Pastor Ralph Douglas West - The Childlike Faith That Opens Heaven |Matthew 18:1-5, 19:13-15

[00:00:11]This is the day the Lord has made. We rejoice.

[00:00:16]And we are glad in it.

[00:00:23]Thank you, choir, for blessing us today.

[00:00:34]I really believe that many times uh this church takes for granted what happens here on Sunday morning. We just assume it's going to be like that and you hear such great music every week until you grow accustomed to grace.

[00:00:59]But, don't take it for granted.

[00:01:02]Don't take it for granted.

[00:01:09]Matthew chapter 18, beginning at verse 1.

[00:01:15]Just a word of emphasis on our children for today as we prepare for the summer.

[00:01:24]Jesus gives us a glimpse of what it looks like to enter into the kingdom of God.

[00:01:36]Hear God's word for God's people here at the church without walls.

[00:01:46]At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and asked him, "Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"

[00:01:54]He called a little child to him and placed the child among them and said, "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like a little child, you'll never enter into the kingdom of heaven."

[00:02:07]Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me."

[00:02:19]This is the word of God.

[00:02:21]>> Thanks be to God.

[00:02:22]>> You may be seated.

[00:02:29]Jesus was always addressing some dilemma that had taken place along the road in one way or another. I need you to get the sound adjusted for me, sound man.

[00:02:41]Yeah.

[00:02:42]Get it ready.

[00:02:43]Look up. Don't keep your head down.

[00:02:47]Pay attention to me.

[00:02:49]Yeah. There you go. Let's start over again.

[00:02:53]So, Jesus was always dealing with some dilemma along the road.

[00:03:01]Questions were always being thrown at him in one direction or another.

[00:03:08]And he was always being challenged to answer something that he had already answered months and probably a year earlier.

[00:03:19]Particularly about the role of the kingdom and where you are situated in that kingdom.

[00:03:25]He was always trying to explain it.

[00:03:28]Sometimes he did it by saying the kingdom of God was like a sower that sowed seed. Or sometimes the kingdom of God was like a mustard seed that grew into the largest plant in the garden.

[00:03:44]Or maybe the kingdom of God was like a great pearl beyond price.

[00:03:51]But he was always trying to shed light on what it meant to live in the kingdom, to understand what the kingdom of God was like.

[00:04:01]You might be like that sometimes. At 8:00, nobody knew what the kingdom of God was.

[00:04:09]And I would dare to say that you are their relatives.

[00:04:15]I always enjoy the people that know everything about everything.

[00:04:20]And it turn out they don't know much about anything.

[00:04:25]You spend literally a lifetime understanding all the implications surrounding this business about the kingdom of God.

[00:04:37]One reason the difficulty of understanding the kingdom of God, we don't live in a monarchy, we don't live in a monarchy.

[00:04:46]We live in a democracy, a republic. So, when you look at it on political terms, it's kind of difficult to grasp, particularly when these disciples were asking questions about the kingdom.

[00:05:00]They were looking one direction, and they would think about the apogee of intelligence over in Athens, and think about the Socratic philosophers, the Platonic dealers who dealt with the extreme themes of life, and thought about the greatness of the intelligent.

[00:05:20]Then there were those who knew something about the acme of political power in Rome.

[00:05:27]They would look at the Caesars and their surrogates spread throughout provinces, particularly those that were around Galilee.

[00:05:37]And then what about the religionists?

[00:05:42]Pharisees and the priests and the high priests.

[00:05:46]So, there's no question you would begin asking, "Well, who's the greatest in the kingdom?" That was the question that was on the the lips of those who were with Jesus then. "Well, who then is the greatest in the kingdom?"

[00:06:01]Now, there's no need in you pretending that you don't understand that question.

[00:06:07]Well, you're approaching the NBA finals.

[00:06:10]And for the last 20 years, the question on the lips of sports enthusiasts around the NBA want to know one question, "Who's the greatest?"

[00:06:25]Now, depending on what team you like will bias your opinion.

[00:06:30]You know, if you're a Bulls fan, then Michael Jordan is the greatest.

[00:06:37]If you like I wish I can get you to sound like that when I talk about Jesus.

[00:06:42]I'll declare.

[00:06:44]I I I I would pay to get one shout for Jesus.

[00:06:48]Just one, you know.

[00:06:52]Yeah, I know that's right. Yeah, he's like, "Yeah, people."

[00:07:00]I bet it all depends, you know.

[00:07:03]Big fights break out between fans who never get paid a dime from the team.

[00:07:13]I mean, if you're talking about records and scores, then the greatest is Bill Russell.

[00:07:20]You You sit down and you So, it really determines what gauge you're using on who's the greatest.

[00:07:30]Yeah, I mean, you like rowdy basketball, it's the Bad Boys.

[00:07:36]You like finesse, it's the Lakers.

[00:07:39]High scoring, then it's the Warriors. It just depends on perspective, what gauge.

[00:07:44]And so, here when the disciples were asking, "Who's the greatest?" They were not asking politically, intellectually, or religiously. They wanted to know from he who had come presenting himself as king, "Just tell us who is the greatest in the kingdom." And this reigning place where God rules and executes his righteousness.

[00:08:10]Now, you know and I know we got an advantage that those who asked the question didn't have. And that is we have the written document in front of us. But if you could stretch your imagination for a moment, you know exactly how they thought, even though they had been with Jesus how you answer a question like that.

[00:08:35]You answer it based off of the illustrations that I just used.

[00:08:41]They were waiting on a theological discourse.

[00:08:45]They were waiting on some kind of philosophical injection from this young, charismatic, brilliant teacher.

[00:08:56]Now, without some who were just sitting there, you know, just picking their fingernails.

[00:09:03]Scratching their heads.

[00:09:07]And just saying like a lot of you this morning, "Who cares?"

[00:09:14]But the disciples cared.

[00:09:18]They were interested and so they were waiting. And so, Jesus is about to answer. And you know how he's going to answer. He's going to say, "Well, over in Greece, you have these philosophers. Or if you look over to Rome, then you have these Caesars.

[00:09:34]Just look at our own country. You have this high priest, but that's not what Jesus did. Of all the things that he could have done, he sees a child in the crowd and just reaches for it.

[00:09:53]Now, now, you love children.

[00:09:58]We love children.

[00:10:01]Children are a premium in our country.

[00:10:07]Not so then.

[00:10:09]Children were a nuisance.

[00:10:11]Now, all of them who were complaining had one time been a child.

[00:10:20]But now that they survived being a child, now children have become this big nuisance. This is true. This is not made up. This This is understanding the world that they were in. So, for Jesus to grab a child and hold this child up before them as he called them and placed them, I probably on his knee, and then he says, "Unless you change like a child."

[00:10:53]These people had just come out of adolescence. They are no way trying to go back to that world.

[00:11:01]To go back to where you are devalued, no way.

[00:11:06]And Jesus says, "In order for you to understand the kingdom, you have to change like a child."

[00:11:21]That's a prohibition in some sense.

[00:11:25]And that's why entering the kingdom starts at this level of prohibition.

[00:11:29]Stay with me now.

[00:11:32]I know I'm not telling you how to get a new set of tires or meet a man or woman, but this is better than that. If you get this straight, you can meet who you want to.

[00:11:51]And so, he says, "It's all about getting into the kingdom." And so, what's the key? He says, "Well, you you have to if you want to access the kingdom, you have to become a child. If you're going to enter the kingdom, you have to become a child. That's your ticket of admittance into becoming like a child, being changed like a child.

[00:12:13]Not childish, but like a child.

[00:12:20]I I like children. I like being around children.

[00:12:26]Probably more so now.

[00:12:30]I wasn't the best dad, but I'm a great granddad.

[00:12:38]The Lord has given me another chance to get it right.

[00:12:42]I've apologized to my children for blowing it with them.

[00:12:46]I have.

[00:12:47]Said, "I'm sorry I blew it, but I'm I'm I'm I'm batting a 110 uh with my There you go.

[00:12:59]Cuz cuz children are fascinating.

[00:13:03]They say the darndest things.

[00:13:10]And they have a way of helping you to become like a child.

[00:13:16]Do you remember the experiment of the Olympia butterfly? I know you do.

[00:13:24]I'll I forget it.

[00:13:27]In elementary school when Miss Johnson would talk about a caterpillar, this And I knew caterpillars from where we grew up on Pig Fast Street. I knew in Fifth Ward we hadn't killed all of them, but we knew And how they climb in this cocoon. I remember that.

[00:13:57]And you do, too.

[00:14:01]And they live in the darkness and they struggle against the walls of the cocoon.

[00:14:08]You don't help them out cuz if you do, you could that growth.

[00:14:15]You could damage them if you try to help them out. So, they have to grow into this uncomfortable space of darkness.

[00:14:25]And and that's how they get strong.

[00:14:27]That's how their wings get strong.

[00:14:32]I I blew it as a dad. A lot of things I I had experienced growing up I I didn't know I didn't want my children to have to experience.

[00:14:46]You know, I know I know none of you none of you relate to this.

[00:14:52]But I grew up as many of you know, or you've heard my personal story and in a particular way that I didn't want my children to grow up that way.

[00:15:04]And I had a chance to tell them not long ago these words I'm going to say to you.

[00:15:09]I said, "If I could do it again, I probably wouldn't have given you anything."

[00:15:21]Hey, I'm not asking let me say this you cuz I've been doing this all my life.

[00:15:26]Since I was 20 years old, I've been pastoring. So, I know people pretty well. I didn't ask you to agree with me or disagree with me. I'm not using my story to cast an aspersion toward you.

[00:15:39]Get over yourself. I'm talking about me.

[00:15:48]And I have my reasons for why I said that.

[00:15:52]Cuz like that caterpillar in the darkness, outgrowing that space, I robbed my children of some things by not letting them bump their wings in a way to strengthen them in a particular way.

[00:16:14]But I'm a great granddad.

[00:16:17]Cuz I don't give my grandson anything.

[00:16:20]He has to work for every single thing that he gets from me because I don't want to damage his wings.

[00:16:35]Bring the child in me.

[00:16:38]And except you come to the kingdom like a child.

[00:16:44]Starts with a prohibition. But But it continues now with a definition. How Jesus defines this whole business of coming like a child. Not childish, but like a child.

[00:17:04]He says that um the the definition of what I'm using uh for children is that you become like a child.

[00:17:19]You become like a child.

[00:17:23]Come here for a minute.

[00:17:26]I know exactly what Jesus means by becoming like a child.

[00:17:36]Um for the last 2 years, I appreciated I didn't say it publicly cuz I didn't need any of you passing out.

[00:17:46]But for the last 2 years, I mean 2 whole years, uh I've been sitting in a class learning again.

[00:17:59]And I've sit in a classroom seminar with everybody in the class including except for maybe one professor.

[00:18:10]But every student could call me yes, sir.

[00:18:13]They're in their 20s.

[00:18:17]I've I've enjoyed this for 2 years.

[00:18:22]12 13 seminars.

[00:18:26]I've sat in class with the people as young as 22 23.

[00:18:39]Can you imagine me in a class with some 22-year-old?

[00:18:48]I wouldn't let them call me Dr. West.

[00:18:51]Some of them knew that I would teach one of my students who I taught stopped me in the hallway and said, "Dr. West, is it true?"

[00:19:06]In a whisper tone, I said, "What, Luke?"

[00:19:09]"Is it true?"

[00:19:12]I said, "What?" He said, "You back in school?"

[00:19:18]I I said, "Yes." He said, "Why?"

[00:19:23]>> [laughter] >> I said, "Because I want to become a like a little child."

[00:19:39]So, I don't let them call me Dr. West. I said, "Call me Ralph."

[00:19:45]And the world that they've exposed me to, come here.

[00:19:50]Has been so beautiful to watch them teach me. I literally don't say a lot in any seminar, except for when I absolutely must say something. Other than that, I'm there watching them shape me into into looking at the world in such a new and very beautiful and magical and attractive way.

[00:20:19]So, I know what it means to become like a child.

[00:20:23]Jesus is saying to those of us not chronologically in age, he's saying to those of us who have been in Christ and think we know so much.

[00:20:36]Can you humble yourself to enter and reenter into the kingdom where you get excited once again when you take the Lord's Supper, when you watch a baptism, when you hear the choir singing, when somebody greets you, or have you gotten so old in the kingdom that nothing excites you anymore? And some of the oldest people I know are 20 and 30 and 40 years old that think because they grew up in church, they got a monopoly on God and his grace. But, I don't ever want to get like that. I want to always make myself open to the moving of God's spirit. Preach, Pastor Ware.

[00:21:33]I buried Linzell Hart yesterday.

[00:21:39]The Zell that been with us, I don't know how long. It looked like he'd been here forever.

[00:21:46]He was one of the founders of uh our salt ministry.

[00:21:55]He lived to be 90 years old.

[00:22:00]And when you talked about him, everybody laughed because of his signature move in church with our which I now I won't I won't say.

[00:22:14]But, everybody that encountered >> [laughter] >> Hart knew Brother Hart.

[00:22:25]And and and Hart Stay with me. He He lived to the end. He was just at church the other Sunday.

[00:22:37]Pushing his way. He would get up for those who come to church regularly.

[00:22:43]He the man that would get up before the benediction on his walker, and he's bending forward getting out before the crowd.

[00:22:52]That was Linzell Hart.

[00:22:55]Then what I said yesterday after the funeral to people as we were talking said, "Linzell lived to be 90.

[00:23:04]I said, "I ain't going to let no 90-year-old outlive me."

[00:23:13]I'm going somewhere. That I I know I got to unpack that.

[00:23:18]Some of you are 20 and your 30s, in your 40s, and you letting folks 70 and 80 years old outlive you. And some of you in your 50s and 60s and 70s, you done just gave up. Not me. I'm entering the kingdom this morning like a child to give all of what God has given to me in a new and brand new way.

[00:23:48]>> [cheering] >> That that's what Jesus was getting to.

[00:24:03]Can you humble yourself to a point in which you don't have [laughter] to be number one?

[00:24:22]I've enjoyed it.

[00:24:26]Walking around all them young people with my book bag.

[00:24:32]>> [laughter] >> I never put on my Greek attire, but one day I I put on my big old Greek sweater, older than they are.

[00:24:52]And I was invited with the frat. They said, "Hey hey hey, man.

[00:25:00]>> [laughter] >> One one young man, a brother, said, "Man, you you still remember?"

[00:25:15]>> [laughter] >> I said, "Yeah, yeah, I remember."

[00:25:19]I said, "Come on, let's go there."

[00:25:24]I said, "Let's go there. Let Let's go there." Yeah, he said nothing. Let's go.

[00:25:32]To become like a child.

[00:25:37]Do you have the humility to become like that? I'm done. And the last thing was when when Jesus said this to these disciples in the last thing. He said, "You know, whoever welcomes such a child in my name welcomes me."

[00:25:57]Whoever welcomes one of these children welcomes me.

[00:26:06]Now, those you who are brand new here, normally people would talk about Pastor West, the preacher. The preacher said, "Now, what you have to understand is that Pastor West a lot more preacher. I My heart is my members. My I'm a pastor now. So, let me be a little pastoral now.

[00:26:25]But, I saw something today.

[00:26:29]And I don't want you ever do this anymore. I I I watched some of you at welcome time.

[00:26:37]And I've I've seen this two or three times.

[00:26:40]You do greet each other if you know each other.

[00:26:47]And I watched this morning.

[00:26:51]When the interns were introduced and you would fellowship nobody.

[00:26:56]Turned and spoke to them. I said, "I want two people back here who waved at me. They spoke, but a lot of you passed right by." And that's why I came out pulpit.

[00:27:05]Those who you know me know as they say, "He can't He can't hold his feelings."

[00:27:13]I've traveled around the world and I've been to church, and one of the things I've always not enjoyed about people is the people that only greet you if they know you.

[00:27:25]And that's not the temperament of our church.

[00:27:29]But you got to watch when people get put in certain positions. They are creating an environment that's antithetical to who you are.

[00:27:39]Don't do that anymore.

[00:27:41]You don't know who you're seated next to. God bless you. You don't know who you're seated next to. And you don't know who might need your touch that morning, that give them the strength that they need.

[00:27:55]Now, I know we live in a culture.

[00:27:58]I know we live in this culture, too.

[00:28:02]But this last past week, I said, I had to say to one two people. I said, "Did you know when you applied for this job that it entailed working with people?"

[00:28:17]I said it.

[00:28:18]Cuz the cuz where I was seated uh gave me permission to say it. I said, "Come here. I need to ask you something.

[00:28:27]Did you know when you applied for this job that you would have to work with people?"

[00:28:34]And she said, "Yes, sir." I said, "Well, why are you acting like we are annoying you?

[00:28:42]We're the reason you got a job."

[00:28:51]>> Preacher asked me the other day, said, this God's on tree, said, Pastor West, do you mind shaking hands?

[00:28:58]I said, y'all shake hands in your church? He said, yeah.

[00:29:02]I said, I'd love to. He said, cuz I'm so tired of going to church where they running you out the door.

[00:29:09]As if touching the people tell them, the only reason why we do what we do in ministry is to touch the life of other people. That's it.

[00:29:19]You don't preach the robots.

[00:29:22]I'm done now.

[00:29:26]It's an invitation. It's a prohibition.

[00:29:30]It's a definition.

[00:29:33]And finally, it's invitation.

[00:29:35]Welcome them in Jesus' name. And when you do that, you invite Jesus to come in.

[00:29:43]I just gave you a a formula on how to get excitement back in your life. If you invite others to Jesus, you can't help but get excited.

[00:29:58]Now, for those you are guests, the church know I can say I'm done all day, but until that book close, they say, he ain't done. Like, boy, your pastor preach real short. Said, that Bible still open, say, don't get happy.

[00:30:17]He ain't sitting down till that that Bible close. Now, when that book close, he really is done.

[00:30:24]And so, the closing invitation is the invitation that Jesus made to a grown man who really embodies Matthew 18. This is the invitation.

[00:30:41]Nicodemus came to one night and asked him how how do I inherit eternal life? How do I get into the kingdom?

[00:30:56]And Jesus said these words, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, you must be born again."

[00:31:09]The language that Jesus used so confused Nicodemus. He said, "I am an old man. I, you could say, am a old man. I'm an older woman.

[00:31:23]How can I have lived a whole life and be born again?" Jesus says, "You're thinking of flesh and blood.

[00:31:34]I'm talking about spirit. I'm talking about you must be born from above. And when you are born from above, God will make you brand new and all things will have passed away and behold all things will have become new."

[00:31:52]I'm saying that to somebody today.

[00:31:58]You live with guilt and shame and hurt and even though I said that you said, "Man, you don't know what I have done in my life." And my answer to you number one, I don't want to know.

[00:32:13]And I recommend you don't tell nobody.

[00:32:16]But there is one that you can tell it to and your secret is safe with him.

[00:32:21]And God knows how to give you a brand new start. In fact, God knows how to rip that chapter out of your book and put blank pages and put a new pen and say, "Now write you a new story. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.

[00:32:43]Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.

[00:32:45]I'm an heir of salvation, purchased of God, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. This is my story."

[00:32:57]Hey, this is my song.

[00:33:00]Praising my savior all the day long.

[00:33:06]Yeah.

[00:33:08]This morning, you can do that. You can write a brand new story for your life.

[00:33:15]You can tell them, "Look at me.

[00:33:19]I'm a testimony.

[00:33:22]Should've been dead and gone, but the Lord never left me alone.

[00:33:30]Aren't you excited about that?

[00:33:32]If you've been born again, if you've been made new, if you've been washed in His blood, if you've been filled with His Spirit, in your own way, you ought to give God praise today. Not for me, not because I asked you, but because it's the right thing to do.

[00:33:49]And this would be a good time when you do it and your children say, "What are you doing up there clapping and shouting and waving your hand?" Tell them BECAUSE I'VE BEEN >> [cheering] >> BORN AGAIN.

[00:34:02]OH.

[00:34:04]HALLELUJAH.

[00:34:06]HALLELUJAH.

[00:34:08]HALLELUJAH.

[00:34:10]HALLELUJAH.

[00:34:11]LORD, we thank you for making us new, for giving us a new life and a new future and a new hope.

[00:34:25]Thank you for that.

[00:34:27]Help us never to grow and take it for granted.

[00:34:33]Help us when we walk through the doors of this room, we come in this place saying, "Lord, I look around. I see when I survey the wondrous cross, I think of what you've done for me.

[00:34:51]Thank you, Lord.

[00:34:54]For those of us already in Christ in the kingdom, we just say, "Thank you."

[00:35:00]For those today, Lord, who are in the kingdom, but they've strayed away from their responsibility, their rights, and doing what you called them to do, or for those who have never tasted of your amazing grace. As the choir prepares to sing and lead us take the aisle, just moving away for them without debate, negotiation, discussion, get up from that seat and say, "Today is my day.

[00:35:29]Today is my day."

[00:35:33]For some today, Lord, when they come forward, it is them simply saying, "Thank you, Lord, for remembering me.

[00:35:41]>> [music] >> Thank you for not casting me away."

[00:35:45]And Lord, as they make their way down now, we'll give your name the praise and the glory and honor for everything that you're doing in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Give God praise today, church. Come on, the door of the church is open.