What hope do our youth have if the church is not showing them something better than the world?

"Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you" (Titus 2:6-8).

Paul exhorted Titus to urge young men to be sober minded. He exhorted Titus, who himself was a young preacher, to be a model--an example of integrity. He was to be a man of character not only in his works but in his words as well. Titus was to live his life in such a way that rather than bringing shame to the matchless name of Jesus, his life should put his opponents to shame. I heard a young preacher once say, "Your character is not your occasional and exceptional behavior. Your character is your typical behavior.

Notice the expectations that Paul had of young believers. But in this day and age some in the church have lowered their expectations and given in to the worldly notion that young people need to be allowed to sow their wild oats. The church is failing to challenge and call young people to live like they ought to before God and the world. I believe also that parents and older Christians have failed to model what it means to live the Christian life. We are failing to demonstrate to younger Christians how much better it is to serve Jesus than to live for the world. It’s been said that young people learn more by what we do than by what we say. Our works speak louder than our words. What can be more important than modeling before our children what a Christian marriage is suppose to look like? And yet statistics show that that the divorce rate among Christians is virtually no different than non Christians. Over 50% of Christian marriages end in divorce. What an indictment on the church. What hope do our children have if the church is not showing are youth something better than the world? God help us! The "do as I say not as I do" philosophy doesn't work. Remember that values are better caught than taught. For Jesus sake and the love of the Spirit let’s call our young people to live for the glory of God. And may that call come from parents, Pastor and others who are demonstrating with their lives that there is nothing better than living for Jesus!