Thursday, July 3, 2003
The Al-Rashid Hotel has been a Baghdad landmark - with a tile mosaic in the lobby floor that the American soldiers of Operation Iraqi Freedom didn't particularly appreciate. After the 1991 Gulf War, the Iraqi government had sponsored the creation and installation of a mosaic of former President George Bush - set in a place where visitors would walk over the face of the President who had defeated their invasion of Kuwait. Needless to say, that image is not on the hotel floor anymore.
Well,
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Walked On, But Still Victorious."
That would describe the first President Bush. Yes, people could walk on his image. But they couldn't change the outcome of the war.
I have a Savior like that. There are plenty of people who have no time for Jesus, no interest in Him, who have basically blown Him off. There are even people who consider Jesus something we used to believe in, something needed only be weak people. And in most workplaces and schools, you can hear Jesus' name used as a swear word most every day. Oh yes, His name has been trampled on. But that doesn't change the victory that Jesus won when He conquered the death penalty for human sin on the cross and when He conquered death itself by doing what no man has ever done - He walked out of His grave under His own power! Ignore Jesus all you want, walk on Him if you dare - but you cannot change who won!
In Philippians 2:9-11, our word for today from the Word of God, He spells out the totality of the ultimate victory of Jesus Christ. "Jesus became obedient to death - even death on a cross! Therefore, God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Every knee, every tongue, every believer, every unbeliever, every enemy of Christ, every demon, every human being - including you and me.
There really is no question whether or not we will realize Jesus is Lord and bow before Him. It's only a question of when. Now, while we have the choice to welcome Him in as our personal Savior from the sin of our life or later, when we will have no choice, facing Him as the Judge of the sin for which we will have to pay an eternal death penalty. The death penalty He paid for us when He died on the cross. If you let Him win in your life now, you will win for all eternity. If you neglect or refuse to let Him win in your life now, you will pay an awful price for all eternity - one which He already paid but you've never claimed for your own.
Maybe you've lived this long without Jesus in your heart, but you're risking everything to keep living without Him. You need Him now, and you have no hope for eternity but Him. If there's never been a time when you grabbed this victorious Savior and you trusted Him to be your personal Savior, it makes no sense to try to live one more day without Him. He made you. He died for you. He is your future - one way or another. If you want to belong to this One with all the love and all the power you'll ever need, tell Him that today. And I'd like to send you my booklet "Yours For Life." It's about beginning this relationship. Just let me know you want it.
He's the King. He's the Conqueror, and yet He comes looking for you. Right where you are. The greatest mistake you could ever make is to just walk on by. Don't miss Him.