March 25, 2022
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If you had seen that three-month-old baby, you'd say, "Man, he looks like the picture of health." He was a handsome baby, full of dark hair, doubled his weight since he was born, strong, taking in everything going on around him, and a smile that could melt your heart. But inside, it was a different story. He'd already had two major heart surgeries in his short life and the prospect of more in his future.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Together On the Outside, Broken On the Inside."
That little guy - a picture of so many of us. He looks so healthy on the outside, but he had major heart problems on the inside. Most of us have figured out how to look together and so in control. But inside, where no one but God can see, it's a different story isn't it.
Inside there's those secrets that no one knows; that darkness that we hope no one ever knows; those wounds that no one's been able to heal; the guilt that no one can remove; the answers no one can give us; the fear, the insecurity, the frustration of not really being sure why we're here or where we're going.
In some strange way, those disturbances in your heart are actually the whispers of the God who made you. They're the hollow echoes in a heart that He was supposed to inhabit - a life He was supposed to direct. The trouble that hides behind our image of strength is really telling us that someone is missing; that somehow we are away from the God who is the source of our life and all that's missing inside us.
Of course, God isn't fooled by our cool exterior. The Bible says that though "man looks at the outside appearance...God looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). And here's what the Bible says about all our secrets: "He knows the secrets of the heart" (Psalm 44:21). And then it says, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:13). That should concern us, because in the Bible's words, "God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ" (Romans 2:16).
Here's what He says about the results of His spiritual EKG of your heart and mine: "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure" (Jeremiah 17:9). That's why God can't live in the heart that was made for Him - our sin. But then, in Ezekiel 36, beginning with verse 26, our word for today from the Word of God, He gives us a stunning promise: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you...I will put My Spirit in you...you will be My people and I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleanness." Wow!
That saving, that spiritual rescue from certain death, did not come cheap. It cost God the life of His Son. It took the sacrifice of the only perfect life there ever was to absorb God's punishment for all your sin and mine. And it took His resurrection from the dead to open the way for you to live with God forever in heaven; forgiven, clean, and one of His kids forever.
That's the amazing offer that Jesus is making to you today. What you feel in your heart is His knocking on the door of your heart. He's giving you this opportunity to open up your life to Him to be your personal Savior from your personal sin. This could be the day He gives you a new heart spiritually; the day the God of the galaxies literally moves into you upon your invitation. How do you do that? You tell Him, "God, I know I've sinned. I know You sent Your Son to pay for my sin. And I believe that Jesus is my only hope. I'm turning from my sin that's kept me from You, and I'm turning to Jesus to make me clean and to make me Yours."
I'm committed to helping you find Him for yourself like somebody helped me. And that's why I've prepared a brief and I think a simple explanation of just how to begin your personal relationship with God and to know you have. Would you go to our website? It's there - ANewStory.com.
You're one heartfelt prayer away from God's miracle in your heart. You began this day away from Him. You can go to sleep tonight with Him in your heart.