September 6 "Let The Come" (Mark 10:13-16)

I invite you to turn to Mark 10.

We are going to be in Mark 10, verses 13 to 16.

Mark 10:13–16

This is your first time with us.

We have been going through the gospel of Mark.

And we just happen to be at chapter 10, verses 13 to 16.

So I'm glad that you are here.

The question I want to ask all of you, and I want you to keep this in your heads throughout the entire service, is are you qualified?

Are you qualified?

It seems as almost every important door that we will ever walk through in life, we need some sort of qualification to get in.

Sorry, sorry, sir.

You don't meet our standards, so you cannot come.

Oh, I'm sorry, buddy, but but you just aren't good enough, and so we're gonna send you to the miners.

Oh, oh, oh, I'm I'm I'm sorry, sir, but but your resume, it's just not what we're looking for.

Oh, I'm sorry, you're not a member here.

You can you cannot be in here, you cannot play here.

Oh, I'm sorry, you don't have the credit, and so you cannot buy this.

Every important door that we go in seems to have some type of qualification.

Whether you have money, status, talents, possessions, whatever it might be, if you have none of that, then you aren't qualified to the world standards.

We are going to see this morning that when someone tells the Lord they're not qualified, it deeply angers him.

It deeply angers you.

And I'm here to tell you this right now it isn't matter if it's you, the world, the culture, whoever it might be, we do not have the authority to determine who is qualified.

We do not have the authority to say who is significant.

And this right here, when this happens, it angers our Lord.

And so there's four people today I really want to speak at.

I want to speak at my brothers and my sisters in the faith.

Man, I'm glad that you are here.

I'm glad that you faithfully come.

Are you qualified?

I'm gonna speak to that person that's here that has been trying to do life on their own.

Are you qualified?

I want to speak to that person that walked in here and said, you know what, I'm a good person, Jordan.

I'm qualified.

I would like to ask you again, are you qualified?

And for that person that possibly walked in here, broken, realizing that, man, I'm ashamed of myself.

Are you qualified?

And spoiler alert, you are.

You are qualified.

The Lord says, let them come.

And so this morning, this message is titled, Let them come.

And so let's dive into the first two verses of Mark 13.

People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them.

Pay attention to that word.

When Jesus saw this, he was indignant.

He said to them, Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them.

And so, who here has angered our Lord?

His disciples.

His closest people are the same ones that have now made him indignant.

Why?

Because there were these people here, probably parents, maybe caregivers, that were bringing kids to Jesus so that he could bless them.

This was not an uncommon thing in the first century for a teacher, a rabbi, to bless little children.

And so they are that if we've been with us through Mark, we've seen who Jesus is.

They've seen who Jesus is, this extraordinary teacher.

And so, why not get a blessing from him?

And the disciples do something, they rebuke them.

And when you hear that word rebuke, I don't want you to think of it as just like this, this, this, this simple term of the it wasn't a hey, hey, hey guys, Jesus is a little busy right now.

No, no, no, no.

I want you to think of it as a strong word.

They were essentially communicating, hey, hey, stop bothering him.

Hey, you guys have nothing important to offer.

You guys have nothing.

Go away.

And that angered our Lord.

That word that it said that it made him is that he was indignant.

And so let me tell you this again.

It doesn't matter if it's you, the world, the culture, the disciples, we do not get to decide who is significant.

And whenever we do that, it deeply angers our Lord.

It makes him indignant.

You see, don't think of it as like when you're driving and someone cut you off in the middle of the road.

That's annoying.

That's irritating.

But if you are getting deeply angered about that, I might talk to someone about your road rage.

But when we are talking about indignant, I want you to think of it as if someone is abusing a child.

Or if we want to get cultural right now, if someone takes a child's life.

And Jesus is saying, that's exactly the point.

That is this is wrong, what you are doing.

You are hindering these people, these children, from coming to me.

And these are the very old people that I want to come to me.

You see, a chapter ago in Mark 9, we can read in verse 37 that Jesus said this, whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me, a little child, holding in his arms.

And so this was a test.

Jesus had already taught the lesson, and now this is a test.

And you know what they did?

They failed.

They failed.

Jesus calls their efforts hindrances that they were hindering them.

You see, they probably thought, you know what, we're Jesus' boys.

We're his twelve.

We know Jesus.

We can decide on who gets the attention, who doesn't.

And Jesus says, No, guys, no guys, you are hindering.

You are hindering.

Have you ever heard of the term gatekeeping?

You see, I was watching a video that said, hey, show me your favorite gatekeep restaurant.

Send me your favorite gatekeep recipe.

And basically what it's saying is, hey, send me that recipe or that restaurant that no one else really knows about, um, but that you go to.

And people gatekeep because they want this sense of power or sense of control, that they know something or they have something that other people don't have.

And I guess it's fine if you're talking about a restaurant or a recipe, I mean it's annoying, and you're annoying if you do that, but I guess it's okay with that.

But when we are talking about gatekeeping the Lord, that angers him.

That doesn't just anger him, that deeply angers the Lord.

That makes him indignant.

They're acting as first century bouncers, probably thinking that they were helping, and they were hindering the ones that Jesus wanted to come near him.

And this passage that we're looking at this morning is specifically about little children.

Jesus loves the little children.

We love the little children.

That was so special, so sweet having them sing up here this morning.

Made my eyes uh sweat a little bit, and it was just so precious.

But this is not an uncommon thing.

It's not just for little children.

You see, Jesus loves all.

You see, throughout the Gospels, he has this invitation for everyone.

Listen, listen to it.

In Matthew 11, 28, it says, Come to me all of you who are weary and burdened.

John 6.36, it says, Whoever comes to me, I will never drive away.

John 7.36 says, Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.

Jesus tells all.

Jesus, this is not just a passage for little children.

This is a a thing that we all need to note right here.

This is something that we need to take home, that we should never be the reason that someone thinks that they cannot come to Jesus.

Let me say that again.

Never be the reason that someone thinks they cannot come to Jesus.

And you see, we you say, Jordan Jordan, I'm here.

I'm at church, I brought a friend.

I don't think you're you're, you know, though those are people that are his enemies.

The Pharisees would do that.

That the tax collectors, the scribes, the demons.

And who are the people that did it here?

His close 12.

You see, I think that we could potentially be guilty of doing this without even saying, hey man, you can't come to church.

And we do it whenever we say, yeah, I don't, they're too far gone.

They're too far gone.

Oh, Jordan, Jordan, they don't dress like us.

They don't dress like us.

Oh, Jordan, Jordan, they wouldn't understand.

New Testament, Old Testament, what's the Bible?

Oh, oh, Jordan, Jordan, you don't understand what they were doing last night.

Let us never be the reason that someone thinks that they cannot come to Jesus.

Because Jesus says, come as you are.

Jesus also says to repent of your sins, but never think, never give the idea to someone that thinks, hey, no, you they need to clean up first.

They need to clean up before they come to church.

Man, Jesus welcomes all.

He welcomes you whether you are dirty, whether you are clean, whether you have questions, whether you have doubts, whatever you might have, he says, let them come.

Let them come.

And we're going to see that there is something specific about these children that we all are to be like when we are talking about the kingdom of God.

And let's dive into that word, and that word is helpless.

That helps us.

Next two verses.

It says, For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.

And so let's break down what in the world is the kingdom of God.

Whenever you hear that, some people might think it is heaven.

And that is correct.

It is heaven.

But it's also something that we can experience here right now, which is his salvation.

Which is how we can experience heaven on earth right now.

So it's a part, so there's two parts of this kingdom of God.

It's right now of him saving us, and then it's what we will experience whenever we pass away and we go to our earthly, we go to our heavenly bodies, heavenly places.

It is beautiful.

But let's look at what is a life before Jesus?

A life before Jesus is a life of self.

It's selfishness.

It's being the king of yourself.

It is being around your own desires, doing whatever you want, choosing what is right and what is wrong.

But when you repent and stop trusting yourself and receive Jesus as King and Savior, God reses you from the kingdom of self and gives you to the kingdom of his son.

Listen to right here what it says in Colossians 1.13.

It describes this salvation.

It says, He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves.

Before it was kingdom of darkness.

And so if you don't know the Son, if you don't have a personal relationship right now, I'm here to tell you you're living in darkness.

But the promise here is that they brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves.

And that's a promise that one day we will have a hope of eternity with Him.

That promise that we can be able to forgive.

Forgiven people, forgive people.

We will know how to truly forgive.

We will get His helper.

The Holy Spirit will come inside of us.

We will get new desires.

We will stop being selfish and start being selfless.

And this is a beautiful thing that we get to experience, and that's a promise for all of his believers.

Look at this freedom from sin controlling us.

Listen, I don't want to unintentionally overpromise something.

We will not experience heaven in its fullness here on earth.

We won't.

You will still be tempted, you will still see sicknesses, you will still see death, but you do get a taste of what is to come.

And so that's the kingdom of God.

But why does he say that then?

Why does he use the children here as an illustration on how we are to receive the kingdom of God?

How are we to enter the kingdom of God?

And so to answer that question, I have to answer this deep theological question.

And it is, what is a child?

A child is a lot of things.

Children can be so sweet and so precious.

And something that uh that you guys don't know is that God in his providence wanted me to preach this message.

I originally was supposed to preach the message that is going to be next week.

But I guess God, in a sense of humor, was like, hey, why not let the pastor who has four kids and is going to have a thousand one day preach on this?

And so a child is a lot of things, and I'm going to try to give a proper description on telling you what it is.

I am not a pro at all.

Need a lot of grace, a lot of your prayers.

But a child, a child is very sweet.

Children are so sweet.

I want you to check out this video of my son.

And I said, Hey, hey, Luke, I want you to sing Jesus Loves the Little Children.

And he messed up a little bit, but but check check this out right here.

Jesus loves me just again.

Jesus loves the little children.

Jesus loves the little children.

Yay.

Children can be so sweet.

They can be incredible.

They are funny.

They can be so sweet.

They can also be loud.

And they can be messy.

They can say, hey, hey, George or peel this banana, and then I'll peel the banana.

And he starts crying because I don't know why.

He says, hey, hey, I'll do it.

And then whatever he can't do, he gets mad at me because he can't do it.

And so I don't think that this is a message that Jesus is saying, oh, children are so sweet and they're so innocent and they're so cute.

I'm here to tell you right now, children are not innocent.

Listen, my kids, I mean, they'll go from squeezing my cheeks to hitting me right in the face, and I'm like, just yesterday, my son Knox, he's I was like, Noxie, come here.

He said, No.

And I was like, You're not even one and a half.

How do you know what that is?

And so this is not a message that children are innocent.

And if you're here this morning and you think children are innocent, you are either one of two things.

You're either not a parent or you're a grandparent.

And you've been corrupted.

You have been.

But what I do think that Jesus is trying to teach us is that children are helpless.

And I don't say that in a derogatory way, but I mean it that they are very dependent.

My boys, they have never said any of this.

They've never been like, hey, George or me and Noxie are gonna, we're gonna cook some hibachi tonight for you guys.

They've never said, hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna head to the store and I'm gonna I'm gonna get some clothes because uh these that you bought don't fit us.

They have never said, hey, hey, hey, here is a part of this month's mortgage.

At the age and stage of life that they are in right now, they are so dependent on Courtney and me.

And this is not a message right now if you are starting to pick up on it.

That Jesus is saying, Hey, depend on me more this week.

It's not that.

Jesus is saying right here, depend on him for everything.

For everything.

Jesus is trying to say, This is the only way that you can be saved.

Just as a child depends on their parents, depend on me.

That is the only way that you can be saved.

That's why he says to receive the kingdom of God like a little child.

You see, the disciples, they're communicating.

What were they communicating?

Oh, Jesus, they're not important enough.

They have nothing to offer.

That's the point.

And I want them.

That's who I want to come to me because they can only receive.

They have no impressive resume, they have no accomplishments to present, they have no status to leverage.

The only thing that a child can do is receive.

Pay attention to that word right there.

He says that we are to receive the kingdom.

You know what he doesn't say?

You are to achieve it.

You know what we achieve?

A goal.

We achieve a degree, we earn a paycheck, but you receive a gift.

And the kingdom of God is not something that we accomplish on our own.

It is a gracious gift that God gives and we humbly receive it.

Let's look back at it again.

What is a life before Jesus?

What does that look like?

It looks like that we cannot erase our guilt.

It looks like we cannot make ourselves righteous.

It looks like that we cannot defeat death.

We cannot pay the penalty of our sins.

We cannot enter eternal life.

We cannot force our way into the kingdom of God.

Jesus had to do what we could not do for ourselves, and he did that on the cross and through his resurrection.

That's why we are to receive the kingdom of God like a little helpless dependent child.

We are to receive it like them.

But what happens?

The question is what happens if we try to do it a different way?

Well, he tells us right here.

We never enter it.

We never Never enter it.

He says, Truly, I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.

And he says, Truly, I tell you, in other translations, might say, Truly I say to you, truly I say to you, verily I say to you.

But in the original text, it means amen, I say to you.

That truly I say to you.

That means amen, I say to you.

You know, we normally amen things after someone says something good.

Or at the end.

That's the normal throughout the scriptures that we see is amen is at the end when you understand or something is good.

But Jesus, listen, I know as pastors we we can enjoy a good amen.

Jesus doesn't need that.

And so, but but what he's trying to say right here is that he's putting in front to tell you, hey, what I'm about to tell you is unquestionably true.

And so you need to pay attention to this.

And he says the word anyone, anyone, is he and he's trying to cover everyone with this.

This means that if you are a religious person, or if you think that you are a good person, or if you would claim that you are a wealthy person, or if you would claim that you are a successful person, or if you would say, hey, I grew up in church, or if you would say that I know all the right answers.

That's anyone.

That's everyone.

Have you ever gotten locked out of a house or out of a room?

Unfortunately, I've been a part of many circumstances where I've gotten locked out or something.

And when what do you try to do to get in?

Everything.

I mean, I mean, we have um I've taken a door off of a hinge to try to get in.

I'm I have some friends on my back hoisting them up to the second the second story so that they can see of a window as unlocked.

I mean, we have broken windows.

You try to do everything you can when you are locked out.

But I'm here to tell you this morning that there are no alternative entrances into the kingdom of God, my friends.

There is no side door for moral people.

There is no window for religious people, there is no secret interest for wealthy or successful people.

Every person enters the same way, and that is helpless, dependent, empty-handed, trusting Jesus rather than themselves.

That is how you enter the kingdom of God.

And so this is the this is a question that you need to be thinking about.

You need to ask yourselves.

What have you been doing?

Have you received it like a little child?

Because if not, you will not enter the kingdom of God.

And I know that sounds harsh, but that's truth.

And someone that proclaims truth and says hard things only says it because he loves you, or because they love you.

And so if you think that you are a good person and that you can do it on your own, you can't.

You have to do it helpless.

Independent.

Come into the Lord.

And anyone who tries to figure out or tries to do it a different way will never enter it.

You have to come helpless.

But just because we come helpless, it does not mean that we're hopeless.

We're not hopeless.

In fact, the person that finds Jesus discovers that his arms are strong enough.

His arms are so big enough that he can hold us.

You see, I love the opportunity to get to be a father.

I do.

It is something that I probably don't cherish enough.

Um, but man, it is a sweet, special thing that I get to be a part of.

But let me tell you something.

My boys are wild.

And right now in this phase and stage of life, my son Luke loves the game chase.

Or as he would call it, come and get me.

He will play that over and over and over until Cordy and me, we're just we're just go chase Pops.

He'll start chasing Pops if we're over at the grandparents.

And then whenever Pops is tired, he'll start chasing Tay-Tay.

And then whenever Tay Tay's tired, he'll go to Uncle B.

And then he'll go to Aunt Momo.

He'll he'll find everyone.

But then there comes a time that it is dark, so we gotta go home.

And so we get in the truck and we start heading home, and I look in the rearview mirror, and I see that my buddy, he's all chased out.

He's he's asleep.

And we get home, and he whenever we get home, I'm gonna tell you what he doesn't do.

He doesn't say, Oh, I'm going to now unbuckle myself.

Thank you so much for the ride, George.

I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go in, put my pajamas on, and brush my teeth and head to bed.

Thank you for the pleasant day.

I open the door.

I unbuckle him.

He lays his sweet head on my shoulder.

His feet are dangling.

His arms are dangling.

He doesn't try to impress me.

He doesn't try to assist me.

He just rests in the arms of his father.

Verse 16, it says, and he took the child, the children in his arms and placed his hands on them and blessed them.

My friends, Jesus does abundantly more and greater things than we could ever imagine.

You see, these children, these these parents, they came to him for a blessing.

And it says that right here.

He took, he takes them into his arms and he embraces them.

He gives them his affection.

He gives them his time.

He gives them his energy.

He gives them a blessing.

He does what every single disciple got in wrong.

Because these children matter to him.

Because Jesus loves the little children.

You see, Jesus loved the little children even before they were an illustration to these disciples of how we are to enter the kingdom of God.

He loved them before they had anything to offer.

He loved them when they couldn't sing, Jesus Love Me Right.

He loves them dearly.

And he loves you.

He loves you.

He loves you and you and He loves us all.

You see, Jesus' sole purpose was to seek and save the lost.

And so for my fellow believers, you see, there's going to come a day that I'm not going to get to unbuckle my boys anymore.

And they are going to become less and less dependent on Courtney and me.

And that's an okay thing.

Because children should do that with their earthly parents.

But with our spiritual lives, we should always be dependent upon the Lord for everything.

We never outgrow our dependence upon Jesus.

Colossians 2 6 says, So then just as you receive Jesus Christ as Lord, continue to live in Him.

We are to continue to doing that same thing whenever we first, whenever He first received us.

That is how we are to do that.

And so maybe today that you have come in here and you say, you know what, Jordan, I'm a follower, but I've been trying to be more independent.

I've been trying to do it a little bit on my own.

Man, repent.

Man, take this moment right now to confess that you still need Jesus.

You still need the Lord.

You see, we may outgrow being carried by our earthly father, but you never outgrow your need for Jesus.

For my non-believer friends.

For that person that's here and you truly think that you are good.

Jordan, I'm good.

I'm a good person into the world.

You probably are.

For that person that's here, and he said, Jordan, I'm broke.

I'm too far gone to receive the grace.

If you only knew what I've done, if Jesus knew how much I messed up, he can never welcome someone like me.

And I'm here to tell you that the gospel confronts both of those lies.

Because you are not good enough to receive the kingdom of God.

But you also are not too far gone that Jesus will refuse you when you come to him.

That's why Jesus said, Whoever comes to me, I will never drive away.

The disciples, they said, get away, stand back.

Jesus says, nah-uh-uh.

Guys, let them come.

Let them come.

Jesus says, come.

The question is, will you?

Would everyone stand up with me?

Would you close your eyes and bow your heads?

It is so important in moments when the Lord speaks to our hearts that we respond.

Because we need to take every single opportunity like it might be our last.

And so if you are here this morning and you fall under any of those categories, that you have realized that, you know what, I have been more independent and I need to come back to the Lord, trusting him for everything, would you come and confess?

If you would like to do it at your seat, you can do that as well, but take this time seriously.

Or if you are here this morning and say, you know what, I've realized that I have been trying to be a good person.

I've been trying to do morally good.

And I've realized now that I there's nothing of my good that I can offer.

I can't achieve it.

I must simply receive it as a helpless little child.

And for my sweet friend that is here this morning, or that's watching online, and you are here and you say, Jordan, maybe I'm not broken enough.

Jordan, maybe I do need to receive this.

You do.

Lord, I need you.

Oh, I need you.

Every hour I need you.

My one defense, my righteousness.

My God, how I need you.

As Brian sings, will you come forward?

I confess I will find my race and without you I saw heart is your thoughts that people are coming, it is not too late.

Oh God, how I need my Father, my prayer this morning is that my friends that are here that are hearing my voice will not just depend a little bit on you this week, Lord, that they will depend everything and put it upon you and run into your welcoming, loving arms.

And Lord, that they will be as a little dependent child.

Lord, that they will never gatekeep you from anyone.

Lord, because you are worthy.

Because you are worth it and you want all to come.

So Lord, I thank you for this message.

I thank you for the illustrations that have been used as the kids.

And Lord, I pray that you will continue to use us, and you will continue to love us, and we will see how much that love is.