Vs. Luke 12:51 “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth?  No, I tell you, but division.”

Vs. Luke 12:56 “Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?”

Recently I received a list of warnings that you can find on everyday products.  On the box of a certain bar of soap you will find the warning - open at other end.  On the bottom of the box of a frozen dessert, you will find the warning - do not turn upside down. On the side of a plastic bag, you will find the warning - this is not a toy.  If you go into MacDonald’s today and ask for a cup of hot coffee, your cup will come with a warning - Hot beverage.  Like no kidding that’s what I asked for.

Generally speaking, how would you rate yourself at obeying warnings?

I am sure like any parent, if Jim and Lisa or Jason and Loretta learned that they bought their daughters something and a warning came out that it was defective, that there was a danger that their daughter could get hurt using it they would stop using it.

Common sense says you obey warnings.

Yet when you see a road sign ahead that warns you about a dangerous curve and tells you to reduce your speed to 25 mph, do you?

When cigarette manufacturers were forced to warn you that cigarette smoking causes cancer, did you immediately stop smoking?

The radio and TV news reports warned people not to do strenuous exercise in the extreme summer heat, yet two college athletes and one professional football player died of heat stroke this summer.

What is causing us to be deaf, dumb and blind to warnings?

Personally I believe the answer can be found in Jesus’ warning,

Division seems to be the one thing that we have gotten right. We live in America, but no one is simply called an American today.  We are classified by sexual preference, by race, by creed, by dysfunctions. And if you think the church is any better we aren’t. We are classified by Roman Catholic or protestant. Protestants are identified by denominations.  And then we are classified as liberals, conservatives, evangelists, born againers it goes on and on.

This is just a sample picture of what Jesus warned us about.  I remember being called to the home of one of my youth group members in a previous church.  It was a couple days after New Years day and the mother called me in hysterics.  Their teenage daughter, with their permission had a New Years Eve party and to quote the mother, “It got out of hand.” So I went over to see the parents with the daughter.

It seems there had been about twenty high school age youth at the party.  The party was downstairs in the basement while Mom and Dad stayed upstairs.  They would occasionally go downstairs to bring down food, to make sure the soda supply was lasting, and to check up on things.  Everything seemed to be going ok, the music was playing, the kids were laughing, etc., until shortly after midnight when everything got very quiet.  Mom and Dad waited and after about fifteen minutes of not hearing anything they went downstairs.

What they found was that all the youth where holding hands and praying.  At which point one of the parents said to me, “This is not normal.  You have to talk her out of going to this youth group at the high school.”

To make a long story short, this girl was not involved in a cult, which her parents thought.  She was attending an excellent Christian youth group called Young Life.  Her participation in that group led her into a deep intimate relationship with her God.  Unfortunately, that relationship put a wedge between her parents and herself.  Her growing intimate relationship caused her to reassess her life, her goals, and her dreams. Her parents challenged every step of growth in that relationship.  Her intimate relationship with her God was threatening and disconcerting to her parents.

Which brings me back to previous question, why are we so deaf, dumb and blind to the signs of our time?

As Christians, as believers in Christ, we too often settle on beliefs instead of a living faith. We settle for an intellectual knowledge of God, instead of an intimate relationship with God. We choose to take the middle road. Instead of declaring our loyalty to God we are willing to compromise and be tolerant. Jesus says,

“No one comes to the Father
except through me.”

We say it doesn’t matter what a person believes as long as they live a good life.  What does our compromising of the faith say to the people in Hebrews who were killed for their faith, stoned, persecuted, tortured?  It was all unnecessary.

Society is telling us there is no absolute truth. The Bible isn’t the Word of God.  Find the God that is within.  There is no right or wrong, everything is relative.  How long will we be blind to the signs of the time?

God wants you and me to declare our loyalty to Him, not just with lips but also with our lives.  Is that anything less than you expect and demand in your relationships, from your spouse, from your siblings, from your employer/employee?

Would you marry someone who, instead of saying “I do!” said “Most of the time.” Would you invest your money with a company who said, “Most of the time we will watch out for your investments?

I don’t get it. Youth sport teams can demand attendance, they can say if your child misses X number of practices they are off the team, but God forbids the church from saying that if you miss X number of Sundays you are expelled from Sunday school.

Why are we so blind to the signs of this time?

Because we are willing to settle for second when it comes to our relationship with God, we are willing to compromise, Why?

The time is ripe for you and me to hide the words of Hebrews 12:1&2.

Amen