The Special Ops Generation

Now I have a fifty minute sermon for you today.

No I don't.

But if we get those slides up, we're gonna have prayer.

We're going to focus our thoughts on the theme of pathfinders,

and let's pray, Father guide us as we open the

Bible for a little in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Now, young people, God is calling you to a very

special calling in life. He is not calling you to

anything less than to be the Special Ops generation. Say

it with me, the Special Ops generation. Now, I don't

go and I have a family member who is in

the Special Ops. When they are called to duty, they

go anywhere in the world. When they're called to duty,

they stand for something. They rescue lives. Next slide. They

can drop from the air.

Whatever they need to do, they do it. Now. Look,

one day Jesus is coming.

He's dropping from the air, and he's calling on a

generation before he returns to be able, to be able

and willing to share Christ with integrity.

I want to go to the Book of Daniel.

Our children's story is beautifully tied to this next slide,

and let's look at Daniel one to eight. Is that

my first slide? There you go, Thank you actually not

the Book of Daniel. Let's just go in order. This

is from the Spirit of Prophecy, Sister White's quoting Forbes

Magazine online, which shows you how important a quote it is.

The greatest want of the world is the want of

men or women who will not be bought or sold.

Men or women who, in their inmost souls are what

what does it say? True and honest men who do

not fear to call sin by its right name, men

it means. And women whose conscience is as true to

duty as the needle to the poll, who will stand

for the right though the what Heaven's fault pathfinders?

Are you in the club? Raise your hand eye if

you are, you want to be that.

Kind of a young person. Okay, all right, let's move

to the next slide. I want to go through four

ingredients that Daniel and his friends had in Babylon that

helped them to be the special Ops generation. God took

them from Israel, he put him in Babylon. He changed

the world through these these four individuals set Shadrack, Mischek

and a Bendigo and Daniel and There's They probably never

went home, but they made a difference as the special

ops generation. Now the first is integrity. Does integrity matter?

Yes or no? It does.

Let's look at the verse next that follows Daniel one eight.

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he.

Would not what defile himself.

Now it tells us in the verse how by eating

the wrong kind of food. That's why you know, we're

kind of picky about not eating pork and some other things,

because the Bible says these are unclean foods. But also

nor with the dwine which he drank. So is alcohol

gonna help you be a man or woman of God.

Let's hear a big no, no, you can say loud now.

In fact, there is In Proverbs twenty one, it says

whoever is deceived thereof is not wise. And so Daniel

was not deceived. He had integrity. He wouldn't touch the stuff.

And I made that decision a little later than I should.

When I was a young person, I used to drink

at the age of fifteen. I am ashamed of that.

But when I became a Christian and I was baptized,

I was baptized into Christ. And when I was baptized

into Christ, that didn't mean I have freedom to act

like the devil.

It means I'm free to live for Jesus. And I

made a decision.

No drugs, no alcohol, no watching things I shouldn't to

live for Jesus. Is that good? Raise your hand? Integrity? Integrity, Okay,

And it says that he might not defile himself. Let's

go the next one. Commitment. Now, it takes a little

courage to have commitment. Commitment means you're in it. You're going,

You're not gonna leave the Lord. Let's go the next verse. Now,

bickon Nezra said, blessed be the God of Shadrack Mishek

and a Bendigo, who has sent his angel and delivered

his servants from the fiery furnace, understood who trusted in

him and set at not the king's command, and yielded

up their bodies rather than serve and worship any God

except their own God.

Do we have pure pressure in our lives? Yes? Or no? Now?

As as as Christians, I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you

a question. Should we as Christians choose the music of

the world? Yes or no?

No? Now? In our church? Man, you may not realize.

It talks about rock music and also talks about jazz

and other music forms. Now we've all been influencing our

culture a little bit by music, So I'm not against that.

But you know what, shouldn't we seek the best for Jesus,

yes or no? I used to when I was a kid.

I used to go to rock concerts where they got drunk.

You ever do that, don't raise your hand, keep your

hands down. And I remember doing awful things in that

thing with those things before I was baptized. Garamel, your

head's going down, you know what I'm talking about.

And when you come to.

Church, you accept Christ, you say, I'm not gonna do that.

I'm gonna live for the Lord. And I one day

had to tell my brother, who had introduced me to

alcohol at an early age, got me drunk one night.

I staggered in Now he threw up all over the place.

I didn't throw up, but I thought to myself, how

dumb it was to get drunk on alcohol at the

age of thirteen. See, I wonder what had happened. My

IQ shrank, So I've had to work at it.

You know. Ever, since.

God is not mocked. He wants the special ops generation

to be admit it. And when you say no, under

peer pressure. You have courage in your life. You're a

person has nobility of character. And these men, these young

men stood for God and Christ in their generation. Let's

go the next one. Courage. Now say it with me. Courage,

say it with some depth.

Courage.

Alrighty, courage, Special Ops generation has courage. Next slide, it

says Shadrack, me shaking have been to go answer the

king o nebukin Azer.

We have no need to answer you in this matter.

He was telling me.

If you don't do what I tell you to do,

if you don't boup down and worship that image, I'm

gonna throw you into the fire. And they said, look,

we don't need to answer you. You may be king

of a kingdom, but you aren't king of our hearts.

You don't stand in our conscience. We don't buckle to

pressure that would have us violate God's law. We're gonna

stand for the Lord as the generation of courage. He says, well,

I'm going to burn you like Kentucky fried Chicken, but

worse carbon.

He said, well, look at verse seventeen.

If it'd be so, our God, whom we serve, is

able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and

he would deliver us out of your hand, O King.

But then they go on and say, but if not,

O King, let it be known to you that we

will not serve you in this way and worship that image.

Did that take courage? Now?

Look, I'm going to talk now to some of the

older people in the church. When our young people are

being challenged by temptation. Shouldn't we stand in the gap

and encourage them?

Yes or no? Raise your hand.

I mean it takes courage as an adult to do

the right thing, so we can model it for our younger,

younger generation. But if he goes on to say, but

if not, let it be known to you, O King,

that we will not serve your gods or worship the

gold image which you have set up.

Next slide. The fourth characteristic is endurance.

Now, if you start out as a Christian but you

end up serving the devil, does.

It really matter? These don't you?

Wouldn't you love to take a class for me in school?

These are easy answers. You get an a if you

say no, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you

do that.

Look. Endurance means you keep at it.

You don't change. You don't give up. I can tell

you from my own experience. If I would have given up,

if many of the leaders of the church would have

given up, we wouldn't have a church building today. I've

seen people come and go at reaching hearts, but the

people who stay and don't give up are the reason

there's a witness in this community. We were in prayer

meeting this week and Daniel Moore had a presentation. It

was God led, God be praised, not Daniel, but God

be praised. He brought out the importance of sticking with

it as being a tree of righteousness, standing for the

Lord your generation no matter what, and then having the

fruits of the spirit.

So endurance matters.

Next first year, and Daniel continued until the first year

of King Cyrus seventy years in Babylon. It was hard

to stand for the Lord. He was made where he

couldn't have children, his life was forever altered, but he

didn't give up. He remained a believer all the way

through the time where you saw his people come back

from captivity.

Next slide.

But you Daniel, Jesus is speaking to Daniel here in

his pre existent state, just at.

The end of the book of Daniel. But you, Daniel,

go your way till the end.

How many of you want to go all the way

to the end with Christ and make it into His kingdom.

That's what path finders are about. God has called us

to that kind of success. Go your way to the end,

and you shall rest, and you shall stand in your

allotted place at the end of the days. Now, it's

a real honor to have stood here today. But I'll

tell you right now, when you stand with Jesus at

the end of the age, you stand with him on

the sea of glass, with apostles, with the great men

and women of faith who've died for the Lord, who

may have been few, but were true to truth no

matter what. And you stand with these these great witnesses

in Hebrews eleven, the Hall of Fame of Faith. It's

gonna matter. But you see, friend, we must endure to

the end to be saved next slight. Jesus says this

in Matthew twenty four to thirteen. But he who endures

to the end, what does it say in your Bible

might be saved, will be saved? And I like verse

fourteen and fifteen, And this Gospel of the Kingdom will

be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to

all nations. That's the special ops generation. That's your generation.

That's why we invest in teaching you the Bible by

standing for Christian principles and not giving into the slop

bucket culture that we have. The one who endures to

the end will be saved. But the Gospel goes to

the world because of your generation.

And verse fifteen.

So when you see the desolating sacrilege, Now some translations

will say the abomination of desolation, that means that wicked

thing in the Book of Daniel, that anti Christ power,

the evil teaching, the rotten theology, the church state system.

They got it all wrong. When you see that spoken

by the prophet. Now what prophet is he talking about?

Young people? What prophet do you see on the screen there?

That's the prophecy book, the Book of Daniels, the Book

of Prophecy. Do you realize that our church was raised

up by Jesus Christ as a prophetic movement, that we

come at the end of the longest time prophecy in

the Book of Danil that ends in the year eighteen

forty four, not to be better than anybody else, not

to virtue sign and say, oh look at us, But

because God has given us prophetic truth, the Three Angels

messages for the time of the end. You are the

Special Ops generation. You have to master your Bible and

your generation. I mean some people say, you know, I

don't want I don't want the Bible. You ever hear

someone say I don't want the Bible. I want to

have fun.

You ever hear that. Well, here's what I want to say.

I don't want to have fun.

I want to have the Bible because God will take

care of the fun part. When you are interacting with

young people who love God's Word, who love God, who

want to share and serve and witness, there is nothing

funner on the face of the earth than being a

part of the Special Ops generation for Jesus. So Jesus

is saying, let the reader understand, grow in your Bible,

grow in prophecy, grow in Christ.

Don't give up.

Now, let's put those slides back up and review those

four points before we end here.

Just the four slides. I'll need your help on.

That tech, all right, So what's the first quality that

we need in the Special OPS generation?

Read it with me. Integrity.

What's the second one commitment to Jesus. Second third one courage,

and the fourth one endurance. Now, how many of you

with me would like to recommit your life to the

Lord in those four areas? Raise your hand high. You

can raise your other hand high too, okay, and you

can pull the Lord right down into your heart, because

He's coming there when you make a commitment like that.

Let's pray, Dear Father God, we've had a little time

here to celebrate just the achievements of our young people

and giving glory to You and worship. We pray that

this next year we will be more into our Bibles.

We'll find ways to that we will come to know

the Bible and master it as the Special Ops generation

is maturing here, and that this group of young people

will be doubled next year by young people in Laurel

High School and other places who have never had a

chance to hear the Word of God where they can

hear it and grow in it. But Lord, give every

one of these young people courage, and Lord, maybe have

fun this summer, have fun together, but be true to

You at all times. Thank You for loving us. Thank

you Lord for working in my life as a young person.

I had so much wrong in my life before I

found Jesus, and you help me grow when I was

stumbling a lot. And I'm just grateful you don't give

up on any of us. And thank you Lord for

being our God. In Jesus' name. Amen, Dear Heavenly Father,

you told Daniel through the Angel Gabriel, that those who

are wise shall shine like the rightness of the firmainent,

and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars

forever and ever and Father, as we have dedicated these

young people to you today, we pray that you will

take hold of their hearts, fill them with the Holy Spirit,

make them men and women of the Bible, and make

Christ live in them. With these four vital qualities we've

talked about today, that they will be the Special Ops generation.

And we thank you for answering this prayer in Jesus' name. Amen, God,

bless you.