ROUND TUIT
LUKE 12:36-48
"…that servant who knew his lord’s will and did not prepare, nor did according to His will"
INTRODUCTION: We have come to the last Sunday of 2003. Over the past year we have preached and taught on salvation, discipleship, stewardship, separation, spiritual gifts, evangelism and church growth. You have heard what God expects from each and everyone of us. You may have heard the Holy Spirit tugging at your heart strings seeking to have you to prepare your heart and to do His will in your life. But like many you may have said I intend to soon but not today. I will get around to it. Just like all too many we say that we will one of these days; but here we are a year has passed and many of us have never gotten around to it. In our text Christ addresses the problem of the "Round Tuit" lifestyle of so many.
I. Christ issued a Call to Readiness
A. Luke 12:37 Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.
B. We need to be ready for Christ may return at anytime.
C. Biblical prophecy provides some of the greatest encouragement and hope available to us today. Just as the Old Testament is saturated with prophecies concerning Christ’s first advent, so both testaments are filled with references to the second coming of Christ. One scholar has estimated that there are 1,845 references to Christ’s second coming in the Old Testament, where 17 books give it prominence. In the 260 chapters of the New Testament, there are 318 references to the second advent of Christ—an amazing 1 out of every 30 verses. Twenty-three of the 27 New Testament books refer to this great event. For every prophecy in the Bible concerning Christ’s first advent, there are 8 which look forward to His second! – Today in the Word, April, 1989, p. 27
D. Matthew 24:44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man comes.
E. When it comes to being on the alert and ready at all times, it’s hard to beat the Pony Express. This historically famous mail service between St. Joseph, Missouri, and California depended on constant movement and readiness. Relay stations were established every ten to fifteen miles. A rider would shout aloud as he approached a station, giving the station master very short notice that he needed to be outside waiting with a fresh mount. Even when a rider came to the station where he was to spend the night, another rider was already mounted and waiting, ready to grab the first rider’s bundle of packages and continue the trip. The completion of the transcontinental telegraph system rendered the Pony Express obsolete after just eighteen months. But we have this service’s intriguing example of what it means to be ever watchful. - Today in the Word, December, 1997, p. 17
F. Be Ready Spiritually
1. Revelation 16:15 Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is the one who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.
2. A mother was explaining, to her little girl, the death of her father. The mother said: "God has sent for your father and will send for us, but I do not know just when." Finally, the little girl said: "If we do not know just when God is going to send for us, do you not think we had better pack up and get ready to go? God might send when we are not ready."
G. Readiness of labor.
1. Luke 12:43 Blessed is that servant when his lord comes and finds him so doing.
2. Luke 19:13b …Occupy till I come.
3. The greatest thing is to be found at one’s post as a child of God, living each day as though it were our last, but planning as though our world might last a hundred years. - C.S. Lewis, Leadership, Vol. 10, no. 2.
II. The Neglect of Readiness
A. Luke 12:45 But if that servant says in his heart, My lord delays his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken;
B. The people of Martinique sent representatives to the smoldering volcano, Mount Pelee, to see what the condition was. They returned and gave false reports and the city slept on, in all its vice. Nature took warning and the reptiles commenced crawling down the mountain side, birds left their nests, and the cattle and the sheep took warning. Then old Mount Pelee belched forth, and about 40,000 people perished. They heard when it was too late the sound of the trumpet. There are those today who are giving false reports concerning Christ’s coming to earth again. They say that the disciples expected Him to return while they were living and He didn’t come, so He won’t come now. Others are saying when this old world is reformed He will come but not until then. These are false reports. Christ said, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh"
C. Seen in a Wrong Attitude – Luke 12:19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat drink and be merry. – I’ve got plenty of time.
D. Seen in Wrong Actions – Ecclesiastes 8:11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. – I can do my own thing for now.
E. I will prepare my heart and do God’s will when I get around to it.
III. The Cost of Neglecting Readiness
A. Luke 12:46-47 MKJV The lord of that servant will come in a day when he does not expect, and at an hour when he does not know. And he will cut him apart, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant who knew his lord’s will and did not prepare, nor did according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
B. An incident from the American Revolution illustrates what tragedy can result from procrastination and neglect. It is reported that Colonel Rahl, commander of the British troops in Trenton, New Jersey, was playing cards when a courier brought an urgent message stating that General George Washington was crossing the Delaware River. Rahl put the letter in his pocket and didn’t bother to read it until the game was finished. Then, realizing the seriousness of the situation, he hurriedly tried to rally his men to meet the coming attack, but his procrastination was his undoing. He and many of his men were killed and the rest of the regiment was captured. Nolbert Quayle said, "Only a few minutes’ delay cost him his life, his honor, and the liberty of his soldiers. Earth’s history is strewn with the wrecks of half-finished plans and unexecuted resolutions. ’Tomorrow’ is the excuse of the lazy and refuge of the incompetent." (Our Daily Bread, February 15)
C. Notice three things about the "when I get around to it" servant.
1. He KNEW his master would return but He did not prepare - knew his lord’s will and did not prepare…
2. He KNEW what his master wanted done but failed to do it. - nor did according to His will…
3. He is identified with the unbelievers and the unfaithful. - will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers…
D. Ecclesiastes 8:12-13 Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him: But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he fears not before God.
CONCLUSION: Matthew 24:42-43 states, Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
A bright boy heard and was deeply impressed by the text, "My son, give me thine heart." Satan whispered, "Time enough yet," and he put it off. Ten years later a brilliant young collegian heard the same text under circumstances which seemed to make that the time of his salvation. Again the tempter whispered, "Time enough yet." Twenty years later a statesman of no mean renown listened to the same text from an aged minister, and felt it to be a message to himself. This time the tempter said, "Visit foreign countries before you give God your heart." A traveler in Paris was stricken with cholera. His greatest suffering was agony of soul because he was not prepared to die and had not now time to get ready. His last words were, "Too late." The boy, the collegian, the statesman, and the traveler were one. Procrastination is Satan’s best game. (William Moses Tidwell, "Pointed Illustrations.")
Today is the day to get around to it - to get around to trusting Christ as Lord and Savior – to obey Him in the matter of baptism, church membership, discipleship, stewardship, service. Today get around to putting your words into action. Be a doer of the Word not a hearer only.
