Be Ready!

Luke chapter number 12. It's good to be in the Lord's house today. I appreciate Brother Jared.

Some things moved around on the singing schedule, and it kind of worked out perfectly with our message today.

You found your place there in Luke chapter number 12. You can stand for the reading of God's word if you're able to.

We're going to step out of our Luke series for the next few weeks, so this will be our last time in there.

We're coming into Palm Sunday next week, and then Easter, and then after Easter, we're kind of looking at a little different view from there.

And I'm excited about that, excited about Easter Sunday. Hope that you're preparing for it, inviting somebody.

Planning on being here in the Lord's house, but we're here today in our series in the Gospel of Luke.

And these are some tough verses and just some truths that we're wrestling with here.

And I talked to Brother Garrett about it and trying to get his opinion on it.

But I'm thankful that we're going to work through it together, and the Lord has something for us, I know.

So you found your place there in Luke chapter 12. We're going to begin reading in verse 35 where the Bible says this.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning.

And ye yourselves liken to men that wait for their Lord when he will return from the wedding,

that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.

Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching.

Verily I say unto you that he, the master, shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meet,

and will come forth and serve them.

And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, so come in the evening or come in the middle of the night,

and find them so, blessed are those servants.

And this know that if the good men of the house had known what hour the thief would come,

he would have watched and not suffered his house to be broken through.

Be ye, verse 40, excuse me, be ye therefore ready also.

For the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us or even to all?

And the Lord said unto him,

Who then is the faithful and wise steward,

whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household,

to give him their portion of meat in due season?

Blessed is the servant whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing.

Of a truth I say unto you that he will make him ruler over all that he hath.

But and if the servant saith in his heart,

My Lord delayeth his coming,

and shall begin to beat the men servants and maid servants,

and to eat and drink and to be drunken,

the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him,

at an hour when he is not aware,

and will cut him in sunder,

and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.

And that servant which knew the Lord's will,

and prepared not himself,

neither did according to his will,

shall be beaten with many stripes.

But he that knew not,

and did not commit things worthy of stripes,

shall be beaten with few stripes,

for unto whomsoever much is given,

of him shall much be required,

and to whom men have committed much,

of him they will ask the more.

Brother Jared just sang a song,

at the midnight cry,

we'll be going home.

But that's only if you're ready.

And really what Jesus is calling us to,

here in Luke 12,

is to be ready.

Because it's going to happen.

And we're going to get into this,

but people say,

well,

when's he coming?

It's been 2,000 years.

He's coming.

It says it over,

and over,

and over.

And maybe it's not like waiting to buy your tickets for the last day.

Free announcement right there.

We can't wait and say,

oh,

I have time.

Here's what Jesus says.

Be ready.

We don't need to get ready someday.

We need to be ready today.

And that's what we're going to look at here this morning.

Let's ask the Lord to bless our time.

Father,

thank you for your word,

and thank you that we can open it.

Thank you we have our own copies.

That we can dig in,

and we can see what you have for us.

But Lord,

we ask now,

that as we come here as a church family,

that you would just quiet our hearts,

and our minds,

and the busyness of life,

and the world around us.

And Lord,

I pray that you would just take this text,

Lord,

and you would use it to remind us,

and really to check inventory of our life,

to make sure that we're ready.

Lord,

when you come again,

I want to be ready.

I want to see you face to face,

and to know that I've done everything I can to serve you.

Lord,

maybe there is somebody here today,

that maybe knew the songs we sang,

and knows some of the verses here in the word of God,

but has never made it a personal decision,

for you to be their Lord and Savior.

Lord,

I pray that today would be that day.

Lord,

I pray you would be with me now.

You would just guide my thoughts,

and my words.

You would clear my mind.

Lord,

we ask all this in your son's precious name.

Amen.

Thank you so much for standing.

You may be seated.

Who checked the weather app,

before you came to church this morning?

A few of you did.

How many check the weather app,

every single day?

Some of you just,

man,

some of you are just living life on the edge.

I mean,

that's like one of the first things I do,

you know,

and I remember checking last week,

and I thought,

wait,

it's going to be 20 on Monday,

and it's going to be 120 on Sunday.

What is going on here?

And some of you might have,

somebody in the family uses a different weather app.

We got competing weather apps in the family,

and we're like,

what weather app are you using?

I mean,

one of them will say,

you know,

it's going to be sunny all day,

and another says scattered thunderstorms.

So we're not sure to wear a jacket,

or to bring sunscreen.

We're not really sure what's going on there,

and I love weather forecasters.

I wish I had their job.

I mean,

they're never right,

and they still have a job.

I mean,

because when they say,

it's not going to drop an ounce,

I mean,

we're going to get stuck in a monsoon out here,

and vice versa,

when there's 90% chance of rain,

not a drop falls.

I think we had a week like that a couple weeks ago.

They say,

it's going to rain every single day.

It didn't rain any days at all,

and it's just kind of what it is.

But it's not just the forecast,

the weather forecast that we check.

There's all kinds of forecasts we check.

Maybe it's the economic forecast.

I try not to check that,

because that's bleak.

You know,

it just feels like,

ah,

this is bad.

The country's in worse shape than I'm in.

Maybe it's the future of the country,

the news.

I mean,

we look at what's happening on the world stage,

and we're trying to kind of figure out,

what's going on,

and how's this going to affect me,

and you know,

we're feeling the pinch at the pump,

so to speak,

and of all these things,

and we're trying to say,

when's this forecast going to change?

And if you read the news,

or watch it long enough,

you're going to hear things like this.

These are unprecedented times.

It's uncertain.

The future is unpredictable.

We think and say things like this.

I've never seen it this bad.

Well,

come to find out,

if you study history,

every generation has said this very same thing.

In fact,

this world's not going to get better.

The Bible makes it clear,

that it's going to wax worse and worse,

until the day that Christ comes,

and yet,

in the middle of all the uncertainty,

in the middle of the competing,

and differing forecast,

Jesus reminds us,

that we have something in the world,

doesn't have,

and we know Him as Savior.

That not only do we have a Savior,

who knows the future,

here's the best part,

He holds the future in His hand.

That nothing is going to happen,

without His say so.

And when it comes to the return of Jesus Christ,

I just want to remind us,

before we kind of jump into the text here,

that we're not dealing with some minor doctrine,

found in Scripture.

This is not some side issue,

that really weird people get lost in the weeds,

in the book of Revelation,

and write really weird books about.

Because they do.

I don't know if you know this,

but there was a book written,

88 Reasons Why Jesus Is Coming in 1988.

Anybody ever heard of that book?

He didn't come in 1988.

But we get all weirded out about it,

and we're so worried about all of these things,

and when we think of the second coming of Christ,

it's not calling us to predict it.

Nobody knows when that's going to happen.

The Father knows,

He's going to tell His Son,

to go get the children.

We know that,

but the idea,

every time we see the second coming is this,

be ready.

It's coming.

I remember when,

I got old enough,

when my parents would go run an errand,

or go to dinner,

they would leave me at home.

And I'd say,

what time,

what time do you think you're going to be home?

Not because I cared about their safety.

Not because I cared about what they were doing.

I just want to know,

how late can I wait,

to start picking up the absolute disaster,

that I made?

Anybody else ever operated that way?

Okay.

That's how it is.

But that's not how we're supposed to live as believers.

That's really not how anybody's supposed to live.

And the point of this is,

is Jesus is addressing a crowd,

and there were believers there,

there were unbelievers,

and the theme is the same,

be ready for it.

And this theme of the second coming is,

in 260 chapters in the New Testament,

there are over 300 references,

to the second coming of Christ.

When you kind of parse it out,

it's about one in every 25 verses,

in the New Testament,

speak of this.

So the return of Christ is,

it's not just a possibility,

it's a certainty.

And that's how it is portrayed,

and that is how it is given,

in the New Testament.

As we've kind of made our way,

here in the Gospel of Luke,

and especially chapter 12,

we kind of see this natural progression.

That Jesus is teaching about,

living our life,

not just for the here and now.

A few weeks back,

we looked at a parable he gave,

about the rich fool,

who was living life for himself,

and life was good,

and the harvest was great,

in fact it was so great,

he had to tear his barns down,

and build bigger barns,

to store all of his stuff.

And it just shows us a life,

that it was lived for greed,

it wasn't looking for the future,

it wasn't planning for anything,

but the here and now.

And he said,

hey let's just eat,

drink and be merry,

because this is all life is about.

And then Jesus moved in,

kind of addressing the believers,

that many of them,

would have not had a lot of things.

Their harvest year,

wasn't maybe that great.

And because of that,

anxiousness and worry,

can begin to creep in our life.

And we can think,

well what if I don't have enough?

I'm trying to plan,

I'm trying to do this,

but Lord I have all of these things,

and he reminds us,

how much he loves us.

He reminds us that our father,

he cares for the ravens,

and he cares for the lilies,

and he knows what we need.

So instead of worrying about,

what we're going to eat,

what we're going to wear,

and where we're going to go,

here's what we need to worry about,

here's what we need to focus on,

him.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God,

and his righteousness.

And I'm kind of building off of those two stories,

and those two truths there,

he says,

here's how you should live because of that.

You should live with readiness.

And readiness for Christ's return,

here's what it does,

it's an antidote for both greed and worry.

It helps us to move past those,

if we think about it this way,

if I know he's coming,

I don't have to cling to all the things here on this earth.

I don't have to build bigger barns,

and rent more storage units,

and if I know he's coming,

I don't have to fear tomorrow.

The certainty that he's coming,

should buoy our hearts.

And here's the main idea,

that we kind of see through this text.

that being ready is not knowing,

it's not about knowing when he's coming,

but it's about living in such a way,

that it wouldn't matter if he came today.

That if we saw Christ face to face,

we could stand before him,

knowing we have lived our life,

in a way that is pleasing to him.

As children of the Father,

we are called to serve him.

So if you're taking notes here today,

here's the question we can answer through this text.

How do we live ready for Jesus' return?

He's calling us to be ready.

He said it over and over,

be ready, be ready.

If he's calling us to be ready,

what does it look like?

And Jesus gives us some clear pictures here,

of what it does.

And if we're going to live ready,

it's going to show up in certain ways.

Number one, we're going to live a prepared life.

We're going to be prepared.

Look at verse number 35.

Let your loins be girded,

and your lights burning.

And ye yourselves liken to men

that wait for their Lord

when he will return from a wedding,

that when he cometh and knocketh,

they may open unto him immediately.

Now sometimes when Jesus starts giving

kind of these illustrations

and these parables,

to us we think,

what is he talking about?

I mean, we're talking about robes

and lights and servants.

But to the crowd that was gathered,

to his disciples that were there,

they would have understood immediately

what he was saying.

These were things they would have dealt with

in their own everyday life.

And really, the idea that he's painting

right off the bat

is being ready for Jesus

is not some casual,

relaxed way of living.

No, what he's showing us

in these opening verses,

it's a picture of alertness.

It's a picture of intention.

It's a picture of readiness.

See, the idea is not just being awake.

It's being prepared for action.

Don't you love when somebody calls you

in the morning

and you answer it?

I mean, you have to say hello

like three times before you answer.

You're like, hello, hello, hello.

Because you don't want to know

you were maybe just kind of dozing.

I'm the only person

that's ever done that.

And it still doesn't work out

and they say,

preacher, did I wake you up?

Like, no.

Listen, I might be awake,

but I'm not ready to do anything.

Oh, no, I'm just getting up.

No, I'm not.

I'm just laying there.

I'm just being super lazy.

I was awake.

It really, the call didn't wake me up,

but I wasn't ready to do anything.

If it would have been

something ready to go,

I would have said,

well, I'm going to,

actually, I need to get ready.

I haven't really done that.

But see, in this culture,

Jesus was painting something

they would have understood

and he says in verse 35,

let your loins be girded about.

The idea was that

they would wear these long robes.

We talked about this

in our study in Peter

a couple weeks ago.

That the men would wear

long, flowy robes.

They would come down

to their ankles.

And the thought is this.

You couldn't do a whole lot

of activity in that kind of garb.

That didn't lend itself to work.

It didn't lend itself to action.

What they would have to do

is they would have to kind of

pull the robe up

and gird it within their belt.

So they would be able to do things.

You couldn't move freely.

You couldn't run.

You couldn't serve effectively

until you were girded.

And what Jesus is showing is

that's the kind of readiness

that he calls us to live by.

Not this passiveness.

Hey, I'm awake.

I'm here.

It's Sunday.

I'm in church.

It's not just about

doing certain things

in the Christian life.

It's about preparing for it

and being ready

and being active about it.

It's about being intentional

about the things of God.

It's a life that is positioned

to respond in a moment's notice.

You ever see when they call on the,

when a firefighter,

they get a call?

I mean, they can be playing cards,

eating, they've been sleeping,

but as soon as that call comes,

I mean, they're closed.

All their gear is ready to go

and they jump right in.

I mean, they're out of that firehouse

in no time.

Listen, that's the picture

that Jesus says,

that's how you should live.

A servant in these days,

they couldn't say,

well, I don't feel like serving today.

That wasn't an option.

That was their job.

That is who they were.

You say, well, preacher,

what does it look like

to have our loins girded about?

I think for us today,

it looks kind of like

making time with God a priority

and not an afterthought.

Sometimes we just read our Bible

when it's convenient.

Sometimes we read it

and we don't even know

that we read it.

You ever driven somewhere

and thought to yourself,

how did I get here?

You're like,

hopefully I was awake the whole time.

But sometimes that's how

we treat our relationship with God.

We're kind of on cruise control.

It's just kind of

an everyday normal thing

and we're not really

pouring into it

and being intentional.

Maybe being ready,

it's keeping short accounts

with God

when it comes to our sin.

Listen, I'm thankful

that I'm saved by grace.

I'm thankful that

all my sins are under the blood.

But here's the reality

that I still struggle with sin.

I still deal with it

on a daily basis.

I'm looking forward to a day

when I don't.

I'm looking forward to a day

when all things are made new

and all things are passed away

and sin is no more.

But until that day,

even those that know

Christ as their Savior,

we need to ask for forgiveness.

Listen, when I see the Lord

face to face,

I don't want there to be

a laundry list of things

for weeks and months

and years

that I just said,

I'll take care of that later.

That's not being ready.

That's not ready

to move into action.

I think it just means

starting each day

aware that you belong to Him.

You read the New Testament.

Almost every letter you read,

almost every book you read,

you're going to see them

introduce themselves

in some form or fashion of this.

Paul, a servant of God.

Peter, a servant of God.

Jude, a bondservant.

Listen, all of these men

that wrote the Scriptures,

all of those that serve God,

they realize this,

we're just servants.

We have a master that loves us

and we have given our life

to serve Him.

See, what Jesus is saying,

listen, you don't need to

live your spiritual life

just half-dressed.

I mean, you're kind of ready

to do something,

but you're hoping nobody calls.

You ever been there?

You're like,

I'll help them if they call,

but you're praying,

Lord, please don't let them call me.

That's not how Jesus calls us to live.

And we may,

it's not that we're saying

no to serving God,

we're just saying

right now is not a good time.

I think if we're not careful

in our minds,

we can say,

well, I didn't say no,

I just said not now.

The idea is,

I'll get serious about serving God

when I get this taken care of

and when the kids get

a little bit older

and when this happens and that.

No, no, here's what Jesus says,

be ready right now.

It's not a wait for later,

I'll deal with that sin eventually.

It's not that big a deal.

No, it is a big deal.

We're going to celebrate Easter

in a few weeks

and we have to celebrate that

because Jesus Christ

took our sin debt

on the cross of Calvary.

This sin is a big deal

and we shouldn't live

just in a habitual state of it.

No, a life that is prepared

says this,

I want to be right with God today.

I mean, we understand

in our other relationships,

whether it's your marriage relationship,

whether it's with kids,

whether it's with your boss.

Listen, when there's a short account

and things are, you know,

things are on the table,

it makes that relationship

a lot better.

There's not this overwhelming cloud

that's following.

No, we don't live,

we don't wait until a crisis comes

to get our life in order.

I think we see it

all around our world.

Listen, we don't need

to wait for that.

Listen, Jesus says,

just be ready.

Be ready.

We don't want to try

to find the Lord

when difficulties come.

No, we live in a way

where nothing needs

to be cleaned up

if he came back right now.

That's what he tells us

to keep the lights on,

to keep them burning.

They were waiting

for the Lord to return

in verse 36,

like a master

that went away

for a wedding.

Listen,

I love weddings for cake

and that's about

the only thing I like.

I'm thinking,

how long is it going

to be until the cake?

You know,

that's like,

we should reverse it

and just eat the cake first,

say congratulations,

and then leave.

You know,

we're not there

for them anyways.

But when you study

this culture,

weddings,

they didn't last

like 30 minutes

to an hour

and had some cake.

I mean,

sometimes these were

week-long processes.

I mean,

it was a giant celebration

and the whole village

would be involved

and sometimes

if you had family

in another village,

you'd have to travel to it.

And the thought here

is these servants,

their master,

went to a wedding.

He doesn't know

when he's coming back.

You know,

there's no timetable

for these type

of celebrations.

But we find

that they are ready.

They're not waiting

for him to come back.

They're ready

for him to come back.

And that's when it comes

to the second coming

of Christ.

God does not call us

to be waiting on him.

He calls us

to be ready for him.

Because when the master

came home,

they weren't asleep.

They weren't half-dressed.

They weren't kind of ready.

No,

they were ready

to open the door.

So how do we live

ready for Christ's return?

Number one,

with a prepared life.

And then number two,

we live with a forward focus.

With a forward focus.

So these men

and these servants

that would have been

waiting for him to come,

verse 37 says,

blessed are those servants

whom the Lord

when he cometh

shall find watching.

So the master,

the idea is

the master returns

late at night.

It's been a long journey.

He didn't just get in his car.

He didn't have a little car

that drives itself.

No,

this would have been

a difficult task.

It would have been

hard to get to.

And when he comes home,

the doors open immediately.

This would be awesome.

I'm going to teach my kids this.

When I walk them,

they just,

yeah,

I mean,

how cool would that be?

You ever been somewhere

where they like,

they treat you real fancy?

You think,

man,

I'm super out of place here.

But that was their job.

I mean,

he's about to step

to open the door himself

and here comes the door.

It's open.

The lights are burning.

The house is clean.

The servants are ready.

They are excited

and they are prepared

to welcome their master back.

And they ask,

how was your trip?

Did everything go well?

Was it everything

that you thought

it was going to be?

But then at the end

of verse 37,

something completely

unexpected happens.

The Bible says this,

Verily I say unto you

that he shall gird himself

and make them

to sit down to meet

and will come forth

and serve them.

So they're excited

and they're ready

for their master to return.

But when he gets home,

he says,

man,

it was a great trip

but I want you to sit down

and I'm going to cook

something for us.

I'm going to feed us.

I'm going to take care of us.

I want you just to relax.

I want you just to enjoy

the blessings

of being in my house,

of being under my care.

And when they would have heard this,

when Jesus said this,

they thought,

whoa,

that's not how this works.

I mean,

I think we can understand this

even in the 21st century.

Masters don't serve.

Servants serve.

That's how it works.

That's how it's pictured

really in different spots

of scripture.

But here's what Jesus does.

That he flips that entire picture

on its head

to show them something

much deeper.

Here's what he wants them to see.

Here's what he wants us to see.

His heart.

That's what he's showing us here.

Because the master is Jesus.

The one that is on a journey.

The one that is going to prepare

a place for us.

He's the one that is pictured here.

And he loves his servants deeply.

And his heart is towards them.

I mean,

we saw this even when he was

on this earth.

You read John chapter 13

John 13 · chapter mention

there in the upper room

at the Lord's Supper.

The Passover.

What did Jesus do?

He gird himself.

And he got on his hands

and his knees.

And he washed their feet.

That he loves them deeply.

That his heart is towards them.

And I don't want us

to run past this.

These servants did nothing

to earn this privilege.

They weren't on some scale

as long as you serve really good

then you're going to get

really good things.

No.

Here's what it was.

It was a blessing

that was just given to them.

And everything that we have

in Christ.

And the fact that we read

those verses

at the beginning of the service

in John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

Because he's preparing

a place for us

it has nothing to do with us.

But it has everything

to do with him.

That we have a God

that loves us.

That desires fellowship

with us.

And these servants

are not being honored

because they're perfect.

Here's why they're being honored.

Because they were faithful.

That's what God's looking for.

It's required in a steward

that he be found faithful.

That's what God is looking for.

And the simple thought here

is when we live

with a forward focus

the master, Jesus

is going to be delighted

in those that are ready

for him.

They were excited about it.

They were looking forward to it.

And it points us back

to his heart

in John 13.

But here's the one

here's the beautiful thing.

One day we're going to

sit at his table.

We're going to feast with him.

What a day that will be.

You say,

what's going to be there?

Well,

Chick-fil-A.

Texas Roadhouse Rolls.

HTO.

And Blue Bell Ice Cream.

With a little bit of coffee

to top it off on the end.

Listen, I don't know

what's going to be there.

But here's the beautiful thing.

We're going to sit around

the table with him.

That he's invited us

into the family.

Listen, we're just servants.

But he says, no,

you're not just servants.

You're my family.

That we're heirs with Christ.

That we're join heirs.

That everything that Christ

is set to inherit,

so are we.

What a beautiful thing.

I'd be excited about that.

I think we should live

a little bit like,

you know what,

I think I'm going to be ready

for that.

If you had some great person

come and say,

hey listen,

I'm going to come pick you up

and I'm going to drive you here.

I'm going to,

you're going to do all this thing

where I take you on a world tour.

You can eat whatever you want.

Say, I don't know

if I'll be ready.

I'll, I'll,

if it happens,

it happens.

You would prepare for that.

You would live

with a forward focus.

And see,

when we begin to live this way

and we,

we know the Lord

is our Savior

and we're living

not just for the here and now,

it just simply looks,

we're not living

for the weekend anymore.

We're not living

for a paycheck.

We're not living

for a vacation.

No,

here's what we're living

for,

eternity.

That's,

that's the view

that Jesus calls us

to have.

It looks like

choosing obedience

even when it's costly.

These servants,

you know what it costs them?

It costs them sleep.

It costs them all these things.

But they were willing

to be obedient.

And one day

it's going to come to pass,

listen,

you think,

well nobody down here

seems to know

that I do anything.

He does.

We're not serving

to be seen of men.

We're serving

because God has called us to.

It means investing

in people

instead of,

instead of just possessions.

These servants

weren't ready

in the middle of the night

so their neighbors

could see them.

Their neighbors are sleeping.

No,

they're ready

because that's what

was expected of them.

That's what the master

had taught them.

That's what the master

wanted them to do.

And when we live

with this forward focus,

we stop asking,

what do I get out of this?

And we start asking ourselves,

what would please him

when he returns?

That's the thought

that Jesus is teaching here.

So we live

with a prepared life.

We live with this

forward focus

but he doesn't stop there.

Jesus reminds us this,

that we need to live

with a sense

of urgency.

You ever try to get

your kids ready

in a quick time?

Like,

hey,

we got to get out of the house.

We're running late.

Isn't that how it goes?

We had a little kid

like that when we played

tee ball.

I was like,

hey,

when you come around

third base,

you got to run home

as fast as you can.

He's like,

I'm like,

all right.

But listen,

we need to be urgent

about what God

has called us to do.

Verse number 39,

the Bible says this,

and this know

that if the good man

of the house

had known

what hour the thief

would come,

he would have watched

and not suffered

his house to be broken through.

Be therefore ready also

for the Son of Man

cometh at an hour

when you think not.

So Jesus gives us

kind of a weird picture

and he starts talking

about this guy

breaking into the house.

And thieves these days

and in this time period,

they didn't,

they didn't like

break the door down.

No,

they would generally do

is these,

these homes would have been

made of mud

and different things.

They would have just

dug a hole

in the side of your house.

That's wild to me.

Can you imagine

just sleeping there

tonight at your home

and somebody just,

just comes in

like the Kool-Aid man

just coming right through

the,

right through the,

the wall.

Like what in the world?

Now if you know

that person was coming

and they're like,

hey,

I'm going to come rob you

at two o'clock,

I'm going to dig a hole

in your wall,

you're going to be sitting

on the other side of that

with a shotgun.

Why?

Because you're prepared.

If you know a thief

is coming to your house,

you're going to be ready.

The,

the,

the picture is this,

that there's no warning

and there's no announcement.

Everything's going to seem normal.

We,

we even think it to ourselves

and I think if we're not careful

as,

as believers,

we,

we would say,

oh,

I know Jesus is coming back,

but we're not living

with that sense of urgency.

If you,

if you read some of the

New Testament passages

about it,

the Apostle Paul

lived with urgency.

You think,

man,

how was Paul so effective?

He was urgent

about the master's business

because Paul said this,

we,

which are alive

and remain.

Here's when Paul thought

Jesus was coming,

when he was alive

and he lived like that

and his ministry

looked like that.

But the,

the picture that Jesus

paints here

is this family's asleep,

the house is quiet

and all of a sudden

the wall is broken through

and that's how Jesus

is going to come back.

as Bible believers,

we should believe

in the imminent return

of Christ.

And the language here,

it carries this idea

of something sudden

and decisive.

It's not a gradual,

it's not a delayed process.

There's no easing into it.

When Jesus comes,

it's going to be immediate,

it's going to be final

and there's going to be

no time to prepare

in that moment.

Because we celebrated Christmas,

the coming of Christ,

the first coming.

Listen,

when he came the first time,

he came on mission

to seek and to save

that which was lost.

But when he comes again,

that's not how he's coming.

He's coming as the king of kings.

He's coming as the Lord of lords.

He's coming as the judge

of all the earth.

That's who he is.

And people say,

well, we don't have time

to get ready.

Oh no,

we have had time to get ready.

The Lord's not slack

concerning his promises.

Some men count slackness,

but he's willing

and rather that all

should come to repentance.

You know why he hasn't?

He hasn't come back

because he so loved the world

that he gave his only begotten son.

That's the only thing

that's holding him back.

Everything is already

in place for that.

And all throughout scripture,

we see this imagery

that Jesus is coming

and he's going to come

like a thief in the night.

You know,

sometimes you may

get something stolen

and you don't even know

it was stolen.

I remember when I was

in high school,

I heard a knock on my door

and it was like 6.05

and I was not alert.

I was not addressed.

I was not awake.

My dad's like,

who's at the door?

And I run down there.

It's the Flower Mound Police

where I grew up.

And they said,

we found your truck.

What?

Looked out there.

Sure enough,

my truck was not out

in the driveway anymore.

They stole it.

They didn't tell me

they stole it.

I slept like a baby

that night.

Get up in the morning.

They took it.

I went over.

They said,

it's over here.

I drove over there.

They took my own gardening,

my dad's gardening bricks

and took the wheels off it

and it was just

sat in this lady's driveway.

She's trying to get to work.

I was like,

well,

they would have told me.

I would have just let them

take it much nicer

instead of ripping it all apart.

That's the idea.

That Jesus is not a thief,

but he wants us to picture

that's how quickly

it's going to happen.

That's how unexpectedly

it's going to happen.

And here's what urgency does.

It changes how you respond

to things right now.

He said,

if you would have known

somebody's coming

to steal your hat,

you would have stayed watch

all night.

You would have been ready

for that.

And here's what it means to us.

It means that we don't

delay obedience.

There's a lot of things

we think,

well,

I don't know what the Lord

wants me to do.

We do.

Sometimes we just don't

want to do it.

Right now is not a good time.

It's not delayed obedience.

We don't put off repentance.

We don't assume

that we have more time.

And that's why it's so vital

that whether it's in a service

like this,

or it's in your own

Bible reading time,

or even the Lord can

convict us in certain

different ways,

don't put it off.

Just deal with it right then.

Lord,

would you help me?

Lord,

would you forgive me?

It means maybe speaking

to somebody about Christ

when the opportunity arises.

Oh,

I'll talk to him next week.

No,

today's the day.

Now is the time.

It means making things right,

maybe in a relationship,

instead of letting things linger.

Because if we're honest,

sometimes we live like

we have unlimited tomorrows,

but we don't.

We all like to think that.

We don't want to think

something can happen to me today,

or something can happen

to my family tomorrow,

but the reality is

we don't know.

And before we move on,

and we're going to hasten

to a close here in a minute,

I just want to,

I want us to make this personal.

what if Jesus came back

before this service ended?

What if the trumpet sounded

before we made it to lunch?

I mean,

what if today

was the day

when Jesus came back?

Would there be anything

in your life

you need to make right?

Maybe you need to call somebody.

Maybe you need to shoot

a text to them.

Maybe you need to ask

the Lord to forgive you.

The Lord is just reminding us

we need to live with urgency

because we don't know

that we need to be ready.

So how do we know

that we're truly living

and we're truly ready for it?

Jesus shows us here

in verses 41 through 44.

He says,

we need to live

as faithful stewards.

There in verse number 42,

He says,

who then is a faithful

and wise steward

whom the Lord

shall make rule over his house

to give them their portion

and meet in due season?

So He shows us

what a faithful servant

looks like.

A steward is this.

A steward's a manager.

A steward doesn't own anything.

He's the one

that's running the household.

He's the one

that the master

has left in charge.

He's been entrusted

with the responsibility

but really,

nothing in the house

belongs to Him.

He has a job

that He's been called to do

and as stewards,

we don't get to decide

what we do with it.

We're just called

to handle it faithfully.

And Jesus wants us

to see that one day

the master's going to come back

and He's going to ask

for an account.

Hey, what happened

when I was gone?

What did you do

when I was gone?

How did you take care of this?

Why didn't you do that?

And we won't have time

to really dig in here

but here's what we are.

We're just stewards.

And I want to remind you

that your time

and your gifts

and your opportunities,

they don't belong to you.

They've been entrusted to you.

And the Lord wants to know this.

What are you doing with it?

Here's what a faithful steward does.

He invested.

He works.

He serves.

He does that.

And the scripture's very clear.

We don't have time

to go into all that.

We will give an account.

If we know Him as our Savior,

not for salvation

but for what we did for Him.

What we did with what

He entrusted us to.

And the question is not

how much you have,

it's how faithful

have you been

with what you've been given.

That's what the Lord wants to know.

How faithful are we?

Listen, faithfulness is not flashy.

It's consistent.

It's obedient.

It's dependable.

It looks like showing up

when nobody else

even knows you're there.

Like doing right

when it's inconvenient.

Like serving without recognition.

And Jesus makes it clear

in verses 42 and 43

and verse 44

that that's not just

for the here and now.

Faithfulness is going to

carry into eternity.

See, faithfulness

is just going to show up

in everyday ordinary parts

of your life.

It's not just what you do in church.

It's how you live

everywhere else too.

It looks like being faithful at work

when your boss isn't watching.

Listen, I know it's March Madness.

It's the least productive week

of the whole thing.

So me and Brother Garrett,

we just watch it together

so we're unproductive together.

But sometimes we just think,

well, the boss doesn't know

I don't have to do that.

That's not what

a faithful steward does.

It's not how we live our life.

Faithfulness just means

leading your home spiritually

even when it's hard.

Stewards show up consistently

not when it's convenient.

That's not just talking about church.

That's talking about our life.

It's talking about

every area of our life.

It means using your time wisely

and your gifts to serve

and using the opportunities

God has given you

for His purpose.

And if Jesus evaluated

your life today,

would He find you faithful

with what He has given you?

I pray that He would.

But now Jesus gives us a warning

and we'll look at this quickly.

Verse 45 and 46.

We need to live by guarding our heart.

Verse 45.

But and if that servant say in his heart,

my Lord delayeth his coming

and shall begin to beat

the men servants

and the maid servants

and to eat and drink

and to be drunken.

The Lord of that servant

will come in a day

when he looketh not for him

and an hour when he is not aware

and will cut him in sunder

and will appoint his portion

with the unbelievers.

So what Jesus does

is He contrasts a faithful servant

and an unfaithful servant.

One that believes his Lord

and trusts that He's going to return

and prepares for it

and prepares his heart for it.

And now He shows us a man

that says,

well, He's not really coming.

Because this man

didn't have an urgency

and he really didn't believe

that his master was going to come back

at a certain time.

He thought,

hey, I'll get ready

when I know He's coming.

I'm going to live my life,

but when I get wind that He's coming,

then I'll change things.

But we don't know when He's coming.

And this man,

because he lived with this return

in his distant thinking,

the way he lived

became all about him.

And it says He began to beat

the other servants

and to eat and drink

and it was all about him.

Listen, this is not a lazy servant.

This is an unfaithful servant.

That he had the opportunity.

He knew the master said,

I'm coming back.

But he didn't do it.

This man's not having a rough season.

Here's what Jesus is picturing.

This is someone who claimed

to belong to the master,

but his life didn't match up to it.

See, his life told the story.

A changed heart

produces a changed life.

We can't say,

I'm ready,

but everything in our life

doesn't look like we're ready.

Now sometimes, you know,

it can look that way

because we've let sin

build up in our life.

But sometimes it's because

we don't really

know and believe the master.

We think that's just an old book.

They've been saying for 2,000 years,

the world says,

where is he?

Where's the promise of his coming?

He's not coming.

We're just going to live.

We're going to eat, drink,

and be merry.

But he's going to come.

And what Jesus reminds us

in these closing verses

is that everything

will be revealed

when he comes.

And because of that,

we must make sure

our life matches

our profession.

because he would say,

well, I'm in the house.

I have all these things.

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount,

they're going to be in that day,

they're going to say,

Lord, Lord,

Master, Master,

didn't we?

He said,

depart from me.

I never knew you.

See,

the truth will be known

on that day.

There will be justice.

And because of that,

we see in these last closing verses

in verse number 48

that we need to live

with eternal awareness.

Jesus kind of really lays

this principle of accountability down.

See,

in this culture,

and really in our culture,

the more responsibility you have,

the more that was expected of you.

And the same applies

to us spiritually.

That you can know

all about the Bible.

You can know the songs

we sang today.

You can know some of these verses.

But here's what Jesus is saying.

Have you prepared your life for that?

Because we can't just live

with a here and now.

We need to live

with this eternal awareness

that it is appointed unto man

once to die,

the Bible says,

and after this,

the judgment.

That every single person

will stand before the Lord

one day

and give an account.

I'm thankful

that when I stand before the Lord,

my sins are under the blood.

But there's going to be people there

that say,

well,

I did all these things,

but the Lord's going to remind us

that you didn't prepare.

You just lived your life

for yourself.

You didn't do the things

that I asked you to do.

And it reminds us here

in these verses,

and we're going to,

we don't have time

to get into all this,

but God's judgment

is not random.

He's not picking

and choosing people to judge.

No,

you're either prepared

or you're not.

You're either ready

or you're living for yourself.

And it's going to be precise.

It's going to be just.

It's going to be perfectly measured.

And the idea is

with greater knowledge,

it brings greater accountability.

I mean,

just bring it right here

where we live.

Think about how much

you know about God.

Many of you probably

brought your own copy

of the Word of God in here.

The Gospel is clearly,

you probably heard

the Gospel clearly preached

over and over and over.

You have access to truth

anytime you want it.

We try to the best

of our ability

here at Central

to faithfully teach

and preach

every single week.

The short idea is this,

we have been given much.

But for whosoever much is given,

much is required.

And see,

eternal awareness takes

how seriously

you take your life here.

It means you recognize this,

I will stand before God one day.

We all will.

But we need to live

with that awareness.

And that affects

how you respond to truth.

It affects

what you do

with what you've been taught.

It affects how seriously

you take obedience.

Listen,

being prepared

is not just hearing sermons,

it's responding to them.

It's not just reading

the Word of God,

it's allowing it

to transform your life.

It's not just about

knowing the truth,

but actually living.

It's not just about

attending the church,

but applying the truth

to your life.

That we have to realize

that we're a sinner

that needs saving

and we call upon Christ

because God's not going

to ask us one day,

what did you hear?

He's going to ask this,

what did you do

with what you heard?

Because both of these men,

these servants,

the faithful and the unfaithful,

they heard the master

say I'm coming.

One prepared

and one didn't.

That's what Jesus

teaches us right here.

Here's what I want us

to take home today.

The goal isn't

to be ready someday.

The call is to live ready today.

He's coming.

Are we ready?

Would you stand

with our heads bowed?

Transcription by CastingWords

Transcription by CastingWords