Monday, April 16, 2007
When you have a commercial flight to catch at a major airport, it's important to pay attention. There are so many flights, so many gates, so many people, and there's only one plane you want to board; the one that's going to your destination. I guess folks must have made mistakes over the years. That must be the reason the boarding agent or flight attendant gets on the plane and often says something like this: "This is a destination check. You're on Flight 88 to Atlanta. If Atlanta is not your destination today, this would be a good time for you to deplane." Yeah, I guess. In other words, this buggy isn't going where you want to end up!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Surprised People in Hell."
It's one of the most chilling truths in the Bible: there are people who are sure their destination is going to be heaven and they're never going to get there. Unless, you might say, they get off the wrong plane and get on the right plane.
Listen to these sobering words from Jesus Himself in Luke 13, beginning with verse 24. It's our word for today from the Word of God. "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.' But He will answer, 'I don't know you ... Then you will say, 'We ate and drank with You, and You taught in our streets.' But He will reply, 'I don't know you or where you come from. Away from Me..."
Then Jesus concludes by describing this heartbreaking scene: "There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrust out." These are tough verses, but they're here so none of us will end up being one of the most surprised people in hell. They're here because Jesus loves us too much to let us live and die with the spiritual fantasy that we're ready for eternity when we're not.
It's dangerously easy to know all the "Jesus words" and miss Jesus; to have Him in your head, but not in your heart, to have lots of Christianity but never have Christ. It's easy to mistake agreement for commitment. I have a number of friends that I agree with on many things, but I'm not married to them. I'm married to my wife, not because of my agreement with her, but because of my total commitment to her. It's the same with Jesus. The question is this: Has there been a time in your life when you have consciously given yourself completely to Jesus, committing yourself to live for the One who died for your sins? If you know you've done that, you belong to Jesus. If you don't know you've done that, you probably haven't. And you probably need to sooner rather than later.
Heaven and hell are nothing to gamble with. Don't let your religious pride cost you heaven. Tell Jesus this very day, "Lord, I've known about you all this time, but I've never really known You. But I want to beginning right now. I'm not putting my trust in my Christianity. That will never get me to heaven, Lord. I'm putting all my trust in You, Jesus; in what You did on the cross to erase my sins. I'm Yours, Jesus."
If that's a commitment you want to make today; if that's the relationship you want to begin today, I want to invite you to visit us at our website. We've kind of marked out a simple path there for you to be sure that you belong to Him. I know that you want to be sure. Our website is yoursforlife.net, and I invite you to meet us there today. Or maybe you'd like me to send you my little booklet about this called Yours For Life. You can get it just by calling us toll free at 877-741-1200.
It's time for an eternal destination check while there's still time to go the way that will get you where you want to go forever.