What Childlike Faith Really Means | Full Sermon | Matthew 18:1-6

[Music] [Music] alright hey guys good morning what a sweet time across four different locations to be able to take communion together and to proclaim the lord's death and his resurrection so what what what a cool thing we're able to do together hey I want to address those of you who may be newer today and weren't here last week I want to kind of give you a recap or maybe you are a home folk here with us but you just weren't here last week hey cent weekend was incredible last weekend a great chance to hear from pastor Carter heading to Roanoke and man I just want you to know that we've been doing that a few years now whether you are a person that gets sent out on one of our thirteen or fourteen trips that are gonna leave Mercy Hill this year whether you're one of the families that we're praying for that's gonna sign up to leave our church and go to Roanoke whether you're one of our awesome high school seniors like Madison who just signed up for a gap year to take the gospel to the Philippines ascending is at the heart of what we do as a church it is about sending capacity not just seating capacity we truly want to send our best and so if you weren't here last week man that was really kind of just a blessing to me and I hope it was to you as well if you are new or let me try to catch up with where we are today though today we're gonna be in the book of Matthew chapter 18 you can turn with me there if you want to get a copy of scripture out if you don't have one today it'll be on the screens behind me but what we're talking about through this series y'all is the idea that God has a specific way that he builds families and adoption is heart is just a a heartbeat thing it is at the core of what God does we've been talking about adoption in foster care and the fact that everybody and listen I've been trying to do this every single sermon not everybody can step forward and do that not everybody should it's really a calling it's probably gonna be a smaller group of people that actually step forward and do that but all of us can have a heart for it all of us can give toward it all of us can be ones who really hold the Rope for others who are doing that and so that's what this series is all about we're gonna be a Matthew chapter 18 today and let me kind of give you guys where we're going we're gonna zoom back out maybe 30,000 feet and we're just gonna talk a little bit about our heart posture towards what the Bible calls our the least of these are the little ones okay we're going to talk about our heart posture towards those who need to be received and the way that we're gonna get there in the way that we're going to talk about that is actually kind of in a roundabout way because the discussion in Matthew 18 doesn't come about by the guys saying hey to Jesus hey teach us about the least of these what happens is the disciples come out and they end up talking about who is the greatest among them and Jesus ends up turning it on them and he talks about hey you want to talk about greatness let's talk about what it means to come to God like a child childlike faith may be some of you've been around churches before you've heard that idea of a childlike faith childlike dependence today we're gonna talk about what greatness is and there may be nothing more counterintuitive about the Christian faith in this all right what makes you great in the kingdom of God it's not accomplishment prestige and status what makes you great in the kingdom of God is not the things that you hold up to God and you say look what I did alright now those things will follow the life of a believer I believe that somebody is childlike dependence on Paul and God many times you're gonna see great things in their life but don't get the cart before the horse the idea is not accomplishment prestige and status greatness in the kingdom of God is defined by a childlike humility greatness in the kingdom of God is defined by a person being able to say god I know that there was nothing I could do for my salvation there is nothing I could do to make an impact for your kingdom on this earth apart from you I can do nothing that is what true greatness is in the kingdom of God the problem for many of us is that we take the world's definition of greatness and what we end up doing with our Christian life is we think we're crushing it I mean you think about a basketball game analogy we're just shooting three-pointer after 3-pointer lighting the scoreboard up I mean just make you know we think we're just doing awesome and the problem is we're shooting at the wrong goal the goal that we're shooting at we think is accomplishment you know greatness status all that kind of stuff and what God is gonna try to tell us today is like no no that's the wrong goal the goal that you need to be thinking about is how dependent upon me are you how childlike is you are you in terms of your humility you know we go to a lot of kids basketball games guys the stage of life we're in in every single game at least one kid ends up breaking away from the pack I mean they're dribbling down there looking nobody's around them well no wonder they're going the wrong way okay they're heading towards the wrong goal that's many of us in this whole thing with Christian life we're thinking about status and we're thinking about greatness and we're thinking about prestige and we're thinking about on or we're thinking about the things that we've done with our life look what I sacrificed look how good I was look at my morality look at my ethics look at all the stuff about my life what Jesus gonna tell us today is this and is the big idea y'all God wants the childlike heart he wants the heart of a child he wants the heart that says and this is all that childlike means we're gonna give in all this he wants the heart that says I know that I need help that's it I know that I need help I need God to do something great for me if there's gonna be anything great about my life what does greatness to you greatness is gonna be defined to define by our ability to understand a dependence and a need for God all right here's what we're gonna do with our time this morning we're gonna dive into Matthew 18 there's six verses let me read them all and then we're gonna go back and break them down kind of one-by-one just verse by verse let's make sure we understand this and right at the end we'll tie it all back together and we're gonna end up seeing that once we have a childlike posture it makes it real easy for us to see others that are in a childlike state and we want to receive them into our life and that'll be our application all right let's dive in Matthew chapter 18 starting in verse 1 at that time the disciples came to Jesus saying who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven and calling to him a child he put him in the midst of them and he said truly I say to you unless you turn and become like children you will never enter in the kingdom of heaven whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven whoever receives one such child in my name receives me but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin or offends them or makes them to stumble it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea this is our scripture for this morning let's break it down verse by verse starting with verse one at that time the disciples came to Jesus saying who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven now most of the time at Mercy Hill we're kind of in one part of the Bible will move through story or move through a section of the Bible for a few weeks in a row this series a little different we've been bouncing all around the Bible we've been looking at different places talking about chosen adoption foster care all that okay so so today I don't know if you've been in the book of Matthew or not but here's the thing about the book of Matthew the book of Matthew is filled with long sermons by Jesus okay you think my sermons are long alright get into the book of Matthew and you're gonna realize Jesus preached some long sermons if these are the summations of his sermons alright he preached for a while and what we see in Matthew are some chunks of long Jesus sermons alright well that's what Matthew chapter 18 is is that we're getting into kind of a long discourse here and the discourse is about how the kingdom of God works itself out into the church what is the church supposed to be like and the church is supposed to be filled with people who see the little ones who see the least of these okay who see and understand that the last shall be first and they receive them that only happens once we get it in our mind that we have to become dependent and humble before we see somebody else and that's what he's getting into now the funny thing is the way that this is kind of a roundabout argument and what happens is that G's gonna talk about dependence and humility but that's not what the disciples are talking about what the disciples are talking about is greatness who's the best okay who's the greatest and it's funny because if you get into Luke chapter 9 in mark chapter 9 what you end up seeing is that actually this was a full-blown argument among the disciples okay they're really a hammering down and thinking about who they want to know who's out front who is the best you know that is so applicable for us today y'all because many of us I've already kind of given you in the intro greatness is about humility greatness is about dependence but most of the time I feel like we are susceptible you could say like this we are easily seduced by the world's definition of greatness the world comes in and tells us greatness is about what you've achieved greatness is about prestige greatness is about status among your peers greatness is about the things that you have done greatness in other words is the distance you put between yourself and everybody else that you consider a peer okay if I look to my left and look to my right and I'm out in front of everybody then I'm doing some great things and there's greatness in me that's the way that the world defines it that's the way that the disciples are kind of defining it and sadly and I mean I'm right there with you without putting a check on this we will begin to define it that way greatness for us is outpaced in the world I was reminded this week of a story from 1968 on if you guys have ever heard the story of Bob Beamon from the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City all right dude lines up he's a favorite to win the the long jump okay and he lines up he actually almost don't make it into the final he scratched twice okay in the semis or whatever almost don't even get in but he gets into the final he runs he hits the board he takes off y'all he beat the world record by over two feet out of nowhere okay now I'm not getting the reaction that I need from that I'm gonna tell you I'm gonna tell you that we should get a reaction here and let me tell you why because records don't fall like that you don't jump two feet farther than anybody's ever jumped in the history of the world okay seven the 70 years before Bob Beamon Bob Beeman's jump in 1968 the average of how that record would fall for 70 years was six centimeters at a time okay he out jumped the previous world record by 55 centimeters when they told him you jumped over 29 feet he fainted literally okay he fainted right there they didn't have a measuring stick for this they looked out and they're like what are we gonna do we're gonna have to go to Walmart and buy another measuring tape because he has out jumped what we had in place the thing that he did in terms of just kind of exploding a world record it would be like this it would be like somebody the Summer Olympics this year lining up you know the world record for miles like 340 something they say it's gonna take 20 years to get that record into the 330s because records fall like a half a second at a time it would be like somebody this your out of nowhere lining up and running a 328 mile that's how bad he beat the record it would be like somebody lining up on the hundred meter dash right now the hundred meter dash records nine point five eight if you do the math which I think I've done this the right way but don't don't check me on okay a beat be like somebody lining up and running 100 meters in eight point eight seconds that would be what he did now here's my question okay is that greatness well yes he flew okay so that is great alright that is greatness but is it greatness it turns on what I'm talking about here what I'm talking about here with greatness all right this is how the world defines greatness and it creeps into the church this can I all jump everybody else can i all jump everybody else to the point of they got to get a new measuring stick because of how bad I beat everybody you know am i that far in front that when I look to my left and I look to my right I don't see nobody because they're all in my rearview y'all this is how many times we define greatness it's certainly what the disciples were dealing with here hey who's the best who's gonna be the greatest Jesus who are you gonna pick out among us to be the one that's in the front of the pack this is a comparison deal it is a discussion on prominence that is fueled by pride and we are right there y'all we fall into this we fall into it the world how many zeros are in your bank account what was your sales like what are your kids doing what's their success all we stack each other up we want to look at everybody else and here's the funny thing if you're not a but if you even if you're not a believer or maybe you're newer to the church you wouldn't know this but let me give you a little heads up when you reading the New Testament the disciples weren't exactly Harvard Law graduates okay I mean these guys had been kind of rejected by others man they're working in the family profession they didn't have a whole lot of worldly kind of accolades to their names so what do they do they just do what Christians do they just start stacking quiet times up against each other how much how much Bible do you know you know it's like in the lack of the worldly a cut maybe they've got that they're you know we're not comparing their what we're comparing is our proximity to Christ I'm closer to you you're further away than me all Christians get and so much trouble doing this I get in so much trouble with this y'all if I can just bare my heart with y'all sometimes this is the hardest thing about being a pastor because thy kingdom come and my kingdom come can get all like this they can get all they can get all jumbled up we're we're like man as a church growing and I search healthy and all this stuff and it's like yes praise God for that but about the 50th time that somebody asks you what your growth percentages were how many campuses you got man it's a church growing what was last year like give me some you know all of a sudden you can start to think man am i beginning to compare all this stuff and y'all can get all jumbled up I'm not alone in that we're all ones that have to parse all of that out and realize together that greatness is not about me compared to somebody else not in your working life not in your profession not in our faith and that's what they need to hear here every one of us struggle with this concept of comparison and so Jesus I love this he just blows the whole thing up and the way he blows it up is look at verse 2 calling a child to himself he put him in the midst of them and he says truly I say to you unless you turn and become like children you will never enter in to the kingdom of heaven you want to know who's the greatest you figure out who's the most dependent you figure out who has the most humility that's his idea here whoever humbles himself like this child he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven I love this about Jesus because Jesus Christ by any standard was a man's man he swung a hammer for a living I could just see him standing there commanding presence strong hands strong arms grabs this child puts him right in the middle of the mix and what we have such a jacked up view of masculinity many of us think about kit what we think is that a man's man don't have time for kids no a worldly man don't have time for kids Jesus Christ doesn't tolerate the interruption of a child he interrupts everybody with a child and he grounds the child he puts him down you won't know who the greatest is and here's what he does not love this he puts that kid right in there miss one of the one of the pastor just says he takes him up in his arms he's got him he's set him there and I want you to imagine this kid with me peanut butter and jelly all over his face I mean he smiles he ain't got the two front teeth in the front can't even barely talk because you know the teeth are all gone and he's just in that stage hairs a total mess every child you understand this if they haven't had somebody help them he's got some type of wardrobe malfunction going on and Jesus grabs this kid and he puts it there and the kids just shining looking around like what is happening here you know and Jesus puts him right in the middle and he says you guys want to argue about greatness this is greatness now what is it about this child is great I'm I want you to think I want you to vision them I want you to think about him just sitting there kind of taking all this say what is it that's great well you know one of the parts of my job is I go read all the theologian okay I got to read all the commentators and listen a bunch of sermons away people that you know and that's part of the deal and I love doing it but I'm gonna tell you something sometimes you get into these commentators and you start trying to follow it and here's the things they start talking about okay they start talking about this pastors they start comparing what a Christian is supposed to be like - everything about a kid and I feel like they kind of get there all that well you know Jesus is saying you know kids take no thought of themselves and kid I'm like what you no kidding oh the keno kids there they don't care who's who's in the front of the line and they they're okay with being you know and I'm like I'm like you obviously you've written a bunch of commentaries you have no kids okay because if you have kids you realize like if you line them up I mean there's little monsters a lot of the times you line them up and you say hey get in a line there's a fistfight about who's gonna be first and all of that I want you to understand that we can't just go wild and say everything about a child is what we're supposed to be this is not that Jesus tells us what it is in verse four what did he say whoever humbles himself we're not supposed to be like a child in every way what he's saying is there is a particular aspect of being a kid that is so important to never lose in the Christian faith and that is the humility of the mind not childishness of thought not childishness of behavior but it is the humility of the mind that a child understands they don't have power they don't have wealth I want you to think about this I mean they're living 2,000 years ago this is not a child centric culture there ain't no Disney World when there aren't swim meets ok these kids kind of understand their role and they're just trying to make it right there's not a lot of a lot of things that we end up my I'm just like this with you got mean as parents our whole me and Anna can fall into like man our whole world is these kids it wasn't that way a couple thousand years ago there's no power there's no wealth here's the thing that these kids understand this is what they know this is what Jesus brings out and this is what we need what is it about a child that we need to mimic the fact that they know they need help that's it if you're newer to the faith and you've been reading Jesus I understand that there are many things that Jesus says that are very complex and that are very layered this ain't one of them what he's saying is you guys want to be great and greatness is defined by how much you understand that you need me with everything you're doing in your life and your vocation certainly in your salvation and your family how much do you understand that you are humbled and that you need me that is what greatness is in the kingdom of God childlike humility is knowing how much you need God you know what a kit you know what you know you know what kid does like kid knows they need help and they feel like you were put on earth to help them period that was it that's all you're supposed to do and that's why they have absolutely no problem hollering their mama's name a thousand times a day it's why they have absolutely no problem calling their dad's name in an impossible situation that nobody could fix but they know and they call out dad's name right they call out mom's name I told the story couple years ago but one time we were sitting at our breakfast table and all of a sudden my kids come yelling there's a deer in the front yard and and so we're like okay great so I we go out and I open the door when I open the door this deer is like 20 feet away from us I mean right in the front yard and it don't move which was like odd you know it's very it didn't run off nothing I think maybe it was a little it had a little fun somewhere hidden or something like that it didn't run away well my dog goes running out we got a big German Shepherd he goes running out he's really good with animals man he runs out and I mean he's getting like nose to nose deer hat and move just sitting there staring at him okay and he gets like nose to nose my kids are going oh they're gonna kiss you know and all this stuff oh look at red you know and all this and they get they get about knows that he's got his tail kind of wagon they get nose to nose they about bump noses and about that time I'm lying I'm dying that deer hops up on its back loads and hits him with the two-piece bam bam just like that I know you're like no way I'm telling you he is scary it startled him so bad that he went to run slips falls down okay and the deer is now raining blows upon him pounding like this and I'm like this is so interesting I mean I mean I got my phone I mean it's like somebody needs to get a video of this you know in order that we could put it on National Geographic or whatever like I never seen a deer act like this before well I I quickly realize you know my fascination is not exactly the same emotion that my kids are having as their screaming crying okay that the deer is killing red the deers of killing red man you know and all this and so you know it turns into this crazy kind of scene and finally he you know he's fine he gets away and having his pride was a little hurt okay I mean the deer starts running off and he chases it off and it was just a crazy wild scene and they were the kids were standing there screaming and all this and I'll never forget Ann I've used this illustration before for prayer it's very similar okay I'll never forget that what they were screaming over and over and over was daddy daddy daddy daddy they didn't know what to do I don't know what they thought I was gonna do okay get beat myself you know get beat up myself alright but they just know I'm up against something here that I don't really know what to do and without any thought at all what comes out of their mouth daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy I've used that before to think about prayer what do you do when you don't know what to do right we man we we shout out that's that's how we know man we call out upon his name but it's the idea here of childlike dependency man they're in a situation what is Jesus trying to get across it's very simple children know they need help they know they need to add to come in they know they need mom to come in they know that they need help childlike faith begins with an awareness of great need that is what humility is it is the awareness of need that I know that my works are insufficient my morality is insufficient my accomplishments my power they are insufficient I need Christ to wrap me up in his arms for my salvation I need the power of God to flow through me if I'm gonna have an impact in this life I need the power of God in my family like it that's what it is it's a dependence all it is I need help and I'm gonna move on from this but let me say one thing because I know many of you personally and I know our campus pastors throughout our campuses may they're in your life your group leaders are in your life there's so much and it's always this way I know that but man in the church of our size there are people that are going through some stuff and this is hard but here's what I want to tell you today all right if God is using that tough place that you are in but the lesson that we get out of that is we are reminded that we need God then you know what as hard as it is to say it's worth it I'm not saying God's putting you in that situation but our God is such a good God and a magnificent God that he doesn't waste one drop of our suffering and he can take what the enemy means for evil in your life and turn it and twist it and bring spiritual gold out of it bring greatness out of you because you were put flat on your back maybe because you ended up in a place you didn't want to be and I don't want to be in that place you know I think about I think about some of our college students that are still debating whether they're going to City project you know one of the big hang-ups is nobody wants to be in a place where you got to raise the money for the summer why because it puts you in that childlike dependent state we don't want to be there but what I've heard consistently over the years at Mercy Hill is that when students put themselves there man God does incredible things with it I think about other things in our life people don't want to give because they don't want to be in a tight financial situation they want to have tons and tons and tons of margin and I I understand that I want to I want to have margin I mean there's an idea of listen there's an idea of wisdom in that and we need to we need to move towards that and we do things like financial peace here and all that to try to get people in that place but CS Lewis is the one that said man how do you know how much to give probably more than you can spare it puts you into that place of saying I I don't want to be in a childlike place none of us want to be in a childlike place I don't want to be flat on my back with sickness am I talking to anybody this time of year kids in the house all that right we don't want to be there I think about I think about thinking about our missionaries you know one of the things I've heard consistently from our missions are from our missionaries and people that leave our church to go show the gospel is that one of the hardest things that their life is being an adult trying to learn a new language in a new place and you've been there for six or eight or ten months or a year or even a year and a half and then you realize that your friends still introduce you as the one who doesn't know how to speak the language and that's really tough you know and you feel like man all I could talk like a three-year-old and it's a childlike dependence and it's hard and nobody wants to be in that place but God can bring spiritual gold out of places just like that man maybe God has you in a place of childlike dependency don't jump from the fire too soon maybe it is that you know that the bigger tragedy will be you're the same person on the other side of whatever is happening when God could do so much in your life now what happens here and this is verse 5 and 6 will go faster here is that what happens in verse 5 and 6 is kind of the switch where we see Jesus tells them hey greatness is dependence upon me and then he's gonna get us to see that those who understand greatness dependence and humility those that understand that then they end up being a people who are on the lookout for others who need somebody else to understand that in their life and so that's what we see in verse 5 and 6 whoever receives one such child of 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 to be drowned in the depths of the sea what he is saying here is that Christian people are receivers Christian people understand God received them Christian people understand that Jesus didn't pick you because of merit he didn't pick us because of beauty he swooped us up in his arms when we had peanut butter and jelly all over our face and a wardrobe malfunction that we didn't have a lot to offer he swooped us up when we were in great need and he provided what we needed that we were sinners far from God but Jesus stepped in on behalf of all humanity you want to talk about becoming like a child he became a child he became a child for us and lived his life every time we sinned is a time that he didn't the end of his life he didn't deserve the cross but he took it because we did and his resurrection were offered the newness of life he came to live die and resurrect because we needed him to do that and the childlike heart the greatness of a Christian is not what we have accomplished it's the person who understands I needed something great from Jesus and he provided it for me that's what it is to be great what the Bible is saying here in verse 5 and 6 is that those type of people Christians those of us who understand that and we are reminded of it today man we get our goggles on in our eyes on and we begin to look at other people differently in the world you could say it like this alright Christian you know received people receive people if you have been received well you receive well received ones received ones if we have been brought in not because of who we were I mean think about it Jesus Christ looked at us in the way that we look at each other sometimes you know the Bible is clear here I think if you really get into context is he talking about kids I think he's talking about kids is he only talking about kids certainly not he's talking about anybody just that fits in the least of these or the little ones okay he's talking about anybody that we would not naturally deem as one who were on our level or something that we're gonna get something something you know something from I think what Jesus is trying to combat is this idea that most of us walk around in life within antenna we meet somebody within five seconds we know can you help me can I get further in my life because of you well then I got time for you and if not and you're gonna be kind of a trickle charge on my battery of life but I don't have time for that and I've got to kind of get away from that and what he is trying to combat here Hey you have been received Jesus didn't look at us the way that we look at each other what if Jesus would have looked at us and said well if I can't gain something from you then I don't want to have you well none of us would be here right he didn't look at us that way and then you say well how does this get down to the brass tacks well I think I think it's kind of like this do we have the same amount of time for somebody who engages us because they need something on the street that we would a new person at Mercy Hill who maybe looks like they're pretty successful in business and we're hanging out with them outside of one of our campuses after a service that stings doesn't it it's like man that that's kind of the idea ha do we have an antenna all the time students in high school maybe have time for the person nobody else wants to sit with at lunch you know college students you're a senior do you have time for freshmen can you receive those little ones to come into your life and to begin to disciple them yes this has everything to do with adoption and foster care ministry what is our our our heart toward the unborn our heart toward those and broken families our heart toward those that are needing of adoption this is the idea and Jesus says received them and then he says this it would be better for them if you're not going to receive them instead you're gonna offend or sinned or stumble the little ones it would be better for you to have a millstone tied around your neck and cast into the sea every time I have ever read that ever since I was a child the same thought pops in my mind what could possibly be better than that what could possibly be better than a millstone around the neck now you know that all that is the form of execution 2,000 years ago if you wanted to read it today it would be like this hey be better to face the electric chair than it calls one of these little ones a stumble to cause one of these little ones to sin too cause when these little ones to be offended now do I understand the absolute bottom of that I don't but what I know is that if I just zoom out from it and I think about God is looking in I think I can surmise from it and he cares a lot about those who are the least of these he cares a lot about those who are the little ones you know one pastor mother knows list of the two said there was a guy in their church he was about 20 years old but he had special needs and he had probably the mind of like a seven or eight year old and I just a sweet kid man loved the Lord loved to be at church couldn't read but he would follow along because he could do the verses you know 20 21 22 I mean he was just was there every time the door was open and just loved the Lord and and and wanted to be baptized I mean one of them wanted to express his faith and all of that and you know that the pastors talked about it they talked to him over and over and over and they decided you know man this this this kid is on fire for the Lord he understands the gospel we're gonna baptize when it comes baptism day and a nice this was just kind of funny thing about his baptism this just kind of shows you the heart of the kid and he the pastor said that he was like man imma go through these questions one more time with you and and just to make sure before we baptize and the first question was he looks at the kidney says who is Jesus Christ and the kid gets a look on his face is like pastor I thought you didn't know on that one okay you know you know man just a sweet kid they found out a couple years later than that kids brother and his friends had a good time forcing him to drink alcohol until drunkenness and watching how he behaved I think about a story like that and I think about this I don't know all the ins and outs of Millstone and I don't know everything that God is saying here but I know God is watching the way that we treat the little ones and here's what I know I'll tell that story for a very particular reason because every single one of us has this reaction I would never do that how many students have been offended at fifteen or sixteen years old because of how mean people are in a youth group that's causing a little one to stumble you know how much gossip can tear somebody down cause somebody to offend and sin and walk away from the faith that's tearing somebody down temptations seduction coercion crushing criticism parents provoking to anger and their children these things can cause little ones to stumble and I just read this passage and I praise God for grace and I thank God for the times I've misspoken or misstep in these areas as we all have but what we've got to realize that God is watching and he cares about the little ones the point he is trying to make is if those of us that are believers understand that Jesus plucks us not because we're beautiful even with all the peanut butter all of our faiths okay and he puts us on his lap it's not because of greatness then we become a type of person who has a lens on looking for other people like that and we want to receive them into our faith community is well let me apply this we'll be done all right here's what I want to call our church to do today once we've seen all the teaching demonstrate a childlike heart by receiving children we want to demonstrate a childlike heart understanding that we don't choose based off of of merit and accomplishment because we weren't chosen off of merit and accomplishment we want to see those things in our life that a rivalry in comparison and arguments about greatness replaced with a childlike heart demonstrated by the ways that we individually as families and certainly as a church family care for other people well I want to close the sermon now by talking about kids because I think it fits and our sermon I've tried to be faithful to the text I want to say it one more time I don't think this passage is only talking about kids but I think that kids are in view certainly certainly in Jesus ministry as well you look at Matthew chapter 19 for example the children were brought to him that he might lay hands on them and pray and the disciples rebuked the people but Jesus said no let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for such belongs the kingdom of heaven and he laid hands on them and went away Jesus loved kids he wanted us to be receivers of kids and I want to talk about that for a few minutes yeah we're gonna talk about adoption foster right at the end but for many of us in here that's not where you are I pray that more families are gonna step forward and I think more families should but there's no guilt there's no pressure this is a calling okay for some of us that are called yeah we need to step forward others are blessed you need to help with that and we're gonna talk about that but there is something here for all of us when we begin to talk about receiving kids and receiving people into our life I've got three ways that I want to apply this the first one is this all right talking about receiving kids so I'm gonna demonstrate a childlike harp receive the kids number one that are in your kids orbits now what do I mean by this well I've watched some of you while II seasoned veteran believers that have been doing this for a lot longer than me okay I've watched you I've seen you in our community groups I've seen the way that you think about your kids and teenagers and their friends and here's the deal I'm looking forward to this in my life some of you are right there maybe some of you are looking back on it you understand that maybe one of the greatest mission fields in your life is your kids friends that your kid people are drunk kids are drawn to your kids why because it might be the closest thing they've ever seen to the light of Christ and they don't know why they're drawn to your kids they don't know why they're coming in but they're leaning in because they see something in them that is different than everything else they see at school they see something that's different in them and everything else they see in the world and they're leaning in for that and what I want to call our parents too as we're talking about receiving kids and thinking about ways to reply this hey get around your kids friends and realize that your dinner table may be the greatest picture they will ever see of the gospel that when you when they sit down and they realize in this family and this is what it boils down to if you want to get all the way down to it they're gonna see a family and your family where people think not you for me but me for you not how can I use you to get ahead but how can I be sacrificed for your good and when they see a family like that they're gonna be drawn to it they don't know why but they're drawn and we have an opportunity to get around them and to show them that picture of Christ hey I would think about route 56 I would think about our middle school and high school ministries camps these types of things man parents can you have that conversation on the way home I'm just saying hey who is naturally because the ball teams in school and my kids orbit and how can we reach out to them second thing I want to do by way of application is this receive kids by working with them in the ministry Church you're one of the most generous churches across four locations that I've ever seen when it comes to pouring out for our kids ministry some of you walk by every week and maybe have kids that you drop off or maybe you don't and you're like man I'm not sure what we do in there well let me tell you something when you walk by our kids facility I want to make sure you understand in your mind what we're not doing is babysitting down there that's not what we do what we're doing down there is shaping arrows to be shot out at the appropriate time to go into the heart of the enemy that's what we're doing now we're doing that in conjunction with parents we're not the primary disciples of these kids you know are our parents God has entrusted them to you we want to partner with you and that weekend and week out by providing them great teaching opportunities great small group opportunities role models to look up to people to care for them and their kids ministry that's what we do week in and week out and I want to call some of you that have gifts in teaching alright maybe you've been through the weekend or maybe you've gone to know more spectators calm and you've done a uh you know a gifts assessment you've got giftings in hospitality I mean there's so many giftings that converge in a kid's ministry maybe you've never done it before I'd call you to maybe think about shadow and down there hey some of you did kit have done kids ministry for a while and maybe maybe life happened and you kind of fell away from that man and life happened transition got married new job happened certainly when a new baby comes or something like that you kind of had to step back and maybe you haven't had the opportunity to step back in you know I think we need to do a better job I need to do a better job of making sure that you guys all know across all of our locations that our pastors understand life happens okay every young guy that ever goes in the ministry at 24 25 years old does not understand that they get into ministry and I was noted no exception and you man you're pressing everybody should serve every weekend no exceptions go on vacation some other time I mean that's the way you think about it okay Oh somebody had a baby so they can't serve anymore and we're at 24 25 years old you're like what's that then you have your first kid hey and you go okay now I get it and you begin to start understanding and I just want you guys to understand I mean all of our faster like we get it life happens maybe maybe you maybe you step away from serving maybe you weren't able to do it for awhile or season hey is the time to jump back in now man is God stoking the fire of your hearts maybe step back in I would encourage you to text kids team to four one four one one if you think about kids ministry and you're like man I'm not sure adoption foster is something that's right there yeah we're gonna try to hold the road for some people but man I'm struck by this jesus said receive them and maybe you want to be a part of that then I would call you hey jump in with our kids team and they're gonna walk with you personally they're gonna ask you hey what can you commit to how much time man let's think about let's think about six or eight months or a year let's think about jumping in maybe it's 10 weeks let's do it for a while let's try to get this baked into the rhythm and if life happens life happens we'll catch you on the next one alright so maybe you jump in with kids team let me say one thing to our singles then I'm going to close the sermon I'll by talking about adoption foster hey some of you been single I want to I want to hammer this thing with kids and working with kids some of you are single and you're thinking man I'm not sure what chosen has to do with my life we certainly have had single people step forward for it foster specifically that's fine and and we would encourage that if God's calling you to that but I would say that some of us in here like man I'm not sure and you know about half our church is single okay so for some of you you're like man chosen series I'm just trying to hang on here okay I'm not real sure what this has to do exactly with me you know what you can jump in with these kids ministries and you know you may not have biological children right now that may not ever be in the cards but you know any spiritual kids you can have in your life and you could jump in and I think about this one of our one of our awesome sister churches they had a missionary go out single woman and she enough sacrificing kind of some of those years that you would naturally think about marriage and naturally think about child rearing and all that she said was hard for her when she went to the mission field and kind of sacrificed those years of her life here's what she said for the first few years in the field when I realized for at least to set the next several years I was going to be single I grieved the loss of being able to have biological children but here's what she says God used that by His grace and through tears to make me the proudest and most joyful spiritual mom on the planet the day that I saw my spiritual son baptized in the unreached corners of East Asia honestly I don't know what it's like to hold my baby for the first time in my arms after he's been born I would imagine it feels like your heart's about to burst of the drawer joy I love this I'd imagine that because that's exactly how I felt when this young man came up out of the baptismal waters reborn as a child of God amen we can have amen we can have such an impact some of you guys think about this you know I'm not raising biological kids how can I receive the kids jump involved kids team four one four one one jump in with our kids ministries here hey lastly finally receive kids through adoption in foster care I pushed adoption two weeks ago really really hard and today I just want to push foster care I think this sermon naturally kind of lends itself to that to receiving the kids some of us are like man I'm never gonna be able to do foster care that's fine it's a calling there is no guilt every one of us can have some impact some of us are already having an impact we opened up that adoption in foster fun already $25,000 has been given to that fun which we talked about was a matching fund so that's $50,000 that has been given to help families get moving in this process all right you can do that you can jump in with us at our love life prayer walk that we're doing on February 29th not for the faint of heart we're gonna go we're gonna put our face on the pavement and pray that God ends abortion in our time you could be there for that your family could be there for that it is what it is you could be there for that but some of us need to step forward and when we say and we hear receive the kids it's like God is pulling your heart you're gonna see in a few minutes one of our families that Thrasher Scott was pulling their heart and they begin to realize man God's not calling us to be involved he's calling us to do it maybe that's where you're at I mean hey our first adoption caught foster classes of the whole year and I'm not talking about everybody's doing it through the different places people do into the county there's different agencies we have an agency doing it just for us that whole first class filled all the way up the second class in March that you guys got with our little one pager that ones already filled up I think there's one spot left in it we got to open up a new one I mean just having a massive impact in this area I think God's gonna be more he's gonna call more people to this maybe it's time for us to step forward you all these things end up making up greatness in the kingdom of God not because of what we do not because we did some awesome stuff it's because the people that end up walking in these things understand I could not without God's help God's fire in my bones it's a dependence it's a humility it's evidence of what God has done in our life hey what does greatness in the kingdom it is dependence it is humility let's pray that God gives us and renews a heart of dependence and humility and every one of us right let's pray father we know what greatness is it's the humility of a child and Lord we just pray right now the God that you will break every one heart every heart in here for that God for those of us that are believers that was a place where we were convinced in our life that we couldn't do it on our own and if we've moved on and we've left that somewhere with our family with our work with our spiritual journey with our church god I pray that we would have it recapture this morning and understand these things are yours and we need you as desperately today as we ever have in all of our life and father I pray for those in here that are not quite believers they're trying to do it on their own but I pray that heart would be broken in him and they would understand they got to come like a child in Christ and we pray amen hey guys thanks for stopping by our youtube channel we hope that this this message is encouraging to you we hope it stirs up your affections for Christ if is doing that we would encourage you to subscribe to our channel you can also share this message if it's working in your life maybe God wants to use it somebody else's live so you can always do that let me say a quick word to those of you who might be seeing this for the first time or maybe you've been following our YouTube channel or listening to our teaching but you haven't quite made that jump to come into the church yet we know in today's society most people listen to the teaching ministry ratures before they ever check it out so we know that might be a lot of people out there if that's you I would just encourage you to take that step if you don't have a local church man don't rely on a teaching ministry on youtube to be the local church because it's not the church we would love for you to come in and plug in to use your gifts to get into some relationships where people can actually push on you and you can be ministering in their life there's no such thing as a lone ranger Christian so man come join us take that step we would love to meet you last thing I would say is this hey we know guys that the mission of God goes about as far as the generosity of God's people takes it if this message is a blessing to you or if you could see how it could be used in other people's lives we would really encourage you to financially support the ministry here at Mercy Hill and you can do that by going to Mercy Hill Church comm and going right to our give page and giving there we love to see that happen as we continue to expand all right thanks a lot guys see you next time

Channel: Mercy Hill Church

Views: 2,874

Rating: 4.7777777 out of 5

Keywords: jesus, mercy hill, mercy hill church, andrew hopper, greensboro, high point, triad, expository preaching, childlike faith, sermon on childlike faith, childlike faith sermon, matthew 18, matthew 18:1-6, sermon, how to have faith, how to have faith in God

Id: k_jDNPAZzg0

Length: 44min 42sec (2682 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 17 2020