I called my talk, "You Are God's PRIMARY Means & Method For Accomplishing His Work On This Planet".
I started the talk out by saying...
I have a story I want to tell you today. And if you listen carefully you might catch
some similarities to something you’ve seen, heard or even experienced before…
"On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur there was once a crude, little
life-saving station.
"The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat. But the few devoted members
kept a constant watch over the sea.
"And with no thought for themselves, they went out
day and night tirelessly searching for the lost.
Some of those who were saved, and various others in the surrounding area, wanted
to become associated with the station and give their time, money and effort for the
support of its work.
"New boats were bought and new crews were trained.
The little life-saving station grew.
"Some of the members of the life-saving station were unhappy that the building
was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place
should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea.
"They replaced
the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building.
"Now, the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and
they decorated it beautifully and furnished it exquisitely, because they used it as a
sort of club.
"Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on life saving missions, so they
hired a life-boat crew to do this work.
"The life-saving motif still prevailed in this
club’s decoration, and there was a symbolic life-boat in the room where the club
initiations were held.
"About this time a large ship wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in
boat loads of cold, wet and half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick and some
of them looked different than the club members. The beautiful new club was in chaos.
"The property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club
At the next meeting, there was a split in the club membership.
where the victims of shipwrecks could be cleaned before coming inside.
At the next meeting, there was a split in the club membership.
"Most of the members
wanted to stop the club’s life-saving activities because they were unpleasant and a
hindrance to the normal social life of the club.
"Some members insisted upon life-saving as their primary purpose and pointed out
that they were still called a life-saving station.
But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save lives of all the
various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their
own life-saving station down the coast. They did.
"As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in
the old one. It evolved into a club, and yet another life-saving station was founded.
"History continued to repeat itself, and if you visit the seacoast today, you will find a
whole bunch of exclusive clubs along that shore.
"Shipwrecks happen all the time in those waters, but most of the people drown."
Think about how sad this story is!
A life-saving station becomes a club. And the
saddest thing about this story is that it describes what happens to some churches!
They lose their purpose and go from being a life-saving group to a social club.
That
has to be one of the greatest sins we can make as Christ-followers. I don’t want
that to ever happen to our church. But if we’re not careful it can happen to us!
For the next 2 Sundays, we’ll be doing a new series called, “Your Great Purpose On
This Planet And How To Fulfill It”.
In this series, I want us to take a new look at what
the Bible means when it calls the church “The body of Christ”.
As we go through this series, we’ll discover what our great purpose on this planet is
– both individually and as a church – and you’ll discover how to fulfill your purpose!
Today, in this first talk, we’re going to begin by looking at God’s Primary Means And
Method For Accomplishing His Work.
Click below to read the whole talk...
"You Are God's PRIMARY Means & Method For Accomplishing His Work On This Planet"
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