My husband and I took our two-year-old daughter to the home-improvement store. Madison got tired of walking, so my husband let her ride on his shoulders. As he walked, Madison began pulling his hair. Although he asked her to stop several times, she kept on. Getting annoyed, he scolded, "Madison! Stop that!" "But, Daddy," she replied, "I’m just trying to get my gum back." Yuck!
One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother has several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head. She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, "Why are some of your hairs white, Mom?"
Her mother replied, "Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white."
The little girl thought about this revelation for while and then said, "Momma, how come ALL of grandma’s hairs are white?" Ouch!
This little girl is a very keen observer of human nature, isn’t she? Well, parents, are your hairs turning white or turning bald from hairs being pulled in every direction? Those who are involved in childcare know the real story. As one person observed: “The experience of having children has made me far more sympathetic to the early Puritans who didn’t use words like "innate goodness" to describe human nature. They used words like "total depravity." Total depravity! Jesus said we are supposed to be like children to receive the kingdom of God? I can only join with millions of other parents and conclude that our Lord didn’t know my kids when He made that statement. When you walk into the bathroom and see an entire roll of brand new tissue paper lying in the toilet, it makes you wonder. When you see a whole pile of freshly washed and folded clothes lying all over the place like a tornado had hit, it makes you wonder. When you see your child sitting on the kitchen floor, trying to share her plate of food with the dog, it makes you wonder. And that’s just the one-year-old at work! Imagine the three- and the six-year-old when they put their talents together! Sometimes it makes you more than wonder; sometimes it makes you cry. Look at a group of kindergarteners some day and ask yourself: what can these kids teach us about receiving the kingdom of God?” Erskine White, Together In Christ, C.S.S. Publishing Company, 1990.
How do you react to the true nature of children? Feel some hair turning white?
On June 20, 2001, a number of us heard the story of Andrea Yates, the Texas mother who drowned her five small children in the family’s bathtub. We struggle to understand why. According to doctors’ reports, Andrea struggled with mental illness and a deep sense of inadequacy. Retreated to her own world. She felt like a failure as a mother. She began searching the Bible for answers to her problems. Instead of insight or inspiration, Andrea found only words of condemnation. She believed that she was possessed by the Satan. She also believed that her bad parenting had damaged her children’s characters beyond repair. But does the Bible teach to get rid of depravity by killing off your own child? Timothy Roche, "The Yates Odyssey," TIME Magazine, Jan. 28, 2002, pp. 42-50.
March 2002, here in our province we heard the story of Sebastian, 11, Roxanne, 9, Martial, 7, Moriah, 6, Levi, 4, and Ledia, 2 killed by their father, in a house fire. September 2003 in court, Jay Handel admits he killed his six children because he wanted to save them from hell on Earth.
How does God view children? Does He view them as some annoying pesky little thing that deserves to be wiped out much like the way disturbed individuals such as Andrea Yates or Jay Handel think? Does God say, kill them so they may be spared of hell on earth or that they are a waste of time? Or does God value them, treat them gently, welcoming them? Turn with me to the Bible…
13Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them.
14Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." 15When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.
Matthew 19:13-15 (NIV)
Did you really hear what the Bible said here? Did you hear Jesus welcomes children? Did Jesus shoo them away because they do not have a perfect life? Jesus certainly knows very well that children are not altogether innocent yet he welcomes them, touches them, values them, gives precious time and prays for them. Look again, compare the response of Jesus and the response of the disciples, will u? The disciples seem keen to shoo everybody away that brought children to Jesus. They were downright hostile, they were inconvenienced. They were beside themselves. But look at Jesus, he says let them come to me, don’t stop it, he touched them as if they were the most precious things and he prayed for them. This is consistent with what God said in the OT…
“Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him.” Psalm 127:3 (NLT)
Kids teach us so much about God, His kingdom and His love for vulnerable, weak, frail people. In our text this morning we hear how Jesus received children. His acceptance of them, speaks loud and clear the message of the welcome of God, the desire of Jesus to bless, and the personal touch that God has for each life.
Jay Handel, in his twisted mind killed, because he sees no hope for his kids. Andrea Yates, killed in response to her belief in the depravity of children. She did not have any hope that they can be redeemed. But what does Jesus do? Look at Jesus afresh today, …will you?
I invite you to really take a good long look at Jesus.
B.Be assured that God wants to bless the weak.
See how He is with the frail, the humble, the ones incapable of defending themselves… he wants to welcome the small, the ones deemed to be a waste of time and energy, the ones who areabused, easily taken advantage of. He values the ones who don’t have it all together, who seek a touch only God can give, who wants to be prayed for and know for a moment that someone cares enough to touch… What did Jesus do in response to human depravity, to human weakness, to the inability of humans to be good, to weak individuals such as children?
Hear how God values children, wanting them to love Him, that He instructs the adults to repeat the commandments of love…
4"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. 5And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. 6And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands I am giving you today. 7Repeat them again and again to YOUR CHILDREN. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away on a journey, when you are lying down and when you are getting up again. 8Tie them to your hands as a reminder, and wear them on your forehead. 9Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Deut 6:4-9 (NLT)
The emphasis to teach the commandment to love God to kids shows how much God wants to the worship of children and not just adults. Do you see God wants the worship of a little child? Do you hear Him saying repeat the commandments to love God, do it again and again? Kids it seems don’t tire easy, they are wired to go over things again and again. seen way kids play the same video game, watch Barney, over and over and sing the same "syrupy" tunes that makes you go bananas?
So God says "repeat" "again" to the parents because He values the children coming to worship.
Always so refreshing to hear prayers of little ones… Here’s what someone said:
I loved the letters you printed about misinterpreting the Lord’s Prayer. When my twin daughters were young, I taught them to say this prayer before going to bed. As I listened outside their door, I could hear them say, "Give us this steak and daily bread, and forgive us our mattresses." My husband and I always had a good laugh over this. That was over 50 years ago, and the memory still remains in my heart.
I bet it warms the heart of God too to hear kids pray and being taught to pray. I am sure He gets a real kick out of it. In fact the greatest in God’s world are kids... look at this Bible text with me...
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, 3and 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. 4“Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5“Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me. Matthew 18:1-5
Did you hear how God desires people to be blessed if they would humble themselves like a child? It warms the heart of God when we come, bumbling and stumbling and desiring the welcome of God like a child that is weak, frail, perhaps a little frightened, defenseless. God wants to BLESS the truly helpless, can you you see?
C. God’s blessing comes through a costly price – the death of Christ.
“For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” 1 Peter 3:18 (NIV)
The unrighteous Jesus died for, the ones unable to it right with God, in order to do what? Isn’ it to get God’s big welcome, to be brought to God?
“For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. 2 Cor. 5:21 Holy Bible, New Living Translation
Can you see what God is after? Is it not all of us, who have blown it, like all kids have blown it?
Question
• Today all of us can be brought to God, will you give yourself to God?
• Trust Jesus today that the full blessing of heaven is given you, will you receive it?
Ask yourself "Is my heart yielded to the King?" Has the Kingdom come to you? Have you truly yielded your heart, soul, mind, and strength to do the Lord’s will?
Look at this will you?
The promise of blessing...
• But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan—this rebirth comes from God.
– John 1:12-13, Holy Bible, New Living Translation
You can have the promise of God giving u a new start, a new birth and when you do that the Bible says...
• The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ – Roman 8:16-17, The Holy Bible, New King James Version,
All of heaven’s blessing that belongs to Jesus is ours, an incredible inheritance...WOW!
SO...
1.Never doubt God wants to bless you.
2.Never doubt God’s welcome of you.
3.Never doubt God values you.
Let’s pray...
