Cleverly-Disguised Poison - #9695

03/08/24 • -1 min

The movie opened in theaters on Valentine's Weekend. It was called Fifty Shades of Grey. A hundred million copies of the book had been sold. It was known for its portrayal of a young virgin seduction into sado-masochistic sex in a charming man's "room of pain." I know, gross. A friend told me that it was the talk of all the women in her office; 40- and 50-year-old women "giggling like schoolgirls." Dying to see it. To see a woman submitting to sexual violence in the name of "exploring her dark desires."

The top ten advance ticket sales were from Bible Belt states mostly. A lot of anecdotal evidence and Facebook postings suggested a great "buzz" about that movie from people with Christian backgrounds.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Cleverly-Disguised Poison."

Christian. That's the ones of whom the Bible says, "Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:19). To whom God says in our word for today from the Word of God (Ephesians 5 beginning with verse 3), "Among you there must not even be a hint of sexual immorality, or any kind of impurity...you are light in the Lord...have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness."

It's not that God is against sexual passion. Far from it. He invented it! To unite, to ignite the lifetime love of a husband and wife. "Rejoice in the wife of your youth," He says. "Let her breasts satisfy you always. May you always be captivated by her love" (Proverbs 5:18-19 NLT).

But sex the Inventor's way always means honoring a woman, respecting a woman, uplifting a woman; never hurting her, using her, violating her. Ephesians 5:28 (NLT) says, "Husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies." "The two will become one flesh," Jesus said. A holy, tender, loving merging of two lives, expressed with the passionate merging of their bodies together.

But "Christian" interest in a morally bankrupt, "must-see" movie exposes much larger issues; more troubling issues, like the compartmentalizing of our faith. "Hey, I believe in Jesus. But this is my business, this is my love life, and this is my entertainment."

Nope. "You must be holy in everything you do" (1 Peter 1:15 NLT). Everything. If I'm deciding where Jesus is in charge and where He isn't, then He's not Lord. I am. I have dethroned the Son of God and made me my de facto God.

Then there's our naiveté about entertainment. "It's only a movie. It's only a song. It's only a TV show. It's only a website" See, entertainment is our hellish enemy's "stealth bomber" that slips death into our soul under the radar.

James 1:15 - what a hammer this verse is! "Desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." We'd run from a frontal temptation to do this thing we think we'll never do. So the enemy of our soul just plants a thought, a desire, an indelible image. First, sin fascinates you. Then, it assassinates you.

The terrorist from hell says, "Watch this. It won't hurt." The Savior who loves you says, "Guard your heart...it is the wellspring of life" (Proverbs 4:23). A little poison in the reservoir becomes death in the water.

There are a thousand shades of dark, inviting us to what looks like a party but ends up in a prison; a prison that Jesus Christ, Prince of Heaven, came to save us from. To show us we are more than a body to be used. We are a soul to be cherished.

This very day, if you've never experienced this most genuine, lasting, satisfying love of all, for yourself - the love of Christ demonstrated on a cross, dying for your sin. Let your search for love end today by giving yourself to Him. You can find out how that relationship begins at our website ANewStory.com.

You're too precious to degrade, too precious to defile; you, Jesus thought, were worth dying for.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Cleverly-Disguised Poison."

You're too precious to degrade, too precious to defile; you, Jesus thought, were worth dying for.

Previous Episode

Getting it By Letting Go of it - #9694

Some years I traveled to Alaska with my family to do some speaking up there. What an awesome place it is! You know, it says on the license plates The Last Frontier, and it really is. Now, we had one magnificent obsession while we were there. We wanted to see moose! We didn't see too many of those when we lived in New Jersey. So we wanted to see those moose.

Now, people there are literally running into moose with their cars all the time; kind of like deer in the lower 48. There are just so many moose on the roads. And we thought, "Hey, we're going to see one for sure." Well, my family had not yet seen one, and so while I was out speaking at a high school, they went into the Moose Range and said, "Alrighty, we're going to see them on the Moose Range." When I got back I said, "How did the great moose hunt go?" My son said, "Oh, did we have fun today, Dad. We spent two hours looking at trees." I said, "No moose?" He said, "No moose."

Well, we had looked and looked at all the places that they were supposed to be. The next morning we were coming out of our driveway and suddenly my son yelled, "Moose!" Yeah, well, after I totaled the car (no, not really), I looked around and there they were. We weren't even looking for them. Here are two moose just kind of nibbling the bark off a tree. And all of a sudden I remembered the advice we had received on our first day in Alaska. Someone told us, "As long as you're looking for a moose, you won't see one. But as soon as you stop looking, you'll find one." You know, that's true not only for moose, but maybe for some other quarry you might really want to find.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Getting it By Letting Go of it."

Once we had spotted our first two moose up there in Alaska, my daughter made an interesting point. She said, "You know, Dad, looking for these moose is a lot like trying to find the right guy to date isn't it?" I thought, "What? You want one with antlers?" No, I said, "What does she mean by that?" She said, "Well, when you stop looking, you finally find him." I thought, "Well, now that's an interesting principle." Does that check out biblically? Guess what? It does.

Our word for today from the Word of God, Psalm 37:4-5 - "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him and He will do this." Now, the part we like in these verses is that little sentence that says, "He will give you the desires of your heart." Well now, what do you really desire right now? What are you really tracking so to speak like we were tracking moose? Maybe right now your great desire is for someone to love you and for you to love...that partner you really want. Or maybe it's a home or a car, an office you desire to hold, a promotion you want, maybe some financial resources you really need or really want.

You say, "Well, my desire is to succeed in this enterprise that I'm involved in right now, or to have a position in ministry that I don't have. Notice what verbs aren't here. How do you get the desires of your heart? Well, the verbs that aren't here...it doesn't say, "Look for it." It doesn't say, "Pursue it." It doesn't say, "Insist on it or find a way to get it."

Notice what the verbs are. "Delight yourself in the Lord..." "Commit your way to the Lord." "Trust in Him." In other words, you let go of it and you get it when you stop looking for it, when you stop chasing it, when you stop insisting on it. You turn your deepest desire over to your Lord, of whom it is said in the Bible, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." That's a promise for a follower of Christ. And then it starts to happen. Let Him send it to you in His way, in His time.

See, if He gave it to you when you wanted it this badly you might make an idol out of it. So, learn a lesson from our surprising Alaskan moose. When you stop looking and stop insisting on the great desire of your life, you're most likely to find it... maybe right on your doorstep.

Next Episode

The Voice You Can Trust - #9696

I must have like one of those voices. I never get to tell people who it is when I call them on the phone. I say, "Hi, this is..." And they'll say, "Hi, Ron." Now, most people do have to announce who it is, at least the first few times they call. Think about someone who you call for the first time and you have to give them your full name. So I might say, "Hello, this is Ron Hutchcraft." Then after a couple of times talking with them you just give your first name, "Hi, this is Ron." Then there's the teenage version - no greeting, no hello. They just jump right into the latest gossip. You don't even have to identify who it is; they talk so often...usually several times a day. Or texting back and forth, messaging. I guess we all have voices that ultimately need no identification. After all, it's the voices we've heard so much.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Voice You Can Trust."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John 10. I'm reading verse 3. "The watchman opens the gate for the Shepherd and the sheep listen to His voice. He calls His own sheep by name and He leads them out. And when He's brought out all His own, He goes on ahead of them. And His sheep follow Him because they know His voice."

Now, dropping down to verse 27: "My sheep," Jesus said, "listen to My voice. I know them and they follow Me." Now, here's this great picture: me sheep, Him shepherd. That's really what the Christian life boils down to, and the sheep are doing the only thing that they ought to do if they want to have everything that they need. They follow the Shepherd. And three times in these three verses Jesus talks about how they listen to His voice and they know His voice. Why? Well, for the same reason that a frequent caller doesn't need to identify himself when he calls. You've heard that voice so many times you know what He sounds like.

Would you put yourself in this category: a follower of Jesus Christ? Are you one of those? Well, you can't be a follower according to what Jesus is saying here unless you're a listener first. Following Christ is not some passive or official status you have because you made a commitment one time. A follower of Christ follows because he listens first. "Those who hear My voice."

Now, each day the Lord is trying to speak to you about choices to make, people to talk to, ideas He wants to plant in your head. And there are lots of other voices. How do you know which voices, which tugs are from Him? Well, you have to be used to listening to Jesus. How do you do that? Well, you've got to meet Him daily. In the morning before you start the day, you ask Him to use His Word, the Bible, and apply it to your life - to that day. Then, that day, having heard His voice, before you've heard any other voice, you consciously obey Him in that area that He talked to you about. And you listen during the day for His inner direction. He'll direct you into the middle of a lot of God sightings.

You know what area of life you've trusted Him with because you've responded to His voice through His Word. So, you're daily listening, daily responding. You do that day after day, and an exciting thing will happen. You'll begin to say at certain moments, "Now, that doesn't sound like what Jesus sounds like." "Now, that does sound like Him. I've been listening, and that's how His voice sounds...how He speaks." Now, you're a follower of Christ.

So, you begin your day by getting used to His voice before you hear any others. Then, when you're getting six voices at once, you'll know your Shepherd's direction from all the rest. You'll sense the call - the tug of Jesus that you heard just this morning, and that you've heard so often. And you'll say, "I know that voice."