Lost

The scripture reading is from Philippians 1:20-21

This week’s sermon blog starts with a story =)

A computer “dude” (CD) won a holiday. To get to his destination he had to travel by boat. He got on the boat and it was a beautiful day, but little did he know that there were pirates on board. Half way through the journey the pirates took over the ship and threw CD off.

As he got up, all he could see was yellow and sunlight…

“Am I dead?” he asked himself.

He got up and realised he was on a deserted island. With nothing to do, eat or drink he decided to look for food. For many years he survived by eating wild food and drinking wild juice. Everyday he refused to give up and would always spend the brightest part of the day on the beach, looking for a boat.

One day, to his surprise, he saw a rowboat!

“Over here! Over here!” he yelled. The people heard him and rowed over. To his astonishment he found that they had a well constructed boat. As they spoke to each other he learnt that the family on the boat had also been thrown off by pirates and the father had made the boat.

“Tools?” he asked

“I used sharp rocks” the father replied.

They spent the rest of the day speaking about each others experiences and slept on the beach. The next day they used the boat and took CD to the other side of the island. They asked him “Would you like a drink?”

“No thanks, another drink of coconut juice and I’ll puke!” he replied.

“Pina colada?” the mother asked.

CD’s jaw dropped and looked at her with amazement. “Yeah sure”

The mother then asked him “Is there anything else you need? shaver? Clean clothes? Food?”

“No thanks, do you have a PC? I’m dying to check my email” he replied.

Now what do we learn from this story besides my bad writing skills?
Well to be honest the first thing I thought of was “Lost”.

But the main point of the story was to show us that sometimes we are so focused on something that our sense of priority goes out of the window. I know I am guilty of that.

We hear about many examples of this in the media through news etc.

A few examples are:

Athletes so focused on winning that they would be willing to take drugs.

Video gamers so focused on playing that they do not do any work whatsoever.

People so focused on their work that they do not spend time with their family.

But what if the focus was Jesus?

A true story which demonstrates this is about a woman who was told “If you do not deny Jesus, we will kill you”. The woman would not deny Jesus, even if it meant she would have to die. When the men heard this, they decided to take her son in and tell him the same thing. The son hesitated and asked his mother, “What do I do?” She told him

“If you deny Jesus, you are no son of mine.”

This resulted in the mother and son dying for their will not to deny Jesus.

Does the story sadden you? Or encourage you?... Or does it do both?

Paul was a great example of someone who was totally focused on Jesus. He did and said thing for Jesus, just as we should. However, dying for Christ, that’s a scary thought! But from Philippians it says “To live is Christ, to die is gain”.

Whether by life or by low marks
Whether by life or by losing mates
Whether by life or by losing a match, through not cheating.

These things, if we think about it, aren’t actually a lot to ask. Do we live a life that counts for something? We can get invited to something that is bigger than us.

Live with purpose.

Ady