Tests Faced By Youth
The Tests Of Life • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Today, as we continue with the theme “The Tests Of Life,” we will be looking to a specific group of people.
Throughout the scriptures there has always been a responsibility of the older to train the younger.
6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children
17 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
This is because the older are supposed to be wiser and more mature being able to help the younger who have less wisdom and are more immature spiritually.
1 We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.
The reason for this is because there is no doubt that youth face unique challenges.
This isn’t to say that the middle aged or older aged generations don’t have their own struggles, but youth face greater dangers due to their inexperience.
Tonight, I want us to consider some of the unique “Tests Faced By The Youth.”
Age Of Accountability
Age Of Accountability
Should I OR Should I Not
Should I OR Should I Not
If there wasn’t enough going on in a young man or young woman’s life then you add to that the very reality that they are learning to determine “good from evil.”
Now, there is certainly a point in time with kids that they do not posses the intellectual and emotional ability to comprehend and distinguish with certainty “good from evil.”
39 And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.
15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.
While they are in this situation though not saved, they are most assuredly safe.
The bible is clear, children do not inherit the sins of the father.
20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
However, because we know that all humans at some point sin (Romans 3:23), we know that there is a point when children reach this “age of accountability.”
This age will be different for every child and it is the point wherein they can distinguish between “good and evil.”
There is a great burden on our young people that grow up learning the truth about Jesus, his sacrifice, sin, and the obligation to obey the gospel.
Boys becoming men and girls becoming women are going to struggle with this naturally when they are raised by godly parents and are influenced by godly people.
Summary
Summary
This means those of us who have an influence on them have two specific responsibilities here.
We are to make certain they are not prematurely doing that which they cannot possibly actually understand.
This would be those that “get wet” while thinking they have been baptized for the remission of their sins; how can they have that removed what was never there?
We are also to make certain we encourage and help them develop “their faith” in God.
This isn’t mom or dad’s faith or grandma or grandpa’s faith, we help encourage them through proper study and training their own faith and trust in God.
Another unique test our youth face is that of…
Social Indoctrination
Social Indoctrination
Science Has Been Hijacked
Science Has Been Hijacked
I wish I could confidently stand up here and say that our kids are being taught science from purely a scientific standpoint.
However, we have seen this is simply not the case anymore.
Things that are being taught as “factually true” today are…
Men can be women and women can be men.
That there are an infant amount of genders.
That sexual gratification has no consequences.
This just scratches the surface, but it all stems from the indoctrination of Relativity.
Relativity deals with the concept that all things are relative and thus there is no such thing as truth.
What is true for someone is not true for all.
This has led to more and more people “telling their truth.”
This unsurprisingly, has nothing to do with truth itself only self gratification.
God created us to people that “think or reason” through things and determine what is true and what isn’t.
18 Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
This suggests there is a way in which we can be unreasonable or illogical.
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
This suggests there is a wrong way and right to study and learn the scriptures.
Science used to seek “truth” but it has been hijacked.
Another social indoctrination that our youth suffer through is that their…
Social Engagement Has Been Hijacked
Social Engagement Has Been Hijacked
Many kids have no idea how to socially engage to create meaningful relationships.
With the advent of online interaction, one can “hide” in social app obscurity.
Sure they interact “online” but that is a far cry from having to deal with people face to face.
Many of our youth today lack the ability to engage with people face to face and handle altercations in a proper manner.
However, this is exactly what is required by God of his children.
God requires face to face communication in teaching each other.
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
15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.
God requires face to face communication when it comes to brotherly conflict resolution.
15 If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
Summary
Summary
It’s unfortunate, but our youth of today must struggle with these realities.
It is up to those that are older and wiser to help them navigate, overcome, and excel in those areas of their life wherein these indoctrination can debilitate.
Lastly, our youth certainly can and do face the test of…
Being Despised
Being Despised
Each Generation Groans At The Next
Each Generation Groans At The Next
It’s no secret that each generation looks at the next generation and thinks “less of them.”
Meme’s abound with this idea in mind.
“In my day they wrote how to change the oil in your vehicle in the manual now they put warnings not to drink the oil.”
And though some of these might be funny the reality is this is a challenge each youthful generation must overcome.
It is hard “not having the experience” or even sometimes the opportunity for that experience.
Our youth struggle with trying to fit in when they get older especially between the adult world and their former childhood.
And we who are older “can” make this much harder.
I mean, even Paul had to help Timothy with this very thing.
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.
Summary
Summary
Those of us that are mature have a responsibility to help those that are growing up and in their youth.
We need not be ones that discourage or despise but rather encourage and are grateful for.
Conclusion
Conclusion
There are many tests our youth are ensured to face.
From dealing with growing up and reaching the age of accountability to fighting off the social indoctrination that floods their entertainment, to finding the balance of have youthful vigor but understanding they are lacking wisdom and need to learn from those wiser.
The church has an opportunity to help them not only face the test of their youth but to help them overcome it.
It is our responsibility to do such and it should be our honor.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
32 Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
