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Mount Pisgah Allen R. Hunt 4/22/07
John 6.57-58 Feeding our Children (Thanks to Warren Lathem for thoughts)
I. What are we feeding our children? What in world are we feeding them?
Must be poisonous – causes them to hate, accept violence, even to kill
Must be the food – tainted and deadly
What am I talking about? VA Tech, not to mention 8 year anniversary of Columbine and dozens of incidents/shootings in between – Vermont, PA, Minnesota, TN, WI, WA
Senior, Cho Heung Sui, here from Korea since age 8 – nearing graduation, goes on horrific rampage – killing 32 people plus self and wounds dozens of others – worst shooting in USA history
Leaves a wake of horror and despair – with large numbers of wounded and traumatized
Surely food we are feeding children is poisonous – causing them to act so coldly, so irrationally, so calculatingly, so murderously
Must be ingesting something deadly that is killing them
For surely they were dead on the inside before they could do such a thing

Every one of us mourns, sleeps restlessly, asks “Why?”
Lots of us point fingers of blame
Horror barely hours old when folks calling for firing of VPI President and security chief
Others call for more school security – cameras and guns will cure this
Rosie O’Donnell – says no guns – too many – outlaw them – 250MM guns are problem
Some blame immigration – met a Korean friend of mine this week – embarrassed that Korean involved – apologized as if it were her fault – too many foreigners, that’s problem
Some want quicker notification – use text messages as if communication would solve it
Still others jump on media – Internet, movies, video games, culture of violence

Everyone has an opinion – how to prevent disasters like this
I think it is the food
Preservatives, additives, supplements, junk food
Junk food – ingest so much it causes mean, demonic behavior
And I am not talking about Dorito’s or Taco Bell

Talking about steady diet we have been feeding children for 40 years now
Moral relativism, humanism, secularism, atheism, agnosticism, self-esteemism, self-centeredism, New Ageism, PCism, situational ethicsism
Diet so steady for so long in media, in public schools, in culture – no wonder they’re sick
Look at their diet – make anyone sick
Poisons the soul – poisons the culture

I did a funeral a while back for Tom Ray – man with crystal character
Retired from Air Force – maintenance worker for the school system
Not rich, not famous – just a good, simple man
Had suffered enormously – wife in a wheelchair – Lou Gehrig’s disease for close to 10 years – he was primary care-giver
Heart disease withered his own body as well – dialysis drained life, strength from him
Wife, Joyce, asked me to read from Job – book that had sustained him and given his life meaning and dignity and faith
At her hour of need, she wanted to turn to what had given him hope for years

Boy have we changed our diets
Instead of Bible, we read Stephen King – want to be tolerant, sophisticated, inclusive
We cast off restrictive old fashioned values/morals and awful oppression of valuing life
Created a culture where hours are spent each day playing video games for entertainment with no goal greater than killing cops or women
Culture where abortion is on demand, folks crave death penalty, and life has no real value

Look at what we have gotten – kids killing kids
I think our children are reacting to the poison of junk food we have been feeding them
Perhaps we should re-examine our diets
Replace MTV with NIV
Replace moral relativism with Old Testament Ten Commandments
Replace hyper-tolerance with life-changing love of Jesus Christ

Hear Jesus – I am the living bread – eat of me and shall never die
Feed on me – life will be whole
Will live because of me – will live forever
Why did Jesus come? 1 thing He didn’t have was us
We are His ultimate treasure – more valuable to Him than His own glory – or anything else
So he came – because He would do anything for us
I am the 1 thing He was wiling to die for – to purchase me
Other treasures demand you purchase them – Jesus purchased us
Valuable and crucial to understanding who you are – belong to God – each life does
This food must be shared – it is the very Bread of Life

Who will give the kids this food? How can we get it? Who has it?
Church of Jesus Christ and her ministries
UGA – Wesley Foundation High Schools – FCA, Campus Outreach, Young Life
Mount Pisgah – hundreds of ministries like CR, New Hope, student ministry, MPCS

But it is tough – so many are malnourished and used to junk food
Eat it 3 times a day – 7 days a week
Occasionally stop by the church for 1 good meal of bread of life
1 meal a week, or month, not enough
Junk food has left them empty, desperate, hopeless, alone – they are hungry
Moms, dads, uncles, Christians, our kids need food

What do they feed on in your house?
More TV than Bible More Oscars than apostles
More surfing net than scanning Scripture More consuming than giving
More served than serving More phone time than prayer time
More Letterman’s Top 10 than Moses’
Pantries of our souls – all we’ve eaten is junk good so that is all we have to give

North Korea – devastated by famine for years – desperate
Taken to pine bark and cut grasses to make soup
Fills tummy but does no nourish body
Look fed – but actually they are starving

So too our young people - not all of them – but many
Schools, homes, even churches – feeding them the wrong diet
Why? That’s all the adults feed on too

After all, many of us parents are Baby Boomers – Anita and I last of that generation
Gladly cast off 1900 years of Christian teaching, 3000 years of Jewish morals
Go our own way – do own thing – gotta be me – be true to myself
If feels good, do it – live own lives
Not even our own children can keep us from pursuing happiness
Dumped spouses, anything that got in way
Given selves over to pleasure and endless pursuit of happiness, whatever that is

So failed to participate in our schools – underfunded our churches – refused to coach teams, criticized those who do – been unwilling to teach children and sued ones who do
Abandoned our schools and colleges to anti-God, liberal Marxist drivel
Starving folks are desperate folks – do anything to satisfy hunger

What do we feed them? Only what we have
If only have junk food, that is all they will have

Some of us failed to receive training in schools, churches, homes – seeing more of that in generation after baby Boomers – completely clueless with own children
Some of us blessed to have been lucky enough to be taught – love God and treat others with dignity and respect
Thank you for that incredible gift

Many of us have failed to teach our own children those simple truths
Instead have abandoned them to moral and spiritual convenience stores
Ask folks to entertain our kids and called it education or spiritual growth
No wonder they are lost, desperate, groping
They are hungry
Let’s give them some bread – starving for bread

20 years of ministry – begged people to give to feed kids
Share the bread of life
So we can occasionally pass out food to kids of church, community
Begged people to give time – teach small ones and teens – what nourishes you is the Bread of Life

Watched as American disposable income has skyrocketed
Giving in churches of every persuasion – has decreased as percent of income
Watched as studies indicate we have more leisure time than ever before
Gotten increasingly difficult to find persons willing to give a little time – an hour per month – to share a little slice of the Bread of Life – no shortage of folks who will go and criticize those who are serving telling them all ways they are not doing it right

I.e., more we have the less we give
See AJC this week? Survey of giving in various metro areas
Woman consultant to non-profits to increase giving - quoted in paper that she gave about 3% but it always felt like so much more – felt like a sacrifice – that she was surprised when she did the math- she advises others on how to give!

This year we will have Vacation Bible School at Mount Pisgah – time and money
We’ll begin building for another year of ministry with children and students
And we will invite folks to volunteer – to share the bread of life
Because some students will not get another meal all year long

And we will encounter folks who give less and serve less than ever before
What are we gonna do, preacher? You know how it is. We’ve got dance, soccer, gymnastics, piano, voice, aerobics, vacations, and lake time – gotta go, gotta get ahead
Let the kids go to hell – they don’t matter really
As long as I’m happy – get what we want

Sacrifice is a good word – don’t run into it much anymore
Wonder where it went – did we bury it? cremate it?
I know a generation who believed in it – bombs fell in Hawaii in 1941, said, “We’ll go”
What happened? Sacrifice, caring, responsibility, making a difference

Look in the mirror of Virginia Tech – and see ourselves
Preacher, don’t blame me
I’m blaming us all
Not schools, not security, not immigration, not guns, not media
Church has abandoned kids to a godless culture
God have mercy on our souls – we have the bread of life

We must give it
Means we must give more
Give more money Give more time Give more prayer
Give more of ourselves
Give more generously, pray more faithfully, serve more kindly
For the sake of our children, for the sake of the world
Church must redouble its efforts
Jesus – He is the Bread of Life
Kids are starving and bread is available