Eschatology (Revelations for Our Time)

Well, hello everybody.

Welcome to Real Life Church Today.

My name is Pastor Brandon and I am so sorry I cannot be there today.

I'm up in Ohio preaching at a wonderful friend's church called New Hope Church and I'm sorry I can't be there because we have a special treat for us today.

Dr Andy Goins is going to be speaking for us in just a moment.

Dr Andy is a wonderful friend of mine anda spiritual mentor in my life.

He was actually one of my teachers when I was in seminary and after I got out of his class I found that he actually lived close by and we meet frequently to have dinner, coffee, just share God's word with one another, and he is just a wonderful treasure of wisdom and I am so excited for him to come and to share God's word with us today.

So, as he is coming up on stage, I want you to put your hands together and celebrate as Dr Andy Goins comes to speak for us today.

God bless you.

I am a fountain of wisdom.

He's done passed the class.

He doesn't have to keep the brown nose in part.

But hey, it is great to be with you all today.

Man, real life church y'all are really got it going on.

We appreciate it so much with my wife and I.

That's Debbie Say hi, debbie.

But when we came on campus this morning things are buzzing and happening it's like wow, this is really really fun to see because, believe it or not, there's a lot of churches that met this morning celebrating the death of Jesus At least that's from the looks of it as they met instead of celebrating the life of Jesus.

Our Savior has come, he has lived, he has died, but he is not dead, and that's what we celebrate on the first day of each week as we gather together this morning.

Again, I'm just so excited to be here.

Like Brandon said, you've got a great pastor.

He is such a good-hearted fellow, he is a pastor at heart and he has your all's spiritual well-being at the center of who he is.

So I'm so thankful for young men like Brandon that are willing to devote themselves to the gospel of leading God's people to God's truth.

I'm excited to be here this morning.

Just first of all, let me say thanks to Chris and Paige and the rest of the staff.

They've made us feel very welcome here this morning.

Thank you for all that.

I am going to try to keep my water not up there down here I have a tendency to spill things and if my notes get wet, you are going to be here for a long time, but I am super excited to be here this morning.

I think it's always good, when a speaker comes on site, for you to know a little bit about him or her.

So I'm going to share my testimony real quick with you.

I was born, I was saved, I'm here.

Amen.

The fastest testimony you ever heard.

No, at the age of nine.

I had a woman come to our house at the age of nine and we opened the door and she was the oldest woman I had ever seen.

Her name was Miss Marshall, she was all of 43.

And she was inviting us to a vacation Bible school down the road.

And my parents didn't go to church.

I wasn't raised in church.

They were good people, good Americans, good American Christians.

You know, you look good, you smell good, you make sure you don't do anything wrong, because good boys and good girls act this way.

It wasn't about being righteous or being in God's favor.

It was about appearances, and there's nothing wrong with appearances.

As Christians, we need to keep our testimonies clean and pure.

But it's about who we live for, not what we live for.

And Ms Marshall invited us to Vacation Bible School.

So we went to Vacation Bible School and I'm going to tell you what at the age of nine it was a Tuesday morning, 1115,.

I was about right over there, that MTC, right behind you, at our worship center, and I heard the gospel message preached.

I didn't hear about hell or heaven.

I heard about a God who loved me so much that he put everything on the line.

And I knew at that moment that if there was a God who loved me that much, all I wanted to do was love him back.

So I ran down front because I figured at that moment I was the worst person there ever was.

I mean, I hadn't committed my first murder, hadn't slept around yet I hadn't done any of those things.

But I realized I needed a savior and, more importantly, I needed a Lord, and I gave my life, at the age of nine, to Jesus.

Now I wish I could tell you I'd live the next 10 years of my life as a righteous young man.

I didn't, because the example I had in church was you showed up on Sundays.

You look good, you smell good, you act good, but you can go be what you want to on Saturday night, monday afternoon.

So I did what everybody else did.

I had a very watered down Christianity until I was 19,.

Went to college, you would think.

At the age of 19, college Western Kentucky University, just around the corner I could cut loose and go hog wild and experience life the way I wanted to.

Finally, no, instead I met my wife.

It wasn't my wife.

Then I met a girl.

She was short, about 4'11".

She lived at Poland Hall.

I was in Pierce Ford.

I stalked her every day until I got the courage to ask her out.

She said no, then she said yes and then she stood me up.

Long story.

Then she stood me up.

Long story.

But in the process of us dating we got connected with Campus Crusade for Christ.

Well, long story short, our relationship was falling apart.

We decided to go to a seminar about why couples break up.

We went to the seminar.

It was put on by Campus Crusade for Christ.

They never talked about couples.

They never talked about why couples break up.

All they talked about was Jesus.

Ah, I had a relationship that was falling apart and I needed something to fix it.

They never told us how to fix it.

We've been married for 34 years and I guess it worked, because here's the deal we grounded our lives in Christ and have pursued that relationship first and foremost in our marriage, in our relationship in our family and just as we've been called to be a pastor's family.

So I've been in the ministry for 33-plus years.

I've been at the church.

I'm currently at East Hartford Baptist Church.

For 14 years I've been teaching for Liberty University where I met Brandon for a long time and I am blessed to be here.

So that kind of brings us to this moment and I am excited to be here today to talk to you.

I'm excited to bring the gospel, the truth of God.

I'm excited about the topic we'll be talking about.

It's eschatology.

Can you say that with me?

Eschatology, say it real fast.

Eschatology, say it fast three times.

Eschatology, you can't do it.

It's a tongue twister.

Eschatology just means last things.

Eschatology means study of it.

It's the study of last things, the study of the end times, the study of the last moments, and it's a topic that I try to stay away from most of my ministry because it is an explosive topic.

But I've come to realize that I've been swimming in these waters for a long time, not because I've been captivated by the strangeness of it, but I've been burdened with what God's Word really has to teach, about what we need to be doing with the last days, the end times, the last things.

I'm also excited because there is an emerging conversation going on in the world of theology.

Now there's not a whole lot that gets thrown around anymore in theology.

We have some debates that go on at very high levels, but nothing really good, practical sometimes.

But there's a good practical debate going on right now, a conversation going on about what is the biblical response, what is the church's response, what is the lived-out experience for the church, the pragmatic responsibilities of us when it comes to the study of last things.

I'm excited because there's an opportunity to be in that conversation.

I'm also excited because I've just put together a book that I've been working on for nine years.

In a couple of weeks, hopefully, it'll go to publication, but it's been a long journey.

Now I'm going to be very transparent with you.

I'm here to promote my book, but we're not going to talk about my book, no more than what we just talked about right here, because what I really want to talk about is biblical fidelity and what the real message of the last days are, because I think it has a great impact for the church of Jesus Christ.

So we're going to spend the next few moments pulling the thread about what the Bible's message about the last days really truly is.

Because the reality is, most of us, if we're honest, most of us, have been taught a theology, an eschatology, that pretty much says this God wins in the end.

Was there ever any doubt?

Because if there was, you're in the wrong place.

But see that message, while it's very encouraging but that message is true that message doesn't have a lot of impact for me today.

Now, if I'm one of the few people living in the last final seven years, three years, two years, one year of that life whoo, it's bad, but Jesus is coming back.

But you see, the message of eschatology, the message of the last things, really should impact every part of your life today, whether you're going to live in the last time or not.

It should impact how I love my wife.

It should impact how I raise my children.

It should impact how I spend my money.

It should impact how I invest my time, resources, energy.

It should even impact where I spend my vacation and how I plan my retirement.

You see, if I really understood the last things, if we really understood the biblical teachings of the last things, we would understand.

The message isn't just a message about we win in the end.

The message is a call to faithful living.

It's a message that has been in the Bible since Genesis, chapter 3, and it goes all the way to Revelation 22.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

The entire Bible, the entire Word of God, is focused on the last things and, believe it or not, this may come as a shock to some of y'all we are actually living in the last days.

The last day started the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

When he said it is finished on the cross, he wasn't just talking about his life, he wasn't just talking about salvation.

He was talking about the plan is done.

We are in the final stages Now.

It's taken a while to get to the end of the end and there is an end that's coming.

But make no doubt, we are living in the eschaton and that causes us to live in a certain way.

You see, I believe the message of the last things, the end times, the last days is simply this Be alert, be ready, be faithful.

Let's pray again, father, god, I thank you for your word, I thank you for the truth of it.

Lord, I thank you for these faithful people who are willing to sit here and listen but, more importantly, to leave this place today to go and to live these words.

Lord, I pray that you would stir the spirit that resides inside of us, that we would hear your word, hear your truth, and we'll respond to it accordingly.

And, lord, there is someone here today who has never who's like nine-year-old me sitting in the pew, who has never made the commitment to follow you, because they've never heard these words of life and truth, that today their ears would be pricked and their hearts would be moved to want to follow you.

For these are the last days, the last times, and you are coming soon, lord, I pray these things in the name of Jesus, amen.

Hey, we're going to be in Matthew, chapter 24, so go ahead and open your Bibles to Matthew 24.

Matthew 24 · chapter mention

You probably thought, since I wrote a book on the end times, we'd be in Revelations.

Ha, suckers, there's lots of stuff all over the Bible and we're going to be in Matthew 24.

What's interesting is this is Jesus's discourse of the Olivet Discourse, the last lengthy teaching we have of him in scripture and he's talking about last things.

So we're going to look at that today.

But as we're doing that, let me kind of catch us up to where we are in this story, because it won't make a lot of sense if we just jump straight into 24.

This is Jesus' last week before the cross.

It's probably Wednesday or Thursday, we're not for certain which, but he's one of those days where he has been teaching in the temple and you know the stories.

The Pharisees and the scribes have come to him and tried to trick him up.

Hey, jesus, here's a coin, are we supposed to pay our taxes?

And what's the answer?

Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and give to God what is God's.

Hey, jesus, there's a woman who has seven husbands who will be her husband in heaven.

You misunderstand what it means to be in heaven, jesus.

He sidesteps or just maneuvers around all these questions They've been trying to get him and then he does that Jesus thing where he smacks him down.

I mean it's like an MMA fight match, without all the brutalness, because he begins to talk to the people about the Pharisees and the scribes.

Oh, woe to the hypocrites, woe to you who think this.

Woe to you.

He lists seven woes and then he turns to leave the temple.

He walks out the eastern gate and as he's heading down the temple mount if you understand the temple, oh boy, I really imagine.

Ah, here we go.

This is the temple mount.

Here's the east gate, over here is the Mount of Olives.

It's called the Mount of Olives because they have tons of olive trees planted on it and in between I know they were really sophisticated.

In between we have the Kidron Valley and Jesus is going to walk out of the Eastern Gate, down the valley, up the Mount of Olives and head over the Mount of Bethany it's about two and a half miles on the side where he's going to spend the night with his good friend Lazarus and Mary and Martha.

But as he's walking out of the temple, as he's leaving the Eastern Gates, as he's headed down, he turns around to look at Jerusalem and he makes this statement oh Jerusalem, oh people of God, how I have longed to gather you, as a mother hen would gather her chicks, to love on you, to protect you, to provide for you.

But all you've done is reject me.

I tell you.

He says you will not see me again until the judgment, and his disciples are listening and they're scratching their heads and they ask Jesus the question that all of us would be asking.

It's a question they keep asking, as a matter of fact, from this moment on when are you coming back?

When is this judgment going to take place?

Because, see, they thought in terms of judgment being that God was going to come, the Messiah was going to come, jesus was going to have his moment and man them nasty old Romans wiped out, all those people who don't worship God, wiped out that the Jews, the people of God, would finally stand there on the Temple Mount and all the nations would bow down to them because their might would be finally recognized as the righteous people of God.

I mean, they're looking forward to it for all the wrong reasons, and Jesus, looking at them, knowing in their hearts what the question is when is this going to happen?

Picks up where we're going to pick up this morning, in Matthew 24, verse 36.

Matthew 24:36

He says Now, concerning that day and hour, no one knows, neither the angels of heaven nor the Son, except the Father alone.

Let's just stop there for a moment.

You see, jesus says to his disciples, to those who've been with him for three years, for those who've heard the parables and been told about what they mean, for those who've had the curtain pulled back a little bit to see what's going on.

With his messianic promises, jesus goes.

Y'all have got it all wrong.

Don't worry about the hour, don't worry about the when, don't worry about the how, don't worry about the when, don't worry about the how, don't worry about these things.

And then he's going to go in and share a few moments and he's going to tell us what to worry about.

My son and I.

Oh shoo, my son.

He's fixing to be 27 years old, is that right?

Yeah, 27?

27.

I got it right.

Oh, don't laugh.

A few weeks ago we celebrated our anniversary In a normal fashion.

I have a card waiting for.

In normal fashion, there's nothing waiting for me.

I get up early.

Our anniversary was on a Sunday, so I'm up early, headed to church.

I get home that afternoon and there on the table is my anniversary card.

And it is my card, but it has her name on it scratched out.

She forgot who she was addressing it to.

She's wishing herself a happy anniversary.

I open the card up.

It's been 34 years of marital bliss 34 years.

I open it up.

It goes.

It's been a wonderful 33 years.

Evidently, one year wasn't that wonderful.

I'll pay for this later.

But me and my son years ago my son was seven years old I was stationed not stationed, it was like I was in the military.

I was serving in Nashville.

We were down there.

We were deer hunting.

Now, you don't really deer hunt with a seven-year-old.

What you do is you go out in the woods and you scare everything that's alive out there off.

But we're sitting there and we done had our guns to the side.

Now, he didn't really have a real gun, he had a 410.

That wasn't the afternoon.

And my son, duncan, he goes, dad, we should start a tradition.

I said, okay, son, what do you got in mind?

He goes, we should go to a different NFL stadium every year.

I like that.

I love football.

It's the most expensive tradition we probably could have started.

It's the most expensive tradition we probably could have started.

But I said okay.

So for the last 17 years we have traveled all over the nation following our team, the Tennessee Titans.

Yeah, yes, and it's been a lesson in perseverance because they don't win.

17 years, 19 stadiums, we've seen them win four times and I'm telling you, I've tried to convince my church put money on the game.

We could build a new building, we could fund ministry all through our county, because I guarantee you they're not going to win.

But we started this tradition and we've been traveling around.

But the goal every year is to make it to a stadium.

We pick a different stadium out, matter of fact.

We'll figure out what stadium we're going to here in a few months.

We wait for the schedule to come out to see what the dates are.

We have two possibilities this year Arizona, where there's nothing at, or San Francisco, which there's a lot at.

We made the mistake of talking about going to San Francisco at the last holiday get-together and our wives decided well, why can't we go with you all?

This is a boy's trip.

We'll just stay in a different hotel.

No, you won't, it'll be too much.

So we're headed to Arizona, probably because they don't want to go there.

But the goal is to reach the stadium.

That's the end game.

How we get from here to there is important, but don't forget the goal.

The goal is to make it to the stadium.

Jesus says concerning that day, that day speaking of the day of judgment.

He's just got done in the previous verses talking about the last days.

The last days are going to be full of wars and rumors of wars.

They're going to be full of pestilence and disease and famine.

Sound familiar.

That stuff's been going on forever and it just gets more intense the closer he gets to the end.

That's what Jesus says.

Jesus compares this to labor, to child birthing.

He says you will know the season because it's going to get more tense and more frequent.

I can remember when we had our first child Duncan wasn't our first child Dakota, my daughter, who is 30.

What 30.

?

Okay, once they reach a certain age you start forgetting.

But 30 years old, 30 years ago, she was born.

And I remember when Debbie came home and told me she was pregnant, that was in February and, man, we got super excited.

The doctor said she was due in August and we started planning the first trimester.

Not too bad, at least not for me.

I only gained 20 pounds.

Second trimester, I put on like 60.

It was starting to get worse by the time we get to the third trimester.

I mean it's no longer just uncomfortable clothes.

It's no more just a little sickness and nausea.

It's no more just a little bit and nausea.

It's no more, just a little bit, of those pains that shoot to the stomach.

The closer it gets to that delivery date it's getting serious.

You men know what I'm talking about.

I can remember in August, early August, the contractions were starting and it's like, oh, this is it, this is it, this is it, this is it.

Now we've been working on a nursery, we've been working on all the stuff you have to do to get ready for a baby.

And man, we take off from our little apartment over by the campus and we take off to the medical center and we get there and we know that we didn't know whether it was a boy or a girl.

It was either going to be Dakota or what was the boy's name?

Bill, what's it say?

It wasn't Duncan Jacob.

There you go.

It was going to be there and it's false labor.

But it was real labor, they said.

But it was false labor.

I never have understood that.

I didn't have my doctorate yet, so you know I wasn't that smart.

I have a doctorate and I still don't understand how it can be real labor but false labor.

But anyway, it didn't happen.

So we go home, no problem.

Hey, a couple weeks later, oh, false labor again.

The third time she wakes me up.

Hey, I'm having pains.

Okay, I'm going to sleep, just go on to the hospital, I'll see you when you get home.

I was working midnights, woke up later and she's not there.

Debbie Got in my car, drove down to the medical center there's her car parked there, go up to the gynecologist's office and she's not there.

They're shut down.

I walk over to the hospital.

She's been admitted, she's all wired up, got the Pitocin drip going on.

She goes oh, I forgot to call you.

This, is it?

A few hours later, dakota was born.

But that's the way the last days are going to be.

Jesus says now concerning that day you don't know the hour, you don't know when, but you're going to know the season.

And then he begins to give us some directives.

There's going to be three of them here in a few moments.

Three directives, three things that we need to be doing while we're in the season, waiting for the birth of the new eschaton.

You see, the Bible promises us this at the last day, when the judgment actually happens, when Jesus returns, when God's wrath is poured out, here's what happens the old is burnt away and a new heaven and a new earth come.

You probably have never really thought about this, but if you're reading the Bible, we never go to heaven.

We enter into the new earth, the Bible.

We never go to heaven.

We enter into the new earth.

Heaven comes to earth.

We don't go to heaven.

You see, the reason why God destroyed the world once with a flood and he's going to do it with fire this next time.

The flood just kind of washed things clean for a while.

Fire consumes and takes care of what is wrong.

There won't be an opportunity for anything else.

Once this world is burned up, something new is going to have to be birthed.

You see, jesus wants us to keep our eyes on the prize.

Just like every year.

Our goal is to make it to an NFL stadium.

The goal of the Christian life is to reach eternity with Christ.

Jesus says be alert, do not get distracted by the mundane, those trips that me and Duncan take.

If you're not careful, you can get so distracted by the stuff going on.

I remember one year I think it was 2000,.

I got it written down here.

Let me make sure so I don't lie to you.

In 2013, one of our most epic adventures, and it was almost completely done away with, we were flying out of Owensboro, kentucky.

I was super excited because you don't ever get to fly out that close to where you live.

Normally we're traveling to Louisville or Nashville.

Owensboro is just 20 minutes down the road and it was going to be a small plane.

I've never been in a small plane.

I wanted to feel it jerking back and forth.

My son is terrified.

He'd been sitting there like this and it'd been great.

But man, as only happens in South Central Kentucky, thursday, a snowstorm starts blowing in Unexpected.

We're supposed to fly out Friday morning.

I look at Duncan, I go.

You know what, if we don't get to Owensboro tonight, we probably won't be able to drive there tomorrow morning.

Let's go ahead and go tonight.

We'll get a hotel right next to the airport and then we'll get over there.

Even if I have to walk, we can get there.

Okay, so we spend the night, wake up the next morning.

I mean it's covered, get to the airport.

Our plane is still on schedule.

Yes, just got to fly to Chicago, chicago to Denver.

This is going to be a great weekend.

Flight delayed, not a problem, it's not canceled.

Yet.

An hour later, flight canceled and we're sitting there in the Owensboro airport.

By the way.

It's a small airport, so there's nobody else there but us.

We're looking at each other.

What do you want to do?

Well, you know, son, the grown-up thing to do, the smart thing.

Let's just get home.

We'll enjoy the snow, we'll sled, we'll do all these fun things.

We'll watch the game on TV on Sunday.

And you know, we didn't make it this year.

We'll just have to make it next year.

Okay, three hours later we're somewhere between Bowling Green and Nashville, swerving on icy roads.

Trucks are jackknifed.

I mean this is bad conditions.

I'm on the phone, driving, which I'm not supposed to do talking to my travel agent trying to make plans to get out of Nashville, finally get to Nashville.

Plane after plane after plane is being canceled or delayed or whatever, and finally we get the last plane to Denver via Charlotte and we have to travel to Charlotte, travel to Denver.

We don't make it into Denver Now.

We've been at the airport in Oldsboro since like 5.45 that morning.

We make it into Denver at 2.30, 3 o'clock the next morning and had the best weekend of our lives.

But you see, if we had been distracted by the snow, distracted by what's smart, you might be saying you should have been distracted.

I know, debbie, was you idiot.

But you see, here's the deal.

And this is what we do in Christianity we play it safe Jesus never called you to play it safe and we let the distractions of what's safe take us away from what could be an awesome, awesome experience.

Let me tell you how awesome that experience was.

Flying out of Denver, we got delayed for two extra days because it was too bad to fly.

Everything was canceled.

We stayed for two days and nights in the Denver airport, sleeping on the ground.

It was fantastic.

You see, one of my goals in these trips is not just to see the NFL stadium.

I realized early on in these boys' weekends it was a great opportunity for me to pour into my son.

I had him captive for at least two to three days.

I had him captive for like five days and he was just getting into junior high, just trying to figure out who he was trying to figure out who his friends were going to be and what was going on, what God was doing in his life.

What an awesome opportunity that would have been missed if we had just went home instead of trying.

Now I'm going to tell you what if we kept trying and kept shutting down, we would have went home.

I'm not that stupid, but you know what?

Just bold enough and brave enough and a little stupid enough to keep pushing it down the road to see what might be.

You see, jesus says to his disciples don't worry about the wind, don't get distracted by the mundane.

Let's read in 37 through 42.

He says as the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of man will be, for in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day Noah boarded the ark.

They didn't know until the flood came and swept them all away.

This is the way the coming of the Son of man will be.

Then, two men will be in the field, one will be taken and one left.

Two women will be at the grinding grain with a hand mill one will be taken and one left.

Therefore, here it is be alert, since you don't know what day your Lord is coming.

See, jesus says be alert, be alert, don't get distracted, be alert, stay on task, be alert, listen to what's going on around you and pay attention.

I've told you what the season looks like.

Now be alert to what's going on.

I imagine during the days of Noah, you've just gotten off work, you made it home.

Hey, honey, pack up the lunch bag.

You grab the kids.

We're going on over the hill to watch Noah build this boat, this ark, or whatever he's calling it.

He said it's going to rain we don't know what rain is and they went, and it was the biggest spectacle to watch him build this boat.

They had no clue, but yet all the clues had been dropped right in their lap.

They had no expectation of what was going to happen, because they weren't paying attention, they weren't alert.

Noah was out preaching every day.

I mean, with every hammer he swung every nail.

He drove into that boat with everything he did.

It was a story about what's coming.

Yes, we've never seen anything like this.

By the way, we've never seen anything like the last days.

I don't know if it's literal or if it's metaphorical and hyperbole.

I've been practicing that word, hyperbole.

It's a hard word to say, but the bottom line is we've never seen anything like what's going to happen.

The thread of the universe is going to be tugged and everything unravels.

I mean, we've seen earthquakes, we've seen tsunamis, we've seen lots of things, but it says the sky is going to roll up.

I've never seen the sky roll up.

It's over, and yet God's told us things.

He's revealed parts of this to us.

Are we paying attention?

Are we being alert?

Don't get caught off guard by the mundane, the things of life that are just going on, whether you're working in the field or grinding grain, or whether you're washing clothes or raising kids or whatever it is you're doing.

Those things distract us from what God has called us to be alert.

Jesus says don't worry about when, just be ready.

Do not grow weary, do not become lazy, but be ready.

On one of those road trips that we took, this was when we were headed to Charlotte.

By the way, they lost at Denver, they lost at Charlotte.

It's just pretty much any place I tell you we went to.

We lost.

I'll tell you the ones we won at, if I actually talk about one.

But we were headed to Charlotte and man, we had looked at the maps, we had figured out where we were going, we knew the route to Charlotte.

So I picked Duncan up.

He went to college, over to Eastern.

We tried to get him to go to Western, but it was too expensive.

Eastern was much cheaper, so we sent him to Eastern, picked them up at richmond, we shot down the knoxville, shot through the mountains, came out into the southern mountains and, according to our directions, we were looking for charlotte, north carolina.

I saw a sign, said carolina, I took the right and we were headed down.

Now, an hour past that, that intersection, that fork, was supposed to be our next, next connection, our next road of an hour, an hour and a half, two hours the road, we hadn't found our next place.

Hey, duncan, pull up your Maps app and see where we're at.

We were almost in Charleston, south Carolina.

You see, I knew the destination, I knew where we were headed, but evidently back at that fork in the road there must have been a Charlotte North Carolina and a Charleston South Carolina and all I saw was Carolina.

Because I wasn't ready and I took off the wrong way and we were way off course.

You don't want to get lost in South Carolina on your way to North Carolina, because travel back across the state, two states took us to places that were kind of sketchy.

Thank goodness we had gas, but we weren't stopping, but we finally made it in that night to Charlotte.

You got to be ready.

You got to be ready for what's coming.

Jesus says let's pick it up in verses 43 and 44.

He says this, but know this if the homeowner had known what time the thief was coming, he would have stayed alert and not let his house be broken into.

This is why you are also to be ready, because the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Man.

Do not get lulled into complacency or inattentiveness.

We are called to be ready.

I love that analogy.

A thief, if I told you I was going to break into your house Tuesday afternoon at 4.15, where would you be at 4.14?

Home, yeah, either with a 911 on speed dial or your own version of 911, uh, ready to speed dial me?

Yeah, if we knew the thief was coming, we would be there.

But that's the whole point.

You don't know when a thief is going to show up.

And jesus says you don't know when I'm coming back, it doesn't matter, just be ready.

When we lived in nashville, we were broken into.

Uh, it's so funny, but not funny.

Oh, we were debbie and and dakota had went to awana, me and duncan had stuck around the house.

We left.

It was sunday night and 20 minutes after I left the house I got a call from the security company.

Your house has been broke into, turned around and came back and boy, they had done a number.

We weren't ready.

We had an alarm system.

That was nice.

That just tells you when you've been broke into, doesn't tell you when they're going to break into you, man.

But after that we got ready.

We bought a dog, we put a gate up at the end of the driveway.

You know those little concrete cones they have in the parking lots so you don't drive too far.

I had them all around my house.

Because they had driven into my house.

I said they had broken in.

They drove straight in through our French doors.

They weren't going to do that again.

We went and got our carry permits and we shot a lot at the house so everybody would hear our guns.

You see, we started to be ready, not knowing if it would ever happen again.

And, by the way, it didn't.

You see, I'm not saying go get guns and get ready, don't become one of those people, but the reality of it is in our Christian life.

You need to be ready.

Do you know God's Word?

Do you spend ample time in prayer?

Are you connected to a body of believers?

Do you serve?

That sounds like preacher talk.

It's Bible talk.

It's shepherd talk.

Let me tell you something If you're not reading God's word, you can't be alert or ready for what's coming, and it takes more than what we do right here.

Are you reading and studying God's Word daily?

It takes being connected in prayer.

I don't care how much you read if you're not praying for the Holy Spirit to reveal God's plan to you.

See, we think prayers like the Christmas wish list.

Remember back those of you of a certain age when the wish book, the Sears and Roebuck catalog, would come in the mail in August.

I see smiles.

That thing was red, black, blue, tore up.

We had everything marked in it that we wanted, me and my sister.

But that's how we approach prayer.

We think prayer is a wish list and we're asking God shut up.

Can I say that I just did.

Shut up.

Get quiet, be still, ask for God to talk to you.

Prayer is not about you telling God what you want.

Prayer is about getting aligned with God's will so you can know what he wants.

Service you were designed to serve.

You were built to serve and there's an emptiness inside of you when you don't serve.

You need to be connected to serving, and I'll tell you where we serve we don't.

Could get me in trouble.

I didn't clear this with Brandon when I read my Bible.

Jesus says a new commandment I give to you.

They, the world, will know that you belong to me by the way you love one another.

See, we're supposed to be serving each other first and taking care of our needs.

Then we take care of their needs.

But why in the world would they want to be part of us if they see us throwing each other to the wolves?

Remember the old TV show Cheers?

I know you can admit that some of y'all watched it.

It's a place where everybody knows you're.

Yeah, y'all watched it.

That's what we all long for Community belonging.

That's what they want.

We have it.

But, boy, sometimes we don't give a good face to it.

I could go on and on.

But that's what it means to be ready to be plugged in, connected, connected to God, connected in prayer, connected to his word, connected to his people.

Last but not least, he says be faithful.

Let's uh, let's look at matthew 24, 45 to 51, who, then, is a faithful and wise servant whom his master has put in charge of his household to give them food at the proper time.

Blessed is that servant whom the master finds doing his job.

When he comes, truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all of his positions.

But that wicked servant says in his heart my master is delayed and starts to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards.

That servant's master will come on a day he does not expect him and an hour he does not know.

He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place where the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Now let's just be honest.

Church, this is where a lot of us kind of fall at.

But it's been 2,000 years.

He ain't showed up yet.

He probably is not coming back anytime soon.

But you see, the good, faithful servant stays on task.

The wicked servant, I've got time.

Have you seen what's going on over here?

I think I want to try some of that.

I got time to get right with God.

I got time to get back on track.

I got time to do what God has called me to.

And the master comes back at a time when the servant didn't realize he was coming back.

You see, jesus says don't worry about the when, don't worry about the how, worry about being alert, worry about being ready, worry about staying faithful.

You see, the reward is great.

The faithful servant, he's given more.

That's a picture of eternal, eternal more.

But the wicked servant he's cast to where there's gnashing and weeping of teeth.

That's a metaphor to hell, separation from God.

And I want you to hear something.

This is being said to the people of God, this is being said to the world.

This is what it means for us.

We're called to be faithful.

You see, don't allow the distractions to take your eyes off the prize.

The prize is eternal life with Christ.

Now, I wouldn't want you to doubt your salvation, but I wouldn't want you to assume it either.

Here's the reality.

You need to remain faithful.

In the book of Revelations Revelations, chapter 2 and 3, need to remain faithful In the book of Revelations Revelations, chapter 2 and 3, we see this formula that Jesus gives Jesus.

Revelation 2 · chapter mention Revelation 2 · chapter mention

He says to these seven churches of Asia Minor, he begins to talk to them.

He says I want you to hear this message about these last days I know who you are, I know who you are.

Did you hear that he knows who you are?

I know what you're going through, I know the struggles you're facing, I know the challenges you have, I know your strengths, I know your weaknesses.

And then he says this it's the most enlightening statement of all these, and I know who belongs to me.

Therefore, stand firm, be faithful.

Therefore, stand firm, be faithful, be alert, be ready, be faithful For the one who does remain faithful to the end, who doesn't get distracted, who doesn't compromise, who doesn't wander away.

This is the promises that Jesus makes, and I want to get them right.

So I'm going to read them right here, off my notes.

And they come right out of the Bible.

It's in those, those other, it's in the tail end of every one of those seven addresses to those seven churches.

He says this he says here's what you get when you are faithful.

Here's what you get when you're a Lord.

Here's what you get when you're ready.

You get the right to eat from the tree of life.

You get that the faithful will not experience the second death.

The hidden manna and the white stone will be given to you.

You will share in the judgment of the nations.

White garments will be placed upon you, the name of God will be written on you and you will have the right to sit with Jesus on his throne.

Those are not seven different things.

It's the same thing.

It's your salvation, it's your eternal well-being.

It's this for he or she who stays faithful to the end, who perseveres to the end.

If you're a titans fan, you think we might win next year.

That's perseverance.

But unlike that belief, what God says you can count on if you persevere to the end and be faithful, no matter what, you receive these rewards.

Like I said, I wouldn't want you to doubt your salvation, I wouldn't want you to question it, but I would want you to test it and check it.

Do you you really have a Lord or do you just have a Savior?

So let me tell you something you can't have a Savior if he's not your Lord.

What does Lordship look like in your life?

If push comes to shove, are you one of those people that like to ask for forgiveness rather than ask for permission?

That's not faithfulness.

You see, we justify a lot of junk in our lives because our enemy has warmed his way in making us think some terrible, terrible things about our faith, and they're coaxed in church language.

But that's not the faith that Jesus desires.

He wants you to stand firm to the end, knowing who he is, so that you can be all that Jesus desires.

He wants you to stand firm to the end, knowing who he is, so that you can be all that he desires for you to be.

In a moment, you're going to have an opportunity to make a response, and here the simple responses are either you need to meet Jesus for the first time, or you're a believer, you need to get right with Jesus and just get back into being faithful.

Or maybe you're here today and you're doing good.

Pray for your brothers and sisters, because we all have these struggles.

As we fight this good fight, let me pray for us, father.

God, I thank you so much for your love and your grace.

Lord, I thank you for this word of wisdom, lord, this word that speaks to our needs and this word that speaks to all that we desire.

And, god, my prayer right now for us as we transition in this time of response would simply be this God, help us to understand what you're calling us to.

Yes, lord, there are these last moments, these last things and, lord, they're spectacular and they tempt us to think about all these crazy and weird things.

But the truth is, if it is simply this, you want us to live our lives today as if it was our last day.

You want us to live our life right now as if we were living in the last times.

You want all of our focus to be on serving you faithfully, loving you faithfully and following you faithfully.

So my prayer right now for us, as we sing, as we worship, as we release all that junk in our lives, that we would just faithfully follow you in all that we do.

God, thank you.

Thank you that we have a chance to faithfully follow the faithful God, and I ask you to sing in the name of Jesus, amen.