Latest / HBCWestminster / 2.28.21 Luke 12:35-48 Pastor Danny Gardner

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2.28.21 Luke 12:35-48 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  If you have your Bibles, you can open to Luke chapter 12. Luke 12, our text this morning is verses 35 to 48. Luke 12, 35 to 48. And when you find it, if you're able to stand in honor of God's word, I would ask you to do that now as I read it. And then we'll pray and we'll spend a few minutes studying it. Beginning in verse 35. 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.
• 0:29
  so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed 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, blessed are those servants. But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into.
• 0:56
  You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming in an hour you do not expect. Peter said, Lord, are you telling this parable for us or 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 over all his possessions.
• 1:20
  But if that servant says to himself, my master is delayed in coming and begins to beat the male and female servants and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master's 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 one did not, who did not know.
• 1:49
  and did deserve a beating will receive a light beating everyone to whom much was given of him much will be required and from him to whom they entrusted much they will demand more and lord i pray a blessing over the preaching of your word may it be preached with conviction and passion and clarity and may we receive it for what it is the words of god and not the words of man and it's in jesus name we pray amen
• 2:18
  Amen. Thank you, church. You can be seated. We have a member of our church who was a police officer for many years. Over lunch one day, he told me that when he gets to heaven, he's going to walk straight up to Adam and Eve and thank them for a wonderful career. I always thought that was really funny. He says, you know, Adam and Eve kind of blew it for everybody. And I'm just going to go straight up to him and say, you know, thank you for a wonderful career. The story of Luke, we've said, is the story of the gospel. We have said...
• 2:47
  it is the best news for the worst people and even that's good news church because we're all the worst people none of us is good not even one of us the bad news communicated by scripture is that mankind is sinful and that the payment for that sin is eternal destruction eternal separation from god in hell eternal death that is the bad news but the good news
• 3:15
  is that there is hope for mankind by faith in the sinless life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is almighty God, and who for a period of time humbled himself, took on human flesh, became our substitute, absorbing the wrath, the punishment for the sin that we deserved, and passing on to us his righteousness. That is the good news of the gospel. Amen? Amen. That's it. But...
• 3:46
  Does it ever feel like we're kind of stuck in the story of the gospel? Does it ever feel like everything God was going to do for us, he kind of already did? Does it ever feel like the story of the gospel lives very much in the past tense, and now we're just kind of stuck here, just hanging out? Some of you probably watched the show Lost from about 15 years ago.
• 4:16
  the first two seasons were awesome heli and i watched it our friends all enjoyed it we we'd get all together we'd have lost parties get all together and watch this show and the first two seasons i thought were just awesome but then it became very clear that although the writers had a great idea for the beginning of the show they had no idea how it was going to end
• 4:37
  They began to do interviews where people would ask, are they all dead? And they'd say, no, no, they're not all dead. Well, is it representing the afterlife? No, it's not the afterlife. Well, is it like purgatory? No, it's not like purgatory. But then you watch the final season of the show and it turns out they're all dead. I mean, they're all kind of dead and it is very much like the afterlife and it kind of really pretty much is purgatory. Does it ever feel like? The Lord is one of those writers who had a great idea.
• 5:08
  started filming, but doesn't really know how he's going to tie everything together. He's just spitting out episodes to see how long he can keep people's attention. Does it ever seem as though the story of Christianity has kind of stopped progressing? It lived and it kind of died in the past. Do you ever feel like the psalmist who in Psalm 13 cried out to God, how long, oh Lord?
• 5:39
  In fact, that's even where we've gotten the title of our text, the title of our passage this morning. How long, O Lord, will you neglect me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy exalt over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord. Light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say I have prevailed over him.
• 6:07
  lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. Do you ever just get sick of the daily headlines? It sure feels like we're just spiraling, that our culture, our world, our nation is spiraling out of control. Does your heart ever break as you read the animosity, the hatred, the all-out wickedness perpetrated in our nation and across the globe?
• 6:37
  Some of which is done by spiritual pretenders who claim the name of Christ, who even quote the Bible as they are perpetrating this wickedness. You read about genocide and war, about oppression and theft, about sexual and gender deviation, about abortion. Man, it feels like Psalm 13. How long, oh Lord, will our enemies prevail over us? I've got to give a quick...
• 7:06
  parental warning, okay? And so if you right now are watching this with little ears, if little ears are in the room with you, then I'm going to encourage you to push pause for about the next five minutes of the video. Push pause. Set your little ones up with something somewhere else so that I can be very candid for about five minutes, okay? Set them up somewhere else. Let them color for the next five minutes or whatever. Push pause.
• 7:31
  Set them up someplace, and then I'll let you know in about five minutes when to bring them back into the room. Okay, so do that now. If you've got little ones, I'm going to say under the age of junior high. If they're elementary or younger listening, push pause because the next five minutes of the sermon are going to be rated PG-13. Okay, so you can do that now. Okay, just a couple of weeks ago on February 4th, the bill that has been dubbed the Born Alive Abortion Bill failed to pass the Senate again.
• 8:07
  It has failed several times. That bill, the Born Alive bill, would protect newborns that survive abortions by requiring appropriate care and admission to a hospital. So let me just tell you what that just said. There are sometimes women who come in who are very late in their pregnancy, eight, nine months, even up to their due date, will come in and demand an abortion. Even on their due date will demand an abortion, okay?
• 8:37
  the doctor who is going to perform that abortion botches the procedure now normally when a doctor botches a medical procedure that ends in death but in this case botching the procedure means it ends in life the baby rather than being aborted has been born alive and now there is this dilemma
• 8:58
  Because now there is this delivered living baby. What do we do with it? The born alive bill would require doctors and hospitals to administer care, medical care to this baby to preserve its life. Currently, there is no bill in place, which means that what happens now is that those babies are typically neglected and thrown away to die. That's literally what's happening right now. And so this bill would protect those.
• 9:28
  born babies the legislation requires that when an abortion results in the live birth of an infant so the baby is delivered rather than aborted health care practitioners must exercise the same degree of professional skill and care to protect the newborn as would be offered to any other child born alive at the same gestational age it also requires that the living child after appropriate care has been given be immediately transported and admitted to a hospital now to be honest church
• 9:57
  I am astounded that that law doesn't already exist. But not only does it not exist, it is being proposed year after year in the Senate, and senators, shame on them, but senators are actually voting against it to the point that it cannot pass. It fails year after year after year. And we have been told by many of these same politicians that those instances, babies being born alive,
• 10:27
  are so rare that they need not even be talked about that's what we're told that never happens but the washington post has reported that one abortion doctor in philadelphia ended hundreds of pregnancies after first delivering the baby alive and then severing its spinal cord at the back of the neck with a pair of scissors this dude a doctor
• 11:00
  He doesn't deserve that title, but he went to medical school. Purposefully, that is how he did his abortions, was to deliver the baby alive. And then he'd take a pair of scissors. Can you imagine that? And he would kill the baby. They report, and I quote, these killings became so routine that no one could put an exact number on them. In other words, they were countless. They were considered, quote, standard procedure. That's exactly how he's been doing them.
• 11:32
  That's exactly how he's been doing it. They're not rare. They're so common that they can't even be counted. Countless numbers of these babies being killed, born alive, and then aborted. Ruth Graham Lotz, that's Billy Graham's daughter. Ruth Graham Lotz has been quoted as saying this, if Jesus doesn't return soon, he will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.
• 12:01
  What a statement. If Jesus doesn't return soon, he's going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. She says the things that were happening in Sodom and Gomorrah can't even compare, can't even compare to the things that we are doing now. We are practicing and celebrating, celebrating things.
• 12:21
  That Sodom would have been ashamed of never even perceived of and the Lord smote them with fire from heaven And if the Lord doesn't return soon, God is gonna have some explaining to do. That's what Ruth Graham says Okay Kids can jump back in. Okay, push pause again. Let your kids come back into the room Church with all of that in mind Everything that I just described the pervasive
• 12:52
  pernicious wickedness celebrated in our country do you ever just pray jesus do something do something end this what in the world how can that be real jesus do something and church he will
• 13:17
  He will. He will do something about it. The Bible teaches exactly how the world is going to end. In fact, it teaches it in great detail. God knows where the story is going. He wrote the end long before he started filming. Scripture teaches, in fact, that you and I live in what is known as the church age. Okay, now the Bible doesn't ever call it that, but theologians call it kind of the church age.
• 13:45
  Jesus came, he died, he rose, he ascended into heaven, and he promised that he would one day return. And so now we, you and I, live within the parentheses of his two comings. He came one time 2,000 years ago. He will come again at some point in the future. And now you and I live in between the two comings of Christ. And this morning's text anticipates that second coming, the day.
• 14:15
  the big day the capital d day that he will retrieve his bride the church and all will be made well the scriptures teach that there will be a time when christ returns gathers his people and sets things right and church scripture is as clear regarding the second coming of christ as it was regarding his first coming the second coming is a cardinal doctrine of the christian faith you cannot
• 14:45
  You cannot refuse to believe in the second coming of Christ and still say that you believe the same Orthodox Christianity that we do. The second coming is the culmination of all of redemptive history. In other words, there are all kinds of events that are still coming that haven't come yet, which conclude the gospel story. The gospel did not live and die in the past. It includes the judgment of God's enemies.
• 15:14
  The glorification of God's sons and daughters, it ends with Christ exalted and on his throne. Hear what one pastor has said regarding the second coming. History has a clear and unambiguous end.
• 15:28
  Anyone who minimizes or twists or obscures Christ's glorious return has not only abandoned Christian doctrine but comes perilously close to breaching the severe warning at the end of the book of Revelation which says that if anyone adds or takes away from this book, God will add to them the plagues of this book and take away his part of the tree of life in the holy city. It is a perilous thing to tamper with the doctrine of the second coming. And so now let's turn.
• 15:58
  our attention to this morning's text in the midst of an angry and violent mob jesus began to issue a series of warnings first he said in luke chapter 12 watch out for the leaven of the pharisees which is hypocrisy second was a warning against the deceitfulness of wealth and he said in verse 21 rather be rich toward god third was a warning issued against anxiety
• 16:28
  As we discussed last week, anxiety doesn't even work. Jesus said in verse 25, it denies the promises, provision, and pleasure of God. Anxiety, we said, does not strip tomorrow of its trials. Rather, it only strips today of its joy. And this morning we find Christ's fourth warning in verse 40, where it says, you also must be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
• 16:56
  One pastor has called this a certain event, a certain event, but at an uncertain time. Okay. That is the second coming of Christ. It is a certainty. We just don't know when it's going to happen. The son of man's return, Jesus's return is imminent. It could happen at any time. And although there is a lot of debate about the timing and sequencing of future events.
• 17:20
  Even debate about the literal or symbolic use of language. One thing that must be universally understood and agreed upon is that Christ will return. That is a certain event. The Lord uses his second coming as motivation for responding to the gospel. To remove his second coming,
• 17:42
  is to remove the urgency of belief as we're going to see in that second parable that jesus tells when that servant if he thought his master wasn't coming for a long time it begins to slip down and degrade into disobedience the lord jesus church will come and could come at any time and so we must believe and be prepared in other words we must be ready and we must stay ready first in verse 35 by being dressed for action
• 18:11
  Be ready and stay ready by being dressed for action. Look what he says in verse 35 Stay dressed for action and you're gonna notice there's a little hypertext number four translators note If you look at the little number four next to the word action and go down Into the end notes or sub notes footnotes there the Greek could say let your loins stay girded Let your loins stay girded stay dressed for action in other words
• 18:41
  Keep your pants on. That's what he's saying. Let your loins stay girded. Keep your pants on. If you ain't wearing pants, you ain't ready to go. Now, even in the time of Christ, even men wore robes rather than...
• 18:58
  pants and it would have been difficult for them to move with any urgency. You got this robe on. And so what they would do if they were going to work in the field or they know they had to run or do something like that with any kind of urgency, they would take their robe and they would tie it all up between their legs and around and they would cinch the whole thing down with a belt so that it would give them unrestricted movement. And this was called girding up your loins. It meant that they were ready to go.
• 19:23
  Those with young kids will understand my frustration when calling out to be ready to go. Boys, we're going to leave the house at 6 p.m. And although they may say, okay, dad, all they really hear is the next time my life needs to change is 6 p.m. Which means I can keep on playing games. I can keep on playing with toys. I can keep on watching a movie. I can keep on playing video games until 6 p.m. 6 p.m.
• 19:51
  is the next time my life needs to change and so at six o'clock when i say okay is everybody ready to go they say well i still need to get dressed and i need to look for my shoes and my socks no i'm not really ready to go any other dad's been sitting in their car in the driveway debating over whether they should just leave their kids like i told you six o'clock
• 20:14
  I told you six o'clock, that means a few minutes before, start putting on your shoes, be ready to go at six. You're just sitting there in the driveway, man, just steam coming out of your ears. Like I told him six, how many times, oh Lord, how many times? You ever just sit there in the driveway, just pleading with the Lord to sanctify you because you just don't want to say anything. You don't want to wreck your kid's spirits, right? You don't want to yell at anybody, but man, it's so frustrating. I said be ready to go at six o'clock and you're not ready to go. You know, church,
• 20:45
  Christ is kind of having that same battle with his own kids. All kinds of his kids aren't even wearing pants. They aren't ready to go. They're not ready to fight. He says here, if you're going to engage in spiritual war, you got to pull the loose ends of your life together. You got to be ready to move. You got to be ready to move fast. And that starts by wearing pants. Be wearing pants. Be dressed for action. Notice second, he says, be ready and stay ready.
• 21:15
  by keeping your lamps lit by keeping your lamps lit he says in verse 35 stay ready for action and keep your lamps burning in other words keep the lights on don't sit around in the darkness and accidentally miss the master's return be like those faithful virgins who in matthew 25 kept their wicks trimmed their oil at hand so that they would not miss the coming of the bridegroom stay dressed for action keep your lamps lit
• 21:42
  third be like men be ready and stay ready by being like men who are alert or awake stay awake be ready stay ready by staying awake look at verse 36 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 and at once when he comes and knocks blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes weddings in ancient israel
• 22:13
  We're different than ours. I've had the joy, you know, of officiating a lot of weddings, right? I've seen them done a whole host of different ways. But one thing they typically have in common is a definite start time. Definitely, we will start on this date and at this time. In fact, very common now for young couples to send out save the dates. Even before you get your invitation, it's a save the date. Here is the date and time of the event so that you can know and plan in your calendar.
• 22:43
  Most young couples plan their special days down even to the minutest of details. They'll hire a person, a wedding coordinator, whose job it is to make sure that things run on time, that things run smoothly, that they go according to plan. In fact, a lot of brides now, they don't want to just walk down the aisle to a certain song. They want to walk down the aisle to a certain song.
• 23:08
  a certain verse and even at a certain word in that song here's the exact instant i want to come down the aisle i want the doors opened on this word i want to take my first step on this word and then i want to end on this word right i want to get to the front they have timed this thing out it was not so 2 000 years ago weddings during the time of christ were indefinite events marriages would typically begin with betrothal
• 23:37
  that could last up to a year we would call it an engagement during that year the groom would leave to prepare a place for the newlyweds to live during that year the bride would prepare herself by making herself look beautiful an announcement would be made that a couple was betrothed and that their wedding would take place sometime next year sometime next spring the wedding will take place and when preparations were finished when the food was ready an invitation would go out come
• 24:07
  and celebrate well when do you want us to come right now right now come and celebrate okay well when would the celebration be over when we're done celebrating right come now and celebrate then the celebration will end when it's over which typically meant when the food and wine ran out all right so when the food and wine runs out that's when it will be over and the wealthiest people had the longest celebrations sometime lasting up to a week because they could afford a lot of food and drink now
• 24:38
  This is why. Can I just take an aside? This is why in John chapter 2, it would have been so embarrassing for the wine to run out early at the wedding feast in Canaan. Remember when Jesus turned water into wine? Right? They're having this big wedding feast. The wine had run out early. That would have been a real embarrassment. In fact, there were even cases of divorce before the marriage was ever consummated, before the wedding even ended. They would call off the celebration right there because of the offense of the wine running out.
• 25:09
  Mary, in that instance, in an effort to save face, to protect the reputation of that young couple, went to Jesus. Do you remember this? She asked him for help. Jesus turned 180 gallons of water into wine. 180 gallons. That'd be about six bathtubs full of water into wine. The wedding celebration in ancient Israel would begin.
• 25:38
  when the groom would return and collect his bride. So this betrothal has been going on for about a year. He's been preparing a place. She's been making herself look beautiful. When the place was prepared, the groom would come into town to collect his bride and they would begin the feast. They would throw a party, which would conclude, eventually conclude with the consummation of the marriage.
• 26:06
  when the two would become one flesh that's when the marriage was consummated now this is the exact imagery we find in scripture regarding our betrothal to christ we the church are his bride he has gone to prepare a place for us that's in heaven john 14 says in the meantime we are preparing ourselves by making ourselves look beautiful through the washing of the water of the word jesus our groom
• 26:36
  will eventually come back when that place is repaired he will come back and retrieve us now i believe this is the rapture he will take us to heaven to celebrate that is the marriage supper of the lamb i think described in revelation 19. the marriage will be consummated when he receives his bride into heaven for eternity it is the exact imagery it's awesome
• 27:01
  You say, well, okay, when will that take place? When then is Jesus going to come back and get us? We've been waiting long enough. How much longer? How long, oh Lord? When will he return? When will all of this happen? Pick up in verse 37. He says, truly I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table and he will come and serve them. Describing this wedding feast, right? If he comes in the second watch or in the third and finds them awake,
• 27:29
  blessed are those servants but know this that if the master of the house had known what hour 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 at an hour you do not expect so when will this happen answer no idea no idea second watch third watch i don't know middle of the day mid morning middle of the night i don't know right i don't know
• 27:53
  So you've just got to be ready all the time. Like the guy who assumes his house is going to get broken into. If I knew when he was going to come, I'd have been prepared in that moment. But because I don't know when the thief is going to come, I got to be prepared all the time. All the time. We have no idea when that rapture is going to come. We have no idea when Jesus will return. And so we've just got to be ready all the time. Just like those brides waiting for their betrothed grooms.
• 28:21
  all the time you don't know when he's coming to retrieve you so be beautiful all the time verse 38 even says stay awake 37 says if he finds you awake 38 says if he finds you awake be awake all the time ready all the time you know every now and again my wife hallie will go out of town
• 28:40
  She'll leave us, the Gardner boys, at home. And when Hallie is gone, when mom and wife is away, the Gardner boys go pretty much feral. We go pretty much savage during that time. We stop bathing ourselves. We stop doing dishes. We stop picking up after ourselves. Everything in the house just kind of goes wild as long as she's away. Hallie has learned that when I text, when will you be home? That's code for...
• 29:07
  How long do we have to clean up? That's really what I'm asking. Hey, how much longer are you going to be? Hey, how long is it going to take you to get home? It's really just going for how long do I have to pick up the house? Listen to what Sam Storms says on this idea. Christians should be constantly alerted to the possibility of that coming day, of the day when Jesus comes back to retrieve us.
• 29:32
  Christians are not in spiritual darkness or ignorance or moral indifference such that the coming of that day would be a surprise to any of them. Should they be alive when that day arrives, although they will have not been able to predict the precise time when it occurs, they will in effect be able to say, of course we knew it was coming. We've been living sober and circumspect and godly lives in hopeful expectation of its arrival. So he says, we're not going to be surprised when it comes. The Bible says that it was going to come.
• 29:59
  And hopefully, because you know it's going to come, you have been living in light of that day, in hopeful expectation of its arrival. And he says, praise God that it has finally come. Praise God. You'll be able to say on that day, praise God, I've been waiting for this. Eager anticipation of our Savior from there, Philippians 3.20 says. Do you want to be ready?
• 30:22
  You want to live like the faithful servant who expects your Lord's return, fulfilling your duties, doing nothing which you would not like to be found doing when he does? Make sure you're clothed and prepared to move. Make sure the lights are on. You're not wandering around in the darkness. Prove to be a faithful, awake servant so that you've done what you know is the will of the master. And fourth, finally, be ready and stay ready by remaining faithful. So be dressed and ready for action, right? Keep your lamp lit. Stay awake.
• 30:52
  and remain faithful look what happens in verse 41 peter says lord are you telling this parable for us or for us all in other words peter comes to christ he says listen is this for believers disciples followers of you or is this for unbelievers is it just for us or is it for everybody and christ is going to go on to share another parable of a faithful servant and an unfaithful servant the faithful servant will be rewarded the unfaithful servant will be punished
• 31:21
  And since you can boil down all of humanity into one of those two categories, Jesus clearly meant this warning for everybody. Not just disciples of his, but for everyone. Look at verse 42. And the Lord said, Who then is the faithful and wise manager? Who then is the faithful and wise manager? He's going to give a picture of what the faithful servant...
• 31:49
  Looks like now, honestly, church, I could have taken a whole other Sunday and preach just this parable. I'm not going to. I really just going to boil it down into he's describing two types of servants, the faithful servant, the unfaithful servant, the servant who lived in light of his return and the servant who neglected or forgot that he would come back. And so he says, who then is the faithful and wise manager whom his servant will set over his household to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed.
• 32:18
  is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possession. And so who then is the faithful and wise manager? You notice that the blessed man, the blessed or happy servant is the one who is wise, faithful, and therefore rewarded. It is the servant who has stayed alert and awake. That is the one who is blessed and rewarded.
• 32:47
  that's what he says look at the next word verse 45 but but conjunction of contrast we're going to contrast these two servants so there is a blessed servant a happy servant right a rewarded servant you put that word but there and now you start talking about opposites rather than being blessed
• 33:11
  here is the cursed servant rather than being happy here is the sad servant rather than being rewarded here is the punished servant verse 45 but if that servant says to himself my master is delayed in coming so he thinks he's never coming back begins to beat the male and female servants and to eat and drink and get drunk and so in other words rather than serving others begins to serve himself the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him
• 33:41
  And at an hour, he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. That doesn't sound good. Is this saying that that person will go to hell? Yes, that's what it's saying. The unfaithful, cursed, sad, punished servant is the servant who denies the coming of Christ, right? Lives for himself instead of for eternity and therefore has received his reward in full. He will receive nothing good in the afterlife.
• 34:12
  Verse 47, that servant who knew his master's 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 deserved a beating will receive a lighter beating. Everyone to whom much was given of him, much will be required. And from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand more. So in other words, Jesus says, you will be responsible for what you know. You'll be responsible for what you know. And he has been clear.
• 34:42
  about his coming he will come back the unfaithful manager we find is the one who is disobedient unruly and therefore punished we began our sermon this morning by reading psalm 13 where the psalmist just asked the question how long oh lord will you neglect me forever how long but listen to how that same psalm finishes in verse 5 but i have trusted in your steadfast love
• 35:11
  My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. Church, it is true. Our world is spiraling. There is evil being perpetrated that we can't even imagine. Evil that we can't stomach. And it makes us cry out, Jesus, do something. But church, the good news is that he will. He will. The Lord's return is imminent. And so how will he find you?
• 35:39
  It is so obvious that many are not ready. Some aren't even wearing pants. They've got their lights turned off. They're not living in eager anticipation of the grooms coming to retrieve them. They run the risk of missing their own wedding banquet. The Lord knows, church, where the story is going. We're not only a people of the past, we are a people of the future. We look forward to the return of our Savior, and we must be ready for that day. And Lord, I pray.
• 36:07
  That we would be a people who wait in eager anticipation of your return. Pants on, lights on, awake and faithful. Lord, we look forward. We do not dread the coming of Christ, but we look forward to his return. And it's in his name we pray.