Good morning, everyone. Welcome here again to our morning service at Calvary Baptist Church of Turn. And once again, welcome to those who faithfully interviewed us via internet all over the world. It's over 100 countries already. Thanks God for that. Please open your handouts at number 63. 63. Take the name of Jesus with you. Number 63. ♪ Take the name of Jesus with you ♪ ♪ Child of sorrow over you ♪ ♪ It will do and comfort keep you ♪ Take it then where'er you go Precious name, O how sweet Of a word and joy of heav'n Precious name, O how sweet Of a word and joy of heav'n Take the name of Jesus ever, As a children every snare. If temptations round you gather, Pray that holy name in prayer. Gracious name, O how sweet, How overt and joyous, O the precious name of our sweet hope of earth and joy of heaven. O the precious name of Jesus, how with thrill our souls rejoin. When his loving arms receive us, and his soft tongues Precious lamb, O how sweet the birth and joy of heav'n! Precious lamb, O how sweet the birth and joy of heav'n! At the name of Jesus bowing, falling prostrate at his feet, King of kings in heaven crown him When our journey is complete Precious name, O how sweet Hope of earth and joy of heaven Precious name, O how sweet Our Heavenly Father, we are thankful for that precious name, the name of Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're thankful that Thy Word makes that name abundantly clear to us, who He is and why He came to this earth and where He is today. And we're thankful that we have a risen Savior who is seated on thy right hand today and interceding for us. We're so thankful that we can have access to that throne of grace to find grace to help in time of need once we are saved. We pray for anyone listening that's not saved that they might understand today the importance of repentance toward thee and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ that they could be forgiven and saved today. We thank Thee for each one that is saved that's listening and will listen in the future. Pray that each one would be encouraged to continue to grow in Thee and to serve Thee faithfully and to be willing to be bold and that voice of reason in this world in which we live. As we've mentioned before already, we continue to pray for the nation of Israel. We pray that many Jews, not just there but across the world, would see the importance of true salvation For those that are saved, that they would be growing in Thee, understand the privilege they have of reaching out to their fellow Jews to help them to see the truth. We thank Thee that Mr. Netanyahu has stated that he welcomes Christians in Israel. We know that hasn't always been the case, but we're thankful that he said that. And we just pray that the Christians there would be faithful and bold for Thee. that they can help others to know thy peace and blessing. We pray for the Arabs that live around there as well as across the world, many of them lost and steeped in Islam. Pray that they might want to know thy forgiveness and truth as well. We're thankful that thy word and thy Holy Spirit is working in every person's life, and we just pray that many would be saved in these days of grace. Do thy work here that we would honour thee in our thoughts and in our actions, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. And over to 292. 292, surely goodness and mercy. Number 292. A pilgrim was I and a wandering In the cold night of sin I did roam jesus surely goodness and mercy shall me all the days all the days of my life sharing goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days all the days of my life he restored my soul when I'm weary He leads me beside the still waters He guards me each step of the way All the days, all the days of my life Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days, all the days of my life When I walk through the dark, lonesome valley My Savior will walk with me there and safely his great hand will lead me to the mansions he's gone to prepare. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days, the days of my life And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever And I shall feast that the table spread for me And over to 347. Three, four, seven. Tell it to Desus. Number 347. Are you weary? Are you ever hearted? Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus Are you grieving over those departed? Tell it to Jesus alone Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus He is a friend that will know You've no others as a friend or brother Tell it to Jesus, O Lord Do the thorns float on your cheeks, and breathe in? Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. Have you sins that no man's eyes are heeding? Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus He's a friend that will know You've no others as a friend or brother Tell it to Jesus alone Do you fear the gurgling clouds of sorrow? Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus Are you anxious that you'll be tomorrow? Tell it to Jesus alone Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus He's a friend that will know You've no others as a friend or brother Tell it to Jesus alone Are you troubled at the thought of dying? Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus For Christ's coming kingdom are you sighing? Tell it to Jesus alone Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus He's a friend that we know. You know others as a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone. Of course, that song that we just sang is written with the context of Christians in mind. The unbeliever doesn't have that right to tell everything that is going on in their lives to Jesus. They need to turn to God in repentance. And actually, when we're telling things to Jesus, we need to also remind ourselves that prayer is always to God the Father in Jesus' name. So certainly Jesus hears about it. But we need to understand that there are people who think they're praying to Jesus or even some people who want to pray to the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us Jesus taught that himself that we pray to the Father in Jesus name and lost people. They can cry out to God for salvation, but they don't have that privilege of running to him and telling him, this is what's going on in my life, help me. Because they don't want that help. They just want him, they want him as a puppet that they control, but that's not the way God is. So the important thing is to know the true God, know his forgiveness, know his peace. And then you can have that fellowship that your soul longs for. You can have that when you follow God's way. We're in Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12, and we're beginning there today with verse 35. Reading to the end of verse 48, but we're not going to get through all of that today, but we're going to read it because of the context. So, Luke 12, verse 35 to 38. We'll stand please for the reading of God's word. Verse 35 says, let your loins be girded about and your lights burning. And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also, for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not. Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? And the Lord said, who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But and if that servant say in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to beat the men servants and maidens and to eat and drink and to be drunken, the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him and at an hour when he is not aware and will cut him and sunder and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers and the servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, to him shall be much required. And to whom men have committed much of him, they will seek the more. They will ask, so ask no more. Heavenly Father, we're thankful this morning that we have that word, thankful that we have the truth before us, and thankful that we can build our lives upon the truth. Thankful that we can be living in anticipation of the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back. As we look at our country of Canada and we look at the mess that our country is in, So thankful that we're not stuck with just looking at which man can fix this, because we know there's no man that can fix the mess we're in. But we're thankful that we have a Savior who does change lives, does forgive sin, does give eternal life to those who trust in Thee for their salvation. And so we pray this morning that as we look into these verses that we would allow Thee to direct us that we would set aside anything that would hinder us from hearing from thee, so we can receive the blessing that we need today from thee. May thy will be accomplished, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. The title of the message this morning is Living in Anticipation of the Lord's Return. Living in Anticipation of the Lord's Return. Every born-again Christian should be living in anticipation of that fact because it is a reality that could happen today before we are done this service. The Lord could come in the clouds and those that are saved will be gone. I've said that before, that if the Lord comes back, this building might still stand, but there will be no Christians here. And that's what the Bible teaches. When the Lord returns, all born-again Christians will be removed from this world. One of the things the Bible makes very clear to us is that our time on this earth is very uncertain. We can make plans and we can think that, well, I'm going to live this long and I'm going to make preparations for my children and for my grandchildren, but we may never get to see those children grow up. We may never get to see our grandchildren. And so life can be very uncertain for various reasons. Abel's life was cut short because his brother Cain was a wicked man and he hated his brother and killed him. Enoch lived to be 365 years old and God took him. Enoch had been a faithful man, but God took him at 365 years. Now, today we don't live that long. Methuselah lived to be 969 years old. Abraham lived to be 175 years old. People don't live that long even nowadays. There's a woman in the States, I believe she is. She's 106 years old. And she just recently donated the bullet that shot her husband during the war. She donated that bullet to some museum now. She's 106 years old. So she has lived a long life. God has given her much opportunity to know him. And that's how we should look at life. Whatever time we have, God has one purpose for us, one major purpose, and that is to get to know him. We need to know him. We need to know the true God. And the sooner a person gets to know him as their God and Savior, the better off that person is. For me, I wasted 20 years before I knew the Lord as my Savior. And I can't go back and change that. But I've listened to testimonies of individuals who got saved as children and then actually lived in that light. They pursued truth and they grew in the Lord. And the strength of faith that they had through their growing up years and so on, it's a blessing to be one of those people. So as a young person here today, if you're listening to me and you're not saved, you are wasting precious time. God wants you to know him. You have a very sharp mind. Young people have a very sharp mind. And you need to spend that mind and that energy on knowing God. Everything else will fit together. You're not missing out on anything by trusting in God as your savior. You're missing out by not trusting in him. So it's very important to know the true God and the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior and to follow him and allow him to direct you. Great blessing. So as we look at this passage, three things again that we want to note. For those that are new, I generally preach a three-point message. I just think it's easier for us to remember things if there's not too many points. And so that's just my habit. In verse 35, we see, first of all, a living hope. A living hope. It's not something that I wish it was going to happen. It's a living hope. It's real. So, let your loins be girded about and your lights burning bright. So the illustration here, in part, is that of a soldier. Your loins be girded about. The soldier needs to be ready for action. I remember some years back, the United States Army was in, I think it was in Afghanistan, if I remember right. But anyway, they were, at that time, I don't remember who the president was, but he was not a very wise man. And the instructions to the soldiers was that you're going into an enemy area, and the U.S. had already stabilized that area, so they thought. And so they were told, the soldiers were told, go in there, don't have your helmets on, and try to show the people that you want to be friendly with them. And the soldiers listened to instructions. They didn't have their helmets on. They had them with them. They didn't have them on. So one of the people, the native people of that area, came up behind one of the soldiers with a hatchet and chopped his head in half. That was the result of a foolish choice made by the superiors. Trying to be friendly, trying to say, we're your friends, we're not just these top-down people, but when you come to certain areas, you have to protect yourself. Because you're not much good if you're dead. So here it talks about having your loins girded about. Need to be ready for action. You can't have your clothes sloppy as when Joab came to, what was the man's name? And he had his sword by his side, but he didn't realize he was walking along, the sword fell out of its bolster and Joab killed him. What was the replacement there? It starts with an A, but I can't remember his name right now. There you go, yeah, right. We need to be ready to face the enemy, and the enemy, Satan, is always there. We don't need to be afraid of him if we're saved. We don't need to tiptoe around, but we need to understand, as we talked about in Sunday school, that's why you need to be careful who you're going to get your teaching from. I've said before that God does not expect Christians to be dumpster divers. We're not looking for that piece of pizza that might be stuck with all the other stinky stuff that's in that dumpster. We're going to the word of God, the pure word of God. And we know that when we open the Bible, we're going to find the truth every time. Now there are warnings given, but it's all the truth. It's all things that we need to pay attention to. when we have the Word of God. So anybody that you're going to choose to be your teacher, you want to make sure that that person is able and willing to help you to understand the truth. He may bring an illustration in from here and over there, but he's always going to help you to focus in on the truth. So any illustration that is defective, he's going to try to correct that by the Word of God. And that's very important that we come to that place where the word of God is our absolute authority, our final authority, it's our foundation, it's what we build upon so that we can help others. So let your loins be girded about and your lights burning. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven. Every born again Christian, you're a light whether you like it or not. You have the light of the world who saved you, now it's up to you and me as Christians to be effective lights, not to be cloaked in a shade, but to be as strong and as bright a light as we can be. And that's important for us to keep that in mind as we go through our lives. If you're a Christian, the Bible says that we need to be growing in the Lord. There's two things there. The Christian, the Holy Spirit immediately indwells that person. He is the one that will guide us into all truth, but we need to be receptive to the truth. We don't want to be carnal Christians as the Apostle Paul addressed in 1 Corinthians. and it's possible to be that. That's not a justification, but that's a fact. There are people today who are carnal Christians, and when there's a carnal Christian, those who are faithful need to come alongside and encourage them to get out of that slump and into living the Christian life that the way that they should. That's what God saves us for, and that's what we can be in this dark world in which we live. I believe that some of the problems that we're facing in our country is because Christians have not been bold enough for the Lord. We don't speak up. When we're asked a question, we don't speak up. When we meet a politician, we don't answer them correctly. Some years ago, we had a politician in our house, and he was with the Reform Party at that time, and he claimed to be a Christian. So I thought, well, I'm going to invite him over and I want to talk to this man and encourage him. and found out in talking with him that his theology was way off. He was with the Alliance denomination and had some very, very wrong positions and some very weak positions. So I tried to encourage him to take the Bible as his authority. And if he's called to be a politician, stand on the truth. That's the only way that he's going to be a help to anybody else. Of course, I was only one voice and he didn't, I don't think he took my advice, but that's our responsibility as Christians is to encourage people to believe the truth, to know the truth and believe the truth. And we need to always be living in the expectation that the Lord is coming back and could come back today. That's how we need to live. And if we take that position, it's gonna make a big difference in the choices that we make in life. It says in verse 36, and ye yourselves, like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. That's an important word, immediately. So we see here that Jesus is challenging and he's speaking here to the disciples, but he's speaking to any Christian from that time forward. Ye yourselves like unto men. And again, men in the Bible, the Bible is a patriarchal book. That's the way God designed it. It doesn't mean that women are less important, but women are not designed by God to be leaders. Women are not designed to be the protectors. The husband doesn't run behind his wife when there's trouble and say, mommy, mommy, save me. That's the other way around. The wife should be able to run behind her husband and say, daddy, daddy, or honey, whatever, save me, protect me. And the man, whatever the danger is, he needs to be willing to stand up and face it. And spiritually speaking, men need to be willing to stand up and say, this is what the word of God says, here's the answer, here's how you can be helped. And yes, there's a place for women to do the same thing. But when the man is around, he needs to take the responsibility and the leadership, because that's his duty before God. So like unto men that wait for their Lord. So here Jesus is telling us that we need to be living even as men in anticipation of the Lord's return. The word Lord is master. And the illustration here ultimately is pointing to Jesus Christ, and he is the master. So that's why the Bible teaches, I know there are a lot of people take offense to it, but the Bible teaches that when a person gets saved, They need to be taught and need to understand that Jesus Christ becomes the Lord of their life. That's important. He's the boss. And what God says goes. And so when we are making decisions in life, we need to ask God. That's why we need to be praying. We need to ask God. But when we're asking God, we also need to understand that I'm asking because I want him to answer me. It's not that I ask and then I go and do what I want to do anyway. I have to learn that the hard way. When I was a younger Christian, my goal, I think I've mentioned that here before, my goal was to be a farmer. And I said, there's nothing wrong with being a farmer if that's what God wants for you. My goal was to be a farmer. And my wife and I, we prayed about that. And my wife didn't know as much about me then as she does now, but we prayed about that. that God would provide for us to be able to get onto a farm. And at the age of 30, we moved onto our farm, drove onto the driveway, and a family of skunks crossed the driveway right in front of us. And I had a gun, but it was packed away, so I stopped the truck right there and found a stone and killed the babies, but the mama got away from me. I didn't want that kind of a welcoming committee. But anyway, we moved on to the farm when I was 30. I had five years in the belly of a fish, because I was fighting against God. I knew that God had something else for me. I didn't know exactly what, but I knew he had something else. But I was determined I was going to be a farmer. And so we were farmers. And miserable years, I'll tell you. because I was fighting against God. And finally, I said to God in my fourth year, I think, or four and a half years into that five-year period, I said, okay, God, I'm done fighting. And from there, we went to Bible school. And again, I've said before that I think the local church should be your Bible school, but I was in New Evangelicalism at that time. And that church was not equipped to do any training of men to any extent. So I went off to Bible school. We went off to Bible school. And God used those years in my life to help me to see the importance of taking his word as my authority. It was a new evangelical school and When I got out of school into the first church that I pastored, I ran into some real challenges, and I would call the school and they didn't have an answer for me, and it forced me into the Bible. And I'm glad. I could have just gone by what the school said to me and said, just do this, and it wouldn't have helped. I would have been in that cesspool of New Evangelicalism to this day. But I'm thankful that God had already convinced me by that time that his word was absolute authority. I could trust it. I just need to dig into it. And so as I've been doing that, God has helped me along the way and he'll do the same for you if you're saved. If you'll dig into his word, he'll give you the answers that you need to make wise decisions in life. So here it says, And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord." What does God have to say about this situation? What does God have to say over here? What is God's plan? And the general big plan we know, but we went through the Wuhan virus debacle and we needed to know what is God's plan in the midst of this situation? How do we read what we're being told in the news? How do we read that? And God gave us answers in that time. He didn't speak to me audibly, but he gave us answers from his word as to how we needed to do things. He'll do that in everything. When he will return from the wedding. So he's using the illustration of biblical weddings, different than our weddings today, but a biblical wedding that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Now, certainly in the situation described for us here, the situation in Bible times was that the man would approach the father of the woman that he was hoping to marry, and would ask for permission to marry that woman. And then if there was agreement between the father and the daughter on this situation, then the man was given permission. Yes, you can marry my daughter. But he didn't marry her right away. There was a betrothal period which usually lasted about a year. During that time, the man would go back to his house and he would establish his father's house and he would establish his own house preparing for the wedding day. And the woman would go back to her house and prepare the things that she would need for married life. And then at the end of that year, or that timeframe, however long they decided, then there was the actual wedding day. And when that groom would come knocking on that door, that woman would be anticipating him to be ready for him to come. She would be waiting for it. She would know the day. We don't know the day of the Lord's return. But in the wedding, there was an anticipation And even though we don't know the day, we should be living in anticipation and with arms stretched out ready for the Lord to come, waiting for that day. There are things that we have planned in this life, things that we wish to do yet at times, but there should be nothing that is more important than the Lord's return. I remember some years back talking to a young man who was not married yet. But he wanted to get married, which is normal. And so I was talking to him about it. And he had this long list of requirements for the woman that he was looking for. And I was kind of smiling to myself. And I said to him after he started listing off these things, I said, I think you need to get rid of that list. And you need to be praying and asking God to make you the man that he wants you to be. And if you are the man that God wants you to be, he'll lead you to the woman that he wants for you. And you may find her that she will meet some of those standards you have, but she may be different than what your standards are. Now, biblical is always right. A Christian man needs to marry a Christian woman. That's what the Bible teaches. But there are a lot of idiosyncrasies that are there that really aren't that important. Sometimes we make them very important. But anyway, then he said to me after further talking with him, he said, well, I hope the Lord doesn't return for a few years, because I want to get married first. I want to have children. I want to experience married life. I said, well, that's fine. But I said, I don't think that if the Lord returns today, he's not going to cheat you out of anything. There's nothing more important than knowing the Lord and being ready for his return, whatever time that might be. And that man is now married, his children, some of them are grown up already, and he's serving the Lord as a pastor. But you know, the Lord works his way and all we need to do is be ready. serving him faithfully and letting him lead us in the way that he wants us to go and that's the way of blessing. We can make plans but those plans need to be flexible so that God can change them and make them what he wants them to be. So we need to have our eyes open, our ears open. We need to be a light shining brightly and prepared for the work that God has called us to and living in anticipation of Jesus' soon return. The second thing, watchfulness is necessary. Watchfulness is necessary. Verse 37, blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching." Now, watching doesn't mean that we're just sitting around and watching. It means that as we're busy doing the things God wants us to do, we always have our ear and our eye peeled towards heaven. The Bible says that when the Lord comes back, he's going to come back in the clouds. I know that there have been times when I look up in the sky and I see the clouds and I think to myself, I wonder what kind of a cloud it will be when Jesus comes back. And of course, we don't know. But he's gonna come back in the clouds. The Bible also says there's gonna be the sound of the trumpet when he comes back. So we need to have our ears peeled to hear that sound of the trumpet. Of course, every born again Christian is gonna hear that. It doesn't matter if you go physically deaf you're gonna hear that sound because it's coming from God and it's to your soul and spirit. So every born again Christian is going to hear that. And we need to be living in anticipation of that. So we need to be careful not to have so much clutter in our minds that that sound is not clear. Nobody's gonna be missed. If you're saved, you're going. That's what the Bible says. If you're saved, you're going. The Bible does warn us that there will be different grades of rewards for those who are saved depending on our faithfulness, but salvation is a gift of God. We didn't earn it. So those who are saved are going to be leaving when the Lord returns. So blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them. So the Lord here now is going to be serving those servants that are ready. And there's a welcoming committee. And the Bible talks about the Merry Supper of the Lamb, the blessing that is awaiting those who are saved. A great blessing is awaiting Jesus in John chapter 13. he took off his outer garment, he took a towel, he took a basin of water, and he went and washed the disciples' feet. They were not ready to take on that task. They thought, we're not servants, there's no servant here, so why should we wash someone else's feet? And Jesus showed them, your attitude's wrong, it stinks, needs to change. And as Christians, we are anticipating the Lord's return. We're busy serving him. And when we meet him, he is going to welcome us with a welcome that we never have experienced on this earth. It's a great blessing. It tells us in verse 38, it says, and if he shall come in the second watch or come in the third watch, And find them so, blessed are those servants. So the timing is in God's hands. It's not in ours. It's in God's hands. Some years back when our children were younger, I had a concern for, you know, how are we doing in raising our children? What are we, are we aware of what's going on and so on, the dangers and so on. And there was a conference close to our town. And the speaker of the conference was dealing with the occult and the effects of the occult and how it was infiltrating churches and Christian lives. And so I said to my wife, we're going to go to that conference, and we did. And one of the things he talked about was, and there's a book by this same title that was called Turmoil in the Toy Box. Some of you maybe have seen that book. The man at that time, because I was still a New Evangelical then, and he was a New Evangelical, but in regard to what was going on with children's toys, he helped to open our eyes to some of the dangers that we needed to be aware of. My little pony, our daughter, liked horses. And different people would give her gifts, My Little Pony. And she had them, we didn't think nothing of it. But we found out what is the basis, what is behind My Little Pony. Our boys, Smurfs was a big thing back then, and we didn't know what that was all about either. And we were exposed to what is behind the Smurfs, what's the teaching that is going on. You know, the devil's very subtle. And if he can break down a family by getting the children off base and keeping them in darkness, he's happy to do that. So there were things that as a new evangelical, I needed to learn and needed to be aware of in regard to things that were going on in our house that we were doing out of ignorance. Well, what do we do with those things when we find out that there's something more going on here than just a horse? Well, we talked to the children about it. We didn't debate with them, should we do this or not, but we explained to them what these things are. And then I said, we're going to burn them. Not going to put them in a yard sale. We're going to burn them. If they're no good for us, they're no good for anybody. And then we replaced some of those things with toys that did not have any ulterior motors behind them. So it's important to be aware of what's going on, be watching, and part of watching is being aware of what you're accepting into your life and what you're allowing to influence you because it's going to make you lazy, it's going to make you careless if you're not careful. So we need to be awake and aware of what's going on so that we can be a help to others. And so these are important things that we want to pay attention to, verse 38. You see, there's a reward that God is providing here for those who are paying attention. Now again, everybody that's saved is going to leave this earth when the Lord comes. But the danger is in leaving in an unprepared manner, too involved, too preoccupied with the world, too preoccupied with the things of the world and not paying attention. Again, as I mentioned about my own life, God will make you aware of what he wants for you because he's a good God. He doesn't keep it a secret. If he's calling you to a certain task, he's gonna make that aware to you, and you're gonna know it. The question is, what are you doing with what you know? Are you following that? Are you obedient to that? Or are you saying, well, I might consider that later, but right now this is my plan. And our plans cannot take priority. We need to have plans, but they need to be adjustable. adjustable according to God's word. And so that he can fine tune us. I've said before that in the olden days, the bulldozers, they had two levers and you pulled those levers to get your direction and to move forward or backwards. And a running bulldozer is easy to move. But if it's not running, it takes quite a bit to move that thing. And God wants us to be running and he wants to control the levers. and he wants to move us closer to him. God's design is always to move us closer to him, closer to walking humbly and faithfully with him. In the disciples' lives, when Jesus was teaching his disciples at the Last Supper about his soon arrest and so on, the disciples were sitting there and they were wondering, Who is it that's going to betray him? And you remember, if you remember that account that John, it tells us, was leaning against Jesus' breast. But Peter and the general pattern, at least from what I understand, the general pattern that you see in the pictures of the Lord's Supper are not biblical. We have a long table with the disciples and Jesus in the middle. Apparently, according to Jewish custom, the table would have been more like a U-shape. And Jesus, or John, was sitting there next to Jesus, but Peter was off over here, and he should have been the one, because he was off over here, that would have taken the servant position and gone washing disciples' feet. But we know that Peter had a problem with pride back there. But he didn't hear the discussion John heard, but Peter didn't because he's over here and not close, not on the breast of Jesus. And the fact is, whether that's the right picture or not, the fact is that every born-again Christian can be right uptight to God. He's unique, he's different. When our children were young, I would sit beside my wife, and one of the children would want to sit close on the other side, and then the other ones would want to squeeze in there too, while my wife only has two sides. Or even with me, if they wanted to sit close to me. But generally, children at a certain age, they want to be close to mommy. That's okay. But you see, there's a bit of a competition that takes place sometimes, because there just isn't room for everybody. But that's not the case with God. We can all come and tuck right in close to him. We can be right there and hear his voice and be right close to him because that's God. He's different than we are. So the important thing is to be one of those that's watching for his coming. and ready to open that door immediately and ready to receive that blessing. It says, blessed are those servants that are ready on the second watch or on the third watch. Just because it's the third watch, well, he's not coming or it'll be a while yet. I got lots of time. We don't know that. We don't know that. Things can change very quickly. We need to be living in anticipation of the Lord's return. And then the third point we have is preparedness is a mark of faithfulness. Preparedness is a mark of faithfulness. So in verse 39, it says, and this know that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not have suffered his house to be broken through. There's the important factor there. If the good man of the house had known, and God intentionally hasn't told us when Jesus is coming back, we don't need to know that. We need to be living for him today. We don't need to be living in a carnal nature. Well, the Lord's coming back in 2026 on June the 10th. So I'm going to live like a careless Christian until June the 10th, and then I'm going to smarten up. No, it doesn't work that way. And incidentally, I'm not predicting anything here. I'm just using an example. He could come back today. And he has reminded me of that several times in my life, that my life is very uncertain. So is everybody's. And we need to be living in anticipation of His coming back today. Busy, yes, busy with things, but always anticipating this could be the day when the Lord comes back. So if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come. And of course, everybody would do that. We knew for sure a thief was coming tonight at 12 o'clock or 10.30. We'd be ready for him. We'd have our baseball bat or whatever. We'd be ready for that person. We're not gonna let him get in and do whatever he wants to. But we don't know that. We don't know that. So we're not gonna live in fear. That's not the point. We're not living in fear, but we're living in anticipation. He would have watched and not have suffered his house to be broken through. And the Bible uses the illustration of a thief in the sense that we don't expect them. Sometimes a visitor will come to our house, but the visitor will call or text or email, like to come over and visit you this afternoon. Is that okay? Sometimes they come unexpectedly. Last weekend, we had visitors at our house and we had no idea they were coming. just our camera that we have outside or by the window, tell us when someone's coming on the yard. And all of a sudden, the camera indicated somebody's there. And wouldn't you know it, our son and daughter-in-law and our daughter were there. They had flown in, didn't tell us anything, and they spent the weekend in the area. So, you know, those things happen. But again, we didn't have to run around. I used to tease my wife that when we were on the farm, And someone would phone and say, we'd like to come over for coffee. And then she'd be like white lightning. She'd quickly get out the dusting rag and clean everything up and make it look more presentable for the visitors coming in. And we used to tease her about that. But we don't have clutter that we have to all quickly clean this up or wait a minute, wait, we can't let you in yet. You need to be ready and certainly need to be ready. for the Lord's return. He's coming at any moment and we don't want to be caught in sin and be ashamed before the Lord as his children. And of course, Christians can sin. Christians do sin. That's why 1 John 1, 9 is in the Bible. If we Christians, it's talking to not anybody, if we Christians confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Christians sin. And we need to confess that. It's always wise to keep short accounts with God. Don't be like David who tried to hide his sin with Bathsheba and ended up committing murder in the meantime. And Nathan came to him and said, you're the man. And David knew it all that time, lived in misery as he's trying to hide his sin. And he'd been better off to confess it. And we are too, not hiding it, but confess it and then get away from it. Do what's right. And we can do that when God forgives us. We can be in a right relationship with him so that we can move on. In verse 40, it says, be ye therefore ready also, for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not. An hour when you think not. That's the reality of where we're at. This week, the different world leaders were at the United Nations giving their speeches. And when Mr. Trump was going to give his speech, first of all, before he even got into the room, they turned the escalator off and he and his wife had to walk up the escalator, not that they couldn't. But there were things going on in the UN that day that were deliberately set to affect the United States. When he got up to give his speech, the teleprompter didn't work. It always worked before that, but it didn't work for him. So guess what? He gave a speech off the cuff, a long speech, and he exposed the UN for what they really are. It was a good speech. From what I heard of it, I don't know if he did any cursing in there. He's known for that. But the things that he exposed them for, they were right. And then a couple days later, Mr. Netanyahu from Israel came and he gave his speech. And as he got up to give his speech, many Arab leaders walked out. United Nations, by the way, is not a United Nations. It's an Arab conclave. It's an anti-Israel, anti-God organization. And it does not do anything, as Mr. Trump said, it does not do anything of value in the world. It's a wasted organization, but it's there. And the world is still paying tribute to it. And so Mr. Netanyahu got up and of course, he talked about his position as the leader of Israel. and how that he was going to continue to defend his nation and continue to go after Hamas until they were no longer a threat. Whether he'll succeed in that, we don't know. God knows. But you see, he was talking about the need to be ready. Almost two years ago, Israel was not ready for an attack by Hamas. They were in turmoil as a nation. There was conflict within the nation as to even accepting Netanyahu as their leader. He was the leader, but there was a fairly large group within Israel that didn't like him as a leader. So there was turmoil, and that's why they were not prepared when Hamas came in. Their defenses were down. and they learned something from that. But again, their hope needs to be in God, just like ours does. And God showed them that their hope was not in the right place, still is not, but eventually it will be there. But for Christians, we need to be ready. We need to be living in anticipation of the Lord's return, understanding that it could come today. And so we want to be careful that in the things that we're doing, The things that we are aligning ourselves with, we want to be growing stronger in our Christian faith, not weaker. We don't want to put it in neutral and just be coasting. We need to have it in gear, always moving forward. And when the Lord says, turn right, we want to turn right. If he says, turn left, we want to turn left. He says, stop and wait a minute. We need to do that, but we're always ready. for what he wants of us and willing to hear his voice. Of course, we're not listening for an audible voice. We're reading the word of God. We're getting our direction from the word of God. That's what God has given us. That's how we hear his voice today. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. So we need to identify with the voice of God. Again, where do we hear that voice? The word of God. That's again why it's so important to have the word of God in hand. Be studying it. When the world talks about Jesus, there are many false Christs today. But we can identify the true Jesus. If you're saved, you're reading your Bible, you're going to a good church, you can identify the true Jesus. You can know who he is. and you can follow him. And then you can help others to come to know this true Jesus as well. There doesn't need to be all the confusion that there is today in our world. That confusion is there because people are not in the word of God. That's the problem. When you take the word of God and you believe it, you follow it, you study it and allow God to build into your life, that confusion leaves and you have surety in the choices you're making and in what you're believing and what you're following. In 2 Corinthians chapter 10, 2 Corinthians chapter 10, Verse three, it says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. So we're all living here, we're all human beings, we're all hearing people, we're seeing things and people and so on. Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. Now, the primary place to pull down the strongholds is in my own life, in your own life. We go to a senior's home in Notre Dame a couple times a month. We have services there. It's a Catholic home. And the chapel that we use there is definitely Catholic. They have images of Mary and of Jesus. And of course, we don't know what Jesus or Mary looked like, but they have images there and stuff up there. And so the good thing is they have a cable running across the front and they have a curtain. And so when we come there, we pull the curtain. So all that stuff is behind the curtain. But I'm not going to go there with a hammer and smash all those things. That's not my place. But because we have that opportunity to pull that curtain across, I do that. I don't want those people to be thinking about that in the time when we have our service there. And I mention that at times, too. Not always, but at times. How important it is for anybody and everybody to know the truth and believe the truth. So casting down imaginations. First of all, in my own life, I've had to cast down a lot of things from my past upbringing that were not biblical. And everything that I'm casting down, I'm doing it in the light of the knowledge of God, the truth. So God is my standard. The Bible is my standard. I'm looking at what does the Bible say? This is what I believe. Does that fit with the Bible? I'm not trying to change the Bible to fit what I believe. I want my belief to come into line with what the Bible says. So therefore, that requires humility. That I can recognize there's a greater authority than myself. There's a greater authority than the church I grew up in. There's a greater authority than Calvary Baptist Church of Trehearne. There's a greater authority and that authority is God and it's his word. And so everything needs to come in line with him. And when I live that way, then I'm living in anticipation of the Lord's return. I'm ready for him. I'm excited about it. And I'm wanting to help others in the meantime to come to that place where they too can be prepared for his return. So be careful. If you're saved today, be careful who you're listening to. Make sure that your ear is attuned to that trumpet sound. Make sure that your eyes are attuned to the sky, to the cloud that Jesus is coming back in. And make sure that you're letting your light so shine before men that they can see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. If you're not saved, you're in trouble. You're in big trouble. You're gonna miss out if you don't get right with God today, if you don't turn to him and trust in him for your salvation. We never have tomorrow. We plan for tomorrow, but you never live in tomorrow. You live in today. And so today is the day that you should get saved and start walking with God so that you can enjoy his blessings. You'll never regret it. Anybody that's a born again Christian will tell you that. You'll never regret it, that you trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ to save you, and then you started walking with him according to what the word of God says. It's a great blessing to know the truth and to walk in it. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're thankful this morning that we have thy word. We're thankful for the truthfulness of thy word, the privilege that we have, of being ready, we can know the forgiveness of sin. We can have Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, and we can be living in anticipation of his soon return. And I pray for each one that's listening today or those that will listen in the future, that each one would consider carefully where they're at today. Those that are saved, that we would be faithful in the study of thy word in preparation for that day that we would be encouraging others to also come to know that forgiveness and blessing that they can have. Pray for anyone listening that's not saved, that they might see that today is the day of salvation, that they would want thy forgiveness and peace today, that they could have thy blessing today as well as into the future. We're thankful that we have this opportunity. May thy will be accomplished in each heart and life. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.