Introduction:
You probably have heard that tonight is the start of our Vacation Bible School. Everyone has been working hard to get ready, and you can see the results of their work in the halls and in the classrooms. We would like to keep the children out of the classrooms, but if you adults would like to stick your head in the doors and take a peek, feel free to do that after we dismiss since you won’t get to be in the classrooms with the children.
VBS is, of course, all about children. We’ll be having an adult class this week, but primarily we recognize that VBS is about kids. We’re reminded of Jesus’ attitude toward children -- how his disciples apparently thought Jesus was too important and too busy to take time out for kids, but Jesus took the children in his arms and blessed them.
And as we focus on children, we are reminded of one of the most amazing truths in all of scripture, expressed by the apostle John in I John 3:1: "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!" What a wonderful truth! That, through the grace of God, we have the opportunity to become God’s own children. And that’s really amazing when you think about it. We are the children of God.
But the image of a child is one that conjures up mixed emotions, though. They can be a tremendous joy to us, and they can, at times, be a great frustration. And that’s because there is such a combination of qualities in children -- some of them are admirable, some of them not so admirable.
As Christians, I think it’s evident that God intends for us to imitate the admirable qualities we see in children, while trying to get rid of the qualities that are not so admirable. Paul put it this way in I Corinthians 14:20, "Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature." In other words, there are certain ways we should want to be like children, and some ways we shouldn’t. It’s a process I call being childlike, but not childish. This morning, in honor of Vacation Bible School, I want us to look at eight qualities of children. Four of them are childlike qualities that we need to develop in our Christian lives. The other four are childish qualities that we need to outgrow as we mature in Christ.
I. Qualities of a Child That We Should Not Have
Paul said, "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child; I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things." (I Corinthians 13:11). Paul was specifically talking about certain spiritual gifts that were available to the church in its infancy, but would no longer be available once the church reached a level of maturity. But his statement has a broader application.
Growth and maturity involve putting certain childish things behind us. It’s been said, "You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely." Let’s look at four childish traits that we need to put out of our lives as we grow up in Christ.
1. Selfishness
Someone has composed the following list of "Toddler’s Rules of Ownership":
1. If I like it, it’s mine.
2. If it’s in my hand, it’s mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it’s mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it’s mine.
5. If it’s mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.
6. If I’m doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.
7. If it looks just like mine, it’s mine.
8. If I think it’s mine, it’s mine.
9. If it’s yours and I steal it, it’s mine.
There’s a lot of truth in that. A child’s world centers around himself for at least the first couple of years. Someone has said that every child is a potential dictator. And it becomes very evident at an early age. You bring a child home from the hospital, you lay him down in his crib, then you lay down in bed and go to sleep. Now, in a couple of hours, that child will wake up with an urge to eat. And you would think that that child would reason to himself, "It’s 2:00 in the morning. My parents are tired. I really hate to cry and wake them up; they need some rest. I think I’ll just wait for a few more hours before I say anything."
But you know as well as I do that it doesn’t work that way. Instead, the reasoning process goes something like this: "I’m hungry, and you will feed me right now. I don’t care what you’re doing. I don’t care what else needs to be done. I’m going to be fed, and I’ll keep screaming until that happens." That’s selfish. A baby’s world revolves around the concept, "What do I want?" And there’s nothing wrong with that because that’s the way God designed babies.
But there’s something very much wrong if you find a Christian who ought to be mature in the faith acting the same way in the church. It’s important that as we grow up in Christ, we get away from being self-centered and that we become centered in Christ and on others. Paul said, "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others." (Philippians 2:3-4). Don’t spend all your time thinking about yourself. Think about the needs of others.
Selfishness is all right in a baby, but for those of us are seeking to grow up and mature in Christ, it’s a childish trait that we need to get rid of.
2. Ignorance
Listen to these answers given by students from a church in South Carolina to test questions on the Bible as printed in the Dec. 31, 1995 issue of "National Review". I don’t know how old these children were, but there’s a pile of ignorance here:
Noah’s wife was called Joan of Ark.
Lot’s wife was a pillar of salt by day and a ball of fire by night.
Samson slayed the Philistines with the axe of the apostles.
Unleavened bread is bread without ingredients.
Moses went to the top of Mt. Cyanide to get the 10 commandments.
The seventh commandment is "thou shalt not admit adultery."
Solomon had 300 wives and 700 porcupines.
The epistles were the wives of the apostles.
A Christian should have only one wife. This is called monotony.
Joshua led the Hebrews in the battle of Geritol.
Now I realize this doesn’t sound very nice, but little children are ignorant; they don’t know very much. You go up to a two-year-old and you say, "How much is four plus two?" He doesn’t know. Ask him who the vice-president of the United States is. He doesn’t know. Ask him what the capital of France is. He doesn’t know.
A child is ignorant, but that’s all right. He’s supposed to be, but every year he grows more and more in knowledge, just as we should be doing in Christ. Peter closed out his second epistle with the words, "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (II Peter 3:18).
When a person first becomes a Christian, they’re a lot like a newborn babe; they’re going to be ignorant. You go up to a brand-new Christian and ask him, "Who was the father of Isaac?" He may say, "I don’t know." You ask him, "What city was Peter in when he delivered the first gospel sermon?" He may say, "I don’t know." You ask him whether the book of Jude is in the Old Testament or New Testament. He may say, "I don’t know."
And that’s all right. There’s nothing wrong with ignorance in a young Christian. The problem comes when that ignorance is still there after years and years of opportunity to grow and mature. That’s why the Hebrew writer rebuked his readers, "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food." (Hebrews 5:12). He’s saying, "Over the years, you should have matured in knowledge so that you can teach others, but you haven’t done that. You’re still ignorant of basic truths."
As we grow and mature in Christ, we need to shed the childish trait of ignorance.
3. Stubbornness
Almost every child goes through periods of stubbornness and outright rebellion -- usually at predictable times. Every parent has heard horror stories related to the "terrible twos". Maybe some of you have even experienced some of those horror stories.
There comes a time when a child learns how to use the word "no" and that becomes his favorite word. "Eat your vegetables." "No!" "Go to bed." "No!" "Pick up your toys." No!" And as a parent, dealing with that stubbornness requires a great deal of love and patience as the child is taught to respect authority.
The story is told of a man who was pushing a shopping cart through a store. And in the cart was a screaming, bouncing baby boy. As the man walked up and down the aisles, he kept saying over and over, "Don’t yell, Brian. Calm down, Brian. Don’t get excited, Brian." A woman standing next to him noticed what was going on and said, "You certainly are to be commended for trying to soothe your son Brian." The man looked at her and said, "Lady, I’m Brian!"
Even though it’s expected, stubbornness is a difficult trait to deal with in a child. It’s even more difficult to deal with when it’s a child of God that has the stubborn heart and is rebelling against the authority of his heavenly Father. The attitude that says, "I knows that’s your Word says, but no, I’m not going to do it."
It’s a problem that God faced often in the children of Israel. God said to Isaiah, "....this is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of the Lord." (Isaiah 30:9).
And to Jeremiah, God said, "But this people has a defiant and rebellious heart; they have revolted and departed." (Jeremiah 5:23).
As Christians, we need to meekly take God’s word into our hearts. Don’t ever be stubborn, defying God. We need to outgrow the childish trait of stubbornness.
4. No sense of value
Little children have no sense of values. Offer a little child a 20-dollar bill or a lollipop. Chances are he’ll take the lollipop. He hasn’t developed a perspective on values yet. He doesn’t understand what’s of greater importance in this world that we live in.
As Christians, we also have to mature in our sense of values. The Hebrew writer used Esau as an example of what we shouldn’t do. "Looking diligently, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God....lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears." (Hebrews 12:15-17).
Anyone who hears the story of Esau selling his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew wants to blame Jacob for taking advantage of his brother. And he did. But Esau committed the greater sin. His sin was that he didn’t realize the value of spiritual things. A bowl of stew was of greater value to him than the birthright with its spiritual blessings.
The Hebrew writer is saying to these Christians, "Don’t make the same mistake in your life. Don’t trade your spiritual blessings for the things in the world which may seem at the moment to be more attractive but which are really of far less value."
And a lot of times, we adults make wrong choices because we really haven’t come to understand what are the things that are truly important in this life.
We have to outgrow a childish sense of values, and come to an understanding of the things that are really important in life.
II. Qualities of a Child That We Should Have
We’ve talked about some of the qualities of childishness that we need to leave behind as we grow up and become mature in Christ. But there are many characteristics of children that are beautiful. These childlike qualities we need to retain no matter how long we’ve been Christians. Again, let me mention four such qualities that I see as important.
1. Purity
I realize there are those who don’t believe in the purity of young children. They believe and teach the doctrine of total depravity -- that a person is born in sin, opposed to everything that’s good, and completely inclined to evil. That when a baby is born into this world it is born a sinner -- that’s what they mean by the concept "original sin".
They say, "A baby inherits sin just like it inherits the color of its eyes or the color of its hair." They claim that sin is transmitted from the parent to the child and that sin has been handed down all the way from Adam. But listen to what Ezekiel had to say to the Israelites, "The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son." (Ezekiel 18:20).
What he’s saying is that if a father commits murder, God doesn’t consider the son guilty; he considers the father guilty. "The son shall not bear the guilt of the father." So, what sin has a newborn infant committed? Obviously, none at all. He can’t be held guilty for his own sin because he hasn’t committed any yet. And God says that he won’t hold him guilty for anything his parents have done. So the only alternative is that that child is pure and innocent.
That why Jesus held children up as an example of purity and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 19:14). Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven belongs to people who are like little children. Now if a little child is filled with sin, then that statement doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The truth is that children are pure and innocent.
When we come up out of the waters of baptism, we are just as pure and guiltless as that newborn baby. Then, as Christians, we need to maintain our purity as we "walk in the light as he is in the light" (I John 1:7). After talking about the second coming of Christ, John wrote, "And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure." (I John 3:3).
As Christians, don’t ever outgrow the childlike trait of purity.
2. Humility
A little child is not concerned about being great as we often define greatness. He doesn’t care if you have more money than he does. He doesn’t care if you are more athletic than he is. He doesn’t care if you’re better looking than he is. He has no concern at all for prominence.
Go to a T-ball game sometime and you’ll understand what I mean. If there’s any sense of competition at all, it’s usually not the kids that are the problem; it’s the adults. The adults want them to win at all costs; the kids just want to play and have fun.
A child doesn’t make a conscious effort to be humble, he just is. He makes no pretense to be somebody important. And it’s not important to him that he be somebody important.
It was this trait of a child that Jesus tried to impress upon his disciples in Matthew 18. It happened, no doubt, after the apostles had another of their many arguments about which one of them was the greatest. You can just picture them in your minds. Peter, James and John especially all arguing, "I’m the greatest. When the kingdom comes, I’m going to sit in the throne on the right hand of Jesus." Maybe Nathaniel saying, "But I’m got royal blood." Maybe Judas piping in, "I’ve got the moneybag; that gives me some special privileges." Finally, somebody says, "Let’s let Jesus decide this once and for all."
"At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ’Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ And Jesus called a little child to him, set him in the midst of them, and said, ’Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:1-3).
If we want to please God, we have to duplicate that childlike attribute of humility in our own lives.
3. Teachability
A little child doesn’t mind admitting that he doesn’t know. In fact, he asks questions because he wants to learn more. If there’s one thing a child knows how to do, it’s ask questions.
"Daddy, where does milk come from? Does chocolate milk come from brown cows?" "Daddy, where does the rain come from and how does it make the flowers grow?" "Daddy, if’s that my grandmother, then how come you call her ’Mom’?"
And then there’s that irritating repetitive question, "Why?" "Daddy, why is the grass green? Why is the sky blue? Why does a car need gas to run? Why does the sun rise in the east and set in the west? Why this? Why that?" After Wednesday night, my guess is that if Shannon and Beth had a dollar for every time Nathaniel kids asked them, "Why?", they could retire and live in comfort the rest of their lives.
But that inquisitive nature in children is something that we often lose as we grow older. Our attitude toward questions as adults is often to say, "I don’t know and I don’t care." We’ve learned enough and our minds are closed.
It was this attitude that Jesus was talking about when he said, "For the heart of this people has grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their heart and turn, so that I should heal them." (Matthew 13:15).
But, as Christians, as children of God, it is imperative that we remain receptive, we remain teachable. Peter said, "As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby." (I Peter 2:2). You have to desire the milk. You have to want to study and want to learn. We need to remain teachable.
4. Trusting
A little child is dependent. He takes comfort in holding the hand of his parents. He’s perfectly content to be utterly dependent on those who love him and care for him. When I was a child, I wasn’t able to buy my own food or clothes or maintain my own home; yet I never doubted that I would be clothed or fed, and that there will be shelter and warmth and comfort. I had parents, and my trust was in them, not in my ability to accomplish anything.
As Christians, where is our trust? God has promised to take care of us. "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28). "For he himself has said, ’I will never leave you nor forsake you.’" (Hebrews 13:5). Let us have a childlike faith!
One of my favorite poems relates to this subject. The author is unknown:
Last night my little boy confessed to me
Some childish wrong; and kneeling at my knee,
He prayed with tears, "Dear God, make me a man,
Like Daddy -- wise and strong; I know you can."
Then while he slept, I knelt beside his bed,
Confessed my sins and prayed with low-bowed head;
"O God, make me a child, like my child here --
Pure, open, trusting thee with faith sincere."
Conclusion:
Let’s be honest with ourselves. Have we been able to retain the desirable qualities of children, while putting away the undesirable ones? Are we childlike, or are we childish?
Hopefully each of us has determined to "grow up in Christ" -- to put off immature ways and to put on mature qualities.
