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.
[Screen 1]
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.
[Screen 2]
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.
[Screen 3]
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.
God started it all with a relationship with one person. We all know this person. We meet him in Genesis 12.1-3. We see God wanting to start over with one person.
[Screen 5]
1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
God wants Abram to go away from all the other people. God wants to teach Abraham a new way. He wants him to drop all his little g gods. He wants him to depend only on Him. He makes some great promises to Abram.
[Screen 6]
2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. [Screen 7]
3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
God was starting over with one person. On His terms without any laws. Just a relationship with one person. This is where Christianity got its start.
Lets look a little further ahead in Genesis. 15.5-6. [Screen 8]
5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
You have to understand Abram was old and had no children. His wife Sara was old and had no children. They suffered greatly because of this. Even their servants had children and they did not. This had to be a joke to Abram, yet we read: [Screen 9]
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he (God) credited it to him as righteousness.
God gave Abram a right standing because he believed. Abraham had trusted God even with all his doubts and questions he surely had. He was to be the father of a new nation and he was old and did not have any children and little prospect for having children. Yet he believed and he was credited with righteousness. That’s how it has been from that point on. Abram trusted God. It began on God’s terms, not Abrams and not ours.
But wouldn’t you like for God to deal with your terms.
What about what happened to you at church several years ago?
What about the way you have been treated?
What about all the things I want to know that hasn’t been answered for me?
You don’t want a God that would deal with you on your terms. That wouldn’t work.
The disciples wanted to know how they were to deal with God. They felt that Jesus was there to be king. They believed he was going to conquer Rome. They believed they would benefit from their association with him. That they would have a polished place in the new kingdom. But Jesus had something very different in mind.
Jesus lets us know how we are to approach God. Let’s see what he has to say about this in Matthew 18.1-4. [Screen 10]
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
Who is the greatest? Who do you like the best? They wanted to know the future. They wanted in on what was coming about. They didn’t want another parable, they wanted a straight answer. So, that is what they got.
[Screen 11]
2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them.
Jesus pauses. All the others stare at the little child. What did this little child have to do with the question they had just asked of Jesus?
They had a real question they wanted answered. But Jesus pauses.
[Screen 12]
3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
But what about the Ten Commandments? What about we are faithful followers?
No. Unless you are willing to come to the Father on His terms you will just never get there. There will always be an obstacle.
Jesus sums it up in the next verse. [Screen 13]
4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
There is a pride we have. It rears its head when we read this. We want God to sit down with us on our terms and answer our questions.
But the truth is you don’t want a god that is that small.
From our scriptures today we get clarity.
First we are to trust God. Then we are to become like little children in our faith and humility.
I am willing to come to you on your terms in trust and humility.
I want to know you on your terms. Unless I am willing to come to you on your terms I know I am not truly following your Son you have told me to follow.
I come to you in trust and humility on your terms.
What have you got to lose? Pray to Him. Lord I want to know you.
I want to know you not just know about you.
If there is a way to know you I want it.
I want to be in a close relationship with you. I want to follow your Son.
For God so loved… you, He will not remove the tension you may be feeling.
Until you are willing to come on His terms you will fall short.
Are you going to let something that happened to you years ago keep you from God? Put it away. Come out of your fog you are in. Trust Him and follow Him like a child.
Know Him. Yes know your Lord. He is more important than all the doubts and questions you may have about Him.
That’s how mature Christ following adults over comes the obstacles keeping them from a relationship with God. They follow Jesus in all he does.
Something extraordinarily wonderful happens to each and every person who follows this way of coming to know God.
[Screen 14]
IT’S PERSONAL
There is a confidence gained beyond anything else in this world.
We move beyond the hurt.
We move beyond the pain we may have lived through getting to truly follow Jesus.
I will be like a child and trust Him.
I know how much He loves me. I know how much He cares.
How passionate is he about you…
He sent his son to die on a cross to take your sin.
You may have a lot of problems facing you today. But the biggest problem you have is your sin. God has that all covered in Christ.
Bibliography
Stanley, Andy; It’s Personal; A New Approach; North Point Ministries, DVD
