of faith. This morning, I want you to imagine something as we open our Bibles now. Thank you, Michael. I appreciate you doing that for me. As we open our Bibles to the book of Mark, in Mark chapter number 10, Jesus is communicating with his disciples on many different levels here. And I want you, before we get into this passage, I want you to think for a moment. I'm not a fan of head tables. You go to a wedding and then you go to the reception afterwards and there's always a head table where you've got the bride and the groom and usually the wedding party sitting up there and everything. That's fine. You know, people are supposed to go up and see the bride and groom. But when we're having like a church event or something, I don't like head tables. I'll be quite honest with you, I despise head tables. Because there's like this feeling of you've got all the dignitaries and everybody else, right? And if you didn't make the cut for the head table, you'd think, well, I'm not as important as those guys. And so I've had people before say things like, well, you're the pastor, you should be, no, stop. You know what a pastor is? A pastor is a shepherd. And shepherds take care of the flock. The flock doesn't take care of the shepherd. Well, they're the deacons. No, stop. The word deacon means servant. The deacons are the servants of the people, not the ones being served by the people. And leadership should not be sitting at a dignitary table. Leadership should be leading by example and serving. But I want you to imagine for a minute, you know, our typical mindset on things like this. If we were to have a big fellowship meal, you know, in terms like fellowship, if you're not familiar with church lingo, you're like, what's that? Okay, potluck, all right? If we were to have a potluck or something, and let's say we don't even do potluck because Jesus is coming, right? And Aunt Flossie Mae's tuna casserole does not need to be served when Jesus is in the party, right? So Jesus himself is coming. We're going to have a big banquet. And we're going to have that head table, the dignitary table. And we're going to have Jesus right in the middle. And there's not enough room for everybody, so who goes at the head table? I want you to think for just a moment in your mind's eye on who you would put at the head table, but I also want you to think for just a minute, who's the last person you would put at the head table? Oh, don't put Buford at the head table. He'll embarrass us. Oh, don't put Aunt Lil at the head table. She'll embarrass us. All right? Now listen, I know we think this way. I know many of us do. And Jesus is getting ready in the book of Mark in chapter number 10 here. He's getting ready to knock over the head table. He's getting ready to completely disrupt the status quo. Now here's what I want us to look at as we get into this. This passage this morning is going to confront our assumptions. It's going to expose our pride, and it's going to remind us of the heart of Jesus, a heart that welcomes, a heart that receives and embraces those who come to him, not with their achievements, but in humility, childlike faith. If you're able, would you stand with me for the reading of the word of God? Mark chapter number 10, starting in verse number 13, the word of the Lord says that they brought young children to him that he should touch them. And his disciples rebuked those that brought them. When Jesus saw it, he was much displeased. And he said unto them, suffer the little children to come unto me. 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, put his hands upon them, and blessed them. Father, we come before you this morning understanding, Lord, that your word has clearly spoken. And Father, what we see in your word is more than just suggestions. But Father, your word truly lights our path. So Father, we ask that you would take your word this morning, expose in our hearts the things that perhaps we are harboring that we shouldn't be. any pride that might be creeping in, any arrogance, any self-importance. Father, remind us of the faith that we should have and that perhaps once some time ago we did have. Father, grow us this morning. We pray all this in your son's name. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. You know, in many parts of the world, People respect the elders, right? We respect the elders, and I'm always amazed. Here in America, it's like out with the old, in with the new. The older a person gets, the less important they become in society here in America, which is really quite the opposite than just about anywhere else in the world that you go. You know, there's something just, interesting to me and amazing when people, they look for, and the term is the gray hairs. Now, most people in today's day and culture, they don't want what the older generation has to offer. And they dismiss them and they put them off to the side. I learned at a very early age, the people my age really have little to offer me. It was the people who had been there, done that. that I learned from the most. Sadly, I'm getting to that stage. I am one of those who is becoming more and more the been there, done that crowd, and I'm learning how to help those who are coming behind. But what we want to look at is the kingdom of God does things differently. Somewhere along the way, we have kind of forgotten what it is to have faith. We decided that there are certain things that are better than others, and the kingdom of God really kind of turns things on its head. We've been talking about this upside down kingdom. The kingdom of God doesn't run on the rules of the culture. It doesn't run on the rules of the age. The kingdom of God runs on something different, humility. One of the reasons that I find that people, especially the younger generations, they seem to dismiss the older generations. Beloved, understand something. I learn more from the older generation telling me about the mistakes they've made than looking at them going, you made mistakes and I'm going to do it better. One of the greatest pieces of advice I have ever received was through an elderly man in tears looking at me saying, son, you can't schedule memories. You have to be there when they happen. Because he could see in me something. He could see that workaholic in me. He could see that I was abandoning and leaving my kids behind. He said, you can't schedule the memories. How does he know that? Because he tried to schedule memories. And he learned the hard way. You see, the kingdom of God, what it likes to do is it takes those who are humble and it elevates them. It brings them up to the next level. Those of us who are too proud to ask for help, too proud to seek somebody else's wisdom, too proud to admit that we may not know everything, Those are the ones that kind of get resisted. You see, the Bible tells us God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. You know, the world tells us that we need to climb higher and step further, and the upside-down kingdom of Jesus, though, invites us to kneel lower. Isn't that beautiful? You see, as we grow older and older, the funny thing is we forget about having faith. We forget that childlike faith. And Jesus is trying to get us to understand something this morning. Look with me in verses 13 and 14. It 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 the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of God. I sometimes make people upset. Because if a child needs something from me, you can wait. Not too long ago, the beginning of our Awana year, we got to talking about this, and Greg and I were talking, discussing how we can maybe do some things a little bit differently, and the thought was, why don't we do Awana as one big opening ceremony, and we can have everybody together, we can spend time with the kids, and then afterwards, when the kids move on to the next phase, then the adults, we can teach the adults. And when we were discussing this, we knew what one of the issues was going to be. Well, I want to come to adult church. I don't want to come where there's a bunch of kids. Now, if you have been with me during this time, you know that I like to let the kids get loud. I like it. And from time to time, I'll do what I refer to as my scream light, where I'll use a ball and I'll throw it in the air. And they get to scream as loud as they want to. And then when I catch it, stop. Scream as loud as you want to. Catch it, stop. People are like, oh, I don't want to listen to all that screaming. Do you realize that I'm helping them learn when to stop? I'm actually teaching in that moment. Or you just let the kids get crazy and laugh. Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not. Well, I want to be where the adult class is. I don't want to be where the kids are because I'm better. then perk your ears up because you're gonna learn something this morning. Because this is the attitude of the disciples. The disciples are, you know, Jesus has more important things to do. Hey, don't bring those kids over here. Put them off to the side. Have you ever taken prayer requests in a kid's class? Man, it's great. It's amazing. You learn so much about the kid's parents and what's going on in the home. It's awesome. Pray for my dad, he won't wear pants. I've heard it. I've heard the prayer request. Pray for my mom. I won't go there. But anyway. But it's great. In kids' minds, you know, my dog threw up this week. My dog throws up like three times a week, four times a week, sometimes daily. But to them, that's a big thing. And what do we do? Ah, your dog threw up. I'm not praying for that. All their need is huge to them. And the last time I checked, Jesus said that you can bring anything to him in prayer. He says, you can ask anything of me. Why in the world do we seem to reserve prayer for the important matters, but we don't take to him the little things in our life? I can remember as a kid, we'd be driving and we'd pull into the mall and my mom had to keep track of me. And this was before they put leashes on kids, okay? So she had to keep track of me. She said, I'll never forget one time she took me to the mall and I was sitting in one of the little strollers and I had the little chair thing, you know, the little table tray and everything. She said, I wanted to get out and I just grabbed hold and just ripped that thing off. I wanted out. So she was always wanting a front row parking spot, right? So we'd get in there and we'd be driving around and she'd say, okay, kids, start praying for a closer space. So she would pray, Lord, please give me, please, dear Lord, I need a closer space. About that time somebody would be backing out. I'm like, wow, you can pray for a parking space. Yes, you can. Pray about everything the Bible says. But for some of us, for some reason, when we start to grow and we become so much higher and so much more mature in our spirituality, we forget to pray about everything. The Bible says time and time again, men ought to pray everywhere. Pray without ceasing. In all things, by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known unto God. So what happens is we start to find ourselves instead putting faith in our own abilities, in our own selves. But childlike faith welcomes dependence. The disciples saw the children as a distraction, but Jesus saw them as a perfect demonstration. You see, they thought the ministry was for the capable, for the influential, for the mature. They thought that unless somebody was contributing in a big way, they were not necessary. But the kingdom doesn't run on resumes, it runs on reliance. Are you reliant on the Word of God, on the Son of God, on the blessings of God, on the grace of God? Or are you reliant on what your resume has to say? Well, I've taught Sunday school. I ran a bus ministry. I pass out 8,723 tracks a month. I don't know. Whatever your resume is. If that's actually your count, impressive. So anyway. Jesus sees these people as a demonstration. Have you ever seen a little kid try to do something all by themselves? I love kids. This is going to be one of those crayon and glue stick type of sermons, okay? So chill out and just bear with me for a minute. But I love watching kids. They try to teach them, I do it. I do it. I do it. You ever heard that one? I don't know what your kid says. I do it. I do it myself. I do it. But, you know, they get themselves into a tizzy trying to zip up their jacket. That's so much fun to watch a little one try to zip up. We don't have jackets down here as much. When we were up in Ohio, I mean, it was like zip up the hoodies, zip up the jackets, zip up the parka, you know, like 15 layers later, you're finally ready. to go outside, but you just watch a little kid and they try. They're wrestling with the zipper, right? And they're trying to get, and they're trying to get, and you come over. No, I do it. And then 10 minutes later, you stood there and you watched them, what'd they do? Fine, help, right? And they're happy to let you help them. And I've often, I've seen kids, what is it when Capri Sun is of the devil? Have you ever noticed this? Have you ever tried to stab an Australian in a Capri Sun and then it just wasn't going in so you hold it a different way and as soon as it finally goes through the hole, all over you, right? I think that there's some sadistic individual at Capri Sun going, there's not enough entertainment in the school lunchroom. Let's watch kids get juice all over them. But I think it's always comedic to me as I watch these children and they try and try to do something, but then they finally come up unashamed. They're not embarrassed that they had to ask for it. They're frustrated they couldn't do it themselves, but they're not embarrassed that they had to ask for help. Will you put the straw in this, please, so that I can get my drink? I'm dying of thirst here. And so you put it in there and you hand it back. An adult would sooner die of starvation than ask somebody for help with that straw and admit they can't do it. Kids are amazing. Dad, I can't open my Twinkie. Dad tax, right? If you have to ask, I get part of it now. This is dependence. Dependence is confidence. A child's confidence isn't in their ability to find the parent, it's in the certainty that the parent will fix it for them. That's the amazing thing. You see, Jesus did not see these children as a distraction, but the very picture of how someone enters into the kingdom of God. We get proud of ourselves, don't we? We're so proud of what we can do, what we can bring, how much we put into it. What we bring to the table, what we contribute, we then expect everyone else to live up to our standards. And if they're not doing it as good as we do it, then they may not be. As spiritual as we are, this is what the disciples were doing. Well, they can't bring much to the table. Get them out of the way. We have more important fish to fry. See, too often we look for the perfect when God is looking for the faithful. This is what we do so often, time and time again. When the disciples were here, they were screening out the unimportant people and deciding who was worthy of Jesus' attention. Here's that head table. You don't get to sit at the head table. Let's find the right one to sit at the head table. Now, Jesus gets kind of, Testy with him on it, doesn't he? I can see Jesus. My mind's eye, my hyperactive mind goes to Jesus standing here, and here comes a little kid, and they're getting ready to come to Jesus, and Jesus got his arms out, and a disciple comes along. It was probably Thomas, just saying. That's his favorite. But he comes, the disciple comes along and he's like, no, no, no, no, we don't have, Jesus doesn't have time for that. And as Thomas, or we'll give it to Peter, as Peter's moving the disciple or the child to the side, Jesus just kind of nudges him in the backside and says, hey, let that kid come. You're missing the bigger picture. Don't keep those kids from coming to me. They're the very ones that are gonna be in the kingdom of God. A lot quicker than your attitude's gonna be there, buddy. It's time for us to see the heart. I've heard this passage preached so many times about the importance of children. And if we just see it as an importance on children, we've completely missed the boat. It's not about the kids, it's about the faith with which the children come. They come to Him not wondering, is He able? Not wondering, will He? Not wondering, can He? Not wondering, do I deserve for Him to do it? They were coming to Him simply because of who He was. And they believed. We come to Him. Well, I need to make sure that my tithing record is up to date before I ask Him to help me sell my house. I better start reading the Bible more often, at least get into it daily before I ask him to help with my health need. I need to start attending church. I haven't been to church for a while and I really want that promotion. I can remember a friend of mine talking about leading a man to the Lord. He came to church. It was his first time coming to church. He came to the altar during the invitational period, and he hits his knees, and a couple of the guys come up, and they want to talk with him, and they pray with him. The man, he says, I want to get saved. I'm like, wow. It's not often somebody just walks down. You've never met this person before. They come to the church for the first time. They walk straight down to the front. They say, I want to get saved. So the guys sit there, and they open the Bible, and they show him what it means to be a child of God, how he can know that he is a child of God, and how he can place his trust in Jesus Christ. And he gets to the guys who were talking to him, and he says, that's exactly what I want to do. That's exactly what I want to do. So they led him to the Lord. And then right afterwards, the guy said, I'm so glad I did that. I've got trial tomorrow, and I wanted to make sure to cross all my T's and dot my I's. Their hearts just sunk. Beloved, understand something. It's not a matter of what we bring. It's a matter of who we come to. I want you to open your Bibles. If you keep your hands here, Mark, go back to the book of Psalms. The Psalms are found in the middle of the Bible. If you're unfamiliar, Psalm chapter 34. Notice this with me. Psalm 34 verse one says, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. The humble. Verse three. Oh magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears. The Lord looked unto Him and were lightened. They looked unto Him and were lightened and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them. O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Beloved, I want to ask you just quickly before we move on to the next point. You see, faith begins where pride ends. Are you proud this morning? You see, the proud keep God at arm's length, the dependent rush to him. Rush to him. Look at verse 15 here in the book of Mark again. Mark chapter 10, verse 15. After Jesus corrected them and told them to let him come, he says, verily I say unto you, verily just means truth, of a truth I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. If you think you can purchase your salvation, it's not gonna happen. If you think it's a matter of how much you put in the offering plate, it's not gonna happen. If you think it's a matter of how many times you've read the Bible through, it's not gonna happen. You see, the only way to God is the grace of God, and that is found by trusting Him. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 says, for by grace are you saved. Well, how do I receive that grace? Through faith, not of yourself. It's not of works. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone has the right or the cause to boast, look what I did and I earned my salvation. Look what I did and I earned my seat. But you can't earn anything. The only thing you earn is distance from God. Romans 6.23 says it this way. It says, for the wages of sin. I couldn't remember the W word. Wages of sin is death. Wages is payment. But the gift, the gift is free. No transaction made. None. You know, I want you to notice this. Whoever shall not receive the kingdom, Whosoever shall not receive. Notice what he says. It's received, not earned. You know, children don't buy groceries. They don't pay rent. If they never doubt, there'll be food. They're not worried about it. They're planning on going to the cabinet, going to the fridge, opening the door, and there's going to be something there, right? Of course, there could be an entire pantry full. They're going to open the door and what are they going to say? There's nothing to eat. We're out of peanut butter. Life's over, right? That's more me. I like peanut butter. Peanut butter goes on everything. You ever notice that? You can put peanut butter on pepperoni. Yes, you can. Peanut butter and pepperoni sandwiches, if you've never had one, don't you correct me. Go home, try it, and then you can come back and give me your vote. I have no idea. I wasn't really trying to make a point with peanut butter. We just went there. But you know, here's the interesting thing. Next week, we're actually going to be looking at the rich young ruler who thought that the kingdom was earned through his effort. He even says at one point, he says, what must I do, right? We're gonna look at that a little bit more. And then if you were here in Mark, look just toward the end of the chapter. Look at verse 42. But Jesus called them to him and said unto him, ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them. And their great ones exercise authority upon them, but so shall it not be among you, but whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister, and whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall be servant of all. You see, here it is, children are a great example. They don't ask how much they owe you when you give them a gift. You ever notice that? You give them a gift, they rip the paper open, and then they go play with it. Unless it's socks. Then they look at you with disappointment in their eyes. But kids, they know how to receive a gift. I want you to understand that the gospel is not a merit badge. It's mercy received with open hands. A child doesn't boast in their gift, they boast in the giver. Look what daddy gave me. Look what my aunt gave me. Look what they gave me at school today. Look what I got. They don't boast in, hey, yeah. I mowed the lawn for him. That's why he likes me. They get excited about the giver. They boast on who gave it. They boast on the gift. Look at what I have. Have you ever seen something so cool? They don't boast on themselves. Their focus is on the giver. and the gift. Why is it that when we become mature in the faith, our focus is no longer on what we have received by God. It is no longer on the God who has given it to us. It's on how righteous and deserving we are to have it. Look at the last portion of this in verse 16. And He took them up in His arms, the children, not the disciples. He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them and blessed them. It's reminiscent of Isaiah 40 verse 11, which refers to Him gathering the lambs into His arms. You see, sadly, We lose faith. We forget to trust. When Jesus gathers those children into his arms, look at the tenderness that is seen. And this is probably one of the most tender verses in all of scripture. He took them up in his arms. Have you ever been so down? You reached out to God. Father, I can't handle this. I don't know what to do. I don't know where to turn. I'm stuck. My life is coming to an end. My heart is breaking. I can't handle this. And the powerful arms of God wrap you up and hold you. If you've never experienced that, you've never tried to crawl into the lap of your Heavenly Father. I've been there. I've been there. Broken. Not knowing what way to go. Just saying, God, hold me. That's all I knew to do. And you can think what you want of me, but I felt the arms of God envelop me. We need to learn to come to Him as children. We have forgotten the faith that we used to have. You know, a child will jump from a high step. Daddy, catch me. No, don't get on that top step, right? And trust is in the Father. The older we get, oh, don't jump from that high spot. I don't know that my knees could handle that. God says, just follow me. That's a younger man's game, God. No, follow me. The Lord says, I want you to get involved in this. I don't have time, God. A child would say, okay, let's do it. We need to learn to follow him. You see, faith is not just believing that God exists, but trusting in his character. I think sometimes we get ourselves, well, I believe in God, so does the devil, but he doesn't have a relationship with him. It's trusting his character. If he says, I can do it, I can save you, I can pay for that, let him do it. Psalm 103 verse 13 says, like a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. The father delights to bless, not begrudge. Yeah, well, I didn't live a perfect life this week. I don't know if I can pray. He says, pray. Talk to me. Bring it to me. Well, I didn't read my Bible every day this week. He didn't say you had to read your Bible every day this week in order to pray. He said, talk to me. You see, we spend more time with him when we trust his character. We don't learn to trust his character after he has proven it. We trust his character because he has proven it. It's a past tense thing. If you can't have faith, then examine your ability to be affectionate. You see, you cannot have faith with him unless you are affectionate toward him. If your view of God is that he is cold and distant, you'll never learn to run into his arms. You never will. Well, God is waiting to correct me and punish me. Who wants to run into arms like that? No, His arms are outstretched saying, come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. If your viewpoint of God is different, then you're not going to run to Him. You're going to try to impress Him. Here's some examples of ways we try to impress God. We try to do it with our religious performance. We try to impress God with our moral behavior. We try to impress God with our ministry activity, how much we're doing for Him. Especially when we start comparing how much we're doing for Him with how much other people are doing for Him. If that even enters your mind, throw it out. Well, I'm doing this much. Other people should really. Whoa, Nelly. Pharisee, disciple, not childlike. We try to impress God with our repentance. How many times have you known someone to try to promise God something? Lord, if you'll do this, I'll become a Sunday school teacher like he really wants that. You'll get something really good out of me. Nah. You see, faith doesn't impress God. It trusts God. There's a difference. The children didn't bring anything impressive. They just came and were received. The children didn't put money in the offering plate. They just came. And God embraced them, put them on his lap. Wonderful. As we close, I want you to think back, we started this with a picture of the head table, right? If Jesus came and we had a head table and everybody else, who would be at that head table? Who would be the last person at that head table? Mark 10 shows us that our typical instincts that this world wants us to learn are wrong. The kingdom doesn't work like that. That's the way the world works. My heart, my heart gets heavy for families of special needs kids. I love that. I love special needs kids. And I wonder to myself, how can we minister to them? Spoiler alert, 2026, that's what I'm gonna be working on. A ministry, an outreach of some sort, just for that. Because you know who would be at the head table if Jesus came in? He'd say, Pharisee, step to the side. Bring me that kid. Bring me that little one. Bring me that one who is struggling. Bring me that one that maybe you're looking and you're thinking, they don't even go there. Suffer the little children. Come unto me. Forbid them not. Such is the kingdom of God. We sing a song from time to time. a good and gracious king, as I approach the throne of glory, nothing in my hands I bring but the promise of acceptance from a good and gracious king. Is that how you approach him? The chorus goes, you deserve, talking about God, you deserve the greater glory. Overcome, I lift my voice to the king in need of nothing. And be handed, I rejoice. We become so proud of ourselves and what we can offer. Lord, here's my check. Lord, here's my time. A guy got something good when he got me. This church got something good when I joined. Can I say something with all the love I can muster? If that's your heart's attitude, in any way, shape or form, put it at the altar today. If there's even a hint that it could creep up, Leave it at the altar. And beloved, here's what's gonna happen. Well, now if I go to, I was thinking about going to the altar. Now if I go to the altar, people are gonna think I'm proud and arrogant. Beloved, let me help you with that. We already think that. And I'm the chiefest among you. I have to beg God every Sunday morning to remove any pride any arrogance, anything about self, before I occupy the sacred desk. If I interrupt here with pride and arrogance, I ask the Lord God, if I say anything in pride, in arrogance, if I come across and I try to teach people how wonderful I am, strike me dead. I'd rather drop dead in this pulpit than try to put out something that I'm not. I have to be reminded regularly of such is the kingdom of God. God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. Are you humble this morning? Are you still trying to earn a seat at the table? Are you still trying to clean yourself up? You see, we don't bring accomplishments, we don't bring worthiness, we don't bring a resume. We bring need, we bring dependence, we bring empty hands to Him. You see, the miracle of the gospel is this, Jesus welcomes people with empty hands. Let me ask you this, if you stopped doing today, what would happen? Well, if I wasn't at this church, things would fall apart. If I didn't attend, then this would happen. It's time to get back. It's time to come back to faith. Because apparently we're focused on what we're doing, not who we're doing it for. Let's go back to the reason we first came to Christ. Empty-handed. So come to Him this morning. Today through His Word, Jesus is inviting you to the head table. Think about that. He's inviting you personally to sit at the head table. He says the only requirement is that you come with childlike faith. Are you trying to earn your salvation? Are you trying to impress God? Are you trying to earn accolades? Just let Him, just give it over to Him. Join me in prayer this morning that God would keep us