I have been blessed to be in ministry for over 14 years. Most of those years have been working with teens and their parents. Over that amount of time, one of the themes that I have noticed is that many who grew up in the church have a very weak understanding of the gospel. There are a range of reasons to why this is, but if we are going to take the Deuteronomy 6 mandate seriously to “teach them diligently. . .”, then maybe we need a better and more structured plan. As a parent, there is nothing that I want more than for my children to be counted as one of the redeemed and walk faithfully with Him. This is by no means a promise simply because my wife and I are saved. So, how can we help our kids to really get a grasp of the gospel message that we hope leads them to salvation? Below are 5 ways that, if done regularly, will almost guarantee your child will have a working knowledge of the Gospel.
The Gospel in Your Prayers:
When you pray with your children before bed, or whenever you pray with them, make sure that often you pray the gospel. While it may be cute to say the “now I lay me done to sleep” bedtime prayer, it may be more beneficial to say a more meaningful prayer. Let your children hear you plead with God for their souls. You could pray something like this, “Lord, I pray that you will let my children come to a place where they recognize their sin before you and their need for forgiveness for them. Let them seek forgiveness, dear God. Lord, open their hearts. Give them the faith to believe and call upon your name so that they can know how wonderful you are oh Lord.” Let them hear this kind of prayer regularly. While hearing it often, they will get the concept of God, man, sin, and Jesus. They will hear the gospel message that God is good, man has sinned, and Jesus is the only way to fix their problem. Let them hear the gospel in your prayers.
The Gospel in Your Family Worship:
I have written about family worship on several occasions, so I will not go into great detail about it now, but if (and hopefully when) you gather your family to worship together in your home, make sure you are pointing it all to Christ. Don’t just read Christian books and let that be your family worship. Christian book reading is good, but they do not always point to the gospel. Read the Bible, pray the Bible, sing the Bible together. Let the gospel be the center of it all. If you do not get to the gospel in your family worship time, then can you really call it worship? Make sure that every chapter you read is read and explained through the lens of Christ and Him being crucified. Give your children the gospel when you meet to worship.
The Gospel in Your Church of Choice:
A bible-believing, gospel-shaped, and gospel-sharing church is so essential. If all your kids ever get is a moral and therapeutic Sunday school lesson on how to slay their personal Goliaths in their lives, it is actually going to be counteracting the true gospel. They need to hear not that the story of David and Goliath is their fear of singing or fear of being in front of people, and that all they need to do is pick up some spiritual stone and say “No, I can do this.” Instead, they need to hear that they are not David, but in reality the scared and unprepared Israelites who were helpless against the mighty Philistine. They need to hear that David in this story actually points to Christ as our substitute and King. He defeated Goliath (Satan, Sin, and Death) because we could not do it. That is the gospel. Children need to hear this message at church. They need to hear it preached. Thus, a Christ-centered church is near essential for them to get a good grasp of the gospel.
The Gospel in Your Daily Walk:
If your children always hear you talk about the gospel, but in turn see you worry, curse, and watch things on TV that are not appropriate, then the gospel may very well fall on deaf ears. If you are not trying to live it out in front of them as if you truly believe it, in their eyes they may not see the Gospel’s power. Preacher Joel Beeke once said, “other than the Bible, you are the best or worst book your children will ever read.” Let them see you rejoice in the Lord. But, let them see you ask for forgiveness when it is needed as well. Let them see the gospel not just on pages in a book, but in the life of their mom and dad as well.
The Gospel in Your Music:
Music is good. We have music going on at our house most of the day. Great music is a salve for the soul, while bad music can be damning to it. I love most any song that points to the gospel. What I love even more is to hear my children sing it. This is not because we have a family of musical protégés in our home. They do not even, or often, sing on key. However, what they miss in their pitch, they get in their minds. If you are going to listen to, and learn the lyrics of a song, it should be one with a good theology of the cross and the gospel. This is not to say you cannot listen to and sing “the wheels on the bus” or something else, but a good way to get the gospel into the minds and hearts of your children is by giving them a steady diet of Gospel songs.
In a day and age when our kids have a million things pulling at them and vying for their attention it would be easy to just let the gospel part of their lives be left up to the Sunday School hour. Over the last 14 years, I have seen where this mentality has gotten many in the church . . . and it was not a good place to be. If you are a Christian parent, and you want your children to know, understand, and love the gospel, make sure you are being diligent to give it to them as often as you can. While it will not guarantee them salvation, you can rest knowing that you have done all that you could to point them to the Gospel, and that is what God asks of us, as parents.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Adam B. Burrell
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