Hear For Our Children
Texts: Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Psalm 78:1-8
Pastor Phil Hughes, American Fork Presbyterian Church, Utah
There has been a significant decrease of younger people in churches. The studies show that churches are getting older and grayer. For the most part, younger generations are rather indifferent toward God. At best, people might want to be “spiritual” but don’t want any commitment to a particular faith.
A major study in the past decade call the National Study of Youth and Religion revealed that teenagers today see religion as a nice thing, but don’t have any real enthusiasm for it. There is openness, but no strong commitment. Teenagers quickly become twenty-somethings, and we are seeing less and less of them in churches.
Today’s sermon is for all of us: parents, grandparents, and everyone in this church because whether you are a parent, grandparent, great-grandparent or not, it takes a church to raise our children.
Right after Moses tells Israel to “hear/shema” that they are to love the Lord their God with all their heart, all their soul, and all their strength, he says,
“Impress them on your children and talk about them when you are at home…”[1]
The teaching of children and nurturing the next generation in the Lord is a theme that runs throughout the Bible. Several times in Deuteronomy Moses tells the people to teach the children. See if you note a pattern:
“Teach them [commands] to your children and to their children after them. Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.” - Deuteronomy 4:9-10
“Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” – Deuteronomy 11:19
“Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the Lord your God...” – Deuteronomy 31:13
“[Moses] said to them, ‘Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law.’” – Deuteronomy 32:46
Again and again in Deuteronomy we hear Moses tell the people to pass the stories and commands of the Lord to each new generation so that those generations can know, love and serve the Lord. Children are not just to be taught principles, but what it means to belong to God and live for God.
The nurture of children comes up again and again in the Bible: Abraham was to direct his children to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just.[2] Part of the Passover meal is specifically telling children the story of God’s redemption of the Hebrews.[3]
Proverbs speaks of the wisdom of training a child in the way he or she should go.[4]
We heard Psalm 78 this morning because it proclaims that, “We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD.”[5] It says, “even the children yet to be born.” The transmission of the faith is to be so potent that it will be certain that those yet to come can count on hearing of the ways of the Lord. The goal of teaching and telling the story is so that the next generation will put their trust in the Lord.
Paul wrote to fathers to bring their children up in the training and instruction of the Lord.[6]
Jesus’ parents knew the responsibility of teaching their own son. After Jesus was born Luke tells us that Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the Temple to present him to the Lord, as it is required in Jewish law found in Exodus. The law said that every first born was to be presented to the Lord. Jesus’ parents brought him to Jerusalem every year for the Jewish Passover. It was their custom. The worship, the stories, and environment of faith was part of Jesus’ upbringing. And twice we are told that Jesus grew in wisdom, in stature and strength, and in the grace and favor of both God and people.[7]
Don’t we want those same words to be true of our children? How do our children grow in wisdom, stature and have favor with God and others?
Shema means hear, and we are to hear for our children. We are to hear who the Lord is. We are to hear that we are to love him. We are to hear how to love him. And we are to impress this upon and teach our children. Not just pass along information about God or religion or morals. The Shema tells us to learn to love the Lord our God. To God, the most important thing in life is not becoming a soccer champion, a successful business person, go to the best college, or someone who travels the world. It is to love God.
I am afraid we often think faith formation of our children doesn’t happen until they are older, maybe when they begin to talk, or get to pre-school, or start to read. Folks, the spiritual formation of our children begins way before that. It begins from birth.
In Psalm 22 it says, “From birth I was cast on you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.”[8] And in Psalm 71: “From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother’s womb. I will ever praise you.”[9]
Just as a child learns to trust a parent from birth (and really, from the womb), can he/she not begin to trust their heavenly Father? In Jewish families, the Shema is often the first words said at the birth of a child so that these words are the first thing a child hears when he or she enters this world.
Nowhere in the Bible do we hear that we are to just leave our children’s faith to chance. God does not give the option to just let our children explore whatever is out there and choose what is right for them, as if relationship with the Lord is like choosing laundry detergent. He is the Lord. He is jealous in his love for us. God is the biggest reality of life. Do we really want to think it doesn’t matter or not if you embrace love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, redemption, salvation, and life beyond death?
We don’t leave our children’s physical health to chance. We wouldn’t think of not taking them to the doctor, withholding medicine, or just letting them eat anything they want. We don’t leave their mental or emotional development to chance. We don’t say, “Well, I’ll let them decide if they want to go to school or not.” We find the best schools possible, we hire tutors, and schedule them in activities so that they develop. We make sure they can kick a soccer ball, play the piano and speak a second language. Should we care any less for their faithl lives?
Now I know sometimes when our children get older they resist. I didn’t always like going to church when I was younger. And when I got to college I thought I was done with it, until God showed me he had other plans for my life. Some of us did our best to nurture our children in the Lord and they have walked away from it. Nancy and I have three adult daughters and they all are in different places when it comes to the Lord. I also pray for them regularly. Or we are grandparents and it grieves us that our grandkids aren’t being taught to know the Lord.
Sometimes the path to Christ doesn’t follow a straight or unbroken line. We see that with people and families in the Bible. It doesn’t mean we should give up or lose hope. Some of us know that our relationship with God wasn’t a straight line in our lives. It took time, certain experiences, and God working things out. We keep praying and certainly setting an example with our lives of what it means to live by faith in Jesus.
We’re a small church. But there are children here. And most of them are relatively new to this place. We are trying to grow in our responsibility to nurture them. Even if we had the hottest Sunday School or youth group going, the church does not have primary responsibility for our children’s relationship with the Lord. Nor are they enough.
Parents are the first line of influence in children’s faith. It starts in the home. It says, “Impress these words on your children and talk about them at home.” A church partners with a home. Do you know Sunday Schools didn’t come to be until the late 1800’s. For most of history faith came through the home.
And for us to teach our children we have to know the faith and the story. We can’t introduce our children to a God we don’t know ourselves. The best way for our children to make Jesus Christ a part of their lives is for parents to make Jesus a part of theirs. Don’t figure out ways to get them to walk with the Lord. Get yourself into the Lord!!
They learn from us. Do we want our kids or grandkids to pray? Then we should pray. Do we want them to value worship? Then they should be able to see that we value worship. If we want them to know the Scriptures then we should model reading and learning the Scriptures. If we want them to give, serve and take seriously their relationship with God then we need to do that. First, we need to settle it in our hearts and minds that the Lord is our God. We nurture and practice what is means to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus. And we disciple our kids, grandkids, great-grandkids.
I am always encouraged when I see parents and grandparents teaching our children about the Lord, bringing them to church, asking how they can make faith part of their family.
While the primary influencer of relationship with Jesus is the home, we also need to affirm the role of the church community. It takes a church to raise a child. It takes a church to support parents.
When we baptize a child our entire church family takes a vow to pray for and nurture that child in faith. We don’t leave a parent or parents alone. No we come around them and say that we will be with them in this. Part of the Presbyterian tradition of Christianity is that we believe we are all in a community together. We need each other, teach each other, and worship with each other. Walking in faith is something we do in covenant with one another.
Maybe you’re a senior and your kids are grown up and gone. Seniors, grandparents will you do this: take our children seriously. Know them. Talk to them. They are part of your church family. Be spiritual parents and grandparents. Know our parents. Remember what it was like when you were at that stage of life? Maybe I should even raise the stakes and say have a family over to your home for dinner. Build relationships. Reach out.
We all play an essential role in our young coming to know and love God. I heard someone say, “Passing faith on to students takes models, not theories. It takes mentoring, not programming.”[10] I will challenge you who do not have children or youth at home or here, to practice your faith and your love for God by taking time to teach our youth. Help us live out the command to impress these things upon our children so that faith doesn’t die out, but another generation knows the love of Jesus Christ.
Here’s what I think would be a great Sunday School time: If you just showed up, read a Bible story, played a game and just talked or played. That would be enough. I think lives often influence more than the slickest curriculum. I don’t remember what my Sunday School teachers and youth leaders told me, but I remembered that they cared.
Part of teaching our children is allowing and encouraging them to ask questions. Our faith carries into the conversations in our home. It’s exciting when our children talk about God, bring up things they are thinking about (which might just take you by surprise), and bring home something they heard at church.
Those things become more complex and even more serious as they get older. We need to keep the conversations happening even as the questions get steeper and harder. And when they ask those hard questions, even questions for which we don’t have an answer, join your children in wrestling with that.
Where did God come from? Why do bad things happen if God is good? Should I be baptized and what is baptism? What is the meaning of Communion? What is the difference between Christianity and another faith? What should I say to God when I pray? Will God still love and forgive me when I have made such a huge mistake? Can I trust him when I am afraid? Working through the questions together is part of growing in faith for us and them.
Sometimes we might be a little timid in teaching our children because we weren’t exactly shining examples of following Christ, or we didn’t do it at all, and we feel guilty. I think they call it Imposter’s Syndrome. We may feel it is hypocritical to lead our children to live one way when we certainly didn’t. Part of the basis for teaching our children in Psalm 78 is so that the next generation will not make the mistakes of the previous generation that was stubborn and rebellious. Maybe we need to admit our mistakes to our children so that they can know God’s grace, and they can learn what we did not.
Parenting is terrifically challenging, and I think today it might be as hard as it has ever been. It takes great love. It takes patience. It takes trust. It takes endurance. It takes intentionality. It takes a church. It takes the Spirit of God. There is great joy and lots of heartache. But isn’t that true in every aspect of raising our children? Those of us who remember what it was like when kids were at home will testify to that. Our relationship with God gets deepened as we impress the ways of the Lord upon our children. Don’t divorce what you do as a parent from your own walk with Jesus.
Our children are a gift in our lives. They are a gift in our church. And there is no greater gift we can give to them than teach them and show them the God who created them, loves them, and will be faithful to them their whole life long.
Forming our children is a huge responsibility. But we have a huge God. And he is to be known. He is to be loved. And we are to tell our children about this love.
Prayer: Almighty God, from whom we receive our life, you have blessed us with the joy and care of children. As we bring them up, give us calm strength and patient wisdom, that we may teach them to love you. Our children are growing up in an uncertain and confusing world. We ask for your Spirit to lead us to show them that nothing can separate them from your love. Make us examples of people of the Lord Jesus Christ that our young may see him in us.
In his name we pray. Amen.
[1] Deut. 6:7
[2] Genesis 18:18-20
[3] Exodus 12:25-27
[4] Proverbs 22:6
[5] Psalm 78:4
[6] Ephesians 6:4
[7] Luke 2:22, 41, 42, 56
[8] 22:10
[9] 71:6
[10] Almost Christian, Kendra Creasy Dean