Life Lessons We Learn from Children, Part 2

Imagine what it was like when the disciples stood in front of Jesus and challenged Him to identify the greatest among them.

All twelve men were fishing for compliments. They hoped to be the one Jesus would elevate. Well, to their dismay Jesus had a shocking response. Rather than choose one of the twelve, Jesus brought a little child into their circle. Jesus said, anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Where in Matthew chapter 18, Chuck titled his message, Life Lessons We Learn from Children, and we begin with prayer. In a world full of noise and activity, our Father grant us the ability to be silent before you, that we may hear that still small voice as you speak to us. In the busyness of our day, may we find our rest in you, that you may do a work within us. May we be open to you, Lord, that you may enter and run and have free course through our lives.

Find us empty before you rather than filled with ourselves, that you may fill us with the great things you have for us, great thoughts, great guidance, great truth, and slow us down, Lord, that we might be still and learn again that you are God. I want to thank you, Lord, for the things you taught me these last two weeks when I was laid aside. Thank you for your patience with me when healing took time and for the things that you communicated that came without words but were invaluable things to learn. Thank you for teaching all of us, Lord, in the challenges of life, and we all have them, in the trials that come and we all go through them, in those places where we reach that we think we cannot go on and you take us on.

You go with us all the way, faithfully ministering to us in our deepest, most profound needs. And today, in light of what we have just read, we thank you today for the children who crossed the paths of our lives, our children and others' children, our grandchildren and others' grandchildren, for the little ones who are so innocent, so inexperienced, who know nothing of the brutalities of life, I pray that we will never be one to introduce them to such. May we be people of patience and mercy and encouragement and understanding to them, especially to those who cannot keep up.

Give us a great measure of understanding and patience that we might slow our pace to be a part of their lives as well. For you said it best, inasmuch as you've done it to the least of these, you've done it unto me. Today, I want to thank you for those who make our liberty possible, those who protect us on the street and in battle, those who courageously fight the fight, who serve the country.

Thank you for each one. Give them great wisdom, grace, courage and extra measures of strength. And for those who serve the cause of Christ in forgotten places, who faithfully represent you day in and day out, unknown and often unappreciated, reward them as only you can in ways that bring encouragement and affirmation to their work. Finally, Lord, I pray that you will set apart these gifts that we give today, that they might be used in special ways, in lives that we will never meet, in places we will never go, for causes we're not even right now aware of, to meet needs that are beyond our distant imagination. Minister to us, our Father, and in the process, be our vision. Lift us beyond our own home, in our own backyard, in our own world, and give us a vision for your world and what you are doing here and abroad for the sake of Jesus Christ. It's in his name that I pray these things, and it's in his name that we give our gifts.

And everyone said, Amen. You're listening to Insight for Living. To study the book of Matthew with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scriptures studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. And now the message from Chuck that he titled, Life Lessons We Learn from Children. Mark 9, 33. They're making their way from where they had been to the town of Capernaum, sort of an evangelistic headquarters, if you will, for their ministry.

It's where Peter lived, where Andrew lived. But on their way to Capernaum, they finally arrive at verse 33. After they arrived at Capernaum and settled in a house, Jesus asked his disciples, What were you discussing out on the road? Look at their response. They didn't answer. Now, why wouldn't they answer?

Keep reading. Because they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest. That's what St. Matthew and St. Andrew and St. Peter and St. Judas and St.

It doesn't fit Judas, does it? And the others were arguing over which going to be. Peter said to them, I'm the only one that walked on water. Andrew says, I'm the one that brought you to Jesus. Peter, James and John said, We're the three who were taken up on Mount Transfiguration.

You nine were not. We're the greatest. I'm the greatest.

I'm the greatest. Chapter 18 of Matthew, verse one. So they come to Jesus and say, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

Now you see where the background is. In other words, which one of us? Which of us would be the greatest? Of course, that is not what Jesus was interested in addressing.

Because they were arguing about the wrong thing. Interestingly, when they ask, Who is the greatest in the kingdom? Jesus doesn't point out one or several of them. Look at verse two.

I love this. He called a little child to him, and he put the child among them. Could be boy or girl. And in the Middle East, to this day, girls are not seen as valuable as little boys. In fact, they are often the objects of abuse. They're often not even valued by the father who wanted a little boy. So let's make this a little girl.

Now, when you allow the setting to be that realistic, your mind has room to think outside the borders. Because the passage is all about this little child. Do you realize that in 14 verses, a little one is mentioned eight times?

I'll show you. Verse two, he called a little child. Verse two, he put the child among them. Verse three, unless you become like little children, there's a third reference. Verse four, so anyone who becomes as humble as this little child, mark that. Beginning of verse five, anyone who welcomes a little child, fifth reference. Verse six, if you cause one of these little ones, there's another reference. Verse six, look at verse 10, beware that you don't look down on any one of these little ones. Still has the little child in their midst. And at the very end of the passage, at the end of verse 14, it's not my Heavenly Father's will that even one of these little ones should perish. Over and over and over and over, it's about the little child. And I want to make a thing of that, because the very one everybody would have overlooked is in fact the object lesson from whom we can learn so much about life. And whether a little boy or a little girl, I want you to see the value, so valuable that Jesus teaches 12 men arguing over which one of them is the greatest, some lessons about life that they needed to have learned early on but didn't. By the way, by now they have traveled with Jesus three years, and they're still arguing over which one of them is the most significant. So he brings up the little child, we're going to have her be a little girl, and he stands her in their midst. And they're all wondering, what is this about?

What are they going to do? That's not what's important. It's what are they going to learn? But normally, you and I have to admit, we don't learn a lot from anybody because we're so preoccupied with ourselves. What's the whole point of this? Stop being concerned about who is number one among you.

Life isn't about that. Let's learn from this child. So in verses two through four, we have standing here an example, two things, of unspoiled innocence and second, unguarded humility. He put the child among them, verse two, and then he said, are you interested in the kingdom life as I've been teaching? Are you interested in what heaven is all about? Are you interested in connecting with the world I'm trying to introduce you to? Seek first my kingdom and my righteousness and all the other stuff of life will be added to.

Are you interested in that? Start with a child. Here's a child standing among them in her unspoiled innocence, no agenda, no speech to deliver, no hidden desires, no secret sin, no guile.

She's not even aware of why she's standing there. And secondly, look at the next statement. Then I'll tell you the truth unless you turn from your sins and become like little children. You'll never enter this into this kingdom life. So anyone who becomes as humble as the little child, you ever thought of that? A child is by nature just who they are. Pytheon would be a child of age seven or younger, most likely. A childlike humility would be virtually impossible to offend the little one.

Just childlike in every way. And he says a basic lesson to learn in life is the value of authentic humility. I love the story of the children that had formed a club and they were out back and one of the kids said every club needs rules. So one of the kids that was good at rules came up with three rules. And the first one was nobody act big. Rule number two was nobody act little.

And rule number three was everybody act medium. I dare you to act medium. You're not a big deal, nor am I. You're not a little insignificant, unimportant deal, nor am I. We're just who we are. Let's just be who we are. Let's let humility run its course and keep Christ first and let the rest of the things that happen happen. And keep our ego out of it. And keep our will on hold.

Out of the way. There's a little child who can teach us this. Now, this marvelous illustration goes further and Jesus takes it in a beautiful direction.

May I intercept other thoughts by adding something here that is in addition to what we're going to be reading about. It is easy for us to be shortsighted when God gives us children. It is so easy for us because of the familiarity of their lives. We're around them all the times and they're noisy and they make messes and they're involved in all the things that you wish they wouldn't get involved in. And they're there to show us so many things about life.

It is easy for us to not see in them the value that they are. And I'll get into more of that in a moment. Between the years 1961 and 1970, God gave the two of us four children. First a boy, Kurt, and then a daughter, Carissa, and then a daughter, Colleen, and finally one other child, Chuck.

Sixty-one to seventy. In the meantime, we lost two that we had longed to have kept, but God had other plans. And in the journey, life went on.

All four gifts from God. They were provided by our loving Heavenly Father and from whom we were to learn and still are learning many things. As we watched them grow, we too were growing. And as life led us in various directions, they were led with us.

And memories are made of things like this. And when I read about this little child, I picture one of our daughters being there, or one of our sons. When we come into the Scriptures, it's helpful for you to read your family into this. If you're married, if you have children, think of this as one of your own.

And that way it'll become, as it has been for me, much more personal. How do we handle our children? In verses five through fourteen, four different possibilities are set forth.

And I want you to see all four. Since the child is in their midst, and they're no longer arguing over because they're ashamed of themselves for thinking so much about who was the greatest, they now have a little child. What are the things Jesus teaches them about learning about life from children? The first is we can accept and delight in them. That's in verse five.

Look at it for yourself. Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me. The word means to receive, to accept, and can even grow to mean delight in. It would include being tender with and kind toward, being loving and merciful and fair and compassionate, forgiving and encouraging, affirming, seeing the value of. God gave us four, and I'm using our four because those are the four I know best of all children in the world. He gave us four, and they're all very different. They have different temperaments, though they came from the same womb, reared in the same home, under the same environment as one another, but they are as different as they can be. The two boys are not at all alike.

The two girls are hardly similar. All four children of ours whom God gave to us. And he uniquely designed each one to be teachers of their parents, to be learners from their parents.

And as they would grow up, they would become young men and women, hopefully taking the strengths of their parents and hopefully being able to overcome the weaknesses that they got from their parents. How valuable it was as they were given to us that we accept them and welcome them. That we realize each one was a gift from God.

Each one. The same is true in the body of Christ. Each one of us called, interestingly, Children of God. And isn't it interesting that when the Israelites were on the earth and they were doing, they were making that exodus out of Egypt and on their way to Canaan, remember what they're called? Children of Israel. To this day, they're called the Hebrew children.

Children. Here is an image that the Lord uses over and over. And the first one is invaluable that we delight in them. And we treat them with dignity.

And with significance. We guard against comparing them because they're not the same. They have different IQs. They have different EQs, emotional quotients. They have different interests in art or in sports or in life. Some learn quickly, some learn slowly, some learn the hard way, some learn easily. Some require more discipline than others required, but all four for us were to be accepted and delighted in.

And the same for your children. You'll be glad to know that we're not finished with this message from Chuck Swindoll. He's titled this study, Life Lessons We Learn from Children. Now to see what resources are available for today's topic, please visit us online at insightworld.org. And just as you've grown to respect and value the Bible teaching you receive on Insight for Living each day, we thought you'd be encouraged to know Chuck has inspired a generation of young people to embrace the truth as well. While many are tuning into the radio broadcast, a growing number are connecting with Insight for Living by using the convenient mobile app, finding us on your social media platforms, or by downloading the daily podcast. Plus, you can dig into the scriptures that correspond with Pastor Chuck's sermons by using the same Bible study techniques he used.

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In fact, it's absolutely magnificent. And now you can see Israel with Chuck Swindoll and the gracious hosts and experts assembled by Insight for Living Ministries. Join us on an unforgettable 12-day tour, March 6th through 17th, 2022. At special sites along the way, I will teach from God's Word. We'll worship at the Mount of Beatitudes and share the Lord's Table at the Garden Tomb. In fact, we'll sail the Sea of Galilee together, and we'll visit places where Jesus walked and taught.

To learn more, call 1-888-447-0444. Just imagine walking along those sacred sites and seeing the Bible come to life before your very eyes. Mark your calendar for March 6th through 17th, 2022. And make your reservation by calling 1-888-447-0444 or go to insight.org slash events. Insight for Living Ministries' tour to Israel is paid for and made possible by only those who choose to attend. Join us again tomorrow when Chuck Swindoll continues to describe Life Lessons We Learn from Children, right here on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Life Lessons We Learn from Children, was copyrighted in 2017 and 2021, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2021 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.