Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day that you've given to us, Lord. Thank you for each and every person here right now. I pray, Lord, that you would just give us ear to ear the things that you're teaching us, Father. And I pray, Father, that you would just give me words of light on the areas that I should speak on and the areas I shouldn't ask. Jim Gaskell called me about a month ago and asked if I would come and speak here on how to work with young people. And then he asked me to write up an outline. So there's a brief outline in the back They save the best for last. But you have in front of you one of these real thick outlines. This is what Logan and I used the last two course threes. This would take all day for us to go through, though. So what I have is kind of an outline for the outline kind of a thing. But this is really good information. It would just take literally an entire day to go through it all. And that's what we do, spend 15 hours with every counselor that comes in. But I'm going to be talking about how to deal with young people today. But the information I'm giving you, I've used 80 years old, in their 80s. So it's not something that you could just use for kids. But there's three crucial steps I wrote down here. Whenever somebody comes in to the counseling center, we would always talk to them on the phone first, even kids. If they don't want help, they won't get help. If a parent wants their kid to come in to get help, you know, fix my son, he's doing this, or my daughter, she's running out at night, or whatever, if the son or daughter doesn't want to come, we say, we're sorry, we won't take you. Because if somebody does not want help, they will not get help. Now, if they're a very young child, you know, eight or younger, maybe 10 or younger, and they still don't want to come, and the parents want them to come, we'll still take them. But somebody who's older, we broke our rule a couple of times We brought in a couple of brothers from California. And neither one wanted to come, but mom and dad said, if you guys don't come, we're going to call the cops. That's how bad it got. And so they came, and guess what? Nothing happened. Wasted our week, wasted their week, and a lot of money. A lot of times, the kids want to get things right, but they don't want to get their life right with God. Had a girl who came down. But her sister wanted to get her life right, but would not get her life right with God. So the first thing I'll ask them is, do you want to come? Do you want to come for counseling? And why do you want to come? What are your goals? What are the problems that are coming in? When a child comes in, never let the parents intimidate you. Don't try to embarrass the parents, but don't be scared to. I'll ask the kids in court, I don't know, mom says I'm acting up. Or every time mom yells at me, mom kind of turns red. Or the dad's throwing stuff so I throw stuff back, dad kind of turns red. I'm going to be trying to go off my notes as best I can here. I never use notes, OK, for you guys. If the parents, OK, don't let them intimidate you. If the child wants to talk to you alone without the parent almost every time, are you going to tell mom and dad? If I say no, I won't tell your parents. Why? Well, I'm not your parents. I'm not God. So I'm not going to report to your parents. If you say, no, yes, I'm going to tell your mom and dad, guess what? Yes. I tell the parents, I can't tell you. There has to be trust. There has to be confidentiality. If there's not, they don't care to tell. If they have a good relationship with their mom or dad, then we ask the parents to leave. When we get into the moral issues, there's nothing worse than trying to humiliate a son in front of his parents. So I do that alone with them. That's different. Somebody's having suicidal thoughts, It all depends. And the ones that don't say they're going to do it, usually the ones that do it. People that call the counseling center, I want to commit suicide. And we've had a couple of times, one time somebody called the counseling center and they said, I want to commit suicide. This happened a couple of times. And we said, OK, we'll call them tomorrow if they're still alive. And that's when another one happened with Sarah Sue. And we came back in the next day. I was like, Logan, you know what we should do? We should tell Sarah Sue. So we came back in, and Logan goes, Sarah Sue, You should have talked to him yesterday. She couldn't stop laughing, so then she got mad at him. But if a child says, ask them why first. And a lot of times, they'll ask you this. If I commit suicide, will I still get ahead in grade, too? That's what he would say. So I'm talking about teenagers. When I say kids, I'm saying even college and younger stuff. You have to handle it with a child. You can't say, you can trust me. They can see right through you. Or a parent brings a child forward, or a person in general that comes in for counseling. You've probably already gotten a lot of this stuff. When counseling, I'll look at someone, and you have to be genuine. Say, they have to be able to, and you have to be a genuine guy. He had thoughts that were leading towards homosexual tendencies. In the summer, they had a time when you could just throw your stick in the fire make a dedication, dedicate my soul to God, or rededicate my soul to God, or just, you know, pray with each other and different things. Well, he, he had these thoughts and he just said, you know, I've just been having these thoughts and stuff and I just would like if you guys would pray with me because I don't want these thoughts. And being a good Christian church camp, that most Christian church camps are, they kick them out. And guess what happens when they kick them out? He acts on his thoughts. His parents kicked him out of the house. He had never done anything. He just had this thought. Parents kicked him out of the house. Why? Well, if you have a son who is sleeping with his girlfriend, that's OK. We can work with him. But if you have a son who's sleeping with his boyfriend, that's not OK. We can't work with him. That's what the Christians do today. Because we have our acceptable sins and our unacceptable sins. This is wrong. Did God reject me for anything I've done? I have no right to reject you. See, the things that are big in your life are not big for me. The being in your own eye and the moat in somebody else's, you can't reject somebody for something they're having. They have that fornication about them. Before they come, are you a Christian? We've had a lot of people call the counseling center that are not Christians. We won't take people that are not Christians. Can anybody get help apart from Christ? I had one guy talk to me. He was working in gay bars, and he said, I need help. Can you help me? And I looked, and I said, no, sorry. I said, apart from Jesus Christ, you'll never get help. And I had the privilege of believing that guy was the Lord. Another guy, I was at the Counseling Center for only a month, and I got a phone call. And we get tons and tons of phone calls. In a week's time, we might get 50, 60 phone calls. And we have to try to call these people back. We have no clue what's on the other end of that phone. We have no clue what we're dealing with. Called a guy up one time. And we're booked out months, usually two or three, sometimes four or five months in advance. And if I can't get up now, I just, I don't know what's going to happen. Well, we were booked up. I was only there a month. And I told Logan about it. Logan says, why are you counseling? I said, well, I don't know. That's word for word what Logan said. I come up, and I worked with him for five hours a day. And I was, I might really mess somebody's life up. You know what? You're going to give probably poor counsel sometimes. Get up and go on. Learn from it. I talked to this guy. He was 39. But he had done today. He grew his own plants and everything. And he came up there, and he was shaking like crazy. He couldn't stop shaking from all the dirt. And I asked him, I said, are you a Christian? And he said, yeah. And I asked him, this is very key. And he asked me as a Christian, don't say, are you a Christian? Because most Americans will say, yeah. What was your conversion experience? Because they'll tell you, oh, well, this or that. I've had people say, well, I was born in a Catholic family. Catholics believe that if you have Catholic parents, you're going to heaven. And I took them through places in scripture, and I showed them, I said, see, you're not a Christian. And hence, being in the office, this guy was a Christian. Confess with your mouth and believe with your heart. When you lead somebody to the Lord, the prayers they pray, they're so genuine, but they're so simple. Some of the words in the Bible were red, and some were black. He didn't know. He didn't know, hardly didn't know any of this stuff. Doesn't say much for our churches today. How did you? How does Satan work in my life? How does that work? And I talk to these guys at Ramfield. We had one guy come in. He memorized the entire New Testament in 22 minutes. And you wouldn't get a more evil guy than this guy was. He can start a verse, and they can finish it for you. They can say a lot of stuff. Always start out with prayer. Always start out with prayer. And I pray first John 5, 18. It says, I'm in Christ, and that wicked one touches me not. See, I was with Logan for about a year at this point. And he was young, mid-teens, very small, and he was heavily demonized. And Logan said, I want you to work with him. He had a speech impediment that week. And I said, OK. And so I prayed. I always pray God's protection. And just God will give us wisdom. And I looked up, and he was glaring at me. And I thought, oh boy. And before that, actually, he said, why did you pray that prayer? And he jumped up and ran. I've seen people's eyes change. This one's really, I mean, you couldn't get more dressed. You guys saw Lord of the Rings? It's kind of like, he said, I can't touch you. The Holy Spirit's in me. I was like, that's good. I was on the couch there. And that happened several times that week. It was coming in like crazy. It was pretty bad. Another kid I had in Romania. As I was talking with them, I lock eyes. When I talk to people, I lock eyes with them. Because the Bible says, the light of the body is the eye. And if you break their spirit, they want them. And I was praying inside. And I said, OK, let's pray. And I stopped, because I didn't pray everything I should have. They were really funny. But they were really a mess. And I was praying. So I got done praying. So I was totally different. And he asked me, he said, well, I can pray that. I said, I always pray that. I said, I always pray that, because I do. Bible, I hope you have Bibles. This is kind of a Christian thing. And it says, we're foreseeing. I also use King James when I counsel, mostly personally. But I use other translations. But the reason why we use King James is because there's people that you will get that don't care what you have to say. That's their opinion. That's fine. There's a few that I think are absolutely horrible, too. But it says, He has set aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience to erase that has set before him and endured the cross, despising the shame, and has set down at the right hand of the throne of God. And I'll ask the kid. I'll say, there's two things the Bible's talking about here. It says weight issues and sin issues. There's certain things you're not going to do if you want to win. You're not going to go run. You're not going to do that. You're not going to be wearing a heavy overcoat when you're playing basketball. Those things will just hinder you. Things that God has said, others may, but you may not. Sin is adultery. I don't have to pray about that one. God should I commit adultery today? I don't know. I don't want you to listen to these certain types of music. I don't want you to watch these certain kinds of movies. Maybe they're not absolutely horribly bad, but they're really going to help you. But the problem with Christians is once You see that? Don't judge somebody else because God told you not to. It doesn't mean you're more spiritual at all. He says don't. Remember, he told Samson, you can't have anything from the vine if you want it to be set apart. The deeper your walk goes with God, the more things don't do this. And the sin issues are the things God says don't, other than finish with faith. When I'm running a race, I have to keep the end goal in mind. If something's going to happen that's not good, I need to keep the finish line in my view. Because Satan has one purpose in mind, and that is to break your focus, to get your focus off of Jesus Christ. He doesn't care how he does it, as long as he does it. When you become a Christian, I'll tell them, I said, OK, he's lost that battle. He's lost the war. But then he can win a little battle there. He can break my focus off of God. There's a lot of programs. That's what Satan's intention is. But how does he do these things? Oh, I'm sorry. Go to John 10 soon. There's three things it says that Satan has come to do. But guess what? You'll get it again. John's, I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. And I'll say, well, who's the devil? He's the Satan. It says that he wants to come and steal. I said, what does Satan want to steal in your life? And you know what kids say? He can't do that. But it says Satan has come to steal. You know, how he does that, I don't know. He does, or tries to. But what does he come to steal? This is what I believe. I believe Satan has come to steal any eternal significance that my life is in Satan. I mean, he's lost me to heaven. Satan can't get me. But if he can keep through life and drawing others to my Lord, he's won something. He wants to kill. Well, if you look this up in the Greek, it's talking about Satan wants to kill you. Did you know that? No, I didn't know that. Yeah, Satan wants to kill you. Sometimes they do know that. Satan can get you killed. And Gaskell mentioned it earlier, suicide, that there's only one way out, and it's suicide. Passed out today. What happens after that? Well, that's another topic. So I'm not going to go there right now. For the kids that come into our office, They have suicidal tendencies or suicidal thoughts. It's not rare. And when you start getting it, when somebody has thoughts that kill themselves, that's not necessarily, it's not out of the norm, OK? That's what you have to watch for. Because then a red flag goes up. Some people that have come in have tried to kill themselves, and they've failed, fortunately. And the last thing it says, Satan's also come to destroy. Well, what has he come to destroy? Destroy cell phones. You know, kids rebel. Parents get divorced. Churches split. These are things. And the thing is, Satan knows the Bible better than you and I put together. And he knows these things. OK, these are what Satan has come to do. How did he do it now? And this is a time when Jesus was passing loaves and fishes around. And when Jesus was preaching, he didn't just go out and heal people. And he was always pointing to the Father. And done about it. And when they came back, Jesus asked them questions to his disciples, the way that I am. And they said, well, some say you're Elijah or Jeremiah. Then Jesus says, OK, but who do you guys say that I am? See, the disciples, they were there when he was preaching. If Jesus had any discrepancies, if Jesus had any flaws, they would know it. I've traveled with Logan, and I always stay with him. And Logan learned that I have no flaws. But then he asked a very important question. He said, OK, is that a right answer or a wrong answer? You guys are taking notes. All of this information I'm giving you is in here. There's other things I won't be able to go over. Because when I counsel with somebody, I don't eat dip. You're running for the wash. You're just going to get the fleas off of them and move them on their way. I don't ever use notes, ever. We probably literally have 1,000 different handouts. I'm not exaggerating. There's filing cabinets full of them. One of the weirdest people I've met in Arnold is him. Peter said, you're the Christ. And I'll ask the kid, I'll say, was that a right answer or a wrong answer? He'll go, that's good. I said, but read verse 17. And then Jesus says there, blessed are you, Simon. So what Jesus was saying there was, Peter, you had a thought, but that thought did not come from yourself. Now we skip down, verse 21. For the first time ever, Jesus starts to speak about his death, burial, and resurrection. And Peter again comes and takes him and says, in verse 22, now, is that a normal response? Is that normal? Well, sure. What if you're serving with Billy Red? I'm going to have to go die now. And you'd be like, I won't do that. People are getting saved. You know, the normal response. But what does Jesus do? 23, get behind me, Satan. You're an offense to me. It'd be the same hour. Peter had thoughts from God and thoughts from Satan. He could not tell the difference. You see, Peter hops into your mind as you. You know that. I can have thoughts from me. I can have thoughts from you. There's other places in scripture where Satan cuss. Well, John 13, 2 says, Satan having entered, says that Satan gave Judas' thought to betray Christ. If we were there that night and we said, hey, Judas, did you have a thought? He would have said, myself. Why? Because the thought fit him. Remember, Judas had a temporal value problem. Remember, he kept the what? The money bag. And he was helping himself with the money, right? What was he going to sell Christ for? money he had a money problem I'll tell the kids I don't know why he was going to sell Christ out I personally don't think that Judas really thought they were going to crucify him afterwards he threw the money back at him and went out and hung himself I think he was blinded to a lot of that stuff but maybe he was stealing the money out and they were going to have an accounting and he had to somehow put money back in otherwise they would know he was stealing it I don't know but regardless Satan got Judas where he was the thing is Satan will only give you thoughts that fit you You see Satan will not give me someone else's thoughts. That's why I think for myself That's why I think for me. She I Can't tell you where they're from Her mother is in charge of a very major college campus Father's a well-known minister if I said their names you'd know them girl was a little bit, she was a teenager, mid-teen, she was in college, she was a freshman. When this girl was two or three years old, she saw these green eyes come out of her closet. Well, good Christian parents that are in ministry don't believe that Satan can do things like this, so they kind of brushed it off. And this thing would come out of her closet and talk to her. And she became friends with this thing. When demons come to children, you probably already know this, but they come in one of two ways. Either they come in hideous forms to terrify them, or they come as a friend. Always those two ways. And often, they come as a friend first, and then later on, they're terrifying. This thing would come out and talk with her, but her parents didn't believe in it. So what did she do? Who did she talk to? If you're two years old, three years old, and you can't talk to your mom and dad, who do you talk to? Think of that. If you guys ever have kids, I'd really listen to whatever your kids tell you. You know, imaginary friends, that's one thing. Invisible friends, that's another thing. If they have an invisible friend, I talk to them about it. Most kids have imaginations. They can have imaginations. That's OK. But when I start talking about an invisible friend, only they see. I'd really say, well, why? Tell me what this thing tells you. A lot of times we use what they call play therapy. A little boy came in. I was not here for this one, but Logan told the story. He was, I don't know how old he was, three years old, I think. And he was having all kinds of nightmares and voices speaking to him. But I mean, how do you get a little kid to talk? And so Logan was praying about it. And God gave him this. He took these two stuffed animals, and he brought them in the office. He said, OK, Johnny, let's play. You want to play? Logan, have you guys met Logan? Anybody not met Logan? I'm sorry. For those of you who have met him, I'm sorry, too. But Logan was in there, and he's very, very rambunctious for a 75-year-old. He gets down on the floor with this little kid. And he says, let's play bears, stuffed animals. He says, OK. And they're playing. And he goes, oh, my bear's really getting tired. My bear's going to take a nap, OK? The little boy said, OK. And he goes, oh, no, my bear's having dreams. What kind of dreams would my bear have? And guess what the little boy said? I know one. And this little boy told him everything. So you can use what we call play therapy. They'll tell you the things they know, but they do it in play. And so it's not really them. And they tell you from two, three years old that they know everything you know. So where was I? This girl, the voices that started coming out, she started thinking, man, this stuff And I was working with this girl. Logan was in there, too. We were both working with this girl. And what happened was she got kicked out of the college she was at for things that were going on. And this demon was still in her life. So the parents finally thought, well, maybe this thing's real. And at one time, the girl was in the house. And also, the mom got a bad feeling. She says, I got to get out of here. She grabbed her daughter and ran out of the house. And the girl said, I'm glad you did. This thing was telling me to grab the fire iron and kill you with it. And she came to the counseling center. And when we were there, I felt the demon come in the room. I felt it pass through me. It came through the wall and went right by me. I'm very sensitive to spiritual things. Logan's not. He's the opposite. He's sitting there. I don't know why. But I told Logan, we had a break real quick. I said, Logan, I said, there's something in the room. It's not good. The girl came back in. She goes, and this is before we talked to the girl. I said, yeah, Kevin already said he was. And what had happened wasn't the squirrel's cause of bitterness. It had happened between her and her parents. When I got taken care of, the demon left and never came back. Satan will only give you the thoughts that fit you. That's what I'll tell the kids. That's why I don't open my people thoughts. I don't have time to do them all. But go to Acts 5, the classic Ananias and Spira. And I'll show them. I'll say, see, it says here. Well, first of all, I gave them an Ananias and Spira. It had some properties. And they wanted to give it to the church, too. But they didn't want to give it all. We want to keep part of it, because maybe they got more money for the land than they fit, so we gave it all, and keep part of it. That way we'll look good on both ends. We'll have some money, but they'll think we gave it all. They didn't have to give any of it. And Peter has ruled a sermon here. He was already deceived by Satan. Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart with the light of the Holy Ghost to keep back part of the price of the land? Peter, I'm sorry, Ananias was so filled with Satan to the same extent that you and I should be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. And then he says something very important. He says, while it remained with you, was it not your own? And after you sold it, you see the thoughts Satan gives me. That doesn't matter. They're just thoughts. When I let that thought be conceived, something gives birth. Something, either good or bad, something gives birth. And so these thoughts will come in. And if I let that thought be conceived, if they're an older kid, I'll say, well, how many siblings do you have? Some of you get some ATI families. Well, I have 23 siblings. That's true. And people will be like, you know, some will come to me and be like, well, I have five bones. OK. I said, well, I have a rib. Well, obviously, right? I said, but there's probably more times your parents were incident that it was not a conception, right? I said, yeah. That clicks with the older ones. It's when I let those thoughts, that's when they become sin. Because they'll think, well, Satan's giving me these thoughts. I must be sinning. Let's see. Go to 2 Corinthians. That's what Satan's come to do for my focus. And he does it through giving me thoughts. Satan cannot make me do anything. Not spirits of forcing you to do something. If I was forced to do something, then I would not be accountable for it. OK, so what three areas will come under attack in their life? Well, 2 Corinthians 10 says, verse 3, for the less. I tell them, I said, if I fight for myself or against myself or against other people, It says, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are might through God to the point of our stronghold. Yes, definitions. Well, in the Old Testament time, a stronghold was a awesome. You know what a stronghold was? The problem why I don't understand a lot of scripture is because I'm reading a Hebrew Bible, people, a Western mindset. It doesn't work. I have to get into their culture. What was Paul writing? The children of Israel came to him when they crossed the Jordan. I already want to spy out here. Okay. Little boys really like that, you know, military stuff. Let's say we go in there and we find out that they're all scared of us because they're walled up in the city outside. It would be a much smaller area, but a very thick wall that people could live in, that only they're all scared of us. Well, hey, they're all scared of us. Why should we even fight them? Why don't we just leave the private van here and move on to A? What happens if I don't take that stronghold down? What stronghold do I build in my life? Once a stronghold is revealed in a Christian's life, it is not torn down. It'll just be the course of your life. You don't get rid of them all. You're good for seven years. There's different strongholds. These definitions are not the sheet I want. I don't have the stronghold sheet, but that's OK. I can give you the definitions. You can write them down. For my life. Isn't that a big one? Yeah. There's a stronghold in my life. You can look them up later. I'll just tell you. But the bigger definition usually takes place in my childhood. The problem today is not that I was wounded. The problem today are the lies that I believe because I was wounded. And you see, every kid, usually by mom and dad, every kid, I've never dealt with a kid that did not have major bitterness issues, ever, ever. Issues. Bitterness and authority, hurts and authority are the two things you always deal with with children. Those three things. or somehow had in your childhood. The thing is, it's not the hurt, it's the lies I believe. So many kids are told, you know, somebody tells stupid or whatever, they grow up their whole life thinking they're stupid. They believe the lies. When does a lie become true for you? I'll tell them. When they get older, you know, strongholds will fall. You see, a lot of kids have godly parents, but not all godly parents give godly counsel. Not all ungodly parents give ungodly counsel either. It works both ways. Parents can give counsel. That's not good. Get an abortion. I don't want my daughter to have this. That kind of stuff. Churches. Not everything you're taught at church is right. Not all pastors are walking with God. The government. They can teach you things. They pass laws. This is OK. This is not OK. That kind of stuff. schools are at your top school public it or not yes uh... now that that will but that's more character issues too but the stuff You know, it's a... I'm not totally understanding your question, but... Parents don't always give godly advice, I just know that. A parent that's always right, and our kids may or may not be right, they'll drive them away. There's not much worse than living with a mommy if your kids rebel one after another. Maybe it's the parent's fault. We've had that. You know, maybe it's not the kids. I'm not saying the kids have no involvement in it, but maybe mom and dad should recheck what they're doing. Another thing I taught in school, the media is a huge one. Just because you wear the right deodorant doesn't mean you're going to be successful. You know, that's everything you see on TV or you read. But the thing is, they watch this stuff. It's programmed for a little child, and they believe it. And they will make the decisions in life based on what they believe. You know, when they get older and they get married, how many kids should they have? That's another problem that's going to come to their life. What do they believe about that? They'll do, you know, when they go into dating, how far should they take the relationship? Or what do they believe about it? What have they been taught about it? They'll make the decisions based on what they believe. And as long as I believe that which is false, I will live a defeated life. OK, so Satan's going to come in, and there's strongholds that are going to be dealt with, things that I was taught. But the only thing you can take in that is truth. There's a line up with scripture. That's one thing I always do. Give me a verse for that. Let me tell you something else. Give me a verse. Back it up. Because sometimes things just don't smell right. OK, the next thing that's going to come into their life will be in verse 4, for the weapons of our warfare are pulling down strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. The second area of attack that's going to come on the Christian's life is my view of God. Do I have a distorted view of God? You know, if somebody has a distorted view of God, there's one thing that always follows. They will have no prayer life at all. Somebody who has a distorted view of God, you know, God is God is all love. Those are the basic ones. God is always angry. Those basic things. Why should I pray to a God who's always angry? These are things that become kind of an attack in a kid's life, too. OK. And then, bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. That's what I wanted to get to. Bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Well, the word captivity there is very interesting in that Greek, it literally translates to spear point. Once again, I'm reading a Hebrew Bible from a Western mindset. Why in the world would Paul write, bring every thought into spear point to the obedience of Christ? Well, Paul was a Roman. He wrote from Roman analogies. And the thing is, when a thought enters my mind, I have to take it captive immediately. How do I take it captive? The basic thing to say is, I give no consent to that. I don't want that thought. banish the thought. I give no consent to those thoughts. What happens when the thought is what we call a persisting thought? An intruding thought is what we say. What happens when I have those thoughts? Remember earlier I said you can have thoughts from God, thoughts from Satan, thoughts from myself, but how do I tell the difference? Well, number one is, it doesn't matter where the thought came from, if it's a wrong thought, take it captive. Who cares where the thought came from? It's a wrong thought, take it captive. If it's a wrong thought, I know it did not come from God. Maybe it came from myself. Maybe it came from Satan. But I really don't care. It's good enough to come from those thoughts. But what happens when it's intruding? And I'll give the analogy to this to kids. I'll be like, let's say for lunch, you go to a buffet. And is there something you really don't like to eat at the salad bar? Oh, yeah, I hate broccoli. And I'll say, OK, let's say you go up here. You're going through the salad bar line, and there's broccoli there, all kinds of broccoli. You get a thought, hexapod. And a thought, in fact, hexapod. And that thought, he's persisting like that. That's what we call intrusive thought. You know now that that thought is no longer you. That thought is safe. Something is persistent. When I cannot take it captive, I know it's Satan. Because the Bible indicates that I can think about what I want to think about. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. The word affections there, in the Greek, literally translates to imagination. Set your imagination on things above, not on things on the earth. Gird up the loins of your mind, it says, so that I can think about what I want to think about. Thou wilt keep me in perfect peace, whose mind, or this, again, can be translated, imagination, is the state on me. So it says, I can think about what I want to. But what happens when I can't? I know that Satan is persisting. Satan is getting involved somehow. When that happens, we'll have them use a verse in mind. Because, for instance, if it's a sexual thing, I'll say, use the verse, the ramas of God. OK, the truth of God. Because the truth of God is what combats Satan, the liar. I have to move faster. I would take them through Job, where it talks about the hedging protection of God. But see, Job was a righteous man. God twice, two times in Job, he gives a testimony of Job. He says that he was an upright man. He was a God-fearing man. I'll just quote him out real quick to you. It says, see, And the Lord said to Satan, Hestile, consider my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that fears God and eschews evil. OK, four things. He says, number one, he's a perfect man. Does not mean he never sinned. Says he is morally sure. He didn't have any magazines under his mattress. The second thing was, he was an upright man. That's talking about his business dealings. Job was the richest man on land. God's saying, I've checked his books, he's paid his taxes. OK, he hasn't gotten his money by playing the lottery or anything else. and is she with evil, shuns evil, pushes anything wrong away. I don't know that he can. But that was God's testimony. And go to Luke chapter 22. There's three attacks that Satan brings in Luke 22. I'm not going to do them all. But the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has decided to have you, to even sift you with wheat. I don't know. And he says, But I pray for you that your faith fail not. As long as I'm under the hedge of protection of God, Satan can't have me. If any side is down, if I'm rebelling against my parents, the wall's down. I might have support up, but Satan can shoot at me now. Well, what happens when he attacks me and Satan still shoots his arrows at me through the hedge of protection of God? Because that's what happens. with Joe, same thing that happened here. He said, when the flaming missiles of Satan penetrate the hedges of protection of God, we're no longer the flames of Satan. We have now become the refining fire of God. You see, Satan, or God can allow Satan, God will not allow anything to come into my life. And here in Luke 22, so I'll ask them, was Peter inside the hedge of protection of God or on the outside of the hedge of protection of God? Because see, when I go on the outside, Satan can have a heyday with me. I'll tell these kids this. I'll ask them, was Satan inside or outside the hedge of protection of God? Whatever you answer, why? And sometimes we'll say inside, sometimes we'll say outside. Peter was on the inside. And I'll say, well, why? And they'll say, well, because it says here you prayed for him. No, not what it says. Well, he said he prayed for me. He says, Satan desired to have you. He's asking to have you. You see, when I'm outside of God's protection, Satan doesn't have to ask. He can have me. And I'll tell them this. Do you really want Satan involved in your life? And they'll say no. And then I'll take them through the three things that Christ did on the cross, this in Colossians. I'm moving a lot faster than what I'd do with a kid, but we're kind of low on time. Colossians 2, 13, starting there, it says, and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, have they quickened together with them, having forgiven you all trespasses? These are the three things that Christ did on the cross. And I'll tell them this. Number one, it says he forgave you all trespasses, all your sins. I'll say, so how many sins? Well, I'll ask them, how many sins did Jesus forgive when he died on the cross? And you being a Christian, you know? And they said, well, all of them. I'll say, yeah, even the ones you haven't done yet. Do you believe that? It says all of them. And sometimes they disagree. Well, that's fine. I'm not there to get my opinion pushed at me. I don't care. I'll have people argue about, they'll want to argue about suicide. Are you going to heaven or hell? Is drinking right or wrong? All this stuff, guess what? I'm not even going to go there. If you want to argue about it, fine. But that's not what I'm here to do. And I'll say, you forgave me all trespasses, even the one you haven't done yet. And if they disagree, I'll say, well, think about this. Let's say you get really mad at me right now. You cuss me out. Jump in your car. Drive off down the road. This works better for teenagers. Have a car wreck and die, or are you going to heaven or hell? If you had sin in your life, you didn't ask God to forgive you for it, but you're going to heaven or hell. You're going to heaven. But if you forgave me all my sins, why do I have first John one night? If I confess, he's what? Faithful and just to forgive. And cleansing from all unrighteousness. Well, if you look at first John, it's talking about eternality. Or it's not talking about eternality. It's talking about the here and now. It's talking about your fellowship. Whenever I sin, I go to fellowship with God. When a child does something to rebel or whatever against his parents, does that child cease to become a son? No. You're out of fellowship at the time, but you don't cease to become the son. That's the first thing he did. The second thing, he took away all the Old Testament ordinances, not the Old Testament commandments, but the laws, like I don't have to wash my hands seven times and do anything until the evening and all those kinds of things. And the third thing is, he spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it, verse 15. Spoiled there means disarmed. He disarmed Satan and all of his power. Well, I'll ask you, if Satan was disarmed, it's getting worse, right? Logan said when he was in high school, he went to high school in Hollywood. You couldn't find pornography if you wanted to look fine in Hollywood back then. That was like centuries ago. So something like 85% of girls and like 95% of men So the world's getting worse today, Alaska. You know, it satisfies the world getting worse, because it is. And the answer is in chapter 1. Paul said, giving thanks for the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance and the kingdom of his dear Son. You see, we have been delivered from the power of darkness, but not from the presence of darkness. It was a big deal. It's the presence that's getting so bad. You see, Satan was defeated, but only defeated for the belief. When Jesus died on the cross, he took away everything from Satan, except there's one thing he could not take from Satan. Do you know what that was? Alaska. And that's who he is. And who is he? He's the father of lies. That's what the Bible says. Every attack of Satan will contain a lie to some degree. I'll tell them this. It's the way he did to Jesus in the desert. I'm giving them a background on all the basic stuff, why things are happening, to kind of get them to open their eyes a little bit. Not everything that pops into your mind is you. And I build up, and I go to Revelation 12. And this is where I will end my first day with them. This is only day one, my first session. I'm going to move a lot faster. And I left out a lot of stuff. But in Revelation 12, it says, and there was war in heaven. And Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon fought, and his angels had prevailed not. It was placed down for them anymore in heaven. And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, who has deceived the whole world. He was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast with him. So number one, Satan's a liar. And now it says he's a deceiver. And I'll ask them, what's the deception? Because the deception on a liar is not quite the same. They're close, but they're not quite the same. I could lie to you. This is a orange thingy I'm talking about. That's a lie, right? But if you were colorblind, you might be deceived by my lie, right? There's a difference. A deception is a lie with feelings. I'll tell kids. I say, I don't think you love me. It's a thought. But what if I say I don't fall? A deception is a lie with feelings. And the feelings are stronger than the lie. But once I believe that, OK, so Satan's a deceiver. And then in 10, and I heard a loud voice, the power of his Christ. For the accuser of her brethren is cast down, which accused them of the Lord our God day and night. OK, so the second thing Satan is, he's the accuser now. Not only is Satan lying to me and deceiving me now, he's accusing me of things I did do. So that's the hard thing. I did do that. The thing is, he'll give me a thought I didn't want. Remember, I gave him no consent to that. That thought's persistent. And I'll say, you know, I give no consent to that thought, but it keeps coming. I don't want the thought, I don't want the thought, and then maybe I get into it, and then he accuses me, and look what you did. How do I, how do I combat Satan's accuser? Well, when Satan accuses me, I'll tell him, I say, it's kind of like this, you guys, you drive a car, if they're old or awful, I'll listen. No, they'll tell me about their car, because they're real proud of their car. Listen to their stuff, okay, guys? You've got to connect. If you're just there to talk about, you know, I don't want to sound bad, but if you're just here to talk about the Bible and getting it right, OK. I'm sorry. Rarely it'll be that way, but I'm sorry. You'll lose them. If you don't get interested in what they're interested in, you won't connect. And if you don't connect, someone else will pack it up. So talking about their car and stuff, I'll say, OK, let's say you're driving out of here. You're backing out of the parking lot. You're looking in the rear view mirror. You drive down to your motel looking in the rear view mirror. What's going to happen? And they'll say, oh, a crash. I say, yeah, a crash. Because that's what Satan the infuser does. He gets me to look in my rearview mirror. Look what you did. How could God use you? I like that list that Allison read. Look at this. Look at that. You know what I do when Satan the infuser comes in my life? I'll probably give this. I say, thanks, Satan, for reminding me what happens when I drive my car, when I look in my rearview mirror. Because I'll tell them this. I'll say, how many steering wheels does your car have? Well, mine has one. I'll tell them, aha, mine has two. No, I won't tell them that. I'll say, OK, the steering wheel of your life only has one. The car of your life only has one steering wheel as well. And who's going to drive that car, you or God? They say, God. OK. So when Satan, the accuser, comes and he is accusing you of stuff that you did do, say, thank you for reminding me what happens when I drive my car, when I run my own life. Because that's all it is. Satan's reminding you of what you did. because you're driving a car. Turn Satan's stuff against him. This is what I build up to, verse 11. And they overcame him, that is Satan, by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death. It's saying here there's going to come a time when people are going to get what's called the mark of the beast. And those people that don't get that, they won't be able to buy, sell, or trade, and they may cost them their life, and some people will die. But it says they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, that's Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ's blood, and the word of their testimony, that's the people. But the word of their testimony, what is that? The word of your testimony, if you look this up, it's not your testimony of when you got saved, okay? That's not the word of your testimony. The word of your testimony is kind of like in Joshua 24, 15, he says, you know, you people, you're worshiping all these, your fathers worshiped all these false gods and they brought back from Egypt. Some of you are going over in Jordan, you're gonna worship these gods of the Amorite, you're taking those things on. He says, you've got to decide what you're going to do. But he basically drew a line on the sand and said, but it's for me and my house. And I said, Lord, that was the word of the testimony. What am I going to do? What do I want? And that's what I'll build up to. I'll say, now, I'd rather you make a declaration of intent. But if you don't feel comfortable doing that, you can do it in prayer. And what I say is, just pretend Satan's standing here. He's probably not. But I'm sure some demons are around here. They'll report to him. He'll get the word. to say, Satan, I don't want anything to do with you in your life. I just want to follow God. It's that simple. Some people don't feel comfortable addressing it like that. It's just a declaration of intent. It's not praying. So if they don't like that, I'll say, well, let's pray. And just tell God in your own words that you just don't want anything Satan has for you and that you just want to follow him. Satan will hear that too. The first one's better because they're really making a stand. All they're doing is declaring war. We've had people get choked up at this point. It can't go on. If they cannot do this, counseling stops. Because if they, only on a rare occasion, very, very rare, maybe two times, do we ever kind of go out a little bit, and the next day they could do it, or the third day. But if they can't do that, they can't say, Satan, I don't want you. What are they saying? There's a reason. And this is very important, too. I don't know if it's in your book, but I want to write it down. When you're dealing with kids, when you're dealing with anybody, when you're dealing with kids, it's not so much the what, okay? It's the why. It's not what are they doing, it's why are they doing it. If you take care of the why, you will take care of the what every time. The problem is with most counselors is they're into the what's. And so they skip the why's. And that's why people that come to our counseling center, it's not rare they've gone to six or seven or eight other counseling centers and then come to ours. At times I've said, you're our last hope. If it doesn't work here, I'm going to kill myself. Talk about really trying to keep the pressure off you. But you know what? If something happens that week, it's God. If something happens that week, it's God. I don't care. I'm not here to prove a point. I'm not here to try to get you to believe my way. It's in God's hands. So I say, God, if you want something to happen, you better do something this week. Otherwise, this guy's going to kill himself. So kind of put pressure on God now. Kind of stress God out a little bit. I want to hit what you'll definitely work with. Oh, I'll give them two homework things. These are important. I gave them to you guys. Number one is how to get a rainbow from God. There's two words in the Bible for the word of God in the Greek. One is logos. And that means the Word of God. Jesus was the Word of God made flesh. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Remember in 1 John, or John chapter 1. That's Logos. Word for word of the Bible. The second word for the word in Greek is Arema, and that translates Truth of God. When Jesus was in Luke 4, when Jesus was being tempted by Satan, he quoted Deuteronomy three times. It is written. It is written. It is written. But you can go back and you can read it, and he never quoted it word for word. Couldn't the Logos of God quote the Logos of God if he wanted to? But he didn't. He quoted the Ramah of God, the truth of God. You see, I know way more truth of God than I know word for word. So whenever Satan will say, a lot of times to kids, well, you quoted that wrong. I don't have to leave now. You quoted that verse wrong. So you didn't resist me, right? No. It's the Ramah of God. I'll give him this. I'll say, go home or go back to the motel. This explains Ramah stuff. And I'll write down on here Psalm 18. And I'll say, I want you to go and read Psalm 18. I think there's 22 verses or something like that. And I want you to get a random for this week in Psalm 18. And they'll say, OK. And that's one assignment. They'll go home, and they'll read it. And I'll say, pick out a verse, or sometimes I pick out two or three, and bring it back in. And we'll go over it tomorrow morning and tell me what that means to you. And they come back with all kinds of verses. But you know one that a lot of kids come back with. is Psalm 18, 17 through 19, that section. It says, he delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which were too strong for me. Verse 19 is what they do a lot. He brought me forth also into a large place. He delivered me because he delighted in me. And they break down and cry. He delights in me. Because nobody delights in them. The pastors condemn them. Their parents reject them. And they actually see that. So I write down Psalm 18. The second thing I give them is this one stapled together. And there's all these verses on here. Return to Sin and God's Protection Worksheet. And it's pretty much self-explanatory. But I'll divide it up into four days, kind of halfway down here and halfway down here. The first are all negative. They're real negative verses, what happens when you sin and all these kinds of things. And I'll say, what I want you to do is take these verses. I want you to write them out on a piece of paper. And then in your own words, say what they mean to you. And the first day, I'll have them do half of the first section, and the second day, the next half. And then the last two days, the next one, these are all positive ones. So they're all positive verses. But it's just what the Bible says about sin. It talks about the house being swept clean and all that kind of stuff. But if it's not replaced with something, sudden spirits come that are worse, and all that nice stuff. OK, so the second day, I'll go over that next section. the psalm 18 thing right away. And this is a real important day. It's bitterness. Right here. And it's basically dealing with past hurts. I'll just skip a lot of this stuff. Let's go to 1 Peter. feeling on things that are past hurts. And I don't necessarily use the word bitterness when I'm talking, especially with a kid, because that kind of sounds negative, although it is negative. But I use the word unforgiveness. It's the same thing. Unforgiveness is bitterness. It's the same thing. It's just bitterness is resentment's gone bad. And I'll talk to kids. I'll be like, have you ever seen a bitter old man or a bitter old woman and how they look like they've been sucking on a sour pickle their whole life? And they'll tell me, oh yeah, I know some of those in my church, you know, or whatever. And I'll be like, you know what? They started out as bitter young kids. And they don't want to end up like that at all. And I'll go to 1 Peter. And he's talking about here your salvation, your inheritance in Christ. 1 Peter 1.5, he says, who are kept by the power of God through faith into salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. And I wrote in my Bible that underneath I said, not my own power, praise God. It's kept by God's power. Then in verse 6, wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you're in heaviness through manifold temptations. Or that's not a good word for this King James. It's literally trials or testings. It's not being tempted there. It's the testings kind of temptation. Trials. The trial of your faith, being much more precious than a gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found under the praise and honor and glory of the appearing of Jesus Christ. You see, I'll tell them, God lets these trials come into my life to test the genuineness of my faith. I said, you know how gold is tried? Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. They heat it up in a crucible, in a furnace, and they melt it down, and they skim off the dross. And they do that up to seven times. They let it harden, and they'll heat it up again, skim it off, and do it again. I said, the story of the silversmith is even more interesting. The way a silversmith works, silver is different than gold. When you heat it up, if you overheat silver, you actually ruin it. You can't heat it past a certain extent. You skim off the dross. Somebody one time was talking to a silversmith, and they told me this story. They heat the silver, and they skim off the dross, and then they do that again. I asked him, well, how do you know when it got hot enough? How do you know when it's the right temperature? If it's too cold, it's not the process to come off. If it's too hot, you've ruined it. And then Silversmith said, that's easy. It's when I can see my reflection in it. So how hot will Christ heat your life up? Well, that's easy, until he sees his reflection in you. And that's why God's allowing these things to come into my life. These things are going to hurt me. I said, but go to chapter 4. I've got to find my time sheet. I think we're supposed to take a break. I've got five minutes. Chapter 412, he says, Beloved, thinking not strange concern the fiery trials which are to try you. Fiery trials are even worse than regular trials, as though some strange thing happened unto you. And I'll say, do you know who in the Bible, do you know, went to a literal fiery trial? And I'll ask them. Do you guys know? Yes. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The three? Yeah. That's right. Daniel 3, yeah. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I said, yeah, they were literally thrown into a fiery furnace. Did God deliver them from it? And they'll say, yeah. I'll say, no. God still let them go through it, right? Delivered means you wouldn't even allow them to go into it. He still let them go into it. Did they do anything wrong? No, they were doing right stuff, you know? This was Hitler back then, OK? This was communist Babylon, you know? And I said, if they don't know the story, I'll take them back to Daniel 3 and walk through them with it. I'll say, OK, look. I said, they wouldn't bow down when they played the music and everything. And the king liked Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, because he gave them a second chance. And let me tell you, Babylonian kings don't get second chances. And they said, you know what, king, we're not careful to answer you this matter. We're going to serve the Lord. He's able to deliver us from this fire. If he doesn't, be it known, king, we're still going to serve our God. And he says, OK, he got really mad, made it seven times hotter than normal, took his three, or whatever, his most strongest guys from his military, and threw them in the fire. The fire was so hot, it killed those guys that threw him in there. That's how hot it was. They just got close to it and died. I'm like, wow. And I'll say, but what else did the fire burn besides these guys that threw him in there? Yes, the ropes that bound them. Because it says, the king looked in and he saw him loose, walking around in the fire. But what else did the king see? There's a fourth one in there. And the fourth one looks like the pre-incarnate Son of God, the Christophanes. And you know what's interesting? You can go back and you can read that in Daniel 3. It never says, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego saw Christ walking in the fire. It just says, the ungodly king looking in saw Christ in the fire. Often, when I'm going through my trials, I won't see Christ. And I'll tell them that. You won't see him. Looking back, you may still not see him. But what's important? I said, it's that other people see Christ in my fire. That's what's important. And then verse 13. But rejoice in as much as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. So I'm not to think it's strange, but I'm supposed to rejoice. That's real hard. But you know, I kind of got to try to do that. Now skip down to 19. It says, wherefore, let them that suffer according to the will of God. A lot of times people don't like that. I can suffer according to the will of God. Let them commit the keeping of their souls and their well-doing as an unfaithful creator. OK. Everybody's going to suffer, Christians and non-Christians alike. A lot of times people say, how come it seems that Christians suffer more than non-Christians? Let me tell you something. If you go to a hospital, remember the pediatric ICU? Spend some time there. There's far more unbelievers there than non-Christians. Far more non-Christians suffer. How come we don't hear about it? Because they don't have a church body. They don't have people praying for them. They only have themselves and their family, maybe. Some close friends. But they don't have people praying for each other. That's why it doesn't seem like it sometimes. Everybody's going to suffer, period. I cannot choose my sufferings. I can choose my sufferings if I'm suffering from my own stupid mistakes. But then if I'm suffering out of the will of God, I cannot commit keeping of my soul to Him. What is your soul? It's not your spirit. It's your mind, your will, and your emotions. It's the part of you that thinks, feels, and chooses. The Bible says a dog has a soul, but his soul goes into the earth. Does a dog have mind, will, and emotions? Does he get excited when he rags his tail? Does he get excited when he wants to eat? Does he get excited when he wants to bite you? Sure, he's got a will. When I go through my sufferings, I'll come out one of two ways. I'll tell them this. You'll come out one of two ways. Either you will come out better than you were before, or you'll come out bitter. You've got those two choices. There's no other choices. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out better. A lot of people don't. But if you're suffering in God's will, you can commit yourself to it. Kind of like Job. Then I'll go back to chapter 1. I'm sorry, chapter 4, but verse 1 and 2. It says, For as much sin as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. For he that has suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin. So I have to arm myself with the same mindset that Christ had. Well, what kind of mindset did Christ have? We'll get there. But it says that those who suffered have stopped sinning. There again, these trials are coming into my life. God's heating me up to skim the dross off. I'm no longer doing the things that I once was doing. that he no longer should live the rest of his life, live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lust of men and to the will of God. The word lust there literally translates, chasing after secret evil human desires. That's what the word lust there means, chasing after secret evil human desires. So I'm no longer doing these things, but I have to somehow get the mindset that Christ had. What is that? We'll go to chapter 2. This is how you exegete a book. You start in the back and go to the front. You see, where are they at, and how did they get there? Chapter 2, verse 18. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also the forward or the difficult. By the way, if I'm working with a kid, I often will use a different translation Bible. I said I use King James. I always use King James. But unless they're an ATI, a lot of times you're going to write over their head. My favorite to use is New Living Translation. I don't care for the NIV. That's a personal taste. Some stuff I like NIV for, but I'm not an NIV person. That stands for Nearly Infallible Burden. Yeah. But I like New Living. Some people like New King James. It's a little easier to read sometimes. Because if you cannot understand it, what's the point? God said, come, let us reason together. What if I can't reason? Think about it. You want to be able to reason. I'm not understanding it. Verse 19, chapter 2, for this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endured grief, suffering, wrongfully. This is hard to get. That's why I was talking about the King James. If you're not into the King James, it's hard to understand. For what glory is it if, when you're buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently? But if, when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. Another thing I always do is I have the counselor read everything. I don't read anything. They're reading the verses. Because they're reading it. They can see it for themselves. And guess what? I only use the Bible when I counsel. And the reason for that is, God said it. You can't argue with it. OK? That's the reason. There's no situation you can get yourself into. There's no problem you'll ever come across that this does not have answers for. If there is, you're not reading it enough. You're not in it enough. Get on your knees a little bit and ask God for some answers. Often, we'll take a break. And Logan and I will go in the back. We'll be praying, because we don't Honestly, you don't know what to do. Logan calls it counseling by the seat of your pants. My time up? We'll come back here and start with this. We'll take a quick break.