August 8, 2023
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If you want to make friends fast in an airport sometime and fast, just stand there with a big Welcome Home banner. Yeah, we were contacted by a young woman who had been part of our Native American work in the past. She was going through a time of severe struggle and she really wanted to turn things around. So she asked us if she could come and spend some recovery time with our team in New Jersey at that time. We'd been praying for her, so we were wide open to her coming.
Well, we scrambled to find a way to get an airplane ticket for her, and we decided to try to let her know how special she was by giving her this special airport welcome. We got some colorful helium balloons, we got a bright Welcome Home banner, and five of us stationed ourselves at the end of the concourse that she was scheduled to come in on. It was really funny to watch the reactions of these expressionless arriving passengers. And suddenly they see that sign, and they're laughing, they're waving, they're thanking us as if the welcome party was for them. It was fun... until we saw the last flight attendant coming down the concourse with no other passengers coming behind her. See, the person we'd come to welcome? She never came.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No One to Welcome You."
Even though she wasn't on the plane, of course we still prayed for that young woman to follow through and to leave the dark situation she was in. It's a pretty sad feeling when you prepare a big welcome and the one you did it for never comes. Boy, Jesus knows that feeling. He's prepared a Welcome Home, an expensive welcome for some people who've never come - maybe you.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 19:41. It says, "As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it and said, 'If you'd only known on this day what would bring you peace - but now it's hidden from your eyes. You did not recognize the time of God's coming.'" Wow! Now that scene, that feeling has been repeated many times since then as someone Jesus has been inviting to have a relationship with Him has been too busy or too disinterested to respond.
He actually weeps over those who do not respond to His love, because of what He wants to do for them. He said, "If you had only known what would bring you peace." Could it be that the peace that's eluded you for so long is peace that only God's Son can give you? Could it be there's never been peace because there's never been room for Jesus?
I know how sad I felt when the person we worked to bring home never came. Well, then, imagine how Jesus feels when someone He died for doesn't come. The Bible clearly spells out the uncomfortable fact that we are all on death row spiritually. We've sinned against the God who made us. We've insisted on living our way instead of His way. And the Bible says, "The soul that sins will die." Life here without God and His love, and then a life forever without God and His love and no pain relievers to cover the pain, except for the loving intervention of God's Son, Jesus.
The Bible declares "Christ died for our sins." For your sins. We did the sinning, but Jesus did the dying. And having purchased your rescue with His blood, He holds up a banner for you - Welcome Home. He's been holding it for a long time, waiting for you to come to Him in faith. Listen, tell Him you're putting your total trust in Him for a relationship with God. That's what He's been waiting for, but you haven't come home. And someday you won't be able to. The banner will be gone; the open arms will be gone. But today you can still come.
You want to come home to the One you were made for? If you want to begin that relationship with Him, would you go to our website? It's there for you today - ANewStory.com.
Too many times the banner's been up and Jesus has been waiting for you and you didn't come. Would you please come today? Make this the day you finally experience the wonderful "Welcome Home" from Jesus Christ.