Well, hey, it’s good to be with you. Glad you’re here. We’re going to be in Matthew 24.
Again, I think this is maybe the third week we’ve been in Matthew 24.
So it’s a big chapter and it’s got a lot to say to us about the end times.
So I want us to press on and consider this last bit in this chapter. This chapter, I’m going to read 32 to 51.
It’s a little lengthy, but it’s just a unit of thought. And that’s what I want us to see.
Jesus says, From the fig tree learns a lesson. As soon as its branches become tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that He is near at the very gates. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying, giving in marriage, until the day, when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away. So will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field, one will be taken, one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake. And would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, my master is delayed, and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and in an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Jessica and I were traveling yesterday, yesterday, we were out in rural Kentucky, and there was a little church that had a sign, Jesus is coming soon, morning, evening, or noon. Jesus is coming soon, morning, evening, or noon. And that sums it up. That sums it up, friends. We don’t know when Jesus is coming, but Jesus has said in many different ways the same thing. I’m coming soon. My coming is imminent. Imminent. It’s about to happen. It’s about to happen. Are you ready? That is what Jesus is repeating and repeating, and we’ll see next week as we enter chapter 25, He’s repeating it some more and some more and some more. The coming of Christ is imminent. It’s about to happen. Are you ready?
And Jesus starts with a really simple illustration. He starts with a fig tree to help us really wrap our minds around these great, awesome truths, as best as we can. We’re in springtime, aren’t we, now? And in springtime, your allergies get really messed up, and pollen’s flying around, and your grass starts to grow. You have to cut your grass. You see plants budding. Some of them you do want to see. Some of them you don’t want to see, and you know you’re going to have to get out there and tend your garden. But what is springtime? It’s a reminder, hey, summer is coming, and there’s nothing that you can do to stop it. It’s coming. It’s not going to delay. It’s going to be upon you. Are you ready for it? And Jesus says, so it is with all these signs. Now, what were all these signs? Well, remember everything that we learned in 24. All the different signs of the tribulation. All those different ways that the church is going to be persecuted. Jesus said, when you see all these different signs of suffering and persecution that the church is going to undergo,
know that my coming, He says, it’s at the door. It’s out the very gate.
Again,
it’s good to learn and relearn this stuff because it takes a while for it to stick, I think, because our minds go all over the place. When Jesus is describing the destruction, the persecution, all of this in 24, He’s chiefly talking about what already happened in AD 70 when the Roman general Titus moved in with his army and didn’t defeat, but wiped out, annihilated Jerusalem, the temple. He took it out completely. So before, from when Jesus ascended in around AD 40 until AD 70, did the first century church experience all of those signs? All the ways that the church is going to be persecuted that we looked at through so many different forms of that, of famine, persecution, all that stuff. Yes.
But remember, we also said it’s true that every church age since the first century has experienced the very same things. And it’s leading up to the greatest cosmic struggle at the end of the world right before Christ comes back and evil and good are completely polarized against one another. You just see it re-happen and re-happen until it happens for the last and greatest time. And so I think we could scratch our heads and say, well, how is it true Jesus is at the very gates, Jesus is at the door for the first century church if He’s delayed and here we are in the 21st century church and yet He hasn’t shown up yet? How is it so that Jesus is at the gate? He’s at the door.
The Apostle Peter would remind us this, with God, a thousand years is as a day and a day is as a thousand years. He doesn’t count the way that you and I count. God has quite a bit more patience that you and I have. Secondly, the prophet Isaiah would remind us, the word of the Lord is sure and it stands forever. If God said He’s coming soon, friends, it means that He is coming soon. So thinking that Jesus is delayed and, oh, it’s been 2,000 years, that’s the very reaction response He’s speaking against His disciples. Don’t think that way. Because that’s going to keep you from being what you should be, which is what? Prepared and ready for my imminent return.
So then, if the return of Christ is imminent, and it is, I think the first thing that Jesus presses us to consider is this, is this. Do we have misplaced pleasure in life? Do we have misplaced pleasure in life?
Verse 36, He says, Concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son of Man, only the Father. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood, they’re eating, they’re drinking, they’re marrying, giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark. And they were unaware until the flood came and swept them away. So will be the coming of the Son of Man.
So Jesus says this, you will be playing a guessing game where everyone’s a loser if you try to figure out when I come back. He says the angels of heaven don’t know. Jesus says, I don’t even know. And don’t let that make you go, well, hold on, Jesus is God. Yes, He’s God. But remember, in His time, in His ministry, He willingly suspended
His omniscience, His omnipresence as God. So speaking as a man before He’s ascended to the Father, He’s saying, I don’t even know when I’m coming back. So He says it’s a royal waste of your time and energy. Don’t think you can research it. Don’t think you can get out a calculator and try to count up the days. You can’t know. And some people say, well, you know, Jesus said we can’t know the day and the hour, but we can know the year and the month. Which is foolish.
One commentator says that’s just divorced from the context. Jesus is simply saying, you don’t know the time. Day and hour is just a phrase, just a mean in general, the time.
If even you want to invest so much time in figuring out what you cannot figure out, you’re wasting your time and not doing the very thing you should be doing. Learning how to live your life. Learning how to be prepared.
Miss spending your life.
Jesus says when I come back, it’s going to be like the days of Noah. And what are the days of Noah? If we went back to Genesis 6, it says that the whole world is corrupt. The world was so corrupt. The world was so violent to a pitch and fever. God could not even stand it anymore. And He said, Noah, I’m going to wipe the whole thing out.
Immorality, violence, injustice. Justice. Humanity. Humanity sought out humanity’s pleasure. Humanity sought out their own good to the hurt of one another. To the hurt of God’s law. Jesus says they’re eating. They’re drinking. They’re giving in marriage. They’re being married. It was just a good time. They were living life with the pleasure of the moment. That was the pinnacle. That was the epitome of life. And God says, this is wrong. This is at a pitch and a fever. Where it must be undone.
Where was Noah when they were having such good fun? He was building a boat. I couldn’t imagine building a rowboat to fit my family in. Much less a giant, you know, archaic old school cruise liner that could fit all of my family in every category of animal. That was sacrifice. That was suffering. That was not. Noah’s saying, no, I will not be a part of this because God is calling me to Himself. He’s calling me to something better. The Hebrew writer says, Noah condemned the world by his righteousness, by his faith, by his obedience.
But it makes me ask the question, does that mean for me here now, eating and drinking is wrong? Does it mean that when we marry or we give in marriage, that it’s wrong? That every kind of cultural engagement, like weddings, somehow that’s wrong and I need to be careful because everything is going to lead me away from Christ and from His kingdom. No, it doesn’t. And here’s why. Remember before man ruined everything, what did God say? God said, I’ve created all things good. And in fact, He said to man, you have dominion over it. In other words, you go and you subdue it and you enjoy it. So the problem is not the physical world God created, which was good. The problem is sinful man who came along and he missed it. He misuses, he abuses it. He tries to get a pleasure out of life itself, out of the stuff God made above and beyond the pleasure God ever intended for you and I to have from one another and from stuff and from the world. We don’t supremely seek God in everything and give Him the glory.
So here’s what that means for you and I. It means for you and I as Christians, all that you can enjoy in life, and there are a lot of things to see and enjoy, it is but a shadow of what things will soon be. When Christ returns and makes a new heaven and a new earth.
The best of what you can see and taste and experience, it is but a smallest fraction if it can even be compared to what life will be in eternity with God.
So, should you see God in the mountains and in the forest? Yes, you should. Should you taste God in the goodness of food? Yes. Should you enjoy the blessing of marriage? Yes, but we as Christians must know it will not last. Peter says, the whole created order, the whole create all of it, he says it’s being stored up for fire. It’s being stored up for fire.
And it’s going to be replaced with what’s permanent, replaced with what’s perfect, what’s eternal. And I think for you and I as Christians, that should be a frustrating experience. It should be a frustrating experience when you go somewhere beautiful and you say something like, I could live here forever. You go somewhere like that, like an expensive vacation. Like, I wish I could just stay here forever. Because there’s some part of you that sees, even though we’re in a broken, sin-stained world, there’s a part of you as a Christian, you see, wow, the goodness and the beauty of it. But, ah, as good and as beautiful as it is, it’s not going to stand. Something even better is going to come. So, let that frustration constantly remind you, yes, I’m enjoying this. Yes, I see the goodness in it. But I’m not actually living for the world that is. I’m living for the world that is. I’m living for the world that is to come. It serves as a warning.
This is, I really think, what Jesus is warning us of. He’s warning us of having too great a delight
in what is temporal and we miss out on what is forever, what lasts.
It says that they were eating, they were drinking, they were giving in marriage, and then the flood came. And they were what? Unaware. And then it was too late. Then it was too late.
Charles Spurgeon says, that which is lawful and right under other circumstances becomes a positive evil when it takes the place of preparation for the coming of the Son of Man. Woe unto those whose eating and drinking do not include the bread and water of life and who marry and are given marriage, but not to the heavenly bridegroom.
Jesus asks us from this passage this morning, what does your heart really desire? What do you really take pleasure in? It may be keeping you in such a trance the great day catches you by surprise when it’s too late. It may be you find your pleasures are your God so that God Himself becomes to you no pleasure but a terrible judge.
So what’s my right response then to the Gospel? How do I live in light of that? Two things I think, yes, I see the beauty in it. Yes, I’m enjoying it because through it I see the Lord. But ultimately the Gospel that God’s coming back to make a new heaven and new earth, I think it should really press us as Christians to do two things. One, self-denial. Two, evangelism. Paul says in 1 Corinthians, I want those who are married to live as if they’re not. Those who do business as if they don’t. And what does Paul mean? How can I be married and live as though I’m not married? How can I do business and live as though I’m not a businessman? What Paul means is, is this, we need to learn, as one commentator says, we need to learn how to live with loose ties to the earth. We need to just live loose with it. Yes, it’s there. Yes, it’s important. But it’s not my life. It doesn’t consume me. It’s not the thing for which I live. So self-denial, you know, if you think about maybe a monk, you know, like some, you know, toga wrap on or something, and he’s sitting in a tree, and they’re truly the thing, and you can find these kinds of people, and they’re just, they’re just inflicting pain on themselves. They’re inflicting pain on themselves. Christian self-denial is not about having without for the sake of not having. It’s about waiting for a better thing. It’s about being prepared for a better thing. The gospel teaches me, the greatest treasure and pleasure is knowing God in a new heaven and new earth. And so whatever suffering I experience, the reward’s going to be a million fold come that day.
In that day, I’m going to see what a poor thing it was for all the small little things, we live for, and we try to get pleasure from. Self-denial. Secondly, evangelism. When Luke is recapping in the beginning of Acts, their conversations with Jesus for his sins, they say, when are you coming back? And he says, that’s not your business. Again, he says it to them. He says, what your business is, is to go in the power of the Spirit and be a witness for me. In other words, if you are so sure, and this is a question only you can answer for yourself, if you are so sure Jesus is so great,
denying life, now,
denying all of it, really believing that Jesus is coming back, and he’s going to make all things new, if you really believe that, you wouldn’t keep it to yourself. You would want other people to have a greater treasure. You would want others to have a greater pleasure in God, and you wouldn’t hold it inside. So the gospel says to me, yes, everything’s beautiful. I love it, because I can see God in it, but I know a better thing’s coming, and I need to be living for the pleasures, not the ones that are, lest I miss out on those. And oh, by the way, hey, whole world, don’t miss out on this too.
Jessica and I took a quick trip up to Kentucky this weekend, and we were at Cumberland Falls, beautiful place. There’s a waterfall there, it’s called Moonbow Falls, and there’s this big, huge waterfall, and it falls, and there’s always this rainbow at the bottom of it. And it’s just, it’s beautiful, and I took pictures of this, and you can just stare at this, it’s so amazing, and I’m standing there, and I’m just thinking, who sees a beautiful waterfall, and they go home saying, wow, beautiful waterfall, and who goes home saying, wow, what a wonderful God. Look how wonderful and powerful He is. And I think all the difference is right there, is if you see a thing, and you have a thing, and that’s the end of it for you, or through it, you’re reminded of the goodness of God, and the pleasures of knowing God, and life with Him is enough. What do you see in all of life? And what is really your pleasure?
Wisdom, wisdom weighs pleasure. It weighs your bank account. Godly wisdom weighs the way that you spend your time. It weighs people. It weighs your possessions. It weighs everything. And it constantly asks us, in what way am I glorifying God? In what way is said person, said life, said stuff, getting in the way of me being prepared for the greater pleasure to come, and helping others be prepared for that day? Am I willing to self-deny? And that’s hard. It’s very hard. It’s hard because it’s hard, but it’s hard because we live in a society that says, no, you should be happy. Last week we said we live in a society that says you should have what you want when you want it, right? Prime shipping. But we live in a time that says you should be happy. You should just be happy. You shouldn’t deny yourself. You should just live to be satisfied and have pleasure. Right? But again, the world is not going to help you. The world is going to say, be satisfied here. And we have to keep our eyes on Jesus. Keep our eyes on Jesus. And lastly, we have to be evangelists. We have to be evangelists. We have to be looking for people in our life. We have to be looking as a church, where, oh Lord, where would your spirit lead us to preach about the greater pleasures of God? That’s why I was so excited for us to do what we did at Madison Elementary School. That’s why I’m so excited that we’re having our first mission, because these are healthy windows. They’re healthy fruit of a people of a church that have been grabbed by the gospel. I don’t want to just sit here and live my own little world. I’ve got to go out. I’ve got to go out. I’ve got to go out. I’ve got to tell other people about this. God wants more people to have more pleasure in Him. He doesn’t want me to keep it to myself. He wants it to spread.
The end is imminent. Do you have misplaced pleasure? Secondly, do you have misplaced priorities? Do you have misplaced priorities?
In verse 41 there, Jesus just gives more examples of the days of Noah. One will be taken. One left. One gone. One kept. One to judgment. One to salvation is what He means. But He goes on and He switches His parable. He says, Who then is the wise servant?
Whom his master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time. Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, my master is delayed and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and in an hour he does not. No. When Jesus uses the word servant here, here’s what’s important to know. The word servant is more accurately slave or even bond servant. It’s a Greek word, doulos. And that word is more than maybe just a household servant. And the reason why it’s noteworthy is this. We cannot begin to think Jesus is talking about an employee-employee relationship. That’s not what Jesus’ original hearers are grabbing when Jesus says that. He says this. In their Roman Greco world, they’re hearing bond servant. They’re hearing slave. Okay? Because if you’re an employee, you can say, I would like to seek employment elsewhere.
If you’re an employee, you may resign. But a bond servant, a slave, doesn’t have that freedom. They’re subject to their master in all things for all things. Such a servant would be subservient to the will, to the life, the whims of their master. In other words, the master’s life and priorities would be the life and priorities of the master. That’s what it would be.
So Jesus says, here’s the kind of bond servant who’s blessed. It’s the kind that’s faithful and wise. It’s the kind that has… That word faithful means an affectionate allegiance to the master. It’s one that’s steadfast and wise, meaning more. More so, judicious.
Or one who’s a good judge to the matters pertaining to his responsibilities. You and I can have responsibilities, right? It doesn’t mean we’re going to prioritize them.
You can have all kinds of responsibilities that you shirk. You can have all kinds of responsibilities that you kind of let go by the wayside because you don’t feel like dealing with them. And, you know, that’s your own affairs. You suffer that. If it’s for an employer, you may find that you lose your job. If you’re a slave, you may find you lose your life.
Jesus says, blessed is the faithful. Blessed is the wise servant. This servant in Jesus’ parable seems to have the responsibility of taking care of other servants. And he does that well. And for it, he’s rewarded. He’s commended. He’s given more responsibility.
But Jesus says, then there’s the wicked servant. And this wicked servant is really found not to be one at all because when his master’s not present, he shows his true colors. He shows his true priorities. And his true priorities, when he’s on his own, you know, you’ve heard it say your character is who you are, your integrity, who you are when no one’s around. His true colors, his true priorities don’t have anything to do with the welfare of his master. In fact, we could say that this servant was opposed to his master because everything that he did was to the harm and hurt of his master. And his master, his master’s household. It was a total neglect of the people under his care.
Completely irresponsible. Completely careless of what he should have prioritized.
Friends, what is this section of Jesus’ message to us on the end time if not a direct link to Christian discipleship and the end of the world? It’s not we’re living our Christian life and going to church and there’s this stuff and there’s like the end of the world and revelation and that’s crazy. The two are linked. You will be prepared and ready when Jesus breaks through the clouds as it relates to how you’re being faithful, how you are prioritizing the issue of Christian discipleship right now in your day-to-day, sometimes seemingly boring life.
That’s the stuff that Jesus is going to come back for and judge you on.
When Jesus comes back, how will he find us devoted?
How will he find our plans? How will he find our priorities? Can we join Paul and say, man, I’ve counted everything as a loss because knowing Jesus is more. Jesus is my priority. Friends, when we view the greatness of the cross, the sacrifice of the Father, the condemnation to hell we won’t get, the glory of heaven forever, doesn’t Jesus deserve a radical prioritization of him, of the local church?
Of discipleship?
Masters of this age whom we give our allegiance to will seem so small and powerless in the ages to come. Be it your career,
be it a cultural affiliation you want, a lifestyle you want, certain friends you have. Even Jesus says your own blood family, you should so love me that your love for your blood family seems like hate in comparison. I didn’t say that. Jesus said that. That’s a radical thing to say, isn’t it? That’s an entirely radical thing to say about how much Jesus expects you to prioritize the responsibilities he has given you. Are you faithful to them? Are you faithful to them? Because you know what the perfect complement to faithfulness is?
Wisdom. It’s not two different things. You should be faithful and wise. What is it to be faithful if you have no idea how to execute faithfulness?
You need godly wisdom to have a godly kind of faithfulness. So what does James say? God has all wisdom and if you ask God, God will abundantly give you the wisdom you need so as to execute what? Faithfulness to God in all things. So you see how the master of the house has given you his spirit and his word? Everything that you need to be faithful and prioritizing it. Because it’s not true that life is easy. Not easy. It’s not true life is simple. Life is messy. Life is complex. Life has a way of running us if we are not intent on running it and stewarding it for Jesus.
So I do want to say to the workaholics here this morning, your sense of fulfillment you get from busying yourself to death, it’s going to leave you empty and it’s going to have no impact on the eternal kingdom. And money will run through your fingers like sand. I want to say to us fathers and mothers, do we prioritize discipleship in the home? That’s the most important discipleship context. Most important. Do you count the very few days you have with your children? And that hits me all the time. Darcy, I mean, she’s getting so old so quick. I’m like, oh my gosh, how did we get here? She was a baby. She’s going to be gone soon. Some of you with children who have graduated, do you know how few days you have to what? Impress Christ on your children.
I want to say to our children who are in here, do you take serious the Bible’s commands to revere mom and dad, to respect them, to honor them? Again, not do two different worlds. There’s the big stuff at the end of the world and there’s my little… No, it’s the same thing. If you want to be greeted, greeted by a king who loves you, not a judge who will destroy you, take serious God’s commands to be growing up into godliness now. Be honoring and revering the ones who God has put in your life so as to lead you in the way you should go.
I think there’s a special message here to church leaders, to myself.
Paul says, feed the flock. Don’t domineer them in other ways. And the Hebrew writer says, I’m going to have a special judgment on me if I mislead you, which is terrifying.
But what does it mean? It means this. It’s a grace to be called into service of Jesus. It’s a grace to have your whole life reoriented around the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Why would you misprioritize that? Wake up to the shortness of life. Wake up to the glory of what it means to live for the Lord, to hear Him say to you, well done, you were faithful. You were faithful. You were faithful.
Lewis Sperry Schaefer, he was a theologian, preacher, talking about a friend who was devoting his time to insignificant matters. He said, he reminds me of a bulldog chasing a train. What’s he going to do if he catches it?
And that’s true. How often do we spend time on small things?
Amazon, YouTube. I’m just in there. I’m just looking at stuff I don’t need. Stuff that’s not going to make me happy. I’m just, I’m watching things. I’m just burning my day away when, hey, I probably should be in the Word. I should be maybe discipling. I should be doing something valuable for the kingdom to much bigger things. I read an article this week about a member of parliament in Finland who in 2004 wrote a book on the Bible and sexuality.
And so we’re in 2021 now and she’s being convicted. She’s been convicted of hate crimes and may face up to six years in prison. She says, I will not back down from my views. I’m not going to be intimidated into hiding my faith.
That’s prioritizing right there.
What would get in the way of your fidelity to God?
Do you desire to be, will you be faithful to all God calls you? The end is imminent. The end is imminent.
To finish this, Jesus says, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and in an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with hypocrites. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
So in the end, the servant is found false. His true self is exposed and he’s ejected from a place he doesn’t actually want to be in the first place. It means he’s cut in two. When it says, cut in pieces, in other words, the man will be fully exposed and known to God and he’ll be found wanting. Keep that in mind. I think we live our lives sometimes when people do like, God’s far away and I can kind of live my life my way and maybe I’ll, you know, do this or that to make God happy. Friends, it’s not that way. God’s eye sees all of you and on the day of Christ, you’ll be cut in pieces. You’ll be exposed and you’ll be judged every fiber of your being. And that’s what’s happening to this servant. And God says, I see you say outwardly that you’re mine. I see you play the role of a Christian, but when I’ve cut you in pieces, I’ve found that you’re wanting. You don’t really have a love to me. You don’t really have faithfulness. You don’t really have zeal to me. So He says, I’m going to take you and I’m going to put you with all the false ones in a place where there’s sorrow, where there’s despair, where there’s weeping, there’s gnashing of teeth, there’s regret, there’s pain, there’s eternal separation from the pleasures of God. Forever more.
Jesus is coming soon as the Master of the universe, the Master of every human soul. How will He find yours? How will He find yours? Will He find you with misplaced pleasures, misplaced priorities? Or will He find you ready, sacrificial, obedient, waiting? And I think when you hear that, at least I do, I go, man, I’m nervous because I think I have had misplaced pleasures sometimes. I think I’ve had misplaced priorities before. So I don’t know if Jesus comes back. Is He going to cut me in pieces and throw me out the door? It doesn’t say, will Jesus find me perfect? It says, will Jesus find me ready? So there’s a world’s difference between being perfect, which only Christ is, right? And what’s our hope as the church if it’s not that Jesus, He never had misplaced pleasures. Jesus never had misplaced priorities. Jesus always lived for the kingdom of heaven. Jesus always lived with the Father as Jesus was perfect in His life, death, and resurrection. That’s my hope. That’s my salvation are the perfections of Christ. To be ready then is not to be perfect. It’s to be living in grace. It’s to be repentant. I’m saying, Lord, no, I’m not where You are, but Lord, by Your grace, I’m leaning in and I’m pushing in and I’m still believing. And Lord, when I have misplaced pleasures, I’m repenting of that. Thank You that Your Spirit convicts me of that. And when I get off track and I misprioritize, thank You that Your Spirit says, hey, that’s not the stuff that matters. That’s, it’s being ready. It’s fighting through. It’s pushing through. It’s living and waiting for that day to come, friends. Christ doesn’t call you to perfection. He calls you to be ready.
Who can be ready but You? He has given you all the tools and the Spirit and the Word, the grace, and we talk about this all the time, the grace of being inside the walls of the church and having real community and fellowship. He’s given us all the graces we need to be ready. Will you be ready? Ready. Let’s pray together.
Father, we thank You
for what we could never have, what we could never own, and that is,
Lord, all the blessings in the heavenly places.
God, to say that we’re sealed by Your Holy Spirit, to say that we’re being captained and we’re being prepared for a glory that is beyond what we could hold in our hands.
Lord, we just pray that You would
retune, refocus our hearts, refocus our minds on what it means to have right priorities, to have right pleasures, Lord, to live loosely with this world so that we’re not found wanting, Father, when Your Son comes, but it’s a day that we can rejoice because real life, life for which we hope and life for which we believe, life for which we pray, Lord, it comes to pass, so, Lord, help us count our days. Thank You in all things, Father, that Your Son, Jesus, saves us, that it’s because of who He is and what He has done that we can have rest and peace in all things. We just pray that in Christ’s name. Amen.