Staying Ready

[Music] rise up in jesus name open eyes and heal the land rise up [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] rise up do what he said [Music] it's time to rise all right would you turn with me to uh the book of luke gospel of luke chapter 13. we're going to continue to talk about what jesus talked about he talked about the kingdom and i was talking to a brother today and we're excuse me a couple days ago during the conference and we were talking about that 40 days that jesus was was with the disciples you know after he ascended into heaven and beheld the father and uh put his blood on the mercy seat and then he came back and he's hanging out with the disciples and and in one account he's eaten some fish with them and i remember he tells them to cast their net on the other side and they pulled up a big thing of fish and peter you know jumps off and he goes that's the lord and he swims to him and but he's hanging out with the disciples it says for 40 days and it says that he talked to them about the kingdom of god now we don't necessarily have anything written from jesus perspective of what he talked about those 40 days right um but we have this the mind of christ amen and first john tells us that the anointing that we have received will teach us all things are you thankful for that so even though we don't necessarily have jesus's words written down what he talked about for those 40 days which is which when you consider this consider i remember one time someone described it as peter and the disciples backslid into fishing you know after uh when after jesus ascended the first time when he went to the father the first time like they were like well let's let's go fish you know let's let's go do what what we know to do and then he then he he you know he he reveals himself he's walking down the beach and then he calls him and then that's where we get the the passage where we see jesus um i was gonna say confronting peter but we say he's restoring peter right because he denied him three times and he asks him three times do you love me right and and he says i love you i love you you know all things i love you um and so um he restores peter or he he he gets them back on on page and so they're they're all kind of scattered doing their own thing or they're afraid because remember in one passage it says he rebuked them for their fear right because they were afraid um but he begins for 40 days telling them about the kingdom of god and then they then everything is different so so so think about this jesus has died he has atoned for sin he has gone to the father put his blood on the mercy seat and he's come back now the disciples because before this before that moment jesus never dealt with a christian right what we would call a christian right now he's done all that he he needs to do and now when he's coming to the disciples and they're freaked out he breathes on them and says receive the holy spirit and he tells them about the kingdom and i would imagine obviously they affirm their belief and their faith in him now he's dealing with christians now he can tell them about the kingdom now things can land in a way that they probably hadn't before does that make sense you hear what i'm kind of you picking up what i'm laying down here so before the cross he's talking to unborn again men and women after the cross he's talking to men and women that have the potential to be to have their sins washed away to be new creations and so now as he's telling them about the kingdom i believe things are landing in a way they never did that's why you see such an amazing transformation and then you see the promise of the holy spirit coming down in the book of acts and then everything has changed so i believe that in those 40 days that there was something that was imported into them that was transformational right because then we look at because you look at the difference between three years three years of walking with jesus seeing miracle after miracle after miracle dead raisings i mean all kinds of amazing things jesus is teaching he's teaching he's teaching he's showing he's showing he's showing and still they all run and still i mean one of them wanted to get away so bad he ran away naked they're fearful they're backslidden they're thinking for themself but 40 days after his resurrection i mean completely different people completely different the power of the holy spirit comes down and peter preaches a sermon they they they get pulled into before the pharisees in the sanhedrin and they said they tell them do not preach in this this name anymore and they said hey you decide whether it's better to listen to you or to god i mean that's very different remember when a girl came up against peter and said hey you're the you're the aren't you one of them and he's like cussing saying no it ain't me i never knew the man and now the sanhedrin is pulling him and they're saying we're going to beat you if you don't stop preaching in this man's name and they're saying hey do what you got to do but we're going to preach what a difference what a difference so this is what i'm getting at what what i'm what we're teaching when we teach the kingdom it should land differently no one in this room if you're born again if you've received jesus christ as lord no one in this room should ever look at the disciples pre-resurrection and then go yeah i'm kind of like them because you're not at all you're like the disciples after the resurrection to where now it can land to where now it manifests to now it grows it produces a harvest and you have the ability through the power of the holy spirit and the grace of the lord jesus to literally walk like jesus walked or else it wouldn't be written it wouldn't be said of you that you can so don't ever identify yourself through the past don't identify yourself as the disciples or job or whoever identify yourself with christ's post-resurrection because that's how he sees you and that's how he expects you to live and we're going to see that a little bit here uh what did i say turn luke 13. okay so let's pick up uh another parable that jesus uh is is talking about um starting in verse 23 so starting in verse 23 it says then one said to him lord are there few who are saved and he said to them strive to enter through the narrow gate for many i say to you will seek to enter and will not be able when once the master of the house has risen up and shut the door and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door saying lord lord open for us and he will answer and say to you i do not know you where you are from then you will begin to say we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets but he will say i tell you i do not know you where you are from depart from me all you workers of iniquity there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth and when you see abraham and isaac and jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of god and yourselves thrust out they will come from the east and the west from the north and the south and sit down in the kingdom of god and indeed there are there are last who will be first and there are first who will be last you know one of the things that jesus quite often taught and i believe one of the things about this parable that jesus is putting forth here again jesus always taught about the kingdom of god that was his primary goal was to teach about the kingdom the kingdom is here the kingdom is in you this is the way the kingdom operates this is the way the king operates this is the way of the kingdom of god and we understand and know let me see if anybody can can can remember the definition what was the definition of the kingdom of kingdom what is it the rule and reign anybody else in the holy ghost the kingdom of heaven is righteousness peace and joy in the holy ghost it's god's royal power his dominion his rule and his reign like we often attribute kingdom to a specific place a place that has walls a roof doors you know it it the kingdom of god of god the kingdom of heaven is within us so how could it be talking about a physical place it's talking about a spiritual reality and a dynamic of god's reign his rule his authority his power and that's why we can say the kingdom of heaven has come upon you right so when somebody gets up out of a wheelchair when somebody's pain is healed it's because the kingdom of heaven has come upon them right healing and deliverance and those things are a byproduct of the kingdom it's the reality that the kingdom is near so jesus was always talking about the kingdom he was always saying that people are pressing into the kingdom and here jesus is telling a parable and he actually talked about this quite a bit and and the big overarching takeaway i would say from this parable is listen the time is short the time is short right here you have jesus saying strive to enter through the narrow gate for many i say to you will seek to enter will not be able there's another place where jesus talks about the the the the the pathway or the the way to life is narrow and he even says it's difficult the way to life a lot of people some naysayers of christianity would say christianity is a crutch for people who just you know don't know how to do for sale for you know weak-minded or whatever the case may be um i think they've never read jesus words and they've actually never studied jesus's life because it was it was nothing but easy or it was it wasn't easy at all it was everything but easy right i mean how many times was he almost murdered by the pharisees and the crowds i mean his first sermon out of the gate they led him to a cliff to push him off is that easy who's ever been pushed to a a cliff and tried to get thrown off after preaching a message uh exactly you know they were always trying to get him caught up they're always trying to catch him in some way to put him to death so people who say that just they're ignorant they don't know they've never actually studied the life of jesus they never actually studied the life of the disciples they never actually looked into history and see how many mothers and fathers and daughters even today in in this millennia how many christians have given their lives for the gospel you don't see it as much here in america but in other countries it's a given you convert you're dead and you call that easy it's just because you don't know just because you're ignorant but it's nothing but easy that's why jesus says listen the way to life it's difficult not because he designed it that way but because of the world that we live in is anti-kingdom of god and so they're constantly pushing against the kingdom of light the kingdom of darkness is always trying to prevail against the the the the people of the kingdom but we are not those that shrink back amen that's why he's saying here strive to enter through the narrow gate right because wide is the is the gate that leads to destruction and many find it it's easy it's easy and that's literally what jesus says it's easy and many are on that path it's easy to put your trust in man it's you know it's amazing and i'm sure all of you have experienced this at some point at some time in your life it is so easy to go along with the crowd when everyone is acting foolish it is so easy to just go along and act foolish but when everyone is acting foolish and you want to stand up and go hey guys no like your whole system is like freaking out you're like oh people are going to freak out they're going to say you're you know you're holier than thou they're gonna you know it is so much harder if you've ever tried to go against the grain of what everyone else is doing i was interviewed for um an article in cbs about uh why so originally the person interviewed me because they were like uh we're trying to find republicans that don't want to take the vaccine and just figure out why like okay sure and so i was like well i don't know i said i don't i wouldn't label myself a republican or a democrat or an independent or liberal i said you know what i'm i'm a son of god uh i'm in this world temporarily and i i enforce the kingdom of heaven so and i said and i vote whatever my uh my conscience and whatever the the the word of god says i said so if that labels me i don't i don't know where that puts me i said but this is what i believe about this this topic and i went on to preach the gospel for about 30 minutes and so at the end of it all she was like well i don't know if i'm going to be able to use any of this um because you're technically not a republican i was like well that's fine but but then they they she reached out to me and said hey we're doing one on evangelical christians and why they won't get the vaccine and i said and so she goes i don't want to label you but you know are you evangelical and i was like well i believe i said well i believe i'm evangelical as an adjective but as a denomination you know if you're talking about an adjective evangelical yeah i believe in it yeah i'm evangelical you know i preach i evangelize um but they in the article called me an event evangelical pastor um but uh it it's it's amazing because my voice was the minority voice of all of the evangelical pastors that they interviewed and what was really concerning to me is that you know there's well-known leaders in in christian church trying to use scripture to say that it is god's will to inject yourself with a virus or with an antivirus or whatever it's called and and they're using the good samaritan and see this is why now i'm i'm seeing why the lord told me to share about how you view yourself this is the holy spirit is making sense of it all right now how we don't view ourselves as those prior to the cross because the person is using the the good samaritan as a way of saying well see you see the good samaritan took oil and wine and poured it on the person's you know scrapes and boo-boos you know to help them so that's why we should get the injection the problem is that the samaritan is not a christian the good samaritan is not a christian not filled with the holy spirit not filled with the life of god the kingdom of heaven is not in him so as a carnal man he's doing carnal things to help a person that's not us that's not christians there's a huge difference and see that's that's where you run the risk of always identifying as someone pre-cross someone that's not born again and go oh yeah we're just like that no jesus was using that parable as a way to say hey listen this guy with what he had did the most good that he could for this person that was in need when the people the levite the believers who those who say they knew me walked right by and did nothing they actually had the ability to answer that person's problem with the power of god but they didn't so guess what happened the world came in and did what they they knew to to do best and it's it's a good example of somebody helping someone out someone who's who looks like but it's but it's not apples to apples because we possess something far greater than just oil and wine we possess holy spirit we possess the name of jesus we possess the power of god the kingdom of god and see that's where you run the risk of not understanding where you stand we stand on this side of the resurrection there's resurrection power and life living inside of us so i don't need to address people like the good samaritan i i i would care for them like the good samaritan but i address them the way jesus would address them rise in the name of jesus be healed be whole be free that's the major difference strive to enter into the narrow gate salvation is the free gift free well i'll say it this way this is probably more accurate salvation was freely given but it will cost you your life it was freely given but it will cost you your life it will and i'm not one of those that that'll that'll and certainly curry isn't either that'll teach oh just you know rainbows and flowers and honeybees and you know unicorns no it will cost you your life that's why jesus is saying you need to strive to enter in because there's an opposition against you called the world called people who are well-meaning called christians who are well-meaning but just confused about who they are and they'll they'll oppose the truth they'll try to keep you from truth you know that's that's actually known as in scripture or principality a principality is someone who's in a high position that keeps you from the place of entering into the fullness of god which is what the pharisees were right jesus says listen you keep others from entering in and you don't even enter in yourself that's called a principality and sometimes it looks like government leaders sometimes it looks like teachers sometimes it looks like pastors sometimes it looks like parents sometimes it looks like coaches friends but it's interesting that's that's that's the reality of what it looks like to strive to enter in is that there there will be opposition there will be people that'll try to get you to sell out there will be people that try to shame you but jesus says strive to enter into the narrow gate because there will be a time where people will seek to enter and they won't be able to you know there's there's such a degradation and such a moving away from the truth of the gospel there's people that are teaching and preaching there's pastors in churches that are teaching and saying hey listen in the end everybody gets in i i recently saw something and this is this is such a rabbit trail please forgive me i recently saw something where someone who claims to be a pastor is said that jesus had to repent of his racism yeah yeah yeah and he was serious had to repent of i mean this is what i i think the term is progressive christianity meaning like whatever whichever flow of the world you kind of progress with the world and you kind of change and you kind of move and because racism is such a big deal now and combating racism is such a huge thing that people are redefining everything and seeing everything through the lens of that offense and then you begin to see things um improperly but yeah i watch this thing and i'm like i mean you just you have no words and this person is supposed to be an influencer and yeah what are they influencing but it's it but it's amazing it's amazing what's out there some people are saying you know hey listen sin doesn't matter anymore sin is not an issue jesus dealt with it sin isn't a problem well they're partially true but the context of what they're saying is that listen i can do whatever i want and it's not sin well that's a big fat lie then then you have to explain to me why jesus is telling the the churches in revelation to repent repent of what repent of what what are they rep what is he telling them to repent for if sin isn't an issue it just it it amazes me how we all can have the same book and yet come to vastly different conclusions it's because i think we're see ourselves in the position of peter before the cross job for the cross i mean we that's how we don't we don't understand our our true identity in christ jesus and so we begin to to to try to formulate something that makes sense with the culture but the cross jesus christ the kingdom of god is counterculture it's a whole nother culture it's one that we're trying to press into and we're trying to realize so in this parable jesus is telling us listen the time is short the time is short many will try to come in and knock but he says listen the door is shut i mean literally jesus is saying that there will be a time where people will try to get in and they can't and there's people that are saying that oh at the end everybody gets in it just it amazes me this is jesus's words it's out of control let's go to matthew 25 and let's read kind of another uh parable that is very similar to this but i i gotta i gotta move fast matthew 25 starting in verse one it says then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins so what is he talking about i've only got one person answering the whole time what is jesus talking about oh my gosh let me read that again the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins what is jesus talking about okay i'm not trying to trick you i promise okay he's talking about the kingdom of heaven okay it shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom now five of them were wise and five were foolish those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps but while the bridegroom was delayed they all slumbered and slept and at midnight a cry was heard behold the bridegroom is coming go out to meet him then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps and the foolish said to the wise give us some of your oil our lamps are going out but the wise answered saying no lest there should not be enough for us and you but go gather uh go rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves and while they went to buy the bridegroom came and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding and the door was shut afterward the other virgins came came also saying lord lord open to us but he answered and said assuredly i say to you i do not know you watch therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the son of man is coming so you see jesus telling a parable previously in luke about the time being short and we have to strive to enter in right we have to push to enter in and a lot of us have a lot of us have pushed back the worldly inconvenience and we've made jesus lord we've lost our lives so that we can f find it we've denied ourselves we've taken up our cross daily and we choose to follow him there's no other way to be a disciple of jesus christ i apologize wholeheartedly if you heard anything differently but those are the words of jesus christ and when jesus comes he expects those who say they love him to follow him that's his expectation if you love me you will do what i say if you love me you'll follow me not just not because he's some dictator and you know it's my way is just better and the truth is his way is better i mean truth be told his way is better i mean look at his life everything he did was absolutely perfect i can't i i don't i have not met one person who says well it's it's it's a fact that jesus existed i've not met one person that say they have an issue with jesus and how he lived his life i've not met one i mean i've talked to atheists agnostics you know materialists naturalists it doesn't matter not one person can say well you know i have i have a bone to pick with jesus you know like all he did was good he forgave his enemies he did miracle after miracle if they choose to believe that a lot of them don't believe that they're like well i don't know about the miracles and stuff i don't know about the raising from the dead part but well you know all the good things he did yeah i'm that's good you know that i would like to have a friend like that but we know that jesus did the most good than any other human on the earth love the teresa gandhi uh martin luther king you you fill in the blank the person who you you see is a really positive worldly figure they don't they pale in comparison to what jesus did i mean so many good things he did that it says the books of the world could not contain if they were all written down that's how much good he did so the fact that we can say to follow him is best well because his life proves it his life shows it and jesus did what he did to represent what a son or what a child of god looks like not what necessarily a the savior of the world looks like because he could have did that as god he could as god like not humbling himself as a man let me explain as the word of god let's see if he never came in the flesh he could have showed us from heaven what it looks like what the kingdom of god looks like but he came in and and put on flesh the word became flesh so that he would be the living walking example of what you and i were meant to look like so when he does all this good and he's doing all these things he's saying look this is what you're called to this is what you were meant to look like and live like from the beginning of time you were predestined before the foundations of the world to be holy blameless powerful a a a a a a a nation of of priests and kingdom ambassadors from the foundation of the world but along the way you lost your way so i came to be the way the truth and the life so that you could see it in all its all its reality and this beauty that was his purpose for coming in the flesh that we have an example and go wow not just so that we go wow well that's jesus and i'm over here a lowly worm no so you can look at jesus and go i can do that because that's what he calls you to he said follow me did he not jesus called you and i to follow him and he can't lie right so if he says we can follow him then guess what we can and some of us this morning just need to settle that say listen you know what jesus that's a huge undertaking it seems huge in my mind to follow you and all that you've done and all that you did and all that you've yet to do because you're the same yesterday today and forever it seems beyond my imagination but i thank you that you can do abundantly above all that i could ask or imagine and my surrender to your word allows your grace to come and empower me to live the life that you've called me to but if i continue to doubt and go well that's not me i can't do that that's too big for me well then guess what you've you've just giving yourself the license never to change but if you embrace what jesus is calling you to then you have the power and the grace to walk out what he's called you to amen and so we are heeding jesus's words this is what it looks like to live in the kingdom so he says listen we need to have wisdom to stay ready and even paul echoes this where on verse 13 jesus says watch therefore for you no neither the day nor the hour in which the son of man is coming so here you have ten virgins five are foolish five are wise the wise ones were prepared the wise ones stayed ready the wise ones did what was necessary to be ready because they knew neither the hour nor the day that the son of man is coming that's jesus's conclusion to this parable they had wisdom to stay ready they had wisdom to prepare themselves there's another time he tells a parable where there's a ma i'm probably gonna we're probably gonna talk about it but um where there's a a um like the what he called us a servant of a house and the master went away to buy and sell and then the the the servant is like man the master's delaying and he's taking he's taking his sweet time so hmm what should i do let's get drunk and start beating the other slaves like those are your options like that's pretty weird that sounds like a good time let's get drunk and start beating people and he's like what and jesus tell this parable that that's what the guy starts doing and then the master shows up at an hour which he didn't know he's like oh my bad it seemed like a good idea at the time and it says he cuts them in two the master does and gives him his portion with the wicked yeah he did and jesus constantly is telling the people to stay ready to be ready to be ready because you do not know the time live ready because here's the deal and see here's here's i guess yeah it is it's connected this is why i really have no um no i have patience because i'm love love is patient um okay i'll say it this way i don't i don't understand or subscribe to the the the people who move towards always trying to figure out when jesus is coming back i'm always trying to figure out when jesus oh jesus coming back just oh jesus come back oh jesus coming back just coming back jesus coming back okay jesus just said you need to know the hour nor the day okay you don't know you won't know right and so here's the here's the concern and the foolishness of always trying to figure out the day because every day you should be busy about the father's business and so what happens is if you know the day or the time you may be like that unwise servant who says well you know what he's delaying so i'm just gonna live and do whatever i'm gonna live my life do whatever you know go to church every now and then you know go to church on easter go to church on christmas you know but i'm gonna live my life because you know he's probably not coming back for a while so i got time that's literally what jesus is going after in both these parables those who say you know what listen i got time we're good you know i've heard people say well you know i'm young right now so you know maybe when i get married and have kids then i'll really settle down and you know start going to church or you know maybe when i'm a little bit older no because you don't know that the day nor the hour nor the time where jesus is coming back and um you shouldn't just wait for the resurrection when jesus comes back because the reality is you're not promised tomorrow it's god's grace and mercy that meets you for another day gives you another day to manifest him and so you have these you have people who are always trying to figure out the day and the time and i'm like why like if you're busy doing the father's visit if that that servant was busy doing the father if those virgins were busy doing what they knew to do which is to be ready then when the bridegroom shows up you're not going to be like oh uh uh wait hold on lord i accept you as my savior and i'm just going no because then it's too late jesus says listen the door is shed i don't know you i don't know you and it's an unfortunate reality because here's jesus already telling us be ready be ready be about my father's business be about my father's business because when he returns he expects he exp because because you are his workmanship created in christ jesus for good works your identity how did i say this lord your identity lived out is consistent with manifesting good works so when you understand who you are and you live from that place the good works will follow the fruit will follow jesus says if you make a tree good what will be good the fruit so it's automatic it's automatic when you know who you are when you know that you're a good tree when you know that you're a child of god the fruit that you bear is automatic it's good but a lot of people a lot of christians walking around not knowing that they're a good tree not knowing that that they have the privilege to follow jesus not knowing that it is their it should be their desire to live ready to stay ready to be ready and be about their father's business because that's what he desires that's what you were created for like we don't really know outside of the example that jesus gave us what it would have looked like if had adam and eve never partaken of the tree we don't fully understand it we don't really know exactly what that would have looked like obviously we know that it would have looked like jesus without the opposition and maybe there would have been no healings no miracles because sickness and disease would not have been a factor but there would have been purpose it would have been the reality of of growing in in the knowledge of god because god wasn't god didn't want him to eat to the tree because he wanted to hide knowledge from them he didn't want to eat from the tree because all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in him and all that we have in him is through relationship and so here through relationship jesus is telling us hey live ready stay ready be ready be about my business be wise the time is short be ready let your lamps be full let your lamps be full he's anointed your head with oil and your cup runneth over to live as those whose cup is running over and i'm running over on so i'm trying to land the plane live as those whose cups are running over there was no excuse given in these two parables that was good enough the answer will always be the same the door is shut i never knew you but i'm looking hopefully at a crowd of people and i'm preaching online to to people who are hearing me and they're saying you know what i'm going to be ready the lord will know my name amen amen

Channel: John G. Lake Ministries

Views: 888

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: John G. Lake Ministries, JGLM, Curry Blake, Divine Healing Technician, DHT, New Man Seminar, Life Teams, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Dominion Bible Institute, Diversities of Tongues, God's Son Man's Servant, Renewed Mind, Healing in the Atonement, Killing Sacred Cows, iChurch, JGLM Media

Id: 8yFGqTV2Q8g

Length: 42min 54sec (2574 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 15 2021