Shipwrecked Saints - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, April 10th. Are you drifting too close to sin and compromise? Today's podcast offers a vital warning encouraging us to steer clear of known dangers that could potentially derail our lives. Is there ever a time when you and I can neglect our relationship to Christ? And is that not the reason that some people run aground and their ship begins to sink and they wonder what in the world's happened in their spiritual life? They just begin to be negligent. The neglect of anything is costly. And one of the reasons some people find themselves in a backslidden condition, they never chose to do it.

They never said, I'm going to backslide. They just got busy doing something else. And someone got their attention over here.

Why don't let's do this and why don't we do that? And they begin to fall into little habits and those habits demand their time. And those demanded times draw from time they spent with God. And after a while, somehow they find themselves in a condition.

They never planned it that way. It just resulted out of neglect in their life. Let me ask you this. You look at your own spiritual life. Are you neglecting any aspect of your spiritual life? Are you saying, well, I don't need to pray or I don't particularly need to read the Bible.

I'll make it somehow. And you see, I'm not saying you can't make it through one day without praying. But why do you think he said that we're to meditate day and night? Because God knows that when Satan cannot get you one way, if he can just get you busy doing something to neglect your warm, intimate, personal relationship with him, that sooner or later you're going to run aground. It's just part of the lifestyle.

But there's another way that it happens. And that's carelessness. When he said here, some have suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. He's not talking about carelessness there, but carelessness is a way. If you ask any captain of a big ocean-going vessel, what is the thing he fears most at sea?

He will tell you, fire. And most fires start out of carelessness. If there's anything a believer cannot afford, it is carelessness in our Christian life. Satan is always ready for that careless moment. That moment when we're not thinking. That moment when we have sort of let down our guard. That moment when we think, well, just relax. Satan never relaxes. His demonic powers never relax.

I'm not saying that you should not physically and emotionally relax, but I'm saying you and I are never to let down our spiritual guard. Carelessness. Temptation always lurks where there's the possibility of carelessness. And indifference to the circumstances. Carelessness on our part as believers can cost our witness and our testimony. And can cost someone else an awful lot of grief. An awful lot of heartache.

An awful lot of hurt. Carelessness. Onboard ship.

Start a fire. And the ship sink, taking everybody with it beneath the waters. That's where some of God's people are. They just got careless about their life. Oh, they didn't think going into this particular place and that particular place would make any difference. After all, I'm a believer and I believe the Bible. I go to church on Sunday.