Keeping Watch

The scriptures are written in ways by which they're to be read out loud, because most people, when the Bible was originally written, didn't read, so they read them out loud. And the book of Matthew is a continuous story, and when you pick a piece of it up, it has a setting in which it's important to see. In this section, Matthew has collected together a series of sayings that Jesus said about the end time, about the return he's going to have in this world. And you know, Jesus preached in one place and another, and we're sure that he preached the same message in different locations, and sometimes one of the writers will write something about Jesus, what he said, and he used the same story in another place, the same story. And sometimes they're a little different, like most of us, if you're speaking to one person telling a story, you tell the same thing to another person in another setting, it might change a little bit, it's still the same story, but it might change somewhat. Matthew here is writing about the end time, and what he said to the disciples was, I want to tell you that no one knows when the end is going to be, when I'm going to return. I don't know when I'm going to return. The angels don't know when I'm going to return, only the Father knows when I'm going to return. Well, the disciples wanted to know that, and he said, but here's the important part of it, I want you to understand that when I do return, it's going to be like the time that Noah and the flood was here on earth. The people around Noah didn't understand what he was doing and didn't plan for what was taking place, they were going on about their lifestyle, living like normal people do, they get up in the morning, eat their meals, go to work, go to sleep at night, they had no idea that impending doom was going to come, had no idea. And all of a sudden when the flood came, they were shocked, and they were destroyed. This is how it's going to be, he said, when I return. People will not expect it, and they will not be prepared for it. So I'm warning you that the end will come unexpectedly. The passage I want to read, Jesus amplifies on that just a little bit, not only will it be unexpected, he said, but there is something that you can do. Because even though you don't know when it's going to be, you can get ready. So in chapter 24, verse 42 of the book of Matthew, therefore, since it's going to come when you don't expect it, because that's true, keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this, if the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. There are two significant words in this paragraph that Jesus says. The first one is watch, keep watch, he said. And the second one is the word ready, be ready. These two phrases are key ingredients in Jesus' instruction to us about what we are to do about the last days when he returns. Now Jesus uses a parable, a little story about a man who has a house in those days. Houses in those days weren't built like ours, with the brick walls like we have brick. Oftentimes most of the people who had houses, they were built with mud bricks, bricks that were made out of mud, set in little cubicles, and they were dried in the sun, and then they would lay them to make a wall. The houses were often, excuse me, often just on plain ground. So it was very easy for someone to come to the house, to your house, and dig through your wall. It was just like digging in hard dirt, and it was not hard for a person to dig a hole in your house and come in. If your house was structured in some way with maybe a little harder, heavy stone, it wouldn't be difficult for them to simply dig a tunnel underneath the ground and into your house, because most of the houses just had dirt floors, and if you could dig underneath the house, you could get in, you could rob them of anything they wanted. The robbery was a very serious problem in the ancient world. It was a difficult problem for people to deal with. So what people did sometimes was they would say, well, I want to make sure I protect my money and the valuables I have, and so they would go out in the field somewhere, maybe a field that they owned away from the town, and there by an old tree, or by a rock, they would dig a hole and bury their treasure in the ground, because they couldn't trust their house to be able to protect it. That's where the parable of the man who was plowing in the field that he bought, and he hid a treasure, found a treasure, and he went and bought the ground so he'd have it, and the treasure too. It was common to be able to find, after a person had buried the treasure and got killed in an accident, forgotten it, or moved away, or whatever happened, to find treasures in the field. But they were protecting themselves. They were being prepared for robbery. So whenever a man had a house and he wanted to protect it, he had to first of all prepare himself. What is it that I can do to protect my house? A lot of things you might do. Hide his treasure in the field. You might say to his neighbors, I want your help about this, and you had to be watchful all the time. So he watched his house. Who are the people around me? What is the danger that they might have to come and steal the stuff from my house? If he was gone, he might need to enlist his neighbor's help and say, I'm going to be going out working in the field today. Did you watch my house? If anybody comes around who looks suspicious, I want you to go over and talk to them. I don't have anybody coming by that I know about. So he would be prepared and he would be watchful. Those are the two terms that Jesus gives to us. Now what does it mean for us? How does a person be prepared for God to come and say the world is over and now your life on this earth has passed. You're ready for your final reward. Well in the book of John, he describes to us what it means to be able to become a follower of God. To as many as received Christ, he said, to them he gave the ability to become the children of God. That relationship of father and child is made as a result of our trust in Christ. I trust that you are the Messiah sent. I trust that you do have the words of God for me. I depend on that. And so I'm listening to your words and I'm following your direction. So it is that trust in Christ that allows us to enter the kingdom of heaven or as John describes it, to be adopted into the family of God. That's how we have this relationship. Now it doesn't end at that point. What happens whenever you make that commitment is like a child in a house. You begin a life, learning how to be able to live. So you prepare yourself for this end of time by learning what it means to follow Christ, to live like he tells us we should live. You see, the idea that God has in the Bible is I am the sole owner of all the things in the universe. And I am the one who's in charge of everything. And I've made a plan as to how I want you to live. If you do that, you will find life in its fullness. Now if you believe that and you trust God, what you're interested in doing is finding out how to be able to live the way he wants you to live. Because if that's the way of life, you want to follow it in great detail. But when you have a child who comes and says, I realize that Jesus Christ is the Lord of the world and he came to save me and I want this now to give my life to Christ. What that child does is begin to prepare how do I live the way Christ wants me to. So you go to Sunday school and you go to church and you read the Bible. You find out you should honor your parents. And around you, you have your friends who are making fun of their parents, who are rebellious to their parents. But you know you've said to God, I'm going to do this the way you tell me. So as a child, you're obedient to your parents, submissive to them. You find out that you shouldn't lie or steal and all your friends around are saying, you know, I can go down here to the quick shop and I can steal some candy and nobody will ever find out. But you have said to God, I'm going to live the way you tell me. So you say to your friends, I'm not going to do that. Because you know that you've made a promise to God to live by his instructions. And so as a child, you're preparing to meet God. And when you get a little older, a teenager, preparation is a little more complex. Because there's a lot of stuff now comes into your life that's not as simple as obeying your parents and not stealing. And now you're at the age where you think differently than your parents and it's harder to respect them. I mean, after all, they're old. I mean, they're probably 40 or 45, you know, and times have changed in this world and they're old fashions. And all your friends are saying nasty things about their parents and you still remember. The Father said I should obey my parents and honor them. So when everybody's fighting with their parents about the curfew, you say to your parents, if that's what you think is the right thing, I will do it. You may want to discuss it with them, but when they come to the decision, you know you should honor and respect them. Now your friends are doing things a little different. They can go out and they can get drunk, even though it's against the law. And you have to realize that I've heard in the scriptures you should obey the authorities. So if they say that's wrong, my parents, the Bible, God, the law, I'm going to do what it says. You'll find yourself, though, on the outside with some people because all of a sudden they'll see you as a person not living the way they're living. You may as a man, a boy, or a girl, even find that the fashion around you is immodest and read the scripture where it says you should dress modestly and you may have to change your dress just a little bit. Because the Father has said, this is what I want you to do. And you trust your Father more than your own judgment and more than the judgment of your friends. Why? Because you believe He's the Lord of the universe. And you trust Him above all else in the world. And even though your friends may be doing things that you know God says are wrong and they try to pressure you to do that, you have made a commitment to say, I trust God more than my friends or even more than my own judgment. I've sat down and thought about this and I don't see any reason in the world why I can't do this except I've heard and read from the scriptures I'm not supposed to. So because God has said no, I'm not going to do it. And when you grow up with Jesus Christ as the Lord of your life and you're trying to live by His rules, you're preparing that in any moment that the Lord would return, you will be ready. That's what Jesus was trying to get at for us. Oh, and then you get old enough, an adult, to get into an adult world. Pressures are still there, you know. I mean, you have all these pressures on you, you get married. And you may find as you get married that that person you married is not necessarily as sweet and wonderful as they appeared at first. They have weird peculiarities about them that just annoy you to no end. They even do things that are, well, they're painful, hard. And you have to forgive them over and over and over again. But you've said to God, I'm going to live the way you tell me I should. And He says, you should love your spouse, and you should put them ahead of yourself, and you should forgive them endlessly as I have forgiven you endlessly. And so because I believe what God says, I continue to forgive my spouse, I continue to do good things for them even when they do bad things to me. And then there's that money. Oh, there's a world of things you can buy out there, you know. And you get a job, and you have a salary, and all your friends are buying all these things. And you read there in the Bible, it says you should give a tithe to the Lord because all the world and all the money in the world belongs to Him, and He's loaned you a little. Now He wants a tithe to let you remind yourself that He owns it all. You say, okay, that's right, I accept that. So I'm going to do it the way you want. I'm going to give the offering to the mission causes like you tell me to, and I'm going to ask you what do you want, and I'm going to give it to you. And then you find that people around you seem to have more stuff than you have, a bigger house, a nicer car. You start saying, God, you know, I'm getting left behind financially because of this financial deal with you. And you're really tempted to say, I don't see why I have to do this. Well, it's because you trust your Father. He tells you it's the right thing to do. And He said to you, if you will do what I tell you, I will take care of you. So a great crisis of faith comes to a lot of adults when they get to this place where they have to say, God, if I'm going to do what you want, I can now see real costs to this. And then you have kids come along. They're awfully cute when they're small, but man, they grow up. Kids are not nearly so cute when they get to the teenage years as they were when they were babies in your arms. And you're tempted with all the things that are going on to enrist them in every single thing in the world, every sports activity, all the things in the world. But you know, the Bible said, teach a child in the way he should go, and when he's older he won't depart from it. So you believe that. And you say, okay, you can't participate in all these things because the first thing comes for us here. And oh, does your child get angry with you, upset with you. I'm having to do all this stuff, all my friends are having this great fun. You have to make a decision. What is it that the Father says is the first priority for my life? And then you have to say, do I really believe this? It's a test of faith, you see, all the way along. Do I trust the Father? Do I trust what he tells me is right? And you have to do this in blind faith because you have no idea how these things are going to turn out. But that's what Jesus was talking about. You're never going to know when the time is that I'm going to come back, so be prepared for that. And then he said, watch. Well what you do when you watch your house is you say to somebody, I want you to keep looking at it all the time. If anything looks out of place, I want you to go over and check on it. Now the watching for us is to watch here inside of us, inside of our minds and our hearts. Have my passions changed? Do I love some things more than God? Have my values changed? Have I suddenly began to adopt the values of the people around me so I keep watch on myself? And how do you do that? Every day you sit before the Lord and you say, Lord? Is there anything in my life that's out of whack? Have I slipped in some way so that I've become more like the people around me and less like you? Have the values that I adopted when I was a young person and I said I'll give everything in my life to you sort of faded away as the price has become higher? I had a friend, one time he was president of Weyerhaeuser in Dallas and his company had some ground that it could buy, it had trees on it and they had a loan against it and they couldn't afford to pay the loan and Weyerhaeuser corporate headquarters said, I want you to buy this ground and then they called back and said, don't buy it because he's going bankrupt and we'll get it really cheap. And my friend knew that that wasn't a fair thing to do to let this, owners of this ground go bankrupt because Weyerhaeuser could buy it and had planned to and so he said to his corporate bosses, I can't do this, it's not fair and they fired him. Sometimes the choices of being honest and having integrity are painful, difficult and costly but there's the test, you keep watch on yourself, am I living consistently with what I know the Father has told me is right? Well that's hard, it's just difficult to do because all the pressures around us are there but what Jesus said is, you don't know the day that I'm going to return, you don't have any idea when that's going to be but if you want to be ready, you just have to make sure that you prepare for my coming every day by living in obedience and faith in God and then to watch yourself to make sure that you don't stray from those things that he said you should do. You see, it's not a bunch of laws and rules that God gives us, he tells us when you do this you will live and when you do this you'll live less and if you want to find life in all of its fullness, this is the road and these are the boundaries and when someone tells you, if you want to go to Larned, you go on down to 10th Street and take that highway and stay on it until you get to Larned, they're not trying to restrict your freedom, they're trying to tell you how to get to Larned. Now you're free to go north on Main Street if you want to but you won't get to Larned and when God says this is the way of life, he's not trying to hurt us or to pressure us or restrict us but showing us the road to life. So we're free to ignore that if we want to but if you want to be ready when the day comes, I want to tell you, he said, you prepare for that day. You get ready and then you watch yourself. As I was reflecting on this, I thought, I think I understand why Jesus and why the Father didn't tell us when he was coming back. My wife is on the Board of Directors of Life when two, three times a year, I'm not sure how many, she has to go to Nashville, Tennessee and she drives to Kansas City to visit the grandchildren and then she flies back into there, she visits more, so she's gone a week. Now when she's gone a week, she leaves the house all nice and fixed up, you know, make sure everything's in its place and I don't keep house the way my wife keeps house. And I eat out of the same dish every day, I mean I wash it off after I get through with it but I eat out of the same dish so I don't have to wash any dishes and I never have anything in the sink unless it's the pots and pans that I've eaten all the leftovers that she left me and they're piled in there. And stuff's cluttered around the house, you know, and if I have a project that I need to get done, you know, a sink fix or something, I work on it maybe a little bit on Monday night after visitation, maybe Tuesday night I'll have time to work on it but it's all over the place, you know, the tools and the stuff and everything's all out in the house. And she tells me when she's coming back. And so I note that, you know, today I thought she was coming back on next Sunday but someone at Washington told me she'd come back Saturday so my plans are going to have to be closer. And then whenever I know she's coming back, I go home early enough that I can clean all the counters off, wash all the pots and pans, get everything put up and stuff back in its place and I've got a project I didn't finish, I just pile it all in a box or whatever. So when she comes in, it looks roughly like it did when she was gone. You know, I figured out that if God said, I'm going to return June the 14th, 2013, there'd be a whole lot of people born 10 years ago that'd say, whew, now I don't have to worry about that until June of 2013. Then in June of 2013, they start saying, okay, now I want to get holy. I want to get religious. I want to have faith. Why are they wanting to have faith now? It's not because they trust God, but because they want to escape some danger. See, I don't change my lifestyle just because Carol's come home. I'm still just as messy as I was before. But I don't want her to be mad at me. I don't want her to walk in the house after this trip and say, oh no, now I've got all these things to clean up and I've got all this stuff to get back in place. And she would be overwhelmed with this. I haven't changed my lifestyle, I've just made sure that I got through this problem right here. God is not interested in you and I getting through a problem of the judgment. What He wants us to learn is to live a life that is victorious. And you can only do that in faith and trust in Him. He has your best interest at heart. He wants to be able to have you find a life in all of its fullness. That's what He says. Somebody said, why have you come into the world? He said, I've come that you might have life in all of its fullness. Now I know it doesn't look like it sometimes when you read all these things you're supposed to do, but that's where your trust comes in. I trust you more than me. I trust you more than them. I trust you more than anything. So if I live this life of trust, listening to God, doing what He tells me, it makes no difference to me whatever day He chooses to come, I am ready. That's what Jesus was getting at. I've heard some people say, well, I'm going to live the life like I want to. Doing all the things that my human flesh tells me are going to be fun and good, and I see all the other people around me doing, and then when I'm through with that, I'm going to come back and say, okay, now, Lord, I'm ready to live the rest of my life doing what You want me to do. Well, that person doesn't trust God because they think that God is in the business of getting the best, keeping them from the good things in life. They don't trust God's judgment. If God's judgment is trustworthy, everything He tells you that's bad for you to do, brother, it's bad for you to do somehow. Everything that He tells you is good for you to do is good for you now, tomorrow, and the rest of your life. If that's not true, you can't trust Him. But if it is true, then He has the words of life for us, and He wants us to develop a lifestyle of faith and trust, because here's the secret. In heaven, everybody's going to live the way God wants them to. If you don't want to live the way God wants you to here on this earth, you're not going to do it in heaven at all. So this is a time to get ready. Do you have trust and faith in God? If you do, Jesus said, it doesn't matter when I return, because if you'll watch yourself, if you'll prepare by learning how you should live, and if you'll watch how you're living, you'll be ready whenever it happens. Don't wait till you hear the car drive up in the driveway to start trying to clean the house. You don't know when they're coming. Fortunately, I know when Carol's coming home, and if I live long enough, I'll have the things kind of cleaned up so she won't be too disappointed to come home. But I don't know when God's going to come back. So every day, I have to start the day saying, God, help me to live the way you want me to. Is there anything you need to change? I apologize for what I did yesterday. Give me the strength to live as you want me to live. And I do that because Jesus said, you never will know when that time is going to be. Be on the watch and be prepared. Would you bow your heads, please, for a moment? I'm not interested in scaring you, making life difficult for you. It's just true that Jesus is going to return when none of us really know when or what the circumstances are going to be. So it's good for us to ask the question regularly of ourselves, what if he came now? Do you have some things that you'd prefer to clean up before he got here? The reason you'd prefer that is because you know it's not what he wants of you. That's what he's telling you. I want you to get this straight in your life. So if that's in your head, that's God talking to you. He's saying, you're not quite prepared. Get prepared. You're not watching what you're doing and you're stepping over the line. Don't step over the line. You just have to decide in your own mind if you believe God. If you don't believe him, then just go ahead. If you really think that he's telling the truth, then you need to listen to that. Now you may need to apologize for the sin that's in your life and ask his forgiveness. It may be that you've never really said to God, I trust you more than myself. And that's the big one right there. You have to ask yourself, is God trustworthy? Do I believe there is a God? Is he trustworthy? That's the big issue for you. Everyone has to make that decision on their own. But if today you know that he is trustworthy and you've never said to him, I'm going to give myself to you to follow your pattern for my life, then I would invite you to do that right now. God's here. In fact, he's talking to you in your mind. He's telling you this is really what you need to do. That's why you feel that. So you just say to him, okay God, I believe you. Today, right now, I'm going to say from now on out in my life, I'm going to live the way you tell me is right because I trust you. That's what you have to say. If you said that to God, but you kind of stopped watching, and you got off the track and you know you have, what is it he's told you needs to change in your life? You need to become a part of the church. He's made it clear to you. All these things are God's guidance for you. If you trust him, you will do what he tells you. Lord Jesus, you've been really clear to us that you didn't even know when you were going to return. You've been clear to us that there's not going to be any warning for all of this. You've made it clear, though, that there's a way in which we can live without any fear of tomorrow or today of you returning. I ask for every person you're talking to here that you would make it clear to them how they might be prepared. And I ask that you'd help all of us to watch ourselves very carefully that we might not be caught by surprise. And I ask that you tell us what you want from us. In the name of Jesus, I ask this. Amen. Would you stand, please, for just a moment? We're going to sing a song, an invitation hymn. And maybe God's told you something he wants you to do. You believe him, you trust him, and you're ready to do it. This is an opportunity for you to do that. If you want to commit yourself to Christ, if you want to become part of the fellowship of this believer, or recommit yourself to the things you've said in the past to God, this is your opportunity. I'll be here at the front, Hazi, Debbie will be here. If you want to come and share a commitment that you're making to God today, we'll pray with you and encourage you. If God's talked to you, trust him, do what he tells you. Without him, I could do nothing Without him, I'm surely fair Without him, I would be drifting Like a ship without a sail Jesus, oh Jesus Do you know him today? You can turn him away Oh Jesus, oh Jesus Without him, how lost I would be Without him, I would be dying Without him, I'd be insane Without him, life would be hopeless But with Jesus, thank God I'm saved Jesus, oh Jesus Do you know him today? You can turn him away Oh Jesus, oh Jesus Without him, how lost I would be Be seated just a moment, please. Brad came this morning saying that he doesn't feel that he's always doing what God wants him to, and he just asked that we pray for him and that he'd allow God to control his life the way that he'd feel fulfilled in that for us. So, remember to pray for Brad. Jack Chisholm came this morning saying that he has committed his life to Christ sometime in the past and wants to become a part of the fellowship of the Church. Part of our belief in the Scriptures is that you make a commitment of your life to Christ and you're baptized by immersion to show that your old life has passed away and your new life started. So, we'll be talking with Jack in a little bit and find out a little bit more about what he's prepared to do and help him to explain what this means. So, Jack, we're thankful that you want to do what you know you think God wants you to do and we want to help you step by step to be able to do exactly what God wants for you. And so, we'll be talking to you to help you know how to be able to fulfill what God wants in your life. Would you stand please for a moment of prayer together? We're humble, Father, to think that you care enough about us to alert us as to how to be prepared for the end of life on this earth. We ask that you would help us to be prepared. We ask that you would guide us so that we could watch and be sure. And most of all, we pray that our lives might reflect your character and nature to all the world. In the name of Jesus, we give thanks for these two who want to be obedient and follow you. And we ask that all of us would have the same commitment and devotion. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Shelley, what number is this? 625. Thank you. I lost my music again. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. I will sing, I will sing, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. Forever I will sing the mercies of the Lord. With my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness, thy faithfulness. With my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. I will sing, I will sing, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord.