Don’t Waste Your Life

“Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming…”  2 Peter 3:11-12 (NIV)

A CONVICTING MOMENT – A Day of Reckoning vss. 1-4

The time comes when everything falls together, and you come to the realization that you can’t go back. And the time has come for the event – a day of reckoning.

• (Mark 13:1-2) And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
• (2 Chronicles 7:19-22) “But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will pluck you up from my land that I have given you, and this house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And at this house, which was exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?’ Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore he has brought all this disaster on them.’”  

From these passages, the day of reckoning had come, the “But” of 2 Chronicles 7:19 had arrived. Jesus is prophesying that the great and wonderful temple would soon be a pile of rubble because the Jews had, not turned towards other gods, but their own religious traditions that made void the Word of God. These religious Jews merely had the appearance of righteousness, they had all the pieces together but there was something missing.

The Missing Element    

• (Mark 12:34) And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
• (Matthew 23:37-38) “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate.

The people were not willing. They were not willing to obey God’s commands and instead relied on their man-made traditions to provide a veneer of righteousness. In other words, they sowed the wind. Their own teachings, their own human element. Jesus came and they sought to kill Him. That’s how devoted they were to their own traditions. They had no time; they had no place for God to break in. The “Point of No Return” had come; the missing element led to the missing temple.

A COMPELLING MESSAGE – A Day of Retribution vss. 5-13

Deception & Destruction – vss. 5-8

• (Mark 13:5-8) And Jesus began to say to them, “See that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains.

Jesus here is pointing to the coming anti-christ and the Anti-Christ. These people are deceivers, trying to appear as good when in fact they are evil. These are represented by the white horse of Revelation 6 and 2 Thessalonians 2.

• (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12) The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders,  and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.  Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

After deception, comes destruction and death. The seals of Revelation 6 catalog the increasing catastrophes that will engulf the whole earth leading up to the return of Christ.

• (Revelation 6:12-17) When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

Persecution & Provision – vss. 9-12

• (Mark 13:9-12) “But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death.

Evidence of Authenticity – vs. 13

• (Mark 13:13a) And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.
• (John 15:18) “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

Enabled to Endure – vs. 13

• (Mark 13:13b) But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
• (1 Corinthians 10:13) No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Those who have God’s grace and the Holy Spirit will endure; they will be saved.

HOW THEN SHALL YOU LIVE?

Do you have religion, but don’t have Christ?

1. Are you still “not far from the Kingdom?” 
2. Are you Loving God Supremely?
3. Are you Loving others Sincerely?

C.T. Studd spent his life reaching the lost with the gospel and He wrote these words … “Only one life, ’twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.”

DON’T WASTE YOUR LIFE! … Make a Difference in someone else’s life for the kingdom of God!

Mark 13:5  And Jesus began to say to them, “See that no one leads you astray.