Wake Up, Look Up

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hello everyone thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zack

wrock in today's episode we are asking

for somebody to save young men this is

prompted by an article that was in the

Wall Street Journal this week with

devastating news as to the reality of

where young men in America are now for

the purpose of this conversation the

definition of a young man is a man

between the ages of 25 and 34 so kind of

that young adult age group an age group

where life really uh historically has

kind of started to happen beginning your

career you're beginning a family not So

Much Anymore let me lay some stats on

you of men in this age group uh

currently in America only 89% of them

are working now these are prime working

years it means 11% of men in the early

stages of their career are not working

at all it's about

700,000 less than that number should be

also 20% of them are one in every five

are living at home with mom and dad

8.6% of men in this age range are

unemployed and not in school and not in

training meaning they aren't doing

anything uh actually young men in this

age group just in general spend on

average 6.6 hours a day non-sleeping

hours totally alone two-thirds of men in

this age group say that nobody knows

them very well and that the suicide rate

in this age group is up

30% since 2010 in other words whether we

realize it or not one of the most

significant problems in our country is

young men being unfulfilled not working

not having families not providing for

those families being mentally and

emotionally unhealthy you might even

know this personally if you're a man in

this age group or have a family member

who's in this age group this is a

problem by the way it's not just a

problem in our country it's a problem in

our church because after all young men

in this stage are not developing into

the leaders that we need them to develop

into they are also not becoming marriage

material at least not healthy marriages

so that increasingly even if you're a

young woman and none of these stats

apply to you you go looking for a man

who you think is worth marrying and

they're harder and harder to find this

is a tremendous problem it is also by

the way our problem and by that I mean

it's the local Church's problem we have

to take seriously that no one else is

coming along to save young men it is our

work and by the way I have in mind

mostly here older men the Bible is full

of admonition for Old Men to shape

younger men older women to shape younger

women there's a generational burden that

exists in the church for one generation

to shape and disciple the one after it

and we need to get busy doing that guys

when you hear those stats I know what

you're thinking you're thinking what a

lazy generation when I was that age I

was already doing this I already had

that listen even if that's true let's

set that aside for a minute and say hand

ringing gets us nowhere pointing a

finger gets us nowhere we got to roll up

our sleeves and begin to get in the

lives of these young men to inspire and

motivate them to live lives of meaning

and purpose it is our responsibility

also if you are a young man in this age

group listen you can't sit around

waiting for meaning and purpose to find

you get busy chasing the things that God

has told us bring meaning and purpose to

life find a role in the Kingdom begin to

take seriously your faith share your

faith find a job and do it to the glory

of God whether you find it personally

fulfilling or not part of what's

paralyzing young men in this generation

I think is this idea that every job or

every relationship has to be this life

defining satisfying experience listen

making friends having a job meeting a

girl getting married these things are

messy they're hard they're difficult and

also wonderful and often times you got

to push through the difficulty to get to

the really great part and then parents

we have to move this for the Next

Generation if you're raising a teenage

son start taking seriously the work of

making sure he does doesn't end up here

in 10 years have conversations about

work about relationships about sacrifice

about service about meaning and purpose

cast a vision challenge him to live a

life worth living listen young men being

unhealthy I believe inven means everyone

is unhealthy so let's begin to pray

let's begin to disciple let's begin to

parent and let's move the needle on this

issue help isn't coming from outside but

it doesn't have to because the answer to

who will save young men is Jesus Through

the work of the local church hey thanks

so much for watching this video while

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