Expectantly Faithful

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Oh, take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.

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Here's my heart. Oh, take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.

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Amen. You may be seated. If you would, open your

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Bibles to the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 24, the

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Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 24. Now, as you get there, you'll recognize some of this today because we actually did go through a portion of this earlier in the study.

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But today what I want to do is actually preach through Matthew 24, starting in verse 36, to Matthew 25, in verse 30.

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We're seeing real modern day miracles right here, guys. I thought long and hard about doing this and how to do it in a way that I thought was most effective.

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And I think letting the text speak as much as possible and allowing these principles to really land will be most effective for all of us.

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And there's something to say as you get here. The parables the Lord Jesus tells here, I think fundamentally about being expectantly faithful, have similar threads that run through all parables.

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That's kind of the point. He's retelling the same principles and the same truths through different parables.

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And so they all sort of like adopt one of the threads of the other and they move forward. So I thought the best thing to do is to really go through them all.

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And I've got to say as I've been preparing through this, it has challenged me, it's encouraged me, because I've seen some of the fruit of this in our own lives, in our own ministry here at Apologia Church, but challenged me to look around my own life and say what kind of things has

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God entrusted me, His slave, with. And so we're starting in Matthew 24 in verse 36.

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Hear now the word of the living and the true God. But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the

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Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the

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Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when

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Noah entered the ark and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away. So will be the coming of the

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Son of Man. Then two will be in the field, one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken and one left.

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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.

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

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Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has sent over his household to give them their food at the proper time?

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Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will send him over all his possessions.

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But if that wicked servant says to himself, my master is delayed and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites.

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In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.

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Five of them were foolish, five were wise. And five were wise, for when the foolish took their lamps they took no oil with them.

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But the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.

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But at midnight there was a cry, here's the bridegroom, come out and meet him. Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.

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And the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered saying, since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.

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And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came. And those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.

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Afterward the other virgins came also saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered truly, I say to you,

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I do not know you. Watch therefore, for you neither know the day nor the hour. For it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property.

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To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.

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He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more.

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So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug it in the ground and hid his master's money.

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Now after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward bringing five talents more, saying,

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Master, you delivered to me five talents. Here I have made five talents more. His master said to him,

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Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a little. I'll set you over much.

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Enter into the joy of your master. And he also who had the two talents came forward saying,

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Master, you delivered to me two talents. Here I've made two talents more. His master said to him,

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Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a little. I'll set you over more.

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Enter into the joy of your master. He also who had received the one talent came forward saying, Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed.

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So I was afraid, and I wouldn't hid your talent in the grounds. Here, you have what's yours.

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But his master answered him, You wicked and slothful servants.

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You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers.

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And at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents.

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For to everyone who has will more be given. And he will have an abundance.

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But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness.

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In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word.

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Let's pray. Father, I pray as we, Lord, come before your holy word, that you'd bless us.

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Lord, give us minds that are ready to receive. Hearts that are soft towards you and your truth.

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We pray that you would guide by your spirit today. We do pray that you would get the teacher out of the way.

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Guard my heart and my mind from error. Teach your church. Let them forget me and remember you and what you've taught them today.

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We pray as always that you would increase and that I would decrease and that your word would be supreme here.

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In Jesus' name, amen. Big section of Scripture, amen?

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Yes? You guys are wondering, how is this going to happen? I just plan on having breakfast with you guys.

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So, again, we've already been in this section before. We talked about the days of Noah and the coming of the

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Son of Man. But I thought we'd at least touch on this because they all sort of build threads throughout all these stories.

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But we have to, before we do that, talk about the context. This is really important. As you talk about a text like this, you do have to talk about what's surrounding it.

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I mean, if somebody walks in here for the first time, you're visiting Apology at Church, you're seeing this message around the world and you've never been in this study, you've not gone through verse by verse with us, you may not understand, well, what is even happening here?

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I want to talk about the context. The context is the judgment on Jerusalem. Never forget that. Jesus, in the chapters preceding this, talks to Jerusalem.

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He condemns them. He confronts them. As a matter of fact, today, we're talking about Palm Sunday. Remember that. Palm Sunday. Jesus says,

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I'm going into Jerusalem. They're going to kill me. And then three days later, I'll rise again. And now enter Jesus into Jerusalem.

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And here is the Hosanna! Hosanna! And then you have, of course, the palm leaves and all those things taking place.

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And then the text immediately goes from this reception of Jesus. Here he is!

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Hosanna! Hosanna! Coming in on that donkey's cult as prophesied. Then Jesus goes and he cleanses the temple and he talks about the fig tree and he curses that.

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And then it begins just chapter after chapter where the Lord Jesus is indicting the religious leadership in Jerusalem.

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He's telling these stories that are really about them and they realize that Jesus is talking about them when it comes to the vineyard owner and they kill his son and he gives the vineyard to others who will actually give him the fruit of it and a person who invites these people to the wedding but they won't come.

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So then the king is angry and he sends his armies to destroy their city. It's all about them. Jesus indicts them.

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He declares the woes upon the religious leadership and he tells them that these are the days of vengeance in order that all that has been written will be fulfilled.

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And he says your house is left to you desolate. And he points over at that temple and he says there shall not be left one stone upon another.

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And he promises that all of it's gonna take place in their generation. In their generation.

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And of course it did all take place within that generation. Within a generation that temple was sacked by the

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Romans, set on fire and literally pulled apart stone off of stone. So of course we have now hindsight to know wow all these things happened but remember there was a space of time after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus where the apostles and the early

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Christians are actually undergoing quite a bit of persecution which was also promised by the

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Lord Jesus in the context of the judgment upon the covenant breakers. There was a lot of prophecy.

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There was a lot of actual proclaiming the truth about this coming judgment upon Jerusalem. It's littered throughout the

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New Testament. I'm gonna show you some of that in just a moment here. The expectation was he's coming to judge.

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It's the last hour. He's coming to judge. He's coming to judge. And those early

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Jews, they knew the message. It's in the book of Acts. You can read it later. The accusation coming to them is they were saying hey these

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Christians, they're saying that this Jesus is gonna come back and he's gonna destroy all the customs

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Moses delivered to us. He's gonna destroy this temple and all of this. It's all going away. That's what these early

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Christians are doing. And don't you think it's interesting that the early Christians in the book of Acts were actually selling property in Jerusalem.

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Just selling their property in Jerusalem and giving it up. A lot of people have used that to be like Bernie Sanders' Christianity.

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Like look, early Christians are supposed to be selling their property and not owning anything. No. Jesus wasn't a communist.

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Jesus hates communism and socialism. Amen? Yes. Okay. That's not republican.

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That's biblical. Okay, so. All right. So what's important to note here is that you do see in the

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New Testament they're waiting and longing for the judgment upon the covenant breakers and all of this to be fulfilled as Jesus promised.

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But it's taking some time. It is. It's taking time. Time. Waiting. Longing for.

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And when you get to near the end of this time period where they knew we've only got a generation.

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You can see in the letters in the New Testament as you get to near the destruction of the temple that people are ultimately like saying well it's time to just go back to temple.

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You know, where's the promise of his coming? Like everything is going on just like it was before. And the book of Hebrews is really written in that context.

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It makes a promise that that temple order is about to be judged in Hebrews chapter 12. However, what are the warnings all about in the book of Hebrews?

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They're warning those early Jewish Christians not to go back to temple. Remember I said it last week.

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He's a better priest. He's a better prophet. He's a better king. And the writer of Hebrews is like don't go back to that temple system.

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It's about to be destroyed. God is gonna shake the heavens and the earth referring to the things that could be shaken.

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That old order so that we who are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken. Well see, the context is all there in the

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New Testament. That's the overarching context. There's a generation now ahead of them where they are waiting for Jesus.

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But they don't know when he's coming. But the context is judgment. Remember I said that the overarching theme over the

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Olivet Discourse and the Great Tribulation is covenantal. Covenantal. And so this is an important thing especially in the light of our current context.

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Just a side note here in terms of history. The Puritans were pretty awesome. Amen, yes? Read the

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Puritans. Get to know the Puritans. They were awesome. The Puritans, the Huguenots, those old reformed coming over to this particular continent in the name of Jesus Christ trying to expand the kingdom of God.

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Did you know the most popular form of eschatology early on in the history of this nation was an eschatology of victory.

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They believed that their job was to expand the gospel of the kingdom because Jesus was going to rule over the entire world.

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And so things have changed. As you hear this story about, you know, two in the field, one is taken, one is left.

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And two are at the mill grinding and one is taken and one is left. A lot of times that's now been changed in our own minds, in our own traditions based upon the popular modern eschatology that didn't exist in the mind of the church until the 19th century.

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The idea of the secret rapture and the Christians sort of leaving behind their shoes, you know, disappearing and leaving behind the unrighteous, the unbelievers.

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That's the popular way that we've looked at this passage. As a matter of fact, a popular movie years ago Left Behind, the movie, had even in some of their branding and their posters, they even had that, you know.

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Someone's in the field looking up like, what just happened? That Christian just got sucked away and there's their underwear and shoes, you know.

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That sort of a thing. And we think about it that way because of popular culture and popular eschatology. But if you actually read the text, if you read the text in context and go verse by verse, you have to say, well, wait a minute, this is judgment that they could have escaped.

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Jesus tells them, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, flee. Where? Jerusalem. Surrounded by armies.

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You can flee. And the Christians early on did actually escape the judgment upon Jerusalem and they fled to a town called

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Pella. Because apparently they read the Great Tribulation as referring to them and their generation.

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The context is them, those covenant -breaking Jews. Jesus says this generation, the near demonstrative, it's all about them and what was about to take place in their generation.

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All these things, verse 34 of 24, will take place before that generation passes away.

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And so when you look at the text about Noah and his day, just consider this, just a brief touch on it. The context is the story of Noah.

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And Jesus says, for as in verse 38, those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day when

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Noah entered the ark and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away.

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So will be the coming of the Son of Man. And we're not talking about the coming and final judgment and the resurrection and of the just and the unjust.

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This is a coming in judgment which was actually something that occurred many times in the Old Testament. Yahweh came in judgment.

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Isaiah 19 .1, He came on a swift cloud against Egypt and the hearts of the

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Egyptians melted within them. God came in judgment often. So the coming of the Son of Man here is in reference to the destruction of Jerusalem and He says it's like the days of Noah.

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Now quick question as you read the text. Let the text speak, not your tradition.

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Let the text speak. In Noah's day, who was swept away? The unrighteous.

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The unrighteous were swept away. Who was taken and who was left?

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Just consider it. Who was left after the flood? Noah and his family.

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Who was taken away? The unrighteous. This text isn't talking about a secret rapture where Christians get taken away and unbelievers left.

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It's literally in the reverse. Literally the reverse. The righteous are left and the unrighteous are swept away.

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So I just wanted to make that note in terms of moving through this passage. But we need to talk about what the

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New Testament indicates to us when it goes into this discussion. And I just want to just read a couple points here when you think about the overarching context.

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Did the New Testament authors, did the apostles understand the days that they were in?

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Did they believe that they were in the last days of the Old Covenant? I believe they did. This from the apostle

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Paul. Besides this, you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep.

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For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone.

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The day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

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Romans 13, 11 through 12. Here's another one. This is what I mean, brothers. The appointed time has grown very short.

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From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none. And those who buy as though they had no goods.

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And those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

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1 Corinthians 7, 29 through 31. Here's another one. Now these things happen to them as an example.

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To those Old Testament saints. He was quoting scripture, talking about what they endured. They happened to them as an example.

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But they were written down for our instruction, those first century Christians, upon whom the end of the ages has come.

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That's what Paul says about his congregation he's speaking to in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 11.

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And another one in Philippians 4, 5. Paul says, the Lord is at hands. In the book of Hebrews, we're told to be encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

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Hebrews 10, 25. Those first century Christians, the expectation of that day drawing near.

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And another one from Hebrews 10, 37. Yet in a little while and the coming one will come and will not delay.

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They were expecting this judgment to come. Here's James, the brother of the Lord. He says, Come now you rich weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.

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You have laid up treasure in the last days. James 5, 1 through 3. Speaking to that people.

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He says, Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hands. Behold, the judge is standing at the door.

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James 5, 8 through 9. Peter says, The end of all things is at hand. 1 Peter 4, 7.

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And John says, Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many

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Antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. 1 John 2, 18.

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He's talking to them. We know it's the last hour. How? Because of these Antichrists. Multiple Antichrists.

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Anyone denying that Jesus has come in the flesh is Antichrist, according to John.

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And he names Antichrist living in his day. And he says, And that's how you know that this is the last hour.

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And so I'll leave it there in terms of New Testament context, expectation, this judgment was about to fall.

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But if you're thinking back to the Olivet Discourse and what the early apostles were listening to from the Lord Jesus, you know that they were hearing from him that there's going to be time where they have to wait and be expectantly faithful.

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That was the context of Jesus in all of these stories. So the first one, he talks about Noah.

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He talks about two. One taken, one left. One is left, and the other is taken in judgment.

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But then he says, verse 42, Therefore stay awake, for you do not know on what day your

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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.

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It would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready for the Son of Man is coming, at an hour you do not expect.

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Now just a quick word here on this. Jesus in the story is not supposed to be seen as the morally deficient thief.

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What's the emphasis in the story? The suddenness of the break -in.

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Right? The shock of the break -in. It's not on the moral component of the thief.

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It's on the suddenness of the thief. And Jesus tells them, you must stay awake. Now a word on this.

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There are Christians that disagree who hold to our perspective of partial preterism, this, you know, part of this is past and fulfillment, that disagree on like, okay, which aspect of this switches to the resurrection and final judgment.

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I'm gonna answer some of those questions as we go along, but I wanna emphasize something here as you read through this. It really doesn't matter, ultimately, when you're thinking in terms of how does this actually apply to me.

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Whether Jesus is switching in verse 36 to that day and hour, referring to the resurrection and judgment, or he's referring to that coming and judgment in the first century.

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Which one is he talking about? Christians, honestly, can faithfully go through this text and disagree on certain aspects of that, and it doesn't change the principles that God gives to us here, the truths that actually do apply to all of us.

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Because here's the thing. Listen. When Jesus tells his slaves in the first century,

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I'm gonna return soon to judge. It's gonna happen in this generation, so you stay awake, you be expectantly faithful, you be ready, you be aware, you be found faithful because he was coming to judge.

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But in reality, all of us have him coming for us. Think about it.

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You're still the slave. He's still the master. He's gonna come receive you to himself, is he not?

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Yes? And there's gonna be a final day of judgment and resurrection, and that day is long delayed, and hopefully very long delayed so we can win much more of the world.

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Amen? You guys sounded very sad about that. Okay? Don't you wanna see the world saved?

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Don't you wanna see descendants as numerous as the stars? It's kind of a selfish thing to say, boy, I hope he comes now and just throws this whole thing away.

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I wanna win the world to Jesus. I wanna bring as many people with me to glory.

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But listen, the principles here in all these stories, they apply to all of us. Everything in here is ultimately applicable to each and every single one of us because he's coming to receive you, the master coming to receive the slave to himself, and there will be an accounting.

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Were you faithful? Were you living as though you were aware of the judge and the master and his coming?

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And so it's interesting here that Jesus emphasizes that there's gonna be a judgment when the judgment comes that one is taken away.

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You stay awake. You be alert. You live as somebody who's expectantly faithful.

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You are constantly aware. You're not on a fog. You're not giving up. You're not the lazy servant.

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You are aware. You are awake. You are cognizant of the circumstances, and all of that does apply to us.

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And so he goes on now in 24 and 45, and he gives this first one.

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Who then is the faithful and wise servant? I wanna stop here for a second, and I'm gonna change things up. I read from the

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ESV and the words that we have in this English translation, and I'm gonna say to you, I think we should use the proper terminology, and I'm gonna go ahead and say it like it should be because it's in the text.

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Slave. Now because of our modern context and what's behind us, we hear the word slave and we think about it in a way that's actually quite unbiblical.

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I'm gonna unpack that in a minute here, but I wanna just talk about this word in a biblical context so we can understand the obligations that come with it.

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Who then is the faithful and wise slave whom his master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time?

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Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.

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But if that wicked servant says to himself, my master is delayed, and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and in an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites in that place there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

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That's powerful because when you think about the context of a master and slave relationship, here is this master giving a slave his trust over providing for the needs of his family, over his things, and he's saying that that faithful slave will be the slave where the master comes and finds him so doing what he was charged with.

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But when that slave gets to a place in his mind where he's like, well, he's delayed, maybe he's not coming, maybe

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I have time, and he just lets himself go into debauchery and sin,

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Jesus says there will be consequences to not live in a way that is expectantly faithful, awake, aware.

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You know, John Owen, not John Owen, sorry, Jonathan Edwards, everyone has heard about his resolutions, right?

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They're really powerful resolutions. He wrote that at a really young age. It's actually kind of challenging when you think about his age and writing these just amazing resolutions about living for the glory of God.

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One of those resolutions that impacted me the most, I thought that's a powerful one, is he says that he resolved to never do something that if it were the last hour of his life, he'd be afraid to do.

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That's somebody who's expectantly faithful. He is self -aware. He's aware of God in the context of all of life.

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He belongs to God and he wants to live in such a way where he's not caught off guard or surprised by the moment where the

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Lord comes to receive him. And Jesus is saying that. This person says, okay, my master's delayed and so I'm just going to live in a way that's sinful.

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I'll just get drunk and I'm not going to be faithful with what he's given me to do. I won't live obediently because you know what?

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I think I got loads of time. I got loads of time. I remember having a conversation back in my days where I was living in complete sin and debauchery and drug and alcohol addiction and having a conversation after I had been challenged and convicted with the word of God.

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I was with somebody who was a professing believer and I said to him, I said, aren't you challenged by this and isn't this sin?

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You know, if we're Christians, shouldn't we be living like this? And he said, no, man, I just, you know,

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I'm going to live and just do everything I can and enjoy myself here so that, you know, I'll just go to heaven one day at the end but I get all

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I can out of this life. Do what I want. And that's the mindset here, right? I've got plenty of time.

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The truth is is none of us know that. We don't know when the Lord's going to come and have an accounting with us where there'll be a reckoning and Jesus says, you have to be the slave who's been entrusted with so much for the benefit of the

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Master that you stay expectantly faithful. You are aware. You are found faithful.

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So the next one, well the point there is to be found faithful with the obligation to your Master. So the next one is 25, 1 through 13.

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I'll talk about the point first. So I'll give you the overarching point I think that's emphasized here is that we need to be found, prepared and found waiting.

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That's what Jesus is telling his people. Be prepared and be found expecting.

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You have to be self -aware for that to happen. You have to plan. You have to be wise.

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It's the parable of the 10 virgins. Jesus says the kingdom of heaven will be like 10 virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.

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Now something needs to be said here in terms of context, right? We just did a wedding here last night and it's interesting because in our modern weddings the emphasis is usually on who?

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The bride or the groom? Everyone knows it just instinctively. Well, that's how we do things now.

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The bride. It's on how beautiful her dress is and it's all the bridesmaids and everything's about the bride, the bride, the bride, the bride.

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And D .A. Carson when he's commenting on this passage makes a good point. Back in the first century

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Palestine it was the groom who took the financial burden of the wedding. So he was responsible for all of it.

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So in the first century context it was usually the bride, groom, the man who received sort of most of the attention, right?

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In our day it's usually the, weirdly, the bride's parents who pay for everything. How did we get there?

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Isn't that weird? So it makes sense that like in the first century the emphasis is on the man and now in our day because it's being paid for by the parents of the bride usually it's on the bride.

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And Carson makes a funny joke. He says, you know, when they talk about it in the newspaper or the publications and the bride's dress is so glorious and amazing, so ornate and the train was so long and it was so beautiful and the flowers and all that and he usually mentions and by the way the groom was there also.

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But in this context first century Palestinian weddings the wedding was done a little differently.

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What happened was is the groom would tend to go to the bride's house.

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And usually it was more of a small kind of informal gathering family you know, typically smaller.

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It was a smaller gathering and party at the bride's house and the groom was there and what they were waiting for was the big moment where they would actually leave the bride's house they would go into this procession and this big celebration down the streets of the city and they would go to the groom's house they would close the doors and the gates and they would have this massive blowout celebration sometimes, right?

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Like celebrations with big gigantic vats of wine. Real wine by the way.

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Not grape juice. But they would go through the streets and it was like a big spectacle like wow, here comes the bridegroom here comes the groom and his bride -to -be and they're going down the streets and there's this celebration and they go to the house and they have the wedding and you know, depending on how well off the groom was the wedding could be an afternoon party it could go all night it could go into the next day or if you were really well off and it was a big deal you might have like a week -long party.

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I heard actually I heard that is it

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Romanian is it Romanian? Romanian weddings like 400 people is considered like a small wedding.

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She says yes. A thousand is like that's alright.

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Right, that's alright. Right, like a Romanian wedding like 400 is small. Yeah, that's wild, right?

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Like that's a big it's such a big cultural thing and like celebration like 400 people I guess no one cares about this wedding, right?

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Like a thousand is you know kind of normal. But in these days when you would go and have these weddings they would be long weddings and feasts and celebrations be a very big deal.

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But in this story in that context of first century Palestine Jesus tells a story of 10 virgins who take their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.

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What's that look like? Well, they would have these lamps you know they're oil and there's wicks and they would have to have these lamps and they're waiting for the groom to come out with the bride in this procession to make his way to the house for the big party the big feast the big celebration.

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This is a big deal, right? It's like a Romanian thing. Right? It's a big wedding big celebration.

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Well, you have people who are invited and these virgins come and what's it say? It says five of them are foolish and five of them are wise.

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They don't know when the groom's coming to make his way into the house for the wedding and the celebration so five are wise.

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They have extra oil in their flask and they're just waiting for this big moment to join the procession and make their way into this house to have the celebration before those gates are closed before the doors are closed but five are foolish.

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They don't have any extra oil and now all of a sudden let's imagine now it's midnight and there is this big shout here comes the groom and they're coming down the streets and now all of a sudden these virgins the ones that were prepared they have their flask they got extra oil they trimmed their wicks and they're ready to join this big celebration in the streets lights in their lamps and they're coming down it's a big deal we're going to the we're going to the feast and to the wedding itself and these foolish ones weren't prepared.

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It was almost like they weren't even really invited it was almost like they weren't even expecting anything they were foolish no preparation no wisdom no planning they weren't even self -aware of their circumstances and so all of a sudden when the call comes out here comes the groom these other virgins say give us some of your oil but the ones who are prepared were like no go buy your own now it's hard at midnight in Palestine to maybe go find a merchant or a broker who's going to give you some oil and so what happens is when these people try to get in to this procession or to this wedding what do they look like?

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like they weren't really invited what do they look like? they look like wedding crashers right?

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the wise ones were prepared they've got their lights they're ready to join this thing they're coming this is what they were expecting they're so excited for this wedding and this feast and this celebration they're ready they've got their extra oil and they're coming in with lights and they look like they belong but the ones who are the foolish ones had no preparation no self -awareness they weren't even thinking ahead so by the time they get there it looks like they're wedding crashers like they weren't invited like they don't actually belong if you were expecting this and you were invited

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I imagine you would have been prepared and so Jesus has these threads moving through the story one about the suddenness of a thief breaking in the suddenness you weren't aware cognizant ready the suddenness the surprise of it and then of course you have the one who is not faithful and he decides to go live how he wants to live before the masters return and now you have wise virgins who were actually prepared they're looking forward to it they're excited and they're ready these threads flow through all the stories but remember in this story they didn't look like the ones who were invited or that even belonged why?

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they had no oil now in chapter 25 in verse 14 through 30 the final one hey we're gonna make it you didn't think it was possible but this is the one

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I actually wanted to stay on the most because I really feel like there's threads why are you laughing?

36:18

I really feel like there's threads that are running through all of these that are common to all the stories they're the same principles throughout in reality but I feel like as I've studied through this

36:28

I feel like this one kind of says what they all say but so much more and challenges us and it you know

36:37

Jesus left it for last perhaps as the climax but two points to discuss before we open it are you ready?

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three points these are important number one the word slave and number two the word talent we've got to talk about this because when

36:55

I say humbly and grateful from this pulpit that I am a slave of Jesus Christ in a modern context especially with all the distortions being promoted within Christian circles today that can sound pretty weird to say you should be grateful to God that you are a slave of a good master that you're a slave of Christ Paul calls himself a slave of Christ apparently he's proud of it we shouldn't be afraid to use the words the

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Bible uses this is the word of God but we also need to contextualize and understand first century slavery and what's going on here versus what we have as a wicked thing in the history of our country and in other countries around the world which by the way

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Christianity stomped out eventually because of our world view if you hate kidnapping and enslaving human beings you should love

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Christianity because we destroy it everywhere we go ultimately we also have a justification to believe that anybody engaged in the slavery of Africans kidnapping them and enslaving them anybody involved in that deserved to die

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God's word actually commands that if you engage in man stealing and enslaving the penalty is the death penalty that's how serious

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God takes that sin it is so wicked and so evil God says anybody doing that deserves to die and the abolitionists in our country who are fighting as Christians against slavery said that much they said it often the people who are here engaged in this practice you all deserve to die judicially according to the law of God but we need to talk about this concept of a master and a slave in the first century you need to know this in the first century there were examples of course of people who were captured in war and they were enslaved and there was it was violence that was of course there but you had also a common form of slavery that was debt slavery they didn't have in the first century

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Palestine the kinds of things you and I have today where they have chapter 7 bankruptcy 11, 13 or whatever the case may be where you can have protection based upon filling out a form now think about this if you're living in the first century

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Palestine you had borrowed a bunch of money from a rich guy to start a business and then the economy goes bad and you lose the business you've got some choices to make in that context you can die of starvation or you can be killed or what tended to be the case is you had to ultimately have somebody pay that debt and you would go to work for that person they became the master you became the slave with the obligation to essentially work off what had been paid or whatever the case may have been but there was a form of debt slavery now we need to think about this really important when we hear the word slave because of traditions behind us in different contexts we might think of slavery in the context of like choosing a person because of their race there were all kinds of different people who were of different ethnicities that have been enslaved by other cultures based upon the fact that that culture at the time thought that those people were lower or different classes of people so they can be enslaved because they were a different color or a different culture of course we understand that behind us but remember in the first century you may have gotten into a certain kind of slavery with a master because you were a very successful business man you had numerous businesses or markets you were sharp you were good with numbers you were good with building things and building vineyards you might have been more intelligent than the master and a better manager than the master you found yourself now in a situation now where everything's tanked and now this person essentially takes you on as master and slave relationship you may have actually known a lot more than that master been a better manager been a better business person than them and it had nothing to do with color or culture or class those sorts of things it had to do with the fact that it's different context no bankruptcy protection so we need to think about that in this context when it says slave and master we need to think about it biblically and think about it contextually now talent we hear the word talent now we say what that person's very talented right they're like we'll talk about the

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Romanian here talk about the chiropractor amazing right

41:32

James has said like the best chiropractor on planet earth and I after being to her and receiving the

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Puritan pounce I agree I'm telling you like you can ask

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Tim Tim's story Tim was unbelievably sick ill not doing well at all we he

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Tim was working with Apologia Studios and I remember I was praying for him and how bad a condition he was in and we were talking about all kinds of things how are you going to get out of this situation he goes to Nicoletta and she cracks his back and now he's healed she's a miracle worker and she does the

42:07

Puritan pounce is where she winds your body up into a pretzel she goes to the other side of the room and like does like this flying like pretty much right only slightly exaggerated all you hear is hoo right yeah and crack like going through the house there are people who are very talented we think about it in terms of like that's a talented person it's the word we use for that but we think about what the word talent is here in this text the word talent comes from the

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Greek word talenton and what a talenton is is a measure of a weight of money like silver or gold a talenton of silver equals about six thousand denarii one denarius equal to a day's wage roughly ok so you follow me one talenton of silver is six thousand denarii and one denarius is a day's wage six thousand of those is possibly close to a million dollars so a talenton of gold would be in the millions so talents could be literally bags of gold and there's even actually some translations that actually do that like it doesn't really help us in the 21st century to see the word you know like he gives to the slave five talents we're like I don't know what that means like five different skill sets maybe you know the point of the story is five bags of gold think about it that way five bags of gold we're talking about millions and millions of dollars being given away to these slaves of the master so it's really important for us to put that into context that these are the assets of the master that he wants to see increased you get that?

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now what's amazing about this story and I love this and I think this is where it becomes intensely personal as we apply these principles to ourselves and our own lives think about this the master knows the skill set of each slave so he knows that one actually is worthy of five bags of gold millions upon millions upon millions of dollars you're worthy of five you've got the skill set for it you can handle this much and you over here

44:33

I know what you can do you can do two bags of gold so it's still millions of dollars and this one over here you can probably handle one but it's still like a million bucks now think about the context for a second this master has stopped you from starvation and death you have an obligation to this master who purchased you in a context where you could literally die in your debt and this master now all of a sudden pays this debt takes you and now entrusts you with millions of dollars of his assets millions and he says now

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I know your skills you can do with this and I know your skills you can do with this I know your skills you can do with this now watch this what are the obligations of the slave to the master in that context it's really quite an incredible thing the master not only stops you from death and starving in that kind of economic situation but now all of a sudden the master is saying here's a ton of my money and assets

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I trust you with this this is mine I trust you with this go increase my assets make it amazing you're so skilled

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I believe I can give you millions upon millions upon millions of dollars I can give it to you

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I can trust you with it and you're going to increase my assets you're going to make it work for my purposes it's actually kind of an incredible thing it kind of changes the direction of our thinking in terms of a master and a slave here's a master saying you are so skilled here's millions of dollars go increase my assets it's amazing actually now watch in the text go to the text here because I think there's something important to pay attention to watch what happens when the first one receives the five talents it says in verse 16 he who had received the five talents the five bags of gold essentially what does it say went at once and traded with them and he made five talents more so you get that here is this faithful slave of the master the master entrusts him with all of this asset collection and says here it all is go and increase my assets and it says that that slave goes at once right he didn't go take a vacation first and sort of say

47:00

I'm sitting on a lot of cash right now this is nice right I'm going to go spend some of it here immediately goes to work to be faithful with the master's assets he goes immediately to work and what would you have to do in those days to increase the assets well think about it for a second we don't have

47:17

Wall Street in the first century we don't so how would you increase the assets of millions of dollars handed to you how would you be a good steward of that you'd have to start doing what being creative being wise building things what would you have to do in those days maybe you buy what a vineyard maybe you maybe you start a market maybe you go buy property and land so that you can turn and you can flip it maybe you go and buy

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I don't know do you flip carts in those days and like donkeys like do you trick them out yeah like do you trick out like a donkey cart

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I don't know like think about it what does it take what's it take it takes wisdom thoughtfulness creativity planning and what else it's very important labor work you have to work and labor and this this faithful slave gets these millions of dollars and he immediately gets to work so that when the master returns he's like look what

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I did I took your five bags of gold and I turned it into five more

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I took the millions you gave me and I made you millions more I increased your assets you trusted me with these assets and you wanted them increased and I did it and Jesus when he has the reckoning moment as the master with the slave he says what in verse 20 and he who to receive the five talents came forward bringing five talents more saying master you delivered to me five talents here

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I have made five talents more his master said to him and here it is beautiful words well done good and faithful slave you've been faithful over a little a little millions it's like nothing to him he says you've been faithful over a little and he says

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I will set you over much enter into the joy of your master what's that saying he's saying enter into the happiness of your master share my joy with me he goes from a place of just master slave relationship to share my joy share my happiness you've been so faithful and guess what

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I'm going to do now I'm going to give you more to do like we tend to think we talk about this right we tend to think about like eternity and heaven one day as like you know what do you really do there right people think like just weird thoughts about heaven one day it's like well you're going to be ultimately ultimately here in a completely resurrected and renewed heavens and earth and in this case

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Jesus is saying in principle if you've been faithful here over little I'm going to make you faithful over much what's that mean more responsibilities more opportunities to increase

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God's things and give God the glory think about that it's interesting too when we think about like eternity and like when this is all finally renewed like it's really interesting to think about the fact that we're still going to grow we don't enter into that state all knowing we're going to learn we're going to grow we're going to expand we're going to be taught things we don't enter into that state knowing everything there's only one being that is all knowing and that's

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God and so what's interesting here is that there's something here where Jesus actually says if you've been faithful over a little

50:44

I'm going to give you charge over so much well done good and faithful servant enter into the happiness of your master the joy of your master and so the same story goes for the one that received two now it's interesting because I think some people are like well why the five and why the two and why the one why does he only get one talent because it says in the text to each according to his ability the master knows what you're capable of he knows what you're capable of and so he says well you're capable to use this amount and do something with it so the five could handle it and so he increased it and now the two same situation happens with the two millions of dollars and now it's increased doubled but now the story of the wicked and lazy unprofitable servant what happens in verse 24 he also who had received the one talent came forward saying master

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I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed so I was afraid and I wouldn't hit your talent in the ground here you have what is yours but his master answered him you wicked and slothful servant some translations say lazy some say unprofitable but you wicked and slothful servant now why would why would this slave get that answer remember this key thing are you ready why because this isn't a job did you get that how many jobs have you had adult how many jobs have you had in your life maybe gone through a few quite a few what happens when you're an employee of an organization like you can choose to be a good employer or a bad employer what happens if you're a bad employee you get canned right no big deal maybe like you get you get canned you're not a good employee you're not working here anymore you don't really have any ultimate obligation there because you know this relationship is a different kind of transaction like I don't have to work anymore

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I can quit any day that's not what's happening here at all this is a person who has a moral obligation to be a faithful slave to the master in this case it could have been preserved from death and starvation and maybe even their entire family and so the master says

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I know you can handle this here's a million bucks go increase my assets and that wicked lazy servant doesn't act like there's any obligation at all he entrusted me with all of this to increase his assets and he does what he buries it he buries it so wicked because you had an obligation to be a faithful slave to your master that's why you're wicked this wasn't a request this was the master telling you this is what

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I'm giving to you increase my assets and so Jesus says you're wicked and lazy why? because he didn't do anything with it didn't care to just didn't buried it and so Jesus says to him you wicked and lazy servant you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scatter no seed then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers and in my coming

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I should have received what was my own with interest so take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents for to everyone who has will be given will more be given and he will have an abundance but from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away and cast out the worthless servant into the outer darkness in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth these principles do apply to us in this story these are assets that the master gives to the slave that he wants increased he wants his assets increased when he gives his slaves bags of gold and he entrusts them with it and so I thought ok this is intended to impact us it was intended to impact the people of God then it's intended to impact us now there are threads running through here of biblical truth and principles that apply throughout the ages and I thought to myself how do we how do we have this impact us as God's people we have to think about it in terms of how

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Jesus sees his people he's the master we're the slaves we have the obligation to serve him the good master but what kind of bags of gold have we been given what kind of bags of gold first I'm going to speak let's talk to the let's talk to the women let's talk to moms when you hear in the story that there are slaves and there's a master and there is a reckoning and there's an accounting and there are bags of gold given to these slaves by Jesus each according to their ability each according to their ability as a mom what do you think about in terms of Jesus giving you a bag of gold

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I hear children so let's talk about the children how do you increase that asset that God gave to you to increase his assets how are you how are you using that bag of gold that thing that God has given to you to increase his assets to increase his kingdom how are you doing it are you burying your children no think about it

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I'm speaking in a certain way but are you burying them in terms of not actually working to increase them as an asset for God are you lazy are you working to create lesson plans for them are you focused on their discipleship isn't it just easier to give up and sort of let them raise themselves and just work sort of randomly here or there or do you work as the person who has been given the bag of gold and immediately you go to work to do what to increase it for God's glory to actually increase his assets what kinds of bags of gold have you been given or how about other kinds of bags of gold for all of us but in particular let's think about ladies and the moms how about somebody who's been given a particular gift from God here's a bag of gold

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I've given you this gift and this passion here it is I want you to increase this asset for my kingdom and for my home and my purposes let's say you have the gift of hospitality right but you're so focused on maybe other things that are insignificant that you don't do it you bury that gift you don't use that gift for the glory of God God gives you gold he says increase this asset for my glory and for my kingdom and perhaps you're not really doing it or how about in a different direction how about sometimes we're doing it for everybody else except our family think about that too right we have such a longing to serve

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God's people and to glorify God and to serve others and to lay our lives down often times you can have a person who's say a mom and a wife and she's so invested in serving other people that she's got this bag of gold over here she's just buried in the ground for a bit so she can go and do something over here rather than actually investing in this bag of gold that God has given he wants to see that asset increased he wants it to work for his kingdom we just bury it and focus on other things are you actually the wise slave who gets to work immediately on the bag of gold that God has given to you are you focused on it or are you not increasing the assets that God has given to you to glorify himself someone might say my house is always a mess

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I can't home school it's too much work I'm not fit for it I can't meal plan

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I can't build a home for my family and they say that all the while they're on Facebook all day and serving everybody else but their own family isn't that a burying of a bag of gold

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I feel like the air just got sucked out of the room God gives you a bag of gold now watch

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I like that it's sort of general it's a bag of gold it's something valuable and he says I want it increased

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I gave it to you according to your ability I want it increased now I love the fact that it's kind of general because there's a lot of different people hearing this and each of us

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I think in our lives as slaves of Jesus are given different kinds of bags of gold by God some people are given a bag of gold like Dr.

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James White I think his mind and his skill set is an incredible bag of gold that somebody might have that kind of mind and sort of bury it and be too afraid to use it not put it to work but because he's been faithful and he served

01:00:11

God he's increased that asset which has expanded God's kingdom and God's assets exponentially amen it's different for all of us so what's your bag of gold what is it

01:00:25

I'll stay quiet for a second so you can think because I think we have to let this apply to us in terms of the truth of it that applies to all of us in the principle what has

01:00:36

God given to you individually what's he given to your family what's he given to the church where's your bag of gold you know it's interesting because there's so many ways you could apply this sometimes it is a legitimate bag of gold

01:00:57

God gives to you and says increase the asset do you know that this church exists and all the ministries that exist in the world today because of this church and all the fruit that has come from this it exists

01:01:11

I can think in my mind of about five different families early on that actually had been blessed by God with a lot of wealth and they gave so much to this church and to this body and to these ministries to make this happen there are heroes behind us who laid the foundation for this church in terms of financially making all of this possible they literally were given bags of gold by God and they said let's get it to work and they made it work for God's kingdom and for his purposes there are people that I will be forever grateful to because this truly wouldn't exist in all these ministries and all the people impacted if not for people who actually said

01:01:55

God gave me this to increase his assets to glorify him

01:02:01

I'm going to be faithful with it and they got to work so let me ask you a question do you think you're the person who's worthy of five?

01:02:12

are you the kind of person who when God delivers to you this thing that's valuable to him and he says increase it are you the kind of person that actually is a faithful servant that receives that gift and that obligation and gets to work right away plans, works, labors is found faithful and waiting expecting are you worthy of five?

01:02:35

are you worthy of two? are you worthy of one? either way he's the master we're the slaves and he gives each to his own ability and so men when there's a reckoning for you are you faithful with that bag of gold?

01:02:52

are you faithful with that talent that God has given to you? are you too tired to increase those assets?

01:02:59

too tired right? so just bury it are you the kind of person that says you know

01:03:06

I'd love to do it I'd love to increase that asset for God but I'm scared of the consequences I'm fearful of the consequences well you know that's something that the wicked slave said as well he had excuses but he was scared of the consequences and so what did he do?

01:03:22

he took this bag of gold and God says your obligation is to increase this asset for me I'm giving you a bag of gold and now make it bigger make it more are you the kind of person that makes an excuse that says well

01:03:33

I'm really scared of the consequences so I'm just gonna bury this God has given you as a man obligations what are your gifts?

01:03:45

there's some men in this room that are incredibly gifted incredibly gifted in areas of evangelism incredibly gifted in the area of teaching incredibly gifted in the area of being entrepreneurs and building businesses some of the people in this room have such tremendous gifts they can use for the glory of God to bring him glory to increase his assets and to increase his kingdom and many of us are led by fear we're too afraid to try and this is a big one we are too lazy to try

01:04:19

I think one tremendous sin in our day it's not, listen video games aren't sinful okay in terms of like it's just sinful

01:04:30

I think a lot of young Christian men today when I say young Christian men I say between 20 and say 35 years old just are burying bags of gold to just be satisfied in lesser things rather than finding a wife and building a family or building a business or using their gifts for God they spend all night eating

01:04:49

Cheetos and playing video games right so much wasted time so many times men have come to my office and said

01:04:55

I really want to get married Pastor Jeff, I want to get married I want a woman so bad I'm like well praise God that's a good thing to desire that what's your week look like this week?

01:05:03

what did it look like? how many hours were you playing video games? well you know maybe about 3 -4 hours a day 3 -4 hours a day times 5 and you can't find a wife by the way

01:05:19

I was going to say single men and single women I have no sympathy for Christian people today that say I can't find a husband or wife the air just got sucked out of the room again today do you feel that?

01:05:29

back in my day and I hate that now I actually say that back in my day if you wanted to find a spouse what did you have to do?

01:05:36

you had to go to a place and get face to face with a person to find a spouse dating services then were kind of weird right?

01:05:42

what was it? you had to go to a place and film your video then someone had to go and also be a part of it and put a cassette tape into the thing and play it and watch these people have you ever seen those funny 80's dating video things?

01:05:52

those are hilarious right? but only weird people did that and in my day if you wanted a wife you had to go and meet somebody be brave enough to ask her her name and ask her out on a date you had to get face to face and create a relationship and show her that she can trust you and you're not like a psycho or weirdo or something and you had to go you know you had to make it work like that now today

01:06:15

Christians today have like a million online forums like reform Christian singles reform women looking for men like whatever it is it's like you go to the group and it's like window shopping right?

01:06:26

you know guys every woman in that singles group she loves Jesus and she's looking for a man so what are you doing?

01:06:34

right? it just it takes work and men today I think have a hard time with just that concept work not being slothful not being lazy being courageous enough to say here's a gift that God has given to me he expects it to be increased and so I'm gonna get to work immediately and start increasing this thing for his glory because when he receives me to himself he there's gonna be a reckoning and an accounting as a slave to a master did you increase my assets?

01:07:05

so what are your assets men? so many men in this room are so gifted so intelligent so sharp what are you scared?

01:07:15

are you lazy? are you growing God's assets? I think that's a challenging part of this

01:07:23

I think for all of us right? because we have to first do the sort of awareness of like well what are my gifts? what are these what are these bags of gold that God has given to me?

01:07:31

and we have to think about it largely as a church body too like when God presents something to us do we actually say

01:07:38

I'm gonna be faithful he's given that to us I'm gonna accomplish it I'll end it with this we talk about it a lot because it's really a glorious thing but how about the context of the ministry of this church of end abortion now?

01:07:49

I believe that was a bag of gold I really do early on we weren't worthy of it we weren't professionals as I said before not even in particular very good at it but God gave to us something that he wanted us to increase here's this thing increase it increase this asset for my kingdom we went from about maybe a half a dozen believers who were out there regularly to maybe then it turned to 12 and it grew and then that asset grew for Christ's kingdom to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of churches globally saving thousands upon thousands upon thousands of children and now moving to the area of legislation where we're actually speaking prophetically in the area of legislation and we have three bills to criminalize abortion by the month of March so was that asset increased for God?

01:08:41

I hope that when he receives us to himself he'll say to us well done good and faithful servants

01:08:49

I gave you charge over a little and now I'm gonna give you charge over much so I'll leave you with this as your brother and pastor think about it be serious about your thoughtfulness in this

01:09:05

God's given to each of us as slaves bags of gold and he expects his assets to be increased so what is it?

01:09:19

what's the thing God has given to you that he says don't be the wicked servant don't be the lazy servant don't bury this that I've given to you make it bigger increase it for my glory and there has to be

01:09:35

I think for all of us an awareness of our own context this is

01:09:41

God's world it's his creation he sustains it he sustains us he gives to us all that we have life and breath and everything and apparently bags of gold we have to have an awareness that there will be an accounting how did you do with his gifts?

01:10:01

how did you do with the obligations that he put in front of you? did you work to increase them? did you go to work immediately to get to work to increase this for his glory so you can say look you gave me five and I made five more do you see?

01:10:16

or are you the kind of person that sort of just moves along maybe living in fear or laziness and you've got these assets from God and all you do is you just simply bury them with no awareness of the context of this world that he's the master and you're the slave and there will be a reckoning

01:10:34

I think we need to consider that and be courageous enough to get to work immediately amen?

01:10:40

let's pray father I pray you use the words that went out today for your glory and for your purpose thank you for your word thank you for your gifts