ONE: YOU ARE NOT AN ACCIDENT!
So many people go around thinking that they are a cosmic accident, that they are here because the universe just came into being from nothing, and then we somehow arrived a few billion years later. But that doesn’t make any sense, nor does it offer any hope for what life can mean!
The Bible says that God has always existed and created the world from a desire to share his love with his creation – humanity. So you are not an accident – you are God’s creation, you are loved and you have purpose. God has decided the universe is better with you in it, and that is why you are here!
TWO: YOU HAVE MISSED THE POINT!
The problem is, when people don’t know that God created them and that he loves them, they miss the whole point of life! Knowing God is living life as it was meant to be lived – in friendship with our creator, in relationship with a loving, kind, merciful, gracious, patient and wise God. The Bible talks about God as a perfect Father, who wants good things for his children – that’s you and me! But the Bible also talks about us as being rebellious children, we’ve run away from our Fathers love.
Not knowing God is like running onto the pitch of the Football (Soccer) World Cup final but not bothering to set up any goals… no one would be able to score a goal, no one would be able to win the trophy – it would be pointless, just people running around until the end of the game.
THREE: YOU CAN KNOW FULL LIFE!
The Bible tells us that when we reject the life God has for us, bad stuff will happen in this world because we think we know how to live this life better than the perfect God who created us. Our less than perfect way of running things will result in a less than perfect world. The Bible calls this sin – which means missing the mark of what we were created for. Another way of thinking about sin is selfishness. We choose our way instead of God’s way. We say, ‘Hey God, I’m better than you; I know more than you; I don’t need you; I can be a better God than you.’ We only have to turn on the news to see the messed-up world we live in, and this is the result of people missing the point, living for themselves, or anything other than their loving Father God who is the source of life. All the suffering, injustice and chaos we see in the world exists because we think we know better than God – we’ve rejected him.
This rejection puts a barrier between us – an imperfect and rebellious people – and the perfect God of all creation. When we reject God there are consequences to our actions. If you go against your teachers and break the rules at school you might get a detention, the negative consequence of making the wrong choice. But when we go against our creator God the consequences are not a simple punishment to correct our behaviour, these consequences are the natural reality that follow our actions. In rejecting God we reject life and if you reject life what are you left with? Death.
But God doesn’t want you to die, he created you for life in all its fulness in relationship with him. The Bible tells us that God has done something to fix the problem we created, he sent his Son Jesus into this world – God in human form – to live the perfect human life that shows us how we were supposed to live, and to take the consequences of our rejection upon himself.
Jesus was killed on a cross to take the death that we chose when we rejected God, to take our eternal detention. Here’s the amazing news though, three days later he came back to life!
People might say, “Are you crazy? How can a man come back to life from death?” But remember, Jesus is God and God is life – death can’t hold him! The Bible says that if you say sorry to God for running away from his love and trust in Jesus as Lord – that means the perfect One we were created to live for instead of the imperfection and chaos of living for ourselves – we can move from the death we had chosen and into true life in relationship with Jesus, today and eternally in Heaven: God’s perfect kingdom.
[The prodigal son story could be told here to illustrate everything said up to this point, about running from a loving father, ending up in a mess, and in turning back to home realising we have a better welcome than we hoped for. We are welcomed back as sons and daughters with all the blessings and privileges attached.]
FOUR: WHO IS IN THE HOTSEAT OF YOUR LIFE?
Do you have a favourite chair in your house? The place you get annoyed if someone else sits in and gets the best view of the TV? Our lives have a hotseat – a throne from which we rule and reign over our existence. We don’t want to allow anyone else to sit on this throne, to have reign over our life. We say to God, ‘Hey God, you can’t sit in the hotseat of my life, I want to be in control!’
But God loves us so much that he wants us to know the true life that he created us for, to help us, to guide us, to sit where he belongs, the throne of our heart. Putting God in his rightful place means we can be truly fulfilled in his love, that we can truly live. So many of us are confused about what life is about. Some of you might struggle with depression, self-harm, eating disorders, understanding our identity. Some are not happy with what they see in the mirror. Some are worried about the future. You don’t think you will achieve anything meaningful. Some of you are deeply unhappy and stressed. Some of you are feeling pretty good about everything in life, and yet there is still something missing that you can’t quite put your finger on…
[A short testimony could be used here to connect the ideas you are presenting to real experience.]
God has an answer to all these realities, he says ‘You feel that way because you are not truly alive, you are experiencing the shadow of life, mere existence. All who have breath in their lungs exist but that only ends in death, you were created for life and that is found in putting your trust in my son Jesus and living for him.”
Don’t miss the point of life. Turn to God, say sorry for rejecting him and he will forgive you. Put your trust in him as Lord and he will show you who you really are. He will give you full life, real life, and you will never experience death. When you draw your last breath in this life you will be more alive than you’ve ever been as you are with him eternally. To be sure, this life will still have challenges, not every problem in your world will instantly be fixed when you follow Jesus – and you might even discover some new challenges that come because you are following him – but God will help you. He will give you his Holy Spirit to help you live the life he has for you in this complicated world. He will bring you into his church, which while not perfect, is his family on earth, designed to help you know him more, keep going even when life is difficult, and reveal his love and care the world. You will never be the same again.
You are not an accident, you are loved beyond compare by a perfect God. But God will not force you to trust him. True love is always a choice. You have to choose it for yourself. You can turn back to God today and know real life in relationship with him.
What will you choose?
QUESTIONS:
- What is good about this presentation?
- Is there anything lacking?
- Why might this be considered a ‘youth talk’?
- How would you adapt this talk for another specific audience (e.g. a student meeting, a mother and toddler group, a business leaders’ lunch, a retirement community)?
