Above and Beyond 5

Above and Beyond V - “Ready or not…Here I Come” nv 9/3/06am

OS: 1 When the family goes out of town (Clean up) (Long for their return)

Jesus and many texts (2 Luke 12:35-37; 3 Luke 21:34-36;4 2 Peter 3:10-12)

5 Key Ideas:

6 1-3  :When – ? No one knows so be prepared (Illu – What if Debbie said, “I’m not sure when I’ll come back, but I’ll see you when I get there.” – The house would stay clean.----Test some day and you grade will depend on it.)

 It was autumn, and the Indians on the remote reservation asked their new Chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was an Indian Chief in a modern society, he had never been taught the old secrets. When he looked at the sky, he couldn’t tell what the weather was going to be. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he replied to his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect firewood to be prepared.  Also, being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked, "Is the coming winter going to be cold?"  "It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold indeed," the meteorologist at the weather service responded. So the Chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more wood in order to be prepared.  A week later, he called the National Weather Service again. "Is it going to be a very cold winter?"  "Yes," the man at National Weather Service again replied, "it’s definitely going to be a very cold winter." The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of wood they could find.  Two weeks later, he called the National Weather Service again. "Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?" "Absolutely," the man replied. "It’s going to be one of the coldest winters ever."
"How can you be so sure?" the Chief asked. The weatherman replied, "The Indians are collecting wood like crazy." 

7 4-5 :Darkness & Light – We know Jesus will return, and those in the world are in the dark about it. (John 8:12, When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”)

8 6-8 :Asleep & Awake (play on words – sleep here has to do with alertness) Everything always points back to those foundational principles in the first section – faith, hope, and love. (How do we know He will return? – Because He already did once, and He has promised to do so again.)

9 December 7, 1988 at 11:41 a magnitude 6.9 earthquake shook northwestern Armenia and was followed four minutes later by a magnitude 5.8 aftershock. Est. 100,000 deaths, 517,000 left homeless. Almost 2/3 of total deaths were children because school was in session. Moments after the tremor a father raced to an elementary school to save his son. When he arrived, he saw that the building had been leveled. Looking at the mass of stones and rubble, he remembered a promise he had made to his child: “No matter what happens, I’ll always be there for you.” Driven by his own promise, he found area closest to his son’s room and began to pull back the rocks. Other parents arrived and began sobbing for their children. “It’s too late,” they told the man. “You know they are dead. You can’t help.” Even a police officer encouraged him to give up. But the father refused. For eight hours, then sixteen, then thirty-two, thirty-six hours he dug. His hands were raw and his energy gone, but he refused to quit. Finally, after thirty-eight wrenching hours, he pulled back a boulder and heard his son’s voice. He called his boy’s name, “Arman! Arman!” And a voice answered him, “Dad, it’s me!” Then the boy added these priceless words, “I told the other kids not to worry. I told them if you were alive, you’d save me, and when you saved me, they’d be saved, too. Because you promised, ‘No matter what, I’ll always be there for you.’” (Lucado, When Jesus Comes – pp.21)

10 9-11 :Appointed to Suffer wrath or Receive Salvation (“appointed” = to put, place, or lay.) – The Appointment is our choice, but God has placed us, upon our belief and obedience, in His family so our conduct should be as expected of a person in His family. Illu – football player who doesn’t give 100% is treated terribly as a traitor.

11 Self-control

I remember reading about a guy who stopped in the grocery store on the way home from work to pick up a couple of items for his wife. He wandered around aimlessly for a while searching out the needed groceries. As is often the case in the grocery store, he kept passing this same shopper in almost every aisle. It was another father trying to shop with a totally uncooperative three year old boy in the cart. The first time they passed, the three year old was asking over and over for a candy bar.  Our observer couldn’t hear the entire conversation. He just heard Dad say, “Now, Billy, this won’t take long.” As they passed in the next aisle, the three year old’s pleas had increased several octaves. Now Dad was quietly saying, “Billy, just calm down. We will be done in a minute.”
When they passed near the dairy case, the kid was screaming uncontrollably. Dad was still keeping his cool. In a very low voice he was saying, “Billy, settle down. We are almost out of here.” The Dad and his son reached the check out counter just ahead of our observer. He still gave no evidence of loosing control. The boy was screaming and kicking. Dad was very calming saying over and over, “Billy, we will be in the car in just a minute and then everything will be OK.” The bystander was impressed beyond words. After paying for his groceries, he hurried to catch up with this amazing example of patience and self-control just in time to hear him say again, “Billy, we’re done. It’s going to be OK.” He tapped the patient father on the shoulder and said, “Sir, I couldn’t help but watch how you handled little Billy. You were amazing.” Dad replied, “You don’t get it, do you?” I’m Billy!”

:Point: Jesus is coming back and we need to be prepared. Next week we will finish this series as we discover in the rest of this chapter how we are to go about staying ready.

John 14, Jesus said, I am going to prepare a place for you, the issue is are we prepared to receive the place.