Preparing Teens To Be Christian Adults

Posted by on January 17, 1999 under Sermons

The first thing I want you to understand this evening is that this lesson is primary for us adults, not for our teens.

This month Brad Pistole began a teen worship assembly on Sunday evenings. On Sunday evenings a number of our teens assist a number of our adults in directing our Kids For Christ program for preschool children aged 2 through 5 years old and children from first through sixth grade. The Kids for Christ is an excellent program for our children that is specifically designed to help them grow in biblical knowledge and Christian values.

The teen worship began with an attendance of 43–that is 43 teens in addition to the teens who were assisting Kids For Christ. That number represents more teens attending on Sunday evening than attended our Sunday evening auditorium assemblies. It is a worship assembly just as this is a worship assembly. But it is a worship assembly that focuses on building the faith, addressing the specific challenges, and encouraging the spiritual development of teenagers. Every week it will focus on the spiritual needs and problems confronting teenagers. A number of men in the congregation will be guest speakers, and those men will include the elders.

Tonight the teens are meeting in their assembly. What I share with you is designed to challenge your thoughts. I am specifically speaking to us as adult Christians.

  1. Spiritually, what basic teaching do you think teenagers need to learn?
    1. I would be shocked if there is a Christian adult in this audience of any age who does not have a ready answer for that question based on a strong conviction.
      1. I have zero doubt that our answers would be radically different. For example:
        1. Some of us would strongly affirm that teens basically need to be taught theological truths.
        2. Some of us would strongly affirm that teens basically need to be grounded in the teachings of the Church of Christ.
        3. Some of would strongly affirm that teens must have their specific spiritual needs addressed.
        4. Some of us would strongly affirm that teens must have teen moral problems addressed.
      2. A number of other specific suggestions would be strongly affirmed.
    2. Question: why do you personally strongly feel that your answer is the correct, needed answer? For example:
      1. If your answer is, “Teach teens correct theology,” is your “why” centered in your concern about future ignorance of God and God’s will ?
      2. If your answer is, “Teach teens basic Church of Christ teachings,” is your “why” centered in your concerns about the future of the Church of Christ?
      3. If your answer is, “Teach teens about their spiritual needs,” is your “why” centered in your concern about teens not being spiritual?
      4. If your answer is, “Teach teens biblical morality,” is your “why” centered in your concerns about current immorality?
      5. Whatever your answer is, why do you think that answer should be our primary teaching concern?
    3. Second question: regardless of what your answer is or my answer is, is our concern centered in our teenagers’ relationship with God or is our concern centered in something besides their relationship with God?
      1. Do we want to help the teens?
      2. Or, are we just afraid?
      3. Are we focused on our teens, or are we focused on our fears?
  2. Allow me to call your attention to 1 Timothy; focus on some things Paul told Timothy that I am convinced would bless our teens.
    1. Timothy was a young man who began to work with Paul at the beginning of Paul’s second missionary journey (Acts 16:1).
      1. Paul often left Timothy to work with an infant congregation or sent Timothy to work with a troubled congregation.
      2. In Paul’s letter to Timothy that we call 1 Timothy, Paul asked him to remain in Ephesus and help the congregation in some specific ways (1 Timothy 1:3).
      3. Sprinkled throughout this letter are some things that Paul wanted Timothy personally to understand and remember.
    2. May I call your attention to some of those things.
      1. 1 Timothy 1:18,19 This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
        1. Our teenagers need to understand the importance of having and keeping faith; faith seems anything but necessary in today’s world.
        2. Our teenagers need to understand the destructive power of guilt and the blessings of a good conscience.
      2. 1 Timothy 4:7,8 But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
        1. Our teenagers need to understand the importance of self-discipline that encourages godly development.
        2. Our teenagers need to understand why physical discipline has value, but spiritual discipline has much greater value.
      3. 1 Timothy 4:12 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. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
        1. Our teenagers need to understand the value and the purpose of a Christian being an example.
      4. 1 Timothy 4:14 Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
        1. Our teens need to understand the importance of developing their spiritual gift.
      5. 1 Timothy 5:25 Likewise also, deeds that are good are quite evident, and those which are otherwise cannot be concealed. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
        1. Our teens need to understand that good deeds become obvious (you don’t have to call them to everyone’s attention), and evil deeds cannot be concealed.
      6. 1 Timothy 6:10,11 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
        1. Our teens need to understand the necessity of running from things that look innocent but will painfully destroy you.
        2. They need to understand the importance of chasing things that will spiritually develop you.
  3. Now allow me to call two things to your attention.
    1. First, I want to ask you to consider what I said.
      1. Did you notice what I did not say?
        1. I did not say that our teens need to be told these things.
        2. I did not say that our teens need to commit these things to memory.
        3. I did not say that our teens need to be warned or to be given some sound advice.
      2. I said that our teens need to understand these things.
        1. In the context of their lives, their world, their problems, their challenges, their temptations, they need to understand.
        2. Stating facts is simple; giving advice is simple; passing judgment and condemnation is simple.
        3. Building understanding is not simple; it is challenging, demanding, and time consuming.
    2. Second, I want to ask you another question: why do you think that they do not understand these things? There are many reasons, but consider this.
      1. Too often we adults want our teens to be something that many of us adults never became.
        1. We seem spiritually to operate under the assumption that if we just change the “facts” of their belief system, that will produce the lives and behavior that we want.
        2. Is it true in our lives that the facts we believe have changed our lives and behavior, or in basic ways has our behavior remain untouched by the facts that we believe?
      2. Teens tend to be very idealistic.
        1. Ethics, determining what is good and evil, is important to teens.
        2. It is quite true that their system for determining what is good or evil is commonly very different from our system.
        3. But does the behavior and results produced by our definitions of good and evil challenge their definitions?
        4. How often do they see us doing good simply because it is good, or doing right simply because it is right?
        5. Do they see us doing good or right when it is to our own disadvantage or hurt?
        6. Do the ways we act and the ways we treat people make their definitions look better than our definitions?
      3. In what real way do they see in our lives that the physical is minor and the spiritual is major?
        1. Do we talk about living for eternity when we actually live for retirement?
        2. When they watch the way we live our lives every day, is it obvious that the spiritual is the most important?
      4. Do they see us cultivating the kind of mind and heart that allows us naturally to be an example in all contexts?
      5. Do they see us cultivating our spiritual gifts and using those gifts for God’s purposes?
      6. Do we live our lives in the understanding that good deeds are obvious and evil cannot be hidden?
        1. Teenagers hate hypocrisy.
        2. When it comes to knowing what is going on, teens are very savvy.
        3. The teen information network rivals any adult network ever developed.
        4. And they have inside information because teens share with teens–they know what is happening in the homes.
      7. Do they see us living as close to God as we can get or as close to the edge as we can get?

How do we generate understanding in teenagers? There is no formula. There is no guaranteed process. There are many factors involved. Among all those factors, there is one that you and I contribute every day. If they are to understand it, they must see it in our lives and our hearts. They do not expect perfection. They do look for genuineness.

When we deepen our faith; when we mature our Christian behavior; when we love God; when we humbly serve Christ; when we encourage God’s Spirit in our life; when we let kindness, forgiveness, and compassion flow through our lives; in a powerful way, we help teens understand.