Children need help to hear sermons, they need coaching and assistance to train them to listen, and this is your job as a parent. I hope your children spend hundreds of hours in church listening to sermons. Do everything you can to make it a rich experience. Help them hear the Word of God through preaching and singing, and the fellowship. Jesus says, "Take heed how you hear" (Luke 8:18).

Welcome to the Church and Family Life podcast. Church and Family Life exists to proclaim the sufficiency of Scripture, and we're here today to talk about how parents can power up and help their children listen to sermons. Hey Jason. Hey, I'm feeling outnumbered by Hope Baptist's elders. Yeah, no kidding.

We have Trent Moody with us here, who is one of the pastors at Hope Baptist Church. Good to see you, Trent. Thanks for joining us. Good to see you guys as well. Thank you.

Good deal. So all of this is premised on the supposition that the local church is the most important place you'll ever take your children. Your children are going to hear hundreds of sermons in their lifetime. I hope they hear hundreds and hundreds of sermons. We know that the Bible says that faith comes by hearing the Word of God, And so it really is a critical matter.

And children need parents to help them to hear. You know, my view is that parents shouldn't just show up at church and have their children next to them. They should help their children engage the sermon, and that parents should be good shepherds, active, diligent shepherds, not casually strolling in, but really paying attention to the souls that they have with them and their children. And so you shouldn't just take your children to church, you should shepherd them through that whole experience. Now we're not going to be able to cover everything that could be said about this in this podcast, but we have lots of resources on the Church and Family Life website.

If you go to our website at churchandfamilylife.com and you search for children in church, there'll be a number of resources that come up. One of them, my favorite, is one that my wife Deborah did, and it's called Training Your Children's Affections for Worship in Church. And you'll see titles of resources like Training children to stay in the worship service, tools for keeping your children with you, the value of children worshiping in the church. So the whole proposition of this podcast is that, you know, parents need to do things to help their children to listen. And I think that includes helping them before the sermon, during the sermon, and after the sermon.

So I'm going to just lead us in six particular areas for discussion. And the first way to help your children listen to sermons is, first of all, examine your own heart. Is it a joy to you? It really ought to be a joy to you. Yeah, I think it's hard to underestimate the impact of our own personal disposition towards preaching.

And there might be a lot of people that we can fool in this world, but our wives and our children are not them. They know us too well, and they know when we're excited, when we're locked in on something, and they know when it doesn't really have our attention. So when it's our turn to listen to the preaching, our disposition towards the preaching, we're probably going to find it replicated on our row, you know, on our family's row. You know, if you saunter in late, you know, if you're getting up and going to the bathroom, all this kind of stuff, you know, you're telling your children it's not important. But, you know, were you glad when they said unto you, let us go into the house of the Lord?

Is it a happiness to you? Yeah, yeah, one of the joys of the Lord's day does not just begin when we get there, but it should begin really right when we wake up in the morning, just personally, but then also, you know, demonstrating that joy and our excitement, anticipation for the Lord's Day and just being with God's people and hearing the Word of God preached. And so I believe that the meeting of the church really begins at home in our heart as we're heading that way. I mean, the question is, do you believe that in preaching God is speaking to his people? And if the answer to that is yes, then that should be reflected in the intensity that you bring to this thing that we're doing when we're listening.

It's not just the preacher that brings intensity and earnestness. It's the hearers that should be bringing intensity and earnestness too. Otherwise, you're betraying that you don't really think that preaching is God speaking to His people through an appointed person. Right, and preaching is the primary discipleship tool, sanctification methodology that God has given. He sanctifies His people through the preaching of the Word.

Sanctify them in your truth. Your Word is truth. So it's a huge deal. You know, fathers and mothers should try to glean some wonderful thing out of every sermon and tell their children how awesome it was. Wow, did you hear him say that?

That's one way that a parent can really help his children understand how important it is. Anything else on this one? You know, examine your own heart. Is it a joy to you? So, Scott, you and I recently were at a conference in Alabama.

I got a note from a child who was there, and it's the daughter of someone we know well, and she said, thanks for coming, thanks for preaching on this, you said this. And I thought, wow, that is the daughter of this guy, because she's clearly taking preaching really seriously, and she's taking notes, she knows what the preacher said, and she knows what she liked about it. It was neat. That is neat. Yeah, one of the views in studying just about preaching, one of the men I read in Bible college, he called it the moment of truth.

And that's really how I view it, and kind of like what you were saying, Jason, just that this is God speaking to his people, to his Word, and it is the moment of truth. We live in a world of lies, and this is the moment of truth that our souls need, and that's how we should view it. Yeah. Amen. Amen.

Okay, also, the second thing I'd like to discuss is getting your children focused on mind expansion because sermons are mind expanding. For the Christian, they're soul-satisfying, but they ought to be mind expanding for everybody. You have all kinds of language that is used, difficult concepts, complex concepts. This is one of the great things about the Bible, is that it is complex, and you have to think about it. So, you know, it's important that parents understand how wonderful preaching is because it's mind expanding.

It's historical, it's theological, it's philosophical, it's emotional. I mean, it crosses all these different categories of human experience. Yeah, my children were learning how to read out loud difficult words because in our family worship times in the evenings we read around verse, verse by verse by verse. Sometimes this is a chapter or half a chapter, something like that. And my youngest kids would always be annoyed that they didn't get a turn because they weren't yet literate, and they would ask, can I read?

Actually, no, in point of fact, you can't read yet. That's why you don't have a turn. And it really spurred them on to want to learn how to read. And the same dynamic exists in preaching. It's the opportunity to learn words that most children don't know.

We're typically not dumbing down what we say in the pulpit. We do want to speak to be understood by children, but not in a way where we would totally reshape and sort of make it into baby talk. We don't do that. So it really is an opportunity for our children to expand the concepts that they're being exposed to and even down to just vocabulary. You know I'm memorizing Psalm 19 with about 12 of my grandchildren right now and there's this David says, keep me back from presumptuous sins, right?

So I've got three-year-olds pronouncing presumptuous. Actually a one and a half year old saying presumptuous. Hey, we shouldn't shy away from complex language. It's there, it's there to expand the minds of those children. Yeah, one of the things that we've done occasionally is as we're reading as a family, and we've done the same thing Jason in the past where let each of the children have a turn reading a passage of Scripture.

And we took a little bit different approach with some of our little ones who couldn't yet read, and I would read literally word by word or phrase by phrase, and they would just repeat it just to help them to understand these concepts and to be able to learn how to pronounce some of these big words, and I found that to be fruitful as well. They wanted that turn like what you were saying, it makes them hungry for it. It can be dangerous. It can be dangerous too Trent. And presumptuous sins.

I have experienced presumptuous sins for some turn to sumptuous sins in a two year old. That's exactly right. Careful. But hey, sermons are necessary for child development. I want parents to understand that this should be one of the critical aspects of their education because there are so many things that are covered in a sermon.

And parents are wise to use their sermon as the educational feature. You know, one of the objections to having children in big church, having them listening to the sermon that everybody else is listening to, is that they just can't understand it. Not true, not true at all, and it's actually a golden opportunity to pull them up to a higher level of understanding than they would have otherwise had. Hey, it's sharper than any two-edged sword as well. It does pierce.

And anybody who's had kids in worship services knows that kids actually do hear a lot more than you think. They do. I've been amazed at some of the conversations that go on on the way home after church, and my littlest ones are piping up and sharing what they remember about the sermon. And so, yeah, they are hearing it, they are taking it in, and it's a great time. I find it a good time on the way home to talk about those concepts, if they understood it or if they maybe misunderstood it sometimes, we can talk through those things.

It's kind of a captive audience yet again on the way home, so it's a good opportunity for that. You don't want to just let the sermon die as a parent and just keep on going on life. It's really helpful to continue it on. Okay, here's a third issue. Familiarize your family with the sermon text before the preaching if you can.

Now We do that in our church. We tell the congregation what we're going to preach on several days before the preaching takes place. We have a Bible study, a men's Bible study about that. That's what we do. But even if you don't have anything like that, my encouragement is find out what the pastor's preaching on and read the text.

Study it before they go on to hear the preaching so that they hear it twice. Yeah, that's been a blessing in our family as well, just to hear that. Bringing our boys to the men's meeting to hear that preaching of the word. Even though we're up early, even the little ones are asking, hey daddy, will you get me up for this time? And so it is good to prepare their hearts for the Lord's Day through the hearing, hearing what's going to be preached.

So here's another issue, how to prepare your family to hear. In Luke 1948 we find a people who were very attentive to hear him. That's what we want. We all know that we zone out, children zone out, adults zone out too. We don't hear absolutely everything.

But how do you prepare your family to hear before they hear? You know, I think a key principle is that parents can expect to get exactly what they insist upon. No more, no less. And so parents have to be prepared to come to church insisting on a level of attention that will maximize the time for your kids. Come knowing that all of our children are going to have inclinations at different points in the sermon that are different than that, and you have to be prepared to contradict that and insist upon something better.

That looks different with different ages, of course, and helping them from time to time. What we've done is help prepare them for the listening of the Word of God. Maybe that sometimes that takes the form of writing some key concepts from the passage on a piece of paper for the real little ones who can maybe not read real well, but yet they can hear certain words and pick them out and either write them down or figure out how many times that this word was said that's been a help and then age appropriate as it gets older, you know, preparing them to understand that, hey, we're going to talk about this later, we'll ask questions about this later, and it seems to spur them on to listen more carefully. Jared Larson George Whitefield has a neat article, instructions on hearing sermons, and he says, here's what you do, pray before, during and after the sermon. Listen to the sermon as if you're listening to a king, he's the Lord of lords.

And he makes the point that ministers are sent from God, they're ambassadors. So you should help your children understand how serious it is when that man stands up there to preach. You know, when our kids were growing up, we wanted them to be looking at the speaker. We didn't want them to be playing with things, eating food, anything like that, reading other books, look at the speaker. They can do it.

That's my encouragement to parents, but there ought to be a sense of the sacredness of the moment. Not, well, it doesn't really matter whether we listen at all to what's being said, But parents often default to that because they have younger children and they so they don't they don't work to engage them. Scott, one of the things you've already said was don't let the sermon die, meaning you're there's going to be a time after the sermon where you're actually talking about it and maybe talking about specific applications. If you set that for an expectation, it changes the listening. In other words, if all your kids know that questions are going to be asked of you, you're going to be asked what you thought about the sermon, it raises the bar for how they approach the listening to the sermon.

No, I think that's really golden to have that as a normal routine, that your children know you're going to ask them several questions. It's probably good to take notes so you remember the questions while the sermon is going on. But you know the importance of the moment is critical. Children need to understand the importance of the moment. You know in Nehemiah the people shrug their shoulders at the Word of God And you don't want your children in that zone.

You want them coming, understanding the sacredness of the moment. And God's people are gathered to worship Him. They're gathered to be equipped. And while the sermon won't be perfect, there are things in that sermon that everybody can do something about. Here's another one, pray for the preacher before the service.

You know, I don't know if many parents do this, but that probably would heighten the importance of the moment to pray for the preacher who's going to stand. And if you have a preparatory time on Saturday evening, if your family gathers to worship on Saturday evening to sort of kick off the Lord's Day. That's a great way to spend that time, is asking God to help the preacher. I've said it many times to our congregation, half ingest but half not ingest. A prayer for the preacher is a prayer for yourself.

The better the preaching is, the more you're benefited. Ask God to help this man. Yeah, last night during our prayer meeting we discussed a passage out of John Bunyan's book on prayer, and he was speaking about praying for the church in general, which also of course includes the pastor, but it was just talking about the unique connection that when we are praying to God, we're literally praying for our own good when it is in accordance to His will. And so the same is true when we pray for a pastor. When we pray for that man as he stands to speak God's Word and understanding that this is spiritual warfare that is going on right now.

And it's good for our souls. And when we pray for His good, it is praying for our own good and for the glory of God. You know, this is one thing good leaders do. They help the people around them understand the importance of what's going on. They define it, they extol it.

And one way you do that is by discussing it afterwards as well. You know, like I said before, the sermon should not die. And, you know, just don't let them fly away, you know, by neglect. It's also, you know, helpful even to memorize one verse out of that text that will become memorable to them. And, you know, if you memorize one verse during the week of the sermon, they'll likely hear it, and they'll likely perk up.

You know, I know my children or my grandchildren, they perk up when someone says something that they've memorized. And many, many times, or even recently, I've had a grandchild say, I know that. Because the preacher was quoting something that we'd memorize together. Scott, you just said it's important for leaders to help the people they're leading understand the value of what they're undertaking. So what's happening in preaching?

Well, that's exactly what Paul is talking about at the end of 2 Timothy chapter 3 and the beginning of 2 Timothy chapter 4. There are consecutive verses at the end of 2 Timothy 3. He says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's God breathed, so it's revelation from heaven to man, and it's profitable for doctrine, for reprieve, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." And then he tells us what we ought to do with it. He tells this church leader, Timothy, preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season.

And then he tells them, convince, rebuke, and exhort. So that's really... We need to make the case and try our best to convince our families that this is what's happening in the pulpit. The Word of God is breathed out by God, it's profitable, it's been given to us to make us thoroughly equipped for every good work. And when we go to hear preaching, it's that we would be convinced and we would be rebuked and we would be exhorted.

And we all need to be convinced of certain things and rebuked about certain things that are happening in our thinking and our lives, and we need to be exhorted to and about certain things as well. So we need to make the case we really need this. Hey, you know, a faithful wife can really help as well. First Corinthians 1434 says a woman shouldn't speak in church, but she should ask her husband at home. You know, think of the wife that's asking her husband at home with the kids around there.

Everybody's learning, and the husband is probably usually struggling saying, Oh, my, I don't know. My wife has several outstanding questions, you know, that I don't even know how to answer. But, you know, just to be involved in discussing the Word of God. And a wife, a wife who's interested, who will ask questions in even in front of the children. I don't think that's a bad practice.

Not at all. So, okay, so parents help your children listen to sermons. Amen. Come alongside and help them. They need help.

You know, children need help. They need shepherds. They need someone to lead them. And we should be leading them through everything, but we often forget that leading them to hear sermons is one of the things that we ought to do, and it might be one of the most important things we ever do. So there you have it.

So teach your children to listen to sermons. Thanks, brothers. Really, really appreciate it. Thank you. And thanks for joining us on the Church and Family Life Podcast.

I hope you can join us next time. Go to churchandfamilylife.com. See you next Monday for our next broadcast of the Church and Family Life podcast.