# A Call to Youth
INSPIRATIONS FOR YOUTH
Language: en
Author: Barry Grant
Shelbyville, Indiana
Original issue: The Heartbeat of The Remnant, Winter 2025
Source pages: 18–19
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Original PDF: Winter\-2025\-Remnant\.pdf
[The Heartbeat of The Remnant, Winter 2025]()
If we look at the examples in our Bibles of people being converted, we will see that most of them were young\. We have the young, single apostles, young Timothy, and many more\. These young people were filled with the Spirit of the living God and were never the same again\. A miracle was taking place\.
Looking through church history, we find something very similar\. Young men were converted and gave up all for the sake of Christ\. Many went overseas as missionaries, never to be seen again\. Some became preachers and teachers\. They all had one thing in common: Jesus Christ was their all in all\. They lived for Him and were ready to die for Him\. Felix Manz was killed for Christ at the young age of 29\. His fellow laborer, Conrad Grebel, was only 28, and George Blaurock made it to 38 before giving his life for the Savior\.
It made sense—young men filled with vigor and zeal, counting the cost and going all in\. It was needed to get the church started\. It was needed to spark a fire during the Reformation\. And it is needed today, lest we allow the fire to go out forever\.
When I joined the Marine Corps some 25 years ago, I joined with nearly 100 others\. People the military was looking for, for very specific reasons\. Who do you think they were? Yes, you guessed it—young men\. Young men have something unique\. They have a drive that is unmatched\. They have determination—God\-given determination\. They have a natural instinct to conquer the world\. Many young men set out to do this with all their might\. They enter college, often with thousands of dollars of debt\. They enter the workforce determined to get all they can get\. They are hungry and will not stop until they have arrived\. This drive is exactly what the kingdom of God needs\. It is exactly what the kingdom was built on, and it is precisely what is missing\.
We could spend a lot of time trying to determine why\. We could look at a lack of godly interest among fathers\. We could point to riches and earthly gain\. We could examine the absence of discipleship and godly teaching, and the list goes on\. However, I do not desire to point fingers or assign blame\. My desire is not to speak to fathers, mothers, or church leaders here\. My desire is to speak directly to our young men\.
You will not be able to bring excuses with you to judgment\. Each of you will stand alone and give an account for your own life\. “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God” \(Romans 14:12\)\. This is extremely important for your own salvation, but even more so for the future of the Church—the bride of Christ\.
Jesus called His disciples and told them they must count the cost before deciding to follow Him\. Some felt the timing was not quite right\. Others had matters to settle first\. One had just taken a bride\. Jesus said no—you must forsake all\. Dear young people, have you forsaken all? Have you truly counted the cost?
I spoke with a couple who came to my office to discuss joining our church\. After several hours, the wife said she liked almost everything she heard\. That statement reveals our problem\. We like almost everything God says\. We agree with most of it\. No, it is all or nothing\.
When the rich young ruler came to Jesus, notice that he was exactly what we are discussing: young, successful, driven\. Yet there was something he lacked—something all the riches in the world could not supply\. He wanted it, but he did not want it badly enough\. “And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God\. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother\. And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up\. Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me\. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich” \(Luke 18:18\-23\)\.
Most young people I speak with also want it\. They are tired of a life without victory\. They are tired of passions that rule them\. They want something different\. I recently overheard a man speaking enthusiastically about a visiting preacher\. He said, “I want what he has\!” The real question is this: how badly do we want it? Many want to be more spiritual\. They want victory\. They want to be used by God\. But they simply do not want it badly enough\.
The story of a young boxer comes to mind\. He was a troubled youth living in New York City—poor and often picked on\. As a young teenager, he predicted that he would one day become a heavyweight boxer\. His peers mocked him\. The question was simple: how badly did he want it? His desire took precedence over his life\. It changed what he ate, what he did, and how he lived\. He gave up games, entertainment, and indulgence\. He woke up at four in the morning to train\. Though he was told repeatedly that he was wasting his time, he pressed on\. At 13, he began training seriously\. At 18, he became a professional boxer\. By 20, he became the heavyweight champion of the world, knocking out all 19 men he faced—12 in the first round\. One thing was undeniable: Mike Tyson wanted it more than anything else\.
This principle applies to our lives\. We can have desires and aspirations, but our actions reveal whether we truly want them\. Too often, we become entangled with trivial pursuits\. I once asked a group of young men how they spent their spare time\. Their answers troubled me—skydiving, four\-wheeling, golfing, knee\-boarding, skiing, and more\. I spoke plainly about the folly of such pursuits\. Why? Because when we yield to the desires of the flesh, the flesh begins to rule\. It demands the next thrill, the next rush\. If a 13\-year\-old boxer can forsake all earthly pleasures for a corruptible crown, why would God’s children not do so for eternity?
The enemy does not want us to know this truth: God has far more to offer than this world ever could\. A review of celebrity deaths in recent years is sobering—many died from suicide or overdose\. These were people with money, fame, and power, yet they were not satisfied\. We claim to possess the living water that satisfies completely—yet we run after the world’s trifles\. Let us not deceive ourselves\.
2 Timothy 3:5 warns of those who “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away\.” Could this be our problem? A form will never stand the test\. We must experience the power\.
There are too many confused young people\. “Why do we do what we do?” echoes through our churches\. But those questions arise when there is only a form of godliness\. The blood\-bought saints know exactly why they live as they do—and why they refuse what they refuse\. It is because of their Savior\. The One who died to free them from sin, addiction, and bondage—to give victory and freedom\. God cannot use us while we remain in sin\. God cannot use us while we cling to pleasure\. He can only use those He has freed and filled with a passion to serve Him alone\.
In today’s world, filled with traps and vices, we cannot overcome with only having a form of religion\. Nor can we overcome with good parents, good churches, good pastors, or good environments\. We must go deep with the living God\. We must lay hold of Him and never let go\. The devil knows his time is short\. Many men are falling\. Many never enter the fight\. Eternity is traded for a bowl of porridge\. The enemy waits at every corner, tempting young people to give up God and give into pleasure, all the while telling them it’s okay\. It’s not okay\! Put down your idols\!
I once lived for sports—what folly\. I lived for golf\. I used to golf every week, what folly\. I chased money and excitement—what folly\. It led only to depression and dissatisfaction\. But one taste of Heavenly Manna was all I needed\. I sold all and bought the field\. Do we still believe that is required? Or have we accepted the lie that we can have both—God and the world?
I once visited a conservative family whose young boys did not look plain\. They wore worldly clothes, had earbuds, and all the things to look cool\. When I questioned the father, he smiled and said, “They’re just experimenting\.” I gasped and asked, “What if Jesus comes back?” His face darkened\. It is a sobering reality\. What if Jesus comes back and catches us in our folly\! Will we have a ready excuse? No\! You will be found unfaithful and unfit\. God help us\!
Young people—the future of the church—gird up your loins and be done with lesser things\. Put down the golf clubs and pick up your Bibles\. The church lacks young people with burden, vision, and holy passion\. Come to the waters and drink deeply from the water of Life\. Take up your armor and enter the battle\. Join the ranks of valiant soldiers of the cross—those who live with no regrets, whose lives are poured out for their King, and who, according to Scripture, will never die\.
“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come\. And let him that heareth say, Come\. And let him that is athirst come\. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely\.”