Because of the Angels (4 of 5)

Mike Connell

The men have got to do it. If you don't do it, you've got girls come into the church, they get upset, because the very place that they should be protected, they're just treated the same as they are in the world; because of young men in the church got the same worldly thinking, of getting advantage of the girls, and not making commitment and being responsible. You ought to get stuck into the guys. Same with the girls - you find some girl come in, and she's dressed all in hot pants and short tops, and starting to show eyes for the guys- get alongside them, and tell them how to walk godly. The Bible calls church a family, brothers and sisters. You don't let someone come in and do that to your sister. I remember when one of our girls had some trouble with one young man, all the boys rose up and wanted to beat him up. [Laughter] Part of me said: yeah! [laughter] Yeah! [Go for it!] I almost got into a scrap outside the church, down the other place there, because this guy come into the church, and he was - I'd done a bit of background on him, and he was trying to get one of the girls in the church into bed with him, and he's sitting in one of my seminars.

I said: what on earth are you doing here? Come outside. So I got him outside, and I said: what are you doing here? He said: I've come to the seminar. I said: no you're not. He said: yes, I have. I said: I know where you're from, you've got this background in all this kind of stuff, and he started to get a bit upset. He said: oh I've changed, I've repented. I said: you haven't changed one little bit. I said: two nights ago, you were trying to get one of the girls in our church into bed. Let me tell you this, you're not welcome in this place. You don't come to my - you stay out. Well we were just about ready to square off then, it was good [laughter] and I was getting stirred up, I can tell you. The guys need to get stirred up. You need to get responsible in this area, don't just accept it. Don't accept it. Don't accept what God forbids. God says: don't defraud one another sexually, don't do these things, because God is the revenger. He will deal with those things very strongly, and if you despise it, you're despising God. We've got to get our lives back in order, so church becomes safe for people who are broken and damaged, they come and they say: hey man, there's strong standards in here.

Now parents you've got to get your thinking different about dating in the family, not encouraging the young girls to get sexual before their time, and get involved dating. You've got to make those stands. You're their parents, you've got to protect your family from it. A whole generation's been lost by it. We can at least stand, and raise another generation of men who are different, another generation of young women who are different; men who know how to love and honour and value women. That's what God wants to do! I tell you, it's good. I haven't met a woman yet, that didn't love it when a guy honoured her, and valued her, and treated her right, and made her feel a wonderful person. Women are made to respond to being loved and honoured. Guys, learn how to treat the women properly. Okay, let me just give you the practical things then we - ooh! We're getting wound up now. [Laughter] Well you know we're hitting something that's really important, you know we're hitting something that's really important, and you've got to really realise, as God begins to move to straighten the standards in this area, there'll be a lot of people get upset about it; say you're too hard, too tough. No, you've been saturated with the world, so much you can't see the wood from the trees.

There's no reason to be dating, or going steady, until you're ready for it. Get on with your life! Grow up, and develop your skills and talents, instead of spending all your teenage years, all immersed in an emotionally entangling, physically, sexually, spiritually binding relationship; and then you end up at 20 and haven't done anything you ought to be doing. See, you understand? Okay, let me give you the practical keys. Number one, the man must do these things, just lay it out in two areas: spiritual and natural. Number one, in the spiritual area, there's three things in the spiritual area the man needs to do. Number one, get a relationship with Christ. Get connected to Jesus Christ, and in that relationship [laugh] you need to be connected to it, and getting His direction, and getting your act cleaned up. God doesn't want you to just be a religious man. He wants you to be a man of the Holy Ghost!