1. We have looked at the reality of the mess we are in regarding the ministry’s need for

more full-time Christian workers. There can be no doubt that we must recruit

more Christians into "the fields that are already white unto harvest."

2. What caused the decrease in soldiers on the battlefield?

a) I don’t think anyone planned for us to be on the road we are on, but we are

headed for a serious situation.

b) We can count on one thing: Satan is behind much of this...he is the great

Deceiver and Diverter.

c) If he cannot have your soul, then he will work to simply neutralize our lives,

moving them away from the things that are most important to God.

We have studied that David was a man after God’s own heart because

he loved the things that God loved, he cared about the things that God

cared about, and he hated the things that God hated.

Are we truly Christians today that have a heart for the things God has?

3. This week and next week we will be looking at the things that have divert good people,

Christians, away from the ministry.

*******

1. The flower children of the 60’s were protesters with a cause. Many were

wild and full of hate for "the establishment." It was a generation of

college students in full rebellion against authority and tradition.

They helped usher in "free love" and "free speech." They were

defiant in every sense of the word.

2. But the children of the flower children are interested in things much

different than what interested their parents. They have no major

3. You can tell it in their heroes. It moved from Beaver Cleaver to Alex P.

Keaton... well-dressed, in control of themselves, articulate, and

4. We’ve always had our own self-interests, but never quite as blatant as

we see it in this generation....that looks out for Number One.

1. They are looking for money-making careers.

a) They want to know what "the perks" are....the benefits package,

that invisible paycheck.

b) It’s crept into the ministry as well. It’s not unusual to interview

prospective dayschool teachers, principals, or even pastors

and they’re interested mainly in: "How much?"

2. Responding to this desire to make money many Christian colleges have

adapted their programs to teach them how to make money. It’s

not unusual in many Christian-based colleges to find that the

number one major is Business....it can be as high as one-third to

one-half of the student body.

3. Many of the ads placed for recruiting students are in one of the following

categories: general, nursing, psychology, computer science, accounting, or business.

Rarely do you see an ad for some specific area of the ministry:

preachers, evangelists, missionaries, day school teachers, youth

workers, music ministers.

Why is this? Because most of today’s youth exhibit little interest in

sacrificing their goals for the goal of world evangelism.

4. It’s as if life-time ministry is not even in the list of serious considerations

The truth is they just want to be left alone. They want to live out the great American dream. They want to get married, have a family, a nice car, a big house, and a job that pays them a lot of money.

5. It’s not what God wants is best for them, but what they want is best for them.

6. It is a cruel diversion of Satan to convince Christians that the good life

is here and now.

May we be reminded of the words of our Lord:

there will your heart be also.

7. It’s not that these other professions are not legitimate professions, but

as more and more go into these areas the pool of candidates for

lifetime service for the Lord is REDUCED.

It’s a matter of choosing what is good and in so-doing losing that

which is best.

*******

1. Not only do the young people today have to contend with secular self-

interests, but most have parents that contribute to the problem of

the vanishing ministry.

a) In the case of many parents stuck in careers with no future, this upward mobility must be lived out in the lives and careers of their children.

b) Isn’t it normal that we not want our children to go through the

same struggles we went through?

c) We want to spare them the agony of "making it on their own," the

way we had to....so we push them in every area of life.

d) Illustration: We see this most clearly at times when our children

become old enough to play sports. It may be a baseball or softball team, maybe even soccer. But the parents push the child to excel to the degree that it’s no longer just a game, but an acquired skill that may buy them a ticket into college or the professional level. How many times have you seen this scenario at the neighborhood ball park?

3. But the most evident area is not sports, but in education.

a) Parents think so much about their children’s upward mobility

that the professional level is emphasis throughout elementary

and high school.

b) Parents are very free to give advice about what college to go to

and what majors to choose.

And so the parents push their children.

4. "Sometimes we’re so concerned to give our children what we never had while growing up, we neglect to give them what we did have while growing up."

5. The typical parent-child conversation regard career-choice:

a) Tell us what’s wrong with this conversation.

b) The whole conversation centers around the son’s ability to live in

this world when it is much more important that he know how to live for the next.

their ability to serve the Lord, not themselves and their own self-

interests.

a) It’s the fear that they might end up on a mission field in rags

and poverty.

b) Or it’s the fear that their daughter might end up the wife of a

preacher, trying to pastor a small church in some remote

part of the country....too many miles away from home.

2. Mark 8:34-36...

and lose his own soul?

3. For all of us, our children are our treasures.

a) It is not wrong to want God’s best for them, but we bear a

responsibility, like Hannah and Eunice, to give our children to God.

b) Perhaps, parents need to take a second look at baby dedication

services.

Do we dare dedicate our children to God in a sentimental service when they are infants, but then shield them from seriously considering full-time Christian work in their teenage years?

4. Parents, you need not worry about the welfare of your children when

you give them to God. In fact, they are in safer hands with Him

than they are with you.

Don’t be afraid of directing your children into the ministry; if

God doesn’t want to use them in this way, he’ll hive them back to

business, industry, or education.

5. Upward mobility parents are Christians with a small "c," but they are

capitalists with a large "C."

6. The greatest gift a Christian parent can give God is to give them what

He already owns---our children. They were His before they were

born, and they are His even after they are born. We are only to

nurture and train them to serve God...they are, in fact, on loan

to us.

And isn’t that what God did for us? Didn’t He give to us the

dearest thing to Him---His only begotten Son?

How can we do less?

7. If you won’t let them go to a Christian college more than 200 miles away, it’s not likely that you will direct them into full-time Christian work.

*******

1. Parents must get back to looking at what the Bible says about our children.

2. When we fear, we show distrust.

3. God is worthy of our trust, even with our children.

4. Happiness is not found the accumulation of things, in the acquiring of possessions,

not in the cars we drive or in the houses we live in.

We say it, but do we really believe it?

5. We have this saying over the doors of our cafeteria, to be a reminder to everyone,

both parents and children: