April 11, 2016
MY FRIENDS, MANY ARE SINKING DEEP IN SIN, HOW WILL WE RESPOND?
A story is told to a Times-Reporter of New Philadelphia, Ohio, in September 1985, “about a celebration at a New Orleans municipal pool. The party around the pool was held to celebrate the first summer in memory without a drowning at the New Orleans city pool. In honor of the occasion, 200 people gathered, including 100 certified lifeguards.
As the party was breaking up and the four lifeguards on duty began to clear the pool, they found a fully dressed body in the deep end. They tried to revive Jerome Moody, 31, but it was too late. He had drowned surrounded by lifeguards celebrating their successful season.” My friends the world is surrounded by Lifeguards, or Christians who have the message of the good news of the gospel. So why are people still drowning?
My friends, why are the masses dying with no hope when we have the message of Christ soon return? Christ has told us in Rev. 22:12 (NIV) “Look, I am 
coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. My friends, the words, “to each person, according to what they have done” makes it very personal.
If the mission statement of those one hundred lifeguards had been not on my watch. Jerome Moody, would probably still be alive today. So let’s ask ourselves, what are we doing for Christ on our watch because to many are “sinking deep in sin far from the peaceful shore as we look on. In addition, how much does your family friends, neighbors, and co-workers know of the transforming power that you have experienced?
“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the [21st century]; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me: When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Ezekiel 3:17-18 (NKJV)
Our mission statement must be, not on my watch as we all become focused on a world whose spiritual compass points towards perdition. As we prepare for Christ second coming, the spreading of the good news to a sinful and immoral world must continue as we prepare to cross over into the “promise Land.” As God’s anointed vessels, “for such a time a this,” the world must be convinced that there is a living God who gave His one and only Son ro save all who believed and endured.
My friends, There is a Church on every corner full of lifeguards. The question must then be asked are the lifeguard’s drowning themselves by allowing the god of this world to keep their minds focused “on the things that are on this earth.” and “not on things above”? The promises are there in God’s word, but we must have a passion to seek God’s Spirit as we cry out daily “not my will but thy will be done,” as we follow Christ whenever, and wherever He leads.
“The shepherd’s life is one full of peril. If he is a trustworthy shepherd, he will not be careless and study his own ease, but he will search for the straying sheep amid storms and tempest……This is the way the true Shepherd treats the lost sinner. He goes after him; he does not hesitate at peril, self-denial, and self-sacrifice.” (E. G. White) My friends the world is drowning today, what will we do to rescue them.
Every excuse we may give as the reason we cannot serve Christ, was challenged and answered at Calvary.
Dear friends it is time to dive in and reach down in the depths and start saving them. We must swim very hard against the current towards those that would say I’m a good person or I’m not ready yet. Let’s band together and save all that we can and if one is lost on our watch we have failed.
You are right Elder, there are many out on the front line of the battle field that we have to warn of their impending doom if they do not have that personal relationship with Christ.