TANYA KEY - HOMEGOING SERVICE

WE ARE NOT ALWAYS OUR CIRCUMSTANCES:

SOME WORDS ABOUT TANYA

MET TANYA: SHE WAS QUIET (ALMOST SHY-LIKE) - I WAS DETERMINED TO GET TO KNOW HER

THEN SHE CAME TO OUR HOUSE FOR DINNER

STARTED OUT SHY, BUT THEN, SOMETHING HAPPENED, AND SHE GOT COMFORTABLE AND THEN, ALL OF A SUDDEN, SHE JUST BEGAN TO TALK…AND TALK AND TALK, AND THEN I KNEW SHE FELT AT HOME

AT THAT DINNER WE LEARNED SOME THINGS ABOUT LIFE THAT WERE SURPRISING: ONE OF THEM

SHE COULD TELL YOU (SHE HAD A THEORY) OF HOW YOU COULD MAKE SURE, IF YOU WANTED TO HAVE A BABY, HOW YOU COULD DETERMINE THE GENDER OF THE BABY

WHAT WAS MOST TELLING WERE THE CONVERSATIONS I HAD WITH TANYA ON THE PHONE - MAINLY THROUGH TEXT MESSAGING

IN SO MANY WAYS SHE WAS IN A GOOD SPACE

OPEN YOUR BIBLES (OR CLICK ON YOUR PHONES) TO 1 THESS 5:1-11---

TITLE TODAY:

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE TO BE READY FOR A THEIF TO COME

1 Thessalonians 5:1 ESV

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.

1 Thessalonians 5:2 ESV

For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

1 Thessalonians 5:3 ESV

While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

1 Thessalonians 5:4 ESV

But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.

1 Thessalonians 5:5 ESV

For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.

1 Thessalonians 5:6 ESV

So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.

1 Thessalonians 5:7 ESV

For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.

1 Thessalonians 5:8 ESV

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

1 Thessalonians 5:9 ESV

For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

1 Thessalonians 5:10 ESV

who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

COVID, IN THE EYES OF HUMANITY, IS A MONSTER; BUT COVID, IN REALITY, IS THE SERVANT OF THE LORD.

WHEN PAUL SAYS THAT JESUS WILL COME LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT YES, HE IS TALKING ABOUT WHEN JESUS RETURNS, BUT THIS IMPLIES SOMETHING ELSE:

IT IMPLIES THE TIME IN ALL OF OUR LIVES, WHEN HE SENDS FOR US

JAMES TELLS US OUR LIFE IS LIKE A VAPOR

James 4:13 ESV

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—

James 4:14 ESV

yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

I. THEY ARE CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT AND THE DAY

1 Thessalonians 5:5 ESV

For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.

LIGHT SPEAKS TO THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO THE ONE WHO IS “THE LIGHT”.

1 John 1:5 ESV

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

PAUL SAYS THEY ARE CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT BECAUSE THEY HAVE BELIEVED IN THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND HAVE BEEN SAVED BY HIS MERCY AND GRACE ALONE. AND THEY KNOW THIS

THIS IS WHY HE CALLS THEM BROTHERS IN VERSE 1:

BROTHERS (NOT LIKE WHAT WE SAY, BUT A WORD ABOUT THEIR POSITION WITH THE LORD. THEY ARE BROTHERS BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN GRIPPED AND CAPTIVATED BY THE GRACE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND SAVED - NOT BY THEIR WORKS BUT BY THEIR FAITH IN CHRIST. WE KNOW THIS BECAUSE PAUL SAYS IN CHAPTER 1...

WE HAVE TO GET THIS RIGHT, FIRST, BECAUSE NO ONE IN THIS ROOM IS WORHTY ENOUGH TO BE RIGHT WITH THE LORD ON THEIR OWN: OUR GOOD DAYS, OUTSIDE OF MERCY AND GRACE - ARE STILL WORHTY OF ETERNAL DAMNATION.)

THE GOSPEL IS NOT A MESSAGE THAT SAYS

A. YOU are saved BECAUSE YOU SAY YOU ARE SAVED

B. PEOPLE GO TO HEAVEN BECAUSE THEY ARE GOOD

SEE, TANYA WAS NOT THAT GOOD AND NEITHER ARE ANY OF US THAT GOOD: BUT JESUS IS.

AND IF YOU WOULD TRUST THE LORD BY GIVING YOUR LIFE TO HIM AND SAY NO TO THIS WORLD WHCIH IS PERISHING AND TO THIS WORLD IN WHICH THE LORD, AT ANY TIME, COULD SNATHC YOU OUT OF IT - YOU WOULD BE CHILDREN OF LIGHT

II. THEY ARE STAYING AWAKE (6-7)

1 Thessalonians 5:6–7 ESV

So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.

(ALERT, READY, PREPARED: THEIR EYES ON FIXED ON A DAY, AND THEIR LIVES READY FOR THAT DAY)

THEY ARE LOOKING FOR THE LORD TO COME. THEY ARE NOT LIVING LIKE THEY KNOW WHEN HE IS COMING - GALAVANTING, ETC…

THEIR LIVES ARE ORDERED BY THEIR HOPE. THEY SPEND THEIR TIME LIKE THEY KNOW JESUS COULD CALL AT ANY MOMENT

III. THEY ARE LIVING LIKE THEY BELONG TO THE DAY (8)

1 Thessalonians 5:8 ESV

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

SINCE WE BELONG TO THE DAY, LET US LOOK AND ACT LIKE THE DAY. LET US ORDER OUR LIVES TO REFLECT THAT WE BELONG TO THE DAY

OUR LIFESTYLES DO NOT SAVE US, BUT THEY ARE PROOF THAT WE ARE SAVED

James 2:17 ESV

So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

IV. THEY ARE AWARE OF TWO ETERNITIES (9-10)

1 Thessalonians 5:9–10 ESV

For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.

TWO DESTINES:

DESTINY NUMBER 1: WRATH

DESTINY NUMBER 2: WITH JESUS