A few years ago I had the opportunity to share the Gospel of God’s grace with a large youth group. I poured out the scriptures regarding the cross and the love of Jesus for all of us. I taught them about how Jesus had made them perfect and removed their sins as far as the East is from the West. Tears were flowing all around the room as kids were receiving freedom from the performance-based religion that many of them had experienced. Sadly, it seems that youth leaders often feel more pressure to tell kids to stop sinning than to tell them who they are in Christ, not realizing that creating a sin consciousness goes against the very goal of making the kids behave. The strength of sin is the law!
In the teaching, I shared Luke 10 and the story of the lawyer who questioned Jesus about eternal life. I told them that according to Jesus, under the law, the greatest commandment was to love God with all their hearts. I told the kids that they weren’t under the law; they were under grace. I could feel the relief when I told them that what God really wanted was for them to receive His love and not for them to TRY to love Him. We had a ministry time where kids came forward to be prayed for, and as is always the case when the pure Gospel is preached, bondages were broken, and many were set free.
Immediately after I taught and prayed for the kids, one of the youth ministers came up to the stage to close the meeting with an announcement that stunned me. He invited the kids to be a part of a new group called the “Front Line.” This would be a leadership group that would show the other kids how much they loved God in an attempt to get the youth group to love God more and the world less. I was disheartened. It was the complete opposite of what I had just taught. This leader paced back and forth across the stage with great passion, raising his voice: “Your job as a part of the Front Line is to come up to the front of the auditorium near the stage during youth services and worship God like crazy! Get on fire for God! Raise your hands, jump up and down, and yell for Jesus. Be bold! If you don’t have the courage to do that, you can’t be on the team! If you can’t lead, then don’t even bother signing up. But if you want to be on the team, come up front now and sign up.”
What do you think that type of display of self-righteousness will accomplish? It will cause the kids who already feel condemned and defeated to feel even less worthy of God’s love as compared to those who are “on fire for God.” They will think, “I could never love God that much. I’m not good enough to be here.” Tragically, they may walk away and never come back. This should not be!
Why not have the youth leadership spread out and find seats near the back of the auditorium where they can quietly befriend the newcomers and show them the love of God? Instead of telling people to love God, let’s tell them (and show them by our actions) that He loves them. After they receive His love, no one will have to tell them to love Him. They won’t be able to help it!
(from pages 76-77 of Unveiling Jesus)
Want more from Tricia Gunn? Check out excerpts from the Unveiling Jesus 20-part series!
Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.
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1 All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version. Scripture is taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
