HEAR ME OUT | Gen Alpha | Nathan Strecker

Well, as I said, my name is Nathan Schrecker, um, youth director here.

And one of the things that I love about Redeemer, about this church, is we truly are a multi-generational church.

Now, some churches can say that and maybe they're close, but we really do have people from every single generation in our congregation.

We've got someone in our church who is 100 years old, not an exaggeration, that's true.

And then we have someone who is 13 days old in our church, maybe even younger.

That's just something we're yeah, we can we can clap for that.

That's amazing.

And so we really do have people from every single generation, and and that's that's a good thing.

Because each generation, as we've learned, has different values, has different skills and experiences that we can bring together to help each other out and makes us stronger as a church.

But of course, with that comes some intentionality because there are some differences between us based on our age, based on what we've lived through.

So it's important that we learn to love and respect each other, uh, no matter our age and where we've come from.

And so that's why I think this series, Hear Me Out, has been such a valuable conversation for all of us to get to know people who are older than us, younger than us, maybe learn more about ourselves.

Like, oh, I didn't know that was a value I had.

Uh sometimes that can be a fun journey.

And so we are almost done with this series.

Uh next week will be the last uh day that we talk about it.

But today we will be looking at the newest generation, Gen Alpha.

But before I do, let's pray.

Holy Father, we just want to thank you so much for this beautiful day and the opportunity that we have to gather together and worship your name.

I just pray that for the next couple of minutes that you would speak through me, that the words I share would not just be my opinions, but they would be your truths based in Scripture.

I pray that we can all learn about uh what you have to teach us, God, and that that can help us love each other, but more importantly, to love you.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

All right, let's start with the basics.

Who is Gen Alpha?

Um, and why are they called that?

So they call Gen Alpha because the last generation was Gen Z, and then after Z is no more letters.

So they decide to start over with a brand new alphabet, the Greek alphabet, and go to Alpha.

And I don't know why they started naming them with Gen X, thinking there was only gonna be three more generations.

Very pessimistic, very, very sad view.

Uh, but we're still going.

There's more generations coming, so we gotta go up to Alpha.

Although I think it would have been funny if someone was like Gen L or something like that.

That would have been that's a funny name.

I don't know.

But it's never gonna happen.

Although the next one is Gen Beta, and that's that's a tough name to live up to.

For those of you who know, that's tough.

But we're not talking about them.

We're talking about Gen Alpha.

Now, I was given this generation, as Terry said, because I work with Gen Alpha for my job.

The current youth ministry range is the end of Gen Z and then the start of Gen Alpha.

And of course, my daughter, depending upon who you ask, might be Gen Alpha.

Because here's the thing there's some debate as to who really is Generation Alpha.

Some people say that it starts in 2010, some people say it starts in 2013, some people say it's over and that new babies born right now are Gen Beta, some say it's still going on.

So if you are right now between 13 and 16, I don't know what generation you are.

I'm so sorry.

I I can't I can't provide it for you.

You gotta figure it out.

Maybe someday someone older will tell you who you are and then that'll help.

Um but right now it it kind of was tricky for me to write this sermon about this generation, not because Gen Alpha is you know a terrible generation, they're great.

I really love working with these students, but it's simply because generations are more helpful looking backward, to be able to see how has this group of people in this age demographic impacted their culture, impacted society, what values do they have?

So that's why it's been great to look back at previous generations, but with Gen Alpha, this generation is still developing.

You guys are still growing up.

You know, some of you aren't babies, so what does a baby value?

I don't know, getting food and sleeping.

And so as we look at this generation, I think it's gonna be more important instead of what do they value, but let's look at what things have shaped this generation and see how that could create some values uh in their future and what we can learn from that.

So let's start by looking at some formative events that have been happening in Gen Alpha's life.

So the first one, one that we need to remember and probably don't want to, is the COVID-19 pandemic.

For Gen Alpha, they were either a young child or not even born when the pandemic happened.

And so if you are in Gen Alpha, you are growing up in a post-COVID world.

So for the rest of us, we were able to experience some changes, see different things shift within our world.

But for Gen Alpha, that's normal.

Those changes are just how the world is.

But for us, we can say, oh, it's not like how it used to be.

That's just the normal world for them.

Another thing that is important to the formation of Gen Alpha is, of course, technology.

Now, I'm not just talking about tablets and the internet because Gen Z had that too, but also the newer technologies like uh the commonplace of AI.

Now, again, if you were not in Gen Alpha, that's something that you can remember.

Like, oh, I remember when AI started, I remember when it started to grow, but especially younger parts of Gen Alpha, they're gonna grow up in a world where AI is common, where it's just a part of life.

Now, whether that's good or bad, that's not what I'm here to talk about.

I would love to talk about that, but that's not what I'm here to talk about.

We can have our own opinions on whether that's gonna be you know good for Gen Alpha or not.

But that is gonna be the case.

It's gonna be normal for them, it's gonna be common, just like how the internet and and cell phones was common for Gen Z, or how TV was just common for millennials, that's gonna be the case for AI.

Another thing that has been gonna be shaping this new generation is just how politically divided our world is.

Now, of course, there's always been division, there's always been tension in politics ever since someone decided to make rules for a country.

People disagreed.

But today it seems like it's even more extreme.

Instead of being on this side or this side, you're on this side or this side.

And for the students who are growing up right now, they're having to figure out the answers to those questions.

Who is right, who is wrong?

And at a younger and younger age, they're being forced to pick answers to that.

Used to be you didn't have to decide your view on politics until you had to vote.

But now teenagers and younger students are having to make that choice because it impacts what friends they have, what they are exposed to on the internet.

And so these big life questions are being pushed onto younger and younger ages.

Again, if you're part of Gen Alpha, maybe you've wrestled with that of these really big life questions that even us as grown-ups don't always have the answers for.

And so all of these tensions build together into one major question that a lot of Gen Alpha maybe is directly asking or implicitly asking.

And that's the question, what is true?

The question that they're wrestling with is what is true?

Of course, AI and this political discourse is only making that problem worse.

And and people have been asking what is true for a long time.

I mean, I I remember when Photoshop first came out, and people are like, oh my goodness, how will we ever trust the pictures that we ever see again?

And how I wish we could go back to such a simple time of just having to worry about bad Photoshop.

But now it's an even greater issue of how do we know what is true?

What views are true, what religion is true, what what should I do with my life, what is true even as I'm seeing things as in my friends who are true online.

This question is big and is impacting this entire generation.

Studies, including parents and teachers, are showing that this generation is more curious and asking more questions than previous ones.

Now, of course, it is very normal for kids and teenagers to ask questions, but the study showed that Gen Alpha is asking more questions than other generations were when they were at the same age, because they're wrestling with what is true.

So today that's what we are gonna learn from Gen Alpha, how curiosity, and more importantly, seeking the truth is a core biblical value that we should all be applying to our lives.

So to do that, we're gonna be turning to the book of Proverbs, a book of wisdom.

Now, if you've never read Proverbs before, it is mainly full of a bunch of these small little quips and sayings, these proverbs that are little nuggets of wisdom.

An example would be something like, Don't count your chickens before your hatch.

Now, that one's not in the book of Proverbs, but it should be.

It's a good one.

Um, we're gonna look at four Proverbs that are all next to each other that apply to this conversation about seeking truth.

So let's start with Proverbs 18, verse 12.

Proverbs 18:12

It says, Before a downfall, the heart is haughty or proud, but humility comes before honor.

Another way to say this verse is that pride comes before the fall, but humility is honored.

Now, one thing that I know to be true is whenever a pastor or someone on stage starts talking about pride, people in the audience have one of two different reactions.

If you are a humble person, you'll say, Whew, okay, I don't I don't think this one applies to me.

You know, I'm not a very prideful person, but I'll listen anyway, just in case.

And of course they would be correct in that case, they're very humble.

And those of you who are proud would say, Well, it's a good thing this one doesn't apply to me.

Everyone else should pay attention, though.

They that struggle with pride, but not me.

Very humble, very proud of that fact.

Um, and of course they'd be wrong.

This is for you.

So I think that's one of the dangerous things about pride, is as a sin, it's very sneaky.

It can weave its way into our hearts and into our minds and corrupt the way that we view other people and interact with others.

It's like a mold in our heart that can tear away at the foundations of our relationships.

And one of the ways that pride impacts the way we view the world is it can tell us this lie.

The lie is that we think we know everything.

We know everything that there is to know because we've read one book or watched one video on it, and so we're an expert.

We don't need to learn anything else.

And maybe you do know a lot of things, but you I can say with confidence that you don't know everything.

See, that's what this proverb is teaching us is that you don't know everything.

You don't know the whole truth.

And what pride will do is it will keep us from asking those questions, from being humble, from seeking to learn.

And see, I, as I talk about pride, am not just talking to you guys, I'm talking to myself.

See, pride is the sin that I struggle with the most.

A couple of years ago, I was I was praying, and the Lord revealed to me through the Holy Spirit that pride is a deep-rooted issue in my heart.

Like I said, like a mold that had been growing for years.

It had been damaging my friendships, my relationships, with my family, with my wife, with strangers, everyone, because I viewed myself as better than them.

Now, I would have never verbalized that or said it, but God convicted me and said, No, that's how you've been acting.

It's as if you were better because of your pride.

And so this has kept me from asking questions, from seeking to learn the truth.

And that pride has led to a downfall quite a few times.

I'm gonna share an example story.

Does anyone remember a couple of years ago when there was the polar vortex that swept through and it was just stupid cold?

It was way too cold, shouldn't have been that cold.

At that time, I was working at a different church and I had a little bit of a longer commute, and so I was I knew it was gonna be cold, so I bundled up in my car and I and I made the commute, and even though I had the heater on, it wasn't warming up and and I was freezing.

In fact, I had to stop a few times to pull over into a gas station just to warm up my fingers.

The the leftovers that I had brought for lunch froze in the seat next to me.

That should have been a warning sign.

And again, I had the heater on, but no, no hot air was coming out.

And that should have been a warning.

I should have noticed something was wrong with my car.

But instead, I was happy it made it from A to B and went to work.

So then on the way back home again, it still wasn't you know heating me up and it was snowing, there's a little bit more traffic, and so as I'm going the slower traffic, I take a look at my dashboard and I noticed the the engine temperature meter wasn't just near the red section.

It wasn't just in the red section.

The needle had moved past the red section on the dashboard.

And as I did with any other warning on my dashboard, I thought it meant I had about three weeks before I had to be concerned.

Because that's usually what happens.

It starts flashing, and you go, okay, cool, I'll worry about that later.

Um, or never, I'll just forget.

And so that's what I thought was going on.

So I kept driving.

And no, no, I should not have done that.

You see, a little bit later, I started to actually get worried.

I'm like, well, maybe this is bad.

The needle is kind of like really going.

So I call my dad, who does know a lot about cars, and he tells me to immediately stop driving and go get some anti-freeze for the car.

So I do, and then I just dump it right in before while the engine's still hot, which again, don't do that because it just evaporates and causes more issues.

So after that, my dad said, come home, right?

Get home.

Thankfully, I wasn't that far away.

And we found out, I don't remember what the exact technical issue is, but there's something with the heat wasn't cycling through the car.

So it was keeping the heat in the engine instead of coming to me.

And because I hadn't taken it seriously right away, the engine had been hot for so long that parts of the engine melted.

And um, so we had to scrap the car.

It was too expensive to fix it.

So that was an example where I thought I knew cars.

I thought I knew engines because I knew how to make them drive.

Um, but it was a pride situation.

Uh, and now I've learned I don't know uh about cars and that if it's hot, stop.

So that's if you take nothing out of this, if your car gets hot, stop.

So that's that's a good lesson for you.

So that's an example where pride led to a literal downfall.

I had to scrap my car and get a new one.

Thankfully, no one got hurt by the grace of God.

There was no accident.

Um God kept me safe through that.

But that might have happened in your life, where your pride, where you you kept yourself from asking questions, led to a mistake, maybe at work or at school or at home or in any part of your life.

So remember, you don't know everything.

Let's move on to verse 13.

It says, to answer before listening, that is folly and shame.

That's a big one.

To answer before you listen is folly.

It's foolishness, it's shameful.

I think a lot of us we love to speak without properly listening.

And when we do, we can often look really, really foolish.

Uh it reminds me of how, and maybe you've experienced this too, whenever a big event happens, maybe something in the world, a tragic event, or something in politics, maybe just something in your family's world happens.

Sometimes people like to post about it on social media before all the information has come to light because they want people to know what they think because they're an expert, because they heard about it one time.

And so they'll post something, but then once more information comes to light, their original opinions or thoughts look rather foolish and silly.

Again, maybe that's you.

Maybe you were scrolling back through Facebook or Instagram or Twitter and you saw something you said years ago, and you go, oof, why did I think I should share that with the world?

Um, I look really ridiculous uh saying that I look really foolish.

And maybe then you delete it.

Who knows?

Maybe you're brave and keep it up there.

But what we like to do is we love talking, we love sharing our opinions and sometimes completely ignoring the story of what's going on, forgetting to listen.

And the Bible talks about this all over the place.

You know, it's not good to be quick to speak, but we should be quick to listen.

And so it teaches us that listening leads to wisdom.

If you want wisdom, you need to listen.

Listening leads to wisdom, and wisdom is just applied truth, just practical truth.

Like I said, you can find this all over the scriptures, but there's even another verse that's just earlier on in chapter 18 of Proverbs that talks about the same thing.

In verse 2, it says, Fools find no pleasure in understanding, but delight in airing their own opinions.

Oof, that one really stabbed me in the heart when I read it, because I'm like, wow, that fool sounds a lot like me.

Um you see, I fall into this trap all the time of speaking before listening, of just sharing my own opinions, which is why every time I share a sermon or preach on stage, I make sure to say in my prayer, Lord, let this not be my opinions, but your truths, because I know on my own, that's what I'm gonna do.

I'm just gonna start yammering about my opinions, but that's not what this position is for.

I've been given the privilege of sharing God's truth.

Now, like I said, pride can be really hard to see within yourself.

And so as I prepped for this sermon, I asked my wife, hey hunt, are there any examples of where I spoke without properly listening to you?

The married people in the room know the answer.

And so, in her grace and kindness, she quickly responded with uh an example that I could share.

Uh she's in school right now, and a couple months ago she was complaining to me about one of her professors, as you do, right?

And one of the assignments that this professor had just didn't make sense, it wasn't well structured.

And so I interrupted her story to say, well, here's what you should do, because again, I've been to school, so I'm an expert.

What you should do is email the professor who your complaints, tell them what they should do differently, but then still do the assignment so you can still get you know good grades and hope that for future classes for you know taking this that you'll be able to modify and change it.

And again, my wife and and Grace responded, I already did that.

Um I was about to tell you that I had already done that.

And so immediately I felt like a fool.

I felt like an idiot because if I just kept listening, she would have shared that uh and then I wouldn't have had to open my mouth and make myself look like an idiot.

And what's really interesting is even as I was prepping this sermon, another example of this happened.

Literally, this last week, I was messaging my small group that I meet with every single week, and we have some different responsibilities within our group that we share.

And I was asking the group, hey, whose turn is it to do this one task?

And you know, kind of scolding him, like, guys, come on, you're supposed to be on top of this.

And a few people said, It's not me, I didn't do it.

And then one person said, Nathan, I think it was you.

You're you're the one who's supposed to do that.

And then I thought about it and went, It was me.

It was my turn.

So I told my small group I'd included that story.

So even as you're talking about pride, you can still fall into the trap of being quick to speak and not listening, and then you look like a fool.

So if you want wisdom, make sure you are listening.

Make sure you're listening.

Let's move on to verse 14.

It says the human spirit can endure in sickness, but a crushed spirit, who can bear?

See, when we go through hardships like sickness, we can endure when we have a strong spirit because we have hope, because we're determined, because we can trust something outside of ourselves, right?

That strong spirit will get us through any type of hardship we can get through.

But when that spirit is crushed, when we lose that hope, then those hardships will crush us, and we won't be able to get through that hardship.

Now, this verse has many different applications.

It can apply to a lot of different situations in your life and could be a whole sermon on its own, but it does apply to our conversation today about seeking for truth.

Because some people have given up on trying to find truth for valid reasons, because they think it's impossible, right?

There are so many different possible truths out there.

There's so many different opinions and options and facts, and there's so much to learn.

How do we discern who is right, what is true, and what is wrong?

So for some people that have maybe earnestly tried this for a while or just get overwhelmed from the start, they give up and think that there is no way to find truth.

Maybe that's you here today.

Maybe you've given up on being able to find truth.

Maybe you're at kind of an agnostic place to say, ah, it doesn't really matter what's true or what's not, or maybe you genuinely wrestled with it for a long time, but it was just too hard and you didn't feel like you had answers.

Maybe you have a crushed spirit when it comes to seeking truth.

Well, I want to share an encouragement with you that I think this verse is trying to say is that truth can be found.

Truth can be found.

You see, truth is not subjective.

There is a real, tangible truth that exists, and it can be discovered.

Now, that journey to find truth might be a long one.

It might be foggy, it might be full of dead ends or false paths, but that doesn't mean it's impossible.

So don't give up.

Jesus gives us the same encouragement.

In Matthew 7, verses 7 through 8, he says, Ask and it will be given to you.

Matthew 7:7–8

Seek and you will find.

Knock and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives.

The one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Again, I think this verse has many different applications, but one of them does apply to our search for truth.

So if you seek truth, Jesus says you will find it.

Now he doesn't say how quickly, he doesn't say what that truth will look like in this verse, but he does say you will find it.

He does say you will find truth.

So don't give up.

Truth can be found.

Now, so far, as we've looked at these three verses, they've given us a lot of cautions and warnings, right?

Beware of pride, make sure you're listening, don't give up, you know, crush spirit.

But what is it that we are supposed to do?

What is the take home that we're supposed to live out?

Well, I think.

Verse fifteen summarizes this whole conversation perfectly.

It says, The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out.

The answer today is to eagerly seek truth.

Eagerly seek the truth.

This verse talks about the heart of the discerning.

And normally we don't think we associate heart with wisdom, but this verse was written in Hebrew to the Hebrew audience, and they understood the heart a little differently than we do.

See, for them, the heart was the center of the whole person.

So that included emotions, but it was so much more.

It was the center of your will, the center of your knowledge, the center of your spiritual well-being.

So what this verse is saying is that as we acquire more knowledge and wisdom, it will bleed into the rest of our life.

That wisdom and truth will impact our emotional states, our spiritual well-being, the way that we treat other people.

And you can learn that truth by having a listening ear, right?

It says the ears of the wise seek it out.

Which again applies to everything we've already talked about so far today, right?

If you think you know everything, well, then you're not going to seek out more knowledge.

Obviously, you need to be listening with your ears to gain that knowledge.

And if you think that truth can't be found, then you're not going to be on that journey of seeking out truth.

So we need to eagerly seek truth, and it can be found.

Okay, so if truth can be found, we're supposed to seek it out.

What is it?

This is the question Janalpha's wrestling with, and that we should be wrestling with.

What is truth?

Where can we find it?

That's the big question.

And thankfully, Jesus gives us the answer.

He says in John chapter 14, verse 6 Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life.

John 14:6

No one comes to the Father except through me.

The answer of what is truth is Jesus.

Jesus is the truth.

And that's a very important sentence.

You see, it's not just that Jesus knows about the truth.

It's not just that Jesus speaks the truth.

It's not just that Jesus knows how to get to the truth.

It's that Jesus himself is the truth.

Jesus is truth.

He is the truth.

So if you want to know the truth, you need to know Jesus.

So know Jesus to know the truth.

So all of us who are eagerly seeking truth need to be eagerly seeking after Jesus.

If you want guidance and direction, seek Jesus.

If you want answers to life's big questions, then seek Jesus.

If you're confused and just need clarity, then seek Jesus.

All truth can be found and is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.

So seek Jesus with your whole heart, with all of who you are.

Go to him first when you need the truth.

And what's great about Jesus is he's not hard to find.

Jesus isn't hiding, he's not at the end of some mystical roadway that we need to get to.

No, he is available for you to encounter right here and right now.

And so for all of us, we often, as we're looking for truth, we go to other places first.

But we need to go to Jesus first.

So stop turning to the internet or AI or influencers or politicians or celebrities or anyone or anything else other than Jesus because all their truth that they may have comes from Jesus first.

So if we want truth, let's go to the source.

Let's go to truth himself, Jesus Christ.

But that doesn't mean, again, that it's going to be this quick process.

See, finding truth is still a journey because it's a relationship with God, with the infinite, loving God.

So if truth is Jesus and Jesus is God and God is infinite, that means truth is infinite as well, which is why I could say earlier with confidence that nobody here knows everything.

Even though many of you do know more than me, I know you don't know everything because there is an infinite amount of knowledge to learn, and our brains are finite, and we can't fit it all in there.

And I don't say this to discourage you, right?

Like, oh, there's too much to learn, you'll never learn it all.

No, it's exciting.

It's a journey, a relationship we get to be on with Jesus to learn more, to gain more knowledge, to gain more truth, to gain more wisdom as we grow closer to Jesus.

And this will take time.

We live in a world where we want answers right away.

That's why Google is so useful.

You put in a question and boom, any answer right there in front of you.

But with Jesus, it can take time.

Sometimes it's right away.

Sometimes it can take years to discover that answer to get that truth that you need, but He will reveal it to you.

I think this desire for an immediate answer is one of the first mistakes the humans ever made.

You know, go back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and they were told not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And so what they do, they took it for themselves.

They couldn't wait for God to teach them good and evil.

Instead, they had to figure it out on their own and define truth on their own and define knowledge on their own.

And that act of pride led to the greatest downfall of all of humanity.

So that's why sometimes we need to wait.

And sometimes as we discover truth, we might not like the answer that we find.

See, sometimes truth can be challenging, sometimes it can push us and force us to grow.

But sometimes truth can be encouraging and comforting too.

So as I wrap up today, I want to end with sharing some truth to encourage all of you here today.

And again, this truth might be familiar to you.

You might have heard it before, and you might already know it, but it is still good for us to hear it again and again and remember how important it is in our life.

So here's the truth God loves you.

Now, some of you just let that do this.

Really listen.

The infinite God of all love personally loves you as an individual and you as a community.

He loves you so much that he sent his one and only son to die the most painful death possible, so that you could spend all of eternity with him.

And not just after you die, but right here, right now, you can be with the God of love.

And all it takes to experience this gift, this grace is an itty-bitty amount of faith.

Just a small amount of faith, and we can now be with God who loves us and provides for us and cares for us and will never leave you.

No matter what questions you have, no matter what doubts you're wrestling with, no matter what truth you're seeking, he will be with you.

And he will love you forever.

So today let's learn from Jen Alpha the importance of seeking the truth, the importance of seeking Jesus.

Because as we follow Jesus and learn more about him, we will learn the truth and we can live it out.

Let's pray.

Holy Father, I just want to thank you that you have not hidden your truth away from us, but that you have revealed your truths to us today through yourself, through Jesus, and that we can get to know you right here and right now.

So, God, I pray for all of us here today that you would help us to seek you out, to seek out that truth and to ask those questions.

I pray that you would help those of us with pride to be humbled in a safe way, so that we can learn to ask those questions and to learn from you and from others.

And I pray that all of us will leave this place hungry for you, hungry for truth, and not just in an intellectual way, but in a way that we can apply it to the way that we treat other people, that it can be practical truth, wisdom that helps impact the entirety of our lives and the communities that we're in.

We love you, Lord.

We're so grateful for you and your truth.

In your name we pray.

Amen.