MK040 Sermons
Staying Ready (Audio)
Well, some of you may know, I came from a fairly large family. I had three sisters and a brother and I'm the oldest. And there was a season in our lives when we were growing up where it finally became time that mom could go away and leave us at home on our own. And so when mom would go away and leave us on our own, she had the things she would do. She would always leave us a list. We always had a list of things that we had to do when mom was gone. I don't know if that's normal, but that's when my mom did. We always had this list. And so being the eldest brother and the most responsible brother, of course, I took it upon myself to make sure I got my list done and encouraged all of them to get their list done. No, that didn't happen. That didn't happen. As soon as mom left, it was free for all. It was party time. And we got to watch whatever we want on TV, cable didn't exist then that time. But we could watch what everyone wanted for as long as we wanted, especially my brother or not. We got to eat what everyone wanted. We were better cooks than our sisters, so we got to cook what everyone wanted. We fell in love with Biscuit Biscuits. I don't know why, but we'd make them up and eat the whole tray, just the two of us. So that was something that was kind of a highlight, just to gorge ourselves. But one of the things I was acutely aware of being the oldest is when mom was coming home, when mom was coming home. That was the thing I was always acutely aware of, because I, being the oldest, knew what would happen if everything was not done when mom got home. Because I had experienced mom's wrath the longest and the hardest and any other siblings, regardless of what they would ever tell you, that any of them have ever experienced. And so as the clock was ticking and it was getting close to that time period, I would always say, okay, we got to stop now. We got to get all this stuff done. We would actually help one another. We didn't help one another rest of our lives. We helped one another when mom was coming home. And we had to make sure everything was done because we did not want to be ill-prepared when mom arrived. We wanted to make sure we had everything done when she showed up. Because if she did not show up, trouble was coming. Trouble was coming. It's a bit like the kid's story of the cat in the hat. It's kind of what our lives were like when mom was away. And I don't know if you experienced that growing up. Maybe some of you live that right now. But we all have those moments when something is going to be inspected. Something's going to be looked at. Something is going to be evaluated. And there's things we have to do to prepare for that. When I was in grad school and I worked in a restaurant, we were a four-star hotel and restaurant. And every year, they would come around and they would evaluate our facility. And when that time come, we knew it was coming. We cleaned, we shined. They redid every area. We never touched all year long. But you never know where they were going to look, what they were going to evaluate, questions they were going to ask. And we had everything ready when they showed up. If you've ever had an audit, you know what that means. You have to gather all your finances, everything ready, everything prepared, everything there so they can see your financial records and know what condition they're in. And so I think we all know what it's like to get things ready for someone that's coming. Whether it's a house that you're selling, your mother-in-law's arrival, or your boss showing up on the scene, we all know what it's like to get everything ready when someone's coming. And so this morning, we're going to talk about that subject. And some of you are thinking, well, didn't we just talk about that subject last week? Well, we did talk about that subject last week. And anybody remember the question that I asked you guys last week, anybody remember the question? See, this is why I'm talking about it again, because you didn't even remember the question from last week. Thank you. Are you ready? There it goes. The question is going to come up on the screen. Are you ready for Jesus to return? Are you ready? Now, most of the time, I don't have the luxury of talking about a topic two weeks in a row. And I always wish I could, because I know you have of you won't remember. I don't even remember it half the time, so it's good for me to do it. But we're going to talk about this subject again from a little bit different perspective this morning. If you're someone that's here and you're checking out God and faith and maybe coming back to God, exploring CCC, if you were here last week, I said it might be uncomfortable. But I'm going to change the perspective this week, because I think if you claim to be a Christ follower, if Jesus is someone who's important to your life, I think this week is going to be more challenging for you. And if you're not a Christ follower, I think what Jesus is going to have to say will be very insightful for you, because there's a lot of times that people talk about Christians and religious people, and they say, oh, there are a bunch of hypocrites, and that's because they, what they say and what they do doesn't match. This morning, you're going to hear what Jesus says for them to do, and then you can use that as your gauge. So that's what we're going to do this morning. If you have your Bibles, if you would turn to Luke chapter 12, Luke chapter 12, if you don't have a Bible, our guys have some, they're passing those out and making them available to you, if you have your wireless device, you can connect on the internet here and follow us along on you version, Luke chapter 12 is where we're going to be at. And we've been going through a series this summer on the parables, and the parables are stories that Jesus told, and they're stories that really are a follow-up to his most famous sermon called The Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount was the most famous message Jesus preached when he showed up here on the earth. And then he spent the next three years telling stories so that we would understand what he meant in The Sermon on the Mount. And these are not stories where he says, well, I'm going to tell you, you remember that thing I said, well, let me tell you that thing, and then, no, that's not how he does it. He just starts telling a story. And in the midst of telling a story, nearly every time that story does not go the direction you think it's going to go. It always goes somewhere to the right, somewhere to the left, and you're like, where did that come from? And invariably, sometimes the story points directly at you and at me. And so that's what the parables are about. And we're going to look at another parable that talks about Jesus' return. Now, this whole idea of Jesus' return is a bit confusing for me. As a child growing up, I grew up in the church. My dad was a pastor. And my first exposure to the fact that Jesus was going to come back was a series of movies that they showed in our church. And those movies were called The Thief in the Night. And if you see those movies, all they did was scare the snot out of me as a little kid. That's about all they did. I dreamt of the guillotine coming down in the middle of the night. And the balloon floating up in the middle. So I'm like, oh, yeah, that was a little creepy. That was my first exposure. So my thought about Jesus returning was something I was scared to death of. This was going to come. And then when I got into high school, I went to a private school and there was a teacher that I had named Walter Shrek. And he's a guy from Germany. He had a German accent. And he would always talk about Jesus' return. And somewhere along the way, he'd come up with this idea. He'd calculated when Jesus was going to return. And we would say, but do you don't know the day? Or I'd say, but it doesn't say you don't know the year. And so somehow, I don't know how he calculated from 1940 a whole generation of when the Israel became a nation and then other seven years and so on. His mind, 1987, is when Jesus was going to come back. And that kind of always left me a little traumatized. Because as a kid growing up, I thought, I'm not quite ready for Jesus to come back yet. Not quite ready. I was kind of looking forward to meeting someone and marrying them and all the fun things that come along with that. And that hadn't happened yet. And so I didn't really want Jesus to come back yet. And so I graduated from college and that was in 1987. And in the fall of that year, I was engaged. But that was the year he was supposed to come back. And we got through the end of that. And I was, it didn't happen yet. Still didn't get married. I'm looking forward to that. But then some goofball wrote this book, "88 Reasons Why Jesus Is Going to Come Back in 1988." Anybody remember that book? Another one. Another one. I'm like, here they go again, again. Because I wasn't ready for Jesus to come back. I was looking forward to getting married and having a family and raising kids and seeing what God had for me to do and that involved starting a church. And I wasn't quite ready for all of that to take place. And I often find myself, when I think of this subject, not really sure what to do with it. Because if you had asked me, do I think Jesus is going to return, I would say, absolutely yes. Do you know when he's going to return? Absolutely don't. No idea. So what am I supposed to do while I'm waiting? And it just created a lot of uncertainty and a lot of angst for me personally as a Christ follower. And this morning, we're going to look at a parable in which I think this is what Jesus is pointing at. He's talking about what does my life look like during the in-between, during the in-between. If you have your Bibles, if you would turn with me to Luke chapter 12, Luke chapter 12, we're going to look at a story that starts in verse 35. Let me read a couple verses to you. Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning. Like the servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet. So that when he comes and knocks, they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds him watching when he comes. So Jesus doesn't really introduce the parable. Sometimes he introduces it. Somebody gives a comparison, but he just kind of launches in this whole idea of being ready. And the first thing he talks about is he said, get dressed. Get dressed. And that seems kind of odd statement for us, but in that culture, and you see it when you see pictures on TV or if you travel to the Middle East, you know, especially in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries where they wear robes and they wear layers of robes. And the reason they wear layers of robes that are loose fittings and allows the air to circulate and keep your body temperature down, that's pretty important when you live in the desert. And yet those robes are not very conducive to quick movement or lots of activity because those robes often drug, they would scrape across the ground. And so you'll often see pictures with them with some type of a belt. If it's someone who lives in a tribe, maybe just a robe or something a little more formal. But when they're preparing to go somewhere and they have to either go somewhere quickly or they have to work hard at a task, they basically grab that and stick it in the belt and that allows their feet to be unencumbered so they can move rather quickly. There's a couple of places in the Bible where Jesus talked where the Bible talks about that. The Hebrews, when they were in captivity in Egypt and God was about to deliver them out of Egypt and they were getting ready, they were told to be prepared. He said to them, he said, get your robes ready to leave. And he basically said, get that up, tuck it in because you're going to have to move quickly. Another story from the Old Testament, the Prophet Elijah, when he had just done an amazing miracle and defeated the Prophet's abail and he took off running for fear of his life. It says he got ready to run and he picked up the corner of his robe and tucked it in his belt and he literally outran Ahab's chariot. Jeremiah, when he's talking to the people about being ready to follow God, he told them to get themselves ready by preparing their garments. And so this picture, this idea is an idea of getting ready being prepared. In our culture, we might use an idiom like get your shoes on. You can walk around the house barefoot, you can walk around the yard, but you can't really use a shovel and do hard yardwork in your bare feet unless you're a certain other denomination that lives in your bare feet. But most of us can't do that. If you're going to go run somewhere, can you run a little bit, yeah, but if you've got to go further, you need to have your shoes on. So we might say, get your shoes on as a picture of being ready. Another thing he says there is he says, keep your lamps burning. Keeps your lamps burning. We talked a little bit about this last week, but lamps in those days were usually made out of clay. The base of the lamp had some kind of oil in it. Then there was a wick that would come up. And they would light that lamp. But that lamp, part of the wick, would burn down. It'd have to be trimmed so it could keep going and they'd have to keep the oil because it would soak up the oil and that would allow it to keep going. And it kind of reminded me of a hotel chain that used a phrase like this to remind us to always be ready. Anybody remember what that hotel chain was? And I think it's going to come up on the screen here and what their slogan was? Keep the what on? Keep the line on, right? Keep the line on. That's basically what Jesus was saying. He's saying to these people, he gives them two pictures to say, be ready. Be ready. Be ready. And then he shifts gears. And in verse 36, he gives us a comparison. And he takes us back to exactly what we talked about last week. A wedding feast. A wedding feast. A wedding celebration. And in that culture, in those days, the bridegroom would build a home for his bride, often connected to his parents' home or on the same property. Then when the day came, he would get some servants and they would prepare for the wedding feast at the bridegroom's home. And so there was a group of people back there getting the feast already. He would then go with some other individuals to the bride's home with his family. They would have a wedding ceremony. They would leave her home, a procession all throughout the town celebrating announcing the whole town of this great and wonderful event. And then they would end up back at the bridegroom's home for the wedding feast. And so he says, I need you to stay ready, Jesus says. Just like those individuals that are selected to have everything ready at the house when we get back. So again, he's kind of given us that comparison and that story. And then look what he says in verse 37. He says, it will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Watching when he comes. And in that word watching or some translation that's waiting, it's one approach to waiting is when you're sitting there waiting for the airplane to get on a plane. What do you do when you're sitting there waiting for a plane? You're on your device, you're sleeping, you're talking to someone, you're not just there, right? But what are you doing? What do you do when the credits finish, when the previews finish rolling on the movie and the movies about the start? You're doing what? You're waiting. Full attention. This word can go either way, but I like to think that this is what Jesus is talking about. You know, that we shouldn't be, that not to be distracted with all these other things, but he says those servants that are doing this, they're going to be rewarded when the master shows up. And at this point in the story, you almost expect Jesus now to applaud the servants who are waiting, applaud the servants who are ready. You know, unlike the story we saw last week where there were ten of the, there were five of the virgins who were supposed to be at the house ready, they didn't have any extra oil and their oil was gone and they got locked down and there was no second chance for them. You almost expect Jesus to say, and you will be rewarded greatly if you are waiting, if you are ready when I return. But that's not what happens in this story. It literally goes a direction that surprises me, would have clearly surprised them, really shocked them, shocked them. Look what happens in the second half of verse 37. Truly, I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table, will come and will wait for them. That's fine. Let me ask you this question, who's the most important person at a wedding? Not a trick question. Who's the most important person at the wedding? The bride, right? Comes down the aisle in her father's arms, center of attention, right? Who's the second most important person at the wedding? The groom, right? The groom. And what is a groom responsible for at the wedding? Well, we know from John 2 in the story There of Jesus, we know that the groom was responsible to make sure all the food and the beverage of choice, that there was plenty of that, that it didn't run out and when there was a possibility of that happening, the groom was very stressed. That was his responsibility. That was his job. In our culture, what's the groom's responsibilities? The responsibility is to greet the guest and smile for lots of pictures and dance with his mom and his bride and have a great time celebrating the significance of this event. And in the midst of all of this story, the bride groom does something totally unexpected, totally unexpected. The bride groom makes his way with his bride, with the procession all throughout the town, celebrating and announcing it to the whole town. And they get to the place that they're there. And the bride groom says, you guys stay here. I'll be back in a few minutes. And he goes to the back of a house to where the servant quarters are. And he does something that they never in their wildest dreams would have imagined. They say, why not? Because in that culture, there was a pecking order, if you will, that was very strongly held to. It's going to come up on the screen here. The household rank, the first was the master, then his wife and children, then the steward, the foreman, the permanent day labors, or the permanent hired staff, the daylors, and then the servants. These are the people at the bottom of the totem pole. The least important people in the house. And what does the master? What does the bride groom do? He walks into that space. He takes off his tuxedo and sets it down as jacket, and he grabs an apron and puts that apron on and grabs a tray and starts serving up some food. And he said, hey, why don't you guys sit down and put your feet up. And here you go. Here's some food. And here's some drink. And let me know if you need anything more, because you've worked hard, and you've done everything that you've done this for all of us. And they're just stunned. They're stunned. The master never does this. Never does this. The master could have said, you know, they've worked really hard. Why don't we set a plate of pot or a food just so that they have some, because they've worked really hard to service. Let's set some food aside so that when they're done, they'll have something. The master could have said, can someone go check on the servants, make sure they're doing OK, and see if they need anything, make sure everybody thinks OK. It's not what the master did. The master could have just ignored them. It's like, eh, they have a problem. They'll come and let me know. They'll come and let me know. It's not what the master did at all. It's not what he did. I mean, imagine if you were the servant and the master comes through the door. Your first thought might be, oh, oh, no, what's wrong? We run out of something. Is there something needed that is some of the food not tasting right? Is somebody dissatisfied? Does somebody need something gluten-free? You might have just asked them all kinds of things like that, you know? Because in that culture, there's this pecking order that always existed, and you never violated that. And some of the servants might have pushed back. No, no, no, you can't do this. This is not your role. You have to go back out to the guests, and you need to be out there with your bride. We'll take it. We got everything covered. You can go out. It's a little bit like Peter when Jesus was with them in the upper room, and he took off his outer coat, and he set that aside, and he picked up a basin of water, and he knelt down to start to wash the disciples' feet. And Peter says, no, no, no, no, no, you can't do this to me. We should be doing this to you, and Jesus says, you don't have any idea what's going on here, Peter. He says, no, no, no. And Jesus says, yes, you must let me do this. Peter says, well, you're going to do it. I'll take the full body clean up if you're going to do that. You kind of almost assumed that the servants are just in shock, because the master never, never does this. I mean, imagine the CEO of your company coming to serve you a meal for no special reason at all. Just, hey, you guys work so hard. Why don't I come down and why don't I just serve you guys? You can sit here, put your feet up, let me get you some food. Anybody need anything else to drink? I mean, imagine that happening. And some of you are thinking that ain't going to happen until you know what freezes over, you know? This doesn't happen. The master never serves the servants. He never does. He never does. In the Talmud, one of the books that helped them understand the laws that the Pharisees had created, it said that one of the signs of honor is not to sit in the master's place, speaking instead, or contradict his words. And the master showed up. You backed up. You stepped out of the way. You said, how can I serve? That's what you did. But in this story, the master, selflessly and sacrificially, served people who didn't expect to be served. Served people who did not expect to be served. And in this very short parable, in these two little actions, it gave us a glimpse of what Jesus did. I mean, the first thing that Jesus did is he showed up on the earth, the incarnation. He left Heaven's glory. And he came down to live amongst us. And the first thing that the master did is he left the bridal part. He left the feasting, left the celebration left, where everything was grand and glorious and wonderful. And he came down to where the servants were. And then not only did he come down to where the servants were, but he gave what he had to them. And when Jesus died on the cross, the Bible says that he took on himself our sins so that we could be free. And so Jesus in this story gives us a picture of what his life was all about. He closes with these thoughts. Look in verse 38, he said, it will be good. Again, repeating verse 37, for those servants whose master finds him ready. And then he has this clause, even if he comes in the middle of the night or towards daybreak. Now, let me ask you this. How would you respond if someone shows up your door, knocking on your door in the middle of the night, and I said, are you ready, are you ready, are you ready? Someone would be pulling your gun out from underneath the bed and ready as you go down to the door wondering who that is. Some of you put the pillar, was I dreaming? That's a bad dream. I'm going back to sleep, but maybe not then. How about a daybreak? Anyone ever had this experience, you're supposed to meet someone early to go somewhere, and you forget to set the alarm. And they call you and say, where are you? Oh, no, I'll be there in just a moment or I can't come. You weren't ready, right? You were ready. And Jesus says, the servants will be rewarded, who are ready whenever he comes. He switches analogies in verse 39, he says, but understand this, if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. He kind of takes us down another track. He said, just, you know, it's like someone's breaking in your house. If you knew when they were going to do it, you would be there, gun in hand, ready to keep them out, you know? The thieves try to make sure you don't know when they're coming. And then he closes in verse 40 by saying, you must also be ready because the son of man will come in an hour when you do not expect them. When you do not expect them. So what does it look like to stay ready for Jesus to come? What does that look like? Well, let me tell you a few things. I'm pretty sure it doesn't look like. It doesn't look like you can stop paying your bills 'cause, oh, Jesus might come, you know? How to work for a month or two, you know? It doesn't look like you can stop mowing your lawn and forget about that because you'll get a letter from the township in about two and a half, three weeks, you know, about that. It doesn't mean you can sit on your back deck and have a margarita, you know, every day, all day long. It doesn't mean you try to find a formula to calculate when Jesus will arrive or make scary movies to, you know, traumatize people about that. That's not, I don't think any of that is what he wants us to do. Say what, John, how do I be ready for when it's gonna come? I want you to think about this question. What do you hope you're not doing when Jesus would arrive? What do you hope you're not doing? You ever think about that? What would I not be wanting to do when Jesus returns? I mean, imagine you're just sitting on your couch watching the 18th episode of your current Netflix addiction, you know, when Jesus shows up there. Oh, you know, you're having an argument with your spouse. You know, you're going at it with one another and all of a sudden you see this total look of, I don't know what the look would be on their face and you turn and he's right there behind you. You know, time to go, time to go. Imagine you're at the computer. What can it porn? And you see a shadow on the computer and it's Jesus and it's time to go. You're doing something your parents don't know about and right that moment is when Jesus says, it's time. It's time. I don't know about you, but I don't think I want to be doing something that I would regret when Jesus shows up. You're like, why? I don't know what would be needed to just think back over the last week. Well, was there one thing that you did this past week that you hope certain people in your life don't find out about it? I think most of us could probably identify something. So if there's things we shouldn't be doing, then what do we do? What do we do? Well, I think this parallel might give us a hint of what that might look like because as Jesus is talking about being on alert, being ready, being sitting there, watching for him to return. He tells us about the actions of this bridegroom that do something totally unexpected. And then he goes back and says, be ready. Be ready. And I want to challenge you that I think what Jesus might be inviting us to do is what he might be inviting us to do is to serve people who do not expect to be served. Serve people who do not expect to be served. Let me give you a few examples. Students, that's your younger siblings. I'm pretty sure they don't expect to be served by you. They expect to be bullied, to be pushed around, to be mistreated, to be taken advantage of it every month. They likely don't expect to be served by you. If you're an employer, or you're a boss, or you're a manager, people who do things for you, do they expect to be served by you? (crickets chirping) How about someone who waits on you, in a restaurant or a store? They're serving you. Do they expect to be served by you? What about someone who's poor, someone who's at a financially disadvantaged position? Do they expect to be served by you? They're hoping someone will do something for them. (crickets chirping) What about someone of a different nationality? Ethnicity? Faith? They don't expect to be served by you. They often expect to be ignored by you, verbally berated by you, dismissed by you. What about someone who has taken advantage of you, and mistreated you badly? Do they expect to be served by you? No. No. And so what would it look like for you, and what would it look like for me of this week, our lives, and the activities of our lives, knowing that Jesus could come back at any time, and that I want to stay ready when he comes back, so that I'm ready and waiting. What if my life looked like, being aware of and attended to, opportunities to serve people who do not expect to be served, by me in a selfless, sacrificial way? What would that look like? What would it look like? You know, I have to be honest with you, I don't live in the reality. I don't live with an awareness that Jesus could come back at any time. I don't. Someone was messaging me this morning just asking me, you know, what was I preaching on, and what was the message going to be about, and I kind of told him the topic, and someone else jumped in on the conversation and said, "Jesus could come back today." I was like, "Yeah, he could." Just kind of, he could. I've been preaching and thinking about this for two weeks, but it just kind of hit me again, he could. Good. And what will I be doing when that takes place? You know, some of you, as I'm talking about this subject, you know someone right now, that God wants you to serve this week. You might even know what you need to do. You might even know it, but maybe you don't. You said, "John, what do I do? What do I do?" I'm gonna invite you, I'm gonna put a prayer on the screen up here, and I'm gonna invite you to pray this prayer every day this week. Let me read it, and then we'll do it together. God, help me to serve people who don't expect me to serve them, and help me to serve them with a selfless sacrificial love. You got something you wanna pull it out and write it down? Saw a few people doing this in the first service, it was actually a good idea. Pull out your phone, just take a picture of it, you wanna remember it, make it a little bit bigger, take a picture of that, so that you can remember it this week. Just say that with me, let's say it together. God, help me to serve people who don't expect me to serve them, and help me to serve them with the selfless sacrificial love. What's that gonna look like this week? What's it gonna look like? I'm about you, but I feel like God has made really clear to me what he wants me to do to stay ready for his return. And my prayer for myself and my prayer for you this week is that your eyes will be open and your heart will be ready when he gives you an opportunity to do this. Let's take a moment and bow our heads. I just wanna give you a chance to talk to God because some of you already know what you need to do. God pointed out a person, he even told you what to do and you do not wanna do it. And this is a battle of your will and your heart with God. (silence) Some of you aren't sure, and you just need to be open. Just take a minute and share your heart with God right now. (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) (silence) God, I think anybody who is a Christ follower doesn't wanna be doing something that they regret when Jesus shows up. And he returns and invites us back to be with him. (silence) And I hope this story stays in our hearts and in our minds and maybe we just read it over throughout this week, just reminding ourselves the actions of the bridegroom, which picture the actions of Jesus, which is what he invites us to do. (silence) And God, we believe you called us to love others well. It's part of why we exist. (silence) And we don't get to choose who the others are. We love to do that with people it's easy to love, but sometimes you call us to do that with people who don't expect us to do it. (silence) And so God, for those that need the courage and the faith to step out and do what they already know you wanna do, I pray that you would give them that this week. And Father, for those that aren't sure that you would just remind them throughout the week and every day and maybe even multiple times today, just to say this short little prayer and just say, "God, I would wanna be available." (silence) And I wanna serve others who don't expect it in the way that you've loved me. (silence) God, we ask for your help to live this out 'cause we can't do this on our own. And your name would pray.