We Must Be Prepared

Introduction

-Who I am

-Thank and Prop Up Casey & Staff

(Illustration Flashlights to all guests in Adult Service)

Prayer Over Service

The Who, Who is my audience?

Have you ever found yourself in a situation, in which, you were completely and utterly unprepared?

Personal Story of Being Unprepared

My Yellowstone backpacking trip in the middle of winter!

The Big Why, the purpose or reason!

In our walk as disciples of Christ, Often times we can find ourselves just as completely unprepared.

We can lose sight of our purpose, or calling!

We can become to focused on our physical wordly circumstances, neglecting our focus on Jesus!

We become overwhelmed and our commitment to reading and understanding Gods word is no longer priority.

We find ourselves just going through the motions and lose all intimacy in our relationship with Christ!

The Big Idea!

We Must Be Prepared!

If there is one thing you take away from today’s message, is this! We must be prepared and stand firm in our faith!

Being prepared and standing firm no matter what life throws at us. Was so important to Jesus he spent the entire Chapter of Mark 13, speaking about just this thing!

Introduction & History of Mark’s Gospel!

All of the current evidence we have has the writing of Mark’s Gospel, took place in Rome between 50-60 AD or 20 to 30 years after the Resurrection.

concensus that John Mark the personal assistant and close friend of Peter, from whom which he recieved and wrote down his eyewitness testimony!

We know by the style of his writing his audience was predominantly to those Jews and Gentiles in Rome!

*Disclaimer - Eschatology (explain) or the study/doctrine of the end times is one of the most debated subjects among Christians as a whole, but even among orthodox bible believing Christians! This passage with its parallels in the other Gospel accounts, is the primary scripture used to advocate for the popular “Rapture” doctrine, including pre-, Mid-, and post- tribulation rapture views. But it also lends itself to a much larger argument based on the time frame of the millennial reign of Christ spoke of in Revelation! These are called Premillennialism, Postmillennialism, Amillennialism. But, that isn’t our topic for today and we aren’t going to get into that! But, if you have any questions about any of that, get with me afterwards and we can help get you answers.

**But most importantly, except for extreme and/or heretical teaching on the end times. It isn’t a hill to die on, while it is super important we can disagree and still worship and fellowship with one another!

With that said, Lets Get Into This!

Read Passage Mark 13

Mark 13 is called Jesus’s Olivet Discourse, appropriately named for the Mount of Olives where he gave this specific teaching! This was his last time he would ever teach on the mount of Olives!

This passage of has been misinterpreted and twisted a lot through out history to try and support any number of heretical teachings on the end times.

It in generally believed that this passage has dual fulfillment, meaning Jesus was speaking of things that would soon becoming like the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple at the hands of the Romans in 70 AD. And it also has meaning for the “End Times” Christ 2nd coming!

Obviously at first listen we can hear Jesus place major emphasis on Being Prepared and Standing Firm. But let dig into this passage and break it down a bit!

What is Jesus asking us to prepare ourselves for?

Read Mark 13:1-13

Jesus was warning his disciples and therefore all Christians to Be On Guard and to Not Be Deceived!

He tells that there will be false teachers and false teachings that claim the end times are here or they will be at this date!

How many self proclaimed prophets over just the last 50 years have claimed to know when Jesus was coming back?

We may not have a bunch of people running around claiming to be the Messiah, but what we do see is a world who make themselves God and savior!

We have a society hell bent on replacing God!

Even over the last decade in the Church we have seen a massive influx of false and heretical teachings take root and lead so many astray.

How many times have we witnessed someone or even ourselves have lost faith when we face a difficult situation or persecution?

I walked through this personally not long ago after dealing with a very rough situation during my first ever staff position as an associate pastor!

But we can prepare ourselves to face these attacks and stand firm in our Faith in Jesus!

Not by our own strength or will power, but by the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us!

Jesus Commands us to Be Prepared, and Be On Guard!

But Jesus didn’t just warn us in Mark 13 of false teachers and deceptive teaching! But He also warned us to Be Alert, and what signs to Watch Out for, that Would mark his second coming!

Read Mark 13:13-37

See Jesus didn’t just tell us what to look for in False teachers, who come claiming to know the day of the Return.

He also gave us positive signs that would truly mark the season of his return!

Not the exact day or hour, but the season! Lets not get that confused!

Jesus gives us a glimpse into what it would be like in those last days! He gives us the tools to interpret rightly that season!

He Commands us to BE ON GUARD, and to BE ALERT!

Jesus makes a statement that really stands out in this passage.

RE-Read VS 19-23, where just as in the previous section of this passage. Jesus is warning us. But, he says that because those days would be so bad no one could survive, so for the sake of his Elect. He did show mercy and shorten the days of his wrath and judgement!

*** Now really quick lets define the word Elect!

We are told by Jesus himself that this life isn’t going to be easy!

We are going to face trials and tribulations and we may possibly even find ourselves facing the day of the End! Yet we don’t have to do it alone!

Jesus say’s something in VS. 22, that should wake up and grab the attention of every single one of us! He say’s “For false messiah’s and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible even the Elect!

This statement is massive and it shows us that there are consequences for letting down our guard, for being spiritually unprepared.

Yet not only does Jesus just warn us of the coming times, he doesn’t just encourage and command us to Stand Firm. He gives us the literal physical faith and strength to do so!

He gives us the ability to see and understand these coming signs, that would other wise be meaningless.

You see, This message is just as much if not more so for me as it is for you! I am guilty of falling short in these areas due to my lack of.

It is so easy to drug down and lose focus, then next thing you know that snow balls into a place where you have shut yourself off from the Lord and intern making the whole situation worse.

Take it from me, it can happen to any of us, no matter what our position in the church or how spiritually mature you think you are!

Jesus say’s Therefor Keep Watch, Watch out, Be Prepared!

This is laid out so beautifully in the Parable of the 10 Virgins that Jesus gives in READ Matthew 25:1-13

Explanation of the Flashlight illustration!

Being unprepared just like the 5 foolish Virgins, leaves us with a half dead flashlight and no extra batteries to replacing the failing ones!

Not only can our light not make it until the Bride Groom returns, but how affective is our light, the witness of our life change and faith in Christ when its super dim and can hardly be seen?

And Just as what I believe Jesus meant when he said if possible even the elect may be deceived. If our light is failing how would we keep from falling to the temptation of the enemy?

You see once the batteries start dying, and your light starts dimming there is nothing you can do to keep it from dying outside of changing the batteries.

Once dead we have no way to see what is coming, we have no way of seeing what is up ahead. We have no way of seeing those signs Jesus said would mark the season!

Application

What is the condition of your lamp? How bright is your light?

Are you someone who’s batteries are dying and your light dimming, just as mine was not long ago?

Are you prepared? Are you prepared, ready to swap out your dimming light with one that continues to shine bright?

I can tell you this, no matter how unprepared and hopeless you feel or think you are now. I am here as a witness to the Power of God to restore. To restore even when it is due to our mistakes, failings, and sin.

Jesus can restore that light to brighter than its has ever been and help prepare you to keep it that way.

Don’t get caught unprepared, Don’t let your lamp go out!

No matter where you are or how bright your light is, I want to challenge you all to refocus your heart and attention towards Christ!

I want to challenge you to make a plan to be more intentional about the time you spend with God and in His word.

We can prepare ourselves by putting on the full armor of God, seeking his face, and putting him in his rightful place as Lord of your life!

This week Challenge yourself to intentionally take time to sit in his presence to seek and ask of him what you can do to be better prepared!

Alter Call

Now some of you sitting in here with us may not even have a lamp at all! You may not have ever made Jesus Lord and Savior of your life! If that is you and You feel God nudging you and know you can no longer live chasing the things of this world, trying to place them in that empty void that seems like no matter what you do it cant be filled? That’s because that can only be filled by the infinite perfect God, because that is his rightful place and nothing else on this earth could ever fill that void! If that is you here today, and you are ready to except Christ as Lord and savior. You will receive the blood bought grace and a new life. If you are ready to take that step, the Word of God is clear! We must genuinely and honestly call on the name of the Lord, repent of our sins, and we must accept Jesus our Lord and Savior.

Prayer

With everyone’s head bowed and eyes closed! We want to pray over you! We want to pray with you! If you are comfortable raise your hand so we can be specific in our prayers.