Minnesota Campmeeting 1973

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Minnesota Conference

E.L. Minchin

Beginning to Sink

This morning we shall turn to the book of Matthew, and I will read verse 30.

Matthew, pardon, chapter 14 and verse 30.

But when he saw the wind boisterous, He was afraid.

And beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord save me.

We're all familiar with this very wonderful story of the night on the lake.

The people and the disciples wanted to acclaim him king.

They didn't yet understand the nature of our Lord's kingdom, not even the disciples.

They still thought that he would crown him, become, he would permit himself to be crowned as king, and they'd be delivered from the oppression of the Romans.

But Jesus, that night, with a word, a note, or a command of authority, told the people to disperse, and told the disciples to take the boat and go across to Capernaum, while he went up into the mountainside to pray.

At every great crisis in his ministry, you notice, the Savior went aside to pray.

And that night on the little lake, on the lake, the hearts of the disciples were filled with doubts and questionings and evil forebodings and criticisms.

Why didn't he permit us to proclaim him king?

But up there on the mount, the Savior was engaged in prayer.

Not for 1 moment did he forget his loved disciples.

You remember that night in the third watch, early in the morning, that sudden storm sprang up, and the little boat was tossed on the sea and the waves became high and the disciples were afraid.

Death talked to them in those angry billows.

And the harder they pulled the worse it seemed and nothing but tragedy and death seemed to await them.

And you remember how our Savior walked out to that little boat.

And when the disciples saw this being they thought it was a spirit at first.

And then as he passed by they seemed to recognize him.

Wherever Jesus goes, friends, he brings peace, doesn't he?

And you remember when they recognized the master there that night?

That night of terrible fear, when they recognized him?

You remember how Peter called out, Lord, if it be thou bid that I should come on the water unto thee.

And he stepped out and he walked successfully for a time.

But then he took his eyes off of his master.

Pride at his accomplishment took hold of him.

The billows talked of death again to him, because he'd lost sight of his master.

Beginning to sink he cried, Lord save me.

I want to take that expression this morning, beginning to sink.

I want to use it figuratively this morning.

Peter beginning to sink cried, Lord save me.

There are sights that fill us with sorrow of a man or a woman or a youth who has sunken.

The murderer, the profligate, the drug addict, the adulterer, the prostitute.

We look with pity and with horror at the man or the woman of the youth who has sunken in sin.

There's another sight that should concern us, should fill our hearts with great sorrow, perhaps greater sorrows, the man or the woman or the youth who's beginning to sink.

It's the first cigarette, my dear friend, that makes the smoker, not the last 1.

It's the first drink that makes the drunkard, not the last 1.

It's the first step in that pathway of licentiousness and impurity that robs us of our virtue and weakens our will and moral power, not the last 1.

I'm talking this morning about beginnings.

I think we need to have a study on beginnings.

Think of the apostasies that take place in our church every year.

I was in 1 conference once where our apostasies in the church exceeded our baptisms and our accessions.

We're losing thousands every year out the back door of the church.

It should fill our hearts with great concern.

If we were to save and to hold every youth that's born into this church or read in our Sabbath schools and church schools and colleges, if we were to save them all, friends, that were read in Seventh-day Adventist homes, we'd have more accessions to our church than through all our evangelistic efforts combined, we're told.

I was in 1 big city, in the city of Chicago, holding a series of meetings.

And for 3 months our churches were organized into prayer groups and and friendship teams for visiting the backslidden and the former Adventists.

And do you know, friends, they had a list of 1137, I think it was, names of former Seventh-day Adventists that they discovered in that city.

They were handed in by church members and a great search was made from over a thousand former Seventh-day Adventists.

I'm quite sure that very few, if any, of those dear people, when they were baptized into this church, into the faith of Jesus Christ, ever had it planned in their minds that someday they'd go away from God and the truth and the church.

They didn't plan it that way, but somewhere, sometime, somehow, someday, some night, some moment, in their religious experience, in their church relationship, they began to sink.

You know, that night on the sea, Peter, it says, began to sink.

1 step in the wrong direction prepares the way for another.

We're talking about beginnings this morning.

That first step away from God, from truth, from church fellowship, from goodness, from right.

The least deviation from right and principle will lead to separation from God and may end in apostasy.

I'm sure we've had a wonderful blessing here at this camp meeting.

1 sister said yesterday that her battery was recharged.

But oh, my dear sister and brethren and sisters, that recharging here at this camp meeting will not suffice for next month, for the coming year.

That battery must be recharged every day.

Listen, the least deviation from right and principle, the least deviation from right and principle will lead to separation from God.

Doesn't say it is separation, will lead to it.

You see friends, God not only condemns sin, but he condemns that which leads to it.

Is there anyone here conscious of a wrong trend in his life?

We lead to separation from God and may end in apostasy.

What we do once, we more readily and naturally do again.

And to go forward in a certain path, be it right or wrong, is more easy than to start.

Whatever a man becomes accustomed to, be it influence good or evil, he finds it difficult to abandon.

Peter began to sink that night, as far as I can see, very largely because of his temperament.

Peter was an impulsive fellow as we all know, most wonderful character, the great man of God that he became.

But he had to learn some lessons and Jesus designed to teach him these lessons.

All the training of the 12, how patiently, how wonderfully Jesus taught those disciples.

He was impetuous, he was rash, he was always doing the unexpected, he was impulsive.

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Beginning to Sink

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