Real Madness

If you enjoy watching college basketball, like I do, you know that March is a month of madness. I’m not sure if they’re talking about the madness relating to the improbable upsets and Cinderella stories, the furious comebacks and last-second buzzer beaters, or if they mean the craziness of the fans who put their lives on hold when the tournament tips off.

You know what real madness is? It’s rejecting something good for something bad. If you were to offer me a mansion on the hilltop – fully furnished and paid for, with maids and butlers at my beck and call, maybe an indoor swimming pool and hot tub, perhaps a couple of bowling lanes, an adjacent tennis court, beautiful garden and manicured lawn – you know, the stuff of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” or “My Congressman’s Vacation Home,” and if I were to tell you to shove it, and then I went back to my cardboard box under the bridge, you’d call me mad. That’s crazy.

But don’t you know that’s how so many people in our day live? They’ve rejected something good for something bad. Maybe you’re one of them. Friend, you have been offered a glorious home by the Master Builder and Architect Himself! This mansion has more amenities than you could possibly imagine. And it’s not just the mansion itself, it’s all about location, location, location. In this city the streets are paved with gold, the gates are made of pearl, the walls are carved of jasper and the foundations are decorated with every kind of precious stone. In this city the brilliance of the glory of God shines to give it light, and the Lamb – Jesus Christ – is its lamp.

This home in heaven is offered to you today, having been paid for by the Son of God. It’s not just a weekend condo for rent, but an eternal place where God Himself makes His dwelling among men. In this place God will wipe every tear from our eyes, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for He makes all things new. In this city nothing impure will ever enter, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Does that sound like an offer you could turn down? You’d be crazy to reject something this good and go back to your cardboard box under the bridge. Yet that’s exactly what many choose to do in their madness. They thumb their nose at the offer to have this eternal life and receive the riches of an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. They walk away from the abundant life that Christ offers when they follow Him – a life of love, joy, peace, hope, purpose and so much more.

And they go back to their lives of misery and shame. They prove their madness by refusing to come to the One who can save their souls from death and hell. They refuse to come to Christ for forgiveness for theirs sins, cleansing from the corruption of sin, and the full and complete pardon that He offers. And they continue living in their self-destructive ways. That’s nothing but madness. It’s foolishness, and it leads to death.

The Bible says, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

I want to urge you today, right now, to acknowledge that you are a sinner and in need of God’s forgiveness. Realize that you are unable to save yourself – no amount of good deeds or church attendance or charitable donations will ever get you into heaven. Believe in your heart that Jesus is the sinless Son of God, the One who died in your place on the cross to forgive you for your sins and make you right with God. Then come humbly before the Lord repenting of your sins and your sinfulness. Change your heart and life from wherever you are and whatever you’ve done, to living in a way that pleases and honors the Lord God. Receive by faith the gift He wants to give you this very moment – the gift of eternal life, by receiving Jesus as your Savior and Lord, and in doing so your name will be inscribed in that book of life.

As Moses proclaimed to the Israelites, I say to you today: “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him” (Deut. 30:19-20). It’s an offer you’d be mad to refuse.