I was teaching at a national seminar on how to communicate an unchanging Christ in our rapidly changing culture. Well, at the end of a session, a pastor from Kentucky came up to tell me his story he thought really illustrated some of what I had been saying. He said, "When I was a young man, we used to have some big tent revivals in my community. Each night an invitation was given for folks to come forward if they wanted to be, well as this country preacher would always say, 'borned again.'" The pastor went on to describe how some of the deacons would actually go out into the audience and go row-to-row, and shall we say they were "encouraging" folks to make that choice. Near the back, one of the deacons came to a young man who gave him an honest and memorable response. The deacon said, "Son, do you want to be borned again?" To which the boy said, "No." The deacon pressed the point, "Why don't you want to be borned again?" The young man answered in all seriousness, "Cause I'm afraid this time I'd come out as a girl!"

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Lost In Our Language."

Okay, first we can laugh at what that boy said. Then, when we're done laughing, let's think about what we can learn from a response like that. The preacher used words that the preacher understood, but apparently not everyone who was listening understood. It's a classic example of the problem with a language called "Christianese." It's the language we church folks speak without even thinking, and the language that folks who desperately need our message don't begin to understand.

Many of our "Christianese" words are good Bible words, but words that a lot of lost people around us just don't know. For just a moment, try to "think lost." Think to think like a lost person. Think what a person without the context of a Christian environment hears when we say words like "accept" or "receive Christ as your personal Savior." We receive packages today, not people, and when we accept someone, we treat them right. When you try to hear what a lost person hears, words like "salvation" and "saved" and "become a Christian" are either not understood or they're vastly misunderstood. Oh, and "born again."

In a world without absolutes, the word "sin" has become a word without meaning to many people, as much as the word "believe." Most people would probably say "yes" if you asked them if they believe in Jesus. And you'll know that they don't mean what the Bible means when it says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." Even the word "Savior" is not one that people use much today. They're great words, but the people who need Jesus the most have no idea what they mean or have the wrong idea. That's what makes our word for today from the Word of God such a mission critical prayer for any of us who know people that we want to take to heaven with us. In Colossians 4:3-4, listen to Paul, "Pray for us that God may open a door for our message...Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should."

It's not enough to just transmit the Good News about Jesus. No, like good missionaries, we need to ask God to help us translate it into non-religious words that lost people can understand. If a man came running into the room you're in, shouting in say Swahili, "The room is on fire! Evacuate immediately!" you'd probably go, "Well, he sounds sincere; I think he has something important to say." But you'd have no idea what he was saying, because it wasn't in words you could understand. It's not in your language, and you might die as a result. And that's no matter how important the message and no matter how sincere the messenger.

The spiritually dying people around us hear us Christians announcing our all-important life-or-death message, often in words they don't understand. Yes, the gospel's life-or-death information that literally eternities depend on. So, we can't afford for them to get lost in our language, or they might be lost forever.

Five beaches became bloody battlefields, and that became the turning point of World War II. It was D-Day, June 6, 1944 when the allied forces invaded those beaches on the coast of France and began to move against and tore Germany. Of course Nazi stronghold after Nazi stronghold fell to those advancing allied troops, but the war still dragged on. Finally, the allies smashed into Berlin; the war still was on. Eventually, it came down to a few blocks around Hitler's bunker, and finally only after Hitler's death, the surrender came. Then the war was over. There had been a lot of victories along the way, but the war wasn't over until the last stronghold surrendered.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Last Stronghold."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes right out of the life of Abraham. He has walked with God many years at the time this happens. And now in Genesis 22, the ultimate test of his faith. "Some time later, God tested Abraham, He said to him, 'Abraham!' 'Here I am,' he replied. Then God said, 'Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."

Man! Imagine this! This is the son God promised; this makes no sense. And yet, Abraham, with the son he deeply loves, marches up Mount Moriah with the knife in his hand, with the wood for the sacrifice altar. In fact it says, "Early the next morning Abraham got up, saddled his donkey, and took with him his son, Isaac." Now, as I pointed out, when this happens, Abraham has walked with God many years. He's sacrificed his security back in his homeland. He's taken many risks for the Lord. He's fought battles for the Lord. He's believed God over and over again. And now God takes him to the edge of faith and asks him to surrender the dearest treasure he's got - Isaac - the last stronghold.

Here is Abraham with his love for God on one hand and his love for something earthly on the other hand, and he must choose. Do you see what he does? He's up early the next morning. I would at least slept till noon. But he's up early the next morning; instant, immediate response, obedience.

Look, you've walked awhile with the Lord, and maybe you've fought battles for him and you've sacrificed some security for Him, you've taken some risks, you've believed Him. But now the Lord is coming to you to ask you to surrender your Isaac; to do whatever He chooses to do with it. God supplied a ram in the thicket for Abraham, and it did not cost him his son. But Abraham didn't know that when he made this walk.

What's your Isaac? A lifetime ambition, a dream of being married, your career, a position you really want, some material expectations, maybe a child that's become too important to you, your ministry. God is looking for you to take back that contract you've asked Him to sign. At the bottom, you know, you've got the things the way you want them and at the bottom you want it signed GOD. No. He wants a blank piece of paper that you have signed. He'll write on it. Are you going to obey Him? He'll never do you wrong. He died for you. It's a crisis in Lordship.

Today He's asking you to lower that flag that says "Mine" on the last stronghold and raise the flag that finally says "His," because if He can have this, He can have anything. Once you release to God what or who you love the most, God will release to you power and peace like you have never known before.

She was at the time, a princess in the royalty of Hollywood - one of the most successful, A-list, admired actresses in America. Behind the glamour, there are unrelenting struggles and unanswered questions, apparently. She was given some major recognition at an international awards ceremony, and as she expressed her gratitude, she also opened up her heart in a brief moment of extreme candor. Listen to what she said, "You know, I play so many roles, sometimes I wonder who the real me really is." I'll tell you, you don't have to be a Hollywood star to have that going on.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Playing the Part, Missing the Lord."

Playing a role. You know, a lot of folks are doing that. Following the script you're supposed to follow, acting the way you're supposed to act, giving such a convincing performance that you almost believe it yourself. That gap between playing the role and experiencing the reality becomes horribly expensive when you're playing the role of belonging to Jesus Christ, when you don't really belong to Him.

That's why, in a passage of the Bible written to church folks, God gives a life-saving warning. It's in 2 Corinthians 13:5, it's our word for today from the Word of God. He says, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test?" For those of us who have spent a lot of time around Jesus, it's particularly important that we don't assume we automatically have Jesus. We need to examine ourselves - to test ourselves. Christ Jesus isn't, in the Bible's words here, "in you" unless there's been a time in your life when you've consciously opened the door of your life to Him and invited Him in to run it from now on. When you know the words, go to the meetings and you believe the beliefs, it's just way too easy to miss this one life-or-death step.

My friend Gary is in the medical profession. The other day he took me aside and he told me his personal testimony. He said he and his friends had gone forward at a church meeting as young teenagers. And while he went through what he described as an "accepting Christ" thing, he never really had a personal transaction with Jesus that day. He did what he was supposed to do on the outside, but nothing really happened on the inside. From that point on, he said, he played the role.

Gary became a Sunday School teacher in his church, a deacon, and even the youth director. No one would have even thought to question whether or not he was really a Christian. One of his former professors invited him to a men's retreat one day, and he looked forward to impressing this respected Christian friend of his with what an active Christian he had become. But instead, that friend kept pressing him for an answer to this question: "If you died tonight and God asked why He should let you into His heaven, what would you tell Him?" Gary answered with his spiritual résumé. His friend told him that none of that could get him into heaven. It was that night Gary finally realized he was playing the role but missing the reality. He fully committed His life to Jesus Christ that night. And that has made all the difference in the world, and all the difference in where he will spend all of eternity.

Could it be that you have missed that step? The eternity-changing step of actually telling Jesus, "I believe you died for me. I believe You are my only hope. So beginning right now, I'm totally Yours." That takes courage. It takes honesty to admit you don't really have Jesus, but the cost of continuing to just play the role is way too high to pay; too awful to pay. God brought you here today so this could finally be your personal Jesus-day. So as He's speaking to you in your heart, with that tug you feel, don't miss this moment of truth. "Jesus, I'm Yours for real, beginning today."

Check out our website today, please. And go to ANewStory.com. We will walk you through the steps to help you know you really belong to Christ now. That's ANewStory.com.

Tonight you can finally go to sleep with the peace you've never had. It's the peace that comes from only knowing that you really do belong to Jesus now.