I Want to Drive!

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

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I know the flight attendant was trying to be polite. The kid wasn't! We're on this plane and everyone's eager to take off, everybody's got their seatbelt on and we're ready to go, except for this mother and her four-year-old boy who were standing in the aisle of the plane. The son wouldn't sit down. He's crying, he's yelling at his mother, and the flight attendant was making the announcement, "We'll be able to leave as soon as everyone is seated." And the rest of us passengers knew who "everyone" was.

The mother was trying, but this boy went rigid and he started yelling his reason for standing up. He shouted so at least half the plane could hear, "I want to drive!" The more she pressured him the louder he got, "I want to drive!" This is a very big plane. He's a very little boy. That wasn't a good idea.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "I Want to Drive!"

The boy wanted to "drive" that airplane. We wanted the pilot to "drive." The boy didn't seem to understand he was not capable of driving. We've got the same problem.

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Isaiah 53:6. Here's what it says, "We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity (or the wrong doing) of us all." Life, kind of like that airplane, is too big for us to drive. We've taken over the cockpit anyway. Again in the Bible's words, "Everyone has turned to his own way."

God gave us our life. He's supposed to run it. He's doing a very good job of running a hundred billion galaxies, but we shake our fist and we say, "Excuse me, God, I'll pilot my own life." He's the only One who can pilot your life properly. But see, "We want to drive!" Like the little boy, if we try to fly, we're going to crash.

Maybe you're facing right now some of the wreckage of trying to run a life that God was supposed to run. Or maybe you're cruising along right now but you're headed for a crash. See, no one ultimately gets away with hijacking God's property. And that's what you're doing.

I once asked a Navajo shepherdess what happens to sheep when they get away from the shepherd. She answered with one word. She said, "Coyotes." See, it always ends up in disaster when we get away from the Shepherd, or from the Pilot. "We all like sheep have gone astray." That means we're away from God. And you know what? Maybe you can even feel that loneliness right now. That's cosmic loneliness. You're lonely for God. Maybe you can sense the confusion, the lostness of being away from God. Unless you're rescued, I'll tell you, it always leads to death.

The Bible puts it this way, "The wages of sin is death." But the Bible says, "God placed the penalty for all our wrong doing on Jesus Christ, His Son. God's only Son has paid the price for the sin you've done. Isaiah 53:5 says, "The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him." You and I did the sinning; Jesus did the dying.

If you can get yourself to that cross in your heart, get to that cross where Jesus paid your death penalty for your sin and give yourself to Him, you can trade death for life. Jesus Christ sacrificed His life, shed His blood. And He was dying in exchange for your life; taking your death penalty. Why would anyone reject Him? Is it pride? Is it stubbornness? Is thinking somehow our religion will get us there, our goodness? Well, if it could, He would have never gone to that cross.

You know, this is the day to let go of that wheel and start to become who you were meant to be in the relationship you were made for. If you want to get that started today, if you want to get started with Jesus and experience this love for yourself, I'd love to show you how if you'll just show up at our website after we're done here – ANewStory.com. Go there today will you?

Just picture Jesus reaching out a nail-pierced hand to you. Are you going to keep saying, "I want to drive!" Or are you going to say today, "Jesus, I don't want to drive. I want to live."