Jesus teaches kids how to see God’s care more clearly — and how that should change the way they treat other people. This episode explores why we should stop judging others, deal honestly with our own sin first, and learn to care for people the way we’d want to be cared for.
We also hear a simple but powerful reminder: God is a loving Father who gives good gifts to his children. That means we can trust him, ask him for help, and rest in the fact that he always gives what is best.
[00:00:00] - [Speaker 0]
Good day, and welcome to stories of a faithful god for kids. I'm Dave Whittingham. Now I know I gave a shout out to Wendell and his family last week, but I didn't know where they were from. Now I know. They're from Cannon City, Colorado in The USA.
[00:00:17] - [Speaker 0]
Thanks for letting me know, guys. Don't fall off any mountains. Another big shout out to Sandy and her family who live in Canberra. They're club members so they can listen to every episode of the show. They've been listening to stories of a faithful god for kids while having their breakfast and getting ready for school at home.
[00:00:36] - [Speaker 0]
Guys, great to hear from you. Now on with the show. How do you know when someone cares for you? How do you know when they love you and want what's best for you? I'm gonna play some music.
[00:00:51] - [Speaker 0]
And while it's playing, you think of a time when someone really showed they care for you. If you want, you can even tell someone who's near you about it. It's really lovely when you know that someone cares for you. Do you know that God cares for you? He does.
[00:01:42] - [Speaker 0]
He's done so much to show it. He doesn't just care for you, though. He cares for everyone. His love is so big. It covers the whole world.
[00:01:54] - [Speaker 0]
So as well as caring for his people, he wants his people to care for other people as well just like he cares for other people. Let's find out how to do that. Get ready for our next episode of stories of a faithful god for kids. At the end of our last episode, Jesus was telling his disciples not to worry about the future. God would look after them.
[00:02:39] - [Speaker 0]
He cares for them. He'd make sure they had what they need. They should work hard to live in the way god wants them to. As a part of that, they need to think about how they treat other people. They also need to think about how not to treat other people.
[00:02:57] - [Speaker 0]
And one thing they and we should definitely not do is judge people. What on earth does that mean? What does it mean to judge someone? A judge decides if someone's done the wrong thing or not. If the police think you've stolen something, they'll take you to court and tell the judge all the reasons they think you did it.
[00:03:22] - [Speaker 0]
You might have someone telling the judge all the reasons he shouldn't think you did it. In the end, the judge will decide if they think you've done the wrong thing or not. Jesus is the judge of all the earth. He knows everything everyone has ever done. Sometimes human judges get things wrong, but Jesus never gets it wrong.
[00:03:48] - [Speaker 0]
Unfortunately, we often act as though we're the judges of other people. Let me ask you this. Have you ever come home from somewhere and told people all the wrong things someone else did or all the things that you didn't like about them? Well, at the same time, did you tell them about all the wrong things you did and all the things other people didn't like about you? You see, it's so much easier to look at someone else and think they're really bad.
[00:04:23] - [Speaker 0]
It's much harder to look at ourselves. In fact, sometimes we judge other people so that we don't have to look at ourselves or so we can feel better about ourselves. Imagine, though, if you were judged in the same way that you judged other people. Like, if you get angry at someone who calls out all the time, and then God says, okay. If that's how you wanna play it, let's look at all the times you've called out.
[00:04:55] - [Speaker 0]
Because that's what God says he'll do. Jesus says in Matthew chapter seven verse one, don't judge other people, and you will not be judged. You will be judged in the same way that you judge others, and the forgiveness you give to others will be given to you. Suddenly, it isn't very fun to point out all the wrong things in other people. Now it doesn't mean that other people don't do wrong things, but Jesus uses some funny picture language to help us understand our problem.
[00:05:34] - [Speaker 0]
He says, imagine you see someone and you notice something. You notice that they have a tiny speck of dust in their eye, and you think to yourself, ho ho. I'll be a good person and help them get that tiny speck out of their eye. It's so small, they probably haven't even noticed it's there. I don't know if that's how you sound, but, you know, imagine you said that.
[00:06:00] - [Speaker 0]
There's a problem, though. You've seen the tiny thing in their eye, but you haven't seen the gigantic thing in your eye. In your eye, you've got a massive plank of wood, like five meters long or 20 feet long. When you turn your head, it whacks into everyone around you. Imagine that.
[00:06:25] - [Speaker 0]
Imagine not noticing the huge thing in your eye, but seeing the tiny thing in someone else's eye. That'd be nuts. That's what it's like, though, when we're really good at spotting when someone else is doing the wrong thing, but we don't spot all the wrong things that we do. Jesus says, take the plank of wood out of your own eye first. Or in other words, work on your own sin first, then you'll be better at helping other people work on theirs.
[00:07:00] - [Speaker 0]
In verse three, he says, why do you notice the little piece of dust that is in your brother's eye, but you don't notice the big piece of wood that's in your own eye? Why do you say to your brother, oh, let me take that little piece of dust out of your eye? Look at yourself first. You still have that big piece of wood in your own eye. You are a hypocrite.
[00:07:22] - [Speaker 0]
First, take the wood out of your own eye, then you will see clearly enough to take the dust out of your brother's eye. If you just look at other people's sin, you're only caring for yourself. You just want to feel better about yourself by showing how everyone else is wrong. If you work on your own sin first, though, you'll be much kinder and more caring in helping other people with theirs. The reason we want to care for other people is because God cares for us.
[00:07:59] - [Speaker 0]
He does care for us so much. That's why we can pray and ask God for things because he loves us, and he loves to give good things to us. So Jesus says to us, ask. Ask God. Enjoy asking him.
[00:08:17] - [Speaker 0]
God won't always give us exactly what we want, but he'll always give us what's best because he loves us. He cares for us. Even human dads, human fathers, who are sinful and do the wrong thing, they know how to give good things to their kids. Well, if they can do that, how much better is our father in heaven at caring for us? Jesus says to the men who are in front of him, what would you do if your son asks for bread?
[00:08:49] - [Speaker 0]
Which of you would give him a stone? Or if your son asks for a fish, would you give him a snake? Even though you're bad, you know how to give good gifts to your children. So surely, your heavenly father will give good things to those who ask him. Imagine going into the kitchen and asking your dad for a sandwich, and instead of a sandwich, he hands you a rock.
[00:09:15] - [Speaker 0]
That'd be nasty, but it doesn't generally happen, does it? Well, our father in heaven is better at caring for his children than any other dad on the planet, so we should ask him for things. He cares for us. And because he cares for us, we should care for other people as well. In fact, that's what God was trying to tell his people throughout the whole Old Testament, the first part of the Bible.
[00:09:45] - [Speaker 0]
He was trying to teach them how to care for other people. And if you're not sure how to care for someone, Jesus gives us a really good question to ask. He wants us to think, how would I like to be cared for? And then if you'd like to be cared for in that way, then care for someone else in that way. He says in verse 12, do for other people the same things you want them to do for you.
[00:10:14] - [Speaker 0]
This is the meaning of the law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets. So if you're running in the playground and someone falls and hurts themselves, think to yourself, if I fell and hurt myself, what would I want someone to do for me? And then go and do that for them. Or if you have a group of friends, but someone new arrives and they're by themselves without friends, think to yourself, oh, if I was new and by myself, what would I want? You'd probably want someone to come and include you, so go and do that for them.
[00:10:51] - [Speaker 0]
Or if you had a whole house to clean, think to yourself, how would I want someone to care for me? You'd probably want them to help you so it can all happen quicker. Well, in your home, you can do that. Help whoever's job it is to do the cleaning. It's so good that God cares for us.
[00:11:13] - [Speaker 0]
It's so great that he's our heavenly father. It's so wonderful that we can ask him for things. He doesn't want us to walk around thinking that we're better than everyone else, though. No. Just like he cares for us, we should care for other people.
[00:11:34] - [Speaker 0]
Jesus has been teaching his disciples for a while now, and it's almost time for him to wrap up and go and do other things. As he finishes, though, he wants his disciples to know how important it is to listen to what he's taught them. But that's the story for next time. Thanks, everyone, for listening. Hey.
[00:12:09] - [Speaker 0]
There are so many people in the world who need to learn more about Jesus. This podcast is one way they can do that. Grown ups, you can help more people hear it by doing a couple of things. First, you can share the podcast on social media. Pop a link to faithfulgod.net on your feed and give a recommendation.
[00:12:30] - [Speaker 0]
Second, you can sign up to become a member. The money you put in, I'll be able to use to keep making more podcasts. Plus, you'll get heaps of benefits. Just go to faithfulgod.net/membership. That's faithfulgod.net/membership.
[00:12:49] - [Speaker 0]
Keep trusting Jesus. Bye for now.