INTRO.- Prepare for action. Prepare for what? It could be anything.
ILL.- A man said: One morning I went out to start my car to go to church. I had a flat tire. Luckily, I had a spare tire. I changed the tire quickly and was on my way. But I didn’t think to drop the spare off to be fixed. I said, "I’ll get around to it."
Within five days I went out to my car to go to school. I had another flat tire. Only this time I had no spare! I had to roll it to nearest service station and wait while it was fixed.
When something breaks, fix it now. Some things need to be fixed right now!
It’s called preparation. Prepare for action. Prepare for breakdowns. Prepare for flat tires. In fact, it’s better to check your tires regularly and then perhaps you won’t experience a flat tire.
If a person keeps their car maintenanced, etc. then hopefully, it won’t break down in times of stress, bad weather, etc. And if a person keeps their faith maintenanced then it, too, won’t let them down in times of difficulty and stress. PREPARATION IS THE KEY.
ILL.- In the 1969 movie "PAINT YOUR WAGON," Lee Marvin plays a drunk named Ben Rumstead. During the closing scene, Ben Rumstead is standing in the rain on a muddy street talking with the proprietor of a local store. The store owner looks at the passing wagons, loaded with people and furniture moving out of town and says, "There are two kinds of people in this world. There are those who move on and those that stay. Ain’t that the truth, Ben Rumstead?"
"No, that ain’t the truth," Ben Rumstead replies, with a swagger enlarged by the half-empty bottle in his hand. "There are two kinds of people in this world. Them that is going someplace and them that is going no place. That’s the truth."
It’s true that some people are going somewhere and some are going nowhere. This is especially true spiritually. Many people are going nowhere spiritually.
There are "doers" and there are those who do little in regard to the really important matters of life. I don’t know if it is because they don’t care or perhaps they don’t think they can make a difference in their own lives or the lives of others. Either way, doing nothing will get a person nowhere and fast!
ILL.- The Boy Scout motto is what? BE PREPARED. Be prepared for what? For anything that might come our way in life. And to me, there is only way to be prepared and that’s in the Lord! To be prepared for anything that life throws at us we must be in the Lord and continually seek His will. OUR FATHER KNOWS BEST. The best place to be and the best preparation is in the Lord!
ILL. - Henry Ford: Before everything else, getting ready is the secret to success.
- John F. Kennedy: The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.
- Abraham Lincoln: If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first hour sharpening the ax.
- Someone said: You don’t have to lie awake nights to succeed. Just stay awake days. And I say, seek the Lord. That’s always the right way and the best way to prepare for anything life.
PROP.- Our text speaks of preparation for living a successful Christian life. Prepare what? 1- Prepare your mind 2- Prepare your body 3- Prepare your heart
I. PREPARE YOUR MIND
13Therefore, prepare your minds for action.
ILL.- A strong young man at the construction site was bragging that he could outdo anyone in a feat of strength. He made a special case of making fun of Morris, one of the older workmen.
After several minutes, Morris had enough. "Why don’t you put your money where your mouth is?" he said. "I will bet a week’s wages that I can haul something in a wheelbarrow over to that outbuilding that you won’t be able to wheel back."
"You’re on, old man," the braggart replied. "It’s a bet! Let’s see what you got."
Morris reached out and grabbed the wheelbarrow by the handles. Then, nodding to the young man, he said, "All right. Get in."
That old man Morris was a smart old buzzard. We all need the ability to think quickly and smartly. Wouldn’t that be great?
Prepare your mind. Thinking doesn’t get better unless we help it along. Our thinking doesn’t improve by doing nothing.
Right thinking doesn’t happen without thinking right. (Isn’t that brilliant?) Right thinking is needed. Two scriptures. Two examples.
Romans 1:27-29 "27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. 28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice..."
Why do people do perverted things? The answer is simple. They think that way. Yes, and most don’t even think!
V. 28 "Since they did not think..." "Since THEY DID NOT THINK it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God..."
They don’t think and they don’t think about God. That’s why people do perverted things! If they truly used the brains that God gave them they wouldn’t think the way they do! They would think UPWARD and certainly not pervertedly!
Now the other side of the coin is this:
Phil. 4:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
Right thinking will produce right actions. When a person thinks about things that are true and right, they seek after those things. They will DO those things.
Proverbs 23:7 "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he."
You are what you are and you are where you are today because of your thinking. Your thinking has brought you to this point in your life, be it good, great, or otherwise.
But we all must prepare our minds for action in the future. The future is ahead. How will we do? It depends on our thinking.
ILL.- President Nixon once told that while talking to Winston Churchill’s son, he told him how much he admired the prime minister’s great ability at giving ’extemporaneous’ speeches. Churchill’s son replied, "Oh, yes. I’ve watched my father work for hours preparing those extemporaneous speeches."
Most worthwhile things take time to prepare. Life is the most worthwhile thing we will do. We MUST prepare our minds for this worthwhile adventure.
How do we prepare our minds for action? With scripture and prayer! There is no better way!
Ps. 119:11 "Thy Word have I hid in my heart..."
Matt. 26:36-39 "36Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." 37He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me." 39Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."
Our Lord prepared His mind in prayer. He prepared for the horror of the cross while in prayer, while talking to His Father. Surely, this should tell us how to prepare our minds for life!
II. PREPARE YOUR BODY
13Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Be self-controlled. To me, this suggests control yourself, control your body.
ILL.- A lady named Mary said: A nurse friend of mine took a 104-year-old patient for a walk in the hospital corridor. When she got him back to his room and sat him down, he took a deep breath and announced, "That was great! I don’t feel a day over 100!"
Let me suggest that if we all want to live to be a 100 and be a healthy 100, we’d better prepare ourselves! It won’t happen without some kind of healthy preparation.
Obviously, most of us don’t care whether we live to be 100 or not, that is, unless it could be a healthy 100. However, at that we’d outlive our friends and possibly many family members. And that would not be very enjoyable.
Nevertheless, if we are going to be self-controlled as the scripture says, then we must prepare our bodies as well as our minds.
ILL.- I think I ran my first marathon in Dec. 1986 when I was 42 years of age. Prior to this decision I had run some shorter races and met a number of area runners. Most said, "Steve, if you can run 20 miles, you can run a marathon." WRONG! I found out they were wrong.
A marathon is 26.2 miles. It sounds reasonable enough that if you could run 20 miles then surely you could run the last 6.2, but it doesn’t work that way. THE BODY DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY. At least, the first time you run a marathon. If you have only trained your body to run 20 miles then that’s all it will do.
So in my first marathon when I hit 20 miles it was basically over for me. Did I finish that last 6.2 miles? Yes, but it was awful. I had to walk a while and then a jog a while until I finished. And it was the longest 6.2 miles I ever did. I thought that marathon would never be over!
What I discovered was that to run a good, decent time for a marathon and be able to run all the way a runner must run over 20 miles several times in preparation in order to get the body used to that distance. I discovered that 22 or 23 miles would do the trick if I did those distances at least four or five times in preparation for the marathon.
Preparation was the key. Correct preparation was the key. I could have run nothing but 10 miles for six months and then tried to run a marathon but it wouldn’t have worked.
Don’t you wonder sometimes why you run out of gas on a daily basis when you are trying to take care of your family, go to work and live the Christian life? Wouldn’t you like to be able to function better and do more in order to serve the Lord?
I Tim. 4:7-8 "Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come."
Physical training is of some value. Taking care of your physical body is valuable for living the Christian life. And most of us know how to do this. We just need to do it!
III. PREPARE YOUR HEART
14As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."
Be holy. This should be our heart’s desire in life: to be holy, to be better, to grow in the likeness of our holy God. But I think most of the time our hearts are far from this desire. We are far more worldly than we are holy and we are not sure we want to be holy. Maybe just a little but no more.
I think perhaps we fear becoming more like God. We’re afraid perhaps that we will lose our taste for the things of the world and we like the things of this world.
I Timothy 6:6-10 " 6But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."
We know this scripture very well but it’s sometimes hard to practice. We should be more content with food, clothing and the basic necessities of life but often, we want more and more.
ILL.- Actor Michael Douglas said in the 1987 movie, "Wall Street,"
"Greed is good." Douglas played the part of an unscrupulous Wall Street player. And greed seems good to most people, however, as we mature in Christ we begin to realize that greed for money and greed for material things can be harmful, detrimental and damning.
ILL.- For many years, I have wanted to buy a decent bass boat. Not a big, fancy fiberglass expensive bass boat, but just a nice aluminum bass boat. And I could now afford to get one but now I don’t want one. WHY NOT? Age. Maturity. And I’m tired. And hopefully, it’s more Christian maturity than anything else. I realize that I don’t need a boat.
And actually, I’d rather work than play. Most of the time I’d rather work, study and pray that go fishing or do anything else. Boy, I’m not normal! What’s wrong with me? No, what’s right with me?
ILL.- Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) was a brilliant theologian whose sermons had an overwhelming impact on those who heard him. One in particular, his famous ’Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," moved hundreds to repentance and salvation. That single message helped to spark the revival known as ’The Great Awakening" (1734-1744). From a human standpoint, it seems incredible that such far-reaching results could come from one message. Edwards did not have a commanding voice or impressive pulpit manner. He used very few gestures, and he read from a manuscript. Yet God’s Spirit moved on his hearers with great conviction and power.
Few know the spiritual preparation involved in that sermon. John Chapman gives us the story: ’For 3 days Edwards had not eaten a mouthful of food; for 3 nights he had not closed his eyes in sleep. Over and over again he was heard to pray, ’O Lord, give me New England! Give me New England!’ When he rose from his knees and made his way into the pulpit that Sunday, he looked as if he had been gazing straight into the face of God. Even before he began to speak, tremendous conviction fell upon his audience."
Holiness was Jonathan Edwards’ heart’s desire in life. And so should it be in ours but it won’t happen without work, without preparation.
CONCLUSION----------------------
ILL.- Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (who was a justice on the Supreme Court nominated by Theodore Roosevelt) said: To reach the port of heaven we must sail, sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail and not drift, nor lie at anchor.
We must sail, not drift. Drifting will get us nowhere. The Christian life is a life of action, doing, working, and serving. Because of this action, we must prepare ourselves; we must prepare our minds, our bodies and our hearts for serving the Lord. We must do whatever it takes to be a doer in the kingdom of God.
