How can we help our youths to love the truth? Firstly, love cannot be forced. Even if you force someone to perform an act, we know it’s not truly done out of love. Even if you force youths to do something, if they don’t love the truth; even if they know it’s important, they won’t be able to love it.

6 main points will be discussed in this sermon. First 3 directed at youths. Last 3 directed at adults.

[TO YOUTHS]

1. We have to esteem the importance of early contact
   Song of Solomon 2:7
   One characteristic of love is that it can’t be compelled or forced upon. However, it can be encouraged. This verse tells us that we shouldn’t stir up/awaken love but

Let our youths know the goodness of the truth. Once you develop the love of the truth in them, they’ll be naturally inclined to develop it in them.

While love can’t be forced upon, we need to give the youths the opportunity and time to come into contact with God’s work.

We know that you’ll never be able to love someone we’ve never met. Couples know that you have to first meet with one another to develop your relationship and love.

To help our youths, we need to help them experience the word of God from a very young age. Therefore no matter if it’s in church and even more so at home, we need to set up a family altar.

Only then can we inculcate Christ like values and world views in their hearts. The time children spend at home with their parents is more than the time they spend in church. As parents, we ought to set up family altars so we may be able to combine the word of God in their daily lives.

Isaac went through this process. Isaac is a second generation believer. Often we study the passage on how he accompanied his father for the sacrifice. We’re familiar in Gen 22 that Isaac accompanied his father to Mount Mariah. He was understood the materials required for such a sacrifice. This was because he witnessed how his father offered sacrificed and worshipped God from young. Because of this early contact, he could further develop his faith as he grew up.

Later he got married but his wife was barren. What did he do? He pled with the Lord for the sake of his wife. He pled for the Lord to open her womb to conceive. He had already established the foundation of his faith. When he saw how his father worshiped God when he was younger till he could seek God on his own.

In his old age, how did he bless his son Jacob?
Gen 28:3-4
Isaac summoned Jacob to him. He told him to go to his uncle and to take a wife from there. The prelude of this blessing was to go to his uncle’s house to take a wife from there. He believed that God Almighty would sure bless him and he would be fruitful, for he remembered the promise God had made to his father and to him. That was why he was sure God would bless them and multiply them.

Timothy was a 3rd generation believer. According to Paul, his faith first begun from his grandmother Lois and then his mother Eunice. He had opportunity to come into contact with God from a young age. As he grew up, he received further instructions from Paul. That was how the truth could grow and develop in his heart.

How do we know he was matured? He grew up and became a preacher. This was because he responded to God’s calling. This was also because he had experienced the preciousness of the truth from a young age. This was why when he grew up, he was willing to become a preacher.

If we’re able to have our children have an early exposure to the truth, we can maximise the amount of time they can hear the truth.

Parents and seniors should really encourage children to attend RE activities and camps so they will grow this habit and know how to worship God.

Just like Proverbs says teach a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he won’t depart from it.

1. Esteem the experiences of the youths
   Earlier we talked about letting them have an early exposure is important. Experience is important too because they’ll be able to personally feel God’s word.

That’s why the psalmist tells us “they should understand the goodness of God’s truth”. So they can taste the goodness and start to love the truth.

Apostle John also said this.
1 John 1:1-3
Because John and the other apostles spent 3 years with Jesus, they could truly experience Jesus was the Messiah and that He truly had the words of eternal life. That’s why they could encourage people afterwards to believe in Jesus.

When we want to encourage our youths, we have to esteem these experiences.

Jacob has his experience too. After his father had blessed him, he ran off to his uncle’s house. On the way, he slept and saw a vision of angels going up and down the ladder. Because of this experience, he made a vow. If God would be with him, he’d surely make God his God. This experience influenced the rest of his life.

In his old age as he was about to die, he was still able to clearly remember this vivid experience he had with God in his youth.

Gen 48:3
Here Jacob recounts the incident of God appearing to him at Bethel. Even when he was about to die he could remember this intimate experience he had with God.

Peter also drew from his experience. Peter was one who was taken up the mount of transfiguration. It was on this mountain where they beheld Jesus with Moses and Elijah. Peter was very excited and wanted to build three tabernacles for each of them. He didn’t think to build a tabernacle for himself(?). This incident left a deep impression on him. When he was old, he encountered believers who didn’t believe in the second coming of the Lord. He recounted this incident of the transfiguration to show the almightiness of Jesus is real and true.

Therefore if we want to help our youths, we should esteem the importance of increased exposure but also esteem their spiritual experiences.

In the recent years of Bible sem, the students are allowed to bear testimony (family tree + God’s grace in their life). Majority complete it in 2min. Still in this 2min, they shared how they experienced God. Some share on how they receive the Holy Spirit. A brother testified that when he received the Holy Spirit, God became so real to him!

Experiences are important to our children when they’re still young. We should allow them to share and testify about this. Because if we don’t give them this opportunity, they may not recall or even think of these experiences they had. If you ask them if they’ve had any experiences before when they’re older, they may not be able to articulate it anymore.

This cannot be forced upon them but if they seek God and His word on their own, God will allow them to experience them.

Even if is just a small matter, we should encourage them to recount their experiences and testimonies.

1. Help our youths to be rooted in the faith
   Col 2:6-7
   Apart from receiving the Lord Jesus and walking in Him, we also need to be rooted in Him. Recall the parable of the sower. Seed sown on the rocks are still able to grow; there’s still life in the seed! But the problem arises when the sun comes and beats on them. They wither. This is because they aren’t rooted in the ground.

What this means is that if we merely stop at experiences, when our youths meet difficulties, they may not be able to stand firm.

We hence need to help them develop further by being rooted and built up in the faith.

Jesus multiplied the bread for 5000 people. Those who ate knew Jesus was truly a prophet from God. But when Jesus spoke hard sayings, many couldn’t accept this and departed. They followed Jesus only to fill their stomachs.

This is something we should nurture in our youths and improve.

Who is Jesus to our youths? Perhaps they have learnt the words of Jesus and acknowledge He is indeed a great teacher. He is full of power; someone able to perform miracles. When they encounter difficulties, they know how to seek the Lord and He helps them.

But do they just stop at this stage? Will they truly be able to believe Jesus is the only Saviour? When they receive less and less of such help and experiences, will they still be able to persist?

The church tries to help the youths by organising courses and camps, e.g. theolo. Youths who attend it for the first time may find it difficult to bear. They’re used to just 2h of RE class a week. But in theolo, they have to sit for several hours. Perhaps they pray for 10min but in courses they have to pray 20-30min. This may be difficult for them. They may be used to just listening to the teacher in RE. But in theological courses they have opportunities during counselling sessions to express their viewpoints.

Therefore many youths start to be rooted in the faith after attending such theological courses. Often after such courses these youths start to change their views and habits in life.

We need to give them such opportunities to be further rooted in the faith.

[TO ADULTS]
Apart from directing this message to our youths, we (parents, workers in church) should think about these points too.

1. We need to live out Christ in our lives and this needs to be genuine.

As adults, we tend to be more directive/instructive to younger ones, telling them to do this. This is necessary since they’re still undergoing training. Guidance and direction is thus important.

But sometimes we hear the youths rebut in this manner. “These adults are so hypocritical.” Why? Because they understand you want them to do these things that are good for them, but you do otherwise/opposite!

For example if your child insults another child and you tell him that he’s wrong. In the car driving home, you point out the faults of others. It doesn’t take them long to realise you’re not aligned with what you tell them to do. This also applies to our church workers. Do you practice what you tell the children in the pulpit or in the classroom in your own life? They will start to ponder whether this truth is what you say it is. It seems like a theory that’s impractical to carry out in daily life. It could be the case that it’s the older generation that cause the younger generation to dislike the word of God.

Mark 9:42
We definitely love our children, youths and children. But let’s not forget: sometimes our actions may not only not bring help but even stumble them. It’s better for a millstone to be hung around you neck and for you to be thrown into the sea! It’s therefore important for us to examine ourselves to see if we have any problems we have not noticed before.

While this will be good for our children, this is also beneficial to ourselves. Some sins are very obvious but some will only surface on the day of judgement. This is hence beneficial because the earlier we examine ourselves, the earlier we can correct them. Let’s not wait for the day of judgement where God posts all the errors we have and we be judged for them.

1. Know the times
   Jesus Christ once rebuked those very critical. He told them they’re very good at discerning the weather and patterns, and yet don’t know what times/ages they’re in. We who are seniors therefore need to discern the times in order to help the younger generation.

Amongst the armies of David, the tribe of Issachar knew how to discern the times. This isn’t merely a description that doesn’t have any basis. They knew the times and knew what Israel ought to do.

If we look at the world today we may recognise what the signs are. But what do they mean? And what do we have to do in response to them?
Jesus tells us that we need to bear fruit in due season. If we can understand these signs of the present generation, we can better understand the harms that can impact our youths. If we don’t attempt to do so, the younger generations may think we’re very old fashioned and don’t understand what they’re going through. We may not be able to prevent certain things from happening because we don’t know what they’re going through!

The idea of humanism has become very important in western society. The whole country used to be Christian but now more and more leave Christianity. This world view has infiltrated eastern societies, including Singapore. In the past, we could only watch local channels on TV but our children can now watch any programmes in the world now. Such values are hence constantly being inculcated in them. They may start to have a change in their value system. We observe this now. Things shameful in the past are encouraged now. It’s viewed as more modern, reasonable and rational now. Things more esteemed and respected in the past is now ridiculed. You’ll be said to be judgmental.

Our youths are living in such a generation where there’s a shift in value systems.

Of course they don’t change their values overnight but they’ll encounter these kind of issues in life. They know it’s wrong but when they start to become influenced by this, they may but may not dare to speak up about it in church.

We shouldn’t just stop at telling them what’s right or wrong. Also tell them how they can change so they don’t do this right and wrong; what they can do to overcome these weaknesses and live a victorious Christian life.

We hence need to know the signs of the times. We may feel we don’t have the ability to handle these situations, so we need to prepare ourselves even more so we can help them when they meet with this.

1. We who are older must remember to pray for them
   2 Tim 1:3-5
   Paul is an apostle who never ceased praying for the members. In his message to Timothy, Paul says that as he prays for him, he greatly desires to see him. He’s mindful of the problems Timothy faces (v4). When he recalls the genuine faith of Timothy, he thanks God for it (v5).

As seniors, remember to always pray for the young ones. It is fact that there are some things not within our control so we have to rely on prayers to help them.

We can’t force them to love the word of God. Therefore the aforementioned points are to facilitate them to love the truth. This point emphasises never neglecting praying for them.

We don’t know if they’ll love the truth or not when they’re older. But one thing we know for sure: He wants them to build up their faith too.

Since this is God’s intention, we ought to pray for them. It is hoped that through our good examples, through our prayers for them, through our care and concern for them, they’ll start to develop love for the truth.

Conclusion:
Jude 24
“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy”
May all of us be able to present our youths before the Lord, who is able to keep them from stumbling. So they’ll be able to stand firm before our Lord God, only Saviour.