Limitless Spirit
How to engage with controversial issues in love and truth?
Join us for a conversation with Greg Steer, founder of Dare to Share Ministry, as host Helen Todd and Greg navigate the intricate topics of sexuality and gender identity among teenagers. They shine a spotlight on the struggles many teens face and the critical role compassion and truth play in their lives. Greg, with his wealth of expertise, makes a compelling case for fostering a new generation of compassionate ambassadors for Christ.
This conversation explores unchanging biblical truths in the context of ever-evolving societal norms. Greg out lines four key principles that equip you to be an effective soul winner who presents the Gospel in truth and in love.
You will hear about the remarkable Dare to Share Live event, a platform aimed at equipping teens with the tools and training to share the gospel effectively.
Find helpful resources and more information at:
https://www.dare2share.org/ and https://gregstier.org/
Thanks for listening! Visit our website rfwma.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!
Help us make more inspiring episodes: https://rfwma.org/give-support-the-podcast/
Join us for a conversation with Greg Steer, founder of Dare to Share Ministry, as host Helen Todd and Greg navigate the intricate topics of sexuality and gender identity among teenagers. They shine a spotlight on the struggles many teens face and the critical role compassion and truth play in their lives. Greg, with his wealth of expertise, makes a compelling case for fostering a new generation of compassionate ambassadors for Christ.
This conversation explores unchanging biblical truths in the context of ever-evolving societal norms. Greg out lines four key principles that equip you to be an effective soul winner who presents the Gospel in truth and in love.
You will hear about the remarkable Dare to Share Live event, a platform aimed at equipping teens with the tools and training to share the gospel effectively.
Find helpful resources and more information at:
https://www.dare2share.org/ and https://gregstier.org/
Thanks for listening! Visit our website rfwma.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!
Help us make more inspiring episodes: https://rfwma.org/give-support-the-podcast/
What if you had a guide who could tell you how to bridge a gap between who you are today and who you are destined to be? What if, each week, you could hear a story of someone who has tried and succeeded, or perhaps tried and failed but learned something in the process? Limitless Spirit is a weekly podcast where host Helen Todd interviews guests about topics and personal stories on defining life's purpose, pursuing personal growth and developing a deeper faith in Christ.
Speaker 2:According to recent numbers released from the CDC, about one in four of today's high school students identify as LGBTQ. This presents a tremendous urgency for parents, pastors and educators and mentors to know how to love and support teens who wrestle with these issues, and also to equip Christian teens to engage with their struggling peers in love and in truth. I'm your host, helen Todd. A couple of episodes ago, I had a very interesting interview with Kathy Grace Duncan, who lived as a man for 11 years before Jesus touched the deep wounds in her heart and she embraced her original gender and identity. If you have not listened to it, I highly recommend it. You can find it in the previous episodes. It is titled Faith, gender, identity and Transformation. This episode is a follow-up, as I pondered Kathy Grace's story and thought how her life could have been different if someone reached out to her while she was still a struggling teen.
Speaker 2:My guest today is Greg Steer, founder of Dare to Share Ministry. That's Dare number two, share. His main goal is to train teens to be passionate evangelists of their faith. He shares four key principles that equip teens with the loving and compassionate framework to be ambassadors for Christ to their confused peers. And as I listened to him. I found these four key principles very useful, not just for teens, but really for anyone who has a heart for the hurting and broken people, regardless of what their struggle is. Hello, greg, welcome to the Limitless Spirit podcast. How are you doing today? I'm doing great, you joining us from Denver. What is the weather like today in Denver?
Speaker 3:It's hot, it's 90, I think it's going to be in the 90s today.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, Well, that's about to change right.
Speaker 3:It's not humid though, so that's Denver is very dry.
Speaker 2:There's the big difference between you and Missouri. Today, exactly, we are humid. Definitely. I'm very excited about our conversation because it's sort of a follow up to my previous interview and I feel like this is the subject is so important that it deserves, at the very least, two episodes. So I read statistics somewhere that today, one in four high school students identify as LGBTQ. Have you heard the same numbers?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean that's according to the CDC and again, I think the key is identify, as I don't necessarily think one in four teenagers are actually that, but a lot of kids are identifying. It's kind of the thing now that is just sweeping the nation in many ways. All of a sudden it's very accepted to identify as LGBTQ and yeah.
Speaker 2:I have two sons and they are nine years apart, so that's almost a generation and I am observing. So my youngest one is a senior in high school and so the difference that I'm observing in the culture and the atmosphere is huge, you know, with these nine years apart. And so what struck me? I was at a school play and I realized that a good number of kids in that play I could not determine what gender they were. So it's almost like it's kind of like an androgynous style, and I don't know if that comes under that umbrella, but it's almost like it's not cool to look any gender anymore. Would you agree with that?
Speaker 3:Well, I think you know, with some students, you know that's definitely the case you know, I just think you know you get down to it.
Speaker 3:It comes down to a misunderstanding of Genesis one and two. I mean, I think a lot of the problems this generation is facing is they do not understand God's design and you know most of them don't accept it. By what? Their standard of authority? And so what's being said as a standard of authority is kind of cultural norms and feelings, and when that becomes your standard of authority, everything gets mushy. It's like building your house on oatmeal instead of cement, and I think that's exactly what's happening.
Speaker 3:And so, you know, I wrote a blog called Love and Truth that really kind of helped identify and clarify, you know what should our stance as believers be, specifically, youth leaders and parents dealing with their teenagers over these questions of sexuality and gender, and so I try to do it in a loving way, in a caring way, but also based on truth.
Speaker 3:I believe, helen, that we could be 100% truthful and 100% loving, that we can speak the truth in love, and that we need to. And I actually I feel sorry for this generation. I feel sorry for a lot of those that are involved in LGBTQ, that are just confused and they're not hearing a clear voice from Scripture and if they are, they may be hearing a non-loving voice from believers, and so I think we need to speak the truth in absolute love. We need to equip our teens not to back down but not to be jerks, and to be loving and kind and lay the gospel out and talk about, you know, god's design for sexuality, but doing it in a way that's compelling, that's winsome, but that doesn't shrink back in fear. So that's why I called the article Love and Truth.
Speaker 2:And this is precisely what I want us to talk about, and in my previous interview, where I interviewed Kathy Grace Duncan, who shared her story of coming out of the transgender lifestyle, my main point was how, as a church, do we lay the gospel, reach out to people who are confused about their gender or sexuality, with love and with truth? That's a very fine line and a fine balance, I feel like, especially in today's culture that is very inflamed, and so, when it comes to teenagers, that becomes even more sensitive, and so that's what I would like for us to accomplish. I feel like the generation, the youth, the teenagers of today they're kind overall. I think that even those who understand the biblical truths about gender and sexuality, they're very accepting of their peers who don't have the same foundation, and so it almost is to the point of well, you live your life, I live my life, and that's how it goes.
Speaker 3:What everybody says. You do you and I'm like, yeah, that's the worst, that's what basically the serpent told Eve and it's not good advice. You do you because that will lead to a spiral. And so it's interesting because loving and kind, sometimes love actually love speaks the truth. And that's sometimes love speaks the truth. If you see a little kid running toward traffic, you're going to yell at them. You're going to speak the truth, not because you hate that kid, but because you love that kid. You don't want to see that kid get hurt and so Jesus was ultimately loving, matter of fact. That's the first point, I think. With your permission, just dive right in.
Speaker 3:How do we help our teens wrestle through and think through these issues of gender and sexuality when we're really helping our Christian teens to think biblically about this and act Christ-like in these areas? There's four powerful scriptural truths. Number one is choose love, not hate, as your posture. Whenever I see Christians with picket signs that depict hate toward those of you know who are struggling with these issues, it breaks my heart. First, john 4-8 says whoever does not love does not know God. Because God is love.
Speaker 3:I mean the most famous verse in the Bible, john 3-16, for God so loved the world. He didn't qualify it or quantify it. He loves the world and everyone in it Gay, straight, transgender, everyone. God is love. That's who he is and that you know. We need to really make sure that's our posture toward everyone. They are not our enemy, they are victims of the enemy. They're held captive by Satan and we, as believers in Christ, must have our hearts broken for those who are stuck in these lifestyles and do what we can to rescue them out of love. And I think that's the first and most important point to begin with is you know, love, not hate, must be our posture.
Speaker 2:So how do we express love? What are some practical ways of expressing love?
Speaker 3:I think for one is proximity. I think we need to, you know. I mean, I'll be honest with you. Yesterday there was a guy I walked into to get my haircut and he told me he's like I was raised. You have his witness. I am gay. I didn't get baptized because I wouldn't be accepted and I would be kicked out, and I just listened to him. You know I didn't ask for it. Can you give me the? Can I give? Can you give me the straight barber here? No, I sat there and I got to know Joey and we talked and I was able to, you know, walk through the gospel with them. I wrote a book called Unlikely Fighter that tells my whole story of radical transformation. I said if I give you one, will you read it? And he goes yeah, so after this podcast, I'm going over there and I'm going to write a note in there and give it to him, and give him my business card and say, hey, after you read this, talk, give me a call, tell me what you think or text me.
Speaker 3:So just being in proximity and being loving and having conversations and giving eye contact and, you know, treating everybody as individuals, image bearers, in spite of their sin, because we have sin too. It's just maybe a different, you know, type of sin, but sin is sin. So I think, being in proximity, if you have gay neighbors, gay coworkers, transgender students, that your kids go to school with talking to them, engaging with them, not avoiding them, you know, not taking out your cootie spray and spraying it, but loving them and treating them like an individual. How did Jesus treat the woman at the well? I mean, he talked to her, which was a. I mean, that was a radical thing. He was talking to a woman which you Jewish men didn't talk to. Jewish women little you know, let alone Samaritan women, or half half Jew and half Gentile. They were considered less than dogs by many Jews and Jesus engaged in our conversation. You know he was intentional about it.
Speaker 2:You know he knew perfectly well who she is and he also knew perfectly well how culturally unacceptable it was for him, as a man and as a Jew, to speak to her. But he was intentional about it and I think in our culture it's really easy to keep these separate paths, you know, for students in school. I hang out with my friends, you hang out with yours. Our paths don't really cross, even if we sit in the same classes. But I think being intentional would be the first step in showing love, knowing that the reason this person is in that confusion is because of pain that they're living out or carrying, and being intentional about showing that you care, showing that you're interested in their life.
Speaker 3:Exactly, and I mean just just common courtesy and kindness. And so I think that's the first thing. That's the first dance. The second one is choose the Bible, not culture, as your authority. Second, timothy 3.16 says all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training and righteousness. So all scripture is God-breathed.
Speaker 3:The way I explain this to teenagers is God's Word is inspired, is breathed out by God. Therefore it's an errant. Proverbs, chapter 30, verse 5, every word of God is pure. It's an errant, it's without heirs and it's original manuscripts. We can trust it in areas of life and faith and sexuality and gender. So it's inspired. It's an errant. Therefore it's in charge.
Speaker 3:You know it's what I call house rules. It's what I told my kids growing up. You know he owns a house, makes the rules. Your mom and I own this house. We make the rules in this house. Well, god owns the house called the universe and everything in it. Right, the earth is the Lord, the universe is the Lord and everything in it. So he makes the rules. So we need to understand.
Speaker 3:God is very clear. You know people get into these debates about what does God really condemn homosexuality, and you know he also in the same passage in Leviticus where he condemned homosexuality, he condemns eating shellfish, and you know I mean these ridiculous arguments. It's obviously there's moral laws and there's civil laws and there's different laws. And that's a moral law because we see it equivalent of that in Romans one when it talks about homosexuality being a sin. You know it's, the acts are shameful. It makes it very clear not, you know, not doesn't even back off on that. It's very clear in scripture where that is at. So I think we need to really look to scripture as our authority. We see homosexuality as clearly identified as a sin in scripture and we don't need to back down on that.
Speaker 3:And I know there's, there's, you know what people call same-sex attraction and different like that. And I think there's a difference between struggling with that attraction and classifying yourself as a homosexual. You know, I know there's believers who have struggled with same-sex attraction and have to live, you know, seek to live that holy life that pleases God and rivet their minds to him. But it all comes from scriptural authority. The Bible's very clear on this and we need to help our students understand how clear the Bible is. And it's also clear on identity Genesis one, 26 and 27,.
Speaker 3:God said let us make man in our own image, in our own likeness, so they may rule over the fish and the sea and the birds in the sky. And it says so. God created mankind in his own image. He created them male and female. He created them. So he created a male and a female, and that's very clear from the first chapter of the Bible, all the way through. So I just think we need to really help our students understand that the Bible is clear on these issues and that God, before the foundation of the earth, determined our gender and what we would be. He formed us Psalm 139, knit us together in our mother's womb, jeremiah one five. He tells Jeremiah before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. So you are designed by God as a male or female and you are designed by God to live in a either be single or live in a heterosexual relationship in the context of marriage. That's what the Bible says Well, and here.
Speaker 2:I think for many teenagers this is in direct conflict with what they're being taught sometimes in school, within the public school curriculum.
Speaker 2:And so I think the great responsibility is on parents, the youth pastors, to really, you know, establish that very firm foundation in their mind, even probably earlier than they become teenagers, because they have to.
Speaker 2:At that age they're starting to figure out who they are, they're kind of pursuing the more independent way of thinking. So that foundation really should start even before, so that they have something to lean on. And so I think that your ministry that's precisely the focus of your ministry there to share is to give the youth, the teenagers, that solid foundation to be able to not only establish for themselves what the truth is but be able to share that truth with others. So I want to come back to that and talk a little bit more what you do within there to share organization. But let's go jump into the third principle and I think this is a very important one where we need to choose the gospel and not sin management for solutions, because it's very easy, when you have the biblical foundation, to fall into this trap of well, let me just tell you how it is. So how do you outline that solution?
Speaker 3:Well, the gospel, I mean it is the solution. You know, people talk about reparative therapy and all this other stuff. I'm like you know what? I don't need reparative therapy, I need transformation. You know, spiritually dead brought back to life.
Speaker 3:Romans 1.16 says I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. So it's not a matter of well. Let me try to tell you how you can manage this sin. It's going back to the cross. It's going back and believing that. You know, I dare to share.
Speaker 3:We use a simple gospel across the God created us to be with him. Our sins separate us from God. Sins cannot be removed by good deeds. Paying the price for sin, jesus died and rose again. Everyone who trusts in him alone is eternal life, and life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever. And that gospel message transforms us. If anyone's in Christ, they're a new creation. Old things have passed away, everything is becoming new.
Speaker 3:And so what does Paul do in 1 Corinthians 6, when he's talking to the Corinthians who are stuck in all sorts of crazy sins? There is divisions among them. People are getting drunk at the communion table, there is sexual immorality, all sorts. I mean, just talk about crazy. The Corinthians is like man. It's like going to Vegas every Sunday. They were just, they just had a lot of sins.
Speaker 3:What does Paul say? He said listen, remember that those who sin, those who are adulterers, liars, cheaters, homosexual offenders, well, not inherent to King of God. He makes this whole list and some of the Corinthians live, we're living out that list. But then he says in the next verse but that's what some of you were, but now you've been washed, you've been justified, you've been sanctified. So, even though they were still struggling with some of that stuff, what does he do?
Speaker 3:He takes them back to the gospel. He said that's not who you are anymore. You've been made a new creation. Walk in that, keep your eyes on who, your new identity in Christ. So it all goes back to the gospel, not just when it comes to seeing an unsaved gay or straight or transgender person coming to Christ, but to see all of us gay, straight growing in Christ and freeing ourselves from those sins, because now we have a new identity. It's not gay or straight or transgender, it's child of God. And so the gospel transforms that identity and I think it's so, so important to get back to the gospel. Continue to go to the gospel, relentlessly go to the gospel and let the gospel of Christ that saves you by faith alone and what he did for us on the cross, transform you by that ongoing faith from first to last.
Speaker 2:In the end. You know, we all struggle from some form of sin, from some desires of our flesh that are not pleasing to God, and it's a matter of. There's no way that we can conquer it unless we choose God more, that we love God more than we love our flesh, and that principle applies to any sin or weakness that we may have in our lives, and that's the only. I've seen so many examples of this. You know, a real successful rehabilitation program like a drug or alcohol addiction, based on nothing but just the scripture and transforming people's lives through the gospel message, and phenomenal success rates compared to government programs that have medical treatments, you know and, and really don't get anywhere.
Speaker 3:Let me just affirm that. So I have partners in Africa who are mobilizing for the gospel and now some of them are government funded because the problems of AIDS and struggles and poverty. They are taking a gospel approach to these solutions and now many of these governments are actually funding some of their ministries because the powers in the gospel that change lives, you know, we always think well, you know, well, you know they. Just we just need to give them this, this and this, and everything's gonna be fixed. But what when you're transformed from the heart? You know, I was a raiser in a poor family and by a single mom in an inner-city, violent setting, and when I heard the gospel I felt like the richest kid on the block. We struggled to get our next meal. I felt wealthy because the gospel changes everything and I think we need to really remember that when it comes to mobilizing our young people to reach the LGBTQ peers with the hope of Christ and then to see them transform and believe that that same gospel, that same Holy Spirit that now dwells inside of them.
Speaker 3:And I think you know there's this thought well, you got to stop being gay before you come to Christ. I'm like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's like saying you got to get cleaned up to take a bath, right, you get, you get. Say, like people say, we got to turn from your sin first and then come to Christ. I'm like, well, I thought the whole point of coming to Christ is that he turns us from our sin. We don't turn ourselves from our sin. We could save ourselves if we could turn ourselves from our sin. We cannot turn ourselves from our sin. We come as sinners, unable to turn from our sin, put our faith in Christ and then he transforms us and begins that process of turning us from our sin, sanctifying us, conforming us to the image of Christ.
Speaker 3:So my solution is this, the gospel, the gospel. The gospel changes everything you know. Thoreau once said that you're gonna love this quote. For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, one strikes at the root. Only the gospel strikes at the root of evil.
Speaker 2:I couldn't agree with you more. Before we jump into the fourth principle, I want to ask you what would you say? Because I know people personally who struggle, you know, with homosexuality and they do know the truth and I believe that they do love the Lord, but the breakthrough has not happened, at least not yet. And my heart goes out and, and you know, at some point you just feel helpless to help the person because at this point they they know the truth, they know the message, they have seemingly received the message and believe it, but the breakthrough is not there. So what would you say to people who are in that situation?
Speaker 3:I would say the breakthrough is not optional. So in other words, when you get saved, you're the child of God. He says in Philippians 1, 6, the good work he began in you, he will complete into the day of Christ Jesus. Some of the Corinthians resisted the process of sanctification. 1 Corinthians 11, I think 30, it says for this cause, many of you are weak and sick and many of you fall asleep. Now that's talking about the dirt, now it's talking about death. So God will push that easy button of sanctification if he has to. The easy button is welcome home, right? Okay, yeah, we have to continue to fight the good fight, and if we don't, I think as a church and it doesn't matter what the sin is it could be gossip, it could be slander, it could be alcoholism, it could be homosexuality If the only sin that people get kicked out of the church for is a refusal to repent, that's it. And when you refuse to stop trying to fight the good fight is when church discipline should take place in 1 Corinthians 5.
Speaker 3:And so I really think that we need to do everything we can to help people walk in that victory and we need to take this area and all sin Seriously. You know people get all nervous, you know to. You know somebody who's a drag queen reading, you know at a library to children. Okay, yes, very inappropriate, but we don't mind if a gossip teaches Sunday school to our eight-year-old children and our Sunday school teacher, the gossip's all the time.
Speaker 3:I'm like, okay, we need to deal with that sin too. I mean that's, that's wrong. And so I think we need we need to really help people take sin seriously and real help them realize this is not your new identity. And if, whatever that sin category is, if they refuse to stop trying to walk in victory now, we need to go to the church now, the elders, and try to figure that out on a church-wide level, not out of hate but out of love, is a last-ditch effort for sanctification in the life of that. That person that's struggling with what that's, that's refused to struggle with that sin anymore. In other words, they're not. They're not fighting a good fight to walk in victory over that.
Speaker 2:So let's let's jump into the fourth principle, and that is choose engagement, not detachment. So we touched a little bit on this in the beginning, talking about that. Love is intentional. We choose to reach out, but what can you add to this as we speak about this fourth principle?
Speaker 3:Well, we need to mobilize our students to to reach out to their friends that are struggling with these issues, with the hope of Christ, and to share the gospel with them. You know, I think of my son. He had a friend that he actually went to Christian school with. She came out of the closet and, you know, got kicked out of school, got really bitter toward God, became an atheist. Well, jeremy just kept building a relationship with her and just kept talking to keep hanging out with her, you know, and normally wouldn't let Jeremy, you know, go hang out at a girl's house. But she was, honestly, she was lesbian.
Speaker 3:So I was like, you know, go for it, he's trying to reach her, reach her back for Christ. And so he, he and I I was doing an event where I had a speak on this issue, so I said do you think your friend would be open to let me interview her about making sure I'm saying everything right? And so we, Jeremy and his friend and I, met at a Starbucks. I went over my sermon with her and she was like, yeah, maybe say it this way. She was very helpful actually. And when Jeremy used the restroom, I said to her I said is there anything that would turn you back to God.
Speaker 3:And she said you know, just so you know, your son, jeremy, is doing a good job. He's moved me from being an atheist to being an agnostic. Now I'm kind of reconsidering because I'm realizing, realizing, and he, I know where he stands on this issue, but he loves me and he cares about me and he's pointing me to Christ, and so I thought, man, that's what we need to do. We don't detach, we engage. What did Jesus do? He got to, you know, he was hanging out with the tax collectors and sinners. What's the modern day equivalent of that? I think it'd be the LGBT community, at least as part of that, that Jesus was hanging out with and bringing hope to, not not affirming their sin, but but loving them as individuals and sharing the way out of this lifestyle and the way out of sin in general, and that is through the gospel.
Speaker 3:So, I think we need to mobilize our teenagers on our campuses as federally funded missionaries that share the gospel, live the gospel and love everybody, and do not back down on these issues.
Speaker 2:Well, and I believe this is the mission of your ministry there to share is to mobilize the teenagers, the young people, to be the ambassadors for Christ. So what are some of the ways that you accomplish this?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so every year we do an event called Dare to Share Live and it is a day of evangelism, inspiration and equipping. It's November 11th and we provide the video training, we provide the app it's, and then everybody gets trained, equipped, inspired and they go out to their own communities and share the gospel. They engage their friends with their smartphones, our app life. In six words, they're able to see kind of an Instagram feed of gospel conversations that are happening from around the world and all these youth groups from around the world. It'll start in New Zealand and Australia on November 11th and, as the sun goes around the world, literally, we have a map that lights up when there's gospel conversations taking place on the app. So I believe that, as the sun goes around the world, that the map on the app will light up in tens of thousands of gospel conversations on November 11th.
Speaker 3:And it's high quality, it's well done. There's drama, there's interaction and it's absolutely free, so made possible by the generosity of our donors. It's not free to us. This thing costs a lot to pull off. Well, but it's high, high quality. So people can find out more about it at DareToShareLiveorg that's the number two, DareToShareLive, L-I-V-E-O-R-G, DareToShareLiveorg and just sign up and you can do it as a youth leader, you can do it with your youth group. If you're a parent, you can have, you know, teenagers. You can have them and their friends come to your house and just show it there and you got to go out and share a Christ as part of it. That's what makes DareToShareLive work, and last year we had almost 2,000 churches across the world registered for it. This year we believe there's going to be, you know, thousands more.
Speaker 2:This sounds super exciting, greg, and I'm going to post the link to this in the show notes so that our listeners could join or share with their teens, their youth, how to join. I know that you offer a number of resources on your website as well. One of them particularly is called Hard Questions examining gender, sexuality and identity through the Gospel. So and they're all free as well what are some of the hard questions that you're addressing in these resources?
Speaker 3:Basically, take that Love and Truth article that I wrote and we each of them is basically an individual youth group session. So we talk about Love and Truth, we talk about the Bible as authority, we talk about what scripture has to say about those issues, we talk about identity and how our identity is found in Christ, and we talk about engagement. How do you reach your friends with Christ? So it's a free four-week, four-part curriculum series designed for youth leaders or parents to use with their teenagers. So yeah, that's on DareToShareorg Again, the number two DareToShareorg under curriculum and resources and tons of free stuff available to help youth leaders and parents navigate this crazy world that we live in with the power of the.
Speaker 3:Gospel, helen. I think it's time to play offense, not defense. I think we're always trying to slap the sins and smartphones and bad music at a teenager's hands. I think it's time to let's mobilize this generation for the Gospel, and the Holy Spirit will help sanctify our students in the process. So let's go for it.
Speaker 2:You saw right, Greg, because as parents, sometimes we again walk this fine line of wanting to protect our children, our teens, from the influences of the world. But you know, if we have taken time and effort to pour the foundation of the Gospel into them, why not release them? We can only shelter them for so long from those bad influences. Why not release them into the world as the messengers of Christ?
Speaker 3:Yeah, think about this Babylon, right. Horrible place. Four teenagers, daniel, shadrach, meshach and Ben Nigo, took a what a 900 mile, four month walk from Jerusalem to Babylon.
Speaker 3:When they were, you know, deported and you know they're along the way, they were like we're going to go in and we're going to turn this place upside down for God. And they resolved not to defile themselves. They stood when others bowed, they bowed when others stood. They see what others didn't and they did what others wouldn't. And you know they were public school kids. Basically. They, you know, and God used them to turn.
Speaker 3:I mean literally, nebuchadnezzar ended up putting his faith in God as a result of their testimony and the words. And so why would we not do that? Jesus chose mostly teenagers Matthew 17, 24 through 27,. Peter and Jesus and the disciples go on a capernaum, but only Peter and Jesus pay the temple tax. The temple tax was only for those 20 years old and older. So all the disciples are there, but only Peter and Jesus pay. That means Jesus was a youth leader with one adult volunteer and one rotten kid named Judas and no budget, and with that youth group he changed the world. So why would we not mobilize just like Jesus mobilized teenagers to change the world? Why aren't we mobilizing our youth groups? Why are we waiting until they're adults? I think we're losing them because we're not mobilizing them.
Speaker 2:We're teaching them. I love it yeah.
Speaker 3:So that's what we do at Dare to Share we mobilize, energize, mobilize, gospelize.
Speaker 2:Thank you, greg, for this conversation and what you do for our teenagers, the generation that is coming up to take on the world, and we're definitely going to spread the word about the Dare to Share live event and hopefully you will increase the numbers of teens attending. Thank you again and many blessings to you. To sum up the four fireproof principles that Greg outlined for us Number one choose love not hate. Number two choose the Bible, not the culture, as the authority. Number three choose the gospel instead of sin management. And number four choose engagement not detachment. If you think about these principles, they are a solid foundation for reaching a lost person for Christ. Not everyone will respond to your desire to help, but at the very least, you will plant a seed of what God's love looks like, and this is the highest accomplishment we can achieve in our Christian walk.
Speaker 2:I encourage you to check out Greg's website for some wonderful resources. Many of them are free, by the way. Simply go to gregsteerorg. I will post a link in the show notes also so that you can easily reach it. If you feel called to fulfill the Great Commission and travel the world with the good news of Jesus, I encourage you to visit the website for World Missions Alliance, which is rfwmaorg. There, you will find opportunities to travel the world and help the hurting and the broken by sharing with them how Jesus changed your life Again. Our website is rfwmaorg. Until next time, I'm Helen Todd.
Speaker 1:Limitless Spirit Podcast is produced by World Missions Alliance. We believe that changed lives change lives. If you want to see your life transformed by Christ's love, or if you want to help those who are hurting and hopeless and discover your greater purpose in serving Christ through short-term missionary work, check out our website, rfwmaorg, and find out how to get involved.