I live in the Great Lakes area. It is a beautiful part of God’s world. The lakes are beautiful blue in color some days and grey and foreboding other days. In the summer, boats can be seen dotted along the horizon and along the shores. In the winter, there is a serenity and beauty as the lakes freeze and the wind whips the white snow in billows across its surface. One lake, perhaps the greatest of the great lakes is Lake Superior. Its a huge lake, hundreds of square miles wide. It is also a very deep lake, nearly six-hundred feet deep in some parts. Perhaps you recall the song by Gordon Lightfoot about the Edmund Fitzgerald. That ship went down in Lake Superior around this time of the year, off Whitefish Point, quite a few years ago. In downtown Detroit, there is an old stone church almost hidden by the Renaissance Center. It’s called the Old Mariners’ Church. The bell tolls for those lost in the stormy waters of the Great Lakes.
Off the shore of Lake Superior is an island. It’s called Isle Royale. It is a wild, primitive place, isolated from the mainland by the whipping waves of Lake Superior. Wildlife lives on the island: beaver, muskrat, moose, elk, wolf and bobcat. It is a seperated place. It is a beautiful place. It is listed as a National Park in the government registry.
If we think of Christianity, and we think of how easily we claim to be Christians, is there a group of believers who are living different than the vast majority of Christianity? Are they like Isle Royale? Seperated, preserved, showing beauty with their walk? Rugged, genuine, unspoiled and unspotted? What seperates this group. How are they seperate? Shold we seek to be more like them?
What about the folks on the mainland of Christianity? Who claim to be Christian, or who have taken the name Christian and wear it as a thin veneer? Who profess to be Christian but don’t really want to follow God’s word, don’t want to do God’s work, and reject most of the markers or characteristics of Christianity. What do we mean by being a born-again believer? Where do we fit in? Are we on the island or on the mainland with the mainstream?
Here’s what Paul says in II Timothy chapter four and verse three. He says that there will be a time, when people don’t put up with the truth. They will feel free to reject the Bible and its truths. Well folks point number one this morning is basically this:
1.The Bible must be accepted in whole, not in part. The Bible contains truth, and we must seek to live it.
The Bible will show us how God wants us to be a separate people, a preserved people, a people unto God.
God wants us to be seperated unto holiness. The Bible shows us the walk of the believer. Okay, okay already, we know that. But what is happening today, just as Paul says, we don’t read our Bibles and adhere to what it says. We take the parts we want. We accept so little of the Bible, and often, by our lifestyles and our weakness, we reject the sound teaching of the word of God. No more AWANA, no more PIONEERS, no more mid-week, and throw out Sunday night. Throw out the old hymns, throw out the rules and rights and wrongs. It’s too hard to live all that. Well, let me ask you, is the Bible true or not?
You can pick and twirl how many angels dance on the head of a pin all day and all night, but realistically you have to come down on that basic question: Is the Bible just another book, or is it a very true and special book that can be a basic instruction manual for our messed-up lives?
Going back to Isle Royale. Did you know? "In Lake Superior’s northwest corner sits a wilderness archipelago - a roadless land of wild creatures, unspoiled forests, refreshing lakes, and rugged, scenic shores - accessible only by boat or floatplane.
Wolves and moose, the wild North Woods forest, everchanging weather and a cool climate, and the crystal clear waters and rugged shoreline of Lake Superior characterize Isle Royale National Park. There is excellent fishing, historic lighthouses and shipwrecks, ancient copper mining sites, and plenty of spots to observe wildlife. Roadless Isle Royale is accessible only by boat or float plane. Isle Royale is relatively untouched by direct outside influences and serves as a living laboratory and Unites States Biosphere Reserve."
As Christians we are to be people who remain unspotted by the world. We are to have an inner beauty that people can sense and see. There should be a sense of self that shows the beauty of the soul, the serenity of the spirit and the heart that is untouched and uninfluenced by the screaming voices of the world. We’re always glad to hear when a celebrity comes to know God and accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. But we want a testimony that is deep, deep as Superior, a depth of the soul that is genuine and true.
The second point Paul makes in verse four of chapter four is this: People hear what they want to hear. We need to hear from God from godly teaching. Do we find teachers and churches that suit us, and our own desires? What about service? What about sacrifice? What about helping the helpless like Jesus taught us? Barna says that the baby-boomer generation changes churches like clean underwear. They don’t set down roots, they don’t go where God calls, they go were they can get the latest football scores and recipes. Help with their 401K? No problem, we got a program or a seminar for that. We are the one-stop, do everything, all-world worship center. But what about the teaching? Is it truth? Is it Bible based, and balanced? Paul says we want teachers and churches that tickle our ears with what we want to hear. You read the Bible, it tells us that they killed the prophets and teachers who told them who they were and where they were going. Unspotted by the world, teachers that teach the truth in love.
Back to Isle Royale,"aquatic environments abound both on and around the island. In fact, some 80 percent of the national park is under water, as shallow, warm-water ponds, streams, and rivers, and the deep, cold, foreboding Lake Superior waters. Commercial fishing has been one of the mainstay economic activities on the island throughout historic times. It began before 1800, to feed the fur trade. Since about 1840, it has been a largely individual enterprise."
God wants us to be fishers of men. He wants us to enjoy this world, the benefits of life, yes, but he wants us to live out what purpose he made us to live. He created us just like the water and the earth. He formed us for his own good pleasure. He wants a holy people, a people of good works and service.
Back to the fourth chapter, and verse four, it says that these thin-veneer Christians, turn away from the truth and turn to myths and fables. Who in the world is Harry Potter? What is that satanic influence in our world? Let’s get off the mainland and get on the island! God keep our kids safe from those demonic influences of the media, the X-Box and the Blockbuster. The hymn says "There is a place of quiet rest, near to the heart of God....a place where sin cannot molest...near to the heart of God." Point number three today is this: It takes deliberate choices and decisions to live the Christian life. To flee like Joseph when we should flee, and stand for the truth when we are called to stand. Listen folks, whether we want to believe it or not, there is a battle going on. It is a battle for the next generation. There is the island of truth and the mainland of Harry Potter. Paul says we "turn aside and turn from the truth." Let’s pray that we would do the right things, make the right choices for our families and loved ones.
Paul tells Timothy in verse five to keep on course, to endure hardship and to do the work of an evangelist. He says to discharge all the duties fo the ministry. You see, we are all called to serve, not sit back. We are all called to the duties God has called us. We need to minister to these kids and to the young people. Many of us have been Christians for many years. We know what God wants us to do. Let’s do it. But finally, more that do it, be it. Live a life for Him! With a heart for the things of God!
"As a wilderness, Isle Royale is more than just a sanctuary for wolves and moose. As a national park it is more than a pleasuring ground for humans. The island’s uniqueness lies in its complex yet simple system of natural processes; moose are dependent upon both wolves and beaver - wolves to control their numbers and beaver to provide dams and in turn the aquatic vegetation upon which the moose feed. The beaver also serve as a summer food for the wolves and beaver ponds eventually become meadows that support a variety of smaller animals. The red fox eats the hare who, if left unchecked, would destroy the forest that supports the moose that supports the wolf. In such a system a dynamic equilibrium is struck in which each species has an important role. And our part? We must leave this balance to natural law, observing but not manipulating. Isle Royale has been designated an international biosphere reserve under the Man and the Biosphere program. Ninety-nine percent of the park’s land area is legally designated as wilderness."
Let’s pray, as we live out our lives under the hand of God. Go to the island of God!
Quotes taken from:www.isle.royal.national.park.com
