Thousands of years ago four orphaned, Jewish teenagers were forced to march to a hostile country and immersed in headfirst into paganism. They were taught the dark arts and learned the inner secrets of the magicians and soothsayers of their powerful captors.

Did they protest? No! Instead they studied hard and advanced to the top of their class. In the midst of the idolatry around them, they never lost their passion for God, theological convictions or moral core. Instead their passion for God grew stronger, their theology grew deeper and their convictions became clearer.

Soon they were in leadership positions in this polytheistic culture filled with violence, sex, witchcraft and idolatry. When three of them were commanded to bow before an idol they refused. But they survived the fiery wrath an an angry tyrant by the power and presence of Jesus Christ.

These four teenagers were stellar examples of having burning hearts for God, bright minds for learning, calloused hands for working and strong spines filled with the molten steel of uncompromising resolve.

By now you probably know who I’m talking about: Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and, the leader of the wolf pack, Daniel. What may surprise you is that they were most likely between 13-15 years old when they were taken into captivity which means that, after three years of training, they were in leadership positions by their late teens.

Imagine these four teen friends being chained and marched to Babylon after the fall of Jerusalem. Imagine their conversations among themselves as they made the long, long walk. It may have been during this time they resolved among themselves, not just to refuse to compromise, but to reverse the very culture they were being immersed in.

And that’s exactly what they did.

After seeing three of the four survive the fiery furnace (with not even a singed beard) and hearing Daniel prophesy seven years of humbling insanity for the proud king, Nebuchadnezzar had a full mental break down. For seven years he became King Crazy Hobo. He slept outside, grew his fingernails as long as talons and ate grass with his bovine buddies.

After seven years of pure craziness the king came to his senses, humbled himself and turned to the true God of the universe in faith. He actually wrote Daniel 4 to share his salvation story. He ended the chapter with these words, “Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.”

The mightiest King of one of the mightiest empires in human history was brought to his knees by the testimony of one prophesying young man, three uncompromising young men and seven insane years of judgment.

Imagine the implications throughout Babylon at the conversion of the King. No longer would Jews have to hide or hold their heads in shame. The king served their King! And it all started because four teenagers made a pact to serve God wholeheartedly when they were whisked away to a foreign culture.

In the same way, a small but determined team of uncompromising teenagers can learn to reverse the pagan culture they have been immersed in. They don’t need to protest or picket the pagan culture around them. They don’t need to burn their laptops or throw their smartphones in the trash. Instead they need to infiltrate this culture, accelerate in it and then reverse it through the power of prayer, uncompromising conviction and a bold-meets-loving-meets-shrewd proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Four teenagers changed the world back in the Old Testament. Four teenagers can change the world again today. If you’re a teenager, get your cause crew ready to live in reverse. If you’re a youth leader get your teens signed up for the brand new conference tour from Dare 2 Share called The Reverse Tour.

When I was in the 3rd Grade at Brown Elementary School I put my faith in Jesus. From that moment on I knew that I had a loving Savior, a Heavenly Father and a mortal enemy. Jesus became my obsession and Satan became my nemesis. I knew from early on I wanted to spend the rest of my life serving Jesus and ticking off Satan.

One time while walking down the hallway of Brown Elementary on the way to class I started thinking about how much I hated Satan for having kept my mom, and much of my family, spiritually captive for so long. I started thinking how he had blinded my eyes to the light of the gospel for nine “whole” years. I reflected on the damage he had helped to bring about in my own high-crime rate neighborhood.

When my mom turned on the news during dinner, I thought about the violence, crime and sin Satan was triggering and reveling in, not only in my family and neighborhood, but in the world at large. As I walked down the hallway thinking all that Satan had done to destroy the world and my family I did what any 3rd Grade Christian young man would do, I flipped off the devil. In my mind I was simply giving the devil his due…double birdies from my tiny middle fingers.

And I didn’t just flip off the devil once and then stop. I kept my middle fingers extended straight down toward what I thought to be his hellish home. With streams of elementary school kids walking by me in the hallway I’m sure there were a lot of scratched heads and strange looks, but I was too busy to notice. That was, until a teacher stopped me and asked me what the heck was going on. He saw my furrowed brow, my intense gaze toward the floor and two downward digits in the 6 o’clock position.

“What are you doing young man?” the teacher asked.

I looked up, disgusted by his interruption (of what I considered to be a holy moment), and responded matter-of-factly, “I’m flipping off the Devil.”

If I remember right he told me to stop and then kept on walking down the hallway. I’m sure he was wondering what kind of strange kid he had at his school.

He was right. I was strange. But I did have a very real God awareness and, therefore, a real Satan awareness too. The reality of God enthralled me and the reality of Satan enraged me. I was dealing with this rage in a way that wasn’t unimaginable for a kid who was raised in a verbally and physically violent family.

I hadn’t read Jude 1:8-10 yet, “In the same way, these people—who claim authority from their dreams—live immoral lives, defy authority, and scoff at supernatural beings. But even Michael, one of the mightiest of the angels, did not dare accuse the devil of blasphemy, but simply said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’ (This took place when Michael was arguing with the devil about Moses’ body.) But these people scoff at things they do not understand. Like unthinking animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them, and so they bring about their own destruction.”

Suffice it to say that Jude would have spanked me for my insolence toward Satan if he were in the place of that teacher in the hallway that day…and rightfully so.

Of course now I know that Satan is not to be toyed with, trifled with or taunted. He is to be defeated by the blood of the Lamb and a humble reliance on the Lord. Those who mock him do so to their own demise.

But God had grace on a well-intentioned elementary-aged kid that day.

No, we shouldn’t flip off the devil with our fingers, but we certainly should upset him with our lives. We should live lives that so reflect Christ that others are drawn to Jesus. We should share the good news in such a way as to depopulate the kingdom of darkness and overcrowd the kingdom of light.

Do I still think about giving the devil the bird anymore? Not really. Now I’m more consumed with advancing the gospel of Jesus through an army of teenagers who are passionate about Christ and His Cause. I’m more concerned with giving God maximum glory than blowing out Satan’s flickering light.

But sometimes I’m afraid that, underneath all of my ministry activities, there’s still a little 3rd grader giving the devil the finger.

Have you ever wondered why we do what we do at Dare 2 Share? Did you ever want to get the skinny of why we started to begin with? Have you ever wanted a video you could share with a friend, church or small group that really shared the vision that drives this ministry that energizes teenagers to evangelize their world? This video does just that…

Show it to your small group, send it on to a friend or let your missions committee see it. Use this video to spread the word about the vision that drives Dare 2 Share and how God can use you to be a part of it.

The Gospel changes everything,

When you preach for a living mistakes are bound to be made. Sometimes it’s a sermon idea. It looks good on paper but when it passes from paper to preaching something get’s twisted. Or perhaps it’s an illustration that you think is going to work really well but it crashes at takeoff. Or maybe it’s a gaffe you made that you wish you could retract.

With this as a backdrop here is a list of sermon goofs, gaffes and illustrations that I have actually done/said/used in my preaching over the last twenty five years or so…

1. Gaffe: “We all make mistakes. We all have cracks in our armor. Pastor Rick and I have seen each other’s cracks.”

2. Illustration: Literally saying “he had one foot in the grave” at a funeral.

3. Goof: Preaching a sermon with a large price tag (that I had forgotten to remove) dangling from the left arm of my “new” suit (which I had gotten from Goodwill.)

4. Illustration: Eating a piece of hard, butterscotch candy in front of 5,000 teens while trying to make some spiritual point. I kept trying to preach while crunching the candy but my teeth were getting stuck together. Finally I just stopped and took the time to eat the whole thing and swallow it. It was 60 seconds of pure awkward.

5. Gaffe: “He had two huge tumors the size of grape nuts” (as opposed to grapefruits.)

6. Goof: On a preaching tour in India I was on stage facing the audience getting ready to preach my sermon. My interpreter told me at one point in the service, “As a guest speaker it would be good for the people to see you give in the offering.” When the priest walked out onto the other side of the large stage with a huge bowl I figured this was my cue. Getting up, I walked across the stage and dropped in a five spot. The priest smiled and nodded nervously. I walked back across the stage with everyone watching me. After sitting down my interpreter whispered in my ear, “Pastor Stier that was very good…but that was not the offering plate.”

7. Illustration: About 18 years ago I wanted to make a point to 75 teens at an event that God has given us spiritual weapons to overcome the “monsters” of fear that keep us from sharing our faith. A youth leader friend loaned me a fake gun that supposedly shot blanks. At a point in the sermon I had cued some guys dressed up in scary costumes (representing the monsters of fear) to come rushing in screaming. It was then I held up the “gospel gun” and shot in their direction. It didn’t shoot blanks after all. It was some sort of riot dispersement gun that sprayed the crowd with a cloud of mace or pepper spray or something bad. Not only that, but it backfired in my face and I immediately began to cough and wheeze…along with the rest of the audience. Suffice it to say we took a break as everyone rushed outside for air. Thank the Lord nobody got hurt (or sued!)

8. Goof: While being interviewed on a live Christian television show (that leaned Pentecostal) I was looking directly in the camera telling the story of a girl who trusted in Jesus at a Dare 2 Share conference. I saw a hand go up out of the corner of my right eye. It was the left hand of the well dressed older preacher who was interviewing me. Since he was sitting right next to me on the couch I assumed he was holding up his hand for a high five, so I turned and gave a hearty slap to his uplifted hand. It was then I realized that, as I was telling the story, he was lifting his hands up in praise to God. I suddenly realized that I had high-fived his praise hand…on live television. Everyone in the room was stunned and silent, except for the cameraman who was laughing so hard the camera was shaking.

9. Illustration: Trying to eat the guts of a bad cantaloupe while making the point that “it’s what on the inside that counts” or something like that. Oh yeah, it was in front of thousands of teenagers at a Dare 2 Share conference too. If I remember right I tried to clean off my tongue right after that with some kind of sanitized hand wipe which numbed my tongue and lips.

10. Gaffe: “Let everything that has breasts praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.”

Actually I’ve had a few worse gaffes, goofs and sermon illustrations…but some things are not fit for print.

“School’s out for summer
School’s out forever
School’s been blown to pieces

No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher’s dirty looks.”
School’s out for the Summer, Alice Cooper.

Sorry Alice. Teens still have a few more weeks of school left. And what that means for youth leaders is that you have a few weeks to help your teens get the Word out.

Help them get the Word out about hope.

Suicide, cutting and depression await many teens this summer. Alone in their rooms with too much time to waste, wonder and worry many self-conscious/absorbed teenagers will give into the pain that lurks deep inside them. They need to hear the hope that the gospel has for them before school gets out.

Help them get the Word out about forgiveness.

The bile of bitterness is what some teens marinate in during the hot summer months. Perhaps they’ve been hurt or abused and now, unforgiveness holds them hostage. But when they hear the good news they can break free. They can forgive because they’ve been forgiven.

Help them get the Word out about Jesus.

Jesus is “the way and the truth and the life” and he is the only way to God. When teens trust in this simple GOSPEL message they can be saved from the hell they are headed to and the one they may be going through right now.