Sermon on seeking and saving the lost

David A. Sargent
Mobile, AL 36695

The Greatest Search and Rescue Mission
(PDF files with pictures to accompany this sermon)

INTRODUCTION:

A.            Text: Luke 19:10; Mark 16:15-16

B.            [S1] In 1981, a freelance photographer stumbled upon the abandoned carcass of a wooden boat.  "He came upon this boat sitting in the woods rotting away, and it was rotting away," said Mark Carron, the chairman of the Orleans Historical Society on Cape Cod.

1.            He spotted the one recognizable clue the tides of time had not yet washed away -- the numbers 36-500.

2.            [S2] [The 36-500] He, among few others, knew it as the call sign of a very significant lifeboat.

3.            Here’s why that lifeboat was so significant…

C.           [S3] [The SS Pendleton]  On Feb. 18, 1952, the 500-foot, 10,000-ton tanker SS Pendleton -- its nine cargo tanks filled to the top with kerosene and heating oil -- had been ripped in two offshore.

1.            The crew of 41 faced "imminent death."

2.            "It was what we call here a nor'easter with waves that you can't even describe unless you see it," Carron said about the day the ship sank.

3.            A teletype sent after the storm called the waters "hazardous," the seas "mountainous," the darkness "extreme," the falling snow and winter gale "violent."

D.           [S4] A quartet of Coast Guardsmen -- none older than 24 -- was at the Coast Guard station on Cape Cod when the distress call came over the radio.  Coast Guardsman Bernie Webber got an order to take his crew into the storm.  The names of the four guardsmen: Bernie Webber, Andrew Fitzgerald, Richard Livesey, and Irving Maske.

1.            "It was a suicide mission," said Casey Sherman, co-author of a book on the rescue called "The Finest Hours."

2.            The book is the basis of a Disney movie by the same title.

E.            [S5] "The Finest Hours" tells the story about how Webber and his crew set sail on the small Coast Guard lifeboat, the 36-500, to rescue the survivors on the SS Pendleton.

1.            The storm shattered the boat's windshield, sprayed the men with glass, tore out the compass and temporarily knocked out the motor.

2.            With no direction, no help and little hope, they found the stern section of the Pendleton and most of the crew.

F.            Webber then faced a fateful choice: "Does he take everybody home or try to?" Sherman asked. "Does he only try to rescue as many as the boat can fit?

1.            [S6] Webber told his men, 'Boys, we're all gonna live tonight or we're all gonna die, but we're not going home without all these men.'"

2.            Webber, the son of a Massachusetts minister, was praying for help.

3.            And he got it.

G.           Despite the incredible conditions, Webber piloted the boat back to Chatham, Massachusetts, and sailed into history.

1.            [S7] His crew saved 32 of the 41 people aboard the Pendleton.

2.            [S8] The next day, headlines broadcasted the good news… “32 Saved Off Tankers”

H.           "To his last dying day, he called it divine providence was what brought those men back," Sherman said

I.              [S9] It has been called “the greatest small-boat rescue the Coast Guard has seen, ever."

J.             [S10] So, over the past 30 years, volunteers at the historical society have raised a quarter of a million dollars to restore the 36-500, putting the luster back in the legend.

K.            [S10A] Asked if he was trying to keep the story alive so people don't forget, Carron said he was "because if they forget, then all of what those heroes did and the family of the 32 that were saved is all for naught -- unless history can keep it alive."

L.            That is an account of “the greatest small-boat rescue the Coast Guard has seen, ever."

M.           Yet, there is an even GREATER SEARCH AND RESCUE MISSION…

N.           Note some parallels…

I.              [S11] THE CREW OF THE SS PENDLETON – Those Lost in Sin

A.            The Crew of the SS Pendleton

1.            The crew of 41 faced "imminent death."

2.            "It was what we call here a nor'easter with waves that you can't even describe unless you see it," Carron said about the day the ship sank.

3.            A teletype sent after the storm called the waters "hazardous," the seas "mountainous," the darkness "extreme," the falling snow and winter gale "violent."

4.            They were doomed, completely helpless, unable to save themselves.

B.            Their condition reflects the condition of those lost in sin – our condition outside of Christ.

1.            [S11A] (Eph 2:1-2 NIV)  As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, {2} in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

2.            We are lost, completely helpless, unable to save ourselves. Unless Someone comes to our rescue, we will perish (Matthew 7:13-14; John 3:16).

3.            This isn’t due to some accident, but our SIN (Romans 3:23).

4.            “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

5.            [S12] (Rom 5:6 NKJV)  For when we were still without strength…, [in due time Christ died for the ungodly.]

6.            (Rom 5:6 NIV)  You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, [Christ died for the ungodly.]

II.            [S13] THE 36-500 LIFEBOAT – The Gospel

A.            This was the “vehicle” used to save the crew of the SS Pendleton.  Although it was a small Coast Guard lifeboat, it was the means of salvation for those who were lost at sea.

B.            This lifeboat can be likened to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

1.            [S13A] (Rom 1:16 NKJV)  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

2.            [S14] The Gospel is the Good News that Jesus Christ “died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

3.            Paul said of this Gospel: (1 Cor 15:1-2 NKJV)  Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, {2} by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you; unless you believed in vain.

4.            [S15] (Rom 5:6 NIV)  You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

5.            The Gospel is just as powerful today!!!

III.          [S16] THE FOUR COAST GUARDSMEN – Christians taking the Gospel to the Lost

A.            A quartet of Coast Guardsmen -- none older than 24 -- was at the Coast Guard station on Cape Cod when the distress call came over the radio.  Coast Guardsman Bernie Webber got an order to take his crew into the storm.

B.            The four coast guardsmen can represent Christians today.

1.            We are the ones who must carry the Gospel to the lost.

2.            [S16A] (2 Cor 5:20 NKJV)  Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.

C.           “Into Our Hands” (“Swiftly We’re Turning”)

1.            Ruth Carruth, a long time friend of Tillit Teddlie, was a very gifted poet. In fact, she was named the Poet Laureate of Texas for 1977-1978. She loved to write poetry and shared her inspiration with many others.

2.            In 1939 she sold some poems to Teddlie for $4 a piece. Among those poems were the words for the song, “Into Our Hands The Gospel Is Given.” Being a very missionary minded person, Carruth penned her words so as to draw the listener closer to a relationship with Jesus. (Mike Baker, http://ourdailywalkdevo.blogspot.com/2007/08/into-our-hands-gospel-is-given.html).

3.            [S17] 3^rd Verse:
“Souls that are precious, souls that are dying,
While we rejoice our sins are forgiven;
Did He not also die for these lost ones?
Then let us point the way unto heav'n.”

4.            [S18] Chorus
“Into our hands the gospel is given,
Into our hands is given the light,
Haste, let us carry God's precious message,
Guiding the erring, back to the right.”
-- “Swiftly We’re Turning” by Ruth Carruth and Tillit S. Teddlie

D.           “Do we save everyone or just a few?”

1.            We take the Gospel to EVERYONE.  Then whosoever accepts the message and in faith obeys it, shall be saved.

2.            [S19] (Mark 16:15-16 NKJV)  And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. {16} "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.

IV.          [S20] “DIVINE PROVIDENCE”

A.            "To his [Bernie Webber’s] last dying day, he called it divine providence was what brought those men back," Sherman said.

B.            Our Salvation and the Salvation of Others is really about the LOVE OF GOD.

1.            It’s “God’s doing.”

2.            [S20A] (2 Cor 5:18-19 NKJV)  Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, {19} that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

3.            God does the saving.  We’re His messengers.

V.            [S21] “NEVER FORGET”

A.            Asked if he was trying to keep the story alive so people don't forget, Mark Carron, chairman of the Orleans Historical Society on Cape Cod, said he was "because if they forget, then all of what those heroes did and the family of the 32 that were saved is all for naught -- unless history can keep it alive."

B.            We must “NEVER FORGET” our mission.

C.           The Parable of the Lifesaving Station

1.            On a dangerous sea coast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little life-saving station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves, went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost. Some of those who were saved and various others in the surrounding area wanted to become associated with the station and gave of their time and money and effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews trained. The little life-saving station grew.

2.            Some of the members of the life-saving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. They replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building. Now the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they decorated it beautifully because they used it as a sort of club. Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on life-saving missions, so they hired lifeboat crews to do this work. The life-saving motif still prevailed in the club’s decorations, and there was a liturgical life-boat in the room where the club’s initiations were held.

3.            About this time a large ship wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boat loads of cold, wet and half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick. The beautiful new club was in chaos. So the property committee immediately had a shower house build outside the club where victims of shipwrecks could be cleaned up before coming inside.

4.            At the next meeting, there was a split among the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s life-saving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Some members insisted upon life-saving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a life-saving station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own life-saving station. So they did.

5.            As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. It evolved into a club, and yet another life-saving station was founded. History continued to repeat itself, and if you visit that sea coast today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs along that shore. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown. -- From Ideas books by Youth Specialities, Inc. 1224 Greenfield Drive, El Cajon, CA 92021 reprinted by permission in the Fall 1990 issue of Student Leadership journal, 1990 by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA

D.           [S21A] “Into Our Hands”
Chorus
“Into our hands the gospel is given,
Into our hands is given the light,
Haste, let us carry God's precious message,
Guiding the erring, back to the right.”
-- “Swiftly We’re Turning” by Ruth Carruth and Tillit S. Teddlie

E.            [S22] (blank slide)

SOURCES:

Albert, Mark.  “Spotlight to shine on decades-old daring rescue at sea.”  10/17/15.  http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-finest-hours-greatest-rescues-us-coast-guard-history/  Albert’s segment was entitled: “The Greatest Rescue.”

Michael Miller, “The Finest Hours: Behind the Incredible True Story of the Coast Guard's Most Daring Rescue Attempt.”  http://www.people.com/article/finest-hours-behind-true-story-coast-guards-daring-rescue

[S23] “The Crew” later in life.

(Luke 19:10 NKJV)  "for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."