For the Children

The Sunday night message given June 16, 2024 in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 18:1-10.

            Today is Father’s Day.  And on this Father’s Day, it seems appropriate to talk about children because, after all, you cannot be a father if you don’t have children, right?

            But of course, there’s a lot more to being a father–or a mother–than simply creating a child.  To be a father, or a mother, you need to actually take responsibility for that child.  And that responsibility comes in a variety of forms.  There’s financial responsibility, making sure your children have food and clothing and shelter.  There’s educational responsibility, and that does not mean just sending them to school.  That means really teaching your children the things they need to know to get along in the world.  There’s emotional responsibility, showing love to your children and making sure they always know that you love them.

            But for a Christian, there’s a responsibility that comes above all that.  For a Christian parent, the number one responsibility you have for your children is raising them in a way that they will come to accept Jesus Christ as the Savior.

            Now, before I go any farther, I want to make one thing clear.  I am not saying that if your children do not accept Jesus Christ as the Savior, that it’s all your fault or that you’ve failed as a parent or anything like that.  Eventually, all children grow up, and when they do they make their own choices.  That’s true in all respects, including faith.  They make their own choices, and they are responsible for the consequences of those choices.  Parents can only do so much for so long, and then they have to let the children go.

            But parents do need to do the best they can.  They need to do the best they can to give their children the best chance they can to make the right choices.  And again, the most important of those is giving your children the best chance you can to choose Jesus Christ as the Savior.

            And that brings us to our Bible reading for today.  Jesus is talking about children.  He makes the statement, which many of us have heard before, that children are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and that if we want to be great in the kingdom of heaven, we need to be as humble as children.

            And we kind of like that.  After all, it’s become a cliche to talk about the importance of children.  “Children are our future”, we love to say.  “We’re doing it for the children”, the politicians say when they’re trying to push their pet program.  “We have to listen to the young people”, we say–as long as those young people agree with us, of course.  We’re fine with Jesus saying children are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

            But then, Jesus starts talking about our responsibility to those children.  “If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a huge millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the open sea. “  Jesus warns against being a stumbling block for those children.  He says, “See that you do not disdain one of these little ones.”

            Now, our church is doing better than it used to be.  A year ago we often did not have any children in church, and last week we had seven.  Almost every week we have at least two or three.  We are making progress.

            But still, think about this.  How many children do we have in this community?  Of that number, how many children go to church on an average Sunday.

            I’m sure there are churches in town that have kids than we do.  But we also know that there are a lot of children in town who don’t go to church anywhere.  Some of them come to our Faith Builders program in Gettysburg, and we’re glad of that.  Some of them might come once in a while, on a special occasion, or at Christmas or Easter.  But many of them never go to church.  Think about that.  We have children in our communities who have never seen the inside of a church.  They have no idea what goes on here.  They have no idea what happens in a church on Sunday morning.  They have no idea who Jesus Christ is.  And because of that, they have no idea why they might want to come here.

            Now, before I go any farther, two things.  If you bring your kids to church regularly, I’m not talking about you.  You are doing your job.  You are fulfilling that most important responsibility of giving your children the best chance they can have to accept Jesus as the Savior.  Again, they may or may not accept Him–they will make their own decision as they get older.  But you are doing everything you can to make the right decision.  And that’s a wonderful thing.  I congratulate you for that.

            And the second thing is, there are probably some of those parents who are teaching their children about God at home.  It’s certainly true that you can be a Christian without going to church.  It’s harder, because you don’t have the support system of a church to help you when your faith wavers.  But it is possible.

            But we know there are many families who are not doing that.  And that means those parents are failing at that most important responsibility.  I’ve heard many parents tell me, in regard to Faith Builders, “well, my kids just don't want to go.”

            Think about that.  We don’t give kids a choice about going to school during the week–we tell them that they’re going whether they want to or not.  We’ll do everything we can to push kids into music or sports or other activities.  But when it comes to something that impacts their eternal life, we say, “Well, I’ll just let my kids do whatever they want.”

            These are parents who love their kids.  These are parents who take care of their kids in many ways.  These are parents want what’s best for their kids.  Except, again, for the one thing that’s most important of all–a relationship with Jesus Christ.

            Now, you may be thinking that I’m addressing this to the wrong audience.  After all, you’re here.  And maybe you’ve already raised your kids, or maybe, like me, you never had any.  But here’s the thing.  Jesus did not just direct those words we read tonight to parents.  He directed them to everyone.  All of us have an obligation to do everything we can to help our children accept Jesus Christ as the Savior.  Remember, in Jesus’ last statement in the gospel of Matthew, he tells us to “go and make disciples.”  Parents may have the primary responsibility here, but you and I still have a responsibility, too.

            What does that mean?  That means that all of us–you and I and every Christian–have an obligation to do what we can to reach those young people.  I’m pretty sure that just about everyone here knows someone who has children.  We need to do what we can to help those children know about Jesus.  We need to do what we can to help those children accept Jesus as the Savior.

            Maybe that means encouraging those parents to bring their children to church.  Maybe that means encouraging those parents to bring their children to Sunday School or Faith Builders.  Maybe, if you have the chance, it means getting to know the children themselves.  Maybe, if you have the chance, it means telling them Bible stories.  Whatever it means, we need to do whatever we can to bring those children to faith in Jesus Christ.

            And maybe you’re thinking, well, but I’ve tried that, and it did not work.  Or, maybe you’re thinking, there’s no point in trying that, because it won’t work.  And maybe it won’t.  Almost certainly there will be times when it won’t.  But I want to encourage you to keep trying, anyway.  I encourage you to do that for two reasons.

            One is that our definition of success is not the same as God’s definition of success.  God does not define our success by how many people we can bring to Christ.  God defines our success by how faithful we are to Him.  Jesus told us to do what we can to bring children to Christ.  If you and I do everything we can to bring children to Christ, we will have succeeded in God’s eyes, regardless of how many children we actually reach.  Because we will have been faithful to God.

            But here’s the other reason.  I think that if there is even one child who has salvation and eternal life partly because of something we said or did, it will all be worth it.  No matter how many children we don’t reach, if we can reach just one, it will all be worth it.  How awesome would it be to get to heaven and to find out that there was someone else who was there because of what you said, or because of what you did?  And what if there was more than one?  What if there were two, or three, or four, or even more?  That would be the greatest thing ever, don’t you think?

            Jesus said that children are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  If we believe that, let’s do what we can to make sure those children get to the kingdom of heaven.  Yes, the parents have the first responsibility.  But you and I have a responsibility, too.  Let’s do all we can to give the children in our communities the best chance we can to accept Jesus Christ as the Savior.