Are You Rowing Away? 

There is a spiritual emergency happening all around us, and most Christians are rowing in the wrong direction. This is a call to turn the lifeboat around.

The Titanic Illustration That Changes Everything

On the night the Titanic sank, more than 1,500 people died in the freezing North Atlantic. But here is the detail that cuts deepest: there was room on the lifeboats for most of them.

Those already saved heard the cries of the dying. And they rowed away.

Of the 20 lifeboats launched that night, only one turned back. It saved six people. Three days later, rescue ships found 328 men, women, and children floating in life jackets, frozen to death. They did not die because the ship sank. They died because the people already saved refused to go back.

This is a picture of the church.

What the "Jesus Lifeboat" Really Means

If you know Jesus, you are already in the lifeboat. You are saved by grace and headed for heaven. But all around you, at work, at school, at the grocery store, in your neighborhood, people are spiritually drowning. They are crying out, even if they do not know it yet.

And in almost every church in America, the boat is rowing away.

We fellowship with our lifeboat companions. We sing our lifeboat songs. We work on making the lifeboat bigger and more comfortable. Meanwhile, people we see every single day are dying spiritually, with no understanding that God's one and only Son died so they would not have to.

What Is the "Disease of Me" in the Church?

This inward focus is Christianity's deadly disease. It is the disease of me.

We fill our notebooks with sermon notes. We pack our schedules with Bible studies. Our heads are full of Christian beliefs. And our lifeboats are full of empty seats where dying people desperately need to be.

Offer a seminar on raising children or managing money, and the pews fill up. Offer a teaching on how to share Jesus with a lost person, and you will need far fewer chairs. It is not that those practical topics are unimportant. They are simply not life and death issues. Rescuing the spiritually dying is.

A faith that is all about me and my fellow believers confines us to a very small world. Me-centered Christianity is ultimately boring, unchallenging, and honestly, not worth the time. There is nothing you can do on this earth that is more important than telling someone about Jesus. Nothing.

Why Did Jesus Come? What Does the Bible Say About the Lost?

Scripture does not soften the condition of those who do not know Christ. These are the words used to describe them:

• "Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter." (Proverbs 24:11, ESV)
• Separated from God (Isaiah 59:2)
• Living in darkness and the shadow of death (Matthew 4:16)
• Lost (Luke 19:10)
• "Whoever does not believe is condemned already." (John 3:18, ESV)
• "Those who are perishing." (1 Corinthians 1:18, ESV)
• "Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on Him." (John 3:36, ESV)
• "Having no hope and without God in the world." (Ephesians 2:12, ESV)
• "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness." (Colossians 1:13, ESV)
• "They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord." (2 Thessalonians 1:9, ESV)
• "If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." (Revelation 20:15, ESV)

These are not abstract theological categories. These words describe someone you know. Someone you love. Someone within your reach.

How Did Jesus See People Around Him?

When Jesus looked at the crowds, He did not see shoppers or students or workers. He saw dying people.

"When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." (Matthew 9:36, ESV)

The Greek word for compassion in that passage is rooted in the word for entrails. He felt it in the deepest part of Himself. He saw into them. He understood what they needed. And He committed His entire life to it.

"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." (Luke 19:10, ESV)

The word "save" here means rescued from danger, saved from death. The word "lost" means ruined, destroyed, perishing. And in John 3:16, the word "perish" carries the same meaning: ruin, destruction, torn apart.

The whole life's work of Jesus was a relentless, passionate, do-whatever-it-takes effort to seek and save those who are dying. If you are following Jesus, you will be doing what He came to do.

Seeing People Through Spiritual Eyes

When Jesus calls us to be spiritual rescuers, He gives us a new way of seeing. Like putting on a pair of glasses that reveal a fourth dimension, we begin to see the lostness beneath the surface of the people around us.

You can see it when someone is relying entirely on themselves. You can see the quiet desperation of people trying to make it through another day without a Savior. Some of the most successful-looking people around us are the ones heading toward an eternity without God, because they trust in what they have done rather than what Jesus has done.

Once you see people for who they truly are, precious creations of God headed for an awful eternity without Him, you will be compelled to act.

You Are an Ambassador of the Kingdom of God

Paul makes this clear in 2 Corinthians:

"All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation... Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." (2 Corinthians 5:18-20, ESV)

An ambassador is appointed by the highest authority to represent that authority in a specific place. In this case, the King of Kings has appointed you to represent Him right where you are. In your neighborhood. In your workplace. In your school. In your city.

It is not an accident that you are where you are. God placed you there on purpose, to influence people on Christ's behalf.

What Happens When You Commit to the Rescue Mission

Charles Spurgeon captured what begins to happen in a heart that is truly committed to reaching the lost:

"If a man has once gained love to perishing sinners... it will be an all-absorbing passion to him... If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms around their knees, imploring them to stay."

That is the posture of someone who has turned the lifeboat around.

You will not take your money to heaven. You will not take your house or your car. But anyone you have told about Jesus may be there with you. That is the most important title you will ever carry: rescuer.

It Is Not as Hard as You Think to Open the Door

Starting a conversation about faith does not require a seminary degree. It can begin with something as simple as asking someone, "Do you ever feel like something is missing?" Almost everyone will say yes. We were all made by and for Jesus. If something feels wrong and someone feels missing, it is Him.

You can open a door. You can plant a seed. You can make yourself available. The Holy Spirit does the rest.

The disciples were only eleven men when Jesus told them to go to all the world. They must have felt overwhelmed. But within three hundred years, the known world had heard about Jesus. And the promise that followed the command was this: He will be with us always.

Life Application

This week, write down the name of one person in your life who does not know Jesus. Someone who, based on what Scripture says, is separated from God, without hope, and perishing. Put that name somewhere you will see it every day. Pray for them by name. Ask God to give you His eyes for that person and to open a door for a conversation.

Do not let another person slip away unwarned. Turn the lifeboat around.

Ask yourself:

• Am I content to stay comfortable in the lifeboat while people around me are drowning spiritually?
• When I look at the people in my daily life, do I see them the way Jesus sees them, as precious but perishing?
• Is there someone God has placed in my life specifically so that I might tell them about Jesus?
• What is one practical step I can take this week to open a door with someone who does not know Christ?