Be Like a Baby in Humility

We must always rejoice when there are children born in the church we can dedicate to the Lord and the reason is because of what Jesus said in Matthew 18. Please turn to this passage in your Bible Matthew 18 and verse 1. At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? See that is a question that is a natural question that comes to human beings even from a very young age You see the spirit of competition and children when they are playing a game or even in a class Who's going to win? Who's going to come first? And who's going to be the champion? Who's going to win the first prize and who's going to get top marks in school itself? It's inborn in all human beings This desire to be above all the others and to be recognized as number one and Jesus came into such a world And that's the reason why He was born in a stable A cow's outhouse. I've often thought about that, you know That God who planned the birth of Jesus from all eternity And Jesus himself planned it.

He could have easily arranged for at least one room in a hotel to be free That mean difficult for God? Not at all. He had all eternity to plan for it But he made sure that Every room was occupied by the time Joseph and Mary came there and if the donkey was going a little fast from Nazareth to Bethlehem God would make the donkey slow down Because there are still some rooms empty And to wait till those rooms also get occupied So the donkey is made to slow down Stumble or something because it must reach there only after every room is occupied Because God says my son has to be born in the most lowly filthy place full of infection and everything else and In my life. I've never heard of anyone born in a house stable or I don't think even the poorest beggar on the streets of India have their children born there.

There'll be some shelter somewhere. Who is the greatest? there we see the example of Jesus and Through my years as a Christian, I've been 65 years as a Christian and seen many many many churches And I find the same rat race Going on in every church Who is the greatest? Who who can preach the best and who is the elder and who's the senior elder and all this type of stuff And this is supposed to be the church that Jesus Established built on the foundation of Christ So I thank God for times when we can dedicate children because he goes on to say in verse 2 He called a child And said you want to know who's the greatest? Unless you are converted now, we got to take this personally now every one of us unless you and I apply it to myself If I'm not converted I Say Lord, I'm already converted. Yeah, I'm converted from my sin.

I wanted to give up my sin and go to heaven That's one conversion But here's another conversion unless you're converted from all your pride and become like children you will not enter the kingdom of heaven and Whoever then humbles himself As this child, he's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. So I meditated very often on not just the Bible. I Meditated on little babies To try and understand what is humility? There are two places I can learn humility from one is the example of Jesus given in the Bible very good example But then I I don't see him but there's one example I can see before my face of babies Because Jesus said that is another example of humility so he's given us two examples of humility and one we can see when we read about and We know that what we see is sometimes More as a greater impact on us than what we read So how many of you have meditated on babies to understand humility? I would encourage you to do that Even if you don't have a baby just imagine what will a baby be like and that's how I imagine a baby lying in a cradle thing what are the thoughts going on in that baby's mind and Compare that with the thoughts going on in my mind.

Do you think that baby is comparing itself with anybody else? Not at all Comparison always brings Temptation to sin Because I'm better than that person. I'm smarter than that person or I did something I mean, it's enough for you to share three minutes in a meeting and sit down and be proud Even in the sharing time you pass the mic around and at the end of three minutes of sharing you can be proud And oh, I shared something significant. I saw two or three people nodding their heads.

Uh-huh That is how weak we are I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about myself. We're all weak The temptation comes to every one of us and if you're not alert to it We become proud and then what happens we lose the grace of God because God gives the grace only to the humble That's why it's important to learn humility from a child.

It's never comparing itself with another it does no high thoughts about itself and I Meditate on that. If you go and hurt that child, he won't remember it tomorrow Imagine that somebody slaps you on the face and tomorrow. You don't even Remember that Yeah, you hurt a child and come back tomorrow.

It'll smile at you It doesn't even remember that you're the one who hurt it yesterday What a depth of humility. I Say Lord, I want to get there. If someone hurts me today, I can forgive but I'll remember it tomorrow.

I Want to get past that? To be like a little child, it's a pursuit It's a marathon race The finishing line will be where I've become hundred percent like that newborn baby with no pride at all What I want to ask you is have you read this verse? How many of you are eagerly pursuing after it and The baby is helpless It's not ashamed to acknowledge that I can't change my diapers I I need milk every day I'll cry when I need it and So many things that we would be ashamed of doing The baby is not ashamed. I'm helpless. I need somebody to help me sometimes, you know, we can be so proud that We don't want anybody's help We think that's being independent like Jesus is independent No, even to carry the cross God allowed another man To come and help Carry Jesus and God could have given Jesus a little supernatural strength So that it's a humbling thing for the Son of God to have somebody else carry his cross all the other things were carrying the cross on their own But he had been whipped so badly But even at the end of his life He was that helpless babe needing somebody else's help to carry the cross To die for your sins and mine Brothers and sisters, we have a lot to learn about humility.

I'll tell you that And let none of us think that we've gone anywhere near the finishing line of that That's why we can look at babies and say Lord Help me to learn from never to get offended never to Never to be ashamed to ask for help from those it's Dependent on you know and child is so dependent and that is we To us that is a picture of how being dependent on our Heavenly Father like that child is dependent on the mother for Constantly crying. I need milk. I need milk that teaches me that I need to have that attitude towards my Heavenly Father Lord, I need grace.

I need grace That child never forgets to ask for milk never It's not distracted by anything else when it's hungry. I cry I need milk And that is another lesson. I need to learn To be willing to cry for grace Say Lord, I need it.

It's only proud people who think I can manage on my own And that baby can't so frequently in a day And that teaches me that it's not just one prayer in the morning Throughout the day I Need to keep crying out to the Lord For grace because so many things happen during the day That can make us slip up, and I don't want to slip up even a little bit That baby cries out as soon as it's hungry cries out Pray brothers sisters Lord make us like that. There's a lot we have to learn