All right, a couple things. Number one, as most of you know, how many of you have been to the wilds? Let me see your hands high. OK, many of you have. As most of you would know, most of my preaching is to teenagers. OK, I just preached about 300 last night. We have about that many at camp this week. And probably 85%, 90% of my preaching is to teens. So if I use the word like too much, excuse me, hopefully I won't call your gang and say, dude, stop the attitude. Sit up. Listen. OK, I'll try not to do that. Actually, I get a little bit nervous when I have to be in front of so many adults, until I remind myself that adults are nothing more than teenagers with wrinkles, and then I'm okay. Spurgeon said, preach to children so adults may understand. Years ago, I was driving one of our speakers to the airport, and I would do this. I mean, I always begged to take the speakers to the airport, because I had a whole list of questions I would ask. Like, I remember asking, what is your favorite, favorite commentator? The pastor leaned back and he said, mmm let me think I don't know ABC or NBC and that was not what I was asking for okay I remember asking one other pastor big big church thousands and I said hey what is the number one need of the teenagers in your church he was quiet and quiet and finally he said I don't know he said that's not good is it And I'm thinking, what am I supposed to say to you, you know? And you know, you have teens, you have children in your church, you got parents that are like exasperated because they don't know how to handle this. Life, these teenagers, the way they're thinking, the way they're acting, teenagers today will weep and cry and throw themselves on the floor if they can't have a cell phone. Because they're not a real person if they're not like on the top 10 list of somebody's speed dial, you know? That is the world we live in. I wish we did not have to live in this high-tech world. But God called us to this time and this space. I wish we could all live back in the days like Little House on the Prairie. Then all we'd have to deal with was Nelly's attitude. But we don't live in that world. So how do we help the teenagers and the young families that we work with that God has called us to minister to? All scripture is given by inspiration of God. God breathed it. God wrote it. God gave it to us. And is, say the next word out loud, please. Profitable. It's useful. It's, if you want to study the word, it's an onesimus, you know. It is a tool that is very useful to help us grow. For what? Doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, righteousness. That the man of God may be mature. Grow up. Be perfect. Thoroughly or throughly furnished unto all. good works. So a kid walks into your office and whips out his cell phone or he plops down with your wife and says, is it okay to have a Facebook account? Or mom won't let me go online and everybody else is online. Can you prove to me from the Bible that I should not go online? And I've tried. I've taken my strong concordance. I've looked up computer. I've looked up a website. I've looked up. You got to get a Dell dude. I've looked up all this stuff. You're not gonna find it there. Okay, the closest thing I ever found in regards to high-tech world our TVs and our computers There is a verse in Luke that says tell the vision to no man, but but that's not what we're talking about here All scripture is given so you got some teams who are future college students our future pastors our future dads or future moms How do you help them? Well, sometimes for a teenager, you want to kind of crawl in the back door. And I've got tons of back doors that I've tried to learn to crawl through where you catch them and get them thinking before they really know the thinking. And I would ask them this summer, I preach the message similar to some of the things we'll talk about today. If you could be like in charge of your brothers and sisters, or if you could be the parent to your parents for one week, what would change? And oh, it was funny, you know, try to help mom to stop worrying so much. dad that he wouldn't wear his pants all the way up to here. And when they'd say, I said, that's not bad because when you ask him for money, all he has to do is go like this with his wallet, you know? What would change? And if they could be in control, okay? Well, we went to this passage in 1 Timothy 4, let no man despise thy youth. I say, teens, you're a teenager, you're not a little kid anymore. Don't let anyone look down on you just because you're a teenager, but you be an example to believers older and younger. How? In word and conversation and charity and spirit and faith and impurity. So we take a simple verse like this. How do you tear it apart? How do you unpack it in a way that can truly impact daily decisions to keep us from the sin that will keep us from our walk with God? Adults are catching up to teens and 20-somethings in this high-tech world. We're not quite there, OK? I understand a dad called in for tech support after a half hour. The tech guy said, do you have any kids? He said, I have a six-year-old daughter. Oh, really? Can I talk to her, please? So this little girl's on the phone. She said, oh, you want me to defrag it? OK, that's done. What else do you want, sir? You know, kids have got it. They know how to live in this world, the world that sometimes we fear, the world we don't understand. I tell the teens not to allow anyone to look down on you just because you're young, but set an example for all believers in words, speech, and what you say. And then you ask a question like this. How do you talk to others in our high-tech world? Now, it used to be you'd have to wait till you get together at school or church or whatever, but not today. How do you talk to others in regards to cell phone-aholics or text monsters? The cell phone has taken over the world, okay? I have the privilege, a special privilege, and I count it as a privilege to preach to many, many teenagers. We had 11 weeks and over 12,000 all together signed up to come to our camps this summer, and then we go year-round on this. And I would ask 800, 900 teenagers, how many of you have your own cell phone? At least 80, 85% would throw their hands up in the air. It is part of their life. Last Saturday, I was preaching in Asheboro, North Carolina. Saturday night, we did a youth rally. When the youth rally was over, they went on a hayride. Remember hay rides used to just have hay and push people around and just have fun? Not hay rides today. I'm sitting in this wagon, hay all over the place. We're going through these fields on a farm, and half of the kids on the wagon had their cell phones out texting each other. It is where they live. Cell phones. Today, more people have cell phones than fixed telephone lines, both in the United States and internationally. There are more than 1 billion cell phone users worldwide. China's mobile phone market, already the biggest, has passed the 400 million user mark. Americans spend, on average, about seven hours a month talking on their cell phones. Teenagers, 70 hours a month, I think. Wireless penetration, over 65% of the total US population. More than 60 million teenagers now carry cell phones everywhere they go. It is the world we live in. So how do we help them? Texting. Have you ever watched a teenager text? You know, they can be talking to you. They can be quoting the Gettysburg Address and still text their friends at the same time. And then when we text, you know, it's like... Different world. It's the world they live in. How do we help these kids? There is a connection addiction. Cell phones, iPods, and so forth, game systems. I read a number of articles, especially in Europe right now, they're likening the cell phone addiction to cigarette addiction. Yeah. And people are showing up at these, not ministries, but these places where they help them to detox them from whether it be alcohol or tobacco or now cell phones or texting. When they get out of the office, The first thing they do is they grab their cell phone, they twirl it in their hand, they take cell phone breaks, they keep it right next to them at night in case they need it when they're sleeping. And there is, there's an addiction process going on here and it has grabbed a hold of many of the hearts of those that we have in our churches that we want to work with. What do you do? What does God say? You know, God's word is filled with practical admonition. that if we could simply teach our teams and our young couples to take the Word of God and apply it and think about what it says like Romans 12 9 through 12 read it with me out loud please let love be without dissimulation abhor that which is evil cleave to that which is good be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love in honor preferring one another not slothful in business fervent in spirit serving the Lord so you take a normal text like this how does it apply to cell phones. How does it apply to texting your friends? I talked to a kid recently, over 1,000 texts every month. That's unbelievable. How does this verse right here, this passage deal with that? Well, we start tearing it apart and asking some questions. Let your love be real. Let love be without dissimulation, without hypocrisy. Stop faking it. Don't pretend that you love. Let your love be real. You ask the question, are you ignoring others or being rude just because a friend calls? It's amazing. I've seen them in the restaurants. Here's mom. She finally takes her three kids out to eat to spend some quality time together. Two of the daughters were on their cell phones and the other one had her iPod, little earphones there, you know, just going like this, you know, and the mom's sitting there. And I just read recently where another guy walked into a restaurant and the dad brought his family to eat The entire time from when the menus came till they walked out the door, he was on his cell phone. Whatever happened to the time when you would say to the secretary, hold my calls, please? These cell phones are going off in church services. They're going off at funerals, in classrooms, constantly. Are you ignoring others? Or just being rude because a friend calls, teaching your teens and your young couples that they don't have to answer it every time. Hate evil, love good, abhor that which is evil and cleave to that which is good. Are you careful what you talk or text about? Now when I'm preaching to the teens, of course, what is the motivation of most of their conversation? What do teenage girls talk about? Teenage boys. What do teenage boys talk about? Food, trucks, sports, and finally teenage girls. And I ask him, what do your moms and dads talk about? You know what they tell me? Jeopardy, the weather, Wheel of Fortune, the weather, aches and pains, the weather, and when I was a boy, when I was a girl, okay? So we have different topics of conversation. But once the weather is done, you're done talking about it, and once, you know, you've talked about what happened to school or what I'm going to wear Friday night, what do you have to talk about? And that's where the e-gossip kind of slips in. You used to talk about these older ladies on the phone all day long, talking to their friends. Now, all they have to do is text. You see that outfit that Christie has on? Made her look like a barn. You know, all this kind of stuff where they get very critical and cruel at each other. Be kind and loving by preferring and honoring others. Be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love in honor of preferring one another. Are you conscious of those around you? Now this is something that our kids and young couples need to be taught. Simple things like public places. I was flying somewhere to preach, and I'm sitting there working on a message on my laptop, and this girl plops right next to me. She's on her cell phone. And this is all she said. No. No. Shut up. Uh-uh. Shut up. Uh-uh. No. No. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. No. Shut up. You know? That's all she said. I said, you want to shut up, Lee? But I didn't say that. I didn't. Don't they have no idea you're in these trams going from plane to plane and these guys. Hey, how you doing? Just shouting out public places. We teach him about the 10 foot zone. If you have to take the call, excuse me, please. And step aside. Keep phone and vibrate, please. And you know how it is, as Pastor Taylor already mentioned, in services and all over. I have been preaching in one service, three different people. You could see them looking around. The kids, it's like a gun in a holster to them. They can get it, but not moms. Babadabapada, babadabapada, babadabapada, babababa, babadabapada, babadabapada. And then they pick it up, you know? Embarrassed, don't know what to do with this thing. If you do keep your phone on vibrate, by the way, did you know there are now phantom rings? What is a phantom ring? Has your cell phone ever gone off and you go to answer it only to realize you don't have your cell phone on? And that is happening to many people today. Keep a zealous, intense testimony for God. Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Do those you talk to know that you love God more than them? Now, you start preaching to your folks and do this kind of application. And I tell the teens, okay, and we'll get to this in a minute. You want a Facebook account? Then you better make sure that mom is one of your best friends. And on that account, you better be putting up there God's plan of salvation. And you share every day what you got out of your devotions. When you do that, you'll start to watch your friend list kind of disappear, okay? Do those you talk to know that you love God more than them? I had to deal with a situation, I will say, with former staff, because they're gone now. I'm in my office. Ken's sitting on the floor at my desk. And when we have tough situations, usually I wear the black cowboy hat and Ken wears the white cowboy hat. And I get two dudes in there. I say, hey, guys, got a little problem here. I said, your good's been evil spoken of. Pull up your MySpace on my computer. What? I said, yeah, I don't want to know your code or anything. Just pull it up. You shouldn't have anything to hide. so they pull it up for 45 minutes we walk through wicked TV shows that they listed for their favorite filthy ungodly music friends using foul language and after about 30 minutes I looked at these guys say hey you guys don't have a heart for God so you can't say that I said I can't I just spent 30 minutes on my space my friends my music my TV my loves and you didn't mention God one time And even in our correspondence, with your friends, as preachers, as adults, as pastor's wives, do people know that you're going to be talking about God? And God will come into the conversation. Don't let anybody look down on you just because you're young. Preach this to your young couples, to your teens. In life, conduct and behavior and conversation. How do you behave in public in our high-tech world? What is the public arena of the high-tech world? Well, it's the world of blogs and the world of P2P accounts. A blog is short for the phrase weblog. And as most of you know, there's blogs about anything and everything that you want. If you want to talk about stuff, find yourself a blog and jump in, okay? Building an igloo, butchering a hog, really doesn't matter. You can find a blog for it. In our world today, there's tons of blogs out there. And some of them you know of. Some of them are trying to be iron sharpening iron and rusty sword or whatever they call that one, okay? And they got some of these that, honestly, I'm not allowed to get on them. I don't allow myself. The guys that work at camp, they don't allow me. I'll tell you why. Because my spiritual gift is sarcasm, okay? And I just want to get on and say, dude, go win someone to the Lord. Dude, go read your Bible and stop complaining about everybody else, okay? This whole world of blog. The difference between now and back when I just finished college was I said stupid stuff back then. Stuff that I regret, but nobody remembers. Because I didn't put it online for the whole world to read, okay? And today they're throwing it on there. There's a big blog going around against Morse Gleiser and myself. We preach the youth conference in Denver. And did you know I spend an hour preaching to be in the Word of God, but I never mention that Christ was a living Word, so therefore I was not a Christ-centered preacher. Duh. Just call me, okay? I'll help you show where I stand. Where do they find time to pick this stuff out? I don't know. The world of P2P accounts. P2P stands for person-to-person. There's many of them out there. There's Myspace. That's probably the most popular. Blubster, BearShare, BitTorrent, Morpheus, Facebook, Direct Connect, Friendster, Kaza, eDonkey. That's appropriate for some. Grogster, Mesh, Yearbook. All these things are out there. Now Myspace alone, has millions upon millions. In fact, I think they have 230,000 new registrations every day. The average MySpace user spends one hour and 40 minutes every day. 87% of American youth between the ages of 12 and 17 either are connected to or have a P2P account. The world we live in, they will have them. It's how they connect with their friends. It's how they keep up. So how do you deal with this? Now, when I preach to your teens that you send to the wilds, they know that I'm an enemy of MySpace. And I go after it. You just go to MySpace and browse. Don't even be a part of it. Just hit browse and watch the little thumbnails of half-clad individuals, wicked statements, unbelievable. and it's easy to crawl into, you can actually Google and get into the sites, it's very easy to get into. Some of these other ones, I'm not an expert on all this, I'm just trying to help the kids to live godly and to insulate them in the world that they live, you can't isolate them from this, but we can help insulate them from wickedness. For instance, let's take a simple verse like Philippians 4a, let's quote it out loud together, ready? Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, Whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any virtue if there be any praise think on these things And that one word in there we better pick up on what is it think I? Talked to my brother this morning he went to College at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. He says you walk across campus now half of the students have a cell phone He said, I don't know what they did before cell phones. Maybe they actually thought a thought, you know, think on these things. So you take a passage like this. Now you're talking about the kids that want to be on Facebook or they say they want a MySpace or one of these P2P accounts. And you allow them as a parent, you allow yourself as an individual. What does the word of God say? It's kind of like choosing to live in Greenville. How many of you live in Greenville? Let me see your hands. All right. I assume there's certain roads that you will not go down. If you go down to Haywood Mall, there's stores you should not even look towards. You choose to live in Greenville. You could choose to live in Las Vegas or Atlanta, New York City. You say, I can't handle that. OK. These cities that we go into online, we need to teach our kids that there are certain stores they don't walk into and streets they don't walk down. How do you deal with this? Let's ask some questions from this passage. Is it true? And all I have to do, it doesn't matter what state in the nation, doesn't matter who I'm preaching to as far as a group of teens, Christian school, public school, homeschool, and I ask one simple question. Have you ever lied online? And here the holy hush that sets in. They lie about their age or they can't even get on some of these. They lie about who they are and what they look like. All kinds of lying. I read an article, U.S. News and World Report, said, how is cyber dating different than normal dating? Said, it's a lot different, because in cyberspace, everybody is tall, blonde, thin, and rich. Another one, this dude in England finally met the woman of his dreams in America. Gorgeous wonderful 26 year old girl. He finally saved his money was able to come in and and to meet her and he did get to meet her She was shocked that he obviously got over here, but she wasn't 26. She was 65 in prison for murder Hey mom meet my new girlfriend. Yeah a lot of lying going on out there Have you ever lied online does not our Bible still say lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. I But they that deal truly are His delight. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth. And we can't back off of those simple principles just because they're typing it or texting it and not talking it. It's still sin. Is it honorable? Have you dishonored your parents or God? Administrators started calling me about three or four years ago when MySpace hit the hit the waves, and they'd say things like, Rand, we thought we had a good school. Everybody seemed to be kind and like us, and now we're told to go on some of their sites and their profiles, and what they're saying about the teachers and their parents, I think they hate us. Would you be afraid to check out some of the teens from your church, check out what they're saying online, what they're saying about you? Would that scare you a little bit? Is it just? Have you been fair to friends by talking to them before talking to others? Now, they do it online. I hate to say most of the kids have learned it from us. Because we devour people and talk about them. If you bite and devour one another with your words, we fall into that world of gossip, don't we? It's like a Christian cannibalism, you know, you're just kind of eating on each other. Is it just? Is it fair to others? Is it pure? And of course, when I speak to the teens, I have a lot of illustrations that we don't have time for today. Have you involved yourself in impure conversations? Little kids talking filthy online. And it used to be like if you're face to face, you get a little bit afraid to say something, but there's something that emboldens a person sitting behind a screen. And now all of a sudden they're talking in ways that they're receiving crude and lewd conversations, impure conversations. Is it pure? Is it lovely? Have you been ugly or unkind? to authority, to mom and dad. Is it commendable if you kept a positive approach to life? And even for us, our conversations only go so far before we start getting very negative and griping and complaining and whining about whatever issue of life that we're facing at the time. Is it excellent? Have we lost our spirit of excellence by giving in to sin? We're used to be the stuff I'd never ever you see I'm not even gonna get close to there, but all of a sudden you get online and Because it's like not real You're thinking it and saying it Praiseworthy to God. I Love asking the teens. Have you pleased God and what you say? Now these same Bible principles that we have preached for years in normal communication conversation between brothers and sisters and moms and dads and friends We've got to revisit them when it comes to being online. Don't let anyone look down on you because you're young, but set an example for all believers in love and a spirit of genuine concern for others rather than self. Here's a good question to ask your folks in your churches. How do you deal with selfishness in our high-tech world? Specifically, iPod addicts, Xbox junkies. You know what kids do today? They play games and listen to music. And when they're done with that, they listen to music and then play games. They have to be connected. How do you deal with this? Are all iPods sin? No. They can be a great blessing, huh? Many of you have them. You got music, you can download messages. I've got an iPod connected to a GPS and I have to travel a lot now. I have four weeks of messages on that one thing alone. And as I'm driving down, I get preached to all the time. They can be a great blessing. Xbox junkies, as far as the games, I love preaching to young couples or college and career and ask them, girls, how many of you, when you get married, you want your husband to buy an Xbox? And listen to them gripe and complain, OK? They don't want that. When it comes to selfishness, here's a great passage to get them to think. It's a mirrored view of 1 Corinthians 13. Unloving, selfish teens or adults will be known for their impatience. Even their harsh unkindness at times. Hey, it's tiny. Come on, mom. I got to get to the next level of halo. You know, don't bother me right now. Mom, I'm talking on the phone. Harsh, disrespectful. They'll be jealous and envious of others. Their pride will be evident in the way they boast and constantly talk about themselves. They can be rude, self-seeking. Unloving teens and adults are usually angry people who easily lose their tempers. Some barely hold grudges against others and actually think that sin is fun. They look out for themselves and no one else, and they're doubtful and suspicious. They are often quite negative, have a hard time seeing the good in any situation or person. You can hear it in their conversation. You can read it in their texting. You can't count on them. When things get hard, they easily give up and quit. They have life all backwards. They live a mirrored view of 1 Corinthians 13. The opposite of selfishness is obviously godly love. All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. We get in the concept of, is it right or wrong? Is it best? Will it help you to grow? Is there anything in your life that totally consumes you, controls what you say, what you think? All right? Does being plugged in, connected, disconnect you from your family? Communication in our families. for many is almost non-existent. The kids I deal with, they say, what do you do when you talk to your dad? I say, talk to my dad? I don't talk to my dad. What do you mean you don't talk to your dad? Well, he's never around. He didn't care. Mom? I can't talk to mom. She's just going to get mad. She doesn't understand. I get dozens, I don't know, 60, 80 emails a day. And many of them are from teens that can't talk to their parents. And I push them right back to their pastors and youth pastors and their parents. The kids are crying out for someone to talk to. Does being plugged in or connected disconnect you from your disconnected friends? Now, you got to help the folks in your church. When I preach to a bunch of teens, understanding if there's a thousand kids out there, there's probably two or three hundred that their parents Do not let them have a cell phone or a P2P account. In fact, you can't even leave the house, okay? And I tell the teens, you'd be so thankful that you have a mom and dad that love you that much. They are scared to death for you and they don't know how to handle this world. It's a good motive. And yeah, there are some things that we may need to work on and help the parents understand how they can allow maybe a cell phone, but as long as it has a godly use to it. But make sure you never make those who have the standard that they just don't want this in the home whatsoever, to have the standard that they are like out of it or weird or whatever. For kids today, if they don't have a cell phone, they're like so embarrassed. Mom, mom, please, dad, I gotta have a cell phone. You can cut my hair off and sell it to wig makers, but I gotta have a cell phone. And if they don't have speed dial for those best friends, they're out of it, man. The kids are out there going like this. Does being plugged in or connected disconnect you from God? The simple time waster involved with a Facebook will say, personally, I am a spy on Facebook. Some disagree with that, some think it's fine, okay? The kids know I'm a spy. I've never asked for a friend. I don't poke or super poke. I don't boot heads and trip people and, you know, slap them with an ostrich or whatever they're doing today, okay? But I am on there, and they know it. And I don't hardly have any time for it. I do usually go in and answer the counseling questions that I get all the time from kids. But if I get a chance and a kid wants to be a friend and I click on that, look at their profile, I say, I'll tell you what's wrong with your profile. And they either leave my friendship or they'll email back, man, I never saw that. Thanks, Fran. Nobody ever told me I shouldn't be watching that movie. I'm thinking, duh, where's mom and dad? And where's their leaders and their churches? And so I am a spy. But I understand. I talked to a girl last night. She comes into camp and she said, did you know you're my friend on Facebook? I said, no. Because there's like 1,100 friends on there, okay? And I said, what's your name? And I said, what are you going to do this week without Facebook? I don't know, because I spend hours on it every night. When I'm preaching to the teens, okay, you can give like two hours a night just to find out if somebody wrote on your wall, somebody left you a message. And how much time can you give God? Like five minutes and then you're already bored? The key, folks, is to get these kids into the Word of God. And if they're so big on computers and you teach them how to get PC study Bible or eSort or you teach them how to use a Bible program so that they can be using some of their computer time studying. Don't let anyone look down on you because you're young, but set an example for all believers in purity, integrity, and control over the desires of the flesh. How do you guard your purity in our high tech world? At this point, you hear it get quiet. Not just for teens, but also for adults. Do you realize that much of my counseling has nothing to do with the teens? I mean, it does, but it's not their problem. Okay, these two girls say, Rand, we got a problem. They're sisters. We go to, we have a barn, and we crawl up in the top rafter, and that's kind of the place we meet to talk. We're not allowed to go up there because mom thinks we'll fall and get hurt, but we do sneak over there, and that's where we talk. She said, the other day, we're up there talking, we heard the barn door open, thought, oh no, we're going to get in trouble. We look down and here comes dad. He walks in, he pushes some stuff out of the way. He pulls out this TV and puts in a video. And she says, he watches this filth. And I don't know what to do. Or a boy that writes me, he says, dear Ran, he said, I caught my dad emailing another lady. sending her internet e-cards that were kind of mushy. He said, I approached him about it and he said he had made a mistake and it was over. Then the boy said this, the other day I was walking by the computer and saw dad typing an email to someone. He said, I'm really struggling in my heart. My parents are both Christians. They have raised me well. And I don't want to lose my dad to something so stupid. I've had dozens of girls tell me that they push a dresser in front of their bedroom door when they go to sleep at night because they're scared to death of their brothers and their dads. No kid should have to grow up in a home like that. So how do you guard your purity in our high-tech world? Cell phones, blogs, P2P accounts, iPods, game systems. There's not a week, man, that goes by that I'm not dealing with some youth pastor, music pastor, pastor today. And most of the time, guess who contacts me? Their wives. Rand, what do we do? I'm scared to death. I don't know who to turn to. Do we tell our pastor? Do we tell our parents? I need some help. Dearly beloved, Peter says, I beg you, as strangers and pilgrims, people that should never ever feel home, in this wicked world that we live in. Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. We are in a spiritual warfare. It is epidemic today. It is nothing, nothing for kids to plop into my office and share the grossest stuff that's going on in their lives. And I have to stop and say, no, no, no, I don't want to hear anymore. You're in sin. You're being immoral. Where does this start? What happens? these lusts that war against the soul. To help your folks, you got to ask some simple, simple questions like, are you communicating with people you do not know? If they do have, say, a Facebook account, you limit their friends and who they can choose. If they go to MySpace, they can't really limit it well. And they're talking with people that not only will kind of try to sneak into their life as a child molester, but even those who just crawl into their minds. Are you accepting unsuitable friends that make you question your authorities, or even worse in my heart, even question your faith? See, I'm not as concerned, which I am concerned with what our teens are doing today, but I'm highly concerned with what they're believing. And if I ask a bunch of kids, okay, suppose like the Muslims or the Buddhists, it's like the same God, he just has different names, okay? You can get to God any way you want to, can't you? And their eyes get big, they can't answer that. How do you know there's a literal eternal hell? How do you know? How do you know your sins are forgiven? The Bible, could it not just be written by a bunch of men? Our kids don't know what they believe. And they get online and start talking to these people, these quote-unquote friends, who undermine what we've tried to teach them. What's going to happen to the next generation? Are we becoming more and more accepting of the F word, another lewd and crude language? Isn't it sad that I'd have to put this on an overhead for teens today? It is common. It's where they live. It's trash. It's in their movies. It's in their reading. Their friends use it. We hear it at camp. And they get so used to it. Some will say, well, I don't Use that word. But you have friends that constantly put it in. They put the little dots or the dashes. This war that we're in, are you playing games that are full of nudity, crudity, and graphic violence? Games that you have to think sin in order to win. You take a normal game like Grand Theft Auto. Do you realize what these kids are doing to win that game? They have to blow the heads off of policemen, and sleep with prostitutes, and knife people, every form of wickedness, you can almost walk through the Ten Commandments and see every single one of them being violated, just to win the game. Now when I mention Grand Theft Auto, what do the teams do? They laugh. And that's scary. Because my Bible still says fools make a mock at sin. They laugh at sin. It's not a big deal to them anymore. Are you downloading any music in your iPod that exalts music groups for musicians to love what God hates and hate what God loves? There's a group out there very popular amongst the teens, Christian teens, called Simple Plan. When I first heard it, I thought, well, it has to be a Christian group, God's Simple Plan of Salvation, but it has nothing to do with that, okay? Talk about death, suicide, anger towards parents. I got a CD that a kid gave me that they were throwing away, and I could not... I almost felt like demons were crawling in my office. It was like so... wicked. And this is their life. The teams I preach to in fundamentalism, they're not struggling with contemporary Christian music. They're in a rock. And they know every group. Reviewing YouTube videos that are inappropriate. YouTube is obviously a new phenomenon that has come on. And it kind of ties in with every other aspect of the internet because, oh, you got to see this one. It's so funny. And there's obviously things out there that are humorous. And there's YouTube stuff from skits at the Wilds and people riding the swing and all kinds of stuff. Because all kids have to do is take their cell phone and push a little button and go like this and go like this. And it's online that quick. And when I mention viewing YouTube videos that are inappropriate, you say, well, most of them, they do not allow nudity or pornography. There are so many thousands of hits, it takes them months to catch up with it. And now the teens are, no, no. I tell you, most 14, 15-year-old boys do not have the spiritual maturity to keep saying, no, no, no, maybe, OK. And I'm not talking about preaching any kind of behaviorism here, okay? Don't take this wrong. You say, Rand, let's be God-centered. I am God-centered. And we all get to the point in our lives when you get to be about 26, 27, 28, you finally have walked with God so much that you love God so much you don't want to disappoint Him. And just your respect, your reverence for a holy God keeps you from doing what is wrong. But a 14-year-old kid does not have that kind of walk with God. So we have to help protect them until by reason to use Hebrews 5, their senses have been exercised to be able to make these right decisions. If you drive to the wilds, aren't you thankful there's guardrails on 178? That's a windy road. So windy, sometimes you can read your own license plate, you know? And I want protection before I fall over the cliff. And that's why I preach to teens the way I do. I ask teens, are you saying yes to the constant advertisements for foreign sites? And once again, they just dropped their heads. Folks, it is so easy. Girl comes to me, she says, Rand, I got a problem. I said, what's that? And then she's weeping, she's 17. She said, I was checking my email and I hit enter after two or three letters and boom, the most wicked, filthy stuff was on the screen. And she said, part of my problem is I can't get those images out of my mind. She said, I knew it couldn't be my dad. He's a Christian school teacher, a deacon in our church. I knew it couldn't be my mom. Mom doesn't even like know how to boot up the computer yet. Had to be a friend that was over, maybe my sister to college. I called my friend. She said, I didn't do it. She said, I contacted my sister. She said, I didn't do it. The girl starts to weep again. She said, Rand, it's got to be my dad. I don't know what to do. I said, can you talk to him? She said, no. I said, you want me to talk to him for you? She said, would you please? So I called him. I said, sir, this is Rand Hummel at the Wiles. Is my daughter okay? I said, she is fine physically. And I gave him the story that she gave me how she'd worked so hard to prove it would not or could not be her daddy. Then I ended the conversation this way. I said, sir, either someone's sneaking in your house, watching this trash on your computer at night, or you have got a problem. And he was quiet for a long time. And then he said this. He said, Rand, I've struggled with my thought life for years, and now it's just too easy. I don't want to be mean or disrespectful, but is that your problem? This is not a problem that's just hitting teenagers today. You're struggling every day to keep your thoughts pure. Can I share with you just one email, the kind I get? It comes from a youth pastor's wife. Dear Rand, I need help. A while ago, I had gone away to visit my grandmother soon after I got the credit card bill in the mail, which my husband normally opens, but I opened it for some reason. There was a bill on it from Blockbuster Video. To make a long story short, my husband lied about the movies he watched. I felt uneasy in my heart, so I called the store a few weeks later and asked what we had rented. When she told me, my heart broke. Anyway, the other day, I went to his email account and found a message from a girl. I didn't even know. I asked him and he lied saying that he had met her in a Christian chat room, which would have been bad too. He was witnessing to her. I was upset and said that if he was witnessing to her, why didn't he share it with me? Later, I logged on to his instant messenger and found another girl's name. Actually, I had a whole conversation with her, quote, though she thought I was my husband. It was sick. Apparently, they had met in several chat rooms and sessions and discussed very sexual things. I can't tell you how shocked I was. My husband. We don't even have a TV in our house. We've been very careful to take away such temptations after we got married. Not because there was a problem, but because we wanted to please God and keep pure. There are so many little lies that he has told me. They're all running through my head. How do I know this isn't just another lie because I caught him? I'm so afraid to trust him again. I don't want to get hurt again. I feel like a fool for believing him. All my respect for him is now gone. How can I listen to him preach? How can I not feel angry when the kids in the youth group comment on what a godly example he is to them? I'm struggling with being angry at any girl I see who is immodest. I feel ugly and unloved. Though he says he does love me and it wasn't personal, I don't want to get bitter. I've met bitter people before. It's repulsive. What can I do so I don't get bitter and resentful? I love my husband so much, I want to have a happy marriage. Would you please help us?" I hope I don't get a letter or an email from any of your wives, men. And I know we need to learn how to stay pure in this world, and then we better teach those God has called us to serve. God has a lot to say about living in a high-tech world. Right there's five passages. That's simple. Teach your folks that even though we live in a wicked world, we can insulate ourselves. We don't have to be of it. When God wrote His Word and gave it to us, He's warning us to stay away from sin. Why? Why did God destroy the Garden of Eden, the world with a flood. Why was Jesus beaten so and then killed? Because of sin. And sin is the great separator that keeps us from our God. And God hates sin because he knows what it does to those he loves so much. If somehow we could get the hatred for sin in our hearts that God has and force our folks, if they want to communicate like this, to teach them to communicate in a godly way and protect them. Protect them from the sin that will pull their heart away from God. God has a lot to say. And my prayer for all of us is that we'll be wise in handling the word of God to help those again that God's called us to serve. Let's pray. Father, thank you for loving us and wanting the best for our lives. And I pray that you would keep our hearts burdened to trust you and what you've already given us in your word. We'd love to get rid of all this. We really would, Lord. But you called us to a world that is built on this technology. Give us the patience, the grace, give us the strength, the wisdom to be able to handle these things in our own personal lives so that that would be contagious to others who have a heart for you. I thank you for each one of these men, the ministries that they represent, and I know that they've had to be counseling some of these issues. Help us all to help our folks keep their focus on you. As we pray in the name of Jesus, amen.