The Disappointment Of Having Just Missed It Series

The Disappointment Of Having Just Missed It

12/8/2002 Eccl 9:11-12 Matthew 25:1-13 Text Matthew 25:1-13

Tyrone was 20 years old and for the first time in his life, he had kept a job for more than six months. He really needed this job, but the words of his boss kept going through his ears. He could still hear him yelling, “You’ve been late to work five times this month alone. The next time you’re late, you’re fired.”

Tyrone knew if he got up an extra half hour early, he would have no problem catching the bus, which would get him at the rapid on time to get to work and have 25 minutes to spare. If he got that extra half hour of sleep that he loved doing, he could catch the express and get to work on time with five minutes to spare.

Now that very same night, he notices there was a good movie that didn’t come on until 10:30pm. Tyrone knew if he set his alarm clock, he could get up and catch that last bus that would get him to work on time.

He thoroughly enjoyed the movie. He slept so well that night that he didn’t hear the thunderstorm that caused the power to go off for ten minutes that night. When the alarm went off, he jumped out the bed, through down some food, and headed up his street to catch the bus, not knowing he was ten minutes off from the rest of the world.

He ran down his street to the main street just to be safe. He got there just in time to see the bus pulling away. He ran behind yelling wait, wait. The driver kept going. He caught the next bus and went on in to work. He knew exactly what he would say to his boss. There was a letter where his time card should have been. It said, “Get your stuff, you are fired. I don’t want to hear it.”

What was it that caused Tyrone to lose his job. Was it the bus, the electrical storm, the alarm clock, the movie he wanted to see, the late scheduling of the movie? Was it the supervisor’s fault for not giving him one more break or the bus driver’s fault for not stopping the bus when he chased after it.

You can blame it on anything you want, but the reality is, he lost his job that he could not afford to lose because on that day when it counted the most, he wasn’t prepared and in place when the bus came.

Today we are celebrating Advent. Advent means the coming. It refers to the coming of Jesus Christ. Most of us know about Jesus’ first coming and that is why we celebrate Christmas. But Jesus spoke a lot about his Second Coming. One day when we least expect it to happen, Jesus is going to come back and take away his followers. It’s going to happen so quickly that most people are going to be caught off guard.

Two men will be walking up a hill talking about the who will win the Superbowl when all of a sudden one will be gone. Two women will be at work discussing how Halle Berry looks in her latest movie, and all of a sudden one will wonder, what happened to the other woman. Now Jesus teaches, the only people who will go away in that instant will be those who are prepared and ready to leave.

Now most of us plan to be ready when Jesus comes. Now if he came today several of us will not be ready and we will miss out, but we do plan on being ready when he actually comes. The only problem is that like Tyrone, we don’t know when some little change is going to happen in our lives and set us off course.

There was nothing he could have done to stop the storm that night, but there were other things he could have had in place long before the storm ever came.

There is a danger in living for the final dash. The danger is, we don’t know what is going to happen in our lives between now and the dash. We deceive ourselves into thinking we are smarter than we truly are. We want to think we can control the future, but we can’t.

One day a group of shrimp are swimming along in the ocean just minding their own business, when out of nowhere a net comes up and before long they are on you plate being served to you at Red Lobster. The bible teaches us the same thing can happen in our lives. The troubles of life can quickly grab us.

One day we’re walking along with Jesus and enjoying it and we assume it will be like this forever, so we let our guard down. Satan starts to attack the good in our lives, and we forget that God’s word is given to us to protect the good in our lives. Do not take the good things you have today for granted or you will start cruising in your spiritual walk. In our cruising instead of growing in the Lord, we start to make a few bad decisions. We’re trying cocaine just to see what if feels like and we’re smoking this weed just to make sure we’re not missing out on anything.