Can I See Your I.D.?

(Message for Christian Teens)

This message is especially for students in middle school and high school. This time of your lives is
very difficult because you are discovering who you are. You are forming an identity as an individual. At
the same time, you want to find a group where you belong.
I want to give you a new perspective today on who you are and where you belong. You see,
there was a man who lived two thousand years ago. His name was Jesus. He was like a bright light to our
dark world. He was the Truth. He died to make it possible for people to have a close relationship with
their Creator.
Many men and women believed in Him, young and old, slave and free, from all nations, tribes,
and tongues. Jesus prayed to God the Father about these disciples, “As you sent me into the world, I
have sent them into the world.”

John 15:18-20 (NLT)

“If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own
if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world,
so it hates you. Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since
they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would
listen to you.”

Little brothers and sisters, this is who you are if you are a Christian. You are not of this world
because you are born again in the likeness of Jesus. The name Christian means “little Christ.” Just like
Jesus didn’t conform to the world, but transformed the world, so you also are called to not conform to
the world but to transform it.
This is your identity. You are a little Christ, sent into the world by God to transform it.

Revolutionary
As a Christian, you are a revolutionary. You are a freedom fighter. You are an insurgent, fighting
against an occupying and oppressive force. As part of an underground resistance, your mission is to
disrupt and destroy the enemy’s work on enemy territory. Your enemy is not flesh and blood, but the
evil rulers and authorities in the unseen world. Your manifesto is the Sermon the on the Mount, where
your Leader tells you to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Matthew 5:11-12 (NLT)

“God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you[a] and say all sorts of
evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great
reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same
way.

This is what Jesus told His disciples two thousand years ago, that they were following in the
footsteps of people who loved God more than this world. And now, two thousand years later, I’m
passing the same message on to you because someone passed it on to me. We are part of an unbroken
chain of disciples that goes back to Jesus.
Don’t expect people to love you because you are a Christian. Instead, expect them to
misunderstand you and hate you. But you are not to hate back. Instead, you are to love and pray for
them.
Ps. Lao likes to say that we should be Holy Ghost Rambos. Do you guys know Rambo? [Show
Rambo picture.] I think that most of the Rambo movies were probably made before you were born.
Anyway, Rambo always fought against overwhelming odds and behind enemy lines. Just one guy could
cause so much chaos and havoc among the enemy.
You are like a spiritual Rambo, fighting behind enemy lines. You have a special mission: To help
free your friends at school from the captivity of sin, and helping to form an insurgent cell that will work
together to bring revolution.
Christianity has always shone when it was persecuted. Sometimes we may think that Christians
should control every area of our society: politics, sports, business, entertainment, science, and
education. But we need to remember what the goal of our movement is: the revolution of this world,
ending with the return of Jesus. Jesus didn’t just come to take over this present system, He came to
entirely do away with it.

Ambassadors of Christ
We are also called ambassadors of Christ who are sent to men to reconcile them to God.

2 Corinthians 5:18-20 (NLT)

And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given
us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no
longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.
So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we
plead, “Come back to God!”

If we are ambassadors, it means that we represent God to our friends. What we do reflects on
the God whose name we bear.
 Think about this before you sin: What you do or don’t do can have an eternal impact on people,
whether or not they decide to accept the message that you bring to them. Paul says that many
Christians actually work against the purpose of Jesus because of the way that they live.

Philippians 3:17-19 (NLT)

Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our
example. For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are
many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. They are headed for
destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about
this life here on earth.

What does it mean to live as an enemy of the cross of Christ? It means that we turn people away
from God by living contrary to the message we represent. Do we say God is love, but act cruelly toward
our classmates? Do we say God is compassionate and patient with everyone, but get into stupid
arguments about religion or politics? We come to convince people, not to win arguments. Did you know
that you can win an argument about politics or religion and have the other person more entrenched in
their point of view than before? We don’t argue Christianity; we demonstrate Christianity.
Do we say God is holy, but live in sin as a lifestyle? Jesus says that it is better for a person to be
thrown into the ocean with a millstone tied around his neck instead of causing a little one to sin. Yes,
this was a stern and horrible warning from a loving and good Jesus. We should heed that warning. Don’t
take sin lightly, especially when it harms the message we are supposed to bring as ambassadors of
Christ.

We are “little Christs”

We are disciples of Christ, which doesn’t mean so much that we do what He wants but rather
that we are learning to become more and more like Him. We stick close to Him and learn from Him. He
teaches us every day.
When you wake up, ask Jesus to teach you that day. Tell Him that you want to learn from Him
that day, listen to what He tells you to do.
To be a disciple of Christ, you don’t need to be religious. Jesus wasn’t religious. He hung out with
prostitutes, fraternized with Samaritan ladies, ate with tax collectors, and wasn’t afraid to touch the
most unclean people in society—lepers.
We don’t need to be religious to be disciples of Jesus. But what we need to do is stay close to
Him, to know Him more and more, and to love Him with all our hearts. Get close to Jesus so that people
can see Jesus in you!

Be like Alexamenos
I want to tell you about a boy who lived in Rome in the second century. Christians at this time
were not thought very well of. They were despised and persecuted. Christianity was primarily seen as a
superstitious religion for the poor and uneducated. During this time, there was a boy who lived in the
servants’ quarters near the Roman emperor’s palace. His name was Alexamenos, and he was a Christian.
 One day, some of Alexamenos’ peers carved this onto the wall. (Show carving.) It shows a boy
worshipping a man with a donkey’s head who is crucified on a cross. The text below says, “Alexamenos
worships his God.” Apparently, some boys ridiculed Alexamenos for his faith. Maybe he had just become
a Christian and wanted to share his faith. We don’t know how these boys found out, but it’s likely that
they had made fun of Alexamenos before. They wanted to show that Christianity was stupid, weak, and
contemptible.
On a wall nearby, someone wrote a response. They wrote “Alexamenos fidelis,” or “Alexamenos
is faithful.” I like to think that Alexamenos himself wrote that in response, or perhaps one of the boys
who persecuted him was converted and wrote it later.
I was very touched when I found out about this story, and thought that it might encourage you
to know that throughout Christian history, young people like yourselves have been ridiculed and
persecuted for their faith in Jesus. Jesus was right when He said that all men would hate you because of
Him. When Jesus comes between you and your peers, can you say, “I am faithful?”

Jesus Freak, by DC Talk

Separated, I cut myself clean
From a past that comes back in my darkest of dreams
Been apprehended by a spiritual force
And a grace that replaced all the me I've divorced

I saw a man with tat on his big fat belly

It wiggled around like marmalade jelly
It took me a while to catch what it said
Cause I had to match the rhythm
Of his belly with my head
'Jesus Saves' is what it raved in a typical tattoo green
He stood on a box in the middle of the city
And claimed he had a dream

(chorus)
What will people think
When they hear that I'm a Jesus freak
What will people do when they find that it's true
I don't really care if they label me a Jesus freak
There ain't no disguising the truth

Kamikaze, my death is gain

I've been marked by my Maker
A peculiar display
The high and lofty, they see me as weak
Cause I won't live and die for the power they seek

There was a man from the desert with naps in his head
The sand that he walked was also his bed
The words that he spoke made the people assume
There wasn't too much left in the upper room
With skins on his back and hair on his face
They thought he was strange by the locusts he ate
The Pharisees tripped when they heard him speak
Until the king took the head of this Jesus freak

(repeat chorus 2x)

People say I'm strange, does it make me a stranger

That my best friend was born in a manger
People say I'm strange, does it make me a stranger
That my best friend was born in a manger