“Rusting Out For Jesus?” Our base text will be II Tim. 4:7

2Ti 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.

Hi, can you guess what I am. I was used for years but now I am just rusting away.

I am almost the length of a football field. I was powered by electricity with an eight inch wide cable

I live in Clarion County, Pennsylvania. I was designed to do work that was impossible for men to do.

I used to use these a lot, but no longer. By these pieces of equipment great obstacles were overcome

Here is a picture of one of my two feet. Without my feet disaster would come upon me.

Have you figured it out yet? What do you think I am?

If you guessed that I was a coal digging machine you were correct. My name is “Digger”. With one scoop I used to be able to pick up 45 cubit yards of coal

Digger was designed to do a specific kind of work He literally moved an amount of earth which when piled in one place would make a small mountain! Remember the following Digger now sits -- he does nothing and is just rusting away! Do you see the rust that is creeping all over him?

And while Digger worked, there was life in his interior -- an operator at the controls directed Digger in all that he did -- as Digger responded to the operator at the controls, some big things happened -- a lot of people's lives were impacted because of what Digger did as he was guided by the operator!

However, most tragic is the fact that Digger is now disconnected from his power source -- what he did was possible because he was hooked up to a mighty power source, but now all he does is sit, doing nothing while he rusts away!

Lessons from Digger 1. You can have a great past but a rusting present 2. Once disconnected from the power source all we can do is speak about what we used to do

3. The Holy Spirit is like the operator of “Digger”. (Name many things the Holy Spirit desires to do through us. Be specific.)

4. There are many ways for a Christian to wind up like “Digger”. (Try to name a few.) 5. Rust is readily seen. ( It will will show in your actions, thoughts and your words.)

Remember that multitudes of people are like Digger -- disconnected from the Power Source (Almighty God) rusting away in life and doing nothing when it comes to fulfilling God's high and holy purpose for them!

Ask God to give you grace that you will not end up rusting away in life due to being misled into focusing on yourself and the things of this present world, thereby doing nothing that significantly counts for both time and eternity!

Be honest now -- you really don't want to be embarrassed when you come to that moment when you give an accounting of your life to Almighty God, do you?