What’s Happening To Our Youth?

Scripture Reading: Mark 13:12-13

A recent survey by the Barna Group, found that less than 1% of the young adult’s in the U.S. have a biblical worldview. The real shocker is less than .5 of 1% of Christians between the ages of 18 and 23 have a biblical worldview. Tonight we are going to look at why so many young Christians fall from faith.

What Is A Biblical Worldview?:

The Barna Group defines Biblical Worldview as, if you believe that:

1) Absolute moral truth exists
2) The Bible is completely inerrant
3) Satan is a real being, not symbolic
4) A person cannot earn their way into the kingdom of God though good works
5) Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth
6) God is the supreme Creator of the heavens and the earth and reigns over the whole universe today

Faith Should Start At Home And Church:

The Fuller Seminary determined the most important factor as to why young people leave the church or remain steadfast in their faith is. If they have a safe haven to express their doubts and concerns regarding the Scriptures and their faith before leaving home. Refuge is found in two places, in their parents and in their church.

Unfortunately, most church youth programs tended to focus on their energies. They provide entertainment and pizza rather than focusing on building up their faith. As a result, our teens are ill-equipped to face the challenges they will encounter in the world after leaving home.

Two studies conducted by both the Barna Group and USA Today, found that nearly 75% of Christian youth leave the church after high school. One of the reasons is intellectual skepticism, the result of not being taught the Bible in their homes or in church.

Kids spend an average of 30 hours per week in public schools being taught ideas that oppose biblical truths (evolution, acceptance of homosexuality). They come home to another 30 hours per week of TV (lewd commercials and raunchy sitcoms) or “chatting” with friends online for hours, or playing games. Time spent weekly in the church Bible classroom is 45 minutes. They are not being taught to intelligently examine the views of the skeptics who will challenge their faith. Most of these kids are not prepared to enter a college classroom where more than half of all college professors view Christians with hostility and take every opportunity to belittle them and their faith.

Proverbs 22:6 “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it”

Parents are the key influence in whether young people remain steadfast in their Christian faith. When both parents were faithful and active in the church, 93% of their children remained faithful. When just one parent was faithful, 73% of their children remained in their faith. However, when both parents were not active at all and only attended church now and then, the percentage dropped to 6%.

Our children should be fully trained in how to respond to their secular friends. They should be fully prepared to give a reason for the hope that we have. 1 Peter 3:15 But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,

They must be better equipped in knowing why they believe the claims of Christianity. Not just for themselves, but for those who ask about their faith. Children need to be prepared for the intellectually challenging questions. The spiritual confrontations that they will meet. Apologetics, and study of defending the truth, is a vital tool. We need to prepare our youth to know how to defend the Scriptures and the authenticity of their faith.

Parents and our churches need to do a better job of developing our children's hearts with the Word of God as well as their minds.

2 Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

We Should All Know The Articles Of Faith:

Here are just a few:

1) Deuteronomy 6:4-7 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”

2) Ten Commandments

3) 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

4) 1 Corinthians 1:10 I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 Test everything. Hold on to the good. If we teach our children to examine things for soundness, to know whether to receive or reject them. If we teach them the way that Jesus taught His disciples, it will help them know what we believe and why we believe it today. Remember faith starts at home.