March 6th 2011 Sermon, “Preflight Instructions”
1Thes 4:16-17, For the Lord himself 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 in Christ will rise first. 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. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”
This is the blessed hope of the church…
? How many of you have made plans to be on this glorious flight?
Why don’t we pick up our flight manuals today and navigate to the book of… 2 Cor 13:15
When you’re a pilot and you’re getting ready to go on a flight, you always run through a checklist: to assess the air worthiness of the aircraft, and the conditions you’ll be flying in before you commits to the flight because all the weather information and every surface and instrument on the aircraft is very important to your overall safety.
The pilot is responsible for the overall safety of the flight and passengers, just as you men and women who are also heads of households must be responsible for the safety of your own family.
You are the captains of your households. Your decisions set the course of everyone else in your home.
That’s why the most important thing you check before “that great flight” is your SELF.
An acquaintance of mine used to say it all the time… He was a half baked ex-cocaine dealer turned produce clerk, and most of the stuff he said didn’t make any sense, but I do remember one thing he said every day that did make some sense. “You better check yourself before you wreck yourself… Ah, Ah…” I still don’t know what the “Ah, Ah” was all about, but that was the part that made it so unforgettable…
The most important thing you must check in preflight is – your SELF.
(Some of you are too busy checking each other when you should be checking yourself.)
The Bible says not to judge another man’s servant, Roman’s 14:4.
Examine your SELF FIRST…
If you’re not feeling “ready” for the flight, or you’re being oppressed by the influence of a drug or alcohol, if you are having a difficult time making RIGHT decisions, then you should check yourself. A good pilot would delay the flight till he was ready, because the souls are board are more important. Amen? You’re not just here today to save yourself…
2 Cor 13:5, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you-- unless, of course, you fail the test?”
Jesus Christ is IN YOU – ON BOARD WITH YOU – unless, of course, you fail the test.
What test? Your personal self exam.
If you are personally unfit at this stage in your life, if you are spiritually blind, or lacking faith, if you are a “fair weather Christian”, if you are destined for Heaven but your own navigational skills have you pointed toward Hell, then you need to get JESUS on board with you before the Great Day comes. 2 Cor 13:5, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith;”
GET IN THE FAITH BECAUSE YOU NEED JESUS ON BOARD.
Look at your life Before Christ! Have your great decisions saved you from all your sorrows, or caused you deeper sorrow?
I: You need Jesus on board because you’re not very good at “Decision Making.”
ADM: Aeronautical Decision Making
July 16th, 1999 one of the most successful men in the world, John F. Kennedy Jr. plunged his little single-engine Piper into the heavy seas off Martha's Vineyard.
His airplane wasn’t the problem. It was his mind that killed him and his two passengers.
As he flew through the storm he lost visibility. He could no longer see where he was going, and with the wind and rain blowing him all over the place, he started to get mixed signals.
He was battling in panic against the contradictory signals of his inner ear and the aircraft instruments. When you’re flying without visibility, your reason and emotions are at war.
The inner ear is designed to measure your movement in relation to a fixed sensation of gravity. Gravity always acts as a vector pointing straight down to the center of the earth. The inner ear is equipped with tubes of liquid that shift in response to any movement while the mind compares these signals against this fixed sensation of gravity. This balancing apparatus signals the pilot's mind and says, “You are strapped into a seat that is now as level as if you were sitting squarely at the kitchen table.”
By contrast, at the same moment he was feeling perfectly right-side-up, the aircraft instruments, were telling him, “Your wings are tilted steeply to the right of level, the nose of this airplane is pointing way down, and your airspeed is already howling past the red line.”
The airplane's flight path creates forces that confuse your awareness of earth's gravity. In a panic situation, you literally can't tell up from down or left from right.
John’s emotions drowned out the flight instruments' story about banking and diving at high speed, and screamed out, “No way! It can't be! I'm actually flying straight and level! I know it! I feel it's true!” – but his emotions were wrong.
Following God isn’t about trusting our own logic:
Prov 3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Most of the time, we’re either headed the wrong direction, or drifting off course, but our hearts tell us, “I FEEL THIS IS THE RIGHT WAY, THIS IS THE RIGHT PERSON, THIS IS THE RIGHT HOUSE, THIS IS THE RIGHT THING!” But Jesus is telling us, “You’re veering off path, your tilting left of the truth, you’re pitching down, you’re going to crash!”
Who will you listen to? When that critical time comes – if that critical moment is now, will you do what you’ve always done and just “do what feels right,” or will you listen to God and His Word, and CONTRARY TO ALL YOUR LOGIC AND FEELINGS – just do what you know is RIGHT?
I’ve taught this simple precept to my son a million times: Wisdom is doing what you know is right; Foolishness is doing what you know is wrong.
FOLLOWING GOD IS ABOUT DOING WHAT HE SAYS, EVEN WHEN YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND.
II: You Need Jesus to overcome this world if you want to meet Him in the air.
An airplane needs two things to overcome gravity and rise above the earth: thrust and lift.
All you need is Faith in Jesus Christ.
I Jn 5:5, “Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”
Do you BELIEVE Jesus is the Son of God, or are you just saying you believe?
A lot of people say they believe. A lot of Christians also do a lot of morally questionable things, and it makes me wonder what they really believe.
42% (even a quarter of “born again” Christians) believe that while on earth, Jesus sinned just like other people. 61% believe the devil is just a symbol of evil, not a living being. And 54% think that if people are good enough, they will earn a place in heaven regardless of their religious beliefs.
Is what you believe about Jesus Christ what God testifies about His son, or is it a concoction or a cocktail of societal ‘beliefs’ based on our modern opinions of right and wrong?
The world believes everything is OK as long as you don’t hurt anyone, to the best of your definition of hurt, and to the best of your knowledge.
The world believes in sex before, during, and after marriage. They believe adultery is fun.
The world believes horoscopes have meaning and Jesus was another good guy just like Buddha, Mohammed... and ourselves, although the world thinks His "good morals" are incompatible with human rights and human freedoms.
The world believes all religions are basically the same. They all believe in love and goodness.
The world believes we should “Co-Exist”; that each man must find the truth that is right for him.
And the world demonstrates its beliefs every day by their actions.
What do you believe?
Your actions are the ultimate demonstration of what you BELIEVE.
Charles Blondin was one of the greatest tight rope walkers in the history of the world, and one of his greatest accomplishments was walking over the Niagara falls on a tight rope 11,000 feet long and 160’ feet above the water. He did this a number of times, and every time, he did it a different way: sometimes blindfolded, in a sack, pushing a wheelbarrow, on stilts, carrying a man on his back…
One time sitting down half way across while he made and ate an omelet.
One day, after he had pushed a wheel barrow across the falls and came back on the tight rope, he asked a question: “How many of you believe that I can put a person in this wheel barrow and push them across the tight rope?”
The whole crowd cheered and yelled and screamed, and everybody believed…
…Then he asked for a volunteer, and the crowd grew very, very quiet…
Till one man stepped out of the crowd and got in the wheelbarrow.
There’s a difference between the crowd and the man in the wheelbarrow, isn’t there?
With regard to your faith in God, where are you?
In the crowd? “I believe there’s a God. I believe Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world…
I believe what God says about my life is true…” But when it comes right down to it, your actions paint another picture?
Or are you in the wheelbarrow?
It doesn’t really make much difference what you believe when you’re standing on the sidelines… But when you’re half way across the tight rope, it makes a lot of difference.
In our every day experiences, we can play it safe, stay in the boat, maintain our comfort zone, or we can overcome the world with Jesus Christ.
I Jn 5:5, “Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”
III: You Need Jesus if You want to Accomplish Anything Meaningful in Life.
John 15:5, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
What is Jesus talking about, “apart from me you can do nothing?” I see men apart from Jesus all the time, building cities and governments, changing political landscapes around the world, passing laws that change all our lives. Their efforts have built the cities we live in and established the laws we live under.
What does Jesus mean, “apart from me you can do nothing.”
True story:
In April 1988 the evening news reported on a photographer who was a skydiver. He had jumped from a plane along with numerous other skydivers and filmed the group as they fell and opened their parachutes. On the film shown on the telecast, as the final skydiver opened his chute, the picture went berserk. The announcer reported that the cameraman had fallen to his death, having jumped out of the plane without his parachute. It wasn't until he reached for the absent ripcord that he realized he was freefalling without a parachute. Until that point, the jump probably seemed exciting and fun. But tragically, he had acted with thoughtless haste and deadly foolishness. Nothing could save him because his faith was in a parachute that he never buckled on.
Is your faith based on something solid?
Can you point to a solid relationship with Jesus Christ; one founded on real experience, real fellowship, real communication?
If so, your decisions will bear the results of that relationship. Your accomplishments may not be something the world praises you for, but you’re not trying to please the world.
Matt 7:19-23, “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?'
23 Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'”
That’s why Jesus said,
John 15:16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-- fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.”
BEAR FRUIT THAT WILL LAST.
What does that look like?
Mark 12:41-44, “Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything-- all she had to live on."”
It was fine that the richest tithers gave, but they didn’t understand giving the way the poor widow did. Her faith was deep enough to reach into her poverty. She trusted enough to give everything she had left because she would rather die honoring her God than live apart from Him.
Luke 12:33-34, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
This scripture goes hand in hand with the scripture where Jesus says,
Mark 9:47, “…if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell…”
What He’s getting at in both scriptures is that our goal is to invest in Heaven. Do whatever you can, according to your faith; use your resources to invest in Heaven; not in gold streets or pearly gates, but in being with Jesus Christ forever.
1Thes 4:16-17, For the Lord himself 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 in Christ will rise first. 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. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”
This is the blessed hope of our Christ as well… And what is He coming back for?
It is the bride He is coming back for, and Jesus wants His bride to meet Him in the clouds for the sole purpose of being with Him forever, not for what He can do for us in Heaven. For, Heaven, in its true definition, is about the person of Jesus Christ and not the physical place. This is why Jesus’ first sermon series was, Matt 4:17, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."
Because His very presence was Heaven on earth. Heaven was near and we possess it through His blood.
CONCLUSION:
What is your spiritual condition today?
What direction is your life taking right now?
Why are you making the decisions you are making?
Are you making desperate choices to maintain some sort of control or temporary peace in your life?
Have I examined myself in light of the Word of God and the Will of God? Am I avoiding some passage of scripture from God’s Word because it makes me uncomfortable? Am I fit for a journey with God today?
