Children—John Kaiser
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And I guess you were expecting to start a little early.
That's all right, but we need a few more children up on the front row. There's an awful lot of empty seats up here, and there's much more encouraging to talk to filled seats than empty seats.
Besides, I'll have a little giveaway for later on for those that are up here in the front row.
Good, I don't get a few here.
Now you know how we usually do this. As we sing, we try to concentrate.
On the songs that are on the back where it says children's hymns and choruses.
But there's lots of good songs inside the hymn sheet too. But we'd like to concentrate on the stuff on the back. But we'll take suggestions. So does anybody have a song they would like to start with this morning? Yes.
#44 into a tent where a gypsy boy lay dying alone at the close of the day.
News of salvation we carried.
Said he. Nobody ever has told it to me. This is a true story about some a a missionary who visited a boy in a gypsy tent. This boy was dying and he learned about the Lord Jesus and trusted the Lord Jesus before he died #44.
Into the deadly.
Children can say of the children of men.
Nobody ever has told me before.
Here is A1 day up or little boy.
And I'm to be the good sightings of joy.
May thy not perish. My hand will be full.
Nobody ever must bring us home.
I'll take it again.
Salvation story reaping, or at all?
You can say of the children of men.
Nobody ever has told me before.
And we caught the last words of his friend John as he answered about the hotel God sent his son to ever send he.
Then I am sure I sent him for me.
Tell him again.
Tell him again.
Salvation story reaping horrible.
Till all I can say of the children of men.
Nobody ever has told me before.
You know this song has a wonderful message in it.
So in the end of the last verse here, God sent his son.
Whosoever he said he, then I am sure that he sent.
Him for me. I hope everyone here this morning is sure that God sent the Lord Jesus Christ for you. Now there's still room on the front rows like that. We'd like to see more boys and girls on the front row. Now is the opportunity to come forward.
00:05:06
OK. Do we have any other choices?
If we don't get a choice from the front wheel, we'll take Rd. we'll take a choice from elsewhere.
And I have bad eyesight, so if you want to make noise when you wave your hand, that's all right too.
All right, what number?
#5 All right #5.
We'll sing the whole song.
All happy.
Watch and pray. I'm going to Renoise sing every day.
I believe I feel the baby when you see some swords my sins away.
It is on the grave transactions on I am my Lord.
And he is mine. He threw me out. I followed on life to come back one day behind.
I believe I did it when Jesus called my sins away.
He won't be home to your heart and pray I'm living joy say delivery day.
I believe, I believe.
My.
I never mind, it's not that blood and Santa rats nor ever fraud. My Lord Dee fires wisdom of God, bring to it closer.
I must be there. I must be there.
When James must watch my sins away.
He got me out to one and pray and will rejoice in every day.
I believe, I believe.
When Jesus falls.
Now, you know, there's a big word, the beginning of the second verse of this song says tis done, the great transactions done. And I remember singing this song when I was a boy, a young boy, and I didn't know what a transaction was. It sounded pretty impressive, said the great transactions done. And so it sounded good and I enjoyed singing about it. Who can tell me what a transaction is? Says the great transaction is done.
What is a transaction?
Anybody on the front row know what a transaction is?
Nobody knows on the front row what a transaction is. Well, how about who would like to volunteer for a transaction?
Good.
All right, Vera transaction is very simple. Trans means a cross. When I was a boy, there was a there was an airline called Transworld Airways. TWAI think it actually flew into Des Moines.
I flew on it, TWA, Transworld Airways and Trans Means Across, so they wanted you to get the idea that they went all over the world.
00:10:10
Trans means across. It gives the idea of something going from one place to another and an action. What's an action?
That's something you do. This is a transaction. I'm going to give you a calendar. Thank you. That was a transaction. Wasn't that simple?
That I held it out and he received it. What's your name? Pardon Lane. I gave Lane a calendar and he just took it like that. Was that difficult? No big word for a simple action, but you know, there's a great transaction that's just as simple and that's receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. And so the person who wrote this song had experienced that transaction.
They had received that this person had received the Lord Jesus Christ as a Savior and he said tis done, it's done, the great transactions done. I am my Lords, and he is mine. And you know what Sunday school all about?
What is Sunday School all about, Paul?
Exactly.
It's about Jesus and me.
And Jesus and you, that's what it's all about. This first song we sang, there was a gypsy boy who realized that Jesus loved him and died for him, and he received Jesus. The person that wrote this song received the Lord Jesus. Have you, has everyone in this room?
Simply received the Lord Jesus.
That's the big question this morning. All right, how about another song?
All right, number one, OK, it doesn't seem like we're concentrating on the back of the sheet, but that's fine. This is a very serious song, and we don't sing it much in Sunday school. I wonder if anybody knows the story behind this song. You know, there was a ruler that the apostle Paul was preaching to, and he said, you almost persuade me. It's a terrible thing to be almost persuaded.
Like that's like almost getting in.
But missing the boat, or missing the train, or missing the plane?
You know being almost is not good enough all right #1.
Oh.
Two.
Christ.
Come on today, all over this way.
Turn on again.
Jesus.
Invite you here.
Where's your hands pointing something?
On my ears.
Come.
Oh, we need to be conscious.
That the Lord is speaking to us this morning.
Notice this first verse says seems now some soul to say go spirit, go thy way. Does anyone here consciously said that? No, the song says it seems that way because the Spirit of God is speaking to souls. You know God speaks to us all the time. The problem is we just don't realize it.
00:15:02
God is always ready and willing to communicate with us.
Our problem is we don't listen. And so it seems. Now some soldiers say, Go spirit, go thy way, some more convenient day to thee I'll come.
As if we could decide on a better time.
Now today is the day of salvation, all right.
How about another song? Anymore in the front row here?
OK, somewhere else.
So we want to help me.
41 All right #41.
Around the throne of.
Put on heart and shining on the fondness why each one will be arrayed, dwelling in everlasting light and joys like never facing.
Glory.
Glory.
Glory.
What brings them to that world?
Where all is peace and joy and love. Our pains of children.
They're singing glory, glory.
Because the sacred shed his blood to wash away their sin.
No one sins that most righteous blood behold, and white and clean sinking glory.
Glory.
Glory later.
On.
You know there's lots of children in heaven right now.
You're going to join them, you're going to be with them, to sing with them around the throne of God.
Are you ready to go to heaven right now?
We don't know how long we have. I had a cousin who was who died when he was six years old. Went to be with the Lord Jesus I believe.
I have a son who went to be with the Lord Jesus when he was six years old.
How old are you?
How old are you?
Ten God's given you four more years of life.
Now it's time to pray, and then we'll say the verse.
Our pad.
An easy verse, I thought. Now maybe you don't learn the memory verse. Does anyone here who did learn the memory verse that would like to say it this morning? All right, Paul.
What?
16.
Very good. Anybody else?
Go ahead.
Very good. Anybody else?
At.
OK. Anybody else on this side?
You want to say the verse?
00:20:08
And thou.
16.
31.
All right, did you say the verse this morning?
Go ahead. What should I, what must, what must I do to be saved?
You say X.
163031 Very good. All right, I forgot about getting the mic. I could move this mic and you could have heard the other boys here. Now I want to talk about surprises and suicide this morning and that strange combination.
But it relates to the verse we had to memorize.
How many here like surprises?
Always.
Are all surprises. Good surprises. I remember, and maybe some of you heard this story before, and you'll forgive me. I remember when I was 12 years old, on a nice Sunday afternoon, and why I did it, I don't know. I got it, got on my bicycle, went for a bicycle ride, and I'm still wearing my Sunday gotomeeting clothes.
When I was going down the street and my front wheel fell off, do you think that was a surprise?
Didn't think it was a good surprise. No, it wasn't a good surprise. I got all banged up and ruined my pants and my mother wasn't happy and and I I wasn't happy. I had to fix my bike. I said I won't go into this long story how that wheel came off, but it was really strange.
It was a total surprise what had happened. Something inside the inside the steering column had rusted so badly. I thought you couldn't tell it, you couldn't see it and it just fell apart. There's good surprises and bad surprises. I had a surprise yesterday and they asked me to speak this morning.
And so I asked the brother, well, what's the memory Versace? I like to talk about the memory verse. And and then he brought me this paper. So I said, oh wonderful. That's one of my favorite stories. So let's talk about Acts chapter 16.
The story in Acts chapter 16, we'll talk about this briefly. We'll read it together and see how this verse fits in Acts chapter 16. And there's a lot of surprises in this story.
And we'll.
We'll start with.
Verse 16. Acts Chapter 16. Verse 16.
The apostle Paul was in Philippi and we've been in the reading the Bible, in the reading meetings, we've been in the Epistle to the Philippians. So this fits in good too. Acts chapter 16, verse 16. It came to pass as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of domination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothe saying anybody. What soothe saying is yes.
Yeah, say that predicting what was going to happen. Right. She did fortune telling. That's what Sue's saying is this. It says this poor girl she had says she was possessed with a spirit of divination. Now that's a demon. But she thought she could tell people their future. And people believed her and they paid to listen to her. You think, isn't that silly? Well, people do it today, too. People listen to lies.
Produced by the Devil.
And, well, we see what happens here.
The same verse 17 the same as that girl followed Paul and us and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation. And she did this many days. But Paul being grieved, turned and said to the Spirit, I command thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, come out of her. And he came out the same hour. And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and drew them into the marketplace onto the rulers.
And brought them to the magistrates and we'll stop there. You see this girl, she had a couple of people who were making money off her and when Paul commanded the demon to leave her, why she was no longer convincing as a sooth Sayer. I'm not saying that all these people that you you know and I see ads for it, you know I don't I'm not going to assume that all these people that claim they can predict the future are demon possessed. But this girl was and.
00:25:12
And now she couldn't do her job anymore, because the demon had left her and her masters, her employers were unhappy, and they caught Paul and Silas and took them to the magistrates. That's the authorities saying, verse 20, these men being Jews, to exceedingly trouble our city and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. And the multitude rose up against them, and the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded to beat them.
So the magistrates, the authorities.
They listen to the these these men who were lying and the and the crowd was all upset too. And the people around were all upset. And so they took Paul and Silas and tore off their clothes and beat them.
Now does that sound like fun?
Anybody interested in beating This Morning?
No, I'll tell you about that in a minute. And it says here, verse 23. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them in prison, charging the jailer to beat, to keep them safely. Now if you read another translation, it says they were commanded to be beaten with rods. And so I borrowed a rod here this morning.
You might not recognize it as one, but it's close enough.
I'm going to make it a little bit longer here.
I'll make it there. Something like that.
You know, they say a beating really helps to focus the thinking.
Is that the way you want to?
Start your day or end your day. That's the way Paul and Silas ended their day says They laid many stripes on them. They beat them a lot.
And then what? Who knows what happened next? Without looking, some of you must know this story.
Yes.
Put them in prison. That's right. Yeah. They didn't take him to the hospital and treat them nicely. They put them in prison. Let's read it here. It says they commanded to beat them, and when they had laid many stripes on them, that means they beat them a lot. They cast them in prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely, who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stalks.
Now, this is something that was really uncomfortable. They were beaten, their clothes were ripped off them. It wasn't done gently and they were put in prison. Their feet were in stocks. That means they're they were, they were clamped in in a particular way, so they couldn't move very well.
And the prisons, and I've been, I've been a number of prisons in my life. The Roman prisons were not nice places. They were dirty.
Filthy and they were. They just weren't comfortable places. They weren't meant to be nice. And it was, Dark says. Because they were on the inside, the inner prison.
And they told the jailer to keep them safely, who, having received such a charge, thrust them into inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks.
How many here have ever been shut up in a room that didn't want to be?
Has anybody ever been? I remember that when I was a child, sometimes I was disobedient. My mother would make me go to my room. Anybody ever have that happen to them? You had to stay in your room. And even though. Yeah, and even though I like my room, I didn't like having to stay in it. But this wasn't even a nice room. Paul and Silas were in this room and the reason they were in this room.
And suffering is because of the Lord Jesus Christ, because they've been preaching about the Lord Jesus.
So and I saw a couple boys here raise their hands. They said they'd been shut up in the room.
Were you happy there when you no notice what Paul and Silas did? It says at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God.
It's a good thing to do when you're shut up. Let's pray. But they did more than pray now. I mean, usually when we pray, we don't pray real loud necessarily. And I don't suppose I don't know that Paul and Silas pray real loud. After you'd been beaten a lot, maybe you wouldn't feel like praying very loud. But it says they prayed and sang praises to God and the prisoners heard them. Just think what it's like in it, that dark, that dark.
00:30:28
Prison and people are people. A lot of unhappy, a lot of unhappy people in there. It's midnight and the people are not sleeping well because they've been sitting there all day. They're not tired. And all of a sudden they hear Paul and Silas singing lol. In the grave he lay Jesus.
My Savior.
Waiting the coming day. Jesus smiles, my Lord.
You know the chorus up from the grave He arose with a mighty triumph for his foes. He arose the victor from the dark domain, and he lives forever with his Saints to reign. He arose, He arose.
Hallelujah, Christ a rose.
Now wouldn't that be a surprise in a jail?
But something like that happened. We don't know what's what him they're saying, but it says they they sang praise to God.
And the prisoners heard them.
And somebody else heard him. Who else heard them?
Nope, the jailer was sound asleep. Doesn't say that. We don't think. I don't think the jailer heard him because it we, we. I'll show you why in a minute. Who else heard them singing?
The Lord, Yeah, God did. And God did something it says here. And suddenly there was a great earthquake. That's another surprise. There was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were open and everyone's bands were loosed. I imagine these the chains that the that Paul and Silas and other prisoners were fastened with were fastened into the stone walls and they had a earthquake and possibly those.
Chains just fell right out of the walls. What else happens? It says here the foundations, the prison, were shaken and really all the doors were opened at everyone's bands, or chains were loosed. And then the Keeler, the keeper of the prison, woke up. I don't think he heard the singing, but he felt the earthquake.
What's an earthquake like?
What's an earthquake like? Yeah.
Go ahead. Yeah, it's really shaky. Can you imagine this whole room shaking? Would that bother you? You looked up there and saw those lamps swinging all the sudden and everybody moving around like that. Yeah. It's a very disturbing experience.
This jailer, he woke up and he was scared and then he looked and he saw all the doors were open and he did something that you and I wouldn't have done. We probably would have run out and and see what we could do about the situation.
The jailer did something else.
He took out his sword.
He probably kept his sword right near him. He took out his sword and he was going to kill himself.
Because the jailers in those days were responsible for their prisoners. If they lost a prisoner, they were going to be killed anyway. That's the way the Roman government worked. If a jailer lost his prisoner, he gave up his life to pay for the prisoner. Well, this jailer assumed all the prisoners were gone. He was going to kill himself. And there was another surprise.
Paul shouted out. Do yourself no harm. We're all here.
Do you think the jailer was glad to hear that? What do you think? Yeah, wonderful thing to hear.
This is a really a an earth shaking experience for him. And so he says. He says here Paul cried out with a loud voice saying, do yourself no harm for we are all here. Then he called for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And we this morning said the answer that Paul gave him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. That was good news.
00:35:12
That was good news to that man and it made the difference in his life.
He believed, notice what it says here. And he brought the mountains and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house. And Paul and Silas spoke unto him the word of the Lord to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was baptized, he and all his straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat, that's food before them, and rejoice.
Believing in God with all his house. And so we sang that song this morning. Oh Happy Day. That fixed my choice. This man was happy.
You know, believing.
And happiness go together, trusting the Lord. I look at sometimes boys and girls and I wonder, do they really love the Lord? Do they trust the Lord? Are you happy this morning? Because the Lord Jesus is your Savior?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. This jailer knew he was in danger. He wasn't afraid of the earthquake. He was afraid of the God that made the earthquake.
Are you ready to meet God? Are you in danger of God's?
Judgment this morning you may be sitting back.
Behind other people, thinking that this is all for the boys and girls up front, but every one of us is responsible to God. Are you ready to meet God? And I've gone over my time already and I had another story to tell you. I was going to tell you a story about. I got too enthused about this.
So I'll let you read the story.
01015 OK. I do have time. All right, That's right. Thank you. Thank you very much.
I want to tell you about a person named Valentine Burke.
Was Valentine Burke a boy or a girl? What do you think, Valentine Burke?
Boy, you think a boy would have a name? Would be named Valentine.
How many boys would like to name Valentine?
No, you're right. His name was Valentine. I don't know if that had anything to do with the way Valentine grew up, but there was a boy named Valentine Burke.
And I think he would have had a rough time with that name, but he grew up and he got a reputation for his occupation. He was known as Burke the Burglar.
What did Burke the burglar do for a living?
What did Burke the burglar do for a living? Anybody know what a what a burglar is, Paul? What's a?
Robber, a thief? Yeah. He burgled for a living. We don't use that word very much, but that's, that's the that's the right term. Burke, the burglar burgled for a living. Do you think it was a very good living?
Where do you think he ended up?
In a nice house. What do you think? He ended up in jail, of course. That's where most burglars end up pretty quick. Burke, the burglar, burgled his way into jail. He stole things. He went out at night, probably mostly, and stole things. I don't know too much about his history before he got caught, but he ended up in jail. He thought he had a bad deal.
And.
Now this is a true story and it happened about 120 years ago, 2000, twenty, 130 years ago. Burke the burglar got caught and he was put in jail and someone brought him a newspaper and there was an article in the newspaper.
And the article was titled How the Jailer at Philippi Got Caught.
And Burke thought, now that's, that's that's doing things my way. He wanted to read that story. Now I want to tell you the story.
We just read it.
Because it was a sermon by DL Moody and in those days they printed DL Moody's sermons in the newspaper.
And DL Moody, an evangelist, had talked about how the jailer at Philippi got caught.
00:40:10
Did he get caught? Yes he did. He got caught right in his own bed. God woke him up and made him realize.
He needed a savior.
Well, Burke the burglar.
Read that story.
And it wasn't what he expected.
And he thought about it and he thought about it and he said, you know, I'm going to trust the Lord Jesus Christ too. And he got saved that night.
And later on.
He was released from prison from jail and he had a hard time getting a job.
He went from place to place looking for work and who wants to hire a burglar? He had a reputation, but eventually.
The sheriff called him in and Burke thought, Oh no, they found something more about me and he went into the Sheriff's Office and the sheriff, said Burke.
How is this religion going before you and.
Burke said it's good and the sheriff says I know.
When you got religion, I set my men to watch you.
And you've lived straight. I've got a job for you. I want you to be a guard.
And he ended up being a guard. In one case, he was guarding a viable shipment of diamonds. And I think it was Mr. Moody came to visit him. And Burke, the burglar, was saying, look.
I used to be a burglar and now they trust me with all this wealth. Why? Because God had made a new man out of Burke. The burglar now.
I have extra copies.
Of this story of Burke the burglar. If anybody wants to read them, I'll put them up here on this table and the kids on the 1St on the front row can help themselves 1St. And if anything left over, why anybody else can. And then I have another little paper here that tells a story a little different way. I told you this is one of my favorite stories because, you know, I have friends who committed suicide and it's to me, it's a very painful thing, even these days, children.
Think about suicide. And I know that a lot of people in this room, at one time or another, maybe when there were children, maybe when they were teenagers, they thought about suicide. What is suicide? What does the word suicide mean? Anybody know what the word suicide means? We've got some pretty intelligent fellows on the front row here. What does suicide mean?
Self murder, suicide, Yeah, not a word that most children know, but unfortunately some children do it and teenagers do it. And it's, it's nice to be a warrant in advance that there is something better. That jailer, he was going to commit suicide. He's going to kill himself because he was so upset about the way things were turning out.
And then he got the message from God. Do yourself.
No harm.
I want to tell you.
Satan's got lots of suggestions for your minds. His his ways always lead to death.
Do yourself no harm, trust the Lord Jesus Christ. I've got a little booklet written up showing how God.
Was titled Do Yourself No Harm, How, when, where and why God stopped a suicide. Maybe you know somebody that could use a book like that. And so again, boys and girls on the front row get the first choice. Maybe we have time for one more hymn.
One more song.
All right.
46.
Collide.
00:45:15
Everything are here when I see him.
I love all their sins. I watch somewhere. Remember our verse said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's God's promise. The Lord Jesus is all we need sometimes. I illustrate what it means to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
I believe in shares. I've been sitting in one here at this conference. I believe in this chair. But now I'm believing on it. I'm committing my whole weight to it. Can you trust the Lord Jesus just that way? Trust yourself to the Lord Jesus.
That's what God wants. That's what He deserves. The Lord Jesus is worthy of our trust. I read a statement recently that stuck in my mind. It is more honor to be trusted than to be loved.
Can we give the Lord Jesus the honor of our trust?
It is more honored to be trusted than to be loved.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And thou shalt be saved. Let's pray.