Children—J. Lunden
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Ever told me before?
This little boy at the end of his life was sure of one thing.
He was sure that the that God sent his Son for him. Are you sure of that?
That's a good question, isn't it? Are you sure that God sent his son for you?
Let's sing one more. So who has singer song to sing?
This thing #41 around the throne of God in heaven. I like to think of this song as practice for when we get to heaven. What are we going to do when we get to heaven?
00:05:05
Singing Glory to God. So this is like practice, isn't it? You know, our whole lives if we're Christians.
Our whole lives should be sort of practiced for getting to heaven, shouldn't they? Let's sing #41.
10203.
Welding in Half Round, Lasting Life and Joyce of Naughty Birthday.
Lottery.
Lottery.
1372.
Brighton and Flair where always be inside, Joy and Love out and the children.
Everything.
Partying to fall on the hall.
Just put our hymn books down now for a minute and let's look at the Lord for himself.
How many of you children are in school?
Home, school, or regulars? Almost everybody, huh?
You like school. How many children like school? You don't have to raise your hand.
Oh, most everybody likes some. You know, I think I'd have to raise my hand only some of the time. Like, maybe like this.
Well, if you asked me that when I was a child. Because sometimes I like school and sometimes I didn't.
Do you like? Do you like tests? Do you like tests at school?
Anybody this voice or something? Not so much.
I wanna talk a little bit about tests today.
Which Which would be better? A test with just one question or a test with let's say 20 questions? Which would be better? Which would you rather have? He says one. This is a trick question. I'll have to warn you. What? How many would you like to have? Just one. How many would you like? 20. OK, he says 20. You know, Let me explain something you know, a test with 20 questions on it if you miss one.
Then you still get a pretty good grade, don't you think? If I calculate right, that's a 95%, that's still an A. But if you have a test with one question and you missed that question, what do you get? What happens? What's the grade? That's right, a big zero. You flunked it, didn't you?
So which is better? Now? If you know the subject really well, I agree with you. I'd rather just have one question because then you'd have the tester be over easy if you knew the answer.
But if you didn't know the subject very well, maybe it'd be better to have 20 questions.
Is there a test to get into heaven?
Huh. I don't mean to test like.
How many books of the Bible there are? Or name all of the children of Israel? Or is there a test?
Is there a test to get into heaven?
You know what, children? I think there is.
I think there's a one question test to get into heaven.
Neither. You get it right or you don't.
What do you think that question would be?
00:10:01
That's right, she said. Are you saved or some question like that? Do you know the Lord Jesus as your savior? Are your sins forgiven?
Have you trusted the Lord Jesus to wash your sins away? It's almost kind of the same question.
And if you get it right, what would be the right answer to all those questions?
Are you saved? What would be the right answer to that question? Yes or no?
Yes, right. You said yes. Then you could get into heaven.
You only get it either right or you get it wrong.
I want to tell you a test that I had. You know, we have tests all through our lives, not just in school, school now, but when you get older. You have tests to get out of school, you have tests to get into more school, you have tests to get your driver's license, you have test.
We have tests lots of times. Maybe sometimes your mother thinks you're a test.
But we have tests. We have tests all through life. And you know, I want to tell you about, I'm sorry I have to tell you this story and it's about me. But I had a test at a truck stop at a truck weigh station. I want to tell you about that you know what a truck weigh station is. Any of your boys know what a anybody know what a truck with.
Anybody. Nobody knows. This girl knows.
Here let's use this you can tell everybody.
What a truck goes on it like you weigh the They weigh a truck so that you can go it. No, you can go on a certain hail or Rd. That's right. That's right. She's got it just about right. If trucks are too heavy, they break the road and they have laws about how heavy trucks can be. So trucks have to go on a scale kind of like your bathroom scales, only a great big one. And they weigh the truck and if it's not too heavy, then it can go. And if it's too heavy, then it gets a fine and then they have to unload some of the weight.
And also at those truck weigh stations, sometimes they have an inspection station there and it's not about weighing the truck, it's about checking out to see.
If it's working properly, if it has the brakes or working, the lights are working, the steering wheel work works properly, all the safety things on it so it doesn't run into somebody or it can't stop.
Well, for my business I had to buy a truck and not a big one. It was not a big 18 Wheeler semi, but it was just a little was like a pick up only instead of a pick up it on it, it had a flatbed kind of like that stage there, just a flat deck on it and I have to go to California for my work. And so when I was coming down to California there's a truck inspection station at Shasta and I heard from other guys who drive trucks that they didn't like to go through truck inspection stations because.
Well, it's a test and it's kind of a one question test. Either you get it right or you don't. If your truck's not right, then you can't go. And so a lot of truck drivers, they try to figure out ways to go around the truck's way stations so they don't get caught. It's not really right. They try to do that. There's no way to get around this one. It's right on the freeway. And when I came down the hill to it, there was a big sign there that said all trucks must stop.
I don't know. I'm gonna have to stop.
I'm not really too worried about being overweight because I'm a little truck.
But I might get inspected and then I'm kind of worried about.
Well, a little way, a little farther along there was another sign that said no pickups.
And I thought, you know what, my truck is kind of like a pickup. It just has a different bed on it. It doesn't have a regular pickup. It has it. So I think I qualify as a pickup. So I went right on by.
You know what, children? The Bible says our hearts are deceitful.
My heart is being deceitful, I have to admit.
Because that was an excuse, wasn't it?
You know how I know it's an excuse? As soon as I drove by that weigh station, I wanted to, like, do this when they went by.
I wanted to try to hide from the guys in the trucking space. What's that called? That's called the conscience. Do you have a conscience? You know what a conscience is? That little guy inside that says, uh, uh uh, you're doing wrong. And that little guy inside of me was saying, I think you should have stopped at the weigh station. And as soon as I went by, I kept looking in my mirror to make sure that nobody was coming to catch me and take me back there to get weighed.
That's my conscience telling me you did wrong, but you know.
00:15:03
Sometimes when we do something like that.
And we we don't. We ignore our conscience the next time it gets a little bit easier, doesn't it?
If you do something wrong, the next time you do it, it's just a little bit easier.
And our consciences get a little bit harder and a little bit harder. And I have to admit that several times I went by way stations. Well, I'm just a pickup truck. I don't need to stop. And then one day, my friend Ray and I were talking about truck weigh stations. He has a truck too. And he said, you know, I think you should stop. I think you're supposed to stop, even you were supposed to stop. He has a bigger truck than mine.
He was right.
But I didn't like to hear that, you know, the word of God says.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend.
Sometimes friends tell us things that they're right. It's the truth. We need to hear it.
But we don't like to hear it.
In fact, our parents are faithful to bring us to Sunday School and to put the word of God before us, and to tell us what the Word of God has to say. Some things We don't like to hear from the Word of God, do we? Do you like to hear that you're a Sinner?
No, I didn't.
We don't like to hear those things, but it's the truth and we need to hear it. And the people that tell us that they're faithful, they're telling us the truth. And Ray was telling me the truth.
But I was still wasn't very convinced. So when I got home, I got in the telephone and I called the California Highway Patrol department.
And I tried to use that same excuse with the guy that I talked to, the officer that I said, well, I just have a little truck and it just has a little bit. You know what he said? He was very simple and very plain. Maybe he thought I wasn't very smart, but he was very clear. He said if you have a flatbed truck, then you intend to carry things. If you're carrying things, then you need to go through the weigh station.
Very simple and very clear. Very easy to understand.
Is the Gospel hard to understand, children?
It's not, is it?
Sometimes it's hard to accept, but it's not hard to understand. There's a little track back there that BTP has that says four things God wants you to know, and it's the gospel in a nutshell. You need to be saved. You can't save yourself. Jesus is the only Savior and you have to accept Him to be saved.
That's pretty simple, isn't it? That officer was pretty clear and pretty simple to me, but my deceitful heart made it a little bit more complicated. Well, I have a different kind of a truck that can I can go by. So after that, when I came down the hill to Shasta, I realized I had to stop.
At the truck stop.
The next time that I came down there, I pulled off and I stopped. You know, there was a big semis in front of me and big semis behind me and little me. I thought I felt pretty insignificant. And I thought, I bet those truck drivers are kind of laughing because here's this little guy trying to be a big truck. But you know, that's really not important. I was being obedient to the truth, wasn't I? I was supposed to stop and I was stopping. It doesn't really matter what other people think.
If you know you have to believe the Lord Jesus and take him as your savior. If your friends make fun of you, that doesn't matter. What matters is what God thinks and that you're being obedient to Him.
And so I stopped at that. And when you're aligned at the truck stop, the trucks only go 3 miles an hour over the scales. So I had a long time to wait while each truck went over the scales. And I was way back there and I waited. And you know what I noticed? I noticed a curious thing.
While I was sitting there in line off to my left, I could see the freeway.
And every once in a while I could see a big semi truck go.
Right on by and now I knew that the law applied to them because it said all trucks must stop.
I knew that and and there would go another one and they couldn't hide obviously. They're so big.
And then I remembered that I had seen a sign up there that said trucks with transponders that receive a green light can bypass the truck stop.
00:20:05
I read, I remember reading about this that some trucks have a little thing inside that talks to the weigh station, to the guy at the weigh station and says I've already been pre approved, I've already been checked out and I'm OK and I have the right weights on so I don't need to stop.
No, I thought. That's just like someone who's accepted the Lord Jesus. They're pre approved, aren't they? They don't have to stop and see the judge, They don't have to get checked out.
They're already approved, aren't they?
When you take the Lord Jesus as your savior, does God see you in your sins anymore?
They're all gone, aren't they? The Lord Jesus paid for them at the cross. And what does he see instead? He sees that you're just like the Lord Jesus, just as perfect as he was. Isn't that amazing?
Those trucks were all checked out and approved. They could just keep on going. They were good to go. Boy, I thought, I wish I was one of them. While I was sitting in that line, I sure wish I had that transponder in my truck and could tell the guy. But I was sitting there waiting for judgment.
That's what I really want to talk about.
Children, if you don't know the Lord Jesus, you know you're waiting for judgment and that's a serious thing.
So I slowly crept up to the waist scale. It was night time and they had great big lights out there. There was a guy behind the tinted glass looking at each truck. 5 trucks ahead of ME4 trucks ahead of me. My hands were getting sweaty on the steering wheel.
Two trucks ahead of me. Pretty soon it was my turn and I rolled. I didn't even dare look at the guy in the in the window. I couldn't see him anyway, but I was afraid. He was looking at me real hard.
And I could see up on the reader board it gave the weights right up there and had a green arrow that said keep on going. Or it had a red X that said stop and there was a green arrow. And I saw the numbers for my front axle and my middle axle. And then the green arrow turned to a red X and a voice came over the intercom that said Corral Creek Orchard. That's the name of my truck. Corral Creek Orchard, please pull into inspection Bay #1.
The thing that I feared the most was happening. I knew that I wasn't going to have a problem being too heavy, but I was afraid about getting inspected. And you know, by then it was too late. It was too late to get out and fix my truck and check it out. I had to pull in the inspection Bay. You know what? That inspection Bay has a great big door, almost as tall as the ceiling, and as it goes up, it was bright, bright lights inside.
In fact, the light came spilling out onto the pavement as the door went up, up, up, brighter, brighter. And I could see here was this room. You know what I thought about this bright, bright room. I'll tell you the verse that I thought about when I when I saw that room. It's a verse that I think we were already read in meeting.
Revelations Chapter 20 and verse 11.
And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the small, the dead, small and great, stand before God. I thought, This is like the great way. There was light in the ceiling.
There was lights in the walls. There was even lights in the floor of this building shining in all directions. Why do you think they had that?
Why do you think they had lights in there?
To see under the truck. That's right. It was an inspection place.
So I pulled in there and a man in a white suit came up and he asked me for my driver's license and he looked at it and he said, Mr. Lundeen, can I see your log book?
And I my mouth just went.
Log book.
I know that big trucks have log books, but I didn't know that I had to have one.
You know every mouth will be stopped. When people have to stand, when this lost have to stand before God, There won't be anything that they can say. And I want to tell your children this because if you don't know the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
00:25:01
Something far worse than me going before the judge at the truck inspection station will happen to you. I want to use this as a warning. I think it happened to me so I could share it with you. This is a warning.
Here was this bright, bright place. There was nothing I could say or do.
And the guy said I want your log book, and I said I don't have one.
And he said, well, you know, ignorance is no excuse. You're supposed to know the law. You know what our brother said? Brother Jim said last night you learned verses in Sunday School. And if you don't, and if you don't come to the Lord Jesus, those verses will probably come back to you when you stand before the judge. Isn't that awful? Those same verses will come back to you.
I had nothing to say, he said. Well.
Do we just started enforcing this law about 14 days ago, so I'll let you off on this one.
I'd like to think that was mercy, but it really wasn't. He was just avoiding the law a little bit.
And he said, no, I'm gonna have to inspect your truck now. Do you think that he wanted to look at the paint on my truck and make sure that I'd washed and waxed it and kept all the bugs off the grill? Do you think that's what he was interested in looking at? What do you think he was look interested in looking at?
The important parts, the inside part, you know, what are you gonna say?
The battery and the brakes and the lights, right? All that important stuff about how the truck, that's what he was interested in.
He didn't look on the outside. You know, there's a verse that says God doesn't look at us like other people look at us. We like to dress up the outside. You guys are all dressed really nice today for Sunday school. We all put on our nice clothes.
What's the What really counts is what's inside. And that inspector was interested in what's inside, how the truck really works. So he got out his creeper. You know what a creeper is? Maybe your dad's have one. It's like a little like a little skateboard, only with really little wheels. And you lay down on it, you can scoot around underneath your truck. He got that out. And you know what else he got out? And this bright, bright room, a room so bright that it made you squint. You know what? He got out.
I'll give you a hint.
What is this?
The flashlight in this bright, bright room. You gotta. I thought, good night. This guy is really interested in inspecting my truck. And he got underneath with his flashlight and he went around. I could hear him say. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. OK. Mm-hmm. Sometimes he didn't say anything for a while.
Oh dear, what's he seeing now?
You think God is going to miss anything when he reviews your life if you stand before him as a judge.
Do you think God is going to miss any little thing? He's gonna know every. He knows everything about us, doesn't he? What are you gonna say? He's gonna see everything about us, isn't he? He knows one end to the other. He knows everything in our life.
Well, finally the inspector got out and he said, Mr. Lundin, it looks like everything's in order under there.
And I was just about to say, oh, good, then I can go. And he said one more thing. I wanna check your breakaway system on your trailer. Now, trucks with trailers have a little electrical thing so that if the trailer comes disconnected from the truck, it makes the brakes, right, just like that, just stop so the trailer won't go, he said. I'm gonna activate your breakaway system and you get in your truck and you drive and we'll see if the brakes work on your trailer. So I got in and I turned on my truck and started and said, OK, go.
And I went and the wheels on that trailer, they rolled just like there was no brakes at all.
I went, he came up to me and he said a curious thing. He said. He didn't say, oh, your trailer doesn't work, you're out of order, you're you have to stop. He said to me, what do you think? I don't think that that.
Breakaway system work and he asked my opinion.
I said, well, I had to agree with them. I don't think it did, he said. Let's try it again, just in case. So we backed the truck up.
And he unplugged the thing again, and I rolled forward. And it worked just the same the second time as it did the first time. The brakes didn't work. And he came up to me and he said, I don't think your brakes are working. And I had to agree with him. You know what, children? If you have to stand before the judge on that awful judgment day, I think in the end you'll have to agree with what he decides. God is the judge, and he's going to decide your fate.
00:30:17
And I'm afraid you'll have to agree with him that what you're getting is what you deserve.
Would be a terrible thing. Don't don't get in that situation.
So he said, well, your truck is not in compliance with the law. You can't go.
You have to stay right here. You can drive your truck out there in the parking lot. You can't go.
And then I wished for sure that I had been like those trucks with the transponders that were all checked out ahead of time.
I want to just leave you with one more verse.
Just a simple little verse that I know you've learned in Sunday school, John First John one.
First John one and part of verse 7. The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin children, if you trust the Lord Jesus.
You'll never have to stand before the judge. You'll never, ever have to stand before him as the judge.
And you will never have to worry about it.
All my equipment in order so that I can get by.
You can be like those trucks with the transponders that go whizzing on by that are all pre approved.
Those of those of you who?
Put it off and put it off. We would listen to your deceitful hearts and put it off and say no some other day.
You'll have to stand before the judge, and not a single person who goes before the judge will get the green light to go again.
That's the truth.
Put your trust in the Lord Jesus. Make sure you put your trust in Lord Jesus and his blood will take away all of your sins, so there's nothing that God will find in your life to keep you out of heaven.
Let's pray.
Our loving God and our Father we thank you for.
The simple truth of the gospel that children can come to Jesus while they're young, put their trust in him, know they're on their way to heaven, know their sins forgiven. We just pray for each one here that they have trusted Jesus today.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.