Kingdom GOAT (Matthew 18:1-4)

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Well, good morning, church. It is good to see you all. It feels like it has been a while since I’ve been in this spot, at least. So good to be back. Would you go ahead grab your Bibles, though? And as Emma already told us, would you open up to Matthew chapter 18? We’ll be in verses one to four this morning. Matthew 18 one to four. Now, as you’re turning there, the question that gets asked so often is, “Who is the goat? Sometimes it’s pretty easy to answer. You’re like, whether you want to admit it or not, it’s Tom Brady. There’s no debate about it. Other times, is it Messi or Ronaldo, or more likely Pele? You’re all wrong. Okay, is it? And there’s a right answer to this one. We know LeBron or MJ. Yeah. The debates can get testy sometimes. It’s possible that once in a staff meeting, we had the LeBron MJ conversation, and I won’t name names, but those of us who aren’t from Chicago but who are from Maryland and Dubai argued the wrong side in just shocking ways. But Papa Carl set him straight, so it was fine. So these debates get testy. Goats themselves bleat a lot. Why do emotions run so high over something that is so silly and insignificant? It’s because we want to be the best, and we want everyone to know we are the best. We crave, crave status and recognition, like you know, baby birds chirping for mama to regurgitate some food in their mouths. Even in elementary school, you start to see this. So, kids, as long as you’re in the service, help me out here. You know, early on, we start to have these companies: Who’s the fastest in the class? Who’s the tallest? The smartest? The most popular? Of course, by the time you get to your senior year of high school, you actually vote on it because it’s so important. We know the answer to these questions, and all of this, as you know, breeds conflict. That’s a problem. Another problem is that we bring that mentality into the church and into the kingdom of God. Who is the best disciple? Who’s the holiest, the godliest among us? Who loves Jesus the most? And that’s the problem that Jesus addresses in our passage this morning. Now we are starting a new series today in Matthew chapter 18. It’s a very tightly knit chapter where all of the stories in it are about life in the kingdom community, which is not easy. If you’ve been in church for a week, or even if today’s your first day, you’ve been here for about 12 minutes. You’re like, “Yep, I can see people are going to be difficult even here. So this is this practical guide for life together, and the secret, as we’ll see today, is actually in our series graphic and title. So part of the secret is the idea of the little kingdom. Now, when we talk about the little kingdom, we don’t mean that the kingdom is small. It starts small, Jesus said, like a mustard seed. But of course, it’s going to grow quite large. It’s more that it is a kingdom of littles. Actually, it’s a kingdom of leasts, even, and so it is a kingdom of children in so many ways. In fact, that graphic is our big idea today. It’s there in the bulletin for you. And actually, Emma already said it for us as well. The big idea is, come like a child, come like that, like those kids in that picture. Come like a child. That’s the practical guide to Christian living. It starts there, coming like a child. So, how do we do that, though, in concrete ways? The kind of three essential steps we need to take. Steps that we actually saw in Miss Emma’s lesson, and so we’ll track with that as we go today. But step one, from verse one, there’s something we need to admit. Let’s see if we can figure it out together. So here’s Matthew 18, verse one. At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? There’s the question again: Who is the goat? That’s the question the disciples are asking. What does it take to get on the discipleship podium to get the gold medal around your neck?
Now, what do we think about this question as we hear it asked? Is this coming from a good place? Because it could be. You know, I want to be the best follower of Jesus that I can be. What does it take, Lord, for me to be that? Could be coming from a good place. This could just be selfish status seeking, though. It’s not so much that I want to be the best follower of Jesus that I can be, but I want to be a better follower of Jesus than the guy next to me. And we do need some context to then figure out where this is coming from, because at least in our story, and I know we’re picking up in the middle here, but even if you were to read Matthew from start to finish, the question seems to come out of nowhere. So we’re going to take a close look at the context in Matthew, but we’re actually going to draw a little bit in from Mark as well, since he tells the same story and gives us some more context. What does Matthew say? First three words, Matthew 18, at that time. So we’ve got a context already. It’s as these stories were happening. Whatever just preceded this story, like that’s that’s where it’s coming from. This question. So what’s right before? Well, Jesus, in this kind of cool miracle manages to pay the temple tax that he owes when he’s finding a coin in a fish’s mouth, which he probably put there. So he pays his temple tax. Well, he pays his temple tax along with Peter’s, and only Peter’s. And you got 11 other disciples, no doubt, going like help a brother out here. Like, you couldn’t find some more money in a different fish, being Almighty God and all of that. So Peter is singled out. Worse, Peter is singled out again, not for the first time. Matthew 14, he is walking on the water with Jesus, Matthew 16. He’s the star student who gets the answer right. You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Well done, Peter. Kids, as long as you’re in the room, I can ask you this question: How does it feel when your parents play Favorites. You know, your sibling gets back from practice of some sort or whatever, and you discover they got ice cream on the way home, again, three times in a row. They got ice cream. I didn’t get no ice cream. That’s how the disciples are feeling at this point. Is Jesus playing favorites, and it’s not just Peter either. It’s actually Peter, James, and John who are all part of this like inside clique. You don’t, if you’re looking at the pew Bible, you don’t even need to turn the page there. In chapter 17, verse one, it says, “After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, and not the other nine, and they go up the Mount of Transfiguration. You can imagine how that conversation went when they came back down. How was it? Your little, you know, exclusive club of going up the mountain and stuff. It was pretty cool. We met Moses and Elijah. Jesus was really shiny. Wish you were there. Sorry you didn’t get invited. So we’re starting to wonder: Like, does Jesus like them better? Are they better? And Jesus has already said that there would be distinctions in the kingdom of heaven. Back in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says things like, “If you set aside these commands and teach others to do so, you’re the least in the kingdom. But if you teach these commands and you follow these commands, you’ll be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And so the disciples are going. I guess Peter figured it out, and we didn’t. So what does it take to be the greatest? And just why exactly are Peter, James, and John the ones who seem to be there already? So that’s a lot of context already. Mark fills in just a little bit more for us too, because Mark tells the story like this. Same thing. This is right after the Transfiguration. All that we read, Mark 933 and 34. What were you arguing about on the road? Jesus asked the disciples, but they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
So we get kind of a key word in there. The word is argued, argued, right? We see where the question comes from now. This isn’t what what does it take. This is like they’re fighting with each other. It’s not coming from a good place. Not asking about how to become great in worship and service and obedience. It’s asking which one of us right now is tops. Really strange question for the disciples to ask too. When you consider the group of men who are asking this question, I mean, is it the traitor tax collector? Is it the hot headz who keep asking God to wipe out Their enemies, is it Peter, the world’s first case of foot and mouth disease? Peter, who, by the way, just got called Satan a couple days ago by Jesus, and then there’s Judas. Let’s not forget about him. So it’s a strange question that they’re asking, but they are, and we can see at this point it’s. Driven by that selfish status seeking, they’re not asking this question for God’s sake. I want to be the best follower that I can be. They are asking it for their own sakes. I want to inflate my ego, and so I need an answer. Part of the problem is that pride demands comparison. That’s why the question is never “Is LeBron great. That’s an easy question to answer, except for those of you who are shaking your heads right now. Okay, all right, I got into something. I didn’t mean to. The question isn’t “Is LeBron great? The question is “Is LeBron the greatest? There’s a world of difference between those two questions. C.S. Lewis, as he so often does, hits the nail on the head in explaining the difference. He says this: Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next person. We say that people are proud of being rich or clever or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good looking, there would be nothing to be proud about. That quote stings, doesn’t it? We see just how true it is. We want to distinguish Ourselves, we want all of us to make a name for ourselves, rather than do what we were created to do, which is to magnify His name instead. It’s so incredibly foolish, and it’s so incredibly foolish, especially in light of grace, like let’s consider the context again. Whom are the disciples asking this question? Jesus. Why is Jesus here? Like why did God become human? He came because we are not great, not even good. In fact, Paul tells us in Romans three, there is no one who does good, not even one. Who’s the greatest? Ain’t none of you. Okay, that’s who the greatest is. Jesus came to rescue us from our failures, to rescue us from our self-will, that that self-will that thinks I can do it, I can do it on my own, and then tries to do it on its own. So Jesus came to rescue us from all of that, and and and look at the the cost of that rescue, which is actually part of the immediate context. Again, just look up one story about the temple tax in verse 22. Jesus says, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him. That’s the context for this question. And actually, in Mark and Luke, it’s the immediate context. There’s no temple tax story just goes right into this. I’m going to die for you. Awesome! Thanks for letting us know Jesus. Quick question: Who’s the greatest among us? That’s a non sequitur, right? Like that does not follow. Jesus, the actual goat, isn’t concerned about the podium. He’s concerned the eternal destination of those whom he loves. So while Peter and the boys are puffing themselves up, Jesus stoops down to serve self-sacrificially. That contrast is stark. Like what a time for a question like this, so step one is simple-not easy, but simple-and it’s right there, implicit in the text. Step one: admit sin. Admit sin. We come into this world faulty, Defective. Our hearts are bent in on ourselves. Right? We love ourselves. We want to glorify ourselves.
If we were cups, there’d be a hole in the bottom of us. Like we’re not doing what we were meant to do, and we won’t get anywhere spiritually speaking until we admit it, like you won’t fix the cup until you admit that the cup’s got a hole in it, and it’s the same with us. We have to come to God and say, “I have a problem. I’m broken. I’m defective, and I want to serve myself instead of God and others in His name, so that’s step one. But then, of course, we got to ask the question: How do we get from “I want to be the greatest” I want everyone to see it, to “I want everyone to know that Jesus is the greatest, and that’s step two. So let’s keep reading. Step two: We got to receive. Something here’s verses two and three, Matthew 18 two and three. He called a little child to him and placed the child among them, and he said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. It’s clear in reading this: Jesus is no dummy, because he sees to the heart of the question and the hearts of those asking the question, and addresses the root sin issue in an unexpected way, though, because he calls a child over. Now, this story, if it really is following right on from the temple tax a bit, is likely taking place in Peter’s house, which means most likely can’t stand with any real conviction here. But most likely, this is one of Peter’s kids. We’re just going to go ahead and say it’s a daughter because it doesn’t say what gender it is. That tells you something about what the this culture thought about kids. This wasn’t a he or a she. It was an it. So like the Bible actually reads he called it over and had it stand in his midst and stuff like that. So we’re going to say it’s Peter’s daughter, okay? Just for kicks, we’re just imagining here. So that’s who it is. But he stands this child in the middle of the group, right next to him. Luke tells us that he actually puts his arm around this child, and you’re all like, sure, great. That’s because you’re from Western civilization, 21st century Western civil. Like we have no idea. I don’t think we appreciate just how Christian our culture is, our our values, our Christian-it’s the air we breathe. You actually saw this. I’ve not seen the movie yet, but if you’ve seen the movie The Odyssey, it’s different from the book, which I have read. And it’s different from the book because you can’t make a movie today with Greco-Roman values, things like bloodlust, vengeance. How about just the fact that slavery makes perfect sense to everyone because some people are better than others? So you got to change the movie, otherwise it wouldn’t even play in our culture. So these things like forgiveness, love, sacrifice, equality all come from Christianity, and we just take them for granted, but that includes one more bit too, and that is the value of children. That comes from Christianity. Now, at Cityview, we love our kids. We love having you in the service, not just on Family Worship Sunday. We love it all the time. You’re always welcome to be here. I know some of the parents, because I talked to some of the parents, you’re like, I’m so sorry, my kid was so noisy. I’m like, I love it. This is what church should sound like. Okay, we love kids here. That wasn’t true back then. Like this would have been so shocking for Jesus to pull a kid in front of the group and say, “Be like her. Like one commentator said, he’s like, I can’t say it for sure, but this might be the only time in all of ancient literature when a child is used as a positive example. That’s how shocking this is, and it’s even more shocking when we hear what Jesus says about this kid, who shouldn’t even be with the grown-ups, because Jesus says, “You, you need to change, and you need to become like her. Now, in what sense should we be like a child? There are lots of senses where we should not be like a child.
We are not called to be immature or childish. I mean, Paul says in one spot, you know, when I was a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child, I talked like a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things. Hebrews tells us, you know, like he’s rebuking the people he’s writing to. He’s going, by now you should be able to eat meat, and instead you’re still infants who need milk. So yeah, that’s not what we’re supposed to be. That’s not what Jesus is saying. Instead, what Jesus is saying is we need to imitate this child’s humility, this child’s lack of concern for social status, which is their young again, it fades quickly. It doesn’t take long till you get to that Lord of the Flies approach to like competition and stuff. But early on, you’re like, whatever. We’re just all friends here. So Jesus is saying, imitate their lowliness. Lowliness. Kids are keenly aware of what they lack. Like kids know they’re small, they know they’re shorter than you are. That’s why they get so excited when they pass you by, right? They’re like, “Ha, did it, Dad? Okay. Kids know they wouldn’t say it like this, but kids know they’re ignorant. They know there are things they don’t. Don’t know, which is why they’re always that that one too. Asking questions is what I was going for, so I don’t do fill in the blanks very often. Okay, why they’re always asking questions like, “I have no idea, Dad. Why does it do this? Like, tell me about it. Kids know that they’re inadequate. They know they need help. They ask for help. Well, we need help spiritually. We’re so inadequate spiritually. We can’t even earn our own way to heaven. So Jesus had to come and rescue us, and so like children, then we take the hand of our Savior, like cling to Him like a child who knows you can’t do it on his own. Like I had this this week. We were swimming at Paradise Bay. I was swimming with Callum. Calum’s a pretty good swimmer, but he knows his limits, thankfully, and so you get that point where he’s like swimming, swimming, swimming, and then it’s like, like just clutching at dad at that time, because he would rather reach out than sink. That’s the humility we’re supposed to have, right? We would rather breathe spiritually, keep our head above a water, then pretend that we know how to float and sink eternally as a result. Now remember, the disciples are absolutely reeling at this point. Like you’ve got to be kidding me! We’re supposed to be like kids. Like we don’t even like to talk about kids. Like what are we doing here? Be like a child? No way! But there’s something even more shocking in the passage. Did you notice it? Did you catch it? Because here’s the question the disciples ask: Who is the greatest in the kingdom? And here’s the answer Jesus gives: You better become like a child, or you’ll never enter the kingdom of heaven. The disciples assumed they were in already. They just needed to know who’s the best on the inside, like they think they’re sitting on the living room couch having this conversation with Jesus. Jesus is opening the front door, going, “Y’all realize that couch is in the alley, but you need to come in at this point. They asked him about eminence. Jesus wondered about entrance. They asked about position, and Jesus offered them a passage. It’s like Jesus is wondering, have you even realized yet that there’s a hole in your cup? And that’s why he says, unless you change, you’re not okay where you are right now. You need to change, guys. Unless you change, the word there is the word turn. In Hebrew, it’s the word we translate as repent. You need to repent. You need to turn. You have a problem, and you need to get fixed. Start there. A cup with a hole in it can’t hold water, and proud people can’t enter the kingdom of heaven. Why? Because we can’t fix this problem on our own, and that’s why Jesus came, right, to fix it for us. So we need to go back to the Maker, just like we sent the cup back to its Creator.
We need to go back to our Maker, so He can change us. Which means step two just follows right on step one’s heels. You know there’s a problem you can’t fix? Ask for help. Ask for help. So step two: receive salvation. Admit sin and then receive salvation. Receive it like a gift. It’s not something you do. It’s just something you take. It’s grace. It’s what He did for us. You know, Mari might come to me and say, “I can’t tie my shoes, Dad. Would you help? We’re coming to Jesus, saying, “I can’t climb the ladder to heaven, Dad. Would you help? And Dad says, “Yeah, here’s my son. Okay, he’s actually is the ladder. We learn in John’s Gospel. He’s the door. So just hop on his back. He will take you up. And here’s the really good news: when we send that cup back to its Maker. When we admit our sin and receive salvation, God really does change us. He really does fix us. The gospel changes us, and that’s what we’ll see here in step three. So, step three, something to forget. Let me read the rest of our passage, which is just verse four. Here it is, 18 four. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, Jesus begins. He’s drawing the conclusion here, the implication. In fact, he finally answers the question they had asked: Who is the greatest? Here’s the greatest: the one who takes the lowly position of a. Child, that is our active response in light of our childlike helplessness before God. Whoever humbles self, whoever takes the low spot, climbs down off the podium-that’s the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Now Jesus is just rephrasing what he’s already said in the Sermon on the Mount, especially in the Beatitudes. This is all that Jesus is saying at that point. You know, Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, meaning the ones who go, “I don’t have anything. I can’t pay my debt. I’m impoverished spiritually. Blessed are those who mourn their sin. Right, blessed are the meek, not the proud, not the boastful, the meek. Blessed are the merciful because they know they need mercy. Blessed, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness because they know they don’t have it yet. True kingdom greatness begins with grateful humility, when we are awed that God would welcome us, broken though we are, grateful humility, which of course leads to the grateful praise that Ivan was telling us about last week, right? Shout for joy to the Lord. All the of course we’re shouting for joy. We got saved when we didn’t deserve it. Enter His gates with thanksgiving. Of course we’re thankful. Look at what He’s done for us. But that grateful humility before God then produces a humility before others as well, and that’s Jesus’s point here in verse four. It leads to this self-forgetful service, self-forgetful service, and that self-forgetful idea is key. Someone once said, I think it was Rick Warren. I’m not totally sure about this, but somebody said humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. There’s a world of difference between those two, because thinking less of yourself, like if you’re you got a self-loathing problem, which a lot of people do in our culture, you’re still obsessed with yourself. Like you’re still egocentric, just as egocentric as the person who’s really self-impressed, we just want to be neither of us self-forgetful. Like literally, I forgot me. I was so absorbed with something else, I didn’t remember that I was there. Have you ever been so absorbed in a conversation while you’re driving that you miss your exit? That’s the idea. Like we are so absorbed with Jesus that we just like. Oh, yep. Sorry, Brandon also is a person. I guess just I missed it. Like that’s what would happen if we understood how much God loves us. If we understood the wonder of grace and the magnitude of Christ’s sacrifice. We’d be thinking about it all the time. There would be no headspace left for me, which means we’ve already gotten to step three. You admit sin, you receive salvation, and then third, you forget self. You forget self. In particular, you forget your name and your reputation. Stop seeking status and recognition. Instead, like Jesus stooping to serve us, we stoop to serve others and take the lowliest place gladly. Lucas read it for us already. What this attitude looks like-it is Christ’s attitude. That’s the attitude we’re to have toward one another. Philippians two: in your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing, but taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. What I love about this passage too is it shows us how gospel understanding, like really understanding the gospel motivates our selflessness, motivates the change we’re hoping to see. I can think of at least three ways that the gospel motivates our wanting to take that lowly place. First of all, the gospel reminds us that we have no need to make much of ourselves, because God in Christ has already met our deepest desires. I mean, the person who’s trying to get status, who craves that recognition-you know-what are they after? Love, attention, status, all that kind of stuff. What does the gospel tell you? See how much he loved you. Greater love has no one than this: that a man should lay down his life for his friends. That’s what Jesus did for you. You’re loved already with an everlasting love. You want status? Yeah, it’s not getting voted most whatever your senior year of high school. How about this? You’re an adopted child of the King of the Universe. If you’re in Christ, how’s that for status? What more status do you need? That should be enough, I would think. It like reminds me of Eric Little, the the Olympic runner, of course. And you remember he didn’t run the race he was supposed to run because the the the final fell on the Sabbath. Can you even imagine an athlete doing this today? Just shows what’s happened to our culture, but in fact he was like, “Well, whatever, no gold medal, I guess, because it’s a day when it’s devoted to the Lord and not to making a name for myself. He ends up running a different race, so he gets the gold in that one, fine, all that kind of stuff. But the whole point was he didn’t need to run, he didn’t need the gold medal because he already knew who he was in Christ. If you’ve seen the movie version of this, Chariots of Fire, you know how different that was, at least in the movie, from that of his rival, who said, “Great quote. You know, I’ve got 10 seconds to justify my existence. That’s what happens when we’re trying to make a name for ourselves. We’re trying to justify our existence. Have I earned the air that I breathe today? But if you’re in Christ, you go. Questions are relevant. Doesn’t even matter. Doesn’t factor into my decision. No need to make much of ourselves. Second, we have no reason to make much of ourselves. The gospel tells us. Pride wilts in a gospel atmosphere. Of course, it does because what does the gospel tell us? What does the cross of Christ tell us? We are so wicked. We can’t even save ourselves. Like God Almighty could give you a list of, let’s say, 10 things that you need to do in order to make it to heaven. Otherwise, you will be flung rightly into hell. Guess how many of us did those 10 things? Zero. What are you boasting about exactly? What is there in you that makes you think I should make much of myself when Jesus had to come and rescue you from yourself. So we got no need to make much of ourselves. We got no reason to make much of ourselves. But third, we have every reason to serve others because we remember how Christ served us. It’s almost like instead of that cup with the hole in the bottom, like our cup is fixed and it is filled, brimful and overflowing enough so that we’re like, “You need some? You thirsty? I can help you out here. Here. He just keeps filling it up anyway. You can have whatever is in my cup.
So that’s why we take the lowest place. Now, how do we do it practically? Just very briefly, as we close. Remember, this chapter we are talking about kingdom community, which means this passage should change our church culture, like what we are like as Cityview. We should be a little kingdom, or at least a little kingdom outpost, which is what we are, and so our culture then, as a church, should be marked by service instead of status. This looks like people who are eager to do the behind-the-scenes, thankless tasks, serving when No one notices, and maybe even intentionally serving in such a way that no one can notice, which would be what we would do with giving as well. Like sometimes we got to just check our heart here. You ever done this? I know some of you have because I’ve heard some of you do it. Where you just kind of like slip into conversation. Let’s do giving is is an easy example. Like yeah, well you know I mean they were they were hurting and so we helped them out, which just happened right there. So little glory thief moment, right? I want to make sure you think well of me, that you know that I was generous with this person, so God doesn’t get the glory, I get the glory, and so that’s why we do this. Why Jesus said Matthew six, like your left hand’s not even supposed to know what your right hand’s doing for your sake, so that you’re not practicing your righteousness to be seen by others, which is then all about status instead of service. So we watch our motivation. I mean, even at church, even at church, maybe especially at church, we can be serving to serve ourselves. Like, could you imagine any danger to being the guy who gets up front every week and speaks for 40 minutes? Any danger at all that I’d be doing this so that you’d be impressed with me? How much I know, how eloquent I am, how godly I am. Of course, you know these sorts of things, right? We all have that danger, like wherever we are. I mean, any sort of leadership in the church. Like it feels good to be asked to be an elder, or a deacon, community group leader, journey group leader, and on the other hand, it couldn’t smart if you didn’t get asked to be that position that you thought you were going to be, right? And so that’s what we’re talking about here: this church culture of going away. We got to watch this. We got to watch this together. So that’s our church culture, marked by service instead of status. And can I say, since it’s family worship Sunday, we bring that culture home with us. So, parents, let me speak to you for a moment. With your kids sitting right next to you, they’re going to remind you that I said this. So I’m sorry about that. My kids are here too, though. If that helps, we should model childlike faith for our kids. I think one of the primary ways this happens is we admit sin to them. Certainly, when we sin against them, but even then, just the other sins that we struggle with. With wisdom, sure, I get that, but there should be this sense of like, wow, Daddy needs Jesus. I am messed up. There is a hole in the bottom that somebody’s going to have to fix, and thankfully Jesus is working on me. We admit our inadequacy and our helplessness. One of the chief ways we do that is prayer, because prayer is the language of a child. Because prayer is when you’re coming, going, I can’t do it, I can’t do it. You’re going to have to do it for me, Lord, and so we pray before them. Pray for them, yes. Pray with them, but pray before them. Like they should see that you’re going. We better pray. We better pray. I don’t want to have to try and do this in my own strength. And of course, the other way we do this is self-forgetful service. We serve our kids. Now, kids, let me talk to you as well, with your parents sitting right next to you, and they’re going to remind you that I said this. Don’t lose your childlikeness as you get older.
Like, don’t sin and grow old. Okay, stay young at heart because it does not take long for that desire for status to kick in, and so by God’s grace, fight against it. And of course, one of the ways you can do that is serve at home as well. This is what it looks like to get the cup back mended by the Maker, full of grace, so that we can give water to the thirst, the able to live the purpose for which we were made, and we were made to magnify Him, and then sent to serve others. Right, and here, here’s how we do that: Come like a child, come like a child. That’s how you magnify Christ and serve others. Come humbly, come trusting. I mean, that kid’s not walking up next to Jesus unless the kid knows Jesus is good and safe. And so we come trusting, knowing that God is good and safe. Come listening. How many times we tell kids you got to listen to your parents, right? We come listening, obeying our Father, and we come lowly. I mean, after all, who are you to stand beside Almighty God? You and I are because of our sin worms. We are actually less than worms because www.ms are not in rebellion against their creator, and you and I are. We are sinners. That’s who we are. But who is He that calls you to Himself, stands you next to Him, stretches out His arm to embrace and welcome you, like in your mind’s eye, look at that little girl again. Peter’s daughter, whoever she was, why does she get to stand next to Jesus with his arms around her? It is not because she deserved to be there, but only because Jesus desired that she be there, and that is the joy of our salvation. We too can come like little children, and not just like little children, but as God’s children, welcome and beloved by the Father through Christ and in Christ, because He died in our place, so we could be welcomed as God’s child in His place. Come like a child, and I mean it. By the way, like that’s actually the application point. Come like a child. That’s the invitation. Even now, Jesus. Is calling you, so kids. Let me talk to you for a moment. If you haven’t come to Jesus yet, you can today. Today can be the day where you admit your sin and go, “I’m not good enough, and then can receive salvation like a child. If you’re not sure what that looks like, how to do that, you got questions. Talk to your parents, and talk to me, or Pastor Kyle, Reeve, or Jake, Miss Emma, your Kid City teachers, whoever it is. We would love to help. But remember also, Jesus isn’t talking to kids here; he’s talking to the adults. This is a message for adults to change and become like kids, and so if any of you adults in the room haven’t yet let today be the day, humble yourself, admit you need help, turn from sin, and trust in Jesus. Come like a child. I’m going to pray for us now. I’m going to pray for our church culture, but before I do that, I’m going to pray kind of a model prayer. And so, if you’re here going, you know what? I would like to do this today. You can pray along with me. I’ll pray in the first person, so you can just use these words as your own as we come like children to the Lord together now. God, I admit my sin. I admit that I am not good enough. I admit that I have rebelled against you. That I’ve not kept your commandments. I admit that I have lived for myself, which means I have used other people. I admit this, Lord. I confess it, and I ask for your forgiveness. I pray, Lord, that you would show me mercy and grace. And so, Lord, with arms outstretched, I receive the salvation you offer in Christ. Even now, knowing that the death I deserve to die, He died in my place, so that the welcome that He deserved, I can receive in His place, welcomed as Your very children. Lord, would You welcome me even now? And Lord, I pray for all of us that this lesson would be written on the culture of this church, that we would be a self-forgetful serving people, and that we would do so not for our sakes, Lord, but for the glory of Your name. That people would make much of You when they see us and how we live by grace and for Your sake. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.