Thursday, November 15, 2007
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Some years ago I heard about an unusual experiment that some scientists conducted. The scientists wired a cage with low level voltage in the bottom of the cage, they put dogs in it and then they closed the door. They sent a current through. It wasn't enough to harm the dogs but it was enough to inflict some mild pain. You can guess the dog's reaction. They jumped, they barked, they howled. Well, they kept this up several times a day, but the reaction eventually changed. After a while the dogs barely twitched when the current went through the floor of that cage. They had gotten conditioned to it. In fact, the scientists then opened the cage door, sent the current through the floor and not one dog even tried to leave. It's as if they'd given up ever getting away from the pain. One last step in the experiment: they put a dog in the cage who had not been conditioned to the current and they left the door open. Well, they turned on the juice and the new dog knew exactly what to do. He ran right out of the cage followed by all the other dogs!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Emptying the Cage."
One dog knew what it was to be free; he knew where the hope was. But the one who had become conditioned to a hopeless situation didn't even try to leave when he could - until one of his own came into that cage and showed him the way out.
And so it is with some of the people around you. They've been hurt by bad relationships, broken relationships, selfishness, loneliness, betrayal, but they look around and they see everyone else living in the same stress and confusion and emotional hollowness. And they decide this must be the way it is and the way it always will be. Just like those dogs in that cage.
The only way they'll find hope in real life is if one of their own comes into their cage and shows them the way out. Well, that's what Jesus did when He left the shock-free environment of heaven to enter our dirty, pain-wracked cage down here. He came and said, "I am the way, I am the door ... He that follows Me shall never walk in darkness." And we followed Him into the wonderful world outside the cage. Unfortunately, many of us have forgotten the people who are still in there. We work with them, we live around them, and we meet them every day.
When Jesus was on earth, He invaded the lostness of a place called Samaria through a Samaritan woman He met at a well one day. Our word for today from the Word of God, John 4:28, says, "Then leaving her water jar the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 'Come see a man who told me everything I ever did.' Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of the woman's testimony." That's the awesome power of one changed life; someone who will go back to his or her own people with the good news that Jesus is the way out.
God's plan for bringing life and hope to the people around you is still the same - a simple message, "Come see a man." Not come see a church, or a religion, or a set of beliefs. It's Jesus - the only one who loved them enough to die for them. And then the other part of the plan is a natural ambassador - one of their own. How is a Samaritan most likely to come to Christ? Through another Samaritan! A teacher through a teacher, a machinist through a machinist, a mother is most likely to come to Christ through another mother, a student through a student. Jesus has assigned you where you are to be His personal representative to that group of people. You're one of them. They'll listen to you. "We are Christ’s ambassadors," the Bible says.
The people you know are accepting a level of life they should never accept. It's more lonely, it's more empty, it's more disappointing, it's more fatal than it was ever meant to be. And Jesus has opened a door that leads out. But they haven't gone through it yet, maybe because no one has come into their cage to lead them out. They don't know it, but they're waiting for you.