Revival among the youth of our generation? (3 Minutes in Theology)

Revival Among the Youth of Our Generation

I'll just finish a great book from Banner of Truth. It's Joseph Tracy, The Great Awakening. And I know that's backwards there for you, but anyway, Joseph Tracy and The Great Awakening, Banner of Truth books.

Joseph Tracy wrote this book in 1842, so about 100 years after The Great Awakening. And one of the things that he brings out that I wanted to share today is that The Great Awakening, in many respects, was a revival among young people.

If you think about George Whitefield, even, he was only 23 when he first came over to the colonies. But the application I wanted to make today is, do we have real hope of revival in our churches today, in the young people, in the teenagers?

Some of those during The Great Awakening affected by the outpouring of the spirit were eight, 10, 12, 14 years old. So I wonder today, is there the possibility for revival in our churches among the young people?

God’s Sovereignty and the Hope of Revival

Well, I'll start out by saying, yes, God is sovereign. But I also want to caution many churches today in their understanding of youth ministry and children's ministry. That is, we've become so entertainment-driven in our culture today that this is how we approach youth ministry and children's ministry.

We think about games. We think about throwing Cheetos at each other. We think about who can drink the Coke the fastest. And maybe, if we have time left over, there'll be five, 10 minutes of teaching. Or others, you may spend more time in teaching.

You may spend 30, 45 minutes in teaching. You may spend a lot of time in singing. But the shallowness of the teaching and the singing in so many places today is really reprehensible. This is not what sparked the revival in The Great Awakening.

Doctrinal Preaching, Catechism, and the Means God Uses

What sparked the revival in The Great Awakening was strong doctrinal preaching. Even catechisms, preaching and teaching, even young people, about the doctrines of regeneration, the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, the doctrine of election, the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

These strong, weighty, meaty doctrines that we have from the scriptures. This was taught, and God used it in some of the cases in The Great Awakening. They talk about how the young people repented of their frivolous nightlife and things like that, and their thoughts.

And they were convinced by the Spirit of God that there was something of eternal value worth living for. And we're not teaching that in many churches today. We're teaching a shallow form of moral, therapeutic deism in our churches to our young people.

We've forgotten what catechism is. We don't do this with our children. We don't teach them big words like propitiation. Our youth are driven by entertainment. We're afraid if we don't do entertaining things that we won't reach that many youth.

Teaching the Truth to the Next Generation

Friends, I wanna encourage you today to lay those things aside. There is hope for this generation. There is hope for revival among young people in our churches today. But not separated from the truth of the Bible.

Teach the truth. Think of the young generation enough to lay before them the eternal weighty truths.

Of God's Word.

I hope that's helpful.

God bless.