Wednesday, December 19, 2018
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It's the Christmas season, and everywhere you go these days you see those brown trucks-it's UPS running everywhere, delivering Christmas surprises to people. Those UPS drivers work really hard this time of year. I mean, they get a lot of long hours to get everything where it's supposed to be in time for Christmas. I expect they sleep pretty well at night. Even though they have a big job, at least they don't have to go out and buy all those packages. Their job is just to deliver what someone else has paid for.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Deliveries in Your Hands."
When you see those UPS guys and girls, remember you have an assignment just like theirs - delivering something that someone else paid for...that Jesus paid for with His life. If those UPS drivers don't deliver what's been entrusted to them, the person it's for just won't get it, no matter how much the giver paid for it. And so it is with the very expensive gift that Jesus has given you to deliver to some people you know who need Him desperately.
This privilege we have of delivering the good news about Jesus began on the very first Christmas, actually with some unlikely delivery men. Shepherds - people who were on the margins of society in Jesus' day, maybe even on the bottom. They were considered undesirables. They were truly unlikely messengers.
But listen to our word for today from the Word of God in Luke 2:16 after the angels' announcement of the Savior's birth, "They hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen Him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed by what the shepherds said to them." These shepherds understood something that you and I tend to forget: once you've heard the Good News about a Savior and you've experienced Jesus for yourself, it's up to you to tell your world about Him!
That's the expensive delivery that God has entrusted to you. He's counting on you to get it to the people on your "route" - the people you work with, the people you live near, the people you go to school with, the people you love. If you don't deliver the life-saving message about Jesus, it may never get to them. After all, you're probably closer to those people than any other Christian on this planet. In a sense, their lives are in your hands.
Notice, the first deliverers of the Good News weren't religious professionals. They weren't priests or scribes. It was people who, on the surface, looked unqualified, even under-qualified. But God loves to do that. Maybe you feel inadequate, unqualified to present Jesus to people you know, but you've been positioned by Jesus in their lives because it's you God has assigned to tell them! Often, everyday Christians, who feel the least qualified to tell someone about Jesus, are actually in the best possible position to do it. Why? Because you're right next to someone that Jesus died for! You live in their world. You get them; they get you. They'll listen to someone from their world.
If you don't deliver what Jesus paid for with His life, they may never know what He did for them. And that could cost them heaven. The very expensive gift purchased with the life of the Son of God is now in your hands to deliver.