Children—Dave Whitaker
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OK, who would like to have the first him? How about you, young man? Do you have one?
What song should we sing?
Try this in the back here.
Can you read?
You pick a number.
Well, let's sing together #41 That be OK good #41.
And I don't think I'll cry when I'm always in bed. And I don't mind. I'm thinking like Angel wires and everything. Glory.
I'll bring peace and joy and 1 LB came to civil granddaughter screaming in the whole morning glory.
Thing to God.
By.
Because I'm saying that again, why didn't you provide shallow land and.
Now watch them done from precious one being home and wide and clean the dreams. They can be in the world of the dreams blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Amassed the older brothers here. How come camels are mentioned?
18 times in Genesis chapter 24.
At least 18-70 maybe.
Do you have a song you'd like to sing?
Go ahead, you can, anybody can choose #4 All right, see what number 4 is.
Christ is the Savior.
And the rest is that standard for me.
Long time when chase and take time. Now by his grace, I am afraid.
Staying interrupted and everything. There is no respite me.
Shedding his blood on my grandson.
And the standard for me.
I can say I am far again. I've been just in my dream, staying by my right friend. Crazy man, that's been such a standard for me.
And everything.
******** his Bloodborne by grand tongue. This is the same girl for me.
You're as bad as I want to increase breathing from judgment.
Now there is no condemnation.
00:05:01
Let's just unfavor for me.
Standing in several trillion.
And everything else standards like me.
Shaking his blood for my grandson and it's in touch already.
Love with my love the sun change change. But I swear to God blessings so pretty.
I shall I tell up his praise God, then spend the day there for me.
Staying in the house today and then drunk, they had a very slightly.
Letting him fly, blown by the rat and some There's been some stranger flowering.
Children, we're going to be talking this morning about some animals.
I remember had a dog, it was a Sheltie and we had a Beagle and had him at the house at the same time.
The Sheltie always wanted to do what I wanted him to do.
But the Beagle never did.
What I want them to do now. Which dog do you think I like the best?
Huh, that good little good one, right? Well, you know it. As children we we appreciated more when we behave and when we do what we're told and instructed to do. And God loves a person, that child that obeys.
You know, four days ago I had a very sad thing happened. A man came, a young man came to the business and he expected his mother to be there. He's 18 years old.
He expected his mother to be there at the business at the same time because he crashed his car and this young man he.
Cursed his mother terribly.
Oh, that made me so sad. And his mother was crying.
And he cursed her again. And he said bad, bad words. And I looked it up in the Bible and you know what it says? It says someone that curses his father and mother should be put to death.
Another man, I don't know, maybe I shouldn't talk about sad stories, but another man, his name is John Derolet and.
We fixed his car and he called his mother on the phone in view of getting a payment.
And I heard him.
Curse his mom.
Terribly. What is going on? And so about two weeks later, John D Roulette was over in Seattle.
And somebody just shot him. Those are terrible things to start off with. But anyway.
It's a it's a serious thing to be disrespectful and to disobey. God wants us to be obedient children.
I didn't plan to start the meeting with that kind of sad story. Does anybody have a cheerful song for us, please?
What about you girls here? Go ahead.
#3.
It's a lovely hymn #3.
On his last name.
Uh-huh. He tried some solid rock Christmas.
Falling grounded, same things fast.
All of their crowns, they can make it and strange things and.
All right, let's see.
How much is 10 students community rather than exchange St. is Gray healing, thinning and everything while I am from our community schedule anything. Thank you all day and then Bellingham.
00:10:35
Thinking that I'm 22.
And frozen stand by him in the Korean, by the way, and.
Falls out of the ground in my life, so it's been great.
And lightning. Lightning.
Sometimes I.
Forget to pray. Sometimes I might pray twice because I get home.
Mixed up, but you know, it's good to pray. So let's pray. Father, thank you for these dear children. Just a few, but how precious they are. God, we just pray for them. Each one speak to their hearts and give them a sense of thy love and care. So help us as we talk about some of thy creatures, animals.
And, and may we derive the lessons from them. Jesus precious name, Amen.
Now I have a question. Do you have a Kitty? No. No. Do you have a doggie? No. No.
You have a kidney? No. A doggy, yes. What's your doggies name?
And what's your doggy's name?
I don't have a dog.
Well, I wanted to talk about animals. You know, if you look in the Scriptures, children, you'll find out that the Bible is full of animals right from the first chapter of Genesis right through the Book of Revelation. And so God has many things to teach us about animals, and we'd like to talk about them this morning. The first experience I had with animals was on the banks of the Zambezi River.
I was four years old.
And yesterday, you know, we're in the meeting. The dear brother is speaking about baptism. That's when you someone gets put down under the water and brought up out of the water. It's a picture of.
Dead, buried with Christ and raised with Him. Now here you had a picture of river flowing by. It's called the Zambezi River. And then here's a shore right here. Okay, then out in the water there's some sticks sticking in, stick, stick, sticks, stick, stick, stick around like that.
And outside there is a man in a canoe with a big long spear. Over here is a man in a canoe.
Spear, What do you think they were going to do inside that?
Circle of sticks that were sticking up and what do you think those men were standing out there in the canoes with these big lone Spears? Can anybody guess about this girl right here?
Just doubling in it. Well, the river was full of crocodiles. And so my dad, he was going to baptize some African Christians and they want to be protected from the crocodile. So I remember standing there four years old and seeing these men with Spears and this fence like that.
And the baptism was going on inside there where they're protected. Now that's a real picture of death, isn't it? The, the, the river there, the water.
00:15:06
Yeah. And so the Bible talks about crocodiles. I think there's crocodiles in the Book of Job, but it has so many stories. Can anybody, can you children tell me any animal that you know about in the Bible?
What animal did you mom and dad read to you about in the Bible?
Name any of them a lion? A lion? Is that what you said?
You're so right. What animal do you hear hear about in the Bible? Do you mommy ever read you a story about what about you?
Donkey.
What story do you know about about an animal? Sheep. Sheep. Oh yes, what about you?
Dance, beer, a bear chest.
That's fair. Steven had an encounter with a bear.
Well, so some of these animals, they teach us lessons. Some are to help us. Yeah. Some are to protect us. Some are for our food. I don't like that idea very well. But some of our friend, when we need a friend, I go into a nursing home and you'll see a Kitty or you'll see a little puppy or something.
Matter of fact, Michael Bryan, some of you know Michael Bryan, he's on a wheelchair and he's in that bed that he's staying.
Can't do anything. One day a dog came to his house.
He didn't know where it came from. It came right in the door and it came and jumped right up on his lap. You know, Mike sits there hour after hour after day after day after month after month after a year after year, and he can't do nothing. But this little dog came in, jumped up on his lap and they said, well, where did this dog come from? Don't know.
Don't know. So they were looking around for what kind of a dog is it, where to come? It couldn't find out. I kind of think the Lord sent that little dog along just to comfort Michael Bryan. Isn't that sweet now?
Can anybody tell me about a dog that comforted somebody in the Bible? Go ahead, young or old, let's hear it.
Lazarus That's what I was thinking of.
Here's poor Lazarus. He's sitting at a gate there. He's got these sores on his body. He's begging for my I see beggars, for the beggars I see don't have sores. This man was a beggar and he had sores, and he was sitting there by a beautiful gate. And you know what? The dogs came and licked his sores.
Was that nice, you think? Yeah, I do too. That was that was comforting that man. Well.
So we can't talk too long on this. So we got to get down to the meat of the matter. That is, there are some animals that are big, some are small, some are strong, some are weak, some are wild, some are beautiful, some are gentle, some are fearless, some are harmless, some are harmful.
Which one is stupid?
Oh God says so. Can anybody tell me which one? It doesn't have any wisdom.
Uh, you'd know, of course.
Uh, what? I didn't exactly say that. Did you say ostrich? Yes, yes, the ostrich God says in the book of Job. God hath withheld wisdom from them.
Yeah.
Just don't have very many brights at all.
Well, so there's some that are wise. That's what we're getting to.
What animal or creature does God say is wise?
Well, we're going to go to the kids here.
Can you tell me an animal that's wise?
Hmm. Hmm.
Well, we better look it up. That's, uh, Proverbs chapter 30.
I talked about this last week in Walla Walla. So those brothers will have to sisters will have to have patients with me there. It's such a wonderful, instructive chapter. God says some of his animals are one of his animals are dumb and some are smart.
What do you think? Better to be smarter, To be wise?
00:20:00
Huh. I think it would be better to be wise than smart.
OK, Proverbs chapter 30 and it says here.
Verse 24.
There's some little things.
God can teach us about wisdom, little things.
And what do you think those little things are? The ants? Oops, verse 24 there before things.
Which are little upon the earth, but they are extremely, exceedingly wise. How can that be?
I thought people and things were wise were in the universities and the colleges of this world that I didn't go to. And it says here they're very wise. But you know something, you can take a man. I was talking to a man in a swimming pool. He was a concert pianist, Conservatory in Toronto, Canada. He retired and he was in the swimming pool.
And I was talking to him and I said Sir.
You ever think about where you go when you leave this world?
He says I just go.
That's what he said. No, I didn't take time to tell him the gospel should have, Maybe.
Sure should have. But you know what says after death? The judgment. So here's well, let me ask you a question. Where do you go after you die? Do you know?
Go to hell. Is that what you said? Is that what you said? Well, you know something if someone doesn't take the Lord Jesus as their savior.
That's where they go. That's where they go.
But if somebody takes the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, where do they go?
In heaven with the Lord Jesus in heaven. That's a beautiful thing to think about.
Well, here we have Can you imagine a little Ant? Little tiny Ant, smarter than a college professor?
I'll tell you why. The little Ant in the summertime he goes crawling out looking for something.
What do you think he's looking for?
For what food exactly? Right now? What does he do with that food?
Bless your heart.
Well, how do you answer that?
My dear, he takes that food and he drags it down into his little house in the ground, doesn't he?
And he stores it up down there.
Very, very wise. Now this professor, concert pianist that I was talking to.
He didn't have anything laid up for the future. It didn't seem like he just said he was going to go.
Off so all he knew.
Well, those are the answer. Little they prepare their meat so their food in the summertime. You know, children, when you hear the gospel, it's like you're getting your spiritual food while you can. In summertime you can hear about the Lord Jesus, his love, his kindness, the fact that he died for you on the cross. He loves you and he wants to save you and you and you accept him. That's like taking that eternal bread from heaven.
And you're hiding it in your heart.
Oh my, what a story that is. The coneys. Let's just call that a rabbit. I don't know what a Coney is. I suppose they're a different kind of animals all around the world that look about the same, that make their houses in the rocks. You go to Mount Rainier and there's a animal about this long, maybe a foot and a half, two feet long. And if you're driving along, he runs in the rock. Now I have a question, children, if you.
See this, let's call it a rabbit. You can see this rabbit and you're driving along in your great big car and the rabbits in the road and he thinks he's going to get run over. And so he runs into the culvert, he runs into a rock, runs into into a hole in the ground or something. Is he safe?
Yes, he's safe.
Why? Because that rock that he ran into is stronger than my car or stronger than my a truck.
Can you imagine a weak little Bunny rabbit or a Coney running into a rock and becoming extremely safe?
00:25:05
Yes, that's a picture of running into the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.
And we become very, very safe.
That's a beautiful illustration of the goodness of God and giving us a refuge.
So even though these ponies are feeble, they don't have any strength in themselves.
I got some cottontail rabbits that run around in my yard. They're weak little things. I could, I could step on them and hurt them, but they run, they hide. They get in a place that's safe. And you children, because there's judgment coming, you children can run to the Lord Jesus and be safe. Isn't that nice?
Now we get down here to these grasshoppers. I suppose that's a.
That the locusts probably are kind of like a grasshopper, don't you think?
And so they go forth. They have no king. Nobody leads them, nobody guides them.
Or really, is that the case? It looks like nobody guides them.
They have no king yet, though they forth all of them by bands. And you know, in the last three weeks I've had the privilege of visiting 04 or five assemblies, and I just think of these.
Saints, they get together in bands and you look for the leader. There isn't any. The Lord Jesus as their leader, He's not visible. He's up in heaven and he guides them and he leads them along and they appreciate one another and they appreciate their unseen leader and they're guided by him.
Well, spider, a spider. Oh, I was in Bermuda one time and there was a spider walking across the floor and I took my shoe and I went Fang like that. And what happened? I looked real carefully and little tiny white spiders, hundreds of them. That was a mommy spider. And she was about to give birth to a bunch of little baby spiders and they were looked like 100.
Look, real carefully. Very tiny little spiders. You see, they were running all over the place. Well, what does it say here? The spider taketh hold with her hands.
And what is in King's palaces? So I like to think of it this way, children.
Let's just pretend like this is the throne right here, right here. That's the throne. And here's the, in this case, it's kind of a brown carpet. Let's say it's a beautiful red carpet like this. And at the door there are some guards there with their great big guns and bayonets, one over here and one over here. And they're standing there with their big black boots on.
And here comes a little spider. How is that spider going to get by all those guards through that door and everything?
Well, the only way you can make it through is becoming. Becoming, but by being very small.
Very small little tiny spider can go right by those big black boots, go slip right underneath that door, walk right up that red carpet like this. What does the Bible say here?
Let's see what it says it says.
Ah, spider taketh hold of her hands is in King's palaces. Is that possible? Do you think there's ever been a spider on the King's throne or a Queen's throne? I'm sure there has been. And so the little spider comes right up like that and comes right up the steps and sits right there on that throne. And you know something, children, you become little in your eyes.
And just ask the Lord to help you be humble. It says humble yourself. Don't ask the Lord to humble you, just say humble yourself.
Under the mighty hand of God. And he'll lift you up. He'll lift you up.
And so children, we have to realize that we have something inside of us that wants to be proud. Now, children your age are not that proud.
When you get old like me, very proud, you should hear me talk about my grandchildren.
It's terrible. Anyway, it's true. So you understand, we just get proud and So what? We want to don't want to be proud, we want to be thankful and we want to be small so that God can bring us into blessing. He whittles us down into a useful size for Him. So four things. It only takes about four minutes to talk about these four things.
00:30:00
And they're the ants.
They're extremely wise. God says. Do you mean the Ant can be smarter than the than the brightest man in the university? But I got a better story. It goes like this. Eastern Washington, there was a president of a university. I can't give you the name anymore because I forgot. He was over 80 years of age. He's retired and he was sitting in the university there.
And he was reading his what?
Bible, he was reading his Bible. He loved the Lord Jesus. And so there he was retired his manager. This man was a was a child of God, even though he was a very brilliant man. And so Ian walked a man and he walked down the hall to where his child was in the little nursery right there in the same building. And there was a little 4 year old child in there, his child.
And.
There was a lady or a man talking to these children about the Lord Jesus from the Bible.
And so the father went in to pick up his little 4 year old girl, I think it was. And she said when she saw her daddy, she said, daddy, I don't want to go because he's telling me some teachers telling me stories about the Bible. Wait a minute here. You have a man that's over 80 years old on this end of the building and you have a little girl over here, I think a little girl over here that's four years old on this side of the building.
And they're reading the same book.
Whatever.
That's exciting because you know, if you were to hand me a book from the university about the linear physics or whatever geometry or whatever that stuff is.
I wouldn't know what it was about.
And you wouldn't know what it was about for sure.
But here's a book, children, that 100 year old. I know a lady is 105 years old, she reads that book. And then I know children in five, 6-7 years old read that book, same book, and you know one will be reading the story about.
Salem's *** or the rooster that crowed when Peter denied the Lord.
And her four year old will be reading it and interested in a 84 year old or 104 year old lady reading that same book.
The same story. Isn't that amazing? This book takes care of everything, children. I'll give you an example.
For the old folks to think about.
They discovered in recent years that the universe is expanding.
Expanding that means it's going away like this.
Well, you read over and over and over in the scripture that God stretched out the heavens.
In that interesting so and we find out the circle of the earth. It's wonderful how God has told us so many things, but he brings it down to where a four year old and a 5 year old can.
Read it, enjoy it, and somebody that's 10 times older.
20 times will read the same book and enjoy it. That's what's so beautiful about the Bible. So you can ask your mommy and daddy anytime, say tell me an animal story in the Bible and then when you read the story, you'll find out that there's an illustration, a story that goes along with it. Now can anybody tell me about a sheep?
Does the Bible talk about sheep?
Sure does. OK, yeah. So a sheep is like a person is like we are. And you know what sheep do sometimes? They go astray, they go away and.
That's too bad. And so they need a shepherd. And so the Lord Jesus is our shepherd. So as you children get older, look in the Bible for Bible stories about animals, and they'll all teach you a story, teach you a lesson.
All right.
Eliza.
He had birds take care of him.
Noah.
He had all kinds of animals in his boat.
And there was a dove and a Raven that was sent out. You children hear that story. See, all these stories are so interesting. And then you got all those dogs down there in Egypt. When the children of Israel were leaving, God shut their mouths, couldn't bark.
Balaam had a donkey that started talking. You think about the interesting there, isn't it? Yeah.
Peter had that rooster that crowed, so the Bible is full of animal stories.
00:35:05
And they're very, very profitable. And then we just want to.
Thank the Lord for this book we have is good for a four year old. It's good for 104 year old. There's no book like that.
In the world because it's the word of God now, children.
You know how to be saved. That's why we're here. Your mommy and daddy told you how to be saved. It's so wonderful. Can a four year old be saved?
How do you do that? How, how, how would a four year old get saved? Can you tell me?
The microphones will intimidate. Can you tell me how a four year old could get saved? The trust in Jesus trust. Oh, it's so precious. Yes, just trust. That's that's called faith. And uh, it's like God gives you something. God gives you something that is beautiful and pure. It's called eternal life. And you know something? You don't want to add anything to it. If you want to add your works to it, then God says I got nothing for you.
Nothing. But if you want to come like a four year old child and justice, reach out by faith and say, Lord Jesus save my soul, he'll do it. Isn't that beautiful? So we come to know the Lord and we just want to leave you with these few thoughts about these animals, some big, some small, some weak, some wild, some beautiful, some gentle, some fearless, some fearful.
Some harmless, some harmful, some not smart. But we read this morning about poor wise animals.
Or creatures of God. Now who has a song to sing?
Anybody.
Oh, I love it. There once was a wild little donkey. Does that fit in with the story we've been talking about this morning? Yes, it does. Thank you very much. I needed that help. There once was a while ago.
And Jesus was thinking about him. He said go and bring him to me.
And Wednesday has brought him to Jesus.
I have to pray that we have to have a birthday.
That restless and while there's so donkey.
White why they don't begin. And Jesus was riding upon him.
He went just down way back. He should.
Why is the medicine please completely made so I love that son of God and Jesus said they won't give me one 223.
124 and give you a little bit and very clear the thoughts have really answered anything.
You'll talk to the older folks here, you know, when we present the gospel.
To the children, that's such a precious thing. When we present the Lord Jesus to the children and all of his glory and his beauty, that's a precious thing.
We present the Lord Jesus to the lost. Oh, that's a wonderful thing also.
They can hear the good news of salvation.
And it glorifies God the Father when we present the Lord Jesus to one another.
That's a beautiful thing also. But you know what's the most?
Beautiful thing of all when we present the Lord Jesus in all of His glory.
And all of his beauty, and all of his excellencies unto God his Father.
That's worship.
Is not playing a beautiful violin, It's playing how great thou art. That's not exactly it. It's beautiful to sing and all that, but presenting the Lord Jesus.
And all of his glory, virtue, loveliness to God the Father. That's worship. And that's what we're going to do here in about 45 minutes or so. So children, Lord bless you everyone.