Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - When Life is Just "More Of The Same" - #6323

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

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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 this one oddball day on your calendar. Groundhog Day.

Only in America, huh? 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 still don't know the answer. We've got this pile of puzzle pieces on the floor in front of us, and we don't have 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 when He says we are "created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16 ). 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 that 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. But it is 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 can walk into your life, today. You know, the earth's life depends on its 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. The Son of God.

Maybe you've never begun a personal relationship with Jesus. Maybe you do not yet belong to the One you were made by and made for. This could be the end of a lifetime search. 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 am in trouble with God. But I believe, Jesus, that some of those sins You were dying for on that cross were mine. Because You're alive, I can tell You today, "I'm Yours."

I want to direct you to our website and ask you to spend a couple of minutes there checking it out, because I'm there and I've got a chance there to present to you in more detail how you can be sure you have this relationship with Jesus. The website is YoursForLife.net.

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" God put us here for, and the search is over.