Tuesday, January 14, 2014
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You can become fairly addicted to a predictable television adventure series. You know how it's going to go. There's a victim you like; there's a villain you don't like, and there's a predicament. And you want to see the predicament resolved, but what if the predicament isn't resolved? You see this wrong sense of values as it goes down to three minutes, two minutes, one minute. You know it's going to end very quickly and it's getting worse. The villain you don't like is winning. The victim you really do like, well how are they going to fix it? And finally, one of the heroes appears on the scene and it's resolved.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Next Exciting Episode."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 8, and I'll begin reading at verse 39. It's the familiar story of Jesus being asked to heal Jairus' daughter. She was very sick with a fever, and then as Jairus comes to Him, Jesus has stopped, and He's healed someone else. We pick up the story there, "While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus and said, 'Your daughter is dead. Don't bother the teacher any more.' Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, 'Don't be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.'" Now, this is kind of like on those TV shows where they just put "Continued" and you're hanging on to see what will happen in the next episode.
Well, finally He arrives at the house of Jairus. It says, "He did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child's father and mother. Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. 'Stop wailing,' Jesus said, 'She is not dead but asleep.'" Then Jesus spoke to her and she returned to life. The servant had said, "Don't bother Jesus any more. Wrap it up. Go home. It's too late. The end!" Like a television adventure, it was time to give up; all was lost!
But when God writes a series, it continues. That's always how it is when your life is in God's hands. It ain't over till it's over! And it ain't over because God isn't finished yet. You might be. You might have tried every human solution you can think of, but God isn't finished yet. And He doesn't need much time to change the ending.
No matter how dark a chapter you're living in, no matter how final it seems to be, in Christ there is always another chapter. This might be just like the middle of the book. Don't act like it's the end of the book. Don't give up.
If it weren't for the dark episodes, you would never have the opportunity to see how powerful your Savior is. He does His best work when we are powerless. See, if you look at the book of your life, there is a word that God writes over every hopeless situation - the word "continued." Jairus thought it was over, but it wasn't. "She's dead. It's over." It wasn't over. "I'm not finished yet," Jesus said, "no matter how it looks."
You know, one of the strange things is that when we reach a point in our life where it is hopeless for us, we are at the edge of the greatest hope a human being can discover. When you get to the point where there is something you can't fix, and you can't change, and you can't control, that's the time you begin to look around for someone bigger and more powerful than you. And those are the times when people finally discover the Jesus who has all the power to conquer death, who walked out of His grave under His own power. But only after He died on the cross to pay for every wrong thing we've ever done, demonstrating beyond any shadow of a doubt how loved you are by Jesus.
This very day He may have brought you to what seems like the end of the story to begin a whole new story. And, actually, I want to invite you to a website called ANewStory.com, because I'd like to meet you there and explain to you how this day you can begin your personal relationship with this all-powerful, all-loving Savior named Jesus, who's changed the lives of so many. That's ANewStory.com.
If you know Jesus, don't let anybody treat you like you're over. Because when you've got Jesus, you can always say about your life, "Stay tuned for the next exciting episode."