Hello and welcome. There are only a few months remaining until May 21 in 2011. The question facing each one of us is, “what are you and I going to do with the days that we have left?” There are very few days left. What are we going to do with them?
One good thing is that God is concerned with today. He tells us to forget “those things which are behind” and to look forward.
In Philippians, we are instructed to look at this day and at the time that we have left. It could be—and it probably is with most of us—that as we think about our life up until this point, we could have wasted a great deal of it. In the world of our day, it is very easy to waste time. We waste time on books, on movies, on television, on computers. We waste time in an untold number of ways. This could be the story of many of us and our lives up until today. However, this does not have to continue being the story.
God is warning us that time is short. We have from now until then. Perhaps—maybe if this is the Lord’s will and if the Lord would be gracious to us—He might permit us to live these last days as we really should have always lived them, which is in obedience to Him and in doing things His way rather than our own way.
I think that the Lord gives us some good insight on what would be pleasing to Him in this regard in 1 Peter 4:1-2. It says there:
Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
There we have it. There we have it! God recognizes that we have indeed lived our lives going our own way, doing our own thing, chasing our own desires, agreeing with them and being on the same page with all of those around us, with the people of the world as they have given us their ideas on life.
Well, now is the time. Now is the point where God indicates that we should “no longer live the rest of [our] time in the flesh”—these few days that we have remaining—“to the lusts of men.” This includes our own self and our own lusts.
If we are not to live “to the lusts of men,” what are we to live to? It said in 1 Peter 4:2:
…to the will of God.
So what would God have us to do? What is His will for you and for me? What is His will for the rest of our days, for “the rest of [our] time in the flesh”? Can we learn what this is from the Bible?
The answer is, yes. We can know what God would have us to do. He would have us to serve Him in ministering His Word and in sharing the Gospel with as many people as possible. He would have us to pray for our family, to pray for our children.
Perhaps they are unsuspecting. Yes, they have heard about May 21—more than likely from someone, maybe from you—but they are not taking this seriously. They are not changing the way that they live their lives, which is a big indicator that they may not believe that this is the truth, that God is extremely serious about this date.
What we can do—and what would be according to the will of God—is to pray for them like we have never prayed for them before. Pray for our wives and for our husbands. Pray for our mothers and our fathers, for our brothers and our sisters. Pray for our children, but do not simply pray, “O Lord, have mercy on my son” or “have mercy on my daughter” and then move on to the next thing that we want to pray about. Earnestly pray, “O Lord, please open their eyes. Please save my son. Please have mercy on him,” and then continue praying that the Lord might work that day, today, that He might work in bringing the Gospel to our child’s ears and open up their understanding so that they might see their great danger and the desperate need that they have—that each one of us has, including our children—to be reconciled to God before it is too late. Pray for five, ten, fifteen minutes, a half hour, an hour. Pray for one of our children. The next day, pray for another, and so on. We can pray and we can share the Gospel in whatever way God would have us to do.
Yes, God makes His will known to us. We are obligated and we are given the commission to share the Gospel. The Gospel right now is indicating that the sword of judgment is coming upon the people of the land and we bear the responsibility to warn the people that the Day of Judgment is fast approaching.
Christ commands us and reveals the will of God for each one of His people in Luke 19:13 when He says:
…Occupy till I come.