In the Lord's house, and I did really appreciate Brother Mathias' devotional, and there really is not much reason for us to not have joy this morning, right? If you're here this morning and you're not saved, there's reason for you not to have joy. And I pray that today would be the day that you would turn to the Lord. That's really the only place where you can find peace. Matthew 18. Please stand with me while we read this passage. We'll read three passages. The other two are pretty short, but I want to preach a message this morning concerning receiving the necessity of receiving the kingdom of God as a little child. Matthew 18, verse 1. At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whosoever shall receive such a little child in my name, receive with me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe unto the man by whom the offense cometh. Wherefore, if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast them from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life whole or maimed rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee. It is better to enter into life with one eye than having two eyes and be cast into hellfire. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones. For I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. For the Son of Man has come to seek or come to save that which was lost. How think ye, if a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and go into the mountains, and seek that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoices more of that sheep than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so, it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. It was really only recently that I noticed the context. We're so familiar with the 99 sheep and the one. It's in the context of this passage where Jesus is dealing with little ones entering into the kingdom of heaven. Now turn over to Luke chapter 18. We'll just read a couple verses. Luke chapter 18 and verse 15. It's a different context in this passage. It says in Luke 18, 15, Notice this, they brought unto him also infants that he would touch them. But when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called unto him and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not. For of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein." And then let's look at one more passage, Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10 and verse 13. Mark 10. Verse 13 says, And they brought young children to Him that He should touch them. And His disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, He was much displeased and said unto them, Suffer ye the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not. For of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms and put his hands on them and blessed them. Thank you. You may be seated. We're very, very familiar with passages such as John 3 where Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, that self-righteous Pharisee who came to Jesus by night. And I do believe that Nicodemus was later saved. I believe the Word of God bears that out. But we're very familiar with this one passage in which Jesus said that except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. He cannot enter the Kingdom of God. In these passages, we read multiple times where Jesus speaks about, unless one receives the kingdom of God as a little child, he cannot enter therein. And so I want to I want to bring a message this morning, just considering how is it that one receives the kingdom of God as a little child? And then I want to look at the very fact that God does save and does redeem little children. And so first, let's consider little children. How are little children? Little children are teachable. They're teachable. Now, we know, as I get into this, we know that little children are rascals. We know that little children have sin natures. We know all the problems that little children can bring to the table. But there are some admirable things about little children, and we lose some of those things as we grow up. Little children are teachable for the most part. They want to learn. Sometimes they're even eager, perhaps, to learn. Maybe they see their dad working on a car, and they come over, and they want to see if they can do it like he does it. They see their mom working in the kitchen, making stuff, and they want to figure out how they can do that. They want to learn how to be like the people that they look up to. If it's sports they want to learn teach me how to throw a football dad teach me how to can I get a baseball? They want to learn they want to be shown because they know that they they don't they don't know and now they know Is that those older kids the teenagers or the adults? They're the ones that know and they want to be like them. They want to learn so they're eager What do they know? But only that which they are taught. We know that when people come into this world, it's a blank slate and they have to be taught. And if they're not taught, they go down the wrong path. If they had kids have no direction, it's a disaster because they do have that same nature. But, oh, they have to be taught. Little children, he speaks here of little children. Multiple times, this little child as a little child, not teenagers, as a little child. And so little children are not strong. They're not proud. They're not independent and all those things. They are reliant. They are absolutely reliant on adults. Little children, if left to themselves, will starve to death. Little children sometimes have left to themselves won't be able to figure out how to even get out the house and go look for help. And little children have left in the woods probably aren't going to find their way out. Little children are relying on the adults in their life to provide for them. They just assume, they just take it, in fact little kids take it for granted that dad puts a roof over their head and that mom goes shopping and little kids know that they're not going to have to pay the bill when they go through the checkout, right? Little kids just, I don't remember ever being a kid and thinking, you know, When we walk out of this store, I'm going to have to somehow come up with the money for this. Dad's got it. Mom's got it. They're just reliant on the adults. And they're not wrong for doing so. They should be reliant. They should trust. And so they want to grow up. They're always talking about getting older. They want to grow up. They want to get stronger. They want to attain and be like something. And so even in Sunday school, kids are eager and they want to learn the Psalms. They want to learn the stories about what's in the Bible and so forth. It's only as they get older. We're talking about little children. It's only as they get older that the problems begin to arise. And so, oh, now let's consider adults. Especially when they're presented with the word of God. How are adults? They're really a lot more like teenagers when it comes to spiritual things. They get rebellious and argumentative. They're argumentative. They challenge authority. Adults know better. Adults think more highly of themselves than what is reality. Adults are self-sufficient. Adults want to do it their way. And the older they get, the more it gets that way. And even if they don't know more, Even if they don't know all the things that they should, they just think by the fact that they've been around for a long time, that therefore, they know more. They've survived longer than other people. Let's consider this. When you were born into this world, and you went home to your parents, what control or what say did you have in the following? When you were born into this world, did you pick your parents? How many here picked their parents? Oh, did you select the house you were going to live in? Did you write the rule book at that house? And this really gets more to where we're going with concerning spiritual things. Did you write the rule book at that house? No, you were born into that house and you, as you grew up, you learned what the rules are. What say as a child, when you're brought home from the hospital, even until you're two, three, four years old, Did you have an anything? You had to be taught the rules. As you became more aware of surroundings, you learned your street address. You learned the name of your town. You had to be told, you know, and a lot of times you write it over and over and your parents make you write down your address, learn it and all these things. Oh, you had to learn that the state and then the country that you that you live in. Oh, you learned what your name was. you learned what ethnic background you have. One of the funniest stories, this just popped in my head as a reminder, most of you here know Brother Raymond Johnson. He's a Native American Cherokee, looks like Native American, dresses Native, a really, really good preacher. Well, when he was a child, They moved from, his parents moved from the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma and they went to Denver, Colorado. And he lived there from the age of four until he was like nine. And he was in school and he was, I think he was six or seven and they had a, um, one of those days where someone comes in and I can't remember exactly what the deal was but his uncle came in as a Native American and his name his uncle had the full head garb the whole thing the real Native American thing and oh and he pointed out to Now, he said, now, Raymond here, he pointed out now, Raymond here is a Native American. And that was the first time that Raymond knew he thought he was Mexican. And he was in a part of Denver where all his friends were Mexican. And it was just like he went home to his mom and he goes, Mom, he's like, why is uncle so-and-so saying I'm an Indian? I'm not an Indian. You had to be told even what you were, right? That's just how kids are. They don't know it all. You didn't get to pick the food that you ate. At least I didn't. Because your parents know that hot dogs are not what kids are supposed to have for every meal, right? You were 100% reliant on others to teach you the facts of life. Now concerning the Kingdom of God, here's the reality. When you come into this world, you don't know it all. you don't know, you're spiritually blind, you're dead in your trespasses and sins, you're separated from God, and you have to hear the gospel message. There is nobody on this planet that naturally will come up with this concept on their own that I am a sinner, I'm separated from God, there's a great gulf fixed between me, like the song we were singing, And unless God sends his son into the world to die for my sin, I will die and go to hell. People have to be taught that that actually already happened, but they would never think of that on their own. And there's a reason that all the false religions in the world are similar in this way. And only Christianity stands alone is all of the religions in this world have this idea that you can do something to make up for all the bad that you've done and you can earn your way into heaven eventually. And in Christianity, it's so different. You have to be taught. You have to learn those things. And but concerning the kingdom of God, it's unfortunate that most people don't get taught the facts of life concerning God at home while they're growing up. And so, oh, as we as we consider these things, Jesus said, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter What do adults do as they get older? They question whether God even exists. They question whether or not the God of the Bible is real. But what control do you have over the realities of this life? You were born a sinner. You don't have any control in that any more than you had control over the house you came to or the ethnicity that you are. You're not in control, by the way. The problem with man is he insists on being in control. He wants to be his own little God. That's the biggest problem that man has. And men have to get over That idea. Little children have not yet gotten to that point. And so, what say do you have over the fact that if you reject Christ's free gift of salvation, you will spend eternity in the lake of fire? These are just the facts. Your resistance to that doesn't change anything. Who are you to throw out the rulebook? We talked about the rulebook in your house. You didn't write it. It was there when you got there. And who are you to throw out the rulebook called the Word of God? the law, God's standard. Who are you to say, no, see, and this is what teenagers do as they get older and they rebel and they kick against their parents and then they run away from home and they say, I'm not going to live like that. And they go off into life and self-destruct. But the thing is, is, oh, you didn't write the rule book. You were born into this world as it is. It is what it is. And so rebel against it if you like. But the facts are the facts. And so who are you to think that you get to live how you want to live? And yet when you die, somehow things will be OK. You don't get a say in the matter. And so who are we to say that God doesn't exist? Who are we to say that we come from monkeys? It doesn't just because we come up with these ideas, it doesn't change reality. And so saying that God doesn't exist is as ignorant as saying that we don't have parents. We are made in the image of God. And man comes along, he says, God doesn't exist. And so, oh, getting back to this, what Jesus said, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise inner therein. It said repeatedly, shall in no wise enter the kingdom of God. The person, as I begin to look at this, what does it mean? He's talking to adults. What does it mean for a person to be as a little child? In this passage, Jesus had called a little child to himself. Right. He called the little child. It says in Matthew 18, verse two, and Jesus called a little child unto him and set him in the midst of them and said, Verily, I say unto you, he's talking to his disciples. Adults, he says, except ye be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore, here's one of the keys, whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. What did this child do? What did this child do? Jesus called the child and the child came. But Jesus says that the child humbled himself. He says, this child humbled himself. Well, Jesus was a man of authority, and there was a little child standing on the outside of the group, and Jesus called to this child. He called the child to him, and the little child being five, seven, eight, I don't know, he just, left his parents or whoever brought him there. And he just went traipsing across there and he went up to Jesus and he allowed Jesus to set him in the midst. And, you know, for a child, sometimes being set in the middle of a whole bunch of adults can be a little bit intimidating. But he did. Why? Because he was asked. because he humbled himself. Did he necessarily was he over there on the side saying, hey, Jesus, can I come over to you? He wasn't. He's just one of the crowd. And Jesus looked at him, though, and called him out of the crowd and said, Come here, come over here. And what is your name? And oh, and he comes over and he says, OK, I want you to stand right here. Just stand here in the middle. Just just bear with me for a minute. And so the little child's just standing there and he's willing to be used however Jesus wanted to use him. Even for a child, that's called humility. And so Jesus is the one that says, except you be converted and become his little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child did. The same is the greatest in the kingdom of God. And so Jesus is using this little child as an example of how the adults need to be when it comes to these spiritual matters. He's given them a spiritual lesson. When Jesus was done with this child, the little child was probably so happy and proud to have been used of God, used of Jesus, perhaps he knew that Jesus had fed the 5,000. Perhaps he had just seen Jesus do a miracle. There's no telling what this Jesus had actually used him. He had actually called him. Perhaps this child was so happy and proud to be used of God that he ran back to his mom and said, Jesus, talk to me and have me sit with him. You know, it's just as a child. But what would an adult do if there would have been an adult there and Jesus would have called out to a random adult and any of us in this in this crowd, even. And he calls out to an adult and just said, hey, yeah, come here for a second. And if we're if we're standing there, we're going to be like and there's like a bunch of people standing next to us. We're probably going to be like, oh, Oh me? Are you talking to me? You know, like, you know, you hope that he goes ahead and just selects the other one. The adult doesn't want to, doesn't want to go over. It's like, and Jesus says again, no, come here. And it's like, no, I'm good. You know, really? We're like, no, I'm good. And, oh, the adult doesn't want to. And then, so Jesus then, and I want you to think about this and how it is when, when Jesus calls us. Jesus in salvation, he calls, right? And there is a call, but here's rebellious men in this picture that we have who are just like, no, I'm good. And so finally, Jesus, instead of kindly calling, instead of Jesus, the first invitation is kind. It's just like, hey, come here. Come here. I want to use you. I want to talk to you. I want to get to know you. Come over here." And they're like, no, no, no. No, I'm good. That's pride creeping up. And so finally Jesus says, oh, it's not about what you want. It's about what I want. Now I told you, I asked you, now I'm telling you, come over here and come over here and I want to use you. And then what the man, what the adult does in that situation is he just turns around and walks away upset. I don't know who he thinks he is. I ain't doing that. Right? That's adult. That's how we are. And isn't that how it is in salvation? A lot of times, people are called and they might be hearing the call to salvation and they're like, no, I'm good. And then eventually it begins turning up into just outright rebellion. It's just flat out. And then they hear passages where Paul over on Mars Hill is telling, God commandeth all men everywhere to repent. And this call's not an option. I'm telling you to come. And if you don't come, you're going to spend eternity in the lake of fire. Listen. Listen here. I have asked you, and I have asked you, and now I'm telling you, come unto Me. I have a plan for you. I want to use you. But man, as adults, men are like, they well up, and they're like, I don't want to do that. They're just rebellious little brats, and they don't want to do it. They don't want to turn to God. And so they turn, and they literally walk away from the crowd. And they go away from the presence of Jesus. And they're not able to be used by Jesus, so Jesus calls another one. And they'll come. And so there is a turning point in every child's life in which they begin to demonstrate pride, and it usually comes with age. Sometimes pride is confused with being bashful or shy. Seriously, pride is confused with, oh, I'm just shy, I'm just bashful, I don't know, I don't want to go over there. No, it's not so much about that as you're so stinking proud that you don't want to, you're so concerned with what people will think about you. You're so concerned about what people will think about you, that's called pride. Just drop the pride, stop being, listen, not everybody in this world is thinking about you. Right? Nobody cares if you have a zit on your face. Nobody cares if your hair's not combed perfect. And teenagers really get into this mode. And they're so concerned with what everybody's thinking, especially in this stupid TikTok age, where it's all about image and everything. But as kids get older, as people get older, then a lot of times it's this, they're not willing to be used, they don't want to be part of anything, they just want to stay in their room, stay on their phone, or maybe play video games, and they don't want to get involved in anything or be around anybody, because I'm just shy and I'm just bashful. It's like, no, you're proud. You're proud and you care too much about what people think. And in God expects us, he wants us to be humble, humble ourselves so that we can be used of him and come to him in these ways. And so this is why so many adults reject Christ. They care more about what other people are going to think and what other people are going to say. And unless you humble yourself, Jesus said it, unless you humble yourself as this little child, as this little child right here, you will not be able to see the kingdom of God. I want to be able to see the kingdom of God. There are requirements to see in the kingdom of God to entering the kingdom of God. One of them is denying yourself. Take up your cross and follow him. Count the cost. Throw it all away. Jesus only. There's a lot of things, but humility and pride. This battle right there is one of the biggest obstacles to people being saved. The person, the next thing I want to think about is this is how people come to Christ. But then there's also this sense in which this is what the disciples and the apostles were having a problem with is now that they were followers of Jesus, they're so concerned about the big picture now. Who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom of God, right? They're somebodies now, man. They're one of the 12. And by the way, not all of the 12 went to heaven. And not everybody in the church is going to heaven. Not everybody that says, Lord, Lord, is going to heaven. And oh, but Jesus is teaching them a lesson here. And he says that except a person talking to his disciples, except to be converted and be as a little child, you will not enter in and not everybody who was listening to him that day. And how many of his disciples, even it says his disciples, how many of his disciples walked away and went with him no more? And so, oh, they had pride issues. They had a hard time just being taught and learning as they should. The person who receives the gospel has to start from scratch. You're starting from scratch. You're starting as a child. It doesn't matter if you grew up in church and you've been in church for 40 years before God finally saves you. When you're saved, you're starting from scratch. You're starting from scratch. You're a brand new babe in Christ. And you need to accept it. It's okay. It's okay. Because you are a babe in Christ. Come with humility, be willing to learn. First Peter 2.1 says, Wherefore, laying aside all malice and guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the sensual miracle, the word that you may grow thereby, if so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, the child of God. There's never going to be a point in your life where you should have that pride creeping in. You always need to remain in that humble state as a little child before God. There's never room for believing that you've arrived, that you don't have any more to learn, that you have attained and so forth. And so a child of God always needs to remain in that state of humility, willing to be taught, willing to be served, willing to serve, and willing to view others on the same level or himself even as under, lower than others. This passage of Matthew is already stated began with the question from his disciples, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And they were always or at least multiple times anyway, they're coming up with these questions. You're just like, man, how did they have the audacity? But they're just human, you know, and this isn't the only time that this kind of thing, this kind of thing. came up. And so even for those of us who are born again in church, we'll have things like what we would call sibling rivalries. Leave it up to your father in heaven. Don't concern yourself with who is who. And next, I want to I want to just dwell on this for a little bit. Is the children who do believe he's using this child as an example to the adults. as to how one needs to be. But in this passage, we also see that there are the children who do believe. There are the children who are believers in their simple childlike faith. They in their in their simple childlike faith, they have been saved. It's a very important lesson for us to recognize in these passages. Is that children? Our believers in the Lord Jesus Christ as well, and woe to the person who gets in the way of that little person and his Savior. Once again, Matthew 18 and verse 6. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones, notice this, it doesn't just say one of these little ones. It says, whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me. He's using that as an example. I don't think it's that much of a leap to think that that little child who he called and had come sit in the midst of, in the middle of him, believed in Jesus, that he had trusted in him, because he's using it. Who shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me? It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and were drowned in the sea. Take heed, in verse 10, he says, take heed ye despise not one of these little ones. For I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." It would be a very, very sad situation in which the people of a church view those who are children of God, who are 14 and under, as somehow lesser in the church. Like they don't need as much care maybe, they're just kids. Listen, Jesus is trying to drive home a point here that we need to be very, very, very, very careful that we don't offend them, that we do not impede their progress, that we are always available for them. And He even goes so far to say that each one of these little ones who believe in Him have their own angel. who, look at this, it says, take heed, you despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you, that in heaven, their angels, their angels, do always behold the face of my Father, which is in heaven. And so when I see that passage, I can't help but recognize the fact that Children, and I'm sure adults too, for those of us who are saved, we have our angels who behold the face of God. And they're here to protect us, to help us, and they also report to God on exactly what's going on. I don't want to be one of those that my wife and I were in a situation where a man who should have known better, extremely offended, a little child who had just been saved. And I remember saying to her that I would not want to be that person for anything. For anything. Because it's the Word of God. And it didn't take very long for that person to be dead. He was dead. And this is real. It's a reality. The disciples and apostles underestimated both the value and potential salvation of children. They just did. If you look at the passages that we read, the other one, Luke 18. Oh, Luke 18. It says, "...and they brought unto Him also infants that He would touch them. But when His disciples saw it, they rebuked those who were bringing the infants to Jesus." Jesus has more important things to do than something silly like blessing infants. That was in their mind. We're busy about the Lord's work. We're starting this church thing. We're baptizing people. You know what I'm saying? There's so many ways in which we can feel like we're really doing the Lord's work. And they didn't have time for this stuff like blessing infants. And they're rebuking and sending people away. But Jesus called unto them and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God is a little child, so no wise enter therein. And we read the same thing in Mark chapter 10, concerning they were bringing young children to him that he should touch them, and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. And when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased. Jesus pays attention. He pays attention to little children. He pays attention to widows. He pays attention to the fatherless. He cares about those things. And in that passage when it says, here's His disciples, and it says, He was much displeased. We want to be careful that we're not in that situation. And as his ambassadors, as his representatives, as his people that he's given responsibility to the church, especially the church, if we know that he cares that much about children, then shouldn't it be at the forefront One of the things that's really at the forefront of what we do is that we try to reach children. We do whatever we can to make sure, because of such is the kingdom of God. When I was down in Oklahoma at the end of the second to last night, after I got done preaching, Brother Scott just asked for a quick survey. And there were 68 people there that night. And there was a lot of older people It was a it was a full mix of all all the kids were sitting on this side, but it was a full full house and oh Some people probably the oldest people there were almost 80 years old on down to young right and and he asked just he's like I just want to go around the room and if you've been saved if you were saved before the age of 10 raise your hand and there's a surprising number of hands that went up and there's if you've been saved or if you were saved and So there would be older people there that said, yes, I was saved before the age of 10. And then he said, how many people here were saved between the age of 10 and 20? And man, a lot of hands went up. A lot of people there. How many between 20 and 30? In half. It was in half of 10 to 20 was the majority range. 30 to 40, a couple. Over 50, zero. In a congregation of 68 people, I'd say most of whom are professing to be saved. And to me, there were some sobering things there. There's a lot of people that have grown up in church, and they rejected the Gospel message. It doesn't look so good. The older you get, the longer you go rejecting. It doesn't look so good. God will save people at any point in life, It is imperative that people, when they hear the Gospel, they receive the Gospel. And they do so as a little child. One of the reasons that so many young people get saved, God's the author of salvation, and God is the one who calls, and He's the one who saves. But there's a lesson in our message here this morning. Kids and teenagers have a harder time messing things up in their mind. It's simple, childlike faith, right? But as we get older and we begin wrestling, we begin reasoning, and pride enters in, and all these different things, and we begin to think that there's got to be more to it than that. It can't just be that simple. There's got to be more that I can do. It can't just be as simple as trusting in the Lord and believing that what He did for me was for me. and that there's not anything I bring to the table. As you get older, you begin to wrestle and reason and things like that. I'm thankful I was 27 when I was saved, and I still think that that's relatively young, but I was already getting to a point where, man, there was a lot of bad thoughts had begun creeping up in my mind and doubts and reasonings that maybe this whole thing is a joke. And oh, it has to be that simple child like faith. The Lord saves young people. He saves children, and then He uses them for life. The Lord saves us for a reason, and that's that we might serve Him. And the Lord says, go back. I'll just add this. Go back and look. Think of your Old Testament Bible characters. The ones who really were on fire for God. The ones who God really used to do great things. And maybe they didn't live to be very old, but the greatest Bible figures in the Word of God, they were saved when they were young. Joseph. He was saved before he even went into Egypt. Right? Oh, you have Samuel. He was a youth. He was serving God before God knew him. There's a time when it says the Lord did not yet know him, and then the Lord knew him, right? But he was still a youth. Oh, you think about Esther. She was a teenager. You think about Daniel. He was a teenager serving God. You think of Josiah. He was saved at the age of 16. It says very clearly concerning Josiah that this is when he began to seek after God when he was that old. Oh, David. watching his father's sheep. Do adults mess up as Christians? Yes. Was Josiah perfect? No, but he was the most righteous king that Israel ever had. But it's not that people would be perfect, but God wants to use us. And He wants us to just turn to Him in our youth that we might be able to live for Him and have our life count for something. It's not just about fire insurance and making sure we don't go to hell. It's about living for God, the God who made us and loved us and sent His Son into the world. And so, as I close here, I just want to pray that we would consider two things. I've already touched on this. For the church, how much do you value the souls of children? Do we take time for them? Do we even see them? A lot of times we don't even see them. We don't even see them. The Lord sees them. And if you're here today and you've been fighting God, for whatever reason, we all have our own reasons why we fight God. Either too proud, or too stubborn, or thinking too highly of yourself, or perhaps even over-complicating what it means to be born again, I encourage you to begin here. Humble yourself before God. Just begin right there. Humble yourself as that child Jesus said, as this child. Humble yourself as this child. Humble yourself before God. Ezra's child, realizing you have nothing to offer God, just look to Him in faith and trust Him. Believe on Him. He loves you. He cares for you. He created you. He created you for a purpose. Just turn to Him and stop fighting Him. And realize that you are actually indeed in need of God. We're all in need of God. And one of the hardest things for us to grasp and to understand as stubborn adults is that we are actually in need and we are not sufficient. We need God. We need to be saved. I'll close with the words of Jesus once again, whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Amen.