Friday, June 27, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
A while back I heard a comedy routine that suggested some humorous ways to finish this sentence: "You know you're having a bad day when..." Well, I heard on the news about a man who might be a finalist for the "baddest day of the year" award, and there's nothing humorous about what happened to him. You may remember an Avianca Airlines plane that crashed on Long Island a few years ago. It was a flight from Colombia to New York. Well, this particular Colombian man was seriously injured in the crash. That is a bad day - that's a really bad day. They rushed him to the hospital where it was determined that they would have to do abdominal surgery. And when the surgeons opened him up, they found little plastic bags in his stomach full of cocaine. He was a drug courier, and he had ingested those little bags of cocaine to smuggle them into the country. So after he crashed and then was operated on, he was arrested. Now who would have ever thought he would be found out? He was.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Always Found Out."
Actually, everyone is - no matter what they've done - no matter how well they have concealed it. Here's God's personal guarantee of that - you can count on it. It's our word for today from the Word of God, Numbers 32:23, "You may be sure that your sin will find you out." Now you might say, "Well, only if I'm caught." If God knows, you're already caught. And God does know, and it's only a matter of time before He makes sure that you're found out.
If God let us get away with our sin, we would destroy our lives and we'd sin our way right to hell. For our own sake - because He loves us - God insures that we have to deal with our sin. Someone who is listening today, maybe you're living in the illusion that you'll get away with your sin, with the lie, the adultery, the stuff going on behind people's backs, the cheating. Or maybe you think you could get away with the pornography, that habit, that deception, that bitterness, that sinful relationship. You won't get away with it. God won't let you.
Someone says, "Well, I am getting away with it." Well, remember, exposure delayed is not exposure canceled. Judgment postponed is not judgment canceled. God talks about this time lag in judgment in 1 Timothy 5:24, "The sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them." Some people may not have the money to cover up their sin or the connections or the protection. But the verse goes on to say, "The sins of others trail behind them." In other words, you can postpone judgment, but you can't escape it.
And the history of so many who have covered their sin shows us that the later the punishment for that sin, the greater the punishment for that sin. While you think you're getting away with it, you are actually accumulating bigger and bigger consequences. Satan has let many a person go on for years with some sin that started a long time ago. And he waits until the exposure of that sin will do maximum damage - to the person, to those they love, to the name of Christ - and then he suddenly yanks on that long chain he has held them with all those years.
If you feel safe with your sinful secret, remember that man on that plane who must have thought, "There's no way they could ever find out." Never underestimate the infinite ways of God.
This may, in fact, be God's solemn warning to you: "You can be sure that your sin will find you out." Isn't it time to deal with this? Every day the bill for that sin multiplies. This is the easiest it will ever be to face it. Whatever consequences you fear from coming clean, be sure that the consequences of waiting longer will only be greater.
These moments are Savior-moments. Don't run from dealing with this sin one day more. Run to the cross where that sin was paid for, where you can be forgiven, and clean, and free. If you want to have every sin erased from God's book this very day by the One who died for that sin, tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours." And if you want this relationship with the Great Forgiver, Jesus, I hope you'll go to our website. It's YoursForLife.net. There's a lot of help there in getting started with Him.
This can be the day that the secret is brought to the light of Jesus Christ and you are forgiven - you are free.