Friday, September 21, 2007
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One of our new staff members just discovered the secret in our headquarters dining room. As she was carrying her lunch to the table, she bumped into this white pillar that stretches from floor to ceiling, and it moved. The look on her face was priceless! She wasn't quite sure what she had just done, or if she was about to cause the collapse of the room on top of all of us. But, see, that's the secret. The pillar looks real enough, but it's just decorative. It's made of plastic, and it doesn't hold up anything!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Pillars that Hold Up Nothing."
People actually have pillars in their life like that; pillars that they're depending on to support them. Tragically, we've all had the experience of one of our pillars taking a hit and that's when we found out that, although it looked like something or someone we could depend on, it couldn't really hold up anything.
For some of us, our pillar is a person, our parents, our children, our husband or wife, a good friend, a boyfriend or a girlfriend. For others, the pillar that supports them is their own intelligence, their self-reliance, their looks, their talent, their skill. Your position may be your pillar, or your financial resources, maybe your prestige, your popularity. But all those pillars have one fatal flaw. They're all something or someone that you can lose. Which means you can never really be secure, never really safe, because one unexpected disaster can knock your pillar down. Most of our life-pillars can honestly be gone in a moment - except one.
In Luke 6:46-49, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus says: "I will show you what he is like who comes to Me and hears My words and puts them into practice. He's like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it....But the one who hears My words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete."
Here Jesus is saying, "Build your life on me, and nothing will be able to shake you. Build your life on anything else, and it will eventually collapse." Even if eventually doesn't come till the day you die when you discover that what you were depending on has left you horribly unprepared for eternity. Even religion - even Christian religion - will not get you to heaven. In Matthew 7, some Christian "lifers" stand before Jesus on Judgment Day, reminding Him of all the Christianity they have, to which He will respond, "I never knew you." The pillar of your religion will collapse on the very day your whole eternity depends on it because you had Christianity, but you didn't have Christ.
Jesus died a horrific death on the cross to pay for all the wrong things you've ever done, so the wall between you and God could come down and you could belong to the only one who you'll never lose. And Jesus walked out of His grave to prove He has the power to beat anything that could ever beat you. So the question is do you belong to the one of whom the Bible says "Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus" ( Romans 8:39). That is the only pillar that will never move.
You belong to Jesus by believing in Jesus, which means abandoning your faith in anything else to get you to God and hanging onto Jesus like He is your only hope, because He is. If you've never had a time when you've put your total trust in Jesus to forgive your sin, this could be that time. With all my heart, I want to urge you to tell Him you want to do that this very day. And if you do, I would love to send you my booklet about beginning with Jesus. It's called Yours For Life, and you can call for it toll free at this number 877-741-1200. Or just go to our website. You'll find that information there. It's yoursforlife.net.
The pillar you've been depending on will ultimately not be there to support you. Jesus, though, will never leave you, never hurt you, and never let you down.