Luke 18:15-17
Please remain standing and pray
with me before we turn to the scriptures. Lord, give us, in
these moments, opportunity to hear your word, the seed planted. May it be planted on good soil.
May we take it to heart and put it into practice in our lives.
May you keep Satan from snatching it from us. May you keep the
cares of this world and tribulations from removing your word from
us. And may you Let your word dwell richly in us and may it
reflect a holy living, holy action in each of our lives. We pray
in Jesus name. Amen. Please give your attention to
the reading of God’s word and turn to Luke chapter 18 verse
15 through 17. Verses 15 through 17 are section in Luke where he picks
back up matching the parallels and Mark as well as Matthew. In Luke’s gospel, this little
section is grouped a little bit differently than the other gospels,
but the subject at hand is how should a person receive faith?
Well, should it be like the Pharisee? No. Who justified himself. Should
it be like the tax collector? Absolutely. Should it be like
the blind beggar coming up? Absolutely. Should it be like
the disciples who are confused? Probably not. But today it should
be like a little child who trusting their parents receives it with
great faith and simplicity. So let’s now give our attention
to the word of the living God. Luke chapter 18, verse 15. Now
they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them.
And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus
called them to him saying, let the little children come to me
and do not hinder them for to such belong the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does
not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter
it. Amen. You may be seated. I think maybe last week in our
sermon about self-justification, as the Pharisees had done, or
justification by faith alone through Jesus, I may have said
at the outset, this is a really important sermon. And I probably
said before in other messages, this is a really important sermon.
Well, today is just like those. This is a really important sermon. Actually, every sermon is super
important, wouldn’t you say? But this is a key sermon because
it gives us a little bit of perspective. It gives us some insight into
where children fit into the kingdom. It gives us some insight into
how we might see the next generation of the church survive and thrive. It gives us some key insight
into our church and its present ministry. There are two key thoughts
in this passage. I will give these to you and
then I will be very shameless and take this passage in a direction
that I think we need to go pastorally. The two thrusts of this passage
are this, and I’ll go with the second one first. It speaks of
the way one should come to Christ. One should come to Christ as
a child who trusts their parents. Just the other day I sat in the
bank line, as many of you are doing. The lobbies are closed
at most banks, so you sit in that endless sea of cars, you
know, three lanes wide, nine cars deep. It’s about 45 minutes
and you’re keeping the sheiks overseas happy as you burn up
all that fuel. And I was sitting next to a car,
I’m a people watcher, and next to the car beside me was a little
baby in one of those carriers popped in this little square
thing. backwards, and you could see the little arm of the carrier,
it was up, and I remember back from the days of parenting, that
thing’s supposed to go down in the car, that was probably illegal,
but you never, you know, you never lose your safety features.
But hanging from that little arm were little toys, and I could
see the little baby, little hands, just wiggling, goo goo gah, you
know, the eyes looking. That little child was simply
trusting. not trusting in Subaru or whatever vehicle they were
in, not trusting in BB&T’s fiduciary fidelity to keep the parents’
money safe. He was simply, or she, I don’t know, simply trusting
mom and dad have got my back. And that’s how one should come
to faith. Not with fanfare, not with hopes, not with caveats,
not with, but I’m this good and that good. Not the way of the
Pharisee, not the way of the one who was self-righteous, but
the way of the blind beggar, the way of the tax collector,
the way of Zacchaeus. the way of a child. That’s one
thrust of this passage. But the second thrust of this
passage is the one I want to land on today. And it’s this. Children are part of God’s family. Jesus rebukes his disciples who
were issuing a strong rebuke, really, to the crowds. Most scholars
believe these were large crowds, thousands of people following
Jesus, bringing their little ones and saying, Master, touch
my child. A touch from a priest, a touch
from a rabbi. And a Lord bless you and keep
you was a special thing. And they sought him to receive
that. But the disciples said, no, the master has no time for
infants. And what it reveals is that Jesus
sees in his disciples, they don’t get the kingdom. They don’t understand
who’s involved, who’s included. And so I want us to think today
about the implications of this truth. Children are a part of
God’s family. When we examine a young man for
Presbytery to be a minister, well, they’re not always young,
most of the time they are. Generally, we put this question
to them, who are members of the visible church? Not the invisible
church, the spiritual church, but who are members of the visible
church? And the correct answer, which we often don’t hear is
this, it’s Christian parents and their children. Now we differentiate
between communicant members, those who come to the table,
and those who don’t. We believe children aren’t able
to come to the table because they don’t yet have faith in
Jesus. So they are non-communicant members. Yet they have all the
rights and privileges of the church. They have pastoral care. They have all the rights to sit
in worship and service and receive God’s blessings through his ordinances. We also remember 1 Corinthians
chapter seven, whereas the gospel was going out from Jerusalem
and Judea and Samaria into the ends of the earth. And it was
making its way around the Mediterranean Sea up into Europe, ended up
in Spain. We remember that the apostle
Paul says to the Corinthian church, look, some of you have become
Christians, but you have an unbelieving spouse. And remember in 1 Corinthians
7, the apostle Paul says, your unbelieving spouse and your children
are sanctified through you. And so we remember back to the
special relationship that God had with Abraham. This is really
not all that different from what we see in the Old Testament.
God came to Abraham. He rescued him from out of idolatry
and Ur of the Chaldeans. He sent him to the promised land
where God said, I will be your God. You and your offspring after
you will be my people. and I will bless you and I will
establish with you an everlasting covenant for you and for your
children and for those who are far off. Now we understand that
not all children of the covenant profess faith in Jesus. It takes
time or in some cases it never happens in God’s sovereignty.
But we understand that while our children are in our home,
there is some special relationship. Now today is not a sermon about
baptism. Today is not a sermon about those
details. But I want us to speak about
the truth and the implications of what Jesus says here. Children
are a part of God’s family. Now, I’m just going to admit
here at the outset, I’m going to be utterly shameless. I am
going to take the opportunity that is before us today to speak
of the meaning and the implications of this truth. I’ll probably
say a mouthful. I hope it’s clear. And if you
misunderstand something, call me. There are tons of coffee
shops in town. We have telephones, all the rest. I’d be glad to
speak. But I want to let you know this is a subject near and
dear to not only the Lord’s heart, but it is near and dear to my
heart as well. And so we see this rebuke in
our passage today from the lips of Jesus. Let the little children
come to me. Do not hinder them for to such
belong the kingdom of God. I want to speak to us today about
seven implications of this. Seven implications of this truth. The first implication relates
to our church growth. Our church over the years has
grown with older people. Our church through the years
has grown with middle-aged people and single people. But there’s
always that lament throughout the church. Well, we just need
to grow through families and families with children. And so
you can see how a passage like this has great implications for
a church like ours. We want families with children.
We want old people, single people, middle-aged people. We want all
kinds. The covenant community is made up of those generations. Think we’re very blessed. We
have someone I think in every age category, every 10 year increment. I don’t think we have anybody
in the hundreds. Now we have, I think, 17 17 individuals or families who are
more or less homebound now because of health or infirmity, but also
due to COVID fears. But in our church, we have every
generation, every age, every cohort represented. And that’s
a wonderful thing. But yes, indeed, we want the
watching world. to hear the gospel. And we want
men and women and boys and girls to come to faith in Jesus and
be part of God’s covenant community, the family of Almighty God. And
so this passage from the Lord Jesus has implications for our
church growth. It also has implications for
our church ministry. How do we see children? How do
we view them? We love children in the covenant
community. We love children in worship.
We have a room down the hall where if your child is noisy
or needs to be cared for in a special way, we have a cry room with
rocking chairs, with a changing table, with a private restroom.
And there’s even a speaker in there where you can turn on the
service. And you can hear the words of every song, every creed,
every Bible passage, as you take care of your little ones. But
we also, during the service, provide childcare. And if they’re
younger, our little mantra is this, your children in a safe
environment with two background check people will be in a room
that’s clean and well kept, and your child will be read to, sung
to, prayed with, and played with. And that’s a wonderful thing
in God’s covenant community. And for our older children, particularly
during the Sunday school hour, if you walk in that room, and
I encourage you to do that, you’ll see the creeds on the wall printed
out. You’ll see the Apostles Creed.
You’ll see the doxology. You’ll see the Gloria Patria.
And so during Sunday school, as they hear a story of the scripture,
as they sing through the hymns that will be in worship, they’ll
say the creeds that will be said during the service, they are,
as little ones, prepared to be able, if that’s appropriate for
your family, to come in the worship service and participate in some
meaningful way. And so we try to stretch ourselves
and say, what are the ways we can serve in our church ministry
all the families of our congregation? Well, there’s a third implication,
not just about church growth or our church ministry, but also
our covenant community. I think it’s important for us
to remember that God made a promise not just to Abraham, but to his
family. And he made this offspring to
Abraham and the generations who would come after him. And so
in Abraham’s life, when the males of the household, whether young
or old, believed in Yahweh and had faith in Yahweh of Israel,
they were circumcised. It was a sign and symbol of their
cleansing. It was a sign and symbol that
they were holy. They were set apart. They were not outside.
They were not excluded. They were not unclean. But as
they entered the covenant family of Almighty God, they were declared
holy and clean. And so in our covenant community,
as we are the children of Abraham, the offspring of Abraham by faith,
we want everything we do in our nursery and our childcare and
our Christian education. In the way we conduct ourselves,
we want to say this is a covenant community of God’s people. We’ve
made vows before the Lord to fear him and keep his commandments,
but also to serve one another. And I think it’s wonderful to
be a part of a church that does not segregate age by age. We get together, we worship together,
we serve together, we learn together, we grow together. And we rub
shoulders with those of every single age. The family of God
is for believers and their children. That was true in the life of
Abraham. Remember, God commanded him to
set apart his family. And so on one very day, Abraham
took every male in his home, whether they were born in his
home, bodice servants, and he circumcised them as God commanded.
Then thereafter, every male born on the eighth day in a Jewish
home was presented before God and circumcised. And we see this
continue in New Testament conversions, the household of Lydia, the household
of the Philippian jailer, the household of Stephanas in the
book of Acts. Baptism was for the believing
parents, but also for their household, not to say this whole family
is saved, but to mark them out as God’s covenant family, no
longer excluded and unclean, but included and holy before
the Lord God. So as we think through these
implications, of this great truth, church growth, church ministry,
our covenant community. I want to land for a few moments
on two implications that really reflect on the Christian home. And this fourth implication is
for the Christian home. I’ve said many times in your
hearing that our Christian homes ought to be greenhouses, greenhouses
where our children have the right environment to grow in safety,
to grow up in the fear and the admonition of the Lord. And as
they get big enough, and as they are planted and rooted in the
ground, they can make it in this world. because they are grounded
in their faith, grounded in the truth, and grounded in the hope
and promises of Almighty God. And so we want to think of our
Christian homes as greenhouses. Some years ago, in the first
church I served, I think there must have been a full moon, and
so about 10 couples all had babies on the way. And as we were having
our first child on the way, the pastor said to me, look, you
got this captive audience, babies on the way, y’all need to do
a parenting class. And so me and my funny little way drew
a picture of what Deuteronomy 6 implies for the household. Deuteronomy 6 speaks of, here,
O Israel, the Lord your God is one. You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Jesus in
the gospel blesses it with love your neighbor as yourself. These
are the two great commandments with a promise. But in that picture,
Deuteronomy 6, it goes on to say on down in that chapter,
We’re to live with our children. And as we sit, as we walk, as
we go about our day, as we eat at table, as we worship together,
as we do life side by side in this greenhouse sort of way,
what we say and what we don’t say, what we do and how we live
as an example will really begin to shape our children. It will
shape their worldview. It’ll shape what they believe
about home life, what they believe about church life. And so as
parents providing a greenhouse for our children, it matters
what you say. And it really matters what you
don’t say. A lot of what we learn is not
taught, but it’s caught as we say. And so we want our children
to have a worldview where God is the maker of heaven and earth.
We want to have rules in our house for them to abide by so
that our home is an orderly place. But we want to distinguish those
from God’s rules, his commandments, his laws, and his way for his
children to live. We want to have a home where
there is discipline, positive discipline, encouragement for
doing what is right, but negative discipline. And I mean that in
the Barney Fife sense of the word. If you see sin, you nip
it in the bud. So many people are living passively
today with their children, and we wonder why there’s a generation
before us that schoolteachers want out. after their first year
or two of teaching. We wonder why the jails are full.
We wonder why society is the way it is. And it’s because I
think the home has fallen apart, not just secular homes, but even
Christian homes. And so we need to remember that
one of the great jobs we have as parents is to provide a place
for your children to be nurtured in the fear and admonition of
the Lord, to learn what is right, good, and true, but also to experience
discipline, positive when right things are done through encouragement,
but negative when correction and cleansing and foolishness
needs to be driven out of our children. We’re busy though. You watch parents nowadays and
they count to a thousand. I’m gonna count to three and
you better obey me. And then we get up to 100 and
then we get up to 200 and sort of making a jest there. But we count, we exasperate,
we are inconsistent in our home life. We have a holier than thou
attitude. We allow little sins to fester
in our homes. We have Christian children who
tell lies. We have disagreeable children.
We have children that whine and squabble. They delay in their
obedience to the parents. They negotiate, they tattle.
and they’re lazy. And what does Jesus give as a
standard for the Christian home? Raise children who obey right
away, all the way, and in a happy way. We had a little saying in
the first church where I served with this group of folks. went
through this one couple, had two little boys, Josh and Caleb,
I think were their names. And I remember Josh and Caleb
coming by church with their mom one day. And I think it was the
younger one. He said, mommy, I’m going to
get a happy heart spanking, aren’t I? I could hear him being disagreeable,
disobeying, and that mom took care of business. But the little
boy had it figured out. My heart is not happy. And so
the discipline is negative. But we live in a culture where
children are permitted to run the houses. Children are permitted
to make mom and dad obey them or else. You don’t believe that,
just go to the shopping mall. You don’t believe that, just
see a kid who’s tired, not had a nap, who’s not fed, and they
have a dirty diaper, and they are going to pitch a good one.
But it doesn’t have to be so with our Christian homes. We
need to provide greenhouses where we have consistent, loving, tender
lives. When our first child was about
I don’t know, eight or nine months old, my wife, after we went through
this parenting class, went through an educational forum, how to
help a toddler, how to raise a toddler. And she came home
from this Saturday event, and she said, we have to turn off
the TV. And I said, for the kids or us? And she assured me it
was just for the kids. She said, this is the way this
person suggests we live life. While the kids are little, we
stay home. We read to them. We play with them. We pray with
them. We sing to them. We have them do life alongside
us. We don’t leave the driveway unless
it’s necessary. But for the first five, six years
of life, we just have a quiet, steady home life. where we can
consistently, lovingly, and tenderly live alongside them, change their
diapers, feed them, make sure they’re rested and safe until
they get on their feet a little bit. And that’s what the greenhouse
of a home, I think, ought to look like. It may look differently
for life and circumstances, but the general idea is this. Your
children need to know parameters. They need to know discipline,
positive and negative. They need to know the word of
the living God, and they need to live within the boundaries
that you provide for them. God has a sense of humor, doesn’t
he? He sends you with a little kid and there’s no string on
the ankle of the child with a piece of paper that says, here’s how
to do it. But we remember the Bible is sufficient. The Bible
is sufficient for everything we need to know in life, everything
we need to believe about God and everything we didn’t know
for worship. A lot more could be said about this implication,
but we need to move on. And so we think of this truth
where Jesus says, let the little children come to me. Do not hinder
them for to such as these belongs the kingdom of heaven. It has
implications for our church and our growth. It has implications
for our church ministry, the way we serve. It has implications
for how we live together in the covenant community. It has implications
as we have just seen in the Christian home. And I could go on for days
on that subject and we’d be happy to over coffee. But it also has
implications in a fifth area, Christian education. In Christian
education, by that I mean in your home, through the church,
and for some, through the way you educate your children. Some
go to Christian school, some are homeschooled, others go to
public school. But we know very well through
studies that children learn well through three stages. You read
the little kids and they can soak up the facts. They can spit
out to you Bible verses, Bible stories, characters, and when
you get it wrong, they will correct you. You know how that works.
In the second stage, maybe they get towards middle school, you
read to them things and then you explain them to them. And
then they can turn around and explain it to others. And then
as they get older, maybe high school age, you read to them
and you discuss. They begin to take ownership
of the facts and put them into practice wisely in life. And
then you’ve got a lifelong learner. But we know well these three
stages of living. And so we teach our little ones
stories and catechisms. We teach them the words of hymns.
They can learn the creeds. Little children have minds that
are sponges. and they can soak it up and it
pays dividends later. And then as they get older, they
understand its meaning and then they can apply it to life. This
is very well laid out for us in the scripture. You remember
when the apostle Paul writes two letters to Timothy, who’s
the pastor at Ephesus, and he says, remember what you learned
from your grandmother and from your mother, and then what you
have now believed. Raising children in the ways
of Christian education is often generational. It’s through the
home, it’s through the church, and it’s through a plan of education.
And so what are some of the obstacles? Well, we have too small a vision
for children. We have too small a vision. We
don’t see them as having souls that will last forever. And so
culture and society, and even Christian culture and society
says, don’t push your children too hard. I’ve never seen more
on a Sunday, a child who was getting smacked on the back.
Congratulations, you won a chess tournament. But then when it’s
time to sit through church, they’re all of a sudden the village idiot.
And we see that over and over in the life of Christians. Oh,
my child can excel at soccer. They can excel at dance and tumbling
and jamboree and jamboree and Boy Scouts. preacher don’t expect
them to sit in church and get anything out of it. So one day
they’re the chess champ. The next day, particularly on
the Lord’s day, they can become the village idiot. And we have
too small a vision for our children who have souls that will last
forever. The other pitfall is put on us. Parents, don’t impose
your beliefs on your children. Well, that’s exactly what the
Bible says to do. Moses in Deuteronomy says, yes,
impose your worldview on your children. It is Yahweh who made
heaven and earth. That’s what the book of Genesis
is. It’s a worldview for the people of God so they can understand
why there is a world and everything in it and what is the meaning
of human history and the work of God’s redemption. We’re finding
out the results of about the last 50, 60, 70 years of American
Christianity. You’ve heard me mention over
and over the research that comes from the University of North
Carolina Chapel Hill, Christian Smith, who I think has now moved
on to Notre Dame to teach, but he coined several years back
a phrase called moralistic therapeutic deism. And we’re seeing that
in the whole of the American church, but it particularly has
landed in the youth ministry culture of the American church
in the last 50 to 70 years. And it simply is this moralism,
be good, therapeutic, feel good, deism, there is a God and if
you need him, just ring him up and he’ll come running if he’s
available. Several years ago, piggybacking
on this phrase, moralistic therapeutic deism, a female professor from
Princeton University, who may or may not be a Christian, I
don’t know, but her insight into youth group culture in America
caused her to write this book on her research called Almost
Christian. And it’s a play on words from
Paul’s speech before Felix Agrippus in the book of Acts as he’s on
his way to Rome to defend his life. for the sake of the gospel. And you remember Agrippa says
to Paul, thou has persuaded me almost to become a Christian.
So go back to our home life, go back to our Christian homes
and the implications there, and the need to have a greenhouse
for our children to live in. Go back to the implications on
church ministry. What happens when children get
confused messages, mixed messages? Home is legalism instead of gospel.
Or church one day is this, church one day is the next, church the
next week is this, youth group is that. We have a little saying
around here, everything we do must match the pulpit. Everything
that is read and preached and prayed and sung and taught down
the hallway or taught at a Bible study, it all ought to match
the biblical faith we all hold to. That keeps us from being
confused Christians. How much so more important is
it? that between church and home
and school, we don’t produce confused children who think the
role of a little boy and girl is to be good, feel good, and
there is a God if I need him. No, we need to put before them
the gospel. We need to put before them the
Passover. We need to put before them the
Lord’s Supper. We need to put before them the ordinances that
God has given to show his work of redemption in human history,
so that our children will say, Mom, Dad, what is the meaning
of this? We have too small a vision for
our children who have souls that will last forever, but they are
sinners, and they have a hole in their heart that is God-sized,
and it is never too early to teach them the building blocks
of the faith. Now, some of you may say, oh,
this worked for you, it’s not worked for me, or this is pie
in the sky, disagree, whatever. Some of you may say it’s a little
too late. And to both of these objections,
I say, God’s word works. If you’re faithful, he’s faithful.
Oh, we live in a sinful world. And yes, our children don’t do
everything we want. Some of you grieve over your
children. I know that. And I know with you in your heart,
these things and pray with you and for you often. But we’ve
got to do what God’s word said. It’s our duty and he promises
great blessings. But some of you may be midway
through and say it hasn’t worked. And to you, I would say this,
you stop. Stop the madness of your life
and repent before God and say, Lord, something’s not right.
Something’s not working and ask for his forgiveness, but go to
your children. And it doesn’t matter if your children are in
their teen years. It doesn’t matter if they’re in their twenties
or thirties or forties or fifties and say, daddy loves Jesus and
mama loves Christ. And we made some mistakes and
we want your forgiveness. And we would like to begin again
with you because this is eternally important to us. These are wonderful,
amazing opportunities. because our children have souls
that will last forever. Remember that our children have
so many competing voices screaming into their ears, and we need
to have a vision for their growth and grace, their Christian education.
Oh, sure, they can take dance lessons and do sports and do
music, but is their daily Bible reading? Is their catechism recital? Are they learning the hymns and
the building blocks of the faith? We need a gracious home life.
We need a gracious church life. We need content, we need time,
and we need the Holy Spirit to do his mighty work, which he
promises to do, and the world will see generation after generation
of men and women and boys and girls who love the Lord Jesus. Some years ago in the first church
I served, I met with an elder one day over lunch. We decided
as a session, as an elder board, we were gonna reduce the age
of children that left service and went out to something else.
I forget what it’s called, junior church, maybe. And we reduced
it from maybe fifth grade down to first grade. So if you were
kindergarten through first grade, you could sit in church midway
through and leave. But I think second grade on or
first grade on, I can’t remember. But anyway, I met this elder
for lunch. He was a wise man and he said, look, We’re about
to set off a nuclear bomb. And I said, yes, I know. And
so we began to think, what are the obstacles we are going to
face? And do you know where our greatest obstacle came from?
It came from one of our fellow brothers on the session. And
this is what he said. I think he’s repented of it and sees
differently now. But this is what he said. My six-year-old
boy will be a distraction to me in service. And this elder
said to him, well, he’s going to be a big distraction the rest
of his life when he doesn’t fear the Lord and walk with him. And
what this brother was saying to the other brother is it’s
worth it. It’s worth having a wiggly squirmy
kid who asks questions and, you know, wiggles the candy wrappers
and those sorts of things. God will bless the hard work
and the labor of the home. of the church and of our having
our children in worship. And that’s the last implication
I want to give to us today, Christian worship. Let the little children
come. And it’s all these implications
we’ve spoken of, but the last one I want to speak of is Christian
worship. As I mentioned to you, we dropped
the age in the first church I served so that younger children could
participate in the life of the service. And one of the things
we really emphasized is your children’s success in service
really depends on the work you do during the week. And so you
start to see the method to the madness, don’t you? If you have
a home life that lends itself to fearing the Lord, knowing
the Bible, learning the truths, and your child makes it through
the Sunday school hour where they’re read to, sung to, prayed
to, they’re prepared for the service of worship, because they’re
made familiar with the hymns and the songs, they come to church,
and because of your gracious home life, The work of the covenant
community together. They can come to church and yeah,
it’s a little iffy sometimes. I’ve been there and done that.
Mostly my wife did because I was a pastor. She did most of it
on her own, if not all of it. So I understand how difficult
it is, but the work will pay off. And we’re so committed to
our children doing this in the world and that in the world.
We want their black belt in karate by the age of six, but they can’t
make it through church. And so my encouragement with
you is this, our children are just like us big people. We’re
made to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And so every moment
of every day, and especially on Sunday, we ought to help them
succeed in that eternal endeavor. because our greatest hope, and
I know some of you who have older children who don’t walk with
the Lord, you say to me that I hope that when I’m in heaven
someday, they’ll be with me, right beside me, worshiping Almighty
God. That is the goal from the beginning. That is the goal all the way
through. We want fellow worshipers, and
we want to introduce them to our Father who is in heaven. You know, there’s a big move
in America today to have family-integrated churches, And they think it’s
something new. But think about Abraham. Think
about the children of Israel at the foot of the mountain.
They saw the fire and the smoke. Think about the children of Israel
at Passover. Mom, dad, what is the meaning of this event? And think about your own children.
And they see the Lord’s Supper. They see your tears and worship.
They hear you sing the hymns, or whether you don’t, they hear
your prayers. They see life beside you. The
covenant community has always been family integrated. And so
the challenge I think for us today is to encourage one another.
to have our children as far as possible, when appropriate, in
worship together. The worldview that you teach
them, the home life and the church life will give them great graces. And there are obstacles. I know
there’s a tension span. You know, some of you old people,
you fill in the Bs and the Ds and the Zs. You count the bricks
and the ceiling tiles. You’re looking for the flies.
You’re seeing if there’s any new stains. Has the preacher
lost more hair? I know all those gimmicks. I
don’t get the privilege of them because I’m pretty busy up here,
but I’m a kid or I was a kid once. Right. I go to church four
or five times a year where I’m not the preacher. I get it. We
live in a day and age because of tablets and telephones. Our
attention span is gone. We aren’t able to listen. But
remember what the Christian faith is. It is faith which comes by
hearing and hearing through the word of the living God. And so
some of the way we parent our children during the week is to
teach them to listen. Don’t let their minds rot with
too much television, too much tablet. Let them listen to audio
stories. Let them listen to Bible stories
on audio. Train them during the week to
be able to sit, to pay attention. But the most important thing,
I think, is to make them familiar with it by doing it alongside
them. And they say, what mommy and daddy value. I hope that
what I’ve said today has been truthful. I hope that what I
have said today has been encouraging to you. I hope that you see the
implications of these things for you as families, as grandparents,
as parents, as children. I hope you see the implications
as members of the church who, when a child is baptized, you
say, We’ll be right there with you in the way you raise your
child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I hope you’ll keep
the nursery. I hope you’ll read to the kids
and sing to the kids and pray with the kids and play with the
kids. I hope that in your home life
you won’t have legalism, but gospel. And I hope that you will
want your children to be right beside you as you seek first
God’s kingdom. and as you want to glorify God
and enjoy Him forever. I want to remind you and challenge
you of one last thing, and this is for us big people and us little
people. Sunday success starts on Saturday
night. Not for the preacher. No Saturday
night specials, I hope, for me. But for you, you lay out your
clothes. You get your tithes and offerings ready. You find
your Bible. Hopefully you know where it is
week by week. You know what’s for lunch. You have a simple
Sabbath. You have your notebook and your
pen. You pray. There is no more horrible time
for a Christian family than in the time between getting dressed
and leaving for church. And guess why? Satan hates the
fact that you and your family, you and your spouse, or you by
yourself coming to sit with others, are coming to the Lord’s house
on the Lord’s day with the Lord’s people. Remember the promise
that God made to Eve. Your seed and the seed of the
serpent will fight, fight, fight. And if you want a good challenge,
you try to raise your family and live a Christian life in
your home, whether you’re married, have children, whatever, you
try to do that, Satan is going to come after you with both fists
and both feet. And you’ll never have a worse
fight than on a Sunday morning before church. You’ll never be
more frustrated than getting out the door late or trying to
find your phone or the Bible. So Sunday success starts on Saturday. And that’s not just families
with children. That’s for us big people, too.
But we remember it’s important. We pack our bags for the beach.
We get ready to go to work. But do we get ready to go meet
with the Father in heaven and Jesus our Savior? We should do
all that we can to prepare our hearts, our minds, our families,
our loved ones for this great meeting each day as God renews
covenant with us. Pray with me. Lord, we’ve said a mouthful today.
Your truth has so many implications for our minds, our hearts, our
lives, our living, our witness. And we want this seed to fall
on good soil. We want it to bear fruit because
we want generation after generation after us not to be like those
of that second chapter of Judges who rose up and did not know
the Lord, their God, or what he had done for Israel. But we
want to be a generation of people who produce the next generation
and the next, who know of the cross, who know of the obedience
and sacrifice of Jesus, and who put all their faith, all their
trust, all their hope. all the promises of God that
are yes and amen in Christ into their hearts and in their minds
by faith. Hear us, help us, bless us, keep Satan far away from
this place, far away from our people and our families so that
we can be bright lights in a dark and dying world. We need your
help and we need your grace and we do ask for it. In the name
of Christ we pray, amen. We want to respond to God’s truth
and sing of communicating his truth to the next generation.
So turn to 550, let the generation or let the children hear the
mighty deeds. We’ll stand and sing together.