Crash Course in Teen Culture | Fortify Series

Amen. Isn't it great to be in the house of the Lord today? For those who don't know who I am, my name is Kyle Riley, and I am our next-gen pastor here at New Beginnings, and I'm excited to be continuing in our Fortitude series where we've been looking at the family. Today, I've been given the task and the opportunity to open up a crash course on teen culture. Now, when I think back on my teenage years, I've made some of the dumbest mistakes in my life. I mean, as a 13-year-old boy, you don't necessarily make the wisest decisions. Your brain's not fully functioning and firing in all cylinders yet. And I remember when I was 13, all of my friends were taught by culture that to be cool, we need to do what culture tells us what is cool. And at that time, what that meant is that we need to buzz our hair and bleach it, all right? Because we wanna look like the coolest rapper at the time, and we thought this was gonna make us look cool, but a 13-year-old Kyle, brain's not working all the way, I'm not made for a buzz cut, and then the bleach that I had done to my hair ended up turning more orange than it did, like a blonde color. It was horrible.

And what we are going to look at this morning, parents, is that it is our task and our responsibility to disciple our children. Because if we do not, someone or something in this world will disciple them. And we don't want culture to take them away from us. And so this morning, we're gonna see that it's time for parents and the church to wake up as to what's happening in the next generation, to step up and guard their hearts, to protect their minds and their souls, and expect that the power of Jesus, the light of Jesus shines in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome the light. And so we're gonna ask three major questions this morning. The first is, what's the problem? Like, we're gonna do a diagnosis of the problem of the next generation, and then we're gonna ask the question, how is the next generation being attacked? Like, what is the enemy doing to them? And we're gonna look at some research there, and then we're gonna ask the question, how should we respond? And so if you have your Bibles, we'll primarily be in Ephesians chapter five, Ephesians chapter five, and we'll start looking at that first question, which is, what's the problem? If you're there in Ephesians chapter five,

say, the Bible is true. In verse 15, let's start. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And I think this morning, what we could do with this passage is just add the term parent in there. Parents, look carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of your time. Like, parents, are you using your time wisely? Are you redeeming and making the best use of the short amount of time that you have with your children? You see, we are called to understand God's will, and God's will is for us to disciple our children. In fact, there's an emphasis here, though, on the word walk. Walk, your walk as a parent, is the number one apologetic to reaching the next generation. Like, your actions and your words and who you are Monday through Friday, Monday through Saturday, means so much to the next generation. You can have a church attendance on a Sunday morning,

and you can tithe, but who you are throughout the week, your children are watching you, and that is the number one predictor as to where children will end up in their faith. If you are not walking with the Lord, neither will your children. And some research is showing us that number one factor is if the father is walking with the Lord. If the father is walking with the Lord, it's the number one predictor to children walking with the Lord. Parenting, in my opinion, is the hardest work that we have been given, but it is also the most rewarding journey that we can go on, and in my opinion, it's one of the greatest gifts and blessings from the Lord to us. We are called to walk in instruction of the Lord. We are called to protect our children, but not just protect them. See, discipleship isn't that we protect our kids from all attacks of the enemy, and then we kick them out into the world and say, I hope you survive. That is not discipleship. Discipleship is where we know that, as Paul says, the days are evil.

So we, as parents, have the number one priority of equipping our children. but the spiritual war they are in. The days are evil, and we have to prepare our children for those days. In fact, if I were to ask the question this morning, what is your primary mission field? Like, where is your primary place to go on mission? And as you're thinking about that, a lot of us, we jump to our place of work. We jump to a foreign country and a foreign people. We jump to all these places. The last place we think about is the number one place God has called you to disciple. It's where you live. It's your home. At New Beginnings, we are people connecting people to Jesus and is ever restoring life where we live first, where we live, where we work, where we play. And the reason why live is so important is because they are the most important thing, gift, journey that the Lord has given us. So we must step up and take responsibility for discipling the next generation. Like, they are our children. They are our responsibility. But I believe there's a shame in culture right now where most homes are struggling with the sin of omission rather than the sin of commission, meaning there is things that you know you ought to do,

but you're not doing them, which is the discipleship of your children. And yet we are so willing to jump on a plane and go to the end of the earth and tell people far away about the gospel, but we're not telling our own children. We are called to do the right thing. James 4, 17 says, whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him, it is a sin. This is why we must step up to disciple our children. We must help protect them. When my son was three years old on a 4th of July, which, you know, 4th of July is a fun time for family. It's great pictures and memories. When my son was three years old, I made the horrible dad mistake of, and maybe my brain didn't fully function yet on that day, but I took a sparkler and I put it in my three-year-old son's hand. Now, here's the thing. Sparklers are fun and it makes a cute photo and your kid's in his outfit and all those great things. But what I didn't do was I didn't teach my son Carson that fire is dangerous and if you touch fire, it's going to burn you. And so my three-year-old, not conceiving the dangers of fire, takes his other hand and goes toward to touch the fire and he burnt his finger.

Now, who's responsible? You can make the argument that my son is the one who grabbed the fire. No, I'm the one responsible because I'm the one who put the fire in his hands. I'm the one who put the danger in his hands and I'm the one who didn't teach him about the dangers of fire. I'm responsible for the pain that he faced. This is why parents, we need to make the best use of the time because the days are evil. When we don't teach our kids about the way the enemy is trying to steal, kill, and destroy their life and we send them out into fire and don't tell them how to manage the fire, we're responsible for when they get burned. Ephesians 5.17 says, Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. What is the will of the Lord? Well, Paul goes on in Ephesians 6 and he says, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise, that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger.

What are we to do? What's the will of the Lord? Bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord. Like God is saying the number one responsibility for you as a parent is to walk in the way of the Lord and so doing, you are making the best use of your time with your children, showing them from your own example how they are to put on the armor of God because where does Paul go next in Ephesians 6? He goes straight to saying, we are in a battle. We are in war. There is an enemy shooting flaming arrows and darts at you and you need to be equipped for that war as parents. As we put on the armor of God, God has called us to disciple our children how to put on the armor and go to war themselves. That is the calling that the Lord has for us as parents and you see, here's the thing. A couple months ago, I was sitting down and I was actually on my phone and I was texting someone but I looked over at my son and he was playing his Switch and I told him, hey, your time's up because we have time limits in our home. Your time's up, put it up, you're done. And he puts it up and he looks at me and he says, hey, dad, your time's up. I deserve it, why? Because what he's understanding and perceiving is, hey, you're asking me to walk a certain way

but I wanna see you walk it too, dad. And he was right. I put my phone up and we began to hang out. Parents, we have to set the example. Put the phone down and show them how to put their phone down. Like that's what we're called, that's discipleship where we live out the example. Bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. You know what it doesn't say is bring them up to be the five-star athlete. Bring them up to earn that collegiate scholarship. Bring them up to be famous, to earn lots of money. No, the command is simple, and it's to instruct them in the Lord, the discipline and instruction of the Lord. What does that mean? The putting on of the armor of God. And so we prepare our kids for battle, but what is on the battlefield? See, we gotta understand the attack of the enemy. There's an enemy who in this evil day, he wants to steal, kill, and destroy our children's lives. First Peter 5.8 says, be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Parents, I believe that we mistake this passage in being that the enemy is going to grab our children by their throats, grab the forbidden fruit,

and force-feed it to them. That is not how the enemy is attacking our homes. Instead, where we as parents are most unaware is where the enemy is thriving, where we are least educated and least wise, the enemy has snuck in like the serpent that he is so that he can steal, kill, and destroy our children's lives. He thrives where we are unaware. In fact, Ephesians 4.27 tells us, give no opportunity to the devil. No opportunity. The word opportunity there means passage, meaning do not allow there to be a crack in the door into your home because your children are under responsibility and they are under your protection. Do not give a crack in the door into the lives of your children for the enemy to destroy them. You are the one who's supposed to guard every door to your home. But when we leave a door unguarded, like a lion he's waiting for the perfect moment to sneak in to steal, kill, and destroy. And so when we leave doors unguarded, he's not gonna knock. He's not gonna ring the doorbell. He's gonna run right into that home and he's gonna destroy without conviction because that's what he wants to do. So what does this mean? If we know that it's our responsibility to stop our kids

and we know we have a spiritual enemy seeking to steal, kill, and destroy and devour people, what this means is that we as a church and as parents, we must become experts on teen culture. You need to know it better than anyone else. You need to be experts on teen culture because the battlefield today is not the same battlefield that was 20 years ago. We live in a completely different world than the world we lived in 20 years ago. And with rapidly changing culture, the tactics and the avenues of the enemy has rapidly changed as well. And we need to educate ourselves and prepare ourselves to protect the next generation. So I wanna ask the question, how are teens being attacked? How are they being attacked? Because Proverbs 27, 12 tells us, the prudent see danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it. If you don't understand and see how the enemy's attacking, we are launching our kids into destruction. And so I'm gonna give some statistics here as to what's happening. Gen Z, for those who don't know, and Gen Alpha, is anyone born between 1997 and today. And what we know is that there's actually a lot of great things in this generation that has come up in the world.

There's some really high points to our next gen culture. In fact, one of the biggest things they say they desire, and all this research is done from Pew Research and Barnard Research, and you can go find it yourself on their websites, but the number one thing they desire is authenticity. Like they want genuine, real stuff. They want genuine, real faith, because they are so overwhelmed with all this fake content and media in the world, and the highlight reels, which are little short videos that they post of culture and what they're doing, and they're edited to make it look great. This generation wants to know the real you. This is why a lot of students say that they struggle in their faith, because mom whose highlight reel living on Sunday morning in her faith is not the same mom in her walk on Monday. Genuine faith is that you walk every day in the same path, and so this generation wants to see that you walk while you talk, like you are walking in the faith. They desire authenticity. This generation, their spiritual... Sojourners. And what that means is they found that this generation is asking all the questions that matter. Who am I? What am I doing here? What's my purpose? What's wrong with this world?

Why do I feel hurt and broken? Is there hope and where am I going? They spiritually want to know because they believe that there is a God that is over the universe. In their nature, they are crying out and they want to know. And it is our job in discipleship to point them to the answers. They want to know the answers. They are desiring community like no other generation. You see, God created them to want to be in community with others, but because of their social anxiety, they hide from it. They are so scared to go out into public situations because what research is finding is that they want to be with people, but they're scared to be with people because they can't edit their words, they can't edit their actions, they can't edit their expressions. And they fear social interaction that they might look like the real person they really are. Because they can't present the fake self that they want the world to see, the highlighted self, the edited self, the Photoshop self. And then something that's cool for this generation is that they're digital natives, meaning this is the first generation that's born in a truly global and digital world.

This is something that the world has never seen before. It's completely new, but because we have this new landscape of the world, this means that the enemy's walking in different paths to destroy them. And so I want to show where our next gen is struggling. I want to show you what the pressure points they are facing. The very first pressure point that the next generation facing, it's a performance pressure. From their parents and from culture and from coaches and from teachers, they're demanded to have perfect grades. They're demanded to be the number one athlete, to get many goals, to get that scholarship for their athleticism. They're demanded to be a part of so many extracurriculars because if you get enough on your resume as a seven-year-old that will help you with your college resume when you try to apply for college. Like they are being forced to go above and beyond to the point to where we have stolen their childhood from them. We are making them care about the day of tomorrow when we're trying to raise kids today. And so they struggle and feel overwhelmed that they can't handle because today has enough worries of its own, as Jesus says. But we're making them worry about six years from now,

10 years from now. So they're struggling under performance pressure. They have a culture that normalizes pornography. There is a sexual pressure on this generation that is destroying their identity given to them by God. So culture is normalizing pornography. It normalizes a hookup culture. It normalizes sexual confusion that they're telling, the world is telling our children that your identity is found in your sexual identity, not in the God who created you. And this is causing them to walk a life of confusion. And it's breaking them down on top of the performance pressure, the sexual pressure of culture. They're given a perfection pressure. You know, I was talking about that highlight reel where they feel like they need to be able to edit and post the best of themselves. You know what a trend is right now? Our students in the next gen, what they do is they have their Instagram accounts, right? And so they have a normal Instagram account. This is the one that the world sees. This is the one that they edit. This is the one that they tell you, this is me. This is who I am. This is what I want you to like. This is what I want you to follow. But then on the side, they create a spam account

because they wanna post their actual real them, but they don't wanna put it on their real account. So they have spam accounts where they trash people, they do the stuff, they show themselves as who they really are, and they don't let their parents hide because they block their parents so the parents can't see it. And even though it shows up in some ways, and they're so afraid to be real that they're going above and beyond to create a fake one, but they say this is their real one because they're taught by media that they need to be perfect. And if people see me for who I really am, they won't be my friend, they won't like me, and I won't have community. This leads them to a loneliness pressure point. 79% of Gen Z and Gen Alpha say that they feel lonely. That they don't have community. And all of this leads to a mental health pressure. 46% of Gen Z and Gen Alpha are dying. diagnosed with a mental disorder. So where's this coming from? Well, the first place is cell phones. 95% of teens have a cell phone. But research has found that of all the teens that have cell phones, 60% of teens could be clinically diagnosed as addicted to their cell phone.

What that means is that if they are separated from their cell phone for every moment that passes, they have elevated anxiety, elevated anxiousness, and depression because they have been separated from something that they're so attached to. In fact, you know what one of the number one slang terms is right now for next gen? It's called bedrotting. Bedrotting is where you sit in a bed for five to six hours and you do nothing but just scroll through reels. You just watch video after video after video. This is a normalized term, I'm bedrotting. And it's legitimately doing what that term says. It is rotting their brains. The average teen daily spends seven hours in front of a screen. Seven hours of the days in front of a screen. Listen, listen, listen to this. Research has shown five or more hours in front of a screen increases suicidal tendencies by 71%. Parents, if you knew your child had a friend and at every waking moment, your child spends with that friend, the chance of your child committing suicide increases, would you allow your kid to hang out with that friend? When we put a screen in front of our child, after five hours, their tendency to commit suicide increases by 71%. And here's the damaging thing about cell phones. Teens stated that they have felt moments of neglect

from their parents because of their parents' usage of phone. We are setting the example with our own usage of the phone and our teens feel elevated anxiety and depression because they come to you after a day at school and they say, mom, I wanna tell you about my day, but mom stares at her phone and does not talk to her child. They feel neglect and they feel separated from their parents. It gets worse. When it comes to this culture and this generation with pornography, the average age of exposure is between the age of 10 and 11 years old. As low as nine years old, our children are being exposed to pornography. 93% of teen boys have been exposed to pornography by the time they go off to college. And this is the one that's shocking to most people now. And it is on the rise rapidly. 62% of teen girls have been exposed to pornography by the time they go off to college. I'm telling you, as a youth pastor, the past three years, I've seen more girls confess to their life group leaders about a pornography addiction as our boys. 64% of teens actively seek out pornography weekly. And it's not just through cell phones, parents. You've gotta be aware and educate yourself, but their access is seeing it through their Switch, through their tablets, through their PlayStations, through their Xboxes. All those things are connected to the internet

and they can access the worldwide web. And the enemy is using these things to sneak into the doors of your home that you're not paying attention to, that you're not guarding, and he's using this to destroy their lives. Because of social media, they have an instant gratification problem, which means social media and video games flood the brain with dopamine, making normal joys like good grades, in-person conversations or sunsets feel less rewarding. The same as how an addiction works. But here's, this breaks my heart. The biggest struggle with Gen Z and Gen Alpha in faith, is that parents expect them to become morally perfect while not living morally perfect lives themselves. Do as I tell you, but not as I do. This is why walking in to discipline, instruction of the Lord first and foremost as parents is our top priority. And here's the problem with that. One in three, one in three in the next gen, one in three in Gen Z and Gen Alpha are being raised in a home with a moral compass. without a father. The primary predictor of a child's faith is the father's walk, and one in three kids are walking through life without a father in their home. And so, they ask the questions, what is next gen saying? Like, what do they have to say? Well, they say that their parents

are the strongest indicator of their faith, but their problem right now is this term called technoference, parental technoference. And what it is is a study found that parents have set the wrong example and are neglecting their kids by staring at the screens just as much as their children are. Means the boundaries, an example set by us, and this leads them to a do as I say, but not as I do fallacy, where parents expect things of their children, but they don't live it out themselves, which means what next gen, what gen alpha and gen Z wants is they want parenting for purpose, but not for perfection. Our children want to be encouraged to find self-worth in God and who God created them to be, not on external validation from this world. Now, when I read all this, it's a sobering reality of what the next gen is facing. And at first, I look at, and it just reminds me of Numbers 13, in Numbers 13, when they go into the promise land, they come back, and they bring a report, they're like, listen, there's giants, there's fortified cities, there's warriors, and we're just, I don't think this is possible, what are we to do? But I'm here to tell you, we have to respond, and in Jesus Christ, he is the light of the world, and the darkness will not overcome it, and when God is on our side, he will help us fight to protect our children from the enemy. And we've gotta draw to the Lord,

because we are watching our children being choked out by the enemy, and we've gotta step up and guard the next generation, so how should we respond? I think it's easy for many of you in here to say, this is not me, that's not my kid, that's not my family, that's not my parenting. Let me tell you from personal experience over the past couple years at New Beginnings, over in the student ministry, just over in the mission house, the last Q&A night we had, where we let kids have open, honest discussion about what they're walking through, 10 out of the 12 questions were asking about how they can share the gospel to their parents. A following month later, we had a prayer night, and in that prayer night, we were just giving them opportunity to stand up and say, hey, anything you want us to pray for, we'll come lay hands on you and pray for you. Every single kid that night, and it was about 15 kids, asked for their parents' salvation. I'm telling you, God is doing a great and mighty work in the next generation. They're desiring an authentic move of God. And I believe we have two options in this, with everything we've heard this morning, two options. First is we can sit in judgment, shake our head, and say, this is a messed up generation, and then push it aside and not join them, turn a blind eye to what's happening.

Or we can join them in the battle. As Ephesians told us, we are to equip our children to put on the full armor of God. And I think one of our problems with discipleship, especially as parents, and that do as I say, but not as I do, is that a lot of times, parents look more like a lighthouse than they do a captain. And what I mean by that is, a lighthouse, its primary responsibility is to stand on the shore and just say, hey, don't do that, hey, don't go there, hey, watch out, hey, from a distance, I'm warning you, hey, be careful, be cautious. And a lot of times, our parenting is just speaking at our kids and being like, hey, be careful, I'm telling you, you're gonna hurt yourself with that. But God has called us to be captains. Meaning, if they are out there in the ocean and they are struggling to get forward, they are your primary responsibility, which means you should be on the ship. And if that ship's going down, it's going down with you. That they are your responsibilities to build up and protect and to fight for, to equip and repair for the battle that they face in this world. We need to be more like captains, more with them in the battle, walking with them. Jesus' discipleship model was to grab his disciples' hands and say, for the next three years, you're gonna walk, talk, and breathe with me, and I'm gonna show you how to become fishers of men.

God has called us to grab the hands of our children and say, I wanna show you how to become fishers of men. I wanna show you how to put on the full armor of God. I wanna show you how to step up in your faith and make a difference in this world for your sake and for your children's sake. In fact, one of my favorite verses in scripture, John 15, 12 through 13 says, this is my commandment, that you love, one another as I have loved you, parents. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. There is no greater love than this, parent, to lay down your life for your child. And listen, I'll be the first to tell you, I've messed up in this in so many ways, and I'm growing and learning. And what I've learned recently is that proper discipleship of my son begins with open heart, begins with my own open heart. Like, it was a couple weeks ago, I was working on a sermon, and you know how boys are, like, I have a seven-year-old and a six-year-old, and when they get going, they just nonstop fight. It never ends. They are punching and kicking all the time, and like, I'm sitting there trying to work on my sermon, and they're on the couch with me, and I get kicked in the face like three times, I get punched, they're like rolling on the back of me,

one of my kids is farting on me, like, it is like distracting, and finally, I'm like, stop! You know what I did in that moment? I spoke out of anger. And I knew, and you know how the Holy Spirit works, like, especially parents, you know when you speak out of anger to your kids, like, immediately, the Holy Spirit just kicks you in the face, and I felt it. Like, I knew that I was setting a horrible example for my kids, and so I had to get down on my knees, get eye-level with them, and I brought them together, I was like, hey, boys, I need to tell you something. I just spoke to you out of anger. I'm broken, and I'm messed up, and I'm trying to do better. Can you forgive me? And that conversation right there, this us showing an example of open hearts to our children, which then the very next day, what that led to is my son, when he messed up, he was angry at me. I was able to look eye-to-eye with him and say, Hudson, are you mad at me? Are you mad at dad? And without hesitation, yes, I'm mad at you. His heart was open because his dad's heart was open with him.

And so, parents, this is what we need to do. We need to have open hearts and open doors, because our children will not open up their lives unless we are open to them. And so, we've gotta make our way in. We have to have open hearts, which begins with yours. We have to have open doors, which means you set the boundaries for your home. Your house is your home. Your children are your children. They're your responsibility. And the enemy, as long as they are living and breathing in your household, the enemy is not allowed in any door into their life. You are tasked with guarding every single door, which means you've gotta have an open phone policy. And I know there's many students in this room that feel nervous when I say this, but there's no text message that's theirs. That's your phone, which means those text messages are yours. That phone is your property. It's your responsibility as a parent. And the enemy is using that as a primary way to get into their lives, which means it's your primary responsibility and discipleship to teach them how to manage the enemy before you put the fire in their hands. We've dumped phones into our kids' hands. My son is in second grade, and multiple kids in his second grade class, seven-year-olds,

have cell phones with full access to the internet. We're putting fire in hands, but not discipling. We have to be with them and show them the proper usage of everything that we have, which means we need to wake up. As Paul says, the days are evil. We need to open our eyes to how evil this day is. And we can't just protect our kids. We gotta prepare them for war, which means we need to wise up. The enemy is cunning and smart and sneaky, and he'll sneak his way in without being noticed. And so we need to educate ourselves. Take advantage of the resources that we have at New Beginnings and our student ministry and kids' ministries. And parents, I want you to know, this doesn't just begin if you have teenagers. This begins at the day they were born. The day they were conceived, you became a parent, and God has called you from that moment forward until you died to be discipling your children. And when they have children, you're called to help them disciple their children by the example in which you set in their lives. We need to build up, which means we need to prepare them for the war that they're going to face. And we do that by showing up. We set the example of how to fight, how to put on the armor of God. But the most important, church, New Beginnings,

we need to lift up. Our greatest weapon and our greatest defense is prayer. You see, I believe there is so much hope in the next generation. I'm watching a generation rise up where I'm seeing legitimate Paul stand up in this generation that's after us. I'm seeing students who, without care in the world, are going door to door just to share the gospel because of the conviction to see this lost and broken world to come to know the good news of Jesus Christ. They're selling their possessions and they're buying food with what little money they have and getting clothes for people that are in need. They are being the hands and feet of Jesus. I'm seeing them go to foreign countries to share the gospel, to live on mission. And we have two options this morning. We can walk away or we can get into battle with them because they're moving with the Lord. And I'm telling you, church, I wanna be where the Lord is moving and he's moving in the next generation. And there's so many ways in which you can get involved. It doesn't matter, because some of you, you've probably successfully have sent your kids on. You can still get involved in discipleship of the next generation, whether that's through one-on-one discipleship

or life group leadership, or finding a parent who's in the middle of trying to disciple their kids, helping them learn how to disciple their kids. Maybe some of you today walked in and you said, Kyle, I think it's too late for me. I've messed up. The door's been opened. What do I do? Ephesians 1, seven through eight says, in him, we have the redemption through his blood. In Jesus Christ, we have the redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, new beginnings, families. It is never too late to do the right thing. It is never too late to step up and seek redemption in Jesus Christ for your family. It's never too late to begin walking in discipleship of your children. Grandparents, I wanna encourage you. A lot of times, students don't listen to their parents, but they will listen to their grandparents. Grandparents, if you're walking in your faith, you're having an impact that you can't even imagine on the next generation. Put that in the front of your life for them to see. And so what do we do with all this? How do we respond?

Well, this morning, what I wanna do is, I wanna call families to lift up the next generation. If you're a family in here, I'm gonna call you to huddle up as a family and to come to the altar to pray for one another. Children, I want you to pray for your parents and their faith. Parents, I want you to pray for your children. Grandparents, I want you to pray for your families. Students, you might not have a family yet, but the enemy is attacking you. And there are addictions and depressions and things that you are facing that, man, you just need to come to the leader and get prayed for. We have decision encouragers who would love to pray for you this morning. When I pray, respond how the Holy Spirit calls you, grab your family, and let's bring them before the Lord. Father, we thank you for this day. Lord, we thank you for this message of hope for the next generation. Lord, the enemy is working hard, but you are a light that the darkness cannot overcome. God, I am praying for the families of this church that we stop being lighthouses, but we join our students and the next generation in the battle that they are facing, not just protecting them from the enemy, but we are equipping them to go be warriors

for the kingdom of heaven. Lord, I pray that this is the day for a breakthrough for some families who said we haven't been doing it right. Maybe this opens up honest conversation. God, I pray that you move in our families. God, I pray that you protect this next generation. God, I pray for those who are struggling with the attacks of the enemy in this world. You call them forward to lay those down at the altar and seek redemption in Jesus Christ. Jesus, we love you. It's in your holy and precious name we pray these things. Amen.