Of Such is the Kingdom of God

Beautiful and appropriate, just makes me feel so good. I'm sure all of us, too, to have that particular song sung on this very special day when we have the blessing of little children. We'll hold to everyone who's on the webcast, also in different rooms, overflow rooms, which I'm not aware of where they all are, but I've heard about this room and that room, that people are hiding and watching the webcast.

Bev and I are very happy to now be living in the Cincinnati area. It's taken us some time to move, but we finally have. We've moved to Batavia, and I'm just not able to handle it quite well yet. It's just only ten miles to work.

I come home and I have nothing to do. I have extra time on the Sabbath like this morning. It's just very, very different. And also, I work Fridays now here at the home office. So it's just been an adjustment, but we are very, very happy and have transitioned to being here. Also today, Bev and I don't feel like we're visitors. We feel like we belong here in church, and this is our congregation. So very happy to be here. I don't feel like we are just here to see those people there in Cincinnati, or the home office church. But they were a part of it here as well.

We had more ministers than babies today. Maybe we could have a blessing of the ministry service. Maybe next week would be helpful.

Well, today we have honored our children. We bless them, as is our custom, annually at this time of year. In times past, it was done at the Feast of Tabernacles. However, in most churches, because of the large feasts, it's not practical. And the blessing is done at the second Sabbath after services. Another congregation has done it other times.

But primarily the second Sabbath after the Feast of Tabernacles. We bless our children. We honor them. But also, very importantly, we learn from our children, as it has been read here already, when Christ said, And so when you know that Christ came preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, and he says, Actually, there's quite a bit that we can learn from our kids that I couldn't possibly give in one sermon.

And I'm sure that ministry, who has spoken on the subject, has gone through one particular set of attributes and others, and I want to talk about just a few others as well, but not a complete list. Now, here we have four children who were blessed. Aaron Dean has just returned from the Feast in Malawi and Zambia, where 58 children were blessed at the two feast sites.

There's 31, I believe, 30 or 31 in Zambia and 25 or so in Malawi and Zambia. I'm not sure exactly where, but a total of over 55 children who were blessed. And my wife and I have gone to the feast there. That was always done on the last great day, where we had the blessing of the children, and we only would have maybe two or three ministers.

It took a long time, and you had to say different things about each different child. So our prayers had to become creative. And the last kid, well, God bless him with all the things we've asked already on the first children that were blessed. The congregations there are more prolific. A number of years ago, one of the minister's wives coming to the Feast of Tabernacles had a special seminar for the ladies, which was entitled, You Don't Have to Have a Baby Every Year.

And that is not a joke. That was the way that there was... maybe not titled exactly that way, but that was the whole point of it. And so that brought down the number of babies by a certain percentage the next year, but they've been creeping back up, we see. Societies do value children. Our society values children, whether we care for them the way we should or not, but children are greatly valued. Laws regarding protection of children have been increased.

Children are held up in virtually all societies in the world because children represent the future. They represent the dreams of parents who may not have had all the things their children had, but wish their children could have a fulfillment of unfulfilled dreams themselves. Parents wish for children to have a better life, make more money, and to even be more successful. I don't think there's a single one of us as parents who's competing with our children.

We want our children to do better than we do in every way. I've traveled to Ukraine many times with the Sabbatarian people that we work with and go to their Sabbath services.

They have a blessing of children every Sabbath. Now, not blessing every single child, but they have all the children of the congregation come on stage, and then the minister asks the blessing on them. That's just a part of the service. It's about three-quarters of the way into the afternoon service, and the pastor asks the blessing. When I'm there, they usually ask me to do it and ask God to protect the children and to be with them through the year.

Everybody from about age 18 and down to the smallest infants are brought up on the stage because they value them, they want the congregation to see the kids, and they want to have an audible blessing from God about the children. French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who lived in France just before the French Revolution, had really some to do with the thoughts of life and liberalism that occurred afterwards, wrote quite a bit about human philosophy and children. He spoke about children as having a tabula rasa, that's a common term used for children, a clean slate, that a child which is born is not bent towards evil or towards good, but they have a clear slate.

He also made the statement that children are born princes and princesses, but we turn them into frogs, that we in society take our children and teach them with the spirit, teach them with habits, and teach them with behaviors that are detrimental to children. Adam and Eve, it appears in the Garden of Eden, when they first were there before they were influenced, before they were turned into frogs, had a good relationship with their creator and their maker.

God talked with them, he gave them responsibilities, he said, name the animals, have dominion over the earth. We have no negative feedback from the scriptures of doubt, of mistrust, or misgivings. In fact, it seems that Adam was very happy with that. He kind of asked God for a helper, and God provided a helper for him. And mankind started very, very well. But that turned south, when another spirit came in and changed the nature and spirit of mankind. I'd like to turn to Mark 10, 13-16, which has been read and referred to. I don't think that it's wrong for us to really focus on this, because this is the most important scripture, and the scripture from which the theme of the sermon is brought.

Mark 10, 13. Then they brought young children to him, to Christ, that he might touch them. This was very well explained, how people wanted to have the touch from the one that they regarded as a Messiah. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them, saying, well, it's kids, you know, Jesus is talking to people about serious adult subjects, and we don't need to have these children up here.

But when Jesus saw it, he was greatly displeased. He turned this around right away, and said to them, let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them. I mean, he said it with double emphasis. Bring these children up here. I want to see them. And don't stop it now. Don't in any way forbid these children from coming up here. For of such is the kingdom of God.

Now since Christ's ministry and his keynote address in Mark 1, 14, and 15, which we have been using now for our kingdom of God seminars, was about the kingdom of God, the gospel of the kingdom of God, repentance and preparation for the kingdom of God, all those things that have to do with the kingdom of God coming to this earth, receiving it personally, becoming involved with the kingdom of God, everything with the kingdom of God. He says, learn from kids.

For of such is the kingdom of God. Verse 15, Assuredly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, and Christ proactively says it that he says the converse, if you don't receive the kingdom of God as a little child, you will by no means enter it.

This is very, very strong wording. That if you don't have the attitude of Zoe, Zachariah, and the others, you won't enter into the kingdom of God. Now, what is it that we could learn from these little kids that is so life and death, which is so important? He took them up in his arms, put his hands on them, people wanted the touch, and he blessed them.

This is a very, very notable point in history, teaching about qualifications, attributes necessary for the kingdom of God, entrance into the kingdom of God. So what is it, then, that we learn from children? Again, as I said, there are many things that we can learn from kids, and I can't possibly cover everything in a time that I have. I have two adorable granddaughters who I love very, very deeply and just enjoy being with.

And my wife and I have been blessed now with grandsons who were born just a day after the Feast of Trumpets. This makes us very happy, makes us very joyful. And we enjoy being with our granddaughters greatly. In fact, one of the negatives of moving is that we don't see them as much, although we're not that far away. But we love them, and enjoy being with them. We enjoy seeing them continually.

Because we enjoy the beautiful, childlike spirit that you wish could last forever.

Our granddaughters are five and eight, or five and seven, and we enjoy being with them. We wish they could be frozen in time at this age. We don't know what it's going to be like at 13 and 17.

But we do love the age that they are at right now. I have three attributes that I'll cover. Again, not exhaustive, but three that I do want to refer to. Children never stop trusting their parents, and in our case, grandparents. They don't know not to trust us. They automatically trust us.

Now God said to us, to us as His children, You shall have no other gods before Me. We say, Oh yeah, that's right. Societies have drifted away from God. They've gone to other parents.

But you know, for our children, we never have to give the command or the order. You shall have no other parents before you. That's silly.

They know who their parents are. They wouldn't think of having other parents. They wouldn't want any other parents.

They look to their parents adoringly. They look to their parents with absolute ownership both ways. And there's no thought of any other type of relationship. Except for Grant here this morning before services. Grant Porter, he came to me right away. I said, He's wrecking my sermon. He was so friendly. But then after being in my arms for about five seconds, he was looking around for Dad again. But one of the more social babies. I enjoyed him very, very much.

Zoe, she fit into my sermon perfectly. She wanted her mom, and she got her mom. And then when I took her in my arms for the blessing, she fell asleep. She didn't know who was holding her. But children already have written upon their hearts as part of their function, as far as the way that they conduct themselves, that I have no other parents before me. And they trust their parents. They look to their parents. They look to their parents the way we look to God. Because they are the provider of food, they are the provider of clothing, the provider of shelter, they are the provider of everything.

They never stop running into the arms of their parents. I know that we were at my son's home last week, and my granddaughter Elena just run down the stairs, and she just jumped into my arms. I thought, wow, this is just terrific, you know. Just absolutely trusting me. Of course, it's a grandpa. Papa, she calls me, and that's Nana. But they immediately take to us because they know us, and they know their parents.

And this is natural.

As we grow up, we trust others less and less.

And this even transfers into how we view our God in heaven.

In fact, God has to say so much about faith and trust and the building of it.

We don't have to teach our children to trust. We don't have to have seminars and lectures and sermons and lectures for them continually about being more trusting of their parents because it comes so naturally.

But as we grow up, as it's transferred to God, we may have less trust. We may have less faith in Him. And it's something that we pray for, and we ask God to give us the spiritual gift of faith. We ask God to increase my faith.

As with children, little a child, they never think in terms of, please increase my trust in my parents. Please help me trust more.

No, but we have to.

Because of a spirit and a different world that we grow up in that is not conducive or not friendly towards those principles.

Matthew 24, verse 9.

Matthew 24, verse 9.

It's interesting that this particular development is brought up as something which is a sign of the last times.

That is, betrayal and losing trust.

Matthew 4, verse 9. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you'll be hated by all nations for my sake. Talking about things that will happen to brethren, to happen to Christians in the very last times.

And here's one thing that will occur. And then many will be offended. They will betray one another and will hate one another. That this distrust and mistrust, and even people talk now as one of the issues between us and others, that's been a dividing issue, has been a lack of trust.

They will hate one another.

And many false prophets will rise and deceive many, and because, verse 12, lawlessness will abound, and the love of many will grow cold.

But it begins here with betrayal and not trusting.

I heard a story was told by a person to me about somebody he knew.

A story that was really cruel to a child, because we know how children adoring when they look to their parents.

And this person wanted to teach his child that you cannot trust everybody out there in the world. He didn't want his child to learn trust. He didn't want his child to just automatically think that people would be good to him, that we don't educate our child about that. But he wanted to teach it in a real way. So the child stood on a table, and he stood away from the table. And the child had to jump into the arms of the father.

And as the child leapt towards the father in a trusting way, he stepped away to let the child fall on the floor.

And he said, I don't want you to learn to trust people.

I want you to understand that you will be betrayed, and you will be treated in a way that you think that you can trust somebody, but you won't be trusted, or that you can't trust them. And I want you to learn that. And that's terrible.

That's terrible as what it psychologically does for a person. Because we do want to learn trust, belief, and have confidence, and then have, of course, the world that we live in teaches and shows mistrust. We have to deal with it as it comes to us.

But a mistrust in people, and a sense of being betrayed and deceived, can make us also act that way towards our God.

And Jesus Christ said, a little child believes and trusts. And I want you to be of the same make as this child. I want you to have the same spirit as this child. Of such is the kingdom of God, this trusting look of adoration towards me, of belief in me, of trust in me.

Do we trust our God? Do we have absolute trust in His word and in His promises? Because that's where security is. You don't want to feel secure. Well, security comes only when you can trust, and when you can trust God.

And that is an absolute, vital aspect for being a part of God's kingdom, of belief and trust in Him. If you don't believe, if you don't have trust in our God, then we won't enter into the kingdom of God. So that's one important principle, one important aspect and attribute that we should be learning from our children. As we see little child infants have towards their parents, we ought to develop that type of trust and belief, and not let ourselves be dismayed by what people do, what betrayal does, what corruption of a good spirit does.

Believe me, in being in the church for many years, and in dealing with people on the outside, we have been burned, and we have been dealt with in a way that could be defined as betrayal, and in a contemptuous way in some cases. But we can't allow that transference of distrust affect our relationship with God. We have to trust Him and believe in Him, and look to Him as one who directs us continually. Point number two. Children never stop asking for help.

Children never stop asking for help.

I know that our granddaughters, they're always coming to me. Can you untie my shoe? Can you do this? There's no question of them coming to Nana, Papa, to their parents, to ask them to help them with solving something, relieving something, doing something.

It's not wrong for us to come before our God as well and say, I don't know how to do this. I don't have enough smarts. I don't have enough moxie or intelligence, really, to know exactly everything to do with what has to be done, and I need help. It's not wrong as a Christian to be that way.

Our greatness is in our weakness. Our greatness is in our looking to God as the one who is our helper, our guide, and our healer. And as we get older and older, we solve less and less things on our own power. Working with Mr. Luecker and the matters that we've had to confront, and in one sense not to confront but react to and ask God for help, that's exactly what it's been. God help us. God deliver us. God help us to get through this. It's a formidable wall. We can't do it ourselves. We don't have the skill set. But we know you do, and you know what we need to get done, and you know what needs to get done for the church, or for us personally, or whatever context you take it. We should never be afraid to ask God for help, no matter what it is. In fact, one person told me, I can't pray. I don't know what to pray about. I just can't pray at all. I said, why don't you just look up in the sky and just say, help as your first prayer. That's what he did. He literally did that. Because he really needed help. He didn't know what to say or anything. He said, God answered me. God helped me. Are we too proud to ask for help? Do we come to the point of where we need to have specialists and people who really rely on that give us answers outside of the help that comes from God?

I'll tell you some passages that I read a lot a number of years ago. Not a number of years ago, just a short time ago. That got me through a very, very difficult time. Because we did go through a very difficult time where I needed help. Honestly, I said to God, I don't know my incoming and goings. I don't know exactly how I can resolve this, how I can solve this. The odds are too formidable against me. People are gnashing their teeth.

I don't know exactly how I'll get through this. But I would read in Psalm 37 the following. Psalm 37, in fact, the whole series here from Psalm 31 up to the 40s. I truly believe that one thing that made David a man after God's own heart, there's several different attributes that could be looked upon as admirable ones after his own heart. But one of them was that he was never afraid to ask for help. He, too, got himself into a bind, and in many cases because of his own doings, because of his own faults, because of his own mistakes.

But he came to a point where he said, I need help. Psalm 37, verse 1, O, do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. They shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither like an agreen herb. But trust in the Lord and do good. God help me. I'm putting my trust in you to help me through the situation with difficult people, difficult situations, difficult things that will affect many, many people in the church. Trust in the Lord and do good. Never afraid to pray that prayer. And time and time again, Psalm 37, and of course, the rest of the Psalm is much more there.

David talked about his specific things. I talked about the things I specifically had. And God delivered us from one after another. And that gives me a great deal of courage, because I know that God will continue to deliver us from one matter after another, from one problem, one challenge, one lacking to another. God will help us, and God will never let us down.

Just like our children are never afraid to ask their parents to help them, whatever it is that they need done. Psalm 40, I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined to me. He heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit. That's one that I prayed really quite often. And one month, I think, I almost read that every day. God has brought me out of a horrible pit, something that was a real mess, that I did not have enough smarts to really get through.

And yet, God was able to bring me and get us through the situation. Out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. I look at these as psalms of praise of what God can do to help us. And children just routinely ask their parents for help, whether it's with their clothing, whether it's with food, whether it's with a school problem, or something with what they have to do. They're never afraid to ask for help. And I noted that from my two granddaughters, that continually ask me for little things to do this and to do that. They're just never afraid to ask for help. Psalm 56 verse 3.

Psalm 56 verse 3, But when I am afraid, I put my trust in you. And yes, I do get afraid. Yes, I do have fear overcome me, but it never overcomes me like I used to. I know that God will deliver me. I know that if I prayed these prayers and I asked God for help, not knowing exactly what to do or what decision to make or what words to utter that God brings deliverance to me, when I am afraid, I put my trust in you.

The third point that I want to talk about today is the quality of children, is that children haven't lost their sense of wonder. Children haven't lost their sense of wonder. Children marvel at things that come in their direction that they see around them, things that adults may become very blase to. Children are just enamored by things in nature. I remember my little granddaughter, we walked on a walk one time, and the moon was shining still before sunset. It was kind of bright there.

She says, Oh, moon, moon! She was just fascinated by it. She just couldn't take her eyes off of it and just said it over and over again. She just marveled at this particular visage of the moon. Do we still marvel at the greatness of the things that God has done? Everything from what we see in nature to what sees His plan. And just sit back and just say, wow, that is fantastic what God has accomplished and what He has done and what He has done for me.

I have a DVD of a debate between an atheist and one who was a professing Christian. It was a debate done at Biola University in Southern California. I only saw it once, I'll never see it again, because I don't like people what they said, and I wanted to hear the rationale of this atheist, and I wanted to hear the counterpoints by the one who is a believer in God.

One interesting thing that the atheist said, if you believe in a God, why would He waste so much of the universe just for these little people and have all these great things? Isn't that a waste? I mean, He couldn't have created it. Just too much stuff, too many galaxies. And if we're the only life in the universe on a little tiny planet tucked away as a mid-sized star with a mid-sized galaxy, He had no respect or no marvel for what was out there.

And the person who was a believer came back with, how awesome is our God! We are so small, but look at the great potential and the great promises that He's made to us, and the promises of the future of eternal life, of rulership. So it was two opposite viewpoints. One was that it's a total waste, had no respect for the marvels of the universe, and one who said, our God is so marvelous that He's created all these things for mankind, and His potential is to occupy and to expand for that kingdom to go into all places.

God is offering us a vast universe. It is offering us great opportunities. He's offered us and given us salvation. Do we marvel at this? Do we thank God? You know, one of the purposes of thanking God and taking time when we do pray to thank God is to marvel about the things that He gives us. You know, just to say thank you once again.

I'm thankful that I am here with these wonderful blessings. I have a woman who calls me on the telephone who's been injured in an accident. She was a classmate of mine from years ago, and she found me on the Internet. And she lives up north. We went to high school the same year. And she just says, thank God that you're not me. Continually, she just says, thank God that you're not me. I try to encourage her to say that I know that God has dealt you a difficult fate, that you're living through this, being in a wheelchair for years and years. But take a look at what God has done and what the promises are, and overcome that by looking at the great things that He will give us. You know, marveling helps us to get through trials that we have, because we've had people with very, very serious trials, with Joy Lawson, you know, other things, but why, why, why? But take a look at what God has given us and what future and what promises of restoration, of eternity, of His Kingdom. You know, it can put the things that we experience, the trials that we experience in this life, into proper context. If we don't have a marvel of the power of God, about the wisdom of His plan, about the awesomeness of His universe, it can be hard, but when you can marvel at all the great things that God has created, then we can reach above the mundane and the difficult in this life. Look at David again, man after God's own heart, what he says in Psalm 139 in verse 13.

I've been fearfully and wonderfully made. Now, David is there looking at his fingers and his, you know, his body and the things, how the body functions and works, the mind and so forth. I've been fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, he says. My wife and I watch Net, GeoWild, and National Geographic Channel because we really enjoy seeing some of the marvels of creation, of life. And then we get so disappointed, you know, when they say, well, that's how evolution did this and that, and I thought, these guys really just did this beautiful photography, but they have absolutely no appreciation and no marvel about where it came from. And we're sitting here saying, that's amazing. Not too long ago, we saw some deep sea, I mean, really deep sea creatures that have been discovered, you know, that put up with thousands of tons of pressure on their bodies, you know, on these fish or whatever they are, you know, like three, four miles deep. I mean, and yet they're created to withstand that and to live in total darkness and so forth and say, God, you know, really created something marvelous. And then the program ends with some kind of evolutionary statement. They have absolutely no respect or marvel to the great things that God has done. A child is always marveling, is always saying, wow, this is great, this is wonderful. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained from you were written in your book before one of them came to be. And he really gives God a lot of credit, not only for creating him, but also having some knowledge about what David would be doing. Do we ever ourselves say, God, thank you for calling me at the time that I was called and for perhaps knowing kind of where I'd be going in the church and what I'd be doing and directing my paths? Do we ever have that? Now, a little child looks to their parent and never has a question about the parent having the best interests of that child at heart, until they get to be age 12. But in the younger ages, the child knows that the parent is interested in their best interest.

The parents want to have the very best for that child. Do we always look to our God as one who has our best interests at heart, that has a plan, not just for the church, not for the world, and not for the universe, but for you personally, in a very, very personal way, that God has something that He understands about your days and what He wants for things to be like for you and the blessings that He has for you? Yes, there are trials, there are setbacks, there are things that we all have to learn, believe me. But we factor that into the fact that God knows what's best for us. God knows what's best for His church. God knows what He's doing with the whole universe and the return of Christ. Frankly, there's very little that we're doing to bring Christ back to this earth. It's going to happen. He's not going to be asking us for another committee meeting, the return of Christ committee, to discuss it with Him.

Our job is to understand what He's doing and prepare ourselves and to thank Him and to be absolutely wowed by the fact that He will come back on a particular plan and ask ourselves to really get with that plan. Understanding the will of God, as Paul wrote, we should not be unwise in not understanding the will of God. In Psalm 77, what God is so great is our God. What God is so great is our God? You are the God who performs miracles. You display your power among the peoples. With your mighty arm, you redeemed your people.

In reading these passages, reinforced to me why David was a man after God's own heart. I didn't look at these particular passages as the ones that really exemplified that man after God's own heart. But David was absolutely wowed by God. Nothing is impossible for a little child. Children fantasize, they go through space, they conquer galaxies, they project themselves into the future. I remember that when I was in first or second grade, our teacher asked us to draw something that would represent something we wanted to be in life. And the class just loved doing that. I still remember that so well because of what I did, which was terrible.

But people, some of the kids in my first grade class drew pictures of wanting to be a postmaster or to work in a grocery store. Well, I wanted to be a nuclear physicist. I don't know how I got that. It was maybe talk at our...and I drew a picture of an atomic bomb. It wasn't because I hated mankind. It was because I was interested in the science of it.

But someday I wanted to be into nuclear physics, even at that young age, because some of my parents' friends were professors and they talked about nuclear energy and that sort of thing. I do know that my teacher did talk to my parents. They were concerned about this future madman, whatever. Thank God that I didn't turn out.

But children can build. Children can...we have our, again, our granddaughters that have their Legos and they just build whole cities. They brought me up to their bedroom this last Friday. Here's a whole city block of things built with Legos. Their imagination, their future, their vision of what they can do. We can lose that. Just kind of live life, just day at a time without any particular sense of it's going to be much better or we have great plans.

And as we get older, we tend to have less imagination. But children have great imaginations about the future, about what they can be and see themselves in the future. No, our church has a vision. We have a vision statement that speaks to...we are going to...Jesus...God is developing many sons and daughters to be a part of His kingdom. Now, a vision is where you want to be. A mission is how you get there. And God is bringing along many sons and daughters to be a part of His family that He wants to share that with. And every year at the Feast of Tabernacles, we live that vision. We talk about it. We hear sermons about it and we recite it.

Just like little children who can build things, who can imagine themselves being someplace, and really live in a fantasy way, we can also project ourselves in vision in the promises that God has made. And the promises that God has made to us personally is eternal life in the kingdom of God, living forever with Him as a part of His family. Do you live that vision? Or has it become tarnished in something that's not front and center in your life? Little children can imagine themselves being nurses. They can imagine themselves being different temporal things in this life. And they get excited about that. Some day I'm going to be this and some day I'm going to be that. Well, can we also, like little children, imagine ourselves being in the kingdom of God and living forever, redeveloping the world in the millennium? But I worked in church administration previously, and just before things really changed badly in 1995, we were asked to give our ministers electionaries pre-arranged sermons that they were to give at the feast. It was terrible. If we don't want ministers going at the feast and talking about lions that they could walk up to and lions sitting with lambs and talking about peace and talking about all these fantasies, I don't think that they realized just how much energy they took out of what we believe. Because we believed in the Feast of Tabernacles picturing a millennial period of peace, of swords being beaten into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks, deserts blossoming as a rose. This was our imagination. This is what we live for. This is the world tomorrow that we just experienced at the Feast of Tabernacles. We should never allow anyone to take our imagination away from those great things of the future that God has for us. God is bringing many sons to glory. God is bringing a time of restitution and restoration to this earth. God is bringing a great society back here. See, little children believe these things implicitly without having to goad them, to train them, and so forth. We have to learn from them to trust. We have to learn from them to goad to God for help. We have to learn from them to have a spirit of wonder and awe and imagination about the great future ahead of us. Do we soak our mind on scriptures such as 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 9? 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 9. 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 9.

We have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit from God, that we might know the things which have been freely given to us by God.

The Apostle Paul was able to manage himself, manage his life-death struggle, his horrible confrontations with people that stoned him, hated him, put him into prison, took him to court, locked him up. I mean, his... I kind of wondered... Paul had a great and glorious ministry, but I sure wouldn't want any part of that. It's just so hard. Yet the Apostle Paul says this in the book of Philippians. Philippians 1 and verse 21. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. So he had a way that he managed where he'd win both ways. To live is Christ, but to die, I'll get ahead. There. He explains, verse 22. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit for my labor. Yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. He says, I don't know how I want it. Verse 23. For I am heart pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ. Saying, if I die, you know, I don't have to put up with all this hassle. Take another trip across the Mediterranean, shipwrecks, you know, bad people coming to a church that started by individuals later to be then thrown into prison by people who hate me. He says, I'd rather be with Christ, because I know that the next moment of my existence, of my consciousness, will be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. He wrote to the people in Philippi who he loved dearly. He said, I know I've got to stay alive, because that's needful. I've got to see Lydia. I've got to see her household. I've got to see the people where we started the church up there in Macedonia. That's needful. So he said that staying alive in this life is good, but you know what's better is to be with Christ. So he knew that if he would live, it's positive. But if he would die, this next moment of consciousness would be with Christ. Reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw. I think I've said this to some. Honk if you love Jesus. Text if you want to see him now.

Because your next moment of consciousness would be with Christ. 2 Corinthians 12. The Apostle Paul got a little boost from God about what to do for the future and about the future held. We don't have this where God takes us and delivers us to have a vision of what we see. Nonetheless, he writes in 2 Corinthians 12. It is doubtful, not profitable for me to boast. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who, 14 years ago, and he's talking about himself. He's kind of deprecating himself a little bit here. Whether in the body I do not know or whether out of the body I do not know, because I can't tell how it was, God knows. Such a one was caught up to the third heaven. God brought him up to where he's at, where God lives, the third heaven. And I know such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, God knows. He was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words, which is not lawful for a man to utter. He said, I went up there. He speaks about himself. He just doesn't want to say it's him. I take up the third heaven to paradise, to the place that's described in the last chapters of the book of Revelation. And I saw what it would be like. No doubt God prepared Paul for a very special ministry by giving him this extra boost of seeing what the end of it all would be. He was able to see it. We're able to just take his word for it and take the word of God's scriptures about what life will be beyond. Eternity, the kingdom of God, all the imagery of the millennium to keep us going.

Are we excited? Do we have that great imagination?

Hebrews 11, we can go through the whole chapter, but I'll just refer to it as your outside study material. Take a look at all the people who were the men and women of faith.

They saw a city far away that was not here yet, but they believed. That was faith. That's what kept them going. Moses saw it. Abraham saw it. Even Rahab the harlot got it.

They saw something great ahead and are the champions and the heroes of faith.

Proverbs 29 and verse 18. Proverbs 29 and verse 18, Where there is no vision, the people perish. Our church has a vision. We actually have a vision statement that involved many sons coming to glory.

It includes you, involving the work of the entire church.

Again, how does this fit into kids? Kids have that imagination of being something great and something big and something greater than what they are. And they have no doubt, as they fantasize, about this. For the child, whoever, it's a fantasy. With us, it's a fulfillment of Christ's statement of such is the kingdom of God. These are the qualities that are in a person that prepares them for the kingdom of God. So children to Christ were very, very important. They were so important that three of the synoptic Gospel writers wrote about this incident. It actually sounds like there were at least a couple of them, where children were brought to Christ. Don't forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of God. And Christ blessed them and said that you have to become like a little child to receive the kingdom of God, which is, to us, the most important assignment and the most important daunting concept for us to espouse. And what we are doing as far as the Church, as far as the United Church of God, in trying to communicate with this world about the kingdom of God. I truly believe the kingdom of God is one of the distinctives that we have that is probably the greatest importance. Greater than I feel knowing that we shouldn't eat pork or that type of thing. I feel our distinctive of understanding what the kingdom of God is, and our potential, our future, our mission, our gospel is that. And we can learn a lot from little children and the attributes that they have. So let's honor our children in how we bless them, in how we honor them, but also what we can learn from our children.