Children, Children, What do you see? (Matthew 18:1-6; 19:13-15)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet virtually this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is spencer i'm one of the pastors here the thought of me preaching sent my daughter into a rage that's okay jokes don't hurt the sermon's about children um we're gonna be in Matthew 18 and 19 today so go ahead if you have a Bible you can uh go there we're going to be in both of those chapters you can follow along with us on the screen children i have little children i have a five-year-old a three-year-old and a one-year-old and one of the things that i've learned about them is that they're actually fairly humble uh i know that's going to change the older they get.
But for right now they display a lot of humility for instance my middle son my three-year-old uh he has no shame uh we'll uh we'll have people come over to our house and regularly he'll go to the bathroom and when he comes out he's just naked and i've told him i was like buddy you you can't come out of the bathroom naked and he'll go wow i'm like because you because you can't you have to wear clothes that's what we have guests over you can't and he just it doesn't register.
For him uh my oldest who's gotten better about this over time but there have been times where she just has no pride because she would have an absolute meltdown in public and would not care about what anyone else thought which if you know me is a struggle because i don't like to disturb the herd in public at all um it's it's a it's a lie but she doesn't care she's going to work through her emotions out in public uh children are needy they display a lot of humility and that they need and need a need our one-year-old obviously cannot uh exist without her parents taking care of her our our middle son one of his.
Favorite drink is milk and he will ask over and over and over again can i have some milk can i have some milk can i have some milk and i'll say but you can ask me a hundred times i told you you're gonna have milk later not right now and he'll jump into this uh this negotiation strategy will go can i just have just a tiny bit of milk just puts his fingers together just it's just a tiny bit of milk i don't care how cute you.
Look right now you're not you are not getting milk but i've reversed this on him um at bedtime we'll have a Bible story and then i individually put my two oldest um to bed and uh and i'll get on his level and his bed and i'll say buddy you think i love you just a tiny bit and he starts laughing he's he's like no i said no i love you more than you could ever possibly know or imagine then i'll go do you think.
Jesus loves you just a little tiny bit and he's kind of been a punk lately and he said yes i was like you tiny little heretic no no no Jesus loves you the more than you could ever possibly know or imagine and that is the story that we're walking through today Jesus is going to uphold children as an example of humility that is meant to be followed and then he's going to shift gears and show that he values children that the.
God of the universe loves children and then we're going to jump into chapter 19 and see what he just taught in 18 applying to his disciples that children are are worth uh they are valuable and loved and cherished by God and also they display humility in a way that should instruct us as disciples of Jesus so i'm going to pray and then we're going to jump into the story uh father i thank you that you continue to give us these uh incredible stories that display uh truths about the Gospel.
God i pray that you would help us uh be present you would help us receive this you would help us stay focused and and that you would speak to us this morning we asked us in Jesus name amen all right so verse 1 at that time the disciples came to Jesus saying who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven so that's a concern of the disciples we see this in multiple places that they are are concerned about being great in this kingdom that.
Jesus is establishing uh years ago i was a part of another Church while i was in seminary and some of the pastors told a story where one time after the worship service uh the this gentleman came down he's a few years older than them he just kind of said look i love what you guys are doing here and i would love to serve here and before they could launch into here's some different places you could serve he said all right so here's the deal i i have some leadership experience in the past.
So i want to preach here a couple times a month and then he just started listing out all the ways that he could help them and he they just said look man we it sounds like uh that you you're gifted in some leadership what we need right now more than anything is we need someone who can help lead our parking uh outside our parking is a mess and we just need some real leadership there and he just kind of was appalled and he walked away and he never came back and that and and really the response of the disciples here demonstrates the logic of man the greatness is upward status the greatness is is climbing.
The ladder and Jesus is about to take that understanding of greatness and completely turn it onset picks up in verse two he says in calling to him a child he put him in the midst of them and said truly i say to you unless you turn and become like children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven so he brings a child front and center here's your example unless you become like this child it's not that you won't have kingdom greatness you won't enter the kingdom of heaven.
Now the greek word for for child here is little children you could use a different word uh but he's talking about little children so think five-year-old unless you become like this five-year-old you will never inherit the kingdom of heaven which some of you might be like sweet you mean i can pitch a fit and be petty no he is not talking about maturity of a of a five-year-old he's talking about the humility of a five-year-old have the humility of a child.
So i want to take some time here and reflect on what is childlike humility what is that so there's a few different ways this plays out the first is status humility children don't care about status it's just not something they're concerned with and even more so in this culture this culture doesn't really elevate children as valuable at all it's one of the things that is unique about that culture and other cultures around the world that you don't actually level up and respect until you become an adult.
So in their mind it makes sense while the disciples are going to shoe the children away because they're not worthy of the respect of the presence of Jesus and he said no no you must become like this child which means lower your uh status and your head of what greatness is this is why in a couple chapters he's going to teach in Matthew 20 he's going to say but whoever would be great among you must be your servant he's helping them.
See that up is down the greatness in the kingdom is not what you think it is and your view of status so there's status humility there's faithful humility that children display children trust their parents they do i've been trying to walk through with my oldest uh different parts of who God is and over the last year we've been walking through uh the trinity which is a really easy concept to imagine as an adult much less a five-year-old but we've been walking through this and i'm like he is.
Father and he is he is uh Jesus is the son and he's the Holy Spirit he's three and he's one and he the wheels are turning and it just it's breaking her brain and a lot of times i'll talk about about Jesus and she'll just say no no you can call him God and i'm like yes we heart yes but he's also Jesus i know it's confusing he's three he's one but not in any of that is she distrusting of me she's trying to figure it out she's wrestling with these deeper questions with these deeper truths.
But she's not actually saying no i don't actually trust what he has to say no she's faithful and she trusts me and that's the kind of trust that Jesus invites us to not this arrogant posture that says God has to answer to me that when we delve into some of the greater mysteries and more difficult truths in our faith we do it from a posture of faith realizing there's mystery realizing this is hard to understand but doing it from a position of childlike faith and humility the.
Third picture this is dependent humility children are are needy creatures they are they're just dependent upon their parents when we run out of uh cinnamon toast crunch in our household as my daughter's favorite cereal uh not for a moment does she think you know what bridges come with me and she goes she's not going to go to our refrigerator and reach up maybe get a stool grab the keys and she's not going to convince him to get into the van and let him work the pedals and her work the steering wheel and go down the grocery store and pick up some cinnamon toast crunch and it's not at all in her brain at all no.
She knows that her parents will provide us she comes to us asking with no shame at all knowing that she's dependent upon us and that's what God invites us to with this type of humility that we know that we're not well we believe that we're not self-sufficient in and of ourselves that we would be completely dependent upon upon the lord and his provisions and the things that he does for us and the ways that he works in us there's this dependent humility give you one more picture of humility that children display it is persistent humility children are persistent i realize this pretty regularly.
When i walk home or when i walk home when i drive home this would be a long walk from here when i get home and and it's five o'clock and i i can pretty ge i can gauge the the temperature of the house uh and what's happened during the day pretty quickly sometimes i come in and and i hear mom mom mom and my wife just goes no i'm changing my name i am not mom that is your father you go to him and i realize that it's been a rough day and i'll just say babe no just just go to the bedroom go take a walk i'll handle it from here like i understand.
Because i'm around them a couple times a week for an extended period of time and they ask over and over again and they do more so even with her mom mom mom over and over and over and over again they're persistent there's no shame there they'll ask over and over again and that's what God calls us to in that type of humility that's why he taught in in the sermon on the mount to pray with this kind of we can come to the.
Father with our needs that's why in luke 18 he gives the parable of the persistent widow a widow who comes and asks and asks and asks and that's the picture of how we should be in our humility listen God is not annoyed by your request he is inexhaustible in fact he delights in his children coming over and over and over and over again because it displays the humility that is seen as great in the kingdom of God so different pictures of humility that children display and most of them are very difficult.
For us culturally to accept because culturally we don't value humility we don't i heard one pastor who actually really respect he gave a redefinition of humility that i think was i don't know was meant to be more palatable for our ears but he defined it as not humility is not thinking less of yourself it's thinking of yourself less and it's like man that is pithy and that crushes on some type of inspiration poster in somebody's office but that is not what the Bible teaches the Bible teaches no think less of yourself have a child-like status in your mind be needy persistent dependent which are all cultural values that we don't uphold not at all our.
Culture rejects that type of humility on multiple levels on one level it's kind of baked into the american dream that one of the chief ideals of our culture is achieving greatness through your own hard work through your own blood through your own sweat through your own tears we value those kinds of stories that that you can be self-sufficient make the american dream happen through years of hard work if you're older you've understood that for decades if you're younger you're stepping into the world you understand in our culture that is uh what is value dependency in our culture is weakness.
So on one level that's that's difficult for us to practice humility because our culture does not value it on top of it for a very specific uh generation of of people namely the one that that i am in we were raised as the self-esteem generation which i know for a lot of you baby boomers and upper gen xers you'll like to make fun of us for but i'd like to just go on the record and say you were the one that taught us this.
So you get to share the misery that is now because of that but for real we were we were raised on self-esteem like that you are great that greatness lies within you that you are special and amazing i remember in in middle school uh that we would go to these self-esteem assemblies and all the students were packing together in the gymnasium i remember one get one group in particular there's a bunch of guys and they came out with that message that you are great you can you can do anything you put your mind to.
And then they started like doing crazy stuff like tearing phone books in half which if you're younger they used to have phone books they were really thick with the internet didn't have numbers like you had to even tear these in half and they would break bricks and do all kinds of just crazy things and they say see you greatness lies but then you go out and achieve it and then 9 11 hit us in the face followed by the great recession.
Now the pandemic and how is that going i mean it's crushing to have that on top of this culture that rejects dependency on any level on multiple levels the odds are stacked to get against us and accepting this as a teaching so we need to break free from the culture here and become like children receive this teaching one of the reasons that i love the story of Exodus um there's there's there's a few there's lots of reasons why Exodus is an amazing story from the old testament one of the reasons that i really love it is is.
When they're in the wilderness God is trying to teach the Israelites that i am your God and you are my people and he's doing this one of the ways he does this is that they were slaves in egypt for hundreds of years in a system where they were slaves to a king to a set of pharaohs and when he brings them into the wilderness what does he do he provides manna he provides this daily bread that comes from heaven and what he's doing in the wilderness is teaching you he's teaching the uh the the Israelites that i am your.
God and you are my people i provide for you you are not going back to the system where you were slaves you are my people and i will provide for you and that is the type of Exodus that we need from this culture a culture that scoffs at humility that upholds the myth of the completely self-sufficient person we have got to break free from this and grow in a childlike dependence and humility on our God that is what Jesus is trying to teach his disciples that's what we need to receive as we read this.
And then he makes a shift he shifts from teaching this concept of humility towards what we're about to read next the value of children starting in verse five he says whoever receives one such child in my name receives me but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and be drowned in the depth of the sea so he shifts from humility of children upholding that to no no there's a correction that needs to happen here children are immensely valuable i mean he gives the encouragement that.
If you receive a child that you receive Christ and if you lead one of these little ones the stream it would be better for you to take a great millstone a great weight tied around your neck and to be drowned in the deepest oceans that is the wrath of God as a warning for those who would lead children astray and the reason why is because God loves children he cares for them they are tiny beautiful image bearers that he loves immensely.
Now on one level i think that's easy for us to get on board with culturally we we do a good job of physically caring for children we do probably a little bit too much because children end up becoming idols for us uh but we do a really good job i think of physically getting on board with caring for children uh culturally and it's historically this has not been the case and across the world there's still still cultures that don't actually value children like this i learned this one of the ways i learned this is.
When i was studying abroad i was in india and in india in some parts of the country that are poor you'll see lots of children like packs of children for lack of a better term and all these children are together for a reason because they've lost their parents and if you lose your parents in a culture like that you're on your own there's no one to to care for you and you make it on your own and and Christians have in a in a amazingly positive way impacted western culture we're the ones that started orphanages we're the ones that that emphasize caring.
For the fatherless and the motherless we we have a strong impact on western culture that is why we have social systems that are set up to care for children and that's why in other countries that don't have it we have missionaries to go and establish orphanages and care for children so i think in one sense we really grasp this that children are valuable however especially in western culture we care very little for the spiritual well-being of a child in fact a lot of ways that our our culture is.
For actually tearing down the spiritual will of being of a child and this shows up in a few different ways but one of the ways that shows up is that children and their purpose in society is to ultimately provide for that society that they are the future caretakers of the physical well-being of society so what happens is that we absorb that as the main focus that ultimately raising children in this culture is raising them to succeed materially and contribute to the material flourishing of society.
Let me say that again that raising children in this culture primarily is that children would succeed materially achieve the american dream and contribute to the material and physical well-being of society and there's a few ways that this shows up but one of the main ways it shows up is what is preached as the ultimate key in salvation for children and that is education that is the ultimate goal that education is the solution for children and what happens in our culture is that there's.
So much weight placed on education and not even education for education sense it's actually for building a resume for getting good grades so there's this huge push to make sure that kids make good grades and achieve and make straight days and build that college resume because you got to get scholarships and you got to get into a college you know what else you need you need activities and you need sports and you need clubs and we teach children to do and do and do and go and go and go.
Because what is the measured success of a child that one day that will secure a very good job and they will achieve happiness through the accumulation of material things what Jesus teaches is that those things one day will pass away through must through rust and moth destroying it all the good biblical illustrations that Jesus gives on material things passing away that's the aim of our culture now are education and and sports and activities bad no no there actually can be very good things.
But when that becomes the chief aim what you have done is you've raised a generation of children to find value in what they produce and find happiness and things they can accumulate and there's no eternal aim there and here's the deal it would be better for us to tie a millstone around our neck and be drowned in the deepest waters to let our children become slaves in that system there is repentance that has to happen on our part so let me suggest a different path let's make the primary aim of raising children in this culture to know and love.
God let that be the primary aim for us and our families to know and love God let's read the Bible regularly with our children i mean as the night closes or is the on the morning before school what other rhythm works for your family to open up God's word and say this is who God is this is who our savior is i had a professor in in seminary he he taught something called once a week Gospel talks or or another circle that's called family worship and once we could get together with his uh with his with his kids and he would read the Bible and he would teach and he would talk to them.
He'd ask them what are you facing what kind of problems are you wrestling with that he helped them apply the Gospel and their lives and that's one thing we're trying to work on in our family especially with our language my wife has been pushing me on this because my go-to when the kids make a mistake or mess up i'll just say what's the matter with you this is phrases i heard growing up what's the matter with you and she'll go that's not helpful i know.
When she's been pushing me on how about talking to them in a way that says this what does that reveal about your heart all right you why did you hit your brother why did you steal that toy from your sister what does that actually reveal about your heart and at first i was really resistant because i was like man that seems really over spiritual which i know is bad because i'm a pastor but i finally repented and i was like okay that that that does make a lot of sense.
So i've i've changed it i'm like what's the matter with you and then she gives me a look and i'm like because you know what's the matter with you you have a deceitful and wicked heart there no i'm i'm growing in this i'm being pushed in this the language in which we talk to our children matters and shaping them how they understand the Gospel and also one of the things i think that just gets completely lost in all of this is teaching our kids to be virtuous the virtues of Christ love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control your kid may not make straight a's they may not get into the best of colleges.
How much better they be if they're actually a loving peaceful patient kind and good person who follows Jesus if you teach them to know God to apply the Gospel and to be virtuous here's the deal if you aim eternally the rest will follow that's what the proverbs teaches the proverbs teach over and over again if you teach a child to know God to walk with God to have wisdom the material is going to follow they're going to be okay they're going to take care of themselves there's nothing wrong with not wanting your child to be 30 year old in your basement that's not that's a decent desire.
But if you aim for the eternal the material will follow it doesn't mean they're going to be rich and that's fine because the deceitfulness of riches has has led many to destruction but they will know how to take care of themselves but more importantly they will eternally know God and they will function as virtuous people that's a much better legacy we need to have and value children with an absolute eternal aim these are the two things that Jesus teaches children example of humility that we should embody also value them in a way that has eternity in mind skip 19.
We're going to chapter verses 13 through 15 and we're going to watch him apply this then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray the disciples rebuke the people but Jesus said let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven and he laid his hands on them and went away so Jesus gets an opportunity to correct his disciples in this moment again culturally children get away this is important.
Jesus and he says no no no no no let them come to me that's value that is applying what he just taught in 18 no i value children he's letting the children come to him this is the picture that we love of Jesus picking up children placing a blessing on them showing that he absolutely loves and values children that's what he's trying to help his disciples see they are valuable and my question for us as a Church is do we see the value of children that's the Church do we get this do we value children like.
Jesus does i get it there's a wide range of opinions about children in our Church i know this because i'm on facebook and there are lots of opinions about children on facebook there's a wide range i know some of you don't really like children like they they're strange and you're they're really hard to talk to sometimes being a group with them and you're like i i don't i don't even think i understand what you're saying okay bye like i understand it can be difficult they can be distractions they can distract and worship they can distract and group sometimes they smell maybe you resent the stage of childhood that you had to go through i don't.
Know what that is for you but you need to be pushed on here you need to be corrected here Jesus values children i don't see i'm not saying you have to be captain kid city but i am saying that you need to value children a way that mirrors what Jesus is teaching you some of you are great and you love kids and you're down in the basement right now and you can't even hear us but some of you love kids some of you love your own children.
But you actually really don't like anybody else's children and you also need to be corrected here because one of the chief aims for us as a Church is to mirror this and to help all children in our Church find their place with Christ so how does that show up how does that show up in community group is your community group a people is your meeting time a place where where you can where y'all receive children and do it well my community group has 16 kids.
Listen we multiplied in january it was 18. we split it down the middle sent patrick and the johnsons off with half of them and now we're back to 16 because people keep having children and things so we we have a lot of kids and and group meeting time is difficult um we'll we'll send them upstairs to have discussion and there are sometimes y'all that for 40 minutes were only interrupted with three major meltdowns and it's not quiet it sounds like like stampeding children upstairs screaming and yelling.
But but sometimes we just we need time for ourselves to be able to discuss the Bible to walk through what's going on life i think that's good but one of the ways i think we fall short and this is on me as a leader i don't think we do a good job of making room at the table for our kids that's hard the most of them are five and under and it's hard to but i want to get to a place where there's there is room in our group.
For actually children to experience Christ i just want to ask you do you see that do you see children as as a mission field in your group are they a hindrance to your group meeting time a hindrance to your group experience that's something i think we need to shift on here it is hard to be groups on mission right now because inviting people into groups during a pandemic it's not the easiest but the reality is that you have a bunch of children in your group that need the Gospel.
And if you saw them as a mission field that we only get them for about you know 18 years together and group if you saw that as a mission field as well and invested in the children in your group you would be embodying this teaching and you'd be making an impact in eternity we need to grow in this as groups when you grow individually and making investments into our children some of you need to serve in kid city you need to serve in kid city even during a pandemic you need to actually go down there and serve and love our children some of you that don't have kids you can you can help parents you.
Can join in helping them disciple their kids you can ask what can i do to help you and helping your kids know more of Jesus y'all you can you can babysit them to make sure parents can go on date nights and and and and work on their marriage so they can be good husbands and wives and good mothers and fathers there's lots of ways that we can partner together in investing in children another level of this is that we can receive children that aren't even part of this Church that you and your family can be a mission force in partnering here this and partnering with your children to be missionaries in their schools and their.
Neighborhoods my wife's family growing up they made sure that their house was the place that kids wanted to come to kids from the neighborhood their parents their other their friends from school they made sure that their uh their house was the spot now part of that was because my mother-in-law really wanted to make sure she could uh control the environment which is why my wife saw her first rated r movie when she was 17 she confessed it it's part of that.
But part of it was this is a home where children can come and experience the Gospel the reality is a lot of my uh my my wife and her siblings their friends weren't believers they weren't a part of churches their parents didn't didn't know and love Jesus and those kids got to come and experience a family that loved Christ they got to come and worship with them on sundays and i want that i want that for our family our kids are are are in school um and they're going to be in public schools there's going to be lots of opportunities.
For for them to to hang out with kids that don't know Jesus and i want to partner with them on mission i want to give them a Gospel missionary lens for their friends i want to invite them into our household i want that for our family that we can partner with our kids on mission so that we can embody this command and receive children like Christ calls us to i'll give you one last level in which we you can grow in this we can grow in a Church and we're trying to do this growing uh in being a Church that cares about orphan care we have multiple families in our Church that are either fostering.
In the foster system because they're kids in south carolina that need homes they need homes they can be loved even more than any homes they can experience Christ there's domestic adoption happening in our Church there's international adoption in our Church and here's the deal not everyone is called to orphan care but we're a Church that is trying to grow in this we all should care about those who are involved in orphan care so that means supporting them if that means getting behind them.
If that means being uh registered people they can they can watch kids that are that are in foster care whatever it is we need to grow in receiving children that desperately need someone who loves them and needs to know their savior there are lots of different ways that we can receive children and if we keep this as a focus in our Church if we strive towards this then one of the things that we will realize is that we will learn from them.
Because it's not only that we'll receive them and we'll see the value of them that also we will see the example of humility that is on display back in verse 14 he says but Jesus said let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of God it's back to what he just taught for such belongs the kingdom of God the kingdom of God belongs to the humble because our savior has open arms on the cross and he invites us in to fellowship with him we don't bring anything to the table even more.
So we bring our sin and our bags to the table but by his grace he opens his arms to receive us but that takes humility the acknowledgment of sin and and brokenness james 4 6 says but he gives more grace therefore it says God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble here's the deal God gives abundant grace to those who know they needed if you know you're messed up if you know you've got your sin if you know you've got your baggage the beauty of the Gospel is is that our.
God knows that and he's ready to receive you humble yourself and come to him but here is the warning if you think you've got it all together if you think you're well put together if your life is it is in good order if you know i'm not perfect but but i'm fine you need to receive the warning here he opposes the proud he only gives grace to those who acknowledge their need of him and that is in repentance and as the recognition that the only hope we have is coming to him with our sin and our baggage and letting him take it on the cross may we grow in valuing children and from our value.
And spending time with them and loving them may we see a humility that is so needed of us so that we can experience God and enter the kingdom of heaven the ban is going to come up and i want us to take a few moments and reflect on this i want us to grow receiving children i don't know what that is for you i don't know what that is as a part of your group i don't know what that is in your life.
But but this is a command you guys this this is this is not just a suggestion God wants us to receive children there's a great blessing in it my hope is that we would look at this maybe some of you actually need to consider fostering and adopting maybe some of you need to create avenues for children to experience Jesus in your group i don't know what that is for you but my hope is you wouldn't hear this and go oh that's neat cool stuff and move on my hope is that you would hear this and think how can you actually implement uh this truth that children are valuable and worthy of our time and our.
Energy and our effort and our love my hope also is is that we would walk in uh humility maybe ask ourselves where you need to grow in humility do you see being needy and persistent as as a vice as something to be that it's a weakness or do you see it as an absolute posture of humility that God calls us to are you so concerned with status that you've missed the understanding when you become like a child like a servant i don't know what that is.
For you i don't know if it's hard for you to come to the lord and ask for things i don't know if it's if it's difficult for you to humble yourself before God and others i don't know what that is for you but the importance of an absolute child like humility is so necessary not only for us knowing Christ but knowing more of him the more that you grow in humility the more you get to experience our God and that is what he's inviting us into may we grow in this repent where needed and experience these truths in the way that.
God has taught us let me pray God i am thankful that you love children in a perfect way that we have no shot at doing i'm thankful that you humbled yourself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross i'm thankful for the truth of the Gospel that helps us repent of these ways that we failed and our pride and our lack of love for children God i pray that you would grow us and shape us and mold us in your image.
God i pray if there's anyone here who has not humbled himself before you i pray right now this morning that you would reveal yourself in a way that absolutely breaks down the walls of pride and their life and calls them into faith and you ask us in Jesus name amen you guys.