Children—Stephen Rule
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Who has this song you'd like to start with? At our house we like to sing, and this morning we'll just sing together for maybe 15 minutes or so. One of us likes to say we all like to sing in the car and we all like to sing with our Bible readings. One of us likes to sing in the grocery store, and sometimes they sing good songs too, like, well, be careful little eyes, what you see? I've heard that one.
#40 he said. Let's sing together #40.
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701-7898, 958-5858 and Strong.
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He will take me on my mind.
You have to be like a long day.
Now I love me.
Yeah, it's a lot of me.
It's hard when you're young and it's hard when you're old. But I watched and I because, you know, I watched. I watched because I realized what was going through my own head. I was thinking ahead to the next few things and I was trying to remember one or two things and I all of a sudden realized we're singing a wonderful song here and I'm forgetting about what I'm singing.
And I looked around and I saw some.
Someone looking around and all kinds of, I think some people were thinking about what they were saying to it. That's pretty hard. It's pretty hard to focus and think hard. So we're going to do one thing since you don't need your song sheets for this part, we're going to sing that chorus over again. And I'm going to ask you to do one thing we usually do when we pray so that we can think about what we're who we're talking to for just a little bit of time. I'm going to ask you to close your eyes with me and we're going to sing the chorus of yes, Jesus loves me. And let's think about what we're seeing.
00:05:28
OK, somebody maybe could start a.
Umm, OK, if you know who was speaking, you weren't focusing. OK, but that was good, isn't it? It's a wonderful message that the Lord Jesus Christ loves us. OK, who has another one that you'd like to sing this morning?
OK.
Let's sing the first and last verses so a few more get chances to give out him this morning.
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Nobody ever has faulted before.
Good. How about some more? Who else has a song you like to sing? OK.
#15 OK.
Let's shorten that one down a little bit too so we can get some more in. How about the 1St?
And the third verse is.
Good.
Maybe time for just one or two more. For now at least. OK.
00:10:01
#5.
OK.
I think the 1St and the last on that one too.
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To the Lord Jacob and asked for his help. Our dear Lord Jesus, we just give thanks for that opportunity to sing. But the wonderful washing our sins away. Just ask that it would be true for each and everyone in the room this morning that it is already true, but we're afraid it's not. And so we just ask for each person here that perhaps doesn't know thee Lord data as their Savior, the faster they would come to thee today.
And two, we just asked for our hearts to be opened up to enjoy the beauty of Thy person, the fastest Cortes, and thy precious name. Amen.
OK. Who learned the verse for this week that you would like to say? We don't have time, I don't think, for everybody to say it, but who has one that you would like to say you learn maybe the verse from the Sunday school paper or maybe where you go you learn other verses too? I'd like to say it for everybody, OK.
Did you learn the ones from the Sunday school paper?
Jesus, uh.
I'm not sure which one it is. Can I come back to you in a little bit? You think about it for a moment. Maybe you can ask somebody to help you because I'm not sure how to help you on that one so far. Anybody else? I learned that Sunday school verse for today that would like to say it. OK, good.
You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor. That through his poverty he might be rich.
2nd Corinthians 89 OK, very good. Thank you. Who else? OK.
E-mail the Grays of the Lord Jesus Christ, that thou who is rich for your sake, he became poor so that.
Through his parliament.
Good. Thank you. Anyone else would like to say for everybody, OK, one or two more?
00:15:05
You know so Jesus Christ that thou used, yet for my mom's sakes, he became for a.
I'll come back to you in just a little bit, maybe toward the end there. I'll try to make sure that I get to you, uh, first thing I.
I'd like to talk about the Lord Jesus this morning, and I'd like to talk about how he was rich and he became poor. But before we do that, I want to tell you a story because I think that the theme is pretty important to think about right here at the beginning. Mr. Highland, last night he talked about.
He talked about lots of things last night, but he talked about two things that I want to remind you of in the moment. One was about Pharaoh.
Man a way that Satan is like Pharaoh and then the other one was how he was like Pharaoh's daughter.
Do you remember that? Now, just one little part of that. How is Satan like Pharaoh's daughter?
That goes with the story I'm going to tell you in a moment. How is Satan like Pharaoh's daughter? OK, good. You help us out.
Pharaoh's daughter is the pleasures of the world. OK, good. It's a it's a side that looks pretty good on the outside. I want to tell you a little bit about that side. There were two ladies from Southern California and they went down into Mexico. I don't know why they went there, but they went down to Mexico, maybe to visit, maybe to have a nice little vacation, maybe to do some shopping.
And they were on their way back and it was night. They were driving along in the dark and off in the side of the road, I suppose it was the passenger. She noticed something moving around that looked like a little Chihuahua. You know what a Chihuahua is? How many of you have a pet at home?
OK, lots of you have a pet at home. You've got maybe you you have a Chihuahua. OK, How big is your Chihuahua? Can you show me what your hands about how big? Great big dog or a little dog? A little dog whose is a little dog. I think this was a pretty small dog too. And the lady stopped and they got out and went over in the dark and sure enough, there was a little Chihuahua and it looked like it was thick. So they thought, OK, we're going to help. We'd like to help that sick little Chihuahua. And so they went and they picked it up and they got it back in their car and they started to drive toward the border. Have you, any of you across the border to a different country?
Oh, not too many. OK, we'll have to tell you a little bit about what it's like. Some of you have maybe close to half of you. When you come to the border, can you just drive across? When you got came from Missouri to or from Indiana or from Illinois or from somewhere else and you crossed into Kentucky, did you have to stop and show them a passport?
No, no, you didn't have to do that. But when you cross from Mexico into the United States, you have to stop on a person there interviews you and they ask what you're bringing. And they ask us here identification. And sometimes they take you into a little room off to the side and they'll ask you lots of other little questions and they'd like to know about what you're bringing and why you're coming. And they thought, Oh no, I don't know whether they'll let me bring this little Chihuahua across the border, but boy, we'd sure like to help that Chihuahua. So what do you think they did?
They think they drove up and put it on their lap and held it off and said, Sir, can we bring this little dog in with us?
Is that what they did?
How many think that's what they did? Would that be a good thing to do?
That would be an honest thing to do, wouldn't it? But that's not what they did. They thought, you know, we're gonna do, it's a pretty good thing we're gonna do. We like that little Chihuahua. We'd like to help it, and we're going to bring it in with us. So maybe we'll just hide and maybe we won't tell them anything. Is that good?
I'm not going to ask you for a show of hands, but I think every single person in this room has had something. You start to think about it and to think about it inside and oh, I don't think that's right.
But boy, I, I think it's a good thing to do. I'm gonna do it anyway. What does the Bible call that? What does the Bible call that kind of thing? What's the Bible called? Sin. That's right. Bible calls it sin. Well, these ladies, they got across the border. How nice. And they got home and they waited, I think a day or two. I read the story on Thursday and I was putting something away and, oh, I saw something. I just had to pick it up and read it. And I picked it up and read it and right where I opened it had this story and.
I don't think it said, but it was about a day or two and that Chihuahua wasn't getting any better. So they thought, Oh well, take it to the Where do you take a second?
00:20:05
Well, take it to the vet. That's what they did. We'll take it to the vet. So they went into the vet, they brought in their little sick Chihuahua, they gave it to the vet and the vet examined it. And you know what he said? He told them two things.
And he guessed what he told them.
Maybe it's not going to get better. Maybe I can help it out.
Two things.
I am examining it. I think he knows that it was from wild animals. OK, examining it, you noticed it was a wild animal? You're right, he noticed that it was a Mexican water raft.
And the second thing you noticed was that it had rabies.
You know what Rabies said.
No, rabies is. That's a pretty serious disease.
Get rabies. A person can die from rabies, can be very painful. Or the treatment for rabies can be very painful. And I want to tell you something this morning, right before we go on to the beautiful part of what we have to share, there's someone. Oh, they look nice. They look cute and cuddly, like a little Chihuahua. And oh, we want them. But it's God calls it. If it's not what he has for us, God calls it sin. And you know what sin does? It comes back. Yeah.
What does sin do?
You tell us.
It takes you away from Jesus. That's right. It's a very good answer. And it takes if someone doesn't return to the Lord Jesus, it goes all the way to the end and hell, and it ends with its way to let's read the verse. We can all quote it, I think, but let's read the verse together in Romans three. I think it's an important place to start. Oh, we all know this verse.
Sometimes we like to forget about it because what's right in front of us looks so appealing.
But there's a warning. What looks so appealing has this end. Romans chapter 3.
And verse, I'm sorry, you know what? I was going to read that verse in 23, but let's read another verse in Romans 6. Read that one instead. Romans chapter 6.
And verse 23, someone of your children would like to read that for us. I would appreciate it, OK.
The voyeuristic stain is dead, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
That's right. It's an important warning, isn't it? The wages of sin. That's the end. You know, those ladies. I didn't. I was just skimming through the story and, oh, I better get back to work. And I didn't pause. I wasn't thinking about the story any more than that. Well, that was interesting. And I don't know whether they got scratched or bitten. I don't know whether they got rabies or not. But I know that every single person in this room has earned.
Every single one of us has been bitten by sin.
And every single one of us has sinned, and every single one of us has earned these wages. The wages of sin is death.
Because that's pretty important and pretty solemn to start with. We're going to think about it. Let me illustrate something else though, that relates to the verse. It's the happy side of the Gospel. That's the serious and important side. All of us have earned those wages of death. All of us deserve them. Now there's a happy side, and I want to illustrate it this way first so that you'll remember. I have, I think the package says 14 mini boxes. It says right here.
And I'm going to, I kept them in the bag and didn't dump them out. So I didn't want to mix them in with other things so that I knew I would have 14 here. And I need a maybe a volunteer to help me, an older volunteer. I'm going to pick somebody that's twenty or more for this part.
I'm going to give them four boxes.
Thank you. I don't know if you were stretching. I thought you were volunteering. I honestly did.
Unfortunately, you were in my line of sight. There's four boxes. Thank you very much. And would you give them the way that anybody wants them? This isn't a lesson on faith, but I'd like you to give them away to anybody that would like them. He's got four boxes. He gave away one. There's some eager hands over here. There's two. There's three.
And there's there's.
Four. OK, good. Thank you very much. That's all I needed from you. I appreciate it. He gave away four of those, didn't he?
00:25:02
I have 10 left and I'd like to give them away now. I would ask you don't eat them yet and I'll make don't feel left out. I'll make sure you get something here, but I'll give you one. Would you like one? OK, if you like one.
If you like one, that's four I gave out. Would you like one that's five if you don't want. OK. No thank you. Are you sure you don't have to eat them now? OK. No thank you. At six. Anybody else?
No. Yes, 7-8.
Nine, I don't feel bad, guys, but I have one left.
Boy, it looks good now. I asked you not to eat them, didn't I? I pray you'll make a mess, but I'm going to test mine.
There.
Just as good as I remember. They're nice and fresh. The package, on the outside at least, says that the only thing in these are raisins. Nothing but raisins, and they're good.
But here's the point I'd like to make.
Who gave away more?
Hands or did I?
Who gave more?
MMM, lots of people that can count real well. Remember there's fourteen in there.
And I kept 10 and one of them is pretty good. I still have that one. And he gave away 4. Still gave away more.
That's simple math, isn't it?
She says I gave more because I gave 9 the nine and Hannah's only gave 4.
Is that what the Bible says?
For new year bibles, somebody explained this to me and I thought it was a nice thought.
Let's turn in your Bible to Mark chapter 12. Remember, we're thinking about the Lord Jesus. He was rich for your sakes. He became poor.
In your Bible to Mark's Gospel chapter 12, some of you have already flipped to those last verses because you know where we're headed.
And I'll read the whole section so we can catch the context. Mark's Gospel, chapter 12, verse 41.
And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury, and many that were rich cast in much.
And there came a certain poor widow, and she drew through in two mites which make Farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they took cast into the treasury. For all they did cast in of their abundance. But she of her want did cast in. Listen carefully all.
But she had even all her living.
You count in math class and school. How many of you are in school that are sitting up front here? OK, just all of you, maybe all OK, all of you. When you count in math, you counted correctly. So it was a good answer to say that I gave more. I gave 9 and Hans gave 4. But the way that God counts, he doesn't count down from what you start with, At least what this lady explains it. He counts up from what you have left.
MMM, how much does hands have left?
None. How much do I have left?
1.
Who gave more?
And he gave more, didn't he? Because he gave all that he had. And I kept not very much. I gave away 9 out of 10, but I kept one for myself.
I kept one for myself. I didn't give all that I had, but you know, the Lord Jesus gave all.
That he had. What was the verse again?
That was on the Sunday school paper that some of you memorized.
For, you know, how did it go?
We know the grace of God.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ for value is rich for our sakes He became for the E through his poverty might become rich. Second Corinthians 8-9 OK, thank you.
Though he was rich, yet for your sake, is he talking about us? That first was written to the Corinthians, wasn't it? I think he's talking about us too, for your sakes. For my sake, he became poor. You only have 15 minutes to think about that. That's not very much time, is it? There's so much in the Bible. I just wrote down a few this morning. We'll only look at a couple of them because there's not much time left.
00:30:20
But I want you to look at some of the things that the Lord Jesus seemed rich.
Again.
Can you think of something when he was rich, for your sakes, he became poor. Can you tell me? Maybe one thing, maybe it's not something I wrote down.
Can you tell me somebody that seated here, all of you think about it, right? You start to make a big long list in your head, even if I'm not going to call on you because there are many, many, many things. You're rich. He became poor, but.
Who can help me out? What's something that he gave?
OK, you help me. He gave his life. That's right. We're going to come to that in just a little bit. He gave his life a tremendous thing that he gave for you and me.
He gave us love. That's right, the Lord Jesus gave us love and one more.
The Lord Jesus loved everyone. That's very true. He loved everyone and he gave us love.
To us, let's look at just a couple of things. First of all, in that verse it is talking about giving money. In that section, it's talking about giving money. So let's look at part of that. How many of you got here?
Walking from your home, not from the hotel, from your home where you live. How many of you got here walking?
Nobody got here walking.
How many of you came in the car or a truck or a van or a minivan or a nice comfortable something? OK, nobody. Maybe a few of you flew, I don't know. But I saw all the hands up in front here, came in the car. Is that comfortable way to travel?
Some cars are fancy, some cars aren't, but I'm sure it was more comfortable than this. Let's look at a verse in John chapter 4.
John, Chapter 4.
And verse 6.
John chapter 4, verse six for us.
OK, Yeah.
Now Jacob's well was there Jesus therefore being.
Work with his journey.
Set this on the world and it was on the 6th hour. About the 6th hour. Good.
Could the Lord Jesus have gone? This is an easy question. We're gonna start with an easy one. Could he have gone from one place to another in a car?
Is that a silly question? Could you have gone from one place to another in a car? No, of course not. I didn't have cars.
Does that mean you had to walk? Did everybody back then walk?
Is everybody back then walk? No.
No.
OK, some of them rode on a horse, some of them rode on a donkey. Where you read about some of them? Like in the book of Acts with the Ethiopian eunuch? What was he writing in?
You remember what was he riding in? OK, you got a chance to answer a lot and I'll come to you some more, but let's see if some more people would like to answer that note to.
No. OK. And you tell him?
No, you didn't. It's probably the way we would say it today if you were walking along the way and you were just walking along and his chariot, you went to chariot, if it's chariot went rolling right past and maybe blew up some dust on the road. And today the way we say it sometimes casually, it's oh, you flew fast because that chariot probably went a lot faster and was a lot more comfortable than just walking along the road. But you know the Lord Jesus Christ when he came along.
It says being wearied with this journey sets us on the well and we find out later that he was thirsty. Let's look at something else.
00:35:06
Let's look, we have time for it and Luke's Gospel chapter 20.
It's Gospel chapter 20.
And someone reads 4 words verses 23 and 24.
I think I thank both of you. You've helped me a lot. I'd like to have some other people have a chance to help too. OK, Thank you. Luke Gospel chapter 20 and verses 23 and 24.
But he preserved their craftiness and said unto them, why tempt you mean do you need painting in the same? I'm gonna change separate methods. They answered and said cheers.
See hers? Yeah. OK. Now, just to make sure we understand those words real quickly, could I show you a penny?
I can show you an American penny. Not the kind of coin that's talking about in this verse, but it's worth more than an American penny. But I have an American penny here, and I can pull it out, but I have to ask one of you to give me a penny.
No, I have one in my pocket.
Maybe what he had in his pocket was worth a little bit more. Maybe that image in superscription. You know what's on a $20 bill?
Do you know whose face is on that? That's kind of like the superscription on the coin. Whose face is on that one? That's not really the important part. You tell me. Yeah, I believe so. What's that? You're right. See that picture right there? And it's got the name underneath. You're right. No, I'm not offering it. Sorry.
I just wanted to illustrate that when it talks about superscription, there was a face on it, OK, that had the face on. So that's what he said and he reached it. He reached into his own pocket.
He'd reach into his own pocket of the tunic or the robe and pull out a penny to show them.
Did you hear? Did you listen carefully when you read that? That was a hard word because it's spelled SHEW. So that means show.
Yeah.
Where did he get a penny?
If you go to the bank.
Go to where he had it stored. How does the Lord Jesus get a penny that time? Do you remember?
I didn't get a penny that time.
Lord Jesus didn't lack what He needed. He knew where to go and get it and when it needed to be spent. That time He said show me when we read, that time when He needed to spend it. He got it for somewhere where He wasn't taking from any person, taking away to give for himself and His finger, but he took it from a fish's mouth, part of His creation. He could get what He needed, but He didn't have it there in his pocket, did he?
Though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor. But he gave more than that. And I'm going to jump forward because really there's two very, very important ones. There's so many, but there's two very, very important ones that are very, I think, instructive to us. Let's turn to Matthew's gospel. They'll both be there in chapter 26.
I walked over from the Super 8 this morning and on my way I crossed the John M Carol purchased properly and then I passed the 2006 National Championship sign for high school where we are. And then I passed the 2006 state championship sign and on the bottom of that was the 2005 state championship. And then I turned and I came past the beautiful Giant Eagle with its wings spread and its talent coming down.
And it says the Eagles nest next door. And then I walked in here. And when you walk in here, you'll see up and there's valedictorian after valedictorian on the walls. And over here there are distinguished students and more distinguished students. And over there there's a poster for the state and national champions. You know, people like to receive, and it's very common to receive honor and respect.
The Lord Jesus deserve honor and respect.
Sure it is. I wanna tell you about a story that moved me. I'm gonna tell it very briefly because there's two more important things. But very briefly, there was a lady named Sylvia, and she wanted to escape from Romania, and she wanted to get away from Romania because she was being persecuted for her faith and the Lord Jesus Christ. And she crossed the river, an icy river in the middle of the night in a bumpy little boat. And they got to the far side. And on the far side they had to go through a minefield where there were trip wires all the way through. But they went through that minefield all the way to the other side, and they got to a farmhouse where they were safe.
00:40:28
But they weren't safe. The people there told them they were being honest, they were being kind. They said, oh, the Yugoslavian authorities where you now are in Yugoslavia, yes, you're in Yugoslavia, made it across the border. But they don't return people. You just go to the police and you tell them that who you are and you'll have to register with them. And so she went to the police, told them who they were, and they registered with them. And 21 days later, they were back in a Romanian prison because they didn't know.
But important people, people like Christians that they wanted back to persecute.
They pay the fox car load of grain for each of them to get them back. Other people, they didn't care. That was too expensive. They let them go. So they paid a boxcar worth of grain to get her and the seven companions back. And they went back into a prison yard. And this is what struck me. In that prison yard there were soldiers. There was actually not a prison yard. It was a soldiers Barrett's right there near the border. And they went into the soldiers barracks and they lined the eight of them up against the wall and then they took the four men. The three of them were young and one was old. And they each of those young men, they had a group of maybe 10 or 12 soldiers stand around.
And they use that person, like you've seen people standing around with a hacky sack, or maybe they don't call that anymore a little, maybe with a soccer ball or maybe when they're bumping a volleyball back and forth. You've seen that people stand around. Maybe they throw football back and forth. They stood around in a circle and they had one of those young men in front and they would kick them from one person across the circle to another. And then they kicked them back across the circle. And if they fell down, they all descended on them and they kicked them and beat them until they stood up. And the others were forced to watch.
And when they came to the old man, they didn't do that to the old man.
They came to the old man, and they made him stand out in front of everyone else, and they took his face and they slapped it back and forth and back and forth and made everybody else watch. Now let's read these verses together in Matthew 27.
Matthew 26. First, this is the Lord Jesus.
Verse 67 of Matthew 26.
Then did they spit in his face and buffeted a fight Punch Martin and my other Bible says smite with the 5th like that means punch punch in the face. Then they buffeted him another smote him with the palms of their hands. You know that old man, they hit his face back and forth. Those young men, they kicked around and beat up the Lord Jesus. They did both.
Pumps with their hands, saying, Prophecy unto us, thou Christ.
Who is he that's mostly made fun of him, Didn't he in the next chapter in Matthew chapter 27?
Wanted to illustrate that because I think you're just going to have to imagine it in your mind because there's something more important yet. But so Lord Jesus, it says in the margin of my other Bible too, it says that there was gathered there. It says the whole band and that's the important part, the part the Bible gives to us. The whole group of soldiers in the next chapter, they circled around the Lord Jesus. They all wanted to be in on the mockery and the treatment of him, but the margin says that there was.
There was a man of Paul.
Which is the third part of the cohort? And that's about 500 men. What's the third part of 500?
A little bit of math for you. What's the third part of 500? It could vary a little bit over time, maybe very 300 to 500. So let's say it was on the bottom end. What's the third part of 300? That's easier, Matt, what's the third part of 300?
An important part of that was the whole group of them, the whole band. But what's the third part of 300?
101 hundred.
I wanted to have 100 and I don't know if we have 100 men here. I'm sure we don't have 100 men of military age soldiers like these were, but I thought maybe we could get 100 males to stand around one person. You know, the beginning of the other chapter, it says they bound the Lord Jesus and obviously on the cross his hands weren't bound, but it doesn't say when they united them. So we don't know. I don't know whether the Lord takes his hands. Perhaps it says in another gospel and I didn't look, I don't know whether his hands were tied, but 100.
Soldiers.
Rough soldiers surrounded him.
Have you given all at that point?
Do you know if he'd given everything yet? Remember, I gave away ten of these raisins, but I kept one for myself.
00:45:06
Did the Lord Jesus have anything left to give? He became poor. He was rich. He became poor for your sakes and mine. Did he have any more to give?
You know.
The most important part, and I've left it so that we're out of time. I'm sorry, but you know, in this bag there's one more.
There's one more.
You had a little more left to give.
That's a bigger box, isn't it? It's just meant to illustrate. These are golden raisins and it's a big box.
You know the Lord Jesus kept the.
For last, and he gave it away.
And gave it to an enemy. And I thought about this last night and I don't have an enemy to give it to, so I can't even illustrate that much.
So I'm going to give it to somebody whose name I don't know. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to signal you out because I don't know your name. I'll try to find somebody whose face at least I don't recognize. There are very many I don't know. Maybe I won't embarrass anybody by giving it to them. Maybe I can give it to somebody in the kitchen later on and you'll see them with the box he gave it.
For his enemies, let's read it Chapter 27.
I think you know what these verses refer to, so we'll read them and stop.
After 27 verse 45.
Now from the 6th hour there was darkness over all the land and to the 9th hour. In about the 9th hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying Eli Eli llamas are back tonight. That is to say my God.
My God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Hello Jesus, I just wanna get back this morning.