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>> Good evening. God is shaping his church, and though we may not be aware of it, God
is shaping his church through children. That’s the good news. Tonight is an opportunity to
celebrate the remarkable things God is doing with children around the world. Children are
praying in multitudes. They are witnessing for Christ by the thousands. Their transformed
lives in Christ are more compelling often than the preaching of their elders. Once an
unnoticed people group, children are emerging as significant partners in mission. They are
using their gifts in ministry like never before, so tonight, let’s reflect on this global
move of God. Let us celebrate his work through and with children.
[Video showing]
>> Today is a special day. Today more than 350 000 people will be born and 150 000 will
die. Today we will hurtle another 2 and a half million km around the sun. And eat enough
rice to build the pyramid of Gisa six times. Today is special because of what God is doing
in it. Ever since God created the very first day, he has been shaping history and unfolding
a story so magnificent that all people need to hear it. His plan of seeking and saving
the lost through Jesus unfolds through the entire Bible. Each day the Old Testament pointed
to the greatest event of all - the day when God rescued people.
Through miracles and stories Jesus gave glimpses of an upside down kingdom. That is unlike
anything people could imagine. A kingdom of humility, grace, generosity and surprise.
A kingdom where Jesus said you must be like a child to enter. If you look carefully at
God's salvation history, God often chose young people to do his work.
Samuel, as a child, heard God when no one else was listening. Naaman's servant girl
remembered that God was still at work despite the circumstances. David, a humble shepherd
boy, became a great leader. And a boy whose name we don't even know, saw what God could
do with his five loves and two fish. Becoming a follower of Jesus so often begins as a child
or a teenager. When the disciples struggled to understand the kingdom, Jesus explained
it with a child.
Today 50% of all humans are young. Today is an extraordinary day.
But for many, today is also a sad day. Today more children will go hungry than ever before.
More will be abused as slaves, labourers or soldiers. Today children are easy targets
for advertisers and corporations. Many will struggle to get an education. And today it
is estimated that one third of children in the world have never heard about Jesus.
But today we are seeing God at work shaping children and shaping the world through them.
Today children are coming to Jesus across the world and learning to how to follow him
daily. In many places children are arriving at church of their own accord, being prompted
by God.
Twenty children in one country have Bibles because their ten year old friend believed
it was the best gift he could give them. A former child soldier leads a new life because
he met a pastor with a football. He now a leads a church.
Today children are caring for others and their world. Street kids in one city prayed and
marched together to advocate for justice. Government and business have responded. Over
100 000 children planted trees to care for their environment.
Today Children discovering Jesus as they learn skills for life. Children are being discipled
as they are coached in sport, in media, technology, dressmaking, and even robotics.
Today agencies and churches are partnering together and sharing resources more than ever
before. Some denominations have made children a major focus for a year, a decade, or even
forever. More training strategies and resources for discipleship are spreading rapidly across
the world.
Each of these stories is a glimpse of real children and adults making a difference in
shaping their world, God's way. Children have always been a part of God's plan, but they
haven't always been a big part of ours.
Today there are 2 billion children in the world. Children need to be a part of our plan.
Today.
Let's celebrate what God is doing. >> Let us praise God for this amazing work.
On your tables are prayer letters from children around the world. The children were told about
this very important meeting of church leaders happening at Cape Town and through a careful
process, with them and lots of loving encouragement, these letters were written for you and they
are their opportunity to have a meaningful participation this week, even though children
could not be present tonight. You’ll see, as you read their prayer letters, you will
hear the hearts of the children. You’ll see, though, that they won’t ask God that
you change the world tomorrow. Maybe they’ll just even ask you to pray for their pet animal.
Let’s welcome beautiful Kamve. She is from a township at Cape Town, and it is her joy
to share her prayer letter to you all. >> My name is Kamve Jange. I live in Lwandle
and I’m nine years old. I would like to pray for you. Dear God, please help the leaders
here to notice children and to know how to help them. Please help them to love you and
to follow you every day. Please help all of the children in the world to know you and
to help us to look after them, Amen. >> Thank you, Kamve. Now in shaping the next
generation what is the scale of the challenge? Many of the world’s biggest ministries would
proudly declare that, you know, they’re able to reach tens of millions of children
for Christ. But is this enough? Just one of these dots on my little square already
represents – just one - 100,000 children and this square all together represents 10
million children. Maybe some of our denominations and partnerships are discipling many millions
more. But how many more children are waiting to be cared for, waiting to be redeemed and
made whole in every aspect of their lives? How many more children are waiting to be reached
and discipled for long-lasting faith? How many? Two billion children. And every second
child lives in poverty, vulnerable to neglect, suffering and abuse. Think about both the
needs and the potential. Think about the opportunity we have to raise up leaders like Kamve to
become disciples of Christ to their nations. If we don’t reach them now, think about
who will reach them ahead of us? Shaping the next generation is an integral part of our
mandate to take the whole Gospel to the whole world, including Kamve. Psalms 78 says “we
will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord.” He commanded our forefathers
to teach their children so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to
be born and they in turn would tell their children. >> When God’s Word describes
passing your faith to the next generation, it means that we must not only tell the Gospel,
but we must shape them with it. The survival and thriving of the church of Jesus Christ
very much hinges upon impressing the love of God on the little ones that are under our
influence today. What we’re called to impress in the hearts of the child are not words from
our lips. They are words drawn from the wombs of our heart. It is this love that is bubbling
from the heart that is to be impressed into the heart of the child. This is conveyed through
teaching, but not just teaching. This is best impressed upon children through modeling.
Judges 2 is a graphic example of what happens when there is rift between the heart of the
fathers and the hearts of the little ones. The Bible says the people that served the
Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who have
seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel. Had seen all the great things
the Lord had done after all the whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another
generation grew up who neither knew the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. And some
of the lamentable consequence of this were the people of God became powerless victims
and the slaves of those around them. This unfortunate – the unfortunate reality that
we all see in many countries of the world where the church is declining today also attests
to the inadequacy of work done by the church to turn the hearts of the fathers to the hearts
of the children and the hearts of the children to the hearts of their fathers. The Bible
makes it amply clear that children are not just a mission field prioritized according
to our particular focus, but should be a primary and very important mission field for all of
us regardless of our mission focus. The first commandment given to the people of Israel
as they were to settle in their God-given inheritance was to love the Lord and then
they were commanded to share this commandment with their children. Jesus was indignant
when the disciples prohibited the children to come to him, to know him, because to him
they are a very important mission field ‘for the kingdom of God is for such as this.’
Childhood is a unique God-given sowing and harvesting time for the church. Missing or
ignoring this very foundational time in human development is a mistake that the church cannot
afford to make. The victory of the church of Jesus Christ over the world and over the
evil one rests primarily on what is done by her during childhood. >> The challenge is
enormous, but the possibilities are great. Just take a look at little Kamve tonight.
It is possible to make a difference through children for the church of today and the church
of tomorrow. We want to equip you and encourage you to participate in shaping the next generation.
Go ahead and look at your tables. Together with the prayer letters is a gift for you.
It is a DVD. It contains core resources relating to evangelism, discipleship and caring for
children-at-risk. It contains over 850 documents gathered in 14 languages coming from 50 nations,
as a result of an amazing partnership of churches, ministries and agencies. Its creators have
let go of their copyrights, their names, their logos to share this resource. So, we want
you to share it. We want you to copy it as many times as you like. Use it and give it
away to everyone who needs it. We want it to equip the church. And we want you to also
come to the dialogues tomorrow and Saturday on children and on the multiplex called There
Are No Unreached Children. Together let’s look at six practical steps forward to transform
the way we work with children. Make sure you take a look at the children’s letters right
now. >> Remember Samuel, remember Naaman’s wife’s servant, Josiah and Daniel, and think
of the amazing impact they had on their nations. Imagine the impact on our nations if the bride
of Christ today sets her heart, her energy and the prayer power lavished on her by her
bridegroom to nurture, equip and release children for God’s ministry today. Two billion children
and God loves each and every one of them. They are the shape of the things to come.
Glory to God in the highest. >> Glory to God. God bless you.