THE TEEN YEARS HAVE BEEN HIJACKED.
No matte.
So what can you do? GOD CAN GIVE YOU PURPOSE Unfortunately, you can\'t do anything.
That\'s horrific and terrifying.
Worse than any other worry in your life is the reality that you are a sinner and you deserve to be punished by a holy God.
And that\'s every teenager\'s biggest problem.
That\'s justice.
We deserve death and eternal torment.
Because we disobeyed a perfect God and rebelled against him, we deserve to be punished.
But if we don\'t understand it, we won\'t understand ourselves.
Sin is not a popular word - it sounds intolerant, narrow, and mean.
We sinned.
We want to go our own way.
We don\'t believe you actually care about us.
We said, No, thanks, God.
Humans chose to rebel against our good maker and look for a different purpose: we wanted to love, obey, and enjoy ourselves instead.
YOU REJECTED YOUR PURPOSE But we messed things up.
That\'s the true purpose of every teen, every human in fact.
And he made us for a purpose: to love, obey, and enjoy him forever.
He made you and me.
And then he made the pinnacle of his creation, humans.
He made the sun and sky and oceans and moon and anthills and evergreens and emeralds and doves and daffodils and cumulous clouds and lava and watermelon and wallabies.
And he created This world and Everything in it.
He\'s holy.
He\'s just, kind, good, and faithful.
He\'s perfect.
He\'s eternal.
Before anything else existed (before time, before the universe, before cars, before smartphones, before teenagers), there was God.
It starts with God.
It\'s a true story, and that makes it the best kind of story.
And what teenager doesn\'t love a good story? This is more than just a good story, though.
GOD MADE YOU WITH A PURPOSE What is the gospel? It\'s a story.
The gospel.
Only one message that has the power to change the life of a teenager.
Only one thing more glorious than all these influences.
There\'s only one way for teens to find purpose, meaning, and joy.
None of these things answer the big and serious questions teens have: Who am I? Why am I here? How can I make a difference in This world? I know This because I am a teenager.
None of these things give teens ultimate happiness and satisfaction.
None of these things give teens the purpose or identity they were made for.
And they\'ve been hijacked by distraction - games, smartphones, and social media.
They\'ve been hijacked by pressure - from school, peers, and society.
They\'ve been hijacked by pleasure - fashion, sex, music, movies.
THE TEEN YEARS HAVE BEEN HIJACKED
