Luke 12:33-40

33 “Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys. 34 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

35 “Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. 36 “Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. 37 “Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them. 38 “Whether he comes in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

39 “But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 40 “You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.”

Most of us like to work on schedules.  We usually have a plan in place for how we expect to spend our year in general, each month during that year gets more specific as they approach and then as each weak approaches; our plans are usually set pretty firm and in a very specific way.  For the most part, our lives play out according to the schedules we set.  The unexpected interruptions and unforeseen circumstances certainly do require that we be flexible, but we try to keep those to a minimal to the best of our ability.  However, there are certain events that blow up all our plans.  The day we found out my wife had a brain tumor was one of those life and plan altering events.  There is nothing wrong with planning, but Jesus warns His disciples that He is planning a major interruption for the future.  Life as we know it will be changed forever and in the blink of an eye all our plans will be discarded.  That day will mark what we consider to be the start of our eternal life.  We must be very careful not to allow the schedules of our current lives cause us to lose sight of the eternal life that is to come.

INVEST IN THE KINGDOM OF JESUS: Many of our schedules revolve around the accumulation of things.  Our jobs take up the majority of our energy and creativity as we strive to get further and further “ahead.”  Instead of looking at our work simply as a means of providing for our basic needs and the needs of others; we see our work as a way we can get more things, be more comfortable and build our own “kingdoms.”  Jesus calls this making money belts that wear out.  His instruction is to sell our excessive possessions, give the money to the poor and begin living in light of our heavenly home.  Whatever we accumulate on earth is vulnerable to the effects of the elements or can be stolen by desperate people.  When we live for the kingdom of God, the treasures in heaven are eternally secure.  It all comes down to a matter of our hearts.  Either we are living our lives to advance the kingdom of God or we are living our lives to advance our own kingdoms.  The way we invest our time and view our possessions will reveal which of these two kingdoms has our heart.  God gives us an opportunity to invest in the celestial stock markets that never crash or go into recession. 

PREPARE FOR THE COMING OF JESUS: As kids we used to plan a game called musical chairs where we circled a bunch of chairs that represented one fewer than the number of participants.  When the music stopped everyone sat down and the person left without a chair was out of the game.  The tension and sense of readiness was palpable on our facial expressions and body language as we strained our ears and stayed ready to pounce on an empty chair at the first sound of silence.  This illustrates how we should prepare for the return of Christ.  We need to understand that life as we currently know it is a VERY temporary reality.  At any moment the “music” of this current life will stop and we will find ourselves in eternity.  We will no longer have the opportunity to repent of and put off the sinful habits we have tolerated in this life.  The people with whom we intended to share the Gospel will never hear it from our lips.  We won’t be able to give to the poor, serve our neighbor or help a missionary reach people who have never heard of Jesus.  Jesus warns us to be ready for His return.  We know it is coming but we don’t know when.  He compares His return to the coming of a thief or the return of a master.  Vigilance is a vital quality to develop in our lives.  It is easy for us to get lulled into a state of complacency because it seems like it will be a long time before the Lord returns and it seems like we will live for a long time.  Things are not always as they seem.  We are constantly only an instant from eternity.  It is paramount that we learn to live in light of that reality.

APPLICATION: Make sure our schedules are focused on providing for those in need and promoting the kingdom in the nations instead of our own comfort or status.  Be constantly aware of the return of Christ so we will make the wisest use of our time and be prepared to enter eternity with busy hands and a pure heart.