CHALLENGES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE #1
By David J. Riggs
Intro.
A. Usually young people like a challenge.
1. In any type of game or sport, young people become very
competitive.
2. Put before young people a challenge and you have an
incentive to move them.
B. Sometimes the challenges which are put before young people
are evil.
1. A good example of this is the things sometimes required
of college students in order to get into a fraternity.
a. There have been some deaths resulting from young
people trying to do some wild, ridiculous thing to
get initiated into a fraternity.
C. In this lesson we suggest some worthwhile challenges for
young people, or one could call these, "worthwhile goals" for
young people.
I. THE CHALLENGE OF RESPECTING AUTHORITY.
A. There seems to be a tendency among young people today to
disregard and disrespect authority.
1. They desire to be free, with no restraints or restrictions,
and no one telling them what to do.
2. There seems to be a stage in the teen-years wherein most
want to rebel against authority.
B. Young people must learn that all their lives they will have
someone to whom they must give account: parents, school
officials, employers, policemen, judges, income tax officials,
etc., and God.
1. Young people should seek to obey God in all things.
Eccl. 12:1
2. They need to learn to obey their parents for this is right
and good. Eph. 6:1-3; Col. 3:20
a. Brother Ervin Lee once said that he still obeys his
parents although they have long since been dead.
He said he still knows what they would want him to
do.
3. They need to obey the laws of the land. Rom. 13:1
a. What may seem as harmless fun to some, may put
them in jail.
b. While it might be fashionable to some to rail at law
enforcement officers and government officials, and
to openly defy the laws of the land, young Christians
will have no part in such, nor will they sympathize
with those who do those things .
c. Young people, don't follow a crowd to do evil. Ex.
23:2
(1) Even a pack of dogs will do things that one
would not normally do.
II. THE CHALLENGE OF BECOMING RESPONSIBLE.
A. Learn to work hard. Hard work is good for you. Lam. 3:27
1. Young ladies, learn to work. This will help you later to
be a responsible wife and mother.
2. Young men, learn to work. This will help you later to
hold down a job and will probably make you the best
laborer on the job.
B. Those who work hard will make good in life. The lazy will
have much trouble.
1. Prov. 6:6-9 -- An armed man overpowers the victim who
is unprepared.
a. Prov. 10:4; 12:24; 13:4,11 -- Young people, get a
job that you enjoy and work hard at it. This is the
only way to survive in this world.
b. The writer of Proverbs had many hard words against
the lazy -- Prov. 10:5,26; 12:27; 15:19; 18:9; 20:4
2. Also, in the N.T. people are encouraged to work. Rom.
12:11; 1 Thess. 4:11-12;
a. Remember Paul's strong words to those who will
not work. 2 Thess. 3:10
b. Remember, too, that while physical labor is
important, there is a labor that is much more
important--the work of the Lord. 1 Cor. 15:58
(1) Usually, those who are diligent workers at
their jobs, in their homes, etc., are also the
hard workers in the Lord's kingdom.
(2) An older brother once said, "Making a living
is like chopping weeds." He said, "we need to
chop the weeds out of our own garden, but
we don't need to chop all weeds everywhere.
Likewise, we need to work to make a living,
but we don't need to take advantage of every
money making opportunity. We need to
spend some of our time in serving the Lord."
III. THE CHALLENGE OF GAINING WISDOM.
A. The main endeavor of youth in the early years is secular
education.
1. Young people should look at education as a challenging
opportunity and do their best.
2. Some consider education as a useless drudgery and waste
away their opportunities.
a. This is bad because we are rapidly moving into a
society where good education and specialized
training are necessary to survive.
b. To many young people, those early years are wasted
years in which they don't learn anything.
B. In spite of this, we should not make education a goal in and of
itself.
1. Many seek after higher education to the sacrifice of their
faith and spiritual growth.
2. In much wisdom is much grief. Eccl. 1:18 A knowledge
of many things brings worries of all kinds, e.g., watching
the news on TV can be depressing.
3. In the end it amounts to much weariness of the flesh.
Eccl. 12:12
4. It will be a wasted and wretched life if in the end we are
a genius, but die and go to torment.
C. Seek to gain spiritual wisdom. Prov. 23:23; 2 Pet. 3:18; Luke
21:34
1. Ezra 7:10 --There are four things mentioned in this that
Ezra sought to do:
a. He prepared his heart. This is where it all begins;
there must be a willing heart to know God and His
will. 1 Pet. 2:2; 1 Pet. 1:13
b. He prepared his heart to seek the law of God.
Eph. 5:17; Rom. 12:2
(1) In college, young people will be studying
many books, but there is one book that is a
thousand times more important than all.
(2) College books will initiate you into the work
place--industry, the business world, etc., but
the Book of God will lead you to heaven.
c. Ezra prepared his heart to do the law of God. We
all should seek to know the Lord's will and to do it.
d. Ezra prepared his heart to teach the will of God.
Notice, too, that Ezra had the proper order of
things. Not like some who want to teach before
they learn the law, and before they are willing to do
it. 1 Tim. 1:7
D. It is the spiritual wisdom that will lead you to eternal life.
Prov. 4:7; 2 Tim. 3:15; James 1:21
Concl.
A. In this first lesson, we have placed before young people the
challenges of respecting authority, becoming responsible, and
gaining wisdom--especially spiritual wisdom.
1. In the next lesson, we want to consider these challenges:
gaining experience, rejecting worldliness, and growing
spiritually.
B. Young people, we hope that you rise up to meet all these
challenges.
1. By meeting them, you can have a happy life here in this
world, and in the world to come, eternal life.
C. A great challenge before all young people is obeying the
gospel and becoming a Christian.
1. Believe on the Lord. John 6:29
2. Repent of all past sins. Acts 17:30
3. Confess before men that Jesus is Lord. Rom. 10:9
4. Be baptized. Mark 16:15-16