We are to be like little children in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
In Matthew it starts with, at the same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
Now Matthew comes right after Matthew obviously, and in Matthew we have the scripture
ending with Jesus and Peter paying taxes.
Jesus says, let’s not offend, let’s pay taxes.
Even though Jesus is not from this world, he’s not part of the world system, he’s overcome the world.
He came here to save sinners like me, like you.
It ends there.
Matthew picks up, at the same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
And so they’re asking Jesus, who’s the greatest?
And he flips it on its head.
And again, this is dealing with the time of paying taxes and so forth.
It might have been on the disciples’ mind, status and maybe riches.
And Jesus flips it on his head.
And verse two, he says, and Jesus called a little child unto him and set him in the midst of them.
So he’s going to let them see this little child.
And said, verily I say unto you, except ye be converted and become his little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
And so the disciples there had asked, who is going to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
They wanted to know, right?
They had money on their mind, status on their mind, prestige on their mind.
And Jesus takes this little child, puts the child in the midst of them, and says, you have to be like one of these.
He said, except you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
What is that idea of being a little child?
Verse gives us a hint here.
Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
All right, so we could go on, and I would like to, but I want to focus on this one idea here for a little bit about humbling ourselves as little children.
It says that we need to be like this child in order to enter the kingdom of heaven.
And then verse Jesus says, whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
So what this deals with, at least in part, is childlike humility, childlike humility.
a child, in a way, not all children, but generally speaking, and I’m thinking of young kids, that ballpark, before they get a little too old and wise for their own good, little kids, right?
They know what they don’t know, They know they need mom and dad or somebody to help them.
They’re very keenly aware of their needs.
we had our little nephew over yesterday and he’s two, and he kept asking for his mom because he had to go to the potty, but he knew he needed mom’s help.
So he kept asking for mom.
We were watching him, And thankfully, Auntie helped him and not Uncle Clark or Uncle Quack, as he calls me.
Amen.
But he knew his need.
He knew what he didn’t know.
Like he knew he needed help, you know.
And we have an and year old.
The year old’s a little more independent than the year old.
And that eight-year-old, he knows, hey, I need mom and dad.
hey, where’s mom and dad?
And there was a time, not just maybe a year or two ago, we had gone into a store, we were rushing in, they were about to close.
Mom was looking for a little kitchen appliance to cook with.
We ran into the store and we must have gone so fast, he was looking at something in the store that caught his eye, he couldn’t see us.
And he yelled out, I think he yelled out, dad, and the way he yelled it out, that whole, the store practically shook and it was a big store.
And I walked over and smiled and I waved at the associate.
I saw him.
I said, I’m right here, son, you know.
And he, that yell was a yell of dependency, of need.
I say all this to help illustrate this beautiful lesson from Jesus that we must be humble like a child and know what we don’t know.
We must be humble like a child and know that we need everything from him.
A child knows that their provision, their protection, right?
All these things, the plan, you go with a lot of P’s there, but all those things come from the parent.
So the child looks to the parent.
And what Jesus is saying is, look at how God gave us this child, not just to understand that they have needs and a parent should meet them.
And that’s a very important role of the parent, right?
I always love the saying, availability is better
an ability or availability is the best ability.
I love that.
as a parent, I’m a dad, not perfect, so far from perfect, right?
There’s so many things I don’t know.
Sometimes I help them with their homework.
I don’t know the answer, right?
But I’m available.
I always tell them that.
Dad doesn’t know everything, but dad’s going to be around.
Dad’s going to be around on the hard day and on the good day.
I’m going to be at the game and the practice and this and that.
Availability is the best ability.
God is so available, and He does know everything.
He’s omnipresent, the Bible says, a very present help in time of trouble.
And so if we understand, just like a child would understand they need their parent, as we understand that we need God, and we realize how dependent we are upon God, we have a great movement of God within us, a great movement of God through us.
And the second part here, and this is, I’m sure you’ve probably already thought of this, maybe, is childlike faith.
So another thing about a child, that again, the Lord’s allowed us to have a couple of young kids so I can see this.
Another thing about a child, and I’m sure you’ve seen this as well, or you can remember this as a child, is you just have childlike faith.
You just believe, right?
Like if someone tells you,
it’s going to rain today.
You don’t need to go search it up and question everything and ask the credibility of the person.
You just believe that it’s going to rain today.
If someone tells you that there’s no school on Friday, you just believe there’s no school on Friday.
You know, childlike faith.
That’s why the children’s ministry is so critical to the body of Christ, I believe, because reaching children
is so much easier because they have great faith.
And as adults, we become jaded, we become cynical, we become skeptical, partly because of dealing in this falling world for so many years, that we see a lot and live a lot and all of a sudden become hard-hearted, if you will.
And it’s so much harder to believe.
And you have a lot of adults that turn away from the faith because they just can’t find a way to believe.
But a child will believe.
And for adults that are struggling with their faith, the Bible says, faith cometh by hearing and hearing the word of God.
That’s out of Romans.
And so as we read the Bible and study the Bible, our faith will grow.
But we need to be like children.
We need to be like that kid that calls out to Abba, Father.
That means like daddy, father, daddy.
It means like daddy, you know?
We need to be like that child, you know?
And I really believe that.
I’m and in my faith,
And in my calling out to God, I’m more like a child today in my faith than I’ve ever been.
Just dependent upon God, seeking God, desperately wanting His will done in my life, repenting before Him every day, even if I did anything wrong.
I’m asking God, Lord, please show me if I have.
Because I’m too dumb to know, understanding my boundaries.
Lord, am I being tempted?
Lord, is this a good path?
You see, as a child, we’re checking constantly with the parent, right?
But then as a child of God, as a born-again Christian, so often people make their own decisions
And that word is presumption.
They’re presumptuous.
They presume.
They just think it’s okay.
Of course, God would want me to go criticize this person in front of a group of people.
Maybe God doesn’t want you to do that.
Of course, God wants me to be violent against a bad person.
Maybe God doesn’t want you to do that.
Of course, God would want me to move here or take this job or marry this person or have this career or do this thing on Sundays or Mondays or whatever.
And there’s presumption that’s riddled throughout
Christianity and it’s rank and terrible and unprofitable to the born-again believer.
And the polar opposite of assuming or presuming anything is to have that childlike innocence, that childlike faith that just says, Lord, I’ll trust you.
Lord, your word says this, I’ll just do this.
Lord, you value obedience more than sacrifice, I’ll just be obedient.
as we have that childlike faith.
And again, I’ve got it more today at probably now yeah, I was going to say about years in the ministry now.
I have it more today than I’ve ever had it.
I’ve read the Bible, I study the Bible, I pray to the Lord, and more and more I have this childlike faith.
Wow, God, look what you’re doing.
Thank you, God, for what you’ve done.
God, you’re real and you’re present, you’re around, you’re here, you’re there, you’re all over the place.
and you’re in full control.
I trust you with my life.
I will live for you entirely, and I will simply believe.
God wants us to believe.
Thank you for listening.
Take care.
God bless, and amen.