Perhaps one of the best examples of good times going bad is the sinking of the Titanic.
Can you imagine that fateful night?
All was good.
The band was performing, passengers were all dressed up and enjoying conversations, children were snoozing, grandparents were eating, couples were kissing and a generally good times was being had by all.
Suddenly at 11:40pm on 15 April 1912 things turned bad.
There was a massive crash. Muffled thuds were heard, then the gushing of water. Before long the floor was slanting and the Grand Pianos were sliding.
Below the ship was 3 km of ice cold water and on board there were only enough lifeboats for half the passengers.
More than 1500 people lost their lives.
Now imagine the church as the Titanic and the world as the sea.
Just as a ship is in the sea so the church is called to be in the world.
However, problems arise when the sea gets into the ship. Similarly, it’s when worldliness seeps into the church that good times go bad.
If worldliness seeps into the church and into the lives of God’ people, disaster and shipwreck (cf. 1 Timothy 1:18-20) are not far away.
When water begins to get into a ship it needs to be decisively dealt with and pumped out.
When sin, compromise, lust and sin seep into our lives as God’s people, we too need to deal decisively with it, like Nehemiah does in Ch. 13, before our ships starts sinking. We need to confront our sin and compromise, and take action.
Are we tempted to allow sin and compromise into our lifestyle, our relationships, or our finances?
We need to name our sin, turn from it, thank God for his forgiveness in Jesus, and again embrace God’s way.
Cf. Hebrew 12:1-4
Acknowledgement: Thank you to JI Packer for this “ship” illustration in his book on Nehemiah, A Passion for Faithfulness.