If you feel like reading, then you will find the text of the manuscript I took to the pulpit with me. But if you just want to listen, then hopefully the video above will work. I made the video because I couldn't post an MP3, but I'll post a link to one later if I figure out how.
“The Vision of LibertyYouth”
January 1, 2012 – PM Service
I read a Tweet the other day:
@ThomRainer: Churches do not change until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change.
Maybe you agree, maybe not.
I'm sure you've heard the saying: If you aim at nothing, you will hit your target every time.
I hope it doesn't hurt you to hear this, but I love your children and Jesus too much to endure the pain and just keep aiming at nothing.
Tonight, I want to share with you what our vision for the LibertyYouth is so that we can all work together in the power of the Holy Spirit to help our young people grow into mature Christians so that they will be, make, grow as, and remain devoted disciples of Jesus Christ.
This is something God has brought me to over many months through prayer, studying the Bible, reading books, and hearing others teach, among other things. I apologize at this point, because this has been a pretty messy process, and so this will be a somewhat sloppy sermon as far as organization goes. I prefer to start with a single passage of Scripture and let the text determine the sermon, but tonight, we're going to look at a lot of passages of Scripture and sort of cherry pick a specific truth from each.
That said, I knew from the outset our goals needed to be rooted in the Bible—specifically in the Great Commission and the Greatest Commandments.
The Great Commission, Jesus marching-orders to his disciples shows up in different forms in each of the four Gospels as well as Acts, but Matthew 28:18-20 puts it in the most helpful terms when it comes to clearly defining our mission. After rising from the dead and appearing to His disciples in Jerusalem, Jesus had his disciples meet with him on a mountain in Galilee to teach them before he ascended back to the Father's side.
Matthew 28:18-20
And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (19) Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (20) teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
There is one command here with two instructions about how to carry it out. The command is “make disciples.” The two ways Jesus' disciples were to carry out that command are first by “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” and second by “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Therefor, we as disciples of Jesus Christ are also commanded to make disciples by baptizing them and teaching them to obey Jesus' commands. And so, making disciples who we baptize and teach has to be part of what we are trying to do with the LibertyYouth.
Like I said, I knew the Greatest Commandments would be foundational to what the LibertyYouth would be trying to accomplish. That is made even clearer by the fact that the Great Commission includes the instruction to teach these disciples we are making how to observe or obey all that Jesus commanded. The Greatest Commandments appear in Matthew, Mark, and Luke (though in Luke it isn't Jesus who speaks them). Let's look at Mark's version,
Mark 12:28-31
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the most important of all?" (29) Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. (30) And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' (31) The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
So one of our tasks is to teach the LibertyYouth to know the one true God and love Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength; and another is to teach them to love their neighbors as they love themselves...which implies they they must also love themselves correctly.
Having considered both the Great Commission and the Greatest Commandments, I looked for what else Jesus commanded that is absolutely foundational to what we must be about as we teach the LibertyYouth. I believe the Holy Spirit brought me to the first command Jesus came preaching.
Mark 1:14-15 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, (15) and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."
“Repent and believe in the gospel.” Our task as Christians is to “make disciples,” and that's pretty much the starting point for being a disciple, repentance and faith. To repent and believe in the Gospel, you must first know the gospel. When Jesus first gave this command at the beginning of His public ministry, it was a call for God's people to return to faith and believe that God was making good on all the promises of the Old Testament, that a savior would come—had come—and God would restore His people to a relationship with Him. Looking at this command from after Jesus finished His earthly work, we see a deeper meaning to what it means to believe the Gospel.
There are four basic truths that make up the Gospel, the good news about Jesus: God is good, Man is sinful, Jesus is the answer, and You must repent and believe.
To believe the gospel is to believe that God is good. He is perfect. He is holy. He judges righteously. And He will not allow sin into his presence but will punish all who break his law.
To believe the gospel is also to believe that Man is sinful. We are sinners by nature because of the sin of our first father Adam which we all inherit. We are sinners by choice evidenced by our own decisions to do what we know is wrong. We are sinners by commission because we do evil. We are sinners by omission because we do not do every good thing that we could do.
To believe the gospel is also to believe that Jesus is the answer. Our problem is that we have broken fellowship with our good Creator because of our sin. Our problem is that we are born under his condemnation and can do nothing on our own to pay the penalty for our crimes against God. Jesus is the answer because He lived a perfect life without sin and offered himself up to cover our debt. Jesus is the perfect answer because as God-in-human-flesh He was able to bear the full wrath of God against all sin. And we know that Jesus is the complete answer to our problem because God raised Him from the dead showing that our debt of death had in fact been completely paid.
And finally, to believe the gospel is to believe that you must repent and believe. That God is good, that Man is sinful, and that Jesus is the answer must be accepted as true. And these truths demand a change of direction, a change of heart. You must trust that these things are true about God and yourself, and you must turn your back on all other possible means of right relationship with God and rely only on Jesus Christ's finished work. You must turn away from every personal goal or standard of success and turn to God alone for your direction, and you must continue to believe what God says, and you must continue to turn your life over to him.
To repent and believe the gospel is the first step a person takes to being a disciple. So our first task in making disciples is to ensure that people know the Gospel. And in making the Gospel clear to people, we must make it clear that they must respond to the good news. Everyone who hears the gospel either repents and believes or they reject the good news and choose not to believe.
The first two points of our vision for the LibertyYouth come out of this whole line of thought. First, LibertyYouth know the gospel. That's our first goal. Every young man and young woman who comes into contact with the ministry of Liberty Baptist Church needs to know the gospel. Our youth, the ones who consistently come must be marked by a full knowledge of what the gospel is and how to communicate it to others. LibertyYouth know the gospel.
The second point of our vision follows right behind knowing the gospel. LibertyYouth repent and believe the gospel. It isn't enough that we teach them what the gospel is, they must choose for themselves to repent and believe in it. Liberty Baptist Church cannot be one more church guilty of letting their children grow up following their parents religious practices without having any faith of their own. And to say that LibertyYouth repent and believe the gospel is not to say that unbelieving students aren't welcome. We want non-Christians to be welcome among us, but we also want them to know that to really be a part of us they must turn to Christ in faith. Also, when we say LibertyYouth repent and believe the gospel, we mean that we are continually turning our lives more and more over to God and that we continue to believe in the gospel. We must be gospel-centered people. LibertyYouth repent and believe the gospel.
Now we get back to the Greatest Commandment: Mark 12:30, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” This passage gives us the main idea for our third point of vision; after knowing the gospel, and repenting and believing the gospel, LibertyYouth love God with all they are and with all they have. Heart, soul, mind, strength—that's all that you are. We're also tying in the idea that everything we have—our bodies, our money, our possessions, our time, and anything else—all come from God and are to be used in his worship and service.
I have in mind here verses like...
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
1 Peter 4:10-11 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: (11) whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies--in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
1 Corinthians 4:1-2 This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. (2) Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, (20) for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Romans 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Ephesians 4:25-32 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. (26) Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, (27) and give no opportunity to the devil. (28) Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. (29) Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. (30) And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. (31) Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. (32) Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
1 Timothy 6:18-19 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, (19) thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
Matthew 6:19-21 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, (20) but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. (21) For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The lives of Christ's followers cannot be compartmentalized. It's not as though we can give God authority over only part of who we are and what we have. He HAS authority over everything. We are acting out of sinful rebellion anytime we hold something back. So, we want our youth to be wholehearted lovers of God. Our vision is that LibertyYouth love God with all they are and with all they have.
Which brings us to the second greatest commandment which is like the first, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself, ” (Mark 12:31). That is our fourth point in the vision, LibertyYouth love others as they love themselves.
Like I said earlier, to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, we first have to love ourselves correctly. We have to know “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them,” Genesis 1:27. We are made in God's image, He patterned us after himself, when God looks at us he sees a reflection of himself.
Psalms 100:1-5
(1) Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
(2) Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!
(3) Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
(4) Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!
(5) For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
We bear his image, we are the objects of his care and affection, his love for us and faithfulness to us are without end. We are his most valuable possessions.
Matthew 10:29-31 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. (30) But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. (31) Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Luke 12:24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!
And as his people recreated in Christ, we are chosen, precious, and holy to God.
1 Peter 2:4-10 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, (5) you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (6) For it stands in Scripture: "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." (7) So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," (8) and "A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. (9) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (10) Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Our youth need a firm foundation in who they are both as men and women created in God's image, as well as who they are as new creations in Christ so that they can love themselves. People who love themselves don't hurt themselves, they don't kill themselves, they don't look to unhealthy relationships—sexual or otherwise—to feel loved. So we want our LibertyYouth to know who they are in God's eyes so that they will love themselves, but not just for their own sake, but so that they then also know how they should love others.
When we know how loved we are by God, then we know how loved by God everyone else is too. God created me... and everyone else in His image. Christ died to save me... and everyone else. The Holy Spirit can make me new.... and everyone else too. I was once just like every lost person in the world. And, I am just like every Christian—we're all still in the process of becoming more like Christ. And everyone else deserves to be loved by me the same what that I am loved. That kind of love is something our youth should be aiming for. So, LibertyYouth love others as they love themselves, that's part of the vision.
This next one came into the mix rather late in the process. LibertyYouth live Spirit-filled lives. Now maybe it is obvious to you that the life of a devoted disciple of Jesus Christ must be lived in the power of the Holy Spirit, but most people don't understand that from what I've seen. Many people who call themselves Christian are trying to keep a list of dos and don'ts by their own strength. Many are clueless about how the Holy Spirit has given them gifts for service and is trying to direct their lives for God's kingdom purposes. If we aren't careful, there is always a danger of communicating that being a Christian is just about changing yourself. It's just the opposite, it's about getting over ourselves and letting the Holy Spirit recreate us. Contrasting the old life to the new, Paul wrote:
Ephesians 5:15-21 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, (16) making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. (17) Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (18) And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, (19) addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, (20) giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, (21) submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Jesus didn't command us to be filled with the Holy Spirit so much as He promised His coming and said that He would fill us, lead us, speak through us, guide us, and flow out of us.
John 7:37-39 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. (38) Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" (39) Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Throughout Acts, people are repeatedly said to be “filled with the Holy Spirit,” but there is enough confusion over the role and working of the Holy Spirit for Paul to spend considerable time teaching and correcting multiple churches on this topic through his letters. What that Paul needed to clarify among first century Christians, this Paul wants to be sure we state clearly as part of our vision. So we have as part of our vision, LibertyYouth live Spirit-filled lives.
None of these things—knowing the gospel, repenting and believing the gospel, loving God with all they are and with all they have, loving others as they love themselves—none of these is a one-shot deal. It's not like you can ever get to the point where you check the box saying you know the gospel, with all it's applications and implications, as fully as it can be known. These are intentionally goals we will grow toward, and however true they become of us there will still be room to grow. But how does that growth occur? Well, by the power of the Holy Spirit for one, but the Holy Spirit uses means to grow God's children. Which brings us to our next point of vision; LibertyYouth are disciplined to grow in Christian maturity through talking with God in prayer, discovering God in the Bible, and serving others.
Colossians 1:28-29 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. (29) For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
For my part, as the pastor and teacher over the LibertyYouth, I toil and struggle in the power of the Holy Spirit so that I might one day stand before God and know that I had some hand in guiding these people to maturity in Christ. But I can't just make them mature. I can plant seed, I can water, I can't bring growth. On the one hand, God brings growth. On the other hand, the plant must draw up the water. God promises growth, but then He also tells us that we must be disciplined to grow strong.
1 Corinthians 14:20 Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.
Now, we could bring a much longer list of Christian disciplines here. But the goal is not to create a check-list for our youth to learn to mark off. No. We want to point those things which are essential to growth in Christian maturity and let those core disciplines lead to others. And so, we have three fundamental things which ought to be regularly practiced by every one of God's people: prayer, Bible-intake, and service to others.
Paul wrote to the Colossians:
Colossians 4:2 Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
Jesus prayed. On different occasions, He woke up before sunrise to pray, He stayed awake late into the night praying, He got away all alone to pray, He prayed in the middle of the crowd, and He prayed over His disciples. If God the Son needed to talk to God the Father so consistently, then how do we as sons and daughters of God expect to develop that relationship without regular conversations with the Father? We can't, if we are going to have a growing relationship with God, we must talk with Him. That's why LibertyYouth are disciplined to grow in Christian maturity through talking with God in prayer.
Paul wrote to Timothy, his son in the faith who he had placed as the pastor over the church at Ephesus:
2 Timothy 3:14-17 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it (15) and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. (16) All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, (17) that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
It is the “sacred writings,” the Scriptures, the Bible which is able to make us “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” And it is those same God-breathed Scriptures that are useful in so many ways to make us fit for every good work God has out there for each of us to do.
There are all sorts of ways to take in the Scriptures. We can read it. We can hear it preached. We can have it taught to us in a class. We can study it for ourselves. We can memorize it. We can meditate on it. And in all these ways, we can know God better through what He has said about himself and about us. God revealed himself most fully in the person of Jesus Christ, but Jesus ascended back to heaven. But we have these writings which are all about Him, why He came, what He did, what He said, what His followers did under the direction of His Spirit, what He revealed to His followers so that they might know Him and bring others to know Him. God wrote a book. So LibertyYouth are disciplined to grow in Christian maturity through discovering God in the Bible.
Jesus, on the night before He was crucified, took off his outer garments, wrapped a towel around his waist, and washed the dirty feet of his disciples...including the feet that would moments later run to betray him.
John 13:12-17 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, "Do you understand what I have done to you? (13) You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. (14) If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. (15) For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. (16) Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. (17) If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
So, if we are to make disciples and teach them to obey everything that Jesus commanded, then we have to teach them to serve one another. Additionally, writing to the church at Ephesus about how this thing called the church, the body of Christ, is to work, Paul says what church leaders are to be doing is equipping the saints for the work of ministry to build up the body.
Ephesians 4:11-16 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, (12) to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, (13) until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, (14) so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. (15) Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, (16) from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
There is a lot packed in that passage, but what I really want to pull out of it at this point is that it is the job of leaders to equip, and it is the job of everyone to do the real work of ministry. And everyone needs to grow in faith and knowledge until they are mature, until we are firm in our faith. And “we are to grow up in every way” and each one of us are part of the body of Christ. And each part has a job to do so that the whole body can grow. We each grow in maturity as we serve others together; so, LibertyYouth are disciplined to grow in Chirstian maturity through serving others.
Paul's teaching here also brings us to our next point of vision, Liberty Youth Contribute to the life of Liberty Baptist Church. We are all members, one with another, in the body of Christ. Liberty Baptist Church isn't this building, it is the body of believers who gather here to do life with each other to the glory of God. One problem that many churches have is that the youth ministry operates almost as a separate church. There is a cliché in youth ministry jargon called the “one-eared Mickey Mouse.” The big circle is the church, and the little circle is the youth ministry, and they are just barely connected to each other. That's not the kind of thing we want to develop here. We need the church as a whole to be invested in the development of our young members. And the church as a whole needs our young members to be involved with them.
Hear what Paul urges Titus to do as he sets things right among the church in Crete.
Titus 2:1-6 But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. (2) Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. (3) Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, (4) and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, (5) to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. (6) Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.
Do you see the pattern here? Older church members are to set an example for the younger ones. Older women teaching younger women, and it's no stretch to say that older men are to teach younger men. If the older never mixes with the younger, then the church is not functioning properly. So the vision is that LibertyYouth contribute to the life of Liberty Baptist Church.
This next point of our vision is straight out of the Scripture. LibertyYouth set an example for others to follow in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. Paul told Timothy,
1 Timothy 4:12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.
Now, Timothy was probably close to thirty years old when Paul gave him this instruction, and he was in the position of pastor in Ephesus. However, what's good for leaders is good for everyone else to follow as well. Wouldn't it be great if instead of just chalking up what our youth do to being young and foolish we could look to them as examples of good, Christian living? Instead of hearing, “The youth left a mess in here again,” it might be “Those youth put the adults to shame with how well they clean up after themselves.” Instead of “There's always some drama going on between that youth couple,” maybe we could have “I really respect how realistic that young couple's expectations are, and how they honor each other and Christ in their relationship.” Dream big folks, that's what a vision is about. It's a high aim, but one worth striving toward. LibertyYouth set an example for others to follow in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity...that would be great.
And finally, this one too comes straight out of Scripture, and I'd be surprised if you don't know where it's from. LibertyYouth honor their fathers and mothers.
Exodus 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
This is the last point of the vision. On some levels, it's really a repeat of all the others tied together.
It honors a father or mother for a child to know the gospel.
It honors a father or mother for a child to repent and believe the gospel.
It honors a father or mother for a child to love others as he or she love himself or herself.
It honors a father or mother for a child to live a Spirit-filled life.
It honors a father or mother for a child to be disciplined to grow in Christian maturity through talking with God in prayer, discovering God in the Bible, and serving others.
It honors a father or mother for a child to contribute to the life of Liberty Baptist Church.
It honors a father or mother for a child to set an example for others to follow in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity.
This one was a late addition to our vision. It's there so that we keep a focus on who is really responsible for making LibertyYouth all of these things. Parents, it's your job to make disciples of your own children.
Ephesians 6:1-4 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. (2) "Honor your father and mother" (this is the first commandment with a promise), (3) "that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land." (4) Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Fathers, you are to be the pastors of your own home. Mothers, you are to support your husband in this task as in all things in your marriage. Where one or the other is missing or falling short or an unbeliever, welcome to the church. Do you need a woman to talk to your daughter about woman things, we've got women. Do you need a man to talk to your son about man things? We got men. We've even got a bunch of extra grandparent-types if you need the help of some of those. Now I know that as a teacher I will have to give an account before God for how I've taught, but that is just as true for every one of us who is a parent. We will be held accountable by God for how we rear our sons and daughters.
Sometimes it seems like parents have the idea that bringing their children to church is all they need to do. Some parents think it is the church's job to train their children. Some parents don't think that, but they sure act like it. Hear me parents. If you don't ever read the Bible with your children, then they probably won't read it for themselves. If you don't pray with and for your children, they probably won't pray themselves. If you don't serve others through this church, then your children probably won't either.
A few different studies done in recent years about the religious practices of America's current youth generation point out in various ways that we are losing teenagers from our churches. Whether it's working, hanging out with friends, playing video games, or just sleeping in—they've got more important things to do. And it's not that they are rebelling against their parents or institutional religion. In large part, it's that a vital relationship with God wasn't important to their parents and other adults in their lives.
Now, some of them will return to the church after a few years, but the majority won't. And I know this is something parents don't like to think about, but the Bible doesn't have very encouraging words for people who never return to the church.
1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
The author of Hebrews gave this instruction:
Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, (25) not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
The purpose of this vision is not so that we have something to hang on the wall in the youth room. It's not so that we have something that we can put on a t-shirt. It's done a pretty good job of filling the teaching schedule for our Wednesday night Bible study, but that's not it's purpose, either. These eight points are meant to give you a glimpse of what LibertyYouth can and should be. This vision is meant to stir the youth up to aspire to these things, this vision is meant to encourage parents to take part in the spiritual formation of their own children, and this vision is meant to bring some consistency of direction for Liberty Baptist Church as we minister together to our young people, both those we have now and any who may come along in the future.
I've done my best to use “we” and “us” and “our” talking about this vision, but to be honest this is something I've developed mostly on my own. I have gotten some feedback from the youth and a few parents and other interested adults, and I'm grateful for the affirmation and insight I've received. But this has to be a “we, us, our” thing. If I'm in this by myself, our youth are toast. Liberty's parents must become increasingly involved in making disciples of your sons and daughters at home. Talk with them about what they are learning, hang out with us at events, feed your own soul so you have something to pass on to your children, encourage their participation in both classes and special events. Grandparents, you can do the same. We are trying to point your sons and daughters toward a life where they will be, make, grow as and remain devoted disciples of Jesus Christ. Is that not what you want for them?
[Invite to Liberty Parents, Etc. Meeting on Sunday January 29.]
[Pray]
