Children—Ted Allan
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Welcome to the Sunday School, boys and girls. We're so glad that you're here.
There's still seats up front if any of the children would still like to come up front and be happy to have you up here. On the other hand, I know some of my own children are very shy and to sit in the front room can be intimidating, certainly for some.
OK, so who has a song that they would like to sing over here?
#33.
And I'm going to ask help for somebody to start that for me.
I have simple.
And understand.
Well, I don't know about you, but I got a little confused in that song because.
The audience sang a second verse that wasn't in my hymn sheet, so unless I have a very strange one, I'm guessing there's two different versions of that song out there. OK, who has another one? Caroline.
47.
Ah, this is a favorite. I used to sing this song to my children when they were very young.
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When they went to bed. So precious to me 47.
When he come in.
Right, the size of the morning is right around the corner.
Right.
Yes, little children who love the Redeemer, it says here are those jewels you are of great value to God himself that he would send his Son the Lord Jesus to die for you. So you are the jewels for those who love their Redeemer who has another one. OK down here Josh.
39.
What a friendly.
One makes you feel everything.
To God in prayer.
Oh my God.
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Yes, I think I've thought about the words of this song on my own life about oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. And prayer is something boys and girls, whether you're three or five or 10 or 90 years old is something you can avail yourself to so.
Why don't we do that right now?
Before we sing the next song.
Our Father, we do come before thee this morning, and we do ask for help in this time together for the children.
We just think of these dear little ones growing up in this world that is so dark.
We just pray that each and every one of them might put their faith and trust in Thee alone, that they might avail themselves to prayer to the reading of Thy word, and that they might glorify Thee in their lives. We ask the same for those of us Lord who are middle-aged and older to hear this morning. We ask for Thy help now for this rest of the time together in Jesus name.
Amen.
OK, so we have time. Let's see for two more songs, let's say maybe down this end. Does anybody have one down here?
OK, what about here 40? OK hymn #40.
So maybe we'll sing the first, second, and last verse of #40.
Jesus loves me.
So let's go.
Blessings.
So.
Me so.
OK, we have time for one more. OK, down here on the right. I'm sorry, what #29 will be the last one.
OK, a ruler once came to Jesus.
Me.
It was before the end of the year. I am.
OK, well thank you everyone for singing.
You know, being up in the center here, I don't know if people in the back realize this, but it's a wonderful thing to hear music flowing from both sides to the middle. And it warms my heart as I'm sure it warms the heart of the Lord Jesus to hear voices of not only children, but those who are older here singing.
So the message I have this morning is very simple.
And it applies to the children.
It also applies to teenagers, it applies to the young married couples here, for the parents, for those who are older, for those who are single. That applies to everyone. It's a very simple message, but one.
But I felt like the Lord put on my heart and I need it just as much as each and everyone of you boys and girls here.
So let's turn to Isaiah 55, and we're just going to read part of one verse there to introduce the message.
Isaiah 55.
And in the second-half of verse 2.
And I'm going to read it.
Hearken diligently unto me.
And eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
The key phrase that I really have before me this morning, children, is eat ye that which is good.
I want that phrase to stick in your mind this morning when you leave this conference. Eat ye that which is good. Let's say it all together.
Ye ye that which is good.
OK, so I brought a few things.
I want to start with a story.
I'm just going to put them out here on the table.
Not to make you hungry.
I'm sure these will pique your interest, right?
Eat ye that which is good.
Now there's some things on this table here.
At least I know the parents would agree that there's that which is good and I think there's that which is not good.
And as I said, I wanted to start with a story.
It was two years ago, my son and I had the opportunity to go to Japan and visit my sister Mary and her husband Andrew. They were living just outside Tokyo.
Towards the end of the trip, they took us to a restaurant that was very popular with the Japanese and I had never been to a restaurant like this in my entire life.
It was a place where they serve sushi, and I love sushi and for the children, if you don't know what that is, but it's raw fish and the Japanese love it. In fact, we were there for a fellowship meal at the local assembly and that's what they.
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Apparently, order in every fellowship. Me. Also, if you don't like sushi, you better plan for something else if you're there in Tokyo for their fellowship meal. Anyway, this particular restaurant, they had a very unique setup. We were sitting in booths and there was a little screen where you could look at the different things that were on the menu and look at that which looked good and pick something out that was of interest.
And they had a conveyor belt system.
Where they had little plates of food that came all through the restaurant continuously on little dishes, little slab of rice with a slab of fish on top. And they were going by continuously. And if you saw something that you thought looked good, you just pulled that plate off and put it on your table and and you ate it.
On the other hand, if you didn't see anything you liked and Tommy would know this.
You could punch in the number of the sushi that you liked and somebody would prepare it in the back. They put it on the conveyor belt and when I was about to come by your table, it would play a little song. So you knew that your sushi was coming up and you would look for it and you pick it off and put it on your table. I thought I was fascinated by it. I had never seen anything like this in the United States or Canada.
So I thought the whole experience was.
Really great. So thank you, Mary for bringing us there. We had a great time.
Unfortunately, and I don't know that Mary knew this, but after we left that restaurant, my stomach began to not feel so good.
And I'm sure I ate something there that did not agree with my stomach and I did get sick, but I got over it pretty quickly. But.
Why do I mention this story, boys and girls? Because.
You know, there were things that just frankly looked good. In fact, there's a show out there called Bizarre Foods where that is the motto of the person who hosts that show where they say if it looks good, just eat it. And that was really the premise of this restaurant too. If it looked good, then just eat it. Just take it off, put it on your table. And you know, they would tally up how many plates you took off. I think it was like a dollar or two per plate. So they would just add up how many plates you had.
And then you would pay your bill. But this verse does it say eat that which looks good.
Does it say that?
Any of the boys? What do you think? Does it say that? No, it says eat ye that which is good. It doesn't say it looks good, it just says that which is good.
So there is that which may look good but is not good for you.
So OK, some point would be this. Does anybody know what these are?
Bubble gum. Yes, I've had many a bubble gum in my life.
What do we know about the characteristics of bubble gum? Anyone, Josh?
You blow bubbles. Yes, that is true. OK, what else do we know about bubble gum?
Yes, it tastes good.
Now let's carry that thought. There's something else I want to that I know the adults are thinking.
It tastes good, but what?
The flavor runs out how quickly?
Very quickly, Josh knows by experience, yes, I would hazard to say the flavor of this bubble gum probably runs out in less than 5 minutes, probably less than two minutes. So there's a quick brief shot of flavor and then you just want to get it out of your mouth. At least that's how it is for me. So bubble gum, it may look good. In fact, the people who make this.
They're very clever.
They're very clever in that, you know, they designed this for boys like Josh and my daughter, like Caroline. They make them small. They make them very bright colors. When you go to the grocery store, they're going to be right about at the height where Josh is looking when he goes by with his dad, you know? So they know that this looks good and very tempting.
But what's the nutritional value of bubble gum? What do you think? Audrey Zero. It's pretty close to 0. In fact, I'd say it probably is 0. So bubble gum.
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Now, these are very similar. These are just like sour candy. They're not gum, but the same thought, right? They look good. They taste good very briefly, but isn't that how it is in life, boys and girls, where there is that which may look good, but it's not good for you. It's a very important lesson. There may be that which looks good.
But is not good for you.
And here it says Ichi that, which is good, you know.
This is how sin comes into our life.
I want to recount a story of a personal failure of mine. I was about, I don't know, 8-10 years old.
And I still remember this.
At the conference where I grew up, I grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada. When I grew up, about when I was, I don't, I don't know, this would have been in the 80s. There was something that was very popular at that time. They were stickers and they were wrestling stickers. I still remember walking the halls of the Halifax conference and they were on lockers, WWF stickers, all these different people who would wrestle.
And I wanted those and I wanted to have maybe what we call the whole set of it.
But you know, I was very young. I didn't have money, I didn't have a job.
But you know, those stickers were enticing to me and I wanted them. My friends had them. You go to school and everybody had them. And it leads to, OK, who is the whole set and what stickers do you have and which ones do you have? And to be trading going on.
But you know, I didn't have money and so one day I went to the local store.
And I wanted the sticker, but they were at that time contained in chip bags.
And I didn't care about the chips, I just wanted the sticker.
And so I stole a bag of chips.
And a lady stopped me before I left the store and she said you didn't pay for those.
And my heart sank and my parents were notified.
And later that day.
My parents found out. They made me go back to that store and apologize and pay for that bag of chips and it was very embarrassing. But that is how sin works, boys and girls. It is enticing. It looks good.
I mean, in the grand scheme of things, how long do you think those stickers would have interest to me? Do you think? A very long time. Do you think I still have them in my house today?
No, in fact, I don't remember who the wrestlers were were now.
But that is the way how sin works. It looks good, but it was not good for me and it led to sin.
You know.
We need that which is good.
I'm going to tell another story. Does anybody know what this is?
Sugar. White sugar.
How many of these do you think the average, I'll say Canadian or American, consumes an entire year?
Josh, you're very eager. I'll see you again. What do you think? How many do you think of these the average person would eat in a year?
Wow, you know Josh got the right answer. You're a smart young man. 100 of these in a year.
The average American or Canadian would consume so about two of these a week roughly.
That's a lot of sugar.
I want to tell a story. It's about a year ago.
I.
Being in middle age, I was starting to gain weight and I remember.
Hearing.
I remember talking to Jim Highland before he passed away and he said one of the things he did to lose weight was stop drinking sugary drinks. And so I thought, you know what, it'll work for him. I'm just going to go cold Turkey and I'm going to stop eating sugar and see what it does.
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I lasted about 6 days.
And I was at my children's school.
And a very strange thing happened.
My body started to shake uncontrollably. I remember we got in the van, my old my own children were looking at me. My hands were literally shaking about like that. I couldn't even hold the steering wheel.
My body was so used to taking in sugar.
I was literally going through detox. We might use the term where my body was not used to not having sugar in its body.
And they kind of scared my kids when they saw what was going on because I wasn't sick. But my body was so used to having this in its system. That's what it was doing.
You know.
I'm talking about physical food. I know we only have about 15 minutes left. My point is not here to talk about physical food though, as interesting as it may be.
Because life is more than physical food, boys and girls.
But the fact is that boys and girls, teenager, people in middle age, that which they're taking into their system every day, it has an effect on your life.
These things that we talked about are not good in terms of physical food.
Some have likened white sugar added sugar to a drug more powerful than cocaine.
People are that addicted to it, but there are many boys and girls, teenagers, older ones too, who are addicted to taking in things that are not good for your soul.
And they consume you. Let's turn to another verse in John chapter 6.
Our time is quickly moving by here, so I move to John 6.
And we're going to read verse 26.
Jesus answered them, and said, Verily, verily, a sin to you, You seek me, not because you saw the miracles, but because you did eat the loaves, and were filled labor, not for the meat which perisheth, but for the meat which endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you, for him hath God the Father sealed. Verse 35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger.
And he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
You know, there is that bread which perisheth. You know, this food that we take in comes into our bodies and is expelled. Jesus talks about that in the Gospels, but he said that is not the thing that we should be pursuing. And Jesus likened himself to the bread of life. That's why I have this loaf of bread up here.
Verse 35, he said I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He wasn't talking about physical food, boys and girls, but there are many people walking around this world who have spiritual hunger because all they are taking in as it were spiritually is bubble gum.
This is a major, major problem in our society.
Cheap, quick thrills.
Instant gratification.
You know, it's interesting. A couple years ago, I work in the power industry, electric utility, we had a very large storm. A couple 100,000 people were out of power. And I remember there was an unsafe person there and they were dealing with a lot of the backlash that we get as a utility when many people are out of power. And they said, you know, the problem with this society is instant gratification. They were not a saved person, but they recognized.
Instant gratification.
The things that we take in, right? It could be books, it could be media, it could be a whole host of things, electronics, you name it, video games.
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Do those things nourish the soul?
What do you guys think?
Well.
Much of it does not.
That doesn't mean you can never read a book. You know there's and we'll talk about it towards the end, but much of what this society, boys and girls consume has no nourishment in terms of what they take in. Eat ye that which is good.
Jesus wants to be boys and girls, the source of your every desire. He wants to fill the cravings and longings of your heart.
And he said if you would come to him, you will not hunger. He can fulfill every hunger that you have.
Let's turn to First Peter chapter 2.
Important verse.
Verse two as newborn, I'll say, babies desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby, if so be that ye have tasted the Lord is gracious.
I have here a cup of milk.
There are those who have taken of the bread of life.
But have gone on really many respects to consume.
That which does not provide nourishment.
Jesus said that you need to be like little babies who desire milk. I remember my own children, I think.
Well, I won't name which one, but they came out of the womb and immediately they wanted to be on the mother's breast to take that milk colostrum. Babies immediately want that.
And that is what you need, boys and girls. You know, last night or yesterday we were reminded about not going beyond what the word of God says.
But my fear and what I'm seeing happen in society.
Is people don't even know what the word of God says, let alone go beyond it.
Desire the milk of the Word of God.
Read it, be familiar with it.
Because of time, we won't have time to turn to it. But Paul was writing the Timothy and he said from a child, you have known the Scriptures.
In First John it talks about how the young men have the word of God abiding in them, those more mature in the faith.
But the time that you take it in is all through your life. But it begins now, boys and girls.
The other day I was a little distressing. To me, it's just symptomatic of the culture we're in. My wife and I went to a Christian bookstore. It just opened the first day of opening, about half an hour from her house and.
I wanted to go get some Christian texts for our house.
I could not believe.
There was probably less than 10 verses in that store on Waltex. The the the store was full of things that were nice, gathered together and family and blessed and you know, key phrases. I had a hard time finding any scripture in that store.
But this is the exact problem in our culture where this is getting closed, put under the table and gone and people don't know what the word of God says.
Learn it. Study it.
I'm very blessed to have grown up in a home where my parents morning and evening had the word of God read.
And I know this is a children's meeting, but I'll say to the young parents and families here, if you do not have a regular Bible reading with your children, start now.
My observation is much of what people learn is learned around the table at home that the family Bible reading.
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Christians don't know the word of God.
They're getting less and less of it and other denominations, let alone in their own homes.
And we need to know it because we're growing in a society, boys and girls, where people are walking away from their faith. I've seen people known first hand knowing well, walk away.
There are those who may even know what the word of God says, and it says they resist it too. They don't want to believe what it says.
So just as Janice and Jamberries resisted Moses, they resisted the truth.
And so that's why I say that this message is for children, for teenagers, for those who are older.
You know, David could say.
Thy word have I hidden my heart, that I might not sin against thee. Thy word hid means stored up.
Stored up in his heart.
And so as you have the word of God in you.
The Spirit of God can take that and use it in your life when you need it most.
You may not be actively thinking, oh, I need to think of a verse about this particular topic, but just out of the blue, out of the random, the Spirit of God draws from that which you've heard and use it.
Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.
Let's just turn second, Timothy. We just have a few minutes left. There's really so much more that could be said.
But not time here this morning to do it. Second Timothy 3.
Because I think this is important, I referenced this verse verse 15, Second Timothy 3:15, but I want to talk a little bit more about the why.
OK.
And these verses say it, and that from a child.
Thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation.
Through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.
Note all scripture.
Is given by inspiration of God.
And is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness that the man of God.
May be perfect or complete, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. I don't have time to go through these in detail, children.
But these give the reasons why the word of God is important to have it in you.
It's instruction for right living.
For correction when you're doing things wrong so you can know how to get back on the right path.
The word of God is referred as A2 edged sword.
It's just it discerns the thoughts and intents of your heart.
These are good things.
And so when I opened about that statement, each ye that which is good, the word of God is good for your soul. These are God's words written in a book.
It was encouraging to me, Mr. Boulard was that Cago falls recently talking about Brazil, how people are hungry for the word of God. He was sharing the story about a Catholic who was instructed not to read the Bible. He had grown up the Catholic Church much of his life and that 88 years old, he was just starting to read the Bible for the first time and know what it says. There's profit in it, children.
And I need this just as much as you as you.
But the fact is that so much of us are taking in not the word of God, but that which has no nourishment for the soul.
It may have a very short.
Burst, if you will, of pleasure, but it's temporary and so our time is up.
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Let's say the statement together one more time.
Eat ye that which is good, children. If you don't read your Bibles now, make it your habit to do so. Just a few minutes. I was thinking, I've been at a few conferences now where Bob Tony was there and he's been making a concerted effort to make this point, to make it a part of your life. And if you don't understand what you're reading, ask your parents.
And I'm going to make it uncomfortable for the parents and I'll say to the children.
If you don't have a Bible reading in your house, ask your parents to start one. And parents take the responsibility to do it. It's a good thing. It will profit you.
Let's leave it at that, and we'll close in prayer.