Friday, March 2, 2007
If you want to have a philosophical discussion about the subject of grandchildren, sorry - I'm busy. Now if you want to talk about my grandson, I've got all the time in the world. I hope you do. If you want to discuss the institution of marriage, say goodnight. But if you listen to this broadcast very much, you know I love to talk about the woman I married. That would be my wife. This is a no-brainer, isn't it? It's the difference between the concept, the institution and the person!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Missing Person."
You can know all about children and not have a son or daughter. You can know all about marriage and not have a husband or wife. You can know all about children, you can know all about marriage, and you can know all about church, all about Christianity and not have Christ.
It's that great danger that's behind our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 13:5. These words are actually written to church people. "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test?" God says it's important to not assume that you have Jesus just because you're in His "club," because you may even be a charter member of His "club," or even because you're an officer or a leader in His "club." The question is not, "Am I in Christ's group?" but "Is Christ Jesus in me?"
1 John 5:11-12 couldn't make it more clear-cut: "He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." That's eternal life; whether or not you go to heaven. And it comes down to one thing and one thing alone - do you "have the Son of God?" The answer depends on whether or not there has ever been a time when you, in essence, stood at Jesus' cross and said those two decisive words, "for me," whether or not there has been a time when you made a conscious commitment of you to Jesus; putting all your trust in Him to forgive your sin and to take you to heaven when you die. If you did that, you know you did. If you don't know you did, you probably didn't.
Some of the most surprised people in hell are going to be people who believed all the Jesus-beliefs, went to all the Jesus-meetings, impressed all the Jesus-people, and tried to do a lot of the Jesus-things. But somehow, they missed Jesus in all of it. Like a person who knows about marriage, who's been to many weddings, who thinks marriage is a great idea, but isn't married. There are lots of church folks who have the system but not the Savior. Maybe you.
The reason all you've learned and done about Jesus leaves you feeling so hollow and incomplete may be because your heart is still missing Jesus. But it doesn't have to be that way for one more day. He's come knocking at the door of your heart one more time. The hardest part for you may be finally admitting that Jesus is not in your heart, but that step will set you free to finally know Jesus Christ for real.
So if you're ready to move from the religion to the relationship, would you tell Jesus that right now and say, "Jesus, I don't want to just have beliefs about You. I want to belong to You. I turn from the sin You died for to the One who died for that sin; who walked out of His grave under His own power. Beginning this very day, Jesus, You've got me. I'm Yours."
If you're at that point of beginning this relationship with Jesus - of insuring you belong to Him - let me encourage you to go to our website as soon as you can today. You'll find there a very simple pathway to making sure you belong to Jesus. The website is yoursforlife.net. Or you can call for my little booklet about this. It's called Yours For Life. Just call us toll free and ask for it. It's 877-741-1200.
You're so close, but you're not in. But you're about to be. And it will feel so good to finally belong to Jesus.