Well, thank you for joining us tonight. I'm not gonna sing, so I'll spare you that. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Tom Bell. I'm the student pastor here, and I've been married to my wife, Ashley, of eight years, a little over eight years, and we have two sons, Grayson, who's three, who was supposed to be up here. I got home today. We were with the high schoolers down at Mappaville, and I got home, and he goes, Dad, I'm singing on the big stage. And then I said, oh, cool, what are you singing? I don't know. So he thought better of it, which is probably a good choice. And so, but then we also have our son Landry, who was part of the parent dedication this morning. He's seven months old. And so we are so excited to be a part of the church family here. And one of the things having kids has kind of taught me is there's so much that you were never, ever going to be ready for. And, but there's so much that has come into my life, joy, just love that I never thought I could have, and God has taught us so much about his love, about what it means to follow him, and about the gospel through our children, and God can do that, and he does that quite often in our lives, and there's so many times that we have these teachable moments from him as we deal with our children, because we get a picture of what he is doing with us, we just can look at that and say, man, there's so much more about him that I didn't know, but that I have been able to discover as a dad. And so we're gonna look at a passage of scripture tonight very briefly in Matthew chapter 19. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn there. But this passage of scripture is where Jesus really just takes a chance to teach us what the gospel is through children. And it's a humbling thing, it's a thing that will make us kind of check our pride at the door a little bit, just to see, man, God can use a child to teach a grown adult what it really means to follow him. So we're gonna be in Matthew chapter 19, verses 13 through 15. And we'll look at a couple things here to really see what God has to say to you and I tonight, and hopefully we'll have some time that we just really have a big discovery about really what God wants from us. And so Matthew chapter 19, verses 13 through 15, it says, then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven. and he laid his hands on them and went away. It's a pretty short, just like, passage there. It's pretty small, but there's so much that's packed in there. There's so much that we can learn from that. You may have heard that before, you may not have, but this is a very real example of Jesus using children to teach adults what the gospel really is. First thing, you have these parents that have brought their kids to Jesus. And just before we get in, there's no greater thing that you can do for your children than to take them to Jesus. Whether that's in this building, whether that's the way you live your daily life, modeling what it means to follow him. Your children will be taken to Jesus. because of you. You are the person that's gonna lead them there. And these parents here grasp that. They understand, man, I want my kid near Jesus. Now, in the Jewish culture, they would take their kids to a rabbi for a blessing, much like we did with a parent's dedication, just saying, hey, man, I want my kid to be brought up in that way. But they saw Jesus and said, man, I want my kid to be near Him. They didn't know that Jesus was gonna one day die. They didn't know that He was this Messiah that had come to save them. They just knew they wanted their child to be near Him. And for you and I, there's no greater thing that we can do, but I hope as a father that I can lead my children to walk with Jesus. And that is a responsibility that's so great, but it's a great privilege too. So let's not miss that opportunity. So you have these parents who just take their kids to see Jesus, but the disciples, they're not necessarily kid people, it doesn't seem, because it says that they rebuked him, and it's basically a fancy word for told them to get away. They just said, hey, Jesus doesn't have time. They thought they were doing good. They thought they were protecting Jesus and just taking care of his time. Hey, Jesus is more important than to give this blessing to your kids right now. Jesus has better things to do. But Jesus obviously has a different view of this. But the disciples, they didn't have a bad heart about this. They were looking at it through the eyes that they've always seen things. But Jesus wants them to have these different eyes. These disciples are looking at it through this Jewish culture that they grew up in, lived in, that they were taught, that said, hey, as a kid, you don't have a place to participate quite yet. You sit and you learn, you learn all the rules and you learn what the law says, and then when you're 13, you have your bar mitzvah, your Shabbat mitzvah, if you're a girl, then you pass the test, you can participate, you can be a part of this. But as a child, you don't have a place. This passage is also found in Luke and in Mark. And Luke was a doctor, and Luke a little bit more accurate in terms of his getting down to the details of things. And he even says that these were like infants. These are little kids that have to be carried. So in terms of whether or not they have anything to really add to the conversation, the answer's no. They have nothing to really give and the disciples just see these kids as if they're gonna take Jesus' time and if he's gonna be this great guy, he can't waste his time on this. But when Jesus sees this, he has a totally different response than his disciples. He says, let the children come to me and do not hinder them. It's not this kind of like, I guess, let them come, like 6 a.m. when your kid comes in. Yeah, you can crawl in bed, that's fine. He said, no, get out of their way. Let them come to me. This is one of those teachable moments that Jesus has with his disciples. As a father, I have had these more so with my father, where he has these teachable moments, but I'm learning to have these with my kids, where you've seen a mistake, you've seen something that should not have happened, that shouldn't have been done. But you can use that moment to teach them a life lesson, or teach them about the bigger issue that is going on. And Jesus takes that time with his disciples here, and says, hey, let them come to me. Do not hinder them. And then he says this, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven. You have Peter, James, John, you have these guys that left their entire life to follow Jesus. They left everything behind. They said, I'm gonna quit my business, I am gonna leave my family, because I want to follow you. And you would think that they would kind of be there and be kind of this beacon, this example of what it means to follow Jesus, kind of, hey, if you want to inherit the kingdom of heaven, be like one of these guys. Be like Peter, James, or John. Do what they do. But Jesus says, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven, talking about children, talking about little kids who haven't built up a resume of what they've done, of all the laws they've followed, of how they've been so obedient. He just says, you have to come like a child. You have these guys that have learned to follow this law. They got the Ten Commandments and the Jewish faith says, hey, follow this. You will earn your way, you will be able to earn God's favor by being obedient to this law. You will be able to earn your spot based on that. You will be able to follow if you are an obedient person that does the law. And so they look at these kids and say they can't even, they can't carry themselves. They can't follow a law. They literally have to be brought to Jesus by someone else. They have no track record of life following well. They have no years of being a Sunday school teacher. They have no years of doing all this stuff. They are just here because someone brought them. And what Jesus is trying to teach his 12 disciples here who have been with him day and night, slept in the dirt when he sleeps in the dirt, gone with him to every place he's gone. What he's trying to teach them is hey, you don't earn your way to me. You can't be so good and so just obedient that you're ever going to get the favor and blessings of God. That law ends with me. Jesus came to fulfill the law and he said that is done. That stops with me. I will fulfill the law. With my death I will pay the price and I will fix that. He's saying, but under this new law, under this new way of doing things, you have to come to me like a child. Don't show up with your resume of what you've done. Don't show up with everything that you say. This is what makes me good enough to follow you because you and I both know that it's not going to cut it. We all can look at our lives and see just mistakes, see things we'd like to have back, see things we wish had never ever happened. And we can look at those times, and we can just kick ourselves about it and say, and I know that my life is not perfect, and I know that I screw up on a daily basis. And so if I try, by obedience, to earn God's favor, it's never gonna happen. And Jesus is saying, great news, you don't have to. He's saying, you have to come to me like a child. And when we look at that, we say, well, these kids, they have literally nothing to offer Jesus. They have nothing they can give Him. They have to be carried to Him. They have to be brought to where He is. And saying that if you want to follow me, you have to come like them. Because Jesus, in the Bible, refers to us as sons and daughters. And then He goes on to say, not only sons and daughters, but heirs, co-heirs with Christ. And saying that this inheritance, As an heir, we inherit this kingdom of God and that if you want to be one of those heirs, you have to understand that you offer me nothing. You have to understand that you will have to be carried to get to where I want to take you. And you have to be just humbled. You have to look and see maybe everything that I've ever done that I thought was good isn't gonna work. but I'm gonna rest on the faithfulness of God. I am going to look at what he did and see that he says, hey, I have come to pay the price for you. And by my death, I will bridge the gap between you and God. And you will be carried on my back. by my goodness, so that when you stand before God, you don't have to pull out your resume. You don't have to pull out and say, this is everything I've done to follow. There's a couple mistakes on here. There's a few things I did wrong, but mostly good. You can stand before God and just say, I'm here with Jesus. I came with nothing to offer him and he carried me. And Jesus says, that's who the kingdom of heaven belongs to. those who are willing to make themselves low so He can lift you up. And the question tonight is, are you relying on your resume? Are you relying on what you've done in your life? Are you trying to fix it yourself? Anyone that's ever done a DIY at their house knows that those go wrong quite often. Doing it on your own doesn't cut it. Trusting in Him does. letting him carry you, saying that I am not good on my own, but I trust in his faithfulness, and I trust that his death for me is the only thing that can fix what is wrong. It's the only thing that can get me back to the relationship that God made me to have. and I'm gonna trust Him to carry me there. And so tonight, if you haven't done that, we'd love to give you that opportunity. We would love to have a chance to talk with you about what it means to follow Him, about what it means to give your life to Him. In a second, we'll have those at the front of the aisles that would love to talk to you about that, or if you have questions about what it means to be a part of a church or what it means to be baptized, we'd love to talk to you about that. But don't leave here tonight without just confronting the total lack of ability to follow on our own, and our need for someone to carry us, and our need for a savior that says, you offer me nothing, I'm gonna offer you everything. So I am going to pray, and the band's gonna play a song, and during that time, there'll be those at the front of the aisles that would love to talk with you. You move if God is calling you. Jesus, we love you, and we thank you so much, God, for what you have done. God, that you look at us in everything that we've done wrong. God, you know everything that I've done in my life. You know everything good and bad about me, every ugly thing that I may try to hide. You look at me and you say that you love me, you know it, and that you've paid for it. God, I pray that we would quit trying to add to our resume all the things we think we've done well, all the things that we think will get us to you. I pray that we will just rest on you. We will allow you to carry us, God, that we will come to you like a child with nothing to offer, knowing that our creator and the king of kings wants to give us the riches of the world and wants to carry us. God, we love you so much. God, I pray that there's someone here that does not know that tonight. God, that you would work in their heart, you would stir them, God, to discover the love that they have never felt before. The unconditional love of a God who made them and is willing to die to buy them back. We thank you so much for what you've done on the cross. In your name, amen.