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 (Matthew 28:19-20).
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
I was recently in a conversation with another pastor and we were discussing the issue of some the news stories in the national news about youth in our culture. Sadly, too many youth have made national news for the wrong reasons.
The pastor remarked “I’ve been praying and asking the Lord what to do about all that’s going on with our youth.”
Well, without question, we are wise to pray and ask for wisdom in addressing most any problem in our world. God and His Word always have an answer for every challenge we can possibly face.
The answer to the challenges we face with our youth isn’t complicated. In fact, the answer is much more simple than we may wish to admit.
The answer to the problems in our culture for all that’s going on amongst our youth - is Jesus. Our children need to know Jesus Christ.
And our children and youth need to be discipled. They need to be taught and trained to read the Word of God – which is Jesus – and walk in its wisdom.
In other words, the answer is – do what the Lord called us to do in the Great Commission.
To put it another way, the answer to the problems we face with our youth is to do what the Lord called the church to do centuries ago.
Some years ago, Dr. James Meredith, a great servant of the Lord and a civil rights icon from the state of Mississippi, shared a vision and suggestion for the church.
He basically suggested that every church adopt a certain radius of land around their local church building. And then they were to locate all the children within that radius and teach them the Ten Commandments.
Now some may have thought “What a great idea! What a novel suggestion! Wow, what a unique project this might be for us to consider doing.”
Dr. Meredith’s suggestion is simply one wise way to help to carry out the Great Commission in our own church communities.
Now, if you are thinking to yourself “ I would like to help the youth in my neighborhood” the place for the church to begin to carry out the Great Commission is right in our “back yard.”
Recently, I had the privilege of having as a guest on our broadcast, a precious individual, a lady who has faithfully sought to serve the Lord in her community.
She learned about our discipleship project – The Ten Commandments Project Speech Contest. She took it upon herself to recruit youth who were members of her local church and encourage them to get involved with the speech contest.
She managed to recruit three children and she and each of these young children were guests on the Hour of Intercession radio broadcast. Each child shared a great speech. And each of them grew spiritually as a result of participating in this project.
Individuals or local churches can get involved with recruiting children from their communities and sharing the gospel with them and discipling them.
The Ten Commandments Project is simply one tool of many that can be used to help carry out the Great Commission in our local church communities.
So, to address some of the biggest issues we face with our youth in our nation today, again, the answer is simple. The church needs to simply do what the Lord has called us to do.
We need to be about our Father’s business. And His business is to passionately carry out the Great Commission.
- We can get involved individually, as families, and as local churches.
- We can habitually share gospel tracts as a prayerful lifestyle.
- We can host neighborhood Bible clubs and/or Ten Commandment community outreaches.
- Our churches can host community evangelism and discipleship clubs.
- We can do evangelism and discipleship outreaches in local nursing homes.
And the list could go on and on.
Pray and ask the Lord what He wants you to do. Then get going and do what He tells you to do.
Let’s faithfully be about our Father’s business.
