Leading Our Children to Christ
November 08, 2006
Pastor Matt Black
Midweek Service
Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Titus 2:1-6
Open your Bible to Deuteronomy 6. The title of tonight’s message is “Leading Our Children to Christ”. We are looking at verses 4-9, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: 5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. 9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.”
Introduction: Tonight I want to challenge every parent concerning children. You may have no children, but every one of us has an influence on children. The man that influenced my life the most was not my father. The woman that has influenced my life the most was not my mother. I was from an unsaved family.
The Seriousness of the Challenge
So the challenge tonight is to those with children and those without children. You say, I don’t have a responsibility to train your children. You don’t have a primary responsibility, but you do have a responsibility. Any one of these children might use your inconsistent example as an excuse to sin. That is true whether that bad example is a parent or simply another member of the Body of Christ.
The truth is that God has called his people of old, just as he does His church today to raise up a godly seed! We need each mother and father to say with Joshua, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”
First principle: The first governing institution in Creation was the family God created Adam, and he was the head of the human race and the head of his family.
I. The Importance of the Family in leading our children to Christ: Those Responsible for Raising and Leading Children
All true godliness begins in the home. You are no more of a Christian than what you are in the home. If you only pray in church, you might as well not pray at all.
John Owen: “A man only preaches that sermon well which first preaches itself in his own soul.” And I might add which he first lives out of his life in the private recesses of the home.
Robert Murray M'Cheyne, “A man is what he is on his knees before God, and nothing more.”
What are you on your knees? What are you in your home? Do you do well preaching to others but not to your own soul. It is better to close your mouth! It is better to be silent than to be a hypocrite!
Parents, if you are a hypocrite at home, you will raise a child that is seven times the hypocrite you are!! You will reap what you sow!!!
A. The Role of the Parents
Verse 7, “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children”
a. Father: Pastor of the home.
Explanation: Job’s example
Job 1:4-5, “And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. 5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.”
b. Mother: Major forming influence in the life of the child. She is the keeper, or the worker, in the home! Your responsibilities are listed in Titus 2:4-5, “to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed”
B. The Role of the Church: You are all leaders—you all must live as examples. Your life will either be the cause for spiritual strength in the lives of our children, or it will be the cause for failure and blasphemy in their lives.
Example: I never had a godly father, but I had godly examples in the church. You don’t have to ask yourself tonight if you are an example. You are. What you need to ask is what kind of example are you?
Titus 2 lays out our responsibilities.
v Pastor, Titus 2:1, “But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine”
v Men with grown children, Titus 2:2, “That the aged [mature men in the faith] men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.”
v Women with grown children, Titus 2:3, “The aged [mature women in the faith] women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness,
Ø not false accusers
Ø not given to much wine,
Ø teachers of good things;
Ø 4 That they may teach the young women
You say, well, I’m not a aged man or an aged woman so I don’t have responsibilities. Not true! Even more are listed for you!
v Young Women, Titus 2:4-5, “That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
v Young Men, Titus 2:6, “Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. 7 In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, 8 Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.”
II. The Importance of the Format in leading our children to Christ:
A. Personal Time with God.
Psalm 1:1-3, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. 3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
Notice if you are serving God personally, that will keep you
v Separated from the world
v Saturated with the Word
v Spiritually Sucessful
Neglect your time with God as a way of life, and you are lost!
Psalm 1:4-6, “The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. 5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 6 For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”
v Contrary to the godly: “The ungodly are not so” They are not separated from the world, saturated in the word or spiritually successful.
v Controlled by their flesh—driven by the wind of emotions, fleshly passions, apathy, despair…
v Condemned by God—verse 6, “For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”
Your personal time with God will demonstrate on the Last Day whether you were a Christian or not. You can go to all the church services you want, get all the specialized counseling you want, but you are what you are in your private time with God.
If you are not willing to grow in private, no amount of public teaching will help you. If you are a hypocrite, then don’t waste the pastor’s time in specialized counseling.
The major part of your growth will come from your personal time with God. If that does not exist, and never existed, you are NOT a Christian!!
B. Husband’s time with Wife. The Bible gives the wife an amazing command that leaves you husband with an AWESOME responsibility.
Ephesians 5:24, “Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.”
It is the husband’s responsibility to teach his wife before his children.
1 Corinthians 14:34, “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. 35 And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.”
Husband: are you teaching your wife? If I were to ask your wife what you are teaching her formally, would she give me a blank stare? You say, I’m not prepared to teach! That’s the point! You need to get prepared! If you taught your wife during the week, then you would learn, your wife would learn, and you would be a thousand times more ready to hear the Word preached when the Body comes together!
C. Family Altar. I want you to listen to the journal of Missionary John G. Paton, who gave his life to the Lord’s service in the New Heberdes Islands.
Though everything else in religion were by some unthinkable catastrophe to be swept out of memory, were blotted from my understanding, my soul would wander back to those early scenes, and shut itself up once again in that Sanctuary Closet, and, hearing still the echoes of those cries to God, would hurl back all doubt with the victorious appeal, "He walked with God, why may not I?" (p. 8)
How much my father's prayers at this time impressed me I can never explain, nor could any stranger understand. When, on his knees and all of us kneeling around him in Family Worship, he poured out his whole soul with tears for the conversion of the Heathen world to the service of Jesus, and for every personal and domestic need, we all felt as if in the presence of the living Savior, and learned to know and love him as our Divine friend. (p. 21)
The format is less important than the consistency. Do your children have the impression that you walk with God? Do they see you daily walking with God?
How often do you mention God? Do they see that you never talk of God and never live for God? If you were the only Christian on planet earth, and you were to repopulate the earth, would your faith be passed on? Will your children be living for God in ten years?
If you don’t have children, will any of these children here
v remember your godly example and praise God?
v remember your ungodly example and blaspheme?
v not remember anything notable about you at all?
Since I’ve said that, let’s talk about possible formats for a family altar.
v There should be plenty of singing. Martin Luther said, “Things in song are remembered long.”
We are to speak to ourselves in “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19).
Teach your children the old hymns. The one thing that impressed me when I began courting my wife, is that she never looked at the hymn book. My wife knew most of the hymnal at an early age.
How do you do this? Teach them one verse for a week. Sing it slowly and annunciate. Example: “He who would valiant be ‘gainst all disaster.” --Bunyan. Explain the words. You’ll be surprised that they’ll start using them. You will increase their vocabulary.
v There should be a brief and simple thought from the Bible. This varies depending on the age. One idea is to take the week’s sermon. Other families have taken a book of the Bible verse by verse. I usually share something that I’ve learned from my personal time with God.
v Remember this BEDROCK principle: 1 Corinthians 8:1, “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.”
Your children can be trained in theological correctness, but you will only raise them for God if they see your heart. What do I mean? Unless your children see a sincere unadulterated heart for God, your teaching them the Bible is about as good as a clanging cymbol. Look at I Corinthians 13:1-9, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 4 ¶ Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 8 ¶ Charity never faileth:”
Your burning love for God will NEVER fail!! So much more I could say, but let us close by looking at the Focus we should have in the Home.
III. The Importance of the Focus in leading our children to Christ:
A. A Consuming Focus: It’s all or nothing! Lukewarm Christianity is nothing but counterfeit Christianity! It is a wolf’s religion in sheep’s clothing!
Verse 5, “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”
Hebrews 12:29, “For our God is a consuming fire.”
B. An Exclusive Focus
C. An Intimate Focus
1. There is a Piercing. God must have your HEART, SOUL, and MIGHT. Verse 5, “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”
2. Verse 6, “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart”
3. Notice the progression—
Ø Prayer: seek God with all your heart, soul, and might
Ø The Implanted Word: the words which God commands shall by in your HEART! James says the engrafted (implanted) word is able to save our souls!
Ø Only after we have FIRST sought God are we to do what verse 7 says, “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children”
D. A Diligent Focus
Verse 5, “5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”
Verses 7-9, “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children,
1. In Catechism in the Home, (7) “and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house”
2. In the Common Duties of Life—spend time with your children and converse with them! , (7) “and when thou walkest by the way”
3. Continually: (7) “and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
4. Creatively! “8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. 9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.”
Conclusion: It is only in this environment that your children will come to Christ. I’m sure when you saw the title of the message you thought I was going to give you a method. Do you understand that evangelism CANNOT be reduced to any program, technique, or marketing approach? Salvation is repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a broken and a contrite way of living from the heart. No one can generate that intellectually. It is a spiritual transformation. Yet it is the simplest thing in the world. Christ has His loving arms open to children. He says in Mark 10:14, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.” The littlest may come. His arms are open. Are we hindering them in any way?
Is there sin in your life that is blocking the way of a little one, or a not so little one? What did the Lord say in Matthew 18:5? Listen to his words, “whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. 6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”
Let us do all in our power to point our children to Jesus!
Closing Hymn: 109 Great Is Thy Faithfulness