Communicating the Gospel, God’s Goodness to your Teenagers

In the next two posts we will see how this works itself out practically. I am going to start with communicating the gospel to your teenagers. No, I don’t have in mind a super tract, or an encoded, subliminal message that you can slip into their iPods. Actually, it’s not very complicated. Christians live totally dependent upon the grace of God. You have received treasure and blessing beyond human comprehension. You know that God has been good to you, that your sins are not held against you. You know that you have not been treated as your sins deserve. This is part of the reality that is the gospel. Now, what happens when your teenagers sin against you or shown immaturity in their behavior? The words that come from your mouth in these situations indicate just how pleasant the gospel is to you. Here is a conversation, actually a monologue between a father and his son. The son is 20 minutes late coming back from a youth group activity.

Uh, hi dad, sorry I am late, there was a lot of traffic on the Interstate and…

I told you not to be late. In case you hadn’t noticed, it is now late. You know you are not supposed to be late. When I say don’t be late, I mean don’t be late. Don’t tell me about the traffic. If you were serious about not being late, you would have left earlier.

What is it that you don’t understand about not being late? I can’t spank you anymore, but I will make sure that you understand that you can’t be late. I guess you don’t think very much of me, because if you did you would not be late!

After dismissing his teenager he says to his wife something like this –

I just don’t know how to get through to that kid. At least I didn’t totally lose it, even though I wanted to. He is just going to have learn to be responsible. How will he ever keep a job? I hope someday he realizes I am doing him a big favor by not giving him a pass on this stuff.

This communication between an unhappy parent and his equally unhappy teenager reveals many things, but not much about the gospel. Some of what this parent is observing needs to be addressed. His teenager should be responsible and get back on time. However, how the dad communicates this is important. If pleasant words promote instruction, what will these words do?

Yes, his son needs help. But so does dad. If God has been good to dad, is that goodness shown to his son? What would the impact of the gospel look like in this situation?

Uh, hi dad, sorry I am late, there was a lot of traffic on the Interstate and there was an accident and I wasn’t watching the time.

Come on in and sit down; heavy traffic can definitely mess things up. I am thankful to God that you are okay and not in the accident.

Yeah, dad, it was pretty bad. EMS was just leaving when I went past. It looked like somebody was hurt.

That’s why we pray for safety – driving these days is not a piece of cake … Okay, talk to me about being late.

I know, I really tried, but time just got away from me.

What about that fancy phone of yours? Does it have an alarm on it?

Uh, yeah it does. Hey, that’s an idea. I could set the alarm for when I should leave.

Maybe, set it a few minutes early, just to give you some extra time, you know, in case of traffic?

Okay, okay, I get the point. You know if you would leave your cell phone on I could send you a text when I leave.

We’ll see, I still don’t get the texting stuff … Son, do you understand about the importance of being on time?

Yeah, dad. I am getting there. Thanks for being cool tonight. I know I need to do better.

Thanks son, we can both pray about that.

There are no magic words to make a conversation work. This conversation is the result of much prayer and looking into God’s Word about how to respond to difficult situations. This father has been focusing on God’s goodness to him as being the basis of his response to his son. This is not an isolated situation. A lot of work went toward making this conversation possible. Passages like Proverbs 16:20-24; Matthew 18:21-35; and Matthew 21:28-32 helped Dad to focus on the gospel and not poor performance.

If the knowledge of God is pleasant to your soul, let this pleasant knowledge find its way into your conversations. I know that there are issues with teenagers that are more challenging than this situation. But give it some thought. See what principles you can draw from these illustrations. If you have thoughts or questions let us know.