MAKING THE TRUTH STICK

Having grown up in Babylon, he had just moved with his nation to study and work in Jerusalem (Ezra 7:6-8)

Ezra was well acquainted with God’s truth: “He was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses”(v.6a) From childhood, he had studied the Scripture, and as a scribe, he knew them better than anyone.

Young people are also in transition from the familiar to the unfamiliar as they move from protected home environment into a new world.

Can you recall your first few days as a freshman in the college? Like a mouse you may have moved timidly through a crowded maze of hallways, trying to be inconspicuous as possible?

Many Christian young people can explain the stories of the Bible with great skill. They, too, have been taught God’s Word ever since they can remember.

A final point of comparison is that Ezra walked with the Lord. Three times in chapter 7 it says that the hand of the Lord was on him (vv.6, 9 & 28)

Many Christian teens can also see the hand of the Lord on their lives. They have trusted Christ for salvation, they’ve been baptized, and they probably know more about the Bible than some Christian adults.

God wants to cultivate that knowledge, slip His hand in theirs, and lead them in paths of ministry that only He knows, He wants all that information to stick with them and produce the fruit of wisdom as they mature in Him.

Ezra clung to his wealth of knowledge by developing four character traits- four secrets of making the truth stick that we can communicate to young people and learn ourselves:

SECRETS OF MAKING THE TRUTH STICK:

Ezra 7:10

Let’s magnify each section of this verse to examine Ezra’s life in great detail.

Ø He made a personal commitment:

The first thing we notice about Ezra is that he made a personal commitment to the Lord: He “set his heart”. Daniel, as a teenager, pledged himself in a similar way when he

... made up his mind.... (Dan 1:8a)

The Christians that God uses in powerful ways always begin thier journey by making up their minds to follow Jesus Christ- even if that means sailing against the popular currents of their day. In church, floating with the Christian crowd is easy. Outside church, however, most people are moving away from God, and no Sunday school teachers or pastors are there to keep us in tow. Young people must individually make up their minds to follow the Lord- nobody else can make that decision for them. And until they make that decision, the truth will never stick.

Ø He became a Loyal Student of Scripture:

Second, Ezra became a loyal student of Scripture, for he “set his heart to study the law of the Lord”. One of the quickest ways to take the fun out of Christianity is to stop studying the Bible and rely one someone else’s spiritual meals.

Study God’s word regularly. Carry them wherever you go. Studying takes discipline but discovering God’s truth becomes more meaningful and joyful

Ø He put the action into truth:

Third, Ezra not only studied the Scripture, he “sets his heart ................... to practice it” He puts the truth into action. The truth will stick when, as James advocates, young people become “doers of the word, and not merely hearers” (James 1: 22) James illustrates his point

James 1:23-25

Imagine climbing out of bed in the morning. On one side of your head, your hair is flattened smooth; on the other, it stands straight up. Your eyes are puffy, your breath would knock your dog over, and creases from your pillow are etched in your face. As your stumble into the bathroom, you flip on the light and glance in the mirror. “Aaaagh!” but instead of brushing your hair and washing up, you turn off the light, get dressed, and inflict your self on the world.

It is hard to believe that anyone, adult or teen, wouldn’t fix the problems they see in the mirror. Yet that is what James says we do when we look in to the mirror of God’s word, see all our shortcomings, but do nothing to correct them. The truth mean nothing if we do not put it into practice.

Ø He shared What He Learned with Others:

Ezra’s fourth secret for making the truth stick was setting his heart “ to teach (God’s) statues and ordinances in Israel” (Ezra 7:10b) In other words, he shared what he learned.

One of the best ways to learn a subject is to teach it to someone else, because you then have to look at from a completely different perspective. Encouraging young people to share what they’ve learned causes them to think through their views of God one-step at a time. They have to confirm whether their hearts believe what their mouths are saying. They may think they know what Christianity is all about, but not until they share their knowledge does it anchor itself in their lives.