Children—T. Totems
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Nice to see you all, such bright shining faces.
Let's start by singing some of the songs on the back of the song sheet.
Children's hymns and choruses.
And we're going to sing the first and last verses of these, unless they just have one or two verses.
So who has a selection? Kevin.
#41.
Around the throne of God in heaven.
Glory to God.
And God.
Because the Savior shed his much away their sins. Now watch Him, that most precious one, behold in my head, clean singing glory.
Glory.
Glory, glory bigger God.
Sometimes it doesn't make sense to sing the first and last verse, does it? There's something missing. But who has another song? Yes, in the.
47 Thank you.
47 when he come out.
Like the stars of the morning.
Do you boys or girls know any of the names of the stars that are out there, or the constellations?
Kyle.
The Sun, is that what you said? That's the biggest star that we know close to us, isn't it? Yes.
OK, the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper in the North Star.
Of Venus.
OK, good.
Kevin.
Forgot they're not very bright, but they the North Star, like you said, is a star that has been a guide to people for years, The North Star children.
It's wonderful to see you shining even now, like those little twinkling stars. OK, another song.
Yes.
Thank you #45.
Two little eyes to love could fall. Could it come here to hear his words?
Do little things to walk his ways.
To has to work for him Almighty.
One little time to speak is true.
00:05:25
You have two hands, but they're not too small. TOO small? No. When they're busy for the Lord, you can do a lot of things, Eliana.
Jesus loves me #40.
Jesus loves me beside you.
Yes, I'm taking your hearts, King. I'm ******. And swastika, that's what he made.
Jesus loves me all the way.
If I trust him, should I die, he will Take Me Home my night. Yes, Christian.
Song.
This girl 43 Thank you.
43.
Go ahead, 39 OK on the inside.
#39.
First and last.
What a friend. We have been cheating.
Everything to God in prayer.
Take into the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despite.
Take you to the morning Prayer.
In the day and your mind's in a day, and she'll be now.
This song says take it to the Lord in prayer.
Let's do that right now. We'll sing a couple more, but let's.
Bow our heads, bow our hearts, and pray.
00:10:04
Our God and our Father.
Everyone of us in this room was a child once.
And there are some children who are are small, they're not grown up yet.
But our God.
Thy tender care.
Because I have been challenged by the Lord to say John 316 to people.
It only takes a maximum of 10 seconds.
Oh, but it's so hard. It's so hard.
Anyway, OK, we're going to talk about that a little later.
10 seconds.
We're going to talk about some things this morning that don't take very long, but they're hard to do. OK, I have something in there. I want you to kind of help me. Tell me what you think is in this bag.
It is it, It could be a toy. Oh, it's kind of an expensive toy. You don't count for a little bit here.
And I have one of them, but you really have to have two of them to have the most fun.
It's something that I want to.
Have a relationship with somebody? What do you think it is?
Oh man, first guess he got it. A walkie-talkie. You're right. How did you guess?
OK, because I wanted to have two of them, OK.
Somebody in this room.
Has the other one.
You don't know who he is, do you?
Yeah, you do. Now be quiet.
You're going to give it away.
I've known him for some time, but for the sake of our illustration here this morning, I want to pretend that I want to establish a relationship with him.
What does relationship mean first of all?
I want to have a relationship with him, yes.
Like a friendship that's good. Like a friendship. I want to have a friendship with him. And what do you do when you have a friendship with someone?
Do you talk to them? OK, we talked to them.
We'd be nice to them. That reminds me of a story that our children were playing with some other children and they weren't being too kind. And one of the children says the Bible says be nice. The Bible says play with me.
OK, so a friendship is where we are nice to someone.
We want to be with them.
The last couple days we've been having some words like fellowship and.
Us getting to know God or God knowing us. OK, so I want to know this person.
Now I'm going to try to talk to him.
You boys and girls know how to work these right? You push the button on the side and then you talk into the speaker and he should be hearing me right now. Hello friend, do you hear me? Hello, do you hear me?
Now, what normally happens when you talk to someone on a walkie-talkie?
Kevin.
Yes, you. Well, they hear you and then usually they push their button on their phone and they talk back to you. But he's not talking back. Hello friend, do you read me? Are you there?
I don't know.
Hello. Hello. I'm trying to reach you.
Hi.
What's wrong? Why isn't he responding to me?
What do you think could be the matter?
His is off. OK, that's a very good suggestion. What could be some other reasons why he's not responding to me? Yes.
The batteries are dead. OK, that could be you have a suggestion.
00:15:02
Maybe he doesn't know me good enough. That's right. Maybe he doesn't want to know me.
What do you think?
That's right, he may not like me.
Oh, now those are.
Hey friend, I'd like to like you. Do you want to like me?
Kevin, why? Why isn't he responding to me maybe?
Because he doesn't want to.
This is getting painful. Why do you think he may not be responding to me?
Because he doesn't want to talk on the walkie-talkie.
He might be dead.
OK, I don't think he's dead.
I see some of you brought Bibles here this morning.
Would would you read a verse for me? Revelation 320.
Go ahead and stand up and read Revelation 320.
That you can talk into this one.
That's that's one of the expressions of our dear Lord wanting to have a relationship with us if any man will open the door.
He's knocking and if any man hear my voice and open the door.
I will come in to him this morning. Someone knocked at our door and I looked at that little peephole and I said don't come in yet, OK? He had to wait a little bit.
But he's going to be welcome.
The Lord Jesus wants to have.
A friendship with you He wants to.
Tell you that he likes you.
That he loves you.
I want to see if I can find a verse here.
Ephesians.
Ephesians chapter 2 and verse five says even when we were dead in sins.
It is such a sad thing to think how every boy and girl that is born into this world.
Does not have spiritual life to God. They are dead in trespasses and sins. Now my friend is not dead, I'm quite certain of that. But in a picture, he's dead because he's not responding to me.
And maybe he doesn't want to respond to me.
OK, I've given him a special clue. That is his signal.
To turn his walkie-talkie on.
Boys and girls, you don't need to have a special clue, a secret signal from God.
If you feel the Holy Spirit.
Encouraging you to bow the knee and confess with your mouth that.
Jesus is Lord, that's the best clue you need.
And I know many of you have, but I wonder if you're still holding off because you don't want to have a relationship with Jesus. You don't want to accept his love.
OK.
Would whosoever has the other walkie-talkie please turn it on? I heard a noise.
Oh friend, are you there?
I'm here. Oh, thank you. What a joy to hear your voice. What is your name? My name is Jason, And it's wonderful to talk to you, my friend.
00:20:00
Oh, what a what a kind response.
Well, Jason?
You've satisfied a lot of questions here this morning, who you are and where the walkie-talkie is and if you're alive and if you do like me.
I certainly do.
Would you like a drink?
Yes, thank you. Would you, would you get me a drink, please?
Thank you. While you're gone, I'm going to talk to these kids.
How hard do you think it is to turn this switch on on this walkie-talkie? Do you think you can turn it on?
I know you could.
I think the youngest child here could turn it on. You know what? I think there are some real people in the world who could not turn this switch on.
Who do you think I'm talking about? Real, live people who could not turn this switch on.
Who?
Oh, OK, babies. Good. I wasn't thinking of babies. I was thinking of someone who might be 30-40, fifty years old who would not be able to turn this switch on. Who would they be?
A what?
Like old people.
Yeah.
Kevin.
Sinners. I wasn't thinking of that. Who? Who could not turn this switch on? Yes.
Someone who was paralyzed from neck down. Oh, Jason, thank you so much.
Someone who is paralyzed from neck down, actually, you know what, they might be able to use their teeth and and turn the switch on. But isn't it sad to think of some boys and girls in this world who they can't use their fingers to turn even a little switch on like this? That is so sad to think of that. You boys and girls, I love to watch you run and jump and play and swing. That's so wonderful.
But do you know that when it comes to the matter of our soul salvation, it's even easier than turning a switch on?
You, you don't. You could have your hands tied behind your back and you could still accept Jesus as your Savior because it's not hard.
But it is hard. What makes it so hard?
I wonder if who else? Kyle, you have a Bible? Would you read Isaiah 53? Three for me, please.
This is one reason why it's so hard.
Go ahead, stand up and read Isaiah 53. Three.
Sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hit us. It were our faces from him. He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Thank you.
The the one of the things that makes accepting Jesus as our Savior so hard.
Partly is because we humans think we can do everything ourselves. I've even seen young children. I asked them if they need help doing something. No, I can do it by myself. I can do it by myself.
And especially when it comes to having someone who is maybe.
Ugly.
Weak. They don't like them, then we don't want to have them help us.
And here the Lord Jesus is despised and rejected. He's a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
We even hide our face from him.
Oh, we can hide our face So many ways. We can look at somebody and just turn our eyes.
Just a quick little turn of our eyes. Maybe they caught our glance just a little bit. But we turn our eyes, we can hide our face from them, or we can see them coming down the hall and we step into a different hall. We hide our face from them.
And then, even sadder, is when we start to laugh.
Look at, look at them and we get other people to laugh with us.
00:25:01
We despise them and we make fun of them.
I remember so sadly when I was in school.
The school bus picked up some kids down the road. Their last name was Scott.
And there were three or four children that got on at that bus stop. And 1:00 Monday morning we got on the bus. And as we were traveling, we heard that we would not be picking up the Scots today because Kathy had been playing in their garage and she found something that looked like a.
A used up bullet, a fairly large rifle cartridge and.
She was poking a Bobby pin in this thing and it blew up in her face and it blew part of her nose off and her eye and her cheekbone.
A number of weeks went by before Kathy came back on the bus.
I remember as a young boy how I quietly laughed at Kathy.
And I feel so bad that I ever did that, that I laughed at her.
And you know, Kathy didn't do anything special for me after that. She was a nice friend, but the Lord Jesus.
He took your sins on Calvary's cross is your heart. Are you turning your face from him? Are you hiding from him? That's what makes it so hard to turn on your relationship with him because we don't want to have someone who looks weak.
And.
Ugly. This morning in the hallway I passed two men.
That were just specimens. After I passed them I thought how handsome they are.
Just wonderful specimens of the human race. Now I would like to have someone like that help me if I was stuck or had a flat tire.
Then I got to thinking, how would I have treated those people if they were coming along carrying an old beat up satchel and they were kind of limping along and would I have smiled at them and been kind to them? Oh it, it touches me in my heart of what I do and how my heart is.
Now you know the Lord wants us to have a continuing relationship with Him.
Boys and girls, I hope that you will.
Like John 112 Says.
Receive him but as many as received him to them gave you the power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name just believe and then as we go on in life we.
Should continue our talking with the Lord.
How does the Lord talk to us?
Kevin through the Bible.
And I know some of you maybe can't read yet, but.
If you can, that's a wonderful thing to start reading your Bible. And how do we talk to the Lord?
That's right, by praying, and we can do that anywhere also. So dear boys and girls, continue that relationship because we also have the Holy Spirit who dwells within us and He loves to encourage us.
To tell others about the Lord.
How long does it take to tell someone else about the Lord?
It can take about 10 seconds and we were talking about that earlier. I was at a little cookout one time.
There was a nice campfire and we had some logs around the fire. Some of us older people were sitting and I heard the boys and girls behind us playing and I heard a boy, his name is Tim also like mine. I heard Tim say to another boy that was playing there. I want to time this also.
He said.
Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior?
How long do you think that took to, say, Kyle?
Very good. 33 seconds and 31 hundredths. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior?
The boy was.
00:30:02
Not saved and he said.
You know, he kind of stuttered and no. And then they went on playing. But that little 3 second question has lingered in my heart for years. We don't have to have an hour sermon.
We can just ask someone. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? May the Lord encourage you.
To do that, I love to see the courage that the boys and girls have at school or at different places shining as a light for the Lord.
Now I do have something I want to give to you kids.
Raise your hand if you believe that I have something to give you.
OK, we have all of all of you are believers and.
I do.
This is a gold coin. At least it looks gold.
I'm grateful that you trusted me.
This is only worth a dollar.
But the gift that God has to offer you, you're welcome.
Is worth far more than a dollar. Many of you are saying thank you as I go by. That is so thoughtful of you to do that. You're welcome.
May our hearts respond to the Lord that same way with thankfulness.
You're welcome.
He gave himself.
He gave himself for me.
He's he's worth trusting.
If if you haven't.
Established a relationship with him, trust him, even though he was crucified on the cross and it looked like there were three wicked men there. God's plan was that the middle man is our Savior.
I just want to make one comment about a brother here. Not not Jason, but a brother with the last name of Jennings.
I've been touched in watching him the last couple days, he just can't seem to keep his hands to himself.
He loves to. He loves to.
Touch people on their shoulder and he. I think he likes to bridge bridge gaps. He reminds me of God.
Who has one hand on Jesus and one hand on the Sinner, and He wants us to meet God. God's heart is so full of love that He just wants us to meet and to find out the joy that there is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I love that brother David.
OK, let's let's sing just one last little song.
Who can?
Let's see #44.
And I want to.
Encourage each of you to tell it again. You've received salvation. I'd like to encourage you to tell someone.
My my dear wife, she enters into my challenges. She's such a dear Christian. I was talking about trying to say John 316 to different people and.
On the elevator, she said.
She got off, came to our room, she said. I just said John 316 to somebody. I feel all sweaty.
And I thought that is so wonderful. And I saw John 316 on someone's tie here in conference. I've seen John 316 on bumper stickers on T-shirts.
I got on the elevator and I saw someone looking at a little red thing. It had John 316 up in the corner. How wonderful, how wonderful. They're they're telling it again. Let's sing number the first verse of #44.
Into the tent, whereas gypsy boy lay. I ain't no no.
00:35:12
Nobody ever has told it to me.
Tell it again. Tell it again.
Salvation story leaking.
Lord, never mind, you can have to take out the children again. Nobody ever has told me before.
There are some people never heard. In fact, I'm trying to remember.
I don't think I've ever had anybody give me a gospel tract.
In my whole life.
Wow.
So I wonder how many other people haven't received one? All right, let's close our eyes and pray.