Introduction:
One
semester in college, I particularly realized the meaning of deadlines and the
urgency of staying on track to meet those deadlines. I enrolled for 18 hours which is one of only
two times that I did that in my college career.
This time though I bit off more than I thought I could chew and dropped
English Comp II to take it later, leaving me with 15 hours. Even after doing that, I still had about 26
papers that were going to be due throughout the semester, according to the syllabus.
One of my classes was Fine Arts, and that class required a lot of little
papers with deadlines each month. They
weren’t that big, but the amount of them added to my load. I had Greek I that required a lot of
memorization. I had New Testament II,
Biblical Backgrounds, and a few other classes that required at least one or two
long papers, some as long as 22-26 pages.
I took my syllabus and put all the deadlines in my calendar so I
wouldn’t miss anything; I had deadlines almost back to back that semester.
I
can and do multi-task. I have to with my
job, and I had to that semester. I had
to be constantly cranking out those little papers for Fine Arts, along with
keeping up on my required reading, studying Greek, preparing sermons for the
church I was pastoring, scheduling work and events at the camp I was serving,
putting in my time for my two work study
jobs, and work on the long papers that I had to do as well, but I find I do my
best work when I don’t have too many things going at once. I do my sermons better when I can work on them, basically
undistracted. For the long papers that I
had that semester, I tried to line them up, as best I could, where I worked on
them consecutively, according to their deadlines. That left me with some tight deadlines
between a few of them. I can remember
one night staying up all night to turn in one of those long papers the next
morning. I didn’t even have time to
proof read it, but if I didn’t turn it in, I would get an automatic cut of
about 20 points on my grade. The highest
I would possibly make was 80 if I didn’t meet the deadline, so I wrote the
paper, printed it, and turned it in the next morning. I understood the idea of urgency. I had to make those deadlines or my grades
would suffer! Some deadlines are more
urgent than others and some consequences are more severe than others
Trans.
With that in
mind, Advent is about getting ready! It
is
about an urgency to get ready 1st
for the second coming of Christ and 2nd for the celebration of
Christ’s first Advent in the world as the baby born in Bethlehem! I would like for you to look at one of the
last, if not the last, letter that Paul wrote.
Prayer
II Timothy 4:6-18, 21a
I. There was quite an
urgency in Paul's expression, "Try your best
to come before winter!"
A. Winter was the deadline. If Paul was to see Timothy, there
was
an urgency in his coming before winter!
B. He didn't know if he'd be around by spring!
1. He had been imprisoned for burning Rome.
(being
the leader)
2. It seems that Alexander the coppersmith had
testified
against him, and things weren't looking good
at all!
C. Winter was probably the time when judgement
would be
passed, and he would be executed!
II. There
is an urgency today, and the call goes out, "Do your best to come before winter!
A. Winter is the time when it is too late and
people
go
out into eternity to meet God!
B. Many cry out today, come before winter!
1. The cry may be to tell me about Jesus before
winter!
Do you know someone whom you need to tell before
winter? (before they meet God?)
a. people in foreign lands? That is why we have
missions
such as Mozambique!
b. people you meet everyday?
c. family?
2. The cry may be to show me the Love of God
before
winter!
a. Many people today have had poor examples of
the Love of God.
1) They've seen churches fighting.
2) They've seen Christians who couldn't
care
less about other people, only for
themselves!
3) They've seen Christians who have judged
them
in one way or another: maybe they
have
tatoos, maybe they have body
piercings,
maybe their skin is a different
color,
maybe they aren’t the right
political
persuasion, maybe they don’t
have
the right sexual preference!
Whatever
the case they see Christians as
judging
and condemning based on their
experience.
b. They need a good example of the steadfast
Love
of
God that takes them as they are before
winter! Will you be that example?
c. Time is passing quickly!
III. Paul
said, "Do thy diligence . . . . .," or do thy best (Nelson footnote) to come before winter!
A. Are you doing your very Best to be there for
someone before winter?
1. Are you doing your best to tell people you
know about Jesus?
2. Are you doing your best to let God's love be expressed to our world through you?
a. Folks, it is not about us!
b. It is about those out there on the highways
and byways!
c. We need to go out and invite them in!
d. God loves all people!
e. How will they know if we do not show them?
3. Are you doing your best to find God's place
for you of service in the
Kingdom?
4. Are you doing your best to set a consistent example in your Christian life? Church attendance? Bible reading? Prayer life? A life that consistently demonstrates the love of God?
5. Are you doing your best to invite people to
church?
a. All people!
b. Would you welcome them if they showed up?
B. That's what God needs is our Best!
C. There is an urgency; we need to do these things before winter, before it is too late for someone who we know and love!
A. There is an urgency in this letter. Do we need to do
something
for someone before winter? Do we need to
tell
someone
of Christ before winter?
B. Winter is coming. The time when time will be no more is
coming
- time and opportunity will be no more!
Are you
ready
for winter?
C. Winter is when Christ comes again, or when we
meet God at
the end
of our life! Are we ready!
D. Winter is when we no longer have the
opportunity to tell
our children and
grandchildren the true meaning of Christmas, about Christ coming to make a way
for us to come to God!
E. As we encounter Christ at the table, let’s
draw close and
get ready! Let’s commit to be the one who comes before
winter! Let’s begin to think of ways
that we can really make Christ the center of our Christmas!
Prayer
of Confession
Service
of Communion
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