What Happens When Kids Actually Listen to Sermons

November 11, 2010

I encourage you to set a very simple goal for your kids. That goal is to find one thing that God is telling them through your pastor's sermon. While some may think that goal is too simplistic, it works.

Most people are fortunate if they get one thing from a sermon, book, or article. Many research studies show that to be true. And it's especially true for kids. Besides, it's probably a lot more than they're getting right now.

To give you an idea of how well this works, just look at what happened to our eight-year-old daughter a few weeks ago. We challenged her to find one thing God wanted her to learn and apply. The sermon that Sunday was on the parable of the minas (talents) in the book of Luke. You know, the one where two servants return 10- and 5-fold on the amount trusted to them, but one returns the original amount? Well, about halfway through the sermon, she looked over at me and said, “I've got it.”

After the service, I was standing around talking to some friends, and my daughter runs up to me with a really excited look on her face. She had just found a dollar bill in the dirt outside the church. There was no way to find out who it belonged to, so I leaned over and said, “If you'll give that to one of our elders and ask him to put it in the offering, I'll have something much better for you when we get home.”

She ran off with an excited look on her face. When we got home, she told me that she did what I suggested and asked what I had for her. I took a $5 bill out of my wallet and gave it to her. We then had a beautiful conversation about the sermon and how God promises to bless us in multiples if we'll use what He entrusts to us to build His kingdom. She even heard the pastor say that God can bless us in all sorts of ways – not just financially.

God's timing on all of this was so good, I was in awe of how He orchestrated it. I never could have planned it that well. But that's what happens when we look for the messages God has for us. And our children will begin to understand this characteristic if we encourage them to have one simple goal in mind.

(PS. This same type of thing can happen to you if you really try to get the most out every sermon you listen to. To help you do that, I highly recommend Jay Adams' book Be Careful How You Listen . It's the only book I've ever found – probably the only one ever written – on how to really listen to a sermon. It's excellent!)

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