Enjoying Our Riches in the Saints

Well, for a time of studying the word, this morning, we are gonna be continuing our, series on moving forward in community and our agenda in this series is to, to just focus on themes that will help us as a church to To do relationships better. I know like we as a church have a long way to go. I myself have a long way to go in this area just as we learn to do community, live in community with one another more effectively than we have. And so everything we're talking about in this series is designed to help us with that.

Our agenda is also to to help ourselves to be ready for the renewal of the Care Group ministry that begins September 14th, less than a month away right now, everything's in a state of upheaval as we're reformatting the groups, and we had about 245 people that have signed up from our membership. And we're probably going to end up with a ton by the time members and nonmembers are included and we're just right now this coming week we're going to be doing a lot of work to try to get everybody situated in the groups, so pray for us.

But with the groups starting up again September 14th, 1 of the things we're mindful of is the fact that we've been at this for 3.5 years and leading into the care group ministry. we spent a lot of time to prepare the congregation for that, but a lot of people have started attending our church since 3.5 years ago.

And so we just wanted to put back before our congregation, even for the benefit of those of you that were here 3.5 years ago, we want to just put back before this body some of the important things that will explain what the elders' thinking was and why we decided to go. care groups, why we've decided to format them the way that we have and also to put some ideas back in front of us from scripture so that we are mentally and spiritually ready as individuals to come into the new care group ready to make a significant contribution and ready to receive the, the benefits that God wants us to receive, from the care group that we're going to be a part of.

And my contribution to that end today with the message today is, a message that is entitled Enjoying our riches in the Saints. Enjoying our riches in, the saints.

Now I want to begin this morning with a, a story that Jerry Bridges tells in his book, The Gospel for Real Life. And let me just read it to you. He says some years ago, our pastor told an unusual story about a Southern plantation owner who left a $50,000 inheritance to a former slave who had served him faithfully all his life. That was quite a sum of money in those days, perhaps equivalent to half a million dollars today.

The lawyer for the estate duly notified the old man of his inheritance and told him that the money had been deposited for him at the local bank. Weeks went by and the former slave never called for any of his inheritance. Finally, the banker called him in and told him again that he had $50,000 available to draw on at any time. The old man replied, Sir, do you think I can have 50 cents to buy a sack of cornmeal?

Jerry Bridges goes on to say this, not having handled money most of his life, this former slave had no comprehension of his wealth. As a result, he was asking for 50 cents when he could easily have had much, much more. There's a lot I could focus on just from that story, but what I want to focus on is that banker, the banker in that story who noticed that this former slave was not coming to the bank and availing himself to his inheritance. The role that that banker plays in that story is the role that I want to play in my message this morning.

I want to play the role of this banker. I want to, remind you as believers that you have inherited great riches in Christ. I want to remind you of, the location or one of the locations where those riches are located, and I want to remind you that these riches are available for you at any time. And in playing this role, I'm basically imitating the apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter one.

And I want you to listen to what the apostle Paul prays for the Ephesians, and this will help to frame what we're going to do with our time together this morning. He says in Ephesians 1:18, he's praying for the Ephesians, and he says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so I've got to ask God to do this. I know you're not capable of seeing this on your own, but the whole reason Paul is praying for the Ephesians in this way is because they're not getting something.

They're not getting it.

And so he says, I'm praying that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance. In other words, the inheritance, the gospel inheritance that comes from God. He says, I want you to know that when you became children of God, you fell into an incredibly rich inheritance, and I want you to know experientially, what are the riches of the glory of this inheritance. But he doesn't stop there.

He tells them where the particular riches that he's talking about are found or are located. Look at that prepositional phrase at the end of this verse. I pray that you will know what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Paul could have identified a bunch of other places where we have riches in our gospel inheritance.

That are available to us. But in this passage at this time he's saying to the Ephesians, I am praying that God will open your eyes so that you will be able to see the riches of the glory of the inheritance that is yours, the riches that are found in the saints. What he's saying is I want you guys to look at each other and realize, man, there are riches inside of my brothers and sisters in the Lord. There are great riches there.

And obviously guys if we appreciate what Paul is saying here, we will then want to be in relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ so that in relationship with them we can access this incredible wealth that God has deposited in our brothers and sisters in Christ. And so we want to be all about relationship. We want to facilitate relationships here at Cornerstone, but we want to Also be careful about how we go about facilitating these relationships, because if we're not careful, we can end up thinking this way.

We can say, OK, well we need to have relationships with one another, so we need to have a youth ministry to where youth are relating to youth and enjoy the riches of their gospel inheritance, have a men's ministry where men relate to men.

And a women's ministry where women relate to women, and let's start a college-age ministry so that college age people can relate to college age people and enjoy the riches of their inheritance and let's start a senior citizens ministry so that senior citizens can relate to other senior citizens and enjoy the riches of their inheritance. Let's have children's ministries so that we can get children together and children can relate to one another and enjoy the riches of their inheritance that are in the saints.

If we're not careful, we can end up doing this. And my question to you as you see the image behind me on the screen, is there something wrong with that image, with that picture?

My answer would be there's nothing wrong with youth relating to youth. There's nothing wrong with having a youth ministry. That's great. We have that here at Cornerstone.

It's great to have a men's ministry, women's ministry, college age ministry, and children's ministries, and so forth so that people who are in the same age, same stage of life can relate to one another. That's great. The problem is that this image is not the full picture. It doesn't go far enough.

Someone who is a 16-year-old person in the youth group, if all that 16 year old is doing is relating to other 1516, and 17 year olds, if that's primarily the relationships that that 16 year old person has in his life, then he is being robbed of many of the riches that belong to him that God has placed in the senior citizens and even in the children who are a part of this church body. We experience many of the riches that are ours when we relate to people of our own age and stage of life, but we don't experience all of the riches.

And so we want something fuller than this, something that includes this but is fuller than this, so that we experience all of the riches that God has for us. And to that end, I want to submit to you guys three persuasions.

Now I want us all as a congregation, each of us individually, to arrive at 3 persuasions, things, 3 things that we're convinced about, 3 persuasions that we absolutely must arrive at if we are to enjoy the fullness of our inheritance in the saints. Persuasion number 1, this is what I want all of us to believe, and that is this Saints of all ages are a part. Of my gospel inheritance. Saints of all ages are a part of my gospel inheritance.

I want you to say this with me and say it like you believe this for yourself. Let's say it together. Saints of all ages are a part of my gospel inheritance. Look around you.

There are people younger than you in this church. There are people older than you in this church. You need to look around in a sense at everyone in this church body, young and old, and think every one of these people are a part of my gospel inheritance, whatever age they are. I have lately, started, when I, when I meet someone new who's a believer, I like saying to them, you are a part of my gospel inheritance and I claim you.

And just yesterday I got a phone call from a pastor in Atlanta who I haven't seen since seminary and we had just incredibly rich fellowship with each other for about half an hour and at the end I told him I said you are a part of my gospel inheritance and I claim you. And he didn't really reciprocate, but, but he was very kind in what he said. He just didn't use that language, but I just, I like thinking that way. all of you, you're a part of my gospel inheritance, and I claim you, whatever age that you are at, whatever station of life, all saints of all ages are a part of our gospel inheritance.

This is affirmed in scripture. I'm not making this up. For example, it's implied in Ephesians 1:18. Paul says, I want you to know the riches of the glory.

that are yours and the saints, not just in the saints that are your age, or your gender, but it's also implied in Ephesians chapter 3, when Paul begins to pray again. And he basically says, I bow my knees before the Father, and I'm praying that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ. Paul is saying, I want you guys to know the fullness of the love of Christ, but I want you to know that, and you will only come to know the fullness of His love with all the saints, or literally in relationship with all the saints.

Now, how many of you want to know the full length and height and breadth and depth of the love of Christ?

If you are interested in that, a verse like this teaches you much. This verse tells you that you will only experientially come to know that. In relationship with all the saints, not just those that are your age or your skin color. In fact, listen to what John Stott says about this very passage, about this very phrase with all the saints.

He says, Get this switched here. He says we shall have the power to comprehend these dimensions of Christ's love, Paul adds, only with all the saints. It takes the whole people of God to understand the whole love of God. All the saints together, Jews and Gentiles, men and women, young and old, black and white, with all their varied backgrounds and experiences, and we would also add their giftedness and the riches that God has deposited.

In each of them. It is together in community with one another. The whole people of God is required to experientially know the whole love of God. So saints of all ages are a part of our gospel inheritance.

Think about it, guys. The way God designed the family, which is the basic unit of society. For example, my family, it's not a family of 6 people who are all the same age, right? We're all of different ages.

my wife and I, we're, well, actually, we're not the same age, she's older than, than I am. So there's a generational gap there. No. Where is she?

No, she's only 3 months older than me, but I like to make a big deal out of that 3 months. but anyway, we're roughly the same age, but, 44 years of age, but we've got an 18-year-old child and a 17-year-old and a 12-year-old and an 11-year-old. We're all of different ages and it's up to, for example, my 18-year-old daughter to figure out a way to relate to her 12-year-old brother and 11-year-old sister, and it's not just relating with someone her own age and we as 44 year olds have to figure out a way how do we relate to this 12 year old boy that's in our family?

How do we communicate to him in a way that he gets it and understands and And our children have to figure out how do we relate to this mom and dad and obey them and honor them and have a relationship with them.

How do we communicate to them in a way that they actually get what we're trying to say? And so in a family, the way God designed it is there are cross-generational relationships that are going on all the time. That is the family unit. And did that in the Bible, in the New Testament, the people of God are described as being the household?

Of faith. In other words, the family of God. In the church, we are family. In fact, Jesus speaking to his disciples and telling them what they're going to get for following Him.

just to make a long story short, look what he says in Mark 10, verse 30, at the very end. He basically says, you're going to receive a hundredfold, a number of things, but here's some of the things a hundredfold you're going to get, brothers and sisters and mothers and children. Obviously Jesus is assuming that's a good thing. And that the disciples would go, Whoa, that's great.

I'm going to get hundreds of brothers and sisters and mothers and children. In 1 Timothy 5, Paul is telling Timothy how to go about relating to people of various ages in the church, and he says, do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father, treat younger men like brothers and older women like mothers and Younger women like sisters in all purity, and if he were to go on, he'd say, and those that are significantly younger than you relate to them as children.

Obviously if he's telling Timothy relate to older men as fathers, if Paul could speak to those fathers, he would say relate to Timothy as a child. In the faith and love him the way that you would your own child.

And so in in the church, in the household of faith, we've got father figures and mother figures, hundreds of them, and brothers and sisters and sons and daughters, and God wants us all cross-generationally to figure out how to love one another and relate. To each other and all of these individuals who are a part of the family of God, young and old, men and women, boys and girls are a part of our gospel inheritance. A second persuasion, and this is maybe a breaking open of the first persuasion and being a little bit more specific.

This is a persuasion I want us all to arrive at, and that is that I should cultivate relationships with saints who are older than me.

I should cultivate relationships with saints who are older than me. Say this with me as if this is your own persuasion. I should cultivate relationships with saints who are older than me. We should not just look to relate to people our own age.

If you're a 17-year-old in the youth group, don't just look for other seniors in high school to have a relationship with. You need to be looking beyond your own age and deliberately seek out and pursue and cultivate relationships with people that are older than you. And that even goes beyond just your own parents, but others that are further along and older. than you are.

And in the first service I went long on the message, so I'm going to skim through a part of this and go real quickly. In the Bible, like in the Old Testament, old age is valued. In fact, in Leviticus 19, the people of Israel are told to rise in the presence of the gray headed and to honor the aged. When an elderly person walked in the room, they were to stand.

Out of respect and Job 12:12, wisdom is with the aged and understanding and length of days. That doesn't mean that every elderly person is biblically wise, right? But those that have been walking with God, And they're following him just from their life experience, both from the word of God, from the wisdom of God, and even some lessons learned the hard way as they've traveled on the path of life to places where you haven't been to yet. They have a lot of wisdom.

Don't underestimate the wisdom that they can offer to you. and I'm going to skip. I was going to talk a little bit about gray hair that's on the next slide, but we're going to skip that for the sake of time. I'll just say gray hair is a good thing, but anyway, in First Peter 5:5, look at this instruction from Peter.

He says, You who are younger, likewise be subject to the elders. Now let me explain this a little bit. if you have the new American standard, it basically says you younger men, and it says men masculine. I just want you to know that the word men is not in the Greek text.

Now the gender of the word for the younger ones is masculine, and that's why they said younger men. but that doesn't really mean that Peter's only talking to men. And let me explain it this way, that if we, if I were speaking Greek and there were 10 women up here on the platform and I were to refer to that group of women, I would use the feminine gender to refer to them. OK.

However, if one guy came up here and stood in the midst of that group to where now it's 10 women and one guy and I were to refer to that group, guess what gender I would now use. Masculine. Just the presence of one guy in that group would force me as a speaker of Greek to use the masculine. And so Peter uses the masculine here.

That doesn't mean that no women are being included in his instruction. It just simply means that men are included in his instruction. And so on the screen you have the translation of the English Standard Version that I think rightly leaves this more gender neutral, and he says you who are younger, both men and women likewise be subject to the elders, and it would be easy to think, well, the elders are the those who hold the office of eldership that he's just been talking to. Earlier in chapter 5, however, most writers on this passage would say that while the elders who have the office of elder are certainly included in this instruction, most likely Peter is simply referring to those in the church that are older, both men and women.

And the elders, the men who serve as overseers of the church, are in that group, but the group he's referring to when he says the elders is larger than that. And so he's saying, you who are younger, likewise be subject to those who are older. If you're in the body of Christ in the church, look for those that are older than you and be subject to them. Now the verb that is translated be subject is a relational term.

It doesn't just mean, just do your own thing. However, if in doing your own thing an older person comes to you and says stop that, well then you need to be submissive to them. That's not what he's talking about. This word be subject to literally means to arrange yourself underneath the leadership, the oversight, the influence, and the example of.

Of those that are older, you actually need to find those that are older and arrange yourself underneath their oversight, the help that they can provide, their leadership, their example, and arrange yourself underneath their, their influence. It's a relational term. This verb be subject is used to speak of a wife's relationship to her husband. A wife doesn't just do her own thing.

And occasionally her husband tells her something and she's got to submit. No, it's a lifestyle. Peter's saying, those of you that are younger, I want you as a part of your lifestyle to include arranging yourself under identifying those that are older and arranging yourself underneath their influence, oversight, and the help that they can provide. In Titus chapter 2.

Paul says older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands and to love their children. So any young woman would look at that passage and say, Well, I need older women. And my life. So if you're a young gal and maybe you're 19 years old and a freshman in college and you sign up for a care group and you end up being in a care group where it's a bunch of older women in that care group and you look around and there's really not many other people that are your age, you should not feel impoverished by that.

See, we need to get out of the mindset that we have to have Someone who exactly matches my age, or I won't get true genuine fellowship and help. No, God wants us relating to our brothers and sisters who are older than us and younger than us. If you find yourself in a care group that has older women and a different station of life who are further ahead of you, your thought needs to be, I am rich indeed to be a part of this group, and I have much to gain. We need to be in relationship with those that are older, obviously, because there's much to gain from them, but there's another reason why we want to have relationships with those who are older, and this is not arrogant to say.

It's because we also would like to bless them. We, we think that we have a contribution to make to their lives. Is that arrogant? To think if that's arrogant, I have no business being up here as a 44-year-old speaking to anybody who is 45 or older.

I'm obviously up here because I think I've got something to contribute. To those that are younger, those that are my age, and those that are older, so we want to relate to those that are older because we want to bless them and maybe God's doing stuff in our life and we can share those things with them and they can be inspired and blessed by those things. In fact, this is implied in First Timothy 4:12. Where Paul says to Timothy, Let no one look down on your youthfulness.

This is fascinating to me because it indicates that even in the first century church there were people who were older who looked down on those that were younger and thought they have nothing to contribute to me. And Paul says to Timothy, Don't let anyone devalue you because you're younger than them. But rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. And I love the way he tells Timothy to correct this problem.

He doesn't say, don't let anyone look down on your youthfulness, but if anyone does, you go up to them and rebuke them for that. No, here's how you fix the problem. Live the life where you're being a good example and speech and conduct, love, faith, and purity, so that you can actually show yourself an example that those who are older can look at and say, I'd like to follow that example of that person who's younger than me. You guys ever been inspired by the example of someone younger?

than you. No. This sermon's going great. I have 4 children, and they all have a long way to go before they're everything God wants them to be, just like, just like me.

but I, I see certain graces from God and beauties that are in them that inspire me, and I find myself imitating my children in some of those ways. In fact, without being specific, there's an area in my life that over the last 12 months has been one of my greatest areas of failing and weakness and struggle for me. And by watching my 12-year-old son Benjamin, Who is further than me in this particular area. I, I have seen in his example, a pattern for me to follow.

I've been rebuked by it. I've been challenged by it, and it's actually helped me to be more mature in a particular area where I have been pretty weak over this past year, and I've communicated that to my son. It's like, what, in this area, there are other areas where you may be immature, but in this area, you passed me, and by watching you, God has used your example to help me in this particular area. And so as we need to relate to those that are older than us, have relationships with them because we have much to gain from them, but also we want to live the life before them to where we can be an example to them and we can share what God is doing in our lives to them and be a blessing.

To them and enrich their lives. So, saints of all ages are a part of my gospel inheritance. That's the first persuasion. Persuasion number 2, I should cultivate relationships with saints who are older than me.

Per Persuasion number 3, you may have guessed it, is I should also cultivate relationships with saints who are younger than me. certainly relate to people your own age. Look to be in relationship with those that are older than yourself, but also be open to pursue, welcome, and cultivate and nurture relationships with those that are younger than you. And again, back to 1 Timothy 4.

12 Let no one look down on your youthfulness. That ought to be a lesson loud and clear to every one of us to never look at any person in the body of Christ and look down on them or devalue them or consider them in any way less than us simply because they are younger than us. This goes for adults' attitudes towards children. And it also goes towards the attitude of a big brother towards a little brother and a big sister towards a little sister who may be 4 or 5 years younger than themselves or someone in the church that's in the 6th grade and you're so mature and you look at these 4th graders and they're so immature.

Don't ever look down on anyone for their youthfulness, but actually cultivate relationships with saints who are younger than Yourself and, along these lines, what I want to say as we turn a corner here with the rest of our time together, I want to talk primarily to adults regarding their attitudes and perspectives regarding children, all right. You'll notice that in that persuasion 3, the sentence is not complete. I should cultivate relationships with saints who are younger than me and I want to finish that persuasion with a series of other finishing statements.

I want to cultivate relationships with those who are younger than me, valuing them as I would Christ.

Actually looking at children as an adult, you may be 50 years old, look at the children that are in your life, whether they are your grandchildren, or children in the church, 6 years of age, 9 years of age, look at the children that God has placed in your life, especially those that are in the body of Christ, and value them as you would Jesus himself. In Mark 9:36, it says, and Jesus, taking a child, set him before them and taking him, the child in his arms. He said to them, the people gathered around, whoever receives one child like this in my name, receives me.

And whoever receives me does not receive me, but him who sent me.

if Jesus came in this morning, how would you receive Him? We would fall all over ourselves like, oh, where do you want to sit? And we would, we would so warmly receive him. And why would we want to receive him?

We would, we would warmly receive him because we would want to serve him, right? And just tend to whatever. just what do you want us to do? And we would serve him.

Jesus says, I, I know you would want to do that for me. And when you do that for one child like this, that's sitting on my lap, You do that for me. I want you to receive a child like this with that same desire to serve, because when you serve this little one in my name, you've served me. There's also another reason that we would receive Jesus so eagerly if he were to walk in here this morning, and that is not only because we would desire to serve Him, but also because there's a lot to get from Him, right?

And we were like, oh, Jesus, why don't, why don't you preach instead of Milton this morning and, and, just teach us, give us your wisdom. We know that we have much to receive from you. And so we warmly welcome you into our midst. We would receive Him because we have much to gain from Him.

And Jesus says, I know you would do that for me. But this little one here on my lap, that's in my embrace, I want you to receive this child in the same way implied in that is Jesus is saying, there are many ways that I want to bless you through this child, receive this child not just so you can serve the child, but also because there is much that I want to give you. And bless you with that is in that I have deposited inside of this child. Jesus takes it very personally how we treat children, the children in our care groups, the children in our homes that are our own flesh and blood children and so forth.

Jesus takes it very personally how we view children and value them and treat them. You say, Pastor Milton, I've got to make a confession. And that is that I just, I frankly can't stand children., What are you going to do about that? And I, I'm not going to do anything about that.

But I would just say that if you said that to Jesus, he, he would say, what? Did, did I hear you correctly? Did you just say you can't stand me? You'd be, no, I didn't say that.

I, I think you did. If you receive a child, you've received me. If you reject a child, if you can't stand. Children, then I take that very personally, because there's much that I want you to relate to them and give to them, as you would me.

And also there's much I want to give you. from them that I have put within them. To receive children is to receive Jesus. In our care group gatherings, I've noticed that while we are intergenerational in our care groups and adults and children, all ages on all the spectrums of life are there, that it's still so easy to default to the old pattern to where, yeah, there's children present, but they're not really involved.

They're not involved in the discussion, and they have, a very small role to play in the care group gathering. And we just need to ask ourselves in our care group gatherings, are we doing the work? It takes extra work, but are we doing the work to receive them, not just to welcome them into the house, but to receive them, to welcome them into what we're doing in our care group gatherings. Listen to what Mark Messner says.

This is a true story. Of a lesson he learned along these lines, he says our small group of adults was moving harmoniously into deeper worship as we sang the familiar choruses to the accompaniment of a skilled guitarist. Between songs, we sat quietly in an attitude of worship, enjoying the evident presence of God. The tranquility was quickly shattered when my exasperated two year old with tears flowing down his face barged into the scene, notifying me that one of his fellow playmates had grabbed a toy from him.

I tried to make a peaceful exit from the meeting, whisking him back downstairs where my eyes confronted the chaos that had hit that room. 6 kids, all under the age of 5, had succeeded at nearly dismantling our family room. Toys were flying through the air as the kids ran amok before my eyes. Now, listen to this.

Although the children had been placed under the supervision of some small group members, including myself, we were enjoying the worship so much that we failed to think about the kids. It was not long before the Lord showed me my error. I read about Jesus bringing the children into the middle of a group, taking them into his arms while declaring, Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me. And then I realized that the children had not been welcome in our midst and therefore Jesus had not really Been welcome either.

This is the thinking process of a man in a situation like this, and I just submit his thinking process to all of us as we look ahead to the care groups and to make sure that we structure things in a way that reflect that we're giving just as much thought to the children and to receiving them and Welcoming them into what we're doing as we give to thinking about adults and welcoming them into what we're doing in our care group gatherings and our attitude should be, I want to bless children at any opportunity.

I want to, I want to give, I want to impart some blessing to the children that God has put In my life. So I want to value children, valuing them as I would Jesus Christ Himself. There's a second way that we want to value them, and that is valuing them as I would my own self.

And even other adults. Valuing children as highly as I value myself and value other adults. Now, one of the earliest small group gatherings that took place is in Mark chapter 10. where Jesus is having a small group meeting with his disciples, and they have come aside from a larger group.

They, they have some questions for Jesus about divorce and remarriage. And so they're asking Jesus questions about that. Jesus is answering them. And apparently, none of the disciples, all of whom were adults, ever wondered, man, should we be occupying Jesus' time and attention?

The way that we are. Do I really have a right to ask him questions? what if he would prefer to do something else? Are, are we imposing on him?

they never asked that about themselves or their fellow disciples. However, while they're having this great time with the King of the kingdom of God, look what happens in Mark 10:13. And they, speaking of parents and, and other adults, were bringing children to Jesus so that he might touch them. But the disciples rebuke them.

They're trying to have this discussion with Jesus, feeling perfectly entitled to his time, and here come these children, and the disciples are like offended and, and they rebuke those that were bringing the children. And we know from the next verse that they were actually seeking to hinder them, probably physically getting in their way and saying, Stop, don't, don't go to Jesus. And, and though the disciples would have never admitted this, do you realize the arrogance that was in their psyche?

What their attitude was is we're entitled to Jesus.

We're entitled to his time, his energy and attention, but you children, no, don't, don't interrupt, don't, don't come in here. What they're saying is you are not as entitled to Jesus as we are. You are not as entitled to his time, energy, and attention as we are. So look how Jesus responds in verse 14.

But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant or angry and said to them, Permit the children to come to me and stop hindering them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. what Jesus is saying is, I know you disciples think that the kingdom of God belongs to you and you're right. I know that you believe that the king of the kingdom of God belongs to you. And you're right.

I want you to know that the kingdom of God belongs to children just like it belongs to you. The things of the kingdom of God belong to these children just as it belongs to you, adult men, and even the King of the kingdom of God belongs to these children just as he belongs to you. He's teaching the disciples to value children as highly as they do themselves. There's a 3rd way that we need to value children.

And that is we need to value them as having something to teach us. We don't just value them because we want to bless them and so we tolerate them, we've got a difference we've got to make in their lives. No, we need to value them as having something to teach us. In fact, Jesus really turns this right on its head and the very next verse in the incident that I've been describing, he says to the disciples in Mark 10:15.

Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not even enter it at all. In Matthew 18:3, in Matthew's account, Matthew has Jesus saying, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Now we don't have time to get into in what ways are we supposed to be like children and in what ways are we not, but at the very least, Jesus is putting children in front of the disciples, children that the disciples tried to get out of that circle and say, you don't belong here.

And Jesus says, let them come to me.

The kingdom belongs to them as much as it does to you. But also while the children are here, Let me teach you something. You actually need to become more like these children. And you must do that, or you will not enter the kingdom of God at all.

We need to look at children and value them as having something to teach us. And that doesn't mean that some six year old's going to be in your care group, and during a discussion time, just, raise his hand and just, just speak this profound wisdom that leaves everyone just on the floor, just gasping at the magnitude of the wisdom. that has been spoken. Although I know in our care group, the children often in discussion time spoke great wisdom that was somewhat startling to us and very beneficial for us, and we appreciated that.

But what, even the sin and the immaturities that are in the children that become manifest that might rub you wrong. I think God is using that. God causes everything to work together for good, even the immaturities that are in the children that are in your life, and God wants to teach you patience. God, maybe you need to go talk to that child.

Maybe you need to talk to that child's parents, and that's going to be hard to do, but you've got to step out of your comfort zone and do that. But You take those steps and you do that and you love that child nonetheless and so forth, you're learning and you're growing and treasures are abounding inside of your spirit as you're relating to and responding to this child that God has put in your life. There's one last way that we should value children, and that is we need to value their contributions even if their contribution seems small now.

We often might look at children as not having much to contribute, even if that were true.

Even if their contribution is small, let them make the small contributions. why? Because God can do big things with small contributions. We have that taught actually in Scripture in the feeding of the 5000.

all 4 gospel writers tell this story. John is the only gospel writer who tells us one particular detail about the story. Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us that the disciples saw that all they had were 5 loaves and 2 fish, right, to feed the 5000 men plus everyone else that was gathered there, women and children. And that was all the food that was there.

John lets us in on a little fact that it was a boy. It was a child that was the one who brought the loaves and the fish. And so look what happens. What's interesting is the disciples are like, Jesus, we need to send these people home.

They need to go eat. They're famished, and Jesus says, You feed them. And he lets them marinate in that for a minute and be agitated, and they're like, Well, man, 200 denarii won't even provide a little bit for everyone to eat. So what are we going to do?

How can we feed this multitude? And apparently in the midst of all of that, a boy, a child steps forward in this large group gathering and says, I got, I got 5 loaves. I got 2 fish. Isn't that awesome.

This thousands of people. I got, I got 5 loaves. I've got 2 fish. And to the disciples' credit, they're like, All right, hey, we'll bring you to Jesus.

And so they honor his little contribution. They bring the child to Jesus, but then they demean his contribution in a sense. We understand this totally, but, but they say to Jesus, there is a lad here who has 5 barley loaves and 2 fish. But what are these for so many people?

What is this contribution? In the face of such great need, Verse 11 Jesus took the loaves. He took the loaves. And he blessed the loaves.

And he fed thousands. With the loaves. And with the fish. As much as anyone wanted to eat.

Jesus took the contribution of this little boy, and he blessed it. And he did great things with this little boy's small contribution. That is why we as a church and in our care group ministries, we want to provide an environment in which the children can make their contributions, have those contributions be blessed by Jesus. And then we watch in amazement as God does great things and makes much of the contributions.

of the children. We value them. This is why we want relationships with our own children and with other children, so that we can bless them and so that we can gain from them all that God wants us to gain from them. And just in wrapping this up, this is the last slide.

all of this goes into explaining, guys, why in our care group ministry that we as elders have decided to go intergenerational. Other churches have care groups or small groups, and it's more stage of life, and we don't want to criticize what other churches do, but we just want you to understand that the very things that I've shared this morning have all gone into the mix of the thinking of the elders and directing us that in our care group ministry we would like this to be the one ministry.

And the structure of our life as a church where the whole family can be together and the saints can be together, young and old, and be relating to one another, the younger with the older and the older with the younger, so that in that context, in addition to everything else we do as a church where we break things down by age and so forth, that we can truly experience the fullness of the riches that God has for us by relating to those older, those that are our same age and our same stage of life, and also relating to those that are younger.

If you find yourself in a care group and maybe you're 50 years old, and there's a bunch of kids in the care group, you should be thinking based on what we've learned.

what, my work may be cut out for me. And there may be more work now to do than if I were in a care group with all people in my stage of life and my age, but what? I am blessed indeed, and I will receive these children as I would Jesus Christ. I will honor them as I would want to be honored myself or would honor and view other adults.

I will view these children as having something to teach me, and I will value, I will nurture their contributions, however small they seem, knowing that God can do much. With even small contributions. Our desire is also in the care groups to keep the whole family together., and all the other ministries in our church life, we, we tend to divide things up. We got men's ministry, we got women's ministries, and children's ministries, and youth ministry, and college age ministry, and often when families show up for church, On Sundays it's you come to church together and then you scatter and that's all fine.

It's appropriate to minister to people based on stage of life or maybe in an age appropriate way, but in addition to all of that, we want our care group ministry to be an environment where the whole family can be together and deliver ministry and receive ministry in, in that setting. It also is a place where sin issues might become manifest. It used to be that a guy could go to a men's group and for years, other guys would ask him, so how, how are things going at home? Oh, they're going good.

How's, how's the marriage? Oh, it's going great. How's it going with the kids? Oh, it's going good.

and a guy could do that. Or a woman might do that and her gathering with other ladies, but in a care group where everyone is there, the whole family is there, it can become a little more evident, more easily that things are not as they should be, and issues might rise to the surface that can be addressed and corrected, and a deeper help can be provided. So let us take what we've learned this morning. Let's apply it in every area of our life, even as we go home and we relate to.

to our children and children as you relate to your parents, and let us pursue these kinds of relationships, to experience the riches that are ours in Christ, relating to saints of all ages, but let's also go into our care groups with this mindset as well. Well, let's go to the Lord in prayer. and ask him to make of us a people. who experience The riches of the glory of our inheritance in the saints.

Lord, We may only be in the first grade. When it comes to fully living out the very things that We're talking about this morning. We have much to learn. And These areas are areas where we need to grow in.

The Lord, give us a holy greed. A greed that, that looks at, at all of our brothers and sisters and our mothers and fathers and the figures in the faith and in the body and those that are children and driven by a holy greed and realizing the riches that you've placed in all of them, the very riches of Christ that we would eagerly pursue and cultivate, nurture and value all of these relationships. that even cross-generationally Because of all that we can give and gain. It is only as we add this to the picture of all the relationships we have with others our own age and our own stage of life that we can truly enter into the fullness of the riches.

Of the glory of the inheritance that you have given to us, that we find in all of the saints. We thank you, Lord, for your gift of these riches. We also thank you for the opportunity to give at this time to you, in this time of offering. Lord, we, we're just simply responding to your generosity.

You've blessed us so greatly, and out of hearts of gratitude and a passion to see the gospel spread and the fame of Jesus furthered, we give of these offerings to you. And at the same time, Lord, we give you our hearts. In Christ's name we pray, and all God's people said,