I would like to welcome everyone that's here today
especially I would like to welcome the young,
our children that are here,
and this message is especially for you today.
Now we have been studying
about how we are to glorify God.
How we are to live
before God in such a way
that pleases Him.
That gives Him pleasure.
Now, we have discovered first of all
that in order for us to please God we must love God,
but in order for us to love God we must know Him.
The greatest treasure children, that you could ever discover
is to know who God is.
Now most of you have a back yard in your home.
What if I were to tell you
that there was a treasure buried in your back yard? Would you go look for it today after church?
I bet you would.
Now what if I told you that it was buried 10 feet down,
but it was the greatest treasure in the universe? Would you still go look for it?
You would dig and dig and dig and dig.
And what if I told you that it was even buried 10 feet down through solid rock?
You would still be out there digging and digging.
You would wear out all your mother's spoons; all your father's shovels;
because there's the greatest treasure in the universe.
But the greatest treasure in the universe is to know God.
to know Him.
So in order to bring delight to the heart of God,
in order to give pleasure to God,
we must know Him, but there's something else that we need.
We must know how to live according to His commands. Do you see that?
Now in the Scriptures we have commandments
and we also have principals of wisdom.
We need to search out all of these things to learn how to live.
Do you know what a lie is?
A lie is something that is simply not true. Do you know what?
Every day the world is full of lies
and lies will tell you how the world is supposed to be, but it's not true.
And lies can lead you astray.
That is why you need the word of God.
Now, I got a passage I want to read to you. Are you ready?
It's in Psalms 119:105 and it says simply this,
"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."
Now, young people I want you to think about something for a moment,
and if you want to,
later on, when you get home tonight, you can do this. Parents you can even do this with your child.
Shut off all the lights.
Shut off all the lights and then try to walk through the living room without breaking your toe.
It's very hard isn't it. It's almost impossible,
but then parents what you can do
is you can set your child in a certain place in the living room
and then write out a map.
A map that you have already figured out
and you say to the child out loud:
"Now walk 5 steps forward."
They walk five steps forward. "Stop," they stop.
"Now walk 2 steps to your left,"
and they do that and you can lead them all the way through
the house without them ever stubbing their toe.
Why can you do that? Because you listened
to something that was true,
that told you how to walk.
Do you see that?
Now this is the same way,
you and I do not know how to walk.
You want a really good lesson?
Your parents have probably told you this a few times:
When you were born you came out knowing nothing,
okay, zero, and if you did know something it was wrong.
So what do you have to do? You have to learn how to walk.
Now imagine this:
Do you know that in war there is a terrible thing called a mine?
What it is, it's a thing that they put under ground that you can't see, but if you step on it,
it will go 'click'
and then when you pull your foot off of it and there's no weight it blows up.
If you're a soldier, that's scares you more than just about anything else in a war.
Now,
wouldn't it be good if you had to walk through a mine field
to have a map that told you exactly where all those mines are,
so you could avoid them? Wouldn't that be good?
Well I want to tell you something,
if your dad told you "Go get the newspaper,"
but between you and that newspaper
were about 100 mines that would blow you up, would you go get the newspaper?
Hopefully not.
But if you had a map
and you said, "Okay I can go 2 steps forward according to this map. Uh oh! There's one.
Now I need to go over this way, okay, okay I'm alright."
Can you see what I mean? Now let me tell you something.
Most people who call themselves Christians today,
do not do what I'm telling you right now.
They say they believe in Jesus
and then they live on the broad way.
They walk in a way that seems right to them.
You can even go to them with a Bible and if you tell them something that the Bible clearly says
they will get mad at you.
We don't want to be that way.
We want to believe in Jesus and do what He says
because what He says
will bring Him pleasure if we obey it, but it will also save your life.
If you want to give God glory
then study in His word
what He says to do and do it.
Now I'm going to finish
with a story that I always tell my boys, over and over, they've heard it a million times.
Okay. There was a missionary one day in Africa
and his little boy was playing out under a tree in front of the house.
The missionary walked out and when he walked out
he saw his boy playing there and he said "Fall!"
and the little boy dropped quickly, and fell straight on the ground, like this.
And then he said "Crawl to me!"
and he crawled.
And then he said "Get up on your feet!" and he jumped up on his feet. He said "Run to me!"
and he ran.
Now you say that's kind of crazy.
Well here's what happened.
The father walked out on the front porch
and he looked
and his little boy was playing
and there was a deadly viper right behind his head, right here.
A deadly snake,
terrible, hanging right there.
Now children
if the dad would of said- let's say the dad is over there and you're playing-
and he says, “Fall!” Would you of gone, "Why?"
Do you see?
What happens if the child responds, "Why dad?" or "I don't want to!"
or "How come?" He would be dead wouldn't he?
But look what the little boy did when the Father said "Fall!" He trusted his father.
Now fathers,
if you're going to demand this kind of trust
-mothers too- you better be trust worthy.
"Fall!" He fell.
And then "Crawl!", he crawled under the snake.
"Run to me!" He ran.
This is good, parents, for us too.
Absolute obedience
to an absolutely, completely wise God will save your life.
It will save your life.
Let's pray. Children let's pray.
Father bless these children
that they might know You, God.
That they might love You.
That they... that their lives might be marked with joy.
Joy inexpressible and full of glory.
That they might go out from this place Lord and maybe even be missionaries
around the world.
Losing everything, maybe even their lives,
for the sake of Your Son.
In Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you.