Hidden Dangers

HIDDEN DANGERS

INTRO.- ILL.- The furious customer called the waitress over to his table and demanded to know what was in his soup.

She looked and shyly said, "I’ll have to call the boss. I don’t know one bug from another."

That’s what I call a "hidden danger." Better check your soup from now on. No telling what will be lurking below the surface. Sounds like something that happens on the "Survivors" TV series to me.

ILL.- A man applied for a job. He asked the interviewer if the company paid for the health insurance. The interviewer explained that the worker would have to pay for it, but it would be deducted from his paycheck.

"The last place I worked the company paid for my health insurance," he said. The interviewer asked, "Did they pay for your life insurance as well?"

"Sure, they did," the man said. "Not only that, but we got unlimited sick leave, severance pay, five weeks vacation each year, holidays off, and coffee breaks several times a day."

The interview asked, "Why did you leave such a good company?" The man replied, "THE COMPANY WENT UNDER."

Ah ha, another hidden danger in life. EVERYTHING THAT LOOKS GOOD, ISN’T GOOD!

There are "lemon" cars, "lemon" jobs and "lemon" people! Look before you leap.

There are many dangers in life. Some are obvious and some are not so obvious. Some dangers in life are hidden.

ILL.- CBS News reporter Dan Rather said, while reporting from Afghanistan, "You’ve seen the rubble, the tanks and warplanes in ruins, but what you can’t see is that this vast country is still filled with hidden dangers.

Rather said, "Too many people have weapons here, and if you’re not watching out for them, you’re watching out for other threats like the land mines and unexploded bombs that U.S. engineers are finding all over."

"In addition to the mines and bombs going off, officers of the 10th Mountain Division told us wrecked Russian warplanes in the area all have to be searched because it’s believed many of them are booby-trapped with explosives.

"We met Mohammed Assan working on a mine-clearing crew. He’s survived 23 years of war and wants to make his homeland safe. Mohammed tells me his survival depends on God: if he wants us to die, we die.

"And many have. It’s believed up to 300 people are either wounded or killed by a land mine each month. One of the few factories functioning here makes artificial limbs."

Brethren, Afghanistan is not the only country filled with hidden dangers.

They are here in our country too. These hidden dangers are bombs just waiting to explode and devastate people’s lives! AND THEY ARE JUST AS REAL AS ANY LAND MINE IN AFGHANISTAN!

Our survival depends on God too! And also, it depends on being alert to these hidden dangers.

I Pet. 5:8 "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around...."

II Cor. 2:11 says that "we are not not ignorant of his (Satan’s) schemes."

We’d better not be ignorant of what Satan is doing in our world. He’s the master terrorist! The enemy of the soul! The destroyer of lives! BE AWARE! BE AWARE OF THE DANGERS IN THIS LIFE!

PROP.- I want us to think about certain hidden dangers in this life and how they can devastate our lives.

1- Penetrating Philosophies

2- Wooing World

I. PENETRATING PHILOSOPHIES

ILL.- A man died and went to heaven. Peter said to the man, "You must be able to spell a word before I can let you enter."

"What’s the word?" the man asked. Peter replied, "It is the word LOVE. You can spell that word, can’t you?" "Sure," the man said. "L-O-V-E." Peter said, "Come in."

Just after that Peter got called away to the phone. He said to the man, "You stay here at the entrance and remember that if anyone comes, he or she must spell the word love."

A few minutes later the man’s wife knocked on the door. She said, "After your elaborate funeral, I was involved in a car wreck and killed. So, here I am."

Her husband said, "Fine, but Peter said that you must be able to spell a word before I can let you in." "That’s okay," she said. "What’s the word?" He replied, "CZECHOSLOVAKIA."

Brethren, when it comes to getting in the door of heaven many people have been deceived by the philosophy of the world.

Many people have fallen for that old goodness philosophy. It’s the idea that as long as you demonstrate a little goodness in this life you will get in the door to heaven, regardless of what you believe about God and Christ and the Bible. And many others are teaching that no matter how you live in this world you will still go to heaven! You can be as rotten as Osama Bin Laden or Sadam Hussein or even Adolf Hitler, but God will still let you into heaven!