FIND YOU ANOTHER LIMB TO CLIMB ON!
MATTHEW 18:1-6 (KJV)
“1 At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? 2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, 3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. 6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”
We have two walnut trees that are growing on the property line. We have a fence between us and the neighbor, and the trees are growing up the back side of the fence.
There are several limbs growing over on our side of the fence. The owner of the property owns several duplex apartments on the street behind our house. I did not want the fence row to grow up, and I spoke with the property owner about me keeping it clean. He told me that I could keep the fence row clean on his side of the property if I wished. He thought it would be a help to his property as well as mine.
About once a year I cut the limbs off on our side of the fence, and I cut the undergrowth off on his side of the fence. I have been busy this year, and I have been late in doing this.
The limbs have been growing over on our storage building and in the way of my ham radio antennas. I had planned to take care of this project for several weeks.
A new family moved into the duplex behind us several weeks ago. They have some small children. Two of these children are small boys about kindergarten and first grade age. These boys are very small in stature.
They are pretty normal boys, and they are on the very active side. I noticed a lawn chair lying in their yard under the tree. I did not pay very much attention to it until I saw the little boys climb in the chair and reach a limb on the tree and began to pull and swing on it.
I was a boy once, and I understand the nature of a child, especially a boy to want to climb trees. I watch these youngsters climb and swing on this limb, and I was afraid that they would hit the fence and get hurt.
I decided to change my plans and cut the limbs a few days earlier than planned. I decided to cut the low hanging limbs on the neighbor’s side also. I was afraid that the little fellows were going to get hurt. The little boys were not at home when I cut the limbs.
The next afternoon my wife and I were looking out our kitchen window. We watched these little boys come outside to climb on the tree limbs. One of the little boys climbed up in the chair and to his surprise and dismay the limb was gone. He told his brother about the missing limb. They pointed up in the tree, and we could tell by the look on their face that they did not have any idea what had happened to the limb.
One of the little boys picked up the lawn chair and dragged it to another tree closer to their house. They were determined to not allow the cutting of their limb to hinder them from climbing trees. They found them another tree and another limb to climb on.
•We carry our feelings on our shoulders as if we are waiting on some one to hit us and bump them off.
•If we are looking for something to go wrong it will usually go wrong.
•I was talking to one of my bosses a few years ago. I told him that he would find things wrong with my work if all he looked for were the things that I had done wrong.
•Life is a choice, and everything hinges around our attitude.
•If we are looking for something wrong in a person’s life or church we will find it.
•Fault finding is a true sign of immaturity.
•Children don’t hold grudges or un-forgiveness.
•Children don’t allow anger and bitterness to fester up and destroy them.
•The little boys did not get mad at me for cutting the tree limbs off.
•They did not see me do it, and they did not realize that I was the guilty party.
•They really did not care what had happened to the limb, they just knew it was no longer there.
•They did not try to find the person responsible.
•They did not gripe or complain about their limb be gone.
•They just found themselves another tree.
•They did not have time to be disgruntled, it would have taken away some of their play time.
•They could not change the situation, but they could change directions.
•If we could just learn the simple lesson from the little boys, I can’t change the situation, but I can find another tree.
•Many times in life we spend a lot of valuable time barking up the wrong tree.
I have never been a sportsman, and I have not been hunting many times in my lifetime. Several years ago while pastoring in Michigan, a neighboring pastor and one of his church elders asked me to go coon hunting with them. This was my first and last time to go coon hunting. The other man owned some hunting dogs, and we took them with us.
I really did not know what to expect. They told me that the dogs were trained, and that they were very good coon hunting dogs. I was told that the dogs would go to the tree that had the coon in it, and they would look up in the tree and bark. We could then shine our flashlights up and see the coon.
That sounded rather simple to me. We had been in the woods for about 30 minutes and one of the dogs began to bark and look up in the tree. The man shined his light up in the tree, but he was not able to see a coon. I later learned that the dog was barking up the wrong tree.
•That sounds like many Christians, they are barking, but they don’t know what they are barking at.
•1 Corinthians 13:11 (KJV) “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
•It is time for adults to act like adults.
•Some children act more grown up than many adults.
•We are to act like adults, but we are to have a spirit of a child.
•We need to ask God to give us a teachable spirit.
•We need to ask Him to reveal His Word and will to us.
•Matthew 18:3-4 (NIV) “3 And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
•Jesus told a parable in Matthew 13 about a sower that sowed seeds.
•Some seeds fell by the wayside.
•Some seeds fell in stony places.
•Some seeds fell among thorns.
•Others fell on good ground.
•The sower sowed all of the seeds in the same manner.
•All of these seeds had the same opportunity to spring forth.
•Many individuals always blame everything on some one else.
•They never accept the responsibility for their actions.
•This is not new. Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent for their actions.
•They did not accept the responsibility for their actions.
•It is not someone else’s fault; we are responsible for our choices and our actions.
•I believe it was President Truman that said the buck stops here.
•The church would sure be more fruitful if everyone practiced this.
•We need to seek the Lord for a right way for us.
•God has a specific plan for each of us.
•The disciples followed Jesus for 3 ½ years, but they did not have it all together.
•In Luke 11:1 they asked Him to teach them to pray.
•We need to seek guidance from the Lord.
•He will guide you unto truth (John 16:13).
•Psalms 5:8 gives us an example to ask the Lord to lead us in righteousness.
•We try to make righteousness difficult to achieve.
•Righteousness just means to live right.
•Many individuals try to make living for God so difficult.
•God has given us His Word as our roadmap to live by.
•He has also given us His spirit to teach us the truth of His word.
•We must ask the Lord to lead us in the truth (Psalms 25:5).
•We must ask Him to teach us His way (Psalms 27:11).
•We must ask Him to teach us to do His will (Psalms 143:10).
•It is time for us to cry out to God.
•They cried and were delivered (Psalms 22:5).
•We must cry out with our whole heart (Psalms 119:145).
•We must really be serious and stop playing games with our soul.
•We will spend eternity in one of two places, heaven or the lake of fire.
•If we seek Him we will find Him (Deuteronomy 4:29).
•Seek the Lord while He may be found (Isaiah 55:6).
•We need to seek the Lord for righteousness.
•We will only know God’s word if we read and study it.
Several years ago my wife and I bought our 2 small grandsons new bicycles for their birthdays. We did not have a truck available at the time, so we bought the bikes unassembled.
My son and I realized that it would not be a big task to assemble the bikes. We began the process without reading the instructions. We were almost through when my wife had to ask the awful question, where does that part lying over there go? We determined where it went, but we could not determine how to put it there. My wife then said, “Why don’t you read the instructions as you should have in the beginning?”
We determined that this part should have been one of the items to assemble, and that we could not put it on without disassembling the bike, and starting over.
Many individuals are trying to live the Christian life without reading the instruction manual. I recommend that you start over, and read the instructions and follow them. It hurt my pride to have to have to read the instructions, disassemble the bike, and start over by following the instructions.
The bike would have never performed correctly without this part, and you will not make heaven your home without following the Bible, your instruction book.
•I believe that the Lord is calling out to us in this service today.
•I believe that He is calling out to the sinner to repent and come to Him today.
•I believe that He is calling to the backslider today to repent and come back home.
•I believe that He is calling to the saints to grow up in Him.
•Today is your day to be what God wants you to be.
•Please don’t put it off, you are not promised tomorrow.
•Genesis 6:3 tells us that His spirit shall not always strive with man.
•Isaiah 55:6-7 (KJV) “6 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
•Jesus is softly and tenderly calling you to come home to Him today.
•Jesus is calling the weary to rest.
•Jesus is waiting, O come to Him now.
•Jesus is pleading, O listen to His voice today.
•Please come to Him today, and do not delay any longer.
•Jesus is tenderly calling to you today.
•Please say yes to Him today.
