I:60 Message In A Bottle

Message In A Bottle

​“Just a castaway, an island lost at sea, oh Another lonely day, with no one here but me, oh More loneliness than any man could bear, Rescue me before I fall into despair, oh”

The Police, "message in the bottle"(1979)

The first thought that led to the second thought. First thought, last Monday we had our Men's fellowship called M6 (men at 6pm). A lot of men came and many new faces joined us. But in the end, some men left that we may never see again. One of the hardest struggles in being men who desire that all men would surrender their lives to Christ is that some won't. As men who have tasted and found that the Lord is good, their whole life purpose is to share that fruit with fellow men, knowing that if those men would give Christ a chance, they too would see and taste the goodness of God's mercy and grace. But some leave us with no way to follow up and encourage them. They leave as shipwrecked and abandoned as they first arrived. For me, these castaways are the ones I most want to serve, yet they have gone, and I have to wait on the Lord to bring them back. So my second thought came from the first. A message in a bottle. We are all familiar with one story or another about a person walking along the shore only to find a message in a bottle. Usually written by someone in pure desperation and in great hope that the message would be carried along the tides and would find its way to a person who would rescue them. I believe every man has a message in a bottle that they have tossed anonymously into the ocean, hoping that someone would find it and rescue them. For me, the message that I threw into the ocean was found by the only one who can truly rescue a man, and that rescuer was and is Jesus Christ. Men, when your message has been found, don't turn your back on the rescue boat. Frantically run across the sand into the ocean and embrace your rescuer, your savior, as if it were your last and only chance to be rescued. Because it may truly be. So the above is my message in a bottle that I toss into the great ocean of social media. This is not a message by one who needs to be rescued, but by one who is returning the message back into the ocean, a message of hope for those who are desperate and need rescued. This message has been floating in the sea for over 2000 years; many have found it, and have been rescued, and in gratitude the rescued put the message back into the bottle with a prayer and returned it to the sea only to find the next shipwrecked soul looking to be rescued. “So I ask you to share this post as a message in a bottle returned to the sea only to find the next soul that needs rescued.

What is this message?

“But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.””

Romans 10:8-18

Dear castaway you are in the prayers of men who seek to find you and bring you home.