EXPERIENCE JESUS. REALLY: CHILDISH OR CHILDLIKE?

Lent began on Ash Wednesday.  The start of Lent is a symbol of the power of repentance and forgiveness in our lives.  The repentance and forgiveness also sets us on a journey to resurrection and new life.  Our study for the season of Lent is Experiencing Jesus. Really. by John Eldredge.  This will be a great study for us as we seek to lengthen the “son” light in our hearts and souls.  The author intends for us to find “refuge, strength, and wonder through everyday encounters with God.”  The sermon series for this Lent is based on our study.  The first lesson is: What Children and Mystics Know.  While we may not know what a “mystic” is, we generally understand children and how they are constantly learning.  But what do children know about God?  Our scripture is Matthew 18:1-10, and Jesus is confronted with a question from his disciples, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”  Possibly the disciples had been arguing about this question (Mark 9:34), and they came to Jesus for an answer.  Some translations even translate the question, “Who among us is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”   Jesus understands the childishness of the disciples, and his answer to them helps us to understand a childlike faith and how it can lead us to experience God’s power.   Our first sermon is Childish or Childlike?  The problem we often have in life is asking the wrong questions.  When we base our lives on the wrong questions, it reinforces the worst in our hearts and leads us into fear and despair.  Jesus came to bring us out of this darkness into the light of glorious resurrection.  We pray that you will experience Jesus bringing the light of resurrection to pierce the darkness of self-will so that you will be filled with the power of a childlike faith. 

Matthew 18:1-10: At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” ² He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. ³ And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ⁵ And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. ⁶ “If anyone causes one of these little ones– those who believe in me– to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. ⁷ Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! ⁸ If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. ⁹ And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. ¹⁰ “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.