Launch Out Into The Deep Series

Sermon for 2/9/2003

Luke 5:4

Launch Out into the Deep

Introduction:

A. Tuesday February 4, 2003- As a bell tolled seven times, America’s space community wept over the loss of the seven Columbia astronauts at a memorial service on Tuesday in which President Bush vowed the exploration of space would go on.

"The loss was sudden and terrible, and for their families, the grief is heavy. Our nation shares in your sorrow and in your pride," Bush said in an address that paid tribute to each of the astronauts.

Many of them wiping tears from their eyes, thousands of NASA space workers -- scientists, engineers, astronauts -- and the families of those who died last Saturday, were gathered in a sunny courtyard of Johnson Space Center for a funeral-like memorial service of hymns and tearful speeches.

B. Scheduled to land 16 minutes later in Florida, the shuttle instead broke apart about 40 miles up going at 12,500 miles per hour, sprinkling burning fragments of the spacecraft down to the Texas plains far below.

C. The disaster has raised important questions about the future of the shuttle program, such as whether the government had done enough to make the shuttle fleet safe. Columbia was the second shuttle to end in disaster, after the Challenger exploded on liftoff in 1986.

At the service, Bush noted that David Brown had been asked by his brother several weeks ago what would happen if something went wrong on the Columbia mission, and replied "This program will go on."

"Capt. Brown was correct. America’s space program will go on," Bush said

D. “Their mission was almost complete, and we lost them so close to home," Bush said as he began his remarks in a plaza outside Mission Control at Johnson Space Center.

"Our whole nation was blessed to have such men and women serving in our space program," Bush said.

"This cause of exploration and discovery is not an option we choose; it is a desire written in the human heart. We find the best among us, send them forth into unmapped darkness, and pray they will return. They go in peace for all mankind, and all mankind is in their debt.

WBTU:

A. This cause of exploration and discovery is not an option we choose; it is a desire written in the human heart. I believe so.

B. I believe that this desire is in every human heart. Some have pushed this desire away because of fears or because of other pressing concerns, but I believe that it is there.

C. To explore strange new worlds,

to seek out new life and civilizations,

to boldly go where no one has gone before.

D. I believe that this desire is alive and well in this country. I believe that as pioneering Americans we need something to explore, something to discover for that has been our history.

E. Why did Christopher Columbus try to find a new route to the Indies? Oh yes, for trade, but there had to be an inborn desire to explore. Some were scared but Christopher went. What is out there?

F. Magellan sailed around the world, why, because he had in inborn desire to explore. What is out there?

G. All of the other explorers who came to this land. What is there? Some looked for the fountain of youth, some looked for gold, but they all came trying to discover.

H. Why did the colonists come? Yes, some had to come, but they all had an inborn desire to discover and explore and to see what they could become. If they didn’t they stayed at home. Some who threw off their fears and reached for the new worlds.

I. The pioneers. Why didn’t they stay at the coasts? They were looking for something more, some elbow room, but they really wanted to explore and discover.

J. Why do people go to the top of Mount Everest? To see it for themselves, to explore, to discover.

K. The country was founded by pioneers, adventurers. If we leave out the sea, space is the final frontier. To explore the moon, to explore Mars excites us.

L. Why do people leave what they know and reach for things that they do not know and are unsure about? To explore, to discover, to be more, to see more. To live life to it fullest!

M. (John 10:10 NIV) I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

The Christian life is a life of adventure or it should be! The Great Adventure

Started out this morning in the usual way

Chasing thoughts inside my head of all I had to do today

Another time around the circle try to make it better than the last

I opened up the Bible and I read about me