Why Are So Many Gen Z'ers Lonely, Depressed, and Hopeless?

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. So, what is God doing today among Gen Z young people? It's time for The Line of Fire with your host, biblical scholar and cultural commentator, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity. Call 866-34-TRUTH to get on The Line of Fire. And now, here's your host, Dr. Michael Brown.

Hey friends, Michael Brown here coming your way from Federal Way right outside of Seattle, Washington. I'm not going to be taking any calls today. I've got a special interview sitting here with some young people from the church where I've been ministering this weekend. I did a Saturday night service. They have three services on the weekend because of the amount of people that they have.

But I did a Saturday night service and preached on one subject, then Sunday morning on another subject, first service, then Sunday morning, second service, another subject. And there were folks who came to all three services over the weekend, especially the young people, which I was glad to see. So, I asked the pastor, Pastor Ben, hey, can you grab some folks here at Northwest? Can you grab some folks together? And I want to sit and talk with folks that range in age from 16 to 25. And I want to ask a bunch of questions about, okay, in your generation be Gen Z, what's happening with the young people? What are their needs? How do they view the Gospels? Some of them have been in public school, Christian school, homeschool. What's God doing?

What do you find is the key to the strength of the church here? So first, I'm going to ask each of our panel of five experts to lean over to my mic here and just give us your first name and how old you are. We'll go starting here to my right. Go ahead. My name is Azariah and I'm 17 years old.

All right. My name is Kiana. I'm 20 years old. My name is Alex. I am 25 years old. My name is Samuel and I'm 16. My name is Kenzie and I'm 18. Okay.

So we've got a great range here. 16 to 25. You're the only guy here at 25. Think of that. Feeling old. I'm 68. So keep things in perspective here.

Okay. So here's my first question. And any of you can join in, but in the general public, like public schools, things like that, the kids that you know who are not saved, not in church, what do they think about God and the gospel? If you just think of like your parents, how many of you were raised in the faith, raised by moms and dads? So you're all raised in Christian homes, right? So your parents grew up in a little different world than you're growing up.

And I grew up in a different world too. But we'll start over here and just go around with any thoughts you have. But generally speaking, like when your friends know you're a Christian, talk about Jesus, God, Bible, is that like a good thing to them?

Is that something you're totally unfamiliar with? Are they hostile? What do you, and any of you can jump in, but what do you see? What's the climate, spiritual climate among your contemporaries?

Go ahead if you like. Oh, well, the friends that I've had and whenever I invited them to church or talk about God, they're kind of just like, yeah, okay. Like they don't receive it as how you would want them to, I guess. But there's only been a few times where they're like, no, I don't, I don't agree with that.

Or we disagree like strongly on different things. And so, yeah, just with the friends that I've made throughout the years. And in the, like in the public schools, those who are in it, what, how many kids, what percentage of the kids, if you're in a class, the classes you're in, how many other kids seem to be real serious believers? I would say very few. I, just growing up in like the public, like going to a public school, I did not know a lot of other people that had a similar faith to mine. There was maybe like a few in every class, but the older we got, the fewer there seemed to be. And again, what about when we come to like social issues and things like that? Let's say, you know, gay, lesbian, bi, trans, et cetera. The public schools you're in, was that, was that a message that they were sending? Was that something you ran into a lot?

Give me some examples of what would be like the norm. Okay, go ahead. Yeah, I, growing, so when I was growing up there, the LGBTQ community slowly started to, to gain a lot more, like a lot more people started opening up about their sexuality and that sort of thing. So you're, so you're 20, so this is in your lifetime, and so the shift. Yeah. And, and, but recently actually, it wasn't like super big when I was like in high school ish.

I knew about it. There were a couple of kids that were transgender or that, you know, identified as gay or lesbian or bisexual. But when I recently, I went actually back into a middle school here to volunteer and the entire like atmosphere has changed to being more inclusive. Kids are identifying as they, them, they're, you know, they, every, every time they introduce themselves to me, they would tell me their pronouns. And it seems to be every kid. And I was like, this is, these are middle schoolers, you know, like sixth to eighth grade and they're telling me, Oh, is she, they, them.

Right. So you're only out of high school a couple of years and yet you weren't seeing this in high school a couple of years ago, but now you're seeing it in middle school, middle school. I went to volunteer and it's, it's the entire thing, like the whole, the whole middle school was like this and it's pretty, pretty intense.

Got it. Anyone else want to add into that in terms of what you've experienced? It's kind of like as a Christian, it's, I felt like I had to support it. I mean, growing up and like when I was in middle school, like it's almost like you have to say, yeah, that's okay because everyone else is saying that around you. And so I saw like more of that when I was going into it, but then I switched over to a Christian school. So there's a lot less, but yeah, it's like, even in the Christian school you see some, okay. And, and, and as far as teachers, would they be saying where, how much were they pushing?

Go ahead. So I'm doing Running Start, so I'm going to a college, but I'm still in high school. And so this last year I had pretty much in every single class that I was in, they would start off the first discussion or the first assignment with how do you want to be referred to? Like what's your name? What's your pronouns? And so all my teachers had their own pronouns and they were very clear.

We want you to use our pronouns. And one of them was a biological female and she told us, I do not want you to call me she. I do not want you to call me Mrs. Like she was very adamant. She wasn't rude about it though.

It was just very, she was very clear. Like I do not want anyone to refer to me by these other. Got it.

Yeah, please. So as the old man here, 25. You know, actually, it actually goes pretty far back for me. I always went to public school. I actually remember when I was in fifth grade, I was talking to one of my peers and for some reason we were talking about just like history and I brought up the story of Noah and how he was like building an arc and like how he had to put all the animals in the arc. And then my teacher at the time, she pulled me out of class and said, Alex, we don't really talk about that.

Those are just make-believe stories. She was probably 60 at the time. And how old were you then? 11 maybe.

So she's probably in her mid to late 70s, I'm guessing. So she told you that not just don't talk about, but they're make-believe stories. Yeah. And I was just a little like, really? Like you're allowed to tell me that?

But then like just throughout the years, especially like in high school, like there just started, you know, there seemed to be like a club for everything, like some good clubs, but also like a club for like LGBTQ or like, I don't know, like other things, but they even had like days where like they would recognize those, you know, those people groups and certain kids would walk around with a piece of duct tape on their mouth. Day of silence. Yeah. The day of silence. I would just ask questions and I'm like, what are you doing?

Why are you doing that? They wouldn't say anything, of course. What percentage of the kids would go along with that?

Like on the day of silence? That was at the time. So like that was probably seven years ago. I would say it was generally pretty small. Most of the kids were not very liberal and open about their, you know, about, you know, the, you know, the left side and other things like that.

Most of them were honestly just passive. They didn't say anything about their beliefs. Like you were either like super left or super right.

Got it. But the majority, they didn't talk about their beliefs or their faith or anything. It's interesting to see the degree of what's become the norm, right? So 16 years old, are you in public school now? No, I'm in Christian school. Okay. So how old were you in public school? I was in seventh grade and then COVID hit and then we went to, instead of doing online, we went and did in person at Christian school. Okay. So in, you were in the first year of middle school? Yeah.

Yeah. So what was in terms of like gay activism, what was the environment there that you ran into? So it was kind of like if you like had any personality that was kind of like, in a way they would say like zesty, like weird, like you had a high-pitched voice, you acted this or you dressed like this. They would say, Oh, you're gay. You act so gay or like something like that. And they would make fun of you. And it wasn't like something that you could be, but like, it wasn't accepted really. It felt like if you were this, you're like an outcast and it wasn't, but then there was also people like teachers, they like wouldn't talk about it as much because most of my teachers were Republican, like really, except for like a few, like they didn't speak about it.

So you're in a more conservative environment. Interesting. Interesting. Yeah. All right. Yeah.

Cause it does shift obviously. I mean, Washington state is not conservative and Seattle is obviously, you know, with Antifa and everything that happened, you know, there've been hot beds here. This may sound like a weird question. And again, it depends on the system, your school system you're in or college, but did kids identify as furries? Did you run into that at all? I had, I had a girl who would walk around like the hallways with rat ears and a rat tail. And that was like, that was such a, and it wasn't, it wasn't very like common, but it would, it was definitely present. And I felt, but the thing is, is like in the culture, like, or in, in like when I was growing up and that was like, we would see kids with costumes on in the hallways. That was, it was something that was definitely very widely made fun of. Like that wasn't something that was accepted. Like I feel like the LGBTQ community was like, Oh, you're gay.

Okay. Like that's fine. But if you're wearing a tail through the hallways, like everybody was bound to make fun of you. Like there were very few that were accepting of that. And of course, that's what a lot of the kids would say that they, where they identify because we're before gay was cool. And, and, you know, and the celebration of all these things, you were outcast, you were marginalized and no one understood you. And then you're out now that you came out as gay now.

Okay. Now, now people get it. And so, so the same thing with quote, furries. And I'll say that again, to, to mock people, we understand everybody goes through phases and, you know, I went through my phases as a, as a teenager, you know, wasn't raised in the faith and all that.

So sometimes it's just rebelling against the system or just doing things that, you know, kids wear a certain haircut just to tweak you just to get a reaction. So I understand that, but then you have others that really, there's issues on the inside. So I want to go deeper in our next segment and talk about, spiritually speaking, what some of the pressing needs are. I absolutely believe, as I shared this weekend, that we're going to see a massive harvest of souls from those in Gen Z, which is, would be the most faultless generation in our history in terms of things run out of wedlock, would be in terms of stats, the loneliest, most depressed, suicidal. It's sad to see, but the most ripe for the gospel potentially.

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Pray for wisdom to find that one thing in life that you can drop to achieve more balance in your schedule and more peace of mind in life. You are listening to the Truth Network. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Hey friends, Michael Brown here in Federal Way, Texas with five young people loving Jesus, loving people ages 16 to 25 talking about their generation.

Hey, I just want to tell you something that happened to me Saturday night. I preached. People came to the altar, sought God together. And then afterwards, there were a number of pastors, leadership teams from I don't know, maybe 10, 15 different churches. So a number of them were able to stay after. So I just did a Q&A with them for like an hour. And there was one gentleman from, is it Squim? Is that what it's called? Like Squim.

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You can go to TriVita.com, T-R-I-V-I-T-A, TriVita.com. Use the code BROWN25. And I want to hear your stories. I want to hear your results as well. Okay. So getting back to Gen Z, did you know kids or do you know kids that cut themselves? Yes. All right.

So I need you to lean in closer to the mic here. This is not a new thing, right? It wasn't common when I was a kid, all the drugs, rebellion, crazy stuff.

This was just not something we did. So it's something more recent and, you know, millennials. So the generation before you, it's been common among them. Why, to your knowledge, do kids cut themselves? What's going on?

Why are they doing it? I personally know of probably six people that have cut themselves or still cutting themselves. And I mean, there's also other things that go, they have depression, they have anxiety, they have suicidal thoughts, they've tried to commit suicide. When I've talked to these people kind of about like, hey, like, what's going on? Like, how can I be there for you?

How can I support you? It's always just been like, no one can help me almost like there's like, no point to pray, and there's no point to doing anything like I'm outside of reach of help almost. So it's been hard trying to navigate like, because I almost feel like they don't, they don't have any hope. Like they don't see any sort of like point of getting help because they don't think they can. All right, so the hopelessness and what, to your knowledge, why are they cutting themselves? Because they're hopeless. So what's the purpose of that? I think that at least what I've been told, growing up in public school, it was actually actually more common than I think people realize.

Yes, absolutely. It's very like not talked about, I think, just because like most of the kids that do do it are ashamed. They definitely like hide it from the outside world because they consider it embarrassing. But from what I've been told by friends that I've seen going through that is that they do it because it takes the pain, like the mental pain that they're going through, it takes their focus away from that and onto the physical pain that they feel. So with cutting, it's they're no longer focused on their depression, their anxiety, their thoughts of hopelessness. Like Azariah was saying, they feel so hopeless and helpless and like there's nothing on this world that is going to be able to fix their mental pain, but it takes the edge off because they're doing something physically that is causing them pain physically so they're not focusing on that.

Right. And so I want to probe in a minute why there's so much hopelessness and depression and loneliness and suicide. Try to get to the root and then talk about what God's doing, what you're seeing and lies that are changed. So that's one thing I've understood over the years that the emotional pain is so intense that this at least is a distraction. Another thing that I heard was that it enabled them to feel because some of them were so dull. So go ahead, comment on that. I have had a few friends who like gone through like struggles like self-harm and doing that and it's how I've explained or how they explained it to me was like they feel empty because they're going through depression and other mental illnesses and so they do it because they want to feel something and maybe that is like feel physical something, but then it also causes them to like feel ashamed or just like some type of emotion, they want to feel something.

Yeah. You know, I also want to comment, I feel like, you know, me Azariah and Kenzie are all commenting on this, but I feel like it's definitely more common within girls. Like I don't know a lot of, and I mean you guys can probably speak on this too, but I don't know any guys that have cut themselves, but it's definitely a common thing within young girls and women.

I don't know any men that have gone through that so. And I also think that ties into like self-image. I think a lot of young girls struggle with how they see themselves. And you start to develop and change and that's a lot of the whole trans thing.

I'm not at home in my body and now you're told well this is why because you're really in the wrong body. And comparing themselves to like other girls that they see on social media and stuff. Yeah.

Yeah. All right, so and this is interesting. I have to think through what I've heard.

I know certain things I can say is more common with male, female, but this may be well known that the cutting is more common with females. Don't know, but it's interesting that your experience, okay, why so much loneliness, depression, as best as you can tell, you know, from kids you know have interacted with, why is, you know, a lot of them are in decent homes. A lot of them are, you know, they're not impoverished financially and things like that. And yet, the hole is so deep. So why did, why did, if you were to ask them why, you may have your perspective spiritually, but if you were to ask them why are you so hopeless, why are you in so much pain, what would some of them tell you?

Any thoughts here? Maybe they can't articulate it. Yeah, go ahead. I feel like if I were to ask like my friends from high school that, they would say it's because they just feel empty, that nothing they do makes them happy long term. Yeah, and there's, they just feel like they have to keep looking and yeah. So nothing, nothing satisfies emptiness.

Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, I agree with what Alex said, like they Alex said, like they just feel empty and they like, they don't have like, like anything like, like in their heart that's like, they can like feel anything. So I feel like it's a way of them, like just my perspective is like, it's a way of them trying to find an identity in something like, oh, I'm depressed. But like that, that's not what their intention is. But like, that's also like, like a way. It's a category they put themselves in.

Yeah, yeah, I don't know why. But I feel like so many people. Hey friends, this is Dr. Michael Brown, I want to invite you to join our support team, make an investment of $1 a day that will absolutely last forever. You know, the Lord has given us a holy mandate to blanket America with the line of fire broadcast. And on a regular basis, we hear from folks writing in, Dr. Brown, I used to be a practicing homosexual, I listened to, I heard grace and truth together, I was changed. We hear from pastors who say, thank you for speaking with compassion, but giving us backbone and courage. And we know across America, so many believers are getting healthy and strong through listening to the broadcast, through listening to these messages as we tackle the controversies, the most difficult issues of the day. We even hear from former Muslims who've come to faith, from Jewish people who now believe in Jesus, Yeshua, the Messiah, through this broadcast and our resources. So join our support team, $1 or more per day makes you an official torchbearer. Immediately, you will get access to hundreds of hours of terrific online classes and exclusive video content. Every single month, we'll send you a brand new audio message and along with an insider prayer newsletter, where we'll talk about the things that are going to be coming in our ministry and share some of the amazing testimonies of the fruit that you are a part of.

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Click on Donate Monthly Support. Friends, welcome back to The Law and the Fire. Michael Brown here, your voice from all sanity and spiritual clarity. In between Sunday services, a gentleman sitting behind me, he was trying to greet people. And he said, you inspire me. So it's like I shot the arm. This thing, if you're listening now, buddy, with your wife, I'm sure smiling.

But because the wife, smart wife, they introduced the husband to the broadcast. But that's what we're here to do. I mean, literally every day, infuse you with faith and truth and courage. And today as I'm talking to these Gen Z young people, and the neat thing is the pastor told me he got a whole bunch. There was that many young people in the church that love the Lord and that are articulate and have a heart for their generation. So we just grabbed five ranges, 16 to 25 in age. I'm not taking any calls and just having this discussion with them. So some of them, how many of you were at the youth camp?

Okay, so most and 25 year old, I'm glad they let you in at least a little bit. But you're hearing great reports, numbers of kids saved, rededicated, touched and deliberated. So God's at work.

And we get into some really neat testimonies in a moment. But the big question, it's easy to look down. It's like, what's the matter with you? Why are you struggling? Why are you going through this?

You know, we'll see young athletes, you know, they win a championship, the tennis championship, and then they don't play the next one. It's like, why not? I got to deal with my mental health. And some are thinking, don't you think we didn't struggle? Don't you realize we went through our own struggles and just suck it up and be tough? It's like, why aren't you just doing it? Well, because there's a problem.

In other words, they're hurting in certain ways. So I'm not here to point your finger, say what's wrong with you, but to try to find out why so much depression, loneliness, fear, you know, you got social media, everybody's connected, right? To somebody and yet people are more lonely than ever. So the fear that's out there that causes a lot of the depression, anxiety.

So let's start. What do you think are some of the causes for that fear and anxiety? I just know from growing up with social media and having that access to so much, I was open to so many things. Just as an example, learning about depression, it was like I learned about the symptoms and then I noticed people around me, they would start to say they were struggling with it.

And it's just because we're so open to it. So you self-diagnose. Yes. Okay. And now you start to say, well, I must be more depressed.

Okay. And it can actually lead to you struggling with that. And there are, and it's just I feel like it just doubled it all because it took like the symptoms and seeing how people actually struggled with it. And then like all these young people just started to look on that and not copy it, but like, that's me. Yeah.

Right. Well, and to speak on that, I actually did struggle with depression for a couple of years and I went to therapy at one point. I actually ended up starting to take antidepressants and coming from someone who's like lived that I really do think that a big part of it had to do with social media.

And I think the reason why was because it was so easy to compare people post the best versions of their self on the internet and their best lives and the vacations and all of this stuff. And I'm sitting here and, and I really was struggling with like my identity, you know, like who I was, um, my purpose. And, and this was when I was, you know, not necessarily, not really walking with the Lord. And, and, um, I just, it like, it made me spiral pretty often because my, I just, I was so focused on how well, quote unquote, everyone else was doing. And I was like, I'm, I'm suffering. Like this is, I'm really struggling and all of these people are doing great, you know, and that's not necessarily true, but social media is so easy to be fake.

And then, you know, there's a big fad now with kids self-diagnosing as having multiple personality disorder, which if the thing even exists as a category, you know, psychologists would, it was this whole big, now I'm just going to self-diagnose. I was going to figure it out. It's like, my leg's hurting.

I think I have cancer. You know, you can't just do that. You know what I'm saying?

But that's what people are doing mentally, emotionally. And then the comparison thing. What about the fact that, say, when I was growing up, if, if you got the news, so you had like a black and white TV and then it became color TV was a big thing, but the news was on, it was like six o'clock news and 11 o'clock news. So you could watch the newscast, you get a newspaper. So if something happened in another part of the world, you might find out the next day.

You didn't have a video of it or anything to watch. You hear about it. But now every, everything happening, the war in Ukraine, here's the latest person killed, you know, this bombing here, there's this, there's, you know, this accident, people crash and, you know, this one hanging themselves on, you know, as they're talking about what they're going to do. So do you think that this bombardment of constant day and night bad stuff, terrible images, is that something that's impacting young people in terms of the flood of this is, is causing depression, fear, anxiety? Have you, have you thought about that? Yeah, I think, yeah, go ahead.

Go ahead. I actually haven't thought about that a whole lot. But that I could see why that wouldn't help, you know, just that constant awareness of the negativity that's happening around the world.

I guess, maybe to bounce off the whole self diagnosis theme that we're talking about. Yeah. If I can just say something, because I feel like we're moving away from that topic. Yeah, go ahead.

No, go back to it, please. But um, I, I think the first thing that came to my mind was, I think there's a lack of solidarity in our, in the lives of a lot of young people. And just, what do you mean by that?

Maybe a lack of, a lack of truth and values that are instilled in young people. There's a lot of subjectivity. Everything's kind of relative. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, sure. That, yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, it used to be, we would teach history to learn history. Now, it's how do you feel about that history? How do you respond to that history? Right.

Okay. And I think that that's creating a lot of anxiety because young people are starting to feel like, well, if I feel that it's true, it must be true. Wherein, you know, in fact, actually, that's not how it works.

You have somebody in your life, and I think parents should be the first people who can say, no, this is who you are. This is not like a mean way, but like, reality. No, like this isn't the truth. Right.

You know, it's the difference between going on WebMD and self-diagnosing yourself and going to an actual doctor. Yeah. Exactly.

You just need to drink more water, like. Right. So, that word of reason. Exactly. And, you know, you know, because kids are still going to think things, even if you're not like into a total fantasy, you know, like you might be 15 years old playing piano, thinking I'm probably the world's greatest piano player. You know, you could easily, and the parents like, no, actually, you need to keep where, you know, you're not even going to make it through this class kind of thing. There's that reality, you know, that, you know, the kids got the Superman cape on, is about to jump out the window.

The parents are like, no, you can't fly. That's just a movie. Yeah. Right. But you're saying that that now with the subjectivity and even parents affirming it, it goes south in a hurry. Well, and you can even connect that to like the news and what's kind of put over, like young generations. It's, we're so, there's so much negativity that I think is constantly being flooded into our minds, into our ears, through the news and through social media and all of that, that like, it's, if this is happening there, what's stopping it from happening here?

Right. You know, like this is happening everywhere and it's so normal and it's so like, it's terrifying. And because we hear about it all the time, it's like, well, it's so common, it's so common, like that could happen tomorrow to me, you know? So that causes a lot of fear and anxiety and depression because it's like, this is common. What about fear of like global warming, climate change, end of the world?

Do you hear much about that? Is that more like a, uh, just, just curious. That's something I focus on a lot, but you do, you know, as, as your generation's growing up, there's some say, I don't want to have any kids because I don't want to bring them into the world when the world's going to be destroyed. Yeah. Okay.

All right. So everybody, we can, everyone can connect endlessly to infinite numbers of people through, through internet, social media, and yet there's more loneliness than ever. So why isn't the connectivity of social media and having so many friends and why isn't that, why, why is the end result that people are more lonely and isolated than ever? It seems to be the opposite.

Well, I think I found that I tend to be the loneliest when I try to medicate with building relationship online and because you can't really build relationship through social media because you're seeing, like Kiana said earlier, you're seeing people's portrayed lives. They're only sharing certain aspects of their life. They're not sharing usually the hard stuff.

They're not sharing the parts that they don't want everyone to know. And so when you just see this, you think everything's fine. And so I'm not going to tell everything that I'm going through to this person because from what I can see, their life looks great. But when you're actually in relationship with someone in just one-on-one and you're like, they're like, I'm going through this hard thing. Like you can build a relationship because it's not just like you're seeing this one thing. Like you're actually seeing that they're going through hard stuff. I'm going through hard stuff. How can I be brain for you?

How can I be? Right. So relationship is still relationship. There's no knowing about people and interacting online or you know 3,000 people liked your vacation photo is different than having a relationship with someone. And social media, because that's so much of the time is spent there that we end up isolating from real relationships and relating through these which are artificial.

All right. So as you see God moving now, we'll start here and then spend the last segment talking about what God is doing. But just kind of paint your picture of what's there and the world people are living in and those we're trying to reach. As you're seeing God moving and kids are getting touched for the first time, what is it that happens to them? It's, you know, all right, I mean there's so many questions to my question, but when you see someone they really get like, what happens? What is like, wow, I found it or I discovered this. So I think my favorite thing that I saw like this week that God like kind of like pointed out to me is that when they would have like when they would like surrender or like like we had a lot of deliverances and just like people just like finally like giving in and responding to God it was like they were like were able to be like a child again kind of just like free and joyful and I feel like like okay talking about like culture and like social media and stuff it I feel like so many and the kid you had to put your cell phones away and everything right so they got them taken away you got taken away right right it's like everyone's so cautious and it feels like you have to be like mature in this type of thing and once like you just like let go of that it's like they were able to be innocent and like just having joy like just doing worship and stuff and it was like and that's like how God wants us to be he wants us to be his children and so it was just so like it just made me so happy and like in myself too I felt like I was able to be more like a child and more like trusting him and it wasn't like so complicated and interesting yeah all right so we're gonna come back go around the room here and find out more but just that the restored innocence and that freedom that that's an amazing insight our friends God is moving I believe we're gonna see a massive harvest of souls in Gen Z but we need compassionate spiritual outreach to really be effective we will be right back nopalea has helped thousands of people by lowering levels of chronic inflammation I really enjoy being physical it's something I've just always loved but I've definitely had times where it's really crippled me up being a horse trainer can be pretty physically demanding with all the duties that I have not just riding horses for a living saddling horses caring for the horses I feel like nopalea just took the edge off and then it's it's continued to keep me from getting sore nopalea it's been a huge blessing 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will go to the support of line of fire go to triveda.com or call 800-771-5584 again 800-771-5584 it's the line of fire with your host Dr. Michael Brown get on the line of fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH here again is Dr. Michael Brown thanks friends for joining us on the line of fire one thing I did at the start of every service over this past weekend here in federal way Washington was I asked everyone have you downloaded my app did you guys all download the app yes I did yeah you did all right going to going to see the 25 year old he's a little slower but then he's gonna get to it he goes where he's gonna get to it I was just told that it's not good to pull your phone out while you're listening to someone no that's good no that's why I said do it do it but I appreciate the honor there yeah so friends if you don't have the app it's a way to take me home with you it's a way to get access to thousands of videos articles the daily broadcast or Jewish outreach website or animated consider this videos all at your fingertips enjoy it all the resources there are free so download the app now ask Dr. Brown Ministries ask Dr. Brown Ministries if you don't get my emails I met with pastor Saturday night one old friend came up to me he said I love your emails everybody needs to get your emails so you can get that through the app or to ask Dr. Brown dot org ask Dr. Brown dot org sign up for the emails we want to pour into we want to edify you strengthen you equip you help you so we're talking about now with this panel of expert gen z folks 16 to 25 just a representative sampling of this church where God's moving wonderfully with young and old alike about when you're seeing kids your age touched what happens to them what what's going on so go ahead 16 year old let's hear from you well um at our kids camp there's this um we had a mourning chapel and we were teaching on the baptist of the holy spirit and afterwards we had a time where we could pray and I teamed up with a um one of our older leaders his name was ben and um this boy he came up to us and we asked him what he wanted prayer for it all he said was like he said tongues he didn't he didn't say I want to be baptized with the holy spirit that's all he said and we're like well we and we talked to him about it and um as we got down to like actually like explaining it he was like like he actually understood it and it's like it was it was good to see that a young person can actually understand what we're saying but when we like asked him to like pray out loud like ask like actually asking God to like give him this gift he he broke out in tears and he was like I don't know how to pray like he was never taught how to wow and he was like I don't I don't have the words so we just sat there and we prayed with him but he didn't pray until the night of he actually just like he just began to speak out and like he would just pray things like thank you Jesus for dying on the cross for me like simple prayers but it was just amazing to see that his heart was like he wanted this gift from God and we said that pray out and ask God and um he did and he like received the baptism of the holy spirit and it was just amazing to see this young this young boy just like how old do you think he was um he was he was 11 11 so good yeah and so didn't know how to pray and didn't even know what he was asking for but then yeah it's the the reality of Jesus dying so you got a testimony yeah well I think I think a lot of people tend to over complicate Christianity um it's it's so easy to just go to God and talk to him like a friend and that was something I actually had one of my girls I was able to be a youth leader one of the cabin leaders at this camp this past week and I had a girl who came to church um with her grandma every once in a while but really had no faith background and and and didn't really have a relationship with the Lord and she ended up giving her life to Christ which thank the Lord it was it was beautiful it was amazing and she she turned to me during worship and we had a really powerful group of kids that were just so excited to like worship the Lord and and they were so on fire and she we're jumping and we're singing and she turns to me she goes I never knew that church could be this fun and and she was like and I've never felt so accepted by a group of people she said I usually she said you wouldn't believe me but I usually am quiet and I usually like I'm introverted and I don't talk to people but she was so loud and so talkative this entire camp because she said the second she came into our cabin she immediately felt accepted and I just think that that's so beautiful that like when you introduce people to like um a group of people who just love the Lord and love each other because that's what we're taught to do through Christ like we just love like Jesus did and and like it's hard to not feel accepted because we love you as you come not not as you could be but we love you as you come and we let the Lord do the rest you know and I just think that's that's really beautiful and we really just do have to give give it to God and say okay God like we're loving on him like we need you to move you know and what about in reaching out and talking to someone do you feel it's important for letting them know that their voice counts in other words that that they have a place at the table that they have that that they are included in somebody you are nodding as I was asking that uh do you want to comment on that do you want to chew on your comment before you do can you restate the question one more time yeah so is is there uh okay I I sat with leaders in their 30s on Thursday afternoon in North Carolina so they're millennials but they're reaching Gen Z and we were supposed to have a discussion they were going to ask me certain questions I said do you mind if I ask you questions so what's going on in your world and what do you think you know similar questions about what I've been asking you and what do you see with young people and so on and so forth and the next day when one of them was introducing me they they told they told everyone how meaningful it was that I that I wanted to hear from them that I found that I felt what they had to say was important and they felt that that many young people feel like excluded and that their their voice doesn't matter so even part of loving somewhere where they are it's not that some unsaved kid or a new believer is going to teach me about who God is or what life is but hey I want to hear what you have to say and that that gives them a sense of like meaning or validity and I don't mean to put it on I mean that you you generally care go ahead oh that's actually funny that you bring that up because me and Samuel were talking about that at elementary camp we had a time of just prayer together and one of the things that I mentioned as I was reading the scripture I was like you know sometimes I feel like not heard because of my age I feel like people don't listen to me because I'm not legally an adult and so I've had to come into conversations kind of almost just like expecting people to treat me like that because otherwise I'll feel put down right right just not listen to so it's kind of a hard balance of like sometimes I just feel like even when you're 18 I mean I was I'm gonna be 18 in less than a year and I don't really feel like in that amount of time people are gonna no it's not gonna no it's not gonna be suddenly like oh you're 18 well let's write the thing but the thing is though for those reaching out that if we make someone understand that we want to hear you you know we definitely know we have the answers to to your problem every all of life's problems in the gospel but we value you we want to hear from you there is that sense of belonging that's important so in in in your own lives if if you're talking to one of your peers and they don't know the Lord right and they said well who is this you know who is Jesus to you what does he mean what's he done in your life how how you know what's so big about this right and you were just gonna not tell them like go through all the truths of the gospel which you would and we all sinned and Jesus died for us but just in your own life who is Jesus to you what what is it that he's he's done uh for you you know what if I was asking you you know oh you got this this pet chihuahua and you go oh yeah he's got this kind of personality this or that you know or or your brother he plays you know he's in college but oh yeah he's this he's that so if they're you know who is who is Jesus um to you well I'd say Jesus is just like someone that's there like um like when I was younger in like the youth group I had like a group of friends and like and but through COVID they all left the church and I was like what's left but then like I just went through a season of just being like sad because I was like oh I don't have my friends anymore but then I just realized that it wasn't it was never about just having these friends it was about Jesus the whole time and it it took me a while to like know that but like it's like relationships will come and go friends will go like family will go but Jesus will always be there by your side and like you can always just like reach out to him and talk to him just like yeah yeah so to know that you have learned that at 16 and I'm 68 it gets more true and real every year awesome so someone else go ahead please I feel like I would say you know of several things Jesus to me has been my source of truth he's been like my my pillar of truth that um just brings clarity to my life he brings a sense of like like I was saying like I think obviously without God there's no solidarity anything can go and that's a really that's a really fearful world to live nothing's certain yeah it's not but then him I'm the way that you read his words it's like boom yeah it's that constant and I know I need that yeah excellent yeah yeah I I think for me like I actually I grew up in the church and I had a really really strong faith in middle school I had a great relationship with the Lord and getting into high school where everything was changing and and I was I was surrounded by uncertainty um I I lost my relationship with the Lord in that and after three years of of going through a lot I he got me back kind of unexpectedly and I realized like he is he is my consistent source of source of truth like Alex said and and I think it's so it's more for me like he knows me better than I know myself and like just being able to like walk in his word and and in his truth and what he has to tell me like I know that like if I go to God first and I go to Jesus first and I and I have that conversation with him like I don't have I I don't really have I don't need anything else I don't need anything more than that you know awesome all right we are short on time real quick if you had to boil it down a couple sentences who is he to you oh um I've been like going through this time where like God just revealed to me like what does it mean that Jesus is our savior and um as growing up in the church and everything yeah I just oh sorry but I felt like um like uh I didn't realize that I needed a savior or that I was sinful and that stuff like I mean I did bad things but like not like I don't know right I just thought that and so I feel like um just I've been praising God a lot lately just that he's our savior in that like Jesus came and he was a real man and I'll just say this and you'll have to tell you'll have to tell the whole world your story because I'm at a time I'll say this as the years go on because more and more real and more and more wonderful and more and more amazing and he's worth living for dying for so let's let's reach your generation with the gospel another program powered by the truth network