Jesus Loves the Little Children

In that story. And that's what we want to look at here today. Trust God's leaders. The topic is Jesus loves the little children.

We'll see where we are going to here. I. I don't know how it does sprung up. That is it, I think on Sunday. Jesus loved the little children.

And that's the topic. We'll first look at the prophecy, then we'll look at what happened. Right onto as to why Jesus, why we are saying this, why we drew up this conclusion that Jesus loves little children. I will see what's going on.

Let's look at Psalm chapter 8, verse 2. Psalm chapter 8, verse 2. Psalm 8, verse 2. He said, out of the mouth of babes and suckling has thou ordained strength because of thy enemies, that thou mightest steal the enemy and the avengers.

That is the prophecy that was written, right? So now want to look at what happened, how that prophecy came to pass. Take note of the word there. Out of the mouth of babes.

Babes, they represent infants or children, right? And sucklings are still infants, those ones that cannot speak. He said, as thou ordained strength because of thy enemies, that thou mightest steal the enemies and the avenger. Now let's just follow me a bit.

Now let's look at Matthew 21, verse 15 to 17. Matthew 21, verse 15 to 17. Now look at, look at what happened. Look at how that prophecy came to pass.

Matthew 21, verse 15. And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things he did take note of the people that saw what happened. The chief priests and scribes scribes were people who write the law, right? They prepare, they write the law.

Basically they are the ones that write books and all these things, right? So they saw the wonderful things that Jesus Christ did. And the children crying in the temple. They were making noise around the temple place, right?

And saying hosanna to the son of David. Guess what these people now said? The Bible said, those chief priests and scribes, they what? They were so displeased.

That means they were angry. They were furious. They were like, what is this now? And said unto him, those chief priests and scribes, they told Jesus, hearest thou what this say?

And Jesus said unto them, yes. Have you never read out of the mouth of babes and sucklings has thou perfected praise? And he left them and went out of the city into Bethany and he lodged there. Do you see those three verses?

That is a very deep contextual. We're going to look at it deeply. We trust God. So when I was reading this thing I, I just, I don't know.

I just. That children part just popped up. I don't understand why, but I want us to see something there. Now the question want to ask.

Because the questions is that you always ask questions when you are reading the scripture so you understand what is going on as a Christian, right? What is the goal? What's Jesus desire for us as Christians? Is it that we remain as children or become adults?

That's the question that you ask yourself. Reason why I'm asking this because Jesus was always comparing us to little children. And let's look at one chapter before I build up on what I'm trying to do there. Matthew 11:25.

Matthew 11:25. Yeah. He said Matthew 11:25 said at that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Why?

Because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes. Unto little children. Another word for babes is little children. The reason why we're talking here is because Jesus was trying to make a point concerning children.

Why is he comparing AD and trying to. Why is he trying to tell us about how children are praising God compared to somebody that has been with the scripture all the days of their life? They know, you know who a cheap priest. You cannot be a priest if you don't know the five books of.

You don't know Genesis, you don't know the books of the law, you don't know the Bible. They, these people are people that teach the word of God. They teach the law, the Torah. They are the ones that are handling the scripture.

They are the ones managing the synagogue. They are the ogr of the oars. They are the bosses in the church. They are the ones that can pray.

They are the ones that can fast seven days and all these things. They are the ones that can do a lot of things. They pay their tithe and all these things. Those are the chief priests.

They don't break laws. In fact, they are expert. They know how to handle the laws of Moses. They can explain it very well.

I look at what Jesus is saying. He said, father, thank you. He said, thank you Jesus. He said, thank you, Father.

Because you are reading these things from the wise and prudent. And as you view them unto babes, you see, it's kind of counterproductive, right? It looks kind of weird. I thought Jesus would expect us to like, oh, grow into like, want us to be wise and dig it not.

But there's something that Jesus is trying to point out that's what we want to look at. And the reason for this message, I believe, is because I think God is trying to make a point again in our worship. We have to re evaluate how we worship God. Now look at what I discovered from that.

Let's go back to that. Matthew 21:15, 17. The children saw Jesus as the son of David. See what they said?

Hosanna to the son of David. Let me show you how deep this thing is, children. I went to go and research like, okay, what are the ages of those impossible ages? And what I saw, they said between age of.

Is it six to. I think 14? 15? No, six to 10.

Six to 12. Yeah, six to 12 years. Just imagine it. You know, Jerusalem, you know that day when was a time where everybody from around the world, they are coming to Jerusalem to do their yearly sacrifices.

So everyone was busting everywhere. Everywhere was also busy. And the priests were handling, doing their matters in the church and everything. Then children were just on the road.

Yeah, Shouting. They were. They were literally shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. Hosanna to the son.

They were just shouting. You know how they make noise? They were shouting, hey, Jesus. Jesus.

See Jesus. They were just shouting. The chief priest saw them and they were squeezing their face. These people are making noise.

Why are they disturbing the temple? Are you not seeing? They were doing something important here. They could not see.

See what? They said the children saw Jesus as the son of David. Guess what these people were seeing this chief priest. They were seeing law breakers.

They were seeing that these people are making noise. They are disturbing. What is going on? They are causing commotion.

They are disrupting our service. Let me tell you how deep this thing is. All their life they have been committed to finding who the Messiah was. They have been searching Genesis, reading all the books of the prophet, just to know how the Messiah.

They have studied, you know, they have studied the Messiah so much and they are expecting him that he would have come with a horse as a king and everything. Behold, Jesus was standing. The Messiah that been looking for sins finally was there. The children could see Jesus.

People that have been studying would not see him. Do you know, this is one of the biggest problem with the church, I'm sorry to say, but it's one of the biggest problem with many Christians today. You see that Jesus said they that are worshiping spirit. And in truth, the letter killeth the spirit, giveth life.

The children, they are not. I'm not sure they have read. They are not as knowledgeable as Nicodemus. Nicodemus was A chief priest or one of the priests, they are not very knowledgeable as him.

But what exactly made them able to just see Jesus? I think this is one of the most fundamental thing I'm trying to understand. You see, when you become too, you are too logical, you can never ever use logic to understand Scripture. This is why many people go to Bible school, theology school, all these kind of places and they are studying scripture and they are doing.

The problem is that it's not that what they are doing is wrong. If the Spirit is not there, you fall into error. This is what is happening. Many people are boasting the fact that they know scripture, they know the law.

You can be very, you can be a very good Bible study teacher. And guess what? You have never seen Jesus and a child. Because of the little child I feed, he has seen Jesus, he has seen angels.

I watched a video yesterday in the church, right? They put. All the children were sitting on the floor while the parents and everybody was sitting on the chairs and they were teaching about this Holy Spirit. After they now did the practical.

Let's start praying. They were just praying, everybody. The pastor said, hey, let's be praying, praying. They were praying.

The child, he gave the child the mic. The child was crying. The child was just sitting down. She was just.

Nobody told her. She was six year old child, she was short, she was crying profusely. He said, oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Like he said, I feel bad, I feel bad.

I have seen the Lord. Like she felt remorseful and he gave her the mic. She said, I feel the touch of heaven. She said nobody called her.

They were not standing. She just said, I feel the touch of heaven. And I want all of you to also feel Jesus. I'm just paraphrasing now that thing that she encountered.

Many people in their whole life have never come, but guess what? They have read this Bible five times. Do you see how tricky it is? I pray God will help us understand what I'm showing here.

Let me tell you another thing again. I saw in that the children. Now let me, let me. Okay, let me go a little bit backward a bit so you understand the context.

Let me tell you what's going on there. Why the people, why the, the chief priests and the scribe, why they were angry? Let me tell you exactly why they were angry. Now let's look at verse 12.

Now this, all this thing that I'm talking about happened when you know, the Bible says that Jesus asked the disciples, I've got some time. I can't. I Want you to read before, but please just follow me. Jesus told his disciples, go and look for a donkey and he's going to enter into Jerusalem.

You know, they have already prophesied that one day Jesus is going to come. And you say hosanna. Hosanna to the king of everything. Jesus was all fulfilling prophecies.

So the day was finally here when he was going to come. You know, that the day he enters Jerusalem is going to be handed over. That was his last this thing. He said, he's ready.

So he said, the donkey came, they put the donkey, put in a donkey and he sat down and he entered, right? If you look, read from verse chapter 21, verse 3, down to verse 11. That's the whole story. But I'm paraphrasing, but I want to go into when he entered the temple.

Let's read something now. Look at this from verse 12. Let's read together. Let's read together.

And Jesus went into the temple of God. Now take note, he went into what? The temple of God and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple. And he overthrew the tables of the money changers.

The seed of them that sold those and the seed of them that sold those. And he said unto them, it is written, my house. Jesus was very angry because he said, take note what he said there. He went into the temple of God.

That was his father's house. Just imagine you are a child of your father, right? And you go to your dad's house and you enter the house all of a sudden, maybe one of your siblings called in different people from different places and they started doing anyhow drinking your dad's house. Imagine how foolish you'll be like you scatter everything.

What's your problem? Why you bring scound people? Maybe you see prostitute inside your house and you will chase everybody out, right? That's what he was doing there.

He said, my house shall be called the house of prayer. But you have made a den of thieves. Pause now. Let's pause there.

Now see where I was asking myself question. I told you, when you're reading scripture, ask questions. My question is, what exactly was wrong? What exactly?

Let's be very practical. What exactly did they do wrong? These people that were selling those? Because let me tell you, what was happening that day was a day where everybody from around the world, all the pilgrims, all the Jews from around the world, different countries, they are going to gather.

Just like combined communion, like combined service. Everybody is gathering from different places. And they are coming there towards offer sacrifice in the temple. And now for each of our sacrifice, number one, you have to buy your sheep, you have to buy goods, you have to buy all those sacrificial items, right?

You have to buy doves and all these things. But the problem is that you cannot buy those things from where you are coming from. Maybe you are coming from another country, Egypt. Egypt today it will be stressful to carry it.

So they were like, okay, fine, let us have marketplaces around so people can buy it and carry from there. Enter here, right? That's not bad now. So that was it.

Another second problem was that changing money. You know, they are coming from Egypt and different towns. So you need to change the money. Just imagine you are going to Ghana now from Nigeria.

You have to change the money at the border. So, so they know that, okay, people are going to come and they need to change their money so that they can pay their tights. All these kind of things, right? Buy things.

That was what the money chain, all those things were doing. So what is wrong with it, right? You see, when we read the scripture, you just read it and pass. Just if you go deep and understand the cultural context as to why those people were actually doing that thing.

Now let me tell you the deeper problem. You know, when you are changing money, right? When you are changing money, they will put hidden charges or extra, just like positive, right? But now, because the people knew that that day was a special day, they increase the price times 12, they increase it to very high figure.

So these people that are coming from outside country, different places to. Yeah, they need to buy and they don't have choice. Even if they expensive, they still buy it. So people were what, extorting others in that.

You know how it is now, for example, there are some church program, they do camps and all these things. On a day where millions of people, that there's a particular camp in Lagos, a day where they doing a crusade and all millions of people gather from around the world. Guess what? They increase the price of everything.

Just normal water. They can sell it like 59, 100, won't pay water like that because there's high people, right? That was what exactly was happening there. And Jesus came and saw these things and he was furious.

And that's not all. Let me tell you now, the people that were gaining more from these things, the chief priest and the scribes, the chief priest, for example, maybe I'm a pastor now. Then someone is a owner of this place and I own this land. I can rent 1, 2, 3, 3 shops for somebody to manage.

Because he knows me to make money. So I'll tell them this. How much charge? So I'm making money.

I also rent here to make money. So the chief priests, they were extorting people, but they were pretending as if they're not doing anything bad. They were making money from that thing, number one. Now number two.

Again, I'm just giving. I'm just trying to explain. When you read scripture, read what is happening around, possible things happening around. The second thing they were doing is that, you know, when you bring a lamp, if the lamp has spots, the Bible talks about blemishes.

If you're the animal or cipher you brought the lamp now has a stain or something, they can't accept it. Know there's somebody standing at the door before you bring. They'll check, they'll inspect your sacrifice. Okay, is he, how many years old is he?

One year old. Okay, it's good. All right. Does he have sport?

Oh, this one is injured. You cannot bring land that is injured. That's how it was. Very, very difficult.

So when he finished, he said, yeah, no, you can't take this one, take it back. They have to go and buy another one. So they now kept finding fault. You know, they are sacrifice so that they can make more money.

You know what they did? Now I say, this is not the type, this is not the one that she should buy. Going to buy another one. And they are making more money from them.

So in summary, they were extorting. So Jesus saw that they were using God's temple to make money. And again, the final thing was that they were overcrowding the place, making it difficult for people to focus on the worship. You know the sound of people selling, buy all this, buy, buy anointing oil.

Buy this, buy this. All this kind of shouting. So, so come of your focus, you lose focus. And different things were just distracting them anyways.

Those were all the things that were happening there. Now you understand why Jesus was actually very furious. Because it is actually a place of worship. But people are distracting.

They are distracting. The main focus is not happening again. It's activity that they are doing now. Let's look at it now.

See the worst part of it all. Verse 14. I pray, go open my eyes and see what I'm seeing. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and see what he did.

Jesus healed them. Now Jesus healed them. Look at verse 15. And when the chief priest the Bible had to write it, when they saw that he did this wonderful thing.

What are you meant to do by default this is the Messiah. They could not see it. It was as if they were blind see what they saw the children and the children crying in the temple and saying hosanna to the son of David. My question is, where did these children get this revelation from?

How did they just see that is a messiah that these people could not see. I thought it's by region, you know now too much I thought it's ah. They said this is. They describe how stone look like.

This is a stone. A stone is. Or let me say, okay, this is a hbook. How do you know a hbook is black?

It has all of these things. You know this hbook, right? So if I've studied and I've done this in book, I should know by default. How will a child know that this is Hook and somebody I've been studying and even reading you not even see that it's a hbook.

He's trying to tell you that spiritual things you. If you use logic, you can't. It's only by faith. He said, you don't walk by faith.

You walk by what sight. So now let me tell you why. They were also furious. The children had nothing to lose.

The leaders had everything to lose. Now if the leaders accepted that was Jesus, let me tell you what happened. Their whole service will scatter. They will lose their job.

Because if Jesus is the Messiah, there's no point of sacrifices. Again, if they are accepted. So that's why they did not want to accept it. That's why they were furious.

Like he said. Are you not hearing what people are saying? They are calling you the Messiah. He said, here is not what these people say.

Jesus said unto them, yes, have you not heard it? He now told them, have you not read the book of Isaiah? He said, out of mouth of babes and suckling. That was perfected praise.

I don't know if you are getting the context. So I'm saying that a lot of times Jesus, see, let me tell you nothing, Jesus, children have nothing to lose. They don't have anything to lose. Now these leaders, those people doing all those things, they have everything to lose.

Sometimes we refuse to accept something as a move of God because we know that if we accept it, it's going to destroy a lot of things about you. It's going to. I don't know if you are getting it. It's going to cause a lot of.

It's going to shake everything you have ever almost believed in. They were proud. That was hidden pride, you see. They did not break any physical laws like this.

But inside there was something in them that no greed. The children saw a healer. The children, they saw Jesus as the healer. That's why they shouted.

So the leader saw. The leader saw a bridge of temple decorum. Do you know what it means when imagine somebody just got healed here. What happened?

Commotion. Everyone will be shouting, yeah, wow, wow. But now the leader saw that they are scattering everything. This is a deep thing I was saying.

I was like, wow. The leader saw that this is noise. They could not see that. Oh see Healing, you'll be happy.

They were seeing what that healing has caused. Children recognized God's presence better than the experts do. May not be that we pray in prayer. God, reveal yourself to us.

Reveal yourself to us. Show us yourself. I want to see Jesus and he finally shows up. You ignore it.

People that have not even been praying and all those things you see ah, Jesus. But you, because you are, you have as you are praying that prayer. You have already created your own preconceived notion of how it should happen. You see, this is how many people miss the blessing.

And I wrote something down. He said, may I never be so lost in the business of religion that I lose the ability to sense the move of God. These people were engrossed in the activities more than his presence. That the person that created all those things for you to even do now finally shows up, but you can't see it.

May I not be lost in attending services every period and God finally shows up. But because I'm so engrossed in doing, I'm arranging, doing, shifting, shifting. That was what happened with Martha and Miri. Mary did.

The Bible said Mary has done an excellent thing. She sat at the feet of Jesus. Martha was, she was. She wanted to save everybody wanted to.

Was it wrong? Was it wrong? Did I say religious activity is wrong? No, but I said when the, when the presence, when you, when you exalt or exonerate your activities for God more than just staying with him.

This is where many people are getting it from. That's why you see people. Somebody can be how many years in church but have never experienced or encountered God. These are the problem.

Look at Samuel case in Old Testament Samuel Bible said at the age of three, they put somewhere in the temple. Samuel has always been in the temple serving God. Every time a child. He was a child, right?

But the Bible says that when God called him three times, Samuel, Samuel. He could not recognize the voice of God. Someone has been. I thought if you have staying inside church every time, every time you will be familiar with God.

This guy did not know he called first time. He did not know he called secretary. He not know he called until he went to go and meet someone that has encountered God before. He said, oh, that's God.

When you hear him again, tell him that here am I. And yeah, he said, master, speak seven years. We heard the song now and that's how he finally listened. But the Bible narrowed for someone had not known the Lord.

Don't assume, you see, you know the most dangerous place to be if you are not careful. When you become too familiar with activities around the things of God, you get lost and you become normal to basic things. Children between the age of 7 to 12, they were seen as insignificant. Now that's why, why Jesus said, I thank God because you have revealed it to this day, because Jesus was trying to describe that the people that God revealed himself to were people that were seen as insignificant.

So the question is, Lord, what do we now do? How should I. How? Okay, the question is, I ask myself, how do I respond to this message?

How do I respond to this message? Jesus said something about little children that if we can, if we can, you know, Let me tell you something about children. Children, when you, when you talk to a child of six years old, they are very humble children. Not, not the one that already been poisoned.

Little children, they are very humble. They want to listen, they want to learn more. They are always curious. Let me tell you so many things.

Now, Jesus was trying to explain the character of a child and tell you that for you to enter the kingdom road, he said, unless you have, unless you're like this, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Did you read it? Look at what happened. The disciples were with Jesus standing and the children came running around to Jesus.

Jesus, the disciples said, get out of here. Come on here, you know, that's how we do. Now get out of here. Jesus said, leave them, leave them.

Let them come to me. He said he now brought them the Bible now said Jesus loved them. He said, unless you people are like these children, come and enter this kingdom. So is Jesus trying to say we should become smaller?

Is he trying to say we should think like child? Now let me tell you something that might shake you. Now let's look at something that Paul said. You see that when you read scripture, I'm going to explain something again.

When you read scripture, you don't just read like that. Let me tell you. This Bible that was written kjv, right? If you check the original translation they used was Greek, right?

Greek or Hebrews. So when they translate you have to understand the context. For example, if they write children in Genesis, they write children again in Exodus or levity course. Do you know that children they wrote in levity course might be a different meaning to the children written in Genesis.

So when you read scripture, you see the same word using different chapters. Go and read the context. You see that it might mean a different thing. Just like English language, there are so many words that are the same.

But when you put it inside one sentence, it means something we do in another sentence, it means totally another thing. I'm looking for an example now, but I can't think of of one now. Okay, if I say open, open it, right, you open it. No, open can mean many things.

Depend on where I put it in the sentence. That's the same thing. Now let's start something. First Corinthians 13:11.

First Corinthians 13:11. This is a call for us to learn. Study Scripture. It says, study to show yourself.

Approve unto God. A work now that doesn't need to be ashamed. First Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 11. He said, When I was a child.

Look at it though. The same Paul. Now see this? Another person.

No, Jesus said his own. Now this is Paul talking. When as a child, I speak as a child. I understood as a child.

I thought as a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things. Now let's look at Matthew 18:3. Hold that one down.

Let's look at Matthew 18:3. I want to show you something. Matthew 18, verse 3. Matthew, chapter 18, verse 3.

He said and said, verily I say unto you, except ye be what converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the words kingdom of heaven. Look at verse four. Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as what this little child. The same is what greatest.

I don't know if you are hearing what I'm saying. Do you know that Jesus told John? He said they were trying to describe John. No, he was talking.

He said, john is the greatest ever, right? But in kingdom of heaven, he's the least. Look at what he's not saying here. Whosoever devil shall humble himself as his little child.

The sin is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Look at verse 5. And whoso shall receive one short little child in my name, receiveth me. You see, I think children have been neglected for far too long.

We have gone to this custom of. No, he's a child. He doesn't know. So you leave him.

Do you know when they start discipling children to become like Christ from childbirth? But we live in a system where we neglect children and leave them to just be doing the human things, going to school, all those things leave them until they reach like 16, 15. That's when you now start taking them serious with the things of God. Start talking about God to them.

Meanwhile, from childhood you are drilling the person why spirit? If you know how Muslims Jew their children from childhood they are really training them to be dogged Muslims for Christians. No, no, just. But that's not the point for today my focus is Jesus telling you that I must I the pastor, if you like, be somebody that can do thousands of miracles.

He raised the dead. Look at what he's saying. Except he be converted, number one. That means I must say you were born again.

You see, Jesus did not still say that he must not. He said converted means oh, unless you must be born again. That's the first thing. Now when you are born again and, and look at the God and become as a little, as little children.

Now ask yourself what is Jesus trying to say? Well, look at what Paul said. When I was a child, I thought as a child when I was listening and I put away childish things. That's what I'm trying to explain to you something.

Now let me explain the, the difference between those two words used there now Jesus usage of child. The original interpretation of that child in Jesus case was this thing. It's called pais P A I s in Greek pace and that means young person. Young person.

Right. Now Paul's interpretation of his own in that Corinthians. Yes, but sorry, Jesus was infant. Sorry, yes, infants.

Nepois. Yes, nepois. So the word child there means nepoe, which means infants. Right, Infants, Right.

But Paul's own was space, which means a young person. Now Jesus was talking from the point of your heart, the heart of a child. Paul was talking about being a child in terms of the way you think. Can you imagine?

Can you? Do you. I don't know if you are getting what is going on here, Paul. Now let me tell you the difference between Paul and Jesus.

Go right. Paul's goal was that we don't just remain as children, we become mature sons. It might sound contradictory sometimes they say the Bible is not contradictory. It's you that don't know how to read Scriptures.

Paul was trying to tell us that we must. He said that we should put away childish things. Now is he not the one, but we should become mature people. Mature.

He wants us to become. The Bible says my dear children. Paul prayed the prayer. He said my dear children, in whom I travel in bed spins again until what Christ be formed fully and completely in you.

That is Paul telling you that we must grow. But what the growth is not just physical growth. It's talking about spiritual growth. Now Jesus is telling us something here.

If I don't become as a little child, I will not enter the. The difference between those two, I'm saying again is that Jesus is referring to the heart of a child. That's why he described in next verse. He said, whoever shall then be what humble.

As in literature, the same is greatest. So I think we adults, or so called people that feel gone to the height of it all, I think we need to look back and sit down and study a child. Just look at babies, look at how they are doing. Just look at how innocent they are.

It's what you tell them that you do like they are so innocent, they don't know. It's what you tell them that they will do. They don't think twice. Go and buy sugar, tell this person that I'm not around.

They will do it. They don't like. They don't know. But you notice that as you look every day, if you tell your child to be paying tight every day, just do it.

They don't think. But now adults, God told me that you start thinking twice, start calculating your bank accounts. You do this, you think before you take action. I think she was trying to tell us about humility and obedience.

Children are very obedient, I mean the young ones. But as soon as they start going, Mr. Flesh, the flesh start kicking in and making them disobedient and rebelling. I don't know if you're getting my point there.

So this is a very serious matter, Very serious matter. We need to come back to the fundamentals. We need to understand what Jesus is looking for. Humility, Humility.

Humility. It is those that are humble because God resisted proud. But he exalted your humble. Let's look at the case study now.

One case study. One of the religious leaders that was actually a child. One of the. Another feature, sorry to say I want to mention this now.

One of the main feature of a child is curiosity. A child is very curious. Now, many of us are Christian about Bl curiosity. That's why we don't explore.

That's why we don't research scripture. Again, you will imagine the adult will be reading to a child. Read your Bible, pray every day if you want to grow. We have the mind to be telling a child to read the Bible.

But we ourselves, we don't even read quarter. There's a way you will not think that you're already big enough. So we don't be reading scripture again. But you be telling children to read their bibles and pray every day.

We ourselves are not praying every day. We are thinking. It's a joke. It's for them.

We are already grown. You see, that's where we. That's what is happening. Let's understand.

Take it. Let's see what four. It's not, it's not, it's not by. It's not by age or 80 something.

Do you know how old I am? Do you know how long I've been in this church? It's not by that too. Somebody will just give you life today.

And he's going to just be so curious to know God. And he will find God. Are you 70 years? 40 Years in fact.

He might even be an elder. Become a very high person in church. And nothing. Nothing, please.

And he said, the last one who has ever received one such little child in my name, receiveth me. That's another thing. Some people, sometimes we neglect children. No wonder Paul said to Timothy, despise not your youth.

Because he saw this. There's something happening. Listen. Ah, he's too young.

Why is he talking like this? Why is he doing like this? Despise not your youth. Jesus is looking for little children.

Only little children will enter. Let me just make it clear now. If you don't know now, better know if you are not born again. I am not like a little child.

If you don't become like a little child, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God. I don't want to know how old you are. If you are not like. If you don't become like a little child, you cannot according to scripture, in Matthew 18:3, see what they asked that made him.

Jesus said that. Matthew 18, verse 1. At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying, sir, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Very genuine question, sir, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

They asked Jesus. Jesus called a little child unto him. He said, come, bring that child. Why would that small boy, maybe six years old, called him, bring him to me.

And he set him in the midst of them and said, verily I say unto you, except you be converted. That means that child must first accept Jesus Christ and become as a little children. As little children. You cannot enter his kingdom of heaven.

No, you cannot enter. That's. That's the condition. You cannot enter if you don't become now the second one.

Now when that child, when you now become a little child, when you now humble yourself as a little child, that person is now the greatest. No wonder Moses was one of the great. Moses was so me. So we need to do away with this, with this.

There is, there's something. There's. There's something called spiritual pride internally that you feel that you are already above certain things that you can never outgrow reading the Bible. You can never outgrow normal prayer.

That song, read your Bible prayer every day. I think the whole church, everybody should sing that song. It's not for children. It's not a children rhyme.

It is not in fact it's a warfare chance. I will read it. I said it one time. That thing is a warfare chant.

Is it something you use our charge or say warfare? I will read my Bible. I'll pray every day. I'll pray you say it every morning.

Because the devil is trying to remove that mindset. Don't read Bible, you are already bigger than this. When we are talking about the story of Joseph, sometimes some people are too familiar with it and overlook it. So Jesus goal for spiritual life is that we be like a little child.

Now Paul's goal is that we become a mature son. Now let me go to Paul's aspect of things. Now there are many believers that are still children. Now I've explained what I mean by children.

From the point of Paul, you gave your life to Christ. Since the day you give your life to Christ till now, you have not become a disciple. When a sinner becomes a believer, that believer needs to become a disciple, a follower of Christ. Else that believer is still a child.

What does it mean to become a disciple? It means you are letting go of childishness. You are now what? Following Jesus.

He said if any man will come out and let him deny himself, take up the cross and follow me. So I usually tell people the first. There are two labors in this kingdom. The first labor is when they labor for somebody to become a sinner, not for someone to become a sinner to be put come saved is a label.

But the label is not as much as when you now turn that person from a believer to a disciple, from a sinner to a believer. Now the person is not a believer. I told you example last time. Simon the sorcerer became a believer, but he was not a disciple.

That's why it was hard for him. Many people that were following Jesus, they were all believers. They believed in Jesus. That's why they were following him.

Now he did miracles. He knew that he was a Miraculous person. But they did not follow him. That's what happened that once.

He now told them once, he said, unless you drink of my blood and eat of my flesh, you cannot come to me. You cannot be part of me. Guess what happened. All of them.

The Bible said that all the multitude, they left Jesus Christ. Who was left? The apostle, the 12 disciples. And they just look at him.

We also go, sir. To whom shall we go? You have the word of eternal life. So the second label is the label from becoming a believer.

That's why Paul. I said that prayer again. Do you know why he said, my dear children? You see, he's talking to believers now.

You think Paul was older than all the people in church? No. Paul was a young guy. Now, Paul, okay, was not that young, but maybe we're older than him.

But imagine Paul come to church now, maybe the midst of elders. And he called them my dear children. Do you think he's talking about age? No.

When you read that scripture, you think it's children? No, no, no, no. He's talking about immature Christians. Believers that have not yet become disciples.

He told them, it's just like you come here, say, my dear children, in whom I'm always. I'm always praying for you guys in my room every day until Christ be formed in you. That was his prayer. He wants them to remove from childish Christianity, to become mature man.

Now let me tell you what it means to be a mature believer. A fool to be in the full shadow of Christ. It's not about you being arrogant. In fact, when you become.

When you come from a believer to become a mature believer, in fact, you become more humble, you become more low. Is the. Is the opposite of what you think, you know, because you think that maturity in Christ is by having more money, becoming big, becoming like a giant. You become more and more humble.

Jesus was so low. Jesus made his head so, so low. He was mingling with the poor. But yeah, we think that becoming mature is by you rising up in the church.

You can rise up in church and become this, this, this and this. And guess what? You are not even. You are not even recognizing heaven.

It's not by. It's not by you having more spiritual gift. You know how to pray in tongues. You know how to raise the dead.

See, somebody can raise the dead, but yet it's not the greatest in heaven. I'm saying this again because we are in the age and time that we like seeing things manifest. We like seeing all these supernatural things. And we think everything supernatural means that that person is going Deep in God.

No, it is not. God can give you a gift and he can leave you. He will not take away the gift from you. He can leave it with you.

This thing is affecting a lot of people because many people feel that. Oh, because now maybe in this shot now there's not much. You don't see a lot of all those things and you think someone is not deep. Ah, you should.

I don't understand that the deepest person is the person that is like a little child. The deepest person as a Christian is a child, someone that behaves like a child in terms of his heart. He has the heart of a child. That's what he does.

Say. In summary. In summary, what I'm saying in all of those things, that as an elder, as a grown up person, make sure your heart is like a child. You must have the heart of a child, else you cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

That curiosity, you just want to know God. You are coming to church, not become, you know, a child. A child does not care about all these things that we are looking about. A child just want to just.

A child is just curious. You see them, especially those small ones. Don't. Don't think that they're not hearing.

No. You see them just sit down like this and be looking. I know they might slip off, but if you can keep them engaged. You see them, they don't be looking like these trouts.

But you see adults. He's always looking left.