I want to invite your attention to the 11th chapter of Isaiah.
I'm going to read the first six verses as our introductory
reading Isaiah 11, the first six verses, the scripture says, and
there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a
branch shall grow out of his roots and the spirit of the Lord
shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding the
spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and of the
fear of the Lord and shall make him of quick, understanding in
the fear of the Lord. And he shall not judge after the
sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his
ears, but with righteousness, shall he judge the poor and
reprove with equity for the meek of the earth.
And he shall Smite the Earth with the rod of his mouth, and
with the breath of his lips, shall he slay, the wicked and
righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins and
faithfulness. The girdle of his reins the wolf
also shall dwell with the lamb. And the leopard shall lie down
with the kid and the calf, and the Young Lion, and the fatling
together, and a little child, shall lead them, that will be
our reading for this morning. Before we take up an examination
of this passage, we're going to approach our father in prayer.
This. Beautiful prophecy was fulfilled
in the coming of the kingdom of the Messiah.
Jesus would Usher in an age of peace with the types of the Old
Testament. Fulfilled no longer would God's
people be constituted by a physical nation that would take
up Swords against other nations, rather, the spiritual Kingdom,
of Israel would carry the message of the Prince of Peace
to the world today. The Church of the Lord does not
conquer. Its Ettore and claim subjects by
violent Force, as an Earthly Nation.
Does rather the kingdom of Christ seeks entrance into the
hearts of men by the diplomacy of the Gospel are sword.
Is that of the spirit or the word of God as the Apostle Paul
Illustrated in Ephesians the sixth chapter, our weapons are
not carnal, they're not physical, but they are
spiritual, and they are Mighty, and our message is one of peace
and in treaty to the Yawns, who would turn their hearts unto
God? That's what Jesus meant.
When he said in the great Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the
peacemakers. Now the Beatitudes as we refer
to them are not merely a set of happy expressions or sayings
that are. Merely meant to be crocheted on
some piece of artwork and displayed somewhere.
They are great doctrinal affirmations concerning the
kingdom of Christ constraineth. Concerning the coming age, the
age of redemption, the age of the gospel.
And when Jesus says, blessed are the peacemakers he's talking
about this process of making peace between God and men and
thus between God's people. And that peace comes by the
entrance of the Gospel into men's Hearts.
Now, that's why Isaiah pictures. The New Testament age here in
Isaiah 11 as an age of peace and Tranquility, that piece is Joy
between God and men and thus between Mutual Believers when
forgiveness of sins is obtained by the gospel but the phrase
Isaiah used in verse 6 to describe the kingdom of Christ
is the one that I want us to focus upon for a little while
today. He says a little child shall
lead them. That's a beautiful thought and
it's one that is packed with incredible meaning.
And I believe it's a gem of truth that our world.
Today desperately needs to hear, you know, God intended that we
all were work to train and channel the lives of our
children, their minds and their hearts are like pliable clay,
within our hands that can be shaped.
And molded, in fact, a parent faces, a very grave
responsibility when God places an innocent child and his or her
arms, because they're lays at Eternal Soul that will be shaped
and directed by the teaching that we instill.
And the example that we said, in fact, my friend, if you're a
parent, And you've never been faced with that reality.
If you've never allowed that to settle upon you that you now are
responsible for an eternal Soul. You have brought a soul into
this world and that soul is going to live forever somewhere
someplace. And where it lives forever in
large part will be determined by the actions.
The attitudes, the words, the type of training that you
display before them. If you've never faced that
Reality. Then you're woefully unprepared
for the great and Monumental task of Parenthood.
Solomon, said, train up a child in the way he should go.
And when he is old, he will not depart from it, Proverbs 22, and
verse 6. And so, it's our job to teach
our children. But today, there are a lot of
lessons in our children can teach us and I believe those
lessons are, some of the most fundamental principles of the
Christian Life. And when we think of a child, we
of course, think of innocence and Purity.
It's unfathomable to me how people can bring children into
the world and not immediately. Love them.
Jesus, certainly love children. And he used them often in his
ministry to teach some of the outstanding principles of his
kingdom. There was the time for example,
when some people brought a group of little children to the Lord
for him to lay hands on them and to pray for them, and the
disciples thought of that. As a, rather trivial and bother
something and rebuked, the parents who brought them, But
Jesus looked at it differently, he took time for them.
He said, suffer little children, and forbid them, not to come
unto me for of such is the kingdom of heaven, and he won't
even bother to say, verily. I say unto you whosoever shall
not receive the kingdom of God as a little child.
He shall not enter therein and he took them up in his arms and
he put his hands upon them and blessed them.
According to the 10th chapter of the Gospel of Mark.
Well, what a wonderful picture that is.
And our ridiculous. Does that make the calvinist
doctrine of total hereditary depravity appeared.
You know, I can hardly conceive of a Doctrine today that teaches
that babies are born in sin and depraved from their mother's
womb. A lot of churches, teach that a
lot of churches, teach that every human being from the
moment, they're conceived and enter into this world, they do.
So in a sinful, a depraved and a loss condition.
If that be the case, why did Jesus say in Matthew, 18 and 3,
Except you be converted and become as little children, ye
shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Now, the idea of converted or the word converted means to
turn. Again, Jesus says that you need
to turn again and become like a child in order to be saved.
Well, if a child is depraved and a child is lost, if a child is
in a sinful state. Then what sense would it make
for Jesus to tell a sinful and lost and condemned?
Man, you've got to turn again to the state of a child.
In order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Surely Jesus statement refutes, such a Doctrine, how can a child
lead us in righteousness, if that child is sinful and
depraved as John Calvin and his disciples suggest.
Well, the Bible just doesn't teach such an unthinkable
doctorate, the Bible teaches, the children are our pattern in
righteousness as I Say a said, a child shall lead them.
And actually this presents a bit of a paradox.
The New Testament scriptures are written to make us perfect.
In Christ in the word. Perfect means, complete or
mature. The goal of the objective of
Christianity is to become a mature being and a mature person
puts away, childish. Things.
According to First Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 11, but yet
at the same time, the Bible teaches that we are to be like
children in other words to grow up.
Up in Christ, we have to take on the characteristics of the
child. Well, that doesn't mean childish
behavior, it doesn't mean remaining in childish ignorance,
but it does mean that we should have the heart and the spirit
and possess the righteousness of a child.
If we were to ever understand and embrace the great principles
of the church. So let's talk about some of
those principles today. You know, first of all, a little
child sets a wonderful example unnecessary.
Sample of humility. The Bible tells us in Matthew
18, and for whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself
as this little child, the same as the greatest in the Kingdom
of Heaven. Now, if you had to select from
all of the people of the earth, one whom you thought to be the
epitome of submission and humility, Wouldn't It generally
speaking be a child, you know, a child is typically loving a
child gets to light out of pleasing others.
A child is teachable. Oh, and a child is correctable,
but those things can't be said for a lot of people today.
Because man, as he grows, older becomes controlled by something
called Pride, he's dominated by his pride and there is not a
greater Pitfall for the human race than the vice and the sin
of Pride, it said that a very young Benjamin Franklin.
Once made the Statesmen, not the preacher that he wants, made a
list of the 12 virtues that he thought would lead.
The success in any life and he tried to select the Cardinal
principles that he thought would lead to Greatness.
And when he finished his article, he had an older
gentleman glanced over it. And the man took one look, and
he said, why bin you left out the most important thing of all
and that is humility. Well, he hadn't thought of that.
And he grabbed it, and he took his pen, and he quickly more to
satisfy the Old Gentleman than anything.
He jotted it down at the end of his list.
It was an afterthought. To him that day.
Now, you know, unfortunately, I'm afraid that it's an
afterthought to many of us. We all say that we admire
someone who possesses humility, we all acknowledge that humility
is a virtue. We would deny the Bible if we
denied such a fact but then we turn around and we fail to
recognize Pride within our own lives.
A lot of us are like Benjamin Franklin, humility becomes an
afterthought. A lot of us paid lip service to
humility. And in fact Let Me Tell Who's
that? That's one of the first virtues,
in fact, it should really be the top of our list and not at the
end of our list. I'm afraid that some of us get
into a mentality if we're not careful and I don't want you to
misunderstand what I'm about to say because in saying this, I'm
not minimizing anything on the list, it's all important.
But sometimes I think we get into the mentality.
That's a long as we're members of the right church and so long
as we have the table set the right way, and so long as we
sing the right way and so long as we don't do this, and we
don't do that and we don't do the other.
Well, that's what's really important.
And, you know, when we get into all of these Christian virtues,
when we get down to all of these things like humility and
controlling our tongue, and our attitude, and things like that.
Well, all of that's icing on the cake, all of that.
You know those are just signs of Christian growth.
Once we reach a particular point, we need to get all of
that other down and then we can work on that through the course
of time. But what I submit to you today
is that humility is a Nation not an afterthought.
It's not something that we arise to or that we attain.
It's the foundation of everything else because the
Bible tells us that pride is something that God absolutely
resist and rejects and pride will hinder a man from ever
really accepting and embracing the truth as God intends for him
to Dad David prayed, long ago, that the sacrifices that God,
accepts are those of a broken and a contrite spirit?
Spirit. Now friends that doesn't mean
the Salah is a person goes around and his self abasing
about everything that it doesn't matter how he lives and I
worshipped and so on. And that's not what I'm saying.
But I am saying that a man is never going to get everything
else right in his life until he establishes the foundation and
the premise of humility, the great Sermon on the Mount begins
with humility. Matthew 5 and 3 records, the
beginning of the Lord's. Sermon, as he said, blessed are
the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
And simply put a man cannot serve God, so long as he served
so long as he serves himself. Jesus said the first requirement
for any candidate for discipleship is the denial of
self, Luke chapter 9 and verse 23 and the Very nature of
Christianity demands such self-abasement.
The Bible tells us that God resists the proud, but he giveth
Grace unto the humble, James, 4, and verse 16, Solomon wants me
to list of six things that God hates.
Listen. Now, God hates these things.
And he says seven are Abominations or things
detestable in his sight and the very first thing on that list,
what do you suppose it was? Do you suppose that it was
murder? Do you suppose the first thing
that Solomon could think of when he was led by God's spirit to
say there are seven things that are Abomination to God and the
first one is hands that shed innocent blood of our session.
For example do you suppose the first thing God hates is
adultery or fornication or lying We'll all of those things are
enveloped and things that are Abominations to God.
Most certainly. But the very first thing that
Solomon says that God hates is a proud.
Look. Solomon's Pearls of Wisdom known
as the Proverbs renounce, the pride of man over and over
again. He says seest, Thou a man wise
and his own conceit. There is more hope of a fool
than of him. Proverbs 26, and verse 12.
Proverbs 16 and 18 says, Pride goeth Before, Destruction and a
haughty spirit. Before a fall, he says a man's
Pride shall bring him low. But honor shall uphold the
humble in spirit, Proverbs 29 and verse 23.
And on and on and on we could go.
God detest pride. And Jesus says, we will never
enter his kingdom as long as the love and exaltation of self
rules are higher. Why is that?
What does it mean to be proud? And why is it so antithetical to
God and to a life for him? Well Pride keeps people from
looking Beyond themselves. Most importantly Pride will keep
a person from seeing God and that's ultimately what pride is
or what it leads a person to do pride is the exaltation of the
creature above the Creator. And when a person is filled with
pride, they don't listen to what God says, they do what they want
to do. They subconsciously convince
themselves that they know more about it than God.
Does. They know what's best for their
life? And why should they let the
Bible interfere with what they want?
It takes humility. You see to give up the things.
We want to have or that we want to do in order to be what God
wants us to be and to do what God wants us to do.
Pride causes a person to put his own best interests before the
welfare of others. But the life of a Christian is
the opposite of that. The life of the Christian is a
life of sacrificing for and giving to the needs of others.
Jesus of course set the perfect example of self-abasement for
the betterment of others. The scripture tells us in that
beautiful passage in the book of Philippians that Jesus, in
coming to this earth, he emptied himself of all of the riches and
privileges of Heaven, to come here and live as a man and die
as a sacrifice for us, he emptied himself.
That's one of the greatest theological statements ever
made. The Bible says, in that context,
he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but he took on
the form of man, the form of a servant.
He emptied himself. And when that when the Bible
says, when Paul says, he thought it not robbery to be equal with
God. God really what he's saying?
There it is. He thought it not robbery
though, he was equal with God. to leave all of that behind and
because of your live as a man, Jesus, the object of worship and
adoration. Jesus Heavens, Jewel, Jesus,
before whom Angels bow. Left all of that behind to come
and be thrown amongst the sinful race of men who would hate him,
who would despise him, who it ridicule him?
Who was spit upon him, who ultimately would put nails
through his hands and feet and suspending upon a Roman cross.
He emptied himself. The Bible says and he thus
became our example that type of humility is what mischaracterize
any person who would be a disciple of his and Who would
follow him? He calls upon anyone who would
follow him to give up their own lives.
For the sake of his kingdom pride is what keeps people from
doing that pride is what keeps people from accepting the
teachings of the Bible. Some folks just can't admit that
they're wrong and they'll stubbornly persistent error
because they can't bring themselves to admit.
That what they believe what they've done in the past.
But it's sinful is wrong. Listen to Isaiah and the 66
chapter verses 1 and 2. Thus said, the Lord, the heaven
is my throne and the Earth is my footstool, Where is the House
that you build on the me and where is the place of my rest
for all those things have mine handmade.
And all those things have been saith the Lord.
But to this man, will I look even to him that his poor and of
a contrite spirit and who tremble?
If that my word That's the kind of person who finds favor in
God's eyes. The man or woman, who could
admit a mistake, who can confess they've been wrong, who
respects, the word of God enough to crucify their own willful
pride and simply accept and follow the Bible's teaches.
It was Pride that caused Adam to blame Eve in the garden for
their sin. It was Pride that drove came to
kill his brother Abel out of jealousy.
After God rejected his sacrifice, it was Pride that
cause Saul the first king of Israel to disobey God's order.
Has when God told him to go and destroy the amalekites, it was
Pride that caused him to blame the people under his leadership,
for his own sin. It was Pride that cause David to
cover his sin by murdering Uriah, and stealing Bathsheba it
was the, it was Pride that cause real Bowen to divide the Kingdom
of Israel. It was Pride that cause Peter to
deny Jesus and Judas to betray him, it was Pride, that led the
Jews to crucify him. It was Pride that led Dimas to
forsake the Lord for the world, friends pride is the greatest.
Entertained in the house and the soul of man and God detests, it
and demands. And to be cast out before he can
dwell in our hearts, Jesus said whosoever shall exalt himself
shall be abased, but he that shall humble himself shall be
exalted, Matthew 23, and verse 12, friends of child leads us in
humility and God, help us to have the spirit in the heart of
a child when it comes to that. Now second of all a little child
sets, a wonderful example of sincerity.
I don't know how you could find a better example of genuineness
that by looking at a child, Now with the child, what you see is
what you get and any of us who are parents know that all too.
Well, in fact a child is often so sincere and a child is so
genuine and open with what he thinks that he'll embarrass you
from time to time. Like the old story that you
probably heard along the way of the, of the parents who had
invited the preacher over for lunch on Sunday.
And after the service was over, the family walked by the back
door, where the preacher was standing.
And that little boy looked up at the preacher and he said, I'm
sure glad you're coming to our house for dinner today, moms
fixing chicken and she looked, and she said, well, I am not.
Where did you get that idea? She said well, I heard you tell
Dad I might as well have the old bird and get it over with.
Well the fact of the matter is children will sometimes be so
Frank and so honest that they'll embarrass you.
But you know, the fact of the matter is what you see.
Is what you get. That's just the way a child is.
Now there's no pretense with a child.
We learned that trait as we get older, few things are more
genuine and sincere than a child and his or her relationship to
others. But especially God now it may
not be the most eloquent but you'll never hear a more worthy
and heartfelt prayer than what falls from the lips of a small
child. They tend to express the real
contents of their little hearts. They pray for everything.
And they pray for everybody that they can possibly think of.
You don't just hear an endless stream of cliches, and guide
guard, and direct us. When a child, praise.
He pours out his heart to God. And, you know, that's the type
of genuineness that God expects us to have with him in our
relationship with him. The word sincere comes from two
Latin words that means without wax.
Now, we only use the word to talk about somebody's character
or disposition, but originally it had a much broader meaning.
I'm told that Woodworkers and other skilled Craftsmen use the
term to refer to their craft. And if a carpenter used wax or
something like it to cover up flaws in the wood, then that
would could no longer be referred to as sincere, if a
sculptor was creating an image and he used some agent to hide
or repair some mistake within his work of art.
Well then again that could not be called sincere.
Well today, the word essentially means the same thing but in a
moral seats Yeah. If something it refers to
something that is without wax or something in which there is no
cover-up, Nothing Is concealed or made to look differently than
what it really is. Now that's the way it is with
the child but how one true it is with us often times.
You know most adults are surrounded by a cloud of
pretense whether we want to admit it or not.
I briefly touched on the idea last night that we're very
careful to project a particular image of ourselves.
And that's all well and good. If that image is the reality.
But a lot of times we work very hard to project an image to
those around us perhaps our brethren in the Church of
something that we are something we claim to be.
When we're really not that at all.
We may come to church where the pious look on our face.
We may come. And so reverently sit and act,
as though we're also devout and so Pious and so devoted, and
then our lives be something, totally different as soon as we
need the Church. Building adults tend to be
surrounded by preteens. Well, you know, we never fool
God. God sees us for what we really
are. God sees the life.
We live every day and every moment of the day and beyond
that God is able to peel back the veneer and look inside our
heart, and he knows what we're thinking, he knows how we really
feel. He knows what type of attitudes
we have about things and about other people, and he judges us
according to that, God expects us to be sincere in everything
we do and everything. We say, for example, our love
for the Lord and for one another is to be according to Romans 12
and verse 9. Without dissimulation or
hypocrisy, you know what that means?
That means loving my brother doesn't just mean that I hug his
neck at the back. Door of the church building once
in a while and tell him. I love you brother.
It goes much farther than that. Loving my brother means.
I behaved like I love my brother.
I conduct myself in a way that shows I love my brother.
I genuinely love my brother to the point that I would do
anything for him and lay my life down for him, sacrifice for Him.
I love my brother. I have a genuine concern for him
and for his soul and I act out of that motive.
That's what love is love, is action, not just words And Paul
says our love is to be sincere. We're not just supposed to say.
We love God you tell God. You love him all day long.
God wants you to show that you love him.
God wants to see a life that's live for him.
Joshua told the children of Israel, long ago to choose once
and for all whom they would serve as the either the idol
gods of their past or the god, Jehovah.
And he told them to serve the Lord in sincerity and Truth.
According to Joshua, 24, and verse 14.
In other words, stop paying lip service to God, and give him
your heart, but that's exactly what they had been doing.
They've been paying lip service to the god of Heaven.
They were fickle. They were so easily distracted.
They were even given to idolatry and Joshua says listen in his
time now to be what you claim to me, it is time to either step up
and be what you claim to be or give it up, altogether, serve
the Lord, he says in sincerity and in truth God demands the
same thing of us today that was why Jesus soda tested.
The religion of the Pharisees. It was not and don't let anybody
ever tell you or bullying. Into believing that Jesus
condemned the Pharisees because of their claim to adhere to the
law of God. That was not the Lord's
complaint. The Lord never encouraged
anybody to disobey or violate the law of God.
Jesus kept the law of God. Jesus problem with the varices
was, they were living under this pretense, but they were keeping
the law of God and urging others to do.
So, when they really weren't keeping the law of God, they
were keeping the traditions of their elders.
They were keeping the Traditions that had evolved in Modern Times
And they were imposing those upon others as they were the law
of God. And Jesus, he didn't look upon
these men's Hearts saw people who tried to project themselves
as being Pious devoted, and close to God.
But yet, he saw that their hearts were Rockin.
He saw that, they were not sincere, they love the
attention. They loved all of the trappings
that went along with religion and their position within the
religious system of That day, but their hearts were not
devoted to God. They didn't really love God, and
they really didn't love the law. God, they were ignorant of the
law of God. They were Hypocrites and Jesus
had no greater enemies. Jesus, to tested that, more than
need to tested anything else and he detest it today when he sees
it in religious people's lives, you see people today who try to
put on a good face when it comes to religion, they show up to
church maybe on Easter Sunday or when it's convenient.
They make an appearance once in a while, they dress dress up in
their best, they put on a big show for others to see how much
they love the Lord. Question is, where are they?
The rest of the time? What are they doing?
The rest of the year? That kind of shallow and worldly
religion, doesn't impress, the Lord, it turns his stomach.
Jesus said, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
Matthew Chapter 5 and verse 8. He's not talking about moral
Purity there. He's talking about sincerity and
genuineness and only the person with a heart that wants God and
His truth above. Everything else is eligible for
the kingdom of heaven and our children lead us into the
kingdom of heaven. By their example of sincerity
thirdly a child can lead us in the paths of forgiveness.
Paul said in First Corinthians chapter, 14 and 20 Brethren, be
not children in understanding how be it in Malice, be ye
children, listen to that again. Be not children and
understanding Howbeit in Malice, be ye children.
That's Paul's way of telling us that we need to imitate the
spirit of a small child in dealing with one another.
That just observe notice how forgiving and long-suffering of
child is Kids don't normally hold grudges and if they do it
won't last for long. Children can be playing
somewhere and they get into a fight of some sort and then they
argue and they may call one another names.
They may get mad and they may wrestle one another they may
stomp away they may stop speaking to one another for a
little while but it usually doesn't take more than a few
hours or days at best. Usually it's just a few minutes
and the whole thing is blown over and things are back like
they used to be There are times when we parents have to
discipline our kids, that's not a pleasant thing.
Your child May resent the spanking, they get or the
scolding, they received the punishment that you meet out,
that's natural for them to do so.
But, you know, good and well, it doesn't take very long and it's
all over, and they're all smiles again. and they want you to know
that everything is right now contrast that with the average
person in the church, You just see how far that goes in the
church today. You let some older person be
rebuked for some wrongdoing. You let someone be wronged in
some way by somebody have their feelings hurt by someone over
something and they'll hold a grudge sometimes for years.
I know people that will all the sudden, stop speaking to people
in the church because somebody said something or somebody look
at them the wrong way and they'll go for months and
hardly, utter a word to somebody in the congregation and you
don't even know what it's all about.
You don't even know what you did to upset them or offend them.
Listen, I don't care how goody-two-shoes you are and how
righteous you think you are, if that's your attitude and your
conduct toward other people, you don't have the heart of a child
and you don't have the kind of heart that God expects of you.
As his follower sometimes people Harbor resentment and Malice for
the rest of their lives. I've seen that over and over
again. Some people when they're rebuke,
all they can think to do is pull out their microscope and go
looking for the faults of everyone else, to turn the
attention away from them. Well, that's where a child sets,
a wonderful and much-needed example.
Jesus, not only forgave, he taught us to forgive also.
In fact, he went so far as to say in Matthew 6 and verse 14,
for if you forgive not men their trespasses, Neither, will your
father, forgive your trespasses? Let me tell you something,
folks. That's serious and Jesus meant
that every bit as much as he meant, he that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved. Jesus said, if you don't forgive
others, their trespasses, you can forget about being forgiven
by your father in Heaven. That's deadly, serious.
If we fail to forgive, we won't be forgiven.
Heaven has a mercy bank and how much we withdraw depends on how
much we deposited. And by the way, forgiveness is
not just saying that we forgive someone and then talk about it.
To everyone, we meet or holding their past offense, over their
head for years to come or treating them like a
second-class. Citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven
for the rest of their life. Forgiveness is instant and it is
complete or it is not forgiveness.
And if you want to see what kind of heart God wants us to have in
that regard toward others. As watch how children forgive.
And lastly, a child leads the righteous in a confiding faith
and trust in our children, teach us some very important lessons
in faith. Kids, don't really worry much.
They don't worry much because they leave the things that bring
worry to us their parents. Children, don't typically worry
about where their next meal is coming from.
Kids don't typically worry about whether they'll have something
to wear tomorrow. Small children, don't worry
about having a place to sleep. They're not worried about making
the mortgage payment. They understand that Mom and Dad
are going to make that paper. And they don't understand
sometimes. When money runs tight, the
budget is thin, they don't understand when someone loses a
job or when some other catastrophe comes along, they
just have faith in mom and dad that their needs are going to be
mad. And in fact, they think that Mom
and Dad are an endless supply of resources.
You go to the store and walk them through the Toya Toya, all
if you dare do so and they want everything that they see that
they desire and they don't understand the value.
Fact that you first of all, don't have the money to pay for
that expensive toy and that you don't need it.
On top of that, they think that money grows on trees.
They think that you got all the money in the world, they think
that Mom and Dad can do anything.
And, you know, Jesus said that that's the way we should be.
Jesus told his disciples to take note of the limits of the field
and how God takes care of them. He then reminded them.
Doesn't God care even more about you.
Well, that's the kind of faith. We need to have in our heavenly
father, a child thinks his or her Daddy has the street and the
power to do anything. They think their mother can heal
all of their hurts. When they fall off the swing,
when they fall out of the tree house or they fall off their
bike and they scrape their knee and blood is running everywhere.
They don't come running in the house and say call 911.
They run in the house and say where's mom?
Because they know if they can get to Mama that?
She'll patch it all up. She'll make it right.
All will be well, well, do you know God wants to be that kind
of parent to us. Paul said, let us therefore come
boldly unto. The throne of grace that we may
obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need, Hebrews 4
and verse 16. Do you have that type of
confidence in God? Do you have that kind of faith
in him? Do you trust him in all of life
circumstances? Do you trust his word enough to
unbeli obey it regardless of what it costs or where it leads
you to follow? Do you have Supreme confidence
in the promises of God that he will do what he said he would
do? So that you completely healed
your life and you're all to him. No wonder.
Jesus said of such, is the Kingdom of Heaven.
You know? Children often try to be like
their parents They try to talk like them, they try to walk like
them. They go raid the closet and try
to dress like them. And in many ways, they imitate
us. But the question for us today is
are we trying to be like our child and that reminds me of two
prayers that were prayed Once Upon a Time.
The child had gotten into some sort of mischief and the father
had to punish the child. And he said 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.
Then while he slept I note beside his bed confessed my sins
and prayed with low bow. The head oh God make me a child
like my child here pure guileless trusting thee with
faith sincere. and while your little boy, or a little girl is
trying to be just like you May God help you to be just like him
or her. In the Heavenly qualities, that
God gave your child. Can you imagine what a wonderful
thing the kingdom of God will be at every place that is planted
if we had the heart of children? That's what Isaiah said, long
ago, this wonderful age were, the gospel would be bring peace
between men and peace between God and men would be an age
where even a little child would lead them.
We thank you for listening to our podcast, put on by the
Church of Christ at 22:15 plans. Road in Bakersfield, if you
would like any additional information or you would like to
receive a free Bible correspondence, course by mail.
Please email us at info at True Church of Christ
Bakersfield.com. Our service times are on Sundays
at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m.
Please make plans to join us. We would love for you to be our
honored guest.