Sermon adapted from a sermon by Enoch D. Solomon.
Introduction
A. A farmer advertised for men to work on his farm but received only one applicant, an eighteen-year-old boy who was asked, "Can you run a tractor?" "No, Sir," replied the youth. "Can you handle a milking machine?" "No, sir I've never worked with one."
B. After several more questions, all with negative answers, the farmer said, "Well, what can you do, young man?" And he answered, "I CAN SLEEP WHEN THE WIND BLOWS."
C. The farmer didn't understand, but neither did he press for an explanation. He needed help so badly that he gave the job to the young man. It was not many days afterward that a storm came up in the middle of the night. The wind began to blow, accompanied by thunder and lightning and rain. The farmer was awakened and ran to the room where the young man was sleeping. There, just as he had said, he was sleeping through the storm. Rather than trying to waken the youth, the farmer himself ran out to the barn to check on the animals and the equipment. He found the doors to the barn tightly shut and bolted. The animals were in their shelters, properly secured. Then he remembered the pile of straw that the wind would be blowing in all directions, but he found it had been covered with canvas and tied down. Everything was secure. ON the way back to the house the farmer remembered what the young man had told him: "I CAN SLEEP WHEN THE WIND BLOWS." And he understood.
D. Do YOU have the confidence to live through life's storms knowing that you are prepared to meet God? In (Amos 4:12), the warning is given, "Prepare to meet thy God."
E. God had used several means of disciplining the Israelites during this time—drought, famine, crop diseases, locusts, plagues, war, and local catastrophes (v. 11)—and yet the people did not get the message. They had met with God’s disciplines, but the next step was to meet God Himself (v. 12). He was personally coming to judge them.
F. What a tragedy that the people kept living in luxury (vv. 1–3) and carrying out their religious duties but their heart and faith was not in it (vv. 4–5) while ignoring the call of God. It took courage for Amos to call the wealthy women “cows” and to picture them being led away to slaughter. In their comfort and prosperity, the people thought they were immune from judgment, but it came just the same.
G. They simply were not prepared to meet God. What about us? Are we prepared to meet our God?
Body
I. We each must meet Him.
A. There are a thousand things we can refrain from doing. Men can refuse to pray; refuse to read the Bible, refuse to repent and reform their ways; refuse to make confession of Christ, refuse to worship God: but there is one thing we cannot refuse to do,—we cannot refuse to meet God. The call of death all must hear and obey.
1. Heb 9:27, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,”
a. Our lives on this earth will either end in death or at the second coming of Christ either way we each will still meet God.
B. Story of the Rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31.
1. Notice the poor and rich will both die. Notice also that both must apply the word of God to their life.
2. All of us will be judged. Notice 2 Cor. 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”
3. Everyone must give an account of our lives to God. Romans 14:12.
II. We may have to meet Him sooner than we think.
A. The time is uncertain. Delay in other matters is sometimes wise; but in all that relates to the safety of the soul, delay is dangerous and can have eternal consequences.
1. No one knows when we are going to die. No one is promised a long life.
a. Jas 4:14, “yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”
2. The Parable of the Rich Farmer in Luke 12:16. Notice verse Luk 12:20 But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'
B. The farmer had prepared for his physical life but not his spiritual life. God saw him, heard him, and addressed him: “you fool.”
1. His conclusion, his end, was sudden and unexpected--in the midst of his prosperity, plans, and dreams it all ended.
2. He was unprepared. Prepared physically-but not spiritually.
3. His end was dreadful. His things gone to someone else.
C. What will your conclusion be like? The rich farmer’s life was cut short, when things were going well, when death was least expected. No matter who we are we are not an exception to death. The rich, young, healthy, the smart, and the good all die too, before their time, as we sometime say. Today maybe the only chance we have to get ready for eternity.
1. Just image if the rich farmer would have been preparing for Heaven as he was preparing for his earthly wealth! His conclusion would have been much different.
2. Sooner or Later Everyone Runs Out of Time
a. Much sooner than you can anticipate, you will be the silent guest at your own funeral. No doubt there will be relatives and friends present to mourn for you whom you haven't seen in years. After the preacher delivers a message in your memory, you will be taken to the graveyard, given a final farewell and buried.
b. The retirement that you spent your life working for will be gone forever. Remember the new car that you worried about scratching? Its new owner just wrecked it! The newlyweds bought your house and have redecorated the room that you had at last decorated to your liking. Your personal belongings have been sorted and some discarded. The dog is making a bed out of your favorite old coat. Other clothes of yours that no one could wear or did not want have been boxed and given to Goodwill. Your personal treasures that were valuable only to you-the carefully preserved flower, the lock of hair, the torn picture, the stained postcard-have been burned as trash.
c. You attended a number of funerals in your lifetime, but for some reason you just never expected to be lying in the casket yourself. Sure, someday, but not that particular day. "Maybe tomorrow," you always thought, "but not today." You remember telling the Lord each time you thought your time was close, "Not this time, Lord. Not today. Maybe tomorrow."
i. Sooner or later, everyone runs out of time.
III. We will have to meet God alone.
A. We meet in public worship now; but we must all die alone; we must all meet God alone.
1. Have you though what that meeting will be like?
a. Ecc 12:14, “For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.”
b. Jesus states this in Joh 5:24-29, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”
c. On that meeting we will either be granted resurrection of life or judgment.
2. To meet the Lord unprepared will be the greatest calamity, of our being. How will you meet your Maker if you neglect the preparation. What shall be the end of them that obey not the Gospel?”
a. 2Th 1:8, “in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”
3. Yet the Apostle Paul was ready to meet the Lord, so can we!
a. 2 Tim. 4:6-8, “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”
B. During the time of the pioneer days; covered wagons drawn by oxen made their way across one of the central states to a distant place for homesteading, they were horrified by a long line of smoke in the west, stretching for miles across the prairie, and soon it was evident that the dried grass was burning fiercely and coming toward them rapidly. They had crossed a river the day before but it would be impossible to go back to that before the flames reached them. One man gave the command to set fire to the grass behind them. Then when a space was burned over, the whole company moved back upon it. As the flames roared toward them from the west, a little girl cried out in terror, "Are you sure we shall not all be burned up?" The leader replied, "My child, the flames cannot reach us here, for we are standing where the fire has been!"
1. When we stand with Jesus, who has appeased the wrath of God, we stand in assurance, confidence and hope. *borrowed
Finally
A. Do you have the confidence to stand before God today? Are you prepared to meet God?
B. There once was a college boy who failed all his college work. He sent a text message to his mother: "Failed everything; Prepare Dad." His mother texted back, "Dad prepared; Prepare yourself." This is the message a lot of us need in view of the coming judgment. God is prepared. We need to prepare ourselves!
C. Sooner or later, everyone runs out of time but no one runs out of eternity. Doesn't it make more sense to spend our time preparing for that which will not end, rather than squandering our time trying to hold on to that which will not last?
D. We sometimes sing, "Careless soul, O heed the warning, For your life will soon be gone; O how sad to face the judgment Unprepared to meet thy God."
E. We do not have to wonder how to get prepared to meet God for His word tells us that:
1. Romans 10:9-10, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Upon this confession of faith the sinner who truly believes in Christ as the Son of God must repent of their sins,
2. Luke 13:3 “…but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” One’s repentance will lead them to be buried with Christ by immersion in water, as commanded in
3. Acts 2:38, “…Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
4. The Apostle John said in 1 John 5:13, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”
5. It maybe you are here today and have stopped believe in Jesus and his word, you may need to repent and be restored to the faith.
6. What do you need to do to be prepared to meet the Lord?
