World-Changing Youth!

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Transcript

Rethinking The Teen Years

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Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in the Word. I'm Ronnie Cooksie. When you look back at old pictures, do you have an awkward stage? Some of those pictures from your early teen years that are not your favorites. It's pretty common. What do we do with the teen years? You know, the word adolescence is a relatively new term, and throughout history it's a new concept that we have developed, unfortunately, and sometimes look at the teen years as eight to ten years or so of just play, just waiting, just hanging around until we become adults. Well, that's not a very great way for us to approach life and how we train and raise our kids or pray for our grandkids, and speaking to young people who may be in the audience as well, it's not a great way for a young person to look at that part of their life.

Psalm 144 Vision For Youth

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Listen to this relatively unknown verse in Psalm 144, verse 12. Let our sons and their youth be as grown-up plants, and our daughters as corner pillars fashioned as for a palace. I came across this verse when we were beginning our process of raising our children, and it really jumped out at me as a wonderful, wonderful goal. Then well, let's uh look at it for just a moment together. And again, we're just looking at this as what is our goal for our own children or our grandchildren if we have influence in their lives? And then as a young person, what is the goal? None of us are perfect in any of these goals, but we need to have good goals. What is the biggest goal we have for young people? It ought to be that they come to know Christ as Savior and they grow in spiritual maturity, and then beyond that that they grow in skills and experiences. And yes, we'd love for them to be well provided for and to be healthy and to be prosperous and all those things. Those are all good. But the biggest goal is the spiritual goal. So he says, Let our sons

Sons As Rooted Growing Plants

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in their youth be as grown-up plants. Some versions say trees there. It's a sapling. It's planted, it's rooted, it's being cared for, and spiritually, as we look at this picture of our teen boys and our youngsters, they're discipled. They are maturing. Second Timothy three, we learned that one of the biggest purposes of the scripture in our lives is that we become fully developed, mature, ready for what God is calling us to in life. In Psalm 1, which we looked at a few weeks ago, we see that the man or woman who is following the Lord and saying no to the world and yes to God and his word will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of living water. We want our sons to be spiritually those young men that are a blessing, a help to the world.

Daughters As Strong Beautiful Pillars

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Well, then he says that our daughters may be like corner pillars fashioned as for a palace. What a beautiful phrase. And so these corner pillars were in the corners of a grand ballroom or a palace or a temple, and they were beautiful. They adorned the room, they made the room a better place. They may have had a support role as pillars as well, and so there's beauty and there's strength. In Proverbs 31 we read, Charm is deceitful, beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. And then we see over in 1 Peter 3, verse 3, your adornment must not be merely external, braiding the hair and wearing gold jewelry or putting on dresses, but let it be the hidden person of the heart. It's nothing wrong with being beautiful or seeking to look good, but he says, True beauty comes from the inside, from the heart, and that kind of beauty shows up in a grand way and is a blessing to the Lord and to those around. In first Timothy four ten, it says, Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. Our teen years were designed by God for a time when we're growing into becoming

How Teens Grow Through Prayer

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adults spiritually and physically. Well, there are a lot of factors in the development of a young person, and there are choices that they have to make. But we as parents and grandparents and churches can have a goal that our teenagers, our young people, our students, will be growing into deeply spiritual, mature young people who are changing the world, not waiting around to become adults. And then how do we see this happen? Well, a lot of prayer, a lot of us intentionally trying to influence our young people with the truths of God's word, and as we try to live it out in front of them to give it validation so we don't live a life different than what we're telling them they need to live in the Lord, and as we impress upon them the joys of coming to know Christ and walking with Him, not in legalism, not in checking off boxes, but the true joy that comes from turning our lives to the Lord and following Him, our young people can be those who are changing the world.

A Direct Challenge And Prayer

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And young people who are listening, take up the challenge, see what could happen as you devote your life wholly to God. Well, may this be our prayer. And I'm praying right now for young people who are not walking with the Lord, that God would do miracles in their life because God writes last chapters, and He's not through with them yet. In many cases, they're just like I was, and God is still at work in them. God bless you, and I'll see you back here next time.