Paul said to Timothy in 4:6, “If you teach these things to other followers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. You will show that you have grown up on the teachings about our faith and on the good instructions you have obeyed.”
TO THE YOUTH, We must set an example for others to follow by what we say and do, as well as by our love, faith and purity. Don’t let anyone look down on us or make fun of us just because we are young. Yes, we are young, so we have not lived long enough to experience much to gain wisdom as our elders have. But one thing we do possess that we should let no one strip us of is knowledge because “knowledge is power”. Know God your Father, Know of His works, teachings and all that He is capable of. Let us use the knowledge that we possess to do what is right so others can know our maturity. As youth, we are constantly complaining that we are always criticized yet not supported enough by others in the church. Do you not know that complaining is a sin? Instead of complaining, take action. Let others see you always behaving properly even though they may accuse you of doing wrong. Then on judgment day, they will honor God by telling the good things they saw us do. We can do right by first taking God’s word seriously, internalizing it and applying it to our daily activities through doings, word, thought and prayer: not just on a Sunday but every day throughout the week and if we should fall off track throughout the week, we know we can return to church on a Sunday morning and repent our sins and ask God for forgiveness through fellowship and communion.
Also, let us become more involved in the Church. Let us not be discouraged by negative actions of others to the point that we do not use or talents to uplift the church and God. Each of us has been blessed with one of God’s many wonderful gifts to be used in the service of others. Let us look within ourselves, ask God to show us what our unique talents are and use it for good. ‘For if we let our talents go to waste and not make them fruitful, we are committing a sin’ – as written in Mathew 25:14-30. When we have found our talents, let us not be ashamed to use them to do God’s work and proclaim to all our love for Him.
Yes, we are human and can sometimes be ashamed to openly talk about our love for God with others for we are afraid that we will be ridiculed or we won’t have the answers for the questions that follows and won’t be taken seriously. Then we begin to fall into the pressures of our peers but we have to find our strength in God and ask Him to help us to overcome these pressures. As scriptures says, “We should rather suffer for doing what is right as Jesus did for us than to suffer from doing what is wrong which can be ten times worse.”
Paul goes on to say in 1Timothy 4:7, “Do not have anything to do with worthless, senseless stories.”
Keep away from the useless talk and doing of others. It will only lead those persons farther away from God. Useless talk is like a sore that would not heal and it destroys the faith of some people. This sort of talk is what discourages us the youth from becoming involved or even come to church at all and interact with others. Instead, we opt to stay away from the church and result to only attending “special services” like Easter and Christmas masses.
Do not lose your faith or become discouraged, my friends – fellow youth. Instead, associate yourself with people whose hearts are pure. Be mindful of how you choose your friends. Stay away from stupid and senseless arguments. These only lead to trouble. In 2Timothy 2:24, says “God’s servants must not be troublemakers. They must be kind to everyone, and they must be good teachers and very patient.”
Jesus said, “He has come to set the captives free…” – Luke 4:18 and one of the areas that we all have to set free from is some of our wrongdoing that may have come out of some of the bad things that may have occurred in our past. As he said in Luke 9:62, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and keeps looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God.” (repeat)
We all want to be fit physically because we believe that by doing so: we will live a longer, healthier life. So we work hard and struggle with ourselves to achieve just that. We should also work hard to be truly religious. As the saying goes, “Exercise is good for your body, but religion helps you in every way. It promises you life now and forever.”
To become spiritually fit, we need to know our bible and use it as our life’s manual. Also, we need to be able to know how to let go of the past, the irrational things others have done to us and learn how to deal with negative feelings when wronged by someone, in a positive way. If we learn how to do this, it will be a blessing and there will be greater peace amongst us.
You see, it’s very easy for us to start falling back on our past and then using that as an excuse to justify some of the irrational we do or think of, causing us to become like those who have wronged us. We can rise above that and show our maturity through forgiveness knowing that our God loves us through constant forgiveness of our sins - seventy times seven.
If you are truly willing to forgive a person then God will move in and, through the power of the Holy Spirit, heal those wounds so that you can no longer feel that negative energy and can move forward and not dwell in the pain and torment associated with it.
The scripture says, “Let that person who did the wrong, fall into the hands of God for His justice and His payback, for He is the judge of all things. You, yourself, will be righted of all the wrongs ever done to you when everything is finally said and done. This is why we should let our enemies go into the hands of God and not our own hands.” Let us forget the irrational doing of others and let our hardened hearts be softened. Let us not dwell in the past for yesterday is gone and forgotten. It is not good for our relationship with God and it’s certainly not good for our relationship with one another as a people of God.
As young people, we are constant receivers of harsh criticisms and rude comments especially from the people we are suppose to take example from. I believe this stems from us not bridging the gap between the young and the old in the church. My fellow young people, we need to take action, we need to rise to the occasion and bridge the gap. As responsible young people, we have to do what is necessary to prevent a severe loss of knowledge within our parish. We have to join with our elders and become members of the different organizations within the church because we are the future leaders of this church and the communities we live in. A church without any youth is a dead church. My goal before the end of this year is to have the acolytes assist the altar guild on Saturday mornings since they are the one on the altar every Sunday. My fellow youth, what will be your goal? I urge you to pick an organization and join by the end of this year so that we can begin to bridge the gap and prevent any loss of information. When we take these steps, the mission, work and history of the church will live forever.
At this time, I would like to ask all the youth and young adults to stand up for the congregation to see the future-the future leaders within the church and the community. Let the congregation see that we are a strong force and if we continue to work together, we will accomplish great things. When we all work together as a parish, we all win together. We all get the great satisfaction of doing God’s work righteously.
Elders, my message, to you is,
Please, please watch over the young ones. Bless us, keep us under your good will, strengthen us, guide us, support us, encourage us, embrace us and pray for us because, remember, whatever we do as young people, it will affect you and the community in which we live. When you do this, do it willingly in order to please God and not simply because you think you must. Be gentle, do not be hard for the youth may want to give up and turn away from the church. Do not Lord over those who are in your care but set an example, see us as your children. As the scripture says in 1Peter 5:4, “Then when Christ the Chief Shepherd returns, you will be given a crown that will never lose its glory.”
To my fellow young people,
God wants us to do what is right. Although, we are God’s servants, we still have free-will and should not use our freedom as an excuse to do wrong. Let us respect everyone and show special love for God’s people. Do this, not only to those who have been kind and thoughtful to us but also to those who have been cruel. God will bless us, even if others treat us unfairly for being loyal to Him. We do not gain anything by being punished for something wrong we have done. Instead, we lose. Let us not be looked upon as losers. If we have to suffer for doing something good, God will bless us. God chose us to suffer as we follow in the footsteps of Christ, who set an example by suffering for us.
Also, always give a kind and respectful answer to others and keep your conscience clear. This way we will make people ashamed for saying bad things about our good conduct as a follower of Christ. This means let us always obey our elders. In fact, everyone should be humble toward everyone else. The scripture says in 1Peter 5:5-6, “God opposes proud people, but he helps everyone who is humble.” Be humble in the presence of the Lord and He will honor you when the time comes.
Lastly, turn away from the temptations that constantly call to us. Always do the right thing. This point cannot be stressed enough. It is all God wants us to do and everything else will be taken care of. Be faithful, loving and easy to get along with. Again, be humble when you correct people who oppose you. Maybe God will lead them to turn to Him and learn the truth.
Again, to my fellow youth, young adults, elders, if nothing else, please remember this – “Everything should be done in a way that will bring honor to God because of Jesus Christ, who is glorious and powerful forever. Amen.”
The Blessing: Our Youth Group, Felicia Small, Speaker, Quincy Dover, Featured Organist, St. Thomas Episcopal Pan System, Praise Dancers, Shelby Stovall, Larissa Green
YOUTH The Youth Group would like to invite you, your family and friends To Our Youth Mass Sunday, November 11, 2007 9:00 am Service Guest Speaker Felicia Theresa Small, Head Acolyte Featured Organist Quincy Dover & St. Thomas Episcopal Pan System
Paul said to Timothy in 4:6, “If you teach these things to other followers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. You will show that you have grown up on the teachings about our faith and on the good instructions you have obeyed.”
