Sowing Seeds At Home

The month of May begins our emphasis on Evangelism and Missions as a church. You will hear several sermons and lessons regarding outreach and sharing your faith with your friends, relatives, associates and neighbors. I am convinced that over the past several years, believers have lost their love for unbelievers and have turned inwardly, seeking only to establish comfortable church groups. As a result, many congregations are dying out. When you have no children, a family line will die out… That’s what is happening to many churches. Sure, we still talk about evangelism and leading others to faith and salvation, but about all we do is talk… And we talk amongst ourselves – in our “holy huddles” while we sit around singing Kum Bah Yah and feeling good about ourselves. But we aren’t hitting the mark when it comes to talking about the love and grace of Jesus to those who don’t know Him. And as a result, those who don’t know Him continue to travel down the road to eternity without hope in Christ. Dr. Chuck Kelly once said: “Southern Baptists are a harvested-oriented denomination in the midst of an unseeded generation.” How true that is! This generation isn’t seeded because we aren’t sowing the seeds. And the results are obvious. I’m not a big “numbers” guy, although I do believe in salvation and baptism. I just sometimes think we can be interested in numbers for all the wrong reasons – primarily because they make us look good. But if you look at the statistics, you’ll see that there has been a steady decline across the nation when it comes to salvations and baptisms. The reason? We’re living in an unseeded culture. What’s even more staggering is that we’re not even reaching our own children with the gospel. It used to be that the children of Christians were witnesses in their schools, both by their lives and testimonies. But now, believers are sending their lost children to schools, colleges and universities that are openly antagonistic against Christianity. And instead of being a light in the darkness, we’re herding off our kids into these places like lambs led to slaughter. But that’s what happens whenever we lose sight of the imperative of preparing our families for eternity. We’re good at preparing them for sports. We spend half the year traveling every weekend to different places so they can participate in a sports event. And we neglect to take them to church or share the gospel with them or pray with them. Folks, it’s time we woke up! We can redeem the time that’s left. If I could say anything to parents today that will help you with your children, it would be – “Get them into church. Don’t let them talk you out of being a part of the youth group. Don’t be lazy about insisting that they are involved. And take time to pray with your kids. Tell them about Jesus and help create a desire to know more. And when the Holy Spirit starts moving in their heart, lead them in the sinner’s prayer as they come to faith.”

The majority of problems I have to deal with when it comes to children and youth can be directly traced back to the fact that their parents dropped out of church or grew lax in their faith. You can tell your children what to do until you’re blue in the face, but they will learn from and become what you demonstrate by your life. Most likely, they’ll grow up to be like you. So… what kind of generation are you producing? Are you planting seeds of the Gospel in your own home? We’ve all got to do better to raise our children right, equip them for the work of ministry and create an environment where the seeds are richly planted everywhere our feet touch the ground. There’s one thing I know for certain, God will hold each of us parents accountable for the way we minister in our homes. So how are you doing thus far?

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