Welcoming Children

That's where we're going to be this morning.

00:00:06

I don't sing on microphone often, but last week, Jackson, my oldest son, who works back there in the sound booth, he told me that I accidentally had my mic on for the last song last week. So there you go. I serenaded you along with the. With the crew. So.

00:00:24

All right, turn with me to Mark, chapter eight. Because I'm a little self conscious of that sometimes. Because Jack, one time he told me when I leddehe a song, he said, well, he said, that was good, but let me know what four keys you're going to be in next time. You know which. Hey, look, I am no singer.

00:00:41

That's why we've got other people doing that kind of thing. Hey, stand with me once you've found mark, chapter nine. And we're going to read starting with verse 30. Notice these words here. This is the word of God.

00:00:59

Jesus and his disciples passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, the son of man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him. And three days after being killed, he will rise again. But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him. Then they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he asked them, what were you arguing about on the way?

00:01:35

But they were silent. For on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all. Then he took a little child and put it among them. And taking him in his arms, he said to them, whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

00:02:09

And whoever welcomes me welcomes not me, but the one who sentence me. Lord Jesus, thank you for your holy word. We pray now that the same holy spirit who inspired these words for our benefit would be among us and enlighten us and call us to himself, and then transform us and empower us, Lord, to go and be about your business. We pray this would happen today in this room. In your name, Jesus.

00:02:42

Amen. And you can be seated.

00:02:50

Well, we come to this text here, and maybe it's one you've read before, maybe not. Maybe it's your first time hearing it. Jesus prophesies something here. And of course, we've got a little scuffle with the disciples. And then he brings a little child among them in front of them, which is a fairly famous story in Jesus life, where he does this but sometimes for us modern readers, some things are lost on us because we don't really think in terms of the first century world, all right?

00:03:24

And so if you may, let's just dial it back for just a second and think in terms of the first century and read it in such a way that we're back in ancient times, right? And if we do, we'll see that this little child being brought before them is quite shocking. In fact, in the ancient world, children were of no avail. What were they going to do, okay? Especially little children, all right?

00:03:50

They can't produce anything. They're not going to help your bottom dollar. They're not going to spend any money. And so for the ancient world also, they died often, okay? Most kids didn't make it past one year old, and even the ones who made it past that, it was even less, okay?

00:04:08

And then most people, you know, shoot back in, what was it? I think, like 1800, the average life of a male was like 43 years old. That's my age. That was like normal to be dead by that point, okay? Like, statistically speaking.

00:04:24

Again, now we've elongated that all the way into seventies. Now, like a male is like 74 or something. But not in the ancient world. Not an ancient. You have to remember that little things would kill them, okay?

00:04:36

Things that, like, for instance, my wife had an appendectomy once, r

Transcript

That's where we're going to be this morning.

00:00:06

I don't sing on microphone often, but last week, Jackson, my oldest son, who works back there in the sound booth, he told me that I accidentally had my mic on for the last song last week. So there you go. I serenaded you along with the. With the crew. So.

00:00:24

All right, turn with me to Mark, chapter eight. Because I'm a little self conscious of that sometimes. Because Jack, one time he told me when I leddehe a song, he said, well, he said, that was good, but let me know what four keys you're going to be in next time. You know which. Hey, look, I am no singer.

00:00:41

That's why we've got other people doing that kind of thing. Hey, stand with me once you've found mark, chapter nine. And we're going to read starting with verse 30. Notice these words here. This is the word of God.

00:00:59

Jesus and his disciples passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, the son of man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him. And three days after being killed, he will rise again. But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him. Then they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he asked them, what were you arguing about on the way?

00:01:35

But they were silent. For on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all. Then he took a little child and put it among them. And taking him in his arms, he said to them, whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

00:02:09

And whoever welcomes me welcomes not me, but the one who sentence me. Lord Jesus, thank you for your holy word. We pray now that the same holy spirit who inspired these words for our benefit would be among us and enlighten us and call us to himself, and then transform us and empower us, Lord, to go and be about your business. We pray this would happen today in this room. In your name, Jesus.

00:02:42

Amen. And you can be seated.

00:02:50

Well, we come to this text here, and maybe it's one you've read before, maybe not. Maybe it's your first time hearing it. Jesus prophesies something here. And of course, we've got a little scuffle with the disciples. And then he brings a little child among them in front of them, which is a fairly famous story in Jesus life, where he does this but sometimes for us modern readers, some things are lost on us because we don't really think in terms of the first century world, all right?

00:03:24

And so if you may, let's just dial it back for just a second and think in terms of the first century and read it in such a way that we're back in ancient times, right? And if we do, we'll see that this little child being brought before them is quite shocking. In fact, in the ancient world, children were of no avail. What were they going to do, okay? Especially little children, all right?

00:03:50

They can't produce anything. They're not going to help your bottom dollar. They're not going to spend any money. And so for the ancient world also, they died often, okay? Most kids didn't make it past one year old, and even the ones who made it past that, it was even less, okay?

00:04:08

And then most people, you know, shoot back in, what was it? I think, like 1800, the average life of a male was like 43 years old. That's my age. That was like normal to be dead by that point, okay? Like, statistically speaking.

00:04:24

Again, now we've elongated that all the way into seventies. Now, like a male is like 74 or something. But not in the ancient world. Not an ancient. You have to remember that little things would kill them, okay?

00:04:36

Things that, like, for instance, my wife had an appendectomy once, right? Well, in the ancient world, what are you going to do? Most people, they're not going to be able to afford any sort of surgery, even with a medical practitioner around. And it's highly likely that you're going to get infected, become septic. And the rest of the story, you basically just begin to tell her by for the next week until she suffers and dies.

00:04:59

It's a very different world, okay? And sometimes we forget that when we're reading the Bible, we just think it's our world, right? But in the ancient world, kids were not on the social ladder, okay? If we think about this ladder metaphorically, that we often speak of, that we climb to be first, right, to be most recognized, to be honored, and so on and so forth. In the ancient world, kids are not on that ladder at all, all right?

00:05:25

Someone had given me a book from the medieval period, and I was looking through it again last night and reminding myself that here's what it said during the 13th century, okay? That's not that crazy long ago, really. But back in the 13th century AD, about one child in six died in their first year and one in four. By age five, perhaps two thirds live to age 20. That's shocking.

00:05:52

I'm not much of a statistics guy, but that's pretty shocking. Okay. That'd be unacceptable today, right? We'd be passing laws and doing all this and doing everything, and rightfully so. Right?

00:06:02

And that was just back in the medieval period, right. Most people in the medieval period, seven year olds, knew what they were gonna do for the rest of their life. Now, I'm sure there was some seven year olds right here. Do you think any of them had that figured out yet? And thankfully, not.

00:06:17

Like, that's great. That's wonderful. But most eight year olds were already working full time, intermediate, weird. Like, full time. They went to a job.

00:06:26

They did not go to school. They did not have playtime. They didn't have an iPhone. Shocking as it is, they didn't have an iPad, and it was a very different world. And so dialing that back and then now looking.

00:06:40

Come with me now to our modern world, where now kids have become ultimate, if not penultimate. Right. To God himself. I think most the order of society is that we care about kids more than anything, which, hey, that's wonderful. Lots of changes have been made, and that is a good thing.

00:07:00

I'm not saying it's not okay. But again, as I mentioned last week, if the kids become the focus of a family, you're missing the nuclear part of the family which produced the kid. What kids need most is a strong marriage. That's what they need most. That brings an unbelievable amount of security to a child's mind.

00:07:22

And with our epidemics of ideations of this and that and of anxiety in the smallest of kids, Lord, help us create a secure, safe homes for children. And that includes bringing children into our homes that are not our own kids. Because you say, well, thanks, pastor, preaching about married people. Because I'm not married, so it doesn't apply to me. Ain't wrong for single people.

00:07:50

Also participate in this, because my kids don't distinguish between you being married or not, being widowed or not, divorced or nothing. What they're measuring is how you treat them. They don't know the difference. In fact, early on, kids see all men as dads, whether they are or whether they're not, because that's all they know when they're growing up, is dad and mom. And that is all they should know.

00:08:19

And, of course, no one is shaming divorce and this and that. We've got this here in this church, and people have healed and transformed, and that's wonderful. But it doesn't erase the need for marriages to be strong. That's what gives security to children. That's what helps children most, most of all, because guess what?

00:08:43

They come from that. And that's, of course, obviously the way God created it. He created Adam and Eve in the beginning, and everybody are children of them, okay? We're all of the same family. If you want to look at it this way, we are all of the same race, which is human, all right?

00:09:01

That's a simple way to put it here. And so, but in the modern world, I find an overemphasis on children to the detriment of marriage. I mean, look at, just look at the statistics sometimes. And again, I'm no statistic guy, but look at the statistics. As soon as the kids leave, divorce is up, right?

00:09:17

Have no idea what to do with our lives because our lives have become our children. Now, for your own kids sake, don't do that. Like, that's not what they need is a hyper focus on them, all right? They need to be directed to, to something greater and higher than themselves, not to self esteem. Self esteem will come, joy will come, happiness will come, and so on, if they direct their attention to the most high, the highest good, the highest happiness, which, of course, is God himself.

00:09:50

And so it's almost as if we look back and now we look at our time. Now we've got two extremes. One where kids are worth nothing, now where kids are worth everything, even your marriage. I think it's somewhere in the middle where we should land on this. And it's interesting that Jesus, I think, is directing our attention to this matter in our text today.

00:10:16

Just as we moments ago brought these little children up before us, so too, he brought a kid within their midst. He brought a child right in front of them. These adults, these ones who were already vying for their own position in the kingdom that they didn't really understand. You know, when you look at the text here, we have immediately, he did not want anyone to know it, that he was passing through Galilee. You say again, we get that.

00:10:47

You know, if you've been with us for a few weeks, you'll know that Jesus constantly is saying he does a healing. And he'll say, don't tell anybody. He has a teaching. And he'll say, now don't tell anybody. Be sure not to tell anybody.

00:10:58

Okay? Now he's passing through Galilee, which is like his regular place to minister, and he does not want anyone to know why? Why? Well, as we've kind of been hinting at, these quiet passages, as they are known, like keep quiet, are because he has not fully revealed himself to them. He's revealed bits and pieces.

00:11:23

Yes, he's a miracle worker. Yes, he's against the demonic. And if you don't think that there is a demonic, then you're blind. You're blind spiritually. And, in fact, the greatest enemy of our time is the principalities and powers of darkness that are all around us, that we can't see, that are working within even us, just as our text directed us to.

00:11:51

It's not the devil's fault. It's not so and so. It's these passions, these self interested desires that arise from us that are the problem, and that must be checked first. We have an enemy, and there is a war. But this war often is not external to us, but in us.

00:12:13

And that's one of the first things we need to recognize about ourselves as humans. And so Jesus is incrementally revealing himself to them. He can't dump it all on them at once. They don't understand. And even when he's being clear, like he is here, he's being as clear as anyone could ever be about.

00:12:31

I mean, listen to it again. The son of man, that's Jesus, is to be betrayed into human hands. They will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again. Is that not exactly what happened? Like, not even nothing here is metaphorical at all.

00:12:51

There's nothing analogical about what he's saying. He's speaking clearly to them, and it just goes right over their head. When they should be hearing metaphorically, they interpret literally, and then when they should be hearing literally, they interpret metaphorically, they're misinterpreting, and they don't understand. And until. Listen to this.

00:13:13

Until they see God himself in the flesh, hanging naked in humility upon a roman cross, until they see that image seared in their minds, until they feel the hopelessness of that moment. They don't understand his mission yet. They don't understand who he is quite yet. And then when he rises again, again, another new day dawns for them. And so Jesus says, listen, let's keep this quiet for now.

00:13:52

Maybe we could illustrate like this. We have five children, if you don't know, and the oldest is a senior, and so we've taken them through the talk. Is everybody here? I'm trying to speak a little bit of code here. Parents, you with me?

00:14:07

We've taken them through the talk, okay? And this is a necessary thing for all children to go through, and they need to hear it from you, to be honest with you, they need to hear it from mom. And dad, rather than from this, don't they? Rather than from their friends. Yeah.

00:14:20

Okay. You say amen or not. That's true. All right. Now, here's the other advice I would give you in walking.

00:14:27

What number we on? Just three. Yeah, we're just. Yeah, we got two littles as we go. They're not ready yet.

00:14:32

Okay? But the other three, we've carried them through this talk, okay? It's not just one talk. You give that one talk and they have no clue. They're not looking at you, you know?

00:14:43

They're not looking at your mother or their mother for sure anymore, you know, after that talk, at least the one that I give them. And it's quite shocking if you've never heard the biological way that you exist and you got into the world. It's quite shocking. It's nothing ever what you could ever imagine or think up. Okay, it's crazy, all right?

00:15:02

But here's the cool thing. God himself created that. We didn't think that up. We didn't devise that. There was no.

00:15:11

Some accident. No. I don't know. The love between two people creates another person. That's how you get into the world, in simplistic terms.

00:15:22

A lot of crazy things in between that the talk goes over, right? We won't go. I won't have the talk with you. Perhaps we should, though. Some people seem to have forgotten exactly how we got here, haven't they?

00:15:34

In our own time? Absolutely they have. And we need to get back down to basics. But here's the point. You give that talk, and here's what I tell them.

00:15:44

Do not go tell your friends. Do not go to school and tell your friends what we talked about here. This is a family talk right? Now, that's very similar to what Jesus is doing here, isn't it? He's saying, guys, listen, this is gonna happen, okay?

00:15:58

But let's not go sharing this to everybody. Not everybody's going to understand. Not everybody is ready to hear this. They weren't even ready to hear it, were they notice, but they did not understand what he was saying, and they were afraid to ask him. Anytime I've ever given that talk, nobody ask any questions.

00:16:22

Now, I don't know if that means I was thorough or not. Who knows? But nobody asks questions. But you know the reason we don't ask, I teach, and so I'm in that world. The reason students don't ask questions sometimes because they don't want to look stupid, right?

00:16:37

You know, I mean, it's just like if I ask you a point blank. What is the incarnation? You know, it's like we might have a few squeamish hands come up. I mean, because in here, like, we could be embarrassed. And as adults, we don't want to be embarrassed, you know, because then it would make us look stupid.

00:16:50

And then guess what? That ladder, that metaphorical ladder that we always kind of have in the back of our mind that we're always kind of keeping notes on. All right, there, so and so's on that part of the ladder, you know, what an idiot, you know, bless his heart, you know, this kind of thing. That's our southern way to say what an idiot we've got in our minds. No, no, I'll lose or rung if I'm wrong, okay?

00:17:12

And I think the disciples, I think they're feeling this, you know, I think here's Jesus being very clear. But they won't ask him. They're afraid to ask. What do you mean? Actually, I have no idea what you're talking about here.

00:17:26

Okay? No idea. All right, so then Jesus, he prompts them, right? As any good teacher would, he prompts them. Notice what he says.

00:17:33

He says, look, what were you guys arguing about? I heard like some big thing. Now, if we're just a normal dude, we'd be thinking, oh, well, they're talking about this crazy statement of Jesus, right? Being betrayed, humbling himself so much that he would submit himself. God, think about it.

00:17:52

The omnipotent, all knowing, all powerful, all sufficient God would submit himself to the Romans to then be stripped, spat upon, slapped, beaten almost to death, and then hung on a cross to die. If that doesn't confuse you, you're really not reading the text yet. You're not hearing it. You're not hearing the story of our faith. That's shocking.

00:18:18

Okay? They don't ask a word, but Jesus. Well, maybe they're, maybe they're arguing over that, you know, that's what I would assume as a teacher. Were they? No, of course not.

00:18:30

They're us, right? They're thinking, man, when he gets into the kingdom, do you think I'll be at the highest cabinet member place? You know, am I going to get the greatest position? You think it's John, though, because John's always got these crazy symbolic understandings of things, right? Or maybe it's Peter who always speaks up.

00:18:51

Whether right or wrong, he always speaks up. He's bold enough to do it, kind of our leader. Probably going to be Peter, right? They're arguing about who's first, and we find out from another gospel that, in fact, one of their mothers got involved. Can you believe that?

00:19:07

Mama got involved. You know, just like when the kid's on the team and the coach isn't playing him, and here comes mama. You know, you better put my kid in. He's good, right, guys? What were you talking about?

00:19:29

He asked them a direct question. What do they say? They remained silent. Again, rather than risk embarrassment. Okay, rather than risk embarrassment, I'll just stay quiet here.

00:19:41

For on the way, they argued with one another who was the greatest? This is the moment where Jesus now sits down. Now, you may remember a rabbi. When a rabbi taught a master, a teacher. When a rabbi taught I, he would sit down.

00:19:57

So that's when you knew he was officially teaching. Now we do the opposite. The teacher stands up, and the students sit down, and so on and so forth. But that is not how this happened. When jesus sat down, he's now in teaching mode.

00:20:10

And they know it. They know it being his disciples. And so he calls the twelve to himself and says this. Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all. And this is that principle that Jesus does where he says, the first will be last and the last first.

00:20:33

And you know what? That rubs us the wrong way. Or it should, if we really stop and think about it. You ever been at one of these theme parks like Disney World or Six Flags, where you wait an hour for the ride? Can you imagine waiting an hour?

00:20:50

And you get up to the front, maybe you've had this happen before, and they say, okay, we're going to swap the line around. Everybody that's first now is going to be last, and everybody that's last is going to be first. How many of us would be like, great idea. No. In the hot Orlando sun, the worst of us may come out, right?

00:21:11

Or maybe in a doctor's office, perhaps, right? This happened before to me, actually. I walk into a doctor's office. These people have been waiting, I don't know how long, but I was told to go into the back. And, man, I could feel the eyes in that room, the hatred, because I got to go back first.

00:21:30

You know, it was very reminiscent of how I feel when I'm in traffic and somebody breaks the line. Can I get an amenity? I know, I know. There's going around in social media, this zipper method. Oh, don't even get me started on that thing.

00:21:49

We're too selfish to do the zipper method, okay? We're too selfish to allow others before ourselves. But if we could see. Think about this. Dear brothers and sisters, if we could see ourself, we envision ourself to be first.

00:22:07

But what if. What if we're actually not? What if we're actually at the back of the line then for Jesus to swap it up? Well, goodness, that's a great thing, isn't it? And that's what grace is.

00:22:25

That's what grace is. The first those who think they're high and mighty, those who've got it together. Jesus says, I did not come for them. Not the well, but the ones who are sick. That's who the physician can help.

00:22:41

And he is the great physician. So as long as we think we're okay, we will never find healing. And we'll put ourself in a cycle of always feeling the need, knowing our need, and never being able to come to any resolution. Not unless we confess our sins and plead for his mercy.

00:23:09

And if today you think that you're okay, that is what you need to plead about. None of us are just okay. We all have wayward desires. We all have addicted ourselves to things that we must detach ourselves from.

00:23:31

It starts in us through what St. Augustine again called incurvatus inse, a heart turned in on itself. It's self interest right at the heart of sin. Sin is I. It's me.

00:23:46

It's a self realization, which is why I think Jesus brings this kid among them. Because, you know, if you actually spend any time around children, very small children, because it happens. I mean, unfortunately, now, this leaves them fairly quickly, but they're not really aware of their self. Do you know what I'm talking about? Like, for instance, if you were to come to my house when my children were very small, you might see one of them naked.

00:24:17

I'm sorry, but you might. And it might be shocking to you, you know, and it's happened before where we were sitting having a nice, you know, time in the living room, and here comes somebody through, naked. Why? Well, not because they're some sort of exhibitionist, but rather they don't even realize that it matters to be clothed. You know, you get a little two year old, he comes out, goes get his towel.

00:24:39

He doesn't care who's in the room right now. All of us. All of us would be shocked out of our minds, you know, if something like that happened, and rightfully so. Okay, but a kid not self aware. That's why you really need to be careful what you ask children in front of other people, right?

00:24:59

Kind of funny story about justin and me. When we were growing up, people smoked everywhere, right? I mean, it's just what we did in the eighties. And they smoked in banks and so on. So we were in a bank and my dad had been, you know, I guess he preached a message or something about smoking and drinking because that was very common thing to kind of, you know, really hit on for him and back in the day.

00:25:18

And so he must have said something to the effect of like, hey, you, smoking and drinking, you know, you're going to hell, you know? And so Justin, he's in line at the bank with dad. And here we are, little kids, you know, and there's a guy in front of us smoking away, you know. And so Justin tugs on daddy and he says, hey, daddy, is that guy in front of us going to hell? Because he's smoking.

00:25:37

And of course, the guy can hear him, turns around, you know, because kids say the darndest things, don't they? If you don't want the truth, don't ask them, okay? Don't ask them if that looks good, because, well, you may not get what you want, okay? They're not self aware. They really aren't.

00:25:56

And this is a thing that Jesus then says, God, listen, listen. We're so preoccupied with climbing that ladder, right? I mean, we all try to do it. We all want to look presentable, given a class or maybe a training at our job. We want to be the smartest person in the room, right?

00:26:17

We want to keep edging up that ladder. But let's forget the ladder. Let's forget the ladder. Let's, in fact, forget about ourself. Totally.

00:26:26

All sin comes from this self interest, this self concern.

00:26:33

And as soon as we can, and it's only gonna happen by God's grace, get to a place where we begin to forget about ourselves and put others first, we'll actually find happiness. Like, it's not in trying to just grab as much of the world and hold onto it until we die as possible. What a ridiculous way to live life. Honestly. Like, most of us by now, hopefully have learned that one lesson, that more money isn't going to help your life.

00:27:07

It's actually not. It makes some things easier and other things harder.

00:27:15

More applause isn't going to help you. You've probably got some awards hanging on your wall somewhere. Does anybody ever come into your house and say, man, you must be really important because you've got that certificate, you know? No, people like you because of you, not because of some award or something that happened ten years ago. Let's shrug these things off.

00:27:39

Let's, in fact, cut them off and detach ourselves from this climbing of the ladder of honor and of envying one another. Let's stop looking down the road at who's got what and this and that. Let's stop playing that game. There's a hunger within us. There's a desire within us.

00:28:03

And it's for more. It's for more. And misdirected. It ends up in one of these four things, typically wealth. A pursuit of wealth.

00:28:12

We've all felt that before, you know, a pursuit of pleasure. Good luck on that one. The pursuit of power.

00:28:24

And finally, the pursuit of honor. We want to be honored. We'll be remembered. These are not bad things to pursue, okay? But they are means to an end.

00:28:36

What is that end? Money is not an end. To have money means nothing until you spend it. That's where the power is in the spending, okay? Just to simply have it.

00:28:47

Nothing has changed. To spend it. That's where the pie. But as soon as you spend it, you lose it and you had to make more of it, right? And it's this cycle and same thing with pleasure.

00:28:56

We desire it so much, and then we get it. And then it's satisfied only for a time. We go eat a wonderful meal, you know, pay big bucks for it, and then we're hungry the next morning. I know we all say the same thing when we do it. I'm never eating again.

00:29:15

I won't even eat lunch tomorrow. Yeah, right. Call me up when that happens. You know, I can see from our weight skills that that ain't happening. You know, speaking about myself, listen, pleasure, wealth, these things, they are means.

00:29:34

They are means. They are not to be grabbed onto and to be held onto because we will lose all of them always. Maybe you get to retain it all the way into your age, but you're not going to be able to take it into the afterlife. You get buried with your money. Guess what?

00:29:51

You can't spend it anymore. It's worthless. Honor. People forget. Trust me.

00:29:59

How many of us can name the roman Caesars, right? We can probably get through maybe three. They thought they were God of the day, truly. Too bad they've been forgotten. No, no, no.

00:30:15

These are all substitutes. And what a substitute is, biblically speaking, is an idol. You know, it's idolatry. It's putting something as ultimate, something as an end, something that we're pursuing and spending up all our resources to get to. That's not the true end.

00:30:34

Who is the beginning and the end of all things? Jesus Christ himself. He's the beginning because he's the cause of all things. He's the end, because he's actually the completion of all things and all true happiness.

00:30:56

Who is the greatest? Brothers, sisters, the greatest was right in front of them, and they could not see him.

00:31:07

And they're arguing about which one of them is going to be greatest.

00:31:15

When weeks later, Jesus was going to show them what greatness looked like. And we still remember it today, don't we? This is what greatness looks like because it was because of my sinful, self centered self that has hurt other people and been hurt by other people, all of us in this room, that he went to the cross for us, for me, for you. And he took our place.

00:31:56

And then through the worst thing that could ever happen, God dying in the flesh. We killed God. He rose again, and he destroyed death by dying. Because the secret is, maybe it's out now. You can't kill God.

00:32:14

It's impossible. And you can't stop love. And God is love. And love is about self giving. Not being self interested, but about giving ourself away to others, willing, willing the good of another.

00:32:33

This is why Jesus shocks them by bringing a little worthless on the ladder. A kid's not going to help your bottom dollar. Ask me about that sometime.

00:32:50

Bringing your kid to work is probably not going to get you a promotion.

00:32:56

I don't know if you've ever been around little kids, but they're annoying, you know, and we adults get annoyed by them. And we sometimes we see cases where they're misused and abused because of their innocence. And Jesus says, you know, it'd be better for a millstone. That was one of those things that multiple people had to get around and to grind grain super heavy, tied around your neck, thrown into the river. That's what he wants to do to people who mislead his little ones.

00:33:34

That's not me talking. That's Jesus who said that, you'll end up in hell. That's where he's really going with it. Because the least of these were that child. That child represented the least of these in his own society, in his own day.

00:33:48

In the first century, he took the lowest of the low children. And he put it before his disciples, said, this is what you must become if you're ever to enter my kingdom, my reign.

00:34:04

That's what you must become.

00:34:09

Now. Jesus is not saying to be selfish. We all get that. He's not saying to be selfish. Instead, he's saying to be childlike.

00:34:23

And, you know, as adults, we get bored with things pretty easily. We miss things, because we're so preoccupied upon just ourself, like, whatever it might be, entertaining ourselves to death. We can't even stop to stare at a sunset. We literally need to start stopping and smelling the roses. Like, truly just try to do that.

00:34:45

This week. I would suggest it, like, just look at a rose and the beauty there. GK Chesterton, he said, why does God keep making daisies? Because he says to daisies, do it again. Do it again.

00:34:58

Just like a little kid. Just like a little kid. You know, back in the day, I'd bounce the kids. I'd do like a rodeo. You know what I'm talking about?

00:35:03

And they loved it. I mean, I'd have them going everywhere and throw them off like this. And they loved it. And, you know, every time I got done, they'd say, do it again. Okay, all right.

00:35:12

Do it again, do it again. I was worn out. I'm sweating. You know, if you've ever done this with kids, like, played with. For just ten minutes, do it again, do it again, do it again.

00:35:22

Like they love it. Never gets old. But for us adults, us sophisticated people, time for that. Time for play. No, no.

00:35:32

Time for rest. No. Work. Work. No, listen.

00:35:38

There's something about stopping and smelling the roses and recognizing the order and the beauty of life that kids have. They think the world's magical. Still, we, or we can explain that away by science. You know what that's like? It's like, I was at the Grand Canyon and we watched the sun.

00:35:57

Well, I say we were at the Grand Canyon. They were all in bed. I was at the Grand Canyon early in the morning to watch the sunrise, right? Hundreds of people out there. Anybody ever experienced this?

00:36:06

Hundreds of people out there. Every morning they do this, okay? Everybody's quiet. It's almost like a church service, you know, everybody's quiet. Everybody's waiting for that sunrise to just peek over the Grand Canyon there.

00:36:17

And we're all just waiting. We're all just waiting. And it's very quiet. And then, boom, it's something magical that happens. Now, imagine being there and seeing this just unbelievable beauty, okay?

00:36:32

And somebody leaning over and just saying, well, you say, man, what a beautiful sunrise, right? And they say, buddy, the sun doesn't rise, we're rotating. And da da da. Like, you talk about a killjoy, you know? It's like, I'm throwing that dude off the Grand Canyon.

00:36:48

There's you some rotation, buddy. You know, like, let's get real, man. No one talks in these scientific ways that we act like you gotta do in that's ridiculous, okay? Science points up to God. We can't stop with science, which is why if you make science the ultimate thing, again, it's idolatry, okay?

00:37:09

It's pointing up. Why is there a beauty there? Because there's an order there. Nothing random about that. We don't think anything that's strewn about.

00:37:17

Like, nobody goes by a car wreck and says, what a beautiful thing. No, a new car. Yeah, because of the order. When we're seeing the beauty around, it's because someone ordered it. Our mind's able to pick it up.

00:37:32

Because there is a divine mind that created us. Okay? And you know all that, but it's worth saying so how can we become like a little kid? Well, humble ourselves. Humility.

00:37:47

Kids, they don't. They're not thinking about their self again. All right? We have to humble ourself. Also, here's another thing about kids.

00:37:56

They're unaware of their importance, right? They're not comparing. They will. Trust me, they will. And they'll learn it from us, but they're not comparing.

00:38:09

What if we just went through this next week, not comparing ourself? They're also lowly. You know, they're just. They're little. Right?

00:38:16

And when you're little, you can't see very far, you know? Because if you're in a big crowd and there's crowds all around us, a tall person, they can see above the crowd and see on it. But, you know, I can't see you any. I mean, you get what I'm saying, right? Like, just to illustrate real quick, like.

00:38:33

No, they're lowly. You know what that means, though, is they have to look up, don't they? They're not looking down. They're looking up. And who's up but God, we need to be lowly, not high and mighty, looking down on others.

00:38:48

No, no. Come on. Let's get real. Let's get real. We need to look up to our father.

00:38:53

This is one reason Deborah said it, right? Why do we raise our hands here? What does this look like? Looks like a kid who needs to be picked up. I love this story.

00:39:02

Because guess what? Jesus here not only puts a little kid in, he picks him up, lifts him up. He says, he takes him in his arms. Are you in the arms of Jesus? You'll never be if you're high and mighty.

00:39:15

You got it all together. You're not in his arms. You're not in his arms. Somebody else's arms. Not in his.

00:39:24

He lifts up the lowly, doesn't he? Let's be lowly. And then children are simple. They're not complex. In other words, what simplicity is, is after one thing.

00:39:38

They're not looking at the rose while they're texting. You see? They're not busied in their mind as they're talking to you. They don't have an iPhone. None of these kids right here, well, I can't say that, actually.

00:39:52

Some of the little kids right here certainly didn't have an iPhone. Okay. They're not distracted. We're so distracted in our time, we don't even see the people in front of us, do we? God help us.

00:40:02

God correct us. Me, me. And then a willingness to love and be loved. They haven't. Children don't have a past.

00:40:10

They haven't had past hurts and all this, they haven't had time yet. And God help the ones who have.

00:40:23

So today, look to the cross. Look to the cross. This is the full revelation of Jesus Christ. It's an empty cross because he's risen again.

00:40:35

Then forget the ladder. Forget the ladder. Trade the ladder out for the cross. And then be childlike in your faith, in your trust. Faith is just trust.

00:40:45

Be childlike in your trust of God. Reach up, look up, ask for help. A kid wants a cookie, gotta ask for it. It's up there.

00:40:57

You have not. What? Cause you ask not. Our reading in James. Let's ask the father.

00:41:04

Pick us up, Lord. Help me, Lord. And let's welcome the least of these, because as we welcome the least of these in our life, we welcome Jesus Christ himself. Matthew 25. Go read it today.

00:41:18

We don't have time to go into it. It's the least of these. Just like that little kid that he brings in our midst here at Harvest Point. Salvation Army Huntsville assistance program. First stop, Huntsville Pregnancy Resource center.

00:41:33

Formally choose life. Who's the least of these more than in the womb today? They can't even speak a voice. We have to be their voice, because, trust me, God is the one who knit them together. He says.

00:41:52

Kairosh Prison Ministry going on. Actually, right now, this weekend, we got somebody serving, from what I understand. Yes, in prison, the prisoners, the forgotten. How many times you thought about them this week, right? You know, Lucas, all of us.

00:42:04

And then we're about to start a new ministry. Immigrant connection. Cannot wait to roll that out and share more about that. Listen, right here, we've got pathways where we can involve ourselves with the least of these. We are the 1%.

00:42:21

When you look across human history, I don't care if you're low middle income, or low income. If you're in America, you're the 1%. Across human history, nobody ever had air conditioners, okay? Didn't even know what a car was. All right, we're the 1%.

00:42:35

And here's what God says to us. Listen. To whom much has been given, much is required, as you welcome the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you welcome Jesus. And not only Jesus, but the Father, the whole trinity. God himself in us pursue what is highest, and that's our Lord, Jesus Christ.

00:42:59

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. We're going to respond to this word this morning.