Those Who Possess the Kingdom of Heaven Matthew 18:1-5, NIV At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.” Hallelujah! I would like to share the grace of God under the title, “Those Who Possess the Kingdom of Heaven,” based on Matthew 18:1-5. Could you please repeat after me? “Those Who Possess the Kingdom of Heaven.” Everyone in the world wants to be successful. People want to be in high positions and be respected and honored by other people. They would love to be in a position high enough to do whatever they want to do. However, we should not forget that there is greater responsibility and stress when you have a higher position. The burden and pain in your heart will increase, too. The Lord’s disciples were interested in social status, too. Matthew 18:1 says, “At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ ” As Christians, we must be more interested in how much the Lord Jesus acknowledges us rather than in who are greater or how high our positions are. When the Lord acknowledges us, He will promote us in His time. On the other hand, when we are not acknowledged by the Lord, even though we may be in high positions after much effort and labor, the glory will not last long. The Tower of Babel tower built by human hands was bound to collapse. The Lord Jesus replied to the disciples in Matthew 18:3, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” The disciples asked who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven and Jesus answered, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” We must become like little children if we want the Lord to acknowledge us. Then we can possess the kingdom of heaven and become great in heaven. What kind of faith does a child have? First, we must possess humble faith. God will greatly use us when we are humble. Jesus said in Matthew 18:4, “Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” The Lord said that whoever humbles himself is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Human beings want to become the greatest by nature. Arrogance is one of the basic instincts of humankind. Adam and Eve committed the original sin when arrogance entered their minds. Satan came to Eve in the form of a serpent and tempted her. Genesis 3:4-5 says, “‘You will not surely die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ ” Satan tempted Eve with his lies. He was saying that they would be like God; they would become that high, only if they ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil instead of dying. Tempted by these words, Eve ate the fruit and gave it to Adam, and he ate it, too. Originally, humankind was created to give glory to God. Isaiah 43:7 says, “Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” God declared that He created humankind for His glory. Since they wanted to be elevated to God’s level, forgetting their own place, sin entered into human history. Humankind fell from grace. Now they put themselves at the center of the universe, being controlled by pride. People have made idols for themselves, built the Tower of Babel, and done all things for themselves, causing endless hatred, fights, and warfare in human history. Pride is the root of sin which God detests the most. Proverbs 18:12 says, “Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.” Hallelujah! We need to be broken and humble before the Lord after we have received His grace. What is a Christian life? It is the life of brokenness and humility. We must be broken every day. Then the Lord will raise us up when His time comes. Who lived the humblest life on earth? It was the Lord Jesus. Philippians 2:6-8 says, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death?even death on a cross!” We need to humble ourselves. God’s grace will be upon us when we are humble. I pray that you will imitate the humility of the Lord Jesus and achieve wonderful works of God as His precious children. Whenever we approach the Lord, we must confess, “Lord, I am nothing. You are everything to me.” Hallelujah! Then the Lord will take care of us. We are nothing. When we think we are something, there are constant conflicts and problems. We feel offended when we are not treated as properly as we should be, because we think we are somebody. It causes conflicts and brings resentment. When we humble ourselves, thinking we are nothing, we can experience abundant grace from the Lord. Missionary Yong-Kyoo Lee is ministering in Mongolia. I read his books. His first book was Putting Down. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University but decided to go to Mongolia as a missionary, putting down all his degrees and fame. When he went to Mongolia, putting down all things, God poured out His grace upon him. The title of his second book is Putting Down More. In his books, he explains the reason why we should humble ourselves and how to do so. We must put down our arrogance, confessing to the Lord that we are nothing. Then God will raise us up and show His glory in our lives. A disciple of Saint Augustine once asked him, “What is the most important virtue?” Augustine replied, “It is humility.” Then the disciple asked, “What is the next important virtue?” Augustine replied, “It is humility.” The disciple asked third time, “What is the third important virtue?” Augustine replied, “It is humility.” Augustine emphasized that humility was very important in following the Lord Jesus. Humility is crucial because humankind is arrogant by nature. We face a lot of problems, because we live with arrogance. When we are broken, humbling ourselves, God will lift us up. A famous mason was chiseling stone. He brought a huge stone and chiseled it out with his tools all day long. He hit the stone with his hammer and cut it with his chisels to make the stone flat. Then he inscribed letters on it. A politician who was watching said, “I wish I had the skill to make a strong stone into a flat monument. I also wish I could inscribe my thoughts in people’s minds just as you put inscriptions on stone.” Then the mason stopped working for awhile and said to him, “You can?if you kneel down like me.” This is true. When we serve people with humility, God’s grace will be upon us. The humble will conquer the world. I pray that you will have victory over all the people in your world showing the love of the Lord, just as the Lord Jesus conquered the whole world through His humility. Second, we must possess faith. To be greater in the kingdom of heaven, we must have pure faith. Children are pure. They accept the Word of God without doubting. A Christian lady was walking down a street and happened to see a picture of Jesus on the Cross through an open window of the house she was passing. She stopped there and looked at the picture and then felt somebody next to her. She looked at her side and found a boy also looking at the picture. Gratified, she lightly patted the boy on the shoulder and asked, “Do you know what kind of picture that is?” He replied, “Yes, Ma’am. The one on the cross is the Lord Jesus. The soldiers nailed Him to the cross and killed Him.” She was impressed since the boy explained it so well and so accurately. She nodded and was going on her way. A few moments later the boy ran to her, gasping for breath, and said, “Ma’am, Ma’am. I left out something.” The lady stopped and turned to him, and he said, “By the way, the Lord Jesus was resurrected on the third day. He rose up again!” The lady was deeply impressed. A little boy had made a confession of his faith exactly as he had learned in his Sunday school, telling a lady who was just passing by. When he did so, the lady was greatly impressed. She thought, As an adult, I do not have such a confident and pure faith like this little boy. How wonderful his faith is! Children have pure faith. That is why Sunday school education is very important. Children will believe what they learn in their Sunday school and follow its teachings. I pray that you will plant the love of Jesus Christ in their pure hearts. We must always have a good and godly impact on children. We should never use bad words in front of them. We should never raise our voices or argue with each other in front of children. Instead, we must plant the language of love in their hearts. We must change them through our positive words. Suppose a father says to his child, when an annoying visitor is expected, “Tell him that I am not here.” The visitor comes and asks, “Is your Daddy home?” Then the child will say, “Yes, but he told me to tell you that he was not home.” Children have a pure mind. We must learn this purity from them. It is sad to see that purity in heart fades away as time passes. When children grow and become adults, they might lie or deceive other people without even feeling bad or sorry. The same is true with our Christian faith. When we first believed, we cried, overwhelmed by gratitude and enthusiasm whenever we prayed, sang hymns, and listened to sermons. Suddenly, joy and enthusiasm fade away and people end up being spectators, sitting in the back of the church and criticizing almost everything, “I have heard that sermon before. Why is that guy sitting like that?” I believe none of us here are like that. I am talking about people elsewhere. We must keep our purity and must be the kind of people the Lord wants us to be. When we repent of our sin of lethargic faith, having pure and truthful hearts, God will bless us. Matthew 5: 8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Hallelujah! We must make every effort to keep ourselves pure. We must wash our hearts with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. We must examine ourselves through the Word and be broken by the Word. When we humble ourselves and get rid of all the impure things in our lives, God’s wonderful grace will be upon us. When we pray to God with pure hearts, He will answer our prayers. He will perform miracles. He will bless us. When we become truthful and pure, working for the glory of God, we can change the world. When we strive to do it, the world will change beautifully. A girl was stricken by an incurable disease. She had to stay in bed for a long time. She was sorry that she could not freely go to church to worship the Lord and that she could not work for the glory of God because she was so ill. One day her pastor visited her and said, “My dear, do not be disappointed. Even though you are lying in bed, if you pray, God will hear your prayers.” She started to pray from that day on. A few months later, she was taken to be with the Lord. A note was found under her pillow. Surprisingly, 56 names were written on the note. Those 56 people were her neighbors who had recently come to accept the Lord Jesus. She had received the list of non-Christian neighbors and prayed for their conversion. She made a cross mark in red ink next to the name when the person came to believe in Jesus. When there were 56 red marks, God called her home to be with Him. This is true. When the girl had pure faith and prayed to God, He answered her prayers. Pure faith brings about God’s wonderful work. Children do not care or worry very much, because they know their parents will take care of everything. Children trust in and depend on their parents. Likewise, our Heavenly Father will take care of everything for us. Psalm 55:22 says, “Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.” When we trust in the Lord and follow Him with pure hearts, God will uphold us and pour His grace and blessings on us. I pray that you will completely trust in the Lord, living for the glory of the Lord. It is my earnest prayer for you. Third, we must possess true love. Children feed on the love of their parents. Therefore, only those who possess true love can enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 19:13-14 says, “Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them. Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’ ” Jesus always loved little children. However, His disciples did not like the children to be brought to the Lord asking Him to lay hands on them. They rebuked those who brought children to Jesus, shouting, “Why are you bothering the Lord with little children?” Jesus reprimanded His disciples and held the children in His arms. He placed His hands on them and said, “The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” The Lord declared that the kingdom of heaven belonged to people with pure faith like little children. Our Lord Jesus loved little children very much. Back then, little children were totally ignored. They did not even count children when they counted people. They did not count women, either. They only counted adult males. To correct their wrong attitude toward children, the Lord Jesus showed His love for them by His actions. Many people ignore or mistreat children. They do not care about little children. What is the biggest problem that teenagers have today? It is a lack of conversation with their parents. Seventy-five percent of youth say that they do not have conversation with their parents. The only conversations they may have are: “Mom, give me some money; I am hungry; I am back from school.” Other than that, they have almost no conversation. We must have loving conversations with our children. Their personalities and faith grow in the fellowship of love. God’s grace and blessing will be conveyed to them through the fellowship of love. I graduated from college in 1977 and attended night classes at a seminary. Since I had a teacher’s credential, I was teaching at Dang-san Middle School for a few months. I was a seventh grade homeroom teacher (Room 1-6). All of my teacher colleagues talked about a boy in that class. The boy was a well-known trouble maker. I went to their homeroom and met the boy, a troublemaker indeed. He had only one notebook. He used the notebook in Korean language class, math class, English class, etc. To make things worse, he wrote nothing in the notebook. In each class, he took out the notebook from his bag and put it back after class, writing nothing in it. He did not pay attention to teachers. He played around the whole time. Teachers would scold or punish him, but he did not care. It seemed there was no hope. He ranked at the bottom of the class on all test scores. Rarely, he ranked the second lowest when another student did not take the test. He was always at the bottom, and I wondered what was wrong with him. I checked his personal data but could not find anything wrong. He was from a middle class family with both parents. He was the only son and his mother had a job. Thirty years ago in Korea, most mothers did not have jobs, but his mother was able to have a job. Since both parents were working, he was all alone. With no one taking any interest in him, he did what he wanted to do. He made problems to draw attention to himself. I thought to myself, Only love can change him. Attention and showing love will change him. I called him to the teacher’s lounge after class. I said to him, “Listen carefully. Tomorrow, bring notebooks for each one of your classes. Take notes during classes, and bring them to me to get my approval before going back home.” On The following day, he brought many notebooks and started to take notes. Since a teacher had taken interest in him and gave him some work to do, he was very happy. Before going back home after all his classes, he brought his notebooks to me. I put stamps on each notebook and praised him for good work. He almost danced out of the classroom, overjoyed. The next day after his classes, he brought all his notebooks to me once again and asked for my approval. He kept on bringing his notebooks for my stamps. He did this for the entire week. After one week, I said to him, “You do not have to come to me every day anymore. But promise me to keep taking notes in all your classes.” He said, “Yes, Sir.” He kept on taking notes in all his classes. Do you know what happened? After a month, he ranked 40th out of 60. On the next test, he ranked 20th. People said it was a miracle. They wondered how a troublemaker could change that much. I did not do anything except show him my concern and love. It changed that boy. Do your children have problems? Do they get in trouble all the time? Do their teachers call you to school? If those things are happening due to lack of love, I urge you to hug your children, talk to them, and pray for them with tears. When parents pray for their children with tears, God will change the lives of the children. Reproach or punishment without love will not change children. It will only push them farther away. Children are likely to run toward the world to fill their need for love. They may meet the wrong people. They may go to harmful Internet sites, wasting their precious time and souls. Show love to your children. Show concern and love to all the children in our church. I ask you to take care of all the children of our church with love. Only love can change their lives. 1 John 4:7-8 says, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” Hallelujah! God is love. God loves us more than anything. The love of God is limitless. It is infinite. Even though we grieve Him at times, stubbornly living on our own, sinning, and being unrighteous, as long as we come back to Him, repenting of our sins, He will forgive us over and over again. In order to prove His great love for us, He sent His one and only Son Jesus to earth and to die on the Cross for us. 1 John 4:10-11 says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” Let us say together, “We also ought to love one another.” Hallelujah! We ought to love one another. The Scripture exhorts us to love one another, because God loved us so much. This is true. Now that we have received God’s enormous grace without charge, as God’s children, we must love and forgive one another, sharing the grace of the Lord with others. As God’s children, we need to be ambassadors of love, loving God and loving our neighbors. Now that we are greatly in debt to Christ’s love, I pray that you will practice the love of God in your lives. Father Abbe Pierre, who went to be with the Lord in 2007, was the most respected person in France for eight years. He organized the Emmaus community, a charity organization to help poor and homeless people. In his book, The Simple Joy, he wrote the following episode. A gentleman came to visit Father Abbe Pierre before committing suicide. He was completely broke. He had problems in his home. He was socially lost, too. He decided he had no choice but to kill himself. He told Father Abbe Pierre, “Such and such things have happened to me. I have to kill myself. My business has failed. I lost my job and social status. I cannot face my family.” Father Pierre listened to his story, agreed with him, and said “Indeed, there is no other option for you but to commit suicide. If you have to do it, you have to do it.” He continued, “Could you please help me for awhile before you die? I am desperately in need of help. Please, help me before you die.” The man thought for awhile and said, “I will die soon any way. Why not help you for awhile?” From that day on, he took off his suit and tie and wore work clothes instead and helped Father Pierre. He began to work hard, building houses for the homeless and serving the poor. Sometime later, that gentleman went to Father Pierre and said, “Father, if you had given me some money or provided some place for me to live when I first came to you, I would have ended up committing suicide. On the contrary, you asked me to help you. While I was helping you, I opened my eyes. When my business was flourishing, I could not see the people who were less fortunate. However, while I was serving the poor and the hungry, I now know that there are so many people who are suffering. I want to live for those people for the rest of my life.” The man was on the verge of committing suicide, but his mind was renewed as a man of love through his service for the poor and less fortunate, and he wanted to live a life for the glory of God and practice love. That is true. When we focus on nothing but ourselves, there seems to be no hope. It looks as if we are surrounded by problems, pain, and hopelessness. When we look up and behold the Lord Jesus, we see that there are other people who are suffering more and who are in more trouble. Our neighbors who are groaning in the pain of deadly disease. We must go to them with the love of Christ. We must practice the love of the Lord to them. I pray that you will practice the love you have received from the Lord?without charge?for the rest of your lives. Let us volunteer for the Foundation of Sharing Love and Happiness and practice our love until the Lord comes again. Love is the only precious thing that will remain forever. Only love can change our lives, change our future, and heal our unhealthy society. Worldly fame or power does not mean anything if it does not carry love. Worldly power can have some meaning only when it is accompanied with love. The same is true with wealth, social status, and even your family. Worldly power, when accompanied with love, can be transformed into service. Family, when accompanied with love, can bring happiness. Food, when accompanied with love, can make us healthy. Therefore, never forget that love is the key to everything. When we practice the love of the Lord and are pure, humble, and loving like little children, the whole world will change. We will have the kingdom of heaven in our hearts, in our homes, and in the whole community. There is a saying that a journey of a thousand miles starts with but a single step. Let us make up our minds right now and to take steps to practice love. Let us take steps of service for others. Let us take steps of forgiveness and healing. Let us ask our God to use us to spread the love of the Lord Jesus all over the world. I pray that you will make this prayer of dedication and service in the name of the Lord. This is my earnest prayer for you. Let us pray. Our Father of infinite love, grace, and mercy, You have loved us and blessed us so much. However, we have not cared for those who are hurting or in trouble. We have not shown our concern for those who are hopeless. Forgive us, Lord. Help us to be like little children. Help us to accept You in the center of our hearts and live for Your glory. Pour Your grace upon us so that we will spend the rest of our lives sharing Your love with others. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.