Watch and Be Ready!
Not today Video: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qt3ju8jqve0v4ve1x89we/Not-Today-2_15.mp4?rlkey=ibtrgorvlwo3bpbxytxxutd7j&st=0d0ivjf6&dl=0
We all do it. Every single one of us in this sanctuary today and those listening online.
We have a goal we want to reach, an important conversation we know we need to have, or a critical spiritual step God is prompting us to take.
And we look at it, we pause, and we whisper: “Not today. I’ll do it tomorrow. The timing isn’t quite right.”
We live under a dangerous assumption. We assume that time is a smooth, predictable river that will just keep flowing for us indefinitely.
We believe we are guaranteed an endless string of tomorrows to finally get things right with God, to finally pray with our families, to finally surrender that last area of compromise.
But let me ask you: Who promised us tomorrow? Where did we get the idea that time belongs to us?
But in the text we are opening today, Jesus shatters this exact illusion.
He tells us plainly that the Master is returning, and absolutely no one knows the day or the hour.
Church, hear me clearly this morning: the phrase “not today” is the ultimate weapon the enemy uses to put spiritual watchmen to sleep.
We don’t fall asleep all at once. We don’t just wake up one morning and decide to abandon our faith.
No, it happens gradually. We just push our alertness off to tomorrow.
We are currently in our sermon series titled Face Time.
And I have been deeply blessed over these past weeks to hear how our pastors have strived to stress the absolute, non-negotiable importance of our face-to-face time with God.
I know that personally for me, my Face Time with the LORD begins early in the morning. I have learned that the battles of my day are won in the secret place, before I ever leave my home.
But my Face Time with God isn’t just a morning ritual; it is an active, living connection.
Through His Holy Spirit, I am constantly reminded throughout the day of His powerful blessings upon my life.
And let me tell you, we need that active connection because life hits hard.
We face unexpected storms. We face confrontations with individuals who speak ugly words and have toxic attitudes.
We face sudden, daunting health challenges.
And, in all of these things, I have learned a fundamental truth of the Christian life: my Face Time with the Lord must increase, and my other “time things” must decrease.
And that brings us to the exact words of Christ in the Gospel of Mark.
This is a “red-letter” series because we want to explore—intentionally and directly—the precise words of Jesus so that we can understand Him more fully and apply His truth to our everyday lives.
When Jesus’ words are stored in the deep vault of your memory, they become readily accessible wisdom.
In those challenging, dark moments of life, His teachings will naturally surface, offering a guiding light through the darkness.
It’s like having a trusted friend whispering words of wisdom in your ear exactly when you need it most.
Let’s stop and pray before we read the scripture.
PRAYER: “Holy Spirit, open our eyes to see and our ears to hear. Strip away every distraction. Let Your Word pierce our hearts today and find us awake. Speak, Lord, Your servants are listening. In Jesus Name, Amen.”
So let us open our hearts to His wisdom today. Turn with me to Mark 13:21-37.
THE SCRIPTURE READING will be on the screens.
21-22 “At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. 22 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
5: 23-24 So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.
“But in those days, following that distress, 24 ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light;
6: 25-26 the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ 26 “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.
7: 27 And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.
8: 28 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.
9: 29-30 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. 30 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
10: 31-32 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. 32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
11: 33-34 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. 34 It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
12: 35-36 “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping.
13: 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘WATCH!’”
This passage contains vivid apocalyptic imagery that can feel incredibly strange to our modern ears, though it was deeply familiar to the disciples listening to Jesus on the Mount of Olives.
When Jesus gave this teaching, He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, looking out over spectacular fig trees. Now, fig trees are not evergreens.
They lose their leaves completely in the winter. They look bare, dry, and dead. But in the spring, the sap begins to run, the twigs get tender, and the green leaves burst forth.
Jesus points to them and says, “Look at the fig tree. When you see the leaves, you don’t need a calendar to tell you that summer is close.”
He was giving them a historical framework. Much of the initial distress and the warnings about the temple being torn down were fulfilled historically when the Roman armies leveled Jerusalem in AD 70.
But Jesus expands His horizon to a global, cosmic crisis—the final Day of the Lord, where the sun is darkened, the moon loses its light, and the Son of Man returns in power and glory!
In Jesus’ day, the Roman Empire seemed completely concrete and permanent. It looked like it would last forever.
But today, we live in a world that feels incredibly fragile. Our daily news is filled with rumors of war and the terrifying threat of atomic weapons. We feel the ground shifting beneath our feet.
Have you felt that shaking this week? Have you looked at the news, or looked at your own life, and realized just how quickly everything we rely on can vanish?
And as everything shakes around us, the question we must answer is this: Is your hope built on the Solid Rock? Because everything else is sinking sand.
Look at verse 31: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”
God and His written Word provide the only absolute stability in an unstable world!
Now, human nature hasn’t changed since the first century. Instead of focusing on being ready today, we get completely distracted by trying to predict the future.
We get obsessed with timelines. We want to know the when.
Jesus lists some of the macro-signs but notice what He does: the questions people ask about the exact “when” will not be answered.
Verse 32: “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
Think about that. Jesus, fully God and fully man, in His state of human humiliation and as the perfect Servant, chose not to operate in that knowledge during His earthly ministry.
As the Believer’s Bible Commentary helpfully explains, this isn’t a denial of Christ’s divine all knowing divine nature.
Rather, in the economy of human redemption and in His role as the perfect Servant, it was not for Him to reveal the specific date and season which the Father has appointed by His own authority.
If Jesus, walking this earth, said it was not for us to know, that should serve as a massive, flashing warning sign for the rest of us!
Anyone who claims to know the exact date or time of Jesus’ return—anyone who publishes a book, charts a timeline, or claims a special revelation of a specific date—is, by definition, a false teacher.
They are claiming to know what Jesus plainly stated cannot be known!
No one can predict by Scripture or by science the exact day Jesus will return. Jesus’ words are teaching us that preparation, not calculation, is what God requires.
The purpose of prophecy is not to satisfy our curiosity about the future, but to transform our holiness in the present!
Because we don’t know the when, it is mandatory that we are alert now.
Let me ask a question this morning: How many “list people” do we have in the room today?
Raise your hands if you are someone who makes a checklist and meticulously crosses things off when you are preparing to do something.
I see those hands! We love our lists when we are preparing. Think about it—people plan down to the last detail for a wedding.
People map out exactly what they need to do when starting a new job. We plan out exactly what we are going to say for a major speaking engagement.
Expectant parents plan for months when they are having a baby, picking out clothes and deciding exactly how they want to decorate the nursery.
God desires for us to have that exact same level of intensity and seriousness—even more so!—about preparing for the Day of His Return.
The most vital takeaway of this entire text is that we tend to focus on the mystery of the hour, while completely missing the central importance of the very last word of the text.
Look at verse 37: “What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”
Miss that one command, and you will miss everything that matters about your preparation for His return.
Jesus uses a brilliant mini-parable to illustrate this: The Parable of the Doorkeeper.
A master goes away on a journey, puts his servants in charge of their assigned tasks, and commands the doorkeeper to stand guard at the gate.
Think about that Roman doorkeeper.
He has to stay awake through the evening watch, the midnight watch, the pre-dawn watch, and the dawn—the exact times when the human body is exhausted and desperately begs for sleep.
He cannot afford to let his guard down for a single moment, because if he falls asleep, the master’s house is left completely unprotected.
This doorkeeper has no advance warning. He has to endure the brutal test of absence and uncertainty.
One moment of slumber, one second of giving in to distraction, and an intruder sneaks in, or the master returns and finds him guilty of neglect of duty.
The end will come suddenly. For the unbeliever, it catches them completely unaware because they are blind to spiritual realities. But for us, as disciples, we are called to understand the times and stand firm.
The great 20th-century theologian Oswald Chambers had a profoundly sharp perspective on this. He fully believed in the literal, physical return of Christ, but he was deeply critical of Christians who spent all their time cloud-gawking and date-guessing.
Chambers famously wrote in his book Our Portrait in Genesis:
“The only way to wait for the Second Coming is to watch that you do what you should do so that when He comes is a matter of indifference.”
Think about that! For Chambers, “indifference” didn’t mean a lack of caring.
It meant that if you are already living in a state of perfect, radical, intimate fellowship with Jesus Christ right now—if you are already doing exactly what He called you to do today—it doesn’t matter to your daily schedule whether He arrives at midnight or fifty years from now!
You are already exactly where you belong!
Chambers warned us against “cloud-gawking.” When Jesus ascended, the angels told the disciples, “Why do you stand here staring into the sky?”
The anticipation of the Lord’s return should never paralyze a Christian. It should never lead to a passive, “waiting room” mentality where we just sit around waiting to be rescued.
Instead, the absolute certainty that Jesus is coming again must fuel a radical, immediate focus on daily obedience, personal holiness, and sharing the Gospel!
This isn’t just an abstract concept. This is a direct marching order.
Historically, watchmen were individuals set upon the high walls of a city.
Their job was to scan the horizon to prevent surprise attacks.
Biblically speaking, every single believer in this room is a watchman. You have been posted on a wall.
As spiritual watchmen, you and I are directly assigned to prevent the devastating attacks of the enemy.
And how do we sound the alarm? We sound the alarm by proclaiming the Good News!
We lift up the spiritual light of Jesus Christ in the midst of a dark, dying world! This is the heavy prophetic burden we see in Ezekiel 33:1-9 and Ezekiel 3:16-21.
God told the prophet Ezekiel that if the watchman sees the sword coming and refuses to blow the trumpet to warn the people, the people will be taken away in their sin, but God will hold the watchman accountable for their blood!
But if the watchman blows the trumpet and warns them, even if they refuse to listen, the watchman has saved his own life.
Though each individual man and woman in our lives is ultimately responsible for themselves, we are commanded to share the Gospel-the Good News of Jesus Christ.
We cannot force people to accept Jesus, but we are fully responsible for blowing the trumpet!
Church, look at the wall God has placed you on!
If the Master returned right now, would the people in your circle of influence even know that you belong to Him?
Have you been sounding the alarm, or have you been keeping quiet to keep the peace?
Do not allow the enemy to take your family! Wake up from your slumber and be a spiritual watchman over your home!
Pray with your children. Lead your spouse in the Word. Guard the gates of your household against the creeping apathy of this world.
Do not allow the enemy to take this community! Be a watchman over your neighborhood, over your schools, and over your homes! Stand strong!
But you cannot stand strong on the wall if you are spiritually naked. If you want to be ready, if you want to watch effectively, you have to follow the instructions of Ephesians 6:13-17:
“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
You must put that armor on every single day.
You prepare by having deep, unhurried Face Time with God’s Word—not just on Sunday morning when the scriptures are projected on the screen for you, but by reading it daily, soaking in it, and praying without ceasing throughout your day.
Only then will you be alert. Only then will you be ready. The hour is late, and time is running out.
God has wired my heart with a deep, consuming concern for human souls. When I am riding on an elevator with a stranger, or when I look at the person in the car parked right beside me at a red light, my mind instantly wonders about their eternity.
Because when it comes to the end times, when it comes to prophecy, when it comes to the shaking of the heavens and the earth, there is only one solitary thing that actually matters.
It’s not whether you have a perfect theological chart of the rapture. It’s not whether you have guessed the right decade.
The only question that matters is this: Are you ready?
There are so many different interpretations of the when of Christ’s return. But the bottom line is this: what a tragedy it would be if you spent your ENTIRE life debating the when, only to miss being ready for the Who!
And we must face a sobering truth today: He may come for you before He comes for the world.
Our personal “end time” could arrive this afternoon on the drive home. Your heart could beat its last beat before the sun sets today.
We dare not postpone our preparations. We must pass on the temptations of this world, because we are preparing for an eternal destination.
If you are sitting in this sanctuary right now, or if you are listening online, and you know deep down in your soul that you are not ready—hear me: the beautiful, merciful reality of God’s grace is that your heart is still beating.
You are still breathing. The Master has not closed the door. If you are not ready, you can change that right here, right now, in this very moment.
What matters most is where you are going to spend eternity. There is a literal heaven, and there is a literal hell.
Every single human being under the sound of my voice will live eternally.
The question is not if you will live forever, but where: will it be in heaven, welcomed into the presence of Christ, or will it be in hell, eternally separated from Him?
If your heart stopped beating before you left this parking lot today, do you know—with absolute certainty—which one it would be?
If you are here today in this sanctuary, or if you are listening online, and you need to meet Jesus and accept Him for the very first time—I am going to ask you to move in just a moment.
Do not look at your life today and whisper, “Not today, Lord. I’ll surrender tomorrow.”
Tomorrow is a mirage. The clock is ticking. The night watch is here, and you need to ensure your soul is secure in the hands of the Savior.
But church family, this call isn’t just for the person who needs to meet Jesus for the very first time.
This call is also for the believer who has been sitting in these pews, coasting through your faith.
You love God, but if you are honest, you have been saying “not today” to total, absolute surrender.
You’ve been guarding your own comfort instead of guarding the wall. You are posted as a watchman, but you’ve let your armor get heavy, and you’ve drifted off to sleep.
Right here at the front, on these tables to my left and to my right, you will see a collection of keys—old, rugged skeleton keys.
A key represents two things…
• Ownership and responsibility.
When the Master leaves his house, he doesn’t just leave instructions; he hands the keys over to the doorkeeper.
Some of you realize you’ve been keeping a few keys for yourself. You’ve given God access to the foyer, but you’ve quietly locked the doors to the rest of the house.
You’ve opened the front door to Jesus… but what room have you shut Him out of?
• Is it the finance room? Where you say, “God, You can have my Sundays, but this money is mine to manage”? (Pause)
• Is it a relationship? A grudge you refuse to drop, or a connection you know isn’t honoring to Him? (Pause)
• Is it a secret habit? That hidden thing in the dark that you turn to for comfort instead of turning to the Holy Spirit? (Pause)
• Is it your future plans? Your career, your ambitions, or your retirement that you refuse to let Him touch? (Pause)
What is the key of self-will you are still holding onto today?
In the Church of the Nazarene, we have a definitive word for what happens when a believer stops playing games, hands over those locked doors, and lays every single area of their life on the altar.
We call it holiness. We call it entire sanctification. It is that crisis moment of grace where you stop trying to manage your own life, you stop holding back a percentage for yourself, and you surrender all to Jesus.
It is the moment the Holy Spirit cleanses your heart from self-will and fills you with the divine power to actually stand strong on the wall—not just watching over your own soul, but sounding the alarm to help others get ready for the coming King.
The Master is looking for watchmen who are entirely sanctified, completely surrendered, and wide awake. I am not asking you to wait. I am not asking you to think about it on the drive home.
I am asking you to move now. Right now, let us bow our heads across this sanctuary.
Listen to me closely: These keys on the tables are for three specific groups of people today.
First, if you need to accept Jesus for the very first time today—if your soul is not secure and you need to hand Him the keys to your life for salvation—these keys are for you. Walk down, claim your key from the table, and let us pray with you to receive Jesus.
Second, if you are a believer who has been holding back—if you realize you’ve been keeping locked rooms from God, and today you are ready to trade your keys of self-control for the Master’s key of responsibility and entire sanctification—these keys are for you.
When I say you are trading your self-control for the “Master’s key of responsibility,” here is exactly what I mean: In the parable Jesus gave us, the owner didn’t leave his servants with an empty house.
He put them in charge. He handed the doorkeeper the keys to the front gate and said, ‘Stand guard. Watch over my property.’
When you finally stop trying to manage your own life and you hand Jesus the keys to your locked rooms, He doesn’t leave you empty-handed.
A holy exchange takes place. He cleanses your heart, and then He hands you His key. He gives you the profound responsibility to stand on the wall, to guard your home, to watch over your neighborhood, and to do His work until He returns.
You trade the exhausting burden of trying to control your own life for the holy privilege of carrying out the Master’s assignment.
If you fit into that invitation, I want you to stand up right now and come get a key.
And finally, the third group, if you are walking in sweet fellowship with the Lord today—if you are anchored in the Lord, standing at your post, already fully consecrated and living a surrendered life—this invitation is for you, too.
Now, “consecrated” is a heavy church word, but here is all it really means: It means to be set apart and reserved for a specific, exclusive purpose.
Living right here in the Valley, at the foot of the Skyline Drive, we understand what it means for something to be set apart. Think about that beautiful mountain ridge.
Decades ago, a boundary line was drawn around that land, designating it as a protected National Park.
Because it is set apart, you can’t build a strip mall on it, you can’t run a commercial logging operation through it, and you can’t treat it like common real estate.
It is completely protected, preserved, and reserved exclusively for its highest purpose.
To live a consecrated life means a holy boundary line has been drawn around your soul. You have looked at your time, your talents, your family, and your future, and you’ve told the world:
‘You cannot build your worldly, common ambitions here anymore. I have been set apart and reserved exclusively for the Master’s glory.’
Do not miss the opportunity to claim your marker. (Lower voice)
Come down to the table, take a key as a fresh, personal commitment to your post as a watchman, and then feel completely free to take that key right back to your seat to cover this room in quiet, powerful prayer.
If you fit into any of these three invitations, the Master’s Invitation to you is to stand up right now. Come to the table. Take a key. And Turn it over to Him.
Come now. The Master is looking for watchmen who are wide awake.
Let us pray:
“Dear Lord Jesus, break the spirit of procrastination in this room right now. Break the illusion of tomorrow.
For every soul that needs salvation, give them the holy courage to step out and move. For every believer seeking the fire of entire sanctification, give them the grace to hand over every locked room right now.
And for every faithful watchman who is already consecrated to Your will, strengthen their hands, ignite their hearts, and anchor their feet.
Cleanse our hearts, fill us with Your Holy Spirit, and station us together on the wall. We surrender it all to You right now. In Jesus’ name… Amen.”
Benediction: And now, church—for those who have met Jesus, and for every watchman who has picked up a key as a sign of total surrender to the King:
Go forth from this place wide awake.
Walk out into your neighborhoods, your schools, your workplaces, and your homes with a holy confidence, carrying the reminder that your life belongs entirely to Him.
May the Lord bless you and keep you. May He strengthen your hands to hold fast to the wall, and may He keep your hearts burning with His love until the Master returns. Go in peace, fully sanctified, to love and serve the Lord.
And all God’s people said… Amen.