Porch Notes 11/29/2011

Speaker: Ryan Nixon

Ryan talks about the anticipation children feel for Christmas break.

-No School

-Christmas Morning

-Santa

Ryan then recalls the feeling he had when he found out that there is no Santa.

A lot of time we treat God like Santa.

-We're just hoping that when we get to the end of our lives we find out that God wasn't a hoax and we're not on the "bad list".

Child-like Faith

-As we get older we tend to forget about the miraculous thing God has done.

1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"

2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them

3 and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 18:1-4

Satisfied with the Father... Through faith like a child

-Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

-Why is child-like faith important?

-What does child-like faith look like?

Jesus said that in order to be great and enter the kingdom of heaven we have to be like children.

-They are the greatest among us because they have a right understanding of God.

"Narrow is the path to life."

Jesus might also add that the door is small.

-We have to be small to enter the kingdom of heaven.

If we don't have a child-like faith we'll trade worldliness for self-righteousness. We'll mature to a point where we don't need God.

To become child-like...

We need Humility.

We have to depend on him for everything.

We have to trust him.

We need to have child-like faith in God as our...

-Provider

-Protector

-Comforter

-Being in awe of his Power

7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?

10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?

11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Matthew 7:7-11

16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

James 1:16-18

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Do we have a small view of the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives?

"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.

John 14:12

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

1 John 4:4

17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.

18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

James 5:17-18

Sometimes we believe that these miraculous things we Gods acts of the past and he doesn't do such things now.

-There are lots of examples of miraculous things happening all around us.

A baby depends on its parents for everything. If the was no one to take care of a baby it would die.

A baby trusts it's parents for protection. It runs to them when confronted with something unfamiliar.

A baby trusts it's parents as a comforter. i.e. A baby stops crying when it's parents picks it up.

Are you satisfied with the father (daddy)?

Ryan prays that we would grow to become more like children in our heavenly father.