Prepare For Action Series

INTRO.- Prepare for action. Prepare for what? It could be anything.

ILL.- My dad was born in 1910 and our family didn’t have a car until the late 1940‘s. The first car I remember we had was a 1947 or 48 Chevy. When I was very small we took a trip in that car to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and what a long trip that was. I checked recently. It was 766 miles and well over 10 hours of hard driving in that old car. Mom and dad had friends there that we visited. In 1957 we took a trip to Anaheim, CA, to visit friends in our fairly new 1955 Chevy. That trip was even longer at over 1,500 miles and 20 plus hours of driving.

One thing I remember that my dad did before we ever took a trip was to get his car serviced and check the air in the tires; get the oil and filter changed and air up the tires and make sure they were ready for the road. My dad believed in preparing for a trip. I wish he had believed in preparing for eternity as well, but he didn’t. My dad died without ever confessing faith in Jesus or being baptized. That was a very sad day for me and my heart still aches.

PREPARATION is important for most things in life.

ILL.- In the 1969 movie "PAINT YOUR WAGON," Lee Marvin plays a drunk named Ben Rumstead. During the closing scene, Ben Rumstead is standing in the rain on a muddy street talking with the proprietor of a local store. The store owner looks at the passing wagons, loaded with people and furniture moving out of town and says, "There are two kinds of people in this world. There are those who move on and those that stay. Ain't that the truth, Ben Rumstead?"

"No, that ain't the truth," Ben Rumstead replies, with a swagger enlarged by the half-empty bottle in his hand. "There are two kinds of people in this world. Them that is going someplace and them that is going no place. That's the truth."

It's true that some people are going somewhere and some are going nowhere. This is especially true spiritually. Many people are going nowhere spiritually. Many people leave Christ and the church out of their lives and then hope they’ll be saved when they die. That’s like sowing your wild oats and then praying for crop failure.

ILL.- One Boy Scout motto is what? BE PREPARED. BE PREPARED which means you are always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do your DUTY. And to me, there is only way to be prepared in life and that's in the Lord!

ILL. - Henry Ford: Before everything else, getting ready is the secret to success.

- John F. Kennedy: The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.

- Abraham Lincoln: If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend the first hour sharpening the ax.

- Someone said: You don’t have to lie awake nights to succeed. Just stay awake days. And I say, seek the Lord. That's always the right way and the best way to prepare for anything life.

PROP.- Our text speaks of preparation for living a successful Christian life. Prepare what? 1- Prepare your mind 2- Prepare your body 3- Prepare your heart

I. PREPARE YOUR MIND

13Therefore, prepare your minds for action.

ILL.- Albert Einstein was interested in almost everything, and gave every topic and visitor his undivided attention. But sometimes he would rise abruptly—even in the middle of a sentence—and say apologetically, "I have to work now." He would get up and go to his study, leaving it to his wife and secretary to entertain the guest a while longer. There was nothing offensive about this; it was obvious that Einstein's brain had started to spin, and that he had to work.

It’s obvious that Einstein was a thinking man and we all need to be thinking people. Someone once said, “When God called for brains some people thought He said ‘trains’ and headed for the train station.” Admittedly, we don’t always use the brains that God gave us. Sometimes we act like we don’t have any brains.

13Therefore, prepare your minds for action.

And right thinking doesn't happen without thinking in the right direction. People are thinking all the time but that doesn’t mean they have right thinking. It’s like that stupid statement I’ve heard some people say, “Let’s go do something even if it’s wrong.” THAT IS DUMB THINKING!

Romans 1:27-29 "27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. 28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice..."