Being Childish!
Matthew
18:1-4
Precious little potential adults.
Tiny packages of compressed energy.
Imagination factories.
Tricycle motors.
Curtin Climbers.
Rug Rats.
What ever you call them, they are the main reason we have balloons and Happy Meals
and
birthday parties and lawn sprinklers on hot summer days and Easter Egg Hunts.
They turn mothers into mommies and fathers into daddies.
They can turn a tear into a smile in twelve seconds flat.
Or an immaculately clean house to a dump in less time than that.
Truth tellers, and chaos creators.
Heart breakers.
Memory makers.
In the space of about nine months they can accomplish what their grandparents couldn’t in two decades;
turn twenty-something-year-old party animals into
responsible, church-going, bill-paying adults.
They turn, spenders into savers.
Leavers into stay-ers.
Pagans into pray-ers.
They leave fingerprints on our windows and our hearts.
They are a gift of the Lord.
And of all the things He created, the Lord was most impressed with children.
Our text today comes from Matthew 18:1 – 4.
Lets listen to this beautiful text together.
What is it about children, that makes them models of the kingdom?
Surely Jesus doesn’t want us all to become terrible two-year-olds, defiantly shouting "No!",
ignoring boundaries, and generally making pests of ourselves.
You know, I have discovered that there are children, then there are kids.
Children are sweet.
Kids can be mean, as when they tease and bully others.
Obviously, Jesus doesn’t intend to sanctify these characteristics.
So what does he mean when he says, "Unless you change and become like little children?"
What is it
about a child, that makes them models of the kingdom?
It could be that children delight in helping others.
How many time have you been doing something around the house
and your little come came up to you and said; "Can I help?"
Not what are you doing,
Not how do you do it, but can I help?
Remember the old Shake-n-Bake commercials?
This little girl appears on the screen holding a dish from the oven.
Her dad is beaming down at her.
In the thickest Southern drawl you’ve ever heard she says,
"It’s Shake-n-Bake, daddy, and I helped."
Children love to help.
But I don’t really think that’s what Jesus was talking
about.
Maybe it’s because Children
believe that anything is possible.
With kids it is always possible.
Their imagination always asks why not.
They don’t get all hung up on the quality of the service they provide,
or whether it’s practical or not.
Who cares if the lemonade is warm and the cookies are stale.
As far as they are concerned, there lemonade stand is the finest in the country
and people will line up for miles to buy their wares.
But I don’t think that’s what Jesus had in mind either.
It could be, because in a Childs mind, we are all equal.
Children don’t ask why someone needs to be served, or if they deserve to be served.
We adults want to explore the reasons, for a person’s current plight.
What created this situation?
Who’s fault was it?
What bad
decisions did you make?
If we determine that the person is to blame for the situation he or she is in,
we still might help, but we won’t help with a good heart.
All children see is a person in need, and an opportunity to do something big.
But I still don’t think that this what Jesus had in mind.
All
Children possess the same 4 qualities.
1. Purity
I realize there are those who don’t believe in
the purity of young children.
They believe and teach that a person is born in sin,
opposed to everything that’s good, and completely inclined to evil.
That when a
baby is born into this world it is born a sinner.
They say, "A baby inherits sin just like it inherits the color of its eyes or
the color of its hair."
They claim that sin has been handed down all the way from Adam.
But listen to what Ezekiel
had to say to the Israelites,(Ezekiel 18:20 (NIV)
“The soul who
sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father,
nor will the father share the guilt of the son...”
What he’s saying is, that if a father commits murder,
God doesn’t consider the son guilty; he considers the father guilty.
So, what
sin has a baby committed?
Obviously none at all.
He can’t be held guilty for his own sin, because he hasn’t committed any yet.
And God says that he won’t hold him guilty for anything his parents have done.
So the only alternative is that the child is pure and innocent.
2. Humility
You have probably noticed that toddlers are not concerned about being great as we often define greatness.
They don’t care if you have more money than they do.
They don’t care if you are more athletic than they are.
They don’t care if you’re better looking than they are.
They have no concern at all for prominence.
They just want to get in
the game.
It’s not a conscious effort to be humble, little kids just are.
They make no pretense to be somebody important.
And it’s
not important to be somebody important.
I believe this is a trait that Jesus is trying to get across to the apostles, in
our text this morning.
The apostles had another of their many arguments, about which one of them was the greatest.
You can just picture them in your minds.
Peter, James and John all arguing that they will be the greatest when the kingdom comes.
“I’m going to sit in the throne on the right hand of Jesus.”
“But I’ve got royal blood.”
“Ya, but I’ve got the moneybag; that gives me some special privileges.”
Finally, somebody says, “Let’s let Jesus decide this
once and for all.”
“And Jesus said, unless you are converted and become as little children, you
will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
If we
want to please God, we have to duplicate that childlike attribute of humility in
our own lives.
3. Teachability
Have you noticed that little ones don’t mind
admitting that they don’t know something?
In fact, there favorite question is usually: “Why?”
If there’s one thing a child knows how to do, it’s ask questions.
Why is the grass green?
Why is the sky blue?
Why does a car need gas to run?
Why does the sun rise in the east and set in the west?
Why this? Why that?"
That inquisitive nature in children, is something that we often lose as we grow older.
Our attitude toward questions, as adults, is often to say,
“I don’t know and I don’t care.”
We’ve learned enough and our minds are closed.
4. Trusting
Young children are totally dependent.
They take comfort in being held.
And as they get a little older, in holding your hand.
They are perfectly content in being utterly dependent on their
parents..
As Christians, where is our trust?
God has promised to take care of us.
Romans 8:28 (NIV)
And we know that
in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called
according to his purpose.
Hebrews 13:5 (NIV) “...because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’”
We need a childlike faith!
Changeable
In your Bible, there are four instances where Jesus encounters children.
Here in Matthew 18. Mark 9. Luke 9. Luke 18.
Each time, the disciples are present.
Each time, the disciples are either arguing about who among them is the greatest or
they are
exercising authority in a destructive way.
Each time, Jesus points to the child, and explains that access to and success in
the Kingdom of God, is in becoming like a child.
So what is it about children?
I believe that we have got to delight in helping others,
believe that anything is possible,
and that we are all equal.
I think that we have got to seek to have the qualities of
Purity, Humility, Teachability, and Trusting.
But I want to leave you today with one more possibility,
of what I really believe Jesus is desiring in His followers.
It is found is right there in vs. 2; convert or change.
Unless you change.
The older we get, the less we like change.
We get stuck in our ways.
Comfortable with our lives.
We find something that works,
a lifestyle we can live with,
and we just keep on doing the same thing,
over and over and over and over.
Life might not be very happy for us, in fact we might be miserable, but at least it’s predictable.
At least we know how to do it.
So whether it’s a good way to live, or a healthy lifestyle , or successful or not,
we just keep on doing it.
Maybe you’re there this morning.
Stuck.
Rutting yourself to death.
Children aren’t like that.
A child can happen upon another group of kids doing something he’s never done before,
and you know what he’ll do?
He’ll stand there at the edge of the action for a little while,
surveying
the scene, then he’ll muster his courage and ask, “Can I play?”
A child will watch someone doing something that requires a particular level of
skill--
like baking bread or fixing a carburetor.
She’ll watch the hands as the kneed the dough,
or he will pick up a tool and inquire about it,
then ask,
“Can I try that?”
How many of you know children, who know more about computers than you do?
You know why they are good at that?
They aren’t afraid.
And if we are going to be totally honest, lots of kids are better at church, than their parents, too.
They like meeting different people,
learning new songs,
hearing new stories,
and imagining new possibilities.
Adults get stuck. Kids get going.
I believe that there’s something here for Union City Christian Church.
Churches can act old.
Churches are notorious for living in ruts.
The word “change” is about as welcome in some churches,
as an Florida Gator fan at a Kentucky Wild Cat Booster meeting.
It’s as out of place, as a bunch of nuns at a Brittany Spears concert.
Old churches don’t like new things.
But Jesus said, “Unless you change… you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven.”
Unless you
change, you will never experience his surprising power.
Unless you change, you will miss out on the work he is eager to perform.
Unless you change, you will never be a part of what God is doing in the world.
Unless you change, you will never leave the fingerprints of your faith in this
community.
Because in order to leave fingerprints, you’ve got to become a child.
They don’t mind getting their hands dirty.
So a part of what Jesus is commending, is the willingness to change.
But that isn’t all He says, “Unless you change and become like
children.”
One last thought about becoming like little children.
Adults are
Consumers and Children are participators.
Most of us adults in the church, live a very consumer like Christianity.
I wonder how many of us will leave here today, and rate the way the service went?
How many will rate the way Danny lead the song service?
How many people will go home and rate the sermon?
How many will compare the special music this Sunday with
last Sunday?
That is consumer Christianity.
We have been called to be doers not absorbers!
We have become all to eager to consume,
and we have become unwilling to be servants.
Children are not like that.
They want to be involved, they want to lead, they want to participate.
Adults want to sit back and watch someone else.
Now don’t get me wrong, children do absorb.
In fact, have you ever considered just how much a child absorbs, or learns in the first couple of years of life.
They have to learn motor control.
They have to learn balance.
They have to learn language.
They have to learn to crawl and then to walk.
They have to learn to talk, to communicate.
They learn about food.
They learn about their environment.
They learn about so very much.
But they don’t just absorb, they put what they learn into practice.
They begin to try and move around.
They begin to try and talk.
They begin to try and do all the things they see the older people doing.
Often they fail, but they keep on trying until they can talk, crawl, walk, etc.
They work at getting very much into the game of life.
Jesus wants us to change and become like children.
To learn and to get involved in the game.
To begin to use the talents and abilities He has given us to serve Him,
to serve the church, to serve one another.
Jesus wants us to become Childish.
To become childlike, to get in the game, to take an active part, to serve even as He served.
We will never know what it means to be a part of the magical,
miraculous kingdom of God, if we don’t change and become
like children.
What is it in you, that needs to
change this morning?
Of all the things God created, He is most impressed with children.
He was so impressed with them, in fact, that Jesus said in John 3,
unless a
man or woman is born again he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
In order to even get into the kingdom, you have to become like a child again.
You have to
be born again -- of water and the spirit.
He’s saying the same thing now.
It’s time for change.
It’s time to depend on him.
It’s time to start over.