-Transcript-
00:35 Amen. Welcome to the cafe. Good to be here today.
00:40 I hope you’re having a wonderful day. Today we’re talking about one of the most wonderful parts of God’s creation and that is children. Children, how great are children? Yes, I know they can they can put test you to your limits and they can make you feel like you’re on a roller coaster as they get older.
00:56 And I know it’s it’s difficult to let them go sometimes, but children are just wonderful. They’re great. They’re beautiful.
01:05 The Bible says that they’re a heritage. They’re just incredible. They’re our reward.
01:13 Amen. The Bible says to be fruitful and multiply. And having a big family is there’s nothing better in my mind.
01:21 Amen. And God has really blessed us and he cares a lot about the family. And he uses the family to help us understand his ways.
01:26 He uses children to help us understand what we are to do. When we try to live for him and when we seek his kingdom, how we are to be he uses a child as an example, we’re going to dig in here to mark 10.
01:44 To look at why that is and what we can learn here about how God wants us to be as Christians and how children exhibit those traits.
01:52 Mark 10. And he arose from thence and cometh into the coast of Judea by the farther side of Jordan and the people resort unto him again. And as he was want, he taught them again.
02:07 This is Jesus, of course. And the Pharisees came to him and asked him, here come the Pharisees guys. Is it lawful for a man to put away his wifetempting him? They’re trying to tempt Jesus asking him a question.
02:17 And he answered and said unto them, what did Moses command you? Because remember, they were the Pharisees were all about the Mosaic laws that was their scrolls or scriptures.
02:27 And they said Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement and to put her away. And so they’re saying that Moses said it was okay to sin.
02:33 And here we see Jesus responds in verse five. And Jesus answered and said unto them, for the hardness of your heart, he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female.
02:46 For this cause shall man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. And they twain shall be one flesh. So then they are no more twain, but one flesh.
02:53 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. And in the house in in and in the house, his disciples asked him again of the same matter. And he saith unto them, whosoever shall be put away his wife and marry another committed adultery against her.
03:14 And if a woman shall put away her husband and be married to another, she committed adultery. And they brought young children to him that he should touch them and his disciples rebuke those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased and said unto them, suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not.
03:34 For of such is the kingdom of God. 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 he blessed them.
03:47 Wow. So in Mark 10, the first 16 verses here, we’re seeing a lot of lessons. And the reason why I didn’t want to just pull one or two verses out of Mark 10 to explain how we have to be a little child to enter into God’s kingdom, be like a little child, is because there’s a lot of richness and detail threaded throughout these scriptures.
04:09 You see the Pharisees coming to Jesus as he is teaching, as he is serving and being obedient to God the Father. He’s teaching, and the Pharisees try to trap him with none other than a question about a broken home, about divorcement. And he says that that rule was given to you guys because your hearts were so hard.
04:27 You were basically so wicked that Moses had to go ahead and give you that. And then God, Jesus comes into, who is God, comes into the idea that God made them male and female.
04:38 And so the idea of the family is born, and the idea of children growing up, and leaving the father and the mother, and cleaving to the wife or the husband.
04:48 That prioritization change from when you’re a child, you are to be under your parents’ authority, under their rule, and so on and so forth, to leaving them and being one with your spouse.
05:00 And let what therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. So we have a great lesson about fidelity, and about marriage, and about the importance of family, and about the origins of these things.
05:15 And it’s hysterical because the disciples come to him and say, hey, well, what about divorce? So again, they’re in the same kind of fleshly state as the Pharisees, at least to the point where they didn’t understand, or they needed to hear more, or at least hear it again.
05:27 And so they didn’t understand. And then further, the disciples are the ones telling the kids, hey, get out of here, because they had come to be touched.
05:35 Well, touching could be blessing them, or it could be healing them, but they had come to get something from Jesus. The disciples said to get out of here. And Jesus said, whoa, whoa, whoa, don’t do that.
05:45 Don’t do that. He was much displeased. He was upset and said unto them, suffer the little children, allow them to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God.
05:58 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 put his hands upon them and blessed them. That’s Mark 10:4-16.
06:13 And so we see here a very important principle of what the expectation is for us to be able to enter heaven. We must be like a little child. Well, what does that mean to be like a little child? What does it mean to have childlike traits? Well, number one, a child is innocent.
06:32 This was an easy message for me to prepare for. I have two little children, and they are 10 and a half months apart. And right now they’re both five.
06:42 So for the next six weeks or so, they’re both five. And so they’re calling themselves twins, but not quite. They’re very close in age.
06:51 They’re both five years old. And I think of my children, I think, well, what are the traits? Not that my children are any more special than yours or anyone else’s. I just know them very well because I’m their dad.
06:58 And I look at the traits. I look at the innocence of a child. Children have sinful ways about them, and I’ve preached on that.
07:06 Children can be very selfish, and they want this toy and that toy, or they don’t want to share. They can be moody and disrespectful and all these things. But at the end of the day, they’re innocent.
07:20 They don’t have a broader motivation to do wrong. They are not laying in bed at night at five years old plotting to burn the house down or get back at their friend by cutting them or something. They’re just innocent kids.
07:34 There’s an innocence about them, and we have to model that innocent behavior ourselves in our lives in hopes of having a true understanding of our wickedness.
07:46 Because if we cannot understand our wickedness, our need, our despair, our need for a Savior, if we can’t understand our need for a Savior, if we can’t understand our sin nature, we’ll never make it to the kingdom of God.
08:01 There are people out there that literally say, well, why would I repent? I’ve done nothing wrong.
08:07 I’m a great person. Well, I don’t see any need. And they’ll say that, and that’s honest.
08:12 And in fact, that really moves the conversation a lot more forward than someone that says, well, I don’t know. But secretly, they’re saying in their mind, well, I’m not a sinner. I do good.
08:18 But either way, they say they have no need, and God’s saying you do have a need. And if you were to go to a child and tell them they had a need, their innocence would allow them to understand that better, I believe. A child has a willingness to face rebuke or chastening.
08:30 A child knows when they do wrong. The Bible says even a child will know wrong from right in many cases. And they have a willingness to face rebuke and chastening, to face discipline.
08:41 And that willingness is important that we have to have. And there’s great Proverbs on that, that we will be exalted and we will have great wealth if we, in fact, face rebuke and chastening. It may not be material wealth, maybe spiritual wealth.
08:59 But if you’re willing to let God take you to the woodshed when he needs to take you to the woodshed over some behavior, even if you don’t fully understand it, take coveting, for example.
09:10 Oftentimes, people won’t fully grasp exactly what coveting is because it’s so common in our culture. And maybe God doesn’t like that.
09:20 Maybe you’ve got an idol in your life and God’s trying to get that idol off the throne of your heart and put himself there, which will also be best for you. Amen. You have to have a willingness to face rebuke and chastening and not fake it, to face it.
09:29 Because if you’re not willing to face it, if you’re not willing to have that chastening happen to you, then destruction will follow. I believe the Bible tells us that. You have to have as a willingness to learn a new and better way.
09:44 Children are very adept at learning. They’re constantly learning. And you say, well, Brother Clark, that’s because they’re in school.
09:51 But I believe studies have shown that, in fact, it’s beyond school. It’s that age that they are very just good at learning. Think of why people always say, oh, give your child lessons, music lessons when they’re young, or teach a child a language when they’re young.
10:08 Well, why would you do those things when they’re young? Why not when they’re older? Because when they’re young, they are very good at listening in the sense of learning and finding a new and better way.
10:19 And God wants us to listen to Him, to learn and find a new and better way for life that is only in Christ Jesus. And if we aren’t like a child, then we aren’t willing to learn.
10:28 And you know many people, especially they get up in age and they get stubborn, don’t they? They get very set in their ways. And I can say, I can absolutely say, thinking back to the time I was 12, 13, 14 to the time now in my 40s,
10:42 that I was much more willing to learn and much more willing to be rebuked and chastened as a young child. And you know, when you get older, one thing I think of is everyone asks you your preference.
10:57 You know, you go out to eat, you’re paying the bill, and they’re asking you, what do you prefer? You know, iced tea or soda? Would you like this, this and this on a plane?
11:08 Oh, would you need a blanket or do you need earplugs or whatever it is? And so you grow as you grow older, constantly being asked, what do you prefer? What do you want?
11:15 And it becomes about you a lot. And God’s saying, you need to undress all of that stuff off of you. You need to get all of that you, you, you off of yourself.
11:22 And you need to focus on him, him, him. The Bible says in John 3:30, he must increase, but I must decrease. And by the way, that’s best for us.
11:31 That is best for us. That’s what we need. Amen.
11:34 We need God to increase in our life, and we will have peace and a nature about us that we would never have without it. And children are very sincere. The sincerity of a child, again, they’re not trying to deliberately trick or steal.
11:44 A child is very sincere, not always right. Again, not mature in a lot of senses, not without sin, but they are sincere. You know, when they tell mom or dad that they love them, or grandma and grandpa, that they love them, they mean it.
12:02 They really do love them, you know, and they’re sincere. And when you tell them something, they are going to assume that you mean it. And when we get older, a lot of people talk one way and act a whole different way.
12:11 And, oh, do we see that in and outside the church? And Christ Jesus is saying, you need to be like a child. You need to be sincere. Let your yea be yea and your nay be nay.
12:18 And you say, I trust Lord and Savior. I trust Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. And you make him Lord and Savior in your life.
12:24 You need to be sincere about that and really put him on the throne. And what that means, you need to count the cost. You need to take up the cross.
12:31 Amen. When we become little children before God, we are invited to partake in his fellowship. And that starts with salvation. In the scripture, Jesus touched them.
12:40 He saved them. Amen? Are you willing to let Jesus save you today? Are you willing to commit your life to Christ like a child?
12:47 When that child says, you ask the child, are you willing to go here or to do this? They will tell you yes or no, and they’ll mean it in their heart. They don’t know any other way.
12:57 Are we willing to have that innocence and sincerity about us that when we, when Jesus Christ offers that free gift of salvation to us as he has done by taking upon our sin and our approach on the cross, him being sinless and him being brutally killed on the cross, buried three days and risen again. Hard to say he was killed. He’s alive and well.
13:19 Amen. He was resurrected from the dead after three days. And he walked the earth 40 days and 40 nights and sent it up to heaven and is at the right hand of the father.
13:28 Are you willing to say yes, amen, I believe it, and I’ll follow you? And are you sincere about it like a child? Accept him as Savior and Lord today.
13:35 Go to God and ask Jesus Christ to save you today if you haven’t already, to give you that free gift of salvation that he so willingly offers to those that realize their need, to those that are like a child,
13:48 that want to be in his kingdom with him, that are willing to take up their cross and live for him. You can do it today. And if you’ve been saved, you can rededicate your life to Christ.
13:58 Get on fire for God. Sell out for God. Be like a child that is just in love with Jesus Christ.
14:04 Make him your life. Don’t worry about what the world says, about what culture says, about what anybody else says. Give your life to Christ.
14:11 You’ll never regret it. Thank you so much for listening. Take care.
14:16 God bless and Amen.