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NATIONAL COMMUNITY CHURCH
April 17, 2016
Script: Proclamation Paves
Steffen Humbert
It is such an honor to be able to share with you this weekend. A shout out to all my youth across
the campuses.
In 2010, my sister, two friends and I took our first mission trip to Haiti. When we traveled to the
countryside, many of the kids had never seen blondes, white people. They wanted to verify that
you were in fact white, like this wasn’t going to rub off. Once they had confirmed that you were
in fact white, they quickly made another discovery. Since we had been sunburned, when they
pushed on our skin, we would change colors! From red to white and then back to red, and the
news quickly spread that the white people from the church changed colors! This became
outmatched entertainment and it left them fascinated for hours. It felt like a creepy massage from
16 little people. But like anything, eventually that entertainment gets a little boring. We’ve all
had that toy that the original functions of that toy begins to lose its luster. How often can you
really stretch Stretch Armstrong before you begin to wonder what is inside Stretch Armstrong?
How many orange Play-Dough pies can you make before you begin to wonder and begin to grow
an appetite for orange Play-Dough pies? If you have never eaten orange Play-Dough pies, you
have been robbed of a very disappointing experience! So it goes without saying, how many
mutant white people’s skin can you press on before you wonder, I wonder what these white
people taste like? So one kid more bold than the rest took his finger after pressing it on our skin
began to lick his finger. Little did he realize that we have been bathing ourselves in mosquito
repellent! So oddly enough, mosquito repellent does repel mosquitos but it does not repel a slew
of little boys from licking you. So dozens of children are disgusted after tasting us and we are
covered in little people’s saliva, so it spread throughout the camp that the church tastes awful.
The church tastes awful. I don’t know how far off that is from some people’s experiences.
Maybe some of our own. Where we went to church and we had an interaction with a follower of
Jesus or a group of Christians and we leave with this disappointing taste in our mouth. Louder
than the proclamation of good news or grace or love or hope, we seemingly leave with a
proclamation of hypocrisy or exclusivity or rejection.
As a youth pastor, I have watched a growing distaste among youth concerning the church. The
convictions of their culture are seemingly at odds, perceivably at odds with the church, and to
say that you are a Christian as a middle school or a high school student, it doesn’t just assume
that you may be ridicules and be labeled as lame or as prude, but instead they are finding new
labels. To say that you are a Christian, people begin to think, does that mean you are intolerant or
judgmental or at worse even hateful? According to research, 85 percent of the silent generation,
born 1928-1945 call themselves Christians, while just 56 percent of today’s younger generation
born 1990-1996 do the same, even though the vast majority of them, about eight of ten were
raised in religious households. Additionally, research shows that nearly 59 percent of young
people who grow up in Christian churches end up walking away from either their faith or the
institutional church at some point in the first decade of their adult life. Our students are watching
the church and they are concluding things about the church, some of them are including this.
This isn’t the right place for me.
Likely long before a youth will ask questions of great critical analysis of the faith or do a longer
examination of the facts of Christianity, they are asking this question about the church. Do I want
to be like you and your friends? Is this a place that I can find value?
Matthew 19, Jesus turns on its head the value that both the culture and the religious community
of the time ascribed to children and youth. Children and youth are coming to Jesus from every
side and the disciples rebuked the children from coming. But in verse 14, Jesus says
said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of
heaven belongs to such as these.”
14 Jesus
Jesus puts a child on display as an example. And I believe this story is juxtaposed to the story of
the rich young ruler, which is just three verses after this story. As the rich young ruler walked
away and Jesus turned to the disciples and says how hard it is for a rich man to enter the
kingdom of God. And the disciples are beside themselves. They are shocked. In their minds, if
anyone was most likely to win a superlative for most likely to spiritually succeed, it was the rich.
In fact, they say who then can be saved. In their mind, they thought more money, more probably
of heaven. Yet the culture had it wrong. The religious community had it wrong. And according
to Jesus, the kingdom of heaven belongs to these youth.
When a group of middle school students walk into a movie theater, everyone begins to feel like
their movie experience is about to be jeopardized. No one I thinking, splendid, wonderful, I can
think of no better confidence for my movie experience than middle school commentary. We have
all had those thoughts for a moment. But what becomes more important than those middle school
students is a ten dollar movie ticket we just bought. So Jesus challenges the thoughts of the
disciples toward children. And it should be equally challenging to us.
Here’s why. If our youth can’t find value in the church, one day they won’t find value for the
church.
Naturally as a youth pastor, I wake up most mornings and go to sleep most nights thinking about
youth and the world they live in. Four passages I have currently written down on the margins of
my Bible on page 587, verses I pray, my working script. Verses that I pray will one day be said
of me. One of these verses, I find myself most frequently rehearsing more than the rest.
Psalm 71:17-19
17 Since
my youth, God, you have taught me,
and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.
18 Even when I am old and gray,
do not forsake me, my God,
till I declare your power to the next generation,
your mighty acts to all who are to come.
19 Your
righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens,
you who have done great things.
Who is like you, God?
The author of this Psalm, David, is becoming increasingly more aware of the proclamation that
needs to reach the following generation. A proclamation that he has known since his youth. In
fact, it says, you have taught me from my youth. He doesn’t specifically say what proclamations
leaked into his heart as a youth but as we look at the life of David, we can almost begin to pick
them out. What would make David step into the shadow of a giant with a bold proclamation that
God will deliver? It is likely when David was a youth that he heard the story over and over again
of God’s hand in delivering the people out of Egypt. In fact, when you read the Old Testament,
you will find that it almost becomes almost an introduction to God, the God who delivered you,
the God who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt. And David writes songs about this.
Over and over again, you will find David writing worship music about this wondrous thing that
happened in Israel’s history. Yet David is several hundred years removed from this act. But it
was this proclamation that would strike fear into the hearts of Israel’s enemies and created for
Israel a less treacherous path to promise. It was this proclamation that paved a road for a
shepherd boy who would liberate a people. It was this proclamation that would pave the road for
a ruddy, handsome youth to be anointed king, inheriting the rights of royalty, not a 400 year long
debt of slavery.
Surely our proclamation becomes the next generation’s pavement. Surely our proclamation
becomes the next generation’s pavement. As we push back the adversaries that surround them, as
we secure value in their life, as we make straight paths to promise, our proclamation is paving
for the next generation.
In 1956, Dwight D Eisenhower championed the Federal Aid Highway Act authorizing the
building of the interstate highway system that we know today. The interstate has been extended
since the original act and as of 2013, it has a total of 47,856 miles. About one-quarter of all
vehicle miles are driven on this interstate system. One proclamation, 47,856 miles of pavement.
Martin Luther King, Jr delivered a proclamation at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963. A
proclamation that would pave a way for equality for the next generation. He said, I have a dream
that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of
their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted and every hill
and mountain shall be made low and the rough places will be made plain and the crooked places
will be made straight. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.
Martin Luther King Jr wasn’t just thinking about now. He was thinking nations and generations.
I remember when I first put my faith in Jesus and sometimes I would go somewhere and I would
hear someone’s testimony and I would leave there less encouraged and more discouraged
because afterwards, I would think about my testimony and think my testimony is dull. This guy
was saying how his life had hit rock bottom and he stepped out on a bridge and as he was
standing there in 10 degrees weather thinking about ending his life and he jumped off and when
he went into the water, two orca whales surfaced and brought him to Jesus. I was like, there is
definitely no aquatic life in my testimony at all! And when I look at my testimony, here is what I
find, I was walking on the pavement of my parents’ proclamation. My parents were first
generation Christians having difficult upbringing and both lost parents at a young age were
hoping in Christ by their early 20s. Your testimony started long before you, was paved long
before you and will undoubtedly live past you. Your testimony is bigger than you. And it is a
proclamation that is most certainly paving something. What happens when youth step onto the
pavement?
Scholars dispute how old the disciples were but many scholars suggest that the disciples were
likely in their teens, making Jesus a youth pastor! Just saying! Jesus takes 10 teenagers and a 30
year old Peter, adult small group leader, and turns the world upside down. Jesus paved a road for
them. He brings them into his script and then He helps them rehearse their lines.
In 1858, a young Dwight Moody began an outreach to young people in Chicago. He started a
Sunday school full of young people in a tavern which soon grew into a church filled with young
believers. This was the launching pad to one of the greatest ministries of the 1800s seeing over
one million people putting their faith in Christ before Moody’s passing. Recognizing the
influence that youth had in his ministry and what happens when you step onto the pavement, DL
Moody said this in his later years, “If I could relive my life, I would devote my entire ministry to
reaching children for God.”
The Welsh revivals in 1904 and 1905 news reports say that 10 percent of Wales put their hope in
Jesus. There were many things that were typical to most revivals, repentance and joy and hope
and literally bars were closing down and all these things were happening in this community but
there was one thing that was unique about this revival. If was carried by teenagers. News reports
say that the revival was filled with young people.
So the question is, how is your proclamation paving for the next generation?
Four things, we are going to use an acronym, going old school. Trust me.
S
See. What is your proximity to young people? That niece or nephew, that neighborhood
kid. Do you see youth around you? Do you see students at NCC? These are our kids and are all
part of creating an environment of inclusion. We are all a part of this paving of roads for them.
Do you see them? John 13:4 Jesus says
I loved the ones you have given me, I have loved them until the end.
See those youth and stay committed to them and bringing them into the script and helping them
practice their lines.
I
Imagine. Dreaming on behalf of the youth in proximity to you. Letting your ears and your
heart be borrowed on behalf of them. I haven’t seen this in such vibrancy than when we were in
Guatemala last year. On the third night there was such a move of God, we were ministering to
these kids in this camp in Guatemala using soccer to bring these kids into a community that cares
for them and is interested in discipline them. On the third day, the Spirit of God moves and so I
was going around making sure that all my youth were all tucked in bed and I find Christian, who
was leading us on this mission, and one of my students, who is 15 years old, still awake with the
mentor of that team. I could see that something was going on and I didn’t want to interrupt so
11:00 soon becomes 12:00 and I was really wondering what was going on. So I will change
perspective here for a moment from my outside view to Christian’s inside view and this is what
was happening. This mentor was so distraught and so undone because his child back home is
suffering a terminal illness and he almost didn’t make it on this trip because he wasn’t sure he
could pull away from work and from his family. So a broken man is before them and here’s what
Christian hears God say, ‘You should have this 15 year old pray for him.’ Christian thinks, this
kid could totally bomb this! I’m not trusting this to this youth. But God presses him again, ‘Have
this 15 year old pray for this guy.’ Now I will switch back out to my outside view point. I see
them lay hands on this guy and I see this 15 year old kid praying over this guy and as he was
praying becoming more and more weighty until finally this guy buckles and in tears and in
weeping begins to find confidence and hope. Originally, a leader on a mission trip who thought it
to be a good idea to lend his ears and lend his heart on behalf of a 15 year old kid next to him.
And it was his proclamation that would pave a road for this 15 year old young man to speak a
weighty pressing prayer into the heart of a broken man.
C
Conceal. For three years, the disciples followed Jesus around and the entire time, and He
was leaving. He was packing a suitcase and concealing things in there. Like if you were to get
little notes in your lunchbox, He was leaving all these little notes for them. They have no idea
what’s going on and then He leaves them with this suitcase and He sends them on mission and
He tucks away those dreams about them, those things about them, He tucks them away. I was
always intrigued when David says in Psalm 119:11, I hide Thy Word in my heart that I might not
sin against Thee. I was like, what? Aren’t we supposed to herald it from the mountaintops? Hide
it? But here’s why. Because we are already all too good at hiding all the wrong things in our
hearts.
So that youth that you see, that you begin to imagine on behalf of, now you begin to take what
you hear and conceal it in their hearts. Hide it in their hearts. Press it into their hearts.
David says how precious are your thoughts O God. How precious are your thoughts O God
towards me? That I am beautifully and wonderfully made. And students may not actually be
hearing that or thinking that or believing that, so we are the ones that become the conduit. We are
hearing God’s thoughts toward them and then we are concealing it in their hearts.
E
Enter. Enter into mess. Middle school boys are messy. Enter into the mess. Our movie
experience was literally disrupted by middle school boys a couple years ago. I don’t even
remember what movie we were seeing but we were sitting there and this squad of middle school
boys comes in and they were talking the entire time and I was thinking to myself, I discipline
children literally as a job. But I was waiting for some dude to throw his popcorn at them but no
one did anything. Then I hear one of them say I love popcorn. And I was thinking, oh no, I know
where this is going. And then another one says, a little louder, I love popcorn. And the next one,
louder, I love popcorn. It was getting loud and obnoxious. I started giggling. We are all middle
school boys just walking about with the front of maturity about us, so I started giggling and I
wanted to stand up and shout I love popcorn! Hey, enter into that kind of stuff. What you are
going to find is that there is a beautiful faith to be found in youth. One that isn’t cynical or jaded,
it is untamed and daring and kind of reckless. No wonder Jesus puts a child on display as a
model.
See. Imagine. Conceal. Enter.
I have struggled to find fitting adjectives to describe our winter retreat that happened just two
months ago. As I looked out on the second and third nights, I thought to myself, what am I even
looking at. Our students were in worship and they were reaching out to God, I was standing from
the stage and what comes to mind is Isaiah 64:3 when Isaiah says God, you did awesome things
that we weren’t even looking for. I looked out to find middle school students praying for high
school students and high school students embracing and speaking into the lives of middle school
students and a dividing wall within our youth culture between middle school and high school
came crumbling down and I thought of Galatians 3:28 where Paul says that there is neither Jew
nor Greek, slave nor free, male or female, certainly the youth ministry inclusion of that would
have been neither high schooler or middle schooler. What I saw was not what I was expecting at
all. The disciples went out looking for a militant leader, right? They were looking for a soldier to
overthrow the Roman occupation and what they found was a Savior. Then after Jesus burst out
of the tomb and they go out with this proclamation of resurrection, they find additionally racial
reconciliation between Jew and Gentile.
Time and time again, I find as a follower of Christ as I pave roads for the next generation, I find
myself in unexpected destinations. Our proclamation becomes the next generation’s pavement.
God, we thank You that You are putting this proclamation, that You have tucked this
proclamation into our hearts. God, You are already beginning to bubble up this faithfulness that
is in us, your faithful working of your Spirit that is in us, God You are looking for that to come
out. God would You help us to identify the youth that are around us and begin to give us your
thoughts toward them. God I pray that our proclamation would become solid ground, would
become a paved road for the next generation. God put a shout in our hearts, put a battle cry in our
hearts over this generation. Jesus we put our hope in You and in your name we pray, Amen.
Transcribed by:
Ministry Transcription
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