Sermon Tone Analysis

SCRIPTURE READING

Psalm 103:1-22 “Bless the Lord, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits; Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases; Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.

The Lord performs righteous deeds And judgments for all who are oppressed.

He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.

He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever.

He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.

As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.

For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.

As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, And its place acknowledges it no longer.

But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children, To those who keep His covenant And remember His precepts to do them.

The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all.

Bless the Lord, you His angels, Mighty in strength, who perform His word, Obeying the voice of His word!

Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, You who serve Him, doing His will.

Bless the Lord, all you works of His, In all places of His dominion; Bless the Lord, O my soul!”

INTRODUCTION

This is going to be a two part message about relationships in the church.

This morning we are going to talk about the ‘little ones”.

Next week we will discuss church discipline and forgiveness.

The church was never intended to be like the world.

What makes a church so unique is not the building, or the music, but the people.

That is because God calls us to live by completely different principles than this world lives by.

And those principles should be evident in the church

They should be evident in the leadership

And they should be evident in our own personal lives

This sermon about humility

And it is desperately needed in our churches today

There is something truly great about a man or woman who lives in true humility

And the reason it is so hard for us is because it goes against everything we have learned from this world

A great church is a humble church.

A great church member is a humble church member.

A great pastor is a humble pastor.

Lets look at “the little ones” together and see what God has to say to us this morning!

Matthew 18:1–4 (NASB95)

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

“Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Explanation

The disciples have a question for Jesus, because they are convinced he is the Messiah and are beginning to think about heaven

They ask, “who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?”

And how does Jesus respond to this question?

He calls a child over to Him and uses him as an example to teach the disciples a lesson

What does a child have to do with the kingdom of heaven?

This is not a lesson about children going to heaven

Jesus is speaking to adults here and uses a child as an illustration

Jesus says WE must “become like children”

The disciples had lost their child-likeness

And its not the child’s age that Jesus is speaking of, but their lack of interest in power and prestige and position.

Jesus is saying they must becomes like little children again in their relationship with God

BENTLEY ILLUSTRATION

Every morning we get here and begin to set up

Sometimes Nick already has the whole service set up

And Bentley Comes to me and he has one hung on his mind: serving me coffee

He loves to make people coffee

And even if I don’t really want it, I say, “yeah get me some coffee”

Why does he do that?

Why doesn’t he go and have a seat and expect someone to bring him hot chocolate?

Because he sees everyone else in the church as more important than himself

Because he knows his place and it is an honor to get to serve adults because in his mind they are more important than himself

Jesus says, “unless you are converted and become like children”

The word converted means: “to turn around”

The disciples were only thinking of status, power, and authority.

They were interested in advancing up the ranks and getting bigger and better crowns with more jewels on them and more power to rule over more people.

That was backwards thinking in God’s Kingdom.

Their thinking was aligned with what the world had taught them:

Being superior is better than being inferior

Being served is better than serving

Do you can to end up on top!

AND Jesus drops this truth bomb on us and says, WE WONT EVEN MAKE IT TO HEAVEN WITH THAT KIND OF THINKING

It’s not just that God hopes that some of us will be LIKE THIS, (as if it’s optional) IT IS AN ABSOLUTE NECESSITY if we want our names written in the Lamb’s Book of life.

Principle

Only those who humble themselves like children can be a child of God

To enter he kingdom of heaven, people MUST possess the humility of a child.

People are not humble by nature.

We are self-seeking, selfish, and driven by pride.

What the church so desperately needs is to become humble, trusting what God has done for our salvation and not what we can accomplish for ourselves.

We need to “turn” or “be converted,” in our thinking.

We need to recognize that our way of thinking is wrong, regardless of what our flesh says, regardless of what the world says, regardless of what we have been taught growing up.

The word humble means to be lowly

It means that we have an accurate view of ourselves.

That doesn’t mean we look down on ourselves.

The one who says: poor poor me, I’m just a no body.

I’m just an old sinner who’s not worth anything.

I’m just a waste of breath.

This is false humility

That’s pride in disguise.

A humble person knows who they are in Christ, because of Christ, and lives to glorify Christ not themselves

A humble does not exalt himself

It means we do NOT promote ourselves

It means that we DO treat other people as more important than ourselves

It means that we have a submissive attitude

Application

The church should never be about power or greatness, or position, or self glory

If our idea of serving in the church is to have a position of power then we need to be turned around in our thinking

The greatest position in the church should be the most serving position in the church.

If our idea of a great church is a big building with lots of money then we need to be turned around in our thinking.