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Our God and our Father, we thank you for this day and the privileges we've had because you're remembering my Son and his death for us. We thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for thy wondrous love and grace.
And now we just thank you too, for this time. We can be over thy word.
Again we ask a blessing, and we thank you in Thy worthy name, our Chief. Amen.
Luke chapter 12, verse 37.
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 themselves, blessed are those servants.
And this knows that if the Goodman 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 therefore ready also, for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not. Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speaketh 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 the truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he has.
But if that servant stay in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to beat the men, servants and maidens, and to eat, and to drink, and to be drunken. The Lord of that servant will become in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in Thunder, and will appoint him.
Will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not Himself, neither did according to his will, which 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 of him shall be much required. And to whom men have committed much of him, they will ask them more.
I am come to stand fire on the earth, and what will I if it be already kindled?
But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straightened till I be accomplished? Till it be accomplished?
Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth. I tell you nay, but rather division. For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, 3 against two, and two against three. The Father shall be divided against the Son, and the Son against the Father.
The mother against the daughter and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
00:05:42
In the 40th verse, where it says He therefore also be therefore ready also, for the Son of Man cometh in an hour. When you think not. It was more than one application that we can make to this verse. The most common application is probably used in the gospel.
Umm, that there is a need for us to be ready to meet thy God and uh.
And certainly there is application in that way to disperse. But if we take this verse in context with the chapter that we have before, it's really what it's talking about are those that already know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, umm, that we need to be ready. Well, what does that mean? We're already involved by the Spirit of God. We're already covered by the blood. What's it mean to be found ready when the Lord Jesus comes back for us? Well.
How nice it would be that if we were found walking faithfully in this, in this path, umm, giving testimony to him.
And, umm, serving him in our life, that we'd be found in a, in a way in which our state does not hinder our standing is secure. But it is possible, if we've been talking this past week, to have something come into our life that centers our communion.
And, uh, how nice it is that if the Lord were to come today that He would find us ready, that it wouldn't be a stranger.
That we see there wouldn't be someone that there is a hindrance in our meeting, but one that we could say this is my.
Uh.
But that person let me turn back to it.
I don't misquote it.
Psalm of Psalm and five and verse 16. This is my beloved, and this is my friend.
I believe that when it's talking here about the therefore also ready for the Son of Man cometh in an hour when you think not is really speaking to those of us that know him as our savior that we be found watching and ready as we've talked about these past couple of days.
Good to notice the, uh, somebody else has pointed this out. It's always good to notice when the word of God says therefore.
Because there's something that it's there for.
And uh, therefore as a conjunction it links and generally links 2 verses together.
Uh, and I think it refers to verse 39.
Notice that if the good men or the master of the house would have known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and had not suffered his house to be broken through, or, as the new translation says, dug through.
I think there is a very real sense in which we can suffer loss.
And it's not so much that.
We will suffer punishment like you said, our standing is secure but we can suffer loss and we've been.
Chapter just a few verses earlier, we have in verse 34 where your where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
And so we're instructed to lay up treasure in heaven.
And I think that this verse is warning us that we may be surprised and suffer loss because we haven't been laying up treasure in heaven. The thief comes.
00:10:10
At a time when you're not expecting them.
And the picture there is being ready. We need to be ready as those that are watching for their Lord. I really appreciated up in verse 36. We've already covered this, but it says when he cometh and knocketh that they may open unto him immediately.
That has a little bit different sense than answering the door when when somebody knocks.
That means that as soon as he knocks, the doors are flung open wide and he's welcome. And that's really the, I think, the sense that that we need to have there, that we are expectantly waiting for our Lord's return.
May the Lord.
Find us watching and being ready.
There's a difference, I think, being between watching and being ready.
Just use a very practical illustration. My kids don't like to be late to meeting, walk in late. And so we're trying, we try to be ready and often times they will remind me because I'm not as.
Time conscious as I should be.
They may remind me what time it is and then I have to remind them that they need to be ready.
So they'll tell me that it's time to go and I'll look at them and say, hey, but you don't have your shoes and your coat on. You're not ready to go. You gotta go find your shoes. You gotta go comb your hair. So we need to be watching and we need to be ready.
And it's talking about.
All the things people are looking for in life.
And it tells you don't seek what you're you're going to wear. Don't think look for what you're going to eat, but what you're supposed to see.
How? How does it go? Seek what?
Seek the Kingdom of God.
And all these things shall be added unto you in one place that says.
But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
And all these things shall be added unto you. What things?
What you're going to eat, what you're going to wear, the things that the world is looking after, plus.
A whole lot more. It told how his tender care, if he's taking care of flowers and clothes them isn't gonna take care of you. You don't need to worry, but it's sort of talking about serving the Lord.
Umm, his Kingdom? What? What does that mean?
We're in the Kingdom of God. What what does that mean for little children? What do you think of when you think of?
Seek ye the Kingdom of God.
What, what is the Kingdom? Can somebody help us out? And then I'll maybe I'll talk just a little more. What is this Kingdom of God?
We're we're told to do that.
The Lord Jesus is talking here to the and the disciples are going to ask in the verses we're going to study right now, are you telling this to us or is it to somebody else?
00:15:12
What is the Kingdom of God?
So the gospel of this, we talked about this bears out the moral character of these individuals that we're talking about in this chapter. And really the Kingdom of God has to do with the moral character of the Kingdom of God.
And umm, and so there is a, a, a manner of life that is consistent with the subjects of the Kingdom. And so when we talk about seek ye first the Kingdom of God and the verse that you quoted and his righteousness, that really bears out the character of the Kingdom of God, because it has to do with his moral glory. And that and the reflection of that moral glory should be seen in his subject.
Did you have a thought, Daniel?
In the world, they said away with him. We will not have this man.
To be king over us, to reign over us. We do not want anyone telling us what to do and that is one of the motivations for UMM.
People that want to believe or say they believe in evolution, they say.
If we believed there was a God that made us for a purpose, then what is his purpose and should we be obeying that? We don't want to to obey anyone. We want to obey ourselves. We want to do what we want to do when we want to do it. We refuse to recognize a king of the universe, a king of kings, or a Lord of Lords. And that is why when people are baptized.
They receive the Lord Jesus Christ and when you get baptized, it's like saying I want to put on the uniform that I belong.
To Christ I'm a Christian, I he died for me and I owe the rest of my life for him like we had this morning. The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me and now all that I have belongs to him. And that's why those verses followed about. Sell what you have, give alms, provide for yourselves bags which wax not old. A treasure in the heavens that faileth not.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Do you know?
If you live just for this life, you can get a lot of toys, you can get a lot of money, you can save up a lot of food.
And die.
And then whose shall those things be?
How long is it going to last for you?
Until you close your eyes in death and it's all over, it's all lost. And that's why some people say eat and drink today. For tomorrow we die and I don't want to think about tomorrow. And that's why you have amusement parks. Amusement means don't think about it.
Amuse means to not think.
Umm. In Spanish the word is. You need to be diverted so you don't think about the future.
But for the Christian.
Our blessed hope.
A treasure in heaven of being with the Lord Jesus who died for us. If we get diverted from thinking about Him, we forget about what's going to last for eternity. If we are just trying to amuse ourselves and not think about the pain of life, we forget about.
The blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God. And so we're getting some of these words later on in this chapter, I think are more to do with our service for the Lord and our responsibility of managing what the Lord has given for us while we're waiting for Him. We can have an effect.
00:20:01
On eternity.
People have said, well you can't take it with you. Anything you have down here, you can't take it with you. But I know somebody that sent it on ahead.
How do you send treasures up to heaven before you get there? Does anybody want to guess?
My mind just went blank. And so you have treasure in heaven.
Who's gonna say something over here?
Can you say it out loud?
How do you send treasure in heaven?
By being kind, be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ sake has forgiven you.
When you're kind and forgiving, it may lead someone to the Lord. And if someone accepts the Lord, are they going to get to heaven? They sure are.
Do you know how?
We live in this world and when many sons are brought to glory, that is how treasure can be sent to heaven, and I think this is to build up treasure in heaven.
If we're spending our time being selfish and eating and drinking for ourselves and beating the servants and forgetting our purpose isn't.
What's fair right now, what we're gonna get right now, if we got more or less than somebody else right now, that's not so important. The Lord Jesus saw of the travel of his soul.
He says it's worth it and he's satisfied.
So I'll just mention one thing. My grandfather was a doctor and he was helping this old lady in Pasadena. And he he was.
Doing a lot to help her a lot. And I don't know if she could pay or not, but one day she said. Doctor Groff, I just love it when I die. You're going, I'm gonna give you my house and the property.
He said, well, you we need to take care of these health problems right now.
Umm, And she kept coming, and one day, right in the office, she had a heart attack.
And she said, oh.
I don't know if she said I'm dying or they knew she was dying. She says, remember, you're going to get the house And my my grandfather says I don't care about the house. Do you know the Lord Jesus as your savior? That's that's the most important. I know the Lord is my savior and you get the house and she died.
Nothing happened for a few days, a few weeks, and then someone came and knocked on the door and said, Mr. Groff, you just received a house and property.
What do you think my grandfather did?
Do you go out and buy a new car and and you know, sell the house? And what do you think he did? What would he what would you do if you're trying to get treasure in heaven with.
Umm, and if you got a house and property that you couldn't keep, what would you do?
What do you think Doctor Groff did?
He sold the house, got a bunch of money, and what do you think he did with that?
Bev Hall, Do you know what Doctor Groff did with the money?
Do you know what you did over at Doctor Groff's house?
Doctor Groff would measure things by Bibles and wither bounds as far as what it was worth. He'd say, this is worth so many Bibles, this is worth so many tracks. He turned it into Bibles and gospel tracts and messages of God's love, and he sent them all over the world.
And when he died, I think the house was all.
It was all spent it. He didn't keep it for himself. He passed on, but people had been saved before he even got there and that was sending. He was a good administrator in the Kingdom of God. God was his Lord. He recognized his responsibility and this is what we're getting, Peter said in verse.
00:25:26
41 Lord, speakest thou this parable to us, or even to all, about being ready? 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 portions of meat in due season?
Blessed is that servant whom his Lord.
Lord means boss, when he cometh shall find so doing.
It's required.
In stewards faithfulness.
What is the Lord given to you?
He's given you time. He's given you a heart for other people. He sometimes gives you kind words.
He gives you.
Versus to share with others and people by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Are saved into the Kingdom of God and will be there in heaven.
As faithfully administering what God has given to you and I, I think this has something to do with it that we can be.
With all the Lord's love and kindness that we don't have to worry about even the basic things of what we're going to eat and drink, but are we thinking about what's going to last for the Kingdom of God for eternity? That's I can't think what this chapter is is telling the disciples about.
I'd like to read a verse in First John 3.
Verse two It says, Beloved, now are we the sons of God, And it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is, and every man that hath his hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure.
And it says here in verse in our chapter in verse 40, be therefore ready also for the Son of Man cometh that an hour when ye think not. And there's two sides of this being ready. When I was in high school, junior high or high school, I can't remember.
Anyway, there was a pamphlet that was going around 88 Reasons why the Lord is coming back in 1988.
And I said to the people that were handing that out, you're crazy. The Lord said, nobody's gonna know. No, no, we got it all figured out. I know he said that. And I know no one can know, but we know. And here's 88 reasons why he's coming back this year. And I was like, whatever. But what happens if we have a far off perspective? The Lord's not coming. Then we have all these things that were, well, I can do this and I can do this and I can do this. In the Old Testament, the picture is given of the year of Jubilee.
And the people could never build a big, old, huge Kingdom because at the end of 50 years, everything was given back. There was a giant equalizer every 50 years. So in my lifetime, I had to give it all back. And Xander starts over in his lifetime, he has to give it all back. And it sets you free from greed. It sets you free. But that when we, when we have the expectation, it preserves us from making all these plans. We have to realize any moment the Lord could come. What am I doing right now, as Brother Dan was just saying, in view of eternity?