Calling a Generation in the Right Direction

These days everyone is calling this generation to something, both inside the church and outside the church. Whether it is a style, brand, environmental or compassion initiative, music, or church program, this generation is pulled at all sides. Has it ever been easier for a teenager to find a 'bigger picture' to commit themselves to? In such a fast paced technological revolution, how do we navigate the many voices calling to our teenagers?

It is very easy in all of these things to forget what matters most, and this is a mark that our youth are missing. Amidst countless compassion initiatives around the world, secular motivators are seeking to define "justice" around humanistic unity. We often forget that true justice is oriented by the truth of scripture, and where there is no truth of scripture, there is no justice.

In Matthew 22, Jesus sets the record straight about what each generation is called to give themselves to:

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

These two commandments are so easily mixed up that it happens all the time, but the effects of missing this order are detrimental to a generation. If you fulfill the second commandment without the first commandment, you will only love someone to hell. There is no salvation apart from intimacy with Jesus. Jesus is God. Jesus defines truth, justice and righteousness, and apart from Him we will be destroyed.

Every call to this generation is for nothing unless we get this right. Every intent of our heart is wicked apart from Jesus. So my plea is that we call a generation into what really brings everlasting life. No amount of helping the poor will pay for your sins. Each time we focus on the second commandment without the first, we are preparing to receive the Antichrist, because this will be the movement on which he will capitalizes. There is no good apart from Jesus (Psalm 16:2).

We must be a generation that pursues the first commandment, that we would love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind! Imagine how that would effect our lives, our music, our ministries. Even in the story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10), Martha is working to serve, and yet Jesus says that Mary chose the 'one thing that is needed,' to sit at his feet. She chose intimacy over service. We must have intimacy with Jesus, especially for the days ahead.

One of my favorite teachers on the earth said, "If you don't enjoy Jesus, what makes you think you'll enjoy heaven?" We've got to call our generation to the first commandment, and the second commandment will come naturally. Get intimacy with Jesus, like oil in your lamp.