Being a good kid is not the same thing as being saved. Your child can be kind, go to church, obey you, help other people know the Bible, and make wise choices. And none of those things by themselves mean your child has been born again. And before you help your child respond to this message, the gospel, there is one mistake I especially want you to avoid. And that mistake is teaching your child what to say before making sure they understand what they believe. The Bible says in Mark to repent and believe the gospel. Two words, repent and believe. Let's make both understandable. Repent is a real change of mind and direction toward God. Repentance is more than feeling sorry. And repentance does not mean this make yourself good enough and then come to Jesus. Oh no, we come because we cannot make ourselves good enough to come to Jesus. Repentance involves recognizing my way cannot be the final authority. I cannot rescue myself. I have sinned against God and God is right. He is the right person and I turn toward him and abandon what I used to call my right. I stop insisting that I am my own Lord and I turn toward the God who rightfully is Lord. Believe is like trust. Believing isn't merely saying I believe Jesus exists. Saving faith means I am depending upon Jesus, the word of God. I am trusting what God has done through Jesus. I am no longer trusting my goodness or my church attendance, my baptism, my Christian family, my accomplishments, none of that. I'm not even trusting the fact that I once said a prayer. I am trusting Christ. The Bible says that if we will confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, we will be saved. We will be rescued from our own way and placed in God's way. Notice something important. Jesus does not become Lord because I decide to give him the title. He is Lord whether I take his title in my mind or not. The question is whether I recognize him as Lord, trust him as Lord and stop treating myself as though I am Lord. And Romans 10 joins the outward confession with a genuine inward belief. That's why I don't want you to teach your child a formula of words as though saying words perform salvation. A prayer truly can beautifully express repentance and faith. You see, I prayed when I came to Christ, but my prayer wasn't my savior. Jesus was my savior. So ask questions of your child and then listen. Let your child explain what they believe. If your child has not responded to this gospel message, maybe your child listens and realizes, "I don't think I've ever personally trusted Jesus." You don't have to pressure. You don't have to manufacture an emotional moment. Keep opening the scripture. Keep explaining the truth. Keep praying for your child. and keep pointing to Christ, you can faithfully make the message so so clear for them, but God must give the spiritual life. If your child says, "I've already done that." Encourage them. Don't immediately make them afraid, but help them understand what they're trusting. Think about a bridge being tested. The point isn't necessarily we expect this bridge to collapse. The testing instead demonstrates that the bridge can bear the weight. In the same way, helping your child examine what they believe doesn't have to communicate, I doubt whether you're saved. It can communicate this matter so much that I want you to understand exactly what you're trusting in. And then ask, "What do you believe about Jesus?" Ask your child, "Why do you need him to save you? What did Jesus do for you? And what are you trusting to make you right with God?" What does it mean to you that Jesus is Lord? Ask those questions. Those are very different questions from only asking, "Did you pray the prayer?" And there is another side to this. We don't want our children constantly staring inward and wondering, "Was I sincere enough? Did I feel enough? Did I say it right? Did I behave enough all this week?" Scripture allows us to examine what we believe. But our assurance is ultimately anchored in Jesus and God's promises, not in perfect performance. And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his son. And John goes on to say that he wrote these things so believers could know that they have eternal life. So teach your child, look honestly at what you believe, but then look even more firmly toward Christ. Our confidence is not I behave perfectly this week. Our confidence is God has given eternal life in his son and I am trusting him. If this is making the gospel clear for you and helping you feel more prepared to explain it to your 8 to 12year-old, please like this video. That lets me know that this kind of biblical teaching is useful to you. Jesus said you must be born again. What happens when God saves someone? There is new life. And Ephesians 2 gives us a beautiful picture. Paul begins by describing people as dead in trespasses and sins. Then come two of my favorite words in this passage. But God, God who is rich in mercy makes us alive with Christ. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And then verse 10 talks about the good works for which believers are created in Christ. Notice the order. There is grace received through faith and then made alive in Christ fruit. What begins to grow? Change desires, obedience, work, good works, and ongoing renewal. Here is a picture that helps me remember the biblical order. The new life is the root. God works or fruit growing from it. Good fruit does not create the new root. A new root begins producing fruit. A child can display behavior that looks like Christian fruit without having experience new birth. They can be kind and they can obey. They can serve, attend church, know Bible stories, and even make wise choices and stay out of trouble because you expect it. because their church expects it, because they enjoy approval, because they're just naturally compliant, or simply because they have good habits. Those things are valuable, but those things aren't the savior. On the other hand, a child can genuinely belong to Jesus, can still struggle. They may still get angry or still lie, still want their own way, still make foolish decisions. New birth does not mean instant perfection. Romans 12:2 says, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." You see, God continues renewing the way believers think and live. So don't ask only does my child act Christian. Look for deeper evidence of a relationship with Christ. Does God word increasingly matter? Is there conviction about sin? Do they want to understand God? Is there a growing desire to follow Jesus? When they fail, are they learning to turn back toward God? And remember, these things are evidence, not the foundation of their salvation. Our foundation is Christ. I know personally how easy it is to confuse Christian behavior with salvation. You see, I grew up in church. For years, I thought being saved mostly meant not doing all the things Christians weren't supposed to do. I knew the Christian settings. I knew what Christians were expected to look like. But after high school, I heard a sermon on Christian radio. And God personally convicted me. I began to understand. I didn't simply need better behavior. I needed Jesus. And I asked Jesus to forgive me and to save me and to be my Lord. And I believed he received me as his own. I did not suddenly become perfect. But the thing is something changed and I began caring deeply about what does God think? What does God want? I began reading scripture because I wanted to hear what he had to say. I began praying and there were rules I had broken in high school that nobody knew about. Nobody was making me go back and confess those things. But I wanted to make things right. Why? Because God's opinion mattered differently to me. Now that confession did not save me. It was fruit growing from something that had already changed at the root. 10 years later after I had already been a Christian for quite some time I heard extensive teaching on grace especially Ephesians 2 verse 8 and 9 and I began understanding more deeply that my relationship with God was 100% because of his grace not because of me Jesus w Jesus was not helping me to save myself he was my savior and I am still learning what it means to live under his lordship. And I still want my own way sometimes. I still need my mind renewed. I still need scripture to correct me. And I still need Jesus. That's why struggling doesn't automatically mean there is no new life. The question isn't does this person ever fail. The deeper question is who are they trusting? Who do they belong to? and who do they increasingly want to follow? And if you want clear biblical help that equips you to guide your 8 to 12year-old and ground their faith before middle school pressure becomes stronger, please subscribe to the Faith Bomb Mentor channel. That's what we're working on here together. Now, let's bring this back to you. You don't need to finish this video thinking, "I need to memorize Ann's explanation." That's not the goal. My goal is for you to say, "I understand this better now, this way of salvation, and I know where to go in scripture." And before you sit down to explain salvation to your child, go through these passages yourself. I'm putting them on the screen. Write them down. Read them. Slow down and pray. and ask God, "Help me understand your gospel clearly." And then ask, "What does this teach me about God? What does this teach me about my need? And what did Jesus do? What am I called to believe? What does it mean for Jesus to be my Lord?" And if you're uncertain about something, talk it through with a trusted pastor or a mature Christian mentor. Not because you're outsourcing the gospel conversation, but because this is one message worth understanding carefully. If you have a spouse or a pastor or trusted Christian mentor you respect, consider sharing this video with them and talking through it together. Make sure you understand the message before trying to explain it to your child. Then have the hard conversation. When your child is ready to talk, don't begin with a test. Begin with a conversation. Maybe something like, "What do you think it means to be saved?" And then I want you to listen. Or maybe ask another question. Why do you think we need Jesus? And then listen. And then the third question, what did Jesus do for us? What do you think it means that Jesus is Lord? And open scripture together and teach your child not to repeat your answers, but to respond to what God is saying in his word. You want them to understand truth for themselves. And if they don't understand everything yet, it's okay. Keep helping them. Keep praying for them. Keep opening God's word together. Keep pointing to Jesus. You cannot manufacture new birth, but you can faithfully make the gospel clear. And faith mom, this is why I want you having these conversations. You're not trying to teach your child to repeat your answers. You want them to understand truth for themselves. And if they don't understand everything yet, keep helping and keep praying for them. keep opening God's word together and pointing them to Jesus. You cannot manufacture new birth, but you can faithfully make the gospel clear. And mom, this is why I want you having these conversations during the 8 to 12year-old age range. Middle school brings stronger voices. There's friends, there's social pressure, there's online influences, there's questions, there's independence. Your child will increasingly make choices when you aren't beside them. You cannot prepare for that merely by giving them more rules. You want something deeper. You want them entering those years knowing I belong to Jesus. Jesus is Lord. God's word is true. I can listen to his voice even when other voices are louder. That doesn't guarantee your child will never struggle. It doesn't guarantee they will never doubt. It doesn't guarantee they will never make a bad decision. But it does give them something much deeper to stand on and something solid to return to when the pressure comes. That's why we want to prepare before the pressure. We are not saved because we become good. We need rescue because of sin. We cannot rescue ourselves. Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. God calls us to repent and believe the gospel. Jesus is Lord. We trust Christ. Jesus saves by grace through faith. He gives new life. And from that new life, a life of following Jesus begins to grow. That's the difference between simply looking Christian and receiving new life from God. If you're thinking, I understand this better now, but I still want to make sure I can explain it the gospel clearly to my child, I created something to help you do exactly that. It's called the Gospel Clarity Study Guide, and it's completely free. Instead of just relying on what you heard in the video, the guide will help you study the key scriptures, pray for understanding, write the gospel in your own words, and prepare to explain it to your child. There's the next step I want you to take before you try to explain this way of salvation to your child. Make sure you understand it clearly from scripture. You don't say, "Ann explained this, so I'll just repeat what she said." But instead, you can say, "I opened God's word. I studied it. I understand what I believe. And now I can faithfully explain it to my child. Click the link in the description, enter your email, and I'll send the free Gospel clarity study guide straight to your inbox." Your child is going to hear a lot of voices as they move toward the middle school years. But before those voices get louder, help them understand the most important message of all. Who Jesus is, what he has done, and why they need him, and what it means to belong to him. You don't have to outsource that conversation. You can understand the gospel. You can open God's word, and you can faithfully point your child to Jesus. And if your child tends to think being a Christian means trying harder to be good enough for God, be sure to watch the video next. I'll help you show them the difference between grace and trying to earn God's approval. And I've linked it here. How to help your child stop trying to be good enough for God. We'll see you over in that
