Become World-Class Christians—Part 8

Gateway to the Heart

Children have an amazing ability to capture the hearts of adults. I recall an enchanting dirty-faced little beggar girl I encountered some years ago near the Gateway of India, Bombay’s principal landmark and tourist attraction.

She could beg in I don’t know how many languages. She would wait long enough to catch the language she thought you were speaking. Then she would come up and make her appeal in the few words she thought you would understand. “Money please—hungry—nice man.”

I would have taken her home with me if I could. I really would have. That little lady, maybe five or six years old, found a soft-hearted American in me. I gave her money, but I often wonder what her ultimate fate was.

God’s final attempt to get Jonah to identify with His concern for the great city of Nineveh was an appeal based on the 120,000 innocent children living there. Scripture doesn’t say what the prophet’s final response was.

I also have tried to use the appeal of children as a gateway to your heart. I hope these little ones will open modern Jonahs to the multitudes of lost folk in Nineveh-like settings foreign to us. All these people, both young and old, are God’s children.

His incredible dream is to reach out to them all. And God wants us to identify both with His heart and with His command to take the message of His love to all parts of the globe. As we sing in the hymn, He wants His kingdom to spread “from shore to shore.” He wants to reign “wher-e’er the sun does His successive journeys run.” This is what He dares to dream.

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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Become World-Class Christians—Part 7

Continuing with the story, “The Orphan Exodus.”

“Is the taxi vanguard ready?” asked the King.

“Yes, my Lord. Ready and waiting.” His voice was full of satisfaction.

At that the Orphan Keeper screamed, staggering on her feet. “S-s-s-s. You!—you! You can’t take thes-s-s-e children! They’re waifs-s-s-s-s! They’re cavils-s-s-s-s, slaves-s-s-s-s! The wolves-s-s-s-s will tear them to shreads-s-s-s-s. They do my bidding! They won’t come with you! S-s-s-s.”

Paying no attention, the King lifted his crossed arms and spread them in a circle above his head. More light diffused from his stretching embrace, till it filled every comer of the grim courtyard. The orphans’ frozen feet began to warm; their cold, wet garments began to dry; their wounds and sores began to heal in the gentle light. Their hearts began to mend.

“What you don’t understand, madame,” said the King, “is that every orphan answers when his name is called in love.”

Then the King began to call their names, names unspoken for months, for years, names they themselves had almost forgotten. He called them in family groups, brothers and sisters, brothers and brothers, sisters and sisters, according to age and position. He spoke their names with tenderness, with kindly affection, with cherished intimacy as though he had been practicing them for years.

“Kristen, Ned, James, Sara, and Susan.
Anne, Ted, John, and Linda.
Jason and Maria.
Alex, Sharon, and Rob.
Eric, Jane, and Cathy.
Diane … ”

And each child remembered his or her name. And each child stepped from the ranks. He was more than a number, more than flesh for the meat grinder of the Enchanter’s labor machines. He had a name chosen in love and a family history and a King who was worthy of service.

Can this fictional account of Christ’s making children’s lives easier be lived out in reality in many places of the world? I trust it’s not too late to dream that this remains a possibility.

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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Become World-Class Christians—Part 6

I’d like to return to the story, “The Orphan Exodus.”

“I am the Orphan Keeper,” she intoned. “You will do my bidding. You will keep my commands. I have control over your lives and your destinies. I am the one who says yea and nay. You can never escape. You can never go where I say no.”

The children cowered, even the older ones. All knew this loveless woman had power to send them to the underworld, to poison their food and call it nightailment, to advance them or to cut off their rations. It was she who ordered punishment for all if one orphan misbehaved.

“You are mine! You are all mine!” she shouted again, lashing the air with the hand whip.

“LET MY CHILDREN GO!”

Everyone within the courtyard froze. The drums stopped in mid-roll tatatata–TA? Who dared disrupt the Orphan Keeper’s time schedule? Who dared interrupt her early night-work-duty harangue? The children shivered in the cold, miserable with hunger and now with dread. What torture would they suffer because of this unspeakable challenge?

The King had shouted the words. He faced the Orphan Keeper, throwing the hood of his common garment back from his head as though she would recognize him once his face was fully revealed in the torchlight. The children gasped at such defiance. Who was this man? The King’s hair glimmered with gold highlights and his loosened street robe fell to the paving stones and he stood strong and tall and broad shouldered and handsome. Big Operator gasped—he had never beheld his King undisguised, so young and so beautiful.

The Orphan Keeper cracked her cat-o’nine-tails in the air. “I know you, you troublemaker. You instigator! Who do you think you are, challenging my power? The Enchanter has cast his spell over these children. They are mine! I can do what I please with them.”

The King answered her not a word, but all could see he was as angry as she. He crossed the pavement and lifted his hands. A wind began to blow, around and around, who-hooooo-ooo; who-hooooo-ooo. It caught the torches of the torchbearers and bound the flames in one windy firebrand—who-hooooo-ooo; who-hooooo-ooo! Up—up!—it shot into the night sky over the orphan pavilion, blazing. By its light all could see the King grab the hand whip from the Orphan Keeper’s grasp, lash the pokers from the Burners’ hands, scatter the assistants with a crack, and then toss the instruments of torture to the sky. A bolt of lightning flashed from nowhere, striking with a CRA-A-A-CK! Flames burst and a ball of fire fell to the ground, finally to be extinguished at the Orphan Keeper’s feet.

The ranks of orphans gasped. The assistant keepers hid their prodding spoons, sticks, and shovels behind their backs, dropped them to the ground, or pushed them under carts.

Then in the unlit dark all could see the warm radiance of the man standing in the middle of the courtyard, daring to defy the evil power of the Orphan Keeper herself. The King signaled to Big Operator and together, with a mighty thrust, they overturned the boiling vat of palace laundry. They ripped the wheels from the work carts, their muscles straining in a fury of indignation. And no one moved to stop them. The Burners stood mesmerized. No warning signal was given to the Dagoda. The Orphan Keeper hissed as though air was escaping from her lungs—s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s.

Many of the children dropped to their knees, clasping their hands together beneath their chins, scarcely daring to hope. Was this one who could save them? Would their misery finally end? Was freedom close? The King straightened himself again and stared the Orphan Keeper in the eyes. “You mistake, Yourself, madame,” he said. His voice was tight with controlled wrath. “These children are not yours; they belong to me.”

With those words he motioned to Big Operator, who stepped forward, wiping axle grease from his hands on his overalls. He bent his knee and bowed. Though comrade to the King before, he was an obedient subject now.

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

Share and Enjoy