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Join us every Sunday morning at 9 or 10:30 AM in the Maywood Center. Sermons & Bible Studies available online on any podcast platform or visit our YouTube channel "@flipsidechristianchurch"! Download our app at https://flipsidechristian.churchcenter.com/setup for more info about our church and ministries.
Flipside Christian Church
Madera Ranchos, CA
Amen.
Thank you.
Jacob.
Today we're going to
we're going to conclude Matthew 24.
And just to set this up,
I want to remind us of the section
of Scripture that we're in
from Matthew chapter 21 through 25.
All takes place during Thursday,
sorry, during Tuesday
before the crucifixion on Friday.
So all these chapters,
Jesus is setting the stage
and he's preparing
the way for his crucifixion.
There's a lot that goes in that.
What happens on Tuesday?
Jesus starts that day.
He is part of the process,
cleansing the temple
and casting out those who were
who were getting it all wrong,
who had made it about a spectacle
and a show, and taking advantage of people
rather than about him.
He confronts the religious leaders
and calls them hypocrites,
because they had
made it all about their own spiritual
superiority, rather than submission
and repentance to the Christ
and the kingdom of God.
He tells the disciples what's coming.
He tries to get them ready.
And through all of this,
he's setting the stage
because he knows that
what has been orchestrated by his father,
with his agreement in heaven
from generations past, since the beginning
of time, would be his crucifixion.
This was all set in, in motion,
at the will of the father,
with the agreement of the son.
But he knows that the Jewish
people have no authority over
life and death outside the temple grounds.
And he knows that the only ones
who can carry out
the act of crucifixion are the Romans.
And so he starts pushing and pushing
and pushing
those who claimed to be God's,
the God's own kids,
so that they would be on
such as set on edge,
and so angry towards him
that they would work it out
with their own government, hand him over
so that he would be crucified.
He knows what he's doing
and it's all done on purpose.
He knows his life on earth
has to culminate in the cross,
so that it can go to the grave
so that it can be resurrected.
And so he's pushing push and pushing.
Tuesday before crucifixion
on Friday is a huge day.
And all these chapters, chapter 21, 22
to 3 to four, 25 all happens on Tuesday.
And so that's where we are in this,
in this Passion Week
after chapter 25 that we'll look at next
week comes Wednesday and Wednesday.
He takes a day off.
And it was on that Wednesday
that the Jewish leaders conspire
with Rome together first crucifixion.
They make their plan.
And so as we look at chapter 24,
we're going to see Jesus.
Keep pushing.
Now he's pushed
the religious establishment.
He's pushed and confronted
the religious leaders.
He's tried to prepare his disciples.
He knows what's coming.
He knows Friday is just a few days away.
His disciples don't realize it yet.
His disciples aren't yet
aware of what is on the horizon.
And so,
over and over and over in Matthew 20,
the last part of 24, and then all of 25,
he's going to give them one message.
Get be ready.
Wake up and get ready.
Over and over and over.
Wake up and get ready.
You don't know what's coming.
I do,
and I'm telling you, don't sleep on this.
And he's going to teach this hard truth
in Matthew 24 and then in Matthew 25,
he's going to tell parables
that will explain the truth,
because that's what parables do.
A parable is a story
in the context of everyday life
that's thrown next to a truth to help
you understand the truth.
And that's what it's going to do in
chapter 25, going to tell these parables.
But the truth comes today,
the last part of Matthew 24.
Wake up and get ready.
Matthew 24 has a lot of prophecy to it,
and that's
why I've chosen to teach it in two weeks.
There's so much here.
There is prophecy and future foretelling.
There's also flesh and bones
for what it means for us today and today.
It's really
the second part of our birthday message.
Last week our church turned 21
and I started Matthew 24
with our kind of birthday message.
This is the follow up to that.
This is birthday part two,
and the focus shifts from what's coming
and who's coming to how we live
until he comes.
So the focus in this part of Matthew 24
is not prediction.
The focus is ready,
faithful and finish well.
And so to help us understand the big idea
for this,
the last part of chapter 24, here's
the big idea because we don't know
when Jesus will return.
Disciples must live ready.
Stay faithful and be vigilant
in doing the work he's given us to do.
We don't know when he's coming back.
He's given us some hints and some things
to look for, but nobody really knows.
And because we don't know
if we
call ourselves a disciple,
we have to live ready.
And we've got to stay faithful
in the moment
and be vigilant in doing
what he's asked us to do.
The two words
I would use to kind of describe
the theme of this part of the chapters,
repentant and expectant,
because we don't know
when he's coming back.
Live a repentant life
and an expectant life
that it could be now.
Let me let's just unpack this.
Let me let me read verses 39, 36
through 39 of chapter 24.
But concerning the day and hour,
no one knows
what day and hour.
Well, if you remember back in verse three,
this whole discussion started
because the disciples asked him,
when are all these things going to happen?
You just talked about the destruction
of the temple.
You know, the end of time, the vision
in their minds, the end of time.
And you know, this Messiah, like,
when is all this going to happen?
So he he finally answers their question.
You want to know
when this is going to happen?
What he says nobody knows.
Concerning that day or hour.
No one knows.
Not even the angels of heaven,
nor the son, but the father.
Only for as were the days of Noah,
so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
For as in those days before the flood,
they were eating and drinking, marrying
and giving a marriage,
until the day when Noah entered the ark,
and they were unaware, until the flood
came and swept them all away.
So will be the coming of the Son of Man
says, listen.
Nobody knows.
And so if you're going to be a disciple,
you've got to live ready.
You've got to stay faithful, and you've
got to be vigilant because nobody knows.
In essence, here's what he's saying
don't allow normal life
to be normalized in your life.
Don't allow normal life.
That's just that's the way life goes.
This is what we all we're all part of.
A kind of swept up in the whole thing.
Don't allow that to become normalized.
He's saying that's
what the people are like.
In the days of Noah,
swept up in the normality of life
so that the normal life
was normalized in their life,
just like everybody else.
In the days of Noah.
Where were the days of Noah like, well,
they're full of violence.
They're full of sexual immorality.
I mean, that's that's not too far off
from where we are, right?
But it was more than that.
It wasn't just that.
It was more than that.
They were completely
indifferent spiritually.
Sure, they wanted to be good people
who must be a bad person,
but they were just indifferent
to kingdom stuff.
They didn't realize that there was more
than just being a good person.
They were consumed with ordinary life.
And they were not at all
ready for judgment.
They just keep living life
as if God was never going to show up.
So there was no spiritual urgency.
See, they had allowed normal life
to be normalized in their lives.
Anybody?
Go about our day?
We go to work. We live for retirement.
Hopefully it all goes well.
Want to be happy?
We want to be joyful and have a peaceful
home.
Want to be successful.
It's normal
life and I want to go to heaven.
And all of a sudden,
people of the kingdom have allowed normal
life to be normalized in their life.
Just like the days of Noah.
Jesus says
life will look amazingly ordinary
right up until the moment
where he shows up.
See the problem
in the days of Noah
and in our day with us,
is not that we were eating and enjoying
life and married and marriage.
That wasn't the problem.
The problem is that we live life
as if that's all there was.
We should enjoy all the good things
that God has given us.
The Bible even says God provides us
with everything for our enjoyment.
You should enjoy it.
Just don't live as if that's all there is.
Normal life can't become normalized.
One of the things
I just so desperately want, desire
and pray
for my for my son
so specially is that they don't
grow up given their lives to a job
they can't wait to get out of.
To me, that's just miserable.
I'm going to give my life
the best years of my life.
My energy, the best my mind.
I'm going to give all of that to a job.
I just cannot wait to quit
so I can retire.
To me, that's hell.
I want them to understand
why God made them in the first place,
regardless of their like,
why did God put you on this earth
and pursue that passionately?
Don't
allow a normal life to be normalized.
So all you do is the grind,
and you work for success,
and you work for your retirement
because you think that once you've done it
well, you can retire and relax
and then go to heaven.
What a waste.
My dear friend.
And so churches are full of people
who call ourselves
disciples, who have allowed normal life
to be normalized in their life.
Just like in the days of Noah.
See, the point is this.
Don't get so comfortable with today that
you forget Jesus could come back tonight.
I am very grateful.
I look back at our church over 20 winters.
I look back over my life, my marriage,
my kids, all God has done.
I look back and God has been so gracious
and so abundantly favorable
towards me and awards us.
It blows me away
not deserve it of any of his grace.
But as I look back on all of it,
and while I'm grateful for it,
I never want to grow complacent
because of it.
And never want to say, God,
you've been so good, I can relax now.
I think for me,
a lot of processing this stuff, 21 years
in this church have been fantastic.
I can't imagine stopping this.
I cannot imagine getting
to the point where I retire and coast
until I die.
That just sounds so horrible to me.
I just I just want to press in
and not grow complacent
and not get and not like, drift
and not like, hey, I just want to draw.
Like I want to be doing what I'm doing
right now until I see Jesus face to face.
Like I don't want normal life
to be normalized
at all.
I praise God for all he's done, but I want
to be careful that while we celebrate,
we have done in the past, we never settle
for what God has done in the past.
There is so much to be done.
There is so much for this church to do.
There's so much for me to do.
There's so much for you to do.
I'm grateful for all God's. I'm.
But dad. Gum.
I don't want to settle for what he's done.
The normal life cannot be normalized.
You tracking with me?
Look at verses 4344.
Then two men will be in the field.
One will be taken on one left.
Two women will be grinding at the mill.
One will be taken on one left.
Therefore stay awake.
For you do not know
on what day your Lord is coming.
But know this,
that if the master of the house
had known in what part of the night
the thief was coming,
he would have stayed awake
and would not have let his house be broken
into.
Therefore,
you must also must be ready, for
the Son of Man has come
in an hour you do not expect.
He said, listen,
you've you've got to stay awake and live
ready.
Don't let yourself get lulled
into a normalized life
like everybody else.
Stay awake and live.
I told you, he's pushing the disciples
because they don't know what's coming.
He dies.
Guess what?
You and I don't know what's coming.
And so Jesus says, listen,
don't drift right now.
Stay awake and live. Ready?
This is exactly what Jesus will say in
the report card to this church in Sardis,
as recorded for us in revelation
chapter three, verses one, two and three.
Look at what he says.
I know your works.
You have the reputation of being alive
because you're always at church,
but you're dead.
Wake up and strengthen
what remains and is about to die for.
I have not found your worst complete
in the sight of my God.
Remember then what you received and heard.
Keep it and repent.
If you will not wake up.
I will come like a thief,
and you will not know what our.
I will come against you.
Wake up!
This idea of living a ready life.
It means to live today
in such a way that Jesus is
return will not expose the life
you wish you never lived.
That's what it means to live.
Ready
to live right now and everyday.
Following
in such a way that when Jesus shows up,
you won't.
It won't expose a life that you wish
you had never lived.
Wake up.
Live.
Ready?
In this these few verses,
a lot of people get sidetracked with
something that I don't think is the point.
They get sidetracked by the words.
Two men will be in the field,
one will take, and one left
to one would grind at the mill,
one of them taking one left.
I'm like, what's that mean?
When is that going to happen?
You're missing the point.
Now, this is often times
what was referred to as the rapture.
And I'm going to talk about this next week
in the context of one of the parables
Jesus tells.
And it has everything to do
with how they did weddings back
in Jesus's day,
when the groom comes for his bride.
And so I'm going to talk.
But most people get
they miss the main thing here.
The main thing is not the one, and the one
is different.
The main thing.
Is that you better wake up.
Now the truth is, we talk a lot
about our huddles in this church.
There's 8 to 15 people around our lives
kind of
have the the front row of our lives.
Some of them are family.
Some of them are friends, coworkers, like,
they're the ones
that we're really connected with.
And the fact
is that some people in your huddle,
some people in my huddle,
have a very different spiritual reality
and future than what I have,
not what you have.
That's the truth.
And if we don't wake up
to our role in their lives,
and if they don't wake up to
the reality of Christ. Yeah,
Jesus
is eternal is going to be very surprising
and very costly.
Listen,
spiritual sleep happens very gradually.
When concerted prayer becomes occasional.
And when the study of Scripture, the deep
study of Scripture becomes secondary.
And when obedience becomes delayed
and the things of the spirit
and the things of the kingdom,
the urgency slowly fades.
There is truth that there are two people
in the same office,
two people in the same ball field,
two people in the same classroom.
Two people in the same household
have very different spiritual realities,
without a doubt.
And the fact that Jesus may return
at any moment
ought not ever cause panic,
but it ought to create urgency.
Live.
Ready.
My readiness must never become occasional.
Your readiness
must never become occasional.
So what Jesus is saying.
Here's the point.
The point is this.
Because you
and I don't know how much time we have.
We better not waste the time we have.
And I just wonder
how much of the time that we begin
has just been wasted on normal life,
when we've allowed it to be normalized
in us?
And Jesus says, wake up.
Quit sleeping on this
repentant and expectant is what he says.
Verse 45,
who then is the faithful servant
whom his master has said
over his household to give them their food
at the proper time?
Blessed is the servant
whom his master will find him doing fine,
so doing when he comes.
Truly, I say to you,
he will set him over all his possessions.
He says, listen.
The point of this is
to wake up and be faithful.
Faithfulness can be described in real.
Simply do your job.
Just do your job.
That's what Jesus is saying.
How many of you have ever like
you've been a boss,
or you've been in charge of a group,
or a group of people,
or a team or something?
And how many times have you just wanted to
scream, just do your job.
Anybody do your job?
What?
What don't you understand?
Do your job, quick.
Inside track.
Weren't about anybody else.
Quit trying to do someone else.
Just do your job.
Am I right?
So what Jesus is saying now?
I've been coaching football
for over two decades.
You know how many times.
Do your job
you got one job?
Do you know how good a football team
is when you just do your job?
And Jesus is saying,
listen, wake up and do your job.
You know what?
I love the fact.
Honestly,
God knows us really, really, really well.
He knows he can't give many of us
many jobs just to keep it simple.
Got one job.
And I just wonder
how many times do you say,
listen, you've allowed normal life
to become so normalized in your life.
You're no longer doing your job.
You're just kind of coasting
like everybody else in this world.
You've lost your expectancy
that I may show up.
Right now.
You're
just trying to make it through this world.
So you get to heaven.
One day, you're falling asleep
and you've slumbered.
Do your job.
And he says, for those who do their job,
be greatly rewarded.
Those who are faithful,
greatly rewarded, come rule over
all my possessions, he says.
In eternity. It's amazing to me.
And his definition of faithfulness
is remarkably simple.
Remarkably simple.
Faithful servant is one who does the job,
the master game to do.
That's it.
Faithfulness is not famous.
Faithfulness is not impressive.
Faithfulness is not big.
Faithfulness is just doing
what the master has asked.
That's all.
What earns
the master's happiness is not great
accomplishment.
It's just consistent faithfulness.
And so the question that you and I
have to ask ourselves,
as am I being faithful right now
to the opportunities
God has given me with the resources
he has placed in my hands, with the gifts
he's given me, with the influence
that he's given me with other people.
Am I being faithful?
These rewards for the faithful.
I'm going to set you over
all my possessions.
We have to understand this
that there are rewards
in eternity for how we live on earth,
not salvation.
Don't misunderstand me.
Salvation is not earned by anything we do.
Salvation is the gift of God because of
God's grace that we freely receive,
because it has been costly given
and we don't earn it.
It's not a reward, it's a gift.
But once I've received
the gift of salvation by faith,
then I live my life in the pursuit
of eternal rewards.
And I want to be in heaven
one day, having lived my entire life
until my heart stops on earth
in such a way that my father in heaven
tells me, Carl, well done.
I want you to be in charge
throughout eternity of certain things.
Can you imagine?
And he says, those who are faithful
will be.
Here's the point.
Discover what Jesus asks if you and do it
the same.
Rocket science.
What has Jesus asked of you now?
Do it!
He's giving you
certain gifts and talents and abilities
and resources and influence.
Use those things
for the expansion of the Kingdom of God.
Do your job now.
We want to help you do your job.
And so we've created this flip side flow.
And the first step of that flow
is just belonging to the family of God.
Not because you've earned it,
because he's good and merciful
and has paid the price
for you to be a part of the family of God.
So be adopted into his family.
And once you're adopted
in, then you begin to become
more like Christ.
It's the work of sanctification,
and there are things that we do that
help us become more like Christ.
This is the 201 class
that we just talked last week.
And as you learn
how to become more like Christ than you
learn how to keep doing your one job,
and you learn how to give
not just of your finances,
but of your life, your energy, the skills
and abilities, the spiritual gifts
that he's gifted you with.
That's it's our 301 class.
We want to help
you understand how you have been been
lavished upon, so you can give back
to the Kingdom of God.
And then we want to help you go.
Not not.
I mean, you're welcome to go with me
to all these other countries.
I'd love to have your company with me,
but at least go across the street
and across the hallway
and help people understand
who this God is that loves them.
And I'm going to teach a 401 class
to teach you very easily
how to share your faith.
To discover what
Jesus asks you to do, and then do it.
That's what Jesus said.
Look at verse 48.
But if that wicked
servant says to himself,
my master's delaying coming back.
Anytime soon.
Now, how long he's been gone?
Why would I expect him to come back today?
The wicked servant
says he's not coming back right now.
Don't worry about it.
Live your life.
Do what you do.
As long as you get there in the end.
That's really what this is about.
The wicked servant.
There's no urgency.
And because of that attitude,
he begins to beat his fellow servants.
He eats and drinks with the drunkards.
The master of that servant
will come on a day
when he does not expect him in an hour.
He does not know,
and will cut him in pieces, and put him
with the hypocrites in that place,
so they'll be weeping and gnashing
of teeth.
Oh my goodness!
Jesus ain't playing.
And some of us have lived our lives
as if he is.
Never let God's delay
become an excuse for your complacency.
Both of these servants are rewarded
the faithful.
With authority and blessing
the unfaithful.
With beating and
being thrown out where they'll be weeping
and gnashing of teeth.
We've talked about this before and that
final day weeping and gnashing of teeth.
There will be some who will realize
the folly of their life.
When a normal life was normalized,
they cared nothing of the kingdom of God.
They rejected his rule over their life.
And they'll realize the folly of that,
and they will weep with great tears.
Oh, God, please.
And it'll be too late.
And there's others whose
hearts are so hard that even on that day,
when forced to realize the reality
of who Christ is and the rejection of him
will still, in demonic anger, say,
how dare you think you can.
Condemn me?
Can you imagine?
Jesus uses a pretty strong word.
You're cut to pieces. Are you kidding me?
What we best can understand from that
cut to pieces by being whipped incessantly
and thrown out with the hypocrites
who are the hypocrites?
Do you remember
the scribes and Pharisees, those
who thought they were right
with God because of their religion
had no relationship with him?
The scribes
and the Pharisee in the wicked.
The lazy.
Same result.
You know, it's so interesting,
I think, back over this church
in the early days, so dependent
upon God's hand and protection
and favor and blessing, so dependent.
I felt the same when I got married.
I'm like, God, I was this
if this thing is going to work,
you've got to intervene here.
You know, it's just like, same thing
with raising kids, like, I can't do this.
These kids are just like,
you start a business.
It's the same way. Like in every
you start adultery.
It's the same way.
Like there's so much dependance.
God, please.
And then what happens is God responds.
And because God responds and
things have become normalized.
We drift
and we stop living
with incredibly dependance
upon God.
See, there are two primary lies.
The devil is going to tell
every one of us.
He's going to tell this lie to those who
haven't accepted Jesus as their Savior.
And what is the lie he's going
to tell them is this there is no God.
You're the ruler of your own life.
Do what you want. It's your life.
The only way I tell you any different.
Once you come to faith,
the light changes
because you know there is a God.
So the lie isn't.
There is no god. Now the lie is.
There is no hurry.
There's no urgency.
God wants to bless you and be comfortable
and enjoy life and go to heaven.
There's no hurry with this other stuff.
That's a lie from the devil.
And so many of us
disciples have believed it.
Live ready.
And readiness
will always be seen in
how we live in this world.
If we live ready or not.
The doctrine of the return of Christ
is the foundational doctrine
that undergirds all of Scripture,
and the doctrine
of the return of Christ changes
everything about how we live right now.
If we understand it,
it changes everything.
If you knew
that Jesus was coming back tomorrow,
would you speak differently today?
If you knew that Jesus was coming back
tomorrow,
would you treat people differently today
if you knew that Jesus
was coming back tomorrow?
What would you stop doing right now
if you knew
Jesus was coming back tomorrow?
What would you start doing right now
if you knew that
Jesus was coming back tomorrow?
How would you start giving right now
if you knew
Jesus was coming back tomorrow?
How would you start serving right now
if you knew he's coming back tomorrow?
And so many of us.
Have lulled ourselves
into sleep and slumber
because we don't live
with the expectancy of his return.
So we live in normalized life.
Never allow God's blessing or his delay
to make you comfortable or apathetic.
Get ready.
What does the way you and I live
say about our readiness for his return?
If you knew he was coming back tomorrow,
what would change right now?
What does that say about our readiness?
If you know what
Jesus has asked you to do
and you're doing it, rejoice.
Celebrate that.
Take great joy and pleasure in that
because you know
that you will enjoy his pleasure over you.
If you know what he's asked you to do
and you're doing it,
man, put a smile on your face.
That's good. Good for you.
Keep doing it.
Okay, well, maybe
we're part of the other group, then.
If you're not doing
what God has asked you to do,
you're not ready to repent.
Repent.
And live.
Ready.
From this day forward.
No more excuses and no more delay.
One day your career is going to end.
And nobody's going to remember a thing
you did.
One day, all your possessions
that you've accumulated
are going to pass on to somebody else.
One day,
everything that you've worked for in
life is going to be gone.
One day.
Nobody else will ever remember you
or talk about you.
But your faithfulness will matter forever.
Get ready.
Be vigilant
about doing what
God put you on this earth to do.
Live to hear these words one day.
Well done, my good and ready servant.
Come and share your master's happiness.
Right?
Wake up and get ready.
I want you to pray with me.
Father, thank you that you love us
and that your love for us doesn't change
based on how ready or not we are.
But I thank you that you love us enough
to caution us to get ready.
None of us want to be surprised.
None of us want to live a life
that we wish we would have never lived.
If you showed up right now,
we don't want that.
So, father,
by the power of your spirit,
I pray your conviction would fall.
Convict us where conviction is needed.
Some of us, man.
Our lives are so normal.
We've allowed a normal life
to become normalized in us.
Forgive us. Father.
I pray your conviction will fall
by the power of your Holy Spirit.
Not for our shame, but for our repentance.
And then as we repent
and wake up and ready ourselves,
that you would allow us
all that your grace is capable of.
And so, my dear friends,
please, in this moment,
would you just agree?
If this is you,
would you disagree with God?
God, I'm sorry
because I've allowed myself to slumber
and sleep in my own sin.
Wake me up.
I confess that I'm far from
you and I repent of my sin.
Jesus, I accept what you've done
on the cross so that I can be forgiven.
Thank you for that.
Today I reject my sin and I turn from it
and I pledge my allegiance
to you, Christ and your kingdom,
without delay,
without excuse and without hesitation.
And then ask him, say, God,
I cannot do this in my own power.
So clothe me with the power of your spirit
that will enable me to live a holy
life and an obedient life
and a life of righteousness.
God, you you know our weaknesses.
You know our failings.
Thank you that your mercy is new for us
every morning,
and that the power of your spirit
is available to us to allow, to enable us
to live a holy, ready life.
So we repent
and we give ourselves to you.
Make us new people.
In your name I pray. Amen.
Friends, listen, I love you.
I'm proud of you.
Some of you need to repent.
Some of you have done that internally.
Good.
Live in that place of repentance.
But some of you need to solidify that
with praying with somebody
just to confess it.
Because right now it's personal,
but it's not powerful yet.
And sometimes the confession with somebody
praying with somebody makes
what is personal powerful.
And so some of you, whether we're up here
or back there during this song
or after the service, would you just stay
and let's approach God together and agree
together with this internal transformation
that God will do
and Washington is doing in your life?
Don't walk out without doing that.
Don't walk out without doing that.
Some of
you need to jump into this flip side flow.
You need to go through 301
to 401 to become the person
God made you to be, so that you're on task
and on mission with him in this world
and you quit sleeping on your job.
If we can help in any way, get you into
that flow, stop by the Welcome Center.
Let us know I love you, I'm proud of you.
We're going to press into this next week,
and it's going to be if this.
I want you to be encouraged.
It's a tough message.
I want you to be encouraged.
So put a smile on your face.
At least act. Encourage right now.
We're going to stand up and sing.
And we're going to wrap up this whole
Tuesday next week in Matthew 25.
Stand up listening together.