Are You Ready To Meet Jesus?

Are you Ready to Meet Jesus?

Luke 12:32-40

Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567

How ready are you for the future? Are you ready for the glorious mountaintops of blessings to stand upon and the deep, dark valleys to endure! Since our future is unknowable, each of us must decide in the present how prepared we want to be for both the good and bad times. Are you the kind of person who prepares well in advance for all possible outcomes? For instance, a week before a long trip do you have your bags packed and checked twice? Are your weekly goals defined on Monday and does your grocery list comes with a detailed meal plan? Is your linen closet ready to handle a national toilet paper shortage and do you have not only three months of salary set aside for emergencies but also enough insurance to hopefully ease any catastrophe that comes your way? If you answered yes to these questions, then you might have excessive preparation/scheduling syndrome with a side dish of a control fetish. On the other hand, maybe you are the kind of person who prefers to live in the moment? For instance, do you often arrive late at meetings and events but feel you are on time based on your own unique time clock? Do you pack the morning of a major trip and then are forced to buy “on-the-fly” what you forgot? Do purchase but one roll of toilet paper and enough food to last but a few days and are you constantly in debt, putting out past fires that are raging uncontrollably? If you answered yes to any of these questions then you might have an procrastination, live by the seat of your pants syndrome. While it is ok that everyone falls somewhere on the preparedness spectrum when it comes to worldly events, how does God want us to prepare for the eternity He has placed in our hearts?

The Return of the Lord

While there are many things that can be handled by procrastination, live by the moment attitude; when it comes to the kingdom of God Jesus said, “You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him” (40). While the world goes on “eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage” up until the Day of the Lord (Luke 17:27), God’s own family are commanded to always be ready for His return. Whether it be in the “middle of the night or toward daybreak” (38) and though it might seem a long time in His coming (2 Peter 3:9), one can be assured that the Lamb who was “slain from the creation of the world” (Revelation 13:8) will return to “break the serpent’s head, and with a rod of iron, to dash His enemies in pieces, as potters’ vessels.” He will on day return to take His own home to the mansions He has prepared for them (John 14:1-4). Whether He comes now or in a thousand years hence or longer the time will come when “the Lord will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead will rise first and after that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). Since He will come unexpectedly like a thief in the night (39), to be found faithful upon His return it is crucial that we live our lives moment by moment in preparation of meeting Him. If we procrastinate and let life merely happen, then we are likely to be found indulging in our sin but if we acknowledge that the eternity God has placed in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11) points to His Son’s return then we will live prepared to meet Him by constantly doing those things that would please Him. The remainder of this sermon is going to focus on the two things Jesus says we are to be found doing in Luke 12:32-40 when He comes to take us home: giving to the poor and being ready to serve Him for ever more!

How to Become Ready to Meet Jesus

The first thing Jesus wants us to do to be found faithful upon His return is to stop being preoccupied with worldly stuff. While it is important to work to provide for oneself it becomes a sin the moment one seeks and trusts in the accumulation of “stuff” rather than in the Good Shepherd who lays us down by the green pastures and restores our very souls (Psalms 23:1-3). Many people work excessively because they are afraid of all the possible futures of catastrophes. Like the “rich fool” even in their accumulation of stuff their fear of the unknown future does not subside but instead they build bigger “barns” to store earthly riches so that they might feel even more secure (Luke 12:15-21). This is not how Jesus wants to find His own upon His return for in accumulating excessive stuff to mitigate suffering and pain in future trials and tribulations shows one is not trusting in God to take care of one’s needs. Jesus tells us to not fear because though we be like sheep amongst many wolves the Father not only protects us, but it pleases Him to allow us to be partakers in His kingdom (32). He told us to “not worry about our life, what we will eat, or about our body, what we will wear” (22). Jesus is not telling us to not work to help sustain our lives but to heed the words he gave to Apostle Paul, “do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6). The heavenly Father who knows you need food, water, and shelter to stay alive and promises to provide all these things if you seek first His kingdom (Matthew 6:33). To be found faithful upon His return, then, one must be looking up rather than fearfully looking within to secure the life one cannot keep.