Am I Tardy Again?

Am I tardy again? 8/7/2006

Psalm 39:4-11

Just a few Wednesdays ago we were getting ready to start service and to my surprise several of our, let’s just say, “late comers” were not only there in time, but early. I had to look at my watch twice. And before anyone who has a tendency of being late turns me off today, that is not the point that I wanted to make this morning.

Now I will say this. It is against my nature to be late for anything. That may explain why I am guilty of driving to fast. I want to make sure that I get where I am going in time. Not making excuses mind you, just my nature. I never have to set an alarm clock. I am very much a morning person.

But I have family and friends who are consistently late. When their name is mentioned, then the phrase “They will be late for their own funeral”. Or I just recently heard this one. "Joe’s chronically late for everything. His ancestors came over on the Juneflower."

If you want them there at six, you better tell them five-thirty.

But this morning I did want to talk to you about being too late for certain things. While they may be ok in the nature world, they are not ok in spiritual world.

Late for work (John 9:4)

I have always wondered how people who are consistently late get by with being late for work. Maybe people just accept them for their nature. But as I said before, that is not the point that I wanted to make.

Reminds me of a factory manager who found that production was being hampered by the tardiness of his people returning from the lunch hour. When the whistle blew few were at their machines. He posted a sign by the suggestion box offering a cash award for the best answer to this question: "What should we do to ensure that every man will be inside the factory when the whistle blows?"

Many suggestions were submitted, and the one that was selected solved the problem. But the manager, a man with a sense of humor, liked this one best, though he could not use it: "Let the last man in blow the whistle”.

But the work that we should not be tardy in it the work we do for the Lord. That is what Jesus said in the verse we just read. “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.”

If you are here this morning and have accepted Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior then you have been given a job to do. What your job is, I may not be able to pin point, but I can tell you this. We are all called to reach the lost.

Mark 16:15 Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

It’s our job to reach the lost. Not the just the clergy, the hired guns as some call them, because they are paid to preach the Gosple. Not just the job of the deacons or the Sunday School teachers. It is the job of everyone who has accepted Christ as their Savior.

Don’t be tardy to do your job. Everyday, every minute someone dies and go out into eternity. I say this from my own experience. I have had friends whom I have known for years and never once asked them about their relationship to Jesus. The older I get the more I hear about friends of the past dieing. And I’m not sure where they are right now. I was not always in a position to ask them about their relationship with the Lord because my relationship to the was not where it was suppost to be. And someday I will have to stand before God and give an account for myself. And someday you will have to stand before a righteous God and you will have to give an account of your work effort as well.

2 Corinthians 5:10 For we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

With most jobs you have job evaluations where you are evaluated for your job performance. So this morning I want us all to give ourselves our own job evaluation. Am I doing the job that God has given me to do? Are we doing our part to help reach the lost for Christ?

We should not be tardy in our work for God because where someone spends eternity can depend on it.

Waiting to late to make the right decisions (Luke 16:19-31)