Open Arms

by Pr. Paddick Van Zyl
(Johannesburg,ZA)

Sermon by Pr. Paddick Van Zyl
Oct 21, 2014

Title: Open Arms

Intro:
Have you ever watched someone run to a loved one that has their arms wide open? Ever seen a dad beckon to his son or daughter to jump, he will catch them? There is a 'magical' and comforting aspect to arms that are wide open as opposed to arms closed and fists clasped....

Text:
Deut. 33:27

Sermon:
Our very first contact with arms are those of our mother's when we are born and then nursed and being rocked to sleep in arms wrapped around us.

Mothers are a child's very first representative of God and His loving arms.

'In a recent issue of his One Minute Uplift newsletter, Rick Ezell writes: "Know that God's love touches every part of our (lives). Nothing—no calling or circumstance, no adversity or advancement, no pain or promotion, no status or station—escapes the brush strokes of God's love. God's love bleeds into every fabric and fiber of our lives. We can't escape His love.

"We are like the little boy who got separated from his mother in the mall. He was looking around for his mommy and getting scared. He began to cry because everyone was a stranger, and everything looked so confusing, and every store was packed, and he didn't have his mommy. (Suddenly), his mother found him and picked him up. His eyes began to dry, not because his surroundings were changed, but because of whose arms he was in.

"When you have someone who loves holding you, it doesn't matter anymore what everyone else does or what the circumstances are or what the future holds. When you are in the arms of a loving God, when you have been consumed with His love, you know you are OK."' ###

Arms and the arm of God symbolizes and represents strength in Scripture. It also speaks of comfort and protection.

Isaiah 46:4
Hosea 11:3

'His boundless eternity; he is the eternal God, and his arms are everlasting,
Never were people so well supported and borne up: Underneath are the everlasting arms; that is, the almighty power of God is engaged for the protection and consolation of all that trust in him, in their greatest straits and distresses, and under the heaviest burdens. The everlasting covenant, and the everlasting consolations that flow from it, are indeed everlasting arms, with which believers have been wonderfully sustained, and kept cheerful in the worst of times; divine grace is sufficient for them, 2 Cor. xii. 9.' ##### Matthew Henry Bible Comm.

Listen to the words of Micheal W. Smith's song - Open Arms:

Lyrics: Open Arms Michael W. Smith:
'Many people in the steeple
But no one leaves the walls
Quick to stand and speak all of their beliefs
Quick to leave you if you fall

Tell me where's the love
It knows no boundaries
Tell me where's the love, yeah, yeah
Open arms, we need to be open arms

Never judge You, always loving
Needs to be what we become
Lifting up the lost, showing them the cross
Shining brightly like the sun

Tell me where's the love
It knows no boundaries
Tell me where's the love, yeah, yeah
Open arms, we need to be open arms, yeah

Tell me where's the love
It knows no boundaries
Tell me where's the love, yeah, yeah
Open arms, we need to be open arms, oh yeah
And everybody sing

Open arms, we need to be open arms
And the whole world sing
Open arms, we need to be open arms' ##

This sums it up so beautifully - are we open arms to those around us? To a broken world? Are we the loving arms of God on earth to those who are hurting.....?

Illustration:
'J. Wilbur Chapman often told of the testimony given by a certain man in one of his meetings:
I got off at the Pennsylvania depot as a tramp, and for a year I begged on the streets for a living. One day I touched a man on the shoulder and said, "Hey, mister, can you give me a dime?" As soon as I saw his face I was shocked to see that it was my own father. I said, "Father, Father, do you know me?" Throwing his arms around me and with tears in his eyes, he said, "Oh my son, at last I've found you! I've found you. You want a dime? Everything I have is yours." Think of it. I was a tramp. I stood begging my own father for ten cents, when for 18 years he had been looking for me to give me all that he had.

What a wonderful illustration of the way God longs to treat us, if we will only let Him.'####

Close:
The Christian group Jesus Culture has the most awesome song called:
"Sing My Love"

'Words could never say the way He says my name
He calls me lovely
No one ever sees the way He looks at me
He sees me holy
Words could never hold this love that burn my soul
Heaven holds me, oh heaven holds me

You would not believe the way He touches me
He burns right through me
And I could not forget every word He said
He always knew me
The earth could never hold this love that burns my soul
Heaven holds me oh heaven holds me' #

The arms of Jesus is wide open today for you to run to Him and be enveloped by His love. If you need a touch, if you need Jesus as your Savior today, run to Him and fall into His arms and let Him touch you and change you....
Today Jesus invites you to run to Him and allow Him to embrace you with His arms....
He loves you with a love that is everlasting

Amen

Credits:
#Sing my love lyrics Jesus Culture www.azlyrics.com
## www.azlyrics.com
Michael W. Smith Open Arms lyrics & video www.youtube.com
###Illustration: God’s Secure Love http://www.preaching.com/sermon-illustrations/11718470/
####God's Grace. http://www.preaching.com/sermon-illustrations/11546642/
####http://m.biblestudyguide.org/comment/matthew-henry/mh-complete/MHC05033.HTM