Children Sermon Work
Notes
Transcript
VBS Recap Video
We have had several unexpected things and so the sermons have been adjusted, we will start back to normal sermons - 1 John next time I am with you, unless the Lord is up there laughing at me again.
This morning, at the end of the so worked for VBS week, the elders decided that we want to take a week and think about the topic of children. We also have a membership introduction at the end so I will be shorter I promise; you’ll be out on time.
The Lord’s Heart for Children
Matthew 18 (Turn there, I want you to see all of this right here together) 1-5, 10-14, 19:13-15
Why do children do to your heart what they do?
I never cried. I prayed for God to help me cry more, be more emotional. I struggled hard with it. I still do really, I still pray that prayer somewhat regularly. Except for one category. My kids. (God’s answer?)
Almost exclusively, my crying is because of my children. Sometimes its because I am hurting for them, or hurt by them. Sometimes it is because I am happy for them and proud for them. Most often its because I hear a song that makes me feel how much I value them, and how the days are passing too quickly.
Theres several songs that get me, Trace Adkins is downright cruel for his songs You’re gonna miss this or Then They Do, those get me every time, there’s one by Andrew Peterson called Be Kind to Yourself that is his begging his children to love who God made them to be, There’s one about sons that you didn’t get to know as babies that weren’t born with your last name. The most recent one I decided to read a few lyrics of, because most of you haven’t heard it at least, and every time I have heard it so far I have cried. TITLE
Saturday sleep late, bed head smile, Daddy daughter date down the cereal aisle, Shopping cart ride with my Goldilocks, Little arms wrapped round a Lucky Charms box, Right there, that’s my world, Father time must’ve never had a little girl, I know I’m gonna blink and I’m gonna be a mess, When that Cinderella shirt is a wedding dress., And they’ll play that song, so bittersweet, And I’ll remember her in her little bare feet, Dancing on her toes on my boots, Ill try not to cry but shoot, Yall gonna have to give me a break if you see a few tears, These are just some really really really good years, I bet Daddys girls would stay little a little bit longer, If Father time had a daughter
WHY does that do that to me? Why does that happen to you? Because you were made in the image of a God that feels the same way about children.
Let me spin the illustration around to the negative side. I don’t know if you have seen Sound of Freedom yet . . . scenes at beginning, epitome of evil, hard to even grasp it as real. Why is that the most evil thing. Why does it affect us uniquely.
You were made in the image of God who feels the same way about children.
Matt 18:5ff “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me . . . their angels always see the Face of my Father in Heaven . . . (Leaving the 99 for the 1) So it is not the will of my father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish . . . Let the little children come to me, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
You already know about SonShine and Ohatchee KIDs -- Children’s Ministry (Ohatchee KIDs)
Goodness there are so many people here that have loved my children so well, and love yours as well . . . Discipleship
Tristen and Payton and Greg and Amanda and Amber and Cheryl and goodness its just about everyone
Calendar and Shirt
Elders have approved a Playground . . . we want to do everything we can to help you raise your children in Christ, to make sure they know they are loved – I remember as a kid there were 1 or 2 adults that made me feel loved just because they were excited to see me each week – big impact on me
We are starting a new Ministry as Well – Connecting to Etowah/Calhoun County Foster Care System, at least include monthly donations of whatever item they will need
This is beginning because this system is in a bit of a crisis, in our current world it is unfortunately not all that surprising, when sexual immorality and license meets a lack of Real Men and Real Women, a lack of responsibility, the ones most harmed are children à the foster care systems in our counties have many more kids in need of somewhere to go than they have places to send them. Other counties and cities around the state are having to come to the aid of the counties that we all live in and provide homes for the kids from our cities and that we serve as a church.
In the way only God does, I’ve never talked to anyone about the foster crisis, and a random friend of mine that I hadn’t seen in years came to VBS this week and started talking to me about the foster care crisis in these counties.
Of course a few of our young people here are directly connected to this process. You may know that A and J were on their way to the state, where we were told they would almost definitely be split up in hopes of finding a home to place them in, which is when the Lord put Ariel and I into the picture.
Most of you know that Mila, Megan Brooks daughter came to Megan through the foster system. Her mother gave birth to her in prison, and because those she was given to had serious drug addictions, Mila soon became the property of the state and ended up in Megan’s home. Mila was born with those drugs in her system and had been malnourished for the months afterward before she came to Megan. There were many difficulties in the beginning, but glory to God Megan decided to adopt Mila and was finally able to do so on June 1, 2021. The caseworker told Megan that this same mother had had 7 children before Mila, and, in the caseworkers words, Mila was the only one that was given a real chance at life.
When we lived in Atlanta, the church we went to each year would take a Sunday and focus on Foster Care and Adoption, and my mom talks about one of those Sundays here when they felt called to this.
VIDEO???
(Slide of Pictures of all of them)
James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress
Psalm 68:5-6a
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families…
Psalm 146:9
The Lord protects the strangers; He supports the fatherless
Isaiah 1:17
Learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphans
Matthew 25:40
The King will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”
Psalm 82:3–4 (ESV)
Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy;
Psalm 72:4 (ESV)
May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy
Matthew 18:5, 10ff
Christians have always been those to fight for children, in first century and Exposure, now and abortion, orphan also . . .
The Entire paradigm of our salvation in Christ is wrapped up in this idea of Adoption and Loving those who aren’t ours biologically
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
COST
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
Redeem – Financial – costly, burdensome – to pay a price – God saw you as an orphan and saw the costly price of adopting you and with joy he paid it
There is cost to fostering, not as much financial as adoption, and the foster care system even helps you financially a bit, more costs are of your time, and your pleasures. There is something deep and true and right about accepting the cost for the sake of another, especially for the sake of a child.
One minister wrote of witnessing several families in his church adopt, “It means that these people are looking to their heavenly father for their joy rather than rejecting the stress and cost of children in order to maximize their freedoms and comforts. When people embrace the pain and joy of children at the expense of their personal freedoms, the worth of Christ shines more visibly.”
Get your kid involved here/Be involved here, we are working hard to help you bring them up in the Lord. Get them here.
Have a conversation at home and consider opening your home for foster needs.
Currently in our state there are 6,000 children in foster care. That may seem daunting until you realize that 500,000 families in Alabama attend church weekly.
Some only need foster care for a few days, some obviously for much longer.
If you don’t want to do that, look for ways to serve the families that are doing so, and to invest in the lives of these children who have been abandoned
Pray, God intends for you to be involved with the lowly and the orphan, pray for them, pray for the families that open their homes. Give financially to help these families.
IF YOU HAVE ANY INTEREST AT ALL IN ANY OF THESE THINGS, Megan is going to be down front after service, please just come talk to her and give her your name
Know that the special place that you have in your heart for children is the way our Lord feels about you.