Rescued to Influence a Dying World

Summary

A guest speaker from a rescue ministry that has pulled people back from the brink of death for over two decades opens with John 14:12 and John 10:10. He contrasts the thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy with Jesus who gives life in abundance, warning that the enemy rarely looks like a monster but instead twists the truth and aims especially at the young.

He then shares his own testimony. Born into a loving family but left to himself, he slid into a twelve-year addiction that nearly ended with him dying among hundreds of others in cold basements. While he sat in prison, Christians reached his wife Ira, who was saved and wrote him a letter beginning with the words "Hallelujah, God loves you." He surrendered to Christ, was healed of terminal diagnoses, built a family, and watched God do, as Ephesians 3:20 says, immeasurably more than he had asked.

Turning to the church, he calls believers to be people of influence rather than passive religion. From Psalm 127 he describes children as arrows to be sharpened while young, and from Numbers 16 he recalls Aaron standing between the living and the dead with God's fire to stop the plague. He urges parents to be a personal example and to guard the next generation, because the world already has a plan for our children.

Key Points

• The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus came so we could have life in abundance (John 10:10).
• The enemy rarely looks like a monster - he twists the truth and targets the young.
• No addiction, diagnosis or past is beyond God, who saves even those already taken to death.
• God can do far more than we ask or imagine when our lives give Him room (Ephesians 3:20).
• Children are a heritage and arrows to be sharpened while they are still young (Psalm 127).
• Like Aaron with the censer, we are called to carry God's fire and stand between the living and the dead.
• The greatest influence is a personal example at home; do not surrender the next generation to the world.