When’s the last time any of you have ever played with Legos? Just over a year ago, I was in Honduras with Compassion. I was helping to lead people from Community Christian Church in Illinois visit Living Love church in Honduras where they’ve sponsored a few hundred kids there. The area was extremely poor, and most families lived in tin shacks about the size of our tech booth in the back. So, Community planned a VBS day for the kids of the church. There were around 150 kids that day and only 10 volunteers from Community so myself and two of my co-workers also stepped into help and I was paired up with a group of 8-year-old boys.

At one point, those boys were given Legos but they had never seen Legos before – if you’re a family in poverty, toys aren’t really a thing. Some of the boys got it fairly quick but there were two boys I remember: Bryan and Kevin who didn’t. They seemed like they didn’t really know what to do with the Legos and they needed help. Thankfully, I had been assigned to their table and could help. So, Bryan, Kevin, and I spent the next hour building Legos together and conversing as best we could. Looking back at that trip, this was the high point for me because it was a God-ordained moment as I prayed that God would give me intentional time with just one kid that day. And it was a moment where a child needed help with a simple thing and I could share in that time with them I was reminded of Wess Stafford’s quote that “every child you encounter is a divine appointment” as I played with Legos in Honduras.

But this story got me thinking about how children are so different than adults. Bryan felt no shame in receiving help from me. He didn’t question me when I showed him how they work. But as adults, what’s a common thing we say? “I don’t need any help, I’m good” when in fact, you are far from good. Or, the old adage of “you should pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” As adults, we are terrified of looking silly, weak, or unsure. Bryan and Kevin, in Honduras, were totally fine with it.

Why am I telling you this story? Well, as we just read, we read about how Jesus welcomes the little children and then how he commands his followers (adults) that they need to be like children if they want to live life in the Kingdom of God. What does that mean?

Today, we’ll see that: Jesus isn’t waiting for you to get stronger. He’s meeting you in your weakness (REPEAT)

What do I mean by Jesus isn’t waiting for you to get stronger?

Jesus Isn’t Waiting for You to Get Stronger

What happened at the start of the story? Jesus’ friends were arguing about who were the greatest. Elsewhere, John and James boldly ask Jesus to sit beside him on his throne. They were fixated on seeing who was the most gifted or who was Jesus’ favorite. Later in the story, they start sending children away who have come to see Jesus. Why would they send children away?

In this culture, children aren’t important, useful, or strong – especially small kids. Small kids need a lot of attention, food, and energy to keep alive and healthy. The disciples wanted their teacher, Jesus, to focus on people who are more important in their eyes – in our bibles, you know what story comes after this? The Rich Young Ruler – to the disciples, the rich young ruler is who Jesus should be interacting with. He has power, wealth, and status unlike children. And yet, children are who Jesus wants to spend his time with.

Naturally, Jesus’ disciples didn’t get this though. And for some of us, it’s the same way. From a young age, we’ve been taught to be strong and we’ve been taught that relying on others can be a sign of weakness. As adults, we dislike admitting that we can’t do things on our own so instead, we try to do it on our own anyways and fail miserably. Unfortunately, we can carry that into our relationship with Jesus. Rather than admitting our weaknesses and freely receiving the gift of Christ’s love, we try to contribute to it. That takes us to two places:

1.      When we mess up and sin or fail to live up to our behavioral expectations, we worry that God is mad at us and will never forgive us.

2.    We do the right things and proudly judge others who do not, adopting the elder brother mentality in the story of the prodigal son who only obeyed because he wanted his dad’s stuff not because he loved his dad.

Both of these places destroy your soul. But, Ephesians 2:8 is clear: we are saved (ie. made right with God) by grace (undeserved mercy and given blessing) through faith (trust)in Jesus Christ not by works so that no one will boast. That means God forgives you even when you mess up. And since you have nothing to do with it, you can’t judge others because you’re not better than them.

Jesus won’t work in your life if you feel like you need to clean yourself up before you come to him. Jesus won’t work in your life if you feel like his love for you varies day by day or depends entirely on your obedience. And Jesus won’t work in your life if you can’t humble yourself and admit there are parts of you that you just cannot fix on your own. Where does Jesus work then? He works and demonstrates his power through our weakness like Paul says in 2 Corinthians.

When we bought our pop-up camper, there were a few projects I wanted to get done: things like, repack the corner caps, replace some vinyl stripping, and replace the tires and re-pack the bearings on the trailer. I’m not the handiest guy in the world but thankfully, my dad is. He eagerly stepped in to help and over a few days and a few trips to Lower’s, we had Yuma in great shape.

So, my friends, Jesus isn’t waiting for you to get stronger. He eagerly wants you to come into his arms right now. That’s what makes his interactions with the kids so spectacular right now – they can’t give towards Jesus ministry, they can’t preach a sermon yet, and they can’t leave everything to follow him. That’s why I say kids aren’t the future of the church, they are the church right now. They have a purpose right now, not in the future.

And it’s the same for you, my dear friends. If you’re a person who has been feeling like you need to get better before you come to Jesus, stop believing that lie. Remember Jesus’ words: “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, it’s the sick.” Take time to pray today to go through the tax collector’s prayer: “Have mercy on me, O God, a sinner.” That is a prayer that God always answers and a prayer that he loves to answer.

When you do humble yourself, you are obeying Jesus’ command that we should be like the little children. And when we come to Jesus with empty hands, deep need, and an admittance that we can’t do this on our own – what does he do?

He’s Meeting You in Your Weakness

He meets you in your weakness. As I’ve said, children are needy and that’s okay. They can’t fend for themselves. If I told Jude at this age, “Son, you’re up for making dinner tonight” – it would be a disaster. He can’t do that yet because he is a child but things change a bit if he says: “Daddy, I can’t do that. Can you help me?” Guess what? I’d love to help him rather than watch as disaster unfolds when a 3-year-old gets access to knives, stovetops, and more all alone.

So it is with our relationship with Jesus. When we take that step of faith to admit we are weak and that we are helpless to perfect obey God’s commands, Jesus steps up ready to help us. How? Scripture tells us that while we were still sinners, Christ Jesus died for us. That sounds like when we were weak and when we didn’t want God, that’s precisely the moment when Christ dies for us – when we least deserve it. And Dane Ortlund, in Gentle and Lowly wrote: “It is the most counterintuitive aspect of Christianity, that we are declared right with God not once we begin to get our act together but once we collapse into honest acknowledgment that we never will.”

That’s why Jesus places the children on his lap and blesses them. They are weak and needy but they are full of child-like trust. They take Jesus at his word and believe that he loves them even if they are weak. They take Jesus as his word and believe they matter even if they don’t have anything to give. In the Kingdom, power isn’t found in strength – it’s found in weakness.

So, adults, take an example from the children. You’re weak and needy. Quit denying it and instead embrace it. It’s there where Jesus can truly transform you. [Pause]. Some of you have failed in the same area again this week and you're wondering if Jesus is tired of you. He's not. How can you be sure? Hebrews 4:14-16 tells us:

¹⁴ Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. ¹⁶ Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Since Jesus is human, he knows what you’re going through but unlike you, he overcame temptation, sin, and death. Because of that, he is the one uniquely positioned to come to you in your time of need. And because of his great mercy, you can approach him confidently with an assurance that your sins can be forgiven and that you will receive help when you need it. You may be thinking “That seems too simple, Anthony.” This is another reason we are to be like children. Adults, we complicate things. Children simplify things and Hebrews simply shows us what we should do when we mess up. We don’t run away from God. Instead, we run towards the one who has the power and authority to forgive us and the one who, out of mercy and love, wants to forgive us.

Application

So, my friends, if Jesus meets us in our weakness, then the most Jesus like thing we can do is meet the children of this church in theirs. That means we need to invest in the lives of the kids here. But, why do any of this? Why are we doing dedications? What’s at stake? Over the years, a lot of studies have been done as to how faith gets passed on from one generation to next. One incredible data point I want to share with you is: that 63-83% of Christians today came to faith in Christ between the ages of 4 and 14. Full stop.

I want to live by Spirit and Truth. And that data point is truth. So, this is why I believe it is essential for us as a body to continue to invest in kids.

We did that earlier today by sacrificially giving to update their physical spaces but I want to get extra practical and give you three ways to meet children in their weakness:

1.      Pray for the children (and their parents) of this church by name often. You can pray that they would come to faith in Christ, know that they are treasured, that they would discover and use their spiritual gifts in the Kingdom, etc.

2.    Serve in KidsQuest (Little Scouts or Explorers) where you can encourage, teach, pray with, and just be present to a kid. We’re always looking for more volunteers in this area. And if I may be so bold, men – why aren’t there any of you in this area? Investing in kids isn’t just for women – if Jesus did it, you can too.

3.   Welcome them like Jesus: things don’t have to be complicated. I played Legos with Bryan and it was a gift. Give a kid a high-five, get down to their level and ask them questions, and be okay with their loudness! View children not as a burden but as a blessing.

Wess Stafford said: “Children are more than we think they are; they can do more than we think they can do. All they need is a vote of confidence from grownups, whom they will ultimately replace anyway. Their dream today will become the realities of tomorrow.”

So if we want to see revival in our day, we need to invest in kids. If we want to see this church and the big church thriving for years to come, we need to invest in kids.

But, you have to believe that and want that. And my friends, Jesus isn’t waiting for you to get stronger, he’s meeting you in your weakness. In the same way, he’s not waiting for tomorrow to build his church, he’s doing it today through the lives of the kids in front of us.

With that in mind, we’re going to transition to a time where we do pray and dedicate two great kids…