Practical Questions

In this part of the sermon: Martin addresses the first practical question: how to discern when a minor has ceased to be a minor and become an adult, using 1 Corinthians 13:11 and illustrating the transition…

Martin uses two overlapping circles to illustrate the gradual transition from childhood to adulthood, with the overlapping area representing adolescence, to show that the change is not abrupt but a process.

We take the two circles.

12:21 - 12:23 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin addresses the first practical question: how to discern when a minor has ceased to be a minor and become an adult, using 1 Corinthians 13:11 and illustrating the transition…

He describes the embarrassing voice changes in young men and their eagerness to see stubble as external, definable factors indicating the onset of puberty and the transition to manhood.

And, of course, this generally begins to happen with some very definable external factors at puberty. The young man is talking long and the voice is going to stay up or go down and it's so embarrassing because he's trying to feel like a man and his voice is up and down and it's terrible. Some of us can't remember that very well. Remember that?

13:40 - 14:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Be patient with your children during adolescence, and tell your children to be patient with you.

Martin describes the physiological changes in young women, such as the broadening of the pelvic area and breast development, as visible signs of their transition into womanhood.

Sure you did. Because that's an indication to you that you're beginning, to come into manhood. And then, of course, with young women, the physiological changes that go on and generally become very visible in terms of the whole broadening of the pelvic area and they begin to no longer look like little girls but have hips like women and begin to develop breasts that are discernible and begin to develop other characteristics. So, some of those are very evident.

14:23 - 14:50 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He outlines various indications of adulthood, such as physical growth, sexual development, mature decision-making, and emotional/economic independence, while acknowledging that…

He uses the analogy of parents teaching children to walk, letting them 'scrape their knees,' to illustrate the need for parents to back off and allow adolescents to make independent judgments, even if it means making mistakes, to foster maturity.

Now, there are many parents who think they're doing the best thing in the world for their children to protect, protect, protect, regulate, regulate, regulate. But you know what happens? They come to adulthood absolutely crippled to make independent judgments. That's why I tell some of the young couples, my wife and I are spending more time now in the work of parenting than at any other time in our lives.

23:24 - 23:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Instruct minor children that while belief should be followed by baptism, God does not require baptism of them now in their minority.

Martin tells a story of a 15-year-old boy who, feeling strong sexual drives and reading 1 Corinthians 7, concludes he should marry to avoid fornication. This illustrates that while marriage is a means of grace, it requires maturity and responsibility beyond mere desire, paralleling baptism and church membership for minors.

Here's a young man who comes into puberty, say, at age 12. And by the time he's 14 years old, he knows that his identity as a man with its sexuality and with his sexual drives is a very real part of him. And he feels that old Cadillac engine. I think the biggest stock engine made in the States was back some years ago.

29:11 - 29:36 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Further questions cover the biblical basis for the Bar Mitzvah (none found) and the possibility of making a valid judgment of a credible profession in a minor, with Martin…

He uses the analogy of a 14-year-old who believes he is in love. While parents wouldn't dismiss his feelings, they also wouldn't consent to marriage, illustrating the need to acknowledge a child's sincerity without granting full adult privileges prematurely.

Good point. We go back to the analogy. If the 14-year-old comes and says, I believe I'm in love, are you going to tell him, you're a 14-year-old and know what love is? Of course not.

48:02 - 48:13 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains that confirmation has no biblical basis, being an attempt to make up for infant baptism, and discusses how parental pressure can lead to premature professions of…

Martin shares his personal experience of 'Decision Sunday' in the Salvation Army, where repeated calls for decisions led to constant doubt about the genuineness of his conversion, illustrating the negative pressure of demanding premature professions of faith from children.

And I tell you, for some of us, and this is not theoretical, I was brought up in the Salvation Army where once every quarter you had what was called Decision Sunday. And many a time I'd go down and they'd call in the Salvation Army the penitent form. And I would weep and sing into my heart, into my heart, come into my heart, Lord Jesus, come in today, come in to stay. But then nothing much would happen and I'd go through that again and to wonder I'm not a basket case.

52:24 - 52:51 Read in full sermon