Be Ready

Introduction

Read Luke 12:35-40

Luke 12:35–40 ESV

“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, 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. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

QUESTION: Where have you fallen asleep that you weren’t supposed to fall asleep?

Explanation

Jesus tells his disciples to stay awake for what God is doing.

Kevin is teaching students about the seven deadly sins. He is discussing sloth tonight.

There is physical laziness, and there is spiritual laziness. Often they coincide.

Jesus compares his followers to men who are waiting on their master to return from a wedding at night.

He says, “The master will think kindly on his servants who stay awake until he returns home.”

One of the most beautiful illustrations in the Bible: “He will dress Himself for service and have them recline at His table, and he will come and serve them.”

Staying awake is sometimes really hard. Staying awake is also SO worth it.

Jesus warns against a careless life.

Jesus says that one who is not

Watchfulness

Watchfulness is the spiritual discipline of watching your heart, life and words, that you would not stray from the Lord.

One of the best books I have read in the last 5 years is “Watchfulness” by Brian Hedges.

Like watchmen on the way of a city, so we watch our souls that they would not become beset with sins.

Thomas Brooks, “Watchfulness includes a waking, a rousing up of the soul. It is a continual, careful observing of our hearts and ways, in all the turning of our lives, that we would keep close to God and His word.”

Psalm 130:6 “my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.”

Watchfulness is a combination of four things: wakefulness, attentiveness, vigilance, and expectancy.

Wakefulness: We have to be awake to the things of God.

In college, a friend of mine and I went to a concert. About 2 miles from the house, I noticed that he hadn’t gone forward when the light turned green. He fell asleep at the red light. It startled me.

Sleepiness for the Christian is dangerous.

What causes Christians to become sleepy in their walk with Jesus?

Attentiveness: We have to be attentive to the things around us. To be watchful is to consider, notice, and be alert to the things happening around us.

Satan rarely knocks us on the forehead with a temptation. He often lures us to disobedience by desensitizing us to the things that happen.

How is the morality of the day accepted around us? One small step over the line at a time.

Hebrews 2:1 “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.”

John Owen, Puritan pastor, said that we should be attentive not only to the world, but to Christ, Himself.

Vigilance

We must consistently beat back at the weeds of our lives.

How many of you would be content having your lawn mowed once a year? Would it look good? of course not.

Your spiritual life is the same way.

What do we have vigilance against?

The world

The flesh

Satan

How can you exercise vigilance in your spiritual life?

Expectancy

We sometimes forget that God continues to move.

Psalm 30:5–8 ESV

For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.” By your favor, O Lord, you made my mountain stand strong; you hid your face; I was dismayed. To you, O Lord, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy:

Invitation