Children—Steve Stewart
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These hymn sheets we can pick from and I picked up one of these song books because I know probably we know a lot of songs from here.
So if anyone wants to give out a song rather than giving a number out, can you just tell me what song it is you want to sing?
And you can raise your hand. Here's a little boy. What would you like to say?
What's that?
Jesus bids us shine. All right. I think that might be on this one.
Let's see.
Thank you.
Jesus bids us shine with a pure clear light.
Jesus bids us shine with a pure.
Clear, light, like a little.
Candle burning in the night.
In this World of Darkness.
So we must shine.
You and your small corner and I in mind.
Jesus bids a shine first of all for him.
Well, he sees and knows it. If our light grows dim.
He looks down from heaven.
To see us shine you and your small corner and I in mind.
Sin and want and sorrow.
So we must shine.
You in your small corner, and I hand mine.
There's a lot of room on the carpet.
This might be the only Sunday school class where he get to sit on the carpet, so if you want to come up, come on up.
And I have a little something.
That while we're singing, I want to pass around and have you look at it and see what you think of it.
I call it my little pop.
You know who makes pots?
A Potter makes pots.
And this is a little pot made by a little Potter.
That you can look at it and pass it to the next person. After you look it over somebody else have a song.
They would like just raise your hand, yes.
What one's that? Do you know the name of it?
Working will not save me.
OK, 69, You know your songbook pretty good. Remember the number?
OK, 69.
Oh, I think that's a little further on.
46.
Oh, in the other one.
This 146.
100 and thank you.
OK 102 Working will not save me. Purest deeds that I can do. Holiest thoughts and feelings too cannot form my soul anew. Working will not save me.
Working will not save me.
Restives that I can do.
Holiest thoughts and feelings too cannot pour my soul anew. Working will not save me.
Jesus bled and died for me.
Jesus suffered on the tree.
Jesus waits to make me free.
He alone can save me.
Faith in Christ will save me.
Trust in Him the Risen 1.
Trust the work that he has done.
To his arms I now may run. Faith in Christ will save me.
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Thus bled and died for me.
Jesus suffered on the tree.
Jesus waits to make me free.
He alone can save me.
OK. Anybody else want to come? I see more people coming in. You're welcome to come on down. Oh, we have a girl that has one.
#3 on that sheet, on the hem sheet.
Let's see. I have it under my arm. I'm looking around for it #3 I hope on nothing less is built. Is that what you were thinking?
OK, why aren't we saying?
Verse verse.
And the chorus.
And the last verse.
My hope on nothing less is built.
Than Jesus and the blood he spilled.
I dare not trust the sweetest spring. Would you guys like to look at that too? I'm going to use that for a lesson. You can look at it for a minute and see what you're thinking.
On Christ the soul and rock I stand.
All of the ground is sinking sand.
All other ground.
His sinking sand.
Eternally.
His promise stands.
My name is Gray.
Then on his hands.
Let all around my soul give way.
He still abides.
My lasting stay.
On Christ the Son.
Then rock I stand.
All other ground his sinking sand.
All other ground.
His sinkings.
We're going to pause, just for a minute.
And we're going to pray.
And ask the Lord's help for the Sunday School class.
Alright, let's bow our heads.
Our God and our Father.
We look to Thee. We thank Thee this morning for the Lord Jesus, our Savior. We thank thee for thy love and sending thy son into this world, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And now it's bring thy once lost children back to thyself for thine own glory. And we think of each of these.
Children, here this morning and all in the audience, if there's one that has not yet been brought to thee through the Lord Jesus Christ, that they might be this very day for thine own glory, for their eternal blessing, for our joy too. So we pray for thy blessing on my word and the Sunday School lesson. And we ask that our God and Father in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
So can anybody tell me?
What that little pot is made out of.
Got three hands? Let's see this little boy.
Clay. Clay. Has anybody made anything out of clay?
1-2 Anybody else ever made anything out of clay?
Well, the little boy that made this out of clay was in a class at school.
And the teacher said, everybody can go to the clay bin and there was a bin on the side of the room and you could dig your hands in to the clay and you take a lump of clay and make whatever you want.
Make whatever you want.
And the little boy, he went to that clay bin and dug his hands into that clay. You know, it's cold.
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That clay and it's soft and it's kind of sticky and it feels really neat between your fingers and you can squish it and make all different shapes and all kinds of things.
And there is a man named Jeremiah and God.
Sent him.
To a place where there was a man who worked with clay and he was a Potter. He made pots like that little pot, only I'm sure his were much nicer than that one.
What do you think of that little pot? Do you think the person who made it was?
Pretty good. They knew what they were doing.
Yeah, What do you think? Do you think it's like a really good pot or so? So pot, What do you think? What would you say? What's your name?
Would you say it's a good pot or kind of a in between?
In between, yeah.
The little boy who made it, he thought it was a very good pot.
He did. And he took her home to his mother and said yeah, and she said, oh how nice and put it up on her shelf.
Well, here's a man, it says.
Jeremiah 18.
Lord sent Jeremiah to the Potter's house, verse 3. Then I went down to the Potter's house and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
And the vessel he made of clay was marred in the hand of the Potter, so he made it again another vessel, as it seemed good to the Potter to make it.
And so a very good Potter has a big wheel, and he has a pedal, and he pumps that pedal and the wheel goes around.
And he puts his lump of clay in the middle, and it goes round, spinning faster. And he puts his hands and he makes a pot out of it, puts his thumbs down in the middle, makes the hole, and he makes a vessel, a little pot that will hold something.
That will hold something and then it goes into the oven and the oven's called a kiln and it gets very hot in that oven, so hot if you looked in the little peephole, they have little peep holes. Everything's just glowing red hot in there and it takes that soft clay and it makes it hard as a rock.
And then you have a little vessel, a little pop.
Now I'm going to go back to Genesis.
To where Brother Rogers was last night. Because, you know, there's something else made out of clay than pots.
What are you made out of?
What are you made out of?
Do you think you're made out of clay like that, pop?
No.
You think you're a little pot like that one, or you think you're made out of clay?
Let's look back at Genesis.
And.
Chapter 2.
And I'm going to read a verse.
And the verse is 19.
Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every file of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them.
God in the beginning when he created this world and shaped it out of the ground.
He formed all the animals, He formed out of the ground, the birds and the fish. The great whale here going to the sea, the eagle out of the ground, go fly in the air, and the cattle and the wild beasts go out into the forest, out of the ground. You know where that clay came from.
Where do you think it came from?
Out of the ground where I lived when I was a boy, there was a big hill.
And at the bottom of that hill was a Creek. And people would dig into the side of that hill and they would find clay.
And they would make things. They made tiles for roofs, they made pots like that. They made all kinds of things.
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Out of the ground.
But what about you?
Well, let's read another verse.
Verse 7.
The Lord God formed man. That means.
This is where we came from. This was the first man, but we all came from him.
Out of the group.
Excuse me. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. That's where Adam came from. He came from the ground too.
The dust of the ground and God formed a man.
And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living.
Soul.
Now when God made the animals, He formed them out of the ground too.
But he did something a little different. Not just a little different, big difference.
When he made a man, you know. Is there anybody here named Joshua?
I don't know any other boys, little boys.
Well, I have a son named Joshua.
And when he was about your age, he came home from school and he was laughing.
And he said, oh, he said to mom, you know what? The teacher told us, We're just like dogs. That's so funny. He just laughed. We're just like dogs. We're not like dogs.
Is that true? What that teacher said were like dogs?
You know, it says God formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field, and he formed out of the ground.
From the dust of the earth man.
But we're not like dogs, you know? Even Captain Abner said. I'm not like a dog. What do you think I am? A dog said You just go pet it and send it away. I'm not like a dog. We're not like dogs.
But what's the difference if God took the animals out of the ground and he formed man? Where you and I came from? Out of the ground.
What's the difference?
I want to turn over just a little bit to Chapter 6.
And verse 17. This is the story of the flood. And I know you children all know the story of the flood.
Verse 17 And behold, I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life from under heaven, and everything that is in the earth shall die.
That's both men and animals. Men and animals both.
Have the breath of life.
God gave them life.
But the difference is, is how man got the breath of life.
When God formed the animals out of the ground, He made them and gave them life all at once. There they were alive.
Breathing. They had a body. They had breath. A life all at once.
And what happens to an animal when it dies? Anybody know?
If you have a dog.
And your doggy died. I had one. He died. You know, I still have his collar in a box somewhere, because he was my favorite dog and he got hit by a car and I felt so bad. And I think I still have his collar in a box somewhere. Anyway, in the 104th Psalm, it tells us.
Psalm 104.
So I'm 104 and.
This is talking about the animals.
And God, Thou God, hidest thy face, and they are troubled, Thou takest away their breath.
And they die.
And return to dust. You know when the animals die, That's the end.
When they die, God takes their breath back to himself.
They go back to dust. That's it.
Thin.
But when God made man? When He made Adam.
He didn't make him all at once.
With a body and breath at the same time. First he made him like this boy here, just laid right out.
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There he is, just a body.
Now see him coming up. You got breath.
There he was. There was Adam. All just perfect on the ground. I don't know if he's on the ground, but there he was. God made him. He formed him from the dust of the ground. Perfect.
A man.
But he didn't have any breath on him. He didn't have any life. God took the clay, the dust, and like a Potter, he made man just perfect. And then.
He breathed into him the breath of life.
And man became.
A living soul.
And so when a man dies, or a woman dies, or a boy. Or a girl.
That soul they have keeps living.
Because God first made a body and then he put a soul in it. And so that soul, that man has, that you have, it's a living soul.
God breathed in your little clay vessel.
Now I have a clay vessel here and I just breathed in it, but it doesn't have life, right? Only God can give life.
Well, let's say this little vessel is like Adam and he had life and we said well, little clay vessel.
You're quite nice, I think.
Where did you come from?
Who made you? Oh, he says. I wasn't made.
I wasn't mean, No. There was a lump of clay.
On a hill.
And it started rolling down the hill.
And it hit a big rock and.
Where did that?
And then I kept rolling them. Pretty soon there's another piece rolling by and they just kind of fit together.
And then it kept rolling.
And it went right through a forest fire, and it fired it hard. And here I am.
Do you believe this little pot?
You don't believe this little pot?
What would you tell this little pie? What would you tell it?
I'll put you on the spot. What would you tell? Would you say little pot? You're not telling the truth. I'm going to turn you over a little pot and right there.
On the bottom when your clay was all wet and soft.
The boy who made you took a pencil.
With a point.
And he put his initials.
Three in the bottom.
And it went into the kiln.
And it fired hard.
Now my pencil has an eraser. Do you think I can erase that boy's name out of there?
No, I could try hard. What do you think is going to happen?
My eraser is going to fall apart. Not much left on there anyway, but it would be all gone and that name would still be there.
You know, in Romans it tells us.
We know just by looking at everything that was made.
That God created it.
And everyone knows, even if they say no, I came from a monkey.
They know down deep in their hearts if you could turn them over and see down deep down, deep in their hearts, there's the impress of the maker.
And they know.
That they're creatures.
And God made them like this little pot. You know the boy who made this.
He thought it would be a candy dish.
And I can tell you he had hopes that his mother would maybe put some candy in there and he would come by and look and find something once in a while. But she didn't. She put it up on the shelf for a Knick knack.
And years later.
She came to him when he was all grown up and she said, would you like this back?
She doesn't fit with the rest of my stuff.
And he said, OK, I'll, I'll take it back because maybe it'll be a help sometime.
And it is.
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You know God made you a vessel.
So you could hold something.
The breath of life. But what happened with that first man?
What did he do?
God gave him the breath of life and God said, I'm going to put you in the Garden of Eden, but there's a tree in the Garden of Eden. You can eat of every tree in the garden as much as you want.
But one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you can't eat.
No, because if you do, you'll die.
If I turn this bowl upside down, is it going to hold anything? Nope.
You can't see my breath, can you?
But it's not holding it anymore because it's upside down.
What if I took a hammer and broke this vessel, this little pot? I don't want to, but what if I did? Would it hold anything anymore?
Now you know what happened with that first man, Adam.
He took of that tree, he sinned. He disobeyed God.
And God said, if you do that, Adam, you're going to die.
You won't be able to hold that breath of life anymore.
No. And that's what happened. He took of that fruit of that tree and that little clay vessel Adam, that God made.
They couldn't hold the breath of life anymore. And the day came.
And he died.
And you know, boys and girls.
Each one of you are like that little clay vessel. Each one.
And God has put in you the breath of life, but you were born into this world.
As descending from that first clay vessel, you were born a Sinner, and you know how I know it. And you know how you know it, because you have sin.
Without even saying it out loud, when I say to you you've sinned, I know there's something in your mind. You're thinking of something that you did probably one time.
And because of that sin, you're like that vessel.
That can't hold on to that life anymore.
But you know, Adam didn't know what day he would die. He didn't know. Did God say on this day you're going to die? He just said you will. And the day came and he did.
A day came and he did die. Do you know what day you would die?
Anybody know? Nobody in here knows?
What day they might die. You know my brother? He has a tow truck.
And he drives his truck around and you know what he does? He looks for people and their cars, People who have bought a car and they didn't pay for it.
And they didn't pay for the car. And he drives around and he sees their car in a parking lot. And you know what he does?
He gets it, puts it on his tow truck, takes it away. It's gone.
He's called a repossessor. He's taking back what doesn't belong to those people because they didn't pay for it. You know, Adam lost that right to hold on to that life through sin. And these people, they lost their right to hang on to their cars because they didn't pay. But they never know. When my brother's coming, he he comes in the night.
Early in the morning he'll wait till they go to work and he knows where they work and he goes into the work parking lot and takes their car.
He's taken cars from very rich men, doctors.
And lawyers. He's taking cars from very poor people.
You know he went to a trailer.
On a winter's day, Winter's night.
And then that trailer was a lady with a lot of children like you.
And she had no husband.
And my brother came to the door.
And he said, I'm here to take your car.
And she had to give him the keys.
He had a letter from the bank that said he could take it.
And she cried.
And she said this is my only way to get my children.
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To a doctor, this is the only way I can go get groceries.
And it's at what we call out in the boonies, way out, away from everything. And it was night and winter.
But he had to take him.
Because she hadn't paid for it and he took her car.
And left her there.
You know death comes.
At times when we don't expect it.
It could come anytime I want to read a verse from the book of Hebrews.
Because of sin, we can't hold on to this life.
That we were born with. It's got to be given up at some time.
Let's read a verse Hebrews Chapter 9.
Hebrews 9 and verse 27. This isn't about an appointment.
You know, when my brother gets his list of cars that he has to take, he kind of sets a time up when he's going to go get him.
Some people try to hide their cars. Oh, they do the best they can. They switch license plates.
They parked their car at Walmart and walked to work from there. So their car is not where they try to do all kinds of things to hide, but.
My brother laughs. He says I always get him.
I always get.
And he says, in fact, the harder it is to get him, the more I get paid.
Well, this verse says in verse 27 as it is appointed unto men once to die.
But after this, the judgment Why? Because we're not like the animals. When the animals die, they're done.
Their breath. God takes it. They go to dust. But when we die.
Our living soul goes on.
And each one of us.
Has a living soul that, should our body die, will go on for all eternity.
And after this appointment of death, the judgment.
But it says so or because of this?
Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.
The Lord Jesus came to give his life.
Our life was forfeited. Couldn't hold it. The Lord Jesus came to give his life.
So that even though this life, we can't hold on to that if the Lord leaves us here that long, we'll die.
We can have a new life.
A new life that will live forever.
And those who have that new life are those who have received the Lord Jesus as their savior, He came.
He came to suffer on the cross to take.
Your place and mine. He came to give his life, he says. Here, I'll give my life.
He didn't have to lose his life. He never sinned. He couldn't sin.
But he said, I'm going to give it, And on the cross he yielded up his breath to God.
And he gave his life for you.
And for me?
So that we could have a life will never ever loose.
A life that everyone who possesses.
Should they even die and lose the life we were born with?
Will be raised from the dead to be forever with the Lord. Well, and you can have that new life right now right in your vessel.
If you ask the Lord Jesus to be your savior.
I got till 10:15 right?
I want to ask another question.
When the Lord Jesus came and went to the cross.
There is a kind of an animal.
That the Lord Jesus.
Has a special title, like a special name.
That belongs to him that.
Is an animal.
An animal's name. Does anyone know who that is? What animal that is?
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What animal?
A donkey? No, I am thinking about a donkey, but not that one.
The Lord Jesus has a special name, but we're going to come back to the donkey.
Anybody ever hear the Lord Jesus called the lamb?
Yeah, The Lamb of God. The Lamb of God, he came.
The Lamb of God.
To be a sacrifice, to give his life. Now I want to go back to what's your name?
Amanda, I want to go back to Amanda's donkey.
Let's go to the book of Exodus.
Actually.
I'm going to read on the way there since we go right by it in the book of Job. You know, Mr. Conrad over here many years ago, he had a little boy born in his house and he worked on a construction job and big, rough men. Construction job and oh, congratulations, Bruce had a boy. Yeah.
And there was a board on that to get that construction site where you could write things.
Special notes. And Mr. Conrad, he wrote a verse on that board when those men said congratulations, you had a boy.
And he wrote this verse from Job 11, verse 12. For a vain man would be wise though man be born like a wild ass's colt.
The Lord Jesus came into this world. He was the Lamb of God. But you know, you and I were born into this world like Amanda's little donkey, wild little donkeys. We know that song right there once was a wild little donkey.
That's how you and I were born in this world.
You know, in the Old Testament, if a family in Israel had a donkey and it had a baby.
There was something they had to do.
Let's I'm going to turn to Exodus 34.
If they had a little donkey.
That was born.
In their form, does anybody here live on a farm that has horses?
Or cows.
You do. You do.
You do. So you know probably what it's like to have a little baby animal, right? Oh, you do. And they get up on their legs and they're kind of wobbly to get going.
And they're so cute.
You know, they're all cute when they're young.
Then they grow up.
Well, Exodus 34.
Here was a house and they had a farm and there was a little donkey born in that farm. Cute little donkey, I imagine.
And they have this instruction from the Bible.
Verse 20 of Exodus 34, but the first link of an *** that's a donkey.
Thou shalt redeem with the Lamb.
And if thou redeem him not, thou shalt break his neck.
And all the first born of thy sons thou shalt redeem.
So in this family, here are little Donkeys born.
And Dad says, you know, we've got a lot of work to do on this farm. And we really could use a donkey because, you know, I used to live in Ethiopia years ago, and they would put huge piles of hay and sticks on donkeys. They could carry big loads. They're strong backs, strong necks.
And they could carry those big loads.
And father says, you know, we need this donkey. We got a lot of loads to carry on the farm, but the Lord has said that we have to redeem.
This donkey with a lamp.
And so he would go to the flock of sheep on that farm, and he would pick a little lamb.
Without any spot on it.
And he would take that lamb.
And he would cut its neck.
And it would bleed out and die.
As an offering.
To redeem that donkey, you know why a donkey's an unclean animal.
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And children you were born, and I was born into this world just like wild little donkeys, unclean. We were sinners as we were born in this world. And God had to send his son his lamb.
To give his life for you and for me. Otherwise what would happen to that little donkey?
His neck would be broken. Not like the lamb whose throat got cut and it was bled out and offered as a sacrifice. Donkey was unclean, no good for sacrifice. Just break his neck.
Very.
I imagine that might have been hard. You know, they told us when we raised animals. I read a book that says don't name anything that you might eat because you get attached to it.
And I suppose it might have been hard on those farms. It would have been hard for me as a little boy, to see Dad take a little lamb and say we're going to have to kill this lamb.
So we can keep this donkey.
But you know, God said something else right after that, and we read it, he said of your children.
You don't have a choice.
You don't get the choice of whether to break their neck or redeem them with a lamp, he says. You redeem them with a lamp. God sent his lamb. He doesn't want any one of you children.
To die in your sins.
For your living soul that he put in your little clay vessel to go into a lost eternity to the judgment of a holy God.
And he sent his lamp.
To give his life for yours, to redeem you.
And you know, just like the father in that family, he says we're going to use that little donkey. He wants to make you a useful vessel for him.
To hold something for him.
You know this little pot.
If it had a heart, what kind of heart would it have?
Would it be? What kind?
A hard heart, Very good.
Just like the clay hard.
I want to read another verse.
From Ezekiel.
And the 36th chapter.
It would have a little clay heart that would be hard as a stone.
What about our hearts? As we're born in this world, What kind of hearts do you think we have?
Born in this world.
Well, Ezekiel says.
And chapter 36.
Verse 26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the Stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart, a flesh, A heart of flesh would be soft.
He wanted to take away their heart of stone. He wants to take away your Stony heart. Have you ever heard anybody say, And I have said it give your heart to the Lord Jesus.
Or open your heart and let the Lord Jesus in. Have you ever heard that?
But you know something else has to happen first before you can give your heart to the Lord.
Before you can open your heart to the Lord, something has to happen first, he says. I'm going to give you a new heart, and then you can give that to me.
I'm going to give you a new heart first. I don't want your dirty old hard heart. It's no good.
I'm going to take it away and I'm going to give you a brand new heart, a soft heart.
And when we receive the Lord as our Savior, we find we have a new.
Soft heart. I'm going to read about that soft heart.
In Corinthians.
Because, you know, just like the little boy who made that pot.
2nd Corinthians.
Chapter 3.
Just like the little boy who made that pot and he took his pencil.
When the clay was soft and he pushed and he wrote his name.
In that clay.
God wants to give you a heart that's soft. That will never be hard.
And he wants to write something on it. What do you think he wants to write on your heart?
On that new heart for you.
It says in Two Corinthians 3.
00:45:04
For as much verse 3 For as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink like this pen.
No, Written, not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God. Not in tables of stone, not in a Stony heart.
But in the fleshy tables of the heart, what do you think the Spirit of God is writing on that new heart?
That he gives each one that knows the Lord is savior. He has a name. What's that name?
Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Writing that on that new heart.
Because he wants you to be.
A vessel to bear that name of Christ on your heart for him, and be a useful vessel.
We're at the end of our time, so I'm going to read a little poem.
Before we pray, who has ever heard?
Of that poem, Mary had a little lamb.
1-2 Mary had a little lamb. Oh, quite a few.
Ever heard of the poem? Mary had a little pig.
Nobody.
I heard that all the time when I was young and a while ago I heard the tape.
An old brother named Mr. Jevedon, stately old Southern gentleman, and he read this poem.
I want to read it to you.
Mary had a little pig.
And it was white as snow, that is, when it had a bath, as you of course might know. But Mary had an awful time to keep the piggy clean.
For it was just the dirtiest pig that one has ever seen.
She'd wash him, and she'd scrub him till he would squirm and squeal, as if he wanted her to know it was an unfair deal.
Then inside his green backyard, he planned for more. And tonight.
Unless he happened to sneak out and lose himself from sight.
And when Mary found him, he'd be blacker than ere before. So Mary get the soap again and scrub the pig some more.
Poor Mary thought.
And wondered much what she could ever do until she figured out a plan. And this she carried through.
She took him to a doctor.
Who put the pig to sleep?
And then he took his heart rate out, but not, of course, to keep.
And then he took a little lamb and took his heart out too.
And put it in the little pig before the piggy knew.
When little Piggy did awake, he had no more desire to wallow in the mud.
Or ever in the mire.
Try as hard as air he could, he never understood how such a pig as once he was, could ever be so good.
So you see, dear friends of mine.
You need a new heart too.
Just like the little piggy did, the old will never do.
If you will receive a brand new heart, well, here is how you may.
Accept God's Son as Savior now and let him in.
Today, let's pray.
Our God and our Father, we thank Thee for Thy Word. Pray that it might.
And the power of the Holy Spirit make its deep impress.