Good Morning beloved,
We welcome you to worship today in the name of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you know, whether it's your first time or you are a faithful member of our family in Christ, I am grateful that you're here.
I remember growing up as a young boy in the church, like it was yesterday, I was small enough to swing my legs back and forth under the wooden pew without my feet touching the scuffed wooden floor, sitting upfront with my family; next to my grandparents and mother and father, with aunt and cousins sitting not far away who often poked and teased me relentlessly, until my grandmother would shoot us a "look" with open Bible in one hand and softly uttered with pierced lips a sharp "You'd better stop that right now!" that cut through the air like a fresh switch. I vividly recall the sunlight shinning through the stained-glass window of the Good Shepherd, and during the sermon hearing the preacher with sweat beading on his brow calling the congregation to spiritual preparedness, "Keep their lamps trimmed and filled with oil, burning brightly, in anticipation of the Master's return." The imagery of the lamps and oil draws from Jesus' Parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25:1–13. The lamp represents the outward profession of faith, the oil represents spiritual readiness, often interpreted as the Holy Spirit, which produces the necessary inner transformation for a life conformed to the image of Christ. After the sermon, the choir and the congregation would joyfully lift their voices in singing praise, and someone would cry out in a powerful declaration of hope to conclude the service, "Maranatha!," to affirm our faith in Christ's promised return.
Back in the day, the sermons weren't polished, but they sure had a way of stirring the soul, didn't they? Unfortunately, today there are many well-intending preachers, convinced that since marriages, families and relationships have all changed, they have tampered with the message potentially compromising its core truths, thinking that the Gospel as it written, is out of dated, and no longer relevant for the times in which we live and is in desperate need of reinterpretation. I believe when the local church prioritizes contemporary language and reinterpretation over doctrinal integrity, and teaching, correcting, and discipling believers, the results are disastrous. All you end up producing is a bunch of counterfeit Christians who hold beliefs that clearly contradict core Christian doctrines. My concern is further amplified by the observation that many preachers are promoting a "gospel" centered on individual experience which I am convinced has made the church is virtually indistinguishable from the culture.
It seems to me that far too many preachers have traded walking in the power of the Holy Spirit letting Christ build His church for strutting around full of pride, trying to build a personal empire in human strength that looks more like a "house of cards" than a House of God. Jesus had no place to call His and He rode on a donkey and they crucified Him. Today’s preachers drive expensive cars and live in houses worth thousands of dollars and even several million and they are praised. And the gospel message hasn’t changed? Who you kidding..
It deeply grieves my heart that there are a lot of people, who are going around sinning, that think they’re Christians, but if they really studied their Bibles, examined what God really says, about sin not , they’d come to a very interesting revelation. Examine yourself according to what Scripture says about becoming a Christian. There's nothing that says "Just pray this little prayer and join the church, tithe, volunteer and your in! the family of God" It's not there! The Bible says Repent and turn away from your sin, and believe, meaning everything the Bible says about Christ. He died to free us from sin, no condone it. Just stick with the message of salvation that Jesus Himself taught: "Repent and believe the Gospel!" — ALL of it. May God grant us the courage to stand firm, unashamed of the Gospel, speaking the Truth in love and never sugar coat it, for it alone is "the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes."
Let's pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, as always we are so grateful for your Word. We thank you for the ones who are visiting with us today because someone loved them enough to tell them about our ministry. Lord, would You speak to their hearts very clearly in terms of their own relationship to you, whatever that might be. Your Word is so very clear, we pray that You would conform our heats to be obedient enough to carry it out, to live pure lives in the energy of the Holy Spirit, help us to deal with those things that are defiling Your church, Your people, for which you died. Make us holy as You are holy. We ask and pray these things in Christ’s name.
Amen.
Today's Message: Are You Ready For The Master's Return?
Our world has gotten to the place where we've normalized everything the Bible calls sin, everything the Word of God condemns, tragically, that perverted mentality has made it's way into the church. Sin is not only being welcomed, it's being tolerated in the church, it's being celebrated from the pulpits, so much so that there are some churches that can no longer call themselves a House of God, by the biblical definition, they become the House of Hell, because spirit of compromise has crept into the church and rearranged the Word of God and call it "progress." Biblical salvation is not a self-improvement project, it's a complete transformation. A new birth! A new creation, old things have passed away. Don't be deceived into thinking you can keep your sin and just add Jesus and the two will co-exist, living happily ever after. Sin and the Holy Spirit are incompatible, one of them must go! Sexual immorality, once universally understood as sin, is now being championed under the banner of freedom and identity. This is the very inversion of values that Isaiah warned about in Isaiah 5:20, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!"
Pride, which is the root sin that caused Lucifer’s fall, is now being applauded, rebranded as "self-love" and "authenticity." Silence in the face of sin is not compassion—it makes us complicit in the destruction of the very souls we claim to love. Love people enough to tell them the truth. Speaking the Truth in love is not optional for the Christian, it's commanded. Ephesians 4:15, "But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is Christ." We have to be transformed to become a new creation, because there isn’t anything about our former self worth keeping. The world may normalize sin, but the people of God are commanded to be "Salt and Light" therefore, must never do so! Love that remains silent when eternity is at stake is not love, its complicity. Complicity to sin makes us no different from the watchman who sees the sword coming and refuses to blow the trumpet. Listen as I read Ezekiel 33:6-8, where God’s verdict on that watchman is chilling: "But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman’s hand.’"
The reason we refuse to call sin "sin," is because we have been conformed to this world, instead of transformed by the renewing of our minds. Let's be honest, our old nature hates rebuke but it sure loves flattery. A Christian, that has been made a new creation, actually desires both the comfort of the Gospel and the two-edged sword of God’s Word to correct our minds and preform spiritual surgery on our hearts. We're called to be Salt and Light because while salt initially stings when it touches a wound, it also preserves it, to slow down the process of rotting. Light exposes the things that have been hidden in darkness. When we withhold the Truth because someone might be offended, we cease to be what Christ saved us to be. The world will always resist "conviction" calling it judgment, let them. We answer to God, not men. Real love is willing to roll up its sleeves, getting its hands dirty in the middle of someone's "mess," no matter the cost. Even at the risk of being called intolerant for saying, "Jesus said unless you repent, you will perish. Repentance and turning away from your sin isn't option!"
Open your Bibles with me if you will, to the Gospel of Luke chapter 12, verses 35-40. I encourage you to follow along with me as I read to set the text in our minds and allow it take root in our hearts and minds. Luke 12:35-40.
"Gird up your loins, and keep your lamps lit. And be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find awake when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them. Whether he comes in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves." But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. You too, be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect."
The Bible clearly and repeatedly teaches that the Lord Jesus Christ will personally and visibly return to earth, bringing human history to its end, to punish the wicked, taking the righteous to be with Him, to establish His earthly kingdom and reign as King of kings and Lord of lords, Revelation 19:16.
This dramatic conclusion will be the end of the world as we know it. The Second Coming is not just an event it is the appointed climax of God’s redemptive plan, when every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him as Revelation 1:7 states. In fact, His Second coming is the most important doctrine in the Christian faith, and is a central and recurring theme throughout both the Old and New Testaments, all of the rest of the Bibles culminates in His glorious return. In John 14:3, Jesus Himself affirmed His return, saying, "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also." The Second coming is so important, the Scripture clearly states that anyone who minimizes or depreciates or twists or obscures or abandons the truth concerning Christ's glorious return in anyway has not only departed from biblical truth, but is in jeopardy of having breached the severe warning at the end of the book of Revelation which says, "If anybody adds to anything written in this book, it shall be added to him the plagues that are written in it. And if anybody takes away from what is written in this book, God shall take away his part from the tree of life in the holy city."
Let's look at verse 35, "Gird up your loins, and keep your lamps lit." Gird up your lions is not really a phrase we use today, but these aren't just ancient words written in your Bible, this is a divine wake-up call from Jesus Himself to be prepared and ready! Gird up your loins refers to tucking up long robes into a belt or girdle to prepare for action, as seen in Exodus 12:11 and 1 Kings 18:46, when men wore long robes that could hinder their movement, girding up your loins ensured freedom of movement and agility. It is symbolic for being prepared for physical activity such as running, labor, or battle echoed by Paul in Ephesians 6:14 where the "belt of truth" is part of the armor of God.
However, there is a growing popular approach to the Second Coming, as well as many other prophetic events, among some evangelicals, particularly independent, self-taught theologians, is to push them back as having already happened, this is heresy and a corruption of biblical prophecy. I was speaking with a young man, convinced that the Bible is unclear and is determined, actually to a very tragic point, to find a way to interpret all of biblical prophecy as having been fulfilled in the first century AD, particularly during the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.This perspective, known as hyper-preterism, or full preterism holds to the view that Jesus' return was not a physical, bodily event but a spiritual or figurative one. Those holding to this view argue that the "generation" mentioned in Matthew 24:34 refers to the generation alive at the time of Jesus' ministry, which witnessed the fulfillment of all end-time events by AD 70. A key tenet of this hyper-preterism, is that there is no future physical resurrection or judgment expected, since the resurrection of the dead and the final judgment has already taken place spiritually. However, not only is hyper-preterism heretical, it undermines core Christian beliefs, including the bodily return of Christ, the necessity of faith and repentance for salvation, and the ongoing relevance of the Holy Spirit, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper.
Hyper-preterism is certainly not new, its roots trace back to the 17th century, but it is on the rise, gaining a small cult-like following, as many people feel the need to find a way to interpret eschatology leading to a universal salvation, reducing "eternal punishment" to temporal, and all people eventually go to heaven, which clearly contradicts Scripture. One of the issues with this view is the judgment of the wicked, and that all references to eternal punishment in Scripture are merely temporal and all people eventually go to heaven, which clearly contradicts Scripture. 1 Corinthians 15:17, "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins." Scripture repeatedly calls us to live in anticipation of the reality of Christ's return, longing for our coming King and working faithfully in His service, because Jesus is coming again—suddenly, certainly, and soon!
Verse 36, "And be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks." I often talk to pastors, who don't preach the whole council, they don't warn the congregation to be prepared and ready that they’ll respond to it, which I am convinced, one of the biggest contributing factors to this issue their people don't have the mindset to submit to the authority of Scripture, to the point that they are willing to say, "Oh, well, if that’s what the Word of God says, then that’s the way it is." Instead, they want to challenge and reinterpret anything that disagrees with their opinion. There are many principles in Scripture that we commanded to submit to and one of them is to be ready for His Coming! We are certainly living in a time where people are wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. I believe when people begin to interpret Scripture for themselves, without any formal theological training, they will come up with all kinds of heretical ideas. Scripture is clear, human wisdom can never accurately interpret and understand God's Word. 1 Corinthians 2:14, "But a natural man does not accept the depths of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually examined." Another principle in Scripture that we are commanded to submit to is forgiveness. In Ephesians 4:31-32, Paul writes "Let all bitterness and anger and wrath and shouting and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Instead, be kind to one another, tender-hearted, graciously forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has graciously forgiven you."
By the way, forgiveness is not a friendly suggestion, it is a clear and repeated command throughout Scripture. It is our responsibility, meaning we have an obligation to put all bitterness and anger and wrath away from us and to graciously and tenderheartedly forgive each other. To put away is the Greek verb "arthētō" which means to carry, lift up, loose. It's to figuratively keep your mind in suspense about past wrongs that have been committed. Metaphorically, it's like picking up an anchor and letting that sail away, releasing the emotional burdens that have tied you down. For the Christian, forgiveness is not an option, we are commanded to forgive one another in the same way that God, in Christ, has forgiven us. I had a number of people say, "But, you don't understand! You just don't know what so and so did to me! I can't forgive them." Doesn't matter, there are no limitations in the same away God in Christ forgave you! Forgive 'em. Did God say, I'll forgive this, this and this, but THIS.. Oh No way!?" No, He forgave every single sin that you ever committed against Him, wiped away forever, once and for all!" And that's the same way that we are commanded to forgive each other, even if the offender never apologizes. Holding onto anger, bitterness and resentment isn't just an interpersonal issue, unforgiveness is a sin that grieves the Holy Spirit and opens the door to greater spiritual harm, poisoning the heart of the one who refuses to forgive. Christ set the standard, we are to treat others as Christ has treated us. True forgiveness even goes a step further, in praying for those who have wronged you, as Our Lord Jesus did on the cross for those who were crucifying Him. Luke 23:34, "But Jesus was saying, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." I constantly remember each of you in my prayers. A single prayer can bring hope to the hopeless, love to the loveless, and life to the lifeless. By the way, He was praying for them even as they were mocking Him, "And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were scoffing at Him, saying, "He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One." 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, "Love is patient, love is kind, is not jealous, does not brag, is not puffed up; it does not act unbecomingly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered; it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
Lean not on your own understanding, Trust God in every situation and He will restore your soul.
Verse 37, "Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find awake when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them." Here, Jesus is speaking about the reward for faithful servants who remain vigilant and ready for His return, nestled in the middle of His warnings against hypocrisy and greed and it carries a profound message. In this paradoxical story of divine reversal, He's vividly illustrates the nature of the Kingdom, where greatness is not found in power or status but in humility and servanthood, and faithfulness are rewarded with intimate fellowship and honor. In order to fully grasp verse 37, we must step back and take look at verses 35-36, where Jesus sets the scene, "Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. And be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns.." In a world of instant gratification, where more people binge-watch their favorite TV show rather than waiting on God, this should really hit. home! Our readiness for Christ's return reflects our faithfulness. It's the same principal that Jesus illustrated back in Matthew chapter 25:1-12, in the parable about the ten virgins. They were waiting and waiting for the bridegroom to come and He didn't come and He didn't come, so it was late and some of them let their lamp go out. Now it's midnight and He's up and five of them weren't ready when He came.
The apostle Paul echoes the same sentiment found here in Jesus' words in 1 Thessalonians 5:2-6, "For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman who is pregnant, and they will never escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief, for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be awake and sober." It's metaphoric for a lack of preparation and readiness. You don't know when He's coming, but when He comes, it's going to happen fast there's going to be no time for fumbling around, so you'd better be ready when He shows up. He comes in judgment, destroys the wicked, sets up His kingdom. He comes to face sinners at the Great White Throne. Then He enters into the creation of the new heaven and the new earth where all the righteous will dwell forever and He casts the wicked into the Lake of Fire. When we live with integrity, serve others, and prioritize God’s kingdom, we demonstrate that we are prepared for Christ's return. The event that sets this all in motion is when we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. It's the catching away of the church. The Greek verb "harpazó," to seize by force; snatch up, suddenly and decisively to meet Christ in the air. It's where we get the Latin word, "raptura" to carry off by force, and of course from there we get our English word, "rapture" from. So, while the word "rapture" isn't mentioned in Scripture, the event certainly is. Keep in mind, it's a sign-less event. There are no precursors. Nothing else needs to happen before He comes to take up His Church. After the church has been caught up, snatched away, then all Hell breaks loose, in the Great Tribulation and all the horrific judgment that comes upon the earth. I cannot stress this enough, "Be ready...Be ready...Be ready...Be ready!"
In 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, Paul wrote, "Behold, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed." Not a mystery that's complicated or difficult to figure out, but something that has never been revealed before. Something that has remained hidden until now. How are we supposed to live until Christ comes? Actively and faithfully, using our time, our talents and resources that has been entrusted to us
to serve God and others, living ready in anticipation, longing for His appearing. And, when He comes, "truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them." How amazing is that? We're going to be His honored guests! Jesus further describes this tremendous banquet in Luke 13:28-30, where He says people come from the east and the west, the north and the south, to recline at the table in the kingdom of God. If you're not ready when He comes, if you're not raptured, caught up with the church, you can still be saved, but you're going to go through the Tribulation. So be ready, the Son of Man is going to come at an hour you do not expect.
Verse 38, "Whether he comes in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves." Since He may return at anytime, His return is unpredictable. Jesus is loving preparing His disciples for a world that is going test their faithfulness, endurance and loyalty. The second watch, is between the hours of 9 PM–12 AM and third watch is between the hours of 12 AM–3 AM, which represent times when people are most likely to be asleep, symbolizing spiritual complacency. As followers of Christ, we are to remain vigilant and prepared for His glorious return at all hours of day or night, not just during the hours of peak alertness. Jesus is saying "Blessed are those slaves," there is a particular blessing reserved only for those who are ready when He returns. Not those who were once ready, or those who intend to be ready, but those who are found ready when He returns — even at inconvenient hours. Think about it this way, a soldier doesn’t prepare for battle after the war breaks out, does he? Nor should a Christian wait to prepare for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ! Spiritual readiness must be a continuous, ongoing practice, which includes submitting to His authority and being obedient to His Word, not a last-minute response. Scripture repeatedly emphasizes, that God faithfully honors those who remain faithful to Him, even when it is costly, and even when it's inconvenient. To be spiritually ready and awake, is to resist compromise and sin's comfort. The Master is not trying to trick His servants — He is merely testing their faithfulness and loyalty. If Jesus Christ came back right now, at this very second — what would He find? A faithful church or a compromised one?
Verse 39, "But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into." Have you ever had something stolen from you or had someone unexpectedly break into your house? It was such an awful feeling. I vividly remember being a young boy of about 6 or 7, coming home from school and going to my room when my stomach dropped. My dresser dresser drawers were all pulled out and underwear and a few pair of socks were scattered all over my bed like confetti. That's when the smell hit me, and not the clean scent of laundry detergent, he had not only touched my private things, my stuffed bear who I whispered my deepest, darkest secrets to since I was 3 or 4, but he touched all of my little white underwear that only my mother had touched on laundry day, he ejaculated on a pile of my underwear on my bed. Suddenly, this violation became very, very personal. So, I yelled for my father.
My father came running to find that the thief scattered my mother's panties all around their bedroom and used her lipstick to leave a vulgar, ugly words he had written across the dresser mirror of what he still had planned to do when he returns, words that I didn't fully understand, but I remember him underling the smeared words "I will be back" several times. In court, we learned the thief had been watching our house for several weeks to learn our habits and daily routines of coming and going, until he was sure he wouldn't be interrupted by anyone except for me and my mother, which was the reason he said broke in. My father's face turned as white as a ghost. It left me with a feeling that made my skin crawl, a feeling I couldn't scrub off!
Nights were the worst! For months, whenever I went into my bedroom, I'd softly tiptoe past my dresser making my way to my bed. But I couldn't sleep without having one eye open, it was as if I could feel him lying there on my bed, and his creepy unseen hands there touching my most private belongings, even though my mother washed my sheets and underwear over and over. I could still hear the police officer's voice, as he whispered to my parents, "You see, this wasn't about taking valuable possessions; he's just a creepy teenager who looking to get his kicks!" There was really nothing of value in my bedroom for him to steal, except for my innocence. It was only by the grace of God my mother wasn't home that day, she switched lunch hours to cover for her supervisor Mary, who had a doctor's appointment. And, since my father was picking me up from school that, I had gone to my grandparents house that day instead of going home. Who breaks into a family's home and doesn't take a single thing—he said only reason he broke in was to defile my mother and myself. I remember my mother pulling me close into her arms, but even her embrace felt different, almost tainted, it was like we had all been "marked." That day taught me a lesson early on, that so many learn much later and sometimes not at all, safety is an illusion we often sell ourselves. One unchecked door or one unlocked window, and one's false sense of security begins to unravel. If the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. This world is full of thieves, we must take note that not all of them are masked, and not one of them comes when you expect it!
That brings us to verse 40, "You too, be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect." Jesus used a thief in the night as a powerful way to emphasize that unpreparedness carries consequences, a theme that is consistent throughout the New Testament. The Lord Himself repeatedly said that He will come suddenly, unexpectedly, decisively when it's least expected, like a thief in the night. If there has ever been a time in human history when we should be taking Jesus’ words to heart, I believe that time it is now! Therefore, we must be on high alert at all times, living godly lives, in a constant state of spiritual readiness in anticipation of His sudden and unexpected return. This is not only a strong warning, it is call to come to Christ for salvation. In Act 4, Peter being filled with the Holy Spirit boldly proclaimed, "Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead...He is the stone which was rejected by you,...And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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