3 Secrets to Determining the Depth of Your Message

How "deep" should your message be when speaking to students?

I have been asked this question on numerous occasions. My response is typically different than that of other youth pastors or youth speakers.

I believe we are called to preach and teach the Word of God to young people. I disagree with the mentality that they are "just teenagers" and "need the cookies on the bottom shelf." Jesus, the Great Shepherd, didn't pull any punches as He taught His disciples (who were mostly teenagers themselves).

Here are three secrets to determining the depth of your teaching to students:

1.  Let the Word of God be living and active.

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12 NIV)

When you preach God's Word, the Holy Spirit is able to apply it to each student in the room. Be faithful to preach His Word and He can make it as deep as necessary. Be careful to not assume that the students won't get it.

2.  Speak to your most mature students.

The belief that teenagers are just kids and can't understand deep spiritual truth is a fallacy. When you create your message, your target audience should typically be the most spiritually mature students in the room. Those who are less mature will still connect and get something out of it; moreover, it will lift the spiritual lid of your entire group and students will rise to the occasion. Consistently feeding students only milk will create a spiritually malnourished group as a whole.

3.  Always allow the physical to teach the spiritual.  

So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:45-47 NIV)

A Biblical principle is that earthly things can teach us about God's Kingdom. According to Hebrews, the earthly tabernacle was an example and shadow of the throne room in Heaven (Hebrews 8:5). Jesus used earthly concepts (farming, management, birth) to teach spiritual principles. In the same way, you can teach your students deep spiritual truth through Biblical earthly allegory.