November 9, 2021
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Like most countries, America has some holidays that are pretty meaningful. We've got the Fourth of July to celebrate our independence. We've got Veterans' Day and Memorial Day, and those are great times to remember all those who've fought for our freedom. We celebrate the birthdays of some great Americans like Lincoln and Washington and Martin Luther King. And then there's one oddball day on your calendar though - Groundhog Day.
Only in America, right? It's a day named for the chubby cousin of a rat. A town whose main event is a groundhog playing peek-a-boo. As Russian comedian Yakov Smirnoff says, "I love this country!"
We even have a movie called "Groundhog Day." It's actually set in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the home of the king groundhog. But it was hearing about the premise of the movie, not the location that intrigues me.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Life Is Just 'More of the Same.'"
Basically, Bill Murray plays a TV newscaster who keeps reliving the same day over and over again. It happens to be Groundhog Day in the town that's the epicenter of that celebration. In the movie, the idea of repeating the same day again and again is played for laughs. Unfortunately, for too many people, that's their real life. And there's nothing funny about it.
"Same old, same old" - that's how life feels for a lot of people. Just a disconnected, seemingly meaningless series of events that start to feel pretty much the same. We start wondering about "why am I here?" somewhere in our turbulent teenage years I think. Unfortunately, a lot of us do our whole life and we still don't know the answer. We've got this pile of puzzle pieces on the floor in front of us, and we can't find the top of the puzzle box. We can't figure out what it all makes.
For me, for countless millions over 2,000 years, that's where Jesus comes in. Not the religion called Christianity, but Jesus. People have written volumes on the purpose of life. God does it in six words in the Bible. He's talking about Jesus here. It's in our word for today from the Word of God in Colossians 1:16. He says we are "created by Him and for Him." Wow! I'm created by Jesus. I'm created for Jesus. And life will not add up until I have Jesus. Or maybe more accurately, Jesus has me.
The only One who really knows the purpose of your life is the One who gave you your life. And He says you were made for a relationship with Jesus, His Son. A relationship that honestly, our sin has spoiled. We've decided we'd do life our way instead of God's way. And it's a relationship that His death for our sin has made possible. And then three days after he died, He walked out of His grave under His own power so He could walk into your life today. You know, the earth's life depends on it revolving around the sun. If the earth goes off on an orbit away from the sun, all life will cease. In the same way, our life depends on our revolving around the Son. That's S-O-N, the Son of God.
Maybe you've never begun a personal relationship with Jesus. Maybe you don't yet belong to the One that you were made by and made for. This could be the end of a lifetime search today. Because it begins when you say, "Jesus, I get it now. I was made by You, I was made for You, but instead I've lived for me, and I'm in trouble with God. But Jesus, I believe that some of those sins You were dying on that cross for; some of those sins were mine. Because You're alive, I can tell You today, 'Jesus, I'm Yours.'"
I want to invite you to our website today and ask you to spend a couple of minutes there checking it out. Because there we've tried to kind of build a Bible bridge there that will take you right into the beginning of a relationship with Jesus. The website's ANewStory.com. Remember that and check it out, will you?
I'm thanking God today that life doesn't have to be a meaningless parade of days that replay the same old questions and the same old emptiness. On the day we step into the relationship we were made for, we step into the "more" that God put us here for, and you know what? The search is over.