Are YOU Prepared?

Introduction

Good evening. Tonight I want to talk to you about something that some of you have a lot of experience with. And just about everybody here has some experience with this. And I don’t really want to open any fresh wounds, but I’m going to talk about hurricane preparedness.

People gathered water and canned goods and bread and lots of food, primarily snacks, those that were experienced in hurricane preparedness. Some non-perishables, more water, and then things like batteries and matches, and some people even bought generators and plywood. And this is not an easy task because, of course, you’re competing with everybody else in Orlando, or in this case, everyone else in Florida. And occasionally there were fights that broke out over that last case of water or that last generator or that last piece of plywood. But mostly people were helping one another to prepare for the storm. And then we made preparations at home, which included things like moving your furniture inside, putting up plywood, maybe trimming trees that had branches that you were worried about, tying down items, putting sandbags out.

I even saw people were washing their children right before the storm, which was a smart thing because uh they knew they were gonna lose power and water, and they didn’t want stinky children in their house. And laundry was another thing, especially at our house, I’m sure at your house too, that every last piece of laundry had to go in the washing machine and get washed before the power went out. But um and then some of us had to help other people. Maybe it was a neighbor, maybe it was an elderly person that we uh were caring for. But nobody let anybody encounter the storm without being prepared. If you had a neighbor that didn’t know the storm was coming, you told them, right? The storm’s coming.

Aren’t you gonna get ready? And when did people start preparing for the storm? Well, it depends on the person, right? Some people started a week before. You remember we kind of got notice of it over Labor Day weekend, and some people said, Well, I’m gonna wait until after my Labor Day uh weekend to start preparing for the storm. Some people started preparing when hurricane season started many months ago. And some people waited until Saturday before the storm, and they were the last ones out of the store picking up the supplies and those types of things. And then we waited for the storm to come and we waited and we waited and we waited. If you’ve gone through hurricanes, there’s lots of waiting. Uh at least that’s how I feel.

Like you hear the storm’s coming and then it’s coming, it’s coming, and then you sit in your house and you wait and you wait and you wait, and then it arrives. They don’t, they’re not very quick, they’re not like tornadoes. Um because they start out way out in the ocean and they gradually form, and it’s great because we get all this warning time. Um and we know we’re in the path of the storm, we better get ready, we better be prepared. Um people ran away, some people just winged it, but mostly uh people got prepared. If they’re in the path, they got prepared. So you may see where this is going from a spiritual and scriptural uh comparison. Preparing for the hurricane is in a lot of ways similar to preparing for the coming of Jesus.

It’s in many ways the same as preparing for the judgment. If someone told you that Jesus is coming on Sunday night at 11 p.m., what would you be doing now? What would you be doing tomorrow and Friday and Saturday? And every day between now and Sunday at 11, they came back and said, Guess what? He’s still coming. He’s coming at 11 o’clock on Sunday. Maybe he’s coming at 10.55 now or at 11.05, but just like the hurricane, uh, he’s coming. And he’s not uh, you know, the prediction gets more and more accurate as closer we get to Sunday. So would you do nothing? Would you not get prepared? Would you wait until Saturday? Would you start preparing uh tonight? So as believers, what do we do?

1. We Gather Spiritual Supplies

We gather supplies. The supplies that we gather are not the physical things to equip us for Jesus’ coming, but rather spiritual things. Let’s look at Ephesians 6, verses 11 through 18. And that passage reads, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end, with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. You see, we put on the armor of God because we have an adversary that’s trying to prevent us from getting ready for the second coming. During the hurricane, perhaps, hopefully you didn’t run into an adversary that was trying to prevent you. But, like I said, you might have been fighting with somebody for that last case of water or that last piece of plywood, or whatever that supply you needed, and somebody else also needed.

2. Preparing the Household of God

But make no mistake about it, there’s somebody who doesn’t want you to be ready when Jesus comes. Also, similar to preparing for the hurricane, preparing our homes for the storm, we don’t just prepare ourselves for Jesus’ second coming, but we prepare our children and our spouse and our family members, and the whole household of God, which is the church. Ephesians 2 19 tells us, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

3. We Wait, Working and With Hope

We want everybody in the household of God to be ready for the second coming. And outside of the church, we want everybody, especially those that aren’t prepared, which is the lost, to get ready for his coming. Why do we help them? Because we love them. Matthew twenty two thirty seven through forty Jesus teaches us when he says you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. And lastly, just like the hurricane we wait and we wait for Jesus’ coming. We don’t know when it will be it could be tonight, it could be on Sunday, it could be years from now.

Either way, we wait. But we don’t wait idly we wait working for the Lord, working diligently, and not in fear like the storm maybe had some of us fearful for our lives or for our homes or for our safety, but rather we wait with hope. Titus two eleven tells us for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works. Again, unlike the hurricane, we don’t know when Jesus is coming.

4. We Know He’s Coming

We know he’s coming, that’s more certain than the hurricane ever was. It’s an absolute fact, because he has promised us that he will return and that we will face judgment. And if you’re not ready for the coming of Jesus, you’re not going to be able to say, Well, I didn’t know you were coming, or I wasn’t warned that you were coming, or even that I didn’t have time to prepare.

You absolutely did. All of us here are at an age where we’ve had, well, I should say most of us here, are at an age where we’ve had many years before, many days, many weeks to prepare.

Conclusion

But rather he will come like a thief in the night. So again, if you knew the another hurricane was coming, but you didn’t know when it was coming, wouldn’t you be getting ready? Wouldn’t you be getting ready for that storm? Wouldn’t you be going out and getting supplies? Wouldn’t you be preparing your home because you knew the storm was coming, you just didn’t know when? Well, the same is true for Jesus. We may not know when he’s coming, but we know he’s coming. And we need to be ready for him. So if we can help you get ready by confessing his name before this audience, by being baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and washing away your sins and walking in newness of life, please come forward as we stand and as we sing.