February 23, 2003 - Lesson: Matthew 7.13-14

SERMON TITLE: Staying of the Titanic

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INTRODUCTION:

I sang the song: An Illusive Dream, Words and Music by Jimmy Owens (1) The lyrics are:

Where might you be going this fine day my friend?
Off along an aimless road that soon must end,
Chasing an illusive dream that shines so fair
But when found isn't there.

I can understand your weary sigh, my friend.
There but for the grace of God go I, my friend.
Come and let him lead you to your journey's end,
Oh come along and walk with him.

Where might you be going this fine day my friend?
Off along an aimless road that soon must end,
Chasing an illusive dream that shines so fair
But when found isn't there.

If without the grace of God your life should end,
And before the face of God you'd stand, my friend.
What would your illusive dream avail you then?
So come along and walk with him.

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MAIN BODY:

  1. Where are you going?
    1. It depends?
      1. What is your ambition?
      2. What is your goal?
      3. What is the vision that provides you with both of the above.
    2. Jan Salisbury, psychotherapist and organizational consultant, in a presentation to the Washington State Attorney General's State Conference, September, 1986 closed her presentation with a poem, by Natasha Josefowitz, called:

"I Have Arrived."

"I have not seen the plays in town
only the computer printouts
I have not read the latest books
only The Wall Street Journal
I have not heard birds sing this year
only the ringing of phones
I have not taken a walk anywhere
but from the parking lot to my office
I have not shared a feeling in years
but my thoughts are known to all
I have not listened to my own needs
but what I want I get
I have not shed a tear in ages
I have arrived.
Is this where I was going?"

      1. It may not have been where she was going, but it is where she arrived.
      2. It does not appear to be too appetizing.
  1. Before us this morning that are only two ways.
    1. One is called the "broad way."
      1. The broad way is the way of transgression.
        1. The way widens as people walk in it.
        2. Restraints upon natural appetite are thrown off.
        3. The appetite becomes insatiable.
      2. Its gate is wide.
        1. We need not seek it, for it is in our own minds.
        2. Self-indulgence opens it.
        3. We enter it by impenitence.
      3. Its company is large.
        1. The PEOPLE of the world, who make no profession of religion, are in it.
          1. The atheist, the non-theist, the infidel, and the unconcerned.
          2. Nominal Christians are in it.
          3. Many who enter to conform to custom. Men of pleasure. Men of " progress."
          4. How many! Of every age, rank, profession, employment.
          5. They go in it because it is "broad"
      4. The good time is coming when the company will be great
      5. Its end is destruction.
        1. The end of sin is the destruction of character.
        2. Vice intoxicates. It wrecks.
        3. Sin is the gate of hell.
      6. Damnation is the closing of mercy's gate to the sinner.

In Luke 13:22-28, Jesus went through one town and village after another, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. 23Someone asked him, "Lord, will only a few be saved?" He said to them, 24"Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. 25When once the owner of the house has got up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, open to us,' then in reply he will say to you, 'I do not know where you come from.' 26Then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.' 27But he will say, 'I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!' 28There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out.

    1. The other is called the narrow way.
      1. It is the way of life.
        1. It is strait.
        2. It is straitened by the golden rule
      2. The way of holiness has its difficulties.
        1. Its has certain restraints.
          1. You cannot do what you would sometimes want to do.
          2. You cannot attack or retaliate and still be on the narrow way.
        2. It has sacrifices.
          1. The way one lives conforms to the words and wisdom of God.
          2. There is more to giving than to receiving.
        3. It calls for circumspection and perseverance.
      3. It is the way of poverty of spirit, meekness, holy mourning, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, mercifulness, purity of heart.
      4. Its gate is narrow.
        1. Repentance cuts off every sin.
        2. Faith cuts off all self-righteousness.
      5. To some the gate is narrower than to others. "How hardly shall they that have riches enter in" How easy is the entrance to the child! The strength of our aversion to good makes the gate narrow.
      6. "Strive to enter in". Earnestness is required.
      7. The company is select.
        1. "Few there be that find it." Majorities are not always right.
        2. How few be those who find the way even of heathen honesty!
        3. How few are free from unkindness!
        4. How few have hearts clean in the sight of God!
        5. How few have the courage to be singular!
        6. But the way of holiness is singularity all over to an ungodly world.
      8. Its end is life.
        1. Existence is not life.
        2. Salvation from sin and death.
        3. Union with Christ.
        4. Holiness and heaven.
  1. What is it going to cost?
    1. It cost nothing.
    2. It costs everything.
  2. How are you going to get there?
    1. You may need a map.
      1. Let us not use the maps of childhood.
      2. Let us not use the maps of adolescence.
    2. You could use a device like NavStar, GPS (Geo Positioning System)
      1. A sophisticated GPS system with a viewer in your car can tell you where you are and where you need to go.
      2. A woman called with an emergency.
        1. She with her husband were traveling on I80 and he began to have a series of severe chest pains.
        2. She called Navistar and they sent out the paramedics.
        3. He was transported and his life was saved.
      3. We have a GPS, well not GPS but rather HPS (Holy Spirit Positioning system.)
        1. The Holy Spirit is the still small voice that enlightens conscience.
        2. We can then with a holy conscience, let our conscience be our guide.
    3. Then we also need a map.
      1. Jesus is the map maker.
        1. We talk about his death and resurrection.
        2. They are important.
      2. More important is his life.

In Romans 5.6-10, Paul writes: 6For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.

      1. Saved by his life.
      2. Saved by living the same kind of life.
      3. Not in circumstances, but in principle and purpose.

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CONCLUSION

  1. The Titanic was a marvelous ship.
    1. Up to that time, she was the largest ship built
    2. She was also the most lavishly decorated and appointed of the liners of that era.
    3. Because of her hull construction she was considered by many to be unsinkable.
    4. She collided with an iceberg and in a few hours sank with a huge loss of life.
    5. There was no long gash in the collision with the iceberg.
    6. It was a series of small slits and popped rivets that allowed water in 6 of her hull sections that led to the sinking.
  2. The comparison of life with the Titanic is not an odd or unusual one.
    1. Life appears rich and full.
    2. Life is good and we are well-fed.
    3. Life lived in the broad and of times fast lane can be exciting and rewarding.
    4. In the end you are going to sink.
  3. We have the option of one way or the other.
    1. No one goes the wrong way out of necessity.
    2. No one goes the right way by compulsion.
    3. We are persuaded.
    4. God's judgments are clear, true and irrevocable.
    5. So stay of the Titanic and stay on the straight and narrow.

1. ©Copyright 1968 by Lexicon Music, Inc. International Copyright Secured. Made in USA. All Rights Reserved.

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