Staying Alert for the Coming of Christ

Lord Jesus, thank you for today. This is the day that you've made and we choose to rejoice and be glad in it. In Jesus' name, speak to us by your spirit, help us to know your will and your ways that we might grow, that every one of us would grow spiritually.

Amen. The purpose and the call of God for our life is not for us just to eat and drink and find satisfaction in our work. You know, this can be a blessing from the Lord, but there's got to be more to it than that.

And we want to grow spiritually. Sometimes we can get caught up in what we see, the things that we taste, stuff that we're handling, and we can become church folks. Having a form of godliness, hi Gerson, having a form of godliness but no power.

No power to go with the way of the spirit, to grow spiritually, to move forward, to overcome, to break free from the shackles that bind us, things that have held us down. No power. And so we want to be certain that we keep our eyes on Jesus and we're in tune.

We learn to tune our ear to his voice. And if we're not able to hear his voice yet, we're still immature in the Lord, then surround yourself around those who are hearing his voice so that you can learn to walk in those ways. You know, Dan talked about finding rest.

You know, there's a proverb that says, I went by the field of the lazy man. I think it's Proverbs 24. You know, we get sidetracked on all kinds of other things that are important.

And then all of a sudden you look at the field, we've been doing some yard maintenance lately. You know, we missed pruning the blueberries last year, missed weeding the raspberries last year. And it was all overgrown with thistles and with long grass.

You know, and the plants don't flourish because the nutrients are going to all this other stuff. And when we see that, we can be discouraged by that, but we can also learn from that. And it says, I went by the field of the lazy man.

So this happens because we're applying ourselves to other things, but we're not applying ourselves to those things in our life that are overtaking us. The cares of life are getting to us. These are the thorns.

These are the weeds. These are the things that choke the plants in the natural sense and make it unfruitful. The cares of life, the deceitfulness of getting ahead, right, in our careers, in life, in our education, and the desire for other things, which includes pleasures, other things, good things.

And we all get caught up in these things. So what happens? Something, there's a cost that gets counted. And now, if you really want to get on top of these things, right, he gave Adam to tend the garden.

So there are obviously things that need attending to. But after the fall, he said, by the sweat of your brow, you're going to have to tend the field if you want the produce to come. And from that point, weeds began to come.

Before the tending was a lighter work, whether it was with the animals or with the trees in the garden. But now a heavy kind of a toiling was a consequence of sin that entered the world in death through sin. And so we are under this kind of toiling that comes as a result of sin.

But we have an antidote. You know, if we've been bit by the serpent, right, and the poison is spreading in through our bodies, we have an antidote, an anti serum, the blood of Jesus and calling on the name of the Lord and looking unto him and being saved. That's what happened in the Old Testament.

They looked unto him. They looked unto the bronze serpent on the pole that Moses lifted up. And Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself.

So we need to look to the Lord. We might be swamped and overwhelmed with the cares and things and how we're going to pay and how we're going to do and how we're going to plan. But looking to the Lord is where our answer comes from.

That's where our rest comes from. He is our hope and our peace. He has to become our joy and our salvation.

The lazy man, he does nothing because he's overwhelmed with the cares or with the weeds or with the thorns. And then the stone hedge is broken down and the wild animals come in and pick away whatever fruit there is. But we need to consider it well.

We need to think on these things. What happened? Like Dan said, take stock. What went wrong? A little sleep, a little slumber, little taking days off.

I need me time, a little folding of the hands to rest. And I'm not talking a spiritual rest. I'm talking a natural, a carnal kind of arrest.

And poverty will come. The devil is going to rob from you and your need is going to come because he's going to take from you all those things and all those blessings out of your life that God once gave you. I want to read something from Matthew in chapter 13.

Matthew chapter 13 verse 24. And Jesus spoke another parable and he put forth to them, saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. You know, we're in a season of planting good seed and we're keeping it watered and keeping it clean and keeping it free of birds and keeping it free of weeds because we're expecting it to grow and produce something.

But then we'll say, oh, one day I find out the boys that went for lunch with Uncle Sean and all of a sudden the area's dried out and there's some sections where the seed didn't come up. And then I see the ducks are eating the seed and because we got distracted. We got distracted with good things.

And it's a spiritual teaching about natural parable. And it says, a man, he put good seed in his field, but while men slept, a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. While men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.

Then when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. Something happened while men slept. Now that's all the portion I want to read in that section, but I want to look in Matthew in chapter 26 in verse 36, Matthew 26 in verse 36.

We need to sleep. God designed our bodies to sleep, but I'm talking about when our sleep becomes spiritual. When because we're discouraged, we try to sleep it off.

I don't know about you, but sometimes I get discouraged. I just think, you know what? I just need to have some sleep. And then you're going to just wore down.

I'll send you sleep and you sleep and you sleep and you wake up and you're still discouraged. Other people use substances to deal with discouragement. We don't want to be those who sleep spiritually speaking here.

The brothers had become tired. They'd become weary and they'd become discouraged. And this is the fruit of what happens.

And Jesus knew it was going to happen. And he exhorted them and they still didn't overcome. But we have the opportunity to overcome today.

Matthew 26, 36. And Jesus came with them, that his disciples to the place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, sit here while I go and pray over there.

And he took with him, Peter, the two sons of Zebedee. And he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed being Jesus. And he said to them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.

Stay here and watch with me. And he went a little further. He fell on his face and he prayed saying, oh, father, if possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Then he came back and he found his disciples sleeping. And he said to them, what? Could you not watch with me for one hour? Watch and pray, verse 41, lest you enter into temptation.

The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. We sang that song when men who hear refuse to pray. When men who hear refuse to pray, you know who they turn to when they refuse to pray.

If you don't turn to the Lord, you're going to turn to your governor. You're going to turn to your employees. You're going to turn to your boss.

You're going to turn to the bank. You're going to turn to somebody who can give you a bailout package. You're going to turn to someone who can give you a personal loan.

You're going to give you someone who can give you a handout. You're going to turn to some mountain, some hill, and you're going to start to call on them. But the scripture says in Jeremiah 17, cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength.

But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is in the Lord. And you see that the one man is green and is flourishing spiritually speaking, because his hope is in the Lord. Even in a dry time, he's still doing well spiritually.

Even in a financial crisis, he's still doing well spiritually. But those who call on rocks and hills and mountains, and they say, hide us from the wrath of him. And they have another way worked out.

And we go and receive counsel from ungodly. We go to receive counsel from some people who have no wisdom. And we don't receive counsel from those who fear the Lord.

And you wonder why you're in a hole, why you're in a corner. I'll tell you why you're there. Because you think you're seeking the Lord, but you're putting your trust in men.

And nothing will change in your life until you trust in the Lord with all your heart from Proverbs three, three and verse three to five, and stop leaning on your own understanding. And in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your path. You see, there's a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it is destruction.

So like Brother Dan shared, if you end up getting cut off from the vine, and you're at some dead end. Well, you can sit there at the dead end and cry until and call on on rocks and hills and, and call on the Lord also and hope something's going to change. Nothing's going to change until you get back into the vine.

Jesus said, I am the vine. And ye are the branches. His brother shared already, we need to abide in him.

Otherwise we can't do anything. So whether we have much, as Paul said, I've learned to be content whether I have much, where brothers brought provisions for him, and they brought encouragement to him and they come alongside him, and it refreshed his soul, or whether he had no one who stood with him. Only one brother stood with him, that you can be satisfied in his presence, that Jesus can be enough.

He can be enough for you. Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. When you say, well, how should we pray? Jesus taught the disciples how to pray.

I can break it down in very simple terms. When you're going to work, pray. When you're at work, pray.

When you're at home with the kids, pray. When things are going good with the kids, pray. When they're losing it and they're sick, pray.

When you have no one to help you, pray. When you're lonely, pray. When you're discouraged, pray.

Praying becomes like breathing. You say, well, we should pray. Yes, we should.

There's corporate prayer. We need to do that also because we're two or three agree. Ask anything according to his will.

He hears us. When we did that in times past and we agreed, God answered in a very supernatural way. But we also, like breathing, we need to pray.

You say, well, when did you pray? I don't know. I woke up in the morning. I was praying.

I found myself taking a shower. I was praying. I was hoping to put my socks on and having trouble.

I was praying. And so it becomes like we're always praying. Lord, help me.

Last night at midnight, I went to the kitchen to go grab a snack and I was praying. I fell out of the trailer this week, fell on, bruised my heel, fell on my back. I injured some organs.

I've been praying all week. I need the Lord every hour. We have need.

Our need doesn't come, it's not met by men. Our needs are not met by the church. Our needs are not met by what people can do for me.

Our needs are not met by what I think I need to get out of a relationship. You know, recently we did a little marriage counseling and I said something like this. If you're going into it hoping it's going to be 50-50, you're setting up for failure.

If you go into it saying, if my wife gets paralyzed and I have to do 100%, you will not be disappointed and vice versa. If you go in expecting to do everything and receive nothing in return, your marriage will succeed. Because there's times when you're going to get more than you deserve out of it.

And if we have that kind of a heart, it takes away grumbling and complaining and unthankfulness. I have another passage which takes me in another direction that I originally thought to read this morning. Mark chapter 12, verse 41.

You say, well, if I had more money, things would be different. If I had a better job, things would be different. If I had a job, if I owned a car, if I had my license, everything would be different.

No, if you have the Lord, all things pertaining to life and godliness are found in him. So whether we have or have not, it should not affect our joy and peace, our quality of life. And when we're content in him, he'll give us all the other things.

But you know what the problem is? As soon as he starts giving us stuff, we try and find a way to hang on to it or to improve it or to better it. And we get our eyes off of him and we start relying on his blessings rather than the giver of the gift. I remember a time when we were starting to build this house and we rented this moldy house across from Dan.

There's only people that seem to rent to us with so many kids. Black mold coming up the walls in the basement where we were staying. We tried to wash it but it came back a short time later.

But you know what? I had the most peace I had in a long time in that house. Even though we were working very hard. You wonder why? Because Jesus was with me.

Even with the black mold, I had more peace. Our circumstances don't dictate our spiritual state. If I had, then I would be.

No? Because of covetousness, that's why you are where you are now. You know the scripture says in Jeremiah in chapter 7, it says because of covetousness, because it's always trying to get ahead, trying to get established, trying to get a foot in the world. He says, I will give your wife to someone else and your children will go and be raised by other people.

Because even from the least to the greatest, the heart is given to covetousness. It's not content. It wants something else.

It wants a better husband. My husband's allowed. I want a better husband.

My wife is lazy. I want a different wife. My children, they don't listen to me.

I want different children. You know, I want a different house. I want a different property.

I want a better job. I can get an extra 25 cents an hour if I uproot and go over there. Not thinking of the Aharit, what's that gonna cost my family? And so with our minds, we think that we can solve all these things, but it's with the heart one believes under righteousness.

Whether you have or have not, our hope, our faith, our life must be centered in Christ, must be grounded in him. Here we see in Mark 12 41. Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and he saw how many people put money into the treasury and many who were rich put in much.

Now, if you were looking to get out of your poverty, you were looking to get out of your trouble. A smart guy would sit there beside Jesus and see who the rich were and how much they were putting in because they would, you know, usually show, you know, they'd empty their bag into there, you know, so people could see that they were putting in much, you know, just let people know that they're wealthy and that they're giving to the Lord. And you would say, you know what, brother so-and-so, I gotta, you know, if I sit around with successful people, I myself will become successful.

I'm gonna put my trust in this rock, in this hill, in this mountain. I'm gonna see if there's a way that I can get next to him and rub shoulders with him, maybe get some of his stock tips, you know, get a hot tip from him, you know, maybe get in his circle, maybe man please him a little bit, you know. Jesus was not impressed with the rich who put in much.

He was not impressed with them, but there was someone he was impressed with. He said, then one poor widow came, one poor widow came and threw in two copper coins, which is worth one of our pennies today, which makes a quadrants. And so he called his disciples, he grabbed all of them, and he had a teaching moment right there in the in the temple by the treasury, where people were dumping their money in and giving to God.

He had a teaching moment for his disciples and he said to them, surely I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given into the treasury, for they all put out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood. She gave out of her need. I want to ask you, who do you think had more joy? Maybe the rich had a little joy if they saw brother so-and-so who also was wealthy, seeing him giving a nice sizable, he might have had a little joy out of that, but that joy fizzled out like a sparkler.

I'm telling you that the widow had joy. She had joy before she came and she had joy after she came, because her joy didn't come out of what men thought. Her joy came out of giving out of her heart, giving to the Lord out of the heart.

Now it doesn't matter, I'm not just speaking about natural things, because the scripture says it's more blessed to give than it is to receive. More blessed to give than to receive. You say well I gave and I did and I you know did all that.

Sometimes we come for lunch and some of us give more than others and all that and you know we can say well you know I bought the cookies or I bought the meat and this and that. You know what brother we already had a big F on the report card. We start thinking like that.

But some people are giving out of their need. Other people out of their excess. The Lord looks at the heart.

You know there was a time I was in Mexico when I was very young and Lord I had no knowledge and they let me speak. They never should let me speak. I spoke from my head.

I had absolutely no content. I spoke foolish things about a car that I owned and was trying to wrap it around with some scriptures and was total jargon. Those people were probably way ahead of me thought oh my they brought this guy up this area.

But I was heavily convicted because every family brought a pot of food for themselves and a little extra for guests and they all at the end came to me on the bench and they offered from their pot something for me to put on my plate. And I saw the people in their poverty with such generous hearts to give. You know a little less for their kids and a little extra for the white brother that was there to visit.

They weren't there to expect anything. In fact they didn't give them anything but they did it for the Lord and I saw the joy on their face and I thought you know what I have joy but I don't have joy like that. And these people have nothing how could they be so happy because their happiness come from Jesus not in what they had not in their comfort not in the rest that they experienced because their heart was ready to give.

If we have this kind of heart how can I be a blessing today Lord. You blessed me with so much how can I be a blessing. Now well I don't know if that brother deserves it.

You know I don't know if he really earned it. Well you know what it's going to be a hard week for you because how many of us really deserve it and earned it. We're able to see all of our brother's faults but we can't see our own.

Who's as blind as my messenger whom I've sent. You know we got blind spots. You know the other day I was driving down the road and all of a sudden I you know I needed a shoulder check and and then I just started you know I started shoulder check and I started drifting and all of a sudden I just looked one more time whoa.

Guy was coming up really fast on the side of me I would have gotten a wreck. I'm like thank you Lord. Prayer again right.

You know because we have blind spots we see in part and that's why we need the Lord and if we come and find this common denominator among us something called humility right then there will be abundant supply of grace and love flowing out and in from us. What every part supplies right some of us we get the honorable part we get to come up here and share the word right and people say well wow that's a wonderful gift but what about the ones that are upstairs right now preparing for the lunch who are missing this word so that we can all eat. What about them? No one ever thinks about them.

The unpresentable parts or the one that prays prays for us nobody talks about the one that that has a gift of prayer you can have a gift to pray a gift of faith you can have these different gifts that nobody talks about yet these parts are equally or more important than this part here because this is what holds this is the lifeblood that holds the church together is prayer and seeking the Lord and and service what holds the family together the sacrifice of the people behind the scenes that are working bringing the money and the people who are preparing the meals and changing the diapers and cleaning up the floors when there's a spill and everything else and not only that it says let the widows be counted in the number who are 60 years of age or older who have washed the saints feet who have entertained strangers who have taken people in who have laid their lives down for others are you the kind of person who lays their life down for strangers do you have that kind of a love for people well if we don't have that kind of love then we have fallen below the kingdom standard you are not in the kingdom standard you are below the kingdom standard do you have people over at your house strangers you run into someone are you ready to see to give an answer of the hope you have in Jesus are you willing to share your bread with the hungry what kind of fast are you partaking in have you made sacrifices that to bring people to your place even one person a month to share Christ with them or to be a blessing to them or to help them this is the kind of heart that the Lord is looking for in his people and if we have that kind of a heart you know what we're going to flourish spiritually when someone needs prayer someone's in bondage this is the fast that he's chosen isaiah 58 to break the bonds of wickedness are you interceding for that person or for the sick to pray for the sick are you even bothered that they're sick we get bothered when our kids are sick but do we have a burden for others who are hurting so when you start to share in the burdens of Christ then it becomes your burden because he shares his burdens with you so that when men who hear would also then pray to start calling the name of the Lord start to intercede this is God's heart that we would be completely dependent on him yeah my kids i want to bless them but if i bless them and they start fighting over the blessings they start arguing who's the best you know then i have to take away those blessings you know recently i went and had a church little ball game there and then the brothers are getting so competitive and trash talking and and keeping scores and who's the best who's the greatest you know what you would think they're only in the Lord like a couple of weeks that's what the disciples were doing they have they didn't even have the holy spirit that's how they argued if we can't enjoy one another's company together without this kind of thing then we should shut it down it's not about that we should want others to do better than ourselves competitiveness does not belong in the church doesn't belong between brothers and sisters to compete for who's better who's best we need the love of God to flow among us because he loved us while we were still what sinners he died for the ungodly while we were still ungodly he died for us he bore in his body the sins of many it pleased the father to bruise him why because it was the only way for us to be reconciled back to him because what happened with Adam in the garden may we get an understanding of the Lord's ways that we might become a loving people a caring people a generous people a forgiving people a compassionate people a holy people set apart for his purposes in Jesus name amen