Become Like Little Children

And children, if you can listen a little bit, you'll hear some things that you might enjoy.

Children are beautiful. Children are beautiful. We had no children for five years, four of which we tried hard to have children. We believed we would be in the Childless Couples group in the ministry. There were three or four couples that way.

So what did we do? We looked at other people, how they treated their children.

We watched them. We observed them. We cared about those kids. We sometimes, in our church area, we would take some of the younger people with us. It's kind of like, well, could we have them for a week?

We were fairly close to as far as brethren. But we took two girls with us one time. I think they were 10 and 8. And they were like our daughters. They were doing a tour in Canada. And then we took them with us. And they were there from Pennsylvania. We took them with us. So we loved, we watched them. We observed and watched how people treated them and how maybe they mistreated them.

Because I thought, we'll never have children, but let's see how people do it. And then, of course, Mr. Armstrong anointed us in January of 1968 at a conference. He said, how are you doing? You did our wedding. I said, you'd have no children? No, we haven't had children. We've been trying to have children. Why don't you come over to my house? You and Barb and I'll anoint you. So we went over.

He healed Don and his living room and anointed both part of me.

In February, my wife conceived.

And by November, we had our daughter Jan, who called her God's gracious gift.

And then 15 months later, we had our daughter Susan, which was totally unexpected because both wives tell you, you can't get pregnant when you're nursing.

Don't play the rhythm method. You end up singing Rock-a-bye-your-baby with a dixie melody.

So we knew. Once we had two, and my wife had an R-H factor, we decided not to have any more children. Two girls, 15 months apart. And we loved them, and they love us. To this day, they're both in the church.

And we're very proud of them and pleased with them, as God was with Jesus Christ, pleased.

So we've watched them. There's something special about little babies, little children that melt people's hearts.

And so when I think of children, I think of how they look you in the eye.

How they're so fresh-faced. How they're so open. How they're so blunt at times. How they can blur you if they take a little child and you try to teach them to talk all week long, then you bring them to church and they try to talk. You shut them up.

Well, why do you keep trying to help me make me talk at home?

So children, children are absolutely wonderful. And we can learn from them. And in fact, when the disciples had a dispute over who was going to be the greatest in the kingdom, how did Jesus Christ solve that?

Matthew 18, verses 1-4. Let's read it.

Matthew 18, verses 1-4.

It's from New King James. At that time, the disciples came to Jesus, saying, Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

And Jesus called a little child to him to set him in the midst of them. Now, it's amazing this little child would come to someone that maybe didn't even know that well, because that child also did not have to worry so much in those days about strangers. Yeah. Speak up to...look at your kids.

Don't go in there just anybody. But back then, Jesus could say, Come here, little child.

And a little child came to him.

And he put him in the midst of them, his disciples. And he said, Assuredly I say to you, Unless you are converted and become as little children, you will in no way enter the kingdom of heaven. How important is it for us to notice the awesome traits of young people?

Of children? Of babies? Of infants? Of adolescents? Of teenagers? The way you can learn from them, as it goes on to say, Therefore whosoever humbles himself, which is the first point I'm going to come to in a moment, humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. So again, what did Jesus use? The little child. It was Matthew 19. Matthew 19. Again, verses 13-15. Jesus Christ says this. Then little children were brought to him. And he might put his hands on them. And they were little enough for him to lift, by the way. The first blessing of Jesus was the blessing of Jesus.

The blessing of children I had in Toronto. They never had the blessing of children. They were the first blessing of children I had. There were a lot of them, okay? And I was the only minister there. A lot of children that blessed. One of them was like an eight-year-old boy. And he would, his hair can't take, Chris. He would come, his cry went his mouth, run. Sorry, we can't do that.

I'll come do it at your home when you're ready.

But literally, Jesus took them up in his arms.

That eight-year-old was a little bit hard to take up in my arms.

And he blessed them. Jesus did that.

We prayed.

The disciples rebuked the people for wanting them to do that. Jesus said, Let the little children come to me. Do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

He laid his hands on them, verse 15, and then he left.

Laid his hands on them. Why? Because they were important to him. The Son of God, whose job is to preach the gospel to the world, to go out and do his job, try to reach people of Israel and all peoples.

What did he do?

Took little children.

Children are beautiful, and we could learn a lot from them if we're willing to learn. So, what way may we also learn from children?

And by the way, that means an infant, or a half-grown boy or girl, the one in Matthew 18. It's a-dee-ah. A-ha-dee-on.

A-ha-dee-on is a Greek word.

It's 38-13 if you want to check me.

Same thing used in both areas as well as in Mark, with the reading.

What may we learn from children? In fact, what must we learn from children?

If we're going to be in God's Kingdom.

First one is humility.

Unility.

Children live in a world of thighs and kneecaps.

Children always have to look up to you.

A smart person is an adult who can put down on his knees or on his haunches and beat them eye to eye.

To save them having to crank their necks.

A little child is automatically humble.

Automatically humble. Should we be humble? Yes. I'm going to read you a couple of comments. One, I love this.

I did this, got these in just one quote each from this book called, Children's Letters to God.

And it's by Marshall and Hamble.

Two people. Children's Letters to God. And you can see all the markings I've had in for old readers.

But only one of this quote one, what a sort of child writes to God. Here's number one, humble.

Dear God, I want to get married.

But no one will do it with me.

Signed, don't eat.

She was humble. No one wanted her. Nobody wanted her.

I also have another quote from Ben Franklin.

I think you'll like this one. Let me read it at the end. My scripture. I'll just give you one scripture on this and refer to another one. Scripture I'll give you is 1 Kings chapter 3 and verse 7.

Solomon.

What did Solomon say?

The wisest man who ever lived.

Riches untold.

Quite drill you there, whatever he was back in those days. Here's what he said in 1 Kings 3 verse 7. Novel, Lord, my God, you made your servant king, instead of my father David.

What did he say?

But I am a little child.

1 Kings 3 verse 7.

I'm a little child. I'm a little child.

I do not know how to go out or come in.

I don't know how to do it.

What's humility?

Philippians 2-3, which I won't read, I'll just give it to you.

Does nothing be done with selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind. See, humility was not known among the Gentiles.

Humility was not known in the world before Christianity came.

To be humble, to be meek, which is a choice to be humble, by the way.

Most people were humble because they were humbled by others, not humbled by choice.

Christians choose to be humble.

Christians choose to say, who first?

Christians choose to say, I'm not going to fight and fuss and demand.

Oh, yes, you shouldn't just be a panty waste. You shouldn't just be milk toasted and said that something's happening to you. If I go to a hotel and things aren't good, I mean, I try to be kind about it in general, but I can tell you. Excuse me, we followed up here. Our phone doesn't work. You know, we're going to pay for this room. If you please send somebody up there, we'll be thank you.

Thank you. I'm nice about it.

They're going to say, oh, you're humble. Don't say anything about it. Just endure it.

Why? I'm paying for service here. It's not a matter that I'm working on a taskmaster. I'm under a taskmaster.

So humility is a choice to be humble.

The Roman world would never automatically, by themselves, be humble.

People were humbled when they were sent to the dungeon, when they were taken and whipped.

They weren't humbled by themselves.

Partly points that out in his daily Bible study series. Humility was not known.

But Christians brought it into the world.

What do they say? Humble yourselves.

Humble yourselves. Humble yourselves.

I mean, humble yourselves. Oh, give yourself back.

Oh, don't have to be first at everything. Do you have to take... I know, my eyes automatically squat. Somebody passes around to bake potatoes. Here, why don't you have a baked potato? My eye automatically goes quickly, sifts through them.

And my eye sees the biggest one.

They're offering me to take whatever I want, and then I have to say to myself, leave that for someone else.

I was like, oh, I get it. Same way with pies. Three or four pies, these are the pies. What does my eye do?

Who knows which one's the biggest, the most?

And what do I have to say if I'm humble?

Leave it for somebody else.

Now, humility doesn't say you should always try to be mediocre. You should try to be the best you can be. Because you don't get to be the best by climbing over somebody else and putting them down.

You'd be the best you could be by developing you.

And there's a time to step back.

There's the time to restrain yourself, to pull the reins back, say, whoa, dear.

That's what we have to do.

That's humility. I'm going to read you what Ben Franklin said. It's a wonderful quote. I've used it in a sermon I gave on Micah 6, verse 8 here. It was God requiring you. I'm going to read it to you. Ben Franklin visited Cotton Mather. Cotton Mather lived in 1663 to 1728. So I think this was somewhere in the early 1700s.

Cotton Mather was an old, conservative, Puritan minister.

They both then loved books, and they visited Mather's library.

Before they left, Mather said to Ben Franklin, I have another way out. It's easier than having to wander through the house. Followed me. So he took him through a tunnel. They were walking along, walking along, and then all of a sudden, Cotton Mather said, student, student. And Ben Franklin didn't know what he meant, and boom, it is Ben.

Hello, hey. Up the missing-looking area. And then they came out of the other end, and the person said, Mather never lost an opportunity to be able to teach something. So he said, you are young, and you have the world before you. Stoop as you go through it. You will miss many hard thumbs.

Student, lower yourself. Not all the time. Somebody needs a volunteer to do something, and you can do it. False modesty? No, we're not talking about false modesty. Somebody asked me a question, and I can do it. Can I do it? Mom, I'm going for a good day. I can do the job. Again, I'm not... How long do you want me to take? How much time will you give me to do it?

I'll do it in five. If you want me to do it, just look at a promise. I'll do it in a... Just a touch here and there. So I can ask for the parameters. They want me to do a job. So, this doesn't mean you don't volunteer for things. It doesn't mean you don't have to give other people a chance to... The only way I thought was to be first... I've seen men struggle with something. Nobody will offer to give them a glass of water. I sit and I watch.

I sit and I watch. Okay, I'm not doing this.

Am I vain? No. I know that somebody has a problem and I try to fulfill it. But I don't jump right away because I give somebody else a chance to do it. But I don't wait long.

So again, it's a good lesson as you go through life. Stute. Stute. And I thought literally, yeah, just do it. Walk the room.

I did that too, funny. Okay, so that's point number one. Be like a little child. Be humble. Humble yourself. Humble yourself is something really important to do. That means you're looking up at God. You're deliberately looking up. And how... Why would it be impossible to humble ourselves in the sight of God who created everything?

If you muse for a moment and say, how did he make that, how did he do that? You are shocked and amazed. That God's design and how he made everything so right. When we get there. Alright, point number two. Point number two we can notice is that of hopelessness. Children sometimes are blunt. Sometimes they blurted out. Like, what's that, egg? Look at that beautiful face.

Look at the beautiful pagan symbols. They're abominations. Christmas tree. What is that? My daughter would go to school and say, we know my granddaughter, Samantha. She'd say, look at that. What does a fat man dressed in red have to do with Christ, Jesus Christ? What does a chocolate-covered bunny, an Easter egg, have to do with Jesus Christ?

Sometimes they blurted that out to the fellow. So my daughter, Susie, someday was accusing her because they heard, what's your nationality? Well, my dad was Syrian. Oh, you hate the Jews. And then she said, well, my mom was German. They killed the Jews. German is Syrian. German is Syrian. She hated them and killed them. She's a little girl. Eight years old. Nine years old. Oh, you're a Jew hater. You're an Arab. Oh, you're German. Who killed the Jews. What do you do? She was output. She was blood. And children sometimes blurted them out. Why? They don't know any better.

We always warned our kids when we took them visiting with us. Now be careful. Don't say stuff. You know the truth. Be good. Sometimes you should be teaching them to be good all the time. We're going in here, now be good. Well, why don't you say, feel like you are all the time. Now they are always good. Be reminded. So openness is something very good. First Samuel 2. First Samuel 2.

And this is verses 11, 18, 21, and 26. I'll read this from the Bible because it was not fighting. Get through that too fast. I don't even have to read. Samuel was taken at three years old at whatever age he was, finished reading, nursing. And I do know of children even in my generation whose mothers nursed them where the boy could walk up to the mother, unbutton their blouse, and nurse, standing. So they have been three years older. But she dedicated Samuel. So he went and he goes with Eli.

I asked him, doing little things, empty the garbage, or I go take this candle in there so we can light it later, or whatever. Whatever he did. And every year his mom bought him a bigger log, a log room coat, you know, so his little log. And Samuel then was lying in bed and he heard a voice.

And he thought it was Eli calling him his I3s. And he ran in and said, here I am. And he said, what, what? I heard you call me. No, I didn't call you. Go back to bed. You're calling him a dream. We went back to bed. Then he heard him again, Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel went running into Eli. I said, you did call me this time. No, I didn't call you. Then after the third time he did it, then Eli said, listen, does it to God.

And God told him what's going to happen to Eli and his sons. And I'm going to choose you to take Eli's place. That probably was over in the three at this time. But not a lot. Only 8, 10, 12 years old. And as a kid, he's humble enough to do the job. He told Eli what happened. And he was open in the lungs. We need to be open to, in fact, the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians.

This is what I will read. This is not openness. Like children are. 2 Corinthians 6, verses 11-13. I'm reading it out of the paraphrase version. 2 Corinthians, we have spoken openly to you. Our heart is wide open. We're open books. What do I have to hide? If I've sinned, I tell God I'm sorry. And he forgives me. What am I hiding? You don't have to hide.

Children don't hide. They're open. Mom, can I have that? Mom, can I have this? Mom, can I... They're open, aren't they? Unless you don't let them be, what do we use to teach children? Children should not speak unless they're spoken to. Really? The Son of God was 12 years old. He was sitting in a temple or in a meeting with doctors of the law and asking them questions. He didn't say he was answering them. He was asking them and answering them.

The children need to be taught not to butt in. But they have a question, raise their hands. Yes, they can be open. They should be. They have spoken openly to you. Our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. Now, in return for the same, he says, I speak as to children. You also be open. Open your heart and open yourself to us. Let us in. Christians need to be open. They need to be playing the game or hiding. What is the best word I could say? What's the greatest word?

How can I say this word or that word? To open this is very, very important. I'll read this from the children's letters to God. This is just a beautiful one, too. Children's letters to God. Dear God, what a child writing now. Dear God, my father said kids is the best time in life.

Tell me, please tell him, what good is it if we never get to stay up and watch anything? Very open. Very willing to share her heart and her feelings. Let's look at point number three. So be open. Be an open book. Don't be closed off. That doesn't mean you blab everything.

That doesn't mean you have to tell everything about your life. That doesn't mean if you did something wrong two years ago that you have to bring it up. No. You've got to put it under the blood of Jesus Christ. It's gone. You're not sinners anymore, brethren. You sin. I sin. I'm not a sinner. Why? I was buried with Jesus Christ. He gave his life for me and he gave his life for you.

And you died that baptism. You know what died? Your old man. Who was the old man? The sinner. He didn't care. You care. And when you sinned, you got the sacrifice of Jesus Christ through grace to cover you. You don't have to be a sinner. Do people sin? Yes. What do I see a sinner is? One who practices sin. I don't practice sin. I practice righteousness. Sometimes I sit and stop. And God forgives me and I sin.

But I'm not a sinner. So you call me that. You are demeaning me and saying, Carrie Antin, you really were not really baptized. Please know that. Don't put that on people. I know some people do. Some don't like to feel like they're sinners all the time. You're not a sinner. Unless you're practicing sin. If you're practicing it, you're a sinner. You're not practicing it.

You stumble from time to time. Maybe even in the same sin from time to time. You're trying to fight it. I remember Mr. Armstrong saying, God has been finished with me yet because there are some things that I have not yet learned. I've not learned some things. He's given me time to learn that. Not finished with me yet. But would he say he's a sinner? Not unless he's practicing it. Number three. Number three. Children are simplistic and teachable. Children are so anxious to learn on like a sponge, sopping up water.

Soaking up water. Are you? Do you like them? They're simplistic. They don't want you to give them some Einstein theory of relativity. They don't want you to display your physics learning to them. What that takes this physical. You learn all these different physics formulas that you use. They want you to give them the plain truth which we used to call our magazine. So again, simplistic.

Simplicity. 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2 and verse 2. Peter wrote this, As newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereof. As a newborn babe. As a newborn babe, crave milk? Yeah. You know my daughter Jan, the designer, my wife. My daughter Jan, when she was born, was a big baby because my wife was overdue. And my wife's mother's milk, because she had had epilepsy, and was totally cured now, at least as far as for medication. It keeps you from having a seizure like God. And God evolved too, but this medication we take too. But when back in those days she weren't taking it.

She had had a seizure for a long time, and then drained her. Maybe the quality of the milk wasn't as strong as it ought to be. And my daughter Jan would cry and cry and cry. Finally we thought that we were rather than God. Not formula. We don't follow that was not a good thing either, but we did. And she would gulp down that bottle really fast and be content.

And when my kids were little, they had such a... I read, tell them about the Bible. They learned! I talk about these stories in the Bible. And I'm going to give them a bath. I talk about Noah and the Ark. How some...some of the animals, a little late thing, they had plastic.

They would have them in their wisdom. And you madly put these animals on this little raft. And look, they stay safe, but all the other ones would drown, they'd say, Andrew. And they got to learn. But who is God? God is big. God is huge. God is big. He's a big guy. He's a giant. How do you explain to little kids? They soaked it up. They loved some of the people of the Bible.

They loved Jacob and Esau's story. They loved Joseph's story. Help them to love the Bible. Teach them. And they'll soak it up like anything that we teach them. Are we simplistic? Do we want something complicated? Give me the complicated stuff! Matthew 11, verse 25. Matthew 11, verse 25, we read this. At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.

That Greek word there, revealed, it's Nephios, it's 35-16. It means children and infants. Children and infants. And little children that sometimes grasp things that adults who are complicated can't. So what did Paul say he did in 1 Corinthians? He thought 1-12. He said he thought with simplicity. I'm not trying to impress you with... I only refer to the Greek because it gives the fullness of it. I'm not trying to impress you with the Greek. You speak Greek? I don't speak Greek, but I did have a whole year of Greek ambassadors.

But I'm not a novice at it. But I do understand enough to be able to look into Mexicans and get the meaning. Nephios. And it has to do with being like a child. Or even an infant. Babies don't really understand them, they're coming out of babywood. They wish. So are we simplistic and teachable? We ought to complicate these things. I do 1 ministry, all he did was complicate a simple matter, then come back and uncomplicate it. That's marvelous! What a great thing! If he'd given them a simplistic version to start with, he wouldn't have had to do that. He took a simple subject, complicated it, then he came back and simplified it again.

My job is not to complicate things. Why would I want to do it for you? So again, simplistic and teachable. Are you teaching? You say, show me, God, show me thy ways, or do you ask him to teach you? Very important for us to ask God to teach us. Number four is forgiving and loving. Forgiving and loving. I remember our daughter saying to me, I hate this girl! You shouldn't hate this girl. She's been your friend all this time.

I hate her! I hate her! She says, you should not hate this girl. Next day they came back, I was playing with so-and-so. I thought you said you hated her, but I was yesterday. I don't hate her enough. And you think this big giant of a man or mom takes a paddle and paddles that little child on the backside. And by the way, paddling doesn't always drive making the kid lovable.

You want your kids to be lovable? Spank them all the time! You know what they learn? Hardness. You know what they learn? They punch people up and they get older. They're under-placed in discipline. I'm not saying be lackadaisical in terms of training. We train our children. We teach them. Kind of helpful. If we have to impose our belly, make them sit on the sofa for a while. Pull your heels. No, you're not going to watch TV here. No, you don't get to play with your favorite toy, girl.

Some people make it so comfortable. I'd like to go in the timeout with those people. If you sit on the sofa, here's your favorite food, here's your favorite toy. Here, go turn on the TV. Why? That's a penalty? Does they have to sit for a little while?

That's the only thing? Restrict their activity? You don't want to make them painful. You want always... You have to make it... The penalty fit the crime. Remember one little girl. She was about eight years old. She loved me afterwards because she was a trainee in that area. I watched. This little girl was reaching for something at the table. We were having breakfast with her folks because my wife and I went over there and worked all day long. He administered. His wife asked us to have breakfast. We were sitting there, and the children were having breakfast.

Probably 10-30 late breakfast because we were working already. Anyway, we sat down with them. The girl reached for something, accidentally docked over her orange juice.

We then took her upstairs, and I could hear thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump. She was irritating me inside because I had so many thumps. I didn't have any children, but... Something. Now, what would you do to a child if they stole, if they lied, broke one of the tomatoes, if they lied, broke one of the commandments? What would you do to them? In order to make that penalty more severe, you'd almost have to lash them with whips or kill them.

So, yeah, make the penalty fit to crime. We used to have... How many? Garner Center Armstrong was trying to reverse what Dr. Seuss was saying. There was so much liberality with children. But beating them all the time doesn't make a level more child. It has to fit the brand. There are times when you have to spank. Those should be limited to really important matters. Serious infractions. I grew up with that. I grew up with that. It was our child during the booklet. It was going to be a good ministry to spank your kids.

Some ministers who adopted two kids, I remember, they would send their... They would get one of the deacons to battle. So the mom didn't have to leave the church or leave the marriage. If that child had misbehaved, the deacon took them out and spanked them. That's not the way you do it. It's not the way you do it. The children could be spanking. You know what they do?

A few hours later, a short time later, they come and they call when they're rapping. Probably the most tender moment with our children was when they were crying. I mean, I laughed. Look me in the eye, in the face, and say, Dad, I love you.

Not because I made them. It's because they did. It's my wife, too. I remember sitting on my dad's lap when I was a little boy. I remember looking at him, blaming his chin. He had a cleft chin. I always put a cushion together with like a bare backside, you know, when I was in the house. I love a bare backside. On your chin! And I would look at, and I would stroke his face. He smoked at that time, so later on my mother wanted him to smoke. Mom, what are you doing? You're a finger husband! Anyway, she wanted... So he did that so he could look cool for her.

He would blow a smoke ring, and I would put my finger in it. Now, I probably had a lot of congestion the years to come afterwards because I wanted to smoke. He quit smoking afterwards on his own strength. He quit. But not before I was growing up in the room. I remember him loving to be around you. And it's important. Little kids can melt your heart. They're loving, they're kind, and they're forgiving. 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 20. We read this, Brethren, do not be children. Do not be children in understanding.

However, in malice, in deciding whether you want to do somebody's arm or not, be based. But in understanding, be mature. So we should be like children, and not hold grudges, and not try to punish other people. 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 20. Galatians, Paul wrote, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another. That's to us. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, you also must do so. But above all things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection.

We have to be forgiving and loving, too. I'll zoom through the next two. Number five, fifth grade is dreamers. Children are dreamers. One little boy would say, My dad is buying me a horse from my backyard. Oh, really? Would your horse... Yes, I have a horse. Do you destroy that kid's dream? It's a dream. It's a dream. It's a hope. But for them, it's like reality. They think about beautiful things. They can dream about, but as Christians, we need the dream, too.

Our dream should be in a beautiful kingdom. Our dream should be in the peace that God gives. Our dream should be in a time that all people can understand and walk with God. Our dream should be when everybody accepts the true Jesus Christ and on a false one that's been put off on the world that makes them feel good if they're Christians. Are you a dreamer? What did you want to do? I'll read it to you. I missed the one on Forgiving Love. Listen to this one from children's letters to God. Dear God, I know it says, turn the other cheek.

But what if your sister hit you on the eye? Love, Teresa. And here's the one on dreamers. Dear God, I want to be an inventor. But I don't know what to invent.

So again, we want to be dreamers. We want to think of the future. 1 Corinthians 13 and 11 talks about, we should believe all things and hope all things. And verse 11 of 1 Corinthians 13, verse 11 tells us, When I was a child, this is dreaming, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, what do children do? They think. They think future. I would like to have this. I'm trying to get a shiny new bicycle. They dream. We also need to keep alive the wonderful vision of the kingdom of God in our hearts and minds.

1 Corinthians 13, he says, Forgiving one another in Quran. Okay, that's that one. Dreaming. 11 and 13, I'm not going to do it. He talks about the heroes of faith and what did they do? They saw the kingdom afar off, and they embraced a dream. Though they never saw it, they will be there, because they dream. You too should dream. 6. Enthusiasm, enthusiastic and playful. Children, and by the way, it's not wrong for you to play, you should have some fun.

You should have some relaxation. You should have some refreshment in your life. Don't be all work. Don't be so busy from the morning till dusk, from pillar to post. Don't be so diligent in your own self that you don't give yourself some relaxation. Even in some of my busiest times, we would come home at night, late at night, late at night, I mean late, late enough to watch basketball in California at night because I had the direct TV so I could throw it in, and sit and relax for a little while and watch a game before I got it out.

I had the done though. I've been busy all day, all day, and I had the unwind. It's important for you to know, and to be able to do that. Children know how to play. You know, it's not wrong to play. We all say, Jesus Christ is a man of sorrows. We should be sorrowful all the time. We should be sad. We should be miserable. You know what the Bible says? Hebrews 1.9. Hebrews 1.9. It's beautiful.

You have loved righteousness, speaking of the Son of God, and hated lawlessness. Therefore God, your God, as anointed you, was what? The oil of misery.

The oil of gladness. Hebrews 1.9. More than your companions. So we don't know that Jesus came up with His disciples and sang this. He did tell them one time. Come aside with me. Come aside with me. And relax and rest. I don't know if they played volleyball or did fishing at that moment. Of course, the disciples did go fishing. And Jesus didn't know how to catch them, did He? He knew exactly where they were. They would have been no fun to hang with Jesus because He didn't want to do it so well. But the point being, I believe Jesus had some fun with the disciples. They don't tell us about them. They did sing a song after Him. They all went out and sang it. And when they gathered together at Gethsemane beforehand, before He made this prayer, did they have any fun together? Did they ever have fun together? Probably in the oil of Latin. He went and said, He was a man of sorrows. You should be miserable all the time. Some of the early years in our ministry, there were men who thought they ate more than one meal a day. They were really not doing their thing. They thought, how about you get drained? You don't have some refreshment, some refreshment. A lost. They got a good night's sleep. There's something wrong with you. You know what? When I give God myself, I'm going to give Him a sharp pencil, not a dull one. If I'm missing sleep regularly, I'll miss it for anybody that needs me. I'll miss it. I've done that plenty of times. Emergency-wise. That's not the usual.

If you're an instrument of God, give Him a sharp, ready instrument, not a dull one. So again, playfulness and enthusiasm. Enthusiasm. You had Josiah in 2 Kings 22, verses 1 and 2. 2 Kings 22, verses 1 and 2. When Josiah was 8 years old, he was 8 years old when he became king. Some of the 18-8 year olds we have back there, how would they like to be king of the whole country? Eight years old! What did he do? He reigned 31 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jededah, the daughter of Aniah, Aniah, of Bose, Both, Bose Toth. His mother's name talks about Jededah. He did what was right in the sight of the world, eight years old. I'm sure he had advisors. I'm sure he said, teach me, show me how. Josiah was a great king. One of the most memorable ones in Jewish history. He walked in all the ways of his father David. He did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. That's enthusiasm. As God says about us, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might. If you don't know how to do it with your might, ask a question. I have seen song eaters get up, they have no idea what they're doing. I'll hear. Thank you, Mr. Gabbard. And Mr. Dickon. So the guys don't. The guys lead three to four the whole time, do four to four songs. They have no clue. Did they ever ask, when they were asked to do song leading, I'm sorry, how do I do this? Is there something I could learn, someplace I could learn? Do I practice it the night before? Is this just, he threw a dog a bone? Do I don't want this guy to feel left out? What can we do? Oh, I'm going to give a sermon. That's not a real good speaker. What's this from? The song leader is the emcee for the entire services. He's the first person officially that anybody sees when they come to church. Should he just be so... Let's just throw him something. There's some casual response. Does he not believe, if he doesn't, does he learn? If you're given a job to do, you don't feel like you can do it. You should say, hey, how do I do this? Or I need to learn. It really is important for you, and for the sake of the church. So again, enthusiasm. And that's awesome to be enthusiastic, because God loves that. He's nine-ten. Do whatever you do with your might. Every bit of fiber you can pray with all your might. Play with all your might, too. Play hard. Work hard. Serve hard. Be enthusiastic about whatever you do. Some of us are older. I can't jump around the way I used to. I used every... Where I went, I went fast. I did not go slowly. I did not run over people. But I moved rapidly, because I see people going through walls, fucking so fast. I used to do that. I don't anymore. I would like to. If I might, I'd like to, but I don't. Number seven. Let me read number six from children's letters to God.

Enthusiasm. Dear God, I made 25 cents out of lemonade. I will give you some of it on Sunday. It's an appointment gift, so it was 25 cents. That's a huge offer, right? But anyway, he's enthusiastic about it. I made 25 cents selling lemonade. I will give you some of it on Sunday. I will give you some of it on Sunday. Number seven. Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm. David was telling the story. So I had these sheep out in the field, and I was supposed to watch them and be careful with them, care for them. And there came a bear, and I grabbed that bear and I chased it off. And there came a lion, and I grabbed that, and I beat that guy, and that went off. I'm not afraid of this giant. I'll get on and fight him because he's defying the armies of the living God. And the God who delivered me from the bear and from the lion. I've seen lions and bears, but they didn't do on some of the videos and reels that I see on TV. They're pretty ferocious animals. The lion is not king. He's called king in the jungle for no reason. And bears who run pretty fast for those w-l-r-eachers are coming big reachers.

So again, believing, he said, I can do this. Send me out. I'll do it. Words of David, he spoke when he heard these things, verse 31, verse 33. Saul said that David, you are not able to go against this. If I didn't, you are. I use. See, David wasn't even old enough to be in the army, right? He wasn't even 16. He wasn't even old enough. He said, I'll go fight him. He was bringing stuff supplies to his brothers who were in the army. So this guy taunting everybody. What's this guy doing running up and down? He said, the Lord delivered me, then delivered me from the palm, the lion, the big palm. Verse 36, he will deliver me from the hand of this fool. Children have a simple belief. If you teach them, and it comes from somebody who's authentic, such as their parents or others, they will listen to you and learn. I'll read this final one from the teachable. Sorry to leave you. It's the last one I'm leaving. Dear God, how do you feel about people who don't believe in you? Somebody else wants to know, a friend. As children's understanding a lot. Children can be beautiful, and children's angry, and children have a lot of traits and examples that we could follow. Again, Jesus Christ said in Matthew 18, verse 6, Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin could be better for him if a meal-stover hung upon his neck. We were drowned in the depths of the sea. One of these little ones who believe in me, that word, little one, is the Greek word, micron. It means little ones. Sometimes children can believe. Sometimes children have it regularly. My daughter, Jan, she gets so bad at night that dad can you annoy me? I don't think I can go to school tomorrow morning. I don't know. The next day, she was up and around ready to go. She did have a fever. Good left. Some people, some kids, God looks after them and takes care of them. They have an open, fresh belief, and simplistic enough. Now I'd like you to listen to a song as I wrap up this sermon. I'm sorry I'm taking you ten minutes, twenty minutes over time. Please forgive me. I'll try not to lose you again. But play a song by Michael, one of the young ambassadors, called Like Little Children. Listen to it.

Then with his ten-side, a little child's ride, listen back what made your love so hard. Then as the years went by, you must remember us too, and now you think back for a while. You see, all in one, you've had so much beauty, and remember the bright sun's full-time. If only we could become a future man, and learn to settle right, may your love be with me, and then all the problems in this old trouble. Just might live a little longer, with their faith a little stronger, and smile just like their little voice can. So many times, your destiny seems with problems that you cannot understand. While leaders will not speak, for sake of a one's fate, their children walk together every day. So let's look now to children, and may they help us to evolve. The child might still wait, but we knew yesterday, it's something we can learn from them now. If only we could become a future man, and learn to settle right, may your love be with me, and then all the problems in this old trouble. Just might live a little longer, with their faith a little stronger, and smile just like their little voice can. If only we could become a future man, and learn to settle right, may your love be with me, then all the problems in this old trouble. Just might live a little longer, with their faith a little stronger, and smile just like their little voice can.

I hope you enjoyed that one. Mike Hale sang that for me one time at the feast, or whatever, when I gave a sermon similar to this one. He also granted me permission to use this. He's a young ambassador who wants to available anyway. I did in the courtesy, since he was the main vocalist, back up from the young ambassadors.

That does express pretty much my sermon. So I could have played at the beginning, then not given the sermon. That's what I should have done. Alright. In conclusion, do you remember Saul? When Israel looked for a first king, what did they look for? Somebody who was tall, strong, impressive? And what did Saul say when they went to choose him?

He said, me? I'm from the littlest tribe. Why would you ever pick me? They said, you're the one that God wants to represent all of Israel. You're the king of Israel, Saul. First king.

What happened to Saul?

He forgot to be a child.

And he treaded into the priest's role, often sacrifices, not listening to God, not following him. So 1 Samuel 15, 17. When Samuel, who loved him and had to ordain him and had to try to keep him out of the picture, you know, from the standpoint of being king, came again. 1 Samuel 15, 17, my final scripture. Samuel said, when you were little in your own eyes, were you not made head of the tribes of Israel, and did not anoint you, a thoughtful Lord, anoint you king of Israel?

Brethren, if we can learn from the children, we can learn to be little in our own eyes. God will make us not only king of Israel, but the help of his kings and priests in the wonderful world tomorrow.