Sermon Illustrations
Man Must Love a Single Mom's Son
Imagine a single mom. Her eleven-year-old loves baseball. Personally, she doesn't care about baseball, but because her son loves it, she hasn't missed a game in over two seasons. Sometimes she has to work double shifts to make sure she's free, but when the umpire yells "Play ball!" she's always sitting right behind the dugout, cheering for her boy.
Let's suppose a man begins to date that single mom. Obviously, if he says he loves her, he must love her son. Period. The mom's sphere of concern wraps around her boy's life, and it always will. So if this man wants to tell the single mom that he loves her, without being a liar, he must be right there at the ballgame, beside the mom, cheering for her son. If he loves the mom, he'll love both her son and her son's baseball games.
In the same way, if we care about God's kingdom, we'll love what and who the King loves. For instance, we know that the King loves "orphans and widows," those who are defenseless and vulnerable. If we say we love God, we better be right there at his side loving the orphans and widows of our world.