Top Three Theological Topics for Teens: Forgiveness

St. Thomas Youth Group

5/5/2013

“The Top Three Theological Topics for Teens: Forgiveness”

Intro:

Hey everybody, it’s really good to see all of you here tonight. It’s a busy time of year with end of school projects, state wide standardized testing, proms, and end of season sports tournaments. With all that going on I’m proud of you for making your community of faith a priority. 

Prayer: 

Tonight we’re going to continue our series on “The Top Three Theological Topics for Teens”, but before we dive right in let’s start with a prayer: 

“Father God, you see your children growing up in an unsteady and confusing world. Show us that your ways give more life than the ways of the world, and that following your son is better than chasing after selfish goals. Help us to take our failures, not as a measure of our worth, but as a chance for a new start. Give us strength to hold our faith in you and to keep alive our joy as your creations. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” 

Review: 

As I said, tonight we’re going to continue our series of looking at some of the top theological topics and scripture passages that are relevant for teenagers in today’s world. Last week we looked at the verse “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak," and explored the theme of temptation. We saw that teens today are in a really tough spot and are uniquely vulnerable to temptation because of powerful sociological and biological reasons. 

Tonight’s Topic: Forgiveness

Tonight we’re going to build off of what we talked about last week and talk about failure. With so many pressures and forces against you, you’re going to fail, just like everyone does. Romans 3:23 says “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” That means that sometime in life, we’ve all screwed up royally, and that we’re in the same sinking ship. So tonight we’re going to talk about what happens when we fail. 

Video:

To kick us off in that direction I want to show you a short video created by a very creative and famous pastor named Rob Bell. 

Forgiveness Roadblocks: 

“Nothing you can do can make God love you any less.”… I think that’s kinda hard to really understand, at least it is for me. I think that’s partly due to the fact that if you grow up in the church you’re told constantly “God loves you” so much that eventually it has no real meaning anymore. 

I also think it’s hard for young people to grasp the power of God’s undeserved love for them because in this culture young people are constantly told that they are super special, that they are the key to the future, that they are the children of promise and full of world changing potential, that young people are the most precious things in the world, etc. If young people really are that important, then of course God loves you, and saying it is about as special as pointing out that the sky is blue or grass is green. It’s just not that interesting. 

The church and it’s weak versions of the gospel, and the sentimental culture have inoculated young people from the real meaning and power of the gospel’s message. 

"Those who are forgiven much, love much"

But if you’ve ever screwed up, I mean royally screwed up, then you know what God’s love really means deep down. So let me just talk for second here to those of you who aren’t perfect, you know who you are. Those of you who are perfect can just zone out for a while. 

You may feel that you’re the worst person in the world, or that you’ve committed the worst possible sin, you may feel ashamed, or disappointed in yourself, or you may have sudden attacks of anxiety and fear that someone may find out, you may feel isolated and that there’s no one you can talk to about the way you feel because you don’t want to reveal specifically what you’ve done, you may be overly defensive for no reason, or try to mentally justify your actions, you may be depressed and thinking about suicide, you may have an overwhelming sense of guilt like a dark cloud that fills the entire sky. 

The Good News: 

If that describes you then let me lay some good news on you.  In Romans 5:8 it says “In this God proves his love for us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

And later Paul writes, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...No in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angles, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

In 1st John 1:9 it says “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” And in Proverbs 28:13 it says “No one who conceals transgressions will prosper, but one who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” 

Listen everybody, “Nothing you can do will make God love you less.” 

Conclusion: 

As a way of closing I’d like to share with you a song written by the christian band “Third Day.” This song literally changed my life one day when I was your age. The song is written from the view point of God the Father writing a letter to us his children. 

In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven! Amen.