Children—David Mearns
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Well, good morning boys and girls.
And older boys and girls.
Good to see everyone here this morning.
While we're waiting for some more folks to come, how about we sing a few hymns? Does somebody have a number for us?
Right over there. Do you have that number? Sorry, which one is that #44? So let's say #44 Glad T no into a tent. Tell it again, tell it again. Salvation story, repeat or, and, or you know, many of us here in this room have heard that, uh, salvation story over and over and over and we enjoy hearing it again. So we're going to tell it again this morning hymn #44.
Into.
Clothes of the day.
Nobody ever has talked to me.
Rolling again. Rolling again.
I'll make some story with people around the world.
Else has one for us.
Which number was that?
Are we thank thankful for grandpa #47?
Like the stars of the morning.
His bright crown adorning, they shall shine in his beauty, Bright gems for his crown #47.
Microsoft.
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Who else has one course? Benji.
#27 So let's sing #27.
How about we seeing the?
1St and the last two verses of #27.
My God.
The glory.
Of your body and glory on there. I've never gone to the end of my life.
And over here.
You know, boys and girls, we trust and we hope that that's true of everybody here this morning. It says here he'll not be in glory and leave me behind. All we trust that everyone here.
Will not be left behind when the Lord Jesus comes.
Before we sing another couple, let's just ask the Lord for His help.
Our God and our Father, we thank thee for our precious Savior, the Lord Jesus, we thank Thee that we have the privilege of being in a company like this this morning where my precious word can be opened, and not for fear of the authorities coming in to break up the meeting, but we can be here with liberty. We thank thee for this. Our God, help us not to take these things for granted. And we just would pray earnestly our God this morning that as we open my precious word that we might hear thy voice.
If I would speak to each of our hearts, and especially those who are younger here, blessed God, we just would pray that these young hearts might come to know Thee as Father and thy blessed Son as their Savior while they're young. And for any of us who are older too, who perhaps.
Do not know this, Father, We just would pray that Thy precious word would speak to us this morning. And so we'd ask these things in the worthy and the precious name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, Amen.
We sang You know when this this little hymn where life and where joy and true comfort abound. This morning I want to talk about life. Life.
You're on our way home last night.
We were driving to our motel and we passed a raccoon. It was dead on the road.
This morning, on our way here, we passed the same raccoon. You know what? It was still dead. It was still dead.
And you know, this morning, boys and girls, there may be boys and girls here that are dead in their trespasses and sins.
You know, that's not an unusual thing to pass a raccoon that's dead and to pass by a little while later and find it's still dead. In fact, when we went to uh, on our way here this morning, there was four others. So we passed 5 raccoons that were dead. And I expect if we were to go back there, we'd find they'd all be dead. But this morning, we trust that if there's someone here that is dead in their trespasses and sins, that there would be a change. There would be a change.
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The most unusual for raccoon to come back to life, but no, wouldn't be unusual for someone who is dead in their trespasses and sins.
To become a lie. To have life. Oh, this morning, as we take up the little subject of life, we trust.
Everyone here this morning would be alive. Who has another him for us?
That's another one for us.
I need the boys and girls in the front row here or well, here's one over here, number 40.
That's thing #40.
How about we sing the 1St and the last two verses of #40?
Yeah.
You know, if there's other boys, there's lots of boys and girls here in the front row, and there's a few extra chairs here. If there's boys and girls that are sitting back, why don't you come up to the front row here? It'll help me to focus a little bit on what I'm trying to say. And I have something for the boys and girls on the front row. So if there are boys and girls here that would like to come up to the front, that would be great. So the last verse of #40.
Jesus, love me, Jesus.
OK.
I'm gonna read a verse here in Genesis.
The second chapter.
Genesis chapter 2.
Genesis chapter 2.
Supposed to have a red light here.
Is it on? There's a chapter 2 and verse seven and the Lord God forms man of the dust of the ground and nostrils, the breath of what's the next word?
Life, the breath of life.
Breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
And became a living soul. If we were to turn to the previous chapter, we would find, you know, that the Lord created some things. He created some grass and He created some fish. Then there were beef.
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And then he created man, and man became a living soul.
And became a living soul. Only God could do that. Only God could do that. I have something to show you here this morning.
I'm going to ask you boys and girls a question.
I got some plants here.
See some plants.
Which of these plants is alive? This one here, it's alive. What do you think?
Plants is alive. We're all going for the yellow. You can go for the yellow too.
What do you think this is alive?
I don't think it is.
You're going to go with that too. OK, So we got a life plan here, got some other plans that are, well, they don't look too good, do they?
Sometimes looks so deceiving though. I want you boys and girls to come up here.
If you could, I've got something here for you.
I want you to take one of these.
OK, take one of those. Let me take it back to your chair and you just hang on to that.
Just hang on a SEC.
You say a couple if you want.
Just go ahead and as soon as you get one, go and sit back on your chair.
Thanks. Let me get some names. You can just go back in your chair.
That's the one.
Anybody else missing some?
They wouldn't want the old folks to be able to do some of this too.
Are you almost done?
Mr. Berry looks like you'd like to have one there, too. He's got this longing look in his eyes in this little bag.
If anybody else wants to have one, there's lots here. There's about 3000.
You know what's interesting?
When the Lord Jesus was speaking to the disciples.
Uh, the disciples came to him and they said to him in Luke's gospel, they said, uh.
Lord, increase our faith, increase our faith.
You know the Lord said, the Lord said that ye have faith as a grain of sand that we said.
What we said, what you say.
If you have faith at the grain of mustard seed, That's right. He doesn't choose a grain of sand. It's about the same size. But he chose something that was a lie. No, boys and girls, I want you to look at what's in your hand there that is alive, that is alive.
You know, boys and girls, we have a live plant here.
This here is a Thistle.
There's real live feeds in this Thistle.
So we're going to have to ask a horticulturist, what's this?
So Mr. Rule says this is a sunflower.
Real live seeds in this sunflower. Very much a lie. Interesting. Hey, the Lord Jesus didn't say faith is a grain of sand. He said faith as a mustard seed, something that was a lie. And his desire is that our faith, none of the size of it, but it wouldn't be a lot. And that's what our desire is.
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Morning that our faith would be alive until we got something else here. You know, sometimes you see these and they're in the summertime, they're yellow. We call them ragweed or goldenrod. Got real live seeds. You know, if I go outside and I blow on this, it'd be ragweed. They'll come up on the lawn. We do that sometimes with, with, umm, dandelions, don't we? When they get past their prime and they're not yellow anymore and you see these puffs and the wind comes along and blows them.
Real live feeds. Live feeds, you know, Let's turn to the book of Exodus here for a moment.
The Book of Exodus.
Exodus.
The 8th chapter.
With the plagues here in Exodus chapter 8 and verse 16, the Lord said unto Moses, say unto Aaron, stretched out thy rod, and Mike the dust of the land, that it may become light throughout all the land of Egypt. And they did so. For Aaron stretched out his hand and his rod and smoked the dust of the earth, and it became life in man and in beast. And all the dust of the land became light through it, all the land of Egypt. And the magicians did So what their enchantments to bring forth life, but they could not.
So there were lights upon man and upon beast, And the magician said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God. We had some interesting things said yesterday.
One of the things I found fascinating was that matter is going to perish, but life is forever. We heard a little bit yesterday about the things that men can do and can do some pretty fascinating things. And you look up there, you look at all those lights up there in the ceiling.
Well, I wonder how those lights got up there. That's pretty amazing. Somebody could put those lights up there. Someone could put that ceiling through there. Someone could build this building. As we were driving here, we were going through Toronto and there's a big skyscrapers, some of them round, some of them all glass. Tremendous things that men can do. There are airplanes going overhead.
Lots of cars on the highway. Man made all those things, Boys and girls, look at what's in your hands. That's something that man cannot make.
That is something that man cannot make if you boys and girls were to take that home.
And you would have planned it. It would sprout. It would sprout and it would grow. You know why? Because it's a lie. It's a lie.
You know something, something as small as that, and man cannot do it. You know, here in the book of Exodus, the magicians, now I believe the magicians out of fear of God, Pharaoh didn't seem to have a fear of God. But the magicians, they knew that there was something here that they couldn't do. They could not create life. They couldn't do that.
Well, he goes, is there a fear of God in your heart? Is there a fear of God in your heart? Sometimes we're afraid of things. I have something interesting happened yesterday. I needed some wheat seeds obviously and I didn't have any with me. So I, I went to the corner store to see where I could find a, a feed store to buy some seeds and they said, well, if you go down here to Fingali, there's a feed store down there. And so I drove towards Fingal and I got my directions, umm, crossed. I was told that there was a flashing light down there. Well.
It was the 2nd flashing light and I came to the first flashing light and I didn't see anything go. And there was a, there was a few men that were there building a building there and umm, it was off in the back. And I kind of parked my car and I strode over to where they were and I, you know, I was dressed up and umm, I looked at these folks and I thought, well, I'm going to have some fun. I said, umm, I'm a building inspector And their faces went.
You know, umm, I'm not the official building inspector, but when I look at buildings, I like to inspect them. So I am a building inspector And you know, I'm standing there and these men, they're, they're afraid, they have fear in their hearts. And I said, I'm not really a building inspector. I'm not from around here and I'm looking for a feed store. Could you point me in the direction? And one of the men said, you just gave us a heart attack.
You know it opened up a door for the gospel.
You know, I went to the feed store and I bought, I bought this feed and as I came back, I passed those men, you know, I waved, they waved. Umm.
There was some fear in their hearts, but that's not the kind of fear we're speaking about, the fear of God. You have the fear of God in your heart. These men, these men that were with Pharaoh, they recognized that there was something they could not do here, Neil, boys and girls, you look at what's in your hand. Take a look at your shoes. Interesting, eh? The man can make those shoes, man can make those dresses. Man can make those socks, those pants, those shirts. But man cannot make what you've got in your hand there. They just cannot make that, and they've tried.
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Why?
Because it's got light. It's got life in it. Yes, this plants got life, but these other ones do too. They have light. You know, it's interesting. Remember Daniel?
Remember Daniel when he, umm, when he, umm, was with his friends and he was told what to eat and he was told that he was going to have the King's meat, but you know, he didn't want the King's meat. Can anybody remember what Daniel's diet was? What's that?
Beans and water. No, that's right. The word there is pulse. You know what pulse is? It's a green. Daniel didn't want the meat of the king that was dead. He wanted something that was alive. He wanted something that was alive to eat.
Just in passing, I would say this to the young people here. What do you feed on? Do you feed on what's dead or do you feed on what's alive?
Just this past a few weeks ago, I was in Florida and I spent quite a bit of time.
Uh, watching some, uh, some Pelicans and, uh, the young people in Rio Ferry heard me speak about Pelicans a week ago. I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to make one comment as I observe these Pelicans and observe their diet and how they eat all kinds of things that were dead, lots of dead fish. And, uh, I got close to these Pelicans and there was a few that were kind of tame and there was a, a railing about this high and there would be some sitting there that would be selling themselves, you know, and I would, they see me day after day coming to them and they kind of be looking at me. And I watched one of them one day and it kind of started to scratch underneath its wings. So I reached over and I scratched underneath its wing and it just kind of left a swing like that and let me scratch.
And it's after a while started to scratch blind it's leg. And so I kind of scratched it's like a little bit and it just, it just enjoyed that so much. But you know, the same Pelican when I was going by umm, I don't know if it's sneezed or cough, it opened up its mouth and it belched this, this sound and the horrible smell, the bad breath. You know, it was not, it was very easy to tell what this thing was feeding on. It said on things that are that were dead. But Daniel, he wanted to feed on what was a lie. He wanted to feed on what was alive. And you know, when they looked at Daniel.
A little while later, his complexion was finer than the rest of those that have been feeding on things that were dead.
Life, life.
Let's turn to, umm, the Book of Numbers.
I'm sorry, the book of Leviticus, I believe the.
Leviticus, Chapter 11.
Epiticus, Chapter 11.
In verse 13, you know, this is a portion where we read about unclean animals and clean animals and there's unclean clean birds. There's two portions. We could look at it in Deuteronomy as well. But here in Leviticus 11, it says in verse 13, these are they which ye shall have an abomination among the fowls.
And.
Then we read down in verse 21, Yet these may ye eat of every flying, creeping thing that go up upon all four, which have legs above their feet to leap with all upon the earth, even those of them you may eat the locust after his kind, you know, as you go through these, these creeping things. I've just been impressed by the locust that it was, uh, it's a fine bird, a fine little creature for us to, uh, consider like a grasshopper. You remember the umm.
Remember the spy and they went to spy with the land and they, they came back and there was, uh, two spies that says we're well able to, uh.
To to take the land. But there were other spies that said, you know, there's giants there and we're just like grasshoppers in their eyes. Oh, it would have been wonderful if they could have taken the place of a grasshopper because you know what? You know what a locus does in a grasshopper when it comes to an obstacle, it's able to surmount the obstacle. It is. It's a wonderful characteristic to have as believers when an obstacle is in the way, to realize that we can surmount any obstacle that comes in our pathway. You know what locusts feed on? You can't tense a locus.
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With something that's dead, they're not interested. If it's green, they're going to eat it.
It's alive. They're interested.
Only if it's live, it's dead. They're not going to go there. They're not going to go there. What do we feed on? We feed on what's alive. Let's turn now to, umm, the book of John.
The Book of John.
John, Chapter 12.
I thought you were going to turn to this portion yesterday dawn. You bypassed it went over to the 14th chapter. But in John chapter 12 and verse 23, Jesus answered them saying, the hour is come with the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die.
It abideth alone once you look at that, what's what's in your hand? I went to the feed store and I said, you know, umm, Sir, I need umm, I need a bag of uh, wheat seed.
He said, well, uh, we have some of that. I said, uh, I'll tell you what I need it for. I'm going to speak to some children. I want to show them some wheat seeds. So he ran in the back and he got me a bag of wheat seeds and he didn't charge me for him. And so here we have some wheat seeds. You know, it's incredible to me, boys and girls that.
Some of the pyramids that we can see today over in Egypt.
Are over 4000 years old. Over 4000 years old when they open them up in those pyramids there were wheat seeds like you see in your hand there.
4000 year old wheat seed and they planted it and ****.
It sprouted and brought forth fruit.
4000 years old. Now you try to lie down and try to play dead for 4000 years and we'll see what happens. I don't think it could be done. But here's a seat. Here's a seat that God made and it can sit there for 4000 years and we can take that seat and plant it and it spreads. It spreads. I was walking down the sidewalk. I was here a very interesting to me see a little crack on the sidewalk.
And up through the sidewalk, little plant forcing itself.
Life living.
Boys and girls, this morning our desire is that everyone here would have life as we leave this room. Real life.
You know, I did something else yesterday on my way home from the feed store. This is at lunchtime as I drove down something we've all done this morning as we drove by a graveyard down here. So I thought I'm going to wheel in here and I wheeled in here and there's one section of it that's a newer section that had a lot of flowers, people that brought flowers at Easter time. You know, it's a marvelous time of year. We think about the death, we think about the UMM, the burial, the shed blood, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Anyway, I wheeled into that graveyard. All the stones were there.
And I just thought about that a little while. Well, this morning as we are going by, we saw the same graveyard. I didn't see any of the stones dislodged with somebody that came in out of those graves. Now everybody still dead, all still dead.
They're bodies anyway.
But we read in Genesis that man breathed, God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life. And every one of us has a living soul, every one of us. Now, Mr. Stewart just passed away this morning. Just heard that.
Mr. Stewart's body dead, but his soul is with the Lord Jesus. With the Lord Jesus, you know, boys and girls, you have a living soul.
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What about that living soul?
The live and it's going to live for all eternity. But where is it going to live? Where is that soul of yours going to live?
And we just read in this verse.
The Lord Jesus speaking verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. You know the Lord Jesus was speaking about himself and how He was going to go into death. He took a body so that he could go into death, and he did go into death on Calvary's cross, and there is pressure's blood was shed.
And why did he do that? He was. He rose from the dead. And as we've been having in our meetings, he's at God's right hand at this very moment.
Why did he do that, boys and girls? It's so you could have life. So you could have life. You know, you might be able to go home and you might be able to get some mud and you might be able to try and make a, a little grain just like what you have in your hand. And it might look exactly like that. And man has tried to do that and they've made something that looks exactly like those little corns of wheat that you have in your hand. But they've got no life. They've got no life. They're dead. They're dead.
Do you have life this morning?
You have.
Life before we continue, I'd like to.
Sing the first verse of #26.
This reminds us of a story in Israel's history, when all the people were bitten by serpents and they started to die. But there was a way that they could get life. There was a way that they could live. And we find it here #26 we'll read, we'll sing the first verse in the chorus.
There is life.
I'd like to turn now to another verse.
In First Timothy.
Chapter 6.
First Timothy, chapter 6.
For those children here who are a little older than these ones and they're in the front row, that's.
Read First Timothy, chapter 6, verse 12.
Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life. Or we have another translation. Lay hold on that which is really light. Young people, what are you feeding on this morning? You have life that we had in our, in our umm, somebody prayed the first prayer meeting about our lighting under a bushel and our light being under a bed.
Is there evidence that there's life with us? Might have life, but is there evidence?
Because we speak with one another, is there, is there the evidence that there's satellites?
Well, there's some things that doesn't look like there's too much evidence they're alive.
Not much evidence though.
Quite a bit of evidence here. What do we look like as we intermingle with each other and as we visit with one another?
Is that the evidence of what we've been feeding on?
The Lord's desire is that there would be not just life, but there would be the evidence of it. Oh, boys and girls, our desire that you would have life.
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For every one of us here, those that are older, there would be the evidence of that light.
As we would intermingle with each other through this day before, so we have the privilege, in just a few minutes, of sitting down with a table there in the midst of the Lord Tyres, and on it a loaf, and on it a cup.
And it speaks to us the death of the Lord Jesus.
Except the corn of wheat fall into the ground, and died abideth alone. The Lord's desire is that he would have our company.
If indeed we do have life, does he have our company? Does he have it? We trust these things would touch our hearts. And boys and girls this morning, if you don't have life, if you really don't have life.
We trust as we read this last verse, John chapter 3.
That you would indeed receive the Lord Jesus into your heart and have life. John chapter 3.
These were interesting things for Nicodemus to converse with about the Lord, he said. How can a man be born again?
John, Chapter 3.
For God so loved the world.
Verse 16. That He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have what everlasting life, boys and girls, you have that you have everlasting life. And for those of us that have it, is there the evidence of it?
Let's just pray.
Our God and our Father, we thank thee for our precious Savior, the Lord Jesus, we thank thee for that finished work on Calvary that has brought so many of us here into such blessing. And this morning, our God, in a special way, we would pray that if there is someone here.
And they realize that they were speaking to their heart. They don't have life. All that they might receive the Lord Jesus into their heart this morning, that there would be life.
And for those of us our God that have it as our speaking to our hearts, perhaps there's not the evidence of it that is desire for us to have. We just would pray that there would be that exercise of our hearts as to what we feed on.
That there would be that which would be the expression of real life or God. We would ask these things and just commit ourselves in by hand. We would pray in a special way for the Stewart family at this time. And we would think too of, uh, Sue Rubin a special way. And so we would ask these things are God giving me thanks and the worthy and the precious name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, Amen.