Sermon Tone Analysis
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*Be Childlike not Childish**!*
*Introduction*:
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We all like to be looked up to, don’t we? Sure we do!
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We like recognition for a job well done, we like having titles, positions, and status
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I don’t think that there is anyone who would go around thinking,
#. “/You know what?
I think I’m going to make sure that no one appreciates me and never gives me a compliment/!”
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“/I’m going to change my name to *‘dirt’* just to remind myself and others how unworthy I really am/.”
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No. We like to be looked up to.
We need some significance in our lives.
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That is the way we were wired.
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And as long as we don’t go about it in sinful ways with sinful motives, it’s okay.
#. *Proverbs* tell us that we should work in such a way that the quality of our work is noticed.
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Not to gain glory, but to show what a life lived for God can be all about in the workplace.
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How about you? Do you struggle with the idea of being important?
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Really, the question is, “/When you feel that way, what do you do about it/?”
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And if you are a Christian you may even wonder if you are important to God!
#. “/Does anybody really notice me/?”
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That reminds me of the story I read, about a preschool teacher:
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She had her straight hair permed into a curly style
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The next morning in class she noticed that Jack (4yrs old), who was usually very cheerful, looked sad.
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She asked, “/Is something wrong, Jack?/”
#. “/Your hair,/” he mumbled.
#. “/You noticed!/”
She said.
“/I just had it permed and I love it!/”
#. “/You do?/” whispered Jack.
“/Have you seen it?/”
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Talk about being deflated in a hurry!
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Children have an innocence that as we get older we lose.
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So how do we combat on one hand the NEED to know we’re important in some ways, and pride on the other hand?
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One answer to that question is in our passage for today, as we discuss childlikeness.
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Please turn with me in your Bibles to *Matthew 18:1-10* *Read*.
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In this passage there are three parts about Children that we are going to take a closer look at this morning.
*/Children/*:
#. *We should be more like them*.
#. *To welcome them is to Welcome Jesus*.
#. *We have a responsibility to them*.
*Outline*:
I *Children: We Should Be More Like Them* (*vs.
1-4*)
A In these first four verses Jesus tells his disciples that they need to be more like this little child.
B There were wrapped up in this debate of who would be the Greatest in the kingdom of God and who would get the most Glory
C Jesus told them that unless they change and become humble like the child standing before them, they won’t even be IN the Kingdom of Heaven.
D There is a difference between “/Childlike/” and “/Childish/.”
If you don’t get anything else out of this message get that.
1 Let me give you an example of Childlike behavior,
a Kids aren’t into titles a whole lot.
b You usually don’t see a kid coming up and saying, “Dad, I want to be the /Executive Vice-President for Toy Distribution/.”
c Titles don’t mean anything in the overall picture of life.
Can you imagine God being impressed by our titles?
i “/You were the head deacon in charge of mowing the grass and doorknob polishing at your church/?/ Whoa!
You get an extra-big mansion up here/./
Wow/!/
Gabriel/ – /make sure this gentleman gets the best of everything up here/!”
ii Or, “/Oh, you were the pastor, Oooooh/!”
iii Childlike humility isn’t concerned with titles.
2 Childish pride, on the other hand, is all about titles.
a When you tell a child, “/It’s not about you/.”
They think, “/What planet are you from, bub/? /Of course it’s all about me.
What else is there/?”
b “/The World Revolves Around Me/!”
E The disciples battled this as well.
In fact Marks account of this tells us that the disciples were arguing about which of them was the greatest.
1 I can just hear it can’t you?
a John says, “/I was the first to wake up on the Mount of Transfiguration/.”
b James says, “/I spotted Moses and Elijah first/!”
c Peter says, “/I was the one to worship first/!”
d I can picture the other disciples listening and getting fed up with it and one speaking out saying, “/You guys were only invited because Jesus knew if He left you for a minute you’d backslide on Him/!”
F Jesus statement should have been a huge wakeup call to the disciples.
1 *Vs.
3* “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
2 It should stand as a wake up call for us too.
a Pride and ambition blinded the disciples to what was truly important
b Pride and ambition had the disciples of Jesus focused on the wrong thing.
3 They were focused on themselves, and their own glory instead of Jesus’ glory.
G They needed to change.
H Jesus used a little child as an example of what they needed to be like.
And humbled them.
I Children can have a way of putting us in our places quite easily…
1 Billy Graham tells the story of arriving to preach in a town one day.
2 He had a letter that he wanted to mail, so he stopped a small boy and asked him where the post office was.
3 After the boy told him, Billy Graham said, “/If you’ll come to the church tonight, you can hear me tell people how to get to heaven/.”
4 The boy said, “/I don’t think I’ll be there, you don’t even know how to get to the post office/.”
J Kids speak more honestly, they won’t tell you how wonderful what you say is if they don’t really believe it.
They will say what is on their minds
K Another example of childlike behavior is simple trust:
1 Children trust their parents, especially when they are younger.
Obviously this changes through the teens and early 20s years.
2 But younger kids tend to trust their parents, easily.
3 They just understand that one of the jobs of parents is to keep them safe.
4 Those of you who have ever had little kids in your home remember those times in the middle of the night when they would come to your room to have you take them to the bathroom
a Not because it was too far away or they didn’t know how to do it themselves, in fact sometime they will walk past the bathroom to get to your room.
b It is just that they need Mom or Dad to hold their hand and walk them to the bathroom.
And when their little hand is in you BIG hand, everything will be ok, right?”
5 Do you have that same kind of simple trust in your Heavenly Father as your kids do, or at least did, have in you?
6 That reminds me of just about every day either coming or going to work…
a There are three steps up in to our house from the laundry room.
b They will each wait there for me to say JUMP!
c Then their face lights up and off that top step they come.
d They do it and don’t even have a thought that I might drop them because as their dad I would NEVER do that.
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