When Are They Ready?

Introduction

Good morning, everyone. Good morning. It’s so good to see you this morning. It is a beautiful Lord’s Day. And it’s a blessing for us to be together today to worship God and study from his word. And I want to invite you to please go ahead and get out your Bible this morning and make your way over to the book of 1 John. Paper form, digital form. Just get a Bible out this morning and go with you to 1 John chapter 3. I want to set up this lesson by reading a verse from 1 John chapter 3 and in verse number 4. In 1 John chapter 3 and in verse 4, the Bible says, everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, and sinlessness.

When is the right time? When is the right time for a young person to give their life to the Lord and become a Christian? For those of us who are parents, I think we got it, Tony got the slide here. For those of us who are parents, there comes a time when we must wrestle with those questions.

In fact, I can remember when I first dealt with those questions with our son Shawn Michael. It was October of 2021. And I was holding a gospel meeting in Chicago. I was holding a gospel meeting in Chicago, and on a Tuesday night, I preached a sermon about the book of life. I preached a sermon about the book of life that was very similar to the sermon I preached to you about three weeks ago. And after the sermon was over and we got back to the hotel, our son came into the living room area and he said he needed to talk with me. He said he needed to talk with me about something very important. He said he needed to talk with me about his soul and about his sins and about how he was afraid he was going to be lost in hell because his name was not found in the book of life.

He told me that on October the 5th of 2021. And brothers and sisters, that completely caught me off guard. That completely blindsided me. And it knocked the breath out of me. I mean, after preaching that sermon to an audience of mainly adults, I figured that maybe one of them would have responded to it. I figured that maybe one of the adults would have come down the aisle that night and said, Hey, Brother Sean, I need that. I need to do that. I need to make sure that my name is found in the book of life. I did not figure that our 11 year old son at the time would come up to me later on that night and say to me, Hey, Dad, I want to talk about my soul and my sins after hearing that lesson.

I did not see that coming at all. And let me just ask you have you ever gone through something like that before? Are you going through something like that right now? Right now, are you going through something like that with your kids? If you are, then the question is, what should you do? What should we do? How should we, as parents respond when our children come to us and they request at a young age to give their lives to the Lord? I submit that this can be a challenging thing to work through with our kids because the fact of the matter is the Bible doesn’t give us a specific age. The Bible doesn’t give us a specific number for when a young person is ready to obey the gospel and become a Christian.

This is not like them getting their driver’s license. This is not like them voting or joining the military or even getting a job. You see, when it comes to doing that kind of stuff, the laws of the land tell us exactly how old they gotta be to do them, but it doesn’t work that way when it comes to being a Christian. It doesn’t work that way when it comes to being baptized and giving your life to the Lord when it comes to doing those kinds of things. The Bible doesn’t give us a specific age.

Truly give their lives to the Lord. If you don’t mind in this lesson, I want to talk about that. I want to study that. I want us to understand this morning that if we’re really going to have families that serve God, like our theme this year is trying to push us to do, then for those of us who are currently raising kids, we need to know how to help them know when they’re truly ready to serve God. We got to help our kids know when they’re ready to become Christians. And speaking of our kids, speaking of our young people, let me just begin this lesson by saying some things to them. Let me begin this lesson by saying some things to our children, to our young people.

1. Young People, You Were Born Innocent

If you are a young person here this morning, and you’re not baptized, you’re not a Christian, but you’re trying to figure this thing out. You’re wrestling with this, you’re wrestling with trying to figure out if you’re ready to give your life to the Lord. I want you to know something. I want you to know first, there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing wrong with you wrestling with this or trying to figure this out because of how you were born. You see, when you came into this world when you were born, you were born innocent. You were born sinless and guiltless before God. We learn this in the book of Ezekiel, the 18th chapter and in verse number 4. God through the prophet Ezekiel. In Ezekiel chapter 18 and verse 4, God says, Behold, all souls are mine.

The soul of the Father, as well as the soul of the Son is mine, the soul whose sins will die. Notice the last part of that verse. The soul whose sins will die. What does that mean? Well, that means that every person is accountable for their own actions. That means, young people, that you were not born in sin. You did not inherit your parents’ sins. You did not inherit your mama’s sins or your daddy’s sins. You were born innocent, precious, sinless before God. That’s what we learn in that verse. And Jesus taught the same thing in his ministry. Go into your Bible, please to Matthew chapter 19. Look in your Bible, please at Matthew chapter 19. Here we read about an occasion when Jesus is interacting with children, young children.

And in Matthew chapter 19 in verse 13, in verse 13, it says, then some children were brought to him. They were brought to Jesus so that he may lay his hands on them and pray. And the disciples rebuke them. Notice how the disciples don’t like these kids. They don’t like the fact that these children are being brought to Jesus. And verse 14 says, Jesus said, Let the children alone and do not hinder them from coming to me, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. After laying his hands on them, he departed from there. Notice the end of verse 14. The end of verse 14, in that verse, Jesus says, when it comes to these children, the kingdom of heaven belonged to them. He said, The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

2. The Age of Accountability

What does that mean? Well, simply put, that means that these children that he was interacting with on this occasion, they were innocent. They were precious in his eyes. They were sinless and a saved condition. If they died that day, they were going to be saved. They were going to be with God. That’s still true today. Young people, you need to understand that you were born innocent. You were born sinless before God, but there comes a time when their innocence goes away. There comes a time when their innocence leaves you. When does it leave you? Well, it leaves you. When you reach what we typically refer to as the age of accountability. The age of accountability. Have you ever heard that language before? What does that language mean?

What does that mean? The age of accountability. Well, that language refers to a time in someone’s life where they’re now accountable. They’re now responsible. They’re now responsible for their actions and their conduct and their decisions. They have the ability to reason and think.

Because in Isaiah chapter 1 and in verse 18, and Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 18, as God speaks through the prophet to a rebellious generation of Israelites, people who were heavily involved in idolatry. And Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 18, God says to the prophet, Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord.

Notice how in this verse God talks about reasoning. You see that? He talks about reasoning. He talks about critically thinking. He talks about thinking about the seriousness of sin and what he could do about those sins when people surrender their lives to him. Babies, toddlers, infants, they can’t do that. They can’t reason and think critically about sin and the consequences of sin. And you know what else they can’t do? They also don’t know right from wrong. Accountable people have the ability to reason. And they know right from wrong. They have the ability to discern good behavior from bad behavior. They have a conscience that can be hurt and convicted when they violate God’s will. Go in your Bible, please to Deuteronomy chapter 1. Because in Deuteronomy chapter 1, Moses says this about children, little children, when speaking to the people of Israel, as he prepares this next generation of Israelites to finally conquer the promised land under the leadership of Joshua.

Moses says in Deuteronomy chapter 1 and in verse number 39. In Deuteronomy 1 and verse number 39, he says, Moreover, your little ones who you said will become a prey, and your sons who this day have no knowledge of what? Good and evil shall enter there, shall enter into the promised land, and I will give it to them, and they shall possess it. Knowing the difference between good and evil. Accountable people can do that. They know that. Innocent little children, they don’t know that. And the Hebrew writer speaks of the same thing when you go to Hebrews chapter 5, please. And Hebrews, the fifth chapter. In Hebrews, the fifth chapter, the Hebrew writer here is disappointed with these Christians because they were not growing in their knowledge of God’s word.

By this time, they should have been in some meat. They should have been on some meat of the word, but they’re still on the milk. They need somebody to teach them all over again. They’re not able to teach others. And the Hebrew writer says in Hebrews chapter 5 and verse number 14. In Hebrews 5 and verse 14, he says, But solid food is for the mature who, because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Babies, infants, little toddlers, they can’t do that. They can’t discern good from evil. Take, for example, the small children we even have in this church building right now. Take, for example, little Liam in the back. Or little Oliver, the son of the Bryants. If they do something wrong, at their age right now, they don’t really understand that, right?

When it comes to little Liam at this point in his life, if his parents take him in to Walmart and they send him in the cart and he happens to take a candy bar, a snicker, and his parents don’t know it, and he and he takes it out of the store with him. They get all the way to the car with it. He doesn’t really know he’s done something wrong, right? He doesn’t really understand that he’s broken a law of the land. He doesn’t understand that he’s broke God’s law by taking something he did not rightfully purchase. His conscience is not going to feel any guilt about his actions, but the accountable person is different than that. Accountable people feel a sense of guilt. Well, when they do something like that, they feel like those people in Acts 2 verse 37.

3. Accountable People Are Able to Understand the Gospel

Remember in Acts 2, verse 37, after those 3,000 Jews on Pentecost realized they had killed Jesus and they were guilty of sin. The Bible says they were pricked. They were pierced in their hearts, and they asked the question of, what shall we do? What shall we do to be saved? They were accountable. They understood that. Accountable people have the ability to reason. And they have the ability to know right from wrong, and they’re also able to understand the gospel. They’re also able to understand God’s plan to save them from the consequences of their sins. They can understand what the Bible teaches about sin. They can understand 1 John 3 and verse 4, where the Bible says sin is a transgression or the violation of God’s law.

They can understand Romans chapter 6 and verse 23, where the Bible says the wages of sin is death, spiritual death, eternal separation from God. They can understand God’s part in their salvation. They can understand that even though sin separates them from God and puts them on a path to receive God’s wrath, God in his great love and grace and mercy gave them his son. He gave them Jesus. He gave them Jesus to die on the cross to pay the penalty for their sins. Accountable people are able to understand the good news of the gospel, and they’re also able to obey the gospel. They’re able to take the necessary steps God has prescribed to receive the benefits of the cross of Jesus.

They’re able to believe in Jesus. They’re able to believe that he’s the Son of God, that He’s the Lord, He’s the Christ. He died on the cross for their sins and was raised from the dead. Accountable people can understand that. Accountable people can repent. They can turn away from sin. They can have a change of mind towards sin that leads to a change in their lives. Accountable people can also confess Jesus as Lord and understand what that means. Accountable people also can be baptized for the Bible reason. Accountable people understand what baptism is all about. They understand that they must be baptized so that they can be saved, according to Mark 16, 16. They understand that they must be baptized in order to call the name of the Lord and have their sins washed away by the blood of Jesus, according to Acts 22, verse 16.

They’re able to understand that through baptism, they’re receiving forgiveness of sins.

Accountable people are able to understand the gospel. And they’re able to obey the gospel, and they’re also able to understand the commitment involved once one becomes a Christian. They’re able to understand that being a Christian involves not just living for the Lord a few minutes after you come up out of the water. No, being a Christian involves living for the Lord every day. It involves striving to be holy and pure every day. It involves staying connected to God through prayer and Bible study every day. And worshiping God with his people on the first day of the week and shining your light and doing what Jesus talks about in Luke chapter 9 and verse 23, when he says we must deny ourselves, take up the cross and follow him.

4. The Bible Does Not Give a Specific Age

Accountable people are able to understand the gospel. And they can obey the gospel and commit themselves to Jesus. And let me emphasize to you again that the Bible does not give us a specific age for when a young person is ready and able to do these things. There’s no specific age for this in the Old Testament or in the New Testament. If there was a specific age when a person is ready to do these things, it would be in the Bible. God would have told us in the Bible, but it’s not there.

People are different. They reach different levels of different understanding at different times in their lives. Everybody’s not the same.

For about five years, I preached the gospel in Leedsburg. And one of the members there was a 90-year old man who spent about 70 years of his life preaching the gospel. He was 90 years old. And he spent about seven decades preaching the gospel. And one day I was at his house and he was showing me his library, and he said to me, He looked me in my eye and said to me that he was baptized when he was nine. He said he was nine years old when he knew he was a sinner. And Jesus died for his sins. And through baptism, he was going to have his sins washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ. That’s what he said to me on that day.

And he went to his grave standing firm on that conviction. He went to his grave standing firm on the conviction that he knew exactly what he was doing at nine years old. But other people may be different than him. He reached the age of accountability at nine. But other people may reach it at 10. And other people may reach it at 11. And other people may reach it at 12. The Bible doesn’t give us a specific age for when a person is accountable before God. And that means, young people, that if you have not been baptized, and you feel that right now in your life, you know the difference between right and wrong. You know that you are a sinner. You know that Jesus is the Savior and the Son of God.

And you need his blood to receive forgiveness. If you feel that right now in your life you understand these things, what you need to do today is go home and talk to your parents. You need to leave here and go home today and sit down with your parents. You don’t need to easily dismiss those feelings. You don’t need to act as though those feelings are not a big deal. You don’t need to assume that you have plenty of time later on to obey the gospel. No, what you need to do is tell your parents and go talk with your parents.

5. Parents: Don’t Pressure, Don’t Discourage, Help Them

Let me say some things to parents now. For those of you who are parents, like Gigi and I, and you’ve had your children come up to you and desire to become a Christian, desire to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, it can be hard trying to determine if they’re truly ready, right? That can be hard. I mean, on one hand, we certainly don’t want to pressure them, do we? We don’t want to pressure our kids. And the case of our son Shawn Michael, and this is also true of faith. I determined the day they were born that I was never ever going to pressure them to obey the gospel. I was never ever gonna pressure them to get baptized and become Christians. I was gonna wait until they come up to me saying, Hey, Dad, I know I’m a sinner.

I want to give my life to the Lord, like any parent here who’s trying to raise up soldiers for Jesus Christ. I don’t want my kids obeying the gospel for the wrong reason. I didn’t want my son obeying the gospel just to make daddy happy, or to make mama happy, or because he sees some of his friends in the church getting baptized, or because maybe there’s some older people in the church pressuring him to get baptized because they feel like he’s at the age of accountability. No, sir and no ma’am. When it came to our children, I want them to get baptized and become Christians for the Bible reason. For the same reason that those in Acts 2 37 got baptized, because they were piercing their hearts, and they wanted to serve Jesus.

And so this can be difficult because we don’t want to pressure our kids. But at the same time, we don’t want to discourage our kids, right? We don’t want to pressure them, and we also don’t want to discourage them. We don’t want to easily dismiss them that they’re not ready if they want to become Christians. We don’t want to easily dismiss that. I mean, we understand that’s a huge danger in that approach as well. If they come to us saying, hey, I want to become a Christian, I want to get baptized, and we easily dismiss that. Well, that may kill their zeal and desire to everyone to become a Christian. So there’s a balance here. We don’t want to pressure our kids, we don’t want to discourage our kids.

Instead, what we want to do is we want to help our kids, right? Isn’t that what we want to do? We want to help them. We want to help them think through this process and work through this process. In fact, no one on the earth can help them like us. In Proverbs chapter 22 and verse 6, a well known verse, the Bible says, in Proverbs 22 and verse number 6, train up a child the way that he should go. And when he’s older, he won’t depart from it. The Apostle Paul puts it this way in the book of Ephesians, a verse that we’ve considered on many occasions tying to our theme this year. In Ephesians chapter 6 and verse number 4, the Apostle Paul says, Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up and the discipline and the instruction of the Lord.

That’s what we want to do. Notice how the responsibility, the responsibility for helping young people know the Lord and serve the Lord, is placed first and foremost in the lap in the laps of parents. It is placed first and foremost in the laps of mommies and daddies. It is not placed first and foremost in the laps of the brethren in the church. It is not placed first and foremost in the laps of the shepherds. Or the preacher or the Bible class teachers know the responsibility to help young people know how to serve the Lord and to serve the Lord is given first and foremost to the parents. Why? Well, because no one knows our children like we do. No one spends as much time with our children as we do.

No one is able to monitor their maturity and ability to make decisions like we can.

Well, I don’t think you’re ready. You’re not ready right now. Instead of saying that stuff right away, what we need to do is say, Let’s sit down. Let’s sit down and talk. We need to talk with our kids. We need to ask them some questions. You say you want to become a Christian. You say you’re ready to be baptized. Okay, why do you want to be baptized? Why do you want to become a Christian? Is this an urgent matter for you? If so, tell me why. We need to ask them those kinds of questions, and if they immediately give us the wrong answers to those questions, then we know what we need to know. They’re not ready. We know they’re not ready. But if they give us the right answers to those questions, as their parents, we need to be able to immediately recognize if they are meaning what they’re saying, or if they’re just reciting to us what they think we want to hear, we need to ask questions.

We need to ask questions with our children. And if we get the right answers to those questions, the next thing we got to do is we got to do some teaching. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get dirty. It’s time to teach.

Want to become a Christian? We spent several days and several weeks on the living room floor, studying the gospel. We studied the gospel. We actually went through an excellent workbook written by a dear friend of mine named Brother Mark Roberts. I mean, if you know Brother Mark Roberts, right? You know Mark Roberts. Mark Roberts is a wonderful preacher in urban Texas, and he’s written a wonderful workbook that’s designed to help young people and help parents know when their kids are ready to obey the gospel. Help us work through this process. This book is called Am I Ready? Am I Ready? And it deals with a lot of different subjects. It deals with can young people really become Christians? Do I need to become a Christian? What steps are involved in God’s plan of salvation?

What does it mean to become a Christian? What kind of commitment is attached to that? Do I have to be baptized in front of a bunch of people? Do I have to be baptized in front of a church service? Is it right to be baptized because you’re afraid of going to hell? Why should I want to be a Christian right now? What are some things that should make me pause about making this decision? We went through this entire book together. In fact, one of the things that I did, and this is what I did as a father, to make sure that my son was really serious about this, is I told him to do the lessons by himself ahead of time. I told him to sit down and you do each lesson by yourself.

You read the questions, you fill in the blanks, you read the scriptures, you do these things without me telling you to do it, then we’ll go through it together. His willingness to do these things by himself was a huge sign to me that he was serious.

6. The Local Church Can Pray, Encourage and Celebrate

He was really serious about being a Christian. And brothers and sisters, that’s a blessing, isn’t it? That’s a blessing. For any Christian parent, it is a blessing to start introducing our kids to the Bible before they can even talk, and one day the light bulb goes off. It turns on. And their conscience kicks in, and they realize that they’re sinners and they’re separated from God, and they start having their own desire to serve Jesus. We got to think about these kinds of things, parents. But let me close quickly by saying some things to the church. What about the church? What about the local church? What can a local church be doing for parents who are currently going through this process with their kids? Well, for the members of the South Bumby congregation, this is for every member of this church, whether you’re a parent or not.

One thing you can do for the parents who are currently going through this process is number one, you can pray. We need you to pray. And we need you to pray a lot. Pray every day for the parents. Pray every day for the children, for the young people. Pray every day that God will bless both groups as they work through this delicate matter together. The local church can pray about this. Because in this church right now, we got a lot of parents. We got a lot of young people who are going to be going through this process. If they’re not already, they will be in the next few years. So we got to pray about this. And you know what else the local church can do?

The local church can also encourage. The local church can encourage. They can encourage young people whenever they decide to finally give their lives to the Lord. In the case of Shawn Michael five years ago, when he came up out of that water, and I was blessed to baptize my son. And when he came up out of that water, and after he dried off and put his dry clothes back on again, a bunch of Christians met him at that door, and they just gave him all kind of love. He was overwhelmed. He was overwhelmed with hugs, kindness, support from members of a local church, and that’s exactly what a local church family is supposed to do. That’s what they’re supposed to do. Instead of getting into God’s territory and trying to judge people’s hearts, and trying to judge people by our own standard of accountability, what God wants us to do in the local church is leave the judging of hearts to him, and we just encourage.

That’s what a local church can do. Pray. Encourage young people when they give their lives to the Lord and then also celebrate. Celebrate their decision.

I know you are. But why did Jesus even tell those parables? Well, look at Luke chapter 15 and verse 1. In Luke 15 and verse 1, it says, Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near him to listen to him. All these sinners are coming to Jesus to hear the gospel, both the Pharisees and the scribes, the guys that everybody thought had it all together. They looked apart, they prayed the prayers, they knew the scriptures. People thought that if anybody was going to be saved, it’s going to be these guys. Verse 2 both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them. They don’t like that Jesus is spending time with sinners, trying to help sinners come to the Lord.

And so drop down to verse 8, because in verse 8 in the parable of the lost coin, he says, or what woman, if she has 10 silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it. When she had found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice.

And look at what the angels are doing. The angels are celebrating. The angels are rejoicing. The angels are throwing a spiritual party in heaven. They’re doing that for sinners who get their lives right with the Lord. They’re doing this for all sinners who give their lives, who get their lives right with the Lord. They’re not just doing this when a 25-year old or 30-year old or a 40 or a 50-year old decides to get baptized for the remission of sins. They’re not just doing this when adults decide to obey the gospel and become Christians. No, they do this even for young people.

Even when young people reach the age of accountability and they decide to dedicate themselves to the service of God, the angels rejoice over that too. They celebrate that too. They’re happy about that too. They don’t sit in heaven and go, well, you know what? Who cares about that baptism? Because they just reached the age of accountability a couple years ago. Or who cares about that conversion because both of their parents are Christians, or they’re now third or fourth generation Christians. No, every time a sinner comes to God, heaven rejoices. Heaven celebrates, heaven throws a spiritual party. And we need to as well. We need to as well. Tony said my battery’s going out, so that means I need to be quiet now. But that’s the end of the lesson, anyway, Brother Tony.

Conclusion

We need to celebrate when our children decide to give their lives to the Lord. And maybe there’s somebody here this morning who needs to do the same thing. Maybe there’s somebody here this morning who needs to obey the gospel for the first time, who needs to give their lives to Jesus to become a Christian, who needs to have faith in the Lord, repent, and be baptized. If so, we want to help you with that. Or if there’s someone here who needs to come back to the Lord again, we’ll help you with that as well. We’ll pray with Him, pray for you. But thank you for listening so well this morning. And at this time, we offer a song of invitation to anyone who needs to come to the Lord.

Come to the front right now. Let’s stand. Let’s sing together.