1-29-22 Kasey Campbell: Childlike Dependency

Last week, Pastor Autumn talked about how childlike dependence produces kingdom expansion. I want to follow up with a similar theme today because Jesus says that a childlike dependence on Him is what allows us to enter His kingdom (we’re saved), receive His kingdom (His kingdom power, benefits, and life), and proclaim His kingdom (the expansion of His kingdom rule and reign). We’ll be in Luke 18 today. Let’s pray before we jump into the Word. PRAY. We must be willing to be dependent on God so we can enter, receive, and proclaim His kingdom. I think it’s difficult for adults to learn dependency because as we grow, we tend to learn the opposite. We learn independence and self-sufficiency. We learn how to fend for ourselves, and we grow in expertise in different areas and figure out how to ‘do life’ in this world. That’s not all bad, of course. Much of that is growth unto maturity. Growth isn’t bad, but the problem is that no matter how ‘good we get at life’ without Jesus, it doesn’t matter. In other words, growth is good, but we never outgrow our need to be dependent on Jesus for true life, for true spiritual healthiness, and in order to advance God’s kingdom. Jesus uses little children (babies) to model for us what kingdom life is like. And His point is that they are completely dependent on adults for everything, just like we, ultimately, should be completely dependent on the Lord for everything. Kids depend on their parents for food, clothing, and shelter. Depending on how old a child is, the parents make all of the decisions for them - where to go, what to eat, how to interact with friends and family; the child just has to trust that their parents are acting in their best interests and obey. And no young child really ever questions their parent's intentions, even if they don’t always obey because of selfishness. They usually know when they’re disobedient and don’t like it, they feel ashamed. But Jesus uses this image, this example of young children to demonstrate how we’re supposed to operate with Him and in His kingdom. Childlike Dependence | 1 Trusting dependence on God brings us into God’s kingdom, allows us to have His healing, wholeness, and other kingdom benefits, and leads us to bring others into His kingdom. Jesus talks about being child-like and the kingdom of God. Luke 18:15-17 NKJV Then they also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called them to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. 17 Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” Luke uses the word infants here to tell us what’s going on. Your version might say, ‘babies.’ If you read this story in Matthew 19, he uses the word ‘little children.’ People bring their babies to Jesus because they want Him to put his hand on them and pray for them. They want Him to bless their kids. It was actually a custom at that time for mothers to bring their children to some famous or distinguished Rabbi on their first birthday to be blessed. They wanted their kids to be protected and taken care of by God. The rabbi would place his hands on the child’s head and then speak the prayer or blessing, which was probably from: Numbers 6:24-26 NKJV “The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; 26 The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” ’ This blessing is similar to baby dedications we see today. We bring babies to the church to be dedicated to the Lord because we want them to follow the Lord and be blessed throughout their lives. This is what all parents want, for God to keep their children safe, healthy, and peaceful. So people are bringing their babies to Jesus, and the disciples rebuked them. Childlike Dependence | 2 I’m not sure if they said that Jesus was too busy, or too tired, or whatever, but Jesus couldn’t do it. The disciples didn’t want them to them bring the kids to Jesus. When I read this in the past, I always thought the picture being painted here was that we’ve got some mean and nasty disciples who are just in a bad mood and don’t like kids, so they tell them to ‘get outta here!” Disciples making little kids cry because following Jesus is “serious business.” Some people still act that way, unfortunately. Maybe you’ve met them. I don’t think that’s what’s actually happening here, though. The disciples have walked with Jesus for a while now, and they most likely have allowed people to bring their children to Jesus before. They probably thought they were being kind to Jesus and helping Him by rebuking these people and turning them away. If that sounds strange, at this time, Jesus is headed to Jerusalem to die on the cross. The disciples may have been able to tell that Jesus was carrying this heavy burden. They could probably tell Jesus was tired physically, mentally, and emotionally, and they just wanted to give him some quiet. They didn’t want Jesus to be bothered. Does it remind you of Martha? She wanted everything to be perfect for Jesus while he stayed at her house, so she worked hard to make sure He could relax. But in both cases, Martha and the disciples missed a major lesson Jesus wanted them to learn. He wanted them to learn that childlike dependence on the Father, surrender to His will, and submission to His ways is the key to walking in His kingdom. It’s one of the loveliest things in all of the gospels that Jesus made time for the little children on his way to the cross.1 Let that sink in for a second. Jesus made time for babies on His way to the cross. 1 Barclay, William. Gospel of Luke, P352. Hymns Ancient & Modern, 2014. Scribd, https://www.scribd.com/book/367616749/Gospel-of-Luke. Accessed 25 January 2023. Childlike Dependence | 3 He was headed up to Jerusalem to die for the sins of all humanity, to save the world from hell, to conquer evil and the grave, to overthrow the works of darkness, to prepare the way into the kingdom of God for millions of people who would choose to follow the God; yet He stopped to put his hands on infants to bless them. You see, no one is too young, too old, too small, too lost, too forgotten, or too far gone to be turned away from Jesus. Jesus won’t turn anyone away, ever, because of His great and magnanimous love. God still makes time for His children; He still makes time for you and me. And we can depend on Him to be the good and loving Father we need no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in. Even though they have good hearts and good intentions, the disciples rebuke people for bringing their children to Jesus because they don’t yet understand how God always makes time for His children, even when He has a lot of important work to do. He is God, after all, the most important person in the universe. All His work is important. But Jesus takes time for people because He loves them. He tells the disciples to allow the children through so He can lay His hands on them and bless them in the Name of the Lord. Luke 18:16-17 NKJV But Jesus called them to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. 17 Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” Jesus says that His kingdom, the kingdom of God, is made up of people who are like little children. First, if you don’t already know, the kingdom of God is both present and future. It’s now, here on earth, and it’s also heaven where we get to go when we die. Jesus said that the time for His kingdom has come (the waiting period has been fulfilled) and that it’s also coming soon (it’s at hand). Childlike Dependence | 4 He’s saying, ‘the kingdom is here now because I’ve come to bring salvation and make a way into heaven and eternal life. But it’s also coming soon because both heaven and earth will eventually move into a time where I rule and reign in perfection, holiness, righteousness, justice, and love. Mark 1:14-15 AMPC Now after John was arrested and put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the good news (the Gospel) of the kingdom of God, 15 And saying, The [appointed period of] time is fulfilled (completed), and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent (have a change of mind which issues in regret for past sins and in change of conduct for the better) and believe (trust in, rely on, and adhere to) the good news (the Gospel). Jesus is preaching the good news. He’s talking about the road to salvation and how we can come to God both now and forever. The word ‘kingdom’ in greek refers to whomever someone reigns over, not just the physical territory they rule. In other words, an ambassador to a different country is still under the rules of the country he’s from even if they live somewhere else. Wherever Jesus Christ is sovereign Lord, that’s where His kingdom will be present. When we put our faith in Jesus, we’re delivered from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God. We move. And God helps us move into our new home. A lot of the Christian life is getting rid of the baggage we’ve accumulated living in that old, stinky, dark kingdom and learning what stuff we need living in our new kingdom. Colossians 1:13 NLT “For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son.” Once we get saved, once we ask Jesus to live in us, we’re transferred into His kingdom. If we’re actually following Jesus, we choose to come under His rule. That’s living in His kingdom. Childlike Dependence | 5 If a person has an emotional experience and says they want to get saved, but they never come under Jesus' rule, did they actually get saved? No. They didn’t. Getting saved is about the present and the future, not about the past. Of course, it’s good to have remorse about the past and sins we have committed; that’s us seeing our old kingdom living in light of new kingdom living. But the essential part of being saved is coming under the rule of Jesus, under His lordship; it’s saying “Jesus I surrender to You, and I believe you can run my life better than I can, and I give myself fully to You as Your obedient child because You love me and I love You back and long for a fulfilling relationship with God both now and after I die; I never want to be separated from you ever again.” That’s salvation and the gospel explained about the best way I know how. My point is that when we get saved, we’re transferred from satan’s kingdom, the kingdom of darkness, into the kingdom of God, into the kingdom of light and life. During His ministry on earth, Jesus overturned the kingdom of darkness. George Eldon Ladd said about the kingdom of God, “We can now experience the reality of the reign of God. Christ came to earth to defeat satan, to bind him, so that God’s love and power could become a true, vital, and tangible reality for anyone who would choose to submit to God’s rule and reign by becoming followers of Jesus. In Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God in the form of its power to work on earth has come.”2 And the kingdom of God is very powerful. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to do what Jesus did and advance God’s kingdom. Remember Simon the magician in the book of Acts? He wanted the power of God so bad he tried to buy it. He wanted to be able to heal people and cast out demons. That wasn’t the right heart attitude, though, and it didn’t go great for him. 2 Duffield, Guy P. Foundations of Pentecostal Theology (Revised & Updated) Volume 1, P92. Los Angeles, CA, Foursquare Media, 2016. Childlike Dependence | 6 Foursquare Pastor and director of Foursquare Sri Lanka says that ‘power comes from intimacy. Intimacy only exists in complete trust (and I’ll add dependency). And trust is birthed from grace. And grace can be lived out daily. It can flow, even unnoticed, until it’s interrupted by sin. Like the beating of the heart, its rhythm quiets our spirit because it rests in His Holy Spirit.3 He goes on and writes, “Do you want the power of God to flow from you? Have you opened up your life to the Holy Spirit to search your heart - even to the deepest, darkest corners? You can’t give away something you don’t possess. I spend every day in God’s presence; some days more time, some days less, but every day an ongoing dialogue with my creator. Every day I, like the little children initially stopped by the disciples, climb onto Jesus' lap to listen to His heart and find my rest.4 The kingdom of God has to do with people who will follow Jesus, who will obey Him, and who depend on His voice for direction. And when Jesus said that it was made up of those who would be childlike, He meant that His followers would have certain childlike qualities, one of which is a dependence on God. That means we choose to trust Him completely. When we’re young, we never doubt where the next meal will come from or whether or not we’ll have clothes. There is a trust that children have in their parents. They are ok with dependence. They are ok with receiving. Kids aren’t too proud to receive things from their parents. They might get spoiled - does that happen to us with God? Do we get spoiled living under His blessings? Yes, sometimes we do, and that has its own problems. But trust and dependence on God are what allow us into His kingdom. 3 Keegel, Leslie. The Spirit of the Lord Is Upon Us: Discovering the Anointing to Share the Gospel, Set People Free, and Experience the Supernatural in Your Life, P23. Edited by Laurie DeRevere, Anaheim, CA, Foursquare Missions Press, 2017. 4 Ibid. Childlike Dependence | 7 For us to be dependent on God takes humility. Pride, especially religious pride, will destroy this childlike faith and dependency. Jesus talks about pride vs humility right before we come to this scene with the little children. Luke 18:9-14 HCSB He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else: 10 “Two men went up to the temple complex to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee took his stand and was praying like this: ‘God, I thank You that I’m not like other people —greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘God, turn Your wrath from me—a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other; because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Humility simply has to do with knowing the truth that God made us, He loves us, and He saved us so that we can love Him back and fellowship with Him and advance His kingdom. It has to do with trusting that God is God and we aren’t. It has to do with living by the rule that God can run our lives better than we can, that His ways are higher than our ways, and that if we obey Him, our lives will be full of His blessings. Andrew Murray writes that “humility, the place of entire dependence on God, is, from the very nature of things, the first duty and the highest virtue of the creature, and the root of every virtue. And so pride, or the loss of this humility, is the root of every sin and evil. When satan breathed the poison of his pride, the desire to be as God, into the ears of adam and eve, they also fell into all the wretchedness in which man is now sunk. In heaven and on earth, pride, and self-exaltation, are the gate, the birth, and the curse of hell. Childlike Dependence | 8 Hence it follows that nothing can be our redemption, but the restoration of the ‘lost humility, the original and only true relationship of the creature to God. And so Jesus came to bring humility back to earth, to make us partakers of it, and by it to save us.” You see, Jesus is so humble, so loving, so kind that He came to earth as a baby, lived the life we could never live, and died the death we could never die just so we could be with Him. Jesus is so humble that He doesn’t even push us around and take over our free will even though He could absolutely do that whenever He wanted. He loves us and wants us to know we can trust Him. Look how humble Jesus is: Revelation 3:20 NLT “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” He could just kick the door in. But that’s not His character. Jesus made the world and everything in it. He is all-powerful and all-knowing, and He will judge the living and the dead. He is above all things and over all things, and all things were made through Him and for Him, 1 Corinthians says. But He chooses to humbly knock on the door of our hearts, asking if we will be His friends. He asks us if we will allow Him into our lives because He wants to be our friend. And He wants to be the best friend we’ve ever had, a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24 AMP “The man of too many friends [chosen indiscriminately] will be broken in pieces and come to ruin, But there is a [true, loving] friend who [is reliable and] sticks closer than a brother.” Jesus models humility because He knows that it’s the foundation of dependence on God. If we’re not humble enough to admit who we are, who God is, what our needs are, and how incapable we are of making it on our own, then we’ll never see a need to be dependent on God. Childlike Dependence | 9 Following God will just turn into another religion, where the better we follow the rules, the higher reward we’ll get. That’s not how it works. The Christian who understands humility and dependence on Jesus and walks in it will do great and mighty things in God’s kingdom as a by-product of hearing and knowing His heart and simply obeying what He says. God calls us to be childlike in humility, dependence, and in trust. He wants us to be like children. And there are a few ways he wants to be like them. He wants to be babies or infants in our knowledge of evil. 1 Corinthians 14:20 AMP Brothers and sisters, do not be children [immature, childlike] in your thinking; be infants in [matters of] evil [completely innocent and inexperienced], but in your minds be mature [adults]. He says we need to be infants and inexperienced in evil. I might add that when we come to Christ, He helps take away our knowledge of evil; if there are past things in our lives where we’ve seen firsthand the effects of sin, Jesus restores our innocence as He continues to wash us in His word and in His light. He wants us to be like children in our dependence on Him and in our trust in His character. He wants to be like children in wonderment and excitement about His word. 1 Peter 2:2-3 NLT Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, 3 now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness. Milk in this context does not represent elementary Christian teaching (as it does in a different metaphor in 1 Cor. 3 and Heb. 5 where milk is contrasted with meat or solid food), but rather something to be eagerly desired for nourishment. Like hungry kids, we’re supposed to long for this pure spiritual milk. Childlike Dependence | 10 The verb ‘crave’ suggests an intense personal desire of longing for God and longing for the courts of the Lord.5 It’s calling out for God to meet our needs because we know He’s the only One who can ultimately do it. David illustrates this kind of craving for the Lord. Psalm 63:1-5 NKJV O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. 2 So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory. 3 Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You.4Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips. This is a beautiful picture of dependency. David says, ‘my soul is thirsty. It’s lacking. There is something inside of me that’s missing; I’m unfulfilled and needy, but when I come to your sanctuary; when I come to Your throne room; when I come to worship you, I feel your power and your presence and Your glory, and I get filled up with the living water that refreshes my thirsty soul. Jesus will fill us up with His Spirit as we come to Him. But there are often obstacles to this kind of childlike dependency on Jesus. It can be difficult because of our pride, because of how we’ve learned to operate in this world, and because of hurt we’ve received. Sometimes we get hurt by the people closest to us or those who are supposed to be the biggest help to us. The disciples probably hurt some feelings when they rebuked them for bringing their kids to Jesus. Luke 18:15 NKJV Then they also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 5 Grudem, Wayne A. 1 Peter: An Introduction and Commentary, P126. InterVarsity Press, 2015. Scribd, https://www.scribd.com/read/377942297/1-Peter-An-Introduction-and-Commentary#. Accessed 25 January 2023. Childlike Dependence | 11 Before Jesus steps in, this is a scene of rejection. The disciples didn’t mean to hurt anyone, but they were turning kids away from Jesus. How many of us have experienced hurt and pain because we felt rejected? We need to press through though, past people and into Jesus. Jesus can relieve us from the deep impact that rejection has on our lives. As humans, we have a tendency to get bitter or cynical about God, life, and other people. And in our world, often the message is ‘embrace the pain, hold that rejection close let it fuel your drive to succeed.’ The problem is that keeping our pain and feelings of rejection close just doesn’t work. It just makes us bitter. I bet that everyone has felt rejected at some point in their life. Too often the response is to choose to be wounded and irritated and lash out at others. But self-pity is one of the worse things we can move into as a response to pain because it keeps the focus on us! Instead of moving into a deeper dependency on God to help us, it’s easy to focus on how badly we’ve been treated by everyone else. But if we do that, we miss the fact that Jesus wants to put his hands on us; He wants to heal us and bless us and hold us in His arms just like a loving Father does to His children who are in pain. We can come to Jesus in childlike dependence, trusting in Him, and He will bring healing and wholeness. Jesus also opens up a realm of unimaginable possibilities to us when we come to Him in simple trust and childlike dependence. He brings restoration, healing, and new life. He increases our potential, our possibilities, and our ministry. That’s kingdom expansion. I’ll close with a story about how Jesus takes the simple faith of a child and uses it to expand His kingdom and to minister to many. It’s the story of the loaves and fishes. It’s from John 6. John 6:3-13 NLT Then Jesus climbed a hill and sat down with his disciples around him. 4 (It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration.) 5 Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Childlike Dependence | 12 Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” 6 He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!” 8 Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. 9 “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?” 10 “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. 12 After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.” 13 So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves. We don’t know for sure, but I wonder if this boy who brought the loaves of bread and the fish had been blessed by Jesus. And now he comes to give his resources to Jesus in simple trust and dependency. And as He does it, the creator-redeemer starts to generate enough bread and fish to feed the people. As we come to Jesus in childlike dependency, possibilities of redemption and blessing are opened up to us! And we’ll see it as we quit gauging how much worship, praise, or resources we’re giving to God; as we refuse to keep track of how much forgiveness, grace, mercy, or kindness we give to others; as we pour out love from our hearts unconditionally as Jesus did. Because if we give ourselves fully to Jesus in childlike trust, if we’ll surrender to His ways, we’ll find, just like that little boy, that Jesus will make sure we have more than enough and He’ll expand His kingdom miracles and life through us.6 6 Hayford, Jack. “Come as a Child to Jesus.” Sermon #3828. Summary, 19 December 1993. gatewaylegacylibrary, JackHayford.org, https://app.gatewaylegacylibrary.com/legacy-library/4/sermon/2711. Accessed 27 January 2023. Childlike Dependence | 13 As we come to Jesus in dependence, we’re able to enter His kingdom, receive His kingdom life, and expand His kingdom blessings, rule, and reign. Let’s pray: ● Do you know Jesus? You can come to Him today and surrender Your life. ● Repent of any pride or trust in our own strength ● Believe He is trustworthy and a good good Father, ready willing, and able to meet our needs ● Recieve His blessings just like those sitting and listening to His teaching were fed fish and bread Childlike Dependence | 14