eighth installment, our 48th episode, if you will, of this study. As we continue, we'll be in the gospel of Mark chapter 10 this morning, gospel of Mark chapter 10. And I'm going to go ahead and open in prayer, and I'll let you, those that are finding their spots, do so, and then we'll get into our study. this morning. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you so much for the day. Thank you for the Word of God that we can continue to return to it. And I thank you for this study in the Gospel of Mark. I thank you for the insights you've given to us, Lord. And I pray that today would be another excellent opportunity for us to learn and grow and understand you better and understand ourselves better, Lord, in the light of of your word, so please speak to us, may we have ears to hear and eyes to see what you have for us today, in Jesus' name, amen. So we'll be in Mark 10, and just this short little passage here, verses 13 through 16, where Jesus blesses these children, we're titling this section, Faith Like a Child. And as we think about children and ministry to children, and that's not even, I don't think, Totally the main focus, I think there's a couple of different focuses in this little passage. This was originally supposed to be part of last week's lesson when we talked about God's design for the family. And we talked about marriage and divorce and remarriage and things and the different views on that. And we looked at Jesus' statements there and originally intended to include this section as part of that, as the idea of family there. But in a sense, I'm glad that This one is on its own because there's just so much to think about even though only four verses here. But a lot of truth as we'll be looking at other passages as well. And we think about, as we think about ministry to children, because that's really what Jesus is doing in this passage. We're gonna see that in a moment when we get into the text. But Jesus is giving us example of and participating in ministry to children, and so it brings up a question. Why are children's ministries so important? Why do churches, and ours is one, go to such lengths to provide relevant and exciting Christian education for kids? We have our VBS starting next week, so I'm plugging that, of course. But then we also have SummerQuest, which is our Wednesday night kids club. We have Awana that runs with the school year. We have Sunday School. We have Junior Church. And we're gonna be expanding Junior Church coming this fall to include an older group of children. But what is it about children that causes this focus, purposeful expenditure of time and resources on them. I found this little chart here. It is a little bit dated, it's from 2019. After COVID, I noticed some of the statistics really got affected by that, just like everything did. But if you start at the top here, and this is back from 2019, ministrytochildren.com is the website. They surveyed 400 Kidmen leaders, which kids ministry, Kidmen leaders, reviewed all the latest research and here's what they learned. Let me get it to where I can see it here. Conversion, greater than age 21 is rare, and we know this too. Only one fourth of believers, according to the research they've done, are saved after the age of 21, 43% came to Christ when they were under the age of 12. And of course, I think we've talked about that even here. Half of children who come to Christ are led by parents. 29% of the Kidmen leaders listed children's ministry, or I'm sorry, 29% of those that came to Christ as children listed children's ministry as a factor. Two thirds of Christians came to faith before 18. 86% of kid men leaders serve because Jesus loves kids. And that's really one of our big focuses in this tax is God's view of children. 42% of parenting age adults belong to a church. 65% of kid men leaders go online for ideas and encouragement. By the way, we need to be praying for our kids ministry leaders. if you're not. I know many of you do. You need to keep doing it. They serve in such a critical, if it's true that two thirds of people come to faith before age 18, then our children's ministry has to be one of our most critical focuses as we look. Not that the others, to the exclusion of the others. The others are important, There needs to be an emphasis, and I think our church does that well. 51% of leaders surveyed have greater than 25 children each week. Now, that varies, of course. 62% of leaders surveyed said financial support was limited. I don't think that's the case in our church right now. God has blessed, and I'm thankful for the generosity and the way that that's allowed us to grow our kids' ministry. Two-thirds of leaders surveyed are unpaid volunteers. I think that would be an even greater percentage in our case. They're not being paid, not even a dime, most of them, to prepare, spend a chunk of their week preparing a Sunday school lesson, for example, and they're teaching it right now. So they're preparing a lesson, They're getting other things ready. They bring object lessons in. They might bring snacks in. Our junior church leaders, the same thing. They're preparing. There's songs there. There's puppets. They have teens they're working with. Rachel's been working with the teens in junior church this summer, taking them down there in groups of two, helping them. She teaches and they watch, and then they each get to teach a lesson. So she spends three weeks at a time with each team, trying to help them grow and disciple them in children's ministry. Why all this effort? Well, we know that our enemy, Satan, hates children. If you weren't aware of that, you are now. Satan hates children. We see it throughout scripture and even into our modern day. So if we go all the way back to Exodus 1, remember it's the children that suffered under Pharaoh. Pharaoh commanded all his people saying, every son who is born you shall cast into the river, every daughter you shall save alive. Every son who is born, this is post-birth abortion, it's murder of children. Babies, newborn babies, Pharaoh said, cast them into the river. If we jump into the New Testament, Matthew 2.16, Herod, when he saw he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry. And he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. When God has victory and Satan is defeated, he takes his retaliation out on children over and over and over again. I did a little bit of research into the Holocaust and learned some things. When World War II began in September of 1939, this is information from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. When World War II began in September of 1939, There were approximately 1.6 million Jewish children living in the territories that the German armies or their allies would occupy. When the war in Europe ended in May of 1945, so six years passed, more than one million and perhaps as many as 1.5 million Jewish children were dead, targeted victims in the Nazis' calculated program of Genocide and from the slide here. They were especially vulnerable They killed approximately 1.5 at Nazi Germany its collaborators killed about 1.5 million Jewish children tens of thousands of Romani or gypsy children and then five to seven thousand German children with physical and mental disabilities living in Institutions as well as many Polish children and children residing in the German occupied Soviet Union and It's just staggering and sobering when you read the statistics and you read about these women and children being put on these trains, they would come into the killing centers, Auschwitz and others, and they were immediately marched into the gas chamber and executed. Children, little children, like the ones downstairs right now. Why are we saying all this? To point the fact out that Satan hates children. And he's doing everything he can to target them, to kill them, sure, but also to attack their minds and attack their consciences and to draw them into his nefarious designs, his traps. He's trying to destroy them. The thief comes to kill, steal, and what? Destroy. Jesus, of course, knew this. Children are among the most vulnerable. That's why he does it. Therefore, they should be among the most protected, the most cared for. In this passage today, we're gonna see Jesus. He is God. He perfectly represents the Heavenly Father. He's going to make it clear to us what God thinks about children. And it helps us understand maybe why Satan hates them so much. So we've divided up these verses into four main points. The children are gonna be brought to Jesus, beckoned by Him, their belief, their faith acknowledged by Jesus, and finally they are blessed by Him. If you're following along, you're taking notes. Roman numeral one here, children are brought to Jesus. Look with me at Mark 10 verse 13. Then they brought little children to him, to Jesus, that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked those who brought them. The word for children here could mean any age from infant through preteen. So up through about from zero to 12 is the, age that these children would have been. And we see that the parents were bringing the children there for Jesus to touch them, to bless them, if you will. It's a desire of him to maybe place his hand there and pray over them and pray a blessing proclaim a blessing on their life. They recognize Jesus as a rabbi, as a rabbinical person, a person with some authority. We've already established that all the way through Mark. It's one of Mark's main themes, the authority of Christ. They've seen him heal and they've seen him love children. So they see him as this person, this rabbi that they want to bless. This actually is an ancient biblical practice during Old Testament times. If you go back to Genesis 48, When Joseph brings his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, if you remember, into Jacob, what does he want Jacob to do? To bless them, and Jacob does the old switch here and puts the right hand on the younger one. And Joseph's like, Dad, you got it wrong. And he says, nope, this is what we're gonna do. And you can go back and read that in Genesis 48, verses nine through 22 is the passage. But it's that same idea. They were asking Jesus for this blessing. But notice the disciples' response. What did the disciples do? They rebuked them. They rebuked them. The word here, rebuke, it's a very strong expression. It actually means to allege as a criminal, to treat as a trespasser, if you will. Someone who is breaking the law. Chuck Swindoll, in his commentary, I thought said this well. These socially insignificant people commanded too much of the Messiah's attention. Now this is in the view of the disciples, not in the view of God. One does not become king by associating with poor and powerless people. Of all children on earth, or of all people on earth, children are the most poor, right? The most powerless in and of themselves. would-be kings curry the favor of the rich and powerful. So the disciples, they had thought of themselves as Jesus handlers, began to discourage parents from bringing children to the future king of Israel. We don't have time for you. He's way too important for you to bring these children. You need to get them out of here. And it was a forceful rebuke. how quickly the disciples had forgotten Jesus' teaching. Just back in Mark 9, 37, whoever receives one of these little children in my name receives me. Remember this verse? He identified the reception and ministry to children as ministry to himself, and whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me. The Godhead has declared that receiving children is important. This helps us understand why Satan hates them so much, because they're so precious to God. Anything precious to God is immediately hated by the devil. He's opposed to everything God is for. He has an opposite value system, if you will, that he operates under. So when he sees God loving children, they become objects of his hatred. When we think about these disciples, Once again, they failed to see the situation the way that God sees it. They failed to see the people that were in front of them through Jesus' eyes, which is a good way to sum up our own failures. So often we forget or even refuse to see the people around us the way that God sees them. We see them through our own lens and we make assumptions about people and we make judgments about people. And we're quick to do that at times. We're really not, at times, very much different than the disciples were with the children. Sometimes that person, that irritating person, That annoying person in our lives, we're quick to push away. God is looking at that person, though, in a different way. He sees them, first of all, as someone He created. He formed them in their mother's womb. They are made in the image of God. They are His image bearer. They're a soul for whom Christ died. That's how God sees them, and that's how He sees these children. And so we must strive to, to not fall into this selfishness that the disciples were in here, focusing on this idea of the kingdom. And Jesus is gonna tie that together in a moment. But let's go into the second part here. The children are beckoned by Jesus. And we're gonna see that kingdom statement right here in verse 14. But when Jesus saw it, he saw what the disciples were doing. He saw them rejecting the children. He was greatly displeased and said to them, let the little children come to me and do not forbid them, a positive and a negative command. Just to make it clear, let them come. Do not forbid them, notice, for of such is the kingdom of God. Here these men were trying to build Jesus' kingdom for him, to protect their king. He's too important for the children. Jesus says, no, you've got it backwards. This is the kingdom. This is part of the kingdom. This is important to me. And this passionate response here, the word greatly displeased, he is pained, he is vexed, he's indignant. There's a passion in Jesus' tone here. He was always under control, but his authority is nonetheless there, his passion. I think it probably took these guys by surprise. Whoa, this is something really important to him. We thought we had this figured out. But once again, Jesus has stooped down and reached for the lowly and the least of these. Yes, Herman. It's interesting that 12 disciples, all of them said to stay away from Jesus and the children. Possibly, yeah, possibly the women that follow Jesus might have handled this better, that's possibly true. But yes, all 12, or at least the ones that were there, did not want these kids around. It's like they had forgotten the text we looked at, Mark 9, 37. But they'd also forgotten all of Jesus' ministry, or much of Jesus' ministry of reaching down to the lowly. It's like they forgot where they came from. They forgot who they were before Jesus called them. Remember, at least four of them were fishermen. Not a dishonest or dishonorable trade, but a definitely rough trade, this blue-collar work. And there's, again, nothing wrong with, I was blue-collar. It's a great thing to be in the trades. But that's where they came from. They weren't always Jesus' disciples. He called them out of their places of work to follow Him. One of them was a tax collector, despised. That was a dishonorable trade, if you will. A dishonorable job. None of the 12 had really any clout or power or prestige or position in and of themselves. They were the 12 most unlikely people to be the disciples of a rabbi, but they were the ones Jesus called. I think they forgot where they came from. A few other examples. In chapter one, also, he, remember, healed a leper who was a social outcast. In chapter two, a paralytic was healed and a man with a withered hand there in the synagogue in chapter three. All of these would have been lowly on the culture scale, if you will. The demon-possessed man was cured in chapter five. Remember, he was living in the tombs, but Jesus went and cured him. And then, also, the bleeding woman, who was declared unclean, and for all she knew, would have been unclean for the rest of her life, had no ability to go in and worship in the synagogues or the temple. She was rejected, but Jesus healed her, and then, of course, Can't forget the young daughter, the child. Remember my little daughter, Jairus? Jesus healed her, actually raised her from the dead. He went on in chapter six to feed 5,000 men, but who did that number not include? Women and children. Children were fed. Children were ministered to there. And then in chapter six as well, he healed many sick. Many socially degenerate, if you will. Chapter seven, it's a lowly Gentile woman's daughter. Another child has her demons cast out. And then later in the chapter, a deaf mute Gentile man was healed. Chapter eight, we find another large group of people. 4,000 men were fed along with women and children. Most of those were likely Gentiles, and then a blind man. One that was probably accused of sin, that's why he's blind. That was the common understanding. And the disciples even asked Jesus about one of these guys that Jesus healed. Who sinned, his parents or him? It's not if they sinned, it's they did. Just who? Jesus healed him. In chapter nine, Jesus comes down off the mountain of transfiguration, and what does he immediately do? He casts demons out of a boy. We're not sure his age. But the son of his father is pleading, Jesus heals him. Along the way, all along the way, all through Mark, Jesus has been stooping, reaching down and pulling up and ministering to and caring for the lowly and the downtrodden and the social outcasts. Those who were less popular, those who could not give anything in return, for the most part, were those that he healed. And now we come to chapter 10. Once again, Jesus sees and cares for those that are overlooked. The overlooked, that's who Jesus looks at, Jesus sees. If you're feeling overlooked, Jesus is seeing you. He has a special place in his heart for those that are overlooked, and in this case, it's children. One thing I wanna address quickly is you might have heard, you might have come across that, because this statement gets used to promote infant baptism or child baptism or even giving children communion, which, the Bible's pretty silent on. In fact, infant baptism is not mentioned once in the Bible. There's some verses that get used to promote it, which I wasn't aware of until I did some reading on this. When we have these verses that talk about entire households being baptized, in Acts 16, Lydia, she and her household were baptized, and it's the argument, well, there must have been children or infants in the household. Well, it doesn't really say that. But let's move on and later in that chapter we have the Philippian jailer and immediately he and his family and of course that's in italics in the New King James meaning it's not part of the original manuscript but it's there for context and it seems to fit. But does it mean that none of them, or some of them at least, were not of believing age? We believe that baptism by immersion is for those that have put their faith in Jesus. And in fact, the Bible seems to bear that out. One more example, Paul in 1 Corinthians 1 says he baptized the household of Stephanas. So I'm just throwing this out here to give you kind of, I think I'm representing the argument well, I'm trying to. that Jesus' statement to let the children come to me gets used as a proof text, if you will, for paedo-baptism, infant baptism. But when we look at, now these are groups of people, but whenever we look in the Bible where an individual is baptized, it's one who's already placed their faith in Jesus. Classic example is Acts 8. and Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, they went down the road, they came to some water, the eunuch said, see here's water, what hinders me from being baptized? I wanna identify with Jesus. That's really what baptism is doing, right? And baptism has gone on for a long, long time. There was people being baptized all the time in Jesus' day. They were baptized into something. into the water, but into the idea of I'm identifying with this group. And this eunuch, he knew that. He said, I want to be identified with Christ. Is there anything stopping me? Notice Philip's answer. Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, you may. You see the order? Belief, then baptism. And he answered and said, I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. So he put his faith in Christ. And of course, if you keep reading the passage, Philip goes down and baptizes him. But when it's groups of people, it's kind of hard to understand. What's this mean household? But when it's individuals, and this is just one example of several in the New Testament, it's always belief followed by baptism. It always comes after. And that's the thing about understanding scripture that we need to understand is that We don't go to the obscure passages, those that are hard to understand, to develop our theology. We go to the clear, easy to clearly understand passages to interpret the hard to understand. So we have to, and we develop our theology and our belief system that way. Baptism is an outward expression of an inward reality, which is exactly Jesus' point here. And we're gonna come back to that idea. Children, we're gonna see they illustrate a certain quality of faith for all of us to see, that all people, regardless of age, must choose to exercise if they're to place their faith in Jesus. Jesus recognized the importance of this, and he's using this teaching moment for his disciples and for us as the reader to understand the importance of children within the home, yes, and also within the kingdom, and in fact, for Jesus to connect children to the kingdom of God is extremely significant. We touched on this earlier, but for these disciples, they had made up their minds that these children were not important enough to bother Jesus with. Jesus totally flipped that around and said, no, they are among the most important for me to have interaction with. I need to reach out to them. Don't hold them back from me. The disciples were adults, and the bulk of Jesus' ministry was to adults. And so they're thinking this way. They had seen Jesus minister to children, but I think this was a difficult concept based on their response, that children matter to God in his kingdom. Every Jew, remember, and I believe the disciples based on Acts chapter 1, when they say, okay, is it now the kingdom after he's risen back from the dead? They were looking for the kingdom, which is why they were so broken when he was crucified, because they really believed the kingdom was coming. They didn't understand the teaching and the prophecies the way that they should have. And so they're looking for a Messiah to come and rid them of the Romans and establish the kingdom. But now Jesus is connecting little children, helpless, defenseless, certainly they're not even able to take care of themselves, much less overcome Rome. So why are you connecting them to the kingdom? I think that was shocking to them. And Jesus is still beckoning children today, isn't he? He's calling children to himself today. Let the little children come to me. I don't believe for the purpose of baptism, but I think for the purpose of sharing the gospel. Let the little children come to Jesus. This is why we share the gospel in our kids' ministries. This is why we're gospel-focused, and this is why we invest so much time, so much of our resources go to children and teen ministries. Jesus is calling them. He's beckoning to them. We'll see in the next verse the eternal purpose. children's belief acknowledged by Jesus. Verse number 15, Jesus goes on after telling them to let the children come and to tell them, for such is the kingdom of God, verse 15, assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it. So we come now, this is like the summit. This is the peak of where he's going with this. He's been driving at this point the necessity of childlike faith. I got another quote for you from Swindoll. He ordered his disciples to let the children come to him because they were ideal illustrations of genuine discipleship. Not because they're innocent. Children have twisted, fallen natures like all people. If you've been around kids long enough, you will know this is true. Not because they're pleasant. Anybody who has experience rearing children can tell you that they can occasionally be absolutely horrid. I got an amen on that, actually. It's true. Jesus praised children. Sorry about that. Jesus praised children because they were incapable of pretense. They come just as they are, no affectation, no hesitation, no inhibition. They trust completely. They haven't yet learned to be suspicious or proud. Yeah. Okay, go ahead. Man. Yeah. Yeah, so Barbara was just making the point that there certainly was a physical, let the children come to me physically, let the parents bring them, but also there's a spiritual component, let them come to me in faith. Don't hinder them, give them an opportunity. And how that sometimes people get the idea that kids can't believe or something like, excuse me, something like that. And of course, I think this passage proves out the fact that Jesus believed that they can believe. He believed that their faith was possible. Now, obviously, I believe in an age of accountability. I believe that an infant has not, yes, they have a sin nature, per se, but they have not made a choice to sin. I think the Bible plays out that those that die at that age will be in heaven. because they haven't made a conscious decision to sin. But the point is that when they're old enough to make a conscious decision to sin, it seems very logical and very God-like. And I think the scripture backs it up that they're also capable of choosing to believe. So when they get that point of understanding and their choice, I believe that they can believe. And I think that's what Jesus is pointing out. about their faith here, and you think about how a child comes to a parent. We'll talk about it more in a moment, but as we go back to the verse here, there's no pretense. When we come to Christ, it's the same way. A child comes with no hesitation, no inhibition, nothing holding you back, this humble, trusting faith. because he is the one who died for our sins. He was buried and rose again. That's the Jesus we believe in. He's the one that's worthy. And that's what makes, I think, the gospel so beautiful is that it can be understood by children. It can be absorbed by them. Here's the facts, kids. Here's Jesus. This is what he did. This is your problem. It's a sin problem. Here's the punishment for sin. Here's the answer. It's Jesus. Believe in him. He's the one that died, buried, and was and rose again for you. And because of that, you can trust him. He loves you. And the call for children to put their faith in Christ. I think even in our services, when the gospel is given during a sermon, I'm so thankful we do that every week, because it does a number of things. It shares the gospel with the unbeliever. It also shares the gospel repetitively. So children that are struggling to understand, they're hearing that over and over again. It also is teaching us how to share the gospel. When we hear it over and over again, it kind of solidifies it in our mind. So these are important things. Brad. Just real quick, that's why like Alana is very strong in not using phrases like, ask Jesus in your heart. Right, right. You want it to be clear, and make him believe it, understand the truth. Otherwise, what does ask Jesus in your heart mean? Right, so we wanna be really clear, not confusing, and Brad brought up Awana as an example of that. They're very clear on the gospel, very straightforward. The word assuredly here, as we get back to our text, you might say verily in the King James if you have that. It's the word for amen. It emphasizes the importance of the statement. He's saying, guys, listen to me, catch this, assuredly, verily, I'm telling you that in my mind, Jesus is saying, what I'm about to say is a certain unchangeable truth. You've got to get this. It's a matter of fact, no possibility of change. And again, think of how a little child receives something. I think of a little child at their high chair, and mom puts something on the tray. What's that child gonna do, most likely? They're gonna put it in their mouth. They put everything in their mouth, right? It doesn't matter what it is. I saw a mom with of child, just a few months old, and a baby carrier on the front of her. And he was facing out, and they were walking along, and she was holding her phone. Guess what that baby was trying to do? He had his mouth, I want that thing in my mouth. Thankfully, the mom wasn't letting him do that, but the point is there's this innocence, there's this trust. It's like whatever she gives me, I'm gonna take. And that's what God is asking us, not just for believing in Jesus, by the way, but that's how we're supposed to be living our Christian life, with this unquestioning, trusting faith unwavering in what God has for us. I think about the song. Andrea sang this morning, the blessing song. What if what God is doing, as hard as it is, is actually a blessing in disguise? I just, I love the message there. But how do we, and the song even, and I noticed the words, if you saw it on the screen there. It talked about how God is calling us to just trust him, to have that faith, to believe that God can take that difficult situation and do something amazing with it. And that's just his specialty, it's how he operates. The woman that wrote that song, she wrote it out of a terrible situation. Her husband almost lost his life. And it's just an incredible story. If you ever look it up, the song Blessings and why that was written. Jesus does not bless these children, as we're gonna get to in a moment, because of what they bring to him. He blesses them because of what they lack. He does not bless us because of what we bring to him. He blesses us because of what we are lacking. Children, they just come as they are. They're not sophisticated, right? They're just plain and simple, and they come empty-handed. No power, no prestige. no sophistication, no influence, they have no political advantage, they have no credit, they have no claim to fame, they're just, their little chubby hands are empty. And that's how they come, and that's how we need to come to Christ. In the pillar commentary, James Edwards, a little child has absolutely nothing to bring. And whatever a child receives, he or she receives by grace on the basis of sheer neediness. rather than by any merit inherent in him or herself. Little children are paradigmatic disciples, for only empty hands can be filled. Only empty hands can be filled, whether it's the gift of eternal life, because we have to come empty-handed. We can't bring our good works with us. We can't bring our own ideas. It's Jesus or nothing. And then as we live our lives, same deal, we walk through life. He's calling us to walk through life. God can put something in, God can take something out, but when we start grasping and trying to grip onto things, it's when things seem to, we seem to struggle. There was a hand up over there. What was that? Yes, Mike. Yes. Yes, receives. Sure, yeah, there's a trust element in receiving because you're receiving it because you trust. So I think there's a bit of separation, but I think they're tied together. There's a strong connection, definitely. Yeah, so let's go on to the last statement here. As we finish up, children are blessed by Jesus. Let's see what Jesus does here. And he took them up in his arms laid his hands on them and blessed them. What a beautiful description this is. When we do a baby dedication here, it's kind of along these lines, it's kind of where we understand that there's no salvific power in that, it's just simply parents saying, We wanna proclaim before our church family that we wanna raise our children to the glory of God, and the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And we're looking to do that, and we're asking for your support. And so it's a beautiful thing, but here, there seem to be more than one, right? It's them, it's plural. Several children, not sure how many. Could have been quite a long line. And I tend to think that there was, just based on the disciples. If there had just been a couple, seemed like the disciples, it wouldn't have been that big of a deal. I think there was quite a crowd, actually, of parents holding their children, waiting in line to be blessed by Jesus. But notice what Jesus does here. He takes the necessary time to hold them, to bless them, pray for them. I'm not sure exactly what he said, but he took personal, special time. The parents, if you go back to verse 13 in your Bibles, then they brought little children to him that he might what? Touch them. I think they were just planning to hold or take the hand and Jesus, okay, and next, and touch that one. Oh, God bless you. But Jesus doesn't do that. He reaches out and takes that child into his arms and takes that special moment Not in a hurry, not in a rush, not in some cold, lifeless, mechanical way, but in a warm, loving way. To take them in and show that he was genuinely enjoying. I think Jesus loved this part. I think that's part of the reason he said, don't stop them. These are some of the best people to hang out with in my world. He's got the Pharisees attacking him. He's got the crowds pressuring him. He's got the disciples not understanding him. But now he's got these little children. They're just a delight to him. I think they still are today. I think he genuinely enjoyed being with them. And he made sure that both they and their parents felt welcomed and loved. You know, children's ministry is a ministry to both children and parents. We need to understand that. So when we spend our resources and our time and our effort on children's ministry, it's not just for them, it's for their parents, it's for the entire family. This morning we dismissed our junior church kids. Mrs. Steele and the teens she's working with went downstairs with them. and that's a ministry to the kids. They have songs, they have a Bible lesson, they have puppets, they have crafts, they have games that they do. Coloring, lots of fun stuff for them, all centered around the Bible and the gospel. But you know, that ministry is equally a ministry to parents because what is happening, it gives them an opportunity to sit here and listen to the message and enjoy some time and focus on things without the distraction of children that just aren't gonna sit still at that age. And I think Jesus, in doing this, gave us an example of how to be effective ministers to children, yes, but also to families. And so our desire needs to be to touch the lives. I know not everyone is a kid men worker. Not everyone is cut out for that, and that's okay. but to support and uphold and encourage and pray for our Sunday school teachers. Pray for our Awana leaders, Summer Quest, VBS, Junior Church, and many other things. Even in our nurseries, there's need for prayer. Sunday school teachers. Children, the children here were blessed by a personal interaction with God. That's what they got out of it. What a blessing. And the parents were blessed seeing their children loved and cared for. Let's conclude. Not only do we need to receive the gift of eternal life with childlike faith, We are also called to live out the Christian life with that same simple, trusting faith. And loving and ministering to children, is that really a family ministry? I got one final quote here. D.L. Moody, and this kind of goes along with what Barbara said about that children can believe. Look what Moody said here. It is a masterpiece of the devil to make us believe that children cannot understand religion, meaning truth from the Bible. Would Christ have made a child the standard of faith if he had known that it was not capable, or that he or she was not capable of understanding his words? I think Jesus said it all when he said, let them come. Such is the kingdom of God. The faith of a child is required to be saved, and I believe required to live the Christian life. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for our children's ministry. I thank you for those teachers that are teaching right now. They're finishing up their lessons. Thank you for their dedication, their desire. and for the many others, Lord, in our church that serve in various capacities to our children. Father, the enemy hates them, he's out for them, he's targeted them specifically through the media and through any way that he can. So Father, please help us to be vigilant, help us to be prayerful, help us to be dedicated to reaching kids and to loving them and to caring for them. Please help us to do that, Lord, give us wisdom for it. and we ask you to bless our efforts. Please fill our empty hands, Lord, with your blessings, the things you'd have for us, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Thanks, guys, have a great day.