Children—D. Nicolet
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And.
I'll start walking back this way, but we'll start over here. How are you this morning?
Fine, good, good. I am too. Who would like to sing a song?
Anybody here have a song they'd like to sing? I've got one I'd like to sing. So I'm going to start. And while we're singing the one I'd like to sing, then you can be thinking of a song you'd like to sing. OK. So let's look at this on the on the song sheet here that we have. And we're going to sing a song that probably a lot of us don't even need to read the words to because we probably already know it by memory. It's #40, OK Jesus loves me. That's the song we're going to sing. How many of you know the song? Jesus loves me.
And I imagine there would be a lot of other hands going up here, too. OK, we're going to sing #40 Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me.
Come. Yes, it comes from snake. Yeah, the skin is Jesus as long as we can't speak.
The Bible helps me so.
Jesus.
Hold me in his heart.
It's his day from every harm.
Yes, because I love breaking.
Lost made me well, stayed close to exciting me all the way.
Here I trust him. Should I die?
He will Take Me Home on time.
Yeah, I think some slugs make me get a Speaking of slugs, Love's making it.
Tells me so.
Now before we sing our next song.
There's something that I've noticed.
That happens a lot of times when we have these kind of get togethers where we come together and everybody gets to sit down and and hear about the Lord Jesus.
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And then I've noticed that.
On Lord's Day Morning, when someone speaks to you children that oftentimes they've got a sack or they've got bulging pockets and something that's in that sack or in those pockets is called a treat. Is that right? Yeah, a treat. And lots of times you get a treat if the person talking asks you questions and you raise your hand and you get the right answer.
And they reach into their pocket and they give you a treat, right? That happens. You remember that? I remember last year. I don't know if he's here.
I think it was Mr. Wally, dear.
Had the Sunday school here, and I think he was passing out pencils. Does anybody remember that? Yeah, if you raised your hand and you answered the question, you got a pencil. And just a few weeks ago, we got to be in Addison. And they had a meeting like this up in Addison. And there was a dear man named Mr. Roach. And Mr. Roach talked to the children and his pockets. He kept reaching into his pocket and handing out a piece of candy to people.
To the kids as they answered their questions, that's pretty nice. How many think that's a nice thing to do?
I don't have anything to give you this morning.
I didn't bring any treats that I have in my pockets and you see, I don't have a sack.
But even though I don't have anything.
To give you this morning from my pockets, there's one person in this room who does.
Did you know that?
One person in this room has a sack with treats in it.
Now there's something even better than that. You don't have to answer any questions to get those treats.
Is that fun? Isn't that a nice idea? All you have to do?
Is some time, and I'm going to tell you when.
Go to this person and say I would like a treat. I would like what you have for me.
And I can tell you for sure, this person is going to give you what you ask for.
Not a good idea. Isn't that nice? I'm not going to tell you what the treat is.
But I'm pretty sure that everyone of you will like it.
And if you don't, you'll find somebody in this room who does, and you can give it to them.
Now, I need to tell you a couple more things. Some of you might know who this person is, but I wonder, does everybody up here, now, you know it's not me, right? You know that. And I will tell you that it's not Mr. or Mrs. Hayhoe. They don't have that treat.
And Mr. and Mrs. Clausen, do you have a bag with treats in them? No, no, there's a bag there. But there's no treats in that bag. Not for you kids, anyway.
So we know some of the people who don't have the treat, but you would probably like to know who does have it. Would you like to know who does have the treat? How many would like to know who does have the bag with treats?
OK, well, that's, I'm going to tell you, OK, I'm going to tell you who that is.
But there's something else you need to know.
There's quite a few trees in that bag.
But I don't think.
I don't think there's enough treats for everybody in this room.
Now.
You kids, and even if you're not sitting up front here, the kids can go get those treats.
And then if there's any leftover, we'll let the older folks go too. OK, but but what I want you to remember is if you don't, go, get the treat right away after Sunday school.
By the time that you decide, oh, maybe I'd like to go have one of those treats after all.
They might be gone. And when they're gone, I don't have any treats, OK?
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Now I'm going to tell you a little secret. I've kind of been looking around today and kind of seeing how many kids we have here, and I'm pretty sure that there's enough treats for all the kids that are here.
All right, what's the last thing you need to know?
What do you need to know?
Who the person is that has the treats, I want to tell you about this person.
Because I think he's a very, very nice man and I have enjoyed getting to know him a little bit and I've enjoyed talking to him and finding out a little bit about him.
And one of the things, and I'm going to give you a hint and maybe that everybody almost will know who this man is but this man.
Do you know how old he is?
He's 98 years old.
Do you know he was born 98 years ago?
That's almost 100 years. That's a lot of years, isn't it?
Now I'm just going to ask him to raise his hand. Most of you, I think, are looking around trying to see where's a 98 year old man.
Well, he's a very nice man. His name is Mr. Graham. Mr. Graham. Brother Graham, would you raise your hand just a minute? There he is. You see him right there. And he doesn't have to hold the sack up. It's kind of heavy, but he has a sack. And if after Sunday school, you kids will go to Mr. Graham.
I know he will be happy to give you a treat.
And what do you have to do to get it?
That's great.
Say please.
That's a good idea, isn't it, Brother Graham, say please. And so you're going to go to Mr. Grant and you're going to ask him, can I please have a treat? What do you think he's going to do? You think he'll say no? You think he'd do that? No, he'll give you the treat.
It sounds like a pretty nice thing, doesn't it? But you know what I'm going to tell you this morning about somebody who's even nicer than Mr. Graham.
Jesus, that is right. And I'll tell you we have been. I'm going to stand here so those chairs over there can get filled up.
You know, we've been spending some time talking about Jesus.
And it's been wonderful to hear about how wonderful Jesus is.
And you know, one thing I decided is none of us sitting here in this room, from the oldest, who's probably Mr. Graham, to the youngest could ever really say how wonderful Jesus is.
And there's something else.
The Lord Jesus has something to give you.
And it's much, much better than what Mr. Grant is going to give you.
And you know, to get what the Lord Jesus has a gift of eternal life.
All you have to do, you don't even have to get up out of your seat and go anywhere, but you have to do what you're going to do to Mr. Graham. You need to say Lord Jesus.
I would like that gift.
And he will give it to you. He will give it to anyone in this room this morning who comes to him and says, I would like the gift that you have. Lord Jesus, you died on the cross. You shed your precious blood for me to give me a wonderful gift, eternal life. And I would like that gift. You can do that this morning. And you don't even have to get up out of your chairs to do that. You can just do that right where you're sitting.
In your mind, in your heart you can say say that to the Lord Jesus and he will give it to you. And you know something else. Do you think the Lord Jesus will ever come to the point?
Where children are coming to him and he's inviting children to come to him.
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To get this gift, do you think he will say to someone all I'm sorry I can't give that to you.
I don't have any more.
Jesus, say that to you.
No, but you know what?
Do you think maybe the day is coming when you won't be able to ask the Lord Jesus for that gift anymore?
I think that day's coming when the Lord Jesus takes us all, all of us who have said, yes, Lord Jesus, I want that gift. I want eternal life. I want what you have for me. I want you to save me.
And then someday he comes and he's going to take us all who have believed in him, all who said I'd like that gift? He's going to take us home to heaven. And do you know what then, if there are boys and girls in this world?
It'll be too late to get that gift.
It'll be too late, so it's very important children for everyone of you, whether you're sitting up here or somewhere else in the room this morning.
It's very important that you right now, where you're sitting, say Lord Jesus, I want that gift. Now I'm going to say one more thing. And then we're going to sing and we're going to tell you a story. You like stories. People tell you a story, but we're going to sing one more song. But before we do, there's one last, very, very important thing.
Who was it that said all you have to say to Mr. Graham is please? OK, that's right. Now, what do you think would really be a nice thing to say after you get the gift?
What? Thank you, thank you, thank you.
So Mr. Graham is probably going to hear a lot of pleases and thank yous today, right? That's really wonderful. You know, the Lord Jesus wants us to be thankful, doesn't he?
People have worked really hard to allow us to come to this nice place we have and to enjoy these days together.
Wouldn't it be sad if we all got up today when it was over and walked out the door and never said thank you?
We need to remember to say thank you when people do kind things for us, so.
Remember now, after Sunday school, you can go. And as long as those treats last, you don't have to do anything but go and say please and you'll get a treat. And I hope, and I'm pretty sure you will say thank you too. OK, now we're going to sing another song. Does somebody have a song? Yes. What would you like to sing?
The old legend crossing this university old legend cross.
On a hill.
Well, actually, I've got two stories to tell you.
I wonder if you would do something for me.
Would you go over to the table where the men are sitting with the sound equipment and there's a Bible case there which we can't bring it to the face.
I'm going to tell you a story about this Bible case.
And I promised that I wouldn't embarrass the owner this Bible case. So, Albert, don't be embarrassed.
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This belongs to Albert, and actually this Bible case has lots of history connected with it. But I'm going to tell you a story. I'm not even sure that Albert knows about this.
And then if he wants to tell anybody more about this, he can certainly do that.
This Bible case has.
Had a very interesting life.
It has gone through some very interesting experiences and I'm going to tell you about one of the experiences it's had.
Last year, Albert and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. I think all of you, were able to be at Des Moines. Or at least Albert was.
And his dad.
And at the conference. And then the time came and they had to go home. Now my wife and I have a son who married a very wonderful Christian girl, and they live in Des Moines. And a few days a week part time she goes to a hospital. That's about.
I suppose 3 or 4 miles from where the conference is and she works there.
Well, after the conference was over the next morning, which I think would have been a Tuesday morning, she had to go into work for a while and there was a lady there. And this lady who works with her is not a Christian. She doesn't know the Lord Jesus as her savior.
And our daughter-in-law, Jody was was working at her desk and she overheard this lady telling a story, she said to someone else. And she wasn't talking to Jody, our daughter-in-law, she said, you know, I was driving down the freeway last night. Now the freeway is the main road that you take from where the conference at Drake University is to get to either side of town.
She said, you know, I was driving down the freeway, I think it was this morning, she said on the way to work. And you know what? I saw the side of the road, I saw a Bible case.
Which one? What Bible case do you suppose she saw?
This one right here, and she said. And so I stopped and picked it up.
And our daughter-in-law thought, oh, well, that's interesting because we were just spending the weekend where people had lots of Bibles. And so she went to this lady and she said, well, you know, we were at a Bible conference during the weekend. Well, he said, well, you were. And Jody said, could I see the Bible case? And she showed it to her. She had brought it to work to show the people.
And she showed it to her. And Albert, I'm sorry, but Jody opened it up and looked.
And sure enough, there was a name in the Bible in there, Albert Quatmo.
I know those people. They were at the conference and the lady thought, well, that was just wonderful that out of now Des Moines isn't near as big as Saint Louis, but out of 300,000 people, that's about how many live in that area that she would drive. This lady who doesn't know the Lord Jesus as savior would drive down the road in the morning and there by the side of the road would be a Bible case and it would belong to somebody that Jody had spent the weekend with in Brian's and all of us.
Hearing about the Lord Jesus isn't that wonderful. But now here's the rest of the story.
This lady said, you know, this is really strange.
This is the second time I found a Bible on the freeway.
You know what I think?
I think the Lord is talking to her. You think that might be?
Do you think the Lord might really have something he wants to tell her? Because at least as far as I know at that time anyway, she didn't know the Lord Jesus as her savior. Where is she going to be able to find out about the Lord Jesus who loves her in His word? The Bible. That's the place we read about Jesus and it tells us the truth. And twice the Lord has sent a Bible to her.
I hope.
I hope.
That that Lady.
Will listen to what Jody and I think some of the other Christians who work there have been telling her.
God is wanting to speak to her, and he's using a very special means to do it. Now God wants to speak to all of the hearts of men that live in this world, but he may not drop a Bible case by the sight of a freeway to do it.
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He might use somebody like me, or somebody like Mr. Tony last night, or or Mr. Hayhoe or Mr. Highland or or others that have spoken here. Or he might use your dad and your mom. I'm sure he does. He might use a friend.
He uses all sorts of ways to tell you something, boys and girls. He has a message for you and.
That message is I love you.
And you know, I really enjoyed what Mr. Hajo said yesterday that the Lord Jesus wants to tell me, that he's my friend. Isn't that nice? So many important things. But the Lord Jesus has very important things to tell people who don't love him.
And that's the most serious thing of all, is to hear what the Lord Jesus says, because.
He loves people so much that he wants to warn them about how dangerous, how serious, how awful it is.
To say I'm not interested in listening to the message God is sending me.
Oh, I hope this morning everybody in this room.
Especially since this is a meeting for the kids. But everybody in this room will listen carefully to the message God is sending you.
I don't think that the chances are very likely you'll find a Bible by the side of the road when you leave here to get a message from the Lord, because the Lord has been sending a message to us all for the last two days. So what's important is not to look for a special message, but children, what's important today?
Is to.
Listen.
Message he's sending, however, he's sending now. We've talked a lot, We've told some stories, we've sung a couple songs. What we're going to do now is I'm going to pray, and then we're going to tell you one more story before you can go get your treat, OK?
Let's close our eyes now, Father. We thank thee that I'm not going to ask you to stand up and say verses.
Because I don't know for sure which ones you learned. I think the one that we were going to learn in Des Moines, where I'm from, or Pleasant Hill is called, I think it's in Hebrews 13. Is that the one you learned? And it's a nice verse. Well, it's a wonderful verse because it's God's word, so that makes it wonderful anyway. But it's kind of nice. I remember when I was your age, I kind of liked verses that were only 5 words long. And this one, it's a bigger verse, but you just had to learn 5 words, right?
Maybe some of you learn more on that, but the five words that you had to learn were The Lord is my.
Helper Thank you. You helped me, thank you. The Lord is my helper.
That's wonderful. Well, I'll tell you what, I'm pretty sure a lot of you have learned that. So anybody who wants to.
In these two rows here or anywhere else, go ahead and stand up and we'll all say it together. OK? Be kind of nice. Anybody who wants to just stand right up with me and we're going to say that this okay and you don't have to do this, that's quite hard. If you don't okay, here we go.
And I heard someone say the Lord is my shepherd. And that's true too.
That's wonderful. Well, we've just got a few minutes here. I want to tell you another story. And this is a true story too, and it's about a man who needed help.
And it's about some men who thought they had plenty of help, and it's about what happened to them.
And I'm going to tell it to you. And then because it's very important that we make sure what we say is the truth, we're going to find that story in the Bible. There's a story in the Bible about a man who needed help.
Now let's tell you about this man. And maybe, as I tell you, you might think who it is. OK.
This man was a young man and he was in trouble.
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The reason we was in trouble was because there were some really bad people, some naughty people who hated him and who hated his parents, and who hated all of his relatives, and who hated all of his friends, and who hated all the people that he loved.
And the problem was why he was in trouble was the people that hated him were so much stronger, and there were so many, many more of them.
Than the people that he loved, that they came and they could do mean things to him. And his people, They took his food away, they took their food away, They took their homes away. They didn't let them enjoy where they live.
And these people that this young man loved and were and were his relation, it says they they became very poor because every time they had something nice.
This these bad people who were so strong, and there were so many of them, they would come and they would take all these things away.
And so he needed help.
And you know what he knew? The Lord. You suppose the Lord helped him? Yes, he did. Because he said, well, if we grow this food and the minute we get it growing, somebody comes and takes it away.
I'm going to hide it before they can come and get it, and so the Lord helped him to get food and hide it from the enemy.
The Lord helped him to do that. You know, children, the world. I want to. I'm going to, I'm going to just share some thoughts with you this morning.
The world that hates the Lord Jesus.
And hates Christians. And so if you're a Christian, the world may act like it likes you, but really, it doesn't. It wants to steal things from you. It wants to steal all the precious things that the Lord Jesus has given you to enjoy.
It can't. If you know the Lord Jesus is Savior, take your salvation away. Can't do that. But all it can make you and me so unhappy.
But the verse that we learned today says the Lord is my helper. Do you suppose that the Lord can help you and me to live in such a way that the world can't come and steal away those wonderful things that Jesus has given us? Can the Lord do that?
Sure you can.
And he tells us, sometimes to the best thing to do is to hide what's precious from the world that wants to hate. And so sometimes it's a good idea, kids, it's a really good idea to listen to mom and dad when they say no. I don't think that we're going to go to that place.
No, I don't think we're going to look at those things.
No, I don't think we're going to do those things.
Because if we do, something is going to get stolen from us.
And it's wonderful to keep precious things that the world wants to steal that the enemy Satan wants to take from us. It's wonderful to learn how to say no. I'm going to hide those things well. So this man, he hid this food.
Well, it's a kind of a long story and we don't have very much time, so I'm going to go a little faster. And the Lord came to him and he said, I've got a job for you to do. I've got something I want you to do. I want you to go deliver all of my people, your relatives.
I want you to go deliver them from this world that's hurting you. I want you to go.
And fight a battle against them now.
This man said, oh, I'm just a young man. There aren't very many people that I have as relatives that will follow me.
And and I see these people, why they've got so many camels. It's like you're looking at the sand on the seashore everywhere you look.
There's camels and there's soldiers. And you, you want me to?
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Go fight them.
What do you think? The Lord said.
The Lord is my helper, he said. I'm going to be with you. Is the Lord bigger than a whole lot of camels? Is he bigger than a whole lot of soldiers?
And so the Lord said, I'm going to be with you, You can go fight the battle. So he went.
But he had some questions.
And he said. I'm not sure if I really heard you right. Lord, did I really hear thee right? Do you really want me to go and fight this battle? I'm just not sure.
I wonder, Lord, if I really heard you right.
The Lord is my.
Helper. Do you suppose the Lord can help you to hear if you're not sure? Well, of course he can. Do you suppose the Lord can help you to do something if you don't think you can do it? Of course he can. The Lord is my helper. He can do anything. And He loves me, and He loves you, and he wants you to do something. He will help you do it. And if you're not sure you heard him right, he will help you to hear. And he helped Gideon to hear.
And so.
You knew that, didn't you? How many knew I was talking about Gideon?
All right, let's see the other hands here. How many knew I was talking about Okay. All right, so Gideon goes and.
He's got a whole bunch of men following him.
I think somebody can correct me on this, but it wasn't about 30,000. Mr. Highland, can I put you on the spot around 30. Mr. Highland doesn't want me to put him on the spot. Wasn't about 30 thousand, 32,000 something like that. OK, that's quite a bit of people. There's what, maybe 250 people here today, 30,000, That's a lot. But the problem was, do you know how many of the enemy there were, 135,000?
That's a lot of enemies. And then the Lord said this, the Lord said, Gideon, you've got too many people with you.
There's just too many people. I don't want you to take that many people because I want you to know and I want everybody to know that the Lord is thy helper, not men. They're not going to help you. It's the Lord that's going to help you. And so, Gideon, I want you not to take so many men now to make this story a little quicker. You know, Gideon got rid of and didn't get rid of, but he sent home some men and then some more went and some more men.
And finally he was left with.
How many? 303 hundred. That's about as many in this room against 135,000.
I couldn't fight a battle like that, could you? Unless I knew that the Lord is my helper, right? If the Lord is my helper.
Why we could win a battle.
And you know.
Gideon took those 300 men. And did you win the battle? Yes, he did. Yes he did. The Lord was his helper and he did win a wonderful battle. And the children of Israel.
Got to eat their food again. They got to be happy again. Oh, it was wonderful.
But remember I said that we're going to tell you about somebody who thought they didn't need any help?
Those were the 2 Kings.
That led the enemies 2 Kings.
And they got funny names. But I suppose if they had heard our names, they think our names were funny too. So I think their names were Ziba and Zelja.
You know, kind of funny news, but I don't think you would have gone to Ziva and Zalmuna and looked at them and said you have funny names because they had 135,000 warriors. Probably wouldn't have been a good thing to say something like that to them.
And they looked at all their warriors, and they looked at all their camels, and they said.
The Lord. I can do it by myself. Look how strong I am. Look how powerful we are. We don't need God.
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Was that a good thing to say?
No, it wasn't. Because do you know what happened? Gideon and his 300 men came. And of those 135,000 men?
I'm not very good at math, but I think 120 thousand of them the Lord destroyed.
Was the Lord? Did they? Did they have help?
They were trusting in themselves and they lost 120 thousand of their 135,000 soldiers. And you know what? They still had 15,000. That's still more than 300, right?
You know, Vidya went after those two proud kings with their camels in his 15,000 soldiers and he won the battle because.
The Lord is my helper. Even against 15,000 men, they won the battle.
And you know what? Those two kings, Because they thought they didn't need the Lord to be their helper. They didn't want him. They wanted their wicked idols and their own strength. You know, they died.
They died. Oh boys and girls, if the Lord isn't your helper, you don't have any help.
There's no one that can help you if the Lord isn't your helper. I hope this morning everyone in here can say the Lord is my helper, but how can I say that?
I have to say something else about the Lord. First, I have to say the Lord is my Savior. And when I say all, the Lord Jesus is my savior. I've trusted in Him, and I believe His precious blood has washed my sins away.
And he's my savior. Then we can say, and let's say it one more time, All of us who know the Lord Jesus as savior, we can say the Lord is my help. Oh, that's wonderful. Remember that, boys and girls. The Lord Jesus loves you so much. And you can always say the Lord is my helper. OK, now I'm going to pray. And then I have a couple announcements to make. OK.
Father.