Saved or Lost: Recenter on Christ and Mission

From the tower, the lifeguard sees everything that's going on. He sees the rip current. He doesn't ignore it. He doesn't shout instructions from a distance and hope for the best. No. He runs toward the danger, dives in, and swims straight for the one who is drowning, which is what we expect some the the lifeguard to do. And here's what's shocking. Sometimes the shock sometimes the drowning person fights the lifeguard. They panic. They resist the very one trying to save them. But the the lifeguard grabs a hold of them of them anyway. Not because they earned it, not because they swam well, but because they needed saving. He pulls them back to shore. [01:11:39] (43 seconds)  #LifeguardRescue

But oh, thank be to god. We have a lifeguard in Jesus Christ who seen the danger, who knew what he was up against, and what we celebrated last week. He went to that cross for you to save you. The tragedy is not that is not just that people are drowning. It's that too many rescue people are sitting comfortably on the shore. We're all kicked back in our chairs and comfort comfort with our feet in the sand, and we don't wanna get up and be a part of the mess that would take to see people come to know who Christ is. [01:14:05] (40 seconds)  #JesusTheRescuer

If you've been saved, you just don't you you don't just sit on the beach. You know what the danger is. You know what it feels like to be rescued. You become part of the rescue mission. How many of yours real remember the day you were saved when you realized you were you were in danger of drowning? And thank be to god, somebody jumped in after you. Might have been a a mom that was praying for you or mom or dad that was praying for you. It could've been a friend. It could've been the pastor. They were praying for you and trying to reach you and save you and trying to get you to see what you couldn't see. [01:13:09] (56 seconds)  #RescueToRescuer

Now imagine this, the person who was just rescued now you can you can say, well, this person's not trained to do this. You're right. But if you were on the beach and you seen 30 people drowning and you just got saved, would you go back in to try to help them once you knew what the danger was? You might not have realized it before, but now you do, and you know what the danger is. But imagine this, the person who was just rescued gets up, they catch their breath, they sit back back down in their chair, and let others drown around them. [01:12:22] (34 seconds)  #DontSitWhileOthersDrown

Believer, it's time for us to get up off the fence, get back in the game, and do what Christ has called us to do Because I was there's so many people that are dying even as we speak. Who doesn't know the son? Who doesn't know who Jesus is? And apart from him, there is no hope in this world. I'm thankful as I'm looking out across the television, watching the news, and seeing the world I live in, I'm thankful for Jesus because there is no hope apart from him. Humanity is never gonna get better apart from Jesus. The division's only gonna get worse. We have the answer in Christ. [01:19:34] (50 seconds)  #StandForChrist

The most important problem this world has is it's separated from god. The root issue is not politics, not culture, not personality, sin. Sin is a real issue. It's what's divided us from god. The world divide us into countless categories but god sees only two, and we're gonna talk about the two categories of people in just few minutes and every person that's sitting in here today, you're either one or the other. There are no in betweens. You can't ride the fence so to speak. [00:31:25] (31 seconds)  #SeparatedFromGod

So in conclusion, the world has never been more connected, and yet it has never felt more divided. We are living in a time where people will unfriend you, cancel you, or cut you off over what side you're on. But like we talked about, the real issue isn't decide your own politically but rather where you stand spiritually. And we've gotta quit worrying about every other thing that divides us and start worrying about the one thing that matters most. Do you know Jesus or do you not? For the believer, where are you getting your identity from? [01:14:55] (37 seconds)  #SpiritualIdentityMatters

Second point and the main point that I wanna get across to the believers sitting here is because of Christ that we see the world and people do in a different way. We should never be able to look at somebody and and look away from em or not have anything to do with them because they think differently than we do. We live lives that are accountable to Christ. Believer, your life is not your own. You surrendered that when you come to Christ, when you were saved. It's no longer about your wants and desires. It's about what he wants for your life. [00:37:26] (36 seconds)  #LiveAccountableToChrist

Imagine being on the Titanic years ago. When the boat started to sink, what in that moment mattered most? It's kind of, y'all probably gonna laugh when I say it, but but the only thing that really mattered in that moment was whether you're on the lifeboat boat or not. Nothing else that they had, no riches, no no fame, no nothing mattered but whether they were on the life boat or whether they were not. Didn't matter if they're rich or poor, good or bad, race, what the race was, what their sexual preference was, whether a Democrat or Republican, independent, or any of the above. It mattered whether they were on the boat or not. [00:39:44] (49 seconds)  #LifeguardSeesAndActs

From the tower, the lifeguard sees everything that's going on. He sees the rip current. He doesn't ignore it. He doesn't shout instructions from a distance and hope for the best. No. He runs toward the danger, dives in, and swims straight for the one who is drowning, which is what we expect some the the lifeguard to do. And here's what's shocking. Sometimes the shock sometimes the drowning person fights the lifeguard. They panic. They resist the very one trying to save them. But the the lifeguard grabs a hold of them of them anyway. Not because they earned it, not because they swam well, but because they needed saving. He pulls them back to shore. [01:11:39] (43 seconds)  #RescueRequiresAction

You might not have realized it before, but now you do, and you know what the danger is. But imagine this, the person who was just rescued gets up, they catch their breath, they sit back back down in their chair, and let others drown around them. What I'd ever ever having to to the heart to wanna go back in and go after him. Here's the thing. If you've been saved, you just don't you you don't just sit on the beach. You know what the danger is. You know what it feels like to be rescued. You become part of the rescue mission. [01:12:41] (42 seconds)  #RescueNotSelfHelp

The question that always comes up when you're talking about all people need saving. What do all people need saving from? You can go out in the world and they think lost people act like lost people. They speak like lost people. They don't realize that there's anything wrong with their lives. That they need anything more. But if they're gonna be judged like like I said and the reality is of and the reality of hell exist, then we realize that all people do need a savior. Think of about a think about a drowning man. If a man is drowning, does he need swimming lessons in that moment? What about encouragement? What about a self help book? No. What does he need? He's somebody to jump in and go save him. [00:55:41] (63 seconds)  #MissingYourStoryPart

or here's here's the thing that's always bothered me about about that. Jesus does not need me. He doesn't need you. If I had told Philip no to preaching this morning, somebody else would have stepped up, and I feel certain about that. But guess who would have missed the blessing that would have come from being able to stand up and and the privilege to stand up and talk about my god? I would. It's the same way with you when you go out in the world. God don't need you to tell people about Jesus. He's given you the opportunity to be a part of it, a part of his story. And guess what? If you choose not to be a part of the story, somebody else will. [01:07:29] (41 seconds)  #NoLookingAway

We should never be able to look at somebody and and look away from em or not have anything to do with them because they think differently than we do. We live lives that are accountable to Christ. Believer, your life is not your own. You surrendered that when you come to Christ, when you were saved. It's no longer about your wants and desires. It's about what he wants for your life. So, you can't say no. I don't like that person or I don't like the way they believe. You can't say that because it ain't about what you want and what you believe. It's about what he believes and what he wants to do in and through you. [00:37:37] (39 seconds)  #AreYouOnShore

They were praying for you and trying to reach you and save you and trying to get you to see what you couldn't see. But oh, thank be to god. We have a lifeguard in Jesus Christ who seen the danger, who knew what he was up against, and what we celebrated last week. He went to that cross for you to save you. The tragedy is not that is not just that people are drowning. It's that too many rescue people are sitting comfortably on the shore. We're all kicked back in our chairs and comfort comfort with our feet in the sand, and we don't wanna get up and be a part of the mess that would take to see people come to know who Christ is. So the question I I ask, are you sitting on the shore while there's people dying around you? [01:13:59] (56 seconds)  #TwoKindsOnly

The root issue is not politics, not culture, not personality, sin. Sin is a real issue. It's what's divided us from god. The world divide us into countless categories but god sees only two, and we're gonna talk about the two categories of people in just few minutes and every person that's sitting in here today, you're either one or the other. There are no in betweens. You can't ride the fence so to speak. There's no middle ground. It's either black or it's white. [00:31:31] (31 seconds)  #JudgmentIsInevitable