by Anders Lee
It’s been a long time ago, but I was asked to do a youth revival at a little church in the middle of nowhere when I first surrendered to preach. I agreed and I was excited. It was my first youth revival… YOUTH. So, I prepared four messages for YOUTH. The first night I got there and there were only four teens there. Two of them were 13 and one 15 and the last one 18. The rest of the church was literally old gray headed folks. I preached on David the first night and the famous story of killing Goliath. The second night I had scheduled to preach on Joseph. Now, you know one of the main points of Joseph’s life was sexual temptation (Gen. 39). I had preached the message once at my home church which at the time had around 25 teens. That made sense. But this??? I began arguing with God on the way home about why I wasn’t gonna preach that. Why would I preach on sexual purity when the place was full of old folks and FOUR teens?
All through the next day I poured over a new sermon. It was a good one too! Half way to the church… the “hound of heaven” … the Holy Spirit… made it clear that I had to preach on Joseph. I had left my sermon at home. So the argument with God continued. During the song service (singing songs about heaven from the Heavenly Highway Hymnal– no that’s not a dig – but providing the context of this event…you see my debate…), God pretty much nailed me to the pew and I had to submit. Was it awkward? YES!!! I mean… goodness… a message about sexual purity with 35 old gray headed folks looking at you!!! To top it off only three teens had made it that night. You guessed it … the 18 year old from the night before did not show up… had to work!
I got up and preached about what Joseph went through as if the room was filled with 200 teens. That night nothing happened. Yes… a big whopping nothing! The hand shakes at the back door of that lil’ country church when everyone was leaving… yeah that was awkward too! They never invited me back after that week. Hmmmm. Oh well, “I did what God told me to do” I kept saying to myself.
Years later, in fact, almost 10 years later, Bro. Windham (the former youth director here in Mississippi) invited me to take part in planning and preaching at the teen camp in the State of Mississippi. By that time I was married and a youth pastor at Calvary in Horn Lake. I was thrilled to be part of it. The camp was about halfway done when a young man in his early 20’s came up to me and introduced himself. “Remember me?” he asked? I said no. He said you preached a youth revival at our church, called the churches name. I of course remembered then. He had grown up and moved on from that lil’ church and was a member of another BMA church by then. He was there at camp in Wiggins as a sponsor for his youth group. He said he could not let the week go by without talking to me. “I appreciate what you preached. He said, “I don’t remember the other messages you preached that week, but I never forgot that one about Joseph.” He related to me that he played football for his high school and “all the guys were doing their thing.” He continued; “that night you preached I told the Lord I would wait for marriage” and he said, “I did!” His pointed across the way to a young lady holding a baby. He said that’s my wife and our first born. WOW!
Youth Pastor… NEVER AVOID the tough topics!!! NEVER! If God gives you leadership to share about them from the WORD… do it! You may never know the impact that you make, but you ARE making one!
might have to have that Genesis 39 talk like I have through the years. It may be that in today’s day and time you need to discuss what the Bible says about racism and address the racial issues facing our youth today. Perhaps you need to confront this generation’s mindset toward doctrine and biblical principles that are ignored today. Maybe you need to help them understand that tolerating the sin in this immoral society is not what a follower of Christ does. It could be you need to share with them how a believer impacts America and politics. The list could go on and on… you get the point! We learn from the prophets of old that they hit issues head on! It may be awkward, and some may not like it at all. That’s ok! You obey the Lord not men!
On a personal note; I want to say Happy Thanksgiving to all of you in the BMA of Mississippi. I am thankful for the opportunity to write these articles! I hope you are blessed, encouraged and helped by them! Lee is pastor of Central Church, Southaven, Mississippi and may be contacted at anders.lee571@gmail.com