Saved to Serve.

There is a growth in this message of Jesus.  There are four steps up and out.  First comes the plain call to service:  “Launch out.”  This is the ringing service call.  It is a familiar word to a follower of Jesus.  He was always saying, “Go ye.”  To every man He said first of all, “Come.”  Then, as quickly as a man came, the word was changed to “go.”

I like greatly the motto of the Salvation Army.  It must have been born for those workers in the warm heart of the mother of the Army, Catharine Booth.  That mother explains much of the marvelous power of that organization.  Their motto is, “Saved to Serve.”  Some seem to put the period in after the first word.  That’s bad punctuation and worse Christianity.  We are saved to be savers.  There is needed the divine Savior and the human saver.  Only he who has been saved can help save somebody else.  The tingle of experience in the blood attracts men.

The Master says, “Launch out.”  Get down into the thick of the fight.  One should not unwisely wear out his strength.  But on the other hand, it’s better to wear out than to rust out.  You’ll last longer, and any loss of strength is to be preferred to the loss through yellow, eating rust.  A minister noted for his striking way of putting truth was preaching upon the words that were spoken of Paul and his companions:  “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also."[14] He said there were three points to his sermon:  first, the world was wrong side up; second, it had to be gotten right side up; third, we’re the fellows to do it.  That is the first note of this message, we are the fellows to do it.

Ambition in Service.

The second step in this ringing call to service is this:  ambition in service.  “Launch out into the deep.”  The shore waters are largely over-fished.  Out in the deeps are fish that have never had smell or sight of bait or net.  Here, near shore, the lines get badly tangled sometimes, and committees have to be appointed to try to untangle the lines and sweeten up the fishermen.

And the fish get very particular about the sort and shape of the bait.  Some men have taken to fishing wholly with pickles, but with very unsatisfactory results.  The fish nibble, but are seldom landed apparently.  And just a little bit out are fish that never have gotten a suggestion of a good bite.

There are deeps all around.  One might fairly give an inward personal turn to the word.  There are personal deeps that have not yet been sounded.  There are untouched deeps in prayer, in Bible study, and in the winning of others.  There are deeps in acquaintance with Jesus, in purity of life, in sacrifice and in giving whose bottom no greasy lead has yet touched.  “Out into the deep,” comes that quiet intense inner voice of Jesus spoken into one’s innermost heart.

There are the great deeps in service waiting our coming.  Roundabout every church is a fringe of deep, sometimes a deep fringe and broad, of those practically untouched by the warm message of Jesus; and around every Christian Association of men and of women.  In the heart and on the edges of every village and town and city unfathomed deeps lie; deeps in a man’s own state, deeps in our land, great untouched deeps in the world.