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1 Thessalonians 5:1-3

1 Thessalonians 5:1-3 “The Thief in the Night”

The only way to be prepared for that day is to be prepared every day.

Do we really believe this could be the day?

INTRODUCTION: Keith expected a long retirement, he loved summer Sunday afternoons on his bike, wind in his hair, and the sun on his face, all gave him peace. He rounded a curve to find a deer in the road. He swerved and lost control of his bike and hit a tree. Tim Sullivan was handsome, smart, and athletic in school, a very promising high school senior. Ridding his dirt bike around the yard on a Saturday in October he jumped the ditch in front of his house just as a car came over the hill that hid them from each other. Death comes in the most unexpected ways and at the most unexpected times. Though our passage is about the Second Coming of Christ, its point may be even more appropriate for everyday life.

1. LIKE A THEIF IN THE NIGHT

A. NOWLE WAS SOUND ASLEEP WHEN A BURGLER SHOOK HIM AWAKE AND ASKED FOR HELP FINDING THEIR MONEY. NOWLE LOOK AT THE THEIF ONLY TO SEE THEIR NASTY GERMAN SHEPARD SITTING NEXT TO HIM.

B. JESUS DESCRIBES HIS RETURN AS A SURPRISE, NO WARNING, NO CRAMMING FOR THE FINAL, NO TIME TO WRITE A STATEMENT WITH ALL THE God words you know.

C. JAMES 4:13-17 AND LUKE 12:16-21

2. PEACE AND SAFTY.

A. Neville Chamberlain “Peace in our time” Sept. 30^th 1938 Neville wanted peace with Germany and gave them the rights to Czechoslovakia to get it. The day after October 1^st. The tanks of world war two started rolling.

B. WORDS OF SAFTY, a good physical, 401 K is doing well, your company is making money, the war is over, terror threat color green, and the person you love loves you too.

C. RICK DRAGOO, I asked Rick Dragoo to ride with me to Gary to run and earned. On the trip which took all afternoon I told Rick about how I was in a hurry to get back to church for the sewer meeting. I told him how our county was putting in sewers and that each resident would be taxed $2000.00 to pay for mandatory sewer hookup. His anxiety was building he wanted to get to that meeting. The parking lot was full of cars. Rick hurried in, there was a cake and balloons, and everyone yelled surprise! Rick came back out the door and said something’s wrong my mother is at the sewer meeting. He went back in and they all yelled surprise again.

3. HOW CAN YOU BE READY

A. THE ONLY WAY TO BE READY FOR THAT DAY IS TO BE READY EVERY DAY.

B. LIVE LIKE YOU BELIEVE IT.

a. ARE YOU LIVING LIKE IT COULD BE TODAY?

b. DO YOU KNOW YOUR FRIENDS ARE READY?

c. DEWY AND PATRICE (CHECKING ON OUR ELDERLY FRIENDS)

d. WHO DO YOU WANT TO MAKE SURE WILL MAKE IT?

e. DOES YOUR HEART REALY HURT FOR THOSE WHO WILL BE LOST?

CONCLUSION: Have you been living your best life now? Have you been deluded into the idea that thinking happy thoughts, and do gooding will make your life a happy one? Have you been compromising what you know the Bible teaches just to get along, and avoid conflict? Proverbs says “ ^{Pr 6:10} A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest ^s — ^{Pr 6:11} and poverty ^t will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man. ¹¹

ARE YOU READY, ARE THOSE AREOUND YOU READY? THERE IS NO TIME TO LOSE. FOR THE ONLY WAY TO BE READY FOR THAT DAY IS TO BE READY EVERYDAY.

^{Jas 4:13} Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”

^{Jas 4:14} Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

^{Jas 4:15} Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

^{Jas 4:16} As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.

^{Jas 4:17} Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.

^{Lk 12:16} And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.

^{Lk 12:17} He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

^{Lk 12:18} “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

^{Lk 12:19} And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’

^{Lk 12:20} “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

^{Lk 12:21} “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.

pastors page 9-10

I have been reading Exodus, what a story it is. 40 years of wondering in a desert learning to trust in God. There were pillars of fire and smoke to lead them. There was Manna and Quail from heaven for food. There was water brought forth from a rocks. People grumbleing, Moses grumbling and even God grumbling. God gave them stone tables with the Ten Commandments, the people make a Golden Calf to worship, Moses breaks the stone tablets and then God makes new stone tablets. They make the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant. Yet they wondered for 40 years seemingly getting nowhere.

Yet the day of Joshua came! The day came when they finally entered the land and their wondering came to an end. Though the time of Joshua had many battles and victories at least the wondering was over.

There are times when I feel like Moses leading God’s people who knows where. Lord a map and compass would be nice to have. I know we are getting things done yet are we getting anywhere? I see God at work in our church changing us, even if slowly. What we will be and where God is taking us is not clear but things are happing, and the day of Joshua is coming. The challenge for us is the same as it was for Moses, keep the people together and don’t strike the rock in anger and frustration and somehow disqualify you from entering the Promised Land.

I have been trying to look 5 and 10 years down the road and what God wants our church to look like and be about. What changes and challenges does God have for us in ministry? Small Group Bible Studies, Woman’s ministry, Men’s ministry, Sr. High, college age, couples, conformation, Sunday School, Music? What does God want for each of these and possibly more?

Yet while we dream we must follow the Spirit of God that is placed before us.

Now I am going to shift to something personal. I have talked to many people who feel like the people of Israel wondering in the desert. It could be a job desert, a personal relationship desert, a desert of addiction, or a desert like cancer. You keep walking and trying to follow the Spirit leading before you. You try not to grumble too much and keep your heart and mind focused on God yet you feel like you are wondering. You feel unsettled and slightly lost.

I want to remind you that the day of Joshua is coming. They day is coming when you will set your eyes on where God has been taking you. They day is coming when you will fight and win the battles with clear victories won by the power of God. You will enter the land of milk and honey. The giants others fear will fall before you for the day of Joshua has come to you!

Pastor Rick

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

INTRODUCTION: It is obvious that Paul wanted to address the question that many have. We accept Jesus and His forgiveness and we look to Him coming again but what if He does not return before we die? What if people we love die? And how is our hope different from those who do not know Jesus. How should this knowledge affect the way we live?

1. HOPE AND GRIEVING

A. A WORLD OF DISPAIR

a. There are those who know a judgment is coming yet fail to seek a relationship with Jesus. They have resolved themselves to suffer Gods’ wrath.

B. A WORLD OF DELUSION

a. Those who cannot or will not accept the idea of Gods’ judgment delude themselves in one of two ways.

b. They convince themselves there is nothing after death

c. They convince themselves that everyone is going to heaven

C. A WORLD OF HOPE

a. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection

b. Through our trust in Him

c. Acts 1:11

d. John 14:1-4

e. Matthew 24:36-41

2. THE RAPTURE

A. WHAT THE WORD MEANS

a. From the Latin word rapio which means caught up

B. WE ARE CHAGED (2 Cor 15:50)

a. BULLFROGS AND BUTTERFLIES

C. JOIN THE DEAD IN CHRIST WHO ARE RESURECTED

D. TO LIVE FOREVER WITH HIM

E. VISSIBLE TO ALL MAT 24:26&27

3. HOW DOE WE LIVE

A. DO WE REALIZE THE GIFT THIS IS TO US?

B. LIVE WITH HOPE NOT MORNING OR GRIEF

C. LIVE BRAVELY IN THE FACE OF OPPOSITION

D. CELIBRATE A LIFE AND NOT MORN A LOSS.

CONCLUSION: Where have you been living? Have you been living in a world of despair without hope? Perhaps you have never asked Jesus for forgiveness? Perhaps you find the whole Idea a little hard to wrap your head round. Maybe you’re thinking that God did not mean to include people like you. But this promise is for people like you, for people like me. Jesus is not for those who have it together but those of us who are falling apart. Ask Jesus for the forgiveness He offers and start living with hope. With that hope go out and live boldly and bravely for Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 4:9

1 Thessalonians 4:9-12

“A Life of Respect”

INTRODUCTION: I think we all want to be special in some way. We get in a group and we want to share about what we have seen or done. Perhaps you went on a cruise or a trip to Mexico, big game hunting in Montana, or shopping on Rodeo Drive. Only to find the rest of the group has been dar dun dat, twice. It could be that the news seems to be more concerned where Lindsay Lohan was found drunk or the latest ranting of Mel Gibson, than it is real news.

It is most likely my basic insecurity or feelings of inadequacy that make we want to have some great story. I would like a full church every Sunday, thriving men’s group, music that rocks me to heaven, and a youth group with more kids than the school, and adults that cannot wait to get to Sunday School.

How often do we hear someone say, I went to work today and was able to do a good job, one of my most productive ever. You know the police are always going somewhere around town but never to our house. I don’t want to be rich, notable, or in who’s who, I just want to be a person of respect. Yet this is what Paul call us to do, if we would live to please God

1. LEAD A QUITE LIFE

A. MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS

B. KEEP YOUR FOCUS ON PLEASING GOD

C. WORK WITH YOUR HANDS

D. BE PRODUCTIVE

2. WIN THE RESPECT OF OTHERS

A. NOT WITH A FLACHY ONE DAY SHOW

B. NOT NOTIRIETY BUT RESPECT

C. YOUR DAILY LIFE

3. NOT BE DEPENANT ON OTHERS

A. FINACAL

B. EMOTIONAL

C. SPIRITUALY

CONCLUSION: Instead of living to be famous we should live to faithful.