How to be Ready for Jesus Return - Life of Christ Part 81

Now I want to tell you a little bit about one of the most exciting experiences I ever had in my life. And that was the privilege I had of going out and landing on an actual working aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean.

I had this privilege not this past summer, but the summer before. And I want to show you a slide. That's me with my mustache in the days when I looked like Tom Cruise.

And needs a little focus. And there you see me on board the carrier. There you go. We went out there. We landed on the carrier. We spent the night on the carrier. We were able to observe carrier operations. They were actually launching and recovering planes all day and all night.

Was up with the air boss. I mean, it was just a fabulous experience. When we got ready to leave the next day, they put us in the catapult and shot us off the front. That's an indescribable feeling to go from zero to 140 miles an hour in a little over one second. The only way I know how to describe it to you is that it kind of feels like all your internal organs are coming out your nose and your mouth.

It's about the only way I know how to describe it to you. But anyway, one of the most interesting things that happened on board happened at this site. If you go to the next slide. This is called the bubble. And the bubble sits right between the two front catapults on the front of the aircraft carrier. And this is where the actual launch occurs.

They set the catapult for the weight of the airplane being launched. And this is where they push the button and the launch happens. And to give you a sense of where it is, let's use the other slide. Here's the bubble. You can see this plane's actually being launched right off the front of the carrier as this happens. And this is where we are.

Well, my son and I, Jamie, were in this bubble. They were not launching anymore now. You couldn't go in there when they were launching. But we were in there. And at the time, they were recovering planes from the stern of the carrier. The planes were landing. We were in the bubble just looking around. And we were right at deck level watching, looking towards the back of the carrier as the planes were coming in. So we're in there and we're watching.

And it's kind of just a real nonchalant thing. You know, one plane lands. Another plane lands.

They taxi around. And so as we're standing there watching, here comes this F-14 coming in for a landing. The hook's down.

I mean, it's already on approach. Everything's going perfect. We found out later, of course, the pilot was in the front seat of this F-14. The commanding admiral of the task force was in the rear seat.

He was just up for kind of a little fly around. And so they're coming in for a landing. And as we're standing there just kind of watching, all of a sudden, coming from our right, moving to our left as we look back, were these three crew members, deck crew members, pushing this big cart full of gas canisters across the runway where the plane was coming in. Now, of course, you've got these big earmuffs on, so you can't hear squat when you're on that carrier deck. So they couldn't hear this plane.

You can't hear anything with those muffs on. And they're crossing where the plane's coming in. And we're watching this. And it was almost like surreal.

It was almost like slow motion. I'm watching. The plane's coming in. The guys are coming with this cart right across where this plane's coming in. You know, and I'm not a naval aviator, but I was smart enough to figure out that what was about to happen was not good. And I'm watching this, and I'm trying to figure out, doesn't anybody on this carrier see what I see?

I mean, I was paralyzed. I didn't know what to do. And finally, somebody did see it, thankfully, and we heard over the radio somebody yelling, Wave off! Foul deck!

Wave off! And I kid you not, when this plane finally turned and went straight up, the wheels were barely four feet, maybe five at the most, off the deck. The guys who were pushing the cart finally realized where this plane was, which was almost on top of them at this point.

They fell down on the deck, flat on their faces. They missed having a collision by five feet. Now, this would have been a horrible collision. Not only would the three guys on the deck have been killed instantly, the plane certainly would have been destroyed, the pilot would have died, the admiral would have died, and these canisters along with debris would have gone all over the deck.

Meanwhile, the deck was full with other aircraft that they were gassing up, getting ready to launch. I mean, it would have been a front-page disaster. It's just hard to imagine the disaster that would have happened. When it was over, I was shaken on the inside.

You know how when you almost have a car accident and after it's over, you're just shaken? That's what I was. And I couldn't resist, later in the visit, when we were with the captain, couldn't resist it. I had to ask him, I said, What happened to those three guys that crossed the deck? I just got to know.

What happened to those guys? He said, Well, by the time the air boss who runs the flight operations got through with them, he said, I didn't have to say a whole lot, to be honest with you. He said, But what I did do is I made them go around and give a lecture or talk to all of the deckhands on situational awareness. And I said, Situation awareness? He said, Yeah, we define situational awareness as this. And he gave me the definition. Being aware of the situation around you at all times and adjusting your behavior accordingly.

Being aware of the situation around you at all times and adjusting your behavior accordingly. He said, These men lost situational awareness for just a moment. And he said, On an aircraft carrier, lose situational awareness and you could very well lose your life.

Now, the reason I bring this up and you go, Yeah, Lon, we're just kind of curious, but why are we talking about this? The reason I bring this up is because in the Bible, it's very interesting that God calls us to a situational awareness, a situational awareness that is not based on the recovery of aircraft on an aircraft carrier, but a situational awareness based upon the fact that Jesus Christ is coming back. And here in Matthew, Chapter 24, I want you to look right at the end of the chapter. Matthew, Chapter 24, verse 42. Therefore, it says, Jesus said, Keep watch because you do not know on what day your Lord will return.

But understand this, that if the owner of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was going to come, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken in. So you also must be ready because the Son of Man will come at a time when you don't expect him. Chapter 24 began with Jesus's disciples saying, Lord, when are you coming back and what's the sign of your return? And he spent a whole chapter talking about that. And now he ends the chapter by saying, Guys, here's the situation. I am coming back and I want you to be aware of that situation and I want you to be ready and I want you to be prepared. Do not lose situational awareness of the fact that I'm coming back and that you need to be ready for my return. And this is the point of a little story he goes on to tell right here in the beginning of Chapter 25 that we want to talk about this morning. Remember, the point of this story is make sure you're prepared for the return of Jesus Christ.

And I want to talk to you today about how to be prepared for his return. Now let's look at the story. This is a story in Chapter 25 all about ancient Jewish wedding ceremonies. And there's a couple of customs that you need to know went on in those days to make this story make sense.

So let me tell you what they are. There's four customs I need to tell you about real quick. Custom number one is that it was customary for the groom to come to his bride's house at night and get his bride. They didn't just show up at the church but he came to her house at night, he would get her and she would stay at her house waiting till he came. Custom number two is she would have bridesmaids there at the house waiting with her for the arrival of the groom and attending her and the normal number was ten. Custom number three, the bride and the groom would then once he'd arrived lead a big old parade back to his house with all the bridal party falling in behind him.

And there at his house they would have their wedding ceremony. Custom number four, the groom never told the bride the exact time that he was coming. Never let her know the exact time.

Why was that? You say, well, because men are incredibly self-absorbed creatures who think the whole world revolves around their schedule and that women have nothing else better to do than sit around and wait for this man to decide he wants to show up. How many of you think that might have been the reason?

Well, actually it wasn't. Actually the reason he never told her about the time he was coming is because it was romantic. Yeah, I mean, ladies think, wouldn't it be romantic to have your prince charming suddenly burst into your house unannounced and sweep you off your feet and make up or no make up carry you away for your wedding? Wouldn't that be romantic, don't you think?

No? Well, maybe this is why we don't do it this way anymore. But anyway, back then this is how they did it and they loved it.

These Jewish ladies, they loved it. So they'd have a parade and remember what time of the day it was this? It was at night. So when they had this parade back to his house, they needed light. And so these bridesmaids, their job, their primary job was not to primp over the bride.

Their primary job was to carry torches up in the front of the parade so they could see where they were going on this night march. And because it was romantic. Yeah, I forget you guys. This is serious.

What an unromantic bunch of folks. And anyway, they needed oil. These torches were like just a big old stick with a rag wrapped around the top and they would put oil on it, light them on fire. But of course, if you had a good walk, you needed to add more and more oil as you went so that the torch didn't go out. Okay? So you needed not only the torch, but you needed a bottle full of oil to carry with you. Now knowing that, we can do the story and it'll make sense. Here we go. It's three little quick scenes.

Number one. At that time, verse 1, chapter 25, the kingdom of heaven will be like ten bridesmaids or virgins who took their lamps, their torches and went out to be with the bride and wait for the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five of them were wise. The foolish ones took their torches, but they didn't take any oil. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their torches. And the groom was a long time in coming and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

So here's scene one. They're all at the bride's house. Five of them have their torch and lots of oil. They're ready. Five of them have the torch and no oil. They're really not ready. The groom takes his sweet time getting there, so they all decide to catch a few Z's while they're waiting. So they're all asleep.

Scene two. At midnight. Ooh, that's romantic.

At midnight, the cry rang out. Here comes the groom. Here he comes.

Come on out to meet him. And then all the bridesmaids woke up and they all trimmed their lamps. But the foolish ones said to the wise, hey, you know, you need to give us some oil.

Our lamps are going to go out. We don't have enough oil. The ones who had the oil said, hey, no way. There's not going to be enough oil for both you and us.

So what you need to do is you need to go find somebody who sells oil and you need to go buy some. But while they were on their way to go buy oil, the groom got there. The bridesmaids who were ready went out and marched with him. They went to his house. They started the wedding banquet. The door was shut and locked and the party began. That was scene two.

You understand the scene now. When they get there, the bridesmaids who don't have the oil, the other bridesmaids wouldn't give it to them, so they head off to go look for oil. Meanwhile, the parade starts without them. And they get to the groom's house, lock the door, the party begins. Scene three. Later, these other bridesmaids show up. Now you say, did they get oil? I don't know, but it doesn't matter.

The point is they didn't have it when they needed it. Later, they show up at the guy's house, the groom's house, and they go, sir, sir, open the door. We want to come in and be part of the party. But he replied, I tell you the truth, I don't know you, and I'm not opening the door. They missed the parade. Now it's too late. You say, what a mean guy. What an unfair, cruel guy. Not even to let them into the party.

Wait a second. These five bridesmaids had the chance to get ready just like the five other ones who were ready. They had their opportunity.

The issue here is not that the groom is being mean and unfair. The issue here is that five of these bridesmaids failed to be situationally aware. They failed to get ready for a situation that they knew was coming. They knew the groom was coming.

That was no secret. And they were not aware enough to make proper preparations. They squandered their opportunity to get ready.

And then it was too late. They have nobody to blame but themselves. It's not the groom's fault.

It was their fault. Now let's see if we can figure out who's who in the story, okay? Who's the groom?

What do you think? Well, Jesus Christ, right? The act of the groom coming for his bride. What does that represent?

Well, it represents Jesus Christ coming back like he said he was going to come back, right? The five wise bridesmaids, who were they? Well, they are people who are ready and prepared so that whenever he shows up, they're ready. And the five foolish bridesmaids, who were they? Well, they are people who don't make enough preparation, who aren't situationally aware. And when he shows up, they're not ready.

Everybody got the story? And Jesus makes the point. Here's the point of the story. Look at verse 13.

Therefore, Jesus said, here's the point. Keep watch. Be ready. Stay alert. Be situationally aware because you don't know the day or the hour that your Lord's coming. You know he's coming, but you don't know when, so make sure you're ready. Now, that's the end of our story, but it leads us to ask a question we haven't asked in two months, and I wonder if you still remember it.

What's the question we need to ask? So what? That's right. Long, you know, great story.

I had a lady out there in the foyer who wanted to debate with me that it wasn't right that the five bridesmaids didn't share their oil, and how could they be so selfish? Well, that's not the point. I mean, you know, that's not the point. So you say, well, what is the point? What difference does it make to me today? All right.

Well, let's see if we can figure that out. You ever been in a situation where you knew someday there was going to be a day of reckoning, but, you know, you didn't get ready for it, and when it came, you weren't prepared? You ever been in one of those?

I seem to be in those all the time. I was a student at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. I was a chemistry major, and when you're a chemistry major down there, when you get to finish your junior year, if you're doing pretty good, they give you the opportunity, if you want to, to take honors chemistry. Now, the way honors chemistry works is it's not really a class. You go in and you work hand in hand with one of the professors and his graduate students in the chemistry department, even though you're an undergraduate, on some research project or whatever, and you get a grade. Now, everybody gets an A in honors chemistry.

You understand what I'm saying? All you got to do is show up, put your lab coat on, and toodle around, and you get an A. And it's kind of like a little deal that they do for their best chemistry students. Well, I was a pretty good student, although my career was going downhill towards the end of my college, but I was good at the beginning, and I got into honors chemistry. And so I showed up the first day, and I put my white lab coat on, and I met everybody, and they told me what project we were going to be working on.

I won't bore you with the project. And I said, great. And the whole rest of the semester, I only showed up one more time. You say, why? Well, because as a college senior, I had a lot more important things to do than go to honors chemistry and be stuck down in the bottom of this stupid, dark chemistry building all day long. I say, well, what are some of the other important things you have to do? It's better if I don't tell you. Trust me.

It's better if you don't know. But anyway, I thought they were a whole lot more important than going down there and walking around the chemistry building with all the geeks that hung out in the chemistry building. So I didn't go. Well, the end of the semester showed up, and I went to see Professor Riley because I needed a grade. You understand? And I figured, well, I'm a pretty good negotiator. I imagine, I think I can work him for a C, you know. So I showed up, and I said, Professor Riley, hi, I'm here to see you.

You know, I need a grade for honors chemistry. What were you planning for me? He said, how does F sound? I said, well, sir, it doesn't sound real good. A F? He said, yeah. I said, you mean like F, F, like fail?

He said, yes, son, listen, A, B, C, D, E, what's next? That's your grade, F. I said, but Professor Riley, if you give me an F, I won't graduate. I'm a senior.

I won't graduate. How about a D? He said, F. I said, D minus? You know, come on, give me a break.

I showed up once. That ought to be good enough for a D minus. F. I think I own the distinction as the only student in the history of the University of North Carolina to flunk honors chemistry. That guy gave me an F. In honors chemistry, he gave me an F. Now, was that fair? I didn't think it was. I complained all over campus. But was it fair? Yeah. Was I situationally aware?

Not real good, was I? I mean, I knew sooner or later the semester was going to end and I certainly didn't get ready for it. And the point here is that Jesus Christ is telling us, you know, he's coming back. He said he's coming back.

It's going to happen one day. Don't let yourself get caught unprepared. Now, I want to take the rest of the time I have with you to talk about three ways that you and I can make sure that we're ready for the return of Jesus Christ. How can we make sure we're ready? I've got three ways to share with you.

And, you know, Paul Simon sings the song as 50 ways to leave your lover and any one of them will work. Well, you need all three of these to really be ready. So just say, oh, to have one of these is not enough.

You really need all three. So, okay, here we go. Number one, if you really want to be ready for the return of Jesus Christ, number one, and probably most important of all, you and I need a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Would you look here in verse 12 what the groom said? The groom said, I tell you the truth. I don't know you. He didn't say you didn't have any oil.

He didn't have a torture. You didn't have the right dress on. He said, I don't know you. We don't have a personal relationship.

And no, you can't come in. It's very reminiscent of what Jesus said in the end of the Sermon on the Mount. He said, in that day at the end of the age, many people are going to say to me, Lord, we did this for you, Lord. We did that for you, Lord. We did this great other thing for you. And Jesus said at that time, I'm going to say to them, you know what? I never knew you.

We never had any personal relationship. Depart from me. See, these five foolish bridesmaids, it's interesting. They had all the outer equipment they needed to go in the parade. They had the right dress, the right shoes, the right torch.

They had all the outward equipment they need. Just like there are people all over the world today putting together all the outward equipment they think they need to go on this march that God's going to take them on to heaven. You know, and people in the world are doing it. They're putting together their baptismal certificate, their church membership certificate, their church attendance pins, their canceled checks to the offering plate. You know, they're putting together the sacraments that they've been involved in and their mother's Bibles on the shelf and they're getting all this outer equipment ready to go. But you see, friends, to march in the parade, you've got to have oil. It doesn't matter whether you've got the equipment, you've got to have oil. And the oil you and I have to have is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And the way you get that, we get that when we renounce our own righteousness, when we embrace the death of Jesus Christ on the cross as our only payment for sin, when we invite Jesus Christ to come into our life personally, and when we entrust our whole being to him as our Lord and our Savior, when we make that transaction, we end up with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And this is the key issue as to whether or not a person's ready for Christ to show up. The tragic thing is there are people sitting in churches all over America today who are just today trying one more time to put together all the outward equipment they need to go on the march and nobody's ever told them they need oil. We have people who come here all the time and say, Lon, I went to church for years and years and years and years and nobody ever told me that you could have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ until I got here.

I never heard this before. But that's what you need. That's why Jesus said in John 17, now this is life eternal.

You want it? Listen. This is life eternal that people may know, there's our word, may know you, the only true God, and that they might know me, the one you've sent.

Personal relationship. I had a guy in my office just before I left on break, and he wasn't a young guy. He was in his 50s. He'd been going to church all his life. And as we talked a little bit, I eventually said to him, I said, You know, you are only 18 inches away from going to heaven. He said, What? I said, You are 18 inches away from going to heaven.

He said, What are you talking about? I said, Well, everything about your relationship to God has been in here. It's all been in your head. It's all been intellectual.

None of it's been personal. But what we need to do is we need to move it from here and we need to move it into the heart so that it becomes intimate and real and personal and the distance in between is about 18 inches and that's how far you are away from going to heaven. If we could take what's in here and we could move it to here, we could give you eternal life this afternoon. Well, I'm so excited that he agreed to do that and we prayed right there in the office. But you know what? I'll bet you there's some folks here this morning who are 18 inches away from going to heaven.

Maybe you've gone to church all your life, but you've never had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. If that's you, my advice to you is fix that. Now, it's easy to fix. All you have to do is ask God to come into your life.

I mean, you can fix it right where you sit this morning, but do it now. Don't wait until one day suddenly unexpectedly and beyond remedy, Jesus shows up and like for these people in the story, it's too late. That's why the Bible says now is the appointed time. Now is the day for salvation. And friends, number one, if the situation is that Jesus is coming back, then situational awareness means that you and I make sure we've got a personal relationship with him right now.

Number two, if we want to be ready for the return of Jesus Christ, once we've done number one, don't get the order backwards, once we've done number one, then number two flows out of it, and that is while we're waiting for the return of Christ, we should be living a godly, righteous, holy lifestyle while we wait. I want you to turn to a passage in the Bible with me. It's Titus chapter two. And if you're using our copy of the Bible, it's page 844. Titus chapter two, page 844.

And I want you to see what it says. And we're going to begin at verse 12. Verse 11 says, the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared. And of course, this means Jesus himself.

He's the embodiment of the grace of God. Now look what verse 12 says. Titus two, verse 12. And it teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age.

Look at verse 13. While we wait for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Now what this is saying is while we're waiting for Christ to appear, we know he's coming, how should we be living so that we're ready? We should be saying no to ungodliness and worldly passions and living self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age. Why should we be doing this? Because as 1 John 2 says, so that we will not be ashamed at his coming. So we won't be ashamed when we have to face him. Now I know nobody can live perfectly, and I know nobody can live an absolutely perfectly holy, righteous life.

But what this is saying to us is if we really want to be ready for Jesus Christ's return, we will dedicate ourself to this goal, and with the help of the Spirit of God, we will do the very best we can possibly do every day. We'll be serious about this. I went to diving with three buddies here from the church at the end of the summer down in the Caribbean, and we had a great time. Well, the last day we were there, we rented some cameras from the dive shop that we could use underwater. And they said to us, now don't lose these cameras. We said, well, if we lose them, how much do they cost?

The guy said, there are 350 bucks if you lose them. But I can't buy this particular model anymore. Don't lose the camera. I don't want your money. I want my camera back.

Okay, boss, not to worry. You know, we took two of them, and we went diving. And we were having a great time. We're diving along, and I'm taking some pictures, and we're having fun. And suddenly one of my buddies came over and touches me and points to his arm, and guess what isn't there anymore?

What do you think? The camera. Boy, y'all are smart people. It's gone. He said, where'd it go?

Huh? So we went up the surface, looked all around for it, couldn't find it on the surface. When we finally came up from the dive, we got on the boat.

We went back and forth and back and forth, up and down the shore, in and out. This camera's a bright yellow camera like a sports walkman. I'm thinking this camera's got to be easy to spot. We looked for over an hour, no camera. Finally the guy driving the boat said, I got to go back.

So we went into the dive shop to inform the guy that we had lost his camera. And he said, well, 350 bucks. We said, yeah, we know. So the girl working at the desk said, any folks have a gold visa? I said, yeah, I do.

She said, well, look, here's what you do. Give me your gold visa. I'll ring the 350 bucks up on your gold visa. I'll give you a receipt. You write visa, you write your bank and tell your bank that you bought the camera from me and that you lost it, and the visa people at your bank will reimburse you the $350 for the cost of your camera, and you're out nothing.

She said, nobody will know. We'll go along with it if they call us. Piece of cake. Give me your visa.

What do you think? I had a guy after the second service out there who said, by the way, I work for visa. Good thing you didn't do that, huh? No, I got my buddies aside, and we all had a little pow wow. And I said, look, guys, I was the only one with a gold visa. I said, look, guys, I can't do this. I mean, you know, I would love to help you out. I wasn't the one who lost the camera.

My buddy was. I said, I'd love to help you out. Honest, I would. But, you know, I just don't want to add this to the list of things I'm going to have to explain to Jesus when I face him. You understand?

My list is already way too long, and I don't want to add anything that I know I'm adding, so I just can't do this. He said, that's all right. I wouldn't wanted you to anyway. So we went back over to the lady, and we said, no, we can't do this. You know, just ring it up. We'll pay for it, but we're not going to do this. And she said, nobody will ever know what is wrong with you guys.

Well, is that really true? Nobody will ever know? Listen to what Jesus said. He said, there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed or anything hidden that will not be made known. What you've said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the rooftop.

No, somebody would know. And when Jesus Christ came back, I'd have had to face him with it. And situational awareness means living in light of that and saying, $350 doesn't even compare to what it's going to be when I have to stand in front of Christ and have what I did proclaimed from the rooftop. I think I'll pay the money instead, huh?

And friends, if we're situationally aware of the fact that Jesus Christ is coming back, it means we're going to live an obedient, godly lifestyle to the best of our ability so that we won't be ashamed when we have to face him. Man, I was ashamed to walk in that dive shop having lost that guy's camera. I was ashamed to face that guy. I did not want to go.

I said, y'all drop me off and I'll fix dinner and y'all go talk to him. I don't want to face this guy, and that was just losing a camera. Can you imagine what it would be like to face the living God of the universe with no secrets? This is a terrifying thought, that one day everything we do is going to be open record. Has that thought grabbed you yet?

That is a terrifying thought. Well, one of the best ways to be ready for that moment is to put as few things on the list that are secret and wrong as you possibly can. Third and finally, if Jesus Christ is really coming back again and I don't know when, then how to be ready, third and finally, is have a do it now attitude when it comes to serving God.

A do it now attitude when it comes to serving God. Did it occur to you, remember the story about the five wise bridesmaids? You know, they gave the foolish bridesmaid some good advice, didn't they? They said, go buy some oil. Was that good advice?

Yeah, it was great advice. The only problem is they gave it to them too late. By the time they gave it to them, the groom was there and it was too late.

If they really wanted to be a help to those bridesmaids, they would have told them hours earlier so they could have had a chance to get ready. And the spiritual lesson that I see in that is that whatever we're going to do for God, we need to do it now. If we're going to tell somebody about their need for Jesus Christ and speak to someone we love about their need for Christ, we better do it now because we don't know when Jesus is coming back and it might be too late. If we're going to pray for somebody, we better do it now. If we're going to get up and have personal quiet time with the Lord, we better do it now. If we're going to have a devotional time with our family, we better do it now. If we're going to tell our friends at school about Jesus and their need for Christ, we better do it now. If we're going to teach Sunday school or work with teenagers, if we're going to lead a small group or go to a Bible study at work or if we're going to give more to the Lord, whatever we're going to do, hey friends, we better do it now because you never know when Jesus is going to show up and it'll be too late.

That's why the Bible says Ephesians 5, to make the most out of every opportunity that God gives you because you never know when the opportunity is no longer around. And when you look through the Bible, what you find is that the great men and women of God all had this do it now attitude when it came to serving God. God appeared to Abraham and said, Abraham, I want you to leave your country. And when did Abraham do it? Right then. He appeared to Moses and he said, now Moses, I want you to go back and face your Brenner.

And when did Moses do it? Right then. When he appeared to David, he said, David, I want you to go out there and fight Goliath. And when did David go?

Right then. Jesus said to Andrew and Peter, follow me. And the Bible says immediately they left their nets and followed him.

They had a do it now attitude. I'll never forget a story that Chuck Swindoll told that I heard him tell about being in an airport in Los Angeles. He had gone to the airport and he was waiting for someone to come in on the plane. And he noticed that over in the corner in, you know, sitting about one of the gates was this elderly man who was just sobbing, absolutely sobbing, head down. And he said, you know, I tried to ignore the guy. I mean, you know, he's all by himself. But he said, after a while, nobody came to be with him.

He's just there by himself, just broken up. And he said, I just felt like I needed to go over and sit down next to him. And Chuck said he went over and put his arm around him. And he said, you know, I don't know what the problem is, but can I be of any help? You know, I'm a pastor. Can I pray with you?

I mean, you know, what's wrong? And he said when the guy finally pulled himself together, he told him this story. He said, you know, for years and years and years, my wife had been asking me, take me to Hawaii. I really want to go to Hawaii.

Would you take me to Hawaii? He said, and I'd always been saying to her, well, you know, honey, someday I'm going to do it. Someday we're going to go.

Someday we're going to make it there. You know, he said, but I was always too busy with other stuff. He said then not too long ago my wife got cancer.

And it was a very aggressive cancer and she died within a couple months. But he said on her deathbed in the hospital, she took my hand and she said to me, she said, I'm never going to get to go to Hawaii. She said, but I want you to make me a promise that after I'm dead, you are going to go to Hawaii. He said, I want that promise. And he said, I made her that promise. He said, so she died and here I am waiting to get on this airplane to go to Hawaii today.

He said, and I keep sitting over here saying to myself, what was wrong with me? Why didn't I do it with my wife when I had the time? Because now I'm doing it, but it's too late. And when I heard that story, it occurred to me, hey, when Jesus returns and you're flying through the air to meet Him, it's going to be too late to tell your loved ones about Christ then. When Jesus comes back and you're flying through the air to meet Him, it's going to be too late for you to stand up for Christ in the workplace then. When Jesus comes back and you're flying through the air to meet Him, it's going to be too late for you to teach Sunday School, serve Christ, advance the kingdom of God then. It's going to be too late then for you to do all the things you're going to do someday for Christ.

Folks, I have a piece of advice for you. If the situation is that Jesus is coming back, situational awareness says, if you plan to do something for God, you better do it now. Do it now so that when he comes back, he'll find you working faithfully for him and he can say to you, well done, good and faithful servant. Well, the question is not whether Jesus is coming back. I promise you, he is. It says he is.

He is. The question is whether or not you and I are going to be ready. And I've shared with you three ways and if you'll do these three things, you'll be as ready as you can possibly be for Christ coming back.

What are they? Number one, make sure now that you've got a personal relationship with Jesus Christ by faith. Two, make sure that you right now are living a God-honoring, holy lifestyle to the best of your ability. And third and finally, make sure that right now, whatever you plan to do for God, you're doing it now.

Do those things and when Christ comes, you'll be as ready to meet him as you can possibly be. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, thank you for reminding us in the Bible of what it means to be ready for your coming. Thank you that we know you're coming and I pray you would give each one of us a situational awareness that's very acute. I pray that everyone here this morning will have made that personal decision to make you their personal savior, that there'll be a personal relationship between you and them, that nobody will miss heaven by 18 inches. And then I pray, Lord, that once that relationship is established, each one of us here will devote ourself to righteous living, obedient living, and to a do-it-now attitude when it comes to serving the living God. Lord Jesus, I pray you would find us to be ready when you come. Take the Word of God that we've listened to this morning and change the way we think and the way we live our lives every day because of our encounter with you and your Word this morning. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. .