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. 30th 1938 Neville wanted peace with Germany and gave them the rights to Czechoslovakia to get it. The day after October 1st. 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.
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