The weather certainly has been nice lately, hasn't it? I hope you are getting to enjoy it a little bit. But it isn=t fooling anyone, is it? You all know that winter is coming. Soon. It is right around the corner. That is something that we can be absolutely sure of! So how do you start getting ready for winter? What do you have to do with your home? You have to Awinterize it,@ or Abuild it up,@ so to speak, to get it ready for winter. (Change the furnace filter, put in the storm windows, shut off the outside faucets, make sure everything is sealed and insulated, etc.) You know that winter is coming, so it would be rather unwise not to have your house ready for when it does!

How do you prepare or build up your home for a thief who might come to rob it? (You put good locks on it, make sure they are locked at night, maybe an alarm system, lights on at night, etc.) If you are not ready, that thief is going to get away with a lot of your stuff! Unlike winter, we have NO idea when a thief might come along! So we can=t just start preparing in November for thieves. We have to be taking those precautions every day!

Now, the Day of the Lord, or Judgment Day, comes like a thief in the night. You never will know when it is going to come! Whether or not a thief ever comes to your house, as sure as winter, Judgment Day will! You just don=t know when! Imagine if you never knew when winter would come! Say that it could come any time of the year...July 1st you are relaxing with a lemonade on your porch, and all of a sudden...BOOM! A blizzard hits! You would have to have your house Awinterized@ or Abuilt up@ year-round just like your alarm system. Spiritually speaking, we must Build Each Other Up every day of our lives! We must get into God's Word and build each other up in our trust in Jesus because, first of all, the Day of the Lord is most certainly coming!

Ever since September 11, all sorts of predictions are being made once again about when the end of the world might take place. But no one knows. No one except God. It is not good for us to know anyway, so that we are moved with a constant sense of urgency and readiness. Believe it or not, many people still are not too concerned! They are the ones in our text saying Apeace and safety.@ They are comfortable with their lives. They don=t believe that a Day of Destruction is coming, and aren=t worried if it does. But destruction, which is the exact opposite of peace and safety, will come on them suddenly!

Judgment Day is not something to be taken lightly! On this incredible day, when we see Jesus return on the clouds in the sky, you are all going to find yourselves in front of God=s judgment throne. There He is going to ask you why He should let you into heaven. Are you going to stand there and say, AWell, you know, I have lived a pretty good life. I never killed anyone. I never was divorced or committed adultery. I brought up my kids well. We even went to a church once in a while. Almost every Christmas. I have been more good than bad. I mean, there were a few times I wasn=t totally honest on my tax returns. I know I have used your name improperly, God, a few times, I had my days where I was rude and mean to people, but overall, I have been pretty good. What more could you expect?@ That is when God will open the book He has in front of Him to your page and unroll a list of every deed you have ever done wrong, every word you have ever said, and even every dirty thought. Many things you have forgotten about long ago, and some things that you have tried to forget about because they bothered you. He has this list out there in front of Him and says, AWhat more could I expect? I expect perfection!!@ And then for all of you who are counting on your decent lifestyles to get you into heaven, or for those of you who have not believed there even is a heaven or a God, then the comfortable motto of Apeace and safety@ you have been living your life with will swiftly change to destruction! And, you would not be ready for the Day of the Lord!

But just as surely as you will all safeguard your homes from thieves, and winterize it to protect it against bitter cold weather, the Lord who loves us encourages us to build up and prepare our "spiritual homes." Return to God! Give Him our primary attention! Get into his Word daily! Grow in our faith! And then live that faith by building fellow believers up. Encourage them and be encouraged by them. Live our lives as if we are thankful! Live lives that say "thank You" to God! Live as children of light in this world! Let your God-pleasing, Christian light shine!

Because the second reason we should be ABuilding each other up@ is that we are children of the light! The last day will be a day of joy for you! When you are standing before God=s throne, He is going to ask you why He should let you into heaven. Your answer is not going to be Abecause I lived a pretty good life,@ or AI went to church a lot,@ or AI was a member of Cross of Life.@ Your answer will be that you are completely relying on Jesus to get you into heaven, because He lived a perfect life! He did it all right! And He gave you all the credit for his stellar record! That is when God will open to your page, and find it completely blank! There will be no record of yours for Him or anyone else to see. No sinful thoughts, words, or deeds recorded there! Because you have pleaded mercy for Jesus= sake, all of those sins were removed. Covered up with his perfection! For you, Judgment Day will mean getting warmly welcomed into God=s loving arms!

That is why it isn=t important that we know the day or hour. We know it is coming. You are children of light, whom God has appointed to receive salvation. So as children of light, you live each day as if it was Judgment Day! Do this by Abuilding each other up,@ as Paul puts it. Build each other up by staying in the Word. Build each other up by encouraging each other and reminding each other what Jesus has done for you! That is how you will be ready at every day and every hour. As Christians who are ready, your lives will display the difference from unbelievers. We will live as children of the light, and not children of the darkness. With God=s strength.

There is another important reason that we live each day urgently preparing for the Last Day. I want every one of you to pretend that you are licensed electricians. You get home from a hard day=s work, and you settle in for a night of relaxing and watching TV. But a huge storm hits. Power lines go down everywhere. Your lights and TV go out. There is no power in all of Mississauga. But you are an electrician. So you go outside, and you see the power line to your house dangling with sparks flying everywhere. Being an electrician, you get your equipment out, and go and get it all fixed up. You are pretty happy with yourself as you head inside and turn your lights on, go to the fridge, get out some snacks, plop in your favorite recliner, put your feet up, and turn on the TV for your favorite show. But right after you get comfortable, there is a knock at your door. It is someone from the hospital. The power is still down there. They desperately need someone to come and help fix it, because there are all sorts of people who depend on the respirators and machines to keep them alive. They need that electricity for their lives! What would you do? I am sure you would go and help.

You are all spiritual electricians! First of all, you are hooked up to the power source yourselves. You are hooked up to God through your faith in Jesus as your Savior! That source of power is what will keep you alive forever! You have light in your homes! You are children of the light! But you are electricians, too! So you can also hook other people up to this light! You can hook others up to this source of power! You can do this by telling them about Jesus. You also do this by letting your light shine as you live your lives! You are different than those who belong to the darkness and are not ready for the Day of the Lord. As a church, and as individuals, it is good that we don=t know exactly when Judgment Day is coming. That way we will live every day in urgency to build each other up in the Word, and to build others up by hooking them up to the power source that we have! And by building each other up, we will always be ready, no matter when that day comes.

We must live every day as if it is the Day of the Lord. Each day of our lives is the last day! It is never tomorrow. Tomorrow will be too late. It is always today! What joy it brings to my heart knowing that this very day I could be in heaven with Jesus! Always be ready! Maybe Judgment Day will come hundreds of years from now. But it could come in the year 2002. It could come before we celebrate another Christmas! It could come before December! It could come next week! It could come tomorrow while you are at work. It could come today while you are driving home from church. It could even come before I finish this...Amen.

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