The Silent Killer

Thursday, March 22, 2012

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Some of the most important real estate in the world is an island - an island you may have heard of. It's called Manhattan. A lot of folks need to get in and out of that island each day to run the business of this country. And since it's an island, needless to say, New York City is a city of bridges.

Remember that old song "London Bridge is Falling Down"? Well, you know what? A few years ago, another New York bridge was falling down. See, for quite some time a lot of bridges in New York had been showing their age. And a while ago, for example, they had to close the Williamsburg Bridge completely, cutting off a major access route to Manhattan.

The reason? Well, inspectors had found serious weakness in certain supports. And the sad part was, it didn't have to be that way. In fact, one engineer was quoted as saying, "If only this bridge had been regularly maintained, we'd be celebrating a bridge's centennial instead of holding its' funeral." And you know what the cause was? Neglect.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Silent Killer."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Hebrews 2. I'll be reading verse 1 and then we'll drop down to verse 3. "We must pay more careful attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away. How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?" See, this passage refers to something that is so insidious, so invisible, but so common and easy to fall into. It talks about drifting spiritually; that slow but steady getting away from our first love.

You go from being passionately Christian when you begin, to without even realizing it, becoming professionally Christian; from what was once love to what is now a duty; from warm to cold. And maybe if you were to take your spiritual temperature, it could be you're drifting. You're not doing anything terribly wrong; you've just drifted from your first passionate love for Him.

Well, ultimately, there's going to be a collapse. Not from rejecting your Lord, but rather from neglecting your Lord. This doesn't say, "How shall we escape if we reject such a great salvation?" It says neglect. Now, that bridge in New York didn't suddenly become unstable. Nobody bombed it, or ran into it, or tried to take it apart. Nobody did anything bad to weaken it. It's what they didn't do. See, bridges give way because of neglect. It's a silent killer of spiritual commitments. You can't stand as a Christian without daily maintenance.

That means a daily checkup as God's Word is allowed to turn its light on your life. I used to think it was a book I was neglecting if I missed my quiet time. It's not a book; it's a person. Remember there was a booklet called "My Heart - Christ's Home"? In it the man is admitting Christ into the various rooms of his life and he'll meet with the Lord in the study every morning. Finally, he gets a little busy; forgets one day; comes back after a month of days to grab his briefcase. And as he runs into his study, he sees Jesus and he says, "Lord, what are you doing here?" The Lord says, "Oh, I've been here every day waiting for you."

Have you been neglecting your time with Jesus? You can't see it, but you're being steadily weakened and eroded by what you're not doing. You just can't afford another day away. There have been too many already. The alternative is that one day you'll be closed; you'll cave in.

Neglect can have eternal consequences. What did the verse say? "How will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation (such a great rescue)?" It's possible for you to have been around the message of Jesus dying on a cross for your sins and coming back out of His grave. And you have heard of this great salvation, this great rescue act of His on the cross over and over again, but somehow you have never acted on it. You've never made personal what He did for you. You have neglected Him. You will be in hell, not in heaven, not because you rejected Him, but because you just walked on by. You lost Him through neglect.

Well, don't let that happen today. Today is the accepted time. "Today is the day of salvation" the Bible says. Reach out and grab what you've passed up so many times. I hope you'll go to our website, and you can watch, or read, or listen to a presentation there that will help you begin your relationship with Him. Go to YoursForLife.net.

Neglect: it's a silent killer of what you can't afford to lose.