Reflections on David Platt's sermon to the youth

As I mentioned earlier, this past week was Redeemer's Missions Week. We do these things yearly to really emphasize world missions. Without something yearly to remind us to really hone in our thinking, praying, giving, going, we can easily forget about people that we'll never see (but hope to one day in heaven).

So for our last act of the Missions Week, one of my incredibly helpful youth teachers requested we show the recent David Platt Sermon delivered at Together for the Gospel (T4G) for youth group. More often than not, I try to give folks the freedom to bring options, run them by me, and then let them run with those ideas. So we watched what has been deemed as the best sermon ever preached on missions over a delectable spaghetti dinner.

Here are my reflections

1.) I was wrong. I thought it would be best to break up the video into 2 sessions. An hour long sermon can be difficult for a middle schooler. Last year they listened to a half hour audio of a Piper lecture and it did not go well! The Sr High's did go well on the other hand. Plus, if we broke it up, I figured we'd have more time for discussion. However, I yielded to the desires of the one who wanted to show the video and am glad I did. Leadership sometimes involves yielding. It also involves admitting you were wrong! I even told the kids I didn't think they had it in them, but that someone else did!

2.) Teaching up. I always tend to "teach up." Our Jr High use Sr High material for Sunday School and it has gone well. Our Sr High use an adult study from Tim Keller and have been doing this type of stuff for a while. When we had to break up our Sunday School classes from the normal break-up (PreK-K, 1st-2nd, 3rd-4th, etc...), we sent the 2nd graders up and the Pre-K have been working with the 1st-2nd grade material. I prefer to teach up. I knew that the Sr High's would be OK with the video, but my concern was the middle school kids, particularly the younger middle school kids. But in the end, "teaching up," was the right way to go.

3.) In "teaching up" one must still remember the younger ones instead of assuming everyone "gets it." This sermon is probably the best sermon on missions I've seen, but we need to remember that it was delivered to pastors at a pastor's conference (of course many others go who aren't pastors, but those who go have more knowledge than most others in the church). As a result, David Platt does not define all of his terms (and he shouldn't have to). It is impossible to think like a middle schooler if you are not one. But instead of assuming that all kids knew such terms, I made sure to get up and ask the kids if they did. I'm glad I did, because several didn't know what the word "Sovereignty" meant; and that was a word used in his main point! So I let the Sr High's define "sovereignty" for the others, as well as "people groups." Those were two huge points in the sermon, and several folks didn't know what they meant. When you "teach up," you still have to take pains and ask questions to make sure kids are getting it. But in the end, you end up letting the older kids assist in teaching the younger kids. So cool to see.

4.) Power of stories. While David Platt didn't illustrate heavily, he did use several stories and anecdotes that I could tell ALL of the kids got. It is beautiful to see a middle school lad get excited about a story where a pastor realizes that dying is gain; because that pastor realized it, so did his persecutors. They would have been worse off killing him, so they let that joker live! That's priceless. All the kids got a kick out of that. I think these stories will stick, even if some of the main points or terms may not.

After the brief discussion and clarification time, we sent them on their way. It was a great night and encouraging to expose these kids to the radical call of the gospel to lose our lives for Jesus glory. Whether they go overseas or minister here at home, we have to teach our kids to say no to the suburban American comfortable lifestyle and to find the joy in following Jesus wherever we are.

If you haven't seen the video, check it out here or the audio here.