Bible Text: 1 Samuel 8 | Preacher: Rev. Dr. Lou Saldiveri | Series: Sunday Morning Worship | How Important Is Investing In the Next Generation?

Intro: Someone once said that Christianity is only one generation away from extinction. So I want to ask this morning, how important is it to share the gospel with our young people and mentor them in the faith? All of us know that times and culture change very fast. I would like to suggest that one of our responsibilities as parents and a church is to give our children a chance to voluntarily know Christ as their personal Lord and Savior and follow him by faith. I would also like to suggest that it is our responsibility to mentor our children to prepare them to live well for Christ in all areas of life. Ultimately, that means that as some points in our rapidly changing culture, we will need to say I don’t want to be like everyone else.

1. The Danger of Not Investing In Our Children
1. The truth of the Word gets lost
2. Moral erosion takes place
2. The Danger of Being Conformed to the World
1. We buy into a lie
2. We pursue our own greed, happiness, and desires without regard to God’s Word and will.
3. The Hard Lessons From God
1. Sometimes, God will let us have our way
2. We will need to take responsibility for our decisions
3. We will endure the consequences of our decisions

Closing: So, what will we do as parents? We need to reorder our priorities. Christianity is only one generation away from extinction. Are we willing to mentor our children to point them to the grace and righteousness of God through faith in Christ? Will we challenge them to be counter cultural when the cultural standard violates the Word of God? Will we dare to be different in a way that glorifies God?