WHERE HAVE ALL THE YOUNG MEN GONE???  1/22

1Sa_8:16  And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.

Jer_9:21  For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.

Thirty plus years ago I heard a preacher preach on “YOUNG MEN”.  It was a great message and I remember much of it to this day.  Back then there were still some young men who loved the Lord enough to show an interest in the ministry more than just a comfortable position in a comfortable sized church.

I think we have entered into a famine, not of bread, but of young men.  Talking to pastors and missionary friends they all agree to ask the question, “Where have all the young men gone”?

The first verse above was Samuel telling the people of Israel what was coming because they no longer wanted  to be a Theocracy with the Lord in charge.  They chose, rather, to have a king reign over them just like all the nations.  They hated their peculiarity and all that accompanied it.  Saul did exactly what the verse prophesied, and the young men served the king of this world.

When the SWAT team was still traveling on the road in USA we had several teens make request to travel with us for a time to learn the publick ministry.  Some of these were guys.  Through the years we were honored to have the opportunity to train many hundreds of young men for publick ministry…glory to God.  I don’t have ready information on Bible colleges or foreign mission boards but from the little I hear, they too are saying, “It ain’t what it used to be”.

I have a friend who is 79 and his wife 65.  They both have cancer, and they travel on the road by faith in USA preaching on streets and college campuses and holding signs and passing tracts wherever they go.  That is great and all fine and good, but where is the young men who would come out and help them every once in a while, or eventually replace them.  Where are the crowds of young men who used to join us on Beale Street music rallies and major city street-preaching blitzes? Will the REAL YOUNG MEN who would replace my generation please stand up (Eph. 6:13,14)!  If this were Elijah’s day, there may have to be a serious search for a young man to whom we can leave our mantle.

Maybe part of the fault should be laid at the feet of the parents.  Has this generation become so comfortable as to pass this love of comfort on to the next generation?  And even to insist for their young men the worldly philosophy of, “Get a good job so you can get all you can and keep all you get”.  My mom prayed for a preacher and when I began to preach, she and dad came to the rescue missions to hear me.  They were there at my Bible college graduation, and they were in the front row when I was ordained.  They drove many miles to be part of the churches I pastored or preached in as a visiting preacher.  And most honoring to me was when they came on street meetings and passed tracts and held scripture signs.

Many parents today may project an embarrassment both to themselves as well as their procreation for participating in such a low ministry as the publick ministry.  Well, these are the times that we live in.

So, where have all the young men gone.? Well, they are competing for the “good life” that the god of this world promises if they will just sing but not make the commitment of “I’ll Go where You want me to go, dear Lord”.  They are the ones who don’t have enough courage to contend with the man preaching on the street, but they just pass by (quickly) without comment.  They are the ones who perpetrate all the arguments we have heard a thousand times why publick ministry is not for today or, it doesn’t get anybody in church or, it surely is against the law or, you’re driving more people away or, it is just not the thing for me.  They are the ones who are sitting on their eternal security instead of standing on the promises.  They are the ones who have created the comfortable, contemporary movement in our churches and yet love watching the movies of the great missionary heroes of the faith……….once in a while.

I have a Bible institute among our many other ministries here in PI.  There is no tuition, and we provide room, board, and transportation.  We have some very wonderful, talented, unashamed, courageous, ladies that have come through our school and they would preach if the Lord and I would let them.  Some are still here now helping us…but where have all the young men gone???  If you find them, please send me both their names.