Let The Little Children Come To Me

If we go to the Word of God in Matthew Chapter 19, and I am going to read from verse 13:

“Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. “

Verse 14:

“But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”

I want to say to you that the disciples were so concerned because Jesus was so tired, and they wanted to prevent the little children from coming to Him and maybe troubling Him, but Jesus said, “No, let them come to Me.”

If you look at the Passion Translation, I am just going to read it in this new translation:

Jesus says, “I want little children to come to me, so never interfere with them when they want to come, for Heaven’s Kingdom realm is composed of beloved ones like this.”

I want to say to you that The Lord Jesus wants you and me to become child-like, not childish, but child-like.

What I really love about children is that they are so honest.

They are so pure and they are so straight.

They are not afraid to tell you the truth - you know, like the little girl who maybe goes to the dentist and sits there, and an old lady walks in and she has got a mole on her nose or something.

And the little girl will say to her mom, “What is that thing on the end of that old lady’s nose?”

And everybody is embarrassed and their faces are red, but she wants to know.

And the old lady says, “That is just a mole.”

You know, I love the simplicity of children and we really need to give them time folks, because they can teach us so much.

I can’t wait to see my grandchildren every day.

They live all around us and they are such a blessing to me.

They teach me so many things.

You know, as a preacher, I always gauge my preaching, my evaluation of my preaching on what little children tell me - not by the academics, not by the theologians - no! By the little children.

If they come to me, they will tell me straight, whether that was boring, whether they didn’t understand it, or whether they really liked it.

You know, if you can reach a child, you can reach everybody, and it is no use preaching to the top ten percent of the academics and 90% of the population don’t hear what you are saying.

We have got to give them time.

I remember, clearly, like it was yesterday, just before the final event on one of the Mighty Men Conferences, we had a massive tent, and the guys were saying to me, “Angus you need to hurry up.”

The music was finished. The men were sitting. They were waiting for the message.

I was walking around the back of the tent and I was going to go in through the back and then up the steps and onto the platform and deliver God’s Word.

As I was coming to the entrance of the tent from the outside, a little boy ran up to me and He had a cell phone in his hand and he said to me, “Oom, I want to take a photograph of you and me together.”

Of course, I stopped. The guys were saying, “Angus, we don’t have time for that. The guys are waiting.”

I said, “Hang on a minute.”

So I posed and some people don’t like that either, but it doesn’t matter. I did it for the little boy. I got on my knees and we posed. Somebody took the cell phone to take the photograph,
and guess what?

The battery was flat. Oh, dear!

So now, this little boy wants to run off and find his mom so that he can get another cell phone.

Now the guys are really getting irritated with me.

I said, “Listen, I am going to get this photograph taken with this little boy before I do anything else.”

And of course, eventually, his mom came back and she was red-faced, and they had another cell phone.

They took another photograph, and then I was able to go in and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Do not forbid the little ones to come unto you because such is the Kingdom of God.

Have a lovely day and love those little people.

They are so precious.