It's Title: Personal-As A Child Place Series

Title: Personal-As A Child

Place: BLCC

Date: 9/24/17

Text: Matthew 18:1-4

CT: We must be like a child and humbly trust our Lord.

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Anson Hui is eleven-years-old. At the age of three, he was diagnosed with Glycogen Storage Disease (GSD), meaning his body can't break down or store sugars. He requires frequent daytime feedings (drinking raw cornstarch), and nighttime feedings through a pump that hooks into a surgically implanted tube to his stomach.

At the age of five, he experienced developmental delays that doctors feared were connected to autism. At that point in his life, he couldn't speak sentences with more than three syllables. He also became a target for school-yard bullies. No wonder that Anson often asked, "Why did God put me here?"

However, Anson also discovered that he had a gift. He said, "While everyone else was busy talking, I listened and listened to all the sounds around me." His listening skills helped him develop another gift—perfect or absolute pitch. Anson discovered that he could memorize and then master complex piano pieces (such as Mozart's Concerto in D Minor) with astounding speed and proficiency. Anson has won numerous awards and even performed in Carnegie Hall.

Anson's trials and his gifts have led him to declare his deep faith in the living God: "I can't decide many things that God has already planned, but I can still choose to work on my dream because I still have workable hands and a body to do it. I believe every single life is unique and special. Each has its own mission and purpose."

About a year ago he received more difficult news. An MRI revealed a benign tumor around his liver, which could lead to a liver transplant, a tricky procedure for any GSD patient. But once again, Anson finds solace in God's faithfulness. In a recent interview Anson said,

I know [there's] always a reason for God to give me a special body and talent. My dream is to be a tool of God … so in the end, I can hand in a beautiful [report] to my Lord in heaven with honor. And the most important thing is—I will never regret this journey on earth.

Julie Jordan, "Music as the No.1 Medicine (Part 2)," The Epoch Times (10-14-10); submitted by Andrew Beunk, Burnaby, British Columbia

LS. Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Good morning. I am in my second week of the Series “It’s Personal”. In this series I am going to try and show what an adult who decides to follow Christ goes through to get there. I am talking about someone who truly follows Jesus, who makes Him first in their life and gives it all to him. My goal for this series is to bring anyone who is hanging on the edge on over to following Jesus. This may sound a bit arrogant on my part. You are not going to come to Jesus unless you are ready. I understand that. But maybe you are more ready than you think.

You probably have some good reasons why you are not following Jesus. I am not going to tell you that you are crazy and these reasons you have don’t need to be dealt with. There are many reasons people give for not following Jesus.

But what happens is something happens that shrinks all your obstacles to following Jesus and you are softened to Him. It becomes personal. We begin a relationship with God. We lay our obstacles that keep us from God aside.

Remember our men not wanting to get married.

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Freedom

Commitment

Money

Other married people.

Too young

What if I meet someone else afterwards?

LOVE. You met somebody. No longer were talking about marriage you had someone to marry. It gets real personal.

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1. The Bible

2. Suffering

3. Miracles

4. Other religions

5. Family

[Screen 4]

1. The Bible

2. Suffering

3. Miracles

4. Other religions

5. Family

It’s Personal.

Outside of Christianity God is a category, Jesus is a category, but your heavenly Father wants to make it personal. It is kind of like when we say we are committed to our marriage. I know we mean well when we say this, but I want Kathy committed to me not our marriage. Marriage is a category and I am a person. It’s personal. We are committed to one another.

God wants it personal. But He wants it on His terms. For God so loved the world that He gave. God loves you. It was personal from the start.

People at this time, 4000 years ago, saw God as a vending machine. You popped in the quarters and you got out what you wanted. They sacrificed and made gods for every little thing they needed. If they needed rain for crops they did something someone had said worked. It did work about half the time. God wanted it to be personal. He wanted it on his terms.