I Never Thought It Could Happen To Me

Have you ever heard someone say these words? It’s typically followed by a tragic story of personal loss or failure. Most of the time when someone confesses to having an affair, being addicted to pornography, dealing with dark depression, wanting to quit their job and simply run away, the story begins with those words…“I didn’t think it could happen to me.” In the last several weeks, I have been a part of conversations with people who unfortunately uttered those words as they confessed a secret or a long time struggle.

I know it’s Monday and a sermon is probably the last thing you want to hear so I will get right to the point. Take a look at what Jesus said in Matthew 12.

When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, “I will return to the person I came from.” So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and clean. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before. That will be the experience of this evil generation. Matthew 12:43-45 (NLT)

At first glance you might be wondering “what does demon possession have to do with me?” Well, you work with kids don’t you? (JUST KIDDING). Actually, Jesus is describing the attitude of the nation of Israel. It’s not enough to simply “clean up” your life. We must FILL our life with God. The entire book of Ezra tells the story of how the people eliminated idolatry, but they failed to replace it with love for God and obedience to Him. This is very similar to ridding ourselves of bad habits. It’s not enough to simply stop a bad habit, you have to replace it with something else. People stop smoking but start chewing gum, people stop needless snacking while watching TV and replace it with knitting. The point is, when you stop one thing, it’s necessary to fill that void with something else. If not, we usually fall back into those destructive patterns, but this time, even worse.

The first step is to rid our life of sin. The next step is to FILL our life with God and His word. Too many times I have found myself so BUSY doing God’s work that I fail to FILL my life with God and His presence.

Guys, I don’t want to be the next one to say “I never thought it could happen to me” and neither do you. FILL your life today with God and His presence. STOP EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW if you have to. Don’t let this opportunity pass without connecting to Jesus. Let Him FILL YOUR LIFE!