Friday, July 7, 2006
I grew up as an only child. You say, "I can tell." Thank you very much. My parents took me to most of the places that they went, but I remember one time they left me home by myself. I was home alone. (We could probably make a movie about that.) Well, anyway, we lived in this third floor apartment on the south side of Chicago. It was getting very late and I was sitting near the back door waiting and they should have been home by now, and I was really worried. I can remember hearing sirens and I thought, "Oh, no!" My imagination was taking me all over the place. I was thinking all the bad things that might have happened to my parents. I was already there and then the sirens came. I was sure the sirens were for my mommy and my daddy, but they weren't. But the fear I had that night was so great, I still remember it, don't I?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Never Home Alone."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Romans 8, beginning with verse 37. You know this fear of abandonment is not unique to me, or even to a child. I'm thinking of a friend of ours who struggled her whole life with it. She was left by her parents a lot because they were in mission work and there were a lot of "goodbyes" and she was always vulnerable to some bad choices because she was always afraid that she'd lose what she loved and what loved her.
All right, Romans 8, beginning in verse 37, referring to the most disastrous things that could happen to you in your life, "In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither 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."
This is where God promises one unloseable relationship. God created us to anchor ourselves to one relationship. The problem is that every other relationship on earth is losable. I think of the night when my wife was almost dying from hepatitis, and we weren't sure she'd make it and she was saying and talking about the kinds of things people do when they think they may not make it. And I knelt by her bed and I said, "Dear God, please spare her." And I thank Him that He did spare her life. But that night I almost lost the one relationship I thought would never leave me. She said she would never choose to leave and I would never choose to leave her, but the choice was out of our hands.
You see, you need a relationship you can't lose, and you can't take Jesus away. He will not leave you - ever. He is the unloseable one. Any human love I receive is a welcome bonus, but my identity is supposed to be knowing Jesus. Do you know Him? See, life is never secure until you know you belong to Christ. That begins the day you get your sin erased by putting your faith in what Jesus did when he died on the cross for that sin and then you're in his arms to stay.
Nothing in heaven, or earth, or hell can take you away from Him. Not because you're so good at hanging on, but because He's so good at hanging onto you. You've had your sins forgiven. The only thing that will keep you out of God's heaven is gone because you've put your trust in the One who died to remove them - Jesus, His One and only Son, and who's alive because He walked out of his grave.
Earth folks will leave, but you can have a Savior who never, never will. He said, "I will never leave you or forsake you." ( Hebrews 13:5) And you decide whether that relationship ever begins, and you decide when it begins. Let it be today. Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours."
And I would love to help you begin that relationship if you'll just go to our website. We've put there just a simple explanation of how to get started with Jesus. The website is yoursforlife.net. Or you can call for that in booklet form. It's called Yours For Life, and the number is 877-741-1200.
The child in all of us hears the sirens. We imagine life without someone who loves us and we fear a future alone, and then Jesus steps in at your invitation and says, "I am with you always." (Matthew 28:20)