Round Tuit

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"