Make Me Your Captive, Lord

Praise God for this lovely message which we just heard. I don't know what to say after hearing these wonderful words but the hymn I've chosen to us to sing is another hymn written by George Madison. Here's his picture and he wrote this hymn in 1890. The title of that, the first line of that song is, Make Me a Captive Lord. That's also another of my favorite songs. That's why I thought I'd talk about it. These days we hear a lot about war. There's a war going on and there are captives taken. Okay children, I want to ask you a question. Do you know a time when there was a war and a very great king came and surrounded Jerusalem and he took captives and one of those captives was Daniel. Do you know the name of that king? Nebuchadnezzar. There was a king and do you know the country he was a king of? Yeah, Babylon. I just want to make sure that all the children are listening. That's why I'm asking this. The country was Babylon and the king Nebuchadnezzar was a very powerful king. He came and surrounded the city of Jerusalem and he took a lot of young people. Think of it for us who have children. If our children were taken as captives far away to Babylon. Another word for captive these days is a slave. In some countries like African countries when one tribe defeated another tribe they take the children away and they sell them as slaves and they send them in a ship to other countries and that's how a lot of slaves came here. Born slave. Servants and you know one thing about the captive is captives are not free to do what they like. They have to do what their master tells them to do and they are not free to go wherever they want and Jesus said about captives. He said in if you turn to John 8 verses 32 to 34. I'll just read those words. Verse 34 says everyone who practices sin is a slave of sin. So in one sense we are all slaves because in Romans 3 23 it says all have sinned and so in one sense we are all slaves of sin and in verse 32 Jesus said if you abide in my word you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. When we know the Lord we come to know the Lord and we surrender our lives to Jesus and we say Lord Jesus I want you to set me free from my sin then we'll be truly free and verse 36 it says if the son that is Jesus sets you free you will be free indeed. Sometimes we think oh I want to be free of this habit that I have. Can it all of us young and old have some things we are captive to. Young children you can get captive or you can be enslaved to or obsessed those are other words of being captive. You can be obsessed with video games. Your mom's and dad's mobile phone you want to do that and play the video games when the others are talking and they say okay okay you can have my phone for a little while because I'm busy talking and other games we can be obsessed with. So we are captive to those things. Older children can get captive to pleasing other people. What my classmates think of me am I good in games. I want to impress my friends and I want to and that way we can be a slave of our friends and children who get a little bit older and ready for college you know what they think. I want to be free of my parents. I want to go far away. I want to find a college as far away from home as possible and I want to be with my friends and do what I like. So they want to be free but they are still captives because we all are captives in some sense. Older people people like you or me we can be captives to loneliness. I don't like to be alone. What if my husband God takes away my husband to heaven and I'll be alone. I can be a captive of loneliness self-pity, anger. Older people also can impress, want to impress others with our skills, our good cooking skills and we want to impress our relatives. Some people are habit to food. They want certain type of food, good food and they want to they don't want to eat the ordinary food and some people sadly they become addicted to wrong things like drugs which we have to be very careful. Don't let your friends trap you in that. They may give you a candy but inside that there might be something harmful. So whenever you get things like that check with your parents and say is this okay if I have that. So those are some of the things we can be captive to and you know Paul said this wonderful apostle Paul said he used to write his letters and say Paul a born slave of Jesus and Paul chose that which we also should choose. Lord I want to be a born slave and this song is about that, about being a captive to Jesus when and some of the words in that song I'll read that song before we sing it some of the words are like this Lord when I'm by myself I'm weak, I'm afraid, I'm unable to move forward and spiritually I'm nothing, there's no glow in my life, there's no spark, I'm like a ship which is drifting, I'm like a flag which is all crumpled up, there should be some breeze to make it fly, there's no victory and always I have a sword fighting with people, wanting to impress people, want to defend myself that is our condition when we haven't surrendered our life to the Lord but when we choose as we heard today when the love of God compels us like he compelled Abraham, the love of and fear of God compels us and we choose Lord I want to be your captive sometimes you know when I feel these self things, self pity and self things coming up I think of the song and I say Lord I want to be your captive, make me your captive then only then I'll be free, words like this imprison me within thine arms and then I'll be strong if you break my chains and you enslave me with your matchless love that's all I need, I want to give up my will and make your will mine and I want you to be the on the throne of my life I want to lean on you Lord and I want to find life in you so I just want to read those words again make me a captive Lord and then I shall be free force me to render up my sword I shall conquer a bee I sink in life's alarms when by myself I stand imprison me within thine arms and strong shall be my hand my heart is weak and poor until it master find it has no spring of action sure it varies with the wind it cannot freely move till thou has wrought its chain enslave it with thy matchless love and deathless it shall reign my power is faint and low till I have learned to serve it lacks the needed fire to glow it lacks the breeze to nerve it cannot drive the world until itself be driven its flag can only be unfurled when thou shall breathe from heaven my will is not my own till thou has made it thine if it would reach a monarch's throne it must its crown resign it only stands unbent amid the clashing strife when on thy bosom it has lent and found indeed its life yes that's my prayer Lord I want to give up my will I want to choose you let your will be mine and then and when I'm a captive of yours then I'll be truly free