What About the Teenagers?

This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Man Talk, brought to you by TAWCMN, talking and walking Christian men's ministry, where they're devoted to breaking down the walls of race and denomination, and challenging men to take their God-assigned role. Here's our hosts Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy. Welcome to Man Talk Radio.

This is Roy Jones. I'm the white guy, and you won't hear Will tonight. This afternoon, he is missing in action. We've given him a week-long or two-week-long sabbatical, so he's going to be taking a break and enjoying his time off and have a nice vacation.

So Will, we hope you're enjoying yourself and look forward to having you back next week. Hey, I'm joined this evening by Pat Tigg, a close friend of mine and just a man in the marketplace, and has an amazing work going on for the Lord. Pat, welcome. Hey, thank you, Roy.

My old teammate. Good to be with you tonight. Yeah, Pat, it's always good to speak with you.

I had the honor of spending time with you recently, and it's just always good to catch up. Pat is one of these kingdom warriors, folks. They don't come any purer than he does, and they certainly don't come any more athletically gifted than Pat is.

I've seen this guy's vertical jump. It's off the charts. We played football together in college, so Pat, so good to have you. So, Pat, let's lead this thing off. What we're going to be talking about today is, over the last couple of weeks, we've talked about the millennial group, those in basically the 20s and early 30s. Now, we want to talk a little bit, set the clock back just a little bit. We want to talk about the teenagers and what's going on with, you know, the young folks in schools today and in your churches and communities.

And Pat, why don't you just kind of, let's just do a teaser question here. What do you think is the biggest challenge that that age group is facing right now? The biggest challenge is what do they believe? They live in this age of not promotion, but most of the time, it's misinformation. So, because the resources are out there, they just say, hey, I'm telling you the truth, and listen, no, I'm telling you the truth.

So, this is the fact, this is the truth history, when in reality, they all have an angle. And so, what's important is when, I mean, everybody's got one. And so, what's important is if your angle is to please and glorify God, then your whole motivation is self-centered, God-centered. And so, anything that's self-centered, there is something they're wanting to get from that the teenager, in other words, to manipulate them and control them.

And so, that is the big issue. And so, when we have dealt with our own will and our own desires, because see, well, we're always looking to get the best deal. I mean, hey, let's face it, anytime you're in a situation where let's say you're going to go buy a car, you don't want to buy one that's 20, you know, like 5,000 over the retail value, you want to get something even as a bargain. Darrell Bock Sure, you've got to negotiate, right?

David Morgan Sure, exactly. And so, you just have that innate desire to do that. So, if you are some group, whatever it may be, you're going to try to get the most people to follow you and follow your line of thinking, your mindset, your paradigms, and all of that. And so, everybody's got that angle. So, when they say, oh, the Christian community has an angle. Yeah, our angle is that everyone walks freely in what God has created in them and their mission and calling in life. And that doesn't mean that that's going to be the result of my agenda, or my appetites, or my pleasures.

No, it's going to be about God. And so, when individuals are misinformation, they're in a desert. They don't know, really.

I mean, they're starving for it. And so, when you share that irrefutable, absolute, timeless truth that comes from the Word of God, they're like, where did you get that? That's brilliant.

That's amazing. And you're like, man, it's right here in the Scriptures. It's the best book that was written. It's the bestseller of all time. Even the New York Times bestseller doesn't put it on there anymore, because it's always number one for a lifetime. And so, they don't even put it on there anymore, because it's always the bestseller. And everybody's longing and hungering for that spiritual nourishment that only the Scriptures can give.

In fact, there's a neuroscientist named Carolyn Lee. So when you read the Scripture, the entire brain lights up. Everything in it lights up.

Your being lights up. And so, when they hear the Word of God, and they see it, and they can see an example of it, or they can experience truth in their world, man, there's a starving. There's like a, I can't wait to get in the buffet line and gorge myself and eat it all up. You and I both know, we had a good old buffet line, you know. Some more than others. I mean, we can tell some stories about Joe Milenicek and Ron Cozier at a buffet line. Yeah, Bill Jim Pizza. They can eat all of us under the table.

That's right. And we ate a lot of volume. And so, there's a hunger for that truth. But they don't, but that's where it's, even like when they hear the American history story, people are trying to rewrite that right now. When you've got somebody like David Barton at Wall Builders who has studied the actual writings and the transcripts of our forefathers, you know, some of it's out there. They've got some other angle that they're trying to get you to believe, or think it says, than what it really did say, and what their hearts and intentions were, wasn't about race. It was about serving God as a country. It wasn't about, you know, slavery. It was about serving a greater purpose and good. They even knew they needed to get rid of that, get rid of slavery. But the country, they felt, had to start off right in order for it to go there, because through those original documents is how we got to be the most free nation, and we have the most freedom of everyone, and there isn't people trying to subservient everyone in this day and time. We do deal with some systemic issues and things like that, but we can do that based on the fact that we know it's self-evident that all men, all, are created equal in the eyes of God, and have given that inalienable right to pursue life, liberty, and walk into that.

So that's what the next generation is longing for. So much, tell me, tell me what's the truth, you know? Well, let's go back to that, and let's go back to that real quick. You said they struggle with what do they believe, and you said there's so many people, you know, I guess they're vying for their attention, they're following their belief, their support. When you talk to these young folks that are in high school today, in junior high, what are the things they are hearing, the untruths, I should say, and then how much exposure to the truths are they getting? What are the untruths that you're seeing in today's time? Well, one truth is there is no absolute truth. It's just your opinion or what somebody else has said is true. That's what's part of what they're being taught, is just, you know, your moral value is different than somebody else's moral value somewhere else. And so that is the biggest thing. Your truth could not be somebody else's truth.

And that's the problem, they don't believe any slight Ten Commandments. It's for all mankind. It's not just for some demographics at some point in time in history.

It is for all of history. And that's what's great about the Word of God. It's written by the ones who created mankind in every nation, tribe and tongue.

And, you know, that's the biggest fundamental issue, is that God is made up, that that is a cultural thing. And so there's different, different, your God might be called Buddha, yours might be called Jesus Christ, and yours might be Mohammed, but it's your truth. And if it works for you, then that's great, you know, but when it comes down to it, there's a reason why Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life, and no one comes to the Father.

But through me, that was his words. Well, and as we know, there is only the one truth, right? So only one truth.

Yeah. So let's, let's go back to that, Pat. No absolute truth.

And that's what they're being taught. So David Barton, folks, if you haven't looked up David Barton, you really need to look it up. I had the pleasure of hearing him at a men's retreat a couple years back. And just what an amazing, amazing, he's a walking scholar. And he understands the scripture, he understands the intent of the founding forefathers.

In fact, I think, Pat, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe he's the single largest or his organization's single largest private holder of all documents by the founding fathers in those early years, if I remember correctly. Yeah, I think you're right. Yeah.

And so he is an authority and I can't believe they don't have him on TV anymore. Oh, I know. Well, then, that's truth getting put out there versus an opinion. And see, that's, and what most people don't realize, I think it was 29 of our founding fathers that signed the Constitution, right, that were in at least went to school at a seminary school.

And I don't know if they were with their actual study, focus of study was theology and religion, but they were at a at a theology seminar slash seminary school, if I remember correctly. And that's where people we've just gotten so far away from it, Pat, to be quite honest. And so back to the young folks. So how can you and people that are listening, Pat, how and how do you try to impact the young folks that you're dealing with these teenagers and preteens that you're engaged with on a weekly basis? How do you get the message to them?

And are they open to that message? You know, a large sum of the youth understand the language of sports. And so we use the language of sports to share seven simple principles, or we call them winning plays for life.

And it led to us, you know, writing a book of me and I asked a Hall of Fame sports writer to give me stories, you know, and and he had 50 years worth of stories to choose from. But we try to share that just like you understand what a winning coach looks like, no, it was just pick one, you know, you could just pick those like Bill Bryant legendary, you know, why was he so good at what he did is there was certain plays that he always ran. There was things that he always did, that resulted in a formula of success, you know, modern day to day Nick Saban, Davos Sweeney, you see those guys ran, they got their plays that they run, and they put players in the position, then which they would run the correct execution of their role in that play, so that it scores touchdowns or creates turnovers on defense. And so they're always outscoring their opponent, and they have more W's than they do losses. And so if they found some principles that work, then everybody will play for them. Right. Pat, that's a great lead in to break here.

So if they found those things that work and they were winning, everybody wanted to play for them, right. So we'll get ready to take a break, folks. We'll be right back. Pat, we're so happy to join us.

And we'll be back with you in just a moment. The meeting location is at their gracious Host Church, First Christian Church in Kernersville, Ohio. patient. Dr. Jeff Fricke has been caring for patients in High Point for 34 years. Physical therapy such as ultrasound and spinal decompression for disc conditions such as herniation. Comprehensive care for auto accident injury patients with no out-of-pocket expense. Remember affordable chiropractic on West Lexington Avenue in High Point.

Call 336-885-1987. Welcome back to ManTalk Radio. We appreciate you joining with us this afternoon. Pat, so back before we left for break you were talking about the things that work and create a winning strategy. In this and in sports that's what most people want to be a part of and we talked about this several weeks ago about everybody gets a trophy no matter what their performance is. In today's time it seems to be you know you could have the worst record in the conference but you're going to get a participation trophy versus something you've worked and earned as being one of the top teams etc. So to your point people want to be associated with the winning group and we know that fallen Christ is the ultimate win and and it's the ultimate team to be on while you're here on earth and then of course the rewards come and the victory comes after we've well we have victory here on earth but the the ultimate reward comes when we leave here and go to spend spend the eternity with our Father amen. Amen and and and what what what drives the inside of a young man a young woman is they want to be great at what they do and if I can help them do that and I can share with them a game plan to be the best they can be at at their particular skills they're all in what what do you have to give me that's going to help me get to my goal and my destination and that's where we spend the time of those in those irrefutable absolute timeless truths and there's seven of them that we share with them and and that's what we go with and you can see how they're transcended as things that we were doing when we were playing and what we're doing now is as dads and fathers and and husbands and workmen being a sign that you know that those are things that these simple plays like direction if I follow the direction of the head coach and his game plan then I'm going to play on game day that's right well if I follow the direction of the heavenly father who's my head coach then I'm going to play this life to the fullest and that comes to that relationship with Christ that's how that first play of direction so I don't have to lean on my own understanding but I if I acknowledge him in all my ways and make him the head coach not an advisor an advisor he is not necessarily going to help you that much if you're not going to follow the directions to the T you've got a because the head coach is you know if he says if he says jump you just you say how high that's right you'll say well I take that owner-advisement coach I'm not feeling like jumping today you can go next get this guy out of my face yeah play there's an excellent depth chart so from direction setting those goals and listening in that direction you got to have determination that's play number two you know and in Proverbs 30 30 it says be like a mighty line that retreats for no reason and so that is so important once you get that direction like in Proverbs 3 5 & 6 where he says trust me with all your heart and don't lean on you understand it acknowledge me in all your ways I'll direct your path well that path that's right it's got to go somewhere and so when you're on that destination on the way you're gonna hit adversity it's not if it's when and so are you gonna give up or are you gonna show some grit are you gonna show determination and you and I both can share those testimonies oh yeah heart deep valley times where he had to just reach into God and he had to pull you through that moment but he didn't take you out of it he pulled you through he walked through with Psalm 23 he's good Shepherd through the valley of the shadows of deaths of dreams or whatever it may have been and that's what he's saying it to the listener now is is whatever if you found yourself what value you're in he is there with you with his rod and his staff to comfort you to walk you through that place to still get to the place to that destination to that direction but how do you get there so important are the disciplines that you practice diligently every day and those are physical mental emotional spiritual disciplines right and that is at the heartbeat of of walking out your faith or walking out your journey to be going from good to great it's the only way to go through a heart of service if it's all about me that's not the kind of teammates you want it's got to be about we how do we walk just like today it's not about one particular person or or a race or it's about us it's about we it's about the nation it's about all of us together right we're in it together and so that's what's so important that we get to that place of you know we're a part of all mankind is working together and when we're not working together you got to call that out and let's work it out let's let's repent or change your mind of the direction you're going and let's get together back a part of you know the whole human race everybody together working together and so those are those are important so there's our four plays that we try to share now the last three are very very important one is discernment you know you so along the way if you're not hitting the mark you got to look at the man in the mirror and use discernment Hebrews 5 14 we share with them you got to have your senses trained and to discern what is good and evil right and wrong and so that way you're able to you know it's just like a baseball player looking and see is that a strike or a ball and if the umpire calls it a strike it's not his opinion he's trying to call it over the plate sometimes you know we might think they're blind when they call it but it's not his it's not his truth it's trying to trying to figure out what the ball the strike is it is something that's in that strike zone that that you've got a discern or tail and that's the same thing in life you got to see what's coming at you is this a strike that I can swing at or is it a ball do I need to let it go by you know and that's that's so important and then the other is destiny you're always one play away from destiny and what is your moment that you're preparing for it you know it could be a you know wide receiver he's preparing for his moment to make the winning catch that helps his team win and it's carried off the field on the shoulders of his teammates you know the ultimate destiny is is sharing the love of Christ and some eternal destination is forever altered because you share with them the love of Jesus and now their new creation in Christ so that's so big but it all doesn't make sense if one final thing we share with them is about the grace the grace of God we call it grace arrayed if you don't have the grace you can't keep up the pace just like pushing a car without gassing it and so you could have the goals you can have all this together but just like Adam had all the systems together laying there before God just just lifeless but until God breathed his breath into him did he come alive and that's what everything comes alive and now you're back to the very first thing of direction again so they work all together that God created you for a purpose and a reason what is that reason and so that's so important for us to share with the next generation just simple winning plays they can run those in their school life and their relationships and their sports life in their music life or drama life or whatever they love to do they can find God's direction in it and then diligently practice their disciplines inspired by his spirit filled with his spirit to fulfill their destiny in which they were called because everybody's wonder why am i here what am i doing here what am i supposed to do what was i created for if you're just uh you know if you're just a bunch of cells that were thrown together and you're an accident you're just evolving that's that dehumanization of the secularized philosophy and the more we secularize our community the more dehumanizing it gets and there's going to be more George Floyd's guilt that's that's what's going to be sad but if we turn to God that's not going to happen because every soul is precious inside everyone's priceless masterpiece so we spent a lot of time in problem 139 look you've been thought about very carefully what you have made and there's that your package for greatness you're not an accident and when they hear that when they've been tearing at home or in the classroom or somewhere else that they're a mistake and nobody cares about it and then they hear wow I've been created I've been thought about more than the sun on the beach that there's someone that cares about me and has a plan and I'm even thought of as priceless that's that changes the whole self-esteem thing yes yes it does and Pat so that's what are you seeing that those are seven winning plays for life and I'm gonna have you repeat those here when we get in the last 30 seconds to a minute just so everybody that's listening can write these down and also Pat's books available where Pat it's at Amazon it's called winning place for life Pat Teague and AJ cars my co-author okay great and that's folks I encourage you to get it I've got a signed copy great great asset and great tool for for your life no matter what your age so Pat back to the young folks here the the teenagers what is your perception of what they're being given at home is there and we resigned ourselves to letting the iPads and the phones occupy our children and as a whole and I know there's exception out there but as if you get were this percentage put it in a percentage basis the 50% of the kids that are not being taught the fundamentals or they're being left to their own vices to find these things out at 60% in your encounter and maybe being involved in sports it's more of a smaller number D can you quantify that it is hard to put a number on it but you can see walking down the hallway 95% of them are looking down at a device versus looking up saying hello to their friends you know walking in the mall you can just see how many are looking at a device versus talking to somebody that's standing right beside them well and that's that's what's the details till sign is who's occupying their attention you know attention you sitting at the dinner table and everyone's got a device out versus let's put it over there on a desk somewhere how many times there's not one allowed yeah just not allowed at the table I've got friends that'll take a basket and put it at the doorway and everybody's put their device in when they come in the door it's a great it is you know great strategy it really is and folks if you're listening you know it's never too late to change the path or pattern you know if you've been one of those that have given given the kids full access to their to the phone and not not controlling where they're going maybe it's time to start limiting the time or go back to the old phones just a text and a capability and just phone capability nothing says that a ten-year-old needs to have access to the internet while they're out with no supervision and plus look at the interaction that's being lost right Pat the ability to communicate and work alongside the teammates folks we're so happy you joined us Pat would you give us the seven principles winning plays for life right quick yes direction determination diligence and discipline discernment and destiny and then the diesel which is the power of God the grace array amen Pat thank you so much it's been great having you folks join the body fellowship don't let this pandemic keep you out of church and fellowship and when you brothers and sisters god bless we'll see you next week as we wrap up today's show be assured that taw CMM talking and walking Christian men's ministry is building a community of men that are Christ followers with the desire to be servant leaders in their homes communities churches and work environments check out our website for upcoming events and regularly scheduled meetings drop us a note for topics that you would like to have us visit in the future thank you for joining us on man talk today visit us at www.tawcmm.com men walking the talk