Inspiration Station: Little Children, Stay Away From Idols

What if your journey toward maturity could profoundly reshape your life and inspire those around you? On Inspiration Station, we promise to unpack the theme of maturity and its transformative impact with insights from the passages of 1 John. Whether you're seeking personal growth or hoping to be a beacon of wisdom for the next generation, this episode offers the guidance you need. We'll explore the powerful metaphor of "little children" used to describe adults evolving in understanding and wisdom. With these timeless teachings, we aim to inspire you to nurture sound judgment and genuine love through your actions.

Join us in reflecting on how recognizing our youthful tendencies can enhance both spiritual and personal development. Together, we'll tackle the challenges of maturing, embracing the opportunity to learn from our mistakes and forge a path toward growth. As we dissect these biblical teachings, you'll discover practical ways to apply these lessons to enrich your life's journey. Tune in as we encourage you to embrace the process of becoming the mature, understanding individual you aspire to be, impacting future generations with your wisdom and love.

• Maturity as a recurring theme  
• Idolatry and its forms in modern life  
• The difference between loving in word versus deed  
• The need for dependency on higher spiritual values  
• The impact of childish behavior on adult life  
• The significance of responsibility and representation in relationships

Hope you enjoyed today's episode! You can find and subscribe to our show on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Theycallmemistayu

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Thank you, welcome back to the all-purpose pod for an all-purpose life. Wherever you are and however you're listening Today, call me Mr you in the Inspiration Station. Thanks once again for making us a part of your week. We're excited about being back with you. Thank you for all the comments and the inspiring responses to some of our recent episodes. Definitely appreciate that. Let's go ahead and jump right in.

Speaker 1: 0:59

You know, if you've been listening to us at least for the past six months, you may find a recurring theme for some of our episodes To some of you. It may be annoying to you because this is not an area that you want to deal with at this particular point in time, and that's fine. Everybody has to move at their own pace, I guess. But that theme is maturity. I've been talking about it a bit because it's been a continuing emphasis and focus for me personally In my disciplines and in the way I'm crafting this life that I'm living right now. And I deal with that a lot because I think it's important to, not only as leaders but even those that don't consider themselves leaders. Maturity is huge because, at the end of the day, someone's always watching us, someone's always paying attention and their generation that we impact by the decisions that we make.

Speaker 1: 1:58

If you look at 1 John 3, verse 21,. Very short verse, only has six words in it. Third chapter, verse 21,. Very short verse. Only has six words in it. Little children stay away from idols. Really really simple idea and message. But what's not simple is one what are these idols that the writer of this book is talking about? And when he says little children, to whom is he referring?

Speaker 1: 2:28

I want to give you a few more passages of scripture. I know that if you don't ascribe to the Bible, that's fine, but there's a point to this that I believe you'll value at the end, if you don't mind just hanging in with me for a little bit. 1 John 2 and 12. Your sins are forgiven you for his namesake. Your sins are forgiven you for his namesake. Your sins are forgiven you for his namesake. 1 John 3 and 18. Let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 1 John 4 and 4. You have overcome. Great is he that is in you than he that is in the world. And 1 John 2 and 18. There are many antichrists. We are in the last times Now.

Speaker 1: 3:08

All of those five passages of scripture that I just quoted are all directed to whom the author calls little children. Now, I don't want to give you the wrong impression that this is not being referred to adults. The term little children is being used, but it's not for your son and daughter and grandchild per se. It's for those that are supposed to have a mind to understand this, recognize the circumstances that they're living in and what's going on around them and be able to adapt with wisdom and with sound judgment and appropriately take the right steps in their life and in their spiritual and personal development and growth. So this is talking to adults, even though it's saying little children. Excuse me, the point of that phrasing is that the people that he's speaking to are young or youthful in very specific areas, and he's speaking almost to them to come up from where they are.

Speaker 1: 4:19

Even in 1 John 3 and 18, it says let us not love in word, almost like what a child does Say I love you, mommy, because they're about to get pizza, or I love you because I got a Christmas gift. But in 1 John 3 and 18, it said let us not love like that in just word and just with the words of our mouth, but in deed and in truth, that we live like we love, or how we should be living and how we should be loving. And 1 John 4 and 4 reminds us that we have overcome, even though we're little children in many senses of the word, because we don't have full understanding of the things of the spirit, of the things of prophecy, of the things of community and fellowship. We're still learning in so many ways. We made so many mistakes, week after week, that we have to ask forgiveness for because we haven't fully understood or kind of elevated into our appropriate station in life. So we're learning, we're growing, we're still like little children, and this is speaking to maybe not theoretically little children, because your little child, a two, three year old, won't understand these passages of scripture. I can almost guarantee that. So he's speaking.

Speaker 1: 5:24

So this author is speaking to adults who are operating or functioning as children. And we're not children in this case, but because of our understanding of things, because of our dependency on our father which is what should be happening we should be approaching him like we are children. See and I'm not saying that we can't be there's an idea out there that we should be youthful, like a child, and we should be, have that youthful exuberance and that sense of wonderment as a child. I don't have a problem with that per se. It depends on how it's applied. I don't really have a problem with that. I think the problem is that we don't.

Speaker 1: 6:03

The children today I mean the ones that I see, I just put it out there, the ones that I see a lot of the times they're rude, disrespectful to their parents. They don't care about public property. They go into a Walmart or Target and they'll tear it up and don't care about the consequences of it, just doing whatever, throwing tantrums and throwing fits and whatever. The children that I see they have nasty mouths, they back talk you. They talk to their parents as if they're their underlings or something. That's what I see in the children of today.

Speaker 1: 6:36

But there's a mindset that and you're going to hear the reference of. If you read the Bible at all, if you spend any time there, you see reference to children all the time. I just gave you some. That's the kind of posture that the creator of heaven and earth wants from his creation. He wants us to have a posture of dependency on him. In some ways we're going to be independent. That's fine, but he doesn't want us to be into the independent of him. He doesn't want us to forsake his fatherhood or his grace or his love for us.

Speaker 1: 7:23

So in many ways as a child in those same scenarios that just gave you that were negative that child who asked, a fool, disrespectful, popping off in public you represent your parents. The parents may not like that because it speaks to maybe some issues with parenting or perhaps some other issues in the household that they haven't been able to overcome yet. So this is not a comfortable topic for most parents. I totally understand that. This is not an attack against you. There's a point here. Stay with me, I don't want to lose you. These children represent their parents how they act On the other side of the coin, the children who are respectful and open doors for folks and says thank you, and yes, ma'am, and yes sir and whatever.

Speaker 1: 8:09

However you deem respect, those children also represent their parents. God wants us to be dependent on him. Why we represent him as his children. We embody him as his children. We're supposed to look and sound like him. We're supposed to remind everyone that we meet, that he is there, that he has sent us, that we are representatives or ambassadors of his, if you can go into a place and nobody can see anything different from the place that you're going into, there could be a problem there. As a child in the natural, you should have your father's eyes, you should have his nose but, most importantly, you should have his heart.

Speaker 1: 8:55

You know, maturity has been a theme for quite a bit of time for me, because it's just something that it has to be dealt with and it has to be handled with care and with honor and with some level of consistency and discipline. So we want maturity in the communities. We want it in our churches and pulpits. We want maturity in the White House and in politics. We want maturity in our children that are of age. We want maturity in the relationship that we're in, but the bottom line is that we are not children. There's a posture we should have as it pertains to our relationship with God and our relationship to his spirit, but at the end of the day, we're not children. There's some things that we should know better, and if you know better, I believe you should do better. But we're not children because you know we act like that. We're not, but we appear that way to others because we refuse to put away childish things. We want milk and the coddling and the comfort that comes with it, because we won't accept the responsibility of meat. I'll say it again for those in the back we want milk and the comfort and the coddling that comes with that, because we won't accept the responsibility of meat. We become increasingly fond of toys. They're easier to handle than the rigors of adulting. But we're out of position.

Speaker 1: 10:19

We've created a house of idols no-transcript television shows. For some it can be certain types of music. For some it can be certain types of books that you read. For some it can be your own children. Yeah, your own children can be idols. It's a real thing. We can talk about it later. For some it could be your automobile, your car, your truck. For some it could be your automobile, your car, your truck. For some it could be your job. You work overtime when you don't have to because you have elevated your job on a different level and maybe you should. For some it could be money. Money could be an idol. There's so many.

Speaker 1: 11:16

But we're out of position when we act like a child and we're being called to put away childish things. We're being called from milk into the responsibility of meat. We can't live in a house full of idols. The Bible says in 1 John, 3 and 21,. Again, that little children stay away from idols. It could really be the death of us. Wherever you are and however you listen to, the call me Mr you and the inspiration station. Thanks again for making us a part of your week. We hope you enjoyed this episode. Any questions or comments, drop them, whether you find this episode. Love to hear back from you soon. Have a wonderful day. Stay away from miles you.