Reach Out To Them Series

Introduction

Video Ill.: Awkward Invites: The Weatherman - The Skit Guys

We have come a long way since we began our study. Jesus is coming soon!

Are we ready?

Are you making sure your family and kids are ready?

Have you told those you know, your neighbors, your coworkers, those who need to know Jesus, about Jesus? Do they know how to be ready when the end comes?

Trade Tower Disaster Teaches "How to Get Out Alive"

Source: Amada Ripley, "How to Get Out Alive, Time (5-2-05), pp. 58-62

https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2005/june/15967.html

Copied from Preaching Today

A New York Times article titled, “How to Get Out Alive: What the Science of Evacuation Reveals About How Humans Behave in the Worst of Times,” tells what researchers have learned about evacuation from disaster survivors.

In the case of the doomed World Trade Center Towers back in 2001, those who made it out waited for an average of six minutes before evacuating. Some lingered as long as half an hour. What did they do while they waited? Some helped co-workers. Others milled around. The article said, “Many called relatives. About 1,000 took the time to shut down their computers. At least 70 percent of survivors spoke with other people before trying to leave.”

One lesson was that, in spite of a previous attack on the towers, and various efforts to make evacuation effective, less than half the survivors knew there were three stairwells in each building, and less than half had ever entered a stairwell. One investigator said, “I found the lack of preparedness shocking.”

One woman, Elia Zedeno, who was on the 73rd floor of Tower One, “heard a booming explosion and felt the building actually lurch to the south, as if it might topple.” The article stated:

You might expect that her next instinct was to flee. But she had the opposite reaction. “What I really wanted was for someone to scream back, ‘Everything is okay! Don’t worry. It’s in your head.’” Fortunately, at least one of Zedeno’s colleagues responded differently. “The answer I got was another co-worker screaming, ‘Get out of the building!’” she remembers now.….[Y]ears later, she still thinks about that command. “My question is, what would I have done if the person had said nothing?”

This world is going to end. The Bible promises it will happen when people least expect it. But God’s Word also gives clear directions on “How To Get Out Alive.” As followers of God, we cannot afford to keep quiet. People’s lives are on the line.

In 1 Peter 4, Peter confirms exactly what we’ve been saying for the past few weeks: the end of the world is coming soon. Just think how much closer we are to that reality than he was when he wrote those words! He goes on to give us direction, as a church, as a community of believers, about what we ought to be doing until it’s time to get out. Follow along if you will, starting at verse 7:

7 The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. 8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.

|| 10 God has given each of you a gift from His great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. 11 Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God Himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. || Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to Him forever and ever! Amen. (1 Peter 4, NLT)

This morning, let’s look at four ways that Peter says we ought to be living, things we ought to be doing, especially as the church, as we see the day of Jesus’ return approaching.

First, we must be disciplined and earnest in our prayers.

Peter said in verse 7:

7 …be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. (1 Peter 4, NLT)

We need some genuine, true prayer warriors in the church.

In my life I have seen some pretty amazing answers to prayer — how the seemingly impossible becomes possible when God answers. And every time, I can attribute God working and answering to the prayers of some very Godly prayer warriors.

I know I’ve told this story before, but when we lived in Hillsville, back in 1998, I had a 1989 Ford Escort. It wasn’t that great of a car, but it got me where I needed to go. I can’t remember exactly what went wrong with it, but I remember I was on one of the back roads in Carroll County and the car quit. Completely. I couldn’t start it. I couldn’t get it to go. Nothing. I had it towed into a garage and they told me the bad news — it was going to cost thousands of dollars to fix. Thousands of dollars that we did not have. Amanda and I had just been married maybe a couple of years at that point. She was making not very much money as the director of a church run preschool. I was making next to nothing as the minister of a small rural church. I was even working a second job at the recreation center to help make the ends meet.