In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of young people focusing on God's great mercy and demonstrating His keeping power. He urges them not to waste time experimenting with the world, as the Lord is going to move quickly. The speaker references two verses, one about the hearts of fathers turning to their children and another from Hebrews 11, highlighting the faith of those who did not receive what was promised. The sermon also addresses the concept of discipleship and the need to fully embrace the cross, acknowledging that it is not easy but can be accomplished through the quickening word of God. The speaker also challenges parents to examine how they relate to their children, urging them to see them as gifts from God rather than using them to build their own egos.

By the washing of water, by the word, by a living word, not that you know the Bible or all the doctrines. That word comes to your heart and mine as a sharp two-edged sword dividing us under soul and spirit. Oh God, we pray this morning, we know, Lord, you want a holy people, a righteous people, a people totally given over to you. Lord, thank you for that song and the truth of it, Lord. We are to be a living sacrifice unto you. That's all you want for us to give ourselves to you. You told us, Lord, that you would cleanse us by your word. We can't do the cleansing, but just as the sinner in Israel would bring his sacrifice to the priest and slay it, that's all they could do. And so, God is asking us to come to the cross and receive the sacrifice of the cross. You say, I did that many years ago and I received the Lord, but I don't mean quite that. I mean, you don't only receive what he did for you, but you receive that cross. See, I think I've done that. Then may the Lord test all our hearts whether or not we've done it. It simply means that when you take up your cross to follow him, A.W. Tozer put it out so clearly in a little writing I have. We've got a new cross on the church today, one you carry around on your neck or one you put in the back of the church. But the cross that Jesus asks us to bear is, if any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Tozer put it so beautifully. He said, when they saw that poor fellow walking outside the streets of Jerusalem or any other place in the Roman Empire carrying his cross, they were not saying, oh, he's looking for a new direction. Oh, he's looking for a change. Oh, he wants a new way of life. That man had said goodbye to his friends and he went out there not coming back. But now we've got a gospel that preaches the cross as something Jesus did, and we receive what he did for us. But Jesus said, if you're going to truly be my disciple, you've got to hang with him on that cross. I can't do it, and I'm not saying I'm fully there either. But God can do it by the mighty operation of the quickening word of God that pierces and cuts asunder and divides soul and spirit, that joins in there and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Oh God, I pray that this day, Lord, this very day, there'll be a quickening word from your heart that you'll put a bond on every carnal heart, every carnal thought, every carnal spirit that desires to take the place of the living word in our midst this day. I pray this day, today, if you hear his voice, harden not your heart. God says to his people, today, not this afternoon even, but now, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart. Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your heart. Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your heart. Today, today, because you and I can't cleanse ourselves. We can't cleanse ourselves. If you hear his voice, let that sword cut, divide asunder, let it cut deeply. Oh, oh my beloved people, God does want to do a work, he does. He wants to do a deep work in our heart. Oh, he wants to do a cleansing work. God longs to come and dwell in us, walk in our midst, in your life and mine. He wants us to be the home in which he lives. And he's longing, he's weeping, he's crying out, I want to live in you. You say, he's in my heart. I know, but he wants to dwell there. He wants to make you to be his habitation. He's longing to come and he can't come yet till he cleanses, till he cleanses and purifies. Oh, let the word of God penetrate the heart, dividing asunder soul and spirit, revealing the thoughts and incense of the heart, that the God of glory might come, that the God of glory might come and take up his habitation within us. Do it, Lord Jesus, for your name's sake. Do it for your name's sake. Do it, Lord, for your name's sake. Let's fall on our knees before the Lord. Look to the Lord to do a deep work. Oh, God. Oh, God. In the Old Testament, for the cleansing of the people, God says, take a dish and fill it with living water, water from the stream that was flowing. And he says, take two birds. Listen, even as you seek God, listen to the living word of God. He says, take two birds, take the one bird and slay it and let the blood fill that dish that's full of water so that the water might be mingled with the blood of the bird. And then he says, take the live bird and dip it in this water, in this water and blood and let the live bird fly throughout wherever it would go, let it fly away. And he says, that would be for the cleansing of the leper. But Jesus is that blood. Jesus shed that blood and he is the resurrected one who went away that we might be clean. And so that is that living bird flew away. It flew away with its wings dripping with water and with blood. But Jesus said, Paul, the apostle said, by the spirit of Jesus, if the blood of bulls and goats in the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those that were defiled would sanctify unto the cleanness of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Jesus, who is a lamb without blemish, how much more shall the blood of Jesus, who through the eternal spirit presented himself without blemish unto God, how much more shall he cleanse those who are defiled because his blood and the water that flowed from his side has eternal efficacy. And the spirit is truth because the spirit is truth. He bears witness to the water and to the blood. John said, I saw water and I saw blood flowing from his side on Calvary. John says, I saw it. The spirit of God saw it also. The spirit of God was there because Jesus made that sacrifice through the eternal spirit. You know why we're not finding the cleansing that we want? Because we do not let the spirit of truth. We do not let the spirit of truth have his way in our midst. We crowd him out of our lives as individuals. We crowd him out of the church with all kinds of nonsense and paraphernalia that God never ordained. He wants the people who gather together in his name and unto him and unto him only. God wants his people to take away all the trivia, trivial things that come in to magnify the worship of God. All the paraphernalia, all the banners, all the ribbons, all the tinsel, all the trash, the comedians, the magicians, all this stuff that they're bringing into the house of God. God wants to purge it out of our midst that we might gather solely unto him. He wants to cleanse us by the washing of water. The water and the blood is mingled together. And the spirit is truth and the spirit bears witness to the washing of the water and the blood. Oh we thank you Lord Jesus for cleansing by the water and the blood that flowed from Jesus' side. Just as efficacious today as it was when it flowed when Jesus died in the cross because the spirit of God was there at that sacrifice. Appropriating, absorbing in his own being the efficacy of the blood. And the reason we don't have the cleansing of the blood as we ought is because we've crowded the Holy Spirit out of the church. Holy Spirit, Holy Dove, come back in the midst of your people as we pray together. We pray that the cleansing of the blood and the water will come back into our midst, come into our hearts that we might know the efficacy of the cleansing of the water and the blood of Jesus. The cleansing stream I see, I see, I plunge and oh it cleanses me, it cleanses me, yes cleanses me. Oh praise the Lord it cleanses me, cleanses us oh Lord by the washing of the water by the word that we might be as clean as Jesus is clean because it is his blood and only his blood that makes us clean. That only the spirit of God can apply the work of the cross to our lives. Cleanse us we pray oh Lord by that cleansing stream that flowed from the cross and Lord I pray for your people bowed before you. Lord Jesus we go, we walk in a world that's full of strife, full of contention, full of mouth, full of all kinds of wickedness, all kinds of lusts Lord that fly at us from all directions and our minds become contaminated, our hearts become contaminated. Give us grace this day Lord to so appropriate your word and your spirit Lord that we can walk through the lowest pits of darkness if need be and know that we walk in the purity and in the holiness and in the righteousness of Jesus Christ because you've made that available for a people that can walk in darkness and yet know the light so that the darkness and the light are both alike to thee and the darkness and the light will be the same to us because we're clothed in light. Clothe us in light Lord and help us to walk in light that our whole body might be full of light having no part dark but walking in the pure light of Jesus for that's why you died and that's why you went away that's why you went away that on the throne of glory you might minister light to your people that your church will no longer be a dead lamp but a lamp that shines brightly enlightening those with whom we come in contact. Send forth thy light and thy truth oh Lord even this morning and help your people Lord even now I pray enable every heart in this room that's solemnized in your presence enable each heart Lord to reach out even now Lord and receive Lord in a new dimension and the dimension of grace and love and truth that we've not known before a dimension of the spirit of God in our lives that will enable us to walk in holiness and in purity in humility and meekness and gentleness and injustice and righteousness even now Lord do a work in the hearts of your people cause your people to cry out into you Lord in this hour for the mantle of Jesus to envelop us and keep us in that mantle keep us under that robe of righteousness even as we walk in a world of sin and darkness do it Lord do it Lord and each heart brought before you do a mighty work of grace a mighty work of healing Lord do a mighty work of healing Lord thank you Lord Jesus heal our inner man heal our spirit healing virtues that flowed from Calvary Lord thank you Lord Jesus a word that keeps coming to me is the very very very last verse of the Old Testament and that verse says that before the final day the hearts of the fathers shall be turned to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers I'm really especially thrilled and blessed to see so many young people here my heart has been pounding all morning and this weekend for the young people because whether we believe it or know it or not for the Lord to consummate this age he must include the young people in fact he may primarily move through the young people maybe he's allowed us some of us to have some suffering in anticipation but perhaps he also wants to do a cleansing work within the families and within the households somehow the Lord was very gracious and he met me at about age 10 and because no doubt of a praying mother he never never allowed me to leave him and I sat through many many meetings where testimonies were given to young people and over and over the testimony was I'm somebody who had been in the depths of the gutter and in sin and in this and that and all the other things and then the Lord met them and rescued from them and he's glorious you name it I did it you know what the devil used to whisper to me young people he used to whisper to me and say you're never going to have a testimony you're never going to be able to tell anybody anything of what God did for you because you haven't been anywhere you haven't done anything you haven't even stuck a cigarette in your mouth you better get out there and see what the world's like so you can talk about the great salvation of the Lord I think this is a lie he propagates on the young people and sometimes unwittingly we help him by putting forward this kind of testimony I was in my 40s when I heard such a testimony given to the young people and I cried out oh God what are the young people supposed to do with this visualize it empathize with it feel it wish they could do it it's supposed to demonstrate God's great mercy but we need to demonstrate his keeping power especially in this time young people there isn't time to go out and experiment and see what's going on in the world the Lord is going to move very quickly but there's two verses the one I just mentioned the hearts of the fathers must be turned to the hearts of the children and also at the end of the great faith chapter in Hebrews it says that God could not complete and perfect what he had showed to those before us without us and I think the young people could even claim that verse just look at that verse oh dear Lord Jesus the last one in Hebrews chapter 11 these were all commanded for their faith yet none of them received what had been promised we are parents haven't received yet what we sense within our spirit is getting promised to us God plans something better for us that only together with us would they be made perfect but listen first of all dear young people the Lord needs a pure heart and in this age in this time you are saturated all around you with rebellion and insubordination and questioning of authority and immorality and whatever's right is what you think is right and to any extent that this has permeated our hearts we must repudiate it even though I knew the Lord I did have a problem with one of my parents I seemed to have a need to analyze and correct my parent whether I did openly or not I did it in my heart and this created a wall and I know the word said honor your father and your mother but one of my parents had some pretty far out ideas even concerning the word and some things that were not according to the word but one day the Lord brought me to my knees and told me it is not the place of a child to correct their parent and I repented to the Lord and I repented to that parent and a wall got removed and the Lord could take a further step inwardly but parents have you come to your knees yet concerning the handling of your children I was a young man I was a pastor we had two beautiful little children and our family was considered the model in the church and our oldest little girl had a problem of sucking her thumb I was very embarrassed with that I thought that indicated I don't know what but something that reflected on my image I guess I'll never forget one day I was carrying her down the aisle and as I was carrying there she poked her thumb in her mouth and began to suck it and as I was carrying this little one and a half year old in my arm I put my thumb up into here and I jerked it down she winced with a little bit of pain and we sat down sometime later one night the Spirit of God began to roll over me in waves said you arrogant selfish egotistic young man you think you have children just for your own glory just to manifest how good and how great you are when you did that to your daughter you didn't do it for her sake you didn't do it for her betterment you didn't do it out of love you did it for your rotten ego why are you so hard on your wife because it might reflect on you as your great special image in this congregation I don't know brothers and mothers can you allow the Lord to shine into your heart how you relate to your children how much is it seeing them as gifts of God to put into your custody that they could come to know him and see him and to what extent have we used them to build our own personal kingdom and ego and to whatever extent we have have we repented and purified our hearts and asked the Lord to cleanse us that night I began to weep and weep and my wife thought I was having a nervous breakdown she wanted me to explain what was happening I couldn't and I kept telling her I'm sorry I'm sorry she said you don't need to be sorry what is it sorry for when the light comes in brothers and sisters you know we all want to see the Lord we all want to get closer to him but you know that he's light and light shines two ways and the extent that we resist his shining into the very depths of our being to expose every thought every motive every ambition to whatever extent we limit him from that to that extent we keep ourself at a distance from him no man can see God and live only to the extent we're willing to have put to death all within us that is of self only to that extent can we see him we'd like to preserve ourself pull the veil back take a good look and stay the way we are we can't seeing him costs the exposure I don't know this may be too much this experience I mentioned in mine unfortunately sorry to say it wasn't the only time I had to come to this end and even again this morning our children are grown even after our children have been adults the times have come the Lord has had to rebuke us and we've had to confess to them that we've reached over into God's territory to try to influence them again we always say it's for God we want him to be for God listen ask the Lord to shine in and ask show you how much we want them to be for God and how much we want them to be for ourselves as these things are exposed with the exposure comes the cleansing and the washing and the removing if there's any barrier between us and any of our family in any seat only the exposure along with the cleansing suddenly another layer of a wall is gone friends counseling doesn't do it I've seen and been in situations of years of counseling between parents and children between spouses it goes on and on and on and on bring some insight maybe but it's not the real thing I have seen recently in our travels parents and families teenagers who have been an utter most rebellion and alienation with their parents for years have it flushed and cleansed permanently in a matter of a few moments and sometimes fathers have had to begin to stand up publicly and confess maybe even some secret sins I don't know I just have a feeling this morning the Lord might want to do something in this way I don't think he can reach over and cleanse the church if he has these kinds of impurities these kinds of hidden things in the families he began in our heart in the heart of our family in his house don't worry so much about the corruption in society he's interested in the corruption in my heart in my family between me and my dad between me and my mom and we all know it's not easy it's not easy to be a teenage girl with a mom or a teenage boy with a dad maybe there's some hidden anger frustration and the children went in here one year old two year old went in that didn't mean they escaped trouble they had greater trouble than cannon but they had greater grace than God says we're sin abounded there'll be grace for it more grace the more evil there is in the world and the more evil there is in the church and the more sins there are in the church God says he's got more grace more grace than there is evil God we look for that grace that abundant grace you promised for the more evil we want that more abundant grace you promised lord this came to my mind on this verse in malachi 4 it says remember the law of moses statutes and precepts for all israel and before the end comes i'll send the spirit of elijah unto you and he'll cause the hearts of the fathers to return to the children in the hearts of the children to return to the fathers lest i come and destroy your land completely or strike your land with a curse and i studied this out in the original where it says remember the law of moses that's the covenant it's the covenant with God statutes and ordinances that word statue literally means that we belong to God it means rights that God has over us because we're in covenant with him it means all the rights and privileges go back to him and ordinances means he has a new way of doing things his way that we need to understand and his promise is is that he wants us to get this covenant straight that it means that we belong totally to him we have no rights and privileges of our own and that he has a new way of doing things and he promises the sin the spirit of elijah the spirit of God himself in a people that will then turn the hearts in the old spanish it says the spirit of elijah will convert the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers and i believe the lord we spoke on elijah last night but i believe this is is what is happening i believe the lord has used our brother this morning here as part of that corporate elijah as part of that ministry that begins to convert those hearts back of the fathers to the children and children to the fathers and i believe the lord wants us to have good solid families let's pray that this will continue i i really feel just one word further you know especially we who love the lord so much we parents i think we have a tendency that we may not be so much aware of and that is to bring a lot of legalistic pressure on our children very very high expectation much talk about submission so many things and this i think sometimes the lord would call us to repent of it isn't only the children that need repentance i think they need to hear the response from some of the parents that we ourselves acknowledge that we have stepped across the border and added to their frustration my heart senses there needs to be a two-way response i don't know if this is in any of your hearts any father or mother i think sometimes it helps even if you are as it were a type of scapegoat but as they confessed and melted one with the other this morning it i started to cry because it took me back a few years when our stephen was growing up and uh being a foster boy to me it doesn't make an extra problem but uh i felt i'm going the bible way the bible way is spear the rod and spoil a child and though it was just verbal it seemed to help my ego that uh when i cracked the whip the boy jumped so therefore i was following a bible rule but not with the bible love of god and i think that applies to all the bible rules doesn't it yes that if as a rule there we're following and we don't have the full love of god to follow it well maybe we better stop and clear things up because uh it came to the place that after this had i'd taken this attitude for maybe about a year i was in prayer one day and the lord dealt with me quite definitely whereas i was thinking i was following a bible way and getting into the spirit of love of god he showed me i was getting into a spirit of genocide and that was quite a shock to me and looking back on it i don't think he meant literal genocide but there's other forms that a child can be so put down by verbal abuse that they're killed and you meet young people like that maybe every day if you're moving across the land they can't look you in the eye they can't ever get up and speak to a group bigger than one or two and it's usually that somebody has killed them along the way and so we need to pray for the life of our young people god is life and he wants us to bring of our children that they're bubbling with life the life of god