“God is watching how we care for children”

By Elizabeth Prata

This weekend has been a sober one, not sad exactly, but I’ve had a troubled spirit and been in deep ponderings about children.

Sometimes I get that way, maybe it’s the gift of discernment and the Spirit stirring my heart, or maybe it’s just normal observation of the things happening in the world, or maybe both. But it has been a furrowed brow weekend.

As you may know, I work with children. I teach children reading in small groups in levels from kindergarten to third grade, or age 5 to about 9. Because of my job, I’m aware and observant of anything that relates to children in the wider world.

On Friday, I wrote on Twitter, 

“IMO you can detect how stable or unstable a society is by how they treat their children. In the US, our society is collapsing.“

My feeling of spiritual concern, my propelling drive to protect and love these children has increased of late. But I feel like the man on the starfish beach, seeing all the thousands of starfish washed up with no way to get to their safe haven of the ocean. The man came across a boy putting the starfish back into the water, one by one. The man scoffed, saying, “What are you doing? You can’t save them all! What you’re doing can’t possibly make a difference!” The boy looked at the starfish in his hand and calmly replied, “Yes, but I can make a difference to this one.”

I just have to keep remembering to to be the boy, and make a difference to the ones in my sphere. Who I can help, I need to help.

Then in God’s providence, I came across John MacArthur’s latest sermon on Youtube. It was from October 29, 2023 and titled “Grace for the Children.“

MacArthur began the sermon by telling his congregation that the little booklet they received had a note in it about his new upcoming book, which is at the printer’s now and will be available in January: “The War on Children.” It is an apt title and crystallized things for me. Yes, it IS a war on children. I need to be a good soldier and remember that children are both targets in this war and collateral damage. They are helpless, vulnerable, and at-risk every moment. Most children.

“Just Say No” isn’t a motto for being against drugs anymore, it’s a motto for children against their parents’ authority. EPrata

Not like the old days when children were protected and cherished. Even in today’s good families, there is high risk. Just last week Robert Card of Lewiston Maine entered a bowling alley on a Family League night and shot people, one of whom was a 14 year old. The younger children who were present and survived still must deal with the trauma of being involved in such a horrific event.

Next, MacArthur said that he wants the church to renew their commitment to children.

“It was the process of going through that book and taking stock of what is happening to the children of our culture that I felt that we as a church needed to affirm our commitment to children. That is a stewardship, obviously, that God has given to us and we need to take it seriously. … What is happening to the children is horrific and it is disastrous temporally and eternally.” ~John MacArthur

This was good for me to hear. I need to re-affirm my commitment to children.

Then MacArthur launched into the main body of the sermon. He doesn’t whitewash the truth. It is the truth and it needs to be said, whether it’s “good” or “bad”. There are no primrose paths for us in this day and age to tread. Evidenced by how this society is treating its children, it is obvious God has moved in judgment of us. What is the next generation going to be like, we wonder? MacArthur answered,

“Biblically? It’s going to be worse. Because the Bible says evil men grow worse and worse. It doesn’t get better, it gets worse. And that means the people who will make this culture worse are the children of this generation.”

Not the news I wanted to hear, but it’s news that is true and informs my conscience and my behavior. I had also earlier noted on Twitter that it has been getting harder and harder to impress upon children to be responsible for their behavioral choices, to own up to them.

I see a lot of bucking authority and ignoring authority in society today. As I’m out and about I see children ignore or refuse their parents’ directions. “Just Say No” isn’t a motto for being against drugs anymore, it’s a motto for children against their parents’ authority.

I watch Youtube videos of people getting arrested for drunk driving or shoplifting. The younger ones, in their late teens or early 20s who are caught, absolutely refuse the Law Enforcement Officer’s orders. They completely ignore or reject his authority. It’s startling to see this, having grown up in the 1960s where the cultural revolution was happening but people still by and large protested peacefully, or law and order was maintained because of a more widespread acceptance of parental and law enforcement authority.

Then MacArthur spent time in Matthew 11 and exposited the meaning of several verses and parables involving children. He spent about half an hour in different verses. I couldn’t wrap my head around his point. I began wondering, since he is 84 1/2 years old after all, is he losing it? The sermon isn’t coalescing. Is there a point?

And YES of course, toward the end, there was a point that wraps the sermon up into a bow. He isn’t losing it. He came to a crescendo that pierced me. I have exactly seen what he started to talk about as he came to a close.

He said that when children are in their tender years, 5,6,7 they are very receptive to the things of God. They are eager and take them as normal and true. But after a certain point, which some call the Age of Accountability, they close down. They become hostile to the things of God. He said you will know when the child reaches that age,

“because accepting the Gospel is difficult. Submitting to the Law of God, a struggle to confront their sin, turn from their sin and submit their lives to Christ.”

I have seen kids age 5 or 6 burble about Jesus. The excitedly relate what they know and have interpreted. They speak of heaven and the cross. They say things like, “Jesus died on the cross for our sins and then came alive again and then he killed all the dinosaurs.” LOL. But they speak admiringly or positively about Jesus, especially during Thanksgiving time in November when you ask them what they are grateful for.

After about age 10, 11, 12…they don’t.

The point of his sermon is to be aware of this and during the years they are compliant and accepting, “Teach, teach, teach.”

“Because all that you teach them, all that input into their little minds will be available to them when they come to the point when the struggle begins. You want them filled up with the knowledge of scripture. You want them singing songs you heard today…because that truth in their heart is what mitigates against their fallen nature.”

In Literacy Education, we do something called “frontloading.”

Frontloading means punctuating the key learning points before an activity or experience takes place, rather than or in combination with, debriefing it afterwards.” (Source)

Frontload your children with hymns, scripture, God’s holy love, and be persistent in it. For me, working in a secular school, I can’t pointedly teach them about Jesus, but I can behave that way. I can live it. I can love, love, love in His name, and remember they are not the enemy. They are the enemy’s targets. I can counter the devil’s push with patience, love, and kindness acted out and expressed.

“God is watching how we care for children.”

John MacArthur

Here is the sermon. Please consider listening. My discernment radar is telling me things are getting very, very serious out there. I was not off track when I pondered these things on Friday and by Saturday night the Lord graciously led me to this sermon, where it is also obvious that JMac’s discernment radar is also going off.

When JMac’s book “The War on Children” is published in January, I want to buy it immediately.

Sermon audio, no transcript yet, at Grace Church: https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/81-161

Sermon on Youtube, with closed captions.