Crazy About His Kids

Some of you have kids that got confirmed here in Potter. You beamed with pride when they knelt at the altar and said, "Lord Jesus, I give myself to You as your own, to love and serve you faithfully all the days of my life."

But now it’s hard to get them to come back to church. You wonder "Is God doing anything to get their attention? Is there anything more I could be doing?"

Or maybe you DO have kids that come to church. But some days they’d rather not be here. At 8am, you say "Time to get up for church!" Your daughter says "Uhhhh!!! I’m tired!!! I was out late watching the new Justin Bieber movie, and then I couldn’t fall asleep right away. Is it OK if I sleep in today?”

Maybe she’s not a morning person. Or maybe she doesn’t understand that worshipping Jesus is the most fulfilling thing you can do with your life! Maybe she doesn’t understand that learning about Jesus gives you the wisdom to make wise choices all week long!

Or maybe she’s not ready for all the cool stuff Jesus wants to do in her life because she loves other things more than Him.

And you’re wondering "Is God doing anything to get her attention? Is there anything more I could be doing?

Today we’re going to find out that God IS doing something to bring the people you love back to Him. And we’re also going to find out if there’s anything more we could be doing.

In Matthew 18:1-9, we saw God’s warning to those who would mislead His children. Today, we see His compassion for His children. Number one: God’s passion for His kids means that He sticks up for them. Jesus says in verse ten “See to it that you do not look down on one of these little ones.”

“Little ones” can refer to those who are little in age like the child in Matthew 18:2. But it also refers to Christians who are little in the eyes of others. James 2 tells us that when rich people showed up for worship, the ushers would say “Here’s a good seat near the front.” But when someone in shabby clothing showed up, the ushers would say “We don’t like the way you’re dressed. You can sit in the back.”
Jesus is saying “Make sure you don’t do that! Don’t label and libel and look down on these little ones just because they’re different than you. You know why? Because they have angels sticking up for them! And they are in constant contact with the Father in heaven. And they’re going to tell on you!

I wish I would have known about this when I was getting bullied in 8th grade. I would have said “You’re messing with me, but you’re also messing with my angel! He’s going to tell on you, and you’re going to be in trouble!”

The truth is that we ALL have angels looking out for us! How do I know that? Because Psalm 91:11 says that “He will command His angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways, they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike a foot against a stone.”
One time I was driving to a job interview in Huntington, Indiana. I came up to a four way stop. But my stop sign was partially covered by a weeping willow tree, so I didn’t see it. I drove into the intersection, and BAM!!! I got clobbered on the driver side by a pickup truck. The car was destroyed, but I walked away without a mark on me. The cop said to me “You should be dead.” I said “I will be when my dad finds out what happened to the car.”

But how did I survive that? I think it’s because that day, God commanded