The Faith Of A Child

07/01/2007

The Faith of a Child (Matthew 18: 1-6)

Intro:

VBS – I have spent a big part of my week here with the kids and working on VBS, and I was a little worried about having the time to really immerse myself God’s Word for our Message this week. A good message is kind of like coffee, I study God’s Word and soak in it all week and the message percolates in my mind.

Then I realized that I had been soaking in God’s Word this week with the Kids at VBS. So the message this week became about the Children and who they are, and what they are about.

We spent a lot of time this week teaching the kids about God, but we also spent a lot of time this week learning from the kids.

Jesus used a child to teach His disciples. Our passage this morning is Mt 18: 1-6.

Leading up to this passage Jesus had been teaching the telling the disciples about the things that were going to happen, that he would be betrayed, and was going to suffer and die, and be raised to life on the third day.

This got the disciples thinking about the Kingdom of God that Jesus taught about.

They were still thinking about a material Kingdom here on earth. They figured that when Jesus rose from the dead, it would be time to establish the new Kingdom, and they were worried over what position each of them would have in the new order of things.

Always thinking of themselves. Pride and ambition were getting in the way of seeing the truth. That happens a lot.

They came to Jesus with a question:

1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" 2 He called a little child and had him stand among them. 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. 5 "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. 6 But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

PRAY

Children:

I. We should be more like them.

II. To Welcome them is to Welcome Jesus.

III. We have a responsibility to them.

I. Children: We Should Be More Like Them

Mt 18: 1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" 2 He called a little child and had him stand among them. 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.

In the first 4 verses of our passage, Jesus tells the disciples that they need to become like a little child.

They were wrapped up in their own glory and were worried over what position they would have in the Kingdom.

Jesus told them that unless they change and become humble like the child standing before them, they won’t even be IN the Kingdom of Heaven.

Now that should snap them out of their daydreams about their own glory

It’s a wake up call for us too

Pride and ambition blinded the disciples to what was truly important

Pride and ambition had the disciples of Jesus focused on the wrong thing.

They were focused on themselves, they were focused on their glory in stead of glory for Jesus.

They needed to change, they needed to shift that focus, they needed to center themselves on Jesus, they needed some humility.

Jesus used a child to show them what that looks like, and he still uses children to teach us the same thing today.

Working with Children can be a humbling thing. Kids don’t play any of the games we adults play to help each other feel better about ourselves.

I heard a story about Billy Graham, he arrived in a small town to preach. He had a letter he wanted to mail, so he stopped a small boy to ask where the post office was. After the boy told him, Billy Graham said “If you’ll come to the church tonight, you can hear me tell people how to get to heaven.” The little boy said “I don’t think I’ll be there, you don’t even know how to get to the Post Office.”