See that you do not despise one of these little ones,
for I say to you that their angels in heaven
continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 18:10
I had a visitor once in children’s church… a beautiful eight year old little girl. I will never forget her… nor who she represents. Her face is bore into my mind and the look in her eyes and the uncomfortableness of her spirit is etched in my heart… I pray it remains there until my work her on this earth is done.
I wonder what a Sunday would look like if just for one Sunday the only prayer request allowed to be made on that day was for the souls of the known lost… and for the strength, wisdom, discernment, grace, and insight to proclaim the gospel to them.
I wonder what one Sunday where we lay aside all the prayer request that concern all the sinus pressure, all the employment issues, all the christians that you know are christians that are about to pass into eternity, all the upcoming surgeries, all the attitude adjustments, all the sick puppies, and lost kitties, even the cancers and the peace for lose who are dealing with a loss of a loved one… I wonder what just one Sunday where we leave those request at home and trust that God has it covered and instead we choose just this one Sunday to lay only the names of the lost before our church… what would that Sunday look like?
After all He did say:
“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried canadd a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Matthew 6:25-34
What would happen if just one day, we laid aside all the request that had to do with all the things that God has already promised to supply us with… just one day we laid aside our own self interests and just one Sunday, just one, we set our hearts to pray for those we specifically know are abiding under the wrath of God because the enemy of this world has them blinded to the truth?
But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; rescuing youfrom the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.
Acts 26:16-18
What would happen?
Could we even really accomplish that in this self-centered, self-entitled, self-driven day?
I just don’t buy that Jesus saved me just to make my life better. He saved me to join an army. He saved me to join a team. He saved me to become a part of His rescue squad.
I am on active duty.
When did church become our comfort zone? Is it not supposed to be our training ground? Our briefing? Our team huddle to make the plans to fight the enemy…
Our time to grasp hands and say “red rover, red rover, Satan send that one right over” because if you don’t let them go, in the power of the name of Christ and the power of His gospel, we are about to come running over and break your hold on this one with the Truth of the Word of God and bring them on over to our side.
Oh God, take the blinders off of us! Let your church see… really see!
This young girl, in my children’s church, only eight years old… let me share with you how tight the grip the powers of hell have a hold of her mind… and let me remind you she merely is one that represents the majority of every child in our nation…
Oh church, wake up. For the love of Christ, wake up!
As I reviewed through the book of Romans, I begin every lesson with a section review that brings us up to where we will be that day, so as I reviewed Romans 1:18-32 I went over what happens in the minds of those who exchange the truth of God for a lie. I shared again how our thinking becomes all messed and we believe things that are lies, like believing that we come from monkeys… I made this statement and this young girls hand shot up. I addressed her raised hand and she said assuredly, “actually we are descended from monkeys.”
Now stop with me for a moment and think.
This young girl has never been in our church before. She does not go to school with any of the kids in the class. She knows no one and is in a strange place, yet this idea was so ingrained in her as fact, she had the boldness to speak out right then.
I cannot tell you how I prayed for this girl all through the lesson that day… I also cannot tell you the disappointment I felt as I watched our “church kids” including my own “church kid”.
I stood there teaching and I saw this first time visitor, this precious soul who has been taught a lie, for a very long time, I saw her sit there alone and uncomfortable. I saw her sit there while our “church kids” played amongst themselves, really ignoring her completely.
These children are merely a reflection of us… church we have got to work on this.
Yes, it is uncomfortable to approach and talk to someone new… even someone not new, but someone we have never talked to before… but guess what, they are uncomfortable too. Probably much more so than us.
I saw her uncomfortableness and I saw her struggle and my heart was breaking and what I wanted to do was just stop and take her for a walk and show her the beauty of God’s creation through the eyes of one of His children…
Thus declares the Lord who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him,
Zechariah 12:1
I wanted to pull her aside and tell her that she was too intrinsically designed to come from an ape. I wanted to teach her that she was a living soul and that a monkey doesn’t have a soul and a soul can’t just “evolve”. I wanted to take her in my arms and run straight to the foot of the cross and beg God to open her eyes so that she could see… and I have done that in my prayers over and over and over.
She is only one of many.
So how about just one Sunday, just one, let’s trust that God has got our head cold covered, let’s trust that these mortal bodies are just temporary tents and God will sustain us and the others that we know that are His, no matter what we or they might be going through… let’s trust that He will get us through this one Sunday, and this one week that follows that Sunday, and just one Sunday let all our request be that the blind may see… that God would open their eyes… and that we would be so bold as to declare His Word and His gospel to the world so that whosoever will believe will be saved.
Start in your own church nursery.
Walk the halls of the Preschool wing.
Turn down the Children’s hall.
Do we not know that as soon as their little ears are open, the lies of hell are going in? This past Saturday morning my Bekah comes running up stairs, and says, “Momma, the lies are on Nick Jr! They just said that dinosaurs lived billions of years ago! Momma that’s not true. Kids are watching this Momma and it’s a lie”
Oh church, let not the gates of hell prevail…
If we don’t speak the truth who will?
If we don’t pray for the lost, the deceived the blinded… who will?
One Sunday… could we start with just one Sunday?
Pray.