Our Young People Need Jesus
E.A. Johnston passionately warns that the church has failed to truly lead young people to Jesus, urging a return to authentic gospel preaching and heartfelt prayer for their salvation.
In this heartfelt sermon, E.A. Johnston addresses the critical issue of young people leaving the church due to a lack of true gospel teaching and discipleship. He challenges the church to stop prioritizing entertainment over repentance and calls for sincere prayer for the salvation of youth. Johnston’s message is a sobering reminder of the urgent need to lead the next generation to a genuine relationship with Jesus.
Full Transcript
One of the saddest chapters in the life of our churches is how we lost our young people today. We somehow managed to get them to accept our Jesus when they were children by inviting him into their heart. We then told them they were saved as they grew up in the church.
We gave them pizza night and movie night and mud fights and we hid the real gospel from them because we didn't want to lose them. We didn't want to scare them off by preaching on hell. We didn't want to offend them by calling them sinners.
We did not want them to quit coming to church on Sunday so we left out their duty of repentance. Instead we made Jesus fond with vacation bible school and we made church entertaining. We made sure our kids had a good time at church thinking that when they got older they'd want to stay.
We played softball at church and we played soccer at church and we gave them the music they wanted at church and worship so they'd have a good time. But that time might have been better spent on our faces in intercession for their souls. Perhaps we should have spent more time in training them to follow Jesus in a life of discipleship but instead we just gave them what they wanted instead of what they needed and as they grew up they saw right through it all.
They saw that we were frauds and fakes that we were one person at church on Sunday and the opposite at home during the week that there was no reality of God at church and no reality of God in the lives of their parents. They heard their parents say do as I say but not do as I do. They grew up in the church and then when they grew up they left church for the world.
We gave them an appetite for the world in church and now they want all the world and its pleasures. The young people left church a long time ago but we just didn't notice. We're focused on the next generation of kids to ruin them the same way with the hope that this time it'll be different.
Our young people need Jesus because we failed to get them to Jesus to be truly converted. Our young people need Jesus or they will surely end up in hell. Maybe we ought to pray for them differently instead of praying that they'll come back to Jesus.
Maybe it's time we were honest with ourselves and started praying for their salvation because right now the world and the devil has them. Our young people need Jesus. Let us pray.
Sermon Outline
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I
- The sad reality of losing young people from the church
- Superficial methods used to keep youth engaged
- The failure to preach the true gospel and repentance
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II
- The consequences of entertaining rather than discipling youth
- The hypocrisy witnessed by young people in the church
- How youth are drawn away by the world due to lack of true conversion
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III
- The urgent need for genuine salvation among young people
- The importance of honest prayer for their salvation
- A call to return to biblical priorities in youth ministry
Key Quotes
“We gave them pizza night and movie night and mud fights and we hid the real gospel from them because we didn't want to lose them.” — E.A. Johnston
“Our young people need Jesus or they will surely end up in hell.” — E.A. Johnston
“Maybe it's time we were honest with ourselves and started praying for their salvation because right now the world and the devil has them.” — E.A. Johnston
Application Points
- Prioritize teaching the true gospel and repentance to young people rather than just entertaining them.
- Be honest in prayer and specifically pray for the genuine salvation of youth.
- Model authentic Christian living at home and church to avoid hypocrisy.