Your Childhood Is Not Over

Lightly Cleaned Transcription

Introduction

Introduction: The truth I bring to our attention today has two meanings:

1. We are still influenced today by how we were trained as children. Proverbs 22:6: Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. My viewpoints, thoughts, behavior were formulated during my childhood years. Parents, we have an awesome responsibility before us in how and what we train our children.

2. In many ways, we are better Christians when we retain child-like attributes. Christ uses a child as an object lesson to remind us to be like a child. It is this second meaning I wish to emphasize this morning.

“When are you going to grow up?” I have been asked that question a number of times… even last week! But I have good news for some of us who refuse to grow up… In many ways we should always remain as children.

1. The Faith of a Child Is Required for Salvation

In this verse, the Lord speaks of a great need for every man… the need to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven (God). Man is born outside the kingdom of God and under the rule of Satan. He is not a natural citizen of heaven and under the rule of God. Too many people believe they will go to heaven and they have do nothing to get there. Not so!

The gospel is God’s record of how we can enter into God’s Kingdom. Unless we follow God’s plan, we will not see the Kingdom.

What do I need to do: We need to have a child-like faith in God. What kind of faith is that? It is a faith based on two things:

1. Repentance. “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” Matt. 3:2. A genuine desire to turn away from sin.

2. Recognition of spiritual bankruptcy. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God.” Matt. 5:3. He knows he has nothing to offer God to remove sin.

A child is simple, dependent, helpless, sincere, trusting of others, without thoughts of grandeur or greatness. That is the kind of faith we must bring to God when we seek salvation.

I have nothing to offer him, I am helpless without Him, I am trusting in Him alone, I deserve nothing, but I need and want what He has to offer… the forgiveness of my sins.

Handwritten note: “Heaven is not our inherited destiny or privilege!”

2. The Humility of a Child Is Required for Service

This lesson is taught by Christ, because the disciples were arguing who was to be the greatest in God’s kingdom. These men, somehow, were measuring their service and had determine their own reward and greatness.

It is the nature of man to seek greatness and desire honor. Yet in God’s service, we are reminded to remain as children. Jesus picks up a toddler and tells us we must be like him in kingdom service.

The verb behind the word “humble” means “to make low”. Once again think about a child. He makes no claims of worthiness or greatness. He submits to the care of his parents, relying on them to provide all that he needs. He cannot be proud or boastful for he has no resources to stay alive.

Humility is a lesson the Lord would stress time and time again.

Handwritten example: “We took our children to town to buy Christmas gifts for a struggling family in our church. They did it with compassion and no thought for self.”

3. Our Care for Another Child Is Proof of Sonship

As a parent, I want to say something that I believe to be true of other parents. Do something good for my children and I will be very grateful. I have great appreciation for those who help my children and grandchildren.

At the same time, I have a great dislike for those who would harm them. It has been easier to forgive an offense against myself than one against my child. It is within my nature to want to protect my children and shield them from harm.

God is the perfect model of this kind of parental concern (I am not perfect and react wrongfully). In Gen 12:3 God tells Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you, I will curse”. God demands good treatment of his people, commanding unbelievers to treat them well and commanding them to treat each other well.

Jesus takes that same child and says this, “You cannot separate devotion for me from devotion for others. If you care for my people, then you care for me.”

Let me share two things that Christ points out:

1. The Performance. What ever we do to another believer, we do to Christ. READ MATT. 25:31-40. Our performance, actions, toward each other is easily planned. In what way we would interact with Christ, we should do the same with each other.

2. The Peril. There is a negative side. When someone mistreats a Christian, He in turn, mistreats Christ.

The word “offend” means to “cause one to stumble or to fall”. Jesus warns that it is a terrible thing to cause another to stumble, so much so, he be better to drown himself.

EXAMPLE: of Ron Smith, who told his little brother it was O.K. to go ride his new bike, despite mother’s instructions not to. He got the wheel of the bike stuck on the railroad track, and stayed with it, trying to free it. He was killed. And Ron could not turn loose of the metal anguish of causing his brother to stumble.

Handwritten example: “The man who took the mother and child to hospital in terrible ice storm. He wreck his car over and over again. The child looked up with feverish eyes and asked, ‘Are you Jesus?'”

4. God’s Care for a Child Is Proof of Our Significance

As part of the warning to prevent at all cost our causing others to stumble or fall, Jesus tells us to pay close attention… “take heed”.

Do not despise one of God’s believers, because there are angels in heaven who do not take their eyes off of God.

The implication is this: Holy angels never take their eyes off God, lest they miss some directions from Him regarding a task they are to perform on behalf of believers.

God can dispatch angels to intervene on behalf of His children. This demonstrates how valueable and significant believers are to God.

EXAMPLE: One sheep goes astray has God’s full attention. What value you and I are to Him.

Handwritten example: “The man buried alive. Me, the operator, the foreman, the superintendent all got our hands dirty trying to save that man’s life. Cooperation, no hierarchy, passion for a common goal. God, Christ, [the] spiritual His church ought to work together to do the same.”