"Be Dressed and Ready for Service” | Luke 12:35–48

Show Notes

Episode 744: 
In this episode, our focus is on the biblical saying, "Be dressed and ready for service," which leads us to explore the importance of being prepared for the unexpected return of Jesus. We delve into Luke 12:35-48, where Jesus emphasizes the need for vigilance and readiness. We discuss the parable of the faithful servant, highlighting the responsibilities that come with being entrusted with much. The passage serves as a reminder that our actions and readiness have eternal consequences, and we should live with a sense of urgency, knowing that Jesus could return at any moment.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. We're so glad that you decided to tune in and join us for another episode. Man, this is going to be maybe the highlight of their next ten minutes, twenty minutes. The high light of the next twenty four and a half minute. It's going to be incredible. Yes. So, and today we are in well, we're in the middle of a series that we're having about Jesus, and we're saying, what if Jesus had a podcast and probably talk about all the famous things that he has done? And today's saying is be dressed and ready for service. Wooh okay that get ready? Yeah, people, get ready. People get ready. But before we get into that, we have a news article. Only the finest news We scoured the internet and always come back to the same Babylon only only the most trustworthy news sources. And so this is from the Babylon B July ninth. If you've never read the Babylon B, it's a satire website, very very funny, and says here a man's faith in God shaken after prayer for lightsaber goes unanswered. That's so good. We just talked about this guy. Yes, he's praying fervently. This is Huntsville, Alabama. Local man Brad Sharp had his faith in God shaken to its core after his prayer for a real, functioning lightsaber went unanswered. How could a good, loving, all powerful God not give me a lightsaber? Sighed Sharp, staring at the sky. Where are you, God? Are you even listening? According to sources, Sharp prayed for God to grant him a lightsaber, not once, but three times. Yet Sharp was met with nothing but silence from the Lord, prompting something of an existential crisis. It's tough to reconcile belief in an omnipotent, beneficent God with not getting a lightsaber, said Sharp's friend Kevin Darnault, especially if you scifically asked for one. He's taking it pretty hard and it's causing him to question a lot of his beliefs. He really wanted that lightsaber. At publishing time, Sharp's faith in God had again been tested as he failed to bench press five hundred pounds despite wearing a Philippians four thirteen bracelet. That is that is a great add on, isn't it, despite wearing a Flip's fourth orteen brains. Yeah, that is one of the funniest things. Uh. You know, when I when I went to Bible College, they had a poster in the weight room, which was barely a weight room, and it said Flippings four thirteen. And there was a picture of a weight weight build bodybuilder named rich Gaspari and he was this massive guy and he and he had any and he just you know, held up this you know, you know, it was picture in bench pressing and it said Flippings four thirteen. I can do all things and that all was capital all through Christ, who strengthens me. And I thought, I can't believe in a Bible college that we hung up a poster that it just took the verse out of context and here it is, it's articles making fun of it. Well, we talked just a couple of days ago, if you missed it on the podcast. We talked about the fact that yes, Jesus promises that God will answer all of our prayers, but he brackets it with we have to be on his mission and it's to bring glory to God. Right, those are the two things. And so that's kind of this this this article is kind of making fun of this idea that you can just have anything you want from God, right right, lightsabers and five hundred pound bench presses. How could an all how could how could a god be all loving it all good and not give me a specific functioning lightsaber? By the way, can you imagine having a functional lightsaber? I think we'd get in trouble with it? Oh my goodness, gracious. Don't you think it's sort of like the ultimate weapon? It goes through everything, doesn't it. Yeah, I would say I would rather have a. A laser gun than. Than a laser sword. Yeah. Really, well, because you don't want hand to hand combat. Yeah yeah, yeah, that's it, and we can get you across the room right right. So okay, there's that anyways, that has nothing to do with anything. No, it doesn't. It's just fun. Uh huh. By the way, Babylon B, in my opinion, is it's that sophisticated. Now today wasn't as sophisticated, But is that sophisticated kind of humor? Very it makes me laugh like twice as hard. Yeah, you know, it's just like not quite in your face. They're great and they if you haven't ever been on their website, they do a lot of funny politics on both sides of the aisle, so don't get worked up about it. They make fun of everybody. They do a lot of social commentary, very very very funny stuff. So I enjoy the Babylon b So, you. Know, speaking of enjoying things, you. Know what I enjoy getting dressed up. I was gonna say, Jesus, oh Jesus. Yea, but yeah, you're getting dressed up. Actually, actually don't enjoy I don't. Enjoy getting you don't like you don't enjoy getting. Dressed No, no, no, I. Would have thought you would be like kind of a fancy boy, you'd like to get all dressed up. No, that's you. You're you're you love that, But I don't love it at all. I actually, uh, I'm like the million If I had like millions of dollars, i'd be the millionaire with velcrow shoes. Yeah. You know, have you ever seen a millionaire belcro shoes? Yeah? Yeah, that's true. That's what they do. And the millionaires today are different than they were eighty years ago. Right back then, everybody was fancy smancy. But today I think it was Mark Cuban. I read a thing Mark Cuban was talking about when you walk into a business meeting, Yeah, don't pay attention to the high powered people in suits across the table from you. Look for the guy who's wearing sweatpants and tennis shoes in the corner. And that's the one with the power. Yep. Because he said, I've done all the work. I don't have to dress like they dressed. I can dress however I want to. Dress, right, that's right. And he said that's the one of the most power. Right, that's it. He said leisure pants as we said, I think he said like Lululemons or something. Have you ever gone to downtown Detroit and uh seen what what's the headquarters of Ford where it started? Where's that at? But the big the big one, you know where it started out? Okay, okay, anyway, they have this massive photo right and and it's like a it's the size of the entire wall. And they had taken a picture of all the men working in the Ford plant in the nineteen whatever it was. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, dress pants, dress shirts. Dude, three piece suits like not dress pants, dress shirts. No, they're there. They are coming to work in suits. Now. Think about it. Back then no air conditioning, right, uh, you know, probably in the summer, it looked. It looked like a very nice day. I'm thinking to myself, everybody back then smelled so bad. It's the only thing I think of. You think of. They're all together, they're all together, And I'm thinking to myself, if I was in the know of that crowd, I would probably physically and literally pass out because it's so bad. Really, so I I you know, we had to wear suits and ties to class when in seminary and all that stuff. I did too. I didn't mind it. I don't. I don't. I don't mind wearing a tie. I don't like wearing a suit. You get overheated really easy. Oh, it's so it's way more than run hot. Well, you hate being uncomfortable. And I don't even think about it. Yeah, like I don't. I don't think about the fact I got a tie around my neck. I don't think about the fact that I got an extra jacket on around wearing a past None of that stuff bothers me. So, but I do like the accessories. Yeah, I like a nice pair of cuff lengths. When I come home from work, I am almost always immediately jump into pajamas. Yeah, yeah, you told me that. You told me that before. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's it's it's I want to get comfortable if I'm not doing something where I know I have to go back out or go in the back porch or go in the backyard. Comfort high value. Why would you not be comfortable? Why why would you not? I don't know that I have an awareness that I'm not comfortable what I'm saying. But you're way more comfortable with with with those kinds of clothes on. So you're like, oh, it's just so comfortable. Yeah, yeah, I love it. Okay, well good. So I like a nice tie, I like good cuff links, I like a nice matching watch. Right now, as a matter of fact, on my list of exorbitantly expensive stupid things that I want is I want to a mont Blanc logoed cuff links. Well, yeah, there's stupid expensive, right. I don't need them, right, I can plan a church for what it would cost me to three hundred fifty bucks or some dumbthing. But yeah, it's just I like it. I don't have any reason to dress up. Anyways, Jesus says to dress up, Chris, You just do what Jesus says to do. Is that what got us there? Yes, it was like two minutes ago. So it was it was four minutes, I think. But here we are. In Luke chapter twelve, it says this in verse thirty five. Be dressed for service, and keep your lamps burning as though you were waiting for your master to return from the wedding feast. And then you'll be ready to open the door and let him in the moment he arrives and knocks the servants who are ready and waiting for his return to be rewarded. And I tell you the truth, he himself will seat them, put on an apron, and serve them as they sit and eat. He may come in the middle of the night or just before dawn, But whenever he comes, he will reward the servants who are ready. Where are we ending? Oh yeah, well keep going. Understand this. If a homeowner knew exactly when a burglar was coming, he would not permit his house to be broken into. You also must be ready all the time, for the sun man will come when least expected. Peter asks Lord, is that illustration just for us or for everyone? Lord replied? A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them. If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. And I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns. But what if the servant thinks my master won't be back for a while, and he begins beating the other servants, parting and getting drunk. The Master will return unannounced and unexpected, and he will cut the servant in pieces and banish him with the unfaithful and a servant who knows what the master wants but isn't prepared and doesn't carry out those instructions be severely punished. But someone who does not know and then does something wrong will be punished only lightly. When someone has been given much, much will be required in return. When someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required. Woo man, Wow, that's a tough one. You know what I'm not going to do. Start at the end, You start at the end. I knew so you're going back going, what do we talk about at the beginning? Well? What I love that. So if you're just doing him for the first time, I mentioned the fact that normally Zarabad jumps in and talks about the last thing we talked about first. Yeah, well, I mean, but again, this is the striking thing at the end. Rure, sure at the beginning, you know, coming back in any minute. Yeah, it's not as it's not as uh hot topic, is it. Right, that's when I started the talk. You know you want to you know, you want to cut in. Pieces really good gravy. Wow. Yeah. And then he says, he says, at the very end, when someone has been given much, much will be required in return. When someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required. So the responsibility factor of God and trusting us comes with a pretty sober warning here, right, And so yeah, it really should sort of give you a fear of God in a pretty good, healthy way. Well, and for me, I read that, and it's inspiring to me because now he sets a bar that I want to achieve. He says, if I've given you a lot, I'm going to expect a lot from you. Yeah, And so I feel motivated not to just coast. I want. I feel like God's given me so many advantages and so many blessings and so much favor that I feel like it's an inspiration to me to think, Okay, it's not just for me to consume. To whom much is given, much is going to be required. I want to give him as much as I can back. And I'm pretty confident that I'm not going to get drunk and beat up servants. Yeah. Yeah, right, So there's not that really big fear in me. Yeah, So I think I'm good. So I worked for at the time one of the richest men in Michigan back when I was in college. During I worked the whole summer on one of his estates, and he owned a lot of land. We had a farm, a two hundred and fifty acre cattle breeding operation right next door to a two hundred and fifty year old historic estate. It was like a twelve thousand square foot log cabin out in the woods that the I think it was the Anheuser family had built as a hunting and he built it. It's just so is this historically beautiful, just really great thing. And then he had about two hundred acres of essentially, you know, finally trimmed hedges, and he had a giant, probably twenty acre formal gardens and so we're constantly planting and trimming and doing all these things. It was really great. So it was three college guys and on the estate side the guy there was an adult man. Two adult men that were our boss bosses. And those guys they made good money. They made really good money. They were horticulturalists by degree. Right. The guy who ran the cattle breeding operation had a PhD. Right. These guys were geniuses. They were paid very very very very very well. Our boss on the landscaping side was a full on jerk, like just a jerk, but he acted like king of the world. Super nice guy when the owner was around, right, but he would disappear for sometimes days at a time, days at a time where we wouldn't see him. We'd see him when we showed up on the property. He'd give everybody their work for the day and then he'd be gone all day. Well, then we found out he we would just go into town, hang out at the at the diner, he'd go to his girlfriend's house, this crazy stuff. So and then we found out. He had built a like a place, like a place for taking naps and all this kind of stuff. He had alarm clocked the whole nine yards up in a loft in the one. Of the big barns. We couldn't find him. Finally we stumbling, we find him, like, dude, you know you're gonna get in trouble for that whatever. So the boss, the owner had a helicopter, and you sometimes, you know, he wouldn't tell us he was coming, obviously coming in land like this. He came in and immediately he asked for that guy. Well, we had all just seen him. He had empty bottles all around him up in the up in this loft where he was taking that and he was sound asleep when the owner come in and fired him on the spot, told him off whole thing, and that one of the young guys, one of the teenage It wasn't teenage guy, college guy. He is a couple of years older than me. He'd worked there for several summers. The owner immediately turned to him and said, okay, you're in charge for the rest of the summer and put this colleg this guy in charge. Gave him a huge pay raise and fired this guy who was making a small fortune to just manage a rich man's estate. It wasn't a hard job, right, he had all the help, all these things, but he's just sitting around drinking and drink himself to sleep. And so I actually saw this happen. He didn't cut me to pieces, but that would have been kind of cool. Kicked him off the property, and this guy lost a cake job over the fact that he just didn't believe that the owner was going to show up. It just happened suddenly. Well, and what a dramatic entrance to at a helicopter. Oh he come in every time, every time he come in on a helicopter. Yeah, yeah, wow, that's that's crazy. So this is very similar to what we read what two days. Ago, yeah, a few days ago, when he was saying, hey, you got to be ready. So I think there's a verse here. It says the kingdom seekers prepare themselves to offer whatever service God requires. They keep their lamps lit, ready to welcome him without delay. Jesus repeatedly said that he would leave this world but would return at some future time. He also said that a kingdom was being prepared for his followers, and so a lot of Greeks envisioned this as a celestial, idealized spiritual kingdom. Jews like Isaiah and John the writer of Revelation, understood that it would be a restored earthly kingdom. So it's kind of both. Right, he's talking about Jesus is going to come back. He's going to set up his kingdom here on earth. We have to be physically ready, and then there's the spiritual side of it, that we have to be ready spiritually for him because of eternity, and both of those things are true simultaneously. And then what happens is the Master shows up and he's going to reward faithful servants, ready servants. And so I think we have this sleeping giant of the church. Most Christians go to church, do their church thing, and then just live the rest of their lives, not really paying attention the fact that Jesus is coming back at any minute, and to whom much has been given, much will be required, and he wants to see that we have that we have a good return for the investment he's given us. Let me ask you this question, have you ever done something and while you're doing it, like, for instance, I give you an example, maybe this will help you understand it better. I took my family to Disney, where all five of us went down to Disney, and the kids were a little you know, they were little. It was like two thousand and seven, so it's quite a while ago. And I remember while I was there, I thought to myself, we'll come back and do this again, all five of us. And from that time until this time, we've never done it. Now, so here's my question. Have you ever thought to yourself, Oh, next time we're back, Yeah, well, next time we're back, we'll come back. When I was in India, I remember looking at the leader and I said, hey, I'll be back. And I've never been back. Yeah, and I went in two thousand and nine. Yeah, I've done it many times. Right where it's like, somehow in the moment, you think either A, I have more time, or be I'll come back and I'm gonna I'm gonna return, I'm gonna do this again. But you don't. But you don't, right, And I just think to myself, it's this idea of like being ready, It's this idea of urgency. Right. So you always hear in movies because I'm a movie guy, obviously. So when you hear movies where it says, man, if I'd have known that was the last time I was going to talk to him, I'd have said this, you know, if I had just known this, if I'd have just known that, you know, I think in our lives we probably go through life not realizing the importance of a moment and the urgency of a moment. Yes, that's my point. Yeah, yeah, well I had. It reminds me when I first came to Heritage, I was leading a group. It was Foundations. It was all just a theological stuff for new believers. It's really really great. It lasted quite quite a long time and had this group. So we would always take prayer quest in there, and this guy would always say, pray for me or pray for my other that he would meet Jesus. And so after a while, because it was. Maybe I forget twenty six weeks or something, how long this class lasted, and I started saying, why don't you start praying that God will give you the opportunity to share the gospel. Who's going to share the gospel with your brother? You? You're the Christian in his life, right, you share the gospel with your brother, and so he began to go, You're right. So then his prayer quest shifted, Hey, pray that God gives me an opportunity to share the Gospel with my brother. Pray that God gives me. And I'm like, why don't you go make an opportunity. The fact that it's on your heart, God's trying to nudge you this way, why don't you just find a way. And over time we had multiple conversations and he would usually say, I really don't feel qualified, And I said, all you need to do is tell your story and tell God's story. You know God's story. You know God did. Here's a couple verses. I gave him the Romans road. All you have to do write these verses down in your Bible, I told him. I showed him my Dad's New Testament, where my dad loved sharing the Gospel with people. Couldn't ever remember what the next verse was in the order, And so at the beginning he wrote Roman three twenty three in the beginning of his Bible. Then when at the rate, at the end of Romans three twenty three, he wrote Romans six twenty three, and at the end of Romans six twenty three, he wrote five eight, and then at the end of five eight he wrote ten nine, ten thirteen. That's what you did, right, So he just wrote the verse next to it so that he'd remember where to go next, and then he just underlined. Those I said, just do that. The Bible will lead you through this if you just have a little plan. So he worked all that out. He did all those things, and then I wound up doing his brother's funeral and he never led his brother to Christ. Oh wow, thanks for that ending of the story. And it was amazing to me. And that was his statement, was I if I had. Known that his house caught on fire and he got kids, Well. Well no, but he was talking about the fact that this is important to me. It's important to me. It's important to me. But he never did it. Yeah, And so after his brother died, he stood there and talked to me. He said, you know what, if I had known the last time I talked to him, because he talked about the last time was fourth of July fireworks before he said, we talked about nothing whole evening, and he said, I could have shared the Gospel with my brother, right. I just remember thinking, mana we do that A lot, don't we if we really believe that Jesus is coming back at any minute, if we really believe that every person has an appointment with death, if we really believe in the power of the Gospel, we wouldn't wait. And this is what he's saying is, don't wait around, be prepared, get ready, and don't live a life of regrets. And I don't think our great regrets and eternity are going to be that we didn't make it to Hawaii, right. I think our great regrets are going to be the people we didn't share the Gospel with. And so this is it right here. To whom much is given, much will be required. Did I ever tell you? When I was raking leaves with my neighbor after living next to him for ten years, he confronted me and said, why did you Why did you never talk to me about it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you told me about that. Why did you never talk to me about God? I'm not sure it was quite ten years, but it was probably like six years into the ten years I lived in Atlanta, And he says, yeah, why did you never do it? And I think I said something to him like why didn't want to be that guy, you know, just because I was the pastor next door, and you know, there's no other pastors in the neighborhood, and I didn't want to be the guy who was always, you know, a churchy guy. And he said, yeah, except for the fact that I've always wondered about God. I've always wondered about Heaven and I have questions about it. And I was just I was hanging around here hoping you would bring it up. Yeah. You know, the magician's penn and teller so oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the tall guy and the short guy. Short guy's quiet. So Pendulette is a pretty vocal atheist, very vocal. He's very intellectual, very intelligent, very compelling speaker, very interesting speaker, very smart. And he's a very vocal atheist. And there's a video online it's a TikTok thing and he just picks up his phone. This is all. He picks up his phone. So he's sitting in front of his phone and he goes, hey, listen, I've been thinking about this. He had somebody gave him a Bible or something, a New Testament, tried to share the gospel with me, and he said, I don't believe anything guy says, but I got to say, I really admire his commitment because he said, if I believed what he believes, that Jesus is the only way and that heaven is reel and Hell is real, I couldn't stop myself from telling everybody all the time because the consequences are so big. And so he compliments this guy, saying, I'm really grateful that this. Guy did this. And at the same time he says, if you're a Christian and you don't act. That way, why not? And he's questioning, do you really believe it? Right? This is what Jesus is saying these passages when he says, you need to keep your lamp lit. What is the lamp? Your word is a lamp to my feet and the light to my past. You got to know God's word, and then you've got to be ready when Jesus returns, and you got to be about his business in between. And that's why he pivots from being ready for the wedding feast too. He pivots to, hey, you need to be taking care of my servants, right. You got to get out and you don't abuse them, you don't take advantage of them. You serve them, and the way we serve them is by getting the Gospel to them, because there's going to be a day when we're going to wish we had And that's it. It's not a guilt trip thing. Jesus is trying to say, if you knew what I knew, you would be avoiding the bad part at the end by making sure you're telling everybody right now. That's what he's trying to get everybody to understand. So yeah, don't put it off. If you have somebody in your life that you love that doesn't know Jesus yet, don't wait for a better opportunity, because the best opportunity never comes right. If you wait for the best opportunity to invest, you never invest. If you wait for the best opportunity to propose, you rarely ever propose, right. And it's the same thing. If you wait for the best, perfect opportunity, it's not going to happen. Just make it happen and you'll never regret it. That's awesome, all right, Well, hey, that is our time, So what a great passage, and we'll see you tomorrow hopefully on the Bible. Guys,