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Our sermon will be on Luke 12:35-48; Luke 12:54-56

We have a website: https://tahlequahworshipcenter.com/

Saturday Oct. 30th is the Harvest Party - 5:00 pm

Get Together at Jim & Barbara’s house

Prayer requests:

Sue

Georgey

Billy and his Dad

Dorcas

Mark Wilson

Cristy’s Grandparents

Songs

Jesus Is Coming Soon - 171 - G

What A Day That Will Be - 693 - Eb

You Are My King (Amazing Love)

Waiting, Working, and Watching

2 Peter 3:11–13 NKJV

11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Many of you know that I like to hunt. Christian and I went yesterday morning.

When you are hunting, you look for sign. Some people just walk in and start hunting.

Others put a lot of work into putting up a stand, creating a plot, practicing with your weapon, and so on.

Then you wait.

While we were waiting and watching yesterday, we had had a few interesting things happen.

As Christian was getting his stuff ready, a meteorite went right through a cloud and lit it up.

Then after it got light enough to see, we saw a doe followed up 2 bucks and then another much bigger buck.

It was too far away to shoot with a muzzleloader and they were running.

We wondered why they were running and a couple minutes later 3 dogs came.

We weren’t successful, but we had a good time.

The point is that we we were waiting, working, and watching.

I’ve just given you my points.

Let’s take a look at the text about the 2nd coming of Jesus:

Luke 12:35–48 NKJV

35 “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; 36 and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. 38 And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. 39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 40 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” 41 Then Peter said to Him, “Lord, do You speak this parable only to us, or to all people?” 42 And the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? 43 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 44 Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. 45 But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, 46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. 47 And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48 But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.

Luke 12:54–56 NKJV

54 Then He also said to the multitudes, “Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is. 55 And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘There will be hot weather’; and there is. 56 Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?

Waiting

In this first paragraph, Jesus paints the story of some servants who are waiting on their employer.

He talks about it in a way that the people of his time can understand.

Instead of trying to explain every detail of what’s going on here, let me tell you a story that happened to me recently.

A couple of weeks ago, I was on call at work.

We were putting the project I’ve been working on for a while live.

I’m the build master so I have to make sure that the code is compiled correctly and that all the various versions are created and pushed out to the server.

If there was something one of the other guys couldn’t handle, then I needed to be there to ensure we could fix it.

The actually build didn’t go live until the following Tuesday I think, but we got it done.

Jesus even talks about how his coming is like a waiting for a thief.

Some of us have cameras and an alarm system that help warn us if someone tries to break in.

We want to be warned of the thief’s coming.

The main point Jesus making is in Luke 12:40

Luke 12:40 NKJV

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

Working

So what do we do while we are waiting. We don’t just sit around. We are to be working.

There are different variations of this idea in scripture.

Again, instead of getting into the details, I want to share a story.

Years ago, about 30 or so, I was working for a rather difficult boss. He was well known for being difficult.

He didn’t seem to like anyone. I remember one time him cussing out the boss’s son.

For some reason, he liked me. I don’t know why. Maybe it was because of my Dad.

I was told to clean up. I went around the construction site and just kept busy cleaning up.

I’m sure he was watching, but I didn’t see him and I didn’t care. I just kept doing what I was told.

In our christian life, God has given us different gifts and jobs.

A christian teacher that I listen to likes to say that we are to bloom where we are planted.

Now, let’s get to the bad news. It is often said that about 20% of the people do 80% of the work.

I don’t know how accurate that is, but I do know that some people do most of the work.

We are not here to be a social club.

We are not here to just have fun and listen to an inspiring sermon.

We are to be doing the Lord’s work.

If we are busy doing his work, then it doesn’t matter when he returns.

Having said that, God has given us all different gifts and influence.

Within the church, we all have different roles.

So, with me being the pastor, I will be judged harder than anyone.

However, the pastor of the church down the road may be judged different because he was given more.

Jesus ends with this in verse 48:

The New King James Version Chapter 12

For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.

Watching

When Christian and I were hunting, the cloud that the meteorite went through started lighting up.

I was confused at first, I thought how did it do that.

Pretty soon, I figured out that it was lightning activity.

It’s possible that it was a different cloud, but it was in the same area.

That cloud started developing and more and more lightning came and it moved off to the northeast. It was never real close to us.

What I know for sure is that clouds like that often create water droplets which fall down as what?

If we have a south wind, it will be warmer.

What about a north wind?

What about an east wind? West?

So we can determine weather patterns based on observations.

But Jesus is talking about his coming.

What were the Jews missing?

First of all, we know that Jesus came at the time that Daniel had set forth.

He came after the voice crying in the wilderness (John)

He was born in Bethlehem. I could go on and on.

They weren’t looking for the signs.

And you know what? He’s coming again.

There are signs to look for.

No matter what version of end times you believe, Jesus came in judgment against the Jews in 70AD.

When is he coming? I don’t know but I do know this:

No one knows when it will be.

Are you watching?

In this passage Jesus is talking about his coming, but it applies to us as well.

We need to be Waiting, Working, and Watching for his return.

It may not come in our lifetime, but it will at least come at the end of our life.

No matter how old we are, we know he’s coming.

Have I been Waiting, Am I working, Are we Watching?

I can’t answer that, but I do know this: the older I get, the more I yearn for him.

Yesterday was not a good day. I could barely walk. I was in so much pain that I just didn’t want to do anything.

I couldn’t even sit and watch TV. I just couldn’t get comfortable.

I didn’t get much work done.

But I’m:

We are to be Waiting, Working, and Watching for his return. We look to Jesus and to him we should yearn.

Jesus is coming and one day this pain will go away

There will be no more tears

There will be no more death

There will be no more sin

Are you ready?