A World In Travail

v. What kind of impact is this latest quake in Japan going to have on the global economy?

# 2. What are you doing about it?

A. At a time when the world is having labour pains & about to birth us all into an irreversible phase what are you doing?

a. We need to recognise that what is happening on the earth is no light thing.

i. We need to treat the birth pains of the world w/ appropriate seriousness ...... u/s that it calls for a soberness of thinking & a soberness of living from the believer.

*** Can you imagine a husband whose wife is in the midst of giving birth to their child & he’s occupied with other things. Sorry honey ...... I’ve got a game of golf scheduled for today, got to be at the course by 9:30am!

*** Or imagine your wife who has faithfully carried your child in her womb for the past nine months saying that baby is coming! I need you to be there / be w/ me through all this.

And to this you respond by saying ...... I can’t stop now! I’m about to enter the next level & I’ll win the whole game!!!

ii. That of course is madness ....... or at least it should be seen as madness & no man in his right mind would think like that.

iii. But what’s clear is that as the world is in labour ..... as we stand on the brink of the Messiah coming triumphantly back to planet earth, men do the same thing.

b. Listen to some of the picts we find in Scripture to describe the way that men will be thinking in our days.

i. Jesus goes on to paint a pict for us of the way in which men will be thinking at the time of His return.

Matthew 24:37-38 (NKJV) 37But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,

ii. Jesus goes on to give us parable / stories / picts to warn us of the danger of a life of distraction.

Matthew 25:6-8 (NKJV) 6“And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom £is coming; go out to meet him!’ 7Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. 8And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ Foolish virgins

iii. Jesus says that some Christians are going to be so blinded by the cares of this life that they are going to miss out on what God wants to bring them into.

Luke 14:16-18 (NKJV) 16Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, 17and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ 18But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’

iv. There is a great danger lurking in the heart of every believer in that we have heard for so long & heard so much about the certain return of Jesus that we no longer take it seriously.

1 Timothy 4:1 (NKJV) 1Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,