Think back to the last time you flew on an airplane. After boarding the plane, finding your seat, and buckling your seat belt, a stewardess came over the loud speaker and began talking about the emergency procedures should your plane have a problem while mid-flight. Have you ever noticed how few people pay attention to these instructions? While potentially life-saving information is shared, people are reading that terrible “in flight” magazine, listening to a song they have heard 1,000 times through their ear buds, or talking to the person they just met in the seat beside them (and who they will most likely never see again after the flight is over).
Why do people check-out while the safety speech is happening? While I can’t speak for everyone, I do have a theory. People fail to listen because they assume the plane will not crash. If they half of all flights crashed, you better believe people would be paying closer attention to their stewardess! Even if they had flown 1,000 times, they still would have high incentive to listen to the speech to make sure nothing had changed.
Now, I want to draw a parallel between the “safety speech” on an airplane, and our spiritual lives. Throughout Scripture, the “Gospel speech” is shared (“In the event that judgment comes, Jesus is the only life saving option!”) We have heard it a number of times, but do we listen to it? Do we apply its message? Why not? Well, one reason we ignore the Gospel’s message is because we assume judgment is not coming. We assume this because we have not seen anyone struck by lightning when the moment they sinned! Because of our experience, we are tempted to think that judgment for our sins is not likely, so we tune out when the message that will lead to our Eternal Safety is shared.
Brothers and sisters, this should NOT be the case! Our “plane” is guaranteed to crash. 100% of us will one day have to stand before the Lord in judgment, so we would do well to heed the message of the Gospel today while there is still time.
This Sunday at Wildwood, we will look at the certainty of coming judgment as we study Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43, 47-50. In these verses Jesus tells two parables to remind us of the crash that is in front of us all . . . while there is still time. Join us for part 3 of the “Like” sermon series in our 9:45 and 11:00 worship services.