HEAR ME OUT | Gen Z | Isaac Perkins

Well, good morning.

Welcome to Redeemer's Ben said.

My name is Isaac, and I'm the worship director here as well as one of uh the pastoral interns.

And I'm excited to share with you this morning what the Lord has put on my heart.

Today, we're gonna be talking about my generation, Generation Z.

Woo! So buckle up, get ready.

Uh we're gonna with this series, the hard behind it has been this.

We're trying to learn from one another.

And often oftentimes in our lives, we we hang out, we spend time with people that are like us.

And often I think this is uh lived out through the generations.

And so today we're gonna jump in, see what we can learn from Gen Z.

So, Gen Z, if you are here today, you were born somewhere between the years of 1997 and 2012, which makes you somewhere between 14 and 29.

So, Gen Z, you grew up with all the technology.

You've had it your whole life, but it's grown as you've grown.

So maybe when you grow up, you started with one TV, maybe in your house, maybe one computer.

But as you grew, uh you got more and more.

And somewhere around 11, 12, 13 years old, middle school, you were handed one of these.

You were handed a smartphone uh to have in your pocket where you could have access to anything you want, anything in the outside world.

You could search anything, look anything up.

Uh, and as we talked about a couple weeks ago, your Gen X parents said figure it out.

So they said, figure it out.

Uh and so since you had a phone, since you had access to the internet like that, Gen Z, you saw the rise of social media.

So you kind of helped take out these platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, uh, Snapchat, all these things, and you kind of helped bring that forward.

And Gen Z, I'm part of Gen Z, so speaking to myself here.

Uh, we've we've created some interesting things through the popularity of social media, one of those being memes.

Amen.

Okay, it's a meme.

So, what that really is, it's like uh usually a picture or a video with like a punchline.

It's like an internet joke, right?

Or how about this?

Gen Z during COVID started doing this thing on TikTok where they started dancing and lip syncing.

I don't know why, and hey, I've never done it.

Just gonna I'm just gonna put that out there.

I've never uh participated in internet dancing.

Uh anyways, Gen Z, you also uh like to use a lot of different words.

Uh take words that mean something else and use them another way.

Uh instead of kind of saying, say hey, sounds good, you say say less.

Or instead of uh instead of saying okay, you say bet, bet, right?

Looking at you, you know it.

Uh or things like low key or high key, right?

Uh Gen Z also likes to shorten words that don't need to be shortened.

For example, uh instead of delusional, Gen Z, we say delulu, right?

Come on, instead of charisma, we say ris, right?

We say other things like aura cooked, let them cook.

These are just a few things.

Uh if you don't know what they mean, you can ask a Gen Z before you leave today.

Uh but on a more serious note, Gen Z, we grew up, I'll say we, because I'm part of that, in a time uh where we started to maybe feel a little unsafe at school.

We grew up in this time of this rise of school shootings, right?

And I even remember in elementary school, I remember a teacher walking me through what we would do in a drill.

And hey, you all the kids, you have to go into the closet and you can't come out until I say it's okay.

And that's kind of the space we grew up in.

A lot of Gen Z grew up in school, which leaned into this.

Gen Z maybe remember this, uh, March for Our Lives in 2018, which was a movement where the Parkland School shooting uh happened.

Gen Z student survivors organized one of the largest youth-led protests in US history.

Or this, the climate strikes of 2019, where millions of Gen Z youth skipped school to protest climate inaction, turning environmentalism into a core generational identity.

Or even more recently in 2020, the Black Lives Matter protest, where Gen Z used social media to organize, educate, uh, and drive global racial justice.

Right?

These are just a few things that Gen Z has uh played a big role in.

But as I've been reflecting and thinking about Gen Z uh in their most formative years, what happened?

It's maybe a little something that uh you remember happened maybe like six years ago in 2020 called COVID-19, uh the worldwide pandemic.

Uh maybe you remember that it's a little bit ago now, but uh many of us were in middle school.

We were in high school, we were in college.

And a lot of our experiences in these in this time where we were growing, learning who we are, how to function, uh changed and it looked different.

We weren't able to experience a lot of real things in life, right?

We were able to only look at the outside world through our cell phone, through social media.

A lot of us missed out on different school events, social events, family trips.

Maybe you missed out on graduation for high school or college, or maybe your first job even looked different.

And now, even today, to bring it back up to speed, Gen Z is on the forefront of artificial intelligence is something that's uh a big thing in the world today, where like Chat GPT, Gemini, Claude, these different things where Gen Z once again can have anything by the click of a button.

And as I've been reflecting and thinking and talking to some of you, Gen Z in the church, uh this is what I've kind of come to this conclusion that Gen Z has grown up questioning what is real and what is fake.

And they've grown up questioning who they are.

Funny enough, a couple weeks ago, Pastor Ben came down uh to our basement offices where a few of us Gen Z work, uh, and he, I don't know why they put us all down there.

Uh that's another sermon for another time.

Uh uh we'll talk later, Pastor Ben.

Uh, but he comes down, he comes down and he goes, guys, there's three of us on staff that are were Gen Z, are Gen Z and we're hanging there.

I have to show you this crazy video.

You won't even believe it.

It's this person that's running around New York City or something like that.

And all three of us that are Gen Z looked at each other and said, that's gotta be fake.

Uh-uh.

That can't be real, that's gotta be AI, that can't be real at all.

And guess what?

Pastor Ben gets out his phone and he opens Facebook Reels, which is very millennial, uh, and he but he looks it up.

And guess what?

It was real.

This thing actually happened.

But I think it goes to show where Gen Z is at and what Gen Z truly values.

In 2021, a report found that 92% of Gen Z value being authentic and true to oneself, as important.

In fact, they crave authenticity in all aspects of their lives.

92% of this generation values authenticity.

So that's what we're gonna hone in on today, dive into is authenticity.

And I just want to commend Gen Z.

I think this is a great value to have, right?

The heart of this value is saying this.

I'm not gonna let anybody else decide who I am.

I'm not gonna let anything on social media, anything on the news, anything in my family, in my career, my workplace, decide who I am.

And this is a great thing.

I think this is something we can learn from, but here's what I've found to be true, and I'm sure you have as well.

Oftentimes when we're trying to be authentic to who we are, it starts, it starts as that.

It starts as I'm not gonna let anybody decide who I am or dictate who I am.

But here's what happens we start letting people do that to us.

You know, it's often played out by man, who our family wants us to be, who our career says that we are, who social media and the internet says we should be.

Right?

But that's not the that's not the heart of this concept, this value of authenticity, right?

This is in spoiler alert, this is not what scripture says either.

Right?

It doesn't say anywhere in scripture that God wants us to be who we want to be.

It says all over scripture that God wants us to be who he is calling us to be.

It says that he wants us to be who he has made us to be.

And so let's let's work through this.

Let's define this.

What is it?

What who does God want us to be?

Who is he calling us to be?

Let's uh let's turn to John chapter 1, verse 12.

John 1:12

It'll be up here on the screen.

It defines this well.

It says this.

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

Break it down even more.

Yet all who did receive him, all of those who believe in his name, it says he gave you the right to become children of God.

If you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, this scripture says you are a child of God.

And hey, I just want to say this too.

If you don't hear anything else I say today, if you tune out, you start thinking about the Minnesota Vikings playing a noon.

Hear me when I say this.

You are a loved child of God.

That's who you are.

If you're the only person in the world, God would have still sent Jesus to die on the cross for you.

And so I want you to hear that.

If that's the only thing you get out of today, that's great.

But right, that's what God is, that's who God is calling us to be.

That's who He's made us to be.

A child of God.

You might be thinking, I've been thinking about this a lot.

Like, what is what does that mean, Isaac?

What does it mean to actually live that out?

What are some tangible steps?

So, like, what's a definition of what it means to be a child of God?

It's laid out great in Ephesians chapter 4, uh, verse 20 through 24, which says this.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

That, however, is not the way of life you learned.

When you heard about Christ, you were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.

You were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

You might hear that and think something like this.

This is what I've certainly been thinking.

This feels like the opposite of what the world says authenticity is.

Right?

Because the world says it like this.

It says, you be who you want to be.

Maybe you've heard this before.

You do you.

But right, the Bible here is saying the complete opposite.

What's it saying there in Ephesians?

It's saying to get rid of your old ways of living.

Right?

To put off your old self, to be made new in the attitude of your mind, and to be like God and true righteousness and holiness.

And friends, that's what it means to be a child of God.

That's how we're supposed to live.

The world tells us, be who you want to be, but God's saying, no, be who I'm calling you to be.

That's how we're supposed to live.

That's what it means to be a child of God.

And you might be thinking this too for a moment.

How do I live this out?

Right?

I hear that and I go, that sounds really difficult, if I'm being honest.

To live this new way.

Jesus, we're in luck because Jesus talks all about it.

He talks about it in Matthew 23, verse through 25.

So I encourage you to turn to your Bibles or it'll be on the screen.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites.

You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but the inside they're full of greed and self-indulgence.

Blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the dish, then the outside also will be clean.

Let's break this down for a moment.

This is a part of Scripture in Matthew called the seven woes, where Jesus is communicating with the Pharisees.

He's telling them as it is, if you will.

He's saying it as it is.

This part he's saying these seven different woes, these gripes, these problems that he has with what the teachers of the law of the day are teaching.

And in this particular case, uh Jesus is doing a very sermon moment thing.

He's using a cup, right?

He's talking about a cup.

He's saying if the inside of the cup is dirty, then the outside is dirty.

But if the inside is clean, then the rest of the cup is clean.

Right?

And then he doubles down even more and he says that we can be like this, that we can be full of greed and self-indulgence, but appear presentable on the outside.

A few weeks ago, I was ready to rush out of church because once again the Minnesota Vikings were playing.

And by the way, if you didn't know, the Vikings are 4-0 right now.

Can I get an Amen?

Okay, there we go.

Come on.

That's good.

And so I was ready to go watch the Vikings because they're finally winning, right?

And so I was about to run out the door, and right actually right behind this wall, there's a little spot where I drink my tea in the morning before I sing.

It's kind of a routine, it's kind of a habit of mine, helps get my voice ready to sing.

And I see a cup there full of water in a teabag, and I thought, I should probably clean that before I leave.

But the Vikings are on in 10 minutes.

So I so I left it there and I ran out the door to go watch the Vikings.

And I thought, you know what?

I'll deal with it next week.

Next week, I come in and I realize that the cup's gone.

And I run into Michael Milner, who's actually sitting right back there in the tech booth.

If you don't know Michael, he's amazing, he's our facilities guy, our tech genius, he's incredible.

And he walks up to me and he says, Yo, that's very us, if you know us.

Yo, you didn't clean your cup out.

I thought, oh no, I'm getting in trouble at work for the dishes.

I already get in trouble at home for not doing the dishes.

Like, I okay, uh, you know, sorry, Michael.

I I said, Well, why did you clean it?

I was going to clean it.

Well, and he said, Well, the cup, it started to grow mold on the inside.

There was mold growing from the teabag into the inside of the cup, and it was disgusting.

It kind of smelled, it was gross.

And he said, I washed it.

And I thought, I kind of was thinking to myself, how could that happen?

Like when I left, it was just water in a teabag.

How could that get so dirty and so gross so quickly?

And he Michael kind of said something profound to me in that moment.

He said, he said something like this, Don't worry, I clean the cup and I put it back so you can use it again.

Because, right, only once Michael cleaned the cup was it able to be used to its fullest extent, how it was made to be.

Let's keep reading in Matthew verse 27.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites.

You are like the whitewashed tombs which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of bones of the dead and everything unclean.

In the same way, on the outside you appear to be people as righteous, but on the inside are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

My first point and first way, just to give you a handle on how to live authentically as a child of God, is this.

If we want to authentically live as children of God, we have to move beyond appearances.

So what's happening here in Matthew is this, right?

They're talking about this whitewash tomb thing.

I'll explain it for you.

There's uh in ancient Israel, they would paint the tombs with this white lime water mix.

And it kind of did two things.

One, uh, if you touched anything dead in that culture, you were ceremonially unclean, ritually unclean.

And so it was, it was a it was a bad thing for you.

And so they started painting them.

But part of painting them made these tombs honestly look really beautiful, right?

They were really beautiful, but what Jesus is getting after here is yes, they were beautiful on the outside, but they were full of dead, rotting bones on the inside.

What I love about this this passage here is yeah, Jesus is really dialing in on that.

And I'm sure you can relate to this.

I know I can.

There's been times in my life where I look like I have it all together.

I look like I have everything figured out, but on the inside, oh, don't ask me about that.

Right?

But Jesus in this passage, he's calling us higher.

He's calling us to live a life following him as children of God.

Right?

We talked about it just a moment ago to authentically live as a child of God.

We have to remove our old ways of living.

We have to renew the attitudes of our mind.

We have to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Right?

Part of that is that we need to clean our cup, we need to look inward, need to see what is not of God, see what's dead and rotting on the inside.

Because it doesn't matter what's on the outside, it doesn't matter about appearances, it matters what's on the inside.

My second point is this second way to authentically live as children of God, we have to embrace honest questions.

I'm reminded of Psalm 139, uh, verses 23 and 24, which say this search me, God, and know my heart.

Test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there's any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

What's he doing here?

He's going to God, he's asking some questions.

He's saying, Search me.

Know my heart.

Test me, see if there's any offensive way in me, know my anxious thoughts.

And I can I be completely real with you.

As I was preparing this week, I thought this guy is crazy.

What's he doing?

I that sounds terrifying to say, hey God, I know you know every single part of me, but God, search me anyways, know every single part, know what's not of you.

I got stressed out for this guy during this week reading it.

But right, to authentically live as children of God, we have to do this, right?

We have to clean the inside of our cup.

But sometimes we, all the time, we have to go to Christ and we have to ask him, God, what is not of you?

Uh recently, you know, I said it at the beginning, and Pastor Ben said it.

Uh, I'm a pastoral intern here at Redeemer, which means I'm a seminary student.

Uh, and I've been going to Fuller Seminary for about 10 months, and it's been incredible.

I'm learning so much about God and who He is.

But this last quarter, I I was running into a bit of an issue.

I became so consumed, so hyperfixated on my studies.

Like, you know, if I wasn't getting a 100, I was really beating myself up.

And so, you know what started to happen?

I started to become anxious, really anxious about my studies.

So focused and so anxious and struggling that I was starting to take it out on the people that I love.

And it was bad.

And you know what I tried to do?

I tried to look on the inside of my cup, I tried to look inward and see what was going on.

And friends, I thought I was doing everything right.

Like, God, you've called me to seminary, you've called me to this schooling.

That's not the issue, it can't be.

So in that moment, I had to go to God and I had to pray to Him.

And it went something like this psalm.

I just say, Search me, God.

Know my heart.

Test me.

See if there's any offensive way in me.

And the hardest part of this was saying this as somebody who was struggling with so much anxiousness, I said, God, know my anxious thoughts.

Know every part of me.

And God responded and he spoke to me in that moment.

And he highlighted this that I was making my identity surround my studies.

I was becoming more focused on being a straight A student in seminary than I was on who God has called me to be, which is a child of God.

I was trying to be real and authentic to who I was, to my studies, not to who God is calling me to be, not to who God has made me to be, which is a child of the one true king.

Sometimes we have to do this.

We have to go straight to God.

We can't figure it, we can't figure it out on our own.

If you've been following God for any time, you know this.

We have to go to God and embrace honest questions.

My third and final point this morning is if we want to authentically live as children of God, we must build genuine relationships.

I'm reminded of Hebrews chapter 10, verses 24 and 25.

Hebrews 10:24

It says this, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

It's way easier to try to live this way, to walk this out.

This life of being authentically a child of God with people.

A couple months ago, I I don't know if you've ever done this, on a whim decided I was gonna go on a diet.

Right?

So I was here at church and I thought, you know, I ate a lot this weekend, and so you know what, Isaac, I you know, I kind of said to myself, I'm gonna eat better tomorrow.

I'm gonna go on a diet.

And so Monday morning I woke up, it was great, I ate a good breakfast, lots of protein, amen.

Uh, not cereal, a lot of protein, and then lunch, it was healthy again.

But then here's the issue.

So my wife came home after work and she said, Hey Isaac, you want to get Chick-fil-A?

Friends, that's the Lord's chicken.

You can't even go there today because it's closed because the chickens are worshiping, anyways.

But it's it's the Lord's chicken.

But here, and in that moment, I had a decision to make.

Man, do I cheat on my diet and get that that that Christian chicken?

Or do I stay true to my diet?

But here's the issue.

I didn't tell anybody I was on a diet.

I didn't tell my own wife I was on a diet.

So guess what I did?

I went to Chick-fil-A.

And I was very, I left very blessed.

It was really good.

But here's what happened.

Here's what happened.

I didn't have anybody to hold me accountable.

I didn't, I could have told my wife, and she could have said, Isaac, that's not who you're trying to be.

That's not who you said you are.

Right?

And so I'm even reminded of this.

This is sorry, story time here.

But uh my one of my best buddies, uh Logan, we met the first day of college.

I met him my first class, and we ended up becoming roommates.

Uh, and later we were in each other's weddings.

He's the best man of my wedding and uh is a great friend, and I love him dearly.

And still to this day, we've been graduated for three or four years now.

Uh we we still meet together quite regularly.

Like we uh we meet usually every week or every other week, and we talk.

We talk about life.

Talk about the good, the bad, the happy, the sad, how our jobs are, how our marriages are, what we're struggling with.

But what I appreciate about meeting with him is this is that he always reminds me who God has created me to be.

I came to him with that issue with my studies, and he said, Isaac, you are not who your studies say you are, you are who God says that you are.

You are not what the world says you should be.

You are not these things, you are who God says you are, which is a child of God, and he's reminded me, and pulled me back to that.

He's done that for me, my wife's done that for me.

There's so many people in my life that have said, Hey, I know you think this is who you are.

This is who you've decided to be.

That's not it.

That's not who you are.

This, put off your old self, renew the attitude of your mind.

You are a child of God.

And if you've been at Redeemer, you know, two Sundays or 200 Sundays, I'm sure you've heard us say this.

What we're passionate about here is helping people walk in the way of the Redeemer.

And one way we do that is by doing life together.

It's by holding each other accountable, reminding each other that, hey, you are not who you used to be.

You're not who the world says you have to be, you are who God has made you to be.

And just to close today, often when I'm sitting at church, I think, how can I apply this today?

How can I apply this tomorrow?

What does it actually look like for me to authentically live as a child of God?

My first thing for you would be is this look at the inside of your cup this week.

See what's not of God.

Maybe there's greed, there's lust, there's jealousy, there's anger.

Maybe, I don't know, you you fill in the blank.

I'm sure something might come to mind.

Maybe it's a secret sin, a heart issue, something you're struggling with.

Look inward.

See what's not of God, see what you have to put off with your old self to put on your new self in Jesus.

The second is this I encourage you to go to the Lord and embrace those honest questions.

Right?

Maybe it's like my prayer that I had, right?

It's Psalm 139, right?

You know, go to Christ, ask him to examine your heart, see if there's any offensive way in you.

Ask God to test your anxious thoughts.

It's scary at times, but we can become so blind to those things.

In my story, I thought nothing was wrong.

I can't be doing anything wrong.

But the Lord highlighted to me that I was making my identity in something else but him.

And the third is this I encourage you to continue to find to build genuine relationships.

Could you just do me a favor?

Could you just look down your aisle, maybe look behind you a little bit, look around you?

There are people everywhere here that are on the same journey as you, right?

That people that are trying to live the same way, that are trying to authentically walk in that, walk in the way of the Redeemer, to walk and to be authentically who they are in Christ.

And so I encourage you, this is a great place to be in community, to get to know someone.

Maybe you can do that by visiting our welcome desk and signing up for a group and find a community to do life with there, or or maybe it's signing up for a serve group.

I mean, that's that's us as a worship team each and every week.

We get to do life together while we serve.

I encourage you in that.

And so to bring it back to Gen Z.

92% of this generation value authenticity.

The Bible scripture says it's important, right?

As we talked about today, it looks different than the world says.

World says, be you, but God says, no, I want you to be who I've made you to be, who I've called you to be.

Here's a question for you.

What if we as a church today decided to intentionally start walking in that way together, to start authentically living as children of God?

What would Fridley look like?

What would your family look like?

What would your life look like?

Let's pray.

Dearly Father, thank you for that truth this morning that we are your children, that you love us, that we are children of God.

Thank you for giving us that right, as it says in John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

Lord, it's so easy to lose focus of that.

It's so easy to let sin get in the way, to let the rest of the world get in the way.

Social media, the news, whatever it is, God, but we focus our hearts on you now in this moment.

Because God, walking in your way is so much better.

Lord, give us the grace, give us the help needed to authentically walk in your way.

And all God's people said.

Amen.