Lessons from Little Children

Well, as Brian mentioned, we want to continue to pray for those here locally that are not able to be here today, Karen and Carol, and of course Tom and Donna, and I hope all our family are well and able to be there in St. Louis today. And as we mentioned, overall, as far as many of our congregations today are having a blessing of little children. And I guess what I want to discuss with us today is just, it's wonderful to have small children in our congregation.

It's wonderful to have families, to have children, and yet, as we've had mentioned, growing up in this world is not easy. There are many obstacles. There are many things you would like to protect young people from, and yet in many ways, there's only so much you can do. And clearly, when we're asking God for a blessing and for protection or for keeping you, that almost is asking for something that is clearly beyond our ability, and we're wanting God to involve Himself in helping us as we struggle through what we could describe as the worsening end of this age.

How exactly bad it will get, we're yet to see. Clearly, the book of Revelation describes things being incredibly bad, and incredibly bad for the church. And so, you know, we want to be learning from the Word of God, and we want to be growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord. And I think it's good for us to think of the fact, all of us, or at least many of us except for three. Now I'm having to guess how old everybody is.

Most of us are adults, and we've been adults for a long time. I'm 67 now. I still think of myself as being, well, I used to think of myself as being 25. Now I think of myself being more like 40. But I don't feel like 40 anymore. I feel worse than that. But that's okay. I mean, sometimes we have things that we need to do, and things that we can do that help us.

And yet all of us, obviously, are getting older, and yet it's a very good thing to think about ourselves as little children. We may not immediately think of ourselves like a little child, but that's the way God not only thinks of us as His children, whenever He talks about bringing many sons and daughters to glory, He's talking about expanding His divine family, and because of the elder brother, because of the captain of our salvation, because of what He has done in redeeming us from death, and what He can do and will do in our lives, then we can be glorified with Him.

And yet, there's a lot to learn from being viewed as a little child. In Matthew 19, you find Jesus. And as I know you all know, there are three different accounts in Matthew and Mark and Luke of little children being brought to Jesus. And in some ways, as adults, as parents, you've obviously got to pay attention to children, you've got to pay attention to your children, you've got to know what's going on, you've got to find out what's going on if you don't immediately know, you've got to try to help them, you've got to try to guide them and try to lead them.

And yet, in this case, here in Matthew 19, parents were bringing little children to Jesus. You know, they, in a sense, recognized this man is special. He can help us. He can help our children. I want us to read this, Matthew 19, verse 13. Little children were being brought to Jesus, brought to Him in order that He might lay His hands on them and pray. That, of course, is a pattern that we try to follow whenever we're having a blessing with little children, to have a prayer, to lay our hands on them, if you can.

That doesn't always work. Sometimes, children allow that, sometimes they don't. Sometimes, and usually if it's a tiny baby, it's very comforting to be able to pick up a little baby. And it was enjoyable, even at the feast here this year, to have several newer little kids. Actually, we've had, I guess, we had 15 or 17 in our choir and we had more than that there, as far as young children and even some very little ones that I think we mentioned from the stage.

A little guy named Malachi and a little guy named Isaac and another one named Ezra. Pretty biblical names there that these folks are picking for their children. And yet, I found some of the other names that some of those same families have are Sarah and Grace. You know, this is interesting that you have not only a biblical awareness, but you have a desire to name children that, you know, would connect with something in the Bible.

And yet, here in this case, obviously, these parents recognize something about coming to Jesus, asking Him to take care, in a sense, of these children and to lay His hands on them, pray for them. But, as you know, in verse 13, the disciples didn't look at it quite the same way.

The disciples spoke sternly to those folks who brought the children. So, exactly what they said, exactly what the disciples were thinking, I don't know. I'm sure they were thinking this is probably a bother to Jesus. This, you know, He's more important than these little children. He's got important things to do. You know, maybe one of the most important things was to try to teach the disciples what they needed to do and how they needed to view things.

But, clearly, they were shooing the children away. But Jesus said in verse 14, let the little children come to Me. And that, of course, may have several applications. That not only was He interested in them, not only did He love them, not only was He concerned about them. He was concerned about their parents. He was, of course, that's why He was here. He was here to provide redemption and to provide what would be needed for every human being. He understood it, whether they did or not. And yet He said, let these little children come to Me.

I'm not too busy for them. Let them come to Me and don't stop them. For it is to such as these that the kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven belongs. And so He was going to make a statement. I don't know that that statement was directly about the kids.

It was to the disciples or to the parents who were hearing, saying that, well, and we'll see this a little more when we go over to Mark. It is to such as these, such as these little children. How did He look on humanity? Well, He was a young man, I mean, 30 years old, I would assume, maybe even closer to 33 when this was recorded.

It's kind of later in the Gospels. And yet there would be people long younger than Him. There would be many people older than Him, but I think He looked at people as little children. If He looked at it from God's viewpoint, which clearly is what God does, our Father, to such as these is the kingdom of heaven, and He laid His hands on them. And He went on His way. Now that's a marvelous account, and yet it's one that has a great deal of meaning.

Let's go over to Mark 10. You can add a little bit to kind of what happened. You see Matthew recording it, you see Luke recording it in chapter 18. But here in Mark's account, in chapter 10, people were bringing, verse 13, people were bringing little children to Him in order that He might touch them, and the disciples spoke sternly to them.

Again, you would think they were wanting to be protective, wanting to be doing the right thing. But in verse 14, when Jesus saw that, He was indignant. So it wasn't just that He thought what they were doing was the wrong thing to do. He was somewhat upset. He was indignant and said to them, let the little children come to Me and do not stop them. For it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.

So that's pretty similar to what we see in Matthew. But He goes on to explain in verse 15, truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never be a part of the kingdom. So it's very clear from Jesus' standpoint that God views us as His children, His little children. He views us, He says, you need to view yourself as a little child, even if you're 60 or 70 or 80, even if we are fully adult, as far as physically.

Even Brad here, he's about 20. He's an adult, per se. He's not a little child, and yet God views all of us as His little children. So He says in verse 15, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will not enter it. And so He took them up in His arms and He laid His hands on them and He blessed them. Again, the pattern for what we do as we have a service or a ceremony in the church, asking God to bless our children and bless our families and bless our parents in working with those children. So what did Jesus, verse 15 primarily, what did Jesus really want us to learn about being a Christian? Well, He said being a Christian is like in some ways understanding that we are a little child. A little child in the eyes of God, a little child that needs help. Even though as an adult, we often feel quite independent.

And we are. I mean, in many ways, physically, clearly we are independent. We get up, we go around, we do what we want, we go where we'd like. And yet, He said, there's a benefit to viewing yourself from God's standpoint. Viewing yourself as a little child, a child that needs help. A child, as my wife wrote the other day to someone she was corresponding with, you know, we'd like to help our kids or our even kids as they grow up. They're all still kids, whether they're 30 or 40. We still look at them as kids. Certainly mothers look at them as kids.

And yet, they ultimately grow up and are away and on their own and deciding things themselves. And you can't just, you know, kiss a boo-boo and make it go, hurt go away, which you'd want to do, which mothers certainly would be wanting to do, and fathers as well. And yet God, and Jesus in this case, wanted His disciples to know and for us to know that well, becoming like a little child, at least certain ways of a little child, are extremely important. If we're going to be in the kingdom of God, if we're going to be a part of that divine family in subjection to the Father and His Son, and we're always going to be under the supervision of the Son, that's never going to change. The Father is clearly going to continue to be in that role. But what we see Jesus doing in this case, clearly different from His disciples, was that He had a great deal of love, He had a great deal of concern, He wasn't too busy, He wasn't overly stressed over whatever His task was that day. Sometimes we get that way.

Certainly I do, at times, if I think there's more that I need to do than what I'm getting done here.

So you don't see Jesus suffering in that way, but He had a deep concern and great love and an appreciation for the children that were brought to Him. I want us to back up to Matthew again.

Because in Matthew 18 you see part of why Jesus would do what He did. Not only was He concerned about, wanted to pray for, wanted to help, wanted to protect, wanted to extend grace, wanted to give peace to the children that were brought to Him.

He says in Matthew 18, He gives several different descriptions here that need to be thought about from our standpoint. Because it says in chapter 18 of Matthew, verse 1, at the time the disciples came to Jesus and wanted to know who's the greatest in the kingdom of God. This seems to be kingdom of heaven when we're reading Matthew here. It's the same thing. He alternates back and forth at times. Matthew 6, 33, particularly, you know, we're all probably can quote that. He says kingdom of God there. You know, He's still talking about the kingdom that Christ is going to set up and establish when He returns to the earth. And so they're concerned about who's going to be in charge, who's going to be the greatest, who's going to be given favor. Pretty human aspirations, I would guess.

Somewhat carnal aspirations because, as they'll later be told, you know, this is not something you ought to be arguing about. You ought to just simply follow my example. That's what He's going to tell them eventually. But in verse 2, in answer to the question, who's the greatest in the kingdom of God? He called a child and He set that child among them. So I don't know how old that child was. I don't know, you know, who exactly this was. I don't know if it was probably it was someone who was walking around, maybe a little boy, maybe a little girl. It doesn't really even say.

He called a child, put that child among them, and said, truly, I tell you, unless you change, unless you are converted. And so here He's pointing out directly what He wants them to understand. Unless you are converted, you make changes that would involve conversion.

And unless you become like children in that regard, then you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. So He's tying that together with what we read in chapter 19 and then in Mark and Luke. He's talking about what we can learn. And there are, and I'm not going to go through all the different lessons that we can learn, you know, there are different things that we can learn from just working with children. And some of those would be humility, some of those would be obedience, some of those would be trust, some of those would be even a short memory. I've got one. I've got one.

I don't remember much anymore. Used to be able to remember more. But there is a way of thinking about a short memory that I think you could tie together with a child that is beneficial. It's beneficial in that it causes us to be converted and causes us to grow in the change that God really wants for us. So He says, truly I tell you, unless you are converted and become like little children or like children, then you will not enter the kingdom of God. So it's important to learn those qualities, to be aware of them. And so He's pointing out here, obviously, the need to be converted. That's clearly what Peter proclaimed in Acts 2. In Acts 2, Peter told those who came to him after they realized their need for God. See, in Acts 2 you see a calling. You see a recognition of how we just sinned. We fall short of the glory of God. In fact, it was they just killed Jesus Christ. They understood that too. They understood the fact that their sins, whatever they were, put them in a very bad position. And of course, as they came to Peter in Acts 2, 37, I think it is, what do we do? I mean, we're sunk. We don't have any hope. We're goners. He says, oh no, God has a plan. God has a plan. Verse 38, repent. Just change. Be willing to change. Be subject to change. Be interested in changing. God has already brought about a softening of your heart because that's what had begun. You know, they came to Peter just in exasperation. They were aware of the enormity of their sin. And so he said, well, repent. Be baptized. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And then, you know, he goes ahead and elaborates on that more throughout other places. So that that's kind of a brief summary of what everybody needs to do. And yet, see, God had brought about a little child's heart in those people. A recognition of where they were brought. A recognition of where they sinned. And sometimes we see that in our children who are often far more dependent, far more in need of their parent than we feel as adults, mature, independent, secure in our own decisions. But see, being converted involves that kind of a change of heart. You even see that described whenever God is talking about bringing about the change in other people's lives in the future. He says, I'm going to ultimately give you a new spirit. I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit. I'm going to give you something that you need. You don't even know you need, but you do need it to relate to me. But he also says, I'm going to give you a new heart. I'm going to give you a different heart. I'm going to give you a softened heart, maybe a child's heart, as far as being willing or able to be taught, to be guided, to be instructed. In Philippians chapter 2, connection with this conversion that we're discussing, as Jesus is saying that the disciples needed to learn, you know, if you don't become like this little child, then you're not learning the things that you need to learn to be in the kingdom of God.

And so in Philippians 2, of course, this is an incredible chapter that, again, we should be familiar with. It has a remarkable description of our elder brother and what he was willing to do to help us at the direction of his father.

But what I want to read is in chapter 2, verse 12, therefore, beloved, because of what Jesus Christ has done for us, therefore, beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now here Paul was directing this to the people of Philippi, people who he knew, people that he was acquainted with, people who he had started the church as far as had gone to Philippi and had worked with those who made up what would be called the church in Philippi and the church that potentially would grow, a church who seemed to be in many ways learning the things of God and helping spread the gospel and even supporting Paul. That's what he says that they were doing.

And he says, nobody else did it like you did. And so here he says, you know, you need to work out your own salvation, or that's exactly what he says. But he goes ahead to say in verse 13, how that occurs is that it is God who is at work in you. See, the process of conversion is one that God begins and that we participate in and that we grow in and we seek the outcome, we seek the eternal life that God is offering. But he says in verse 13, it is God who is at work in you. God is the one who continues to work with our heart. He's the one who continues to give us understanding. He continues to grant us forgiveness. He continues to cause us to grow. And so he says, do all things in verse 14 without murmuring, without arguing, so that you may be blameless and innocent children of God, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation in which you should shine like stars in the world. See, here he's tying it back together with being little children, being innocent little children, as God is performing the miracle of conversion, because that's what it is. It's not something, you know, that I began or that you began. It's something God began by drawing us to Jesus Christ. Then from then on, we are subject to Him and we are going to be growing. Actually, if you back up to chapter 1, you see, again, as Paul was telling them and what his prayer was for the people there at Philippi about their Christian development, about their growth, and becoming like innocent little children in the eyes and hands of God, I thank my God in verse 3 every time I remember you, constantly praying for you or praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you because of your sharing in the Gospel. So they were engaged in doing the work, as we would describe it. They were filled with a desire to share the Gospel from the first day until now, and he says, I am confident of this in verse 6, that the one who began a good work in you, the one who began the transformation, the conversion process, the one who gave you a softened heart, a childlike heart, the one who gave you that, and the one who began the process of conversion, he says, I am confident that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. And he says, it's right for me to think this way about all of you, because you love me. You hold me in your heart. For all of you, he could say, all of us share in God's grace with me, both in what I'm going through, being imprisoned in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. See, Paul, I think, had a...he was very engaged with these adult little children. He was close to them in that he saw, yes, they're growing and they're productive and they're adults, but they understand that they are to be, as he said, there in chapter 2, innocent little children of God. And that, again, is what Jesus was saying. Unless you become like a little child, then how can we think we would be in the kingdom of God?

To go back to Matthew 18 again, as Jesus was speaking about Matthew chapter 18, we read in verse 3, unless you're converted and become like little children, you can't enter the kingdom. But in verse 4, whoever becomes humble, like this child is going to be the greatest in the kingdom of God.

And whoever welcomes one of these children in my name welcomes me.

See, he had actually a lot to tell the disciples, and there's a lot for him to cover even in a very short time here that he is speaking to them. But he's using an example. He's setting this little little child in front of them and saying, this is the example I want you to pursue if you are going to be in the kingdom. And of course, he identifies clearly, you know, what at least one of the qualities that you would want to grow in is that would be of humility.

And again, if we go back to Philippians, Philippians chapter 2, part that we didn't read earlier there in chapter 2 was how did Jesus, how did he know so much about humility? Well, he personified humility.

He actually would say in Matthew 11 that I am humble and I am lowly in spirit.

He said I'm, in a sense, lowly and the type of spirit that you want to follow.

But here in chapter 2, of course, we have a description of what Jesus was willing to do.

Having been with the Father for all eternity in the past, having existed from the beginning, it says, starting in verse 3, Paul says, do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit. Now those would, in a sense, be contrasted with what we should do and what we do should be out of humility.

So he says don't let yourself be ruled by your adult selfish ambition and conceit.

See, that's if we grow up in this world and if we're affected by Satan's deceptions.

That's why we are. Our nature acquires that type of outlook.

But he says don't do anything out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look to your own interest, or not only to your own interest, but to the interest of others. Let that same mind be in you, which was in Jesus Christ.

And then he starts describing, and of course, Philippians 2.5, it should be a verse that we've not only read over and over again, but one that is, in essence, the goal.

You know, if we're going to grow up to the fullness of the stature of Jesus Christ, then we're going to have to have the mind of Christ. Who, in verse 6, He was in the form of God.

Didn't regard equality with God as something to be clung to.

But he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave.

Being born in a human likeness and being found in a human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death, on a cross. And of course, in verse 9, it talks about how God has exalted Him above everything.

God has highly exalted Him, gave Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bend in heaven and earth, and under the earth and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of the glory of the Father. To hear you see the description of what Jesus was saying about seeking humility.

Since He was willing to come to the earth, He was willing to know what the plan is, He was willing to know what the outcome was going to be for His physical life.

He was willing to begin to start working with the family.

He was starting to work with the grouping of people who would become the little children who are converted and who are humble, like me, He could say.

Jesus clearly understood humility in that He was always in subjection to the will of the Father. That was what He agreed to do when He voluntarily came to the earth in the form of a human being.

And of course, if we tie this together with some other verses, you know, here in Colossians, I would say that the Colossians were struggling a little more than the Philippians, being as far as different cities, different areas of the country, one being in the middle of Turkey and the other being up into Greece, one being quite prominent as a city, perhaps, for Philippi, and the other being somewhat unknown. And actually, when you read Colossians, obviously they were struggling with a number of things, like we read about in Corinth. They struggled with a lot of things, maybe Colossians, people of Colossians, or of Colossae, I guess it is. Yeah. And, you know, here He says in chapter 3 of Colossians, verse 12 is, God's chosen ones holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion and with kindness and with humility and meekness and patience.

Bear with one another, verse 13, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other, just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. And so here, He covers a lot of material that you could stop and perhaps discuss or think about. But He says, above all, fold yourself with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

So He jumps from humility to kindness to compassion to caring and loving and all the other things here that you see described as what it would be to be a little child and to be humble like a little child, a little child that obviously needs help, a little child that needs parents, that needs the care and love of the parents.

And of course, that's the way God looks at us. He says in Matthew 5, verse 9, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

So here, Jesus has already mentioned, become like this little child, understand how much you need the Father and the Son, understand how much you need humility, understand how that's how we're going to attain the kingdom of God by those qualities. Let's go back to Matthew 18 again, because Jesus continues clearly this first section in Matthew 18 is what you see Jesus focusing on with this little child.

But here in Matthew 18, verse 1 through 5, he uses the child as an example of being converted and allowing God to work in our lives, seeking the humility of Jesus Christ.

But he goes on in verse 6, another point that he makes, he says, if any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a millstone were fastened around your neck and you're drowned in the depth of the sea. Oh, to the world because of stumbling blocks. Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but well to the ones through whom they come. You know, it would appear he may have been, he was still talking to his disciples, but probably there were others around and potentially others that he would later clearly identify as stumbling blocks, the Pharisees, the others who didn't want people to even believe in who Jesus was. But I think when we read verse 6 and 7, where he's talking about not to being a stumbling block to those who would be the little ones, as he describes here, he also says down in verse 10 about the little ones that would almost seem to imply spiritually those who would be new, those who would be coming to believe in Jesus Christ, coming to believe that He is the Son of God and so many of the things that, again, in many ways over many years, we might be more and more familiar with, whereas new people would not be. But he points out the importance of the example and the concern that we show for, you could say, little ones, certainly little children, but if we refer to that spiritually, that would be new Christians. People who are new, people who need to grow in a relationship with Jesus Christ. You actually find in Acts chapter 9, and Paul was, of course, notorious in his destruction of the church at one point in time. That was actually his past. That was pre-conversion. He was breathing out slaughterings against the church. He didn't want people who believed in Jesus Christ to expand. He wanted to make their life as miserable as possible, and you can read about that in the first part of the book of Acts, and of course, in chapter 7, the last part of it, and regarding Stephen, and when he was actually stoned and put to death, it says in chapter 7, actually in the first verse of chapter 8, Stephen had just been stoned, and Saul approved of this killing. What was he doing? Well, he was continuing to ravage the church, verse 2, or the latter part of verse 1, I guess it is, chapter 8, that day a severe persecution began against the church, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside. The devout man buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him, but Saul was continually out of his mind, ravaging the church by entering house after house and dragging off both men and women, committing them to prison. So clearly, Saul didn't have any concern at that point for Christians, and for who you might say would be new Christians or new individuals who were coming to faith in Jesus Christ. And in chapter 9, as you read the account of Saul becoming converted, he was going to go through this same process that he would write about.

He would write about telling people you need to become like the little children that Jesus described. But here it says, Saul, verse 1, breathing out threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked for letters to go to the synagogues of Damascus, so if he found any who were of that way, the way, men or women, and that he could bring them back bound. He could imprison them and take them in and bring them back to Jerusalem.

And as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him, and he fell to the ground, and he heard a voice saying, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

You know, he had a real wake-up call here. You know, Saul's life is never going to be the same again. He's going to become, you know, he had been, I guess you could say, in the Jewish world famous, and now he was going to become infamous. He was going to become the dregs that everyone hated before again later, and I think even in his work over the next 20 or 30 years, 30 years I would guess, that he was exalted or he was praised in much of the work that he would do, especially with new Christians. But he always could think back to what I've already done. What I was doing before I knew any better was that I was persecuting people who were coming to believe in Jesus Christ. Because as it says in verse 4, he says, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And he said, well, who are you, Lord? I'm Jesus, whom you're persecuting.

See, what do we see about Paul? What was he told there? He was out persecuting the church.

Jesus said, you're persecuting me by the actions that you have toward these Christians who in many ways had to be reasonably new. You know, because of the timing, this was somewhat new. And so he says, don't be a stumbling block to these little ones, as Jesus said in Matthew 18. See, finally, I'll point out in Matthew 18, Jesus drops down in verse 10, take care of that. You don't despise one of these little ones. And again, it appears he's still talking about this little child, but perhaps referring to them as a, you know, in these other cases, you know, maybe, you know, someone would be new. But he says, take care that you don't despise one of these little ones.

Now, why the disciples didn't, if they were hearing this, why they didn't know better than to shoo the kids away in the next chapter? I don't know. But he says, don't despise one of the little ones, for I tell you in heaven, their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven.

See, here he's describing a level of protection, a level of nurturing, a level of support, of care, of concern for, you could say, for little ones. But obviously, that's the same type of thing, that we not only would ask for our children that they would be protected from the evil in this world, that they would come to understand what God is wishing for them. But also, if you applied it to new people in the faith, which he could be referring to as well, that new people need a protection.

I think of that in several places with new people that God has brought into our congregations here or in Kansas City. They come into the church and they start learning and they're growing, and yet all their problems don't disappear. All the problems are still there. They still are going to be struggling with numerous things. And certainly, to be asking for God's protection, you know, if we go back, we read that in Numbers earlier, so I won't go to that. But here in Isaiah, now, excuse me, in Psalms 91, Psalms 91, you see even an account that Satan tried to use against Jesus whenever he was persecuting him or tempting him right at the beginning of his ministry.

But here in Psalm 91, starting in verse 9, now this whole psalm is about security. It's about being sheltered and protected by God. See how much we ask for that? Not only for ourselves, but for others. See, if we view ourselves as not needing that defense, then we're probably not going to be asking for it. We're not going to be asking for that refuge or that shelter.

And yet, if we look of ourselves as a little child, as we need God's protection, we need him to watch over us. Verse 1, you will live in the shelter of the Most High and abide in the shadow of the Almighty, and will say to your own, or say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust. See, that was a plea that could be given by David or any of the other writers of Psalms at that time. Verse 9, because you've made the Lord your refuge, because you've made the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you. Psalm 91, verse 10, no evil shall befall you, no scourge shall come up near your tent. He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways on their hands. They will bear you up and you will not dash your foot against a stone.

See, now obviously Satan was taking that out of context whenever he was telling Jesus, oh, you know, don't worry about it. You know, Jesus clearly knew he had God's protection.

And certainly when you read in Matthew 18 where he says, don't despise the little ones, because they have angelic protection, they have my help. And again, whether that would be little people or whether that would be new Christians, we could say, well, we don't want to despise them. And clearly Jesus said in verse 14 here of Matthew 18, and to go back there to finish up, Matthew 18, 14, so it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost. He wants people to be a part of his family. But as he taught about Christianity, he taught in a lot of different ways. He taught through parables, he taught through example, he taught through direct conflict at times. Sometimes he had to tell Peter, you're just completely wrong. He clearly showed James and John that, well, you're wrong too. I'm not calling down fire out of heaven because they didn't receive us. We're just going to go on to the other next village. There are a lot of different things that Jesus would do to teach. Yet one of those things, as we've read here in Matthew 18 and 19, was that he was teaching what it is to be a Christian through the example of a little child. And so I hope all of us, as we think about children, as we have a compassion for little people, little children, as we care for them, as we nurture them, is because in most ways they need us. They need help.

We want to think about that from the standpoint of what Jesus said. He said, you need to become like a little child. You need to seek conversion, you need to seek humility. We certainly don't want to be a stumbling block to those who would be little or new. And we don't want to despise.

The fact that Jesus tells us that we want to pray for the protection, the angelic protection, the spiritual protection that comes from a close relationship with our Heavenly Father. He's very interested in us. He wants us to grow. He wants us to learn from what Jesus has to tell us. And so as we do those things, and I think it's good that we're reminded every year of a very important factor in our becoming a part of the kingdom of God, and that would be to become like a little child.