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Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

David Wright

Spiritual No-Man’s Land

You know, there are times in life that it's all or nothing.

You're either all in or you're not in at all.

I remember 1 such occasion when I went down to Belize.

I'd already served as a student missionary.

I was craving the clear blue waters and I had a friend who also was a student missionary, not where I was, but in Belize, and he says we could go down there and he worked everything out.

We spent 4 weeks because that's when our visa expired.

And we just worked at this dive shop, and any time we supposedly tutored their kids, which we did some, but their kids wouldn't stand for too much of it.

So really we just hung out at the dive shop, and when a boat wasn't full, we jumped on board and got to do free diving.

And 1 of the things that was the thing to do, especially on 1 of these outer dives on 1 of the outer atolls called Lighthouse reef, there was 1 dive where it was kind of a sandy bottom to start out and some seagrass and some of these little worms that look like seagrass and they would, anyway I'm getting distracted.

It was a beautiful dive, but 1 of the things that they like to do is they take all the gear, They would let all the air out of the BC, which is opposite of what you usually do, you make sure it's weighted enough, and you just pitch it over the side, and you watch it sink to the bottom, and then you grab your mask and your fins, and you dive down, and you put your stuff on at the bottom.

Well, I watched them do this a time or 2, we'd been there a couple of weeks, I'd been able to get a little bit better at free diving, but I was no free dive expert.

And so on this particular day, I thought, I think I can do this.

And so I remember throwing all of my gear off the side of the boat.

You have to just, you know, with reckless abandon, ha!

I remember looking and of course, it kind of goes at a slant.

And I threw it as far away on this downward slant, and the tide was up.

And I remember looking now with my mask and my flippers over top, thinking, that is really far down there.

It was probably from the top of the ceiling to the floor, which doesn't seem deep until you're looking at it through goggles underwater.

And then the thought came to my mind, I don't remember turning my air on.

But a lot of times, they turn everybody's air on in advance of us getting there, I wonder if it's on and I'm breathing in my snorkel.

Well, my stuff's down there at the bottom.

I guess I could buddy breathe with somebody.

But I was quite certain I wouldn't have enough air to go down and to come back up.

And you don't want to try pushing too hard or you use up all of your breath, so you have to try and be relaxed and just, you know, slow and easy body mechanics.

I remember going down, down, down, adjusting my ears, the whole thing.

And I'm thinking, why did I do this again?

I'm starting to panic a little bit, and I find, I already located it from the top, I find that regulator, I put it in my mouth, and, oh, it was on, thank goodness.

I almost died, I don't even know what for.

You can't go part way or most of the way or end up at the bottom and then, at least for me and my lungs, I couldn't go back.

You either have to go for it full on or don't bother.

Either run with the big dogs or get off the porch they say here in the south.

And I'm reminded of our passage that Monroe did such a great job reading for us this morning.

In Luke chapter 9, verses 23 and 24, there we read, Then he said to them, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, how often?

Now the symbolism of a cross, Is that a good thing?

If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it.

But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." I believe the disciples took this rather literally.

Whoever loses his life for my sake, what does that mean?

In AD 44, King Herod ordered that James be thrust through by the sword.

He was the first of the apostles to be martyred.

Luke was hung by the neck in an olive tree.

Doubting Thomas was pierced with a pine spear, tortured with red hot plates, and then burned alive in India.

Philip was crucified by converting the wife of Heriopolis in AD 54.

It is said that he continued to preach while hanging on the cross.

Matthew was stabbed in the back in Ethiopia.

Bartholomew was flogged to death in Armenia.

James was thrown off the southeast pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem, a hundred foot drop, and when he survived, he was clubbed to death by an angry mob.

Simon the Zealot was crucified by a governor in Syria in AD 74.

Judas Thaddeus was beaten to death in Mesopotamia.

Matthias, who replaced Judas Iscariot, was stoned and then beheaded.

Peter was crucified upside down upon his own request.

And John the Beloved was the only disciple to die of natural causes, and it's not because they didn't try.

He survived his own execution of boiling oil.

God still had a lot of work for him to do.

So in light of all of that, let me ask you, How was your week?

I know many here have read Foxe's Book of Martyrs, and by comparison, I would submit that many of Our risks seem rather tame.

Our sacrifices can seem quite lame, right?

Because I tell you, in this culture that we live, you're never called to sacrifice anything, to give up anything.

Another update, another thing to improve your life.

For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and in himself is destroyed or lost?

You can gain it all, have it all, but lose your own soul.

So if I read these passages correctly, I'm starting to get this idea that if I want to live life to the fullest, in the truest sense of what life is, I give up my life.

I won't find myself until I lose myself for the cause of Jesus Christ.

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Spiritual No-Man’s Land

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