Family Worhip; Use of TV

The point: Be convinced of the absolute necessity of planned family worship, as much as planned meals and rest.

Martin uses the analogy of planned meals, rest, and clothing for physical development to highlight the equal necessity of planned family worship for spiritual development, arguing that a home without spiritual planning would be as shambolic as one without physical planning.

I'm assuming that you, you are convinced of the necessity of family worship. If the home is the most powerful formative influence upon children, then it follows that prayer and the reading and explanation of the scriptures should have a vital role in that home. What would the physical development of your children be without planned meals, without planned periods of rest, without any plan to clothe the children, and provide warmer clothing in the winter and cooler clothing in the summer? Well, any home, if you can imagine it, that has no planned meals, no planned periods of rest, no planned pat...

4:26 - 5:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Ensure that family worship is continually put in the context of consistent godly example by those who lead it.

He describes a home with family worship but no consistent Christian example as a 'little hypocrite-producing factory,' emphasizing that outward religious acts without inward reality are detrimental to children's spiritual formation.

Now, if you want a sure road to producing little hypocrites and little cynics and people who have no respect for God and for his Word, then just find a home where there is some semblance of family worship without an equally valid semblance of consistent Christian example by the parents. If you want to see a little hypocrite-producing factory, you find a home where there's family worship, you find a home where there's family worship, you find a home where there's family worship, family prayer and family reading of the word, but no living example of that word in the lives of those who lead the f...

7:28 - 8:56 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not view family worship as a standalone block of time that takes care of spiritual instruction, but integrate biblical teaching into the totality of life.

Martin compares the misconception that child dedication alone ensures spiritual maturity to the idea that family worship alone can guarantee good outcomes, stressing that other means of grace and parental duties are also essential.

I've heard people say, well, I dedicated my children to the Lord when they were small, and now they've turned out bad, and I can't understand it. It's as though bringing them up to the front of a church and praying a little prayer over them was going to turn them into mature saints. Well, in the same way, it's possible for people to say, I can't understand why my kids turned out the way they did. We had family worship every day.

12:15 - 12:37 Read in full sermon

The point: Use brief morning family worship time for scripture memorization (e.g., Proverbs) and specific prayer for each family member's day.

He shares a personal anecdote about his daughter, Heidi, connecting a family worship lesson on the Tower of Babel and pride to a memorized proverb about God hating a proud look, illustrating the effectiveness of scripture memorization.

And it's interesting how they begin to come out in our family devotions tonight. We were dealing, we're reading now through Genesis, and we came to the Tower of Babel and the pride where they wanted to build a tower up to heaven and how God hates pride. And Heidi says, Daddy, like our memory. Every verse in Proverbs says, these six things did the Lord hate, yea, seven, an abomination, and a proud look.

22:29 - 22:50 Read in full sermon

The point: If anyone in the family can carry a tune, learn and sing hymns together as part of family devotions.

Martin highlights Isaac Watts' 'Hymns for Children,' explaining that Watts wrote them specifically for children during a period of confinement, showcasing the intentionality behind these valuable resources.

It's one of the most wonderful hymns for children. It's one of the little collections of hymns you'll find anywhere. When Watts was sick on one occasion, during his period of confinement, he wrote these hymns specifically for children. And listen to some of the subject matters of the hymn.

28:49 - 29:01 Read in full sermon

The point: If anyone in the family can carry a tune, learn and sing hymns together as part of family devotions.

He quotes an extended hymn by Isaac Watts, 'Why should our garments, made to hide our parents' shame, provoke our pride?', to illustrate how hymns can instill deep biblical truths about humility and inner adornment in children.

A hymn against idleness and mischief. Against pride and clothes. Listen to this one. Imagine a girl reared in our sex-soaked, body-conscious age having a hymn like this.

29:36 - 29:49 Read in full sermon

The point: Catechize children, instructing them in short, sharp statements of basic biblical teachings.

Martin quotes another Isaac Watts hymn, 'Let dogs delight to bark and bite,' to demonstrate how children's hymns can teach important lessons about love, peace, and avoiding conflict within the family.

And I think you'll be tickled with this. Against lying, against quarreling and fighting. Let dogs delight to bark and bite, for God hath made them so. Let bears and lions growl and fight.

31:35 - 31:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Catechize children, instructing them in short, sharp statements of basic biblical teachings.

He shares a humorous anecdote about his daughter, Beth, who became conditioned to sing hymns whenever they drove on Mountain Avenue, illustrating how consistent practice can embed spiritual habits in children.

And then when they can sing it without looking down. looking at the book and we've made it a practice always on our way to church Sunday morning to sing the hymns that we've been learning. And so now, in fact, it used to be funny before Beth was a little bit older. Anytime we'd come up Mountain Avenue, any time of the week, that's where we used to come to church, she'd say, Daddy, let's sing a hymn. She got so conditioned by coming over Lindsay Road onto that bottom part of Mountain Avenue and starting in the hymn that anytime we'd come there, she'd say, Daddy, let's sing a hymn. So these are ...

32:46 - 33:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Begin conducting family worship, learning and adjusting as you go, rather than waiting for perfection.

Martin uses the analogies of a child learning to walk and his own experience learning to roller skate to emphasize that conducting family worship effectively is a skill that must be cultivated through practice, awkwardness, and adjustment.

what should be done? I've tried to be practical and give you a broad spectrum of suggestions and like anything else, you only learn by doing. I don't care how brilliant someone is, I don't care how grounded they may be in Scripture, the only way you learn is by doing. And if we never did anything until we could do it very well, most of us would be doing nothing and would have learned little. When the child starts to walk, he's very awkward at it, skins his knees, bumps his nose and his ear, but he becomes proficient in walking by walking. I remember when I first was going to roller skate, I sa...

34:39 - 35:32 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He shifts to the topic of television, stating the basic assumption that the TV itself is not sinful, but as a powerful communication vehicle largely controlled by non-Christians…

He contrasts television with a movie theater, explaining that while both are powerful, TV's unique power lies in its direct entry into the home, making it a more pervasive influence.

For good or evil, any physical, mechanical instrument ever known to man. Since it is a vehicle of communication of the most powerful kind, why is it of the most powerful kind? Because it comes right into that place that has the most influence over the child's...

37:52 - 38:17 Read in full sermon

Driving home: we are dealing with something that must be carefully guarded and tremendously policed if it is to be in any way a helpful factor in a home rather than a damning and a detracting factor.

Martin cites statistics on retention rates for information heard versus information seen, highlighting the immense power of television as a visual medium to influence the mind.

I think you've heard it said, what you hear by the ear gate, you retain what? 10, 15% of it? What is seen by the eye gate, something like 70 to 80% is retained.

38:41 - 38:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Exercise firm parental control over the TV, recognizing responsibility for the mental, emotional, and spiritual influences on children.

He uses a vivid analogy of parents allowing rats, rabid dogs, snakes, and spoiled food in their home to illustrate the severe negligence of parents who permit harmful influences from television into their children's minds and spirits.

What would you think of a person in the Trinity Baptist Church who professed to love his children, but it became known to all of us that, number one,

46:18 - 46:27 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But the influences of the TV upon the mind and the spirit are such, listen carefully, that some of them, if they're the wrong influences, even the grace of God cannot erase this side of heaven.

Martin quotes Southern Presbyterian theologian Abney on the corrupting influence of novels, substituting 'TV' for 'novel,' to powerfully convey how television exposes viewers to crime, vice, blasphemy, and licentiousness, akin to associating with bad company.

So, any parent who professes to love the Lord and his children and yet allows the TV to be an undisciplined, ungovernment-governed influence upon his children, I seriously question that parent's love for the child. And I seriously question any presence of Christian convictions in any degree whatsoever. Abney, a southern Presbyterian theologian, writing on the baneful influence of novels says some things that apply so powerfully to the influence of the television. Listen to what he says, and I'll just put the word TV where he uses the word novel. But these television programs, whether intended ...

48:39 - 49:55 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Perhaps that's a text that every one of us who has a TV ought to inscribe in big red letters and put it right over the top of the tube. Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity.

He shares a personal anecdote of inadvertently seeing a naked woman in bed with a man on TV while trying to find news, illustrating the unexpected and shocking nature of corrupting content that can enter the home.

Is his lust excited by beholding the arts and the gratifications of licentiousness in the house of ill fame? He beholds them in the TV. I came in the other night wanting to switch on something to get some news and what should come before my eyes, but a woman totally naked in bed with a man next to her on the TV. Couldn't believe my eyes.

50:19 - 50:41 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Vice is a monster of so frightful name as to be hated, need but to be seen, yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, we first endure, then pity, then embrace.

Martin draws an analogy between taking a son to a pub to spend an hour with a brawler and drinker, and allowing children to watch Westerns where heroes are drinkers and brawlers, arguing that both exert the same corrupting influence through identification.

Vice is a monster of so frightful name as to be hated, need but to be seen, yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, we first endure, then pity, then embrace. The usual tendency of these TV programs is to familiarize the reader to viewing without revulsion and hatred, nay, with actual admiration the characters of dualists, drunkards, seducers, and other villains. And this is true. And when a child sits and identifies himself with the hero who has the gun, with the man who can puff his cigarette and take down his liquor, we're doing something that in other circles would be thought of we would ...

52:17 - 53:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Allow nothing to be watched on TV unless thoroughly familiar with the program, or sit and police it if unfamiliar.

He gives an example from a TV guide: a nature special on Australia's coral reefs, which would seem wholesome, but had a 'musical jazz score.' This illustrates how subtle, anti-Christian influences can be embedded in seemingly innocuous programs, requiring parental discernment.

There was a special on tonight, one of these nature specials showing off the coast of Australia one of the natural coral reefs that acts like a, breaks up the heavy seas and protects this particular coast of Australia. And this thing was to be in full color. We don't have a color TV. It probably was beautiful.

54:42 - 55:06 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He offers specific suggestions for TV use: only watch programs thoroughly familiar to parents (Philippians 4:8), police unfamiliar programs, and be aware of subtle anti-Christian…

Martin quotes a secular article by educators and doctors concerned about TV abuse, highlighting their recommendation for parents to 'co-view' programs and make selective choices, demonstrating that even non-Christian perspectives recognize the need for parental control.

I have these several articles I've clicked out of secular magazines by educators and doctors concerned about TV abuse and listen to what one of them said. At the receiving end, parents can eliminate by turning off or correctively interpret by co-viewing program that does not support the family's sense of relationships and values. Similarly, parents can advocate by selective program choice or reinforce by co-viewing that is, viewing with them programming which reflects their aspirations. My wife has found it effective to make a program guide especially for our young children using pictures of t...

56:15 - 57:29 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He offers specific suggestions for TV use: only watch programs thoroughly familiar to parents (Philippians 4:8), police unfamiliar programs, and be aware of subtle anti-Christian…

He cites astounding statistics from a secular article about the prevalence of violence on TV (e.g., 7,887 acts of violence in one city in one week, 12,000 human beings annihilated by average child viewers), to underscore the brutalizing effect of television.

And it gave some astounding statistics. And I won't weary you with them but let me just give you a couple of them. The TV stations of one city carried in one week 7,887 acts of violence. One week.

57:29 - 57:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Never use the TV as a convenient cop-out or babysitter, even for seemingly innocent cartoons.

Martin recounts sitting down to watch Saturday morning cartoons and quickly establishing a rule against them in his house, illustrating that even seemingly 'innocent' children's cartoons often promote themes of bloodshed, bombing, and anti-God perspectives.

In other words, don't use it as a babysitter. Well, I'd like to get such and such done, turn the TV and let the kids watch. It's just the innocence cartoons. No such thing as innocent cartoons.

58:37 - 58:50 Read in full sermon