Sermon Central
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Today I Want To Conclude By Sort Of Turning The ... PRO
Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 18, 2007 (message contributor)
Today I want to conclude by sort of turning the tables and say that now we’ve got this great stuff of how we can be set free for ourselves, how can we now turn around and help other people find freedom through Christ.
I’m particularly thinking about this because of a story from a Major who is part of our armed forced in Iraq. He tells the story of what happened a few months ago over there about a group of American soldiers who went into a little village and they were giving away clothing to the Iraqi children. A lot of school children in America sent their old clothes so these soldiers were distributing it to the kids. The kids appreciated it. That was great. But then they opened up a bag of stuffed toys and began passing out stuffed toys to the kids. The kids just flipped over these. They’d never seen anything like this. They loved them. It was a way to give them an expression of love in the midst of a difficult circumstance.
The next day a convoy of security patrols left their base camp and was driving by the same village where they’d been distributing the stuff the day before. As they were coming down the road this convoy saw down in the distance in the middle of the road, a figure who was standing there and not moving. So as the convoy got closer they noticed this figure was standing still and wouldn’t move. They got out the binoculars and looked and there was standing in the middle of the road a little five year old girl who had been part of the group from the day before. She was standing in the middle of the road hugging a stuffed animal.
They didn’t know what to do. As they approached she just wouldn’t move. They radioed the base and said, “What do we do?” They said “This could be a trap, it could be a sniper there, there could be a road side bomb. Who knows? It could be something intended to hurt you. So go around her but go very slowly and carefully as you do.” The convoy began to go. She just stood there in the middle of the road hugging her little stuffed animal. As the convoy went around her they looked and they realized why she was standing in the road. She was standing in front of a landmine that had been planted the night before on the road. She was trying to save from harm these soldiers. She was expressing her love to them because they had first shown their love for her.
When I heard that I thought if you’re a follower of Jesus Christ you love God because He first loved you. He sent His Son to die that we might find freedom, be set free. To know Him personally, to spend...
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