Be Sober, Watch and Pray

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Good morning, everybody.

Glad I get to see y'all this morning.

I almost made it to church without anything happening.

But my poor wife.

She had to blow her the horn at the car this morning.

Bless her heart.

I love her.

As a car pulled out way down the road in front of somebody, yep, she got mad about it.

Went to blowing the horn.

I could tell she is mad.

She had uh she's taking her medicine on the way.

We was going over to get nanny and she had a little red solo cup and she's taking her medicine and drunk it.

It wouldn't fit in the cup holder, right?

She smashed that thing into nothing.

I thought, God, it's gonna be a bad day.

But she held up pretty good, so I guess we're all right, we made it.

Page uh three forty-two.

Three forty two.

Let me have to say the food.

Then we have my shift.

I missed it a little bit, I apologize.

Let's just do the next one if you don't want to.

Anybody got anything they'd like to mention this morning?

Yeah, I don't mention Sue's dad.

He uh helps and health issues, and uh surprise for him.

And Sugan's not feeling well today, so I have to pray for her as well.

And uh I was praying for Adam and his family, they all been going through the sickness so far.

That's prayer for them.

Nanny?

Uh there's a guy that he's been a friend of the family for a long, long time.

And his name is John Beatty.

And he had twin sons, and Drake had a he didn't say what kind of a medical emergency, but it left him bragging there, and he died.

He's 26.

But he had made out the papers to have all of his organs donated.

And so John's he said he never thought that he would lose a child, especially at twenty six.

Yeah.

So yeah.

So anybody else?

Linda?

Yes, we have an elderly friend, JC Laws, and he's in the hospital of his double pneumonia.

And he really needs our prayers.

He's in more than anybody else?

Richard?

Keith, I was still having some back problems for some reason or other.

Could think of some hoger or getting old.

But I don't know.

It's just my back, dude.

Well, I thought that'd come with AIDS, because mine's after sitting down for 30 minutes, might have been kind of leaving these off a little bit, maybe eat a bite.

Seems like it gets me feeling better when I eat.

Nothing uh nothing good.

It comes out of a back pain, I'm sure.

Anybody else?

We all bought your head.

Uh lifting our friends up to you, Lord, uh hoping that you can uh that you would uh take care of them and ease their pains, heal their heal their problems, and just uh the people around them uh give them a little bit of sense of uh easement on the the worry that we all have sometimes, Lord.

We uh we we're j we're only hum we're only human and we we do worry even though we're not supposed to.

And uh it's just uh something that's in our DNA, I guess, but uh we do, and uh all the answers that we need are always through you.

And sometimes that's that's the last place we ever look.

We should be our first for sure.

Just uh take care of everybody.

Just uh put some love on everybody this morning, Lord, and just ease all of our anxieties, all of our problems, all of our all of our pains.

It's just uh it's just a beautiful day, and we just like to enjoy a good day today.

We uh thank you in advance for all the things that you take care of for us, and uh we also thank you for your most precious gift of all, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whom we pray.

Good morning, everyone.

We all have so many things to be thankful for.

In our case, about valuable harvest.

Especially that grass just keeps on growing.

Now Lulas cut that grass about three times a week.

So that's that's right at$75 in gas a week just to cut the grass.

It's it's gas prices a little bit up, but uh everything else is looking good, you know.

So now we we already got the the first batch of figs in.

The second batch is coming in now.

So we got we got a good harvest thing on all the stuff we got around the yard and stuff, or so we're eating pretty good right now.

So that's one thing that we would have to be thankful for right there and all this.

But to go do so good to us, or that provides all these good things for us.

How about everybody else?

Mike, we're thankful that you have all this bounty to bring in shadow with us.

Well, I don't I don't mind that a bit right there.

Well, we we are we're so happy to be able share with this week, you know, no no problem at all.

Anyone else?

Well, I'm thankful that these two met down today.

It's good to have visitors.

Yes, good it's good to see them all again.

Okay.

Anyone else?

We have to be temporary what's going on in the world today.

God is going through.

It's in the answer.

Yeah.

It's already in here.

It's going on in the world.

Yeah, we just gotta get to it.

Okay, let's go to the Lord prayer then.

Our great Colonel has been following.

We thank you so much that you're so good.

You're so over preparingly generous with everything that you have in your life for us.

We thank you so much.

And all the main things we had to be thankful for is that your son Jesus Christ came and gave his life for us that we could have everlasting life.

And we thank you so much, Eric, for Jesus and for everything that you do for us.

And we thank you in Jesus' name.

Okay, that's good here with us.

I'm going to read Colossian chapter three verses sixteen and seventeen.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalm and in hymn, in a spiritual song, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.

And whatsoever you do, in word or deed, do it, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God in the Father by him.

I guess uh, six thirty five shit.

Let's uh let's bow our heads again.

Father God, again, we come to you thanking you for this for this day.

Thank you, Father, for uh assembling us here together, and we pray, Father, that you'd be in our midst, that you would open our eyes and our hearts and give us the the instruction that you would have us carry away from here today with.

Again, we thank you and praise you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

As uh as most of us, of course, know this week uh marked the twenty fifth anniversary of the worst attack on US soul in our 250 years of existence.

On uh Tuesday, September the 11th, 2001, as we all remember Muslim terrorists hijacked four planes in the early morning hours.

Crashing one into the Pentagon Great Towers in New York and another crash into a field in Pennsylvania after the passengers overwhelmed the terrorists doing over the hijacking.

In total that day, 2,977 people died.

And then, of course, the days and the weeks that followed brought uh, as most of us know, it brought it brought pain, it brought suffering, it brought anguish, it brought hatred, but it also brought tales of heroism and sacrifice.

And it also brought a renewed interest in God and spirituality.

I don't know where you were at that day, but most everyone in here is of age to where we probably remember.

We were talking about it at work Friday, and I said I remember specifically that was a day I laid out of work.

But I had uh parts to pick up for uh something at the house, but I still remember I took my dad with me, and we were going up the road to Asheville to pick up some parts, and I just remember, you know, as we all did, wow, you know.

But then even then, you you there was the thought of, oh boy, Jesus was getting ready, he's getting ready.

But all of a sudden, the days and weeks after that, we saw that once empty church views throughout the country were all of a sudden filled up again.

And a lot of people thought, and a lot of the preachers on TV taught that maybe we were going through a new spiritual revival in this country because it's been so long since there'd been one.

But as the days turned into weeks, the weeks turned into months and then the years, the influx of people that we saw in coming into the churches throughout the nation, they dwindled back down to their normal levels.

As the fear of the events of 9-11 subsided, so did the interest in being close to God.

People took their eyes off of the Savior that they were looking for after being scared so terribly with the events that took place.

Now, we all know, and we've we've seen this in our own families, in our own circles, when we have friends or people that we know they go through hardships, and what do they do?

Well, they'll some they'll most often they'll run to God.

Maybe I can say I've done that myself in my past.

Remember whenever you go through something bad and you've always got a deal to make with God.

Father, if you get me through this, here's what I'm going to do.

If you can help me out with this problem, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that.

But after the hardships are gone, we too so often go back into the same pattern that we were in.

Scripture clearly tells us, though, that as believers, we're to be ever watchful of what's going on in the world around us at all times.

Each and every day, we're supposed to have our eyes wide open.

Because as Lou said, we all know that Jesus is coming soon because he told us.

He told us.

We have an enemy of our souls in Satan, the devil.

And he seeks only one thing, and that's to destroy mining your faith in our Savior and our God.

1 Peter 5, verse 8, we're told, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring line, seeking whom he may devour.

1 Peter 5:8

Is anyone familiar?

I'm sure you probably are at some point.

You turned on the TV and you saw one of them National Geographic type shows, right?

Where it's got some country, there's there's they're watching different animals, and God only knows why the narrator always has to sound like Mary Poppins.

But they're talking about this particular young deer-looking critter, and he's over here in Africa, and then all of a sudden the narrator says, Oh, but look, off in the wild, there's a very large lion.

And we've all seen the pictures, the deer they're all having, you know, they're doing their thing.

One's got his head up watching, the rest of them are eating, but there's always that one who's not paying attention.

There's always that one he's rolling around on his back trying to scratch or something.

And that old lion says, That's mine.

That's the one I'm getting.

In just a few minutes, what happens?

Here the lion takes off, he gets him.

He gets it.

Satan would have had you and I to be weak faithfully in our faith so that we could be that one that he gets to devour.

But we have to guard against that.

The idea of being sober and being vigilant means always staying spiritually alert.

It means guarding our hearts against temptation, and it means actively watching for Jesus Christ's return.

We read here, be sober.

Peter's not talking about leave the bottle alone.

The idea of being sober in the Bible is being clear-minded, laser focused.

When the Bible speaks about having too much wine, it's generally about drunkenness.

But when we're told to be sober, we're being told, clear your minds of everything other than Christ, and stay laser focused on him.

We're called to be spiritually awake.

Ephesians 5 and verse 14, Paul tells us, awake you who sleep.

Arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.

Again, we're told in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 6, therefore let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober.

We have to remain diligent and not allowing ourselves to become spiritually sleepy and complacent with the world around us.

Jesus also points this out when he took his disciples with him into the garden of Gethsemane to pray just moments before his arrest.

If you'll turn over to Matthew chapter 26, we're going to read through this.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 26, beginning in verse 36.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane.

And he said to the disciples, Sit here while I go and pray over there.

And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, that's James and John.

And he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.

Then he said to them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death.

Stay here and watch with me.

He went a little further and fell on his face and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping.

He said to Peter, What could you not watch with me one hour?

Watch and pray, Jesus says, lest you enter into temptation.

The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Again a second time he went away and prayed, saying, O Father, if this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it, your will be done.

And he came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy.

So he left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.

And then he came to his disciples and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting?

Behold, the hour is at hand.

And the subtle man is being betrayed into the hand of sinners.

Rise, let us be going.

See my betrayer is at hand.

Verse 38, Jesus says, Hey, watch with me.

Be with me.

Now, it's easy for us to say, well, you know, James, John, Peter, they should probably give out.

Who knows what they've done all day long, bless their hearts.

But it's also to realize and put ourselves in Jesus' position right there.

He knows what's getting ready to happen.

He knows that he's going to Calvary's cross to die for the world.

The disciples only know that, hey, they're still following after this remarkable Jesus who can do anything.

So be it if I'm a little tired.

Verse 41, Jesus tells us though, watch and pray for what?

So we can feel good about ourselves?

No.

Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation.

Temptation is a hard ditch to be in because it's hard to claw your way out of it.

And if you let yourself get further and further and further down in that ditch, the harder it is to get out of it.

And he goes on to say, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

I like how the apostle Paul came up with that same idea.

That which I wish to do, I don't do.

But that that I don't want to do is what I do.

Oh wretched man.

The devil will use everything at his disposal to lure us asleep spiritually.

And sadly, throughout all the years, he's been pretty successful at doing so.

But now, more than ever before, we have to be focused on Jesus because he could return at any moment.

At any moment, he could come back and take us and take us on.

What he told us throughout his scripture would happen just before his return.

Guess what?

It's happening.

It's happening.

That's why we have to be diligent students of the scripture.

Otherwise, we'll be like the rest of the world who has no hope.

Whenever these things happen, these bad things, and we always hear the same thing.

Where's God in all of this?

We know exactly where God is because He told us.

He told us what to look for.

He told us who to look to?

Some people ask, was 9-11 a wake-up call for this country?

I'd ask the same thing about the last the Wuhan pandemic.

Was that a wake-up call?

What about all the earthquakes that we hear running rapid?

What about so many people filled with hate?

I think we've been given wake-up calls since the day Jesus ascended back to the Father.

And I think that we're seeing them intensify just as he told us they would just before his return.

Romans 13, verse 11, and do this knowing the time, knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep.

Romans 13:11

For now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.

Jesus tells us that no one knows the exact hour that he will return.

But he gave us plenty of things to watch for.

And they're right there in his word.

Mark 13 in verse 33, we read, Take heed, watch and pray, for you do not know when the time is.

Speaking of Jesus' return.

He goes on to warn us in verse 36, we are to watch because lest coming suddenly he finds you sleeping.

So what are we watching for?

What exactly are we watching for?

My attempt to come up with this, I broke it down into three different things, which hopefully encompasses everything that you and I are dealing with in our day-in-day out lives.

The first thing is that we're watching for is spiritual complacency.

Spiritual complacency.

Think about how the world around us has become desensitized to sin.

Some of you, well most of us, I should say, are young enough to remember back when television programs were, uh, how would you say it?

Worth watching, decent, I guess.

Now, and I I'm thankful that I don't watch any television because there's every type of honory, just gross mess on there, and it don't matter what show it is.

Used to be, you know, Papa, he'd holler at Mama about watching them nasty old stories.

The guy likes B-rated compar or PG rated compared to the mess that's on TV these days.

I never could say anything because I got to sit down, she'd make me two big old fat biscuits and heat up some applesauce.

But the world around us is desensitized.

What we used to know as adultery, we now call, well, we now just refer to it as an extramarital affair.

You know, there was a time in this country that if that happened, if you were found guilty of adultery, you could go to jail.

What about lying?

We hear the word lying, but instead of that sounds a little harsh.

So now we call it misspeaking.

There was also a time that you could be fined in certain parts of this country if you were found guilty of lying.

Thank goodness that most of those laws have been done away with because there wouldn't be narrow soul in Washington, D.C.

today.

If that was the case.

And what about pride?

The sin of pride.

Oh, now we just call that self-confidence.

The devil is a master at twisting the truth and redefining right and wrong.

Isaiah 5 in verse 20, we read, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light, and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.

The devil wants to lull us to sleep.

He wants us to be of the same mind that the world is.

That that's really not all that bad.

Yeah, yeah, you know, back in the Bible days, though the times were different.

We don't need to chop people's hands off because they steal these days.

That's just barbaric.

We don't need to treat people the way that they were treated back in biblical times.

Think about modern-day churches and how far, how far just in the last 30 years, even some of our denominations have become so desensitized to see it.

Come on in, we're just like you is the message of so many denominations.

Come on in, we're just like you.

No, we're not.

We're called a city on a hill, a bright, shining light.

But so many of our churches, their lights are dim.

Jesus addressed the complacency in church in Revelation 3, verse 15.

Revelation 3:15

When he said, I know your works, church, speaking to the church of Laodicea, I know your works.

That you're neither hot or cold.

You're I can go for it, I don't really need it.

Whatever.

Let's go with flow.

Jesus says, I could wish that you were one or the other, hot or cold.

But because you're not, I just don't spit you out.

Spiritual complacency equals spiritual stagnation.

We all know what happens in stagnation.

Comes a nice rain.

We got a nice big puddle out there in the driveway.

And oh, it's nice and full.

But after a day, it gets a little film on top of.

A few more days, there might be a bunch of little tadpoles swimming around in.

But then and it looks like, oh, there's life in that in that pool.

But in just a few more days, if it don't rain again, what happens?

What was there dries up.

What appeared to be life in it's dead.

Spiritual complacency leads to spiritual stagnation.

Second thing we're to watch out for, for lack of a better term, I put worldly, worldly over stimulation.

Everything wants our attention.

Think about that.

Everything, regardless where you work Monday through Friday, whatever, whether you don't work at all, whether you it don't matter, something wants your attention.

And the devil knows that.

And he likes to make that something look a little more flashy as often as he can.

Because he knows that when we get so caught up in daily distractions.

Anybody look at fake book this morning already?

When we get caught up in daily distractions, or whatever, even when we get caught up in the good routine things that we do in our lives, anyone that's had kids knows that they've every single stinking kind of practice in the world that a kid is gonna have to go to at one point in time.

Little Johnny's gotta go to football practice.

Little Mary Ann's got to go to piano.

Bubba, you know, he's gotta be down there to tune on his tuba.

And I'm not saying that we shouldn't let our little Bubas and juniors do whatever.

they have the time and the ability to do.

But I'm just saying that the devil knows whenever we get caught up in these things that we'll neglect our walk with God.

We've all been there, each and every one of us.

There's been a time when life was so full of us having to do that we neglected doing the very thing that we needed to do.

Remember Martha?

Poor old Martha, you know, she got so upset with Mary.

That time Jesus come a calling, she was just all tore up.

You remember she wanted Jesus to tell Mary to get up off her hind end and help her.

I can't help but think of I had a Granny Maggie and I ain't myrtle.

And anytime I read that story about Martha and Mary, I cannot help but think about Granny Maggie and Ain't Myrtle.

Both of them 80 years old.

Maggie wore them that's mama's mama wore them hearing aids that looked like you know satellite dishes.

And she couldn't hear with them turned all the way up.

And the thing was on the hill there you had Aunt Joyce who was mama's sister then you had Granny and then you had Papa and I always stayed with Papa but in the evenings we'd come in we wouldn't have nothing going on you could hear Granny Maggie's hearinades plumb up on the hill.

She is a fan of watching wrestling and you could hear that too but Aunt Myrtle you know they just they just bickered all the time but if you let one of them get out of sight of the other and oh no the world's come to an end.

But I know y'all don't care but every time I think of Martha Mary I can't help thinking Luke 10 verse 41 to 42 Jesus says Martha Martha you were worried and troubled about many things does that sound familiar to anybody but one thing is needed Jesus says and Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her Mary chose to focus on Christ Martha's focus was blurred with busyness.

Luke 10:41–42

Now certainly Jesus doesn't condemn work by no means but he warns us against letting our work or our daily activities have priority over our time that we spend with God.

Now I'm gonna go out on a limb here I don't know for sure I got a pretty good inkling but I don't know for sure if Jesus would condemn social media because obviously they didn't have it back then you know but if if Jesus were here today I don't know for sure if he'd condemn social media but I do know that he can't be too pleased with us if we're engaged with it well then we are with it anywhere you go what do you say now I don't know further they might be reading scripture my daddy blessed his heart when them things first come out he said Daddy you gonna get one I don't need one out I don't need no artificial brain we're encouraged not to walk the same way that the world walks Jesus tells us of the two paths there's a wide path that leads to destruction and most everybody on it I could say is probably doing this tell me how to get there but then there's an arrow path and most people on it I'd say you're doing this I know how to get there because you told me Ephesians 5 and verse 15 and 17 we read see then that you walk circumspectly that means carefully paying attention see then that you walk circumspectly not as fools but as wives redeeming the time because the days are evil a lot of people will try to sugarcoat everything that goes on in the world today.

No it ain't that bad it ain't that bad yeah it is it's not just bad it's evil the third thing that we should watch out for is overconfidence overconfidence believing that we're spiritually secure but at the same time we're ignoring those blind spots in our obedience you know we're laser focused on going down that path but we can't see over here we're not paying attention to that thing that the Holy Spirit's been putting on our heart weighing heavy on us you need to deal with this because we don't want to look aware those those things that that we do when nobody else is watching but the Holy Spirit seeing it plain as day and he's saying you need to get a hold of this you need to deal with this you need to walk in righteousness we're reminded many times in scripture to examine ourselves regularly to ensure that we are walking in God's will David asked God in Psalm 139 in verse 23 and 24 he says search me O God and know my heart try me and know my anxieties and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting it takes a lot of courage to ask God to shake you out because he will it takes a lot of courage but it also takes a lot of faith in him Paul gives us an additional warning 1 Corinthians 10 verse 12 he tells us therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall watchfulness it's not living in constant fear rather it's faithfully faithfully being constantly alert constantly alert keeping our spiritual spiritual armor on at all times we know about our spiritual armor maybe it's time to revisit it keeping it on at all times and for each and every day that goes by we're to be looking with anticipation for our Lord and Savior to appear on that cloud and take us home let's pray Father God we do thank you so very much thank you for your word thank you for the instruction you have given us in life and thank you for the forewarning of the things that we see going on around us but Father we pray that you would make us a people of light make us a just a firm foundation and a hope for those who have no hope help us Father to walk in righteousness help us to constantly look inside our own tent and make sure it's cleaned out help us Father just to each and every day that passes by we see people who are lost we see people who if things don't change if if if they don't accept you then they're not going to be with us in eternity help us to have that sense of urgency father everywhere we go help us to be what you called us to be proclaiming the gospel and we just pray Father that you'd ever let us be watchful and we pray Lord Jesus come quickly.

1 Corinthians 10:12

We thank you and praise you and we love you.

In Jesus' holy name we pray Father Amen Sixty two weekend