Sermon Central
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Are You Ready?
Contributed by Brian La Croix on Jun 22, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: A very last-minute message given during a service after the death of my father-in-law the previous week.
Note: this message was put together in about 2 minutes during the singing portion of the service, and was not the message I had intended to give! Therefore this is a very sparse outline. The audio version fleshes this out, and I would encourage you to listen to that as you look at this outline.
A few days ago, my father-in-law died. He had been in an accident that also involved my wife and my two youngest daughters. They were uninjured, but my father-in-law was injured badly. (Not sure that the accident is what killed him - he had been injured badly a number of times due to motorcycle and other accidents, and had been battling other health issues related to those, and I think he succumbed to the sum total of all these things.
Intro:
We all make plans, and that’s fine. But we need to keep in mind that plans can change, especially as God works and speaks to us about His plan for us.
13 Now listen,Jas 5:1 you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. 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. 15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that." 16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.
1. You never know when life will end.
Our life is but a breath. Are you ready to meet God?
2. Are you ready?
Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.
You simply don’t know what’s coming up tomorrow. You don’t even know what will happen the rest of the day today!
There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
Our natural tendency is to try and find out own way to God, but we need to understand that only Jesus is the way (John 14:6). We don’t have a way to God. We have to take Jesus’ way.
3. The way to be ready.
11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
The most basic thing here is that if you have the Son, you have life - you have your sins forgiven and the guarantee of heaven. If you don’t have the Son, then you don’t have forgiveness of a home in heaven.
Applications:
- If you haven’t taken the Son, take Him today.
- If you’ve already done that, thank God today for the salvation He has given you.
- Tell someone you know about Jesus. Pray for opportunities and clarity of speech so they might know and believe in Jesus.
