Childlike Abandon

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends. How in the world are you? Doing Alright? Well, I’m just so happy to be back with you. I do these broadcasts generally in the morning hours because so many of you listen in the morning. I know others of you hear at night and sometimes in the afternoon or whenever. But most of you listen in the morning hours, and so I try to time my production of the broadcast for the same time of the day that you may be listening although it comes to you a little later. And that way, sometimes I can feel the way you do when you’re struggling to get started in the day. Oh, I feel so great today and happy in the Lord. It’s such a blessing to have health and strength. My father used to… In his prayer, he had certain phrases he always repeated. One of them was “We thank Thee for health and strength and the right use of our minds [chuckle]” There was this lady in my acquaintance sometime ago that was being questioned by one of her family and said, “Grandma, you’re getting older. What do you miss now that you’re getting older?” She thought a moment and she said, “I miss my mind.” [chuckle] My mind seems to be working but… Well, thank God for the joy of the Lord that spills over out of the cup of life and the privilege. What a privilege it is. The privilege of just sharing His Word with you.

Come to Mark 10. We’re just doing a little summary of these chapters in Mark before we go on to something else. We did a verse by verse study of it, and now we’re doing a little summary of it. Now, in this 10th chapter, the Lord Jesus is being tested by people, and they give him that question about divorce and all of that. I talked with you sometime ago about this very sensitive and painful problem in our own culture, the breakup of a marriage, and divorce, and remarriage, and all of that. God’s original plan was one man and one woman, both of them for each other and both for God, for their whole lifetime. And Malachi tells us that God hates divorce. He doesn’t like it but that it was given because, Jesus said, because of the hardness of human hearts.

And so for those of you who have those dreadful hurts and scars that have come about through the breakup of your marriage, all I can say to you is I love you. My heart goes out to you. And you can’t go back, you can’t unscramble an egg. You can’t go back and undo it. So from this point on, if you’ve never done so before, yield your life to the Lord Jesus Christ and go on and serve him the best you can, knowing that God’s mercy and God’s precious saving love includes every one of our human failings and shortcomings including this one. I’m so glad too that our Lord Jesus had room for little children. This is in Mark 10. The disciples tried to shoo away the parents who brought their little children for the Lord Jesus to bless them, but he rebuked them. He was displeased. He said, “Let the little children come. Don’t forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of God.” We’re reminded again, aren’t we, that God wants us to come with childlike faith, not childish but childlike.

A little child believes what you tell him or her, acts upon what you say, and there’s complete acceptance of you. Because there isn’t any other option open to a little child other than accepting the word of a parent. And he says, “Now, you come to me that way. Don’t have any side exits. Don’t have any alternate options. Just come as a little child.” I want to learn that. The years have gone by. I’m no longer a young man, that’s for sure. But as long as I’m alive, I wanna keep on learning this blessed simple approach to God. You don’t have to make long speeches to him. As a matter of fact, he says in Isaiah that he gets tired of long speeches, long prayers. You don’t have to make special orations to God. You come simply as a little child. Jesus said Abba, Father, that’s the equivalent of ours Papa, Papa God. That’s the attitude that He wants.

They that worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth, and our Lord Jesus and the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is looking for people who will simplify and make completely sincere and transparent their approach to God. “Let us come boldly,” the writer to the Hebrew says, “boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Oh, today, don’t bother with the formalities. If you wanna say thee and thou, that’s fine. I always do because it sounds to me more respectful and reverent, but just don’t bother with the formalities. Talk to God. He’s waiting for you to come to Him as a little child would, simply, with complete abandonment to what He has to say to you. Will you do that today, Beloved? And find it for yourself the thrill of the joy of actually talking with your Heavenly Father. And if you’re a Christian, the indwelling Holy Spirit will speak His words back to you. You can hear Him speaking to you. It will always be in conformity with His inerrant Word, the Bible, I assure you. But you can hear from God as you pray because the Spirit of God dwells within you. And He witnesses with our spirit, that’s what that means. He talks back to us.

Oh, what a blessed realization this is, that as you pray as a child of God, simply coming just as a little child would, the Father in his infinite love deigns to talk back to you. He deigns to hold a conversation with you, and He does so through the indwelling Holy Spirit who Paul says witnesses with our spirit. That is, He talks with you. He tells you that you do belong to him, and that He is running your life. Oh, how wonderful it is to talk with the Father. Well, that’s Mark 10.

Now there’s this question that Peter asks. It isn’t completely asked here in Mark 10, but in another gospel it’s completed. He says, “Lo, we have left all and followed Thee. What shall we have, therefore?” That’s the rest of the question. And it’s a decent question to ask. In other words, is the sacrifice that I make in order to follow Jesus Christ, is it worthwhile? Now, I’ve been all over the world, and I’ve seen the sacrifices that missionaries make, let alone saying goodbye to loved ones whom they may never see again. An aged father or mother standing there at the place where you leave them and go on to the entryway of the airplane. The last you see of them is their faces earnestly reaching in your direction with love and longing. And you think to yourself, “Well, maybe they’ll be gone to heaven by the time I get my next furlough.”

And then going out into a culture that is strange to you, customs that are different, food that is different, climate that is different, different bugs even. Everything different. And it’s a test of strength and patience and dedication. And then, people who do not receive that gospel as good news, they receive it oftentimes as a challenge and even worse as an affront to them because they don’t wanna change their ways and listen until the blessed Holy Spirit of God convicts them. Then you live in circumstances that are far different from what you were used to. And if there is any plumbing, it often doesn’t work. And if there is any piped water, it oftentimes isn’t coming in. There are many places in our world when you can only run the water in the tap at certain hours of the day. Did you know that? The next time you turn on the water faucet and let it run, just lift a prayer and say, “Thank you God for water.” And so there’s so many things that a missionary has to meet routinely that are challenges and trials and sacrifices, and I’ve seen it happen. And then, bless their heart, when you’d come to see them, they’d take out from under lock and key a canned ham and a can of peaches that they had brought with them two years before, let’s say, from home. And they’d make a meal for you and they’d say, “Now, Brother Cook, sit down. We just want you to enjoy yourself.”

And you knew that they were giving you something that was just the best and probably the last of that that they had. I love the missionaries. God bless them, wonderful people.

But they do sacrifice. Oh, yes they do. Their tears often fall. Their bodies often ache as well. God knows as their hearts ache at the things that they have to do, and have to see, and have to put up with, and have to sacrifice. Now, I’ve just talked about one sector of Christian work, but we’ll use that as an illustration. The question is, is it worth the sacrifice? Is it worth what it costs? And then, Jesus said, “Yes, it’s worth it. There hath no man left, father, or mother, or brethren, or sisters, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake in the gospels, but he’ll receive a hundredfold now in this time and in the world to come eternal life.” Yes, Jesus said it’s worth it.

Now I want you today to think in your own heart because each of you, my listeners, my beloved friends, my heart fills with love for you. Do you know that? [chuckle] Bless your heart. Some of you I’ve never seen, but we’re together in these sacred moments that we spend around the Word of God. And my heart just spills over with love and concern for you, my dear friend. And some of you are going through trials because you’re a Christian. You may have been passed up for a promotion on the job. You may be ostracized and discriminated against because you’re a child of our Father. Or you may have a very difficult home situation because you’re the only believer in a whole family full of folk who don’t know and don’t want to know our blessed Lord. Sacrifices that you’re making. And you ask yourself sometimes, “I wonder if it’s worth it.” You get tired enough and sick enough and discouraged enough and the whole world looks blue, doesn’t it? And you think to yourself, “I wonder if it’s worth it.”

I wanna tell you something. Jesus, who never made a mistake, says that it is. You know why? Because payday is coming one of these days. “Behold, I come quickly,” he said. “And my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be.” And our blessed Lord Jesus is not going to forget the sacrifices that you’ve made, mother and dad, brother, sister, missionary, pastor, Sunday school teacher, factory worker, teacher, doctor, lawyer, whatever. Our savior is not going to forget the sacrifices that you’ve made for Him. And so, it’s coming. It’s coming. Payday is coming, and He’s going to reward you.

So yes, it’s worth it. And you’ll be able to look back and say as the chorus writer did, “It will be worth it all when we see Jesus. Life’s trials will seem so small when we see Him.” Remember that today. Remember Jesus said, “Yes, it’s worth it all.”

Dear Father, today, keep our eyes on Jesus and help us to give gladly those sacrifices which we know will pay out in eternity for Thy glory. In Jesus’s name. Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!