How to Raise Kids Who Stand for God in Today’s Culture | Jonathan Evans

If you're doing the best that you can as a godly parent, it comes a place where the kids are going to have to make their own choice about their own faith. I tell my kids all the time on judgment day, that's a day daddy can't help you. Today, I want to talk to you from the title fireproof.

As you just heard, there was a king. And that king had a decree. This king made a golden image. And he said, "I want you, everybody, under the sound of my voice, when you hear the sound of the music, I want you to bow down to the image that I have set up.

And if you don't, I'mma throw y'all into this fi fiery furnace and burn you up. In other words, he had a threat to make sure that every bow everybody bowed down to the image that he had set up. And then when everybody bowed down, everybody in the culture, all the peers and all the people bowed down to the golden image that he had set up, there was three youngsters.

There was three youth that decided, we're not bowing down to anything you have set up. Can you imagine it? The whole culture is bowing down. And three youth had made a decision. I'm not doing that. These are three youth. So let me describe a youth. If you go to David's story in 1st Samuel 17 verse 33 and 42, you'll see that Saul and Goliath called David a youth.

He became king about 15 years later in 2 Samuel 5:4 at the age of 30. If 15 years or 17 years or so pass by between the time Goliath and Saul called him a youth and the time of his kingship at 30, that means that a youth is defined as about 14 or 15 years old.

That means David when he was anointed and killed Goliath was but a 15-year-old teenager accomplishing big things. Yeah. That means if I take that definition of youth and apply it to Daniel 3, because Daniel 1:4 says they were youth, that means that these dudes were 15 years old when they stood against the music, stood against the culture, stood against the threats, stood against their peers, and stood against a king.

They were 15 years old. And the reason, one of the reasons why they didn't burn in the fire is because how are you going to burn when you're already on fire? ((applause)) They were 15 years old and they stood against the culture. Let me just say to all of the young people in the room, God is calling you to not stand for the culture, but stand against it.

He's calling you to take your stand against the culture. And yes, those three were by themselves. But in a moment, we're going to see they weren't by themselves. They had power that was walking with them. And these three Hebrew boys stood against the tyranny of King Nebuchadnezzar. They stood up and they took their stand.

Listen, you don't have to or may not even have the privilege of being able to wait till later to get serious about Jesus. When I was young, I used to say, "That's that's for my parents. My parents used to bring me to church. That's for them. I I can get into all that later.

Right now, I'm young. I'm going to have fun." But we don't really know who's young or old in the building at all. Because your youth is not based on your birth date. Your youth or whether you're young or old is based on your death date. So if you're 15 and your death date is when you're 22, you old cuz you only have 7 years left.

If I'm 43, which I am, but my death date is when I'm 93, then I'm actually younger than the 15year-old who has a prior death date. So we don't really know who's young or old in the room, actually. So, one of the tricks of the enemy is to think that you have time and that you can get serious about God later.

But I'm here to tell you the time is always right now. Cuz evidently, God can use you at 15, right now. God can use you as at a young age right now. And these three Hebrew boys, we're talking about them in 2025 because they stood around 586 BC.

Their stories still reigns. They weren't easily forgotten. Don't you know that this culture will see what you do and then when you're when you're gone, they'll say, "Thank you for what you did." Next. ((applause)) They don't even know you're alive in the next state. They're not paying no attention.

You can live for God and I mean, you can live for people who don't even know you here or you can live for God who has an eternity in his hands. You have to choose. You have to pick. And that's not just for the young people. That's for all the people because I know 50 50 year olds that still won't stand.

These three Hebrew boys stood against the tyranny of a king. How were they able to do that? How can you be 15 and be that rebellious and that faithful at the same time? It's because number one, they knew that where they currently were was not their home. Amen.

They knew that they were in foreign territory. They knew that this was not their home. Daniel 1 tells you that there was a battle between Babylon and Israel. And Babylon went in and sieged Israel and plundered them and took their people. And now they're in a foreign land with a foreign king.

And so they knew this was not their home. They knew this was not our home. These are not our gods. This is not our music. This is not even our names. Yeah. Shadrach, Meach, and a bad Negro. I mean, and Abedneo. ((applause)) That was not even their names. They were Haniah, Mishael, and Aariah.

They had names from their homeland. But the new land will try to rename you. ((applause)) You see, when you come to a foreign land, it'll try to tell you you a player, you a savage, you a thug, you a s, you a pimp, you dumb, you a thought, you a bop, you a menace.

It'll give you all these names. This is not your home. And those are not your names ((music playing)) because it will try to redefine you for its own purposes. If this were your home, you would never have to leave it. And many people are trying to get comfortable in a place that'll kick you out and not even tell you when this is not your home.

The book of Philippians tells us your citizenship is in heaven. It tells you in Ephesians chapter 2:6 that we are already seated with him in heavenly places. That is your home. Trying to make this your home is like trying to be a fish breathing on land. You're going to suffocate.

This is why you automatically don't like it when people lie on you. You automatically don't like it when people cheat. You automatically don't like it when people steal. you automatically don't like it when people have sinful acts and sinful activities that automatically makes you go. The reason why you automatically feel that way is because you have a moral compass from another place that ain't here.

You have a moral compass from heavenly places that makes you look at this world like you should, like it's not your home. These boys understood that they were transferred to a different place that was not their place. And that they're going to stand for the rule from for the rules of where they're from, not the rules of where they are.

We've got to understand that you have been transitioned. Now you have the gills of the gospel. You can no longer breathe with the lungs of lust. It's different now. You're in foreign territory. And they understood that not only is this is not my home, but this is not our God.

This is not our king. These are not our rules. This is not what we do. Understand? Okay, y'all with me? Adam and Eve were in a perfect place with a perfect God. And they were perfect people. That was God's place. The enemy came into the garden and tricked them with that fruit thing and they ate it.

And then they were taken into exile because the world was no longer perfect. The world was no longer what God intended it to be. They took them and extracted them. The enemy extracted them into a new world full of sin and a new world in which he rules.

John 12:31 says the Satan is the ruler of this present world. That's why he could tell Jesus in Matthew chapter 4, bow down and worship me and I will give you the kingdoms of this world. Because once he took them into exile, he became the ruler. John 16:11 says that Satan is the ruler of this world.

Matter of fact, in 2 Corinthians 4:4, it says he's the god of the earth. Little G. And so, what you have is like Nebuchadnezzar took them from Israel. The enemy took Adam and Eve out of God's place and took them into exile. Nebuchadnezzar had different rules and the enemy has different rules.

Nebuchadnezzar propped up an idol and Satan props up idols, too. He props up the idols of self-promotion. He props up the idols of fame. He props up the idols of money. He props up the idols of materialism. He props up the idols of body image. He props up the idols of social media and social acceptance.

And you got to understand as a young person and all people that those are not my idols. I've got a homeland and we don't bow down to idols. So you can prop up self-promotion, but where I'm from, it says have this attitude in yourself, which is also in Christ Jesus, to regard others as more important than yourself.

He can prop up the idols of fame, but you got to be able to know that where I'm from, only God gets the glory. He can prop up the idols of money, but you can tell him where I'm from. We know that the money is the root of all evil.

It doesn't have me even when I have it. He can prop up the idol of materialism. And you have to be able to know that where I'm from, we seek ye first his kingdom, and then these things will get added to me. He can prop up the idol of body image, and you can tell him, "But where I'm from, I'm already fearfully and wonderfully made.

I don't have to do any of that. He can prop up the idol of social media and social acceptance. And that's when you tell him, "Where I'm from, we're a peculiar people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood. I'm not supposed to be like everybody else." They understood where they were from and they understood the rules and regulations of where they were from.

And they were unwilling to break it. They were unwilling to step aside from that. They were unwilling to go with what Nebuchadnezzar had set up. 15 15 years old. And they the music played and they said, "We ain't doing that. Rebellious teens that are on the right side of history.

Yeah. Come on. Rebellious teens that are full of faith because revival comes through the young people whenever they decide they can change the entire culture. And these three dudes had the king's attention. Don't you know whenever y'all decide, y'all can get the government's attention real quick? Don't you know when y'all decide money can start moving in different directions to try to figure out what's going on?

Because when young people decide, they get the king's attention. And these young people made a decision that we will not bow to any false images the enemy sets up. They knew where they were from. They knew this wasn't their king. This wasn't their god. But let me tell you something.

They were well taught. Okay? They were well taught. Yes, these young people in Daniel 1 3 and 4 it says Nebuchadnezzar said go get me the youth and go get me the youth from royal noble families that are wise that are smart that have no defects that are good-looking like I want all of the best from God's territory and I want you to teach all of them the language of the Chaldans in other words I want you to bring in all of the wise and all of the smart youth and all of the good-looking youth and all of the best that are supposed to be working for God and I want to teach them how the culture works.

In other words, we got all of these fantastic poets and the enemy wants to take that gift and he wants to sit you in hip hop culture so he can take the gift that's supposed to be used for God and put venom on your tongue. Satan has a plan to re-educate you.

He wants to take all of our smart intellectual kids and send them off to secular places and secular universities so that they can start deviating from their faith. And when they get real strong in the deviation of their faith, then he gives them a podcast mic. ((music playing)) He wants to take all of our pretty girls and make them think the only way you can be cute is to have no clothes on or make sure everything is tight in order to be right.

Your homeland says modest. That's what your homeland says. But the enemy will make you think your homeland is whack. That's how good he is. The enemy modest. That's why. Why would I do that? That ain't cute. That's the enemy puppeting you, taking you right out of God's kingdom.

He said the good-looking, the ones with no defect. He's puppeting you and using you for his kingdom, using you to sway people the other way. And he likes to use God's people because that's a greater testimony against God. He likes to use God's kids because that's the greatest testimony for him against God.

Yeah. Is that we'll look at our own homeland like it's a problem. He wants to take all of our wise kids and he wants to shift it into street smarts. So that it'll be a badge of honor when they know how to avoid problems in the police. He wants to take kingdom kids and repurpose them for his kingdom.

That's what he wants to do. And these three Hebrew boys were so staunch in what they had learned from home. They had believed so strong already. See, they were fireproof before they ever hit the fire. When the fires of life and the problems in life come, you have two types of people.

People who burn up in it and people who are fireproof in it. The only way you can be fireproof is if you're fireproof before the fire gets there. And here these three Hebrew boys stood against it because they were well taught. It tells you, "Give me the wise ones, give me the smart ones, give me the intellectual ones, give me the good-looking ones, give me the best of them, and teach them my language."

Cuz I want them to unknowingly work for me. Um, it says they came from royal noble families, not ratcheted, sinful families. They came from royal noble families that were saying, "As for me in my house, we will serve the Lord." The sad reality today is we got parents bowing down to the same idols as their kids.

They chasing after fame instead of family. They're trying to make their name known and chasing after social media acceptance and all of these different things and listening to the same music. ((applause)) ((music playing)) Okay. He said, "When the music plays, bow down to the idol." Don't you know embedded in our music is idolatry?

And we bowing down to the same You can't teach your kids the way of salvation, bumping Megan the Stallion. You You can't teach your kids You can't teach your kids their God-given destiny on the lyrics of Drake. You can't teach them who they are bumping Kendrick Lamar. You can't teach them they're a child of God just because you found lyrics from a little baby.

Look at y'all. Who's little baby? ((applause)) Because inside of the music is the focus on the diamonds. Inside of the music is the focus on sexuality. Inside of the music is the focus on fame and popularity. Inside of the music is the idols. And we have a culture that everybody's bowing down to it.

And I know I know cuz I was young. I know. I don't listen to the lyrics. I listen to the ((applause)) But if I just turn the beat on without the lyrics, you going to be in there like this ((applause)) cuz Nebuchadnezzar knew what he was doing. It's when the music plays hitting those vibrations and you don't even know you're meditating on a word day and night.

Yes. When it says meditate on the word day and night, and you will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, it's not just about the beat. It is a brainwashing tool. And I know cuz I was brainwashed by it back in the day.

It's a brainwashing tool because we we'll look at Christian rap like it's whack, but it's really just because they talking about God. It don't matter how good their beats are. you'll still think it's whack in comparison to the culture because we're skewed to the culture. So just because it's Christian is bogus.

Like just because it's Christian is whack just because it's it don't matter what they do. It don't matter how good the beats are. We're already like ah that's Christian. So we shove it over here. So we tell our homeland, God, all that stuff you coming up with that we supposed to be meditating on, that's whack.

I like this culture stuff. The enemy. That's what I'm talking about. You're my favorite puppet. Easy to brainwash. All I got to do is play the music cuz then it starts stirring up the mind. And we lie to ourselves and say it's just about the beat. No, you don't have to desecrate yourself to go find a beat.

((applause)) God's people got beats. You just have to make a decision of who you going to stand for. Because it's in the mind protecting the mind. Proverbs 23:7, "So a man thinks within within his heart, so he will be, not so he might be." You meditate on that word, your feet start doing it.

And then you look in the mirror one day, adults, and you say, "Who am I?" Didn't we? How did I even get here? I used to I used to look at people like they was crazy, and now I'm the crazy one. Oh, it just it just rolled around long enough.

Okay, let me help you understand something. Um, me and my kids can't be friends all the time. Okay, cuz this is the part of the This is the part of the sermon cuz I'm trying to tell you how they stood. This is the part of the sermon that the kids are like, "Oh, stop preaching.

They going to make me change. I already know. I already know." Oh, you giving the new ideas. I already took my phone. Now you going to take my music. You going to take What can I do? I already know. Um, we can't always be friends because if we was always friends, that means we would be on the same maturity level.

I'm trying to get you to grow up and not live your life looking back on a pile of regrets. I'm trying to get you to grow up and be rooted in God. And while you won't be perfect, I say it all the time, chasing after it, you'll at least catch excellence.

I'm trying to get you to not I'm trying to get my kids to not think their homeland is the problem and the foreign land is home. It's not home. We're trying to come up in a world that's going to kick you out and it ain't even going to tell you when.

And so we we can't we can't be friends all the time. It's like I want to dress like this. I want to listen to this. I Nope. But why not everybody else? You ain't everybody else kid. I don't care. Um, now disclaimer. Disclaimer. Just because you're godly parents does not automatically mean you will have godly kids.

We are called to do our best. Root them in the word and prayer. But God is the only one who can save. And God is the only one who can dispense this level of grace and mercy to round up kids. God was a perfect father. He created perfect people and he had a perfect environment.

And Adam and Eve still messed it up. Yeah, that doesn't mean he's a bad father. That means those kids made a bad choice. But what we are called to do is do what we are called to do. Be royal, noble families for the kingdom, teaching our kid the best we can from the sermon that's preached.

Just go home and just go over it again with your kids and make sure and going to do this. This is what we did when we was growing up. My dad, Tony Epson, y'all think we were sitting around the table like this. Teach us, father. ((applause)) Man, we weren't acting like that.

We were acting a fool at the table. He like, "John, John John, sit down. I'm throwing food. I'm under the table." It was a a mad house. It was real. We went out. We made mistakes. He had to come in, help us, and all of those kind of things.

We were college kids. We were acting like we was college kids. We weren't perfect. All that kind But grace and mercy rounded us out because the word didn't return. boy. If you're doing the best that you can as a godly parent, it comes a place where the kids are going to have to make their own choice about their own faith.

I tell my kids all the time, on judgment day, that's a day daddy can't help you. You going to be there by yourself. I'm going to be over here by myself and and we just going to get whatever it is. Because you cannot ride the coattail of daddy's faith with Christ.

Eventually, you going to have to have your own. And daddy's not going to be able to help you when you go before the judgment seat of Christ. It says some of us will be saved yet through fire. And I can't help on that day. All I can do is have your parents teach you.

All I can do is from the stage tell you these three Hebrew boys were fireproof because they were already on fire. ((applause)) And so parents, we do our best. But if you are bowing down to the same images, stop it. Because that means you're not doing your best. And you're not operating like a king's parent, royal and noble, making sure your kids know what time it is and where their home is at.

They understood and they knew and they stood up while the music plays. Nope. While all their peers bowed down. Nah. While the culture said, "Do this." Mm- While the king said, "I will set you on fire if you don't." So, ((music playing)) 15. Okay. So, they didn't do it and the king gave them a second chance.

You'll see that in Daniel 3:15. The king said, "Okay, now when all this music play, I'm going to need y'all to bow down or I'm going to set you on fire." Now, we we be acting like we, you know, Bible stories, man. These real people. They 15. They're 15.

Let me tell you the response of 15 year olds when Nebuchadnezzar said, "If you don't do it, I'm going to kill you." Okay. Verse 16. Shadrach, Mach, and Abedneo replied to the king, "Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter." Now let your kids talk to you like that.

You'll be like that. Rebellious, faithful teenagers. They sat up there and said, "Oh, Nebby." ((applause)) Nebby, bro, come on, man. Let me help you understand something. We don't even have to respond to you. ((applause)) Now you know now if somebody was threatening us with a fiery furnace or bow down to this image, most of us in the house would be like, "Yeah, ((applause)) you mean to tell me that there was more maturity in 15 year olds than all the adults in the culture.

((applause)) He threatened them with fire and they said, "Oh, Nebby, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter." Verse 17. If it be so, if you going to throw us in the fire, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he will deliver us out of your hands, oh king.

Okay, let me tell you Nebuchadnezzar's fatal mistake. Okay, it's at the end of verse 15 before the Hebrew boys responded. Watch this. Watch this fatal mistake. At the end of verse 15, Nebuchadnezzar says, "You will be cast into the midst of the blazing fire. And what God is there that can deliver you from my hands?"

((applause)) God said, "Huh?" Y'all remember the Titanic? Titanic. Even God can't sink this ship. What God is there that can deliver you out of my hands? When people think they have power over you, but they just don't know who your God is. Our God whom we serve. Okay. 15 years old.

Our God whom we serve. Let me say that one more time. Our God whom we serve. Not our God who we read a verse a day to keep the devil away. Not our God who we pray to once a week or who we just come to church to just because it's our religious activity.

It's actually our God whom we serve as servants of a king. In other words, they thought it to be as treason. Okay, they were thinking on a whole another level. They were servants of the king. They thought it to be as treason for them to go against their God and bow down to the images that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

So they said, "Our God whom we serve." The question is, are you in church or do you serve God? because a lot of people are in here, but they ain't in here. Um I was uh we got some new phones and um and we plugged the phone in.

They knew, you know, you knew they you know, plug them in. You know what I'm saying? So, we plugged them in. Now, on one of the kids' phones, it wasn't working when they plugged it in. And I said, "Why ain't working? We're trying to figure it out." And I said, "Well, check the socket and make sure the plug is plugged in all the way."

So the kids was like, "It's plugged in. You see it? It's already plugged in." And I said, "Well, just check it. Make sure it's plugged in all the way cuz you, you know, it's in there, but it ain't in there." And one of them said, "It's plugged in."

I said, "Oh, don't clap. ((applause)) Don't clap. Give your hands to your side. ((applause)) It's plenty. I'll get a picture of my house. I'll be like. So I said, "Man, just go check it." So they went and pushed it and it said, "Huh?" It wasn't plugged in ((applause)) because A lot of people don't walk with power cuz they're in here, but they're not in here.

These three Hebrew boys stood up. Man, if if young people stood up in the culture, they would mess the whole culture up. But they're so busy trying to fit in and not be seen. God wants you to be seen. He wants you to stand and everybody will eventually be forced to respect you because they like, "Well, we can't change them.

We going to have to either join them or leave them." Like, it's they got choices to make. Okay. Okay. Oh, Nebby, we don't have to give you an answer concerning this matter. Um, but just so you know, God will deliver us from this fire. They had a fundamental belief that I don't need to do anything to culture because God has already or God has already ordered my steps.

God has already delivered me. God is the only one who made me. So he's the only one who knows my purpose for me. So why would I be listening to you? I'm literally wasting my time being cultural when everything was given to me by Christ. Okay, watch this.

Are y'all still with me? Uh God God will deliver us. Watch this. Beginning in verse 18, God will deliver us. But even if he doesn't, ((applause)) but even if he doesn't deliver us, we still are not going to bow down to any idols you set up. Oh, you rebellious teens.

You what you mean? But even if he doesn't The level of faith of these young people is on a whole another level. Our God will deliver us. I believe. But even if he doesn't, I still won't bow. Okay, let me help you with that term. This means it is not faithless to appeal to the sovereignty of God.

Okay, you didn't hear that. People will say, "If you pray, but then you put a butt." And you say, "But if you choose God not to, then I'mma go with that anyway." And they'll say, "Well, then he won't answer your prayer because you didn't have faith." Ah uh.

God is not a slave to your faith. He is activated by your faith, but he can do whatever he wants. These boys appealed to the sovereignty of God and were full of faith. How do I know they were full of faith? Because they said, "Even if you don't, we're still going to walk like Christ.

Even if you don't, I'm still not going to be cultural. Even if you don't, that means when you pray, you're not faithless if you appeal to the sovereignty of God. I have cancer and I want you to heal me. But even if you don't, I'm going to worship you anyway.

I need finances to come through, but even if you don't, I'm still going to be faithful. I need my child to come back, but even if they don't, I'm still going to walk it out. I want my this to be done, but even if it you can pray the prayer that I need this from you, God, but if you choose to do something different, I'm still going to walk by faith.

That's a Christian. That's a Christian. That's the hard part that you're going to say, "But even if you don't, Lord, I'm still going to walk this thing out. I'm still going to be faithful. I'm still going to finish the race." That's a Christian. And they were willing to go with it.

Even if you don't, we going to stand on our two feet for the gospel. Now, you got to understand as I get ready to conclude, um, this made Nebby hot because if you've ever experienced a rebellious young person and he the king and he and they like, "No."

And they just looking at him and not blinking. Can you imagine them just looking at you like this? ((applause)) ((music playing)) These dudes are beasts. So Nebuchadnezzar in verse 19 said, "Okay, turn up the fire seven times higher. Crank that thing up." And he tied them up by their clothes. They were bound.

And then he told his two men, "Throw them into the fire." The fire was so hot that it slew the two men that threw them in. cuz God can make it to where your enemies get slain by their own devices. So he threw them threw them into the fire and Nebuchadnezzar sat back on his throne like I tried to tell him.

Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astounded when he looked into the fire and said, "Hey guys, I thought we threw three of them in there." Verse 25 says, "And he said, look, I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the presence of the fourth is like the son of the gods."

No, sorry, Nebby. The presence of the fourth was not a son of the gods, but he was the son of God. How do you get what Nebby saw? He got a new name. When Nebby saw was a christophony, a christophony is Christ's presence before he became flesh in the Old Testament.

How do I know this is Christ? because they were in the midst of the fire and they were not being consumed. Well, that takes me back to Exodus 3 when there was a bush that was on fire that was not being consumed and the angel of the Lord was in the midst of the bush and it said God spoke from the bush.

So now I know that God was in the bush and he thought he saw one of the sons of a God. No, no, no. You saw the son of God, a christophonying in the Old Testament. And these boys would not be consumed by the fire because God was in it with them.

The testimony of Christianity is not that there are no fires. He did not save them from the fire. He walked with them in the fire. And when you can walk in the fire and you can be unbound, unmoved, unchanged, it's because you really are walking with Jesus Christ.

Is there anybody that will make some noise and say, "Jesus, I will follow you even in the fire." Do I have a witness up in here? Um, I'm almost done. I just Jesus, there was an enemy in Matthew 4 that told Jesus to bow. Yeah. And Jesus said, "I'm not doing that."

And the enemy got mad and the enemy threw him in a furnace called the grave. And the enemy sat back on his throne and thought that he won. But then three days later, he looked. And after 3 days, he saw the son of man, the son of David, the son of God, and God himself getting out of the grave.

In other word, destroying the scorch of the fire of the grave. And he invites anyone who's afraid of that furnace called the grave to come to him. Because one thing about fire, where it has been burned once, it cannot be burned twice. And Jesus has already taken the burn.

Jesus has already overcome the fire. And he says in Isaiah 43:2, "If you walk with me, you will go through the fire and not be scorched. You will experience the flames, but you will not burn because where it has been burned once, it cannot be burned twice. Is there anybody in the house that is or wants to be fireproof?

((applause)) ((music playing)) This is what God is calling not just our young people to. It's calling the church to. This is the hard part. being fireproof that you're willing to stand for God in the end times. That you're willing to stand for God in the end times. I want you to stand to your feet right now as we get ready to close.

Let's give him a hand clap of praise one more time for teaching ((applause)) ((music playing)) ((applause))