What Does It Take To Be Ready? Series

“What does it take to be ready? - Luke 12:35-59”

Gladstone Baptist Church - 21/1/07 am

It is embarrassing when we are caught off guard by our bosses.

Do you remember that TV commercial that was airing a couple of years ago about 2 young guys who were playing a computer game across their work computer network at the end of the day. It was one of those hunt down and shoot your opponent type of games.

Well the boss walks into the room of one of the first guy and this guy quickly manages to flick across to a work program and his boss is oblivious to the game he has just been playing. Meanwhile his mate in another office has tracked down the first guy’s character in the computer game and just blasted him to kingdom come. Excited and pumped up with adrenaline, this second guy mate races into the first guy’s office yelling and screaming in victory and comes to a screeching halt when he bursts in on his boss and his friend. There is an uncomfortable silence and then the boss turns to the first guy and says - “You will go a long way in this company” or something like that.

Have you ever had one of those moments when your boss has caught you doing something at work that you shouldn’t. I think we probably have all had some of these moments - doing some personal stuff on the computer or doing a foreigner during work time. For those not in the know - a foreigner is is an outside job.

Oh we all try to ensure we don’t get busted don’t we. I always positioned my desk and computer so that I could see my door, but others couldn’t see my computer. I didn’t like people creeping up on me - even if I was doing valid work. - which was most of the time - really. But every now and then, you would get caught. As much as you think you will have the time to prepare for your boss’ coming - sometimes you don’t and he catches us doing something we probably shouldn’t be.

It feels pretty embarrassing doesn’t it. And depending on what you were doing, you may even get reprimanded or punished for it.

We need to be prepared so we don’t get caught off guard by Jesus.

Though Jesus is not our boss, he calls us to watch out and be ready for his coming because if he catches us unawares, it will be embarrassing at best and extremely costly at worst. If you have your bibles there, turn with me again to Luke 12. Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been delving into this chapter and I hope you have been challenged - I have. Luke reminds us in this chapter that we need to be fearful of God not man - not fearful unnecessarily, but fearful because He sees all and knows all things. That is a motivation to live lives of authenticity - not of hypocricy. We say we are Christians, so we need to live like Christians and not be scared what men will say or do to us. We need to be authentic & courageous. Last week, we looked at Jesus’ teaching about planning for the Kingdom of God. He urged his followers not to be consumed with material things which will last for our short earthly lives. He instead recommended that we focus on things that can be changed into eternal treasure - things that will last into eternity. Who can remember one of the 2 things we talked about last week which are eternal in value?

1. There was our service. Jesus said, that what ever you do for the least of my brethren, you do it to me. Paul told Timothy to command his congregation to “do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that it truly life.” (1 Tim 6:18-19). Service can take the form of sharing money or possessions or it can take the form of giving your time and energies. Service done for God advances his kingdom and stores up reward for you in eternity.

2. Then there was evangelism. Jesus left us the task of spreading his gospel. His aim was that no one should perish. When we share the gospel with another, we give them the chance to accept Christ and join us in heaven for eternity. We can’t take things to heaven, but we can take people.

The challenge Jesus’ teaching has for us as we enter 2007 is to ensure that we are planning for eternity, not this life. Planning for the line not the dot is how we put it last week. He says in vs 33 “Provide purses for yourself that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not eb exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. We need to intentionally plan to serve and intentionally plan to share Christ. Doing so will be planning appropriately for the future. It will show that our heart is set on eternity instead of the present.