DO YOU LEAVE THEM YAWNING OR YEARNING?

Duke Jeyaraj / Article written in 2006 to encourage and edify, inspire and instruct Sunday School and Youth Ministry workers

Duke Jeyaraj

Preaching God’s Word to today’s youth is no easy task. Sure, some preachers make it look “oh so easy!” the same way Virender Sehwag makes batting look easy. Greg Chappell said that he could hit the ball anywhere anytime with absolute ease. But youth preaching  isn’t easy! Even an accomplished and seasoned preacher like Paul struggled in this area. An young man named Eutychus fell sound asleep and toppled out the third story window when Paul was preaching one time at Troas well past midnight (Acts 20:9). Luke, the author of the book of Acts, I guess was being just nice to Paul when he wrote that he went “on and on”. To be precise, Paul was perhaps boring. That was one probable reason why the young man in the audience switched into a mode of yawning instead of the mode of yearning! Notice that the passage says that only a young man was sleeping in the audience. Can we incur that others weren’t? Possibly. That tells us it is a tall order to preach in an interesting way to youth. We probably can get away with a dry and uninteresting presentation with other categories of people, but not youth! Because we haven’t learnt the an exciting method of preaching to young people they anticipate listening to sermons them the same way one would anticipate a visit to the dentist!

How should we exactly go about preaching to young people? In my assessment, I guess there is no better person to learn this difficult than Prophet Amos. Prophet Amos? Yup. He can be considered the Lalu Prasad Yadav of the Bible. Like Lalu he too had a sheep-rearing background (Amos 7:14). Again like Lalu he had a silver-tongue. It is in this book we read that there will come a time when “beautiful girls and fine YOUNG men will grow faint and weary, thirsting for the Lord’s word” (Am 8:13). The Eugene Peterson Version makes that “lovely young girls will faint of word-Thirst; robust young men will faint of God-Thirst.” If Amos could talk about young people yearning for Yahweh’s Word, you can bet he knew what it took bring that effect. If we closely study the sermons he preached and the life he lived we can learn the secret of preaching to young people so that they long for God’s Word. Here then are Amos’ secrets:

1. SUPPLICATE!

You cannot preach to young people or anyone using our own intellect or skill. We need God’s grace to do it. God is simply is the Best Orator of them all. He is one who made the mouth itself, correct? So we must sit in his presence and pray for grace to preach His Word. Amos prayed. Before he went as a preacher to Bethel where a Golden Calf altar stood, he spent time in intercession for his audience. He pleaded, “O Sovereign Lord, please forgive your people! Unless you relent, Jacob will not survive, for we are only a small nation!” (Amos 7:2,10). Amos knew God as a “mountain-shaper” – that is what he called God when he worshipped God – before he was sermon-shaper (Am 4:13). Amos made it clear that he never had plans to be a preacher. But it was God who picked him from the cattle farms of Tekoa and commissioned him to preach his Word in Bethel. So in order to preach he spent time with the God who commissioned him to preach first. Did not Jesus first desire that his disciples be with him before they went out to preach about him (Mk 3:14)?

We too should spend unhurried times in prayer before we pick up our pen for youth sermon preparation. The first step in youth sermon preparation is not “downloading” – but getting down on our knees!

2. SEARCH!

There is evidence from the messages that Amos preached that he had sufficiently searched God’s word before he preached it. Amos knew the Bible he read, which was the Law Books and some of the History Books of the present-day Bible. Amos makes reference to one of the hallmark events of the Old Testament, the great deliverance the Lord gave Israel from Egyptian bondage, before passionately adding that Israel did not return to the Lord even though the Lord did great favors for them like that (Am 2:10). When Amos wanted to chide God’s people for preoccupying themselves with music when their nation was in a moral mess, he made a reference to one of the greatest characters in the pages of Scripture, David, and his music-playing ability (Am 6:5,6).

Our sermons to youth too must be rooted in God’s Word. That is why we must read and re-read the Bible time and again. A chapter apiece from the Law Books, the History Books, the Prophetical Books, the Poetical Books, the New Testament History Books, The Epistles of the Bible is my daily reading diet. That sort of ensures that all the sections of the Bible will be green in my memory and I can use relevant verses/passages to underline my points in the sermon. I also maintain a notebook divided into various sections. These subjects form the headings for each of those sections: “Salvation”, “Temptation”, “Bible Meditation”, “Witnessing” , “Missions”, etc. As soon I get new thoughts on any of these subjects during my morning meditation we will update that particular section. Then during sermon preparation if I need original Bible meditations on any theme or topic I know where to look for!

3. SPLASH!

Amos painted pictures with words. He splashed colours like an artist. The book bearing his name – the book of Amos – is basically a collection of few of his sermons. And it is full of word pictures. You can put it this way: “The Lord says…” But this is how Amos put it “picturesquely”: “The Lord roars…” (Am 1:2) When pronouncing God’s judgement on the woman of Samaria he called them by an interesting name: “Cows of Bashan” (Am 4:1). Cows of Bashan were well known for their extra-large size just the way Rajapalayam dogs are known for their ferocious loyalty to their masters! And the women of Samaria were getting fatter by the day by overeating. His audiences would not easily forget Amos’ word picture about them. In order to convey the message that Judgement was inescapable he narrated a Lion-Bear-Snake story (Amos 5:18-19). That is, a man thought he had escaped from a Lion, only to see a Bear chasing him. When he thought he had escaped from the Bear, he wanted to rest by taking the support of a wall. Out of the crack of that wall, came a snake and bit him. He thought he had escaped danger, but he hadn’t. The people of Israel thought they were in no danger of being invaded by the Assyrians. But they were sadly mistaken. Judgement at the hands of the Assyrians was inescapable. This was the essence of Amos’ picturesque message.

Want to capture the uninterrupted attention of your youth audiences? Then wrap your messages around word pictures. Paint pictures with words! Here is one example of using word pictures to explain the dangers of giving excuses: “Excuses are nails on the coffin of failure!” Here is how a preacher described the miracle of Jesus at Cana: “the conscious water saw its master and blushed!” Oh! How many pictures come flooding into your mind when you read those words!

4. SCULPT!

Amos, like a sculptor, chiseled his message. There was symmetry in his presentation. For example he used the phrase, “For three sins of (name of the place), even for four…” seven times when he outlined the sins of various places that were to incur God’s judgement (Am 1:3,6,9,11,13, 2:1, 2:4). Five times out he uses the phrase, “Yet you have not returned to me!” after explaining each disaster that struck North Israel (Am 4:6,8,10,11,12). He jots three future day events using the link-phrase “in that day” (Am 8:3,9,13). He issues five “even if”s when he describes places one can run to without being successful in escaping from the Lord’s hands (Am 9:2-4).

Want to preach Abstinence to the increasingly immoral youth? Listen to this symmetric line that was fashioned in the Amos mould: “I don’t want your sex now/I’ll wait till we make our wedding wow!” Once I had to challenge a group of youth, many of whom worked for multinational Dell. This is how I went about doing it. I preached, “God has placed you in Dell so that you will plunder Hell there!” That sure rang a bell in their heads!

If the outlines we use to preach to youth follow some symmetry, it sends out a message that them we have sweated buckets to prepare that message for them!

5. SHOOT!

In order to make his message very personal to his listeners and to involve them in it Amos shot a series of questions. In Amos 3:3-6,8 we read nine of his thought-provoking questions he raised to drive home a point. “Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction? Does a lion ever roar in a thicket without first finding a victim?…” You will notice that each question that Amos asks her merits a loud “no” answer. Using this “shoot” method he was making his listeners understand why God was fully correct in bring judgment (announced terrifyingly in Amos 3:2) on North Israel. Who can forget Prophet Elijah’s gripping question to his onlookers, “How long will you wave between two opinions!” (II Ki 18:21). When one asks questions while preaching it invites the involvement of the audience in the message and also makes the audiences think!

When Revival preacher Leonard Ravenhill preached, “How do you take it easy, with a thousand tribes to tell? How do you take it easy, in a world that speeds to hell?” he was using this method of communication to drive a missionary challenge message into the hearts of potential youth. Uncle R. Stanley, the founder of Blessing Youth Mission – a man whose influence on my preaching is evident for all to see – would often ask this question in riveting revival messages, “Christianity, when did you backslide? Who rang your funeral bell?” Such questions plucked the heart strings of the audiences.

6. SHOCK!

We also see that Amos deliberately shocked his audiences so that they would pay attention to what he said. The people of Israel he preached to for centuries had been told that are a “chosen” “royal” priest hood (based on God’s words in Exodus 19:6). But guess what Amos shockingly told them: “This is what the Lord says; ‘You alone have I chosen from among all the families of the Earth. Therefore I will punish you for your sins!’” (Amos 3:2). The people of Israel cherished what Moses told them when the Egyptians were hot in their pursuit of them, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still” (Ex 14:14). But they were stunned to hear Amos preaching to them, “Even the bravest soldiers (among you) will flee naked on that day, declares the Lord” (Am 2:16). They would have been soothed if they had heard this Psalm 128 based message from Amos, “Your wife will be like a fruitful vine with in your house; your sons will be like olive shoots around your table!” (vs. 3). But instead they heard this shocker of a message from Amos, “This is what the Lord says. Your wife will become a prostitute in this city, and your sons and daughters will be killed” (Am 7:17). Amos knew preaching messages of this nature would never make him popular. He said, “People hate this kind of talk. Raw truth is never popular. But here it is – bluntly spoken!” (Am 5:10-12, Peterson Version). But nevertheless he did it. So must we.

Rather than telling young people what they want to hear, we must tell them what they must hear. This might shock them. This may stun them. But at least they will wake up to listen to us. When I was a student at Allahabad, I put up this poster in my room. Under the picture of Shane Warne, I had designed-to-shock punch line: “The greatest spinner on Earth is Shane Warne/There is a hell to spin away from Jesus came to warne!”

7. SPOT!

Amos was a champion communicator because he spotted the issues that were deeply bothering his listeners. Then He went on to “attack” these burning issues. Then he proceeded to take up these contemporary issues. Social crimes were rampant when Amos preached in North Israel during the reign of King Jeroboam. The Ammonites, the descendents of Lot, killed the pregnant women of Israel in order to prevent the increase of Israel’s population in Gilead. By this sinister method they were trying to wrest Gilead from Israel’s control! Amos talked about this social crime that took place in front his eyes instead of pretending these things did not happen (Am 1:13). When father and son visited the same temple prostitute, Amos wasn’t just looking the other way. He took that issue head on (Am 2:6,7). Amos also spotted the latest trend going on among the people he preached. The trend then was that of complacency. “Nothing bad will happen to us!” – this was how many thought even as Amos preached that Assyrian army was soon going to attack North Israel (Am 9:10). Knowing social injustice was “the main issue” that needed to be practically addressed Amos preached thus: “Do you know what I (the LORD) want? I want justice – oceans of it! I want fairness – rivers of it! That’s what I want. That’s all I want” (Am 6:21-24, Peterson Version).

That is how we too must preach to young people. We must spot the issues that they are struggling with: pornography, petting, reckless romances, masturbation, etc. A  look at the popular weeklies will tell us what issues they are grabbling with. A recent issue of The Week had a cover story on how youth are having sex in their work places like the call centres. Another edition proclaimed the “end of innocence” of today’s youth and that it was not “if” they will have premarital sex but a matter of “when” they would have it. After knowing what issues youth break their heads about we must give them truth takes on the talked-about youth issues from the Bible without any bias or reservation. If we pretend these issues don’t exist, when we preach to youth, they too will pretend that a preacher doesn’t exist when we preach to them! It is as simple as that!

Not only should we address contemporary issues but also we must use contemporary illustrations, when it comes to youth preaching. Take references from the stuff they are constantly thinking about – sports, music and movies – to make a point from a Bible. Paul, in his sermon at Athens, quoted from the writings of secular poets of Athens in order to connect with his audience there (Acts 17:28). That tells me that Paul spent time reading the writings of some Athenian poets as part of his sermon preparation. Guess what? After that sermon, we don’t read that anyone was sleeping! If we use the same old illustrations in our youth messages we are comparable to a man who tried to send an ice cube through mail to his friends in living in sweltering heat in Chennai from Jabalpur! By the time it reaches him, it fails to give the same effect as it once did. So lets keep in touch with the latest happenings in the youth world so that our messages smash in directly at their problems. Reading magazines like India Today, Outlook, The Week, The Sportstar and the like is a good way to keep in touch with the youth world.

8. SMILE!

I can imagine Amos smiling wryly when he told his hearers, “Come along to Bethel and sin. And then to Gilgal and sin some more!” (Am 4:4, Peterson Version). “Enjoy it while you can, you Israelites. I have got a pagan army on the move against you!” (Am 6:14, Peterson Version). Surely, Amos was not serious here! Prophet Elijah makes break into laughter with these words to the young Baal prophets in his Mount Carmel Sermon: “You’ll have to shout louder than that to catch the attention of your God! Perhaps he is talking to someone, or is out sitting on the toilet, or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be awakened!” (I Ki 18:27). These examples tell us that youth preaching cannot always go always on a serious tone. Humour should be used at appropriate places to spice up the sermon and to keep the audience’s attention. In the Ad World are some of the finest youth communicators. And guess what? They make the audience smile in order to make a never-to-forget point. In the Sprite cool drink ad this is best seen. A college guy is walking in his campus. He is stopped by croaking sound of frog. And my! The frog speaks. It tells him to kiss him so that he will turn into a beautiful princess he could marry. The young college guy picks up this speaking toad and loads it into his fashionable college bag. The frog is confused. It asks him bewilderment, “Don’t you know to kiss me? You can make me a pretty princess with a kiss!” The guy replies, “Pretty princesses – we can get loads of them! But a speaking frog? They are quite rare to procure!” Ha! Ha! You see how smartly and these ad guys have wrapped the message that one who drinks sprite would think very clearly around humour! The recent Mentos ad featuring how a college student intelligently tackles the problem of getting into a classroom when he is late is another example. We too use humour to drive home the point in  our youth messages! Let’s quit preaching entirely serious sermons!

9. SHOW!

We can use picturesque language, contemporary illustrations and all that. But do you know when our youth talk will graduate from being just a nice speech to a heart-pricking message? It will be only when we show how that message can be practiced in the personal day to day lives of our listeners! Amos did that well. Amos recorded the words of some of the people of Israel that went like this: “When will the Sabbath…be ended so that we may market wheat?” (Am 8:4). By doing that he was going into area of how the Sabbath Rule in the Ten Commandments applied to the lives of his listeners. Nathan after narrating a dramatic story to David switched to “show” mode by placing his finger on David’s chest to say, “You are the man!” (II Sam 12). Even in our youth preaching must go on to show how the Word of God will apply in a practical way in the lives of our young listeners. Not only that. Topics of practical interest to young Christians such as “How to meditate on the Bible?”, “How to Pray?”, “How to overcome Temptation?”, “How to be a witness for Jesus in a campus?” etc should dominate our preaching agenda, rather than other types of topics.

10. STOP!

The book of Amos is full of pithy short simple messages from the Lord. Here are some samples: “Seek me and live!” (Am 5:4). Here is another example: “Hate evil and love good!” (Am 5:15). Unlike what Paul did at Troas, Amos from Tekoa, stopped after he sufficiently and simply made his point. He did not go on and on. The sublime rule in youth preaching is this: if you don’t stop when your audience is wanting you to go on and on, there will come a time when you will go on and on, and they will want you to stop! Most of Billy Graham’s messages finished before the clock struck the 40th minute! If we do not k.i.s.s (keep it short and sweet!) we will soon hear another k.i.s.s (keep it short, stupid!)

When I have used these above principles in my preaching ministry to youth I have found that they sit up and listen. I have figured out that they don’t doze off. It was been my pleasant surprise to see that they are spellbound. Even as I script this article the enthralled faces of thousands of youth I have preached to come to my mind. What is more is that these surrender their lives to the word of the Lord preached to them, invariably, in large numbers. Do you want this to happen in your case as well? Then go ahead and try out these principles in your youth preaching. Because we serve an impartial God, these principles will work – I haven’t any doubts about it – in your case as well.

Youth from 17,625 colleges in 342 universities – a grand total of 105 lakh college students – are awaiting to hear interesting and inspiring youth messages. Added to this ever-growing list are more youth who work in corporates and callcentres. In Hyderabad alone there are around 40,000 of them. Imagine how this number would swell if such youth who are are in big number in cities like  Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, New Delhi, Gurgoan, Kolkota, Trivandrum and Ernakulam are also taken into consideration. Inspirational youth preaching is the need of the hour!

(The author of this article, is the founder and fulltime worker of Grabbing the Google Generation from Gehenna Mission, G4 Mission. This is a reader-supported Indian ministry to youth and young professionals. Please reach the author via 918886040605 to know more)