.

You read God himself raised and cared for children that have rebelled against him, Isaiah 1, verse 2.

So if you're a parent whose children are grown and your heart is just aching over children who have left the church and left the faith, God knows that pain because he's experienced.

1 third of his children in heaven rebelled against him, and he was the perfect parent.

So we can parent perfectly and still, well, listen to the quotation, parents may do everything in their power to give their children every privilege and instruction in order that they may give their hearts to God, yet the children may refuse to walk in the light.

Now, does that mean we can just parent however we want and it makes no difference?

According to both research and inspiration, we dramatically increase our chances for children's spiritual success by parenting well.

So I don't want to just hang out in this land.

The rest of the seminar is going to go contrary to that in the sense that we need to now ask ourselves what can we do to help increase their chances of spiritual success.

But I put this on the screen so the older members of the church don't beat themselves up and walk around with shame and guilt over where the direction their children have gone.

You may have made mistakes, you did, we all have, we all do.

And there's no perfect parent and children do have free will and decision.

For those who are in the mindset of I am a parent, I'm moving into marriageable age, I want to think about parenting.

I want you to be very, very, very careful with parenting counsels, or with anything from the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy.

When you hear it presented, you need to be studying for yourself.

Read through child guidance, read through Adventist home, because it's very easy to selectively quote Spirit of Prophecy or Bible verses for that matter in a way that brings an imbalance.

For example, you could quote just this quote right here, Children should not be led to feel that they cannot go out or come in without being watched.

Suspicion demoralizes, producing the very evils it's seeking to prevent." True statement.

But 1 could take that and go, oh, well, if they're not supposed to be led to feel that they can't go out or come in without being watched, then we can just kind of let the kids go off and do what they want and do their own thing and not be around mom and dad.

If you only had that 1 quote, you might draw that erroneous conclusion.

But there are other quotes to bring in some balance here.

Parents generally put too much confidence in their children.

For often when the parents are confiding in them, they are in concealed iniquity.

Parents watch your children with a jealous care.

And then here's where he brings it together and clarifies the issue.

So we're not just letting them go get a street education.

But you do not need to let them see that you are ever guarding them.

They are not to be led to feel that they are being demoralized and suspicious and all of this kind of thing.

So that's an example of how we need to bring in all the quotations on a relevant topic to have the correct perspective.

Now what you're about to hear comes from mainly 3 seminar series, DVD series that our ministry has produced.

Raising the Remnant is just kind of the bare bones.

Here's what the Barnard Research has found.

Here's where Adventist Home lines up with that.

Since that, I've expanded that into what you're seeing today.

This right here is 1 of my favorite things we have because the Lord brought this together in an incredible way.

I reached out to some of my favorite parenting minds within Adventism today.

Kuzmuk, Cynda Osterman, a friend of mine in Michigan, Don McLaugherty, my new friends Paul and Carolyn Raine who happen to be here and these guys have some insights from the Lord that are absolutely powerful and we put it all together in how to raise the remnant.

So you're going to hear a little bit of tidbit from that that I've borrowed from these guys but mostly we'll just be going through the research.

Also my good friend Joshua White, man this guy is a researcher, He's got some incredible stuff on early childhood development.

I said, hey, can I record you sharing this stuff?

And then he went out and got a bunch more interviews and put together 8 discs of powerful parenting and education and child development material.

So all 3 of those are sort of the package right now with our ministry, still working on more in this area because we really, really feel strongly about the children within our church.

First thing, I have to ask the question, why are we asking what are they like?

Most people just want, give me the 10 steps of how to have a new child by this, tomorrow, right?

I mean, it's like, give me the simple to-do list, strategies.

I want the strategies and I will apply them.

We're starting in the wrong place with that.

Give me the strategies doesn't work because the single biggest factor in your child's spiritual success is who you are.

3. What Successful Parents Do Differently: Spirit of Prophecy and Recent Research Meet Again – Part 2

Are You ready for the fourth way that these parents, and perhaps this is the most important of all the reasons that we call them true disciplers the parents who had success in the studies truly believe they were the ones who discipled their children and they wanted to develop their children's character.

And that's really what parenting is, isn't it?

Character development and parenting are nearly synonymous.

That's what we're doing when we parent is we're trying to help point our children to Jesus in faith so they can develop a character fit for heaven.

And so you think about all the different possible character traits that you could have and we won't be able to exhaustively cover all of the different elements of Christian character today.

That's a huge, expansive, exhaustive study that we're not going to do.

But I do want to ask this question and then go through just a couple examples.

When do you start training children's characters?

From babyhood, The character of the child is to be molded.

The parent's work must begin with the child in its, what?

During the first 3 years of the life of Samuel, this is amazing.

Samuel the prophet was raised by his mother for the first 3 years.

And then for the rest of his childhood, he was raised by 1 of the worst parents in all the Bible, Eli, right?

And the life of Samuel, he was taught in those first 3 years by his mother to distinguish between good and evil.

That's what set him up to be 1 of the greatest prophets in all times.

God has given parents their work to form the characters of their children after the divine pattern.

By his grace, they can accomplish that task, but it will require, first of all, requires his grace.

And it requires patient, painstaking effort.

No less than firmness and decision to guide the will and restrain the passions of that child.

A field left to itself produces only thorns and briars.

So this is something we are actively doing.

It's not, well, they'll figure things out.

It's something we are doing day after day, month after month, year after year.

The work is to go on till the character of your child is formed and the habit's established in the right way.

Christian mothers have performed the most important of all missionary labors.

This sounds familiar from stuff we heard earlier this morning, doesn't it?

Their children are the greatest evidence of Christianity that can be given to the world.

Our children, when they are following the Lord, obedient, polite, reverent, Christian character formed children are the greatest evidence of Christianity that can be given to the world.

I've had to amputate a lot from this presentation.

We're working on an expanded Raising the Remnant that will be out in a few months that includes a lot of this as well.

The first study of the young should be to know themselves and how to keep their bodies in health.

That's actually part of character development, is health education.

Recklessness in regard to bodily health tends to recklessness in moral character.

Do not neglect to teach your children how to cook.

In so doing, you impart to them principles which they must have in their religious education.

Parents should train the appetites of their children and should not permit the use of unwholesome foods.

The importance of training the child to right dietetic habits can hardly be overstated.

Grains, fruits, nuts and Vegetables constitute the diet chosen for us by our Creator.

Meat should not be placed before our children.

Its influence is to excite and strengthen the lower passions and has a tendency to deaden the moral powers.

I was thinking about this verse, Titus 1.2.

So you might have learned as a kid, God can do anything.

You know, He is omnipotent and all powerful, but He can't sin.

So our God is a God of integrity, perfect truthfulness and honesty.

And we want our children to reflect that as well.

Sometimes we parents, well, you know, sometimes we just kind of need to lie to them, you know, for their own good.

How about do we do this with our children?

Series

Raising the Remnant

2. What Successful Parents Do Differently: Spirit of Prophecy and Recent Research Meet Again – Part 1

Transcript

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