Praise the Lord. Today’s message is titled “The Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.” Turn with me in your Bible to Matthew 18. Here in Matthew 18 starting in verse 1, Jesus was asked the question by his disciples, “who would be the greatest in heaven?”

Here in Matthew 18 starting at verse 1, the Word of God says, “At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receives me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

What we need to do is, Jesus told us that the childlike characteristic of dependency and receiving information is the characteristic of one that will be great. So often, we come to a point as adult that we now get full of pride, we come to a point where we want to acknowledge. We come to a point where it becomes about us, but what God is looking at is our trust in Him.

So I want to take some time and break this down about some of the characteristics of a child and being humble is very important that we become humble before God, amen? Let’s take a look here at some of the values of what it means to be childlike before the Lord and I’ll show you in scriptures where people have sought God that way, God’s promoted them. See he said, “One must become childlike.” You must be childlike in your faith.

You tell a kid “next weekend, we’re going to Disneyland.” Do you know that child is going to hold you to it? Do you know that Friday night – you tell him you’re going next Saturday. Friday night the child can’t go to sleep. He/she is so excited they’re dreaming about Disneyland, dreaming about Minnie and Mickey Mouse, they can’t wait because of their faith in your words. Do we have the same type of faith and belief in what God says?

See everything that we do with God is done by faith. All we have is the Word of God. Do you believe his Word? Do you believe his Word? Because for God to do anything in your life, is going to take you to trust Him and believe Him, but if you don’t believe what the Word says, you won’t act in faith, but a child simply believes what the parent or adult says and takes it and basis his whole life on it.

Our life should be based upon the Word of God, amen? Our life is a walk by faith, as it should be. Everything you do when it comes to God is by faith. But the characteristic of a child is one of faith. What are some of the characteristics of an adult who’s been around a long time, skepticism? “I don’t really believe that. My experiences tell me this...”

I believe God is real. I believe Jesus is real. I believe the very words that Jesus spoke and if Jesus is who says He is, then what He said, we should listen to and take heed, okay? But it takes faith. Because I tell you something, I’ve never seen God. I’ve never touched God, so I’ve got to accept His Word. It does take faith to believe God’s Word because sometimes when the Word of God says I walk by sight, and walk by my senses, Lord it doesn’t look like that. But faith believes more about what God said than what I perceived with my senses and to have that childlike faith become great.

See the world will tell you, why do believe in Jesus? You go to church? You read the Bible? You go all the time? Come on now, that’s 2000 years ago. That’s the skepticism. But the Bible tells us, if we believe that He is the Son of God and that God raised Him from the dead and believe He died for our sin, then we become the child of God. And so what happens,