June 28, 2019
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Our friends had bought a new horse and named it Peanut. What kind of horse does that suggest to your imagination? A cute little Shetland Pony? Nope. Try again. Peanut was the biggest horse in their pasture. You know those Clydesdale horses in commercials, you'll have some idea of the size of this big mama. Part Belgian, part Morgan. That meant she was so big my body's probably not big enough to ride her. And they named Peanut. Something is wrong in this picture.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Bigger Than You Realize."
So when it comes to horses, what you're called obviously doesn't always tell how big you really are - when it comes to people, too. We've all been called a lot of things in our lifetime - some of them not very complimentary, some of them really damaging, and many of them just totally wrong.
The problem is we start to believe we are what other people have called us, what they've said about us. If you've been hurt a lot, abused a lot, put down a lot, you really start to believe that you can't be worth much. Or maybe it isn't what people have called you. It's the way they've treated you - ignored, invisible, abandoned, betrayed by someone you thought you could trust. We start to buy lies about who we are and what we're worth. The fact is, the people who've talked about you and mistreated you have no idea who you really are. Maybe you don't either.
There is only one person whose evaluation of you really matters and that is the person who created you in the first place. He really knows you. Now, listen to what God calls you in our word for today from the Word of God in Ephesians 2:10. He says, "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do." Wow, look at that! God's workmanship! That's the right name to call you. And nothing you've been through, nothing that has been done to you or by you, can change who you really are. And you don't need to miss who you are or what you're here for any longer!
The sad thing is that we've missed those "good works" that "God prepared in advance for us to do." We haven't followed the Creator's plans for us. We've made up our own, which has left us separated from the very One who gives us our worth. And that's why it all feels so hollow and so lonely so much of the time. God had every right to let us live and die like this, away from Him by our own sinful choice, but He didn't. He loves us too much.
In the Bible's words, "God so loved you that He gave His one and only Son," and He gave Him to die for you to take all the punishment for all the stuff you have done that has broken His heart.
And the day you open up to this "unloseable" love of Jesus Christ is the day you begin to experience how much you're really worth. He thought you were worth dying for. The question is, "Do you think He's worth living for?" Especially since the Bible says He's the One you were made by and made for (Colossians 1:16). Your personal love relationship with the One who loves you most begins when you tell Him, "Jesus, I resign running my own life. I was made by you - I was made for you. You died to pay for my sins. You walked out of Your grave under Your own power and I want You to walk into my life today. Beginning today Jesus, I am yours." Tell Him that today.
Go to our website today, it's called ANewStory.com. And right there you will find, right from God's own word, the information you need to anchor your life to Jesus Christ and know you belong to Him once and for all.
And you know what? He's going to say "welcome home" today, because He's the home your heart has always been looking for.