Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Download MP3 (right click to save)
I love high tide! It's when you can see and hear the ocean at its maximum power. It just takes over everything. I distinctly remember one powerful moment at the Jersey shore during a summer visit. It happened to be high tide and I walked out on a jetty; these huge boulders. What an experience! Everything in front of me and behind me was just covered by this surging surf, but I was standing in the middle of those rocks and in the middle of that high tide. And something fascinating occurred to me, that the tide and the ocean and the storms had beat on that for centuries, but the rocks never moved.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Sandcastle Syndrome."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 John chapter 2. I'll begin reading at verse 15 where the apostle says, "Do not love the world or anything in the world." And then in verse 17, "The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." That just happened to be the great evangelist's and preacher's verse – D. L. Moody. And there's something about our heart that needs something that will be there forever. Actually, I think I know why. Because Ecclesiastes 3:11 in the Bible says, "God has placed eternity in the hearts of men." We need something that is always going to be there. And there isn't much that's going to last forever.
I'm thinking of sand castles, you know? I've seen kids build sand castles at the shore, and some of them are like these huge, elaborate things. But they're gone by morning, because the tide always wins. I mean, you put a lot of effort into a sand castle; it just doesn't last long. You got any sand castles you've built in your life? Maybe you've invested a lot of time and effort in it. You stand back, like an artist and go, "Look what I've got here." You thought it would last: a relationship, investments, position. High tide takes it away. Do you have a relationship that turned out to be a sand castle? You were so sure this was the one. You were so sure this was the thing that was going to satisfy your heart, and then high tide hit and took it away.
God's Word says that all earth stuff "passes away." Maybe you've been distracted by the sand castles. Maybe you've wasted a lot of energy on sand castles. See, that's a hint that we're meant to hold onto the one thing that never goes away – Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 6:19 says, speaking of Jesus, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure." The rocks that are never taken away by the high tide. All of this other stuff is soon going to pass away. In fact, there's an old saying I heard a lot when I was a teenager. "Only one life, will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last."
Maybe you've gotten so busy doing things your way, that you've neglected God's way. Maybe you've been putting a lot into your house, your recreation, your romance, your career, and they're not bad things. But they've just kind of marginalized the one thing that really matters. They've marginalized Jesus.
You know, everything you've built, eternity could prove has been a sand castle, because you've missed the one thing that lasts forever – eternal life; that one anchor for a life that never goes away. And it's talked about in Romans 8:38-39 where God says, "I am convinced that neither death nor life, not angels nor demons, nor the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
What have you got that time can't take away? What have you got that will last forever? Have you got that one relationship, that one love that is unloseable? If not, I would encourage you to go to our website today ANewStory.com. Meet me there and let me show you the way to this relationship that you cannot lose.
Don't settle for sand castles. Put your feet on something no tide can take away; that can stand every strong tide. Put your best efforts into what will last forever.