Pastors Jacque and Brian Lother
Jacque: Okay. So let's start into the message now.
Brian: I'm digging a big hole here, aren't I?
Jacque: No, that's absolutely true. I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful about some of the things I'm going to say today. I just say with Doug and Melissa here, it's a truth that we all have to realize because I'm going to talk about trusting God. It's a process. It's a process, so know that as I speak. We all have different emotions on Mother's Day, don't we? Some people, our moms aren't on this earth anymore, and we miss them. And we have so many memories. I'm wearing mom's bracelets today and her ring, and I'm just remembering my mom today. Some of you, your moms were not loving like they should have been. Some of you may have been abandoned by your mother and I, all I can think of is how deeply wounded that mother must have been to do what was so unnatural for a mother. But that has left wounds inside you.
And then there is some women who desperately wanted to be a mom and never were able to. And that's such a loss. We come to Mother's Day from so many directions. I'm so grateful, and I don't say this; these are true words that whatever our pain is, whatever our pain is, we can bring it to God because he is our healer, and it is a process. But he will set us free from the pain and he will bring healing. He will. But right now, let's just be all on the same page for Mother's Day. Every one of us had a mom or you wouldn't be here. I love those pins they used to have in the nineties and the eighties: thanks mom for life. Yes, we can all thank our mom for life. Every one of us were a child at some time.
We are going to talk a lot about children today because Jeff and Cheryl said something in their message last week, just one sentence, that Jesus said that we have to become like children. And right then, boom, I knew what I was supposed to speak on this week. And so we are just going to talk about that a little bit more. Try and connect with your inner child today because it's there. She and he are there.
Brian: Sound like Stuart Smalley there.
Jacque: For a second. Yes, I did.
Brian: You don't know who that is, I suppose.
Jacque: We won't go into that. Google Stuart Smalley. You'll love it. The movie is great.
Brian: Stuart saves his family.
Jacque: Stuart saves his family. First, we are going to start with some adorable pictures of children and they give some life advice to us. I found this cute little book and it's called Adorable. It says, "here is some life advice from your inner third grader." We are going to start with this quickly. Following their advice and how kids just are, can make our lives simpler and easier and really more enjoyable. True. let's look at the first one. The bravest thing you can be is yourself. I love that we are all one of a kind creations of God and we are the happiest when we are being ourselves, who God created us to be.
Brian: Yep. God made you like you are.
Jacque: Yep. That's right. Here is another; the first three are all on this topic. This is so cute. The next one: Be you trying to be someone else is too exhausting. That is so true. I love that. When we stop trying to impress others and push ourselves into what they want us to be, life is so much more fun, so much easier. Number three, just be you. You already have the costume. I love that little girl dancing around. Oh, I love that.
Brian: And sometimes we forget that the world needs us who we were made to be.
Jacque: That's right. I have this sign in my office. Be you. The world needs who you were created to be.
Brian: God made you like you are because he wanted to bring what you are into the world.
Jacque: I spent many decades of my life trying to change myself, trying to be quieter. Trying to be calmer.
Brian: Did that work?
Jacque: No, I never could.
Brian: How's that working for you?
Jacque: I never could. And finally, about 10 years ago, I decided to embrace me even though I'm a little crazy and out there and I can be a little tiring. Thank you for your patience. But I'll tell you what, I'm happier now. I'm happier now. Okay.
Brian: I think I am too.
Jacque: Are you?
Brian: Yes.
Jacque: Oh.
Brian: I'm happier because you are who you were made to be. I married you for who you were.
Jacque: Oh. That's nice.
Brian: I didn't marry you to change you into somebody else.
Jacque: Yeah. I know. Thanks. Wow. I wish I would've learned that lesson a couple decades earlier. Better late than never.
Brian: That's right. Okay. You have eternity to keep moving forward.
Jacque: Okay, here is another one, number four. Today is a good day to find out. Oh no, I guess we skipped one. Number four. Today is a good day to--- Oh, let's read this one. Keep your chin up. You see more rainbows that way. I love how much more positive children are. My little grandkids, they love to get wet in the rain. It's like I'm always trying to not get wet and when it rains, they just say, "Can we go outside and play?" I said, "But it's raining." Yeah. That's children for you.
What's the next one? Today is a good day to find out how happy you can possibly be. Now that's something that takes a choice, isn't it? We don't just go with the emotions that happen to get up with us. We can choose who we are going to be. My watch said to me yesterday, it just popped up, "Mindfulness. Go sit for a moment and think about how you want to show up today." It was amazing. I thought about that. I thought, it's my choice. It is my choice. I love that. Today is a good day to find out how happy you can possibly be as she has her glasses upside down and she is laughing. Do things that make you happy. Get to know yourself and find out what is it that makes me happy. And then do it more.
Where are we at? What's the next one? Laughing makes your brain sparkle. Laughing makes your brain sparkle. It's so good. That's another thing we have to just do on purpose. Come up with ways to make ourselves laugh.
Brian: You should laugh at yourself a little more.
Jacque: I laugh at myself a lot. When Charlie and Finn start laughing together, it is contagious. Charlie has to run to the bathroom a lot of times because he gets laughing so hard. It's the cutest thing ever. I love it. Okay, next one. Hugs are like vitamins for the soul. Kids love to hug, hug the kids in church. Help them to feel so loved and so appreciated and so valued and love your kids'. Hug, hug, hug.
Brian: Neriah comes up and gives me hugs all the time. And then sometimes I'll say, "Where is my hug, Neriah?"
Jacque: And McKenzie. I get three hugs a Sunday from her. It's a blessing.
Brian: They love to hug.
Jacque: Yep. Yep. Oh, I love this one. Weird is exactly what I'm going for. Thanks for noticing. I love it. The children, they are not so caught up with the outside, how we look on the outside. They look past all that. We have all these stupid ways you are supposed to be and look, and I mean, I love it. Unique is cool. Unique is cool.
Brian: When I paint the house, canary yellow and royal blue--
Jacque: Except for that. No. That is not unique. That is bad taste.
Brian: That's not unique. That's bad taste. Okay. Alright.
Jacque: Here is our last one. I just love this. Oh, I am what I am, which is awesome. Kids don't realize they don't have all these self-deprecating thoughts that we constantly have. It's people that put that in their heads. It's people that put that in my head and I have to work hard to not go there. I do. I've had to work hard my whole life to ignore those thoughts.
Brian: Rejection can bring a huge downer in people's lives. This world is really good about rejecting because it's all about what have you done for me lately and your appearance and those kind of things. You have to be intentional about really staying focused on what the Lord says about you.
Jacque: We had this crazy thought about humility that you never thought good things about yourself. That's how I was raised. I remember my dad didn't want to give me too many compliments because he was afraid I'd get a big head.
Brian: Get stuck up.
Jacque: Yeah. Let's tell our kids and let's tell one another how wonderful we are. I love to encourage others. That is being childlike. Yes. To just stop and tell people how great they are. Even if it makes them a little uncomfortable, it doesn't matter. They need to hear it. You are great, Jim Yuzel. You've always been great. I've known him since I was a kid. You are great. God loves and he values all of us, his children and when Jesus walked on the earth, he valued children. He would say, suffer the little children, that's King James, to come unto me and don't stop them. And he took--
Brian: suffer means allow.
Jacque: Suffer means allow. Thank you. He took time for children. But the disciples, they would try to stop the children from coming to Jesus. Parents would bring their children to Jesus, for Jesus to bless them. And they would try to stop that. So, so read that, will you?
Brian: Matthew in 19:14, the New Living translation. It starts by saying, Jesus said. Whenever a verse starts with Jesus said, it's like a trumpet sounds. That's like more important than anything else, Jesus said. There is nobody who spoke more powerfully and more accurately than Jesus. And it says, Jesus said, let the children come to me and don't stop them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are like these children.
Jacque: That's good. The disciples got it wrong. They thought the kids were a nuisance. Another time the disciples got it wrong because they were actually arguing between themselves about which of them would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Thus, the title of our message today: the Jesus Way to greatness: be like a child
Brian: Not being childish,
Jacque: Being childlike. That's right. That's right. So let's read Jesus' response to the disciples.
Brian: Matthew 18:1-5 in the good News Translation. At that time, the disciples came to Jesus asking, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Jesus called the child to come and stand in front of them. And he said, I assure you that unless you change it, become like children. You will never enter the kingdom of heaven. The greatest in the kingdom of heaven is the one who humbles himself and becomes like this child. And whoever welcomes in my name one such child is this, welcomes me.
Jacque: Those are serious words.
Brian: Very serious.
Jacque: I assure you that unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. I want to talk about just defining kingdom of heaven, our terms. So the kingdom, you taught me this. This is really good. I was thinking the other day, I kind of haven't been in Bible school for 49 years. It's so great. I have a question. Boom. I have an answer. It has been a blessing. Thank you. The terms, kingdom of heaven and kingdom of God are synonymous. You say kingdom of heaven is where it resides.
Brian: Where the main point of origination of the government comes from.
Jacque: And kingdom of God is who's--
Brian: Who the king is or who the government is under.
Jacque: And the kingdom of God means, and the kingdom of heaven means the rule and the reign of God in any person's life.
Brian: So it's a different than an earthly kingdom. An earthly kingdom is about borders. I mean, we are in the middle of almost another world war, fighting over what? Territory. Borders, what land belongs to whom. Most wars have been fought about who's the rightful owner of this piece of turf when all along the scriptures teach us that the earth is the lord's and he is just letting us live here. Our tithe is kind of a rent for using his earth.
Jacque: The concept of king and kingdom is foreign to us in our democratic self-sufficient culture of America.
Brian: Yeah. We are so used to electing our rulers.
Jacque: And the king is sovereign. He is not elected and he must be obeyed. There were a lot of horrible kings through the centuries, but our God is a wonderful, loving and benevolent king. Read Romans 14:17; that describes the kingdom of God.
Brian: These are the evidences of the kingdom of God. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Jacque: When we have entered the kingdom of God, realize that Jesus, we want Jesus to be the king of our lives.
Brian: And the way we enter is that simple, childlike faith and trust just like a child trusts us.
Jacque: When we enter the kingdom of God through childlike faith, our lives can be filled with righteousness, peace, and joy. Even when our world is falling apart.
Brian: That righteousness too, I think it's not--Jesus said if your righteousness doesn't exceed that of the Pharisees-- I mean they were really good at not only being laws, but creating more laws to obey. It wasn't about what we would call external, I kind of like to use the word clothes-line holiness, a holiness that just everybody can see, this outward thing. The righteousness that he is talking about is being in a relationship with him, in a place of trust, you know, in a place of, of, of, of really faith in him. And then out of that will come a response of obedience because he is the king. We are not very accustomed to saying terminology like "yes, majesty". In our culture, that's foreign to us. But, uh, in a culture where a king is common, that is a common understanding. Sometimes, we need to start saying yes Lord more often as followers of Jesus. Shouldn't we?
Jacque: Yes, Lord. Yes Lord. That's good, Brian.
Brian: Yes, my Lord. You hear that in Downton Abbey, right? You watch Downton Abbey.
Jacque: Yeah, just talking to-- what's his name? Charles. Just a person.
Brian: Or whoever. Yes, my Lord. Yes, my Lord. Well, how should we talk to Jesus? Yes, my Lord.
Jacque: That's so good. The disciples, they didn't understand what the kingdom of God was. They got that all wrong too.
Brian: They thought of it more in a political sense.
Jacque: They did. They did. They thought that the kingdom of God was an earthly kingdom, that Jesus was going to defeat the Romans and kick him out and restore Israel back to what it was with David and Solomon.
Brian: Even before the ascension, that's what they asked. Are you going to restore the kingdom?
Jacque: When are you going to do it?
Brian: Yeah. What time?
Jacque: When do we go to war, Jesus?
Brian: No, when are you going to go to war and kick all these people outta here?
Jacque: But the kingdom of God is not an earthly kingdom, but it is on the earth.
Brian: That's really sometimes difficult to understand, isn't it?
Jacque: Because it's the kingdom of God, the relationship we have with God, his love in us working through us and touching the world. We are bringing the kingdom of God to this earth.
Brian: Yes, we are. Yeah.
Jacque: The disciples-- I mean, it's normal to want to be the best you can be at what you do. They were fighting about, arguing about wanting to be the greatest.
Brian: Which one of us is the best follower?
Jacque: Yep. But they did not understand God's definition, Jesus’ definition of success. Their worldly image of what was the greatest look like was power and strength, the exact opposite.
Brian: Maybe who performed the most miracles.
Jacque: Maybe so. Yeah. We need this context to realize how shocking Jesus' answer was to them when he told them that they needed to change and become like a little child or they couldn't even be in the kingdom of God. Oe of the gospels says that Jesus picked up a child and held him. In Bible times, little children had no status whatsoever. That whole culture was so status conscious. I know that their moms loved them and cared for them because that's how God created moms to be. But they were powerless and they were considered absolutely insignificant until age 12. Jesus' words must have been so shocking because children then were regarded more as property or slaves than real members of the family.
Brian: They could be sold.
Jacque: And they could be sold.
Brian: They could be sold. If you were in debt, well, take one of my children. They were a commodity.
Jacque: They had no say in anything. They were one to be looked after or used, not somebody to be looked up to as great. The disciples had a lot to learn. I like to think that if I would've been a disciple, I would not have been like them. But I doubt that. I think I probably would've been just like them.
Brian: Part of that is just how much influence our culture has on us. We have to continually strive to not let the thinking, the ways of this world, the thinking of our culture inundate because we are saturated with it, isn't it? Television, radio, all the advertisements, the bill billboards, everything is saturated with the way our culture thinks. That begins to inundate us. We have to just be so intentional about this.
Jacque: Yep. We have to be so intentional knowing the truth, knowing God and knowing his word. Yeah. It's so good. Entrance into heaven's kingdom is not gained by defeating all of our opponents and accomplishing great things. To enter, we must be humble, realizing that like little children were powerless over the circumstances in our lives and that we are completely dependent on God for this life and for life beyond. We need to embrace that kind of honest humility and dependence on God to be able to experience all that he has for us in our relationship with him. Jesus' example of a child was radical and straight to the point. True greatness is found in being little, true importance and being unimpressive. Jesus told his disciples, and he is telling us to change and to be like children.
Brian: Sometimes when you are little, you are not big and you are not powerful. You actually have to trust other people. Recognizing, actually, that we are all little and not powerful, it puts us in a place where we realize we need to trust in God.
Jacque: Little children, they can't even do enough that they could exist.
Brian: We are not talking about a two-month-old or three-month-old. There is probably not a six-year-old in the world if the rest of the world would cease to exist that a six-year-old could survive on their own. I mean, that's just the nature of things.
Jacque: Totally dependent.
Brian: Totally dependent. That's really the essence of what Jesus is trying to get across here. You have to become like this child in that they actually trust in their parents or their guardians or whoever's around them for virtually everything. When are they going to eat? How are they going to have clothes? Where are they going to sleep at night? Are they going to have a bed? All of these things are what Jesus is really saying how we come into the kingdom of God.
Jacque: We all arrived in this world as a baby. Just think of that babies enter this world freshly formed by God, freshly formed by God. Their eyes, they seem to shine just with the bright light of God.
Brian: I remember the first time I felt like our boys focused on my face. Remember? I still remember that. And just, wow. They are looking at me.
Jacque: They see me. Yeah.
Brian: Sometimes I wonder if God feels the same way. Wow! They are looking at me, you know, instead of looking every place else.
Jacque: I remember the first time that I said to BJ, "Go get the ball." Well, I'd always say that, and he would never do it. And all of a sudden, he did it. And I thought, "He understands me!"
Brian: He knows what I'm saying. Yeah.
Jacque: That's so fun. Okay. Don't get me talking about my kids. I'll lose my place. Okay. I love my boys, Micah and BJ. Then they brought home these wonderful girls, Katie and Jessica, and then they all had these wonderful grandchildren. Cooper, Mazzie, Charlie and Finn. I'm very thankful for my family.
Brian: Didn't you have a story about Mazzie?
Jacque: That's later.
Brian: Oh, that's later. Okay.
Jacque: Yes. We have to wait for that.
Brian: Oh, sorry. I'm just waiting your appetite. She is got a Mazzie story.
Jacque: I'll tell her right now. It was my birthday yesterday and we had a girls' day out and we got pedicures and manicures and it was just such a fun time. And so I was sitting in the chair at the pedicure place next to Mazzie and the lady was working on my feet, and I saw this little part of my toenail that I did not like the shape. The lady that I had to my toes before had this system, and I didn't realize that this lady had another system. And so I kind of pointed it out to her and she said, "Uh huh, uh huh." And then a little while later--
Brian: But she went onto something else.
Jacque: Nothing changed. And so I pointed it out to her again, and she went "Uh huh, Uh huh." And Mazzie said to me, "Grandma, you just got to trust her." I said, "Well, Mazzie, you have just confirmed my message for tomorrow." Yeah. Okay, Maz. And then I just told the lady I was sorry because she did it right. She had her own way to do it. I just needed to trust her. Not try to control it.
Brian: Don't we always have a better way for God to do things too?
Jacque: Okay. We all arrived fresh in this world as a baby, but somehow along the way, we got bigger. We grew older, and the light has lost some of its brilliance. There is a distance growing between our outer selves and that inner core of who we are and who we were created to be. It's not that we've lost it because it's still in there. It's still in there. We adults usually talk of growing up as a promotion from childhood, but it is not so much that we grow out of our childhood selves, but we grow around them, layering on experiences both positive and negative and the culture around us, just layering around us and reasoning and thinking. But deep down, that central core of that child is still in us. It makes me think of those Russian stacking dolls, layer after layer after layer, but that inner child that God created is still there, that freshness.
Brian: I was thinking of a song we used to sing, bring back the new again, bring back the way it was when we began. There is so much truth in that, that inner doll inside of that is really the person that God wants to get at in all of us, that childlikeness.
Jacque: And it's still there and God will help us. He changes us, of course when we give our life to him when we enter his kingdom. But we keep working with him and he keeps working in us to keep changing us, to bring us back to that childlike faith and that childlike trust and that childlike love. He will keep working with us. So enter into God's kingdom wasn't just for the knights and the noblemen and the kings and the queens and the CEOs, and the people who were trailblazers and did all kinds of great things. He calls us to be children, to be humble, to be vulnerable, to be trusting and dependent. What we have once been, we can become again with his help.
One look at a smiling child and I get so much joy from children, their innocence and their trust. Their hearts haven't had the time to become hardened by the world. But let's list a few of the a few words that describe children to just get some ideas. These are all generally speaking because we know children can have their moments where they aren't as beautiful as other moments just like adults can have their moments that they are not as beautiful as other times.
Brian: That could be a t-shirt again. Are you having a moment?
Jacque: Yeah. Are you having a beautiful moment?
Brian; Are you having a beautiful moment? .
Jacque: Children are full of joy and so much laughter, totally dependent, trusting. They believe easily, like you said the other day when we were talking. They believe in Santa Claus. In one night, he can travel and visit every kid in the world and go down everybody's chimney even though they don't have a chimney. He could never fit down them anyway. They totally believe.
Brian: They are trusting.
Jacque: Yes, they are. They are loving and caring. When I was a kid, my mom would always tell me when I was a little toddler, if there was a little child crying, I was right there trying to comfort them. That's how kids are. They are present in the moment, not so concerned about tomorrow, not full of fear, not full of so much fear for tomorrow. I spent a lot of my life in fear. I just don't want anything to do with fear in my seventies.
Brian: Fear robs us of our lives.
Jacque: Yes. There is no time to be afraid. There is no time to be.
Brian: Too busy. We got too much to do to be afraid.
Jacque: Children forgive quickly and forget. They do. They are honest. They ask honest questions, and they are honest about themselves. They have pure little hearts. They are teachable and so eager to learn. Our grandkids all the time, "let me do it. Let me do it." They just want to grow and learn. They are so spontaneous.
Brian: They get a device and I get that same device and I'm like, "What in the world are all these buttons for?" And I have no clue about how to use it. They grab it out of my hands and they just start pushing buttons. They are just trying to figure out how to do it.
Jacque: They are risk takers.
Brian: They are risk takers.
Jacque: When it comes to technology--
Brian: I'm not a risk taker.
Jacque: You are not, but you are learning so well. You are learning. But I can see you and I'll say just push that.
Brian: What's going to happen?
Jacque: What's going to happen if I touch that? Kids are full of wonder and imagination and creativity. One thing I love about Cheryl Erlic, she is full of wonder. I love that about you, Cheryl. I want to be like that. I try to be like that too more and more. Because we talked about it last week in church. Robert and Jeff, both did. Pastor Robert and Pastor Jeff talked about how when we just have something in front of us all the time, we just get so used to it.
Brian: Mundane.
Jacque: Yes. We just forget the wonder. Kids are full of wonder. They are curious. Kids anticipate good things. They are excited. They look forward, they are playful, and they have fun. Fun is so important. It's so important. They are easily excited. How we can learn from that, to be excited about the things God has done for us, to be so excited about the love that he constantly floods into our life, to be excited that every morning his mercies are brand new. To start every day with that kind of excitement, that's how I want to show up for the day: excited. The more you spend time with children, I really believe the more we learn from them. Plug for working in the Sunday school at Hope. Jesus said at the end of that verse, when you accept a child and you greet a child, it's the same as touching me, welcoming me.
Brian: Whoever welcomes in my name, one such child is this, welcomes me.
Jacque: Oh, it's beautiful. Yeah. We are doing that and we are touching Jesus at the same time. It's great. Okay. Just a few more things here. Let's talk about three main attributes of children that we can apply to our heart spiritually right now. And just think about and remember, just ask God to show you how can I, how can I grow to be more like a child in this area? How can I decrease? And you increase. We want to be more like a child in our faith, in our actions and in our thinking. We have to be intentional to change, but the more that we are intentional about something, the more that it will become natural. Own it.
Children are dependent and trusting. We need to fully trust that God loves us, that God is good and he is for us. You have to totally believe that. We must totally trust him with our lives and trust him with the lives of those we love. God is worthy of our trust. Trust means accepting God's answers even when we wanted a different outcome. I think mostly about all the wonderful friends that we have lost, that we had to say "see you later" to here at hope. I was just thinking of Deb Thompson, her memorial was last week. We all prayed so hard for Deb to live. Deb prayed so hard to live. I don't understand it. Deb and I had a different plan. When we would talk, she would say, "Jacque, just think when God heals me. Just think of what the doctors are going to say. And just think of all the people that will hear my testimony and will come to know Jesus." We thought that was the best idea. We did, but God had other plans because he does see the whole picture.
We could get angry and begin to doubt God's love and His power and his goodness. Slowly, it would take away our faith or we can choose to, like a child, trust totally. And God, he loved Deb more than anybody could have loved her. And he wanted only best for her and only the best for us, so we choose to trust. There are mysteries to God, and he doesn't always let us in on all of them. You made the greatest statement when we were talking about that this week. You said, "Our inability to live with mystery is our resistance to child likeness." We can't know all the answers, but we trust our loving God who sees the end from the beginning and only wants the best for us.
Brian: On the surface, we would agree that the God who spoke and all the universe came into order, his intellect is probably superior to ours. Wouldn't you agree with that? His intellect is much superior to ours, and yet we still don't want to live in the place of not having every question we have ever had go unanswered. So we struggle with living with mystery and yet that struggle with not being able to embrace mystery in our relationship with God undermines our ability to really function in childlikeness. And so when we are willing to accept the fact that God is good all the time and there is a mystery side to God that we don't understand, when we really fully embrace that in our walk with him, then we can really come to a place of childlikeness in our faith with him.
Jacque: And our culture tells us that is being simple minded and using God as a crutch. But you said this. This is another one of Brian's quotes: Our culture says a lot of stupid things.
Brian: Amen. Our culture says a lot of stupid things.
Jacque: And that is not true. It is not true. It's not being simple minded, but you know what? It is Being childlike with a childlike trust.
Brian: Yeah. That's true. Jesus said the poor you'll have with you always. But sometimes I think he should have also said and the stupid, you'll have with you always too.
Jacque: We don't say stupid. I think that's what one of the kids said to us one time when you said stupid, and they were little. We don't take stupid.
Brian: Unfortunately, I do. I'm sorry. Hopefully that's not-- it doesn't mean I'm judgmental, but I just think some things just are very stupid. Stupid. That's the best word, the things that people say and do and it's like, duh.
Jacque: I'll try to think of another word for you. I'll just work on it.
Brian: Okay. Maybe we should come up with a whole new word. I don’t know.
Jacque: Okay. Children, you know what, children don't need explanations. They just need their parents. They just need their mom. They just need their dad. So we can be that way too. We just need God. We just want to be, just want to be. I love that song. Just want to be with you God. Want to be with you. Because in his presence, I think of rest. He calls us to rest. I think of a child just resting, just resting in their parents' arms. When they've gotten hurt and they've cried hard, you know, and you just hold them.
Brian: And they are not just always infants. I mean, Finn is six and sometimes he just wants to sit on his mom's lap.
Jacque: He just wants to be held. We just need our parents. We need our loving God. Let's be like children, wide-eyed and open-hearted to God and be honest with him about our disappointments. We need to tell him. I tell you, I have a journal. I write all my thoughts to God. I don't know if I'll burn them one day or not as I get older. But I tell him how I'm feeling, and he wants to hear that. David did that in the Psalms. He would complain, complain, complain, complain. And then he'd end up, oh, but God. So get it out and God can handle it.
Brian: Yes, he can. He has got big shoulders.
Jacque: He can handle it.
Brian: That's why he is called the wonderful counselor. He has got big shoulders. People go to a counselor and what do they do? They unload. They get all that stuff off their chest and the counselor, half the time, doesn't have anything good to give him. But they still feel better because they've unloaded this and that's what we can do with God although he will have good advice back for us.
Jacque: Okay, this is good. We wait for our circumstances to change so we can be happy and be at peace. We are waiting for just the right combination of our circumstances. But God wants us to be at peace by having childlike faith and trust in him no matter what our circumstances are.
Brian: And that's the aspect of the kingdom: righteousness, peace, and joy.
Jacque: So whatever challenges you are facing right now, some of us are facing the biggest challenge of your whole life. God is at work, so take him by the hand and he will lead you out of that place, and he will take us to a good place. As we trust him, he will. Can we just say right now? I love how the last few years we've been doing these pauses and all we say is:
Brian: Lord, I give everyone and everything to you.
Jacque: Can we just say that together right now?
Brian: Lord, I give everyone, and everything to you. One more time. Lord, I give everyone and everything to you.
Jacque: I know Brian, I've watched your trust and faith grow the last few years, and you told me just yesterday that just saying that multiple times daily has brought you to a deeper place of trusting God. Me too. Just say it. I give everyone and everything to you. God,
Brian: When we do that, we are really basically saying, Jesus, you are in charge. You are in charge and I will gladly submit to your lordship, your kingship to whatever you bring my way.
Jacque: Yes. I’ve got to really rush, so I'm going to skip a little bit here. Okay. Because it's almost time to close. Another aspect of children is that they are humble and they are open. They are just humble and they just cry out, teach me, and they are open to learn. I want to read Psalms 119: 33 and 34.
Brian: This is from the passion translation. Teach me your decrees, oh Lord. And I will keep them to the end. Give me understanding and I will obey your instructions. I will put them into practice with all of my heart.
Jacque: Our whole attitude and posture should be I am the child and God is the Father. I am the student and God is the teacher. When we realize we don't have it figured out, when we need Him and His word and his wisdom, and we are open to his correction. We are open to his correction. We are eager to learn. Oh, I love John 3:30.
Brian: He must become greater and I must become less.
Jacque: Yes. Jesus wanted the disciples and he wants us to change our perspective about greatness, to set aside the worldly definition of power over and to be humble and to be servants of all. If you want to be great in God's kingdom, learn to be the servant of all. I should have had that listed here too. Serving others, a humble person will serve others. A child is forgiving too. I just want to tell you a little story about myself.
When I was young, I tell you, girls can be harsh when you are young. All kids can be and not some of their not so bettered moments. I would get hurt by the girls; they'd say mean things. I'd come crying to my mom and tell her all about it. And then about two days later I'd say, could I have so-and-so over? And she'd say, "Don't you remember what they just did to you?" And I said, "no, tell me." "Well, I'm not going to tell you if you don't remember," she'd say. Being a mom. Now, I'm sure she had to work to forgive some of those girls. But you know what, in my child likeness, I forgot. I forgave them and we went on. Now I look at myself with some of those layers around my core and I am not so quick to forgive.
Brian: I remember what they did.
Jacque: I do. There was one time in my life, many years ago, I actually kept a list in my day timer. I am so embarrassed to say this, but I'll be like a child and I'll be humble. I had a title of a page: These people have hurt me. How stupid was that? I listed names. I rehearsed the hurt. How could I let it go when I was actually recording it with pen and paper?
Brian: And replaying it.
Jacque: And rereading it. God just convicted me. I remember the day that I tore that page out and I ripped it into a hundred pieces. And I just said, I forgive, I forgive, I forgive. And that is where freedom comes as we forgive. I want to be more like a child. I have prayed this and I need to pray it more to have an unoffendable heart. That's kind of like a child, an unoffendable heart. We are so quick to read into everything and read in the worst. I want to have an offendable heart and I want to just let people off the hook quickly. Sometimes, we are going to have to be okay to forgive when we never hear. And I'm sorry we are, but God will help us do it. He will help us do it. He will help us do it.
Brian: Yes, he will.
Jacque: Sometimes, we gotta keep praying for the people who have hurt us because they need to be released. Sometimes they are too ashamed to ask for forgiveness. We need to pray for them to be healed, so they can be free too. Let's read Colossian 3:13.
Brian: So make allowance for each other's faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. That's a pretty big list. Forgive anyone who offends you and remember the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.
Jacque: As we have been forgiven, forgive. Sometimes, we need to stop and remember how we've been forgiven all that we've been forgiven of. And that puts us in a place of humility when we remember what God has forgiven us for. And who are we to hold someone else's sins against them? Right. Absolutely. Is there someone you need to forgive or a situation you need to release, a group of people that you need to release? Let your child heart take over. Let God help you to do that. Because when we don't forgive, we are only stealing from ourselves. We are losing precious time.
Finally, this is the very last point. Jesus tells us to receive his kingdom into our lives as a child. Let's just talk about that for a moment and read Luke 18:15-17.
Brian: One day some parents brought their little children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But when the disciples saw this, they scolded the parents for bothering him. Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, let the children come to me. Don't stop them. For the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn't receive the kingdom of God, like a child will never enter it.
Jacque: What does it mean to receive the kingdom like a child? I just think about you watch a child get a gift. Oh, Christmas at our house is so crazy and wonderful and fun to watch our grandkids open up those gifts. It's so amazing. It's so amazing. They are excited, anticipating all that fun and goodness that is in that package. They are delighted. And this is how we need to receive all that God gives us into our lives with excitement and delight and wonder, not in a lukewarm right way. I know some people are more excitable than other people because that is just our personalities. I get that. But we can all come up a notch. I think we can. Yeah. And appreciate all that God has done for us is doing for us and will do for us with excitement and anticipation and joy and wonder and thankfulness and awe. Let's not let being God's beloved child become something that is mundane.
Let's keep remembering the wonder in it. Right, Cheryl? The wonder that he would love me, that he would forgive me, that he will never leave me, he'll never forsake me, always with me. His strength always at my fingertips, his wisdom. I just have to ask and the wisdom of the Almighty God, the maker of the universe, the world and everything in it, he will help me. He will give me answers, that his spirit lives inside me, constantly regenerating me. Wow.
Brian: His ways are really amazing. His ways are, as the scripture say, are above our ways at times. It's not that we can't understand them, but to say the way to enter into this eternal kingdom is to become like a child who has virtually nothing to offer except trust and faith. That is so absolutely upside down from our world. It's so absolutely contrary to everything that our culture teaches us and tells us. And so that's one of the reasons why I like to sing a song that we are going to sing here in a moment. That Lord, I'm amazed by you.
I'm really amazed when I allow myself to think about the ways of God that are so different than our world. The way up is down. The way to receive is to give. This message about how we all need to go back to where we first began, that place is simple faith and trust in God. And sometimes we get infatuated with accomplishing great things and we think of miracles and we think of the power gifts and so forth and moving thousands of people to coming to a place of belief in God. And that's all wonderful. But what really touches the heart of God is simple faith and trust in him. You don't have to be talented to do that. You don't have to have all of what this world would say is great accomplishments or abilities or what have you. It's within the grasp of every single one of us just simply believe and have faith and trust and become like a child with him.
Jacque: As we do that, as we come back to that place of wonder, I just believe that we are going to become salt and light. Like Jeff and Cheryl spoke about last week, we are going to become salt and light magnified for this world. We don't have to try to be cool, but just be so excited and happy and thankful for all God's done for us. We are his children.
Brian: What a wonderful place.
Jacque: We are his children.
Brian: Let's sing this.
Jacque: Okay. Why don't you just stand together. Should I mute this? Stand together and let's just, I don't even want you to sing, I mean, unless you can't help but sing. But just to think about all that God has done for you. Do you believe that God sings over you? He does. Do you believe that God dances over you, Ken? He does. He is so excited about you. He loves you so much. He loves you. God, just do a new work in our hearts. Open up our eyes to see, open up our hearts, to see, open up our minds to remember, and to grasp the beauty of you, our God. We love you.
[Music1:39:43 -1:43:58]
Brian: Lord we are truly amazed by how you love us in your ways that you would dance over us, even though we are not aware that you sing over us and we don't even hear a sound. We are amazed, Lord, that how wide, how deep, how great your love is for us Jesus. Help us, Lord, to simply trust. Let's raise our hands together, shall we?
And now, may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine up upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. And may you walk in faith and trust as a child and be amazed at how wonderful our Lord is. This, we pray in the name of the Father's Son and Holy Spirit, amen.
We will have people to pray with you at the altar today for those of you who would like prayer. John and Tina will be serving communion over here to my right after the service. So please feel free to stay for that. And we have to say goodbye to our wonderful Japanese friend. She is going back to Japan this week, but hopefully she'll be back to visit us here really soon. Make sure you give her a hug before she leaves today. And thank you. All of you who are watching by livestream; you are part of this faith community and we are so grateful that you are here. Thank you, Jacque, for a wonderful message today. Happy Mother's Day, and happy Mother's Day to all of you. And God bless you. Have a wonderful, wonderful day. Thank you for being here today. God bless you.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 5-14-23. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.