Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - Be the Faithful Servant - Luke 12:35-48

We're going to be in Luke chapter twelve today. If

you don't have a Bible, we have a ton of

Bibles and we'd love for you to take one and

keep it forever. We have n't at the resource desk

out there. You can ask anyone and they'll get you one.

But we're going to be in Luke chapter twelve. We've

been going through a series called Luke The Orderly Account

of Truth. Luke the Orderly Account of Truth, and we've

been going verse by versus the whole book of Luke.

It's been awesome and we've been learning so much. But

we've been learning specifically all about the life and ministry

of Jesus. Luke went and investigated everything about jesus life

and his ministry, and he did it so that there

would be an orderly account for those who came after him.

And this orderly account was so that we would know

with certainty the truth about who Jesus is, which is

a huge blessing and benefit for us today. And our

verses today is going to be Luke chapter twelve, verses

thirty five through forty eight, So we're going to read

them and then then I'm gonna pray so let's look

at our text for today. Be dressed ready for service,

and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their

master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when

he comes and knocks, they can immediately open the door

for him. It will be good for those servants whose

master finds them watching when he comes. Truly, I tell you,

he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline

at the table, and will come and wait on them.

It will be good for those servants whose master finds

them ready, even if he comes in the middle of

the night or toward daybreak. But understand this, If the

owner of the house had known at what hour the

thief was coming, he would he would not have let

his house be broken into. You also must be ready,

because the son of man will come at an hour

when you do not expect him. Peter asked, Lord, are

you telling this parable to us or to everyone? The

Lord answered, who then is the faithful and wise manager

whom the master puts in charge of his servants to

give them their food allowance of the proper time. It

will be good for that servant whom the master finds

doing so when he returns truly, I tell you, he

will put him in charge of all of his possessions.

But suppose a servant says to himself, my master is

taking a long time in coming, And he then begins

to beat the other servants, both men and women, and

to eat and drink and get drunk. The master of

that servant will come on a day when he does

not expect him, and at an hour he is not

aware of, he will cut him to pieces and assign

him a place with the unbelievers. The servant who knows

the master's will and does not get ready, or does

not do what the master wants, will be beaten with

many blows. But the one who does not know and

does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows.

From everyone who has been given much much will be demanded,

and from the one who has been entrusted with much

much more will be asked. Let's pray, God, we thank

you for this moment. We stop, We clear our minds

of any distractions. God, we focus our hearts, our heads,

everything on your word today, because you have a word

for us from it, and so God, we are just

ready and excited to receive from it Today God. If

there's things that we come in contact with in your

word that challenge us, God, let us rise to the occasion.

If there's rebukes in there that we feel, let us

feel the conviction from the Holy Spirit, repent and walk

in alignment with your word. But God, give us ears

to hear everything you would have us learn and walk

through today, and let us apply it to our lives

in obedience to you. Thank you for all this in

Jesus name. Amen. You guys know what a lookout is, right,

might say, look out? I don't know if my brain

the first thing I think of as like a bank robbery.

You know, you got to look out. So look out

as someone whose job it is to wait and to watch.

So they do, they wait and they watch. It's someone

who keeps an eye out on what's happening and then

warns everyone when something specific happens. And they usually are told, okay,

this is what I need you to look for. Right,

You're supposed to look for something very specific when fill

in the blank happens. Whatever it is, yell, get our attention,

Honk the horn whatever it is, ring the bell. And

as I was thinking through this, it reminded me of

one time I went hunting and I went to It

was when Natchi or Yakama, somewhere in the middle of

the state. But a friend and I were going turkey hunting,

and so we went up there and we scouted the

day before. He drove his truck up into the mountains.

There's a little bit of snow on the ground, and

we're just scouting the area around to see if we

see any signs of where the turkeys might be because gobble, gobble,

we want to eat some turkey, right, so we're looking

for these turkeys. We're scouting the first day and the

next day we after sleeping in the truck, which by

the way, was terrible, I had my full on you

guys want to hunting bibis. It's like a hunting overalls

and my hunting jacket and all my socks and my boots,

and I was like it was freezing inside this truck.

It was a terrible night's sleep. So you wake up

kind of tired, but you got a job to do, right.

We wake up nice and early, so we are walking

around trying to find a spot. We find one spot

where we're kind of chilling, sitting in some trees but

as we're kind of looking around, it's not very successful

in that first spot. Well, we go to another spot

where the guy was hunting with He's like, I hear

some turkeys. I'm like, okay, So we're kind of quiet,

and he's like, well, let's go set up in this spot.

We found this spot on the top of a hill

that looks right down towards a tree line which has

a little creek bed in there. Perfect spot for turkeys

to be running around. So we found these like shrubs

and rocks to hide behind. Right, So we're up on

the top of the hill and we've set up this

this We're gonna sit here and listen. And he's like,

when I hear the turkeys or I see him start walking,

I'll signal well, I can't see him from where I'm

at until he raises his hand, So if he raises

his hand or he stands up, that's my cue. Okay,

that's what I'm going to stand up, and we're gonna

look down to where the turkeys probably are and hopefully

get you know, lucky getting some turkeys. Well, so we

sit down, we're quiet, we're listening, and some time starts

to go by, like like, like forty five minutes of

time goes by and he's not signaling. So I'm like,

I'm not hearing any turkeys. I'm not hearing anything at all. Actually,

we're sitting there, it's dead silent. The sun's just coming out.

It's getting warmer, and I'm starting to sweat and everything,

and I'm like, there's no turkeys here, So I'm gonna

go just talk to him and say, let's find a

new spot. So I stand up. I walk on over

to where he was hiding, where you know, he could

raise his hand, I could see him, and I walk

over there the rocks and homeboy is dead asleep on

the ground. He's snoring, laying on the ground. I was like, dude,

I was like, good morning, Like what are we doing here?

He was the lookout. He was supposed to warn us

when the turkeys were there. But he's snoring, fast, asleep,

enjoying a late morning nap, counting or catching his zase.

He was sleeping on the job, and that's not what

a lookout is supposed to do. Job, find the turkeys,

see them, and then call it out so that we

can get some turkeys. When someone gives you a job,

to do. There is an expectation, and their expectation is

what you do the job that they gave you, especially

if they're leaving you to do a job when they're gone, right,

they're leaving out of town, or they're leaving on a trip,

they expect you to do the job when they return.

And that's what Jesus is talking about in our text

today that we just read, and he's showing us two

different types of servants. A servant who did what their

master said and told and was told to do, and

one who didn't. So today I titled the message be

the faithful Servant, Be the faithful Servant. I think Jesus

is making a very clear point today that the servants

who are faithful, they will be blessed. The servants who

are faithful, they will be blessed. They will be looked

on with favor, they will be given more responsibility, they

will be trusted with more. But Jesus is also teaching

that the servants who are unfaithful, what will happen. They

will be punished. The unfaithful servants will be punished, and

their punishment will be appropriate for their level of responsibility.

I think that's key the audience of today's text, because

we always want to ask, like, who is the text

to It's undoubtedly the Jews and the religious leaders of

the Jews. It's very clear. That said, however, I think

that even though this is an encouragement and it is

a challenging rebuke to them, the same exact encouragements and

challenging rebukes can directly apply to us today as well.

And luckily it is that way, because that's not always

the case. Sometimes we have to dig a little deeper

to find Okay, God is speaking to a specific people

in a certain time, and then we've got to dig

a little deeper to say, like, well, how do we

apply that to our own lives? Here? It's like a

t so we're gonna knock it out of the park today. Yeah,

Today's text has massive implications and a beautiful parallel for

us to understand and apply today. Guys, ready to see

what Jesus has for us? Okay, say watch with readiness,

say be found working. Right after finishing telling the disciples

do not worry, but seek God's kingdom. Right after saying that,

Jesus immediately tells them the way in which they should

go about this seeking and then he goes into a

parable about a master who left for a wedding banquet

Verses thirty five and thirty six. Be dressed ready for

service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for

their master return from a wedding banquet, so that when

he comes and knocks, they can immediately open the door

for him. What does it mean to be dressed ready

for service? What does that mean? Means you're ready to work?

You're ready to go. You weren't the guy showing up

with the construction site in basketball shorts and flip flops.

That's not dressed ready for service. No, you're ready to work.

Your lamp is lit. What does it mean to keep

your lamps burning? That means you're not asleep on the job.

You're ready. You turn the lamps out when when it's

time to go to sleep. No, you're ready to work.

You aren't asleep on the job. You're not napping while

you're looking for turkeys, which we did not get any

of that trip. I'm not blaming him, just concerned about it.

Jesus says we should be ready to work like servants,

like a servant who waits on his master to return

from a wedding banquet, and these wedding celebrations could last

like a week back then. So the servant has no

clue when the master's going to return. They have no

idea when the Master might return. But you hear this

sense of urgency in the text. Do you see in

this illustration that not even just urgency, the expectancy that

Jesus is giving in this illustration. I think it's very

clearly there. The servant isn't just just hanging out and

chilling waiting. No, he's waiting and watching with a sense

of readiness. He's ready. So at the moment the Master

shows up, he's ready to spring up and serve. That's

how this servant is waiting. And you got to think

about it like, this is the kind of employee everybody wants, right,

everybody wants an employee who's ready to spring into action

the moment the boss needs them. It's a dream employee.

And if you had, like someone who was working for

you that was like that, wouldn't you want to bless him? Yeah,

you would want to bless them. And that's how Jesus

describes this master's response. Look at verse thirty seven, you

will be good For these are those servants whose master

finds them watching. When he comes, truly, I tell you,

he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline

at the table, and he will come and wait on them.

That's blessing right. The Master will be so happy to

find his servants watching and ready to serve. When he

gets there, he'll be so happy puts on his own

clothes to serve them. Jesus is telling his disciples, this

is how this is how you should be when seeking

God's kingdom, when serving him. We're ready, and this is

how the Master will respond. He will respond with blessing.

And I think we get a beautiful picture of this,

of the Master serving as servants from Mark ten. This

won't be on the screen, But Jesus says, you know

that those who are regarded as rulers of the gentiles

lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority

over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to

become great among you must be your servant, and whoever

wants to be first must be a slave of all.

For even and here's the key, verse forty five. For

even the son of Man did not come to be

served but to serve and give his life as a

ransom for many. What a beautiful picture of Jesus, our

master and our king, our master and our king serving

us by giving his life for a ransom. I can't

see a more beautiful picture anywhere. I mean, where else

do you hear of a master serving his servants like that,

especially the way Jesus did by laying down his life.

Where else do you see that? You don't. That's where

you don't see that. That's some incredible mercy, grace and

love on a whole other level. That's hard to fathom.

The love of God for his children. But the point

that Jesus is making in our text here is it

will be good for those servants whose masters find or

whose master finds them watching when he comes. There is

blessing in obedience. And I feel like I gotta say

that again. There is blessing in obedience. Don't believe me?

Try it out. I triple dog dare you, because I

believe the promises of God in scripture, and if he

said it, it's going to happen, So I dare you

try it. Try obedience. There's blessing and obedience. Walk in

obedience to what God says, and see the blessings that follow.

Say watch with readiness, say be found working. Jesus continues

in his illustration. He emphasizes that the servant has no

clue when the master will return. And like I said,

before these wedding banquets they would basically just last until

the food ran out. They would keep partying until it

was all gone. And sometimes it might even be like

seven day wedding celebration. We don't party like that anymore

for weddings. Maybe we need to bring that back. But

the Master might return, and he might return in the

middle of the night or at three in the morning.

You don't know he might return. So let's look at

uh or you don't when he's gonna return. Let's look

at verses thirty eight through forty. It'll be good for

those servants whose Master finds them ready, even if he

comes in the middle of the night or towards daybreak.

But understand this, If the owner of the house had

known at what hour the thief was coming, he would

not have let his house be broken into. You also

must be ready, because the son of man will come

at an hour when you do not expect him. The

servant doesn't know when the master's going to return, so

he must always be ready, always be ready. Does that

make sense? You guys see that in the text, you

hear that you always must be ready. This example about

a thief coming in isn't an example about theft. It's

an illustration of time. That's what's being illustrated here. If

you knew what time the thief was going to show up,

you would guard the house at that exact time so

the thief couldn't get in. But since you don't know

when the thief will strike, when should you be ready? Always?

We should always be ready. Say you ain't got to

get ready if you stay ready, I'm just gonna have you.

Guys repeat everything, do they? Apparently? But here, right here

in verse forty, Jesus tells us what this is actually

really about. Verse forty is the reason that he gave

these two illustrations. I want to read it one more time.

You also must be ready because the son of Man

will come in an hour when you do not expect him.

He's saying, you don't know when the son of Man

is going to show up. They didn't know when God's

Messiah was going to show up. So you must also,

just like these illustrations I just said, must be ready.

But who is the son of Man? Jesus? It's Jesus.

Jesus is the son of Man. That was his favorite

name for himself, if you read through all throughout scripture.

He calls himself the son of Man the most more

than any other name. And the son of Man is

standing right in front of him, and they aren't ready.

They aren't ready, and the son of Man is standing

right in front of him. In fact, next week's message prompts,

I'm not going to preach it here, duncan. Jesus is

going to continue to rebuke them for having no clue

at time it is that he's right in front of him.

They have no clue. They're just missing it completely. But

we'll save that for next week. Right here, Jesus is

saying that the son of Man is going to show

up when you don't expect him. So he warns the

people be ready at all times, be ready at all times,

to be found watching with readiness. And then Peter gets

a little confused and he asks Jesus who he's talking to.

Look at verse forty one, Peter asks, Lord, are you

telling this parable to us or to everyone who you're

talking to? Jesus, you're talking to us? Is there something

we're missing? Or are you talking to everybody? And Jesus

doesn't answer Peter's question directly, He answers it kind of

in a roundabout way. He goes into another parable. But

by the end of this parable, Peter is going to

have his answer that Jesus is addressing everyone who is

there listening. Is he's dressing everybody? Look at the next

section of text. The Lord answered, who then is the

faithful and wise manager whom the Master puts in charge

of his servants to give them their food allowance at

the proper time. Again, it will be good for that

servant whom the Master finds doing so when he returns, Truly,

I tell you, he will put him in charge of

all his possessions. But suppose the servant says to himself,

my master is taking a long time in coming, and

he then begins to beat the other servants, both men

and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk.

The master of that servant will come on a day

when he does not expect him, and at an hour

he is not aware of, he will cut him to

pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. So

here's a parable about a manager who's put in charge

of the other servants. This manager has two choices in

front of him. He can either be found doing what

the Master told him to do when he left, which

leads to good, it leads to blessing, it leads to

the Master trusting him with all of his possessions that's

his first choice, or the other choices, he can be

found squandering the Master's wealth and mistreating the servants, which

leads to punishment, great punishment. Actually, so who is Jesus

calling out specifically in this moment. I think he's calling

out the religious leaders, the ones that were put in

charge to feed and care for the people of God.

God left them to care for the flock, to lead

and to teach them. But what did they do instead?

They're the ones who put heavy burdens on the people

through man made laws. Laws of God didn't put on

the people. They took the places of honor among all

the people, making sure that from the outside they looked

really good, looked like they were following everything perfectly, but

inside they were full of dead bones. They're full of

hypocrisy and greed. They took advantage of the people. They

made life really easy for them and very difficult for

everybody else. And they did all that in the name

of God. They ate, they drank, and they were merry.

So Jesus asks, who then is the faithful and wise manager?

Who is it that will we found doing what the

Master told him to do when he returns. It's not

the religious leaders. They were the ones who, like in

the illustration, were saying that God is taking too long,

and they started living I call the fat and happy

life while they were mistreating all the people of God.

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Guys, remember us

going through that not that long ago. Beware of the

leaven of the Pharisees. Don't be like them. They are

the hypocrites. Don't let them infect you. Just to remind

you the leaven of the Pharisees, a little leven goes

into loaf, but when you need the dough, it now

spreads through the whole bread. It's through all of it.

Don't let it infect you. The Master is going to

show up when you least expect it, and when he does,

their end what we just read is to be cut

into pieces and assigned a place with the unbelievers. This

word unbelievers means the unfaithful, the faithless. So that word

means so you tell me what's the better choice. Should

we be like the faithful manager or the unfaithful one?

I think it's a no duh answer, right. We need

to be like the faithful one. The Master rewards the

faithful manager who is found working when he returns. The

Master rewards the faithful servant who has found awake, watching

with readiness, ready to jump up and serve the moment

he knocks on the door. So what does the master want?

He wants faithful servants. Be the faithful servant. Say it,

be the faithful servant. Everyone knows that this is what

a master wants. It's just like makes sense. Even the

people that are listening to Jesus say all these words,

they know, and that's what makes what Jesus said next

sting a whole lot more. I think, look at the

verses forty seven and forty eight. The servant who knows

the master's will and does not get ready or does

not do what the master wants, will be beaten with

many blows. But the one who does not know and

does things deserving puns will be beaten with few blows.

From everyone who has been given much much will be demanded,

and from the one who is being entrusted with much

much more will be asked. The punishment matches the crime.

The ones who knew what the master wanted and chose

not to do it got beaten with many blows. Their

punishment was more severe. The ones who didn't know what

the master wanted and still did what was wrong, they

received a lighter punishment. Because discipline is a good teacher.

It's one of the ways we learn. But if you're

sitting here thinking, wait a minute, this doesn't sound fair,

then let me just say this. You are guilty of

speeding regardless if you know what the speed limit is.

If you get pulled over, it doesn't matter if you

saw the speed limit sign is or not. If you

are driving faster than the speed limit, you are guilty

of speeding and you deserve a ticket. Right yes, now,

how many know that if an officer stops you, he

could choose to give you a warning, right to show

you mercy because you didn't know what the speed limit was.

The punishment could be less severe. But if he clocks

you going ten over as you're literally passing the speed

limit sign, it's feel different. I mean, you don't have

an excuse. You were speeding as you're driving past the sign.

So shouldn't you expect the punishment to be more severe

because you knew better? Doesn't that make sense? So what

Jesus is saying here makes perfect sense to me. If

you know what is right and you do not do it,

you will be punished more severely. If you know what

is right and you do not do it, and you

choose not to do it, you'll be punished more severely.

Everyone who has been given much will much more will

be demanded. The one who's been entrusted with much much

more will be asked. The Jews here in Jesus' day,

they knew what was right to do. They had the truth. Why,

because they had the word that God's Messiah was coming.

They had all the prophets. And what did they do?

They were the unfaithful servants. They misused their authority over others.

They turned out their lamps, they got in their pajamas

and went to sleep. That's what they did. And when

the Master came and knocked on the door. They didn't

even know as him. They rejected the prophets. They murdered him.

That's what they did. And Paul and Romans three posed

a really great question to the people. He said, what

advantage is there to being a Jew? And you know

what he said? First, how we responded, He said much

in every way. First of all, the Jews have been

entrusted with the very words of God. The Jews had

the very words of God, and they still couldn't see

Jesus as the Messiah. When he was standing right in

front of him, they still couldn't see it. They were

without excuse. They saw the speed limit sign and they

still chose the speed. They were without an excuse. The

Master Jesus had shown up, and they weren't watching for him.

They weren't ready to spring into action to serve when

he knocked. The Master Jesus had shown up, and they

weren't found doing the job that he left for him.

They were without excuse. But this is the part where,

because we're talking a lot about the audience, then now

we're going to bring it a little bit closer to

home and start seeing some of these parallels. Because this

whole moment in scripture is a parallel for our situation

right now. So the people were told the Master is coming,

they were told what to do when he got there,

and then he showed up when they weren't expecting him.

So that'll happen, right, we just read it. We are

told that Jesus is coming again. We are told what

we need to be doing when he gets here, and

he is going to show up soon at a time

we don't know. So I pose the question to you

as I posed to myself studying this all week. When

he returns, will he find a faithful servant or will

he find an unfaithful one? Will he find us being

the faithful servants or will he find us being unfaithful servants?

Will Jesus return to find his people watching for him

with readiness, eager to jump and serve immediately when called upon.

Will Jesus return to find his people doing the job

that he left for us when he ascended in the heaven?

Have we forgotten that Jesus is coming back? Do we

act like we don't believe it? Or a question I

had to write here for myself. Is there something more

important to me? Do we think to ourselves? He's taking

a long time and showing up. It's been over two

thousand years. So I'll just do what he commanded me tomorrow.

We'll just do it tomorrow, or even worse, I don't

have to do what he come outed at all because

he's slow in returning. We don't want to be found

as the unfaithful servants. We won't be found as the

faithful servants when the Master returns. So how can we

do that? How can we be found as faithful servants

when Jesus returns? And we've been saying it, and I've

been making you repeat it the whole time, say watch

with readiness, say be found working. So let's talk about

what it means to watch with readiness practically, because we're

talking about it generally or just thoughts about it, But

what does that practically mean? It means that we are

keeping watch and waiting for the moment the Lord would

call upon us. Have you ever played the hands slap game?

I love playing this game. You have one person with

their hands face up or your palms face up, and

another person has their hands on top of their with

their palms facing down. The whole goal is the person

on the bottom needs to reach their hands around to

slap the top of the other person's hands. Right. If

you get their hands, you get a switch, or you

get to keep going until you miss. That's what you

keep going till you miss, right. So that's the hands

slap game. If your hands are on top, you're entire

like what happens. If you're not watching with readiness, you're

gonna get slapped. And if you're playing against someone who's

not nice and kind, they'll get you good right and

slap the top of your hands. That's what happens. If

you don't watch with readiness, you get your hand slap.

The whole point of this game is to watch and

be ready to move, to pull your hands out of

the way, move them in whatever way so you don't

get your hand slapped. That's the entire point of this game.

Are you watching and ready for God to move you

to act just like you're getting ready to move your hands.

Is it even a thought in your head that God

might ask you to do something? Are you too busy

with what you have going on in yourself or what

you have to do, too preoccupied that you don't even

stop to listen that God might have something for you?

To do that, God would have to literally interrupt whatever

you're doing just to get your attention. Or are you

watching for those opportunities for God to use you? Are

you watching with readiness, ready for him to call you

to action. Have you ever had someone just pop into

your head out of nowhere, like you're just randomly going

through life. It happens to me all the time. And

I'm just going through life and for whatever reason, someone's

mind name pops into my head or I just start

thinking about or maybe'm driving down the road and I

see a sign and I'm like, oh, never mind, do

so and so. Well, sometimes I think that's God putting

him in my head for a reason. And does God

bringing it to my thoughts? And I pretty much do

the same two things every single time that happens. I

immediately pray for the person or the family or whatever.

I just pray for him, and then I usually send

him a text. And it could be something simple as like, Hey,

you popped into my head and heart today, hope all

as well. I'm praying for you. Have a rad week.

It's nothing crazy, but I just want to let him

know that I feel like maybe God put them on

my heart and I was letting them know I'm praying

for them and hopefully have a great time. I hope

they have a great week or whatever. So you just

do that every time someone's name pops into my head?

Is it God prompting me? Sometimes? Yes? Is it? But

is it always? No? Sometimes it's not. Sometimes I just

ate salts that I'm thinking about someone who made salsa

one time. You know, doesn't hurt to pray for him, right,

But I want to be watching and waiting with readiness

to move whenever God calls upon me. So just in

case it is God telling me to do it, I'm

going to pray for them in that moment, and I'm

going to reach out to them if I have their number.

I'm ready to move when God calls. I always want

to be ready to act. What about when you see

a homeless person on the street. Does it all cross

our minds that God might want you to go and

serve and bless that person. I mean we see homeless

people often, right. I love that we're helping city gates

with the blankets. That's Brad. It gets cold and without warmth,

people literally die on the streets. That's what Aiden's telling me.

Is like we need the blankets down there. God might

want you to be the person to go and serve

and love on and bless these people. How about when

a serving need comes up at church, there's one it's

a little close to home. Are you watching and ready

for those moments to serve your brothers and sisters in Christ?

Or if you packed your life in your sundays so

full that there's no room to be obedient to the Lord.

When he calls guilty, that's me, not you. I was

raising my hand because I'm guilty of that sometimes. But

if you feel conviction of the Holy Spirit, sit in that,

because that's God disciplining you, and you should repent and

be obedient. What if your friend calls you and asks

for something, Maybe they just need an ear to share

a struggle they're going through. What's stopping you from being

ready to help? What's stopping you? Or what about just

like blessing some friends saying come on over for dinner.

What's stopping you from doing that? What's causing you to

say I'm not ready to serve. I'm not ready to

spring up to action when the Lord would call upon

you and serve. We need to be on watch. But

not just sitting there and looking, but watching with readiness

to act, ready to jump up and serve. And the

Lord calls, what is more important than answering the call

of the King of all kings? What's more important than that?

But I did just list a bunch of ways to

serve other people, not the Lord. So how does how

does this work? Well? I want you to remember what

Jesus said in Matthew twenty five about the sheep and

the goats, and can I have the worship team come up?

Please remember what he said about the sheep and the

goats and Matthew twenty five He said, the sheep or

the righteous ones can come in and be blessed because

they cared for him. It says, for when I was

for I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.

I was a stranger and you invited me in. I

needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and

you looked after me. I was in prison and you

came to visit me. And they asked, when did we

see you? And do all these things? Do you remember

what Jesus response was, let's look at Matthew twenty five forty,

he said, the King will reply, Truly, I tell you,

whatever you did for one of the least of these

brothers and sisters of mine, you did for who me.

Whatever you did for one of the least of these

brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. We

are serving the Lord when we are obedient to him

and serving others. Don't ever think that serving or blessing

someone else's a waste. It's not. It's never a waste.

And I had this thought a long time ago, shared

with my wife a hundred times. If you ever conflict

or conflicted about blessing someone with your time, your money,

or literally anything, I want you to consider this. I

don't think that when you were standing before the Lord

that he's gonna look at you and say, man, I

wish you would have kept a little more for yourself. Yeah,

he's just not gonna do that. Say I wish you

wouldn't have blessed someone else. I wish you would have

kept more for yourself. I wish you wouldn't have spent

as much time with that family. I wish you would

have spent more time to yourself. I wish you wouldn't

have gone and helped in this way, and I wish

you would have done. No, he's not gonna say that

you can never bless someone too much or serve others

too much. We have to remember what did he just

get done teaching right before this message? Do not worry?

What are you worried about? There's not gonna be enough

for you. Is the Lord's arm too short? Are his

resources limited? No they're not. God's arm is not too short.

We have nothing to worry about more blessing others. It's

not gonna be mad that we gave more away or

spent more time helping others. No, it's never a waste.

He's gonna take care of us because we are valuable

to him, and there's great blessing in being a faithful

servant of Jesus our King. We just don't think about

kings as much as we used to. I mean, obviously

we won't have a king, but in the worldly sense

we should probably think about it more like that though.

Like the royal court, the king is the one who

sets up how everything works. Everything goes according to what

the long lived the king. It's what you want, and

I want everything that you want, So whatever you want,

let's make it happen. The king rules over all sayings,

reigns over all things. Jesus is our king. He is

our king. And the kind of servants this king wants

are ones who are watching with readiness, ready to act

the moment he calls upon us, and the other side

of being a faithful servant that we saw from the

text today, while we're watching with readiness, we aren't just

sitting back with our feed up. We should be found working,

be found working. When Jesus comes back, he should find

us doing the job that he left us to do.

But what is that job. That job is to make disciples.

That's the job he left for us to make disciples.

Right before Jesus ascended into heaven, after he was crucified

and rose from the dead, he passed the job onto us.

He gave us the great commission. So I want to

look at Matthew twenty eight. Verses eighteen through twenty should

be very familiar versus to us. Then Jesus came to

them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth

has been given to me. I find that as a

comforting sentence that all authority Jesus has. I find that comforting,

but I also find that terrifying. If he has all

authority on heaven and earth, what's the first word of

verse nineteen, Therefore what's the Therefore? Therefore he has all authority,

so we should obey him. So it's very comforting because

he ends it, and surely I'll go with you at

the end of the earth. But also it's very humbling

and very sobering. All authority and heaven on earth has

been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of

all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father

and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and

teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, And

surely I am with you always to the very end

of the age. Come on, now, that's our job. That's

the job God gave us that he left for us

to do. To go make disciples of all nations, baptizing

them in the name of the Father's Son and the

Holy Spirit, bless you, and to teach them to obey

everything Jesus has commanded. That's our job. That's our job

while we're on this earth. It's the work that Jesus

left for us. And it's what we should be found doing.

It's what we must be found doing when he returns.

And Paul also talks about it in Second Corinthians. I

want to look at verses Chapter five, verses seventeen through

twenty one. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new

creation has come, the old is gone, the new is here.

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself

through Christ and gave us the misty of reconciliation. That

God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not

counting people's sins against them, and he is committed to

us the message of reconciliation. We are, therefore Christ's ambassadors,

as though God were making his appeal through us. We

implore you, on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. God

made him who had no sin, to be sin for

us so that in him we might become the righteousness

of God. We are the new creation in Christ, and

we've been given the ministry of reconciliation. We're supposed to implore.

Do you know what that word implore means? Means to

beg I'm begging you be reconciled to God. Get right

with him. Jesus is returning at a time you don't know.

Only the Father knows. Don't wait. He's returning to judge

the living and the dead. Do not wait because he's

going to return and we don't know when. So if

you have not put faith in Jesus for salvation, I

implore you. I'm begging you. Be reconciled to God, get

right with God, repent of your sin, and believe in Jesus.

Jesus died on the cross, paying the penalty for sin

and everyone. And this is the promise in the Bible.

Everyone who looks to Jesus and believes will be forgiven

of their sin and made right with God. It's the

Father's will that all who looked at the sun and

believe would receive eternal life. Thank you God. We get

to expend eternity face to face with Jesus, our King.

And for those who have already put faith in Jesus,

it's my last slide. I think it's my last one.

Be the faithful servant, watch with readiness and be found working.

We need to be the faithful servants. As we watch

with readiness, we are ready to move whenever the Lord

would call us and we're found working, to be found

working when the Master returns, doing the job that he

left for us, to make disciples by spreading the gospel

of Jesus, by baptizing people and teaching them to obey

everything Jesus commanded. Amen. Can you guys stand to your feet.