Thursday, December 14, 2017
Download MP3 (right click to save)
I've checked into many a hotel over the years, but I've never before experienced what I did just a little while back. See, when I arrived, I went to the desk – yes, they had my reservation – and they gave me my room number and my key - so far, we're good - and I went to my room. Then I put the key in the door, opened the door and stopped in my tracks. First hint of trouble was the clothes I saw hanging up on the rack near the door. Then I noticed the TV was on, and there were feet propped on a footrest – feet that were probably attached to someone who was watching that TV. Well, I quickly and quietly closed the door, turned to my associate and said, "What do you know! Someone's in my room!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Someone's In My Room!"
Now, it's not a nice feeling to find someone already in a room that you thought was reserved for you. Jesus knows that feeling – and that occupied room just might be your life right now.
It happened to our Lord before. The Book of Revelation makes it clear that it happened, for example, among some believers at a place called Laodicea. In chapter 3, we learn that they thought they were doing pretty well. They said they were rich and they didn't need a thing. But Jesus said they were lukewarm spiritually, a temperature that He said He would spew out of His mouth.
Then, in our word for today from the Word of God in Revelation 3:20, Jesus gives unforgettable – and actually heartbreaking – word pictures of how He had been shut out of lives that were supposed to belong to Him. Jesus says to them, and maybe to us, "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me." Here is this awful picture of the Savior locked out of lives He paid for with His life. And He's talking to Christians here!
Could it be that Jesus is feeling closed out of your life, closed out of your priorities right now? It's not that you've stopped believing in Him, or giving money to Him, or going to His meetings or doing His work. It's just that someone or something has taken over that room of your life – the best of your time, the best of your affections, the best of your energy, the best of your resources - they're going somewhere else. In essence, Jesus has come to the door of your life right now and He's saying what I said that day at the hotel, "Someone is in the room that I thought was reserved for Me."
It could be that, like the Laodicea believers, you have the illusion that everything's fine. You may be relatively prosperous right now, experiencing some success. Your Christianity is going great – but your relationship with Christ is a mess in His eyes. And you're feeling this unexplainable loneliness in your spirit right now. You know what? You're lonely for Jesus. You're just not close like you used to be. Somehow, in the business of your life, the One who died for you has been crowded to the edge. And now His room is filled with your career, your family, that friend, that person you're dating, or your personal pursuits.
The old hymn writer described it pretty well, "Room for business, room for pleasure; but for Christ the crucified, not a place that He can enter in the heart for which He died." But you're missing Jesus, aren't you? That closeness, that power, the reality you once had when the room He paid for was totally reserved for Him.
Maybe these words from another old hymn express the way you can move out the intruder and welcome back Jesus to His rightful place. "The dearest idol I have known, whate'er that idol be, help me to tear it from Thy throne and worship only Thee."