Children—Steve Hall
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A excellent choice.
So my name is Steve Hall. If anybody doesn't know me and there's more spots up here front, if anybody is willing to come on up front, I do have a round bag with me. I always, when I was a kid, I always liked Sunday schools that included a brown bag because that mean that meant there was something to see and maybe something to touch.
And I think we always learn better when we can see and touch something.
So I have a brown bag, so if you want to see better you might want to come up front. Who else has a?
Song for us to sing.
#14.
Have you been to?
Watching the world.
Party.
By staying in history.
That's a really important question for each one of us to answer individually.
Are we washed in the blood of the Lamb? We're going to talk about that a little bit. Who has another hymn for us?
#16.
00:05:44
Someone else have one loop back in the back?
#10.
00:10:16
All right, we have time for a couple more #13.
You know, kids. There's some children's hens on the back of the booklet as well #13.
We have one back there.
#40.
This is a great 1 #40.
Strong.
Yeah.
Ready to make me forever?
Way to begin in my heart.
May stay from and rely on.
Slightly.
You have to change your eyes so I don't beginning. Yeah, I have to give you because I love you so much. So I love someone to see me.
00:15:40
So.
Yeah.
I think we have time for one more. Somebody else have a favorite?
Go ahead #44.
And I am sure that these and importantly.
Again.
Celebrations. So everything.
No one can stand up and tell them.
You know, children, I really, really like that him. In fact, that's my favorite children's hymn. I used to give it out all the time when I was a kid. And I think one of the reasons that I really like that him is it's a story.
Any of you kids like stories? You guys like stories?
I hope I can tell a story this morning that will illustrate a point. But before we do that, let's bow our heads and we're going to ask the Lord for His help.
00:20:04
Does anybody know what the Well, let me back up. I'm going to read the verse that's in the Sunday school paper.
Just as a little bit of a reminder and then anybody that wants to conceive their verse, you don't have to. Not going to make you.
But if you do know the verse, we would love to hear it. The verse is Romans 323. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 323.
Does anybody willing to say the verse? You willing?
So all of sending consort of the glory of God almost 323.
Anybody else?
I'm short of the glory of God. Romans 323.
Ball of sin and come short of the glory of God. Romans 323.
Frogs and in Control of the Glory of God. Rooms 323.
Anybody else down here?
For all of sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 323.
For all I have sinned and controlled the glory of God. Romans 323.
For all of sin and come short of the glory of God. Romans 323.
We're all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Romans 323. For all sin and compared to the glory of God Romans 323.
4 seconds to the glory of God. Woman turning free. Good job.
Anybody else?
For all of sin, For all of sin and come short of the glory of God. Romance 323.
Anybody down here?
Anybody in the back?
Just want to make sure everybody has a chance.
So so before I let you guys see what's in my back in my bag here, you got to keep this.
A secret for a little bit longer.
I want to ask you kids a question and it's really, really important question. My question this morning to you is who do you belong to?
God, very good.
Is that where you were going to say?
How do you know?
Because the Bible tells us that's very good. I'm going to talk about that in in two different aspects. Okay. And the first one.
Is a transaction. Do you guys know what a transaction is?
Transaction. Go ahead.
One person gives another person something that's kind of generally a transaction. Usually a transaction includes some kind of a form of payment. So it's buying and selling, right?
And I've been thinking about this for a little bit because we recently went through some transactions.
Does anybody like animals? Anybody like animals in the front row? You guys like animals? I like animals.
And justice a few weeks ago, my wife and I entered into a transaction and we got in our car and we drove for five hours.
To make a transaction. I know that there's some people here that know what that transaction was. Gee, does anybody have any idea why I would drive for five hours?
Well, it was a lot longer to get here, so it was 16 hours for us to drive to get here, but we spent five hours in the car one way and then we made a purchase and then we turned around and drove 5 hours again to get back to our house.
Anybody have an idea?
00:25:05
No.
Does anybody like puppies?
Anybody like puppies? I really like puppies and I have to confess, we drove for five hours to get a puppy.
And I can tell you this, that it is the cutest, fuzziest little black and white puppy that you can imagine. And I couldn't bring the puppy here this morning.
But I'm going to show you something that we had to do as part of that transaction.
And I think it illustrates a point.
Can you guys read this?
Anybody want to tell me what this is?
You read it.
What's it say?
Bill of sale. Bill of sale.
So back in the United States, if you're going to.
Buy a livestock or a dog. It's a really good idea to have a bill of sale, and a bill of sale simply states that.
I, as the buyer, spent a certain sum of money and I paid that money in cash to the seller of the puppy and in return I obtained a puppy.
And hopefully that puppy will grow up to be a really good dog.
This bill of sale that I have here is a little bit different.
Did two kids know that you are?
Part of a transaction, part of a bill of sale.
We hope that you're part of the right bill of sale.
So this bill of sale, it has some parts to it. It says that there is a seller.
And then there is a buyer.
And.
This villa sale is actually for me.
And it says the seller is the God of this world world.
And the purchaser is the Son of God.
And it says the price was the cross.
You see, children, when we're born into this world, we, whether we realize it or not, are owned by the God of this world.
Satan has a claim on us because of our heritage, because we have.
Been born into this world in a fallen condition.
The verse that we had this morning says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
All have sinned and so we needed someone to come in and to purchase us.
The beautiful thing, children, this morning is that the Lord Jesus paid the full price. Let's read a couple verses.
About that purchase, so First Corinthians.
Chapter 6.
We read about this purchase.
First Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 20 For ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are gods.
I want to read a verse also in First Peter.
That talks about this purchase first Peter chapter one and verse 18 for as much as you know that you were not purchased with corruptible things as silver and gold.
From your vein conversation received by tradition from your Father's, but with a precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Dear children, it's really, really important that you have entered into this transaction. The interesting thing about this transaction is that you are the subject of that transaction.
00:30:01
But you have to be willing to receive the Lord Jesus to be.
Part of that transaction.
You need to be bought with the blood of the Lord Jesus, and that's really, really important. But I want to go on and I want to talk about something.
That occurs after that transaction has happened.
You see, where we live, we have some animals.
We have some cows and some chickens and a couple pigs.
I hope the pigs go away soon.
We've been trying to sell them.
We have some cows.
Do any of you children know how, at least in the United States, you would identify who owns livestock cows?
You would brand it so I have something to show you.
This is.
A very very old object.
To my knowledge, this is my grandfather, maybe great grandfather's brand.
And if you, if we were to use it like it's supposed to, it would look kind of like this.
You see that?
This is a brand. Any of you children know what a brand is? What is a brand?
Kind of like a logo for a business. That's the way we use the word now.
But in the Old West, what was a brand used for?
Yeah, it's to identify livestock. Do you know how it works?
So out on the range, you guys know how it works?
You stick it in a fire and then what do you do with it?
You stick it on the cow.
Yeah, and what does it do?
It burns and it leaves a mark. It leaves a permanent mark on the side of the cow. I'm going to pass these two sheets around so you guys can look at the brand. You guys can take a look at that and afterward you can come up and take a look at this brand if you would like.
So what does a brand have to do with Sunday school?
Any of you children have an idea of what a brand has to do with a transaction?
So I'm not exactly sure what the name of the farm was that my.
Grandfather had, but as best I can tell, there's a, there's a three there and there's a triangle, and the triangle is kind of on its edge.
So I'll let you use your imagination to come up with the name of that brand, but that brand would have been used to identify my grandfathers cattle versus anybody elses cattle.
So my grandfather had a ranch in Colorado.
And he would buy and sell cows.
And there would be some cows that were or calves that were born on his ranch.
But over in Colorado, they don't have a whole lot of fences, and so the cows would run around and sometimes you have to separate your cows from the neighbor's cows.
And I have a few stories about my grandfather's cows.
Just a little plug.
If you children.
Are.
Want to read some stories about my grandfather and his cows? There's a book called Lambs and Lambs Quarters and that's about my grandfathers farm.
So little plug for lamps and lamps quarters.
A brand is a very, very important.
Thing to have.
And you know, children, there's a brand in our Christian lives as well.
And it's not something that I have heard talked about very much, but it's something that I think is important for us to think about. Turn with me.
00:35:08
To Acts Chapter 8, and I'm going to read a story here and then we'll talk a little bit more about brands.
Acts chapter 8 and I'm going to read.
From verse 35.
Philip was one of the disciples and he was sent by the Spirit into the wilderness, and he saw a man riding in a chariot, and he went and joined himself to the chariot and he had a conversation, and we're going to pick up with part of that conversation.
This man was reading the word of God.
And he didn't understand it.
Verse 34 And the eunuchs answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this of himself, or some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went their way, they came to a certain water, And the eunuch said, See, here is water, What doth hinder me to be baptized?
And Phillip said, If thou believest with thy all thine heart, thou mayest.
And he answered, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still. And they both, they went down both into the water, both Phillip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And we'll stop there.
Dear children, I want to use the illustration of a brand as.
Being a picture of baptism.
You see?
Once we've entered into that transaction with the Lord, when we've been purchased by His precious blood, it is very important that we be identified with those that have been saved.
That we take as it were, our place in His.
Flock or his fold?
That we identify ourselves with the Lord Jesus and I think.
This brand is a interesting picture of baptism. Baptism is simply associating ourselves with the Lord Jesus, saying that we are His. You know a brand is a permanent mark.
And I think it's safe to say that a brand cost the animal something.
And I believe that, as our brother was sharing yesterday, if we are going to walk a Christian walk in this world, it's going to cost us something to be associated with the name of the Lord Jesus.
But it's very, very important.
And I hope you children, each one of you will think about that and that each one of you have taken that step of being publicly associated with the Lord Jesus and being baptized.
There's something else I have here in my bag that I wanted to show you.
Does anybody know what this is?
Go ahead.
Yeah, it's called an ear tag. It has a number on the top.
That identifies this cow.
This one is.
261585025.
And this is attached to the ear of a cow.
And actually if you go, if you were to go to our house, you would find out that none of my cows are branded and all of them have an air tank or I should say most of them have an air tag. We have some Cabs that we haven't ear tagged yet.
And I want to use this as an illustration. I have found over the few years that we've had cows that ear tags aren't a permanent mark.
We've had cows that have lost their ear tanks.
We've also had cows that you're supposed to write some kind of an identifier down on this part. And if you go up to that cow and you look at that irritate really, really, really carefully, you won't be able to figure out what we wrote on there.
00:40:06
And I don't think that that ear tag is worth a whole lot as far as identifying the cow.
Because the marking is not legible.
Dear children.
There are some of us.
That don't want to receive a brand because it hurts.
We would rather have an ear tag.
Because we want to, as it were, walk the fence.
We want it to be reversible.
And dear children.
That's what we call profession.
There are those that look like they are a Christian from the outside. They wear the symbol in their ear, so to speak, and yet they're not truly the Lords.
You know.
Baptism.
Is one of those things that.
Is done once and forever.
And dear children, I hope that none of you are opting to wear an ear tag that is temporary.
Instead of truly giving your life to the Lord Jesus, you know we've had the situation where we've had cows that weren't ours that joined our herd.
And they may have had an air tag and somebody driving down the road could look into our pasture and.
Say, oh, what a nice group of cows.
What made the difference between those cows that were ours and those cows that were somebody elses is the bill of sale.
I don't own any cows so that I don't have a bill of sale or that weren't born on my farm.
And dear children, it's so very, very important this morning that you make sure.
That you have settled the question of your sins with God.
And that, as it were, you have a bill of sale, that you know that you are the possession of the Lord Jesus, that He has paid for you with his blood. And I trust that as you drive around and as you see ear tags, it will remind you that you need to make a permanent statement that you're the Lord.
'S that you belong to him.
And that you're willing to let it.
Be known to anyone around that you belong to the Lord Jesus. Don't be like a cow with an ear tag that doesn't have a brand.
And it looks like we're right on time, so let's pray.