This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to our look together through Mark chapter 10 in Daily Drive Time
Devotions, day two of our look through this chapter, verses 13 to 16 today.
These are verses about the loving care of Jesus Christ. In these verses 13 to
16, people were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but
the disciples rebuked them.

When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children
come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as
these. I tell you the truth, 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, put his hands on them, and blessed them.
You might remember last week we talked about this, Jesus welcoming the children.
Last week as he brought a child in the midst of the disciples and held that
child, he said, "You need to welcome this child.

" And here he teaches us through a child that you and I need to depend on God
like a child. It's both. It's both.

I need as a follower of Jesus Christ to know how to welcome a child, but if I'm
going to do that, I need to know how to depend on God like a child. Now at the
beginning of these verses, the disciples don't see God's priorities. They don't
see Jesus's priorities, and so they're trying to get the children away.

They want to shoo them away. They see these children as interruptions in the
life of a too busy man. They assumed that Jesus just didn't have time for
children.

They were wrong. Now these disciples, they weren't evil men. They didn't have
evil intent here.

They were just trying to do the right thing and protect Jesus from something
that he didn't have time to get involved in. And that makes me ask myself the
question. That challenges me to ask myself the question, what am I assuming that
God doesn't have the time to get involved in?

And because of that, I don't have to get involved in. These verses teach us that
God has the time. Jesus has the time to get involved in the little things of
life, things of life that other people might ignore.

He has the time to get involved. And so he gets involved with these children.
We'll talk about what he did for them in just a moment.

But before that, notice that he uses this as an opportunity to teach his
disciples. Jesus sees their actions as another opportunity to call this class
into session. Through this conversation, he teaches them about service.

What can you and I learn from a child? Only, Jesus says, the attitude, the
attitude necessary for entering the kingdom of God. Only the most important
thing in life.

Jesus says, if you don't receive God's kingdom, like this child, like a child,
you're not going to get in. That's how important it is. And what does that mean?

To receive God's kingdom, God's plan, God's rulership, to receive his kingdom
like a child. What does that mean? It may mean a lot of things, but I want to
focus on three of them.

A child receives in trust, a child receives in depending, dependence, and a
child receives in humility. First, a child receives in trust. When you tell a
child, "I'm going to do this for you," they believe that you're going to do that
for them.

They trust, unless someone's taught them not to trust. That's a terrible thing
when that happens to a child. They trust, and Jesus says, "I want you to have a
childlike trust in God, that when he says he'll do something, he will do it.

" In fact, you might even from time to time pray a prayer like this, "Lord, help
me not to overthink my faith in you. Help me to focus with wonderful abandon on
the truth that you love me, and to put faith in you as a little child, faith
that I can absolutely trust you. " There's this trust that comes from being a
child.

A child also receives, and we talked about this last week, in a spirit of
dependence. A child has to depend on an adult for the food that they have, the
clothes that they wear, the house that they live in. Children depend on adults
for the things that they have, in some way or another, and you and I depend on
God in more ways than we could possibly imagine.

I may think I earned it. I may think I put the clothes on my back, but who gave
me the strength and the energy to earn it, in order that the clothes can be on
my back? God's the one who created me.

He's the one who made me, and the more I depend on myself, the less I depend on
God, the less I'm like a child, able to receive God's kingdom, God's plan for my
life. There's something very refreshing about realizing that, yes, God allows me
to be involved in what I do for Him, but everything that I do, I'm doing it with
a spirit of depending on Him. Jesus taught it this way.

I'm the vine, you're the branch. You've got to stay attached to me every single
moment in order for the fruit to be born in your life. A child receives
independence.

They receive in trust, but they also receive in humility. Children aren't all
about place and pride and prestige and position and titles. Like, well, if
you're going to give me something, you've got to say my right title.

You've got to fill out the right form. You've got to honor me above the other
person. Now, children do sometimes compete with each other.

There's no doubt about that. They're not always humble, but there is something
about the humility of a child that realizes this has been given to me, not
because I deserve it, but because somebody loves me. That's the humility that I
want to live with in my life.

That's the kind of humility that enjoys God's kingdom in your life. That God
gives to us, not because we deserve. How could we deserve God's kingdom?

How could we deserve God's love? God gives to us because He loves us. And that's
the humility that you walk with in life.

Receive the kingdom, Jesus said, like a child. And then I want you to notice
what Jesus does. In verse 16, He took the children in His arms.

He put His hands on them and He blessed them. We talked about this last week.
Servants have time for children.

Here's who servants have time for. For people who don't have any power to help
you with your agenda in life. Oh, it's very easy for us to make time for people
that we think can further our agenda.

We'll clear our schedule for that person. If I met with this person, they might
have the money that gets me where I want to go. If I meet with this person, they
might be able to turn the key in the lock that opens the door that I need open.

If I met with this person, that means they're going to introduce me to this
person who knows this person, which means I'm going to get to where I want to be
in life. But if I meet with a child, where's that going to get me? It's going to
get me nowhere with my agenda.

But God's agenda is different than my agenda. God's agenda is children who are
in need. God's agenda is the poor.

God's agenda is the sick. God's agenda is those who are in prison. God's agenda
is people who are hurting.

God's agenda is people who can't help me with my agenda. And Jesus here teaches
us that God's agenda is to take someone who is hurting and let them see,
recognize physically God's love. He took these children in His arms.

He put His hands on them physically. He blessed them. He let them know in the
clearest terms, you are loved.

You are loved. Who do you need to let know that they are loved? Who needs to be
not your agenda, but God's agenda in your life?

Let's take a few minutes to talk to Him about that. Jesus Christ, I pray first
for myself. Help me to make the humble choice to love.

It is so easy to get caught up in my agenda. It is so easy to get caught up in
how I can get what I want. Even if I think what I want is maybe going to help
you and your kingdom is still what I want.

Lord, help me to focus instead on your agenda, on hurting people, and help me to
focus on how I can serve. God today helped me to see in one practical, real way
somebody in my life who everybody else is ignoring because they're not going to
help with their agenda. But you love them and you want to meet their need.

Help me to see that person. And when I see that person, help me to not only pray
for them in my mind, help me to do what Jesus did, to in some way reach out to
them and touch them. Just like He took these children in His arms, help me to
touch that person in some way to let them know that they are loved by you.

God, give me that opportunity, those eyes today, that opportunity today, and
then let me to have the faith to follow you in that, Jesus, to be like you in
that. I pray for this faith. I ask for it in Jesus' name.

Amen. Be sure to join us tomorrow. We're going to enjoy together Jesus' meeting
with a hot shot entrepreneur in verses 17 to 27.