Valuing Our Youth

VALUING OUR YOUTH

Deut. 6:1-9

Today is National Youth Day in the Assemblies of God, and I think it is necessary for us to take a look at this all important area within the life of any church that wants to see God continue to touch not only this Generation with the Gospel, but Generations to follow.

We see in the verse 2 of Deut. 6 that there are 3 Generations represented: You, Your Children, and Their Children after them. –

The reason that Orthodox Jews are so careful to teach their children and provide an atmosphere for learning about God is that they live with the realization that they are only one Generation away from forgetting God.

I believe that we too, are only 1 Generation away from forgetting God, and it is vitally important for all of us to become involved in this great message of the Gospel to make sure it continues to grow and flourish throughout the world – Parents and Caretakers, Youth and Children, Congregation and Crowd all must view it as our responsibility to make sure the Gospel continues to be strong, especially in this day we live.

A youth is a person who is going to carry on what you have started. He will assume control of your cities, states, and nations. He is going to take over your churches, schools, and corporations. You may adopt all the policies you please, but how they are carried out depends on him. So it might be well to pay him some attention.

Today, I’m going to be speaking to 3 different segments of people with the challenges we are facing, and will give each one of us an opportunity to Commit to the Lord in a brand new way that we will do our level best to not be the Generation that forgets God, or even the ones to follow.

First of all today, there is a:

I. MESSAGE TO THE CARETAKER

When I say “Caretaker”, I am talking about the Parents, or Parent, the appointed Guardian, the Grandparent or Relative who has been put in charge of bringing up the Child or Young person.

Now let me say right off the bat, that you are not looking at a “professional parent” – (and if I dared to give my boys an opportunity to shout AMEN, they probably would do so) I have had my share of failures at this whole thing we call parenting, and I often think that by the time we think we have a few things figured out about how to begin to be a parent, it’s time for them to move on to the next stage of life.

But then again, I do thank the Lord for my boys, and that they do have a heart for God and the House of God.

While I don’t have it all figured out today, I do know the Word of God still challenges us in areas, so let’s look at a few of:

1. THE CHALLENGES

a. Raising Godly Youth In An Ungodly World

What a tremendous challenge this is! Those of you who are here around my age, and a bit older remember that many of the greatest difficulties we faced in school was getting cuffed in the back of the head on the bus ride to school, having someone pull the chair out from under us, or getting caught chewing gum in class.

Now, our Young People are faced with the reminders of a Columbine or other school shooting when going to school. Drugs, alcohol, pre-marital sex, gang violence are now seen to be what is “normal” whereas it used to be these things were only part of the real rebels and troublemakers.

Regardless of how much the world attempts to stamp out the message of the Gospel in the lives of our Young People, it is still up to us to reinforce those messages and to encourage them to be strong in the face of adversity and challenge to their faith.

In the church, we teach that God created the world in 6 days and then rested on the 7th. In our public schools, they are taught that somehow everything just exploded and fell into place, and either guppies grew legs or monkeys lost their tails, but somehow we all just evolved into the place we are now.

I am here to say today once again that it takes a great deal more faith to believe in something as ridiculous as that than it does to believe that there is a God who cares about every intricate detail of life, and indeed created every human being in a unique way and with a unique gift and calling upon their life to contribute to humanity.

It must have been a Mother who asked the following question: