Keep Watch & Pray

there's a story told about a preacher who was going on for a very very very long time

people were getting bored it was also quite cringy because not only was it very long and

very dull but he was throwing his arms in all directions and he's thumping the pulpit and all

sorts and after this had gone on for a very long time he accidentally knocked his notes and they

went flying all over the place well in a bit of a panic he went down he started picking up the notes

then he looked around desperately at his congregation and said where was i and three people in three

corners of the room independently said you were just coming towards the conclusion

ever had that experience where you just wanted something to happen

you're just waiting for it maybe it's a release from a situation maybe it's it it's putting more

positive terms it's something that you you're just longing to happen you've been waiting for so so long

when we read these words of jesus which talk about the end keep watch and pray as he urges us to be

expectant right at the heart of those words is this urge to be expectant but in a positive way

that life is not always going to be as we now know it it's going to change and it's going to change

so much for the better beyond our imagination so be ready for it be prepared for it be expectant of it

keep praying for it keep watching for it

as a young christian in my teens i was went to a stage where i was actually quite deeply disturbed

over the end of the world and some of the some of the things that scripture said particularly in the

book of revelation and uh i actually even had dreams i had nightmares of the world coming to an end

and i remember one day talking to a a christian another christian who was much older and very much wiser

and they reassured me on a number of counts the first thing they said was that apparently apocalyptic

dreams are in fact quite common among teenagers

the second thing is that in christ in christ the call to be ready

is not about entering a state of psychological dread and terror it's the very opposite that call to be

ready is an invitation to be excited to be expectant living like the kingdom is near is is a positive thing

it's not about living in dread and terror

the third thing that they said after they'd established all of that is they said actually

you know whilst we do not know when that end will come and we don't and if we think we do we need to

go back to scripture because jesus himself says nobody knows when that end will come

we do need to know that it will come it will come and there is a real danger that we can lose sight of

that reality because it can seem so when we read scripture and we read of a promised new world where

there'll be no more death or dying or pain or suffering and we read of how all the evil will be

completely wiped out forever it seems so removed from our daily experience it seems hard to imagine

and to talk of jesus returning and there being an end it can seem so implausible

but they said this this a very much older wiser christian said to me and it stuck with me that in

fact that end is actually very close to every generation ask yourself this as a serious question and it's not

meant as a bleak one

but how many more years do you honestly expect to have left in this life

now if someone was to say that jesus would return by the end of this century

we would consider that's quite soon i think in the scheme of things

if if the world was going to come to its conclusion and jesus was to return

by the end of this century we'd say that's not actually in the scheme of things that far off

my guess is is pretty well everybody in this room

would have died by then

and as i say without wanting to sound bleak

the reality is

that we will come face to face

we will come face to face with ultimate reality

with actually only just a few years

decades perhaps but it's not that long in the scheme of things

if that's not enough to convince us of the the plausibility of the end let me read to you something

um by a physicist who died a couple of years ago now but um he he was a great physicist called john

polkinghorn um he also was a christian and he was an ordained becker in the church of england

and he spent a lot of his academic career um working out the relationship work uh wrestling with the relationship

between his uh vocation as a as an academic physicist

and also um as a as a christian theologian

and a number of years ago he wrote a book called the god of hope and the end of the world

fairly early on in that book he actually says that you know whilst we might struggle

to imagine as christians an end he said within the sign within the scientific community from a

physicist point of view it's a no-brainer it can't go on forever you know the end of the world is not an

if it's a when he says this and i personally don't understand everything that he says in this

piece i'm about to read to you but it's enough i think perhaps to make the point

this pile is is um entitled certain catastrophes

it says the sun shines through the effects of its internal nuclear reactions turning its hydrogen

into helium in about five billion years time all the core hydrogen that will be exhausted and the sun

will be will then swell to become a red giant burning any life surviving on earth into a frazzle

in the process our understanding of the course of stellar evolution is good enough

to make this prediction absolutely reliable of course by then it is possible that terrestrial life

will have migrated elsewhere in the galaxy however the universe itself faces a highly problematic future

its long-term history is controlled by the competing effects of expansion the explosive consequences of the big bang

and gravity drawing matter together these contrasting tendencies are very evenly balanced and we do not know for certain

which will win in the end if expansion predominates the possibility currently favoured by most cosmologists

cosmic history will continue forever in a world growing steadily colder and more dilute

eventually all will decay into low-grade radiation

if gravity predominates

the present expansion will one day be halted and reversed

what began with the big bang will end with a big crunch

as the universe implodes into a cosmic melting pot

now the time scales for these processes are immensely long

spanning many tens of billions of years

but one or other of them is a certain prognostication of the cosmic future

however fruitful the universe may seem today

its end lies in futility

it is perhaps not surprising that the distinguished american theoretical physicist

steven weinberg

writing within the limited horizon of an atheist physicalism

and with science alone as his guide

could say that the more he understood the universe

the more it seemed to him

to be pointless

you see the end of the world

from a physicist's point of view

it's not an if

it's a when

and if we're left just alone in this world

with no sense of conviction

that there is a God who is behind all of this

what is the point?

but that's not where the Bible leads us

the Bible talks

obviously not in scientific terms

but does talk

with certainty and with conviction

that life will not always be like this

that things will come to a conclusion

it will come to an end

but not in a meaningless futile way

with no purpose

so we're just here for a few years and then gone

although it may feel like that

from a human point of view

but rather

and this is where we come to the words of Jesus

we are called to be expectant

because

God has everything in his hands

and he calls us to keep watch

and to pray

and to be ready

and to be tuned into the fragility of life

because we do not know when that's going to come to an end

as individuals

if not cosmologically

but to be aware of that mortality

and of that finitude

but not from a place of despair

the very opposite

rather to be filled with Holy Spirit hope

knowing that that which we know

and love

and which is good

and wholesome

and of God

and is life-giving

and life-transforming

in a positive way

will be eternal

we don't know

quite how that will be

we don't know when it will be

but it will be

it's not an if

it's a when

so I'm going to take a pause

now

to be still

and I'm going to ask you a question

and I'm not going to turn

ask you to turn to the person next to you

to discuss this one

I am going to ask all of us

and I'm going to join you in this as well

to pray

and there's a danger

that this kind of question

can seem like a cliche

because it's often trotted off

as a cliche

almost I think a bit of a cliche question

but I mean this is a serious question

and the question I want to put to you is this

if you knew beyond all doubt

and by the way

you can't know beyond all doubt

but if you did know beyond all doubt

that Christ was going to return

within the next 24 hours

what would you do?

that's a serious question

and I'm going to invite

each of us right now

to just pause

to be still

for about half a minute

and just ask ourselves that question

and then I'm going to say a prayer

Lord God

we do not know the day

or the hour

of your return

and we do not know the day

or hour

of when we will leave this life

on earth

but help us to be ready

and help us to shape

the way that we live

around a genuine sense of expectation

that your kingdom is near

Amen

Amen

We haven't reached the end yet

of the talk

in case you were thinking

there's more to come

what does this mean in practical terms?

well I want to share with you

two thoughts

the first thing in practical terms

if we're to live

like the kingdom is near

sorry

is that we are to live

like the kingdom is near

if we are to keep watching

to pray

it means having that sense

of genuine expectation

that what we see

and experience going on around us

does not match

what ultimate reality will be

according to the promises of God

in 1982

in Wisconsin

there was an American football game

taking place

and the home team

were playing

and it was going

disastrously wrong

it was

they were losing

by a country mile

and yet

although as this game

was going from bad

to even worse

to even even worse

the crowd gathered

seemed remarkably excited

and the reason why

they were excited

was not because

the game before them

their home team

were spectacularly losing

right in front of them

but 70 miles away

their baseball team

in another stadium

were doing remarkably well

now this was in the days

before mobile phones

and the internet

but they did have

portable radios

and quite a few thousand people

in that stadium

that day

had their portable radios

and were following the match

not only right in front of them

but the one that they were winning

70 miles away

and so you had this kind of

rather bizarre

contradictory scene

of a match

in a stadium

that seemed to be going

spectacularly badly

and yet everybody

was cheering

excitedly

with a sense of victory

in the air

you see

while on the field

before them

was defeat

their attention

was on a victory

that they could not see

but knew

was very very real

it may not look like it

but we are winning

and to keep watching

to pray expectantly

is to live like

the kingdom is near

that's the first thing

I said

there were two things

here's the second one

and the last one

to keep watching

to pray

means to expect

God

to move

in our lives

not just in someone else's lives

but in our lives

not in a way

that is contrived

or false optimism

but a genuine expectation

coupled with a bit of mystery

that we don't quite know how

but nevertheless

God will work in us

the pastor and writer

Rick Warren

who was a leader

of an enormous church

Saddleback Church

in America

and the writer

of the purpose driven life

and the purpose driven church

was interviewed

at a leadership conference

a few years ago

and was asked

what

why does God

use you

and he said

in what I think

is a genuine

genuine, authentic

and non-arrogant way

he said

God uses me

because I expect him to

now think about that

how might you expect

God to use you

even in this next week

I'm going to close

with something visual

it's not a magic trick

just to warn you

so don't be disappointed

it's such an obvious

illustration

it's almost

too obvious

but sometimes

the visual things

can help us grasp things

and I've got here a glove

it's a bit of a dirty

looking glove

because it's a working glove

but I'm going to

pop it on there

and I want that glove

to work

I want that glove

to pick up

that Bible

and so I'm going to

tell the glove

to do that

here it goes

glove

lift that Bible

and there's not much

happening

so maybe

the glove

needs a little bit

of encouragement

come on glove

you can do it

come on

you know you've got it

inside you

if you just deep

reach deep within

you can do it

go on

pick it up

pick up the Bible

come on

come on

come on

it's not much

is it

maybe

maybe it needs

some training

maybe it hasn't

been told

how to

how to do

its job

glove

if you just

stretch out

your fingers

like that

and your thumb

and just grip

them together

around the Bible

and then lift

you can do

that

that's not

really working

what this

glove needs

is some

fellowship

it needs

some other

gloves

around and

about it

it needs to

be in a

home group

to give it

some

it needs to

be surrounded

by a range

of other

different

types of

gloves

come on glove

you can do it

that glove

needs to

make a

recommitment

it needs to

stretch out

its hand

it needs to

be baptised

it needs to

make its

life

explicitly

committed

come on

come forward

give it your

all

no holding

back

you know

as well

as I do

that that's

not going

to happen

but you also

know that

that as a

work glove

was designed

with a

purpose

to work

and there's

only way

one way

that that's

going to

happen

it's not

going to

work by

itself

it wasn't

designed to

and neither

were you

or I

we are

wired to

work in

partnership

we're

called to

work in

partnership

God created

us to

work in

partnership

God

longs for

us to

work in

partnership

to keep

watching to

pray doesn't

mean we

step back

and we

expect God

just to

step in

and do

it even

though it

is all

by his

strength

but to

keep

watching to

pray means

to be

expectant

that the

one from

without

will indeed

enter even

our

lives

God's

God's

God's

God's

God's

God's

Holy Spirit

is not

simply

near us

or with

us or

beside us

although he's

all those

things

but that he

is actually

in us

and Jesus'

call to

keep watch

and to

pray is

that invitation

that the

living God

who longs to

occupy our

lives in a

way that will

be unique to

each and

every one

of us

will fill

us

and enable

us to

fulfil that

purpose

for which

he has

designed

us

to keep

watch

and to

pray

is to

be

expectant

to be

ready

that God

the author

of the

universe

the giver

of salvation

can and

will

enter us

and use

us in

ways that

we probably

don't imagine

so let's

pray together

now that

he will do

just that

Lord thank

you

that you

call us

to be

expectant

and ready

not in a

way that

lives in

dread

but that

lives in

hope

Lord help

us

consciously

and

subconsciously

to be

expectant

that you

can and

that you

will use

us

to live

like the

kingdom is

here

and to

keep watch

not in our

own strength

but in that

expectation that

you will enter

our lives

and that you

fill us with

your power

and with your

strength

so Lord

as we

seek to

keep watch

and pray

now and

as we

begin

Advent

renew us

in that

expectation

Lord we

invite your

Holy Spirit

to enter us

like a

hand

entering a

glove

Lord be

in every

conversation

in every

interaction

and move

in those

things

Lord whatever

these coming

days or

weeks

have in

store for

us

help us

to be

ready and

expectant

for you

to move

in each

and every

one of

us

fill us

afresh

with your

spirit

with your

power

keep us

ever more

expectant

keep us

watching

keep us

praying

knowing that

your kingdom

is coming

in Jesus

name

Amen

Amen

Amen

��

God

valuable

God