"This Time Hollywood Got it Right"

Jeremiah 18.11-12 NIV

“Thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh turn back, each of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your deeds.’

But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”

Even on the threshold of her own destruction, the Lord offered Judah a way out of calamity: “Oh turn back, each of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your deeds.” God can, does, and will turn things around. One of the greatest tools of the devil is hopelessness. He knows that a person who begins to walk in sin will become progressively committed to that dark path. The sinner slowly adopts the lie that sin is his destiny. The deception is incremental and its willing victim slowly becomes hardened against the possibility of redemption. He thinks of himself and his pathetic plight as “hopeless.”

A common misconception in the building and construction industry is that water causes dry rot. That’s not the whole story. Water soaked wood can dry out and remain as strong as ever. Dry rot is caused when wood is exposed to even a small amounts of moisture for long periods of time. I can be flooded by sin and still find redemption. Christ can pick me up and dry me off. Dry rot of the soul evolves after a very long exposure to even small amounts of sin. At some point the sinner becomes convinced of the lie:

“It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each
of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.”

But even then, it’s not too late. God can heal dry rot of the soul. 

In George Lucas’ classic Star Wars episode VI, “Return of the Jedi,” Luke Skywalker is determined to rekindle the spirit of the Jedi within his father Darth Vader. But Darth, believing he could never return from his hopeless fate, conspired with the evil Emperor to turn young Luke to the dark side. In the ultimate showdown, Darth Vader saves his own soul and Luke Skywalker’s life by repenting in his final moment. It was never too late for Darth Vader. 

Trust Christ. It’s not too late for you. It’s never “hopeless.”