Friday, April 7, 2006
As Lenny left our headquarters a few days ago, I said, "Man, you have really made a difference around here!" He really had. A company that was getting rid of a lot of office furniture donated about a dozen desks to our ministry, and we were thrilled to get them! They're good desks, but well, not exactly beautiful desks. They were all scarred and beat up, and on the surface they didn't look particularly useful. In fact, the company that donated them actually was getting ready to discard them before they learned about our need. So here, in a storage area, were all these ugly desks - until Lenny got his hands on them. One by one, he went to work with his magic touch and he slowly restored their original beauty. By the time he was done, it looked almost like we had just gotten a shipment of expensive new desks.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Miracles With Damaged Goods."
As our amazing desk restorer stood in my office with hands so stained that they actually looked like they'd never be clean again, I thanked him for the amazing difference he'd made. He broke into a big smile and he said, "Oh, I love doing this."
I know someone else like that. His name is Jesus and He, too, is in the restoring business. It took His hands being stained with His own blood to make His restoring work possible. But as He looks at countless scarred and undervalued lives that He has restored, I believe He says, "Oh, I love doing this." And He'd love to do it for you.
There's a simple, five-word promise Jesus made that might mark for you the possibility of a fresh new start. That promise is our word for today from the Word of God in Revelation 21:5. Jesus said, "Behold, I make all things new." "All things new" - that may be exactly the kind of miracle you need right now. Because, like that office furniture we received, life has left you pretty beat up - scarred, maybe deeply scarred. You feel broken - even useless. You've never been able to answer that haunting question, "Why am I here?" You're carrying a lot of regrets over things that, well, you wish you had done differently. You carry a lot of pain from things that have been done to you, and things you've done to others.
But then there's Jesus, the One who makes all things new, but at a very high price - to Him that is, not to you. He said at the Last Supper as He broke a loaf of bread and handed it to His friends, "This is My body, which is given for you" ( Luke 22:19). He was broken so you could be fixed. He paid for your sin on the cross so you wouldn't have to. That's what was happening on that horrific cross when He died. And in dying for your sin and then coming out of His grave, He broke the power of the thing that ultimately causes all the scars, all the regrets, all the hurts - that spiritual cancer called sin. And with hands that bear nail prints from His sacrifice for you, He reaches out to you and says, "I will make all things new." The promise of the Bible in 2 Corinthians 5:17 is this, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." That could be you.
The Bible says He will restore what sin has taken from you ( Joel 2:25) - that He will "bind up the brokenhearted." He'll "release the prisoner from darkness." He'll "exchange the ashes of your life for beauty." And then the Bible says, "...He'll turn a 'spirit of despair' into a 'garment of praise'" ( Isaiah 61:1-3). You don't have to be defined any longer by your pain or by your sin. You can now be defined by who you belong to forever - Jesus Christ, God's Son, the King of all kings. Your life-changing relationship with Him begins when you come to Him and you say, "Jesus, You're my only hope. Forgive me. Change me. I'm Yours." If that's what you want, I invite you to come to our website. I've got a brief explanation there that you can listen to or read about how to begin your relationship with Jesus Christ. That website is yoursforlife.net. Or if you'd like to get it in printed form - the little booklet Yours For Life - you can call for it at 877-741-1200.
Because of Jesus, who is the Master Restorer, your life doesn't have to be more of what it's been for so long. He makes all things new, and He's waiting to do that for you.