 Well, thank you so much for coming Appreciate you being here if I'm shivering a little bit. It's cuz cold. I'm from Arkansas Hey, one of the reasons that I'm here today Of course is because of Jesus But he used a man named Lattie McDonough To be a mentor in my life He came along when I was 20 years old and in the Jesus movement and trying to figure it all out and hundreds of kids come into the Lord And not knowing what to do with them and trying to figure it all out and he came along and told me that I had I had a Gift from the Lord He told me to prophesy and he told me to preach and he spoke into my life And he believed in me and one of the reasons I'm here today with a lot of my contemporaries from that movement are no Longer even walking with Jesus because they didn't have fathers or mothers So that is the vision behind this new book that Tom Lane and I have just finished writing He still speaks to kids. That's what I want to talk about today I want to talk a little bit about creating environments to teach young people and we're considering young people those that just don't know Jesus They may just be young in the Lord. They may be 50 years old But a babe in the Lord and so this is that's what this is about but primarily about about kids And we've divided the book into two sort of parts My part I wrote about little kids up to the age of about 13 and then Tom wrote about Older teenagers into their 20s and 30s young adults and so I'll let him share his part of the book when he comes You guys need to get him to do it. It's gonna be a great He's got some great chapters in there But let me just share share with you and I've got more I want to share than I can get to in the in the time that I have But I think you all have some notes here that you can follow along with if you didn't get any notes Raise your hand and somebody will pass a note to you if we have any left as Pastors and parents Grandparents ourselves Tom and I both believe that God has something to say to everyone And we don't believe he just got the ball rolling and then moved away and just said I've given you a book just get on with it We believe he's alive in fact of all the religions in the world 4200 of them ours is the only one whose goddess is alive and Still speaks and we believe that with all of our heart And so we've we've had this goal of train training up the next generation to be able to hear from the Lord Not just to hear from the Lord through their pastor as good as that is or through prophetic gifts As good as that is to be able to hear the Lord themselves How does that work? And so that's what I'm going to be talking about today. We have two goals for the book One is that the principles and truths in the book would serve as catalysts To help our children no matter what their age to learn to hear from God and The second goal is that it would just be a helpful resource parents grandparents youth pastors mentors coaches anybody that loves the young or the young at heart and Once wants to learn about hearing from God. We want this book to be helpful Let me start with my favorite parts of the Bible, which is the red letters The red letters in the New Testament the letters that Jesus spoke himself and right now I'm going through the Gospels again I'm only reading the red letters and we used to say back in the Jesus movement read the red and pray for the power And so that's what I'm doing and God's speaking to me again in fresh ways And I encourage you to give emphasis to the red letters in your Bible with Jesus said in Matthew 9 14 Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these It's now I came up in a time where kids are supposed to be seen but not heard So you could hang out with the family or with church members or whatever until the important stuff happened like worship or teaching Then you had to go to some other room and be entertained And so a lot of those kids I think miss some we miss some great opportunities of a lot of those kids And so I just want to I want to say that it's my conviction that young and old Can learn to hear from God It's not just something God makes you do you can learn to hear from God Matthew 21 16 They said to Jesus do you hear what these children are saying and yes, Jesus replied Haven't you ever read the scriptures for they say you have taught children and infants to give you praise And that comes from Psalm 8 to says from the lips of children you have ordained praise to silence the foe and the Avenger I've got a friend in England that wrote an article called from the mouse of babes just a little bit ago And she was talking about God using kids down through church history She said writes about I've been to Coleraine Ireland before and and she writes about something that occurred on the 10th of June 1859 in Coleraine, Northern Ireland She writes having just given his life to Christ a young boy like elementary age boy Prayed in turn for his classmates in the playground And that day God came in power and the whole school was radically affected Many parents calling to collect their children spontaneously gave their lives to Christ the school wasn't cleared until 11 p.m. That night Another another thing she wrote about about the Celts She's the Celtic Christians and those early Celtic believers expected God to use children Integrating and training them in all areas of spiritual life at age eight Cuthbert later to become one of the most influential spiritual leaders of his time received a prophecy from a three-year-old That changed his life. I think about that and we we have we have tried to create a prophetic culture in our church To where everyone expects to hear from God and sometimes as a pastor and I didn't know what to do I would go down the hall if I had some decisions to make I'd go down the hall and I'd get our Little kids the four or five six seven-year-olds come pray for me Now I'll say just wait and see if God gives you anything I can't tell you how many times I've been prophesied over by kids. That was exactly the spot-on Word of God, so we've tried to create an environment there that kids can hear from the Lord and let me tell you there's lots of voices trying to get in the kids heads and And we need to be the voices that are helping them to hear the voice to get into their head before the world gets Hold of them. Amen Well, I want to say that I believe it's a trite statement, but I believe it's true. There is no junior holy spirit There's no junior holy spirit Tell you a story about my one of my granddaughters Madison who is when she was seven years old We're sitting on porch talking and she we started this conversation You know, there's these teachable moments that you you dream about and this is one of those moments that happened Madison said Papa, do you ever do you ever hear from God? I said, yeah, I do and Well, what does he say to you? And so we talked about that and then I realized finally I said Madison. Do you ever hear from God? She said all the time I said, what does he say to you? Well, she said well the other day I was being bullied by this person at school They're being mean to me and I couldn't get away from them and I was afraid I didn't know what to do and I just said Jesus help me and in my head God said I'm right here It's gonna be okay and that bully turned around and what didn't walk away from me. He ran away from me Then she said and I watched a scary movie that I shouldn't have watched But I watched this scary movie and I can't go to sleep and I'm and I'm afraid in my bed I don't want to tell mom that I'd watch this scary movie that I shouldn't have watched I'm saying I'm afraid Lord help me and then then he spoke to me again. He said I'm right here Go to sleep. I'll be right here And let me tell you that little girl. It's now 13 and her mom has got a Has been prophesying with me in different places for a while now and she's an executive at Walmart And she's right there in life and a lot of her ideas that people are wanting to steal from her at Walmart She's not telling well the Lord told me that So she's got some insider information that some don't have but my her daughter my granddaughter has been going with us as Well, and we were and we were driving in the car of this church and I said to Madison I want you to prophesy with me today. All right, so I want you to hear from the Lord and she starts rummaging around the back And I handed her over a what I call a starter kit the five by seven yellow pad I handed that back to her And she got a word for what somebody would be wearing where they would be sitting and what color hair they would have She said pop. I think I've got something It's either right or wrong and she was really nervous and so we get there We walk in we walk in the church and on the road where she saw them wearing what she saw with the hair that she saw That was her now. She didn't wait till the meeting got started. She was so excited. She's been overseas. Hi. I'm Madison I'm learning to prophesy and I think I have a word for you And I was just so proud of her But what's happened is we have created an environment that it was safe for Madison to learn to hear from the Lord And and so I've seen it in my own family And so I feel like I can say this in all truth that you can teach others to hear from the Lord Just like you can learn to hear from the Lord yourself My story I received a timely word when I was five years old for my grandmother And then later on I received the same prophetic word from three different people from three different nations that I would be a Pastor of a church and I would prophesy the nations and so my life was interrupted by somebody hearing from the Lord And my destiny unfolded because somebody heard from God and spoke into me I heard from God and now I'm doing what God told me to do and that's what we want to see for this generation Well, let me talk about creating environments to hear from God Psalm 226 says start kids off in the way that they should go and even when they are old They will not turn from it now that is a heartbreaking scripture for some people that have Heard that promise all their life and just seems like their kids fall away Or they become a prodigal and and it looks like they're never going to come to the Lord But you know what I'm seeing around the world right now and the Lord spoke to me about to me about this 10 years ago He's there's coming a season that prodigal is going to run home and Moms and dads are going to be running to them and they're going to be crying their eyes out and not in Judgment, but they're going to embrace and receive them and throw parties for them And I'm seeing this happen all over the world. This scripture is true Start kids off in the way that they should go and when they are old they will not turn from it I believe children develop best in environments where they are wanted and I've had prodigals in my family But we always wanted them to know no matter how they acted or what they did. They were always wanted They were always loved we might disagree with them what their choice is but they were always loved because we believe That you will always reproduce the environment around you that you have cultivated within you So if you need to offer forgiveness you need to have a culture of forgiveness in your heart So I want to tell you don't don't give up on looking for those prodigals and Try to create a safe environment where they are wanted We've had some prodigals in our family come to the Lord because they were scared to death of coming home for a Thanksgiving gathering thinking everybody was going to judge them they come in the door and people just hug them and We love you. We're so glad you're here and before the end of the day They'll just say and how do I get back to the Lord? So let me tell you there's a better way than judgment And it's mercy and it's creating an environment that's welcoming where people are wanted Well, I want to talk about Hannah One of my favorite moms in the Bible you turn to one Samuel first Samuel chapter one Hand is a good example of creating environments For children to hit their potential, you know She was the mother of Samuel and if you read in one Samuel one the first nine verses It talks about she was a woman that could not have children She was barren and to make matters worse her husband's other wife was having kids like crazy And so she felt horrible, but she wanted a son and she prayed and she cried out to God Oh, if you'll give me a son, I will dedicate him to you for the rest of his life. Oh, please give me a son Well, she goes down to see a prophet Eli and let's pick it up there and let me read verse 10 through verse 18 Hannah stood up and now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the Lord's temple verse 10 in bitterness of soul Hannah went Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord and she made a vow saying oh Lord Almighty if you will look only look Upon your servant's misery and remember me and not forget your servant But give her a son and I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life No razor will ever be used on his head and I'm gonna go into that right now But verse 12 as she kept on praying to the Lord that's Interesting phrase she kept on praying. Look at this Eli observed her mouth Hannah was praying in her heart and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard Eli thought she was drunk He thought she was drunk. He said to her how long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine Not so my Lord Hannah replied. I'm a woman who is deeply troubled. I've not been drinking wine or beer I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. She was an intercessor. Do not take Your servant for a wicked woman. I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief and then Eli Not the best leader that's ever been mentioned in the Bible Eli answer will go in peace and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him And when he said that she received that as a word from God She said may your servant find favor in your eyes Then she went her way and ate something and her face was no longer downcast in order the next morning We'll talk about that in a minute, but she received that as a word from the Lord and she goes home and Caesar husband in that marriage sort of way and she gets pregnant and she gets pregnant and she's very very excited and so she she makes these lifestyle choices That I'm gonna mention four of them that will create healthy learning environments to raise her son and our sons and daughters Number one she cultivated an environment of prayer She cultivated an environment how what does being cultivated is that a strategy? It's usually a lifestyle That's why I said she cultivated four lifestyles Your kids what your kids will see what you do more than they'll hear what you say So if you want if you want to cultivate a lifestyle of prayer then just do it That's what this whole weekend is about He said she did not just say her prayers Hannah talked and listened to God passionately In an environment of prayer she heard God's voice through Eli's word And then Hannah the second thing she did is she modeled an environment of worship One Samuel 1 19 Hannah rose early in the morning to worship and offer sacrifices to the Lord She did this every morning as was her custom Then it says the one Samuel 2 21 in chapter 3 verse 3 The boy Samuel grew up near the presence of the Lord He slept near the Ark of God where the Ark of God was the presence of God I want you to understand that prayer and worship run together They need to be the foundation for whatever lifestyle we have if we're gonna train up our sons and daughters to hear from the Lord So she modeled that she prayed She got up early in the morning and she worshiped and our household we prayed as a family We didn't just say our prayers. We prayed we prayed I would take my kids on walks around our Property and we would pray as we would go and I'd say I'd say now We're gonna pray whatever the Lord puts in your heart and I want you to listen You're gonna tell me what the Lord is saying to you So we'd walk around then first they didn't know what to do They're four and five years old and then finally I just stop and say Esther you hear anything Well, I just I just feel uneasy on this side of our yard But I feel really peaceful on that side So I said, okay, so let's go and let's pray whatever that's is robbing us of peace right here Let's pray and get rid of it and we would pray and we'd speak peace and this little girl That had no reason to lie would just say I feel peace There's peace here and we so we taught them to pray but not just saying you should say your prayers And here's some wrote things to memorize We said prayers talking talking to God and then we would worship my wife would On the way to we usually went in separate Cars because I was the pastor and I had to get there about nine hours early And so she would come and bring the kids and they would put on worship music And and they would sing their heads off all the way and then they get there And they and we were one of those churches didn't just ship the kids off But we had them with us during worship We want them to see us lifting our hands and we want them to ask us about it And so we taught our kids to worship as a really important part of our life I want to tell you it's helpful to involve your children in a church youth group Where worship and the presence of God in prayer are priorities And we taught them to worship from the Psalm 100 example We say enter his gates with thanksgiving come into his courts with praise and so we would let's just thank God Let's just sing songs of thanks. We would do all these things with our kids We would take time and it would make it fun for them They would would see church songs that they liked would use those songs to sing and we'd ask them when they come back from youth group What song did you sing tonight? And we would learn those songs and we would we would do it together as a family and at our meals We didn't just bless the food although we taught them to bless the food We'd talk and say don't want anything we need to pray for each other about tonight So since well, I was being bullied or well, this was happening or that's happening And then it was a great day when my kids started saying dad. How can I pray for you? Let me tell you there's there's nothing much sweeter than your kids laying their hands on you and praying for you. It's wonderful Worship with your kids in church in the car and at home and teach them that worship is powerful We try to tell our folks to be alert for teachable moments and I would encourage you to do the same One day a gal in our church named Kay her little son JP was beside her and they were worshiping several years ago And they were singing this song that was real popular back in the 90s I think and and JP tugged on her shirt and he said mom Why is God exhausted? What do you mean? Well, you've been singing he is exhausted the king is exhausted. I don't know Said why is he exhausted and She said that she stopped and she smiled. She said that's exalted The king is exalted and so then he said, okay, what's exalted? So she explained what exalted was and he in right there in church when you're supposed to tell your kids be quiet Don't bother anyone. No, that was a teachable moment. Well, that little boy turned into being one of the best worship leaders We've had in our church. He's leading worship in a big church up in Northwest Arkansas today And he traces it back to that moment where he thought we were singing. He is exhausted Let me tell you there are teachable moments and you have to watch for them You can't just set your kids down and say, okay, you're gonna learn this It's best to find those teachable moments where they can discover All right Well the third lifestyle choice the first was a lifestyle choice of prayer the second was cult cultivating Modeling worship and then the third is Hanna example to the life of obedience and respect for authority right now Rebellion is everywhere in our world. It's running rampant in our streets. It's running rapid in our homes It's and and it's amazing how most families are being led by their kids They don't have time for church because they got too many ball games and too many dance recitals And and and they don't want to do anything to upset their kids Well it upset me when my mom said no, you're not gonna do that. You're gonna go to church But you know what? I'm probably here because my mom made it a priority To take me to church with her and I think we need to think about that a little bit But Hanna example to obedience and respect for authority and one Samuel 1 verse 28 says she kept her word to dedicate Samuel to the Lord She presented him to Eli the priest in the temple She did not opt out of Samuel's development as they went along it says that Hanna used to make him a little robe and take it to him each year When she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice And all the while Samuel was learning to be under authority. She said Eli I'm gonna leave him here with you and you train him up to hear the Lord You train him up to worship the Lord to know about the things of the Lord and now Eli wasn't the best priest you've ever heard of I mean He was overweight. His kids were totally out of control. He was kind of lazy all these things were going on and Sometimes we think that authority has to be perfect before they can teach us anything authority is what God gives and so Eli at that time was the priest that was in authority and Samuel learned to be under authority. It is about being obedient to the Lord, but never blind obedience to men All right, we're never blindly obedient to anyone. We're obedient to the Lord So I've had some bosses that were very ungodly people. I Remember I was working in a job Before I came in full-time ministry and my boss was a Jehovah's Witness And he was always trying to get me to convert and then he was he was the most He was he was a real trip. I mean he lied. He cheated. He done all did all kinds of things But he wanted me to learn about Jehovah And I remember I just got so fed up with him one day I quit. I just said that's it I'm not working for you anymore So I went home and on the way home Lord tapped me on the shoulder and asked me a few questions You know the Lord hardly ever asked you questions to get information. Have you learned that? He said what are you doing? I said well, I'm not gonna work for this ungodly man trying to get me to be a Jehovah's Witness I'm not gonna do it and Goes quiet. You don't want God to go quiet on you I said What's up, God? I do the wrong thing. He said well, I want you to go back to work. I want you there Well, I can't go back to work. I just quit He said no, you need to go back and apologize to that man Are you kidding me? Apologize to this ungodly man. Yep So I go down and I get to my boss now. I go in and talk to him. I said look I Got upset about some things and and I just want to apologize you for Disrespecting your authority as my boss and then to add insult to injury so well I thought to myself is Wayne going bad on me and That's supposed to be a joke, but he he and I just thought and then then you know what after that He started opening up his heart to me about Jesus I got to pray with his daughter to come to the Lord And so but the Lord wanted me to be under authority even though it wasn't the best authority So I'm not saying that that you you blindly obey someone But if God puts you in a place you need to be under authority and that's what she was doing with Eli He was it's it's about being obedient to the Lord One time you want 11 says the boy ministered before the Lord under Eli the priest That means he was under the authority of Eli the priest Now You'll never be over Unless you learn to be under If you learn to be under Then whatever you're over God will bless But you'll never be over if you don't learn to be under and sometimes God's puts you in situations that you think would be a Lot more ideal to learn that story But sometimes you learn the best when you're under a difficult situation Can I just say that to you? Some people give up on leaders when maybe God sent them there to help that leader find a better way Well, we see in 1 Samuel 3 11 and 19 22 that Samuel learned to hear God's voice And he grew to be a great prophet that was so great that not one single word of his mouth fell to the ground when he prophesied You got he got to set in Saul they got to set in David He was that prophet and then while he was growing up His little bed was right next to the Ark the Ark was the presence of God So his mother worshipped every morning he saw that but then he he lived right by the presence of God Now we need to quit being so Focused on keeping our kids entertained Need to teach him. Oh, that's the presence of God. Do you feel that? Did you feel that when you came in maybe maybe don't let them have their phones during the service or you know You might just do some things so they don't get distracted, but I'm telling you we are entertaining our kids to death Need to teach them we need to teach them to wait on the Lord and the way you learn to wait on the Lord is to wait on the Lord All right, so that's what we worked on with our kids and two of our kids were just perfect One of our kids had the attention span of a nat I mean she she just could not stay focused at all But but we noticed that she loved to sing and she had a great little voice And so we would focus her on singing during worship And then then after a while you'd start seeing her little hands go up You see her eyes close and you see her just begin to worship the Lord and she'd say daddy I think I felt Jesus this morning and she became a worship leader and she's a little pastoral gal She also works for Walmart and doing some great things. She pastors everybody And Then last thing Hannah created an environment that valued learning Value learning don't just give everything to your kids help them learn for themselves Hannah enlisted Eli to disciple Samuel Disciple means learner You've heard that old phrase teamwork makes the dream work Well Hannah her husband and Eli the priest worked in team to develop Samuel I want to tell you that parents and especially single parents It's it's hard Should team up with believing family members youth workers teachers and mentors that you trust To give your kids their best chance to become successful adults and to help them find a Christian world view Relativism There's so many things out there that is shaping this pop culture mindset that our kids are developing and The anger and the fear in the world is in people and it's getting in kids Kids are showing out in school more than ever. I talk to teachers all the time I say it is so difficult now to teach in public schools Well, let me tell you our kids maybe can be an example of how they might want to learn and be well, we Do not underestimate the power you have as a parent or a mentor to influence your child in the way They should go James Baldwin a writer that I like said this Children have never been good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed at imitating them Think about that for a minute. Well, Jun and I both had elementary education degrees. We also had other degrees and even with those degrees They're just times with your kids that you just don't know if you did the right thing or the wrong thing Am I making them love Jesus? Am I am I being too hard on them? And then I just remembered this old Keith green song from years ago. Just keep doing your best Pray that it's blessed and let God do the rest and there are times We just had to come to the end of the day and say Lord, we don't know we did our best with our children today But we don't know and so I don't you think you have to be perfect But just keep doing your best and what they will see is your example if you want them to pray Then let them see you pray If you want them to worship let them see you worshiping if you want them to be under authority Then you be under authority You do the right thing and if you want them to learn then let them see that you are a learner Amen Well, there's there in our church. We use three helpful practices for training kids to hear from God And I developed it a lot in the book But I'm just gonna mention them today and I'm gonna encourage you to really think about doing these things yourself First is hearing God through children's dedications Now a couple of examples of dedicating children in the scripture is Samuel Hannah prayed in one Samuel one and Jesus and Luke two It's a wonderful pastoral tool Hannah prayed and this is this is the model prayer. So now I give him to the Lord for his whole life He'll be given to the Lord. That's the essence of a dedication prayer Then something happened though at Jesus dedication Luke to 36 through 40 speaks of Joseph and Mary presenting Jesus for dedication And it said a prophet named Simeon and a prophetess named Anna gave thanks and prophesied over Jesus During his dedication So I saw that now they said, you know, we're gonna dedicate our kids not just to pray We give them to you Jesus We're gonna stir ourselves and see if God tells us anything about the kids and we're gonna prophesy over them So we started that about 30 years ago and we continue to do it and here's how it works for me I'll tell the parent will give me a picture of your child with its name And I'll put that picture up on my desk and so it will agree it for a time for dedication They want to bring their family to come and and and I'll pray and not not one person that I've dedicated Have I not had a word for through all these years? I think God wants wants this for them even more than I do So we would prophesy over these little little infants I mean specific things see you in a white gown. You're in a hospital. You know, I see you with numbers You know, I see you as an athlete We would prophesy these things and then we've been doing it long enough that we've seen these prophecies fulfilled and one of the things that helped is that parents would take those words and they would blow them up and put them in frames and put it on their bedroom walls and They would say like my grandmother said to me and my mom said to me, you know, God spoke to you when you were dedicated That's what God says about you Let me tell you the enemy is going to try to tell them what he wants They need to know like I knew even though I got away from the Lord for a while I knew there was a call on my life because my grandmother prophesied it over me when I was five years old So I'm telling you it is okay to prophesy over your kids And if and if you're not good at that and get somebody else to just say come We're gonna dedicate our child and would you just seek the Lord and see if he might give you a word for my kid now? It's scary stuff. What if it doesn't happen? What if you get it wrong? Well, think of it the other way What if you get it right? What if you get it right and it sets a course now we have kid I got just got a I just got a text today From a gal that I prophesied over when on her dedication I saw her surrounded by brown-skinned people and she was ministering to many people and sharing the gospel She's 19. I got a text She's in Central America on our first missions trip and I've got a picture of her with all these brown-skinned people all around her And she said a hundred and sixty people came to the Lord in that meeting And she said I remembered What was on my wall? I remember you prophesied over me and so I knew I was in the right place This stuff is real. We don't we don't just this isn't just for folks folks up on the platform This is stuff that we can all do. Amen The second thing helpful practice is hearing God's timing for leading kids to Jesus now a lot of parents just want to They just want to subcontract that to the pastor or to the youth pastor Let me tell you one of the greatest things in the world is to lead your kids to the Lord or to lead Some young man or woman that looks to you as a mentor to lead them to the Lord. There's nothing better Let me just share with you how that works for me And it's it's a focus of our book that every believer including young ones can hear the shepherd's voice My sheep can listen and hear my voice John 10 27 So if you're if you're gonna be able to hear the shepherd's voice need to be a sheep So we use that illustration to tell our kids you need to become a sheep so you can hear the shepherd's voice Okay, how do I do that? Then I read from Paul's promise in Romans 10 If you'll confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead He will save your soul So I share that with him and and then And then we wait and we we don't lead them to the go to where we want them to go We listen to them. Let me tell you what happened with my other granddaughter Kenzie when she was five years old. I get a phone call. She said Papa. This is Kenzie I want to get saved Would you tell me what to do and I said well Kenzie what makes you want to get saved? Well, I just heard about it at school and heard my mom and dad talking about it And I just thought my Papa's a man of God I'll just talk to him and So I talked with her about it and and I talked about Romans to her and shared that with her and Then she she gave her life She talked to her mom and dad about it before she called me and she gave her life to Jesus We prayed her she got filled the spirit and just filled up the cab of my pickup truck that we were sitting and we felt The presence of God she starts speaking in tongues. She's got the whole enchilada She was incredible and she goes home and then her her mother my daughter Rian She said you know what Papa let led me to the Lord when I was five years old And I just thought how wonderful is that? How wonderful is that you guys don't give that away to somebody else if God uses somebody else amen? But realize God can use you whether you're a youth pastor a grand paul a dad a mentor a mom a big sister a big brother Know how to lead someone to Lord. Well, okay. How do you lead those kids to the Lord? Well? It for me. It's about answering three basic questions number one. What is salvation? I tell young ones It's a big word adults use to talk about how Jesus saves us and makes us right with God Then the the other question is who can be saved and the answer is anyone including kids Romans 822 says We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus and this is true for anyone who believes No matter who we are Then the third question is what do I have to do to be saved and I use the ABCs Explain in a simple method admit that you've sinned Confess, I mean I had one little six year old boy come to the altar one day and he wanted me to pray with him I said, well, how can I pray? He said I'm just so full of sin So you've been out robbing banks and stuff I mean, what have you been doing he was so convicted and he just knew that he wanted to be free of sin and Forgiven of his sin so admit you've sinned be believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave in new life And then see commit to live your life for Jesus John the evangelist wrote in 3 John 4 I Have no greater joy than this to hear that my children are walking in the truth That's certainly been my experience Now a third helpful practice and your second handout that you have that's been stapled to is what I'll be referring Blessing our sons and daughters with a laying on of hands. I have been blessing men and women that are in their 50s Because they never had a relationship with their parents and they'd never been blessed And I've been laying my hands on them just as if they were a little kid and I just say in a blessing over them And here's how it works for us Deuteronomy 6 4 is our example 4 through 9 and that's that's a prayer that we use But that's known as the Shema which means in Hebrew to listen or to hear and it reads in essence This is how you bless kids to love me and then teach your kids to love me Enjoy me and teach your kids the same Because Jesus example to hands-on relational approach to sapling kids Jesus took them in his arms and bless them laying his hands on them Every year my family goes to a cabin my whole family down in southwest, Arkansas and We started this a few years ago to where have you got you pulled up your little Blessing sheet there is everybody looking at that and so I wrote out that blessing And then what would happen is we would gather our kids around and we would and and June would speak Speak the blessing that that we've all heard and you've all sung the song and Number six twenty four and twenty six a Lord bless and keep you but as she did it We went to each one she would lay her hands on their shoulder and it took a while We've got a big family the Lord bless and keep you and she'd pray that Then I would come behind her and I would lay my hands on them And I would say this parents blessing or spiritual parents blessing may your faith in God be ever increasing And I just and I would say that over them and now let me tell you what I've got two son-in-laws That are tough guys They don't they don't show emotion easy They were crying like babies by the time we got to them June was laying her hands on them and both my both my son-in-laws Did not have fathers growing up And so here I was These guys that were the husbands of my daughters and I was able to give them a father's blessing and to see the Response and to see what's happened since then it's been pretty incredible But I encourage you as homework and for practice if you haven't done this already It doesn't have to be your own child It can be someone that's just never had a blessing from the Lord It's never had hands laid on them and just lay your hands on them and say I want to speak a blessing to you And I'm telling you will see you will see a transformation in some of them the very least You'll see a real sense of encouragement and value that they'll feel from what you've just done I'm trying to go as fast. I can't I hope I'm not going too fast. I got one more thing. I want to say my last chapter in the and the book that I write is about 12 year olds the Lord spoke to me about 12 year olds a few years ago and The Holy Spirit has been revealing to me that 12 year olds are being called and anointed in this season this season for his purposes And and when the Lord first began to speak to me about it I remember Jesus when he was 12 and Luke 2 41 40 through 52 He went in you remember he he the whole family was together and he had wandered off They couldn't find him for a while and he's he's in with the religious leaders of the day and it says about him they say about him and Where am I everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and answers That was a 12 years old. He was confounding the chief priests the most learned people in the town 12 year olds are capable of a lot more than you think they are I was at what we call an arkansas awakening event of about 40 churches coming together We had Todd White in this evangelist that you may have heard of and we were doing this thing to teach people to combine The gifts of the spirit with evangelism So what we would do we would train all morning then the afternoon we go out and practice We would come back that night and give testimonies So we were training our kids about how to prophesy how to have words of knowledge all that stuff And this little girl was giving her testimony. Her name was Marcy and she was 12 And Lord was just downloading in my spirit as she was talking. She said well when we were praying I just got this word I had this vision of a hospital Then I was supposed to go to this hospital up on the third floor There was a lady behind the desk and she she needed me to pray for her So she said so my dad said I could go So her dad supported her and he thought what in the world are we doing but but there was a hospital right down the street They went down and he went in and explained what had happened with his girl We're just we're believers. We're trying to learn to hear the lord and and my daughter thinks she's heard something So and they could have just turned him away They said oh go right up to third floor they go up to third floor at the end of that hall There's a lady sitting behind a desk Marcy goes up and says hi, my name is Marcy and I'm learning to hear from the lord and And I just felt like I I saw you I saw some on the third floor behind the desk. It needed prayer. Is that you? This lady just bends over and starts Weeping weeping weeping she said I've been so stressed and so freaking out over things And I'm just sitting here thinking I desperately need someone to come pray for me So Marcy put her little hands on her prayed for and then she said well There's some people down the hall that are sick. Would you like to go pray for them? So Marcy and her dad got to go to three rooms and pray for people that needed healing That's what those kids are capable of and when I saw that I Remembered back the day that I went to celebrate one of my jewish friends bar mitzvahs Now bar mitzvah that proved it proved to be a prophetic signpost for me A bar mitzvah is a jewish ritual for 12 to 13 year olds. It's called bar mitzvah for boys It's called bat mitzvahs for girls and translates that's the day that you become a son or a daughter of the commandments That means it's when jewish kids are formally accepted into full participation in religious life of the synagogue and their family as adults Now I've been raising my expectations and I've been prophesying and I can't tell you how many times I've had a word for a child and I would say how old are you and they'll say 12 Down in corpus christi a few weeks ago There was a one of the principles of the elementary school got saved And she was just opened whatever god wanted to do in the schools Well, these middle schoolers have started bible clubs now in 12 schools in corpus christi And they're averaging attendance of between 40 and 70 kids are coming to each one It's gone out into the college. They're baptizing kids The college kids are baptizing their classmates in the fountain in the center Of a m university Let me tell you that all started because we listen we well, maybe our kids can do more than we think Now we need that we need to protect them adults need to go with them But we don't need to do it for them and have them watch We're going along to support them to see what god might do And it's and I'm telling you that the jesus movement is beginning to break out That's going to far surpass the one that I was a part of years ago And june and I are praying for young people to have that transformative experience with jesus like we had And I want to tell you it's good to teach your kids about god It's better to tutor them to know god themselves It's good to tell them the stories where you heard god But it's wonderful to let them hear god themselves and to bounce it off of you and I remember my kids saying That I think I've got a word for someone. Well, write it down. Let me see it That's good, huh, or I'd say no, let's wait on that one. Okay You're going to give me your chocolate those kind of words. You know, it was a learning process But someone said an inheritance is what you leave to someone A legacy is what you leave in someone And I'm telling you we have a generation. I call a revival generation. That's raising up They need they need moms and dads big brothers and big sisters mentors youth pastors that aren't just trying to get up to Being a senior pastor. They need to love those kids and go after it with all their hearts Let me close the malachi for Final prophecy the old testament is both timeless and I think timely again See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the lord comes He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the hearts of the children to their parents Or else I will come and strike the land with a curse and that word a hebrew word for curse Means destruction for ignoring God We got to take this prophecy seriously I wish we had more time I've got a few words I want to give for some of you but before I do If you feel like God wants to use you to raise up some sons and daughters I want you to just Put your hand on your heart And I'm going to pray a prayer of impartation I've led over 300 young people to the lord in the last couple of years and and it's just One of the most wonderful things that I'm learning to do and here's what I'm going to do I'm going to lay my hand on this woman's shoulder. She's going to lay her hand on his shoulder He's going to lay his hand on that shoulder. So everyone's going to have a hand on their shoulder. All right Let's go. Can you do it? Are you that coordinated? No, you're going to there you go One hand on your heart your free hand goes on somebody else Now take some a while in arkansas to get this concept. I think y'all are going to be smart Are you ready? Now I want I want you to seriously receive this prayer What are the name of jesus I come tonight with a heart to see this revival generation raise up That will preach and prophesy and teach and run hard after you jesus And they'll they'll raise up a generation not to destruction or despair But they'll become a generation that leads people out of darkness into his glorious light So lord today, I impart that gift Into everyone in this room who wants it And I pray lord jesus that we out of this room will hear testimonies Of the miraculous things that you're doing not only in our kids But through our kids our sons and our daughters no matter what their age are Lord in jesus name I release this Amen Did I talk too fast today for you guys? all right Last thing I want to do today is I'm going to pray for prodigals, but before I do that Let me just give a couple of prophetic words here There's young guy in a ball cap Sitting in the back row Let me see I see a couple of ball caps. I think it's the guy in Were you here at the very beginning before the meeting started in the red cap back there? You weren't all right. What's your name? Corbin I heard this for you Corbin You're being equipped so you can equip others and their gifts Right now you're a prophetic evangelist all about souls and the Holy Spirit and that will continue As you grow you'll be focused on raising up disciples who will raise up disciples who will raise up disciples Call the ministry as real It's a bit early days but real Keep it about jesus And be who you are Back down to him I had a I had a name. I was over in the Over in one of the rooms in the church. I had a name shannon. Is anyone here today named shannon Anybody named shannon in the room? Might be a first or middle name Okay, maybe someone in our meeting All right, is there a youth pastor more than one youth pastors in here this morning? Would you stand up youth pastors? This is a word for all of you and I'll just give it to one of you and you can make you can maybe Take pictures with your phone If you're around these youth pastors, would you just put your hand on them or shoulder on them? I Heard this very clearly. I was back with Pastor lee praying a little bit earlier and I heard this for youth pastor This is your time and season to create new environments Conducive to help young ones learn to hear from god Show and tell will be your method Equipment sand will be your mission Jesus is your message Lean into this season of raising up and releasing a revival generation Teach them to pray to worship and to share the gospel of jesus to as many as they can for the glory of god This he'll he'll have it if y'all want to take pictures of that Then there's a young lady with a white sweater about six rows back blonde hair right there. Can you stand up tell me your name? Andrea adria I just glanced at you briefly when you first came in the lord began to speak to me about you I heard this a gifted communicator More so than you realize You will help young people find their voice Just like it was hard for you to find your voice But you're founding it and god's giving you a strong voice Sometimes you'll feel like a lion tamer But remember you are anointed to help young lions and young lionesses learn to roar for the glory of god Let yourself be at rest that god is using you to speak to encourage to teach and to train You're a gifted communicator who will raise up other gifted communicators for the glory of god. Can you receive that? Ask this back to her Now how many of you this is the last thing i'm going to do I have a minute for questions if you have some but How many of you have a prodigal in your life? Everyone that raised your hand. Why don't you stand up and you're going to be standing for that prodigal that you've been praying for And that those around you if you don't mind they could put their hand on your arm and we're just going to call the prodigal's home Father, I know the pain Of having a prodigal in your family But also no lord that you promised if we raised them upright But even when they're old they won't depart from it So father in the name of jesus I saw this giant elephant-like group of coming home And I believe we're entering that season So everyone that's been praying and crying out to you for a prodigal I called him home in the name of jesus. I'll say come home Get your head up out of the pig slop that you've been eating and come home to your parents to your family that love you And let us throw you a party We're not going to judge you. We're going to receive you We're going to love you We're going to help you become everything that god has intended for you to become So lord, we call back those sons those daughters that have wandered away and maybe gotten into some bad stuff We just ask you god to help them Bring them home In jesus name We pray Amen Now that might not not seem like much to you but probably from this room We're we're going to see prodigals come home and it's going to be and when they do And when they do I want you to text me and let me know I want to celebrate this stuff I've got about four minutes left. Just wonder if there are any questions you have I rush through a bunch of stuff. You're going to love the book. It comes out in september Be a lot more there But is there any questions you thought of that I didn't really cover that you'd like for me to Speak to then I'll do that Yes, ma'am shout it out so I can hear you Well, little kids we thought for the longest time was about memorization And just wrote memory and and that that's helpful But we we teach our teachers To look for teachable moments And so everything we do we try to ask for Ask to see what they understand and we've had kids as old as three grasp Real concepts Kids by the time they're three or four in our church they they have been they've already been praying for people They've already been in worship and they and their moms and dads have been and their big brothers and sisters and youth pastors have been Teaching them to serve And so we just talk and we ask all the time. What does that mean to you? What do you think here? And there's a lot of a lot of good little books for little kids that are coming out that are really good There's a lot of politically correct stuff that we're not politically correct if you haven't learned that there's some new books being written to kind of Turn that the in the opposite direction Anybody else? Yes ma'am right there. Okay Let me just say this. I think the issue is discernment There's always been books or music or whatever that some people thought was of the devil and others didn't think even among And so what the issue is discernment And so I think I think We we teach discernment to little kids combining with the fruits of the spirit When you watch this or when you listen to that Do you feel and one of the guys in our church one of our our elders was walking down the hall and it heard this terrible heavy metal death metal coming out of his son's room He was going to just charge in there and just say get that out He said no, I'm going to turn him more toward it if I do that. So he went down and got on his knees and says, oh lord please I don't want my kid listening to that. I don't want him being impacted by that and he prayed that for two days And in the third day He when noticed his son had a box He was taking it out to the trash and he said what are you doing? He said he said dad I just feel bad and listen to this music. I'm going to throw it away. It's not good So You can do a whole lot with prayer and you have to be really careful that you don't come across judgmental and and people and and people happen to live up to your taste or your experience But I think teach discernment and pray and pray pray and trust god One more question Really? I'm almost over time but one more question. Anybody? All right. Well, then I've got a confession and we'll go with that This is my 50th anniversary of my marriage this year I got three kids. Thank you I've got three kids I got four grandkids and I'll be the first to tell you that I am not perfect I don't always get it right Remember one time I came home and judged something wrong And spanked my son before I knew the whole story Then I realized I'd gotten it wrong And so I went back and I took off my belt and I said son I got it wrong. Please forgive me. I'm you're gonna go ahead and spank me if you want to You know what? He didn't do it. He didn't do it. He said he wanted to show me mercy So so one thing I've tried to do is I've tried to admit it when I make mistakes with my kids I don't I don't You know and I bought we've always been very transparent to go back and apologize or whatever when we get it wrong But here's the here's what I'll leave you with just keep doing your best Pray that it's blessed and let God do the rest Thank you for coming. I sure appreciate you coming here today. See you later