September 14, 2022
Download MP3 (right click to save)
For some reason, for over a century, people are still intrigued with the Titanic. I mean, it hit an iceberg and it sank over a century ago, and there have been a handful of big screen movies made. And the story - then it was made into two television miniseries. There have been explorations of the wreckage, even sales of pieces of coal from the Titanic.
It's hard to get that image out of our minds isn't it? The proudest ship ever built. It was supposed to be unsinkable, and on her maiden voyage she sank; haunting images of her disappearing into the icy waters of the Atlantic. Over 1,500 people died that night. It wasn't, of course, that the Titanic didn't try to get help. They set off flares. They radioed an SOS. And the signal was picked up by a ship called the California. Historians for a while thought the California was about 20 miles away that night - too far away to help. That was until we learned exactly where the Titanic went down.
Looking at the location of the California that night and the location of the Titanic revealed something very disturbing. It turns out that the California was only about five miles away! Which means they were close enough to save people. And they just didn't respond.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why You Are Where You Are."
The passengers on the Titanic did not have to die, many of them. There were people close enough that could have saved them; those who were in the water, you know, in their life jackets. They were still alive after the boat went down. But there were those people that rowed off in their lifeboats with room still in them for others, and they left the others in the water to die ultimately from hypothermia.
They were in a position to save those people! That tragedy is not unique to the night the Titanic went down, because it's happening all the time spiritually.
Here's our word for today from the Word of God, Matthew 9:36-37. "When Jesus saw the crowds, He had compassion on them..." By the way, in the Greek language, it means He felt something way down deep inside him, and it says He felt that "because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." His heart broke over these lost people. Then He gave this heartbreaking scenario, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few."
Of course, the harvest that He is talking about is people. Like harvest crops, they're ready. And folks today are probably more ready for Jesus than they've ever been. They don't know they are, but inside their soul, and their family, and all around them; the kind of world we're living in, there are issues that can only be fixed one way - by a Savior like Jesus.
But also like harvest crops, if you don't get to them in time, they will die. Or just like those people who died the night the Titanic went down. The greatest heartbreak for Jesus isn't that those people are dying. It's that they wouldn't have to die if only some of His people would get to them with the life-saving message about Jesus; the message you have in your heart. He's got lots of lost people ready to hear about Him. His problem is His own people. He can't get us to go in for the rescue!
God's assigned you to a neighborhood, a workplace, a school, a gym, a social circle to put you in a position to represent Jesus there. That's why you're there. With your life, but also with your words. See, people aren't going to figure out that Jesus took their place on the cross just by watching your life. You have to tell them that!
So you are, like that ship the California, close enough to rescue these people. In fact, you may be closer to some lost person than any other Christian on earth. They're more likely to listen to you than anybody, as imperfect, as inadequate as you may be. The Bible is crystal clear that people who die with their sins unforgiven cannot go to heaven and they will die eternally. And only the Savior, Jesus, who died for their sins can forgive their sins. And you know that.
This is the Jesus you know. He is the Jesus they need. This is life-or-death stuff. You're in a position to rescue someone from a life on earth without a Savior and from a hopeless eternity. To do nothing? It's tragically - it's eternally - wrong.