Childlike Faith vs Self Assurance

Mark 10, Marriage and Divorce, and the Place of Children

I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter 10. We are continuing tonight in our study of the Gospel of Mark. We have been going verse by verse now for several months, taking larger sections, but not super large.

We're going to look at somewhat of a larger section tonight. We're going to look at, we're going to read verse 13 down to verse 31. We may not get to it all, but at least trying to maintain a context.

Hey, good evening. How are you guys? Come on in. And while we're turning in our Bibles, I want to remind you that next Wednesday night, we are having our fellowship meal on Wednesday. We've moved every other month to a Wednesday night fellowship meal.

And so the meal will be on Wednesday night, and it will be followed by a town hall style meeting with the elders, where you can ask any Bible question you want or any church question you want or anything.

If you want to ask about finances or building or anything like that, next week would be a good opportunity. And we're going to start doing that every other month. So to give people the opportunity to ask questions, to speak, you know, speak if they have things they want to see done or things like that, next Wednesday will be that time.

So my encouragement to you is to please be here, but also nudge someone at church Sunday and say, cometh as well, come with, because, you know, we're going to have a meal prepared. I know it's harder to come out in the evening during the week, especially if you have small children, but if there's a meal, it might allow people to be here who couldn't ordinarily.

So we'll see if, you know, if that brings out some extra folks. But again, we're in Mark chapter 10, and we are going to read beginning in verse 13. This is following up. Jesus has just given his exposition, his lesson on the subject of marriage and divorce.

That was verses 1 through 12. We talked about that last time I taught. And tonight he is going to reference the children that are being brought to him. And I want to point out something as we read. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the synoptic gospels, which means that they all look from a similar perspective.

That's what synopsis means, to look from the same perspective. And so oftentimes we will see the stories ordered in the same way in those three gospels, but not always. But this particular scenario is one of the times where we see this ordered in the exact same way.

Jesus talks about marriage and divorce. Jesus talks about children. Jesus talks to the rich young ruler. And that happens in Matthew's gospel in that order. It happens in Mark's gospel in that order. And Luke, where Luke differs, is Luke doesn't have the portion about marriage and divorce in that section, but he does have the part about children and the part about the rich young ruler.

So it's interesting that these stories are in that order, and I hope to show a little bit of why I think that is. But let's just read to begin. Beginning at verse 13, it says, And they were bringing children to him, that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them.

But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, Let the children come to me, do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.

And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them. Verse 17, And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not defraud.

Honor your father and mother. And he said to him, Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth. And Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said to him, You lack one thing. Go sell all that you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me.

Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.

And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

And they were exceedingly astonished and said to him, Then who can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said, With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God. Peter began to say to him, See, we have left everything and followed you.

Jesus said, Truly I say to you, there is not one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for the sake for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life.

But many who are first will be last and the last will be first. Father, thank you for your word again. Now, as I seek to give an understanding of it, I pray that you keep me from error in Christ's name, Amen.

Family Integrated Worship and Welcoming Children in the Church

This past week, I had the opportunity to go to a conference in Williamstown, Kentucky, which is where the ARC exhibit is. If you've never been, it is a life-size model of Noah's Ark that you can go and walk through.

Answers in Genesis is the one who is behind the construction of the ARC. It's a beautiful building, beautiful, I'd call it a boat, but it's attached to a building so I don't think it would float. And so that's my one problem with it is I don't think this will float.

But it was an interesting conference. And one of my takeaways, and I'm going to talk about this Sunday because anytime I go to a conference, I try to always come back and say here was one of my takeaways.

One of the takeaways from the conference was from the very beginning of the conference, the very first day, the very first person who spoke, it was made known children are welcome in this conference. And the speaker said that.

He said, we understand children make noise, and we understand that little feet pitter-patter and little mouths coo, and we understand that happens, but we want you here, we want your children here, and therefore, unless your child is just being completely out of sorts, stay.

And if they are out of sorts, I like what they said, they said take them out and do what you have to do and then restore them to fellowship. I like that, bring them back. And it reminded me of the fact that we, many years ago, we committed ourselves to what is known as family integrated worship.

Some of you may not know what that phrase means, but family integrated worship simply means that we do not provide a children's church for little ones, but rather we invite people to bring their children as young as possible into the sanctuary.

We have a nursery for little small babies, but as early as the child is able, we want them sitting with mom and dad, hearing the songs, participating in the singing, hearing the worship, hearing the word.

And to some people, that is radical, because in the last 50 years, what has happened is a new model has come out, and that is the youth group model and the children's church model. And it really is less than 100 years old.

I would say really more like 50 years old, maybe a little bit more than that, but this model was not the model of the church for 2 ,000 years. There was no children's church in the Middle Ages. Kids came, they came to church.

There was no children's church in the 17 -1800s. Kids came to church. They sat next to mom and dad. They did what mom and dad did, and they were expected to sit and be a part of what mom and dad were doing.

And for some reason, in the last 100 years, we decided that wasn't good enough, and we had to do something different. So, we as a church, about 12 years ago, or more than that, it was around 2011, 2010, we just stopped doing children's church.

And we had done children's church in the past. We had a person who ran it, and we had a little group, and we just decided we weren't going to do that anymore. And in general, it has been fairly successful.

There have been times where, it's a little loud, there have been times where it's a little a little coos and caws become hoots and hollers, and we've dealt with that. But in general, there is value in seeing children be part of worship.

So, and it's valuable for them, it's valuable for us. Because it's valuable for them that they don't feel like they're not part of what we're doing. Because what often has happened, and again, this isn't what the message is about tonight, but since I'm saying it, I'm going to say it anyway.

What happened in many churches that produced these youth group models and children's church models is what happens is, oftentimes, the children never grow out of that. And what happens is you go from children's church to youth group, from youth group to young adult, from young adult to young singles, and then young singles to young marrieds.

You never graduate to being an adult. You never get to be in church, and that's why we have 35-year-old adolescents running around not being adults. Because we have, Paul Washer said this, he said, he was talking about the fact that he goes overseas, you know Paul Washer, he's a pastor, he says he goes overseas, does missions work, he says overseas you got 14, 15, 16-year-old men, and here we have 35-year-old boys.

He said his wife said that if a man-eating crocodile got loose in America, he would starve because there are no men to eat. And that may be a little harsh, but we have created this adolescent mindset.

So again, that's not the point of tonight's lesson. It's just coming out of me because I'm thinking about my whole drive back and my whole time up there. I was seeing people with their kids in a conference that lasted three days.

Some of them brought the pack and play into the conference, and I thought what a novel idea, bring the baby. But with that on our minds, I want us to consider what Jesus says here, and I want to say I'm not saying that this passage is necessarily a statement about family integration.

I'm not saying that. What I am saying is there is something to be said about what Jesus says here about welcoming the children among us. Because the very first thing we see in this passage is what the apostle saying, no, notice what it says.

It says, and they were bringing children to him that he might touch them. This was a common thing among Jewish people was to have their children blessed by the rabbi. And so people were bringing the children to the rabbi for blessing.

Jesus was the rabbi. He was the rabbi of rabbis, and they're bringing them, bringing the children to Jesus to be blessed. And the disciples rebuked them. Now, it doesn't say why they rebuked them. We can consider some of the reasons why.

And one of the reasons might be that they consider Jesus's time too valuable to deal with children. Now, isn't that often the case that we focus our attention so much on the valuable adults and we don't consider the value of the children?

I remember I think it was D .L. Moody who went and preached a revival, and when he came back to his church after preaching the revival, they said, how did the revival go? And he said, well, we had, how do you say it?

He said, two and a half salvations. And they said, two and a half. What do you mean? Two adults and a child? And he said, no, it was two children and an adult, he said, because the children have their whole lives to live for Christ.

And that adult only has half a life left to live for Christ. That's a powerful thought, right? Two and a half. Well, the half, his life's half gone. So just a powerful thought there about the disciples possibly considering Jesus's time too valuable for this.

But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant. Who was he indignant at? The disciples. I mean, it's quite clear from the text. He did not want them to rebuke the parents who were bringing their children. He was indignant and said to them, let the children come to me.

Do not hinder them. For to such belongs the kingdom of God. Now, I have to address. A topic that is very difficult at this point. Because. When Jesus says for two such belongs the kingdom of God, there is there is a lot to consider in that phrase, and it has to be brought out the question of, well, is Jesus saying that children are saved simply by virtue of being children?

I mean, that may not be the question that comes out of your mind, but that's that is when he says of such is the kingdom of God, is he saying these children are by virtue of being a certain age automatically saved until such time as they become unsaved?

And when is that time? How many of you grew up in a church where you were taught an age of accountability? And what was that age? Twelve. Twelve. And I say this. I remember being 12 years old, my mom, who goes to a different church.

She was very concerned for my soul when I turned 12. Because there was this belief that in some form or fashion, when you turn 12 years old, you became responsible where you were not responsible before.

And that was called the age of accountability. And it's interesting to consider that because it's if I've met 12 year olds that were very mature, I met 12 year olds that were not very mature. But yet we we come to this very specific point.

We say this is the age. And and most most people realize it's probably based somewhat on the on the Jewish tradition of the bar mitzvah, where bar mitzvah, the word bar means son of like Bar-Joseph or Bar-Jesus or whatever, Bar-Rabbis, the word B-A-R prefix means son and mitzvah means law.

And so a bar mitzvah means a son of the law, responsible to the law. You are now no longer a boy. You are a man. You're responsible to the law. And so that tradition sort of made its way into Christianity, where at 12 years old, a boy becomes a man, a girl becomes a woman and is now responsible to the law.

The only issue with that is there is no biblical precedent for saying that 12 years old is the magic age where someone becomes responsible. And when we consider the fact that the Bible clearly teaches that we are sinful, not from 12 years old, but that we are sinful from when?

From conception. The Bible says in sin, did my mother conceive me? Remember when David was writing the psalm of contrition, Psalm 51? In sin, my mother conceived me. So I was a sinner, not even from birth.

I was a sinner from the point of existence. And so we have to ask the question, are our little babies sinners? Yes, I've had four of them. And I'm happy to report that not one of them has passed the bar of not being a sinner.

In fact, we have Theo, he is very convinced that he is the ruler of our home and he rules by fiat, means by the word. Because when he wants something, he lets us know. And now it's becoming more articulate, that, now.

And and so he is very convinced in his own leadership and very convinced that he rules the house. And so, you know, as he ages, I'm going to have to apply the rod of discipline to the area of where discipline happens.

It's the backside, the seed of understanding. Thank you. I couldn't think of the phrase, the rod of correction to the seed of understanding. So but but it's because there is that seed of sin that was in Adam is in him.

And it's in all of us from the moment of birth. And therefore, when we consider children, we do not consider children to be sinless. That would be unwise and unbiblical. But if there is no biblical age of accountability where it's named accountability and there isn't, is there any difference between a child who is an ignorance and and an adult?

I would say a very small child, an infant. And oftentimes we will talk about children being innocent. So, well, that child is innocent. Well, we have to ask the question, in what way do we mean that? Certainly, they're not innocent of sin, as I was just expressing.

Even my one year old can express his sinful nature. The nature is there. But there is a question of his understanding. And is there a difference between my one year old and his expression of his sin nature and my older children, specifically maybe my oldest son, and his expression of his sinful nature at 25 years old, 24 years old?

Obviously, there's a difference. And we understand the difference in cognizance, the difference. And so normally, when somebody uses the phrase innocent, they're not saying the child doesn't have a sin nature, but they are saying there is a lack of understanding with the child.

But this leads to the question, well, what happens to children who die in infancy? And there are several places in the Bible that people look to, to try to develop a theology of what happens in infant mortality.

And I am one who is a little less willing to say for certain what those passages mean. But I will say this. When it comes to God and his treatment of anyone, I know that Genesis 18 says that the judge of all the earth will do what is right.

And so when I think of the mortality of an infant or a child, a small child, I know that God will do what is right. And so I trust in him for that. And I do seek to find comfort in that. I have three children that I have lost through miscarriage.

And I have had to comfort my wife through that each time. And so we trust that the God of all the earth will do what is right. We believe life begins at conception. Amen? So there are three children lost to miscarriage.

Not three embryos, but three children. And so we have to consider that God will do what is right. And there are hopeful things, such as this passage, where Jesus welcomes the little children and says, of such is the kingdom of God.

I think there's hope in that. And I think we can hope in that. So that being said, I want to point out verse 15, because verse 15 is the passage that I think is more relevant to the issue of what Jesus is trying to get across to his disciples.

If you notice verse 15, he says, Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. So you say, OK, now wait a minute. Now what's he talking about here? Jesus is now addressing the issue of childlike faith.

So while we may spend all of our time wrestling over the question of infant mortality, wrestling over the question of children who die, that's a question we can talk about. And that's not unimportant.

But what Jesus is doing here, he's picking up a child and he's saying, this is how you are to enter the kingdom. And why is that the case? Why is this the focus? Well, we're going to see in a moment that what happens right after this is a man is going to come to Jesus and he's going to say, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus just gave the answer. Trust like a child come by faith, right? Trust. And he's in that man's going to say that he had done all these good things. He kept the law. And Jesus says, no, you haven't.

You haven't kept the one major law. You haven't put God first because your money's first in your heart. And we'll talk about that in a little bit. But the point of all this is there's something here about the faith that the believer is supposed to have.

And I want to make a distinction, very important distinction. Jesus never calls us to childish faith, but he does call us to childlike faith. You say, well, what's the difference? Childish faith is faith that never matures.

And so many people do not try to mature in their faith and they don't mature in their faith. That's childish faith. People who have no desire for the word, they have no desire to learn. They have no desire to grow.

They have no desire to move from the milk to the beat. The scripture tells us we should desire those things. Amen. But there are people who don't. And that childish faith is what I was talking about earlier with the 35-year-old adolescents who want church to be a clown show.

I don't know how much you guys pay attention to what's going on in churches around the world, but it's an absolute mess. And there are things that are happening all the time where you take a step back and you say, I can't believe this is even happening.

You know what the Dove Awards are? The Dove Awards are like Christian Grammys where they award music trophies to people who do, well, awards, not trophies, but, you know, the Dove Award. Well, a leader of a very famous group from the 90s, early 2000s, photograph came out just earlier today.

He went to the Dove Awards in a dress. If I said the name of the band, you'd all know who it is. And he went with two transsexuals. One was a woman dressed as a man. One was a man dressed as a woman because they were all on tap to receive awards.

They were all nominated for these awards. It's a clown show and people are eating it up. That's not even childish faith. That is pagan. But it's a result of the childishness of the last 25 years where people don't want seriousness in their faith.

They want childish faith. And so that is an issue. But the other side, when I said not childish but childlike, what is childlike faith? I'll tell you what childlike faith is. My son, again, going back to Theo, he has no fear to stand up as the highest point he can and jump into my arms because he knows that I'm not going to drop him.

He has no fear to run as fast as he can with his hands in the air because he knows I'm not going to let him fall. Theo trusts me as his father. That's the trust that Jesus is talking about when he says that whoever does not receive the kingdom of God, like a child, he's talking about that type of trust.

Do we trust God the way a child trusts his parent? That's the picture here. And that is a problem because so often when we're asked the question, why are you saved? The average Christian, not just the average worldly person, but the average Christian, when you ask them if they die tonight and they go to heaven and they face the Lord, and he says, why should I let you into heaven?

The average Christian says, because I was a good person, because I went to church, because I gave tithe, because I did this, because I did that. They're just like the rich young ruler. I have done all these things from my youth rather than saying nothing in my hand I bring, only to the cross I clean.

Naked come to thee for dress. Remember that hymn? The idea that I don't contribute anything, any more than my one-year-old contribute. He don't contribute nothing to my house. Yes, he does. He contributes a mess.

And therein is my picture. How am I to approach the God of the universe? I am to approach him as one who trusts, like a child trusts his parent. And so Jesus gives us that model. And then he picks up the children and he blesses them.

He lays his hands on them. I can't imagine a more beautiful picture in the life of Christ than of Jesus receiving the children and blessing them. It's interesting, too, just by way of comparison. In Mark and Matthew's gospel, the word here is child.

Pidas, I think, is the word. I may be wrong on that. But the word in Luke's gospel is more the word for an infant. So you can imagine Jesus picking up an infant. That's just, in my mind, the thought of what's happening here.

So therein is this section. And like I said, it's followed up in all three gospels, followed up by the same narrative. And it's the narrative of the rich young ruler. And I've already shown you in a way how I bring the two together.

But I want to read on. And I want to show you what we see in this young man. It says, And as he was setting out on his journey, this is talking about Jesus as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. Now, that is an important apologetic passage. Remember, apologetics is what? Defending the faith. Because this is one of the passages that is often used by those who do not believe Jesus is fully divine.

They will use this passage because it seems as if Jesus is denying his own righteousness. Righteousness. And if Jesus is God, then he is completely righteous, right? I mean, that is one of the very characteristics of God is righteousness.

And Jesus says, Why do you call me good? There is no one good except God. As if to say, I'm not him. And I don't know if you ever have conversations with those people who come to your door on Saturday morning, those Jehovah Witnesses or Mormons or whatever.

One of the main tenets of Jehovah Witnesses is that Jesus is not fully divine. He is not of one nature with Jehovah. And of course, Mormonism has such a strange view of the eternal regression of the gods.

They believe God was once a man who lived on another planet, who became God because of his obedience to Mormon teachings. It is a tremendously difficult thing even to understand. But Jesus is not here denying his own goodness.

But what he is challenging is he's challenging that man's understanding of goodness. Because when that man came up to Jesus and said, Good teacher, one thing he didn't know. He didn't know how right he was.

He didn't know who he was talking to. And Jesus says, Why do you call me good? And this should lead us to a question. How do we understand goodness? Sunday, this Sunday, I'm preaching on three of the five solas, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

And I'm going to begin my sermon by asking that very question. What do we, what is goodness? Because you ask the average person, what do they say? Are you a good person? They say, absolutely, this young man thought he was good.

If you don't believe me, just read on. As Jesus says to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments. And Jesus begins to give him a portion of the Ten Commandments.

And if you're familiar with the Ten Commandments, we talk about the first and second table. The first table is our responsibilities to God. Have no other gods before the Lord, not before the Lord, not make any idols, not use the Lord's name in vain.

That's the first table of the law. The second table of the law are those things which relate to others. Not commit murder. Do not steal. Do not commit adultery. Those part of the second table. Well, Jesus limits his questions to the second part.

He says, Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. That's six, seven and eight of the commands. Do not bear false witness. That's nine. Do not defraud, which is a part of lying, bearing false witness.

Honor your father. He goes back to five. So he lays out the commands. And notice what the rich young ruler says. And by the way, when I call him the rich young ruler, that's that that is the typical description of this young man from a just just commentaries often refer to him as the rich young ruler.

He is referred that way. And later he's referred to as a rich person. And in other gospel, I believe he is referred to as a ruler. So that that's where that term comes from. If you're wondering where I got that from.

But he says. All these. I've kept from my youth. All what? All these commands. Jesus, I never killed nobody. I never committed adultery. By the way, an R .C. Sproul pointed this out. It was obvious he had never heard Jesus give the Sermon on the Mount.

Because what did Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount? If you look with lust, you commit adultery in your heart. If you hate your brother, you've committed murder in your heart. Jesus is already. Jesus has already gone through that.

It's obvious the man wasn't there to hear that because he wouldn't be spouting off his own righteousness. But he is all these I have kept from my youth. And here's the part that just. Is amazing. It says in Jesus, looking at him.

Loved him. Mike, what is the King James say there? But it says loved him doesn't use another word. I've thought about that word a lot. Obviously, we know what. The word love means biblical definitions of love and things.

But just how and what this means that Jesus loved this young man. I mean, we could argue Jesus loved everyone. You know, Jesus showed love and kindness to everyone he came in contact with. But for some reason, the writer of this gospel chooses to tell us that he loved this young man.

That he had compassion on this young man. And perhaps it's because he knew he knew that this young man. Didn't didn't know the trouble he was really in. You ever seen somebody who's so pitiful they don't even know it?

You ever have somebody come up and want to tell you there's something great that happened to him and they're telling you the story? And you're like, that's the worst thing I can hear of. But but you just have pity on him.

Because in that moment, it's like it's you just smiling. I don't want to give any examples because I don't hurt anybody's feelings. But it happens to me a lot. People will come up and tell me something.

And it's it's really not that great. But they're happy. They're proud of whatever this thing is. And I'm just praying for him. And Jesus knows this young man just said all these I've kept for my youth.

And Jesus looked at him, loved him and said, you lack one thing. Go sell all that you have and give to the poor. And you'll have treasure in heaven. And come follow me. Now it's important to say that particular command would be hard for anybody to hear.

But especially someone who has wealth. I think we have to be honest and say that would be difficult to hear. Somebody just said, give up everything and come follow me. When you know you have a lot to go home to.

But on the other side of that, Jesus has also given a parable. You may remember when he said the kingdom of God is like a pearl of great price. And the man went and sold everything he had to buy that pearl.

This man is standing right in front of Jesus. And he's between Jesus and all of his worldly goods. And he's going to choose poorly. He's got the pearl of great price. He's got he's got it here. And he's got the invitation.

Come and follow me. And he's all he can hear is the wealth behind him calling him back. And what does the Bible say? It tells us that the fool is the one who forfeits his soul for this world. And that's what he's about to do.

Now, I do want to say this. I do not believe that this passage gives a universal condemnation to all wealth. Neither do I believe it is a universal command that every person who has anything is forced to sell it.

If that and I talk about this in my ethics class, we did a whole hour and a half this past couple weeks ago on biblical economics. And what does the Bible teach about economics? The Bible certainly does not command every person who's a Christian to sell everything that they have.

If that were the case, there would be no Christian businessmen. There would be no Christian managers, owners or operators of businesses. There would be no Christian politicians. And maybe there aren't.

But what I mean is that all of those things we understand. But this young man had a God that wasn't God. Remember how I said earlier, there's two tables of the law. You got the first table and the second table.

And the second table are these things, you know, don't murder, don't steal, don't lie. But what is the first table? It's the very first command. Have no other gods before the Lord. Have no other gods before me.

And this young man is standing between the Lord and his goods, and he's about to turn his head and go the other way. So what is his God? And that's why we see in verse 22, it says disheartened by the same.

By what saying? Disheartened by what Jesus just meant. Go sell everything. Come follow me. Disheartened by that. He went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. And that's been said many times. I didn't invent this little statement, but you've probably heard it before.

A man with great possessions is often possessed by them. And that's what we see. He was possessed by his possessions. He was he didn't have things. His things had him. And not that I want to rush through this, but the tag on this is so important because Jesus doesn't let it go.

The man went away sorrowful, by the way. Notice it doesn't say he went away, repented, went away sorrowful. Sorrow does not always equal repentance. Look at Judas. Sorrow does not always equal repentance.

Repentance will have sorrow, but not all sorrow will have repentance. Says and Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, How difficult is it for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God?

Again, some people take that and say you can't ever have wealth. That's not what Jesus is saying, but he is saying this possessions possessed. And the disciples were amazed at his words, but Jesus said to them again, Children, how difficult is it to enter the kingdom of God?

Notice he calls them children. I just couldn't. I can't bypass that. What did we start out talking about tonight? Children, what does childlike faith do? It trusts. What was Jesus asking the rich young ruler to do?