Troublemakers

So I put the final touches on my message for this Sunday yesterday afternoon and I had to plug it a little today. I am concerned about where we are with today's youth, I am really struggling I believe for the first time to get teenagers plugged in. They come, they enjoy and have a great time, they learn and grow but they disappear. Many of them disappear with their parents, they are devoted to anything but God. There are young people today that don't play any more sports, or do any more at their schools than teens that I had 5-7 years ago, yet they are in church far less. They have baseball practice, then games and none of it takes place on Wednesday night yet they find other practices and other games to go watch on Wednesday nights. They get on teams that require their presence on Sundays or they miss youth nights because they are tired from football or basketball or whatever it is. I must admit I am excited at the prospect of Alexa getting more involved with baseball and basketball but I am even more excited about the stand she can take when it conflicts with church attendance.
ACts 17:6 "THese men who have cause trouble all over the world" are right here before you. The original wording is actually translated, these people have turned the world upside down.
They were referring to Paul and Silas and how they had impacted the world for Christ. Sharing the Gospel message and changing lives all over the world. THey had literally turned the world upside down. In so many of our young people today there is the potential to turned the world upside down, but instead they are in the world so much that it has turned them upside down. We need parents who are raising children to be devoted to God, and to the Gospel, when we start having that we will see our community reached for Christ. This SUnday I may offend some with my message, but I am praying that it gets through and our parents and young people become empowered by God to become, trouble makers in our community. That we start turning this community upside down starting with it's teen culture and spreading into the adults it comes in contact with.
Thanks for reading and have an awesome day.