======================================================================== WHAT HAVE WE GIVEN TO THE LORD？ by Annie Poonen ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon focuses on the story behind the song 'I gave my life for thee' by Frances Ridley Haberger, emphasizing the impact of Jesus' sacrifice on our lives, especially for children. It shares a personal testimony of a young boy who accepted Jesus after hearing the song, highlighting the transformative power of surrendering to Christ. The sermon also delves into Frances Ridley Haberger's life, her devotion to Jesus, love for the Bible, and prayer life, inspiring listeners to deepen their relationship with God through prayer and scripture. Topics: "Sacrifice of Christ", "Transformative Power of Surrender" Scripture References: John 15:13, Matthew 19:14, Philippians 2:17, James 5:16, 1 Thessalonians 5:16, Psalm 119:105, 1 Peter 5:7, Romans 12:1, Ephesians 6:18, Hebrews 4:16 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon focuses on the story behind the song 'I gave my life for thee' by Frances Ridley Haberger, emphasizing the impact of Jesus' sacrifice on our lives, especially for children. It shares a personal testimony of a young boy who accepted Jesus after hearing the song, highlighting the transformative power of surrendering to Christ. The sermon also delves into Frances Ridley Haberger's life, her devotion to Jesus, love for the Bible, and prayer life, inspiring listeners to deepen their relationship with God through prayer and scripture. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Okay, children, this is a special day for children. So, I want to tell you a little bit about the story of the song. And it's about, the title of the song is, I gave my life for thee. It's as if Jesus is telling us all, especially children and the grown- ups, that he did so much for us. And it was written by a lady called Frances Ridley Haberger. We have a Frances in our church, a cute little Frances, and I know she grew up, because she's got godly parents, she grew up to be like this godly, beautiful lady. Let me tell you a little bit about her, first of all. And also, before I begin, I want to tell you why I like the song so much. It means a lot to me. There was a little boy, about six years old. Now, some of you are six, some of you are a little older than six children. There was a little boy, about six years old, and he heard the song, somebody sing the song to him. And he heard all the verses of the song, and at the end of the song, he was weeping, and he said, I want to give my life to Jesus, after hearing the song. And after that, he accepted Jesus into his heart, and as we heard today, he had peace with God. And he grew up to be a godly young man, and he became a doctor, and he helped a lot of people. And at the age of 52, he died, and is now in heaven. That little boy is my youngest brother. And that's why the song means so much to me, because I remember the day when he had peace with God, and gave his life to Jesus. So all of you dear children, doesn't matter if you're five, or six, or three, you can give your life to Jesus. Because in this song, it says, it's as if Jesus is telling us all, especially children, I gave my life for you, what all he did for us, and what have you done for him? What have you given to him? He doesn't want our money, or anything from us, but what does he want from us? He wants us to come to him, and have peace with him, and give our lives to him. That's what this lady wrote. Let me tell you a little bit about this lady. Her mother died when she was 11 years old. That's a sad time. She could hardly remember her mother, but she remembered two things which her mother said to her vaguely. She said, when Francis got her own room, you know, it's nice when little girls have their own little room, and they can keep their things neatly, and they don't have other people to disturb them. She got her own room. Her mother told her, Francis, let this room be your Bethel. You know what Bethel is? You know the story of Jacob? God met with him, and it became a time when he connected with God. Jacob connected with God, and he had peace with God, and he made a promise to God, Lord, if you bring me back to this place, if you bless me, he made some promises to God. So, Francis' mother told her, let this room be a Bethel for you, and she remembered it all the time. Then the other thing she remembered her mother saying was, ask God to prepare you for all that he is preparing for you. I want to tell you simply, ask God to help you to be ready to receive all that God is wanting to give you, all the gifts that he wants to give you. Lord, I want to receive, I want to receive all those gifts from you, especially the gift of peace, as we heard, peace with God. So, she remembered her mother, those two things, and she went to school in England, and then when she was in school, her teacher talked to her about accepting Jesus, and when she was 14 years old, she gave her life to Jesus. Her teacher just said, suppose you see Jesus coming in the clouds today, suppose you see Jesus coming in the clouds today, will you be able to trust him? Yes, say yes, he's Jesus, he's coming for me, but the teacher said, you don't have to wait till you see him in the clouds, you can trust him now. That spoke to her, and she said, yes, I'm going to trust Jesus, and from that day, she trusted Jesus, she loved Jesus so much. Jesus was the most important person for her, and she wanted to please him, she was devoted to him, and those are some of the things people remember about her. She wanted to live for the Lord ever since then. Another thing about her was she started loving the Bible. She started reading the Bible. You know, children, sometimes when we read the Bible, it looks boring. It might say, oh, it's so boring. I know the story, but we can ask Jesus, Lord, help me to love the Bible, help me to love your word, just as this Francis loved your word, just like my dad and mom love your word, help me also to love your word, and she also had an intense prayer life. She loved to pray. Now, sometimes when we hear older people pray, we just wait for them, and they finish, and we can say amen, but we all are like that, but we can ask Jesus, Lord, help me also to love to pray. You know how she prayed? She had a system of praying. In the morning, when she woke up, she'd pray, Lord, help me this day that I won't get angry with people. That's my problem. I lose my temper. Help me not to get angry, and she would pray, Lord, help me to obey you. Simple things like thank you for this day, she'd say. Then in the afternoon, she'd pray for other people. That's called intercession. She used to pray for her friends, her dad and mom. I mean, her mom had gone, but all the people in her whom she had something to do with. One time, she was in a house where there were 10 people, and they had a prayer meeting, and I told her she loved to pray. They had a prayer meeting, and they were praying, and there were some people in that room who hadn't given their life to Jesus, and she started praying for them in her heart. She prayed and prayed and prayed, and you won't believe it. By the morning, all 10 of them came to know the Lord. That's how we can pray for people. If you think of somebody in our family who's not yet given their life to Jesus, we can start praying for that person. Lord, help my brother or my sister who's not having peace with you, maybe your dad and mom. You know, many people in India, their parents have not yet come to know the Lord, and their parents have cast them out. They say, we don't want you anymore. We don't want to think of you as our son. There are a lot of families like that in India. We don't want to have anything to do with you, and when we die, you won't get any money from us. We can start praying for them. Lord, help them also to have peace with you. So that's what she did. She did, and in the evening when she prayed, she said, Lord, if there's anything in my life which I've done which is displeasing to you, please forgive me. Help me not to do it again. So she had that way of praying, and that was a challenge to me. I said, if this little girl can start praying like that, I want to start praying like that, and in India, sometimes there are some church bells on the people of other religions call out to pray. Then I think they're praying to some God, not the true God maybe, but this is a reminder to me that I can pray to the living God, and I can pray like this, how this lady prayed. So that was a challenge to her, and now it's a challenge to me, and at the age of 42, she became very sick. She became so sick, and the doctors knew that she was going to die soon, but she didn't know. So once the doctor came to visit her, she said, Doctor, do you think I'll be going? And the doctor thought she's going to say, Do you think I'll be able to go back home? So the doctor said, You're very sick. So she brightened up, and she said, Really? I'm so excited, because I just can't wait to get to heaven. I just can't wait to see the Lord. That was her response. The doctor thought she's going to, she's asking whether she'll be okay, but she said, It's too good to be true. I have an intense craving for the music of heaven. She wrote many songs like this one, which we're going to sing, and in this song, I want to tell you a little bit about the song. It's as if Jesus is telling us all, Children, I gave my life to you, for you. I shed my precious blood so that you can be ransomed. You know, it's so good when children give their heart to the Lord, because older people, if they give their heart to the Lord, half their life is over, but if your children, you give your heart to the Lord, you have your whole life ahead, and you can say, Lord, I'm going to live for you, and I was dead in sin, but I can live for you hereafter, and Jesus is saying, I gave my life for you. What have you done for me? You think that Jesus is asking you, What have you done for me? You can say, Lord, I give you my heart. I give you my life. I want to live for you. Second verse is, Jesus, he left us home in heaven. You know what a beautiful place heaven is? It's like day, and earth is like night. It's like living in a dirty place on earth, and heaven is the most wonderful place. You think of the most wonderful place you've been on vacation. Heaven is far greater than that, where everybody is loving, everybody is kind, everybody wants to do good to others, and the Lord himself is there. He said, and then Jesus said, I left such a beautiful place, and came down to this terrible place, and as wandering alone, sad and alone, I left it all, and came to earth for you. Have you left anything for me? So, we can tell the Lord, Yes, Lord, I'm leaving all these bad things, which I used to do in the past, all this fighting, and grumbling, and disobedience. I'm going to leave all that behind, and I'm going to, because you left everything for me, I'm going to leave all for you. And third verse is, Jesus is telling us, I suffered so much. You know, a few weeks, couple of weeks back, we were thinking of when Jesus died on the cross. All those nails pierced him, and the crown of thorns and blood was coming down, flowing down his face, feet, all before us. He died for us, and he says, I've done so much. I've suffered so much. Can you suffer a little bit for me? Like if your friends say, Oh, I don't want to play with you. I don't want to be your friend. That's a suffering. We want to be that girl's friend, or that boy's friend, but if she cuts us off, we can say, Lord, you bore all that for me. This is nothing. I can bear that. I can be alone. Even if I don't have friends, I want to bear it all for you. And in the last verse, it says, I have brought salvation, means that we can be saved from our sins, and we can go to heaven. I've brought forgiveness for you, and I'm going to give you a lot of gifts. We all love gifts, don't we? And God is going to give us a lot of earthly gifts. More than that, he's going to give spiritual gifts, peace with him, all these things he's going to give, and much more, more than what we can describe, what your dad and mom can give you, Jesus can give you. We ask him and say, Lord, I want to be your child, and I want to receive everything that you want to give me. So let's sing that song. And it's so good for children to sing. You know, I know a couple of families in this church, one family used to sing, go to an elderly people's home and sing to them every month. And it cheered up those older elderly people so much. And then another family used to sing and record some video songs and send to a girl who was dying of cancer. And they cheered her up so much. So when she went through that cancer, and she's in heaven now, and she can say, when she meets that family, she said, thank you for that beautiful song you sang. So God bless you and enjoy that song. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/Yxj97WaVxZ0.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/annie-poonen/what-have-we-given-to-the-lord/ ========================================================================