The Outcasts (1 of 8)
Series: The Kinds of People Jesus Ministered To
Dennis Marquardt
Matthew 8:1-4
INTRO: We run into a lot of different kind of people in our life's travels. In a country like ours where there is such diversity there will be those who we can rejoice over and others that we would rather ignore or have banished.
Who did God come for? We like to believe that God came for all the good people, this makes sense to us. Yet, Jesus demonstrated time and time again that He came not for those who are well, but for those who were sick, physically and spiritually! Christ's example is a great challenge to us as Christians if we examine the kinds of people He ministered to. Why? Because it will call us to reach out too, to those who make us uncomfortable, to those we would rather not have to deal with, to those we would dismiss as ever deserving God's love and favor. How easily we forget the kind of love it took God to accept us!
Ironically, it was often the most abused, the most outcast, the most rejected by society that found the love of Christ so rich and full. It was often the self satisfied, the cream of the crop that mocked Christ and His ministry. Some of the sweetest and best of spiritual things comes from the greatest pains and tragedies of life when Christ is in the picture!
ILLUS: When Handel wrote the "Hallelujah Chorus," his health and his fortunes had reached the lowest possible ebb. His right side had become paralyzed, and all his money was gone. He was heavily in debt and threatened with imprisonment. He was tempted to give up the fight. The odds seemed entirely too great. And it was then he composed his greatest work--Messiah. Could we not say of Handel that the Spirit entered into him and set him upon his feet? -- Peter Marshall, Sr., "Who Can Take It?," Preaching Today, Tape No. 131.
God's ears are open to the afflicted, the outcasts, the humble ... it is the proud heart that cannot find God or His graces.
PRO ...
Series: The Kinds of People Jesus Ministered To
Dennis Marquardt
Matthew 8:1-4
INTRO: We run into a lot of different kind of people in our life's travels. In a country like ours where there is such diversity there will be those who we can rejoice over and others that we would rather ignore or have banished.
Who did God come for? We like to believe that God came for all the good people, this makes sense to us. Yet, Jesus demonstrated time and time again that He came not for those who are well, but for those who were sick, physically and spiritually! Christ's example is a great challenge to us as Christians if we examine the kinds of people He ministered to. Why? Because it will call us to reach out too, to those who make us uncomfortable, to those we would rather not have to deal with, to those we would dismiss as ever deserving God's love and favor. How easily we forget the kind of love it took God to accept us!
Ironically, it was often the most abused, the most outcast, the most rejected by society that found the love of Christ so rich and full. It was often the self satisfied, the cream of the crop that mocked Christ and His ministry. Some of the sweetest and best of spiritual things comes from the greatest pains and tragedies of life when Christ is in the picture!
ILLUS: When Handel wrote the "Hallelujah Chorus," his health and his fortunes had reached the lowest possible ebb. His right side had become paralyzed, and all his money was gone. He was heavily in debt and threatened with imprisonment. He was tempted to give up the fight. The odds seemed entirely too great. And it was then he composed his greatest work--Messiah. Could we not say of Handel that the Spirit entered into him and set him upon his feet? -- Peter Marshall, Sr., "Who Can Take It?," Preaching Today, Tape No. 131.
God's ears are open to the afflicted, the outcasts, the humble ... it is the proud heart that cannot find God or His graces.
PRO ...
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