Welcome to our Together on Mission podcast, when we seek to be with and like Jesus, as we begin a conversation with Jesus in the morning, the scripture, prayer and meditation, and then continue that conversation with him throughout your day. Your hopes to straddest find you, the pastor at the Inland Vineyard Church in Corona, California. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Together on Mission podcast, and it's Thursday morning. And we're not gonna release a podcast until Monday morning, so throughout the weekend, just do with Jesus, what we've been doing, or go back and listen to a few podcasters, plenty of them, but we're just gonna enjoy a passage from the life of Jesus, and it's gonna send us into a time of talking with Jesus, and then into a day of talking with Jesus.
And so we're gonna be in Mark chapter 10, beginning in verse 13, in just a moment, I am excited about this topic, about the title of this podcast, and more importantly, Jesus was excited about the topic of this podcast, and he still is, by the way, and the topic of this podcast is simply the kids. And the question is, do we see the next generation? Do we see the next generation? Do we see our kids, whether they're three or 13, or 33, do we see our kids?
Do we see our kids' friends? Do we see the next generation? Do we see those that are 10, 20, 30 years younger than we are? Do we see?
Or are we missing the moments? Are we missing the next generation? Do we see the next generation? And so, incredible story, Mark chapter 10, verse 13, people were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them.
When Jesus saw this, he was indignant, and he said to them, let the little children come to me, don't hinder them. For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly, I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God, like a little child, will never enter it. And he took the children in his arms, he placed his hands upon them, and he blessed them.
What an amazing story. I mean, the phrase children should be seen, but not heard was certainly a first century reality. You know, until they're older and mature and have something of value to offer. But right now, let's just keep them quiet and let's keep them away.
And that's exactly what the disciples are doing. The disciples are keeping the next generation away from Jesus. And I don't think the disciples realized what they were doing. And I don't think we realized what we're doing.
I mean, we could think about how maybe we're missing it, how we're dismissing the next generation without even realizing, you know, by saying or thinking things like, well, this is just the way it's done here. This is just how it's done in our home. Well, this is just how it's done in the church, you know, or at the business or in this organization or whatever. You know, this is the way it's always been done.
And this is the way we do it. And here are the rules. And this is the way it goes. I mean, of course, the disciples don't realize what they're doing in the moment.
They think they're supporting Jesus. But Jesus is saying in the story, no, you're actually not supporting me at all. I'm seeking to start this movement of people. And if you don't reach the next generation, you're only gonna be a movement for about 25 years.
So you're not working for me. You're actually working against me and Jesus rebukes them. And then he says, this is great for us. Let them come to me.
And there are so many reasons why Jesus would have said this. I mean, if we're thinking about the church, right? If we don't let the next generation come to us, if we hinder them, we won't have the church in the next generation. And honestly, that's the case with business family, you know, the arts, sports, every sphere imaginable.
If our life is not beyond us, it will not last beyond us. If we don't give it away, we'll die with it. And maybe we'll die alone. But honestly, it's not just practical.
Like Jesus isn't saying, oh gosh, if I don't let the little children come into me, we won't have a movement in the next 25 years. I'm just gonna let the little children come into me. No, that's not what Jesus was thinking. Cause he says, there's is the kingdom.
And I think what Jesus is saying and that is they will teach us. Because he follows it with, unless you become like a little child, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. So they must be welcomed. I think Jesus would say.
Otherwise we won't be able to learn what we need to learn from the next generation. And that's big. And no doubt, of course, we have so much to teach the next generation, but that's not what the story is about. It's about what the next generation has to teach us.
And honestly, I've learned so much about me and about God from listening and watching, you know, my kids, my kids friends, the next generation in our community of faith. And often to be honest, it comes through interruptions and sometimes chaotic interruptions. Like we find in this story, Jesus is trying to teach and here come the kids and it gets loud and wild. And the disciples are trying to mitigate the chaotic interruptions and Jesus says, wait, wait, you guys, you're missing it.
He actually becomes indignant, you're missing it. It's in the interruptions. It's in the loud noises. Seeming neediness.
It's in the, what we might call immaturity, but Jesus would call a child like faith. Only if we become like them, will we actually enter it? And so I think the story says to us, we need to be ready for this to unfold in our lives because it is unfolding in our lives, probably every day. So do we see the next generation?
We see our kids, our kids, friends, you know, those that are 20, 10, 30 years younger than us at school, in our neighborhoods, in our communities of faith. You know, are we holding on too tight? Are we missing the interruptions? Are we locked into our ways of doing things, you know, unwilling to learn, set in our ways, busy, you know, always gotta be right.
We see it clearly. You know, we need to be quiet or perfect or dialed in. You know, these are really good questions. For every leader, every coach, every manager, every teacher, every parent to just ask and ask and ask.
You know, and then it closes for 16. He took the children and his arms, placed his hands on them and he blessed them. I mean, what would it look like to take our kids and the next generation in our arms and bless them and pour ourselves out for them and listen to them and give them, you know, to be generous toward them, to affirm, to say, go run, take, you know, you've got what it takes, you know, what would it look like? And this is what Jesus did in the story.
What would it look like for our eyes to light up when our kids came in the room or when their friends came in the room? For our eyes to light up when the next generation walks into church or runs into church because that's exactly how they're gonna do it or runs in church, right? For our eyes to light up when we get the opportunity to help, to hear, to blast, to provide for those 10 or 20 or 30 years younger than we are. And it's gonna be louder.
Yes, it's gonna be an interruption. Yes, it's gonna be messy, yes. In fact, a number of years ago now, a couple of junior hires were just running through the sanctuary and one of the older adults had a little bit of a difficult time with it and said, well, should I have a problem that those kids were running through the sanctuary? And honestly, right in that moment, I felt like I got a word of wisdom from the Lord just kind of a downloaded word of wisdom.
And I said, you know, if we don't let the kids run in church, the first chance they get, they'll run right out of church. And that word changed my life. And it's changed our church and it's changed my parenting. And because I think it's the same with our kids, if we don't let them run now, in our presence and sometimes break things and sometimes make messes and get things inside out and upside down.
If we don't let them run now, the first chance they get, they'll run away. They'll run out. In fact, one of my mentors told me one time, Travis, that your goal in parenting should be apparent in such a way that your kids want to be around you when they no longer have to be around you. And that's been a goal of mine.
It's one of my main goals. And it's one of the goals in our community of faith to be a next generation kingdom community, to love and lead the next generation in such a way that they will want to be around the place and they no longer need to be around the place. So Jesus took the children in his arms, he placed his hands on them and he blessed them. And so let's pray this morning as we meditate on the story that we would see the next generation, our kids, their friends, those 10, 20, 30 years younger than us, whatever we encountered them, that we would be their biggest fans, their most enthusiastic cheerleaders that we would look at their lives and their hearts and say, you have what it takes.
I'd like to learn from you and I'm certainly here for you. And we'll talk on Monday. Thanks for listening to the Together on Mission podcast. We truly hope that you were blessed and encouraged by you today.
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