Millennial's Shattered Faith — E.A. Johnston

A Generation That Does Not Know God

My Bible says that there is a generation that does not know God. In Judges 2 .10 we read. And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers. And there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.

The Shattered Faith of Millennials

Many millennials grew up in a Bible-believing home. And some even grew up in church but they won't have anything to do with church or God today. You can talk religion with them and they will just stare a hole right through you.

They have a shattered faith. And the reasons why they have a shattered faith is that the church they attended as a youth was full of activities from pizza nights to movie nights to ball games. But two things were missing.

The Missing Power of God and Holiness

The power of God in a meeting and holiness in the lives of its members. And their faith is shattered because as these kids grew up in a so-called Christian home there were strict rules to follow but no reality of God in the lives of their parents.

And it shattered their faith in God. Now you can chew on that for a while friends but it's true. That's why it's so hard to reach millennials today with the gospel. They won't go to church and they won't listen to the word of God.

Hypocrisy in the Home and Church

God is a non-reality to them. They don't need him to live their lives. Religion was for their parents and it looked like it didn't do them much good anyhow because they were one way at church on Sunday and another way in the home during the week and the kids saw right through their hypocrisy.

Revival Beginning with Fathers

A couple of decades ago I witnessed revival in a local church in the south. It seems the men of the church came back from a retreat all on fire for God and they rededicated their lives to the lordship of Christ.

And once back home they began to treat their wives differently. They were gentle with them and patient with them and they became the spiritual leader of the home by leading their wives in daily devotionals and holding their hands when they prayed with them.

Soon the wives were so affected by the change in their husbands that they too rededicated their lives to the lordship of Christ as well. The teenagers of these families finally saw what it was like to have two godly parents in the home and it was too much for them and many of these kids were saved because of God's being at work in the life of these families.

Spiritual Leadership and Parental Example

But it began with the men of the home. They had to become the spiritual leader to impact the rest of the family. Kids today need to see the reality of God in the lives of their parents for it is here the breakdown begins if the parents run the home with the mentality of do as I say instead of do as I do there's no spiritual impact.

Praying for Revival and Reaching Young People

Millennials have missed out on spiritual impact in their church life and family life and it shattered their faith in God. What the church needs today, friends, is a heaven-sent revival and a hard cry to God should be as the psalmist in Psalm 85, 6 which states, will you not revive us again?

That your people may rejoice in you. Will you join me in that prayer, friends? Our young people today desperately need Jesus. We must pray for them and witness to them and let them know we care about them that they too may come to know the Lord.

Let us pray.