TEXT: 1 John 2:14 “I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”
The world underestimates the power of young people – sells them short! The world takes a condescending attitude toward teenagers – assumes that you will not be spiritually interested, not capable of focusing on deep subjects. After all, to them you’re “just a kid.”
The world patronizes young people as being hopelessly immature, but the apostle John knew better. He wrote to the young men of the first century, and gives them a triple commendation:
He says they are “strong”
He recognizes that “the Word of God abides in you”
And John celebrates their victory over “the evil one”!
John addressed the young men of his day, not as spiritual weaklings – but as victorious champions!
The world underestimates the power of young people, but God never does. Over and over he has used young people to do great things in his kingdom:
David was still a teenager when he put all the grown men of Israel to shame, and brought great glory to God, by courageously taking on the giant Goliath.
Mary was a young woman, still a teenager, when God selected her to be the mother of Jesus.
Jesus was only 12, not even a teen, when he was in his Father’s house, asking and answering questions of the first century Ph.D.’s in Bible!
Don’t tell me that our God cannot use teenagers! I feel this keenly because of my own experience; I felt the call to preach at the age of 12 – knew from that early age that God had placed his hand on my life, and selected me to be his servant. I felt a deep conviction that there was nothing I could do with my life that would be more meaningful than ministry.
I can still remember being struck by the fact that everything else is transitory – temporary – and fleeting, but a preacher deals with eternity! To know that someone’s life may be transformed because you shared the truth with them – to rejoice when the brokenness in their family is mended because you ministered to them – to realize that someone will be able to spend all eternity in glory with God because you were His instrument to share Jesus with them.
Paul says in Romans 10:14-15 “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.’”
And in 1 Corinthians 1:21 “It pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe.”
The preacher is God’s chosen instrument for leading the lost to Jesus – for leading the unbeliever to faith. Even at the age of 12 I was struck by what an awesome privilege that would be.
If you feel that burning in your bones, I want to affirm it – applaud it – and build on it by describing what a blessing it has been to my life.
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When I first realized that God was calling me to preach what I felt most keenly was the privilege of serving God and sharing Jesus, and that is exactly what I went on to experience when I because a full-time preacher. But there were other blessings I have experienced over the years that I never imagined as a young man.
As I was growing up, I worked in a number of different occupations – mowed lawns, stocked groceries in a supermarket, spent a summer on the assembly line in a furniture factory. All of them had some positive aspects (especially the paycheck!) and all of them had some negative. But nothing has ever been so rewarding as ministry! May I tell you how being a preacher has blessed my life?
Get to work with some of the greatest people on earth: God’s people are good people.
Get to work with some of the most challenging people and problems on earth! (I have ministered in prisons, penitentiaries, recovery centers: have studied the Bible with drug dealers and bank robbers, and even murderers.)
As I preacher I am privileged to walk alongside people at some of the most significant points in their lives. When their babies are born, I get to visit the nursery; when they are on their deathbed, I have been in their room to hold their hand and pray with them. Preachers preside over joyous events such as weddings, and in sorrowful occasions such as funerals.
Ministry is a responsibility that requires and develops the very best of a man, in so many different dimensions. It involves an amazing variety of tasks. When I spent that summer on the assembly line in a furniture factory, I worked alongside men and women who had spent 25-30 years standing in the same spot, on the same concrete floor, turning the same wrench and twisting the same widget. By contrast, as a preacher I might do 10-20 different things in one day!
Another blessing: I have been privileged to serve God all over the world! My boss is head of an organization that has branch offices in every nation on earth. Jesus said, “Go into ALL THE WORLD and preach the good news to ALL creation” (Mark 16:15). It didn’t dawn on me at the age of 12 that becoming a preacher would lead me to so many places around the globe. I never imaged I would:
See a volcano erupt in Guatemala.
Or walk the streets of ancient Rome where Peter and Paul were martyred.
Or teach brand new Christians in Ukraine.
Or hike through a rainforest in Costa Rica.
From London to Los Angeles, from Canada to Mexico, everywhere I have gone I have found brothers and sisters who share my faith, who took me in with open arms, and treated me like family, because we are family – God’s family!
There have been so many blessings that I never dreamed of when I was a 12-year-old young man who felt the call to preach the good news of Jesus – and I have lived an incredible life as a result of answering that call!
But the greatest blessing of all is the one that I did anticipate as a young man; the privilege of working for God! My prayer is that someday each of you can experience those same blessings!
1 John 2:14 “I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”
LET THE WORD LIVE IN YOU! Study your Bible for yourself – read, meditate, pray on it. Learn it – love it – and live it. That makes you strong – that empowers you to achieve spiritual victory.
–Dan Williams
