Training in Truth: Being the People of God - Blind Guides

·46 min·4 clips

Will asks non-believers in the room: when you die one day, what is going to happen to you?

The episode is a youth sermon from Citizens student ministries, a ministry of Northwest Gospel Church. Host Will addresses middle and high school students, opening with a casual greeting and check-in about their week. He introduces the theme 'Blind Guides' by sharing a personal anecdote about getting lost on a hike with his friend Dave due to faulty Apple Maps, framing the idea of being misled. Will then transitions to the biblical text, Titus 3, noting they will read the Bible extensively as God's Word. He reads Titus 3:1-11, which includes commands for believers to be submissive, obedient, and gentle, and contrasts this with their past sinful state. Will explains that Paul wrote this to Titus, a young pastor in Crete dealing with a chaotic church, and applies it to students today. He uses analogies like practicing art versus just thinking about it to stress action over mere intention. Will discusses how God cares about the heart, not just outward morality, citing Jeremiah 17:10. He describes the pre-Christian life as foolish and enslaved to passions, offering hope only through Jesus. A key moment involves a childhood story of nearly drowning at Cottonwood Beach with his friend Parker Webb, illustrating God's grace appearing like the sandbar. Will emphasizes salvation is by God's mercy, not human works, and warns against false teachers who cause division, referencing Titus 1:10-11 and 2 Peter 2:14. He concludes by urging students to let Jesus lead them to holy living and bear fruit in their communities.

As heard by us

A wayward hike frames a direct youth sermon on spiritual blindness, gospel hope, and leading others toward Jesus.

Citizens Youth opens with a simple frustration: getting lost is hard enough, but being guided the wrong way makes the whole journey worse. Will uses that hiking image to frame spiritual blindness, then moves into Paul's picture of lives ruled by passions and pleasures, marked by…

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Why you'd press play

You want a sermon that turns a story about getting lost on a hike into a warning about who is guiding your life.

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