Subject:     3 March 2008, 10 AM.
Apostle Andre Pelser

"The suicide rate in the UK among teenagers, is huge.” This is from a newspaper. They are going to spend 6.5 million pounds to do something about it, which they call "Choose Life Initiative." The government wants to encourage youngsters to speak out. People don't want to die, they just want to end the pain. There are cases of clusters of suicides now, such as "Bridge End School" in Wales, 17 young people committed suicide at school. Because the one inspires the other one to do it, so now they want to bring support groups into families of those who have attempted suicide. Three out of four suicides are young boys, male. People need to be made to see other options and seek treatment… "(I am just quoting from the newspaper), "to seek treatment from the underlined depression that causes suicide. There are copycat suicide, specially between the ages of 15-19. They do it the way the other one did it."

Heath Ledger just committed suicide recently. The actor who was nominated for an Oscar. He was making a film about a young pop star in England that was his same age, and this pop star committed suicide, and he was making a film about his idol's life. And then he committed suicide in the exact same way as that guy. It is a spirit. The spirit jumps from one to the other. It is very sad.

The internet spreads cult suicide messages via the web. It is much tougher today for kids than what it was when we were small. We walked outside. Today kids can't walk outside, they get abducted, killed, raped, so they go inside and all they have is the internet,  TV and cellphones and  that is poison. Modern media has corrupted the world. Kids in school today have five times more work than what we had. The amount of work my son, Hilton, does in grade 7 is ridiculous. And then they still have to do well at sport and come to church. They have no life anymore. By the age of thirteen they have no life. They can't just play, there is no time to play.

The UK, is at the bottom of the ladder in a life satisfaction survey. Almost 40% of the nation is unhappy about their lives and have no satisfaction. Life has no meaning anymore. In England. And England used to be a little nation that conquered the world. Because they send out missionaries, they had an apostolic mindset. But that is gone. You see that if you only live for your own satisfaction it is not worth living. You have got to think outside of yourself. You got to think "what can I do for others." That is when life takes on a new meaning. If it is just "me" and "my" it gets very boring after a while. Because self is never happy.

"This mother says: "my happy go lucky boy was transformed into a computer playing geek. He became sullen and bored with life." You see the computerized violence they have on the computer games becomes a means for the young people to express their anger against life and against adults and against the world. The virtual world eventually cancels out the real world." I am quoting from a newspaper, Daily Mail 21 February, page 14. "The virtual world cancels out the real world. You see the violence, the killing the deaths on the computer games is not real. So life becomes unreal. There is a colossal emotional and spiritual vacuum in the lives of children."  Vacuum. Only Christ can fill that. "There are memorial sites on the web set up to leave messages for friends who committed suicide."

You see it is not real anymore. They think those friends can read the messages on the internet, on the website. It is messages like this: "hope you got the balloon I send up to you." It is funny but it is sad to think that they believe that they are communicating. The death that is unreal in the virtual world makes life unreal in the real world. Through death they think they can become celebrities at least for a short while. Somebody will take notice of them.

Scotland's got the most children running away form home. Last time I was there, it was on the news. They caught a few of them, some of them they found in gutters, some of them they found dead. Some of them they found became drug addicts in the streets. They would asked them why they ran away from home and they reply "well my parents are never there anyway. No one takes notice of me. They work day and night, I am bored at home. When they come home they shout at me and they fight with me. Why must I stay here?"

Family life is lost in modern society. Families don't eat together anymore. Each one grabs what he wants. They don't chat about problems anymore. Everyone lives in a world of his own. There is no communication. Even a fight at the table between a brother and sister is healthier than no communication what so ever. Communication has become non existent and so isolation has become the spirit of our age. Young people are isolated. You walk anywhere, half the people have got their own ipods, they can't even hear the traffic that is why they get killed going across streets. They can't even hear the car and then they wear these hoods that they can't see left or right. No wonder they get run over. They can't hear and they can't see. It is crazy. In a crowd, everyone is talking on their cellphones. You see a husband and wife walking next to each other both talking on their cellphones. I saw a father, I went to watch Hilton play indoor hockey after the cricket match yesterday, the other father coming to watch his son play, he doesn't even know he has been at hockey. You know, while you are talking to young people they are sending messages, because they are in another world. That is what makes church so important, because we can talk about things here. We are not following Christ's teachings, we want His life to be part of ours. We are not preaching a doctrine, we are preaching life. We are discussing life. And if life does not work it is sad. I am not trying to give you a nice sermon now, I don't preach sermons anymore. I share life with you. My life. If you came to visit me today, this is what I would talk to you about, in my house or in your house. So this is just what we are talking about together as a crowd. I am not trying to impress you.

People don't laugh anymore, everything and everybody is just serious. And when people talk to you it is as if the whole is always just falling apart. No one enjoys life anymore. When you say something they'll say "dis nie so nie." Who cares if it is not so. I am just making conversation. Some people when you try and talk to them they just serve aces. You know what I mean? Because when they says something it is the end of the conversation. It is as if they know it all. So you might just say anything like "this is lovely weather today," and they will say "yeah but the global warming and this ozone…" and they just complain. I am just trying to get someone to talk to. People either just flatten you like a bulldozer with their knowledge or they give you a one word answer…it is not conversation. "How are you?" "fine." You must never put those people in a position to serve others, because you walk into shops and they just stand there. You think that they are a customer. Some places they are talking to their friends while they are serving you. It is like you don't exist. The art of communication is playing tennis. The worst tennis match to watch is is the one that wins the game with aces. And so sometimes you must just listen to people, even if you know more than they do, otherwise you end the game. For the sake of communication, sometimes hold your brilliant knowledge back, you genius, and just act like you are a fool, for a while at least.

Especially when you talk t