Children Are A Priority to Jesus | Matthew 21:16

[00:00:00] Hi everybody, welcome back to Daily Truths. It's never too early to teach children about

[00:00:15] the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter what age they are, you can inculcate them with

[00:00:20] the truths of God's Word and the truths about what Jesus means to us. That He loves us, that

[00:00:25] He's there for us, that He never leaves us, that He died and rose again. And you're

[00:00:29] probably thinking, are little children really capable of having that kind of faith? We have

[00:00:34] a little guy by the name of Noah who is 19 months old. He's our grandson. We watch him

[00:00:39] very often and he has three loves in life. Number one is parents. Number two, Jesus.

[00:00:44] Number three, basketball. Not necessarily in that order. It's interesting when he comes

[00:00:50] over, he loves to shoot baskets. As a matter of fact, that's pretty much all he does.

[00:00:54] Here you see a video of him. Look at how little he is and so cute. So here he is shooting

[00:01:00] baskets with a football in the basketball hoop and he'll do this for hours, right? And

[00:01:06] when it's time for us to eat, you know, we'll sit down, he'll fold his hands, he'll bow

[00:01:11] his head and he'll pray to Jesus, right? And he says a prayer with us, thank you

[00:01:15] Jesus for our food. It is never too early to teach children about Jesus. Why? Because

[00:01:22] they're capable of having saving faith and praising the Lord in the simplest of ways.

[00:01:27] We're in the book of Matthew chapter 21 and remember this is right after Jesus has come

[00:01:33] writing triumphantly into Jerusalem on a donkey and then he clears the temple and we pick

[00:01:38] up verse 14. And we talked about this yesterday and the blind in the lame came to him in

[00:01:43] the temple and he healed them. But when the chief priest in the scribe saw the wonderful

[00:01:47] things that he did and the children crying out in the temple, Hosanna to the Son

[00:01:51] of David, they were indignant and they said to him, do you hear what these are saying?

[00:01:58] It's interesting that the Pharisees, the religious leaders called children these.

[00:02:04] Do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, yes, have you never

[00:02:08] read out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies? You prepared praise.

[00:02:15] So catch the scene here. First of all, Jesus clears the temple, then these

[00:02:21] lame people and blind people come to Jesus in the temple and he heals them.

[00:02:26] Just the day before Jesus comes writing triumphantly into Jerusalem and the people

[00:02:30] are saying, Hail, Hosanna, Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of

[00:02:34] the Lord and kids took all of that in. And now in the temple, what are these

[00:02:39] children doing? They're saying the very same thing that the adults the day

[00:02:44] before and kids said the day before. Hail, Hosanna, Son of David. In other

[00:02:48] words, they believe that Jesus was a promised Messiah and the religious

[00:02:52] leaders are saying, this really makes me mad. This isn't right.

[00:02:57] Tell them to be quiet. And so Jesus says these incredible words out of the mouths

[00:03:01] of infants and nursing babies. You prepared praise. Now what's this

[00:03:04] saying? Number one, the children are capable of praising the Lord.

[00:03:09] And before they praise the Lord, what has to happen in their life?

[00:03:12] They have to have saving faith in who Jesus is.

[00:03:15] So listen to what it says. Nursing babies and infants are capable of that.

[00:03:22] Holy cow. So here's the thing.

[00:03:26] Does your church honor children?

[00:03:29] You have a children's worship or maybe a children's message during the

[00:03:32] the worship service. Are children considered fellow believers in Christ

[00:03:37] and not delegated or relegated to just a lesser position in the life

[00:03:42] of your church? Does your church value children? Here's why we do

[00:03:46] because Jesus values children. What did he do here?

[00:03:49] He valued these kids.

[00:03:51] He said, hey, kids are capable of praise and belief in me.

[00:03:55] And remember in Mark chapter 10, remember the parents are trying to

[00:03:59] prohibit or the disciples are trying to prohibit

[00:04:03] children coming to Jesus, right?

[00:04:05] And the parents want their children to be taught about the Lord Jesus

[00:04:10] and to be witnessed to by the Lord Jesus and spend time with the Lord Jesus.

[00:04:14] And the disciples were in the way is your church an inhibitor

[00:04:18] to the faith in Jesus Christ or an enabler, right?

[00:04:23] I know of many churches who just value children's ministry.

[00:04:27] Peace Lutheran where I was for 25 years is one of them.

[00:04:30] Why is that? Because Jesus values children.

[00:04:34] So here's the thing.

[00:04:36] Here's the bottom line.

[00:04:37] If you're a grandparent or a parent or you hang out with kids,

[00:04:41] it's never too late to teach them about Jesus.

[00:04:45] And our little grandson, Noah is a wonderful example.

[00:04:49] I still think he likes basketball more than Jesus, though.

[00:04:54] That'll change, hopefully.

[00:04:56] Have a great day in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[00:04:59] And that is today's Daily Truth.

[00:05:01] Thank you for tuning in to Daily Truths with Dave Alman.

[00:05:04] Pastor Dave Alman is the pastor of Mount Hope Church in Boulder, Colorado.

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