Friday, October 20, 2006
I have had a lot of young women complain to me about a condition they find rampant in young men these days. I guess I will call it "commitment phobia." Now, this guy's willing to show interest, he's willing to date you, charm you, agree with you, spend money on you, and then you reach this level of mutual compatibility and that's good. And then, you're on the edge of commitment and he's gone. I hear it's pretty frustrating. I met a beautiful woman myself many years ago and we spent a lot of time together. We found that we agreed on all the important things. We reached a place of affection for each other and agreement with each other, so we were married - right? No.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "So Near, Yet So Far."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 7:21. Here's what Jesus said in some of the most unsettling words he ever spoke, "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drove out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me." Wow! So near, and yet so far. This is a warning for religious people - people who know the verses - people who are busy in Christian things, maybe even in Christian leadership. Because these chilling words will be spoken to some of those people, "I never knew you." Everybody else might have thought I belonged to Him except Jesus. It's like the guy who knows about that girl. He's compatible with that girl, he agrees with her, but he somehow missed commitment. I had to say to my honey, "I give my life to you." That's when we were married; that's when I made the commitment.
There are five things you can do with Jesus. One is that you can reject Him and say, "I don't care what He did." Another one is to ignore Him; some people just simply have no time for Him. The third thing you can do with Jesus is you could postpone Him and you can say, "Well, Lord, I'll get around to you someday. I know that Jesus is the answer, but I still want to do some living. You know what? I'll get to Him later." Fourthly, you can agree with him. You can agree with all those teachings He gave and say, "I believe it's all right. I totally believe this." The fifth thing you can do is you can surrender yourself, give yourself totally to Him.
Those first four - they all end up in the same place. Now there's a big difference in rejecting Christ and agreeing with Him, but they all end up in the same place, "I never knew you" because agreement isn't commitment. Because I agreed with my wife on things, was that what made us married? No, because you agree with all of Jesus' teachings, you believe all of it, does that make you really His? No. Not until the day you make your own personal visit up that hill - that hill where the cross is where God's Son is paying for your sin. He's saying, "Father, forgive them." And He's forgiving you There has to be this day when you put all your hopes on that Jesus, and you change your way for His way forever.
Maybe there's never been that day for you, even though you know all about Him, Christ is in your head but He's not in your heart. It's time to move him to your heart; you want to make sure you belong to Him. Listen to His Holy Spirit inside of you right now saying, "You're near, but so far, still." You agree with Him, you work for Him, maybe you sing about Him, but you're missing Jesus. You got Christianity but maybe you don't have Him. If you want that to change, would you let this be the day you simply say, "Jesus, I am really yours."
We would love to help you do that if you'll just visit our website. It's yoursforlife.net. Or you can call for my booklet "Yours For Life" at 877-741-1200. This is the day to get this settled, because only your personal commitment means you really belong to Him.