36 Sermon Illustrations on Child Evangelism

In London, in 1872, one Sunday morning a minister said to me, "I want you to notice that family there in one of the front seats, and when we go home I want to tell you their story." When we got home I asked him for the story, and he said, "All that family were won by a smile." "Why," said I, "how's that?" "Well," said he, "as I was walking down a street one day I saw a child at a window; it smiled, and I smiled, and we bowed. So it was the second time; I bowed, she bowed. It was not long before there was another child, and I had got in a habit of looking and bowing, and pretty soon the group grew, and at last, as I went by, a lady was with them. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to bow to her, but I knew the children expected it, and so I bowed to them all. And the mother saw I was a minister, because I carried a Bible every Sunday morning. So the children followed me the next Sunday and found I was a minister. And they thought I was the greatest preacher, and their parents must hear me. A minister who is kind to a child and gives him a pat on the head, why the children will think he is the greatest preacher in the world. Kindness goes a great way. And to make a long story short, the father and mother and five children were converted, and they are going to join our church next Sunday."

Won to Christ by a smile! We must get the wrinkles out of our brows, and we must have smiling faces.

I remember when on the North Side I tried to reach a family time and again and failed. One night in the meeting, I noticed one of the little boys of that family. He hadn't come for any good, however; he was sticking pins in the backs of the other boys. I thought if I could get hold of him it would do good. I used always to go to the door and shake hands with the boys, and when I got to the door and saw this little boy coming out, I shook hands with him, and patted him on the head, and said I was glad to see him, and hoped he would come again. He hung his head and went away. The next night, however, he came back, and he behaved better than he did the previous night. He came two or three times after, and then asked us to pray for him that he might become a Christian. That was a happy night for me. He became a Christian and a good one. One night I saw him weeping. I wondered if his old temper had got hold or him again, and when he got up I wondered what he was going to say. "I wish you would pray for my mother," he said. When the meeting was over I went to him and asked, "Have you ever spoken to your mother or tried to pray with her?" "Well, you know, Mr. Moody," he replied, "I never had an opportunity; she don't believe, and won't hear me." "Now," I said, "I want you to talk to your mother to-night." For years I had been trying to reach her and couldn't do it.

So I urged him to talk to her that night, and I said "I will pray for you both." When he got to the sitting-room he found some people there, and he sat waiting for an opportunity, when his mother said it was time for him to go to bed. He went to the door undecided. He took a step, stopped, and turned around, and hesitated for a minute, then ran to his mother and threw his arms around her neck, and buried his face in her bosom. "What is the matter?" she asked--she thought he was sick. Between his sobs he told his mother how for five weeks he had wanted to be a Christian; how he had stopped swearing; how he was trying to be obedient to her, and how happy he would be if she would be a Christian, and then went off to bed. She sat for a few minutes, but couldn't stand it, and went up to his room. When she got to the door she heard him weeping and praying, "Oh, God, convert my dear mother." She came down again, but couldn't sleep that night. Next day she told the boy to go and ask Mr. Moody to come over and see her. He called at my place of business--I was in business then--and I went over as quick as I could. I found her sitting in a rocking chair weeping. "Mr. Moody," she said, "I want to become a Christian." "What has brought that change over you. I thought you didn't believe in it?" Then she told me how her boy had come to her, and how she hadn't slept any all night, and how her sin rose up before her like a dark mountain. The next Sunday that boy came and led that mother into the Sabbath-school, and she became a Christian worker.

Oh, little children, if you find Christ tell it to your fathers and mothers. Throw your arms around their necks and lead them to Jesus.

I remember hearing of a Sabbath-school teacher who had led every one of her children to Christ. She was a faithful teacher. Then she tried to get her children to go out and bring other children into the school. One day one of them came and said she had been trying to get the children of a family to come to the school, but the father was an infidel, and he wouldn't allow it. "What is an infidel?" asked the child. She had never heard of an infidel before. The teacher went on to tell her what an infidel man was, and she was perfectly shocked. A few mornings after the girl happened to be going past the post-office on her way to school, and she saw the infidel father coming out. She went up to him and said, "Why don't you love Jesus?" If it had been a man who had said that to him probably he would have knocked him down. He looked at her and walked on. A second time she put the question, "Why don't you love Jesus?" He put out his hand to put her gently away from him, when, on looking down, he saw her tears. "Please, sir, tell me why you don't love Jesus?" He pushed her aside and away he went. When he got to his office he couldn't get this question out of his mind. All the letters seemed to read, "Why don't you love Jesus?" All men in his place of business seemed to say, "Why don't you love Jesus?" When he tried to write his pen seemed to shape the words, "Why don't you love Jesus?" He couldn't rest, and on the street he went to mingle with the business men, but he seemed to hear a voice continually asking him, "Why don't you love Jesus?" He thought when night came and he got home with his family, he would forget it; but he couldn't. He complained that he wasn't well, and went to bed. But when he laid his head on the pillow that voice kept whispering, "Why don't you love Jesus?" He couldn't sleep. By and by, about midnight, he got up and said, "I will get a Bible and find where Christ contradicts himself, and then I'll have a reason," and he turned to the book of John. My friends, if you want a reason for not loving Christ, don't turn to John. He knew Him too long. I don't believe a man can read the gospel of John without being turned to Christ. Well, he read through, and found no reason why he shouldn't love Him, but he found many reasons why he should. He read this book, and before morning he was on his knees, and that question put by that little child led to his conversion.

A little boy learned in Sunday school the text, "When my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up." While working in a coal-mine, the water burst in, and cut off all escape. Some days after, his body was found, and near it the above text, cut in the soft coal. The Lord had indeed taken him up.

I have heard of a father who objected to teach his child to pray. The child broke his leg; and, while his leg was being taken off, he continued to curse and swear all the time. "See!" said the physician, "you have a point of conscience about teaching your child to pray; but Satan has no conscience about teaching him to swear."

— Spurgeon

Some time in the latter part of the last century, says Rev. Mr. Grinnell, a missionary from one of the New England Societies was laboring in the interior of the State of New York, where the settlements were very few and far between. This missionary was much devoted to his work, meek and affable, and possessed of a remarkable faculty for introducing the subject of religion to every individual with whom he came in contact. On a hot summer's day, while his horse was drinking from a small brook through which he rode, there came along a poor-dressed, bare-headed, bare-footed boy, about 7 years old, and stood looking at the missionary from the bridge just above him.

"My son," said the missionary, "have you any parents?"

"Yes, sir; they live in that house," pointing to a cabin near by.

"Do your parents pray?" "No, sir."

"Why do they not pray?"

"I do not know, sir."

"Do you pray?" "No, sir."

"Why do you not pray?"

"I do not know how to pray."

"Can you read?"

"Yes, sir; my mother has taught me to read the New Testament."

"If I will give you this sixpence, will you go home and read the third chapter of John, and read the third verse over three times?" The little boy said he would; and the missionary gave him the sixpence and rode on.

Some twenty years had elapsed, and the same missionary, advanced in years, was laboring in a sparsely peopled region, in another part of the same state. While on his way to a little village one day, late in the afternoon, he called at a small house, and inquired the distance. "Six miles," was the reply. He then stated that himself and horse were very weary, and inquired if he could not stay all night. The woman of the house objected on account of their poverty, but the husband said, "Sir, you shall be welcome to such as we have."

The missionary dismounted and went in. The wife began to prepare his supper, while her husband proceeded to take care of the horse. As he came in, the missionary addressed him: "Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ?"

"That," said the man, "is a great question." "True," said the missionary, but I cannot eat till you tell me."

"Sir," said the man, "about 20 years ago, I lived in the interior of this state, and was then about 7 years old. While playing in the road one day, a gentleman in black, rode into the brook near by me, to water his horse. As I stood on the bridge above looking at him, he began to converse with me about praying, and reading the Bible; and told me he would give me a sixpence if I would read the 3d chapter of John and the third verse, three times—"And Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." I gave him my promise, took the money, and felt wealthy indeed. I went home, and read as I had promised. That verse produced an uneasiness in my mind, which followed me for days and years, and finally I was led by its influence, as I trust, to love Jesus as my Saviour! "Glory to God!" said the missionary, rising from his seat; "here is one of my spiritual children; the bread cast on the waters is found after many days!"

They took their supper, and talked and sang and prayed and rejoiced together all night long, neither of them having any disposition to sleep. The missionary found him to be poor in this world's goods, but rich in faith, and an heir of the kingdom. Early in the morning they parted, and the missionary went his way inspired with fresh zeal for the prosecution of his pious labors.

# 66. Benefit to Christians.

A teacher called at a neighbor's house, and the parents being absent, questioned the children about the creation, the flood, &c. They appeared much surprised at the questions, and were as unable to answer them as though they had related to another planet. They did not attend the Sabbath school.

In the same neighborhood lived another child, whose age was about the average age of those children just mentioned, and her advantages, excepting the Sabbath school, of which she was a member, were no better than theirs. As her father called on the superintendent to inquire the meaning of a certain passage of Scripture, he remarked that he was in the habit of asking his daughter the meaning of obscure portions of the Bible, and that he seldom failed of obtaining a satisfactory explanation.

A justice of the peace, near Bristol, England, in 1820, speaking of the neighborhood in which a Sunday school had been established, said, that formerly it was dangerous even to go through the parish, in consequence of the ignorant and depraved state of the inhabitants; but now he saw such an alteration for the better, and was so pleased with the sight of the children, that on one occasion he invited them all to his house, and gave them refreshment.

This was written by Philip Doddridge. At his birth he gave so little sign of life that he was laid aside as dead, but an attendant, afterward observing some motion, gave him the necessary attention at that critical time. His mother, who had a family of twenty children, taught him the history of the Bible before he could read, by the aid of some Dutch tiles, about the fireplace, I believe, in the room.

While I was at a convention in Illinois an old man past seventy years got up,and said he remembered but one thing about his father, and that one thing followed him all through life. He could not remember his death, he had no recollection of his funeral, but he recollected his father one winter night taking a little chip, and with his pocket-knife whittling out a little cross, and with the tears in his eyes he held up that cross, telling how God in His infinite love sent His Son down here to redeem us, and how He had died on the cross for us. The story of the cross followed him through life; and if we tell children these truths, they will never forget them.

[Illustration: She had not talked long until nearly every child in the room was in tears.] Several years ago, when residing at G -- -- , we became acquainted with Sister W -- -- who was especially fond of children. Her own were grown, and desiring to make a home for some homeless child, she went to the county farm, where there were several, in search of one. Among the children there she found a beautiful, little, bright-eyed girl, about nine years old, named Ida. Her heart went out to her at once and she expressed to the lady in charge her desire to take Ida, and her willingness to care for her as she would if she were her own child. But the matron said "Oh, you have no idea what a terrible child she is! We can do nothing with her, she is stubborn and has an awful temper and it is impossible to control her. We are intending to send her to the Girl's Reform School." Sister W -- -- who was an earnest Christian, was surprised but not discouraged. She could not bear the thought of such a little child being sent to such a place and so she said to the matron: "Well, I'd like to take her with me and see if I cannot help her to be good." "Well," said the matron, "you can try her if you want to, but you will be glad to bring her back again." Acting upon this permission, Sister W -- -- talked with Ida and easily gained her consent to go with her. Not many days had passed before she found that there was considerable reason for what the matron had said. Ida was hard to control and at times became terribly angry without cause; but Sister W -- -- prayed for her and dealt patiently and tenderly with her and told her how Jesus loved her, and would help her to be good if she would only give him her heart. Her prayers and loving labor were not in vain and it was not very long until little Ida was converted. The change was so great that all who were with her could plainly see that Jesus had indeed given her a new heart. Soon after this we had charge of a children's meeting held in a mission hall in G -- -- . Among the children gathered there were many of the worst boys in town. Little Ida was present. We knew how much Jesus had done for her and felt led of the Spirit to ask her to lead the meeting. She looked up at us much surprised but her little heart was full of the love of God and she consented to do the best she could. Words cannot describe what followed. In tears, Ida told, in her own touching way, how Jesus had saved her -- just what a naughty girl she had been before she was converted but how Jesus had "taken the angry all away" and given her a new heart so that she loved everybody and loved to do what was right. Then she pled with them to give their hearts to God, and told them how Jesus died on the cross for them, and how He loved them and wanted to save them. She had not talked long until nearly every child in the room was in tears, and how shall we describe that touching scene? We had an altar service. Ida knelt with those who were seeking and prayed for them and told them how to find Jesus; and right there many were converted and gave bright, clear testimonies that their sins were forgiven and Jesus had given them new hearts. Thus did God that day honor a little girl's testimony and exhortation and fulfill His own work, "A little child shall lead them." Very often do we call to mind that scene, and we find it one of the sweetest of the memories of years of evangelistic work. -- Editor.

The child’s religious nature, like that of primitive man, is animistic. Professor Dawson, in “The Child and His Religion,” says:

It is hard for children to resist the feeling that a summer shower comes with a sort of personal benevolence to water the dry flowers and grass. A little girl of four years illustrated this feeling on a certain occasion. There was a thunder-shower after a long dry spell. The rain was pattering on the sidewalk outside the house. The child stretched forth her hands toward the rain-drops and said: “Come, good rain, and water our plants!” Flowers and trees have individuality for most children, if not for all. Ruth’s mama found her sitting among the wild geraniums, some distance from the house. “What are you doing, Ruth?” “I’m sitting by the flowers. They are lonesome and like to have me with them, don’t you know?” At another time she said: “Mama, these daisies seem to look up at me and talk to me. Perhaps they want us to kiss them.” On one occasion she said to her brother, who was in the act of gathering some flowers she claimed for herself, “I don’t think it nice to break off those poor flowers. They like to live just as well as you do.” The boy thus chided by his sister for gathering her flowers was generally very fond of plants and trees, and felt a quite human companionship in them. He could not bear to see flowering plants hanging in a broken condition, or lying crusht upon the sidewalk. Even at the age of ten years, he would still work solicitously over flowers like the violets, bluets, and crowfoots, with evident concern for their comfort.

An Australian missionary was addressing a band of children on the needs of the people among whom he was working. A little one slipt a sixpence shyly into his hand with the request that he use it for something special. He bought with it a prayer-book, and gave it to a poor workhouse girl who had been sent from England to go into service on an Australian farm. She promised to read it faithfully. Several weeks later a rough-looking man came and asked him if he were the person who had given his servant a prayer-book. His wife was very ill and wanted to see him. Altho it was twenty miles inland, the clergyman went and ministered to the poor woman. A little while later the man came once more to the minister and said that he and his neighbors had built a little church and paid for it and wanted him to come and conduct services among them. Thus an entirely new work was opened as a result of the little child’s sixpence.

There is no more exceptional educational institution in America than the Berry School for mountain whites, near Rome, Ga., and yet the whole work grew out of a little Sunday-school that Miss Martha Berry established in the mountains near Possum Trot, Ga., less than ten years ago. At that time Miss Berry was residing on an estate which was all that was left of the fortune of the Southern family to which she belonged. In taking her walks she was imprest by the desolate condition of the mountain children. Their parents were too poor to supply them with anything more than the barest necessities of life, and they were growing up in utter indifference to everything pertaining to education. To remedy this to a small degree, she invited a number of them to meet her every Sunday at a little cabin she owned, and there undertook to teach them a few of the things they most needed to know. At the time Miss Berry had no thought of establishing a permanent school. Instead of being a temporary affair, however, the school soon made itself an institution, practically without any effort on her part. So far as the children of the “poor whites” were concerned, they not only crowded her cabin to more than its full capacity every Sunday, but they finally came to her with the request that a day-school be added. For a time it looked as if the movement had come to a point beyond which it could not go, but finally Miss Berry screwed up sufficient courage to make a trip to the North that she might tell some of the rich philanthropists about her “poor white” boys and her mountain school. It was an interesting story that she had to tell, and she told it so well that she went back to her pupils with funds sufficient not only to maintain the school, but to enlarge it. To-day the school has one thousand acres of land, much of it under cultivation, and several fine buildings, in which fifteen teachers are kept busy instructing the one hundred and fifty pupils, not only in the studies of the ordinary school, but in the useful trades as well.--_Human Life._

When things become signs, when they gain a representative capacity as standing for other things, play is transformed from mere physical exuberance into an activity involving a mental factor. A little girl who had broken her doll was seen to perform with the leg of the doll all the operations of washing, putting to bed, and fondling, that she had been accustomed to perform with the entire doll. The part stood for the whole; she reacted not to the stimulus sensibly present, but to the meaning suggested by the sense object. So children use a stone for a table, leaves for plates, acorns for cups. So they use their dolls, their trains, their blocks, their other toys. In manipulating them, they are living not with the physical things, but in the large world of meanings, natural and social, evoked by these things. So when children play horse, play store, play house or making calls, they are subordinating the physically present to the ideally signified. In this way, a world of meanings, a store of concepts (so fundamental to all intellectual achievement), is defined and built up.--JOHN DEWEY, “How We Think.”

He begged me for the little toys at night, That I had taken, lest he play too long, The little broken toys--his sole delight. I held him close in wiser arms and strong, And sang with trembling voice the even-song.

Reluctantly the drowsy lids drooped low, The while he pleaded for the boon denied. Then, when he slept, sweet dream, content to know, I mended them and laid them by his side That he might find them in the early light, And wake the gladder for this joyous sight.

So, Lord, like children, at the even fall We weep for broken playthings, loath to part, While Thou, unmoved, because Thou knowest all, Dost fold us from the treasures of our heart; And we shall find them at the morning-tide Awaiting us, unbroke and beautified.

--_Ainslee’s Magazine._

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Imitate the Flathead Indians, and fling the child into the stream and make him swim. If Flathead Indians do this, straight-browed white men should know enough to imitate them. Bring your children up to believe that God cares for them, but that they must be self-reliant, and care for themselves. The fishes’ fin fits the water, the birds’ wing the air, the eye fits the sunbeam, the ear matches music, the intellect fits the truth and man’s equipment for self-support fits the harvests, the fields and the forests.

— N. D. HILLIS

My greatest stewardship in life is not training a generation of students as a seminary president. It is training my five young children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

I feel the weight -- and glory -- of this stewardship daily and find immeasurable fulfillment and joy as I see my children taking steps toward Christ.

I am sure many Christian parents feel the same way -- awestruck by the opportunity and responsibility that is ours. My wife Karen and I are often asked about building a Christian home and rearing children who grow up to follow Christ. We will be the first to admit that we are far from accomplished. On the contrary, we just keep plugging away, seeking the Lord’s grace in our children’s lives, as in our own.

This is definitely not an article about “success, and how we have achieved it.” Rather, as the old adage goes, we are beggars telling other beggars where we have found some bread. If you are seeking to influence little ones toward Christ, you might find these 10 tips helpful:

1. Remember, children do not have to become like adults to be saved; adults have to become like children. When Jesus made this point in Matthew 18, He was commending a spirit of humility, dependence and deference -- virtues which are common in children and essential for whoever would follow Christ.

2. Remember, you are responsible for your child’s spiritual formation, not your church, your pastor or your children’s minister. Be faithful to teach them the Word, to shape their hearts and, yes, to indoctrinate them. Even if your church can help with your kid’s spiritual formation, don’t let it rob you of some of life’s greatest joys.

3. Remember what conversion is. Conversion is more than intellectual and more than our children’s ascent to biblical facts about Jesus. My children have known the broad contours of the Gospel since preschool, but that is not enough to save them. Be looking for the affective as well as the intellectual. Have an ear for confession, repentance, faith and submission to Jesus as Lord. Ask yourself, has Jesus changed their life?

4. Share your testimony with your children. Do your kids know how much Jesus means to you, how He changed your life, and when and how you became a Christian? Sharing your testimony with your children provides a natural context to discuss what God is doing in their lives.

5. Share the Gospel with your children. Do not leave it to them to connect the dots from Sunday School lessons and sermons. Share the Gospel with your children plainly, passionately and frequently.

6. Share the Gospel in settings where your children can overhear the Gospel in a less intimidating, more natural context. Moreover, they will sense how important the Gospel is to you, that it applies to all people, and that you value the Gospel and people enough to acquaint the two.

7. Provide natural contexts for spiritual conversations. In our house, we strive for spiritual conversations to be as natural as talking about school, activities, sports or any other aspect of our lives. For us, this most naturally takes place during family worship. The key is not the context but the consistency. Infrequently talking about the things of God ups the awkwardness for your children. Frequency makes it more natural.

8. Encourage steps toward Jesus. W.A. Criswell, the famed pastor of First Baptist Dallas, coined this helpful phrase. When your children express interest in following Christ, even if they are quite young or you have other reservations about their inquiry, you can still affirm them as they ask questions and “take steps toward Jesus.”

9. Talk to your pastor. Though you should not outsource your child’s spiritual formation, you should seek your pastor’s counsel. Let him visit with your child and join in shepherding them toward Christ. Sometimes the church assumes parents are leading their children to Christ while the parents are assuming the church’s ministers are doing the same. Assume nothing. Your child’s heart is too precious for ill-informed assumption. Partner with your church.

10. Be quick with the Gospel, but slow with the baptistery. Just because your child expresses interest in following Christ -- or even professes they are following Christ -- does not mean you have to baptize them right away. Baptizing young children who are not yet genuinely converted confuses both the child and the congregation. Even worse, it may mislead the child into thinking they are converted while they yet remain outside the Kingdom. Instead, be patient and trust the Lord. Let their desire for Christ ripen. Look for the fruits of conversion. Baptize them as you gain confidence they have truly met Christ.

Earlier this year, I had the privilege of baptizing one of my own children. Leading her to Christ and seeing her grow over many months has been an unmatched joy. I now resonate with the apostle John’s assessment, “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in truth” (3 John 4). As you shepherd your children toward Christ, may you know the joy of seeing your children walk in the truth as well.