“Unless you become like a little child, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.”
What a profound statement.
Just one 30,000 foot thought, in a sense, spiritual growth, the theological word is sanctification. Say "sanctification" out loud. You feel more spiritual and smarter saying it.
The idea of sanctification is that we are conformed to the image of Christ. But it is really interesting because there are two dimensions to it. We are conformed to the image of Christ. Don’t you want to love like Him and act like Him and talk like Him and pray like Him and dream like Him? You want everything about you to be like Him, and that’s what it means to follow Christ. But there is also this second dimension where you become like a little child. Jesus very intentionally put a child at the very center of everyone and said, ‘Unless you become like a little child, you can’t even enter the kingdom of heaven.’ Well, what does that mean?
It is an incredibly kaleidoscopic statement that means a lot of different things, but I think one dimension of it is this – I believe as you grow in a relationship with your Savior, with your Creator, what happens is this – you recapture this childlike sense of wonder. (we did a video piece about the recapturing the sense of our childlike wonder a few weeks ago at Focus Church)
It is also like your soul, that if you aren’t careful, with the wrong circumstances and a lot of experience, before you know it, your soul can die. But when we come into a relationship with Christ, it comes back to life and then God begins to fill this soul with a childlike sense of wonder.
Who remembers the Life Savers candy commercial? (A young 5 or 6yr. old daughter sitting under a tree during the sunset and as the sun is setting Dad says, Going, Going, Gone.... then his daughter looks up at him and whispers, "Do it again Daddy")
Here’s my point. I think that it is so easy for us to loose the sense of wonder that we once had. It is so hard to put this into words, but I think for many of us, a relationship with God can almost be reduced in the wrong circumstances to this long list of do’s and don’ts and rules and rituals that become empty and meaningless. I mean, hey I grew up where, I kid you not, it was about what you didn’t drink, where you didn’t go, what you didn’t say, and how long your hair wasn’t. It was like your whole relationship with God was reduced to these external things, and I wonder how many of us are this spiritual looking shell on the outside but your soul is empty. Do you really love God with your soul, with ALL of your soul in a very deep place where God is the One who brings you to life and when his wonder begins to fill your soul, it’s like, I am in relationship with my Creator. And it creates this sense of wonder w/in us!
Look at this quote from Arthur Gordon, “This surely is the most valuable legacy we can pass on to the next generation, not money or houses or heirlooms, but a capacity for wonder.”
I love this. I mean, hear me folks, He is the God of wonders, He is the One who created everything around us. Who do you think wants us to enjoy the setting sun more than anybody else? The One who made it. And He wants us to have a soul that has a capacity for wonder, and it makes me think if some of us have lost that and that’s what we need to get back.
Do you know what is the main source for us to capture this wonder?... God’s Word, the Bible
I can recall the wonder on my girls faces when they were young & we were doing our family fun nights aka devotions (quick sidebar: you want to do family devotions w/ your children you need to make them fun and exciting - they can’t be like an adult devotional - one source we used was Heritage Builders: Family Night Tool Chest - we all had a blast) Like, Wow, the Bible, awesome! Ya know?
I just think in every area of our life, do we not need to recapture this childlike approach to life, this childlike approach to God?
Here is the heart of what I feel like the Lord really wants to say to us.....
28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
I’m reading that verse and I’m having a thought. I’m wondering how many people have never come to Christ because they don’t know that this is what He says. When they envision God, they envision someone very, very different. They don’t think that God is the One who is saying, ‘Come to Me, you who are weary and carry burdens and I will give you rest.’ That’s not their image of who God is and their souls suffer because of it. But this is a great promise!
Maybe some of you today are so weary, you are relationally worn out, you’ve given a relationship everything that you think you’ve got and it’s not what you want it to be and you don’t know where to go. Some of you are so burdened relationally that someone has done something that you can’t control but you are experiencing some of the consequences of it. Some of you are emotionally weary. You have no grace left for other people, there is no joy left in your relationship with God, there is no peace in your heart and you are just about out of patience. Listen, all of us have been in that place where emotionally we are weary and burdened. And I think spiritually, some of us are so weighed down by our guilt and the reason why we are still weary and burdened is because we try to do the exact opposite of what this passage teaches us. We try to get our act together, we try to even do more, we try harder and harder, then we get more weary and more burdened and we never really truly accept this simple invitation, come to Me, come to Me, weary, burdened, and I will give you rest.
I want to get practical for a couple minutes. I want to talk about two sides to the equations. Some of you have a very empty soul and I think it’s important to realize that some of that is not a mystery, some of that is under our control. There are some things that we can do to guard our soul, to protect our soul, to make sure that our soul is being replenished and refilled.
So, you are reading this your soul feels empty, what can you do? There are some things that you can do.
Our part: Worship, worship begins to flood your heart with the presence of God. Confession begins to empty some of those things that clutter your spirit, emptying the trash, if you will.
You can Serve others and it will begin to replenish your soul.
Find ways to serve others. You can do it within the church, you can do it out at non profit organization, at the Pregnancy Help center, and so forth… find ways to serve.
What can you do to begin to fill that soul? Here’s the second half of the equation. There are some things that only God can do for you. This is where it gets so good, I love this, in Hebrews 3 and 4 it talks about entering the rest of the Lord, this passage says you will find rest for your soul, (thats your homework this week, read those chapters Heb. 3&4)
some of us are so weary and so burdened because we are trying to do it ourselves. What I want you to know is that religion is about what you can do for God, but Christianity is about what God has done for you, in the person of Jesus Christ who paid a price you could not pay, He paid a debt you could not pay, paid a debt He did not owe.
So God’s part: is about you allowing Him to do for you want you can’t do for yourself.
Have you ever done that little thing where someone is standing behind you, it’s almost like a faith exercise where someone is standing behind you and you have to freefall backwards?
A Trust Fall.
It’s so hard to do isn’t it? It’s so hard to just totally fall into another persons arms and let go, but I think that’s part of what it means to rest in the Lord. It means I’m not going to try to do it, I can’t do it, but I’m going to rest in the atoning sacrifice that Jesus Christ made at Calvary.
Take a deep breath and let it back out.
I’ve told you before that that’s my definition of the sovereignty of God. In his heart, a man plans his course but God orders his footsteps. It’s the sovereignty of God, take a deep breath and relax. God wants you to get where God wants you to go more than you want to get where God wants you to go. Amen. Take another deep breath, let it back out. It’s also a pretty good definition for the grace of God, isn’t it? I can’t do it, I don’t deserve it, but He has done it for me.
Come to Me, all who are weary & burdened and I will give you rest for your souls.
We do our part & you better believe God will do His part.
And when we get there… we can Love God with ALL our soul.
'Trust Fall' video:
Watch or Listen to "ALLmost" part 2:
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