Matthew 2024

And we're going to, turn to the word of god now.

So if you would like to take up your church bibles and turn to Matthew 18. We're continuing our series in Matthew's gospel, and Pete is gonna come and both give us a bit of an update about his recent trip to Ireland, and then he's going to preach this passage to us. But first Sarah is gonna come and read it to us. Matthew 18, wonderful team. Thanks.

At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and asked who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. He called a little child to him and placed the child among them, and he said Truly, I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes 1 such child in my name welcomes me. If anyone causes 1 of these little ones, those who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea, woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble.

Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come. If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away, it is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have 2 hands or 2 feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with 1 eye than to have 2 eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. See that you do not despise 1 of these little ones.

For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my father in heaven. What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and 1 of them wanders away. Will he not leave the 99 on the hills and go to look for the 1 that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly, I tell you.

He is happier about that 1 sheep than about the 99 that did not wander off. In the same way, your father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish. Yeah, Island. Well, we we we there's not too much to say. We, Anna and myself went over there for for sort of 3 things.

1, the holiday, 2 to sort of meet up with some pastors and chat about sort of getting to know each other and 3 get food poisoning, which we had grossly. But it was good because we compliment each other, Anna myself. She had it 1 end, and I had it the other. And we we only had 1 toilet, so that was sort of, it sort of worked, you know. Meeting with the pastors there.

Yeah. I mean, some lovely there's some lovely blokes. They're Christians. They're lovely Christians, and they wanna reach out to Ireland. And, you know, if you know Ireland, it's got this, it's obviously history of of Catholicism and, you know, the the the whole sort of nature of them is to think of themselves as as Catholics largely because, you know, England isn't Catholic.

England is Protestant. And the way they sort of identify themselves is anti English protestant. That's that's that's the past. But then, you know, Catholicism, what it's done in Ireland is so disgusting. It's, you know, it's it's almost, you can't repeat it hardly.

And there are new films coming out all the time about that sort of thing. We watch 1 over there with Cillian Mirth what's his name? Killian Mert Killian. Well, whatever. Him anyway.

Again about, you know, the the the way children were treated in in in in the nun with the by the nuns and so forth. So there's this sort of act going on. And then there's these these lovely Christians, only 2 churches that that we spoke to had buildings, 1 historic 1 in Cork, which I preach that, which is really historic. It goes back to 16 something. So it's pretty historic Baptist church.

And then another, another 1 in, in Bandon, which was like building about, like, a bit like this. So, like, it felt like an old brethren church building. We met up with some of the pastors. There's enthusiasm to reach out. The same thing.

Where's the young man? Where's the young man? You know, have you got any? Can you send them over? That sort of stuff?

They do a youth conference. I told him about, authentic and how many wonderful leaders we had, and it's like, well, we can't we can't do it that big because we haven't got any leaders. So, you know, is there is there something we can do there? Send some leaders over. You know, can we go for a week over to Ireland to do to help them with, doing youth stuff?

So, you know, that sort of stuff. They've got a really good quote. I mean, I mean, Emma's parents are absolutely amazing. They genuinely are. No.

They are, brother. They are so they are so good at hosting. Really, really good at hosting. And hosting these pastors and bringing them in and bringing people from an American theological college, a really good 1, over to just a few people to come and speak and and train up. Very it's just very impressive.

And, and Emma's mom really sort of organizes the whole of that. And, so we had a lovely time with with pastors and, and I think it's it's a sort of let's get to know each other. Let's see what we can do together and they're hungry for help, but we can't just go in and, you know, it can't just burst in and say this needs happening, this needs happening. There needs to be some kind of relationship. So we're hoping that will build up.

So that's where we are. It was a delight to to preach in this historic church down a lane where Rory Gallagher lived. Yeah? Yeah? Yeah.

See, brothers. Yeah. Rory Gallagher. There was a Rory Gallagher pub at the end there. Which I'd like to have gone into.

And, yeah, brilliant. If you don't know who Rory Gallagher is, shame on you. So I think that's that's about it. I think what 1 of the best things I think we learned was some of the the pub landlords, how amazing they are. Yeah.

So we had 2 that were particularly brilliant, but 1 that was out just outstanding, and I would pay him to be on the door of our of our church. So this is this is what it's like. We were in this little village. We were hungry. It was 2 30.

Most of the meals had been done. I just poked my head in this pub, and it was, oh, I thought we have a little table over here for you. Just to even your wife. Lovely table. You'd should have drawn in, you know, I I was just seeing if there was any food.

Oh, I've got a lovely lobster for you. Yeah. Do you like an obsessive? Yeah. Up to normally, wouldn't give it to anyone, but you.

He totally sold us. I bought a lobster. I mean, how much is that? It was 30 quid, 30 quid just for a lunch You know? And it wasn't very good.

Yeah. The chips were horrible. But I said, oh, my wife's been really, you know, really, really, we had food boys. Oh, yeah. Nice.

Lovely little bit of salmon. Yeah. But no sort of no dairy. No no, you know, no butter. We'll we'll get the nice bit of salmon, and it was just the same salmon that he was giving everybody and the horrible chips.

And then 4 blokes came in, just for a drink, and and they'd just eaten because the blokes said, oh, I've got a table for you. Love it just for you. Just for you. You have a little bite to eat? And it's like, no, mate.

We've we've just eaten. A little bit of pizza. Alright. Before he knew it, they'd sucked down ordering, you know, lobster and horrible chips. And, and, it was and just the way this bloke got you in.

And I have to say if the churches had that. I won't say which 1. 1 church we turned up to, and it was, yeah, we meet upstairs. It was so different. So come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, like this.

And, and, so there's this, this sort of welcoming this, this delight about people. That they need to develop, I think, in the church and really enjoy that type of. Anyway, they're they're they're the things that we we learned. Let's let's pray. Father, help us now as we look at this passage, please help us, hot, and, we're perhaps tired mentally, but we we need to learn from you, and we pray that you would help us to do that in Jesus' name.

Oh, man. I wanna talk about what makes a great person. That's what that's what we're thinking about. Okay? What makes a great person?

The the thing about great people is that you do wanna emulate them, don't you? So, you see a great goal, you know, on the telly, and you wanna go if you're a young bloke, out onto the fields and, imagine yourself scoring that goal. That's how it works. You hear O'Rourke Gallagher, guitar solo, and, it's so amazing. You stand in front of the mirror pretending to play.

You still wanna you wanna emulate that sort of stuff. You see a a gold medal 1 at the Olympics, and you wanna take up cycling or running, or you see Wimbledon, and it makes you wanna take up tennis. Greatness. It's great. That's the great thing about greatness.

It makes you wanna bask in in the glory of greatness. We buy the t shirt, don't we? Of great people and have them have them on. We put up the put put up the poster and we collect the cards when you're young of pictures of great people and we swapped them and and and all of that sort of stuff. And if you're older and you like great people, you go to somewhere like madame tussauds and see a plastic or whatever it is, a wax version of famous people.

I took Carl there once and then I got a picture of him with Hitler. And, you know, that's that's what people do. Or, you know, nowadays you go on social media, you follow them on social media, try and pick up some information. If you meet a great 1, you have a selfie with them and you put that up on social media. Great ones.

They're served. They they get to the head of the queue in front of everybody else. They take the best seats in the theater or at the concert or whatever. They get the best views. Greatness.

It's very it's very heady, isn't it? It's a very heady thing to be great. The power, the fame, the money, the success. That comes with greatness, the achievement, stardom, freedom that you've got, the the honor and the glory. I mean, who would wanna be great?

I mean, don't you wanna be great at something? You know? It'll be a great, brewer, you know, wouldn't that would be great? We wanna be great. Now, of course, you know, as I know, that there's 1 person who is the most great, And he outshines every great 1, doesn't he?

He's the brightest star in the universe. More books have been written about him than anybody else. More musicals and paintings and poetry and writings have been written about him more hospitals and universities have been named after him in some way. He's described as the almighty, the alpha, the omega, the beginning, the end, the beloved bread of life, Brydgroom, bright morning star, chosen of god, day spring, deliverer, desire of the nations, everlasting light, faithful and true, firstborn of all creation, good shepherd, air of all things, image of god, king of kings, life and light of the world, the Messiah, the only begotten, the prince of life, prince of peace, redeemer resurrection, and life rock, the shore 1. The sovereign, truth, unspeakable gift, the vine, wisdom, wonderful word of life.

They're just some of the things said about this great 1. He's the most well known person in the universe. There's no 1 greater. And even in god's eyes, He's highly exalted. He's the great 1, the highly exalted 1.

In Matthew chapter 17, we'll get to 18 in a minute, but in Matthew chapter 17, The disciples of Jesus are just beginning to see how great Jesus is. At the beginning of the chapter, and if you look at it, you were told that, Jesus took Peter James and John up the mountain and then in verse 2 of chapter 17, There he was, transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light. And then the 2 of the greatest men in the history of Israel, in the history of the Bible. Stood with him.

Moses and Elijah spoke with him. And then the voice from the cloud said, this is my son whom I love with him, I am will. Please listen to him. And it was such a revealing that the disciples fell on their faces as though dead. But what does the great 1 do?

Well, we've seen this in our series going through. What does the great 1 do? Well, great ones normally when they've revealed how great they are are taken away, aren't they? By the, you know, by the by the driver and put into a nice hotel. When and Peter sort of wanted that.

He wanted to build a build a thing at the, you know, house to, you know, at the at the top of the at the top of the mountain, an exclusive house with exclusive views. That's what great people do. When they revealed themselves, they go off to their exclusive house, and Peter was sort of following that sort of idea. But Jesus takes him down into the valley. You know that story.

We've looked at it. Down into the valley where there's a demon possessed boy where there's lying and demonic behavior going on from the light of the mountain to the darkness of the valley. That's the world. Jesus is saying the great 1 has come into. That's the subject of the great one's interest.

The greatest 1 in the universe comes to the valley. Where there's death and lies and darkness. And in verse 18, Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment. Jesus is telling his followers. What greatness is and how we are to act in the world and what we're to be about.

And still Jesus is teaching that same lesson at the end of Matthew 17, where there's this funny scene that Rory dealt with last week about this paying of the temple tax. Remember that story? The paying of but in that, if you look at that story, there's a lot revealed there. He's basically saying that the royal family are exempt from temple tax. The ruler of the universe, the great king doesn't have to pay nor do the sons.

Of the king. But in order not to make disturbance in that area of politics, go and catch a fish, and the first fish that you find Peter, open its mouth, and you'll find for Draacknor, I think it is, in it, to pay the temple tax. In other words, oh, I've got a money spider there. You see this? In in other words, you know, our job is is is not to really not to lord it over people.

We're sons. We don't have to pay. You know, the the the world is getting on with its taxes and its political systems, and that's right. Let them do that. Let them do that.

And we're not in to trying to change all that. Just pay it so that we can get on with the gospel work. That's great. This. Not saying no.

I don't need to pay this. Greatness is paying it to get on with the greater work. And now we come to chapter 18. And the reason for saying all of that stuff and reminding you of what we've already seen is that this is what Matthew does in chapter 18 verse 1 at that time. What time?

At the time we've just seen? So we've got the same lessons going on here, but at that time, the disciples wanted Jesus to tell them about who's the greatest in the kingdom. They still haven't got it. You see? He's just taught them that greatness in the kingdom is about service going down the mountain.

It's humility. It's refusing to assert your rights. I don't have to pay tax. I'm a son. He's just told but the disciples are just going in the opposite direction.

He's teaching this, and they're going the other way. And so they're they're banging on about Who's the greatest in the kingdom. Now, okay. They've just seen Moses and Elijah, 3 of them. And, they're feeling pretty cool because these 3 saw that and the other few others didn't.

You know? And there's all this sort of going on. But who's the greatest? And and Jesus is saying you haven't got it, so he gets a child. And he brings them in the center on center stage.

And if you go through the chapter, you'll see the the word little is used the number of times, even in I'm just looking at the first 9 verses. Verse 2, little child, verse 3, little children, verse 6, little ones. He suddenly goes from greatness to little. So here's my first point after that introduction. The greatness of littleness in Jesus thinking.

Do you have different ears? Very different, isn't he? The greatness of littleness? That's how you enter the kingdom of of god. That's how you enter the great kingdom.

It's by being little. So have a look at it. At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? He called a little child to him, placed a child among them, and he said, truly, I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

He takes a small child He places him or her at the center of the crowd, and he's making a point a lesson through the child. Now let's just get this clear just before I say what it does mean. He is not saying We need to be childish and immature. He's not saying that. Paul in his letters in the Bible says, grow up.

Yeah. Leave your childish ways behind. He's not saying that. He's not saying discover the inner child inside of you. A so modern and western.

He's not saying that. You've gotta understand that in their society, at that time, children didn't have rights. They didn't have rights. He's he's he's he's he's basically saying, if you're gonna come into the kingdom of god, you've gotta be someone who doesn't think about yourself that much. You have no right.

You have no right to be here. You can't buy your way in. You're not great. You're a nothing. You have no right.

Now the Greek word for child that is used here is is neuter. It's not he or she. It's it. It's it. Very modern.

It. It. Yeah. It's not boy or girl. Most when you read translations, if they put, a set a gender to, to the child, it's a he, but I reckon it's a she.

Because Children had no rights, but boys were better than girls. Girls were nothing. Girls were not important. Boys were more important with no rights. So I think he's bringing the weakest most vulnerable person in and saying, let me show you what greatness is and bring the little girl.

This is a girl. Bring the little girl. Bring the little girl. Oh, I don't I can't say for sure, but why not? What's the weakest and most vulnerable and least significant human being in our culture?

That's who he's calling. Do you see that? We have we have a different culture. We have a different way of thinking. We we we we pretend we love children and children, you know, can dominate.

But what's the weakest, the most insignificant, and most vulnerable? What is a 14 year old female fetus. They have no rights. We could kill them just like that. There are no rights?

You can go ride up to 24 weeks and even that when they're trying to change. They don't have any rights. You could terminate their life, and they have no rights, not in our country. Well, that's what he's saying. So perhaps if he was here today, He would have brought a pregnant woman in and said, here's a 14 year old female fetus, 14 week year old.

Jesus is saying, in other words, You gotta get this. Forget worldly ideas of greatness. Think of how vulnerable that person is in the womb, and no rights. To even save the life of a child in the womb, to enter the greatest kingdom of all, where it's the greatest king in all the universe that's ever lived You become nothing. You become a vulnerable 14 week fetus.

Female. Stop trying to prove yourself. Stop trying to assert your rights. Stop saying I'm a son therefore I don't have to pay. Stop doing that.

Make yourself great by being nothing. Look at the look what he says. Unless you change and become like little children, you'll never enter the Kingdom of heaven. He's pretty strong on this, isn't he? Yeah?

You wanna become a follower of Jesus. You want to become a Christian. Then unless you change, unless you change, and that's the conversion word, unless you convert, and become like little children, you're not going to enter the kingdom of heaven. You're not going there. Now in this discussion, he talks about hell.

So if you're not going to the kingdom of heaven, then there's a hell. So this is really serious stuff. You have to change. So he's warning them they're going in the wrong direction. The disciples need to change their sort of thinking and living was the kind that will exclude them from the kingdom of god.

And take them to hell itself. To be interested in your personal glory and status is a direct rejection of the kingdom of Jesus. We cannot pursue our own status and our own glory as well as follow Jesus, not consistently. If we pursue our own status and glory, we show that we're not trusting in Jesus because he says you've gotta become a child. They had to change and become like children unless you change, unless you be converted, unless you take the opposite way to what you're thinking about greatness.

Now let's be honest. I think the truth is that We've largely lost a sense of god. And if you lose a sense of god, then your sense of self will increase. The sense of talking about self, thinking about self, it's gonna increase, isn't it? Get rid of a god, then you have to become god.

I was at a wedding on Friday. We had a lovely sort of, lovely day. We were in an orchard. Wasn't was it a single word about god? Not a single word about god.

The universe had brought these 2 together, an apple's power. I don't know what the apple was doing, but it was doing something. The power of an apple mean, it is quite strong in Apple because you make it into a pretty strong cider, and there was some of that flowing around. But nothing about god. And so we tend to think ourselves are much more important.

The universe had brought this couple together under an apple tree. You know, the whole universe is about this couple, is it? Yeah. So the more you get rid of God, the more you raise yourself up. The Christian song is unbelievable, isn't it?

Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to your cross, I clean. Naked come to you for dress. Yeah? We've got nothing.

We can't strut in thinking we're great or have anything to offer. We're a little child. That's the first thing. So greatness. The greatness of littleness And that's how you enter the kingdom of heaven.

Here's my second point. The greatness of littleness simply trust. Just simply trust. Look at verse 2. He called a little child to him and placed a child among them, and he said, Truly, I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. See, this little child, it's it's it's just a wonderful it's just a wonderful little picture of what it is to be a Christian. The little child, the most vulnerable, the insignificant among them, and you can tell, by the way, what the disciples think of the little children, because at the end of this whole section, little children come again to Jesus. It's and they shoot them away. They still haven't learned, but a rich man comes and they usher him in.

So you gotta become like a child. And what did the child do in all of this? Came. It's very simple, isn't it? Child obeyed?

Now you could say, yeah, but the child hasn't got any power not to admit, no, but the child obeyed. The child came. The child trusted him. Look at verse 6, Jesus says that 1 of these little ones who believe in me, see, the child has this uncomplicated trust in Jesus. Little ones simply believe Jesus.

They believe who he is. The doctor Charles not taken up with saying, look how great I am. I don't think the little girl sort of nudged the boy and said, I'm greater than you. He's picked on me. You know, you've been left behind.

It's not that sort of thing. The child comes out. And just simply does what he says and simply believes. And that's the beauty, isn't it? It is it is a lovely thing when you see children, isn't it?

Trusting Jesus, isn't it? You know that, didn't you? They simply believe. You know? Trust Jesus.

I was scared. I'm just gonna say Jesus, I'm scared. Jesus, I'm scared. Lovely, isn't it? They they say to grandma and grande, don't they?

You're going to hell if you don't believe in Jesus. It's just so wonderful. Isn't it? It's just so refreshing. Did you know that?

You know, and and we're all, like, I thought we were all embarrassed They're not. Ramon, why don't you believe in Jesus? You know, it's stupid, isn't it? To be not to believe it? What?

What? What? You don't believe it or god? Are you mental? You know?

It's just a very simple thing. And I wonder whether we make Christianity just too complicated sometimes. Just trusting Jesus. The greatness in simply trusting Jesus. There's greatness in just simply trusting him.

Yeah? We must never ever put down the wonder like child trust. It's not naive, and it's not simplistic. To trust Jesus with my life. I'm trusting with what I'm going through in life.

We complicate it. We muddle it sometimes, don't we? We we muddle up with our self own selfish desires and We muddle up with our cleverness sometimes. You know, I I think sometimes we're just too clever, and we just need to trust Jesus a bit more. First 4, then, therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Or encouraged all the time to be assertive, to look to yourself, to look good, to be pure, to find yourself. But Jesus is doing absolute reverse to all the advice that we get today. You must humble yourself. You must be like a child that has no rights. You must put down your pride.

You know, pride is is seen as a word to be good. Oh, I've been proud and I'm really proud of myself. People talk like that. You know, No. You should not we shouldn't be talking like that.

We shouldn't use that word. It's not a good word in the Bible, pride. Don't take pride in yourself. The only thing you take pride in is your weakness, actually. That's what you take pride in, that you're weak and unable to do anything, but he's strong.

Yeah? In my weakness, I'll prove his strength. So we're the way we grow up is to see how weak we are. The way we grow up is to see how vulnerable we are. The way we grow up is to see that we're not in control.

That's the way we grow up. Humility is what counts in god's kingdom pride, arrogance, They're the things which more than anything distort and destroy human lives. Sears Lewis said this, if anyone would wish to acquire humility, I can tell him first, the first step to recognize that he's proud. Yeah. We're we're we're we're far too proud.

We're far too proud. Recognize you're not in control of a thing. Are you? Nothing. Yeah.

Jesus knows how many hairs are on your head. Do you? No. Martin Lloyd Jones said this. I sometimes think that the very essence of the whole Christian position and the secret of a successful spiritual life is just realized is to just realize 2 things.

A secret of the Christian life is to realize 2 things. 1, I must have complete and absolute confidence in god. 2, no confidence in myself. Yeah? That's how to be great.

I'm just reading this book. It's a brilliant book, and I'm gonna suggest, not that I'm an elder anymore, or I'm just a trainee pastor. But I humbly suggest that the elders of this church might read it. It's not a Christian book. It's called Bad Therapy, why kids aren't growing up.

And, I've read about half of it, and it's It's brilliant so far. She's challenging all the therapy culture and all of that sort of stuff. But 1 of the things that blew my mind away, I think yesterday when I read it, was she's, sort of talking about the whole idea, you know, when you could do it, you know, believe in yourself. You can be great. That whole thing Now we all know that's just rubbish and just unrealistic, and it's it's it's so silly.

And yet it's the Disney thing that's pushed, isn't it? Just constantly. But leaving yourself, and you can be great. You can do whatever you want. But what I had never thought about is the other side to that.

What's the fruit of that? And she deals with this. And she's talking to, an American, researcher, a medical researcher. Top woman researcher. And she says in the last 10 years, students come, and she only has the elite students to do medical research.

In the last 10 years, they're useless. They're so useless because they've so believed that they could be great. They're frightened to do anything in case they're not. Isn't that amazing? It's the exact opposite.

To what the philosophy is trying to get you to do. And, she says they're afraid not to be amazing, because they're told they can they can be amazing, but they might not be. So they're afraid to be amazing. So they don't do medical experiments. She's trying to get them to do experiments, and they won't do it because I might fail.

I may not be the amazing person that I'm told that I am and I can be. And so you've suddenly got a whole load of failures here. They're afraid not to be amazing. Very, very afraid, she said. So they don't do anything.

It's almost like they'd rather not start than find out that they're not amazing. The amount of fear She stopped for a moment to consider her own younger children. That's what I don't want to raise. And then she said, not only that. She said, the level at which they are satisfied, if they do do anything, the level at which they are satisfied with what, they are producing, is very low.

Right? Because this is, meaning they they hold themselves to a standard of a much younger, much less accomplished student so that they can feel great. Now if you're following that, the whole thing is the opposite to what Jesus is saying. When you know you're a nothing, you can experiment. You can have a go.

Because it's not all about you. And when you're in Christ and you realize you're just a child, but he is your savior and god is your father, you can confidently have a go. Nothing will take you away from that. Third point then, the greatest job in the world is childcare. The greatest job in the world is childcare.

You see what how Jesus is arguing here? See, childcare is seen as is the lowest work, isn't it? Really? We pay, for our childcare where we get on with the real work. So it's low paid stuff childcare.

Yeah. So we we see them as as nothing. Jesus thinks very differently. So Caroline very differently. And so, you know, because you are amazing with kids.

Look at verse 5. And whoever welcomes 1 such child in my name welcomes what? Who? Who? What?

Anybody awake? First 5, whoever welcomes 1 such child in my name welcomes Jesus. Jesus. It's extraordinary, isn't it? You know?

We think careers are the big thing. We think becoming great is the big thing. Jesus said, what are you talking about? Talking about? Now the little 1 Jesus is talking about is definitely a follower of Jesus, but it's interesting he uses the child of the illustration.

The son of man, the greatest being in the universe, unites himself with the little needy person. He identifies with them so much so that when you welcome them, you welcome him. That's how he identifies with the weak vulnerable little followers of Jesus, those who believe in him. Jesus asks us to welcome the little 1 in his name, out of devotion for Jesus. Whoever welcomes the welcoming word is is like an honored guest the vulnerable believer in Jesus is the welcome grace.

So true greatness, you've gotta get this, is shown in our care for the little ones. It's a sign of a changed heart. If you really don't care for the church and if you don't care for the strange little ones that make up the kingdom of god, then you will never be great. You'll never be great, not in the kingdom of god. Only you're in your own brain.

And stupidity. So greatness, the greatest job in the world is childcare, is looking after believers, little ones caring for them. Helping them. Fourth point. The greatest sin is harming little ones.

You got that? The greatest sin is harming little ones. You see greatness in the kingdom of god protects the vulnerable. They make sure no harm comes to the vulnerable. You gotta get this picture out of your mind.

The great 1 isn't a warrior standing up with a sword, fighting on his own. You know? A great 1 is someone who's committed to the little ones. Yeah. At home, caring for them.

Protecting them. Look at verses 6 to 9. If anyone causes 1 of these little ones, those who believe in me, to stumble. It would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea whoa to the world. He's speaking to the world.

Like a prophet, whoa to the world. Woe to the world with all your power and all your technology. Woe to the world, with all of the smartphones and the things you put on it. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble. Whoa.

Such things must come, but whoa, to the person through whom they come. If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. Be radical with this. I'm serious about this issue. Throw it away.

It's better for you. To enter, life maned or crippled than to have 2 hands and 2 feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, you gouge it out and you throw it away, It is better for you to enter life with 1 eye than to have 2 and to be thrown into the fire of hell. This is blooming powerful stuff, isn't it? Isn't it?

Did you wanna read this on a Sunday night? Jesus is really serious. Here, isn't he? Really serious? It caused a little 1 to stumble.

It caused the little children at a wedding to believe in the power of an apple or the power of earth. You don't mention god to the children. You'd be careful, whoa, whoa, to the world. It's it's frightening, isn't it? Whoa.

Woe to the world. Jesus uses this phrase causing to sin or causing to stumble 4 times. Is the word scandal he uses. It's scandalous in the kingdom of heaven. This is the scandal.

What is the scandal in the kingdom of heaven? Someone that's pushing themselves forward and putting little ones down and causing little ones to sin. That's the scandal. It traps and entices and influences little 1. Bad actions that cause little ones.

To sin, don't go unnoticed. As welcoming doesn't go unnoticed. To corrupt a young Christian or young children, with cynicism of unbelief and selfishness is deeply, deeply troubling, but Jesus says that person will go to hell. The greatest sin of all is to teach, another to sin. And so if you are falling into sin, then you need to deal with that because believe it or not, even if it's hidden, you'll be an example.

To little ones. Now pick it up. So cut it off. I mean, it's it's it's incredibly strong. The stuff, isn't it?

Do you see that film? You know, that bloke? What's that? I think it was called, like, hundred and 28 hours or something. You see that film when that bloke was climbing somewhere, and he was on his own, and his arm got stuck between rocks, didn't it?

And he just genuinely couldn't move, and he was gonna die. No 1 knew where he was, you know, he he was I think it was like 3 days. And then he had found a little penknife, a blunt pen knife. And he had to break his own arm, and he had to saw through the flesh, and the sinew, with a little blunt pen knife, but it saved his life. It's just extraordinary stories.

What is it is it an amazing film? You know, and they had to walk with, you know, then some people saw him and they just cut his arm off. Jesus is that that's what Jesus is saying. You've gotta take the way you sin is gonna affect a little 1, so you need to stop it. You know, you you gotta be careful.

And that leaves me just to I mean, we could apply that in all kinds of ways, but I'd like to just apply it to us as as a church. Parents. We're still allowing our children to have smartphones. Come on. Maybe we should give them up so that they won't desire them.

It was just interesting reading this book again, and it's nothing that we don't know. But she's the evidence for depression amongst children that have smartphones. It's just massive. It's just absolutely massive. It's it's it's it's so obvious.

Everybody knows it except the psychologists that make money out of doing therapy. Don't tell you it. She says, why? Now this is the American book, and she's challenging the American Psychologist organizations. They none of the organizations in America have come out to say that smartphones should really they're so dangerous.

You might as well give your your your son and your daughter a loaded gun. And yet the evidence is all there, but we're still doing it. We scours us little 1 to sin. Cut it off. See, there's nothing wrong with the hand, is there?

That's a god given thing. There's nothing wrong with it. I said god given things. Nothing wrong with the foot, is it? It's all god given.

But if a good thing, something that's good and useful causes you to send you cut it off, You see his argument? I just wonder whether we're gutsy enough as a church, whether I am. That's just 1 thing, isn't it? Is there anything we're doing as a church that would cause the little ones to sin? Not praying for them, perhaps.

Insight is an amazing organization in this in this borough. There is honestly that and you'll agree with it. There is nothing in the country, anywhere in the in our country, like insight. Genuinely, there is not. Well, we're down to 1 worker.

We're down to 1 worker, going into the schools, telling them about Jesus, encouraging the Christian little ones to grow. We need to pray. Is our lack of prayer causing anyone to sin? Sunday school children. We need to be praying for them, praying for the teachers.

So that we teach the Bible correctly and wonderfully and excitingly. We have to pray. It's our lack of prayer and our lack of Thanksgiving. You have to have a kid see us. I don't know.

It's worth thinking, isn't it? How did they see us? I was I couldn't help you. I was sitting looking at this pagan wedding that I was at. And, just looking at the children, Thankfully, they were playing around and it was a bit uninteresting because the woman was really boring.

It was all silly stuff. It was so, anyway. But I was thinking, these kids, these kids, these are kids. How'd you get the gospel in? How'd you get the gospel in?

Thankfully, the lord opened up an opportunity for us to share the gospel at least with 1 person. Thankfully, the lord, when when you're there, you're praying, don't you? 1 of the things that moved me, I was, slightly off the point was a girl who's like a goth girl, and, and I just got talking to her, but not talking about the god. I didn't talk to about the gospel, but it it really haunted me, all the next day because I don't know whether she must have known what I did because just as we were going, she put her hand on my arm in a in a sort of really personal way and said pray for me. You know, we need the gospel in all these places.

We've gotta take the gospel out to where the young people are, where the kids are. We've we've gotta reach the the nation the young people that are hearing this crap about greatness, and it's destroying them in every way. Is there anything that we're doing or not doing as a church? That might cause a little 1 to sin. Next week, we're gonna look at more littleness.

But let's finish there and perhaps we should pray. Should we pray on tables for let's pray. Why don't we pray on tables for young people for the for the children's work just for a few minutes? What what are the children learning this week? They're in acts.

They're in the book of acts. Wonderful. Yeah. Let's pray that many will come to know the lord.