#91 Christ Blessed All Children! (24/08/03)

By Robert H. Schuller

Today I want to focus on one thing, Jesus Christ and He was so attracted to children and He loved them. Now you say what's news about that? Well, just stop and think. You cannot name the name of another religion in the world that was focused on children. This was phenomenal. "Let the little children come to me," He said. It's really remarkable. And why is He so special in His attraction to children? You can't find that in another philosopher. I studied philosophy, another historian. Not another psychologist or psychiatrist and I've known the best of them. Jesus stands out uniquely attracted to children, and I'm picking out three points today that come from His lips. First of all He said, "Let the children come to Me."

Once there was a time when He was tired and He had worked hard and all the little children wanted to run to Him, and the apostles felt, oh, get the kids, get back, get back kids, let Him alone. And that extracted from Jesus one of His rare statements of displeasure. And He said, "Stop it. Let them come to Me."

And I'm so proud of the fact that the...all of the statues we have in this grounds, this church is just turning into a living Bible. It's become far more than a church. It's becoming a place where the tourists are coming in growing numbers, bus loads, but the first statue that most of them will see is right here. It's Christ blessing the children. And so, that inspired me a great deal. So I said, let's try to get children in as many of the other pieces that are donated and when someone offered a donation of Christ bringing back the lost sheep, I said, oh, bring in the children. Jesus said, "Let the children come to Me." Wow. What attracted them to...

Karl Menninger was one of the great psychiatrists of the 20th century and I had the honor of having him as a friend and he and Schuller had something wonderful going between the two of them, and went on for years. I'll never forget the time he beat me in chess. It was at Clem Stones house in Chicago. I mean, we barely sat down and dum, dum, dum, three moves I was checked mated. How did you do that? He's brilliant.

He said to me one night, I never forget it, "Bob, tell me, why do people in America hate children so much?" "Oh," I said, "Karl, you think they really hate children? I don't think they do." He said, "Not the circle you run with, no. Not the kind of family you live in, no. Not the kind of church you have, no. But in America generally there's a great dislike of children. I said, "I don't know. Probably it's because... probably because it reminds a lot of people of a childhood they didn't like. And maybe they didn't like the lack of freedom. Now they're adults. Now they have the freedom and the power to set their own rules, write their own ten commandments, establish their own morality. And as adults now they have the freedom to have power, (good word) control, (they like that word), ownership, (boy that's fantastic), rights.

Yes, it's power, control, ownership, rights. Kids have none of that! "Suffer the little children. Let them come unto Me." Wow.

Second statement of Jesus: He said, "Don't ever hurt one." He said, "If anybody hurts a child it would be better that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were dropped in the deepest sea."

Talk about child abuse. Jesus was the first positive leader against child abuse. Came out of His roots in positive¡K positive Jewish faith. Don't forget this. I have traveled the continents and the nations of the world for the past 40 years. And I'm not going to name continents or countries, but they are there and still are there, where the infant that's born is aborted after it's born! Dumped in the river. Where children are abandoned. And you have flocks of orphans in streets like dogs. Anybody hurts a child, Jesus said.

Second...third. Third point Jesus made is become like them. What? Listen: except you become as little children, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of God. Now think of that. Jesus is starting what's going to turn out to be a new faith. It's even going to turn out to be the new worldwide global religion! And He says if you want to become a part of this Kingdom of God, the first thing you've got to do is what? Grow-up! Oh, except you become as a child, you cannot enter the Kingdom of heaven. Wow.

What's He saying? Is He thinking of their innocence? No, and He did not say that. Because He didn't say you have to be innocent if you want to come into the Kingdom of Heaven. No, this is for sinners, not the innocent. He didn't say you better have power and control. No. Become as a child, what was He thinking of? Many things you can think of. Their spirit of adventure. Their willingness to take risks. Their possibility thinking.

Their impulsive positiveness. They see an opportunity. They say yes, let's go mom. Well, yes! That's great, let's do it! So receptive. So positively impulsive. Adults, they listen and say well, I'll get back to you. Or, let me think about it. Strange.

Kids, they're by nature, I think, possibility thinkers! You know, they don't carry a lot of luggage in their brain that causes prejudices and intolerance's and worldly smart elitists sophistication. That's what happens to adults. We think we're so smart.

You know, prejudice is not natural to kids. It's long been said by many others and observed in the time when we had a monarchy, lets go back a couple hundred years when every country was ruled by a dictator or a monarch, a king. It's legendary how the children of the king would play with the children of the peasants and they had a wonderful time playing the same kind of games. They're all the same. They have to be taught to be prejudiced.

I did something this week I've never done before. I went to see the Museum of Tolerance. I'll tell you, I was really impacted by it. After 60 minutes going through the special exhibit, wow! I came out different. I'll never be the same.

In this special exhibit you come into an entryway and there are 2 doors. You can choose which way you want to go through this Museum of Tolerance. Over the one door it says, "I am not prejudiced." Over the other door it says, "I am prejudiced." And then they look at me and they say okay Dr. Schuller, we're honest here. Which door do you want to go through into the exhibit? Oh, I said, I think I'll have to go through the door that says, "I am prejudiced." He raised his eyebrows. Not through this one? Are you sure, "I'm not prejudiced?" I said yes. He looked at me and said, Is that your final answer? I said, Yes. Well, he said, Dr. Schuller the truth is everybody goes through that door, "I am prejudiced." The other door is locked. Interesting.
Now you're listening to me, let me tell you, I agree with that, but if I had been in charge I'd have had one little tiny door about 48 inches high in the big door "I'm not prejudiced." Little children could go through that door. Their minds haven't been polluted yet with all kinds of prejudice. Religious prejudice, economic prejudice, racial prejudice, cultural prejudice.
Jesus said number one: Let them come to Me. Don't hold them back, I love them. Number two: Don't anybody ever hurt them. Number three: Become like them. Wow. What is so special about a child? They're...well they are positively impulsive. They have a memory system that still hasn't been cluttered with a lot of the hurts to make them battling cynicism and I don't know if I can trust you or not. They are unprejudiced.

Most significantly think of this: Children expect to live within rules and disciplines that they did not choose. Hear that? Children are ready and prepared in a disciplinary home of love to expect to follow rules that they didn't write. And that is a requirement for somebody who wants to live in the Kingdom of God! You can't come in and Jesus will say, well, here are the Ten Commandments, if you don't like them write your own. They are driven then by faith, hope, love, wonderful kids.
You know, I invite you today to become a Christian. I invite you to become a follower of Jesus Christ. I believe...invite you to come and accept Him as your savior. You have sins. You need forgiveness. Let me suggest to you what most people do. And if you will come like many people have come, most people come to Jesus and they put Him to the test. They check Him out. You know, was He telling the truth? What did He mean by this? Why did He die on the cross etc? They put Him to the test, but the truth is when you come to Jesus, He puts you to the test. And don't you forget it.

And what is He looking for? Innocence? No. Holiness? No. Brilliance? No. Power? No. Wealth? No. Intellectual elitism? No. What's He looking for? He's looking for the heart of a child.

Beautiful. There are lots of child stories this week preparing for this, but all of the kids in this school, I forget the school and the name of the boy, I don't even remember. I didn't take it down, but I remember this story. All of the kids in this 7th or 8th grade class they were all given materials for the annual race day. It was a tradition there, they would make a racecar and they would all have the races and the kid that made the little racer that won, everyone else would get the prize and all the fathers always had a good time helping their children make the racing cars.
There was one kid came home, he didn't have a father, he had a wonderful mother, but she was not mechanical at all. And so he didn't make the car, but she knew about it so she said, "You got to make a car." He said, "I don't know, do you mommy?" "No, I don't either, but let's just try," she said. So they tried to put the whole thing together. And they got something put together and it didn't look very nice, and when he got to the day of the races, wow. I mean there were some that looked like they were made for the art gallery, their dad's slicked them and painted them and jazzed them up. You know how many fathers are into cars. Wow.

This poor kid's looked like a pile of junk, but when the race came it came down to finally there would be a race between the two leaders and believe it or not that little kid was matched with a sleek car. Fast. So the two were ready to race and just before they could shoot the gun the little boy without a father looked at the car that he and mom had put together and he said, "Just a minute, please, before you shoot that gun. I need a minute." They looked at him. And he folded his hands, bowed his head and prayed.

"Okay." He said. Shot the gun. Down the hill. He won! And the reporter came and said, "Well, prayers really work. You prayed to win and you did."

"Oh," he said, "I didn't pray to win. I just prayed, God don't let me cry if I lose."
Except you become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of God.
This is the day to grow up and become a child. Let's pray:

Lord, we thank You for Jesus Christ so outstanding, incomparable, so remarkable among all people in history. And we thank You that He loved the children because Jesus no wonder You're able to love some of us even at our worst. Amen.