How Can I Minister to My Classmates This Year?

00:00:00.000 | A podcast listener named Lawson writes in with a great question. I love this. "Pastor John,

00:00:05.040 | this fall I entered high school as a freshman. I want to know how can I be a Christlike example

00:00:10.480 | in my school and among my classmates? I feel that God has called me to minister to them in some way,

00:00:15.600 | but I don't know exactly how to do this. Over the next four years, what are some practical

00:00:19.520 | steps I can take to redeem these years for the gospel?" Lawson, as I look back over my high

00:00:27.920 | school days, it was a long time ago, I'm 70, and as I ponder what I see in the Bible and think

00:00:35.520 | about God's calling on your life expressed in your words, which I'm so thankful for,

00:00:40.960 | six or seven things come flooding to my mind to suggest for you to pray about and consider first.

00:00:49.120 | Gather a few friends with a similar desire, maybe from your church, neighborhood,

00:00:56.960 | wherever you've got your Christian friends. I hope it's your church. And set aside with them

00:01:03.040 | some regular time, maybe 30 minutes a week, that's what I do with my friends,

00:01:07.520 | or 10 or 15 minutes a day at the beginning of school, where you read a short passage of

00:01:15.120 | Scripture, like maybe take one minute to read a passage of Scripture, and then pray for 10 minutes

00:01:21.680 | or 15 minutes or 30 minutes, whatever you've planned, that God would help you, fill you with

00:01:26.400 | Holy Spirit, fill you with boldness, give you guidance, and then go on into your day together

00:01:32.560 | as a band of brothers. And maybe you will call that group the 429 group. And the reason I say

00:01:40.080 | that is because of Acts 429. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to

00:01:47.840 | continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs

00:01:54.480 | and wonders are performed in the name of your holy servant, Jesus. And when they had prayed,

00:02:00.000 | the place in which they were gathered was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit,

00:02:05.840 | and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. Oh, I wish I had done that as a

00:02:13.520 | teenager, had myself a small group, a band of brothers, prayed down to God's power,

00:02:18.240 | and been more bold. Number two, brainstorm together with your group of friends about proactive,

00:02:25.520 | visible good deeds that you could do for others at school or in the neighborhoods. And I say this

00:02:32.000 | because of 1 Peter 2.12, "Keep your conduct among the Gentiles, honorable," Gentiles means

00:02:38.880 | unbelievers, "honorable, so that when they speak against you as evil doers, they may see your good

00:02:47.600 | deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." Good deeds, Lawson, of course, can never replace

00:02:54.880 | words that explain the gospel and why you love Christ. In fact, just three verses earlier,

00:03:01.600 | verse nine of 1 Peter 2, he said, "Proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of

00:03:07.920 | darkness into his marvelous light." But practical good deeds have an important role to play,

00:03:15.360 | and they can put to silence the criticism that Christianity just means not doing certain things.

00:03:23.600 | My dad used to love to quote one of his teachers, he'd say to me, "Do so fast you don't have time

00:03:31.680 | to don't." Because we were pretty serious Christians growing up, and there are a lot of

00:03:37.600 | things we didn't do because we were Christians. And he said, "No, be so fast in doing you don't

00:03:43.600 | have time to don't." That's what I'm suggesting in number two. Number three, be on the lookout for

00:03:51.040 | lowly people, lonely people, hurting people, and step into their lives with interest and care and

00:04:00.560 | time that other people don't care about giving. Romans 12, 16, "Live in harmony with one another.

00:04:07.040 | Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight." What an unusual

00:04:16.480 | teenager you will be if you do that. Number four, meet with the Lord alone early every morning,

00:04:26.720 | and get a good word from Scripture that you will keep in your mind as something precious

00:04:36.400 | and valuable and encouraging all day long. In other words, don't just have devotions

00:04:42.560 | and come away with nothing stuck in your mind, but look for some single phrase or statement or

00:04:51.200 | promise or command that helps you and keep it in your mind. You might jot it on a little piece of

00:04:58.080 | paper and stick it in your shirt pocket. That's what I used to do. This will serve you all day

00:05:03.120 | long for encouragement, and it'll be there if somebody gets into a conversation with you and

00:05:09.200 | asks you, "What does it mean for you to be a Christian?" You can smile and say, "You know,

00:05:14.000 | just this morning, I was talking to God, and He was talking to me." Now, He doesn't talk with a

00:05:19.840 | voice. He talks in the Bible. "He was talking to me, and this is what He said." Then you quote your

00:05:25.360 | verse or you get out your little piece of paper, and you read them and say, "That's encouraging me

00:05:31.120 | all day long. That's what it means for me to walk with God." Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread

00:05:37.840 | alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." So take a word, take a phrase,

00:05:43.680 | and go with it all day long for encouragement and readiness. Fifth, plan activities with your

00:05:51.360 | friends that you can invite unbelievers to be a part of. In other words, don't wait for the crisis

00:06:00.400 | where they invite you to go to something that you're not sure you can go to. Then you have to

00:06:07.440 | say no, and you might simply look like somebody who doesn't like people or doesn't have any

00:06:13.120 | friends. Beat them to the happy punch. Show them that you love to have them join you by doing

00:06:21.040 | proactive thinking ahead of time that plans something that you and your friends can do,

00:06:26.720 | and then you're asking them constantly to join you rather than the other way around. Six,

00:06:32.640 | if you have parents, and I don't know your family situation, but if you have parents who love what

00:06:40.240 | you're doing, try to make your home a hub of relationships with your friends, unbelievers

00:06:47.920 | and believers. So many young people out there that you relate to don't have any homes like that.

00:06:54.560 | They wouldn't ever bring you over to their homes. Their parents are divorced or they're not there,

00:07:00.000 | or they're always angry at each other, or nobody's ever home, or they're watching television,

00:07:06.640 | or they never pay any attention, or they never do any proactive hospitality. They've never seen a

00:07:12.640 | beautiful family. And if you have one, show it off by making your home a hub of activity. Show

00:07:22.800 | young people that it's not uncool to hang out with or near adults. And the last thing I would say,

00:07:31.280 | like it says in 1 Peter 3 15, "In your heart, honor Christ the Lord as holy,

00:07:38.080 | and always be ready to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is

00:07:45.440 | in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect." Now, that doesn't mean you need an advanced

00:07:52.240 | college degree in apologetics to defend your faith and have answers to every hard question

00:07:58.720 | that someone might ask. It doesn't mean that. He's not saying that. What he's saying is that

00:08:03.680 | you should be ready simply to tell someone why you have hope in Jesus. And the answers are in

00:08:13.520 | chapter one of 1 Peter. He died for you. God is merciful toward you. He raised Jesus from the

00:08:19.760 | dead. He promises the forgiveness of sins. In other words, you recite the gospel as the foundation

00:08:26.400 | of your hope. Peter's not telling us to prove anything. He's telling you to explain to them

00:08:32.960 | why you have hope, why you believe. So, Lawson, praise God for what he's put in your heart for

00:08:38.800 | this year. And I pray that this will be the best year yet for you, and that God will fill you with

00:08:47.040 | wisdom and grace like he did Stephen in Acts chapter seven, whose words were so mighty,

00:08:53.600 | so gracious, so full of the spirit that his adversaries could not resist him.

00:08:59.600 | Amen. Thank you, Pastor John. I will be praying for you, Lawson, as well, that you would find

00:09:05.440 | some friends at school, a band of brothers, and even send them this episode if you feel so inclined.

00:09:10.880 | And let's all pray for our kids and for our friends that we know who are in school,

00:09:15.920 | that God would give them strategic relationships and opportunities for celebrating Christ.

00:09:20.480 | Well, for more details about this podcast or to catch up on past episodes we have released,

00:09:26.160 | or to subscribe to the audio feed, even to send us a question of your own like Lawson did today,

00:09:30.320 | go to our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. Well, Pastor John and I will

00:09:36.320 | close out the week with a question about how John Piper tests his own interpretations of the Bible.

00:09:41.440 | How does he discern whether or not his conclusions are true and biblical? It's a good question. I'm

00:09:46.720 | your host Tony Rehnke. We'll see you on Friday to find out.

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How Can I Minister to My Classmates This Year?

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