The Dangers in the "Art of Living"; Luke 17:26-30

Delivered during the Sunday Morning Worship Service, 9/29/2024. Having established Himself as the preeminent King of the Kingdom of God, Jesus now turns His attention to the "days to come". He refers to two intense periods of history-- the days just before the great flood and the days just before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. In both cases, rather than emphasizing the egregious sinfulness of the people living in those days, (which was certainly epic), He emphasized the everyday trivial pursuits that consumed them and lead to frivolous living and complacency; causing them to ignore the warnings of impending doom. Jesus will compare those intense periods of time to the "days of the Son of Man", which we have already established as the days from the first Advent up to and including the Second Coming-- the days in which we live. We will analyze the way these warnings were ignored by the people in Jesus' day and then fervently apply the same principle to our day-- realizing how easy it is to elevate the very act of living to a polished, all-consuming "art form". And in doing so, we will learn to discern the dangers in one of the most subtle of idols-- the "art of living".