December 8, 2019
The Gospel of Luke
Luke 12:49-53

Not of the World: Relationships

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December 8, 2019
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Transcript

0:00  
Where you don't have to stand up and read all 13 verses but you could do that to stay in while I read so I'm going to go ahead and begin in verse 35. And the word of God says this.

0:12  
It says stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning. And be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast. So that they may open the door to him at once when he comes in knocks. Bless it are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly I say to you he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch or in the third and finds them awake, bless it are those service But know this. That of the master of the house at known at what our the thief was coming. He would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready for the son of Man is coming and an hour you do not expect. Peter said, Lord, are you telling us this parable for us and for all? And the Lord said, Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household to give them their portion of 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 listen to this over all his possessions. But if that Service says to himself, my master is delayed and coming and begins to be the male and female servants and to eat and drink and to get drunk, the master of that sermon will come on a day when he does not expect him and then an hour he does not know And listen, he will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful and that servant who knew his masters will but did not get ready or act according says will, he will receive a severe beating, but the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating, he will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much is given, much will be required. And from him to whom they interested much, they will demand more.

2:22  
Wow, what it's x right Oh, baptism Sunday. So I want to simply entitle this message. Christians stay ready. Christians stay ready. Let me get on my knees and let's pray before the Father.

2:35  
Lord of all grace, Lord of all comfort. Lord, we just ask your blessing upon this service God. Lord, we need to hear a word from you. Some of us are coming in here weary. Some of us just simply excited, but we need to hear a word from you. Encourage the brokenhearted Lord. convict the hottie. challenge all of us, Lord. We want to be sanctified by your truth and you have declared that your Word is truth. So give us a word this morning, Lord, I'm a feeble and broken man, sinful beyond measure sinful beyond even my comprehension. Lord, I pray for your forgiveness over our entire church body. Forgive me, as a preacher, forgive us as your body for forgive us of all of our sins, make ready our hearts before you got to hear from you. Lord, we are empty vessels. But we love to be filled by your Holy Spirit. So God, we pray that you would do this this morning. And I do pray even now, as we get ready for people to make a profession of faith by being baptized, that you would save some people in this room God, you brought some here for them to hear the declaration of your wonderful news. And I pray that you would save them this morning. Lord, we are begging these things of you We pray these things in the matchless name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And all God's people say, Amen.

4:05  
You can take your seat, take a seat. I'm gonna sing a song that some of you might know and some of you might not know. But hopefully if you are in the realm of sports, you kind of heard this song over and over again. It goes a little something like this. We read today, we ready we ready a for ya'll and all the black people say we ready. We ready. We ready for ya'll.

4:53  
Now, let's check it out. Check it. Some of y'all didn't know a cookie. I never heard that song before. I could tell you're staring like what is this? Well, honestly, when I was growing up and playing ball that was our every single week hype song. every single week we will play that song. And it was a simple song It got you ready for who for y'all? I mean, you don't get no more simple. And the reason why you had to sing this song as you was getting ready for your opponent is because in order to maintain the kind of game plan that your coaches put into practice, in order to maintain what players would call a game face, ready to go at your opponent, you need to make sure that you are ready. And listen, it is extremely important that you're ready to face your opponent, especially when you're playing in front of a crowd of hundreds of people. But I want to say this, if it's that important, to be ready to face an opponent on a basketball court how Much more important is that you be ready to face the Lord Jesus Christ when He returns. See, if you're not ready to face your opponent on a basketball court, you will lose a game. But if you're not ready to face the Lord Jesus Christ when He returns, you will lose your soul. And when I'm afraid of is that we've grown up in a culture that believes that Jesus coming back is that old school way of doing church is some type of traditionalism. That that's what the old church used to talk about of Jesus somehow cracking some sky and returning on a white horse and they come back and we don't talk like that no more. We a little too sophisticated to talk about the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. How often is it that we hear messages about the death of Jesus Christ in the burial of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and even the ascension, but we don't talk about the fact that he promised that he is Coming back. But Jesus is coming back. Yeah. And not cool being one of those weirdos in our culture that actually still believes that.

7:11  
I know it's been a long time, a long, long time since he made that promise. But the reason why I believe his promise because what he did the first time seen us do came down to earth, born of a virgin Mary, and he lived life and he pulled together these 12 disciples, and as he was healing the sick and give a sight to the blind and raising the dead, he keeps telling them over and over again. Yo, let me just let you know what's gonna happen. Y'all excited about all of my miracles and all that school. I'm gonna be beaten. I'm gonna be rejected when I get to Jerusalem. I'm gonna be crucified. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna be buried, and I'm gonna raise again and meet y'all. They told him again, Yo, I'm gonna be very I'm gonna be raised again and I'm gonna cut me Joe. He told him again. Yo ma movie. buried under the raised meat, yo, you know what he did? He died. He was very, he was raised and he came and made him just like he said he would.

8:12  
Now if a man calls his own resurrection. I think I'm a believer when he calls his own return.

8:21  
So Jesus Christ is coming back. And the aim of this text is to make sure that the people of God are ready. He begins by calling servants to be ready. And I need you to say this for me, so you just know who he's talking to say I am a servant of Jesus Christ.

8:43  
Now if you ain't really a servant of Jesus Christ, you shouldn't have said that. I am a servant of Jesus Christ. And the reason why this is so important is because it helps us to understand who is master and who is slave. See that order never gets flipped around in Scripture. And I love this because even Jude, which is one of my favorite writers in all of the New Testament, Jude is the brother of Jesus Christ, the half brother by Mary. But when he writes his epistle to the church, he says Jude, a brother of James, and a slave of Jesus Christ.

9:25  
Now think about that just for a second. What would it take for you to call your brother your master? See I ain't calling my brother my master. My Lord, the one who has authority over me ain't gonna happen. I spill milk just like he did at the kitchen counter.

9:43  
But somehow Jude says that Jesus Christ is his Lord as well. And it's because this Jesus has been raised from the dead. So he is our Lord and therefore it makes us His servants. So he begins with servants and he said, Stay ready. This is what the text says it says stay dress for action and keep your lamps burning. Stay dress for accident, keep your lamps burning. If servants are going to stay ready, they must stay alert. If servants are going to stay ready, they must stay alert. This idea for stage dress for action more literally means to strap on your belt. So in that context, what would happen is they would have these long rows, rows that go all the way down to your ankles like this. Because in the Pentecostal church that my mom's grew up in, that's how all the ladies had to dress anyway, just a dress all the way down to the ankles. They could, this was right here. No, no so all the way down to the ankles and that's how they used to where they rose back in the day. But when it was time to serve, in order to make sure that your robe didn't get in the way of your work. And in order to make sure that your road didn't drag on the ground. They will pull the rope up and they will strap a belt on to make sure that they were ready for action. What the text is saying is strap your belt on, it is time to act. It's time to serve. Now, as I was looking at the context of a first century Judea, what was interesting to me is that slaves for this reason, always would have their belt ready.

11:26  
Why? Because they were characterized by being service. In other words, their master should be able to give a command at any given time, and they should be ready to act upon their masters wishes. My fear is that oftentimes in with us as Christians, we look at Jesus as Lord and we might proclaim that he is the master, but we're not ready to act upon any one of his wishes. See, sometimes for us, the Lord's instruction is actually an interruption. And that means that you're not staying dressed for action. That means that you're not staying ready. When God's commandments God's instructions become an interruption. It means that you already have your sights set on something else, or rather some one else. See, I need you to hear me clearly. Every single person under the sound of my voice and every single person that comes into this world will serve someone, say a gas economy they know like spiritual entrepreneurs, you will have a boss. The question is who's going to be your boss, who's the one who calls the shots in your life. I love what the the Church of England actually says and one of their liberties. They say that to serve you is perfect freedom. We should all have that heart that to serve Jesus Christ. It's perfect freedom. Because he is a good master. He says stage dress for action. Like a fireman always having to be in their fire suit like a cop who was on call having to be in a suit. All servants like surgeons are always on call. service we must be on call we must stay alert. The next thing we see in the text is that we must stay expect it. And I want you to see this in verse 36. This is one of my favorite aspects of this text. He says this and be like men who are what's the word? They're waiting? Yes they waiting. So you like you mean to say waiting? One more time real I'll say waiting. Okay, so be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast so that they may open the door. Here's the word at what when he comes and knocks. Bless it are those servants who has master finds awake when he comes. I need you to stay at spected see, Jesus is like, this isn't time for us to be kind of lowly off kind of doing our own things kind of leaving into our leaning into our hobby, so much so that we no longer think about the reality that Jesus Christ is coming back. He's saying stay expected stay waiting for his coming. And the reason why this is a hard word, especially for our context, is because we hate waiting. We hate waiting. I just read that.

14:35  
I guess Amazon is coming out with a new grocery store where you don't even have to stand in line at the self checkout counter. You just go grab your stuff and you walk out. We don't even like waiting in line at the store. So they've created a target and Have y'all been there, these new parking slots where you can go, literally buy all your stuff online and the person comes in And brings your groceries to you.

15:07  
It's crazy. I mean, I never thought I see the data. No. As if that doesn't paint the picture. No, this is where I really figured out. We as a society hate waiting. And if this is what I'm about to say convicts you is just cool. Just let it be. Yeah, we have made it to the day in 2019. Where I have seen that people microwave aches.

15:37  
Now, let's just just go ahead and be bold. Just Just say, Yeah, do that. Sometimes just raise your hand real proud. Look at look around, look around. Look around. Even pastor Andy, microwaves his eggs. Now, how do you go to a restaurant and be like how you want your eggs microwave.

15:59  
Don't work. Yeah, we are so busy that we've got the microwave x. We can't wait listen. I could make but I can make it, because it only takes like three minutes. We can wait the three minutes to cook eggs. So how in the world can we wait 2000 years for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are people who are impatient. So in the text says to wait, we can't comprehend that kind of waiting.

16:37  
But you need to know that waiting is just a part of being a servant. This is why when you go to a restaurant, the people who serve you are called what? waiters and waitresses. The etymology of that word literally comes from the fact that those who serve tables would have to wait on the people at the table. goes to give them a command of what they want is why when you go to fancy restaurants, you just see like a group of leaders just kind of standing and huddle up having a conversation. Why? Because they're just waiting for your water to go down and they're waiting for your take your plate to be scrapped, or they're waiting for you to ask for the bill. They're waiting at your beckoning call. This is the kind of posture a servant should have, always waiting for the command of their master. This is why the instruction of our Lord can not be an interruption. Why? Because we should be waiting.

17:35  
And this is part of not only a being a servant, but this is simply a part of being the people of God. When you look throughout the Old Testament, yo, people had to wait. I mean, from the time that God promised rain would come in a flood would come to the time that it actually came. Noah had to wait. From the time of the the anointing to the time of the appointing David has To wait, and from the time that the wonderful words were written, that unto us, a son is given unto us a child is born, that he will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, he will be called Emmanuelle. From the time that that was written to the 700 years of the day where he was actually they actually came, the people of Israel had to wait. And that the people that Israel had to wait for 700 years for His first coming. We don't even know how long we'll have to wait for his second. stuff, right? This sucks. For me, I say that's really, really hard. But here's the difference between waiting and what is actually founded the nuance of this word, expectation. See, waiting is passive expected dictation is active. And the difference between passive waiting and active expectation let me let you know is simply in what you're waiting for. See, you wait in line for your pill from the pharmacist, but you're expecting a package from Amazon. You wait in line at a grocery store, but you are expecting that movie to come out. You wait for your child, but you are expecting a child.

19:35  
See, it's all found in what you're waiting for. And the reason why we see a passage about waiting as a sad reality is because we don't recognize that what we are waiting for is awesome. We are waiting for the King of kings and the Lord of lords to crack the sky and the bring us out as is broken world. That's exciting stuff in there. are waiting turns into expectation. We are called to be expected. But here's the other thing we are called to be. And you saw it if you if you kind of missed it in the text, it says this. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. So if you're going to stay ready, yes, you need to stay alert. Yes, you need to stay expected. But the other thing you need to do is you must stay awake. You must stay awake. Listen, this is one of those texts. That seems kind of crazy, because it almost seems as if Jesus through this text is calling us to have a sort of physical insomnia, that we're just supposed to always have our eyes open. But what he's talking about is a spiritual reality of vulcanus. In other words, as the Theologian and Professor himself, Donald Glover says, or in other words, aka Childish Gambino, No, stay woke. Stay woke.

21:04  
This is one of the hardest things that we have to do is stay woke. Why? Because we are so often in this life lol to sleep because we love comfort. We love to kind of access these things in our lives that make life a little bit easier. But when you're driving on that seven hour road and I've had to do it, where you're driving and it's nothing but core, core, more core, a lot more corn. whole bunch more corn. Man, this dude's having a rough you don't even got corn but it looked like corn. Like when you're driving on that kind of road. The worst thing you can do is make your seat comfortable.

21:50  
Why because you need to stay away.

21:54  
And this is our problem. We need to recognize that is monotony now. mayhem that is serves as a sort of spiritual melatonin for our souls. And it oftentimes causes us to move into the spiritual drowsiness. And as if that wasn't enough. We want to throw on the proverbial oscillating fan of success on top of that. It's like man, we can't stay up, because we're forcing ourselves into a deep sleep. But he's saying wake up, stay awake, stay alert. Jesus Christ is coming back. Stay awake. See? If we know that comfort is melatonin. Then we need to ask the question, How in the world can we combat that? Well, if you look to the out the New Testament, you'll notice that letter after letter after letter to the churches, always points not only back at the cross the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But always for to his coming. When you read the writer of Hebrews, he's like, get ready for the day is coming, Paul to the Thessalonians. Get ready for the day is coming. Revelation Need

23:11  
I say more. I mean, it's always like look forward to when he is coming. Stay awake. So therefore if comfort is kind of lullaby us to sleep, we need to recognize that the Bible is the divinely roasted coffee beans that God has given us. And if America runs on Dunkin, Christians must run those scription. Amen. We must stay awake, encouraging one another, as Paul says, until that day comes, stay awake. Now, you might be asking the question, so why we know Jesus is coming. But what's the big deal? Well, in this parable, we're going to see just how amazing it is what the master actually does, when he comes Look at the text again it says this in verse 37. It says, Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes here is truly I say to you, and this is what whenever you see truly, truly from Jesus Christ, you need to perk your ears up to figure out, Okay, what is he about to say, because whatever he's about to say is something that we could not have expected and it is going to be amazing. He says, Truly, I say to you notice the text, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table and he will come and serve them.

24:35  
What I'm gonna read that again, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table and he will come and serve them. Now, let's read a old church father from the 1100 I think it's the 11th century was the 10 hundreds. I think it's 11th century. He writes about this and I was trying to get like a perspective on is this like normal that the master comes and serves? And what he writes is just so clear like, nope.

25:09  
He says, Yes, it was custom for the master to serve his guests, as Abraham did in Genesis chapter 18. But it was not custom for the master to serve his slaves. Now notice what's happening in the text, I need you to just kind of get this picture in your head. So there's service in this Master's home in that household, right? You just got to envision yourself as a servant, you chill in there. And the message says, Yo, I'm about to go to this dope banquet. And that's what master do. You're serving like a really dope master you're serving and a list master.

25:48  
So the a list Master says, I'm gonna go to a banquet, but I'm gonna come back and I need you to be ready. So he goes away to this bakery, and the bakery is popping. And I want you to notice there's another nuance in the text. And what we just read, because when he says to them that you should wait for him to return. What's really happening in the text is that it's saying wait for him because he is going to withdraw himself from the party. In other words, the master is in the party, and he leaves while the party is still popping.

26:21  
When the champagne is still going when everybody's having a good time, it's not like he waits into the party ends to go see a slave. He leaves still while the party is popping. So the master leaves this party, but he doesn't leave empty handed, because the text says that he then serves them food. So in other words, he leaves the banquet and he brings him some nice baggies at the banquet. Oh, no. Have you ever been arrested? Where were you like, man, they always feed you too much. You always gotta bring boxes. Well, he just starts bagging up boxes and boxes and boxes of food in order to do what bring them to the city. lays and he leaves the party of the A listers to come and kick it with his slaves. Yo, don't you know that this is exactly the picture of what Jesus Christ is actually going to do? Jesus Christ, we already know God, the son was being worshiped. And there was a party of all of the heavenly hosts saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord. The whole earth is full of his glory. He was already been worshiped. And then he came down to earth, to die on the cross and to be raised from the dead the first time when he ascended into heaven, if they had that kind of party before he left, what kind of party you think that he was throwing after he rose from the dead, cast is going crazy. And then all have parties that stuff. Ain't no party like Heaven's party, because having a party don't stop. So they leave. And they're having this crazy party and in the middle of that party, At some point in time, Jesus is gonna be like, it's dope kicking it with chalk, but I got some slaves who are really important to me.

28:07  
And he's gonna leave that party and come to you and say, yo, let's kick it at the table. I want us to have our own fees. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?

28:19  
That's the kind of grace that the Lord Jesus Christ gives. He says, I will sit with them. I will sit with them. Man when you you have had like a Thanksgiving day where you had a stranger there who you didn't invite anybody? Just Oh wow. I'm sorry, says I'm really sorry. No, I'm not gonna do it. Gonna keep self control is gonna make a joke. The Lord is good, right? I'm learning I'm growing up. Most people don't have Thanksgivings where they have somebody there that just shows up that they didn't invite Why because Thanksgiving Day meal is an invite only situation will just notice when Jesus Christ says that he's going to recline at table, but he's going to sit with you at the banquet banquet at the feast of feasts. Know that is an invite only Thanksgiving is one of those situations where you can't just get there on your own.

29:25  
You have to be invited by the master.

29:29  
Well, how do you get invited by the master? You trust in what the master has done? The invitations may to all the dope. The invitation is before you right now. But he's sent out the invitation. He says come and sit with me at my table. Man I never ate with brock obama Have you may have you ever just kind of been able to sit with a president and be like,

29:55  
Yo, this is Joe. They way better than Abdou at 2309. Like, wow, crazy, right?

30:05  
Listen, can you imagine the kind of food that the Master of the Universe has awaiting? For the people of God? I mean, come Oh, I remember the first time and this is serious. I remember the first time I had a really well cooked steak. I looked at my pops, and I said, they're dead. Why have you been holding out for me for so long? You've had me eat pork chop and chicken. And there have been this thing called steak for all this time and you've been holding on me? Because I know this is fancy right here. Not everybody cooked steak like this. And I recognize real quickly that not everybody cooked steak like that.

30:59  
Can you Imagine the kind of chefs Jesus got in his kitchen, ready to prepare for us the most succulent steak in the world. And he invites us to sit and his invite only table. But guess who's doing the survey? Jesus? Crazy. We know the first time that he says I came not to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. But what shocked me and the text is that Jesus doesn't stop serving when he returns. What kind of humble Jesus do we serve? And so he says, stay ready, because the master wants to come and sit with you and serve you. I don't know if you've been weary. I don't know if you've been distraught. I don't know if you've gotten tired of serving everybody else. Friends, even if you have to serve for the rest of your life here. know there's coming a day where the Lord Jesus Christ will sit with you and serve you.

32:03  
We says you don't know when that day is coming. You don't know when that day is coming, for he is coming like a thief. And the text says that the master had known when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into, you must also be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect you know what I love about this illustration. It makes so much sense. Like a few months ago, I could tell that I would my schedule was going to be picking up a lot and I was gonna be traveling a little bit more. So what I did with my staff is I I share with them my Google calendar to make sure that they knew when I was going to be out of town and when I was going to be in town. Jesus is saying that thieves don't share their Google calendar which you know, is like, Yo, I work from the hours of 9pm to 2am. I don't normally serve your your particular neighborhood, but I serve your neighborhood every other week. Like It doesn't have one of your home alone, where that moment where he's like the he gets to overhear the thieves loudly yelling for some reason, we're gonna come back at nine o'clock.

33:12  
And he's like nine o'clock, so he gets there, get ready for the thiefs to come. Man can set you free life don't work like that Yo, life don't work like that. And what he's saying is that if thieves don't share their Google calendar with you, neither does Jesus Christ. You have no clue when he is coming, therefore stay ready. service they ready. Now, the next section of the text is going to talk to a specific group. And it's the managers, those people who are called to be leaders, and this is what the text says verse 41, says Peter said to them, Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all and Jesus doesn't immediately answer the question. Look at verse 42. He says in the Lord said, Who then is the faithful and wise manager whom his master will set over his household to give them their portion of food at the proper time.

34:14  
Blessed is here's the word, the servant, whom his master will find. So doing when he comes truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. So the next text is actually saying not serving, stay ready, but manager stay ready. But I want you to notice in the text that he calls the manager, a servant. See, the underlying theme here is that all of us are servants. But some of us have given been given the responsibility to lead and this is a heavy word for leaders in the church, deacons in the church, the primarily pastors in the church. He says that we are called to Feed them. Like we're literally called to give them their portion at their proper time.

35:07  
We have to literally prepare meals on a week in week out basis in order that the people of God might be fed. The faithful manager goes back to prepare a good meal. He doesn't try to go to McDonald's and get them nuggets that you think are made out of chicken and hope are made out of chicken and which are made out of chicken, which says, No, I need you to prepare a succulent steak from the Word of God weekend and week out, preparing the people of God for my coming. That's what a manager is called to do. But a manager also must recognize that very truth that he is a manager, not the master. God forbid we become a church, where our leaders begin to believe that we are in Not managers, but masters. There was but one master the Lord Jesus Christ. And we all stand under him as servants and slaves. Now, after he talks about what the faithful managers do, I want to take you to what he says about the unfaithful managers, and church, as you just begin to share the gospel with people. If people come to know Jesus Christ, and you encourage them to be a part of a local church, and they might not live around here, and they might need to go to a different church. Just make sure that the churches you encourage them to go to are not characterized by leaders that you find in this text. Look at what the text says. And this is haunting stuff, he says, but if that servant says to himself, my master is delayed in his coming and begins to beat the male and female servants and to drink and get drunk, the master of that service will come on a day he does not know expect him and an hour that he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his masters will, but did not get ready or act according to His will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know and did what deserve to bt will receive a light beating, everyone to whom much was given of him much will be required from Him whom they entrusted much they will demand more. Here's what the whole text is simply teaching us that there are some masters who will one, stop believing the word of the managers will stop believing the word of the master. Do you notice that he says, I see that my master is delayed in his coming. In other words, he stopped believing the word that the master is actually going to come at all and know this, that doubt is always the root of disobedience. When you stop believing the Word of God, you will actually In a crazy way, but I got an illustration for you. Because doubt that is tied to delay gets even worse. So my mom was a school teacher. And because she was a school teacher, I thought I knew her schedule pretty well. Because the schedule was out for all of Charles County Public School to see what the teacher schedules were. So very often knowing that I would have a half day, right. But she would have a full day if you had a mom as a teacher, you know what's up?

38:33  
I would say, Hey, we got a few hours for anybody to kind of come to the crib and kick it. So there's one fateful day brought some guests over to the house that my mom did not desire to be there.

38:48  
Now, I thought my mom was delayed. She was supposed to come home at three o'clock. It was only around 115 outside man, we got about two hours to do whatever we want. And guys, I was in sin and so I don't want to talk about who was over there. It was just sinful. Now, hear me when I say this, my mom comes home and I see her car. Okay? But none of our other strangers see the car. So they're still well, and now and I'm panicking. So I'm like, sorry, screaming and all that, and none of them are catching on. Right? So I started to act like like, they almost talked to confuse me like, Am I trippin? Is that really my mom's car? And then lo and behold, she comes through the door. And nobody wanted to see the look my mom had on her face that day. I mean, it was Danger, danger, danger. Now, as soon as she walks in the door, she says to me, she says, boy, I need you to get upstairs. And then she looks at them. And she doesn't say a thing. And they already know.

39:57  
Doesn't have to say a word and I want You to recognize how crazy this is. Because the reason why I was singing is because I thought my mom was not coming back. Do you get that? Is my perception of her delay that cause my disobedience and friends Christians, it is our perception of Jesus Christ delay that often causes our disobedience. If we actually every day believe that Jesus Christ was coming back, if we live like Jesus Christ, we're coming back we will not run to the things that we run into. But it is our perception of his delay. The cause us to disobey. Now, the next thing that we see about the Masters is that they don't feed the sheep. You notice that? But rather they eat and they drink in the Texas and they get drunk. In other words, they indulge on the food and the things that they were supposed to be distributing to the people. Be very careful. Be very careful of being led by greedy people. mean this is what the call of the text is. Be very careful of being led by greedy people because they don't seek to protect you. They seek to pillage you.

41:24  
And that's what you see when the text says that he would literally beat the surface. Man we have a lot of preachers, a lot of pastors, but like that saddens me that beat the people. And there are different ways that that masters a minute managers and leaders beat people but one of the primary ways they do it is through preaching legalistic sermons, where they call people to do stuff that they themselves could never do and no one can because only Jesus Christ is the perfect example. We need leaders and managers who understand this word? Grace? Grace. Now, do you notice this in the text, he doesn't just tell you what the bad managers, the unfaithful managers do. He then tells you what the master will do when he comes back. See to the managers who are unfaithful. The text says and notice it, that he will cut them into pieces and put them with the unfaithful to some of the servants who knew better but didn't do better. He says that he will give them a severe beating. But to those servants who didn't know better but didn't do better, they will still receive a light beating and the text says that they deserve that beating. So what this is teaching us is three different levels of punishment for three different types of people, the people who had power and understanding the people who have no power but understanding and the people who had no power and no understanding. And the text says that though they are All culpable, they will receive varied layers of punishment. But I don't know about you. I don't want to receive any punishment. I don't want to receive any punishment. I mean, the text doesn't say that they got off scot free. Even Listen, the ones who are ignorant, so even ignorance isn't an excuse. So what is our hope? What is our hope? Listen, the question no longer is, am I more faithful than the unfaithful? That's not the question. We should be asking ourselves. And that's how we live our lives just comparing ourselves. Well, I'm pretty bad by shareen is bad as David, You don't say. Like I'm pretty. This is how we do when we're taking tests. You could receive a 50% you know it, but if everybody else received a 30% you like I killed that monster.

44:00  
But this is not the way that we need to act amongst the people of God. The question is not Am I more faithful than the unfaithful? The question is, are you faithful or not? And how you know them what it means to be faithful? How do you know if you're actually being faithful? You look to the perfect example, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, who is very God Philippians chapter two tells us that he took upon himself the form of a servants came down to serve us. He is the perfect manager who feed the sheep as the Good Shepherd. He is the perfect example of one who stayed ready. Because if we know that the way that we stay ready is by going to the Word of God. Nobody stayed in the text as much as Jesus day for he quoted it in both his best times and his worse. Literally on the way to the cross, quoting the scriptures, he stayed ready.

45:07  
And as you look at that perfect example, you might be like me and saying, that's awesome. That's amazing. I mean, that's beyond my understanding. But it's also beyond comparison. There's no way I can ever live up to that. And the reality is God already knew that. He already knew that you couldn't get yourself ready. If this text is all about how I forced myself to be ready for the coming of Jesus Christ, then I am hopeless. But Praise be to God. My faithfulness actually really does not depend on me. It depends upon the person that I know. Second Timothy, chapter 11, verse, verse 11, through 13, it actually says this. It says that if we die with him, we will live with him. If we indoor we will reign with Him. we deny Him, He will deny us but listen to this. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny Himself. Wow. No matter how faithless I am, no matter how not ready I am, no matter how sleep I, no matter how many times are purposefully rebel against my master, as long as I don't deny, but I embrace him as my only hope. When I am faithless, he remains faithful, for he can't deny Himself. Listen to what the text is saying. saying that if we are to be ready, it means that we must know Jesus Christ. He died on the cross to make us ready and he raised from the dead to make you ready. The only way you can face to create a god is to Faith them under the covering of the one he can't deny Jesus Christ. That's how we make ourselves ready. But knowing Jesus, and this is why we as Christians, are therefore given the Spirit of God, to go out and walk in readiness isn't a wonderful, we now knowing that there's no way that we are not going to be ready in a position gnosis can now stay with our nose in this book, stay caffeinated through the Scriptures and consistently spur one another on to be ready for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

47:37  
Now, as beautiful as that is, and as wonderful as that is, I know you're probably thinking like I am waiting for the Lord Jesus Christ is amazing waiting for the Lord Jesus Christ is awesome. But yo is still waiting, is still waiting. And that's what makes it so hard. But again, I want to tell you that the difference between waiting expectation is what you are waiting for. See with about the second coming of Christ, we oftentimes look at it as Lion King, though we see that when the first Lion King came out, we were like yo most amazing movie in the world.

48:16  
So when they when they said they're going to do like a live action version, we're all like yo and Beyonce gonna be in it too. So I had been preparing for so long for the second coming of lock and key. I mean preparing for real, they know movies are pre purchase that I was ready, ready for the second coming of Lion King. And I go in that theater, excited, and I walk out with my head down, sad, disappointed, confessing sin of idolatry. Knowing that I have put my whole stock of my entire summer on a beautiful movie called Lion King, and it disappointed me. The reason why we are not waiting the way we should be waiting is because we see the second coming of Christ. That's the second coming of Lion King. But I'm just trying to tell you that it is going to be far better than that. far better than it you like well, how can it be? Because there's no way that he can't disappoint in a second coming.

49:28  
Because this first coming was so thorough. I mean, how do you somehow do being born of a virgin Mary living a perfect life dying on the cross for my sins being raised from the dead and then ascending and how in the world can you not disappoint? Well, Wow, that is so amazing. And so spectacular. You just need to know what's going to happen at his second cooking yo. see in a second coming. He's not going to appear a few people in Jerusalem. The second Coming. The Bible says that all eyes will be hold him and his second coming. He's not going to heal a select few, and a second coming. Every single person who knows Jesus Christ will be healed forevermore, there will be no longer death, there will be no more sin and he will wipe not a few tears from a few faces, but every tear from our eyes and a second coming. He won't give us a new heart and a second coming. He can give us a brand new house manufacturable give us a brand new habitat. Matter of fact, he can give us a brand new heaven. He can't do all of that as a second coming. And then on top of that, the Bible says that we will look him face to face.

50:52  
We get to see the one who was being pressed face to face. We get to see the one who was special Poor us face to face, we get to see the one whose beard was ripped up for us face to face. We get to see the one who was pierced in his hands and Pearson his feet. face, we get to see the one who died for us face to face. We get to see the one that was very first face to face. But we don't have to see him dead this time. We get to see him alive, Exalted, resurrected as the lion that he is going to see him face to face. If that wasn't good enough. That wasn't good enough. For john chapter three tells us this, that I don't know what we will be. But we know that when he appears, listen, we will be like him. For we shall see Him as He is. In other words, we don't just get to look at our Savior. We do we get to look like Like our Savior, do you here? So, Christians, stay ready, stay ready, stay alert, stay expected spur one another on. But if you don't know Jesus Christ, the command of the text is not to stay ready, but rather to get ready.

52:19  
Get ready. So whatever you hear about every eye clothes, every clothes, every clothes. I want to just offer to you the gospel of Jesus Christ, that are ye are Jesus, who lived a perfect life, died on the cross for your sins for your sins. He was raised from the dead bodily proved it to his disciples, was exalted into heaven and says he's going to come back to judge the living and the dead. If you don't know Jesus, you will be dismissed from him.

52:56  
Because forever condemned forever, but if you place your Your faith and confidence in what Jesus Christ has done, you will receive everlasting life and all of the riches that Jesus has earned. Want to offer right now to anybody if you don't know that you know that you know Jesus, if you're unsure that if he comes back today that you would be able to go with him. If you are unsure of that, you would like an opportunity to receive Jesus Christ right now, I would ask that you just slip your hand in the air.

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