Embracing Childlike Faith in Our Spiritual Journey
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In fact, one of my life goals is the older I grow, the younger I want to become. And I'm not talking about Korean face creams. Or anything like that. There's this movie. In fact, I haven't seen the movie. And so I just want to be very clear. I'm not recommending the movie. I think there's some bad scenes in the movie. So don't go home and say, Pastor James told us to watch this movie. I'm not saying, I'm not saying don't watch it. But I read the plot line on Wikipedia. And it's this movie called Benjamin Button. And maybe some of you have seen it. I haven't seen it. I've just seen the trailers for it. But it's an interesting concept. Where this person is born with some type of disease. That as he was born as a child. His body was the body of an old man. And as he grew up. He actually went backwards in time. And as he grew older. His body grew younger. Until the point where when he died in his old age. He died as an infant. little baby. And so I decided that I want to be Benjamin Button in my relationship with God. The older I become and the more I grow in God, the younger I want to become. [00:59:55] (76 seconds)
And this is where becoming a child really kicks in. I want to be childlike, not childish. And there's a difference. God doesn't want us to have childish faith. He wants us to have childlike faith. See, being childish is being immature. Childish faith is being that Christian that's been following Jesus for 20 years, but you still gossip like a little school girl. Childish faith is someone that misuses and even weaponizes the scriptures because they're trying to get their own point across or they're just too lazy to study context. Childish faith has a victim spirit and is easily offendable. And there's many more things that are childish. See, Paul, he nails the Corinthians in this way. In 1 Corinthians 3 verse 1, he says, Brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but instead as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you milk, not solid food, for you are not ready. In fact, you are still not ready, for you are still influenced by the flesh. For since there is still jealousy, and dissension among you, are you not influenced by the flesh and behaving like unregenerate people? Paul's like, I want you to grow, but you haven't grown yet. So I still got to treat you like babies. I still have to treat you because you're childish in your faith. Don't mistake what I'm saying today. Childish is immaturity, but childlike, that's something good. [01:07:17] (103 seconds)
And when we start talking about trust, oh, when we start talking about trust, a child's trust, trust of a parent is beautiful. They don't know much, and they rely on what their parents seem to know. I love the old wise Proverbs, one of my favorite in the Bible, Proverbs 3, verse 5 and 6. Trust in the Lord with just a little bit of your heart. No. With all of your heart. Do not rely on your own understanding. It's funny how many of us seem to think we know more than God, and we think better than God. But acknowledge him in all your ways, and he will make your path straight. I want to trust God in such a way that he makes my path, my path's straight. And when I trust God, there's something about trust. When trust comes in, security comes in. When I trust, I feel secure. If a child is loved, can I just give you a little hint for all the parents? If a child feels loved, they feel secure. And you know, with that security, they feel like they have access to you as a parent at any given moment. So my children, right? My children, they feel very secure and very loved, in our family. We discipline them. We're very strong with them. Although my daughter yesterday said I wasn't strict, which I thought was incredible, because I think I'm very strict. But she said I wasn't strict. And so we love them. We're very clear with our expectations on them. But our children know every day, I am a very affectionate father. I love my daughters. Kisses, cuddles. I love my son. The other night I grabbed my son. He's six years old, and he sat on my lap in his little rocking chair that he has in his room. And I said, just come and sit with me. Because I'm not going to be able to do this forever. And I remember the day my dad stopped cuddling me on his lap. No, no, I'm make jokes. I actually have a wonderful father. [01:14:58] (119 seconds)
So Jesus says, whoever humbles himself like this little child is gonna be the greatest in heaven. The opposite of humility is pride. And pride is not arrogance. Arrogance is a fruit of the tree of pride. At its core, this is what pride is. It's making a decision that's usually outworked by our actions that we don't need God. That's essentially the core of pride. And most children I found had this wonderful ability to ask for help for everything. Dad, can you help me do this? Dad, can you help me do this? Dad, can you help me do this? Dad, can you tie my shoelace? Dad, tie my shoelace. Dad, tie my shoelace. And it's like there's no pride in there that they're sitting there going like this. Dad. You know, because imagine, if you're like a 20 -year -old doing that. Right? You'd be embarrassed, and rightly so. You should be embarrassed. Or just wear Crocs. Just wear Crocs, right? You'd be embarrassed of that. But a kid doesn't have that embarrassment at all. They don't have that pride. It's this humility in a child that allows them to do that. You know what else a humility in a child allows them to do is to forgive quickly. Come on. How many of y 'all know children that fight one day and then they're besties the next day? I got three kids. I cannot keep up with the friendship dynamics. One day we're fighting. The next day we're besties. Three weeks later, I'm like, are you all still friends? Oh, no, we're not friends anymore. I'm like, what happened next day? We're besties again. Children have this incredible ability to forgive quickly. Can I tell you, I want to have a childlike faith. I want to have a childlike response that helps me to be able to forgive quickly. [01:21:49] (109 seconds)
I want humility to lead my heart, not my pride in being correct. Proverbs 22, 4. This is beautiful. The reward for humility and fearing the Lord is riches and honor and life. That sounds like a pretty good reward, doesn't it? Awesome. Seven people thought that was a really good reward. Let me read it again, just to make sure that everybody in the room heard it. The reward for humility, unless everyone's just prideful right now, they're like, oh, guess I missed out on that. Let me read it again. The reward for humility and fearing the Lord is riches, honor, and life. That's a pretty good reward, isn't it? My last point. today is this, is that children are optimistic and faith -filled. Let's go back to the beginning. Jesus is like, hey, you want to know who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom? It's like this little child. You know who the kingdom of God belongs to? Such as these, these little children. I love children for their optimism. I love children for their faith. What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be an astronaut. It's like 100 people in the entire history of the planet have been an astronaut, but they think they can be an astronaut, right? And we, And some of us just say it to them because we're mean, but the majority of us think it, ready? And you know what we and you'll realize those little things. I had it. I had a dream to play in the NBA. Wrong skin just not 6 '9 either. That would help. I had a dream to play in the NBA. I had a dream and I really thought that I could do it. And then life happened. And I had a dream to play in the NBA. It happened. You know what this world to weigh us down. And as a reality of life hits us, we lose that childlike faith to believe that anything is possible. [01:30:39] (149 seconds)
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And this is where becoming a child really kicks in. I want to be childlike, not childish. And there's a difference. God doesn't want us to have childish faith. He wants us to have childlike faith. See, being childish is being immature. Childish faith is being that Christian that's been following Jesus for 20 years, but you still gossip like a little school girl. Childish faith is someone that misuses and even weaponizes the scriptures because they're trying to get their own point across or they're just too lazy to study context. Childish faith has a victim spirit and is easily offendable. And there's many more things that are childish. See, Paul, he nails the Corinthians in this way. In 1 Corinthians 3 verse 1, he says, Brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but instead as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you milk, not solid food, for you are not ready. In fact, you are still not ready, for you are still influenced by the flesh. For since there is still jealousy, and dissension among you, are you not influenced by the flesh and behaving like unregenerate people? Paul's like, I want you to grow, but you haven't grown yet. So I still got to treat you like babies. I still have to treat you because you're childish in your faith. Don't mistake what I'm saying today. Childish is immaturity, but childlike, that's something good. [01:07:17] (103 seconds)
And when we start talking about trust, oh, when we start talking about trust, a child's trust, trust of a parent is beautiful. They don't know much, and they rely on what their parents seem to know. I love the old wise Proverbs, one of my favorite in the Bible, Proverbs 3, verse 5 and 6. Trust in the Lord with just a little bit of your heart. No. With all of your heart. Do not rely on your own understanding. It's funny how many of us seem to think we know more than God, and we think better than God. But acknowledge him in all your ways, and he will make your path straight. I want to trust God in such a way that he makes my path, my path's straight. And when I trust God, there's something about trust. When trust comes in, security comes in. When I trust, I feel secure. If a child is loved, can I just give you a little hint for all the parents? If a child feels loved, they feel secure. And you know, with that security, they feel like they have access to you as a parent at any given moment. So my children, right? My children, they feel very secure and very loved, in our family. We discipline them. We're very strong with them. Although my daughter yesterday said I wasn't strict, which I thought was incredible, because I think I'm very strict. But she said I wasn't strict. And so we love them. We're very clear with our expectations on them. But our children know every day, I am a very affectionate father. I love my daughters. Kisses, cuddles. I love my son. The other night I grabbed my son. He's six years old, and he sat on my lap in his little rocking chair that he has in his room. And I said, just come and sit with me. Because I'm not going to be able to do this forever. And I remember the day my dad stopped cuddling me on his lap. No, no, I'm make jokes. I actually have a wonderful father. [01:14:58] (119 seconds)
So Jesus says, whoever humbles himself like this little child is gonna be the greatest in heaven. The opposite of humility is pride. And pride is not arrogance. Arrogance is a fruit of the tree of pride. At its core, this is what pride is. It's making a decision that's usually outworked by our actions that we don't need God. That's essentially the core of pride. And most children I found had this wonderful ability to ask for help for everything. Dad, can you help me do this? Dad, can you help me do this? Dad, can you help me do this? Dad, can you tie my shoelace? Dad, tie my shoelace. Dad, tie my shoelace. And it's like there's no pride in there that they're sitting there going like this. Dad. You know, because imagine, if you're like a 20 -year -old doing that. Right? You'd be embarrassed, and rightly so. You should be embarrassed. Or just wear Crocs. Just wear Crocs, right? You'd be embarrassed of that. But a kid doesn't have that embarrassment at all. They don't have that pride. It's this humility in a child that allows them to do that. You know what else a humility in a child allows them to do is to forgive quickly. Come on. How many of y 'all know children that fight one day and then they're besties the next day? I got three kids. I cannot keep up with the friendship dynamics. One day we're fighting. The next day we're besties. Three weeks later, I'm like, are you all still friends? Oh, no, we're not friends anymore. I'm like, what happened next day? We're besties again. Children have this incredible ability to forgive quickly. Can I tell you, I want to have a childlike faith. I want to have a childlike response that helps me to be able to forgive quickly. [01:21:49] (109 seconds)
I want humility to lead my heart, not my pride in being correct. Proverbs 22, 4. This is beautiful. The reward for humility and fearing the Lord is riches and honor and life. That sounds like a pretty good reward, doesn't it? Awesome. Seven people thought that was a really good reward. Let me read it again, just to make sure that everybody in the room heard it. The reward for humility, unless everyone's just prideful right now, they're like, oh, guess I missed out on that. Let me read it again. The reward for humility and fearing the Lord is riches, honor, and life. That's a pretty good reward, isn't it? My last point. today is this, is that children are optimistic and faith -filled. Let's go back to the beginning. Jesus is like, hey, you want to know who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom? It's like this little child. You know who the kingdom of God belongs to? Such as these, these little children. I love children for their optimism. I love children for their faith. What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be an astronaut. It's like 100 people in the entire history of the planet have been an astronaut, but they think they can be an astronaut, right? And we, And some of us just say it to them because we're mean, but the majority of us think it, ready? And you know what we and you'll realize those little things. I had it. I had a dream to play in the NBA. Wrong skin just not 6 '9 either. That would help. I had a dream to play in the NBA. I had a dream and I really thought that I could do it. And then life happened. And I had a dream to play in the NBA. It happened. You know what this world to weigh us down. And as a reality of life hits us, we lose that childlike faith to believe that anything is possible. [01:30:39] (149 seconds)
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