Matthew 18.10-14 Mark 9.49-50
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10 “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. 11 [“For
the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.] 12 “What
do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone
astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search
for the one that is straying? 13 “If
it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more
than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. 14 “So
it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one
of these little ones perish.
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People are special to God.
It is an amazing thing that God loves people. We are so sinful and selfish. There are so
many of us that it is mind boggling that God even knows who we are as
individuals but the fact that He loves us all is unfathomable. We have looked at the seriousness of sin
before God and now we turn to a look at the preciousness of people before God. Jesus is teaching His disciples that they
need to see people in the same way God sees them. We have a tendency to overlook certain people
as being unimportant or insignificant.
Jesus wants to make sure His followers don’t make that mistake.
THE PRECIOUSNESS OF CHILDREN: There are many people who
overlook children as being unimportant.
One of the fist songs we ever learned was Jesus Loves the Little
Children. It is a simple song but very
true. Jesus warns His disciples not to
despise or overlook even one of the little children. He explains that children have a very special
place before the face of the Father. It
seems that there are angels in heaven that represent each child before the
Father. The majority of people who are
believers today, trusted Christ when they were children. However, if you talk to most teachers or
preachers they all want to minister to adults.
Children’s Sunday School teachers and children’s church workers are
rarely the coveted positions they should be.
Rarely does a pastor give up the pulpit so go teach the kids. It is an honor to be able to minister to
children and Jesus wants to make sure His disciples know this.
THE PRECIOUSNESS OF INDIVIDUALS: We know that Jesus had great
compassion for the multitudes. But now
He wants to make sure that His disciples know each individual person is
important to God. Just like a shepherd
who leaves ninety-nine sheep safe in the fold to go look for the one lost
sheep; God has a deep love and concern for each individual lost person on the
face of the earth. We can easily be
distracted and overwhelmed by the multitudes and the mass of humanity that are
in the cities of the world. We would do
well to see people as individuals and just look for people one person that we
pray for and strive to bring to Christ. The majority of people come to Christ one at a
time. God loves individuals and we
should too.
THE PRECIOUSNESS OF OTHERS: All of us are concerned about
our own interests and tend to think of ourselves all the time. Selfishness and pride are at the root of all
our sin. God has called us to be the salt
of the earth. Salt is supposed to give
flavor to food. Salt is not the food but
it helps food to be better. God wants us
to be selfless and view others as more important than ourselves. We are to use
our gifts, talents and energies to serve the people around us. God calls us to be at peace with one
another. Too often believers don’t get
along with one another. There is no
place for selfishness in the lives of believers. We must learn to appreciate the preciousness
of others.
APPLICATION: Love children and do all we can to protect them
and reach them with the Gospel. Look
around for an individual that God has place in our lives and begin to pray for
them and look ways that we can reach them with the Gospel. Consider others as more important than
ourselves.
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