Power over Raging Hormones

And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us. (Deuteronomy 6:25)

And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? (Deuteronomy 4:8)

I have grown up in church all my life. I do not remember a time I turned my back on serving God in church or any other church related avenues. And I am very grateful that in all that time I have been able to remain sober and sane and with my faith intact. And I thank God that He hedged me from the folly and senseless excitement that I continue seeing with the youth ever since.

The sad fact is that many young people have all their zeal and passion being drowned in sin as they do their best to serve God. Sexual immorality is rife where you find enough young people passionately pursuing ministry. Why is that? What drives people who came together to pursue God’s call into sexual immorality?

Many people will dismiss it as hypocrisy. I for one used 1 John 2: 19 to justify the element of sin in the fellowship.

Though it is true for some cases, I am convinced it is not the case for most. It is true that the devil will send his servants to mess the fellowship by introducing the sin element. But I believe that it will be a minority that the Bible calls leaven. The dough has the right makeup. Leaven will corrupt, not change the constitution of the dough.

I therefore want us to look at the genuinely saved and serving young people falling into sin as those are the ones God is interested in. Let’s forget the hypocrite and the corrupter because they will always be there to mess anyway. The other reason we need to leave them alone is because they have their agenda and orders and are not interested in changing for God at any time. As an example most of you know of this man (could be a youth or an elder/ deacon) who is always impregnating girls and paying for their abortion in the congregation. Or this woman (may be a young girl or matronly and mature woman) who is always sleeping with any available man in the congregation. These have their orders.

My concern is those young people who are lured into immorality through their passion for God. And that because they will need to know what they require to be able to save their faith from traps of these experienced sinners.

A youth has an excess of energy at all time. That is how God made them. And they were made that way so that they can accomplish great things for the Kingdom. I was young and know it from experience.

… I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. (1John 2:14b)

That energy and strength however become the prime target for the evil one through his agents who can even be pastors, many times through their ignorance of spiritual or even simple physical realities.

The first thing leaders choose to forget to the detriment of these youth is the fact that these people, apart from having an excess of energy, have an explosion of hormones and an economy of facts that make their reality. That combination is very dangerous if not managed wisely.

As an example most young redeemed people think that salvation and commitment kills their base drives and cravings. The direct impact of that is that they easily become careless dealing with the opposite sex because they are brother and sister. They may thus ignorantly breach boundaries an unsaved person would not unless they were interested in sin. From hugging to lounging on one seat to holding hands for long periods of time for the fun of it! The sad fact is that they may discover too late that their bodies are so on fire that the sanctification will be unable to contain leading to inevitable sexual sin with the avalanche of consequences that follow it.

A simple exposition of the reality of the young body will many times deal with that. Boundaries placed to check the excesses that may happen when steaming young people are bundled together alone for long periods of time will give lust a death blow. As opposed to what many misled youth think that placing boundaries means that their parents or superiors do not trust them, the opposite is true. We trust them enough to block sin from taking advantage of their raging hormones and red hot bodies.

Exposing the whole Bible as opposed to favorite passages will show our young men what it takes for a young man to pursue and maintain purity.

 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. (Psalm 119: 9 -11)

The instruction of scripture is therefore the first defense against the propensity to sin of the youth. We must determine to expose them to the Bible as much as we can. Let a lot of the time they will be growing together be dedicated to the study and personal interaction with the word of God as opposed to activities, however godly they may appear.

Another key plank is supervision, in other words, oversight. Many churches behave as if the youth are mature enough to be sent to the deserts and bushes without the presence of mature men and women, especially those in stable marriages. Then they will not only have examples they will desire to emulate but ones they can spend ample time asking for clarity concerning their youth.

On the contrary most churches send their youth far and wide for everything from camps to retreats without grownups. And then they are surprised when the retreat grounds become brothels and several girls come from those ‘holidays’ in the family way or die of abortion related complications concealing the sin. And those are the ones who conceived. What about the ones who were not found out? Will not the guilt kill them as well as mess all the desire they had for God?

And even ministry excursions are not much different. Churches are comfortable sending their youth for missions all on their own. Many are fine when ministry planning workshops have no representative from the church leadership. Choirs and singing groups go to minister on their own. Even overnight prayer meetings. And most times sin is the inevitable product of all that passion for ministry.

Solution? The Bible, the Bible, the Bible. Let the young people be exposed to the Bible. And let the older ones read even more of the same Bible so that we can guide them better with the Bible we know well combined with our experience in godly living. Above all let us live the Bible.

Let the Bible occupy the central place in our lives and churches. Let us forget all that drama and entertainment we call preaching. Let us forget all that misguided preaching we call promises which are treated as capsules to be taken on demand. As an example look at what our famous Deuteronomy starts with.

And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God. (Deuteronomy 28: 1, 2)

Who preaches that nowadays? Do they not all start with verse 3? Does God work with short cuts?

Let us preach the whole Bible even as we read the whole Bible. Not only will we be safe, our youth will be safe because we will demonstrate our love for God by valuing His word.

I will try to put at least one reading plan on this blog for that purpose especially for those who may have been wondering how to read the Bible. I am also working with a partner on printing many for those not in the digital realm. We have distributed over 2000 of them between end of last year and early this year. At least we have enough people and groups who are excited to read through the Bible in a year. Several experts have tried putting them on the website for wider usage but it has been unsuccessful. Pray for that. I am also in the process of doing the same for other languages with Kiswahili and Kimeru already available for printing with the availability of funds. I intend to send the bulk of the Kiswahili ones to the DRC as the need I saw there was heartbreaking.