As Children
Matt 18:1-6 and Mark 10:13-16
Reading the Scripture
- We find something about how we think
- And our adult values
- We see the disciples discussing
- Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven
- They are concerned with positions, titles and rank
- These things are very important in the world
- Our relative worth and value in the world
- Is measured by the position we hold
- By the titles we have
- Or by the rank or status we hold
It is sad that some very wonderful, beautiful people are seen as valueless
- Because they have no power, no money, no titles and no social rank or status
- I remember my grandmother
- I remember when I was a child
- Running up to her and hugging her waist
- My grandmother was a simple woman
- Who had worked hard to raise a house full of children
- After she lost her husband
- She worked as a cook on a ranch
- And worked with my “step” granddad
- Riding for the Forest Service
- They lived in a simple cabin in the mountains of Montana
- She had little money and no social status to share
- But I loved her
- And thought of her as the most wonderful grandmother there ever was
- I loved her simply because she was my grandmother and because she loved me
My story carries tow truths
- 1st the world has it all wrong
- The truth turns everything upside down
- What’s valuable in not position, title or rank
- What is important is love, faith and hope
- The 2nd truth is that we lose our innocence as we grow up
- Children’s values are based on love
- While our adult worldly values are based on self and image
How is it that children can get it right
- While we adults get it wrong?
Jesus tells us we must become like little children
- Like a small child
- Who hasn’t yet picked up the world’s values
- Who still has his innocence to believe and hope and love
- Without the restriction or perversion of the world’s values
- We have to become and in a very real way
- Remain childlike in our faith and hope and love
- If we want to have a share of the kingdom
What does that mean?
- It means we must become like a child
- Children are powerless, dependent and innocent
- They believe the message of the Gospel
- And accept the love of God with open arms
- They don’t have problems believing in what they can’t see
- Their faith gives substance and assurance to what they believe
- Adults tend to rationalize and look for logical explanations
- Logical reasons to accept what we know of the Gospel
- We look for a God of substance
- A God we can use
- But our God does not want to be used
- But loved
- He wants us to come to Him
- The same way I ran to my grandmother
- With open arms and complete love
Children are precious to Christ
- And He wants us to tell them about Him
- Look at the warming in our passage
- It is a fearful thing to be found leading a child away from faith in Christ
- There is a judgment for those who cause a child to stumble in their faith
We are to be agents of encouragement
- Examples of love, faith and hope
- For children
- For how else will they know the truth
- And find the Lord who loves them
- Who invites them to Himself?
- We are changed by Christ to encourage, support and help children
- In their growth- physically and spiritually
- We are called to make efforts to help those
- Who are powerless and innocent
- To show them the love of God
- And the wonders of His love
That fits with the special emphasis we have in these few weeks
- The Baptist Children Homes
- Do those things we may not have the opportunity to do personally
- To support, encourage and teach children
- To demonstrate Christ’s love for them
- And to lead them to know Him, the author and perfecter of faith
- The One who loves them
- And the One who asks them to put their hope in Him
We are given an opportunity to help, to be a p[art of this ministry
- We can be a part of the effort to be there for these children in need
- How can we fail to respond?
- In our faith and in our love
- Can we turn away from these who need us?
- I know how much I have been rewarded
- By working with young people
- I have seen how a little can mean a lot to a child
- Who is desperately looking for help
- Let us give generously today and next week to support this ministry
- Let us come to God in childlike faith and say, “Use my gift to reach these helpless ones.”
- Let them know the love of God through your gift
Prayer
Invitation
Have you wandered from a simple, innocent faith in Christ? Are you caught up pursuing the values of the world? Do you need to find the humility and innocence of a child again? You can. You need only to come to Him and ask for Him to turn your world upright again, to cleanse you from sin and restore your heart to Him. He is waiting for you. He is waiting for you to run to Him and grab hold of Him in faith and love and hope. What holds you back?
Come and say as the Psalmist said in Ps 131
O Lord, my heart is not proud
Nor are my eyes haughty.
I do not busy myself with great matters
Or things too marvelous for me.
No, I submit myself, I account myself lowly,
As a weaned child clinging to its mother.
O Israel, look for the Lord now and evermore.
