Monday, August 8, 2011
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A lot of people I know of have friends in Joplin, Missouri. So you can imagine that they have been feeling the unimaginable devastation and loss from that huge tornado there on a personal level. And it's always that way when a disaster has a face; it's not just a story on the news.
Now many people in the region have been mobilizing to help in some way. And, the stories emerging from the rubble, I tell ya, they're touching all of us deeply, even causing a lot of people to rethink their own response to frequent tornado warnings. Because you know across the region, there are plenty of them.
One of Missouri's United States Senators actually said, "Now, I've heard tornado warnings my whole life. And honestly, you don't take them very seriously when you hear them over and over again. And then she said, "It's kind of like 'Here we go again,' nothing ever happens.'" "But with what's happened in Joplin," she said, "that changes everything." Yeah, I guess!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Immune to the Warnings."
I got an email today from a lady who said this, "Here in tornado alley we have learned to ignore the warnings because we are used to the storms." When it comes to a twister, ignoring the warnings can be fatal.
And tragically, so many people have made that same mistake with Jesus. Especially people who've heard about Him over and over again. And if you're listening to this station and this program today, there's a good chance you're in that category. And you don't say it, but you can think, "Here we go again, I know all this."
You know the people who are in the greatest danger of all may be those who have become immune to the message of Jesus through lots of exposure to Him. You know you can hang out with Jesus' people, you can hear a thousand times how Jesus died for us, you can even agree with all those beliefs about Jesus - and still be in danger of a horrible eternity without Him. Because honestly, you can have tons of Christianity and miss Christ.
One of the most sobering warnings in the Bible is our word for today from the Word of God and it asks this question in Hebrews 2:3 - "How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" You may have never out-and-out rejected Jesus, and you wouldn't. But if you've never out-and-out given yourself to Jesus, you are as lost as someone who's never heard the warning siren of the Gospel. In a tornado, the one who never heard the warning and the one who just ignored it will suffer the same fate.
When you keep hearing about Jesus dying for your sin and you just sit there, well, in the Bible's words you are, "hardening your heart." You don't even know it is happening. The Bible talks about how people would not believe in Jesus, and then ultimately could not believe in Jesus. Because this imperceptible hardening of the heart takes place until one day, you can't come to Him. You see, God says, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever" (Genesis 6:3) and it says "seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near" (Isaiah 55:6). What's the implication? He won't always be able to be found. He won't always be near.
But if you hear His voice, if you feel that tug on your heart today, He is near. You can call on Him still. And so let this be the day when you get this done, finally. When you move beyond Christianity and Christ in your head to Christ in your heart, and change your eternal destination from hell to Heaven. By telling Him, "Jesus, I've never actually reached out to You and said, 'I'm Yours, it's my sin that You died for,' and I'm asking You to be my personal rescuer for my personal sin." If there's a chance you've been living in the false security of knowing about Jesus, without really knowing Jesus, maybe you are the reason God stirred me to talk about this today. As one more warning.
So today, tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours." And I hope you'll go to our website where you will find a road there that take you from where you are to being sure you belong to Jesus Christ. It's YoursForLife.net. Go there as soon as you can. If you can feel this tug in your heart today, there's still a little more time.