Underneath the make-up and cologne, behind our bluff and boast to make others think we have it all together, we are all a mess. “Then I said, “It is all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” Isaiah 6:5, NLT

In the depths of our hearts, we are all crying out for true hope – for a Savior who can meet us in our messiness – “God our Savior and Christ Jesus, who gives us hope…” 1 Timothy 1:1, NLT

Millennials today are no different. In the depths of their hearts, young people are crying out for hope in the midst of messiness – they are seeking their Jesus. For, “The Lord has planted eternity in the human heart.” Ecclesiastes 3:11, NLT

Without Jesus, we attempt to cover our own messiness. Some of us try and dull the pain of our messiness with drugs, alcohol, sex, or Netflix. Others of us try and forget our messiness with the success of our careers, status, money, or even ministry. “And me? I am a mess. I am nothing and have nothing: make something of me. You can do it; you have got what it takes—but God, do not put it off.” Psalm 40:17, MSG

No matter how we try to disguise it, only one person can bring hope to our messiness. Jesus calls, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28, NKJV

Millennials today have to discover Jesus in the midst of their messiness – their Jesus. Jesus has not changed, but years of perception and perspective within the confines and traditions of another generation’s church has layered pieces of culture over Jesus. “They should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being…” Acts 17:27-28, NKJV

Millennials are not rejecting Jesus, they are rejecting a coloration, a cultural adaptation, of Jesus that does not fit them. Older generations have not seen Jesus incorrectly; they have just seen Him through a lens of their culture. “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” John 14:5-6, NKJV

Jesus is the answer. Millennials must see through the messiness of culture, community, church, and family, to the Person who will never ignore them – Jesus. “For Jesus Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’” Hebrews 13:5-6, NKJV

Millennials are searching for a Jesus that is relevant to their messiness. They do not want a simple answer in a world that is clearly messy – reason is not enough – they want relationship. “For thus says the Lord: Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord.” Jeremiah 29:12-14, NKJV

Jesus responds to all who seek Him. He is reaching down to millennials who seek Him, who have hearts for Him, and He is drawing them into the intimacy of His heart, where He can touch their messiness. “Thus says the Lord… ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’” Jeremiah 33:3, NKJV

As the Lord is leading millennials into His heart, they are discovering a devotional relationship that dwarfs their messiness. “For you, Lord, will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave. You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.” Psalm 16:10-11, NLT

God’s ultimate desire is to form the messiness of millennials into pinpoints of wondrous light that will draw all peoples and generations to Jesus. “But the Lord will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory. Your sun shall no longer go down, nor shall your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended.” Isaiah 60:19-20, NKJV

As Jesus creates pinpoints of light out of messiness in the millennial generation, we are already starting to see Him transform the world through millennials, one heart at a time. On September 12, 1990, forty-five thousand junior and senior high students from a handful of states around the U.S. gathered in circles around the flagpoles of their respective schools to pray for God’s presence, strength, and direction in their classrooms, homes, cities, and towns. The “See You at the Pole” gathering swelled to one million students the following year. By 2014, this unprecedented day of student-led prayer involved three million followers of Jesus in twenty countries. God used the obedience of a small group of teens to ignite what has become an international movement of prayer among young people.

Jesus is breathing hope out of messiness. millennial pinpoints of light are beginning to spark into raging fires that the Holy Spirit will use to consume the world in the next spiritual awakening. “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’” Acts 2:17-21, NKJV