Velocity Requires Our Preparation
Notes
Transcript
Velocity Requires Our Preparation
Malachi 4:1-3
Preparation for the destination.
Most trips require preparation.
Most of our trips over last 10 years have been in an RV.
You cannot just connect and go.
What is the goal of the trip. What do you want to happen?
We must aim at something. Christian growth is not by accident.
25 Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.
26 Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.
27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.
13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.
25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.
27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
What is the aim of your life?
Photons occur naturally and can go 100% the speed of light for billions of light years. In theory their travel is infinate.
Man made particle - Humans can push subatomic particles to 99.9999991% using powerful magnetic field in the Cern’s Large Hadron Collider. Though in theory if they let it go straight it could reach that velocity, the average velocity is zero because it is a circle.
Is the velocity of your life taking you somewhere. It won’t unless you prepare for the journey.
What eternal destination are you prepared for?
1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.
3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.
3 Reasons To Be Prepared
3 Reasons To Be Prepared
1. Judgement (1)
1. Judgement (1)
1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.
24 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field,
25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.
26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.
27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’
28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’
29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.
30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”
Matthew 13:36-43
36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.”
37 He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.
38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,
39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.
40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.
41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers,
42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
Ramifications are staggering: 6.8 billion in world/
1/3 claim to be Christian- most of these are social or political association.
Over 4.5 billion in world are without Christ and on road to an eternal hell.
"burning like an oven"-- The Fiery Furnace
Many scholars believe the greatest gathering of people since the Tower of Babel.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego thrown into the furnace.
Those with Jesus will not be touched.
Judgment is based on what you are prepared for.
12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—
13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
2. Forgiveness (2)
2. Forgiveness (2)
2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.
"Sun of Righteousness" -- The Light that reveals Righteousness
Don’t let English cause you to miss this— Son and Sun do not sound alike in Greek.
But it is referring to Jesus.
19 The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.
20 Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.
21 Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified.
Zechariah, John the Baptist's Father, acknowledged his son would,
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
Light always reveals the truth.
ILL- lights going out under house while working on kitchen sink.
Light revealed that there was nothing there.
Darkness brought fear - but nothing to fear.
Jesus’ reveals himself as truth
Truth points us to repentance and salvation.
Two Results of the coming of the Sun of Righteousness
Healing
Spiritual healing
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Spiritual Healing for now. But more is coming.
"On that day"-- complete healing on that day. Physical and spiritual.
Rest is part of the healing.
13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”
Leaping
"leaping like calves from a stall"
Excitement with the energy of a young calf.
No matter your age — I’m 52.
Parenting at 52 is much different than 32.
Our new bodies will not get tired.
When Peter heals lame begger
8 And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.
3. Victory (3)
3. Victory (3)
3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.
Finality of the struggle with the wicked.
End to struggle since the Garden of Eden
End of struggle of war since Tower of Babel.
Ties back to idea of justice previously in Malachi.
Why do righteous suffer?
Cry from throne of the martyrs.
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.
10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
There is a day of victory coming.
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Our work is not in vane. -
This is the struggle the people of Malachi were having. Why is our enemy better off than us? A day is coming.
12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.
Victory is not the result of our obedience. It is the result of God acting. There will be victory. The question for us is will we be on the side of victory or the side of defeat?
We are only worthy because of the blood of Jesus.
ILL- Nikola Topić was drafted 12th overall by the Thunder in the 2024 NBA Draft.
He missed the entire 2024–25 season after undergoing surgery for a partially torn ACL.
He stayed on the active roster and traveled with the team.
He became the first player in NBA history to win a title before making his league debut.
We only experience victory because of Jesus. We could never earn it.
ILL- Participation Ribbons
Millennials are famous for participation ribbons.
No wonder they love the idea of everyone going to heaven.
But in reality- There are winners and losers.
CONCLUSION
Whose directions are you following?
Is the direction of your life leading to victory?
Who are you counting to provide victory?
