Transcription

Connor
You’re listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways.

Chris
Hey, Jeff.

Jeff
Hey, Chris. We’re gonna do our best today.

Chris
Do you know the song Jesus Loves the Little children? All the children of the world? Yep. Red and yellow. Black and white. There you go. Yeah, well, we’re talking about that today, aren’t we? That’s it. Jesus blesses the little children.

Jeff
Okay, well, that’s going to be interesting. I think it’s good, but yeah, before we get to that part, um. Oh, yeah. This is an incredible. Right. Yeah. You know, we are committed to bringing the finest news and the most, uh, authoritative news to our listeners whenever we can from maybe the best news source on the internet, the Babylon Bee I loved last time we read a Babylon Bee.

Chris
You said it’s just as credible as any other news source. Sure.

Jeff
It really is. So Babylon Bee is a satire website if you don’t know. So this one says man unable to learn any useful information as brain is already filled to capacity with Monty Python quotes. It’s awesome. Houston, Texas Greg Harrington, 32, decided it was finally time to take control of his adult life and learn some new information, sources confirmed on Monday. Maybe I’ll figure out how to buy bitcoin or learn what Bitcoin even is, he muttered to himself while getting ready for his part time evening job serving at Chili’s. It’s a new year. Time to gain some new skills and really better myself. Sadly, Harrington’s attempt was immediately thwarted as he discovered his brain’s storage capacity was filled to its limit. With quotes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Every time Harrington attempt to learn a new fact that would actually help him in life, his brain immediately rejected it, instead retaining useless quotes like, are you suggesting coconuts migrate? Or now go away, I shall taunt you a second time. Despite hours and hours of intense study and self-help books and YouTube explainer videos, Harrington could retain not a single fact that would help him in his adult life, though he could still quote the Black Knight scene word for word, of course. Oh well, he said, sadly. So be it. Come, Patsy. And they then rode off on an imaginary horse with his friend Christopher, banging two coconuts together behind him. Experts say Harrington isn’t alone in his plight, with millions of millennials only being able to quote Monty Python sketches, useless Star Wars expanded universe facts, or obscure bits of Lord of the rings trivia. Rather than retain any useful information whatsoever. It’s a real problem faced by increasing numbers of young adults, said one leading researcher in Monty Python studies. You might say it’s only now we see the violence inherent in the system. At publishing time, Harrington’s girlfriend had asked him if he could explain cryptocurrency, uh, but to her. But he could only sadly reply ni ni uh as the country slowly increases in its. I was reading another thing there. So that’s it. Ni ni ni says yes. Yeah. Yes. So you being a movie buff, are you? Are you a monty Python fan? Oh yeah.

Chris
Sure. Yeah. Yeah sure sure, sure. Yeah. I mean, there’s parts of it that are take it or leave it, but. Yeah, uh, but it’s hilarious, you know, uh, ridiculous Yeah. Well, do you know the Black Knight scene where he chops off his legs? Yes, yes, yes, yes. And and he still wants to fight. He keeps hopping and he goes, you have no leg. And he goes, it’s only a flesh wound. Yes. So good. So it’s really good. He goes, we are the knights that say ni ni or is it ni ni? Yeah. That’s so funny.

Jeff
And there you go. It’s great. Crazy. Okay. Anyways, they had nothing to do with anything. No, no. Just fun with you. Yeah, it’s just fun. But, uh, like I said, it’s as authoritative news as just about any other news source, so, uh, we just thought it’d be useful.

Chris
Hey, I think that that’s hilarious. Now, I’m not sure, by the way, that generation Z, the next generation here coming up, I’m not sure if they’re huge Monty Python people, are they are they? I don’t know, I don’t know, because that was sort of a big thing with us, right? Yeah.

Jeff
Well, it was 20 years before us, right. Right, right. So I mean, we were little, little, little kids, right.

Chris
Unless they unless it’s come back around, which so many things to do. Yeah. Yeah.

Jeff
Maybe I was flipping through the channels the other day and I saw, um, a monty Python thing, so I don’t know. Yeah. Anyways, uh, it’s not us. We’re not the ones filling our minds with Monty Python. It was that poor Harrington guy from Texas. So. Yeah, he was.

Chris
There’s so many quotes, but, you know, you want to know one of the best, uh, uh, quotes that, uh, it’s actually from, um, it’s a very similar type movie, which is, um, Mel Brooks uh, what is it called? The History of the world, part two, book two, um, uh, where he pretends to be Moses Charlton Heston. Do you remember this? I didn’t see that one. Where he comes. It’s right at the end of the movie. He comes down off the mountain and he’s dressed. Looks exactly like Charlton Heston in the old movie, right? Where he’s got the red robe with the stripes on it, and he’s carrying three tablets and he goes, God people of Israel. He goes, God has brought you these. 15 and then all of a sudden one tablet falls and goes and falls and breaks and he goes, woo! 1010 commandments. Oh, no.

Jeff
Yeah.

Chris
It’s so good, it’s so good.

Jeff
So, okay, well, your mind is full of stuff to be careful, be careful

Chris
Let Mr. Harrington’s problem. Yes, be a warning to you, Chris. Don’t just fill your mind with useless movie trivia. Helpful article. That’s right. Where you won’t be able to learn anything else but movie quotes. So. Okay, there you go. No problem. Thank you, Desiree, for that very timely warning. Um, so Jesus blesses the children in Matthew chapter

Jeff
19 and Mark chapter ten and Luke chapter 18. So here we are in another parallel with all three of these passages telling the same story.

Chris
Three gospels. That’s been a while.

Jeff
That’s right. So in, uh, Matthew chapter 19, verse 13 through 15, it says, one day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could lay his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him. But Jesus said, let the children come to me. Don’t stop them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are like these children. And he placed his hands on their heads and blessed them before he left. In Mark chapter ten tells the same story. It says, one day some parents brought their children to Jesus. We could touch and bless them, but the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him. When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples. And he said to them, let the children come to me. Don’t stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it. Then he took the children in his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them. And then in Luke chapter 18, one day some parents brought their children, little children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But when the disciples saw this, they scolded the parents for bothering him. Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, let the children come to me. Don’t stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it. Oh, it’s such a sweet story.

Chris
It is, it is, it is. And it makes for great, like flannelgraph photos. Yes.

Jeff
Right. Jesus sitting there with all the children around. A little kid on his lap.

Chris
Yeah. A little. The parents standing there looking. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it looks really good. It’s like. It’s like kids lining up for Santa Claus. Only it’s not Santa Claus. It’s Jesus I was in, uh, in the Middle East a while back, and, um, we had some people. We were in a church, and I had several mothers bring their children to me. And the other guy was traveling with and wanted to lay hands on him and pray for them. God would bless the children. Yeah. So I can I can visualize this in that context. Sure. Well, it says in the side, uh, you know, the the Life Application Study Bible, uh, it actually says in the notes here it was customary for a mother to bring her children to a rabbi for a blessing. And that’s what these mothers, uh, gathered around Jesus for. The disciples, however, thought that the children were unworthy of the master’s time. Less important than whatever else he was doing. But Jesus welcomes them because children have the kind of faith and trust needed to enter God’s kingdom. It is important that we introduce our children to Jesus. So there’s sort of the the sermons that are that are laid in there as, as that’s sort of the two angles. Right? So the idea of our responsibility as parents to bring our children to Jesus, uh, do you remember the first serious spiritual conversation you had with all three of your children? And do you remember the moment where they accepted Christ?

Jeff
And how old were they when they when they, uh, between like, uh, six and, uh eight right in there. Yeah, yeah.

Chris
And and was it, was it you who had the opportunity to lead your children to Christ? Did they go to church? Yeah.

Jeff
Uh, two of the three. Yeah.

Chris
Yeah yeah yeah, yeah. That’s awesome.

Jeff
Yeah. It was really neat.

Chris
Yeah. How about you? Uh, well, uh, I think my daughter got saved in church, uh, and then told us about it like a Vacation Bible school. And I think my son, I know my son. I led him to Christ after watching Spider-Man movie.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You told that story. Yeah, yeah.

Chris
And then. And then my youngest daughter, I think Liz actually talked with her.

Jeff
Yeah, it’s it’s a privilege, parents. If you. It’s worth learning how to share the gospel and lead somebody to Christ just so that you’re ready for when your children are ready. Yeah, for sure, because there’s a great privilege in leading your kids to Christ as opposed to having to take them to somebody else to point them to Jesus. Right. Because those kids will always remember my mom was the one who, uh, led me to Christ. I was I was eight years old, and I can remember coming to my mom and I’d been working through the ideas of sin and, you know, judgment for sin and the grace of God and the forgiveness of sin because of what Jesus did, and that it was a free gift. And I had memorized a bunch of Bible verses in Awana and in, in, uh, my our Sunday school classes. And so those things all just kind of were there. And for whatever reason, God kept using those, which, by the way, you want to get as much scripture in kids, in your in your kids hearts when they’re young. Uh, because then those are the only tools the Holy Spirit has to use is scripture, right? So if they have vague memory of Scripture, well, then he only has vague tools to use But if they have clear memory of Scripture, he has really clear, crisp tools to work with. And, uh, I’ve just, uh. Anyways, um, I was thinking through those ideas and I went to my mom one day and I after church on a Sunday night, and I said, so, is this right? Everybody’s a sinner and sin is what takes people to hell. He said, yes, I said, But God loves sinners. Is that is that right? She said, yes. And I said, and that’s why Jesus paid the price for saying, God paid the price for us. And she said, yes. And I said, and then it’s just a free gift. My mom said, it’s a free gift, and the only thing you have to do is accept it. And she quoted John 112 to those who believed in him and accepted him, he gave the power to become the children of God. And I was like, well, that’s what I want. Mhm. And then she said, well then you have to believe that Jesus paid the price and rose again and invite him to be the Lord of your life. And I didn’t understand, Lord. And so she said, Lord really just means king, the ruler. You’re not the ruler anymore You’re not choosing your own way. God. You’re letting God do it. I said, okay, and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And I so I want to do that. And she said, well, you can do that anytime. I said, I want to do it right now. And I got down on my knees on our couch in the living room. I said, I don’t know the words. And she said, there’s no magic words, but here I’ll help you. And she he led me through a sinner’s prayer. And I remember I got up totally different than when I went down to my knees. Yeah.

Chris
Uh, so let’s talk about for a minute, uh, children’s faith becoming their own as opposed to their parents faith. Yeah. So a lot of people, when they grow up in, like, a traditional type religion where it’s based on tradition and routine and everything else uh, I can’t even tell you the countless, countless, countless number of people who say, oh, gosh, when I turned 18, I didn’t have to go to church anymore. I stopped going to church.

Jeff
That’s my dad’s story.

Chris
Right. And so and it’s and it’s and it’s just like and that, that that’s because it was their parents faith and not their faith. Yeah. Right. And so, uh, and as soon as they were able to break free, they broke free. But in order to be a parent who, you know, has faith and then brings your kids along and there’s a, there’s a position, uh, there’s a position, uh, posture that we take that says you’re coming to church because I’m dad. Because I said so, because I’m mom, get in the car. Right. So that’s that’s that’s exercising our position. Uh, but then there’s a point in time where you want to sort of shift where it, you know, they want to come to church not because they’re you’re making them, but because of more of, like, influence. Right? So you want to influence them so that your influence becomes, you know, something that’s just like, hey, I just I want to come to church. I’m not being made to come to church. I just want to come to church. Um, and so I don’t know what you did as a kid, uh, but. Or as a parent. And when your kids were little. But we really emphasized a lot, uh, that are that our children, we didn’t make our children do much like we didn’t force it. We strongly encouraged it. And we said, if we’re going to church, you have to come to church with us. And that happened when they were the really little itty bitties. But then when they were like teenagers, right, like 13 or 12, we if they said we didn’t want to come to church, we would say, you know, like that’s really disappointing. And we would go to church and let them stay home And then what ended up happening was, and by the way, that rarely happened ever. Like maybe once or twice, right, right. But, but but then even now as adults, um, so you kind of had to posture.

Jeff
This is what we do as a family. We go to church.

Chris
Yeah, we go to church, but and, but but we really never like, you know, you know, there’s a lot of family dynamics that say, uh, you know, this is an absolute must if you’re going to grow up in our home. We have devotion time. Right. And it’s this time and structure and it’s intentionality. There’s nothing wrong with that. Yeah, I would say I would say that’s a great thing. That’s what I grew up with. Yeah, but we never did any of that. We didn’t do any of that. We just we just we did it when, when when it was just.

Jeff
Well, you’re not a super structured person

Chris
Well, no, but my wife is. Yeah. Right. So, so but we just instead of it being like a god time like there’s all the other times and this is God time we decided to make every time God time. Right. So God just bled into every moment of our day. So it was just it was always a God lesson here and a God lesson there. And every, every, every moment of the day was God time for us. So it just felt like. But we always did the devotions at the end of the night, you know. But but if there wasn’t a devotion, you know, if somebody was tired, we would skip it, you know, that kind of thing. So it didn’t feel like there was no rigid.

Jeff
I was so nervous about them being embedded into the into your lifestyle, rather than having it be a thing in your lifestyle. There’s a big difference with those two things. Yes, yes, this is our lifestyle versus this is a thing in our lifestyle, right? I think kids pick up very quickly that it’s one of the things we do as opposed to this is who we are, right? Right. And so the book of Deuteronomy says that we’re supposed to teach our children God’s ways when they get up in the morning, when they go down, when they go to bed at night, when you’re walking along the way, you walk along while you’re sitting at breakfast. Right? Mhm. Every moment is an opportunity to to teach God’s word. So you need to have God’s Word in you so that you as a parent, you need to be so saturated with God’s words that every moment can become a teaching moment without being a preaching moment. Right? Right. You’re not making it a distinctly religious moment like my, uh, if my mom saw a beautiful sunset, she would go, oh, man, isn’t it amazing? God did amazing things. Mhm. Right. Here’s a teaching moment. God did that not right. You know, God created the world this way. Um, uh, she would sometimes go, uh, I can remember one time, uh, we were in the city of Flint, and, uh, our church was in Flint. I was about 12 or 13 years old. We came around the corner and there was a drunk man, um, stumbling down the street, and he had peed his pants. Right. So his pants are wet in front. And, um, at first I thought, oh, this is a dangerous moment, right? Right. And my mom stopped and the guy went across the street and my mom said listen, we love everybody that sins. But, Jeff, do you understand? The book of Proverbs says that’s where alcohol takes you, right? Is where you lose control of yourself. You don’t have to. That was a choice that day. And so don’t be that guy. Right. So we love everybody. Mhm. But you can choose not to have that happen in your life. And I remember thinking that’s that’s a memorable moment in my life. That was the first time I ever saw somebody wet their pants. An adult. Right, right. What happened there. And my mom took me to a Bible verse that talks about you lose control of your body when when you go too far with alcohol. Just don’t go down that road. Right? And of course, we had a lot of alcohol in our life, in our in our family history. So that was it. I can remember a lot of those things. So many things where my mom was not judgmental or angry towards other people or my dad. It was just teaching moment. Teaching moment. There’s a better way. Always. That’s they always led me. Not that God thus saith the Lord, and judgment is coming. Never. They would always just point out there’s a better way to live, and we don’t have to go that way. We can go the better way. Now the world’s going to think we’re crazy. Yeah, and the world’s going to make fun of us. And the world’s going to think that we’re idiots. But there is a better way. And all I can say now, at 52 years old, is there is there is a better way. You don’t have to go down those roads, right? Yeah. And so that’s how my parents raised me. And then they really embedded a ton of scripture. So, um, uh, we had a little bit stronger rule. Um, we go to church like, for baseball, for me. You know, I’ve told this story many times, but, uh, I was a high level baseball player. And, uh, when I was about 14, 15 years old, I had one of my top coaches, one of the top coaches in, in the region, um, started benching me if I wouldn’t come to practice. But we had church on Wednesday nights, and so I wouldn’t come to practice on Wednesday night. I would go right up to like 5:00, but I wouldn’t stay past that. And so, uh, he said if he made a rule finally in the middle of the season and I was a starting quarterback and I’m a starting shortstop and leadoff batter, I had the highest on base percentage, the most stolen bases in the entire league. And, um, so so all perennial all star. But he decided he was going to punish me for not showing up. I was at the other four practices a week, just not that one. And, uh, so he started benching me and I told him, I said, listen, it’s only church. It’s a church thing. It’s important to me. My faith is important, just like baseball. So please don’t make me choose. And he said, nope, you choose either. You’re on this team or you’re not. Okay. So then every game after I didn’t practice the whole practice on Wednesday, the very next game, I sat out the first four innings and sit on the bench. And I had a coach that had had previous was coaching against us, and he came up to me after the game. He goes, how come you didn’t start? He said, ah, that’s what Coach Kipp decided And he went, is it that church thing? I said, yeah. And he went and traded his center fielder for me that day and yeah, yeah, yeah. And so God bless me, it cost me something at 15 years old because, you know, my, my mom and dad’s rule was we go to church. But by the time I was 15 years old, I was like, I get it, and I’m going to church, too, right? Right. And so whatever cost, I’m not going to to compromise my convictions just to play one, four more innings. Sure. Yeah. And so by that point, the Lord had really embedded that in my heart too. Yeah.

Chris
But that’s, that’s a, that’s a I was on the championship, uh, team with my church growing up and and you know that that’s later on. We’re teenagers. Uh, we had gone to the championship and they had scheduled it on a Sunday, and we were like, well, we’re not doing this because we’re going to be a church. Oh, yeah. And so we had to forfeit and we were the better team, right? Yeah. But we forfeit. So yeah, there’s no question. Right?

Jeff
15, 16, 17 years old. Um, I played on back then. They didn’t have the traveling teams. What you had was tournament teams. Okay. Right. You played on lots of tournaments. And so the, the super elite teams just played tournaments all weekend. And I would play 1 or 2 games on Friday night. I’d play three games on Saturday. And then if they put a the championship on Sunday morning, I wouldn’t go. I was the starting shortstop, lead off batter, the whole nine yards, but I, I wouldn’t go and so my coaches began to reach out to the, the tournaments and say, hey, uh, I, you know, could we put the, the championship game at 2:00 or whatever instead of 9:00 in the morning Sunday afternoon? So sometimes it works, sometimes it didn’t. There were a lot of times I got my team or help my team get to the championship game, and I didn’t play in it. Wow. Yeah, yeah. And, uh, so thank God for parents who raise raise their children saying faith isn’t a thing we do on Sunday mornings for an hour. Right? And it’s not an event. Faith is a lifestyle. And that’s what the book of Deuteronomy is doing. I think that’s what you’re seeing here. That’s what Jesus is saying is, is children come to faith innocently and cleanly and totally open to God. If God’s real, then God’s in charge, right? And that’s a really great way to be right. And a lot of times what we do is we come to God more like he’s the genie in the bottle, give us what we want, right? Be our good luck charm. And then, um, uh, we kind of pick a la carte the things we want and the things we don’t want from you. But children just go. If God’s in charge, he’s in charge. We just do all of it, right?

Chris
Yeah. And you think about children, you know, you can tell a child anything, and the child believes it. Yeah, right. And the moon is made of green cheese. No way. You know, I mean, and the faith of a child is innocent and pure and lovely and admirable. And Jesus is talking about that kind of faith. And so, you know, to to receive God, to believe in God, to enter into heaven. It takes that type of faith. There’s something strong and powerful about that. Yeah. That says, you know it. It’s just like you said when you you said, I don’t know the words. And she said, it’s not a magic prayer, right? It’s not a sophistic and it’s not formulated. Uh, don’t get a word wrong kind of prayer. It is a simple, uh, you know, notion with simple belief, with childlike faith.

Jeff
And so and so, uh, there’s one other thing I just want to highlight as just a passing and maybe ending thought. Jesus. Um, uh, his followers were mostly dockworkers and tough guys. Jesus was a woodworker, right? He probably had arms like Popeye. Very strong, muscular guy. Uh, probably well tanned. His followers are dock workers and professional fishermen. Um, and there’s something to say about. Because those guys can will call out BS quicker than anybody else. These hardcore blue collar guys Yeah, but they love Jesus. And they followed him because he’s the real deal. And then the other ones that can tell who the frauds and the dangerous bad people are are children. And the children flock to Jesus to the point where the disciples go, hey, hey, hey, hey. So the disciples thought, Jesus needs to spend less time with sinners and less time with children, and more time with sophisticated, important people. Right? Just goes. Nope. These are my people right here. Right? So so dockworkers, they can see through a fraud, and they’re not going to work with anybody or follow anybody who’s a fraud. And then the other side of it is these children can see who the bad guys are, and they want to be with Jesus, not away from Jesus. And there’s something that it shows the character of who Jesus is. And so I think that’s the other part of it is if we would in our skepticism, our blue collar mindset is he really is who he says he is. I think he is. And then his children run to him and we’ll find what we’re looking for in Jesus.

Chris
Well, that is a great place to end and that is our time. So we will see you next time on The Bible Guys.