TITLE: HERO’S HAVE ABOVE AVERAGE HEARTS
TEXT: HEBREWS 11:36& 37
INTRO: All of these people had a heart that made a difference in the lives of others.
Doug and Margaret Nichols have faced their share of obstacles. After surgery for colon cancer in April 1993, Doug sat across from his doctor and listened in disbelief. "I’m sorry, Doug," said the doctor nervously, "but you do have a 30 percent chance of recovery."
"You mean I have a 70 percent chance of dying?" Asked Doug, with a grin.
"I wouldn’t put it that way," said a surprised doctor. "But my best estimate is that you have about three months to live."
"Well, let me tell you something, Doc," said Nichols. "Whatever happens, I have a 100 percent chance of going to heaven."
One year later radiation and chemo treatments had left Doug’s body wracked with pain. Though he kept his humor well-oiled, both Doug and Margaret knew the end might be near. But their world was not the only one collapsing. Nightly news reports from Rwanda indicated that civil war had spiraled out of control and more than a million people had been slaughtered, many by their own neighbors and trusted friends. The carnage was beyond belief. Terrified Rwandans by the thousands had fled across the border into Zaire and crowded into filthy, ill-equipped refugee camps, where diseases such as cholera found a ready home. People were dying everywhere-50,000 in three days alone in the little town of Goma. As Margaret and Doug read the terrible accounts and saw the images on TV, their hearts were broken. But what could one couple do?
"I knew I was going to die," Doug told me, "but I wanted to do something before leaving this earth. I just wanted to hold some of those children in my arms and try to offer hope."
Soon Doug found himself traveling with a team of doctors and nurses through the heart of Rwanda, with no idea of the adventure that lay ahead.
A Rwandan Christian leader whom Doug had worked with before had hired 300 refugees as stretcher bearers to bury the daily masses of dead and transport the sick so doctors could do their best. One day the leader approached Doug with an expression of deep concern. "Mr. Nichols," he said, "we have a problem."
"What is it?" Doug asked.
"I was given only so much money to hire these people, and now they want to go on strike."
"What? In the middle of all this death arid destruction these men want to go on strike?"
"They want more money."
"But we have no more money," Doug informed him "We’ve spent everything. If they don’t work, thousands will die."
His friend shrugged his shoulders. "They’re not going to work. They want more money."
"Well, can I talk to them?"
"It won’t do any good. They’re angry. Who knows what they’ll do?"
Finally Doug’s friend agreed. Walking over to an old burned-out school building, Doug climbed the steps wondering what on earth he could say. Three hundred angry men surrounded the Rwandan who would act as interpreter. "Mr. Nichols wants to say something," he called above the clamor as Doug desperately searched for words that would get through to them.
"I can’t possibly understand the pain you’ve experienced," Doug began, "and now, seeing your wives and children dying from cholera, I can never understand how that feels. Maybe you want more money for food and water and medical supplies for your families. I’ve never been in that position either. Nothing tragic has ever happened in my life that compares to what you’ve suffered. The only thing that’s ever happened to me is that I’ve got cancer."
He was about to go on when the interpreter stopped. "Excuse me," he said, "did you say cancer?"
"Yes."
"And you came over here? Did your doctor say you could come?"
"He told me that if I came to Africa I’d probably be dead in three days."
"Your doctor told you that and you still came? What did you come for? And what if you die?"
"I’m here because God led us to come and do something for these people in His name," Doug told him. "I’m no hero. If I die, just bury me out in that field where you bury everybody else."
To Doug’s utter amazement the man began to weep. Then, with tears flowing down his face, he turned back to the workers and began to preach. "This man has cancer," he told the crowd, which suddenly grew very quiet. In Rwanda, cancer is an automatic death sentence. "He came over here willing to die for our people," the interpreter continued, "and we’re going on strike just to get a little bit more money? We should be ashamed!"
Suddenly men on all sides began falling to their knees in tears. Doug had no idea what was going on because no one had bothered to translate. To his great embarrassment, one fellow crawled over and threw his arms around Doug’s legs. Dumbfounded, Doug watched as people stood to their feet, walked over to their stretchers, and went quietly back to work.
Later, as the interpreter recounted the whole story, Doug thought to himself, What did I do? Nothing. It wasn’t my ability to care for the sick. It wasn’t my ability to organize. All I did was get cancer. But God used that very weakness to move the hearts of people. Because they went back to work, thousands of lives were saved, and many heard the good news of Jesus Christ.
"So many are discouraged by weakness," Doug told me later. "We feel that God could never use us; we have nothing to offer. But you can get sick, can’t you? You can simply obey God and do what He calls you to do-whether you feel you have the ability to do the job or not. Sickness and weakness-those things we think God cannot use-are many times the exact things God uses to glorify His name. But so often much is left undone in the world because we are so concerned about what people will think about us. We are underqualified; we’ve never done that before. And so we sit back as spectators."
I. HEART OF COMPASSION WILL TOUCH PEOPLE
Gal 6:2 - Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
- We many times have a skewed viewed of true compassion.
- Our concepts are not the same as true compassion.
A. We have empathy: Putting ourselves in a person’s position and imagining his position.
B. We have sympathy: “I understand how you feel.” “I’ve been there.” “That is so sad.”
C. We usually think compassion is just feeling sorry for someone
D. The Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines “Compassion” as “The sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.”
E. Compassion should go one step further, though; it should do something about the situation.
- Even if it is taking some one by the hand and saying a prayer
- Just being there to listen to their pain
- We can always do something or we can chose to do nothing.
ILL. An old man whose son had been convicted of gross crimes in the army and sentenced to be shot came to plead with Lincoln. As the boy was an only son, the case appealed to Lincoln; but he had just received a telegram from Butler which read: "Mr. President, I beg you not to interfere with the court martials of this army. You will destroy all discipline in the army." Lincoln handed the old man the telegram, and he watched the shadow of disappointment and sorrow come over the man’s face as he read the message. He suddenly seized his hand and exclaimed "...Butler or no Butler here goes!" He wrote out an order and handed it to the father. The man read the order which was as follows: "Job Smith is not to be shot until further orders from me, Abraham Lincoln." "Why," said the father, "I thought it was going to be a pardon. You may order him to be shot next week." "My old friend," said Lincoln, "evidently you do not understand my character. If your son is never shot until an order comes from me, he will live to be as old as Methuselah."
II. HEART OF COMPASSION WILL TOUCH GOD
1. It was His Compassion for you and I that sat the plan of redemption in place
- His Love
John 3:16
- His Compassion
Psa 86:15 But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.
2. It is His passion
Mar 6:34 And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them,
3. It is His desire for us
Mat 25:33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Mat 25:34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Mat 25:35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Mat 25:36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
III. HEART OF COMPASSION WILL COST SOMETHING
1. Good Samaritan
– Without thought for his own life tended to the man’s needs.
– Without any concern as how he would be repaid blessed the man
2. Rich Young Ruler
- Desired to follow Christ
- Longed for the gift of eternal life
- But when he found out that there was a price to be paid walked away
Missionary, Stories And Incidents: Abraham Bininger’s Compassion For Souls
Abraham Bininger, a Swiss boy from Zurich, came with his parents to this country on the same ship that brought John Wesley. The father and mother of the lad both died on the voyage and were buried at sea, and he stepped alone from the gangway onto a strange continent where there was not a single familiar face. This solitude of his childhood drove him closer to the Friend in whom religion had early taught him to trust. The orphaned condition of the gentle boy must have appealed strongly to the sympathy of Mr. Wesley, and it was probably the great preacher himself who took him from the ship to the Methodist orphan school in Georgia where he was educated.
In his youth, Bininger gave proof of singularly devout and tender feeling, and this character was intensified with added years. When he had grown to manhood, he asked to be sent to tell the story of the cross to the Negroes of the island of St. Thomas, having heard of their great misery and degradation. When he arrived at the island, he learned that it was against the law for any person but a slave to preach to the slaves. It was the policy of the planters to keep the blacks in ignorance and superstition. Shortly after this, the governor of St. Thomas received a letter signed by Abraham Bininger, in which the writer begged urgently to become a slave for the rest of his life, promising to serve as a slave faithfully provided the could give his leisure time to preaching to his fellowslaves. The governor sent the letter to the King of Denmark, who was so touched by it that he sent an edict empowering Abraham Bininger to tell the story of the Messiah when and where he chose--to black or white bond or free. --Youth’s Companion
Conclusion: Nate Saint was a man that listened to the voice of God and followed his heart of compassion. In 1956 he flew into the jungles of Ecuador to reach a tribe of people with the message of God’s love. This tribe of people was a violent group that would kill for any reason. After thirteen weeks of flying over the huts and exchanging gifts with the natives, the five men were speared multiple times and hacked to death with machetes.
One of the men in the tribe that fateful day was Mincaye (min-KY-yee). Years later Steve found out that Mincaye actually delivered the final spear that ultimately killed his father. (Three of the six warriors from that day are still alive.)
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Nate’s sister took up where he laid down his life moving in with the tribe and leading them to an understanding of God’s mercy. Steve would visit his aunt during the summers. Finding out that the man who killed his father was still alive. When confronted with the fact that he was expected to avenge his father’s death, he refused and showed compassion on the man. This act caused the man that killed his father to accept God and his plan of salvation. Others followed because of this expression of love.
Sometimes God calls you to go next store and sometimes he calls you to give it all for him. Whatever he is calling you to do today his call is not easy to resist.
