Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - Messed-Up Messengers - #4282

Tuesday, June 10, 2003

Celebrity spokespersons. That's been the way many an advertiser has tried to sell their product to us. Until, for some reason, that person suddenly wasn't who you wanted representing you. There was this famous athlete, you may remember, who ended up doing some fairly memorable commercials for a rental car company. Then he was accused of a horrendous crime, which became the subject of one of the trials of the century. Suddenly, he wasn't advertising rental cars anymore! He probably would not have helped people believe in the company he was representing.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Messed-Up Messengers."

Whether or not people are interested in a product may well depend on the credibility of the messenger representing it. Not too big a deal if it's cars or Coke or clothes they're representing. It's a very big deal if it's Jesus they're representing, because accepting His offer is a matter of life or death. Forever.

I'm sobered by the example of a compromised messenger that I read in our word for today from the Word of God in Genesis 19:14 . Abraham's nephew, Lot, has moved into the debauched city of Sodom. And God has revealed to Lot that His cumulative judgment on their cumulative rebellion against Him is about to fall. Sodom will be destroyed within hours.

The Bible says, "So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, 'Hurry, get out of this place because the Lord is about to destroy the city!' But his sons-in-law thought he was joking." In the sobering words of the King James Version, "He seemed as one that mocked." They didn't believe the message because the messenger wasn't believable. And they died under God's judgment because of it.

It's a tragic equation that has been repeated over and over again - a discredited messenger, thus, a disregarded message, and then, disastrous results. People paying the awful death penalty for their sin when they could have been saved. Except the one who represented the Lord to them had lost his credibility. How often have people without Christ rejected the life-saving message of Christ because of the inconsistencies in an ambassador of Christ?

What an awful prospect - that someone close to you or me would end up in hell because our life contradicted our message. In a sense, you may be the only Jesus they can see. But is there some hypocrisy, some glaring inconsistency that blocks their view of the Man who died for them? Maybe they see a lack of integrity, an uncontrolled temper, unbridled mouth, moodiness, sarcasm, flirtation, a lack of concern or compassion, an arrogance, a critical spirit. Can you see what's at stake here? It could be the never-dying soul of someone who is judging Jesus by the kind of person you are. By far, the single greatest reason people don't want Christ is because of another Christian.

But this could be the crossroads in your life when you fall on your knees in front of your Savior and say, "Jesus, I can't continue to be this way. I'm hurting you, I'm hurting me, I may be keeping someone from heaven. I can't change me, but You can. Here's this dark part of me. I want to be like You, Jesus!" If you could go to people you may have confused with the contradictions in your life and say "I'm sorry. I've asked the One who died for my sin to help me with this sin." That could be a breakthrough moment for that spiritually dying person you know. If they get a better friend, a better sibling, a better son or daughter, a better spouse or employee - and Jesus is the reason - it's going to be a magnet to draw them to Jesus.

You are His personal representative, personal messenger in their life. Don't turn them away from Jesus because of something you wouldn't turn over to Jesus. The cost of your compromises could be deadly.