According to new stats released by Barna, having your youth in Sunday School makes a huge difference later on in life. If you consistently go to Sunday School when you are young it has a direct bearing on church attendance when you grow up.

According to Barna, “More than 8 in 10 adults in the U.S. claim they had weekly religious education before age 12. Of those, 69 percent now attend religious programs weekly.”

What does that mean?

Parents that means you cannot overestimate the importance of having your child in church when they are young. Being part of a good children’s program and youth program has  a great impact on their spiritual lives later on.

So, to all of the parents reading – here are some admonitions:

1. Model a consistent Christian life for your child / teen. It is even better if they see Jesus in you!

2. Make Sunday School and Wednesday night youth worship/AWANA’s part of your regular routine without fail. I know your child has homework on Wednesdays but if they need to stay up a few minutes late it won’t harm them for life. Being detached from the youth group might. Make sure they are in Sunday School every Sunday. Don’t be a “hit or miss” family when it comes to Sunday School – your children will pay the price later on!

3. Make Christ the center of your home. Talk about Jesus / church all the time in a positive way. Don’t ever let them hear you complain about something going on at church.

We all want our children to grow up to be good citizens and good Christians. It doesn’t happen by accident!

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Last week on Wednesday night we had 165 youth and children on campus – that is 91 youth and 74 AWANA kids! What an amazing number! This week there were 173 on campus - 90 youth and 83 AWANA kids. Wow!

And its not just the numerical growth that is great, but Spiritual growth is taking place as well. Next week I will baptize over 1/2 dozen teenagers and college kids who have been saved recently. I am texted & Facebooked regularly by college and high school kids who ask me Bible questions and Christian living questions. Right now, we have college kids who are fasting from food, media, and television in order to draw closer to the Lord. Every week when I preach it is a huge encouragement to look down at the first 5 or 6 rows in the middle section and see our youth sitting there listening to every word or raising their hands in worship!!

With all of this going on here, I am reminded of something – God often sends revival through youth. One of the greatest revivals the world has ever experienced was the Great Welsh revival of the early 1900’s. Evan Roberts, who was just a young man, went about the countryside preaching a 4 point sermon:

1. Confess all known sin
2. Deal with and get rid of anything ‘doubtful’ thing in your life
3. Be ready to obey the Holy Spirit instantly
4. Confess Christ publicly

Evan was full of the Spirit of God and for 2 years (until he collapsed from exhaustion) he saw hundreds come to Christ. People were changed in so many ways. The crime rate dropped, drunkards were reformed, pubs reported losses in trade. Bad language disappeared and never returned to the lips of many – it was reported that the pit ponies failed to understand their born again colliers who seemed to speak the new language of Zion – without curse and blasphemy – even football and rugby became uninteresting in the light of new joy and direction received by the Converts.

So, pray for your youth at Liberty. Pray for revival at Liberty. If you know someone who has a teenager invite them to church.

One of the greatest things they can do is to get that teenager involved in a youth group that is on fire for Jesus!

Right now – @ Liberty – they are on fire!!

Over 4,000 10 & 11 year olds  were studied in Canada. The study was done to determine how their body shape effected their happiness. What they found … http://twurl.nl/ftk0oi … was that society is putting too much pressure on kids. If a young girl has an overweight body, she had lower levels of happiness. If a boy was too skinny, he had lower levels of happiness [hold on boys it will change later in life : -)  ]

You know we are living in a hedonistic society when 10 year olds are worrying about their body shape. Obviously, there may be some extreme cases where they should worry. That would be the exception not the rule. A few pounds here and there shouldn’t even be on the mind of a 10 year old!

If you are one of those kids – don’t fall into that trap. Don’t set the rock / country music or Hollywood stars up as your idols.

If you are a parent, don’t push that on your child. Let them be a kid. Teach them the greatest qualities in life are character & integrity. Teach them that their walk with God is far more important than their external looks.

1 Timothy 4:8 Physical exercise has some value, but spiritual exercise is much more important, for it promises a reward in both this life and the next.

Johnny Diaz recently spoke to the same issue in his new song…enjoy….