March 15, 2000
Teens urged to stand up for Jesus
___By Dan Martin
___Texas Baptist Communications
___WACO--Teenagers need to stand up for Jesus in their schools, Jay Fannin told more than 900 youth and their leaders at CARGO 2000, a missions conference sponsored by Texas Woman's Missionary Union.
___"Stand up in your school," he said. "Schools are violent places, ... places were drugs are being handed out freely. You need to stand up.
___"But when you stand up in your school, you have to realize Jesus Christ is there with you. He will never leave you."
___The youth minister at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth said there are three parts of standing up for Jesus.
___The first is to "bow down," or get before God in prayer, he said. The second is to believe God wants to do something, and the third is to "bond yourselves with other believers."
___As he encouraged them to pray, he told the stories of two people who prayed in very difficult circumstances.
___He told of Cassie Bernall, the teenager killed at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., who reportedly had been praying before she told the gunman she believed in God.
___ He also told of Jeremiah North, a teenager from Fort Worth who confronted the deranged gunman who invaded Wedgwood Baptist Church Sept. 15, during a See You at the Pole Rally.
___"Jeremiah had been praying, and when he stood up, he knew what to say. There is power in prayer," Fannin told the youth group.
___He also told the teens they "have to believe in Christ totally. ... You have to believe God can do it.
___"You can ask God to do amazing things in your school and with your friends. But if you don't believe he can do it, you limit God. The reason he doesn't do it is because people don't believe."
___He promised the young people that God will honor their desire for God to act, and he illustrated with the story of three freshmen who decided to meet at the front of their school every day and pray for their friends and classmates.
___"The three became 10, and then 40. In six months it was 180 people. When they graduated, the class president was a Christian; the valedictorian was a Christian. Their campus was changed because they believed God can do something."
___He also encouraged them to "bond together with other Christians."
___"There are two things you cannot do alone," he said. "The first is get married. The second is be a Christian.
___"You must bow down, get on your knees and ask God to do something in your life, in your school, among your friends. Then you have to believe he can do it. Then, stay with your Christian friends, who will be your anchor, strength, accountability and power."
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