All right, this session we're going to talk about how to have
a heart for special needs people, how to have a heart for
special needs people, Shakespeare said.
Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have
greatness thrust upon them. I think most of us could
probably relate to the last part of that quote.
When it comes to teaching special needs children, It's not
necessarily something that you felt a deep calling in your soul
to be a part of. Now, for some of you, it might
be. Some of you might be a special
Ed teacher, and that definitely would be a special calling,
right? I was not called into the
special needs world. I was given a son with special
needs. Therefore I was thrust into the
special needs world. But I didn't grow up thinking,
oh, I want to work with special needs kids When I grow up, I
want to be a special Ed teacher. I want to have a special needs
ministry. I didn't have that calling.
And I would guess that most of us sitting here probably in that
same boat. Most of us are probably just
find have found ourselves in a situation where we're dealing
with special needs kids. It's not necessarily something
that we have asked for or wanted to deliberately be a part of.
This is how most special needs parents feel too.
Most special needs parents are not like I really want to be a
special needs parent one day. It's just something that God
sees fit to put into into our lives.
And I get told this fairly regularly.
Well, God only gives special children to special people.
You heard that. Yeah, I'm saying a no, I agree.
I don't agree with that statement.
God does not only give special children to special people.
I don't even want to get into the logistics of the special
needs world and how kids are mistreated, but just in a
general census, I don't think I'm special and I'm not special
just because I have a special needs son.
However, I do believe that if we surrender our will and our
desires to the Lord that He can help us become the special
people that are special needs kids deserve, whether we're a
parent or whether we're a worker.
So like I said, you may not have felt a deep calling in your
heart to start a special needs ministry in your church.
Maybe you have, I don't know. I know most of you here.
I don't know the people watching online.
Maybe that is your desire that you're like, pastor, I want to
start a special needs ministry and that's amazing.
But for most of us, it's we felt called to volunteer to help in
our children's ministry at our church.
And while we were doing that, we realized we had kiddos in there
with special needs. And so now we're faced with this
situation where it's like, well, I don't know what to do.
How do I help these kids? How do I make them feel like
they're a part of my class? You want to teach them about
Jesus. You want them to feel like
they're included, just like what Brother Adam spoke about
earlier. You just don't know where to
start. So let me quote another very
wise person and say, let's start at the very beginning.
It's a very good place to start. Who knows where that comes from?
Sound of Music, yes, very wise. Sister Maria, otherwise known as
Julia Andrews. That's it.
I'm a music teacher too, so I have to throw those in
somewhere. So for me, the very beginning of
rising to greatness as a teacher of children in general and then
as a teacher of special needs children in particular is that
we have the right heart. If we have the right heart, then
everything else flows from the right place, right?
The Bible says that out of the heart flows everything to do
with our life, right? That we're to protect our heart,
that we're not to trust our heart because the heart is
powerful, the will our our emotions.
So if we have the right heart and our heart is in the right
place, then we will be able to have an influence in the lives
of the children that God has placed in our care.
So the Bible says in Lamentations 3 verse 51, you do
have notes on this, by the way, Lamentations 351, the Bible
tells us that our eye effects our heart.
Our eye effects our heart. So we're going to use our eyes
and we're going to look at what the Bible says about special
needs. Does the Bible mention special
needs? Does the Bible talk about
special needs? Funnily enough, if someone had
asked me that before my son, I would have probably been like,
Oh yeah, it mentions it in in passing.
The longer I'm a special needs mom, the more I see special
needs in the Bible. It's everywhere.
And God's heart for special needs people is very evident in
the word of God. So we want to make sure that our
heart lines up with what God expects, right?
The Bible says in Psalm 62, verse five that my expectation
comes from God. So I want to know, what does God
say about special needs people? How does God feel about special
needs people? And then I want my heart to
match up to what he says, right? OK, so let's turn to Exodus
chapter 4. I'm going to read a ton of
scripture today. We are not going to turn to all
of them for sake of time, but they're all written in your
handout. So you can go back later and
look at them, mark them in your Bible, whatever you want to do.
I'm just not going to have time for us to turn to all of them.
I actually have them printed out, so I don't even have to
turn to all of them. But I think this is very
important that we understand God talks about special needs in His
Word, and I think that's important.
So #1 there it says are special needs mentioned in the Bible,
Exodus 411. So I don't feel like I need to
give a ton of background here, But this is where Moses happens
upon the burning Bush. And God is laying out his plan
to him on how he wants him to be the deliverer for the children
of Israel. And of course Moses has a fear
of why he can't do this right. And it's because in verse 10 it
says, And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not
eloquent, neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto thy
servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue.
Moses had a speech impediment. I fully believe that he had a
speech impediment. And I love God's response.
He says, And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth
or who maketh the dumb or the deaf?
Now, I don't think I need to say this, but just in case I do dumb
in the, in the King James version of the Bible is
referring to mute. It's not referring to
intelligence. So he says, who maketh the dumb
or the deaf or the seeing or the blind?
Have not I the Lord? So here at the beginning of the
Bible in Exodus, God is telling us, Hey, I made special needs
people. I created special needs people
and, and maybe not depending on the situation, maybe didn't even
create a person with special needs, but certainly in his
Providence allowed a situation to take place where maybe
special needs ended up becoming a part of somebody's life,
right? Whether it's an accident or an
illness or something like that. But there are people who God
created with special needs. My son is one of those people.
He was born with special needs. It's not something that happened
to him later. You have a child with Down
syndrome. They were created with that that
different DNA makeup. They were created to have
special needs. And it's funny because sometimes
people will say, well, why would God do that?
I think we weren't why in the other session, right?
Because God says, hey, those that seem more feeble, you can
learn from them. And I've seen this by being
around special needs kids. They just glow with the love of
God. They really do.
And it just, I have several friends that have kids with Down
syndrome and they are the most loving.
They're just so sweet, these kids that I know and I just
every time I see there's one little boy in particular I'm
thinking of every time I see him, he gives me the best hug.
And it's just like, man, that's like we get caught up in our,
you know, fears or our insecurities or our, well, what
would they think or what would they?
He just loves And that is purely from God.
And so we can learn. We can learn from him.
So not only did God create, but God has a plan for those with
special needs. He wanted to use Moses.
Even though Moses had a speech impediment, God still had a plan
for him. All right, turn to Deuteronomy
chapter 27. I've reached the age where I
need readers, so I have to keep putting them on and off and on
and off. I could leave them on, but then
you're all blurry. All right, Deuteronomy chapter
27. OK, let me give a little bit of
background here while you all are turning there.
OK, so in Deuteronomy chapter 27, God is getting ready to take
the Israelites into the Promised Land.
OK, they're about to have the battle of Jericho, and Moses is
about to be taken to heaven. Joshua's about to become the
leader. But God does something really
powerful to the Israelites, and he takes them to this valley,
and there are two mountains on either side, like there normally
would be with a valley. And one mountain was a luscious
and green, and the other mountain was desolate and like a
trash heap. And God split the tribes of
Israel into two, and he put half of them on the luscious Green
Mountain, and he put half of them on the desolate mountain.
And then the Levites were in the middle, and the Levites recited
these blessings and cursings from God.
And when the Levites would say what the blessings were, they
would look towards the luscious Green Mountain.
And of course, the picture is you follow my commandments, I
will bless you. You will be fruitful, you will
prosper. And then when they would recite
the cursing, they would turn toward the other mountain.
And the Levites would say, if you do this, you will be cursed.
And of course, the picture there is their life would be the
opposite, right? Very brief kind of summary of
what's going on here. OK, so let's look in verse 18.
So God gives them, if you start in verse 15, I think is where,
yes, 15 through 26 we see all these cursings.
OK, look at number. Look at verse 18.
Look at this cursing. It says cursed be he that maketh
the blind to wander out of the way.
And all the people shall say Amen.
Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way.
What's God saying here? You better take care of the
special needs people. You better look after them.
Don't be causing them to stumble.
Don't be causing them to be hurt.
Don't be causing them to feel like they're left out.
I will curse you if you make the blind to wander out of the way,
out of all of the things, of all the cursing that God could have
given them, that was 1 He chose. I think that tells us the
importance of special needs people to God.
I don't think I'm stretching it to say that.
So under Deuteronomy, you have God expects us to care for those
with special needs, and the Israelites would be cursed if
they treated a special needs person with meanness.
All right, turn to Jeremiah 31. I starting to see God's heart
here, His heart, his care, his his tender loving care for
special needs people. This one may be my favorite
though, Jeremiah chapter 31. So here we're getting to where
Jeremiah is prophesying that the Israelites are going to be
removed from the promised land. God's going to judge them and
bring chastisement into their life.
They're going to be put into exile.
But just like how God is with us, he always gives them that
hope, right? Of well, when you obey me, when
you come back to me, I'm this is what's going to happen.
So in chapter 31, Jeremiah is giving the promises of what will
happen should the Israelites turn their life back over to
God. OK, so Jeremiah chapter 31 in
verse 7 it says, For thus saith the Lord, Sing with gladness for
Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations, Publish ye,
praise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant Israel.
Behold, I will bring them from the North Country, and I will
gather them from the coast of the earth.
So he's saying, I'm going to bring all my people back.
OK, now look what he says. And with them who the blind and
the lame, the blind and the lame, the woman with child and
her, that Travaillus with child together a great company shall
return hit her. These are what would have been
considered the feeble, right? Women weren't necessarily highly
regarded in that society that God is being sure to tell them
here, hey, when you all go back to the promised land, I'm
bringing the lame and I'm bringing the blind.
They're coming back and you're going to take care of them like
I told you to when I all the way back in Deuteronomy when I said
you would be cursed if you didn't and blessed if you did.
I'm going to bring them back and then look what it says in verse
9. They shall come with weeping and
with supplications. Will I lead them?
I will cause them to walk by the rivers of water.
Wait a minute, who's he bringing back the lame?
I will cause them to walk by the rivers of water in a straight
way wherein they shall not stumble.
Who is he bringing? The blind right?
Do you see the beautifulness of this here man?
I love the Bible. He's telling them I am going to
bring back the weak amongst you that need the most help and I
will help them. I will fight for them, for I am
the Father to Israel and Ephraim is my first born.
Do you see God's heart man? This is what He wants from us.
This is the heart He wants us to have for special needs people.
That we will care, that we will be their ally, That we will be
the one that helps them to walk and not stumble.
And I just, man, I love the Bible.
I don't know how people say the Bible is boring.
OK, so we see God expected those with special needs to be
included. You're going to hear that word
so many times today. And I love when God does this.
My husband and I pray separately about what our sessions are
going to be. And then we have a meeting and
we discuss together and it's incredible how we both were
like, it's about inclusion. And I'm like, well, that's
obviously what God wants us to be about because he put it on
both of our hearts. So God expected those with
special needs to be included with those who returned to the
promised land. They were not to be left out.
God has always valued the life of those who have disability.
He valued the life of those, oh man, there's a whole study we
could do there, but I don't have time.
So we're going to keep going. All right, point #2 Jesus is our
best example. Jesus is our best example.
Jesus's main purpose when He was here on earth was to preach
salvation. We see that in Luke 532.
Now this is where I'm going to rapid fire verses.
OK, so I have them all printed. Look, because I'll have time to
hit them all, OK? Luke 532 Jesus says I came not
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, OK?
Jesus's whole purpose for being here was to win souls, right?
To establish his church, to show us the Great Commission.
It was all revolved around the gospel, OK?
His earthly ministry was to preach salvation, and the end of
his earthly ministry was his death and resurrection and then
of course, his ascension into heaven.
However, Jesus was never too busy for those with needs.
He was never too busy for those with needs.
So his main goal was to preach the gospel right, but he was
never too busy for those with needs.
So many times in Scripture we see that it says that Jesus saw
the need. He saw the need.
Here's just a few verses. Luke 1310 ten through 13.
We see where he heals A crippled woman.
And it says, And when Jesus saw her, he called her unto him, and
said unto her, A woman thou art loosed for thine infirmity.
And he laid hands on her, and immediately she was made
straight and glorified God #2 We see the woman whose son died.
We see this in Luke 711 through 15, and it says, And it came to
pass the day after that, when He went into a city called Nain,
and many of his disciples went with him, and much people.
Now when He came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there
was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she
was a widow, and much people of the city was with her.
And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said
unto her, Weep not. And of course Jesus raised her
son back from the dead #3 We see the lame man at Bethesda.
And we see that in John chapter 5 verses one through 9 it says,
when Jesus saw him lie and knew that he had been now a long
time, in that case he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?
So he saw right? We said that earlier our eye
effects our heart. Jesus saw these people with
needs and he intervened for them.
And then we see the 10 lepers in Luke 1711 through 19, the same
thing. And when he saw them, he said
unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priest.
And it came to pass it as they went, they were cleansed.
So Jesus healed all of these people or raised them back from
the dead. But what did He have to do?
Before he could help them, He had to see them.
If he had been so focused on his goal of preaching the gospel
that it blinded him to everything else that was going
on, he would not have seen the need.
Now we know he couldn't do that because he was God and he is
able to see everything. He knew what was going to happen
before it happened. But I do think that it's an
example for us, right? Sometimes I can be so focused on
what I need to do that I don't notice the people around me,
right? Even this morning, I was like, I
got to do this, I got to do this, I got to do this, I got to
do this. And then people started coming
in and all of a sudden I was like, I'm not even saying good
morning to anybody because I'm like, you know, and we can be
that way, right? But Jesus wants us to stop and
to see. He wants us to take a minute and
really look. And so you may be like, well, I
already see the special needs kids in my class because they're
drawn on the wall and they're rolling on the floor and
they're, you know, a JS new thing is making this awful
sound. He does.
It's like a bird call. It's probably going to crack the
mic if I do it, but it's like, and he'll just do it like
constant for a long time. And I'm like, can we can we
please stop? We see, right, But this is a
little bit more than just visually seeing right?
It's noticing. So maybe we need to take a
minute and look at that special needs kid that's in our class
and see not just that they're there.
What do they need? Right?
Jesus didn't just see a blind man.
Oh, yeah, I see you. And off you went.
Right? His seeing prompted him to an
action and he saw the blind man. And then he helped the blind
man. He healed the blind man, so we
want to make sure we're not just seeing visually.
Yeah, we acknowledge they're there.
What need do I see? What do they need?
How can I help? What could I do to make my class
better for them, to make them be more included, to make them?
Maybe it's a behavioral issue. What can I do to help kind of
offset this behavior? It's not just saying I see the
behavior, but what could I do, right?
And we're going to talk about some of those things later, more
practically of what we can do. So Jesus saw the need point #2
it says. And he was moved with
compassion. He was moved with compassion.
I feel like these two have to go together, right?
If we see the need and we don't have compassion, then we're not
going to do the work, right? It takes me a lot of time to
make all those things that are on the back table.
Takes me a lot of time. It takes the church some money,
right? But you know why I do it?
Because I want to have compassion on the kids that need
it. And if I don't have compassion,
it becomes a burden, right? The days that I'm just doing it
because it has to be done. I don't do it with a good
attitude, but the days that I remember, this little girl needs
this, this little boy needs this, this, this will help this
little one know more about Jesus.
This will help this little one know that they're loved by God.
And I have compassion that then enables me to do the work that
needs to be done right. It enables me to put the time in
to do the study, to do the research, to talk to the
parents, to take the time to find the things, to print the
things, to cut the things, to laminate the things, to cut the
things again, right? It, it helps me to do that, and
it also lets me do it as an act of service rather than a chore.
OK, but that comes from a place of compassion.
So #1 He had compassion with a leprous man, Mark one verse 41
says, And Jesus moved with compassion, put forth his hand
and touched him, and saith unto him, I will beat thou clean.
Two blind men in Matthew 20 verse 34.
So Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes and
immediately their eyes received sight and he followed him.
The man with the withered hand in Matthew chapter 15 verse 32
to 39. Then Jesus called his disciples
unto him and said, I have compassion on the multitude.
Wait a minute. Nope, sorry, wrong verse.
Matthew 1211 through 13. Sorry, I don't have that one
written in here. Let's turn there then, because I
don't want to miss it. Matthew 1211 through 13.
And I know that we know this already, but sometimes seeing a
volume of verses about a subject, it just makes you
realize how much emphasis God put on it.
And so we should too. OK, so verse Matthew 12.
Verse 11 And he said unto them, What man shall there be among
you that have one sheep? And if it fall into a pit on the
Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it and lift it out?
How much then is a man better than a sheep?
Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days.
So this one doesn't say compassion.
Verse 13, It says, Then he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thy
hand and he stretched it forth and it was restored whole like
as the other. So this one isn't doesn't say
Jesus had compassion, but he fought against the social norms,
right? The Pharisees were saying, well,
you can't do that, it's a Sabbath.
What caused Jesus to do that on the Sabbath?
Compassion, right? He had compassion.
So when I read this one, I, my thought process was, you know,
maybe we have to do something a little bit different, right?
Maybe it's not the way our church normally did it.
It's not the way our church has has done it for years in the
past. But maybe this situation
requires that we break outside social norms or the, the, the
structures that we have put in place.
Now, I am not suggesting that you go against your pastor or
whoever is in charge of your children's ministries.
They are the leader that God has put in place.
But it doesn't mean you can't talk to him, right?
It doesn't mean, look, my husband has no clue what goes on
back there unless I tell him or unless Miss Cassandra tells him.
He doesn't know he's not in there.
Your pastor maybe doesn't know that you're having the struggle
or this issue or whatever, right?
So maybe it's something that you need to bring to him and just
say, hey, can I talk to you about little so and so?
This is what I think would help. What is your opinion?
Would you pray? Pray about it for a little
while, but then trust him because like my husband said, he
is the shepherd of all the flock, not just that little one.
And he might know something that you don't.
But I think having that heart of compassion makes it that we will
kind of push back against what has normally been done right.
And for the record, the Pharisees were wrong.
And so that's why Jesus was trying to show them, hey, you're
wrong. I'm not working.
I'm helping on the Sabbath, OK, and then feeding the multitude.
In Matthew 1532 to 39, Jesus said.
Then Jesus called his disciples unto him and said, I have
compassion on the multitude. So he saw that they were hungry,
they were tired, they had a need.
Now not all of these things that I mentioned to you were special
needs, right? But the blind, the lame, the man
with the withered hand, there were several throughout.
Or the man who was lame, those would be considered special
needs, right? The others were areas where
people just simply had a need. And Jesus saw it and he was
willing to help it help with that need.
So your next point down there, it says not everyone Jesus
helped got saved. That's important that we
recognize that. The 10 lepers.
Where's Peyton? Can she hear me?
Hey, Peyton, how many of the 10 lepers thank Jesus?
One. That's right.
We just did that in Sunday school.
Oh, I could have asked Lana too. She's right there.
How many of the 10 lepers thanked Jesus, Lana?
One. That's right.
So the other nine, they didn't even go back and tell him thank
you, never mind follow him. And Jesus knew that, and he
helped them anyway, right? So again, Jesus's main goal, his
main purpose was preaching the gospel, but that didn't stop him
from helping those people in the way that needed help.
OK, so the gospel is our main purpose.
Also, 1000% if my husband and I teach anything, we teach that
even our special needs people need to be taught the gospel.
It's imperative. It's a command.
Matthew 2818 through 20. We have the Great Commission.
Matthew 516 The Bible says, Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father,
which is in heaven. Mark 1615 And he saith unto
them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every
creature. We are not doing our job if we
are not preaching the gospel right in our classrooms.
We are not teaching little little ones about Jesus and
about his salvation. We are not doing our job.
We have several little ones in our Sunday school and junior
church that are not saved yet. And I know Miss Cassandra and I,
we pray all the time for them that they will get saved.
That's our main goal, right when we're planning our lessons and
when we're, we do a thing in our class where we teach the same
lesson for Sunday school and junior church.
I'll probably talk about that a little bit more later, but we
started that because we did have quite a few special needs kids.
Excuse me, but when we're preparing those lessons, oh,
that's what I was going to say, we do this thing where we look
for the Godshot. So in every lesson we're looking
at, not just can we teach them this story, but what can we
teach them about God, right? I think that's important.
We're not just teaching them a fairy tale, right?
These are stories that are in the Bible that God has put
there, but they're put there so we can learn more about Him and
our relationship to Him, right? And so we do, we talk about it,
we pray on it. We, we, when we plan our
lessons, I'm constantly thinking, how is this going to
teach them about Jesus, right? And that is what we should be
doing. However, I don't want to be so
busy that I don't have time for those with needs.
OK. Now this could be kind of
practical in the sense that there may be some days where you
have a little one and they're not doing OK.
They're having a rough day. What is more important, getting
through your lesson or helping that one with the need?
I would say helping the one with the need because that is being
the hands and feet of Jesus. Now again, if you heard the
first session, my husband is, we're not saying they get to
take control of your classroom. I'm not suggesting that.
I'm just saying that sometimes we can be so focused on, well, I
have this lesson and I have to get through it.
And if I don't make it to the end, then we haven't.
What if we don't do the activity that I planned, right?
And we're so focused on what we need to get done that we miss
the needs that are going on in the classroom.
And I think some of that comes from we need to be more
sensitive to the Holy Spirit because there have been times in
my classroom where I've had a lesson planned and the Holy
Spirit has said, no, their heart is tended towards salvation,
right? Now you need to spend a little
bit more time on salvation. And we should be sensitive to
that, right? But it also means, do I see the
need? Do I have compassion?
And if I've been prepared and all the things that I'm doing
aren't working, maybe we need to pivot.
Maybe we need to sing some extra songs to give that one a little
time to regulate, even if it means we have to cut other
things short, right? So we don't want to be so busy
that we miss. Those with needs.
Do we see? The need in our.
Own church and community. And do we have compassion for?
Those who need our help. This April.
That passed. My husband and I were asked to
go and help. The trailers would normally be
here today, actually, Brother Rob and Miss Anna, they have a
funeral today, so they're not able to be here.
But in April, my husband and I had the privilege of going to
Connecticut to their church, and they had their first autism
awareness Sunday. It was absolute blessing to my
heart to to be a part of that, to see a church have a desire to
do that. But Mr. Miss Anna and Brother
Rob have a son with autism and Tommy?
I was so convicted by this little boy.
They were having this Autism Sunday and he went to everybody
and his class at a school. Anyone who would listen, you
need to come to my church, we're having Autism Sunday.
You need to come to my church, we're having Autism Sunday.
He had people show up that his parents didn't even know we're
coming. It was amazing.
It was absolutely incredible. But you know what?
They saw the need. They saw the need in their
community that I don't know the statistic off the top of my
head, but the number of special needs families that leave church
is astronomical. Astronomical.
And if you were to take a survey of special needs families, I
actually talked with our sons BCBA about this 'cause she deals
with a lot of special needs families.
And she tells me, she says the one thing that parents tell me
they struggle with the most is feeling like they don't have
their faith community anymore. That's awful.
Shame on us.
Shame. That's horrible.
Now, in fairness, it may not be the church's fault.
It could be the parents that they're not willing to work.
You heard what my husband said we had to go through to get my
son to sit in church. OK, So I don't want to place all
the blame on the church. I don't mean it that way.
But I do think we could do better.
I do. Think we could do better?
But that takes seeing the need and it takes having compassion.
You may not have started. Volunteering in your children's
ministry with the purpose of helping those with special needs
you probably. Started.
Because you have a burden and a desire to bring young ones to a
saving knowledge of Jesus. Yet here you are.
And you probably have a classroom that has special needs
child in it. Or maybe you don't.
Maybe you have a family member that has special needs and
that's why you're here, because you want to know how to help
them. Nonetheless, you're sitting at a
conference talking about ministering to special needs
people. And you want to.
Know how can I help and my husband and I get asked that all
the time. We don't know what to do.
We don't want to do the wrong thing.
What is the right thing? What is expected of us?
What is asked? What is what means what am I
being asked that's maybe too much like where?
Where do I sit in all of this? I don't know what to do.
And I want some help to know what to do.
And that's why you're sitting here.
And I commend. You for that I.
Truly, truly do. However, we must make sure that
our heart is in the right place. It can't just be.
Well, I want to know what to do so that little Johnny behaves in
my class. Is that important?
It is, it absolutely is, and I do.
We do have some things to talk about that will help with that,
but your main goal should not be What do I need?
To do so that he is quiet. And that he stops disrupting all
these other kids from learning about Jesus.
Nope. Who needs to learn about Jesus?
Him too. He needs to learn about Jesus.
So it can't just be well, I want all the tools and the tricks and
the tips to know how to keep my classroom managed.
OK. Is that important?
Yes, because our purpose is to preach the gospel.
And if we don't have a managed classroom, we can't do that
well. But that cannot be our heart.
Our heart has to be. What do I need to do so that
Johnny, in whatever capacity he is capable of, can learn about
Jesus, right? I don't know.
If my son will ever reach the place where he will ask Jesus to
be his savior, I don't know that he's 14.
He understands sin. He.
Knows when he's being naughty. I don't know that he understands
that he needs a savior. I don't know that.
I don't know if he ever will. My son doesn't just have autism,
he has an intellectual disability.
And so it may be that intellectually he never gets to
a place where he comprehends the gospel.
Therefore, he is safe, right? He does.
He will. He may never reach the age of
accountability. I don't believe the age of
accountability is a specific number.
You know why? Because if it was a specific
number, I think it would be in the Word of God.
There is not a number. I don't think it's a specific
age. I think it is a level of
understanding. OK, I really do believe that.
And I thought that before I had a son with.
Special needs. I'm not trying to make the Bible
fit what I wanted to say, but I mean.
He does not understand. Miss Cassandra teaches him about
Jesus. I teach him about Jesus.
He. Can tell you things about.
The Bible, which is amazing. If you ask him who rose from the
dead, he'll say Jesus. But if you ask him why did Jesus
die? Doesn't really.
Understand that. But we keep teaching, right?
Because I don't know, I said this at conference before.
We don't just witness to somebody when we think they're
ready to get saved. We.
Witness and we. Witness and we witness we
witness and we witness and This is why in the nursery we sing
Jesus loves me this I know the Bible.
Jesus loves the little children Are the nursery kids going to
get saved? No, but we're.
Planting a seed. Right.
The Bible says some plant some water, God gives the increase.
We plant the seed. That's our job as children's
ministry, children's ministry workers, that's our job, is to
just plant the seed and to put a little water on it.
Then the next week we plant another seed.
We had a little more water. It's not for me to decide.
Whether my son will get saved or not, it's my job to be obedient
to what God asked me to do and to raise him up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord. So if my heart.
Is well, I just want AJ to be quiet so that all the other kids
can learn about Jesus. Then I have a heart problem I
have. To line.
My heart up with God. I have to make my heart walk in
his footsteps, right? And when we look at the
footsteps of Jesus, we see He saw he had compassion, He did
something, He saw he had compassion, He did something.
All the while preaching the gospel, right?
All the while working towards his main goal, which was to die
for our sins. But he'd never He wasn't so
focused on Calvary that he missed all the people between
his earthly ministry starting and his crucifixion.
How sad would that be? We wouldn't have any of these
amazing stories in the Bible. Jesus didn't view.
Those who needed his help as an inconvenience, they were not a
roadblock in the way of him doing more important work.
I'm going to say that again, they were not a roadblock in the
way of Him doing more important work.
They were part of the work, an integral part of the work of
bringing glory to His heavenly Father.
You go back and you read later, you read some of those verses
that I put in here and you see how many times it says and they
glorified God and they glorified God, and they glorified God and
they glorified God and they glorified God.
Jesus helping, seeing the need, having compassion and helping
those people that brought glory to God, us.
Helping our. Special needs kids.
And then how excited Cassandra did people in our church get
When AJ comes out and he knows a Bible verse or something they
like get. So they're like his biggest
cheerleaders. I love our church so much, but
you know what that's doing? It's not glorifying Cassandra
and I, it's glorifying God. God gets the glory from that.
If my. Son reaches the point.
Where he is able to understand salvation and accept Christ as
his Savior, that will glorify God.
But that only will be possible because we saw the need and we
had compassion and we did the work.
We have to have the heart of the Lord.
We have to see these precious ones.
As people, we can help people who the Lord has brought into
our churches and into our lives specifically in order that we
might minister to them. And in doing so, we can all
bring glory to our Heavenly Father after.
All he is. The one who truly has all the
greatness. I know the quote in the
beginning. It's kind of playing on words.
Some were. Born great some.
Achieved greatness, some have greatness thrust upon them,
implying that we're the ones that have greatness thrust upon
us, right? But it really the greatness is
of him, right? Anything that I have learnt that
I'm able to share with you today that helps you is because of
him. It's not because of me.
It's not because of my husband. God has put so many people into
our lives that have taught us. God has shown us things in his
word that have helped us. The resources that we've learnt
about those all came from Him. And when you take those things
and you take them back to your church and you use them in your
classroom or with your family member or however you're
planning on using them and it helps them, then that's glory to
God. And.
The cycle just repeats. Itself, right?
Because that's what we were created for.
We were created to fellowship with God and to bring Him glory.
So when we have the right heart and we are able to truly help,
see the need, have compassion and help, then not only are we
able to witness and and preach the gospel to these little ones,
but we are part of the process of glorifying our Father.
And isn't that really what we all want anyway, right?
Isn't that? Isn't that our whole purpose of
being? So he is the one that is truly
great. We are just the vessels that He
chooses to use to be the hands of feet.
Hands and feet of Jesus in our classroom.
I'll close with this. One of my favorite passages is
in Matthew. Oh, and the reference just
escaped my mind. I'll find it.
I'll bring it later. But Jesus is telling the people,
thank you for feeding me, thank you for bringing me water, thank
you for clothing me. And the people said, when did I
do any of that? When did we clothe you?
When did we bring you water? When did we feed you?
And Jesus said, when you do it to the least of these, when you
do it to the least of these, you are doing it to me.
And that's what I think we all want to be able to do in our
classrooms, right, is to be that hands and feet of Jesus to
minister to the least of these, remembering that when we do
that, we're really doing it as unto the Lord.