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If I Should Wake Before I Die
by Tony Campolo
Text: Matthew 18:1-4
Topic: How to become like a child.
Big Idea: When we fully grasp the meaning of the gospel, we'll really come alive.
Keywords: Childlikeness; Children; Christian life; Joy; New life
Introduction
- Illustration: A Buddhist monk told Campolo it would be better to teach children to pray, "If I should wake before I die," meaning that most of us are going through life half-asleep, not knowing what it means to be totally alive.
- Really living means living with such a focus and intensity that it's unforgettable.
- Most of us don't live life as we should; we let it slip away from us.
- Children really know how to live life. They're so intense, in their joy and tears.
- What did Jesus see in children that's so important? Three things:
Children have no doubts about their real importance.
- People worried about their self-image are overly concerned about themselves.
- Illustration: A father finds his 5-year-old girl standing spread-eagled in the window during a thunderstorm, the lightning flashing. She says, "I think God's trying to take my picture." She knows her value and her worth.
- To live life fully, we have to feel good about ourselves. Most of us don't.
- Jesus came to cleanse us from that "dark side," to impute to us his righteousness.
Children have a quality of spontaneous joy.
- Illustration: Campolo's son pleads to ride Space Mountain again because "you said Jesus feels every emotion we have." He says Space Mountain makes him happy, so "I think Jesus would enjoy it if I had another ride."
- God wants us to be freed from the burdens that keep us from enjoying life.
- G.K. Chesterton: "I think God is the only child left in the universe, and all the rest of us have grown old and cynical because of sin."
- Illustration: When you bounce a child on your knee or toss him in the air, he says, "Do it again!" He'll say it a hundred times, and keep saying it. That's how God created the daisies. He created one, and in his childlike heart, said, "Do it again!" Fifty billion trillion daisies later, he's still yelling, "Do it again!"
Children have absolute confidence in the future.
- Society hasn't beaten them down yet. They still have their dreams for the future.
- The good news of the gospel means we have a Jesus who creates dreams for us.
- Christ who imparts spontaneous joy and dreams to children can impart them to you.
- A person is old when his memories are more precious than his visions of the future.
Conclusion
- The gospel makes us fully alive and makes us into little children.
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