Keep Watch

Advent starts with a wake-up call. Discover why Jesus invites us to keep watch, stay ready, and welcome His coming — past, future, and present.

Transcript

Words found in the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 24, Matthew, chapter 24. When you found Matthew, chapter 24, go ahead and stand with me for the reading of the Word of God this morning.

Notice these words Matthew 24, and we will drop down to verse 36. This is the word of God, Jesus said to the disciples. But about that day and hour no one knows. Neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark. And they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away. So too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field, one will be taken and one will will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together, one will be taken and one will be left.

Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this, if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. Jesus, thank you for your holy word, your holy challenging word. And so, Lord, we absolutely need your Holy Spirit today to help us, to guide us, to speak to our hearts in ways that no man ever could.

And Lord, that's your voice, the very breath of God, the word of God. And so, Lord, give us that voice today and then give us the power, the grace to be able to respond to you in trust and obedience. We pray in your name. Amen. And you can be seated.

Well, happy New Year. I know it sounds a little odd, but for us Christians, we don't base our year, we don't base time just on, so to speak, a secular calendar. Alright, now I know Walmart, Target, they typically tip us off to what's next, right? I mean, they've had stuff out for quite some time. They, they let you know because they're looking at a calendar and looking at bottom lines and dollars, right?

That is not how we organize our life in the church. And that's why here at Harvest Point, along with, you know, countless other churches around the globe, we have ordered ourself in a liturgical way, which is just simply to say in a worshipful way. In other words, our entire year is organized around worshiping God and in these big events, such as his first coming, right? Which has to do with the first Advent, okay? And of course, then we move on to other things later in the year where we remember his resurrection, right?

Now, there's two preparatory times in the church year, and that is Advent and Lent. You remember the season of Lent, right? Not the stuff that you find perhaps between. Between your toes or in your belly button, but rather, Lent means spring, okay? And so it's a time of preparation for Easter.

Well, Advent is a time of preparation, a time of anticipation for Christmas. So it's not Christmas, okay, But it is preparation for Christmas, for Christ coming, literally Christ Mass, right? So, you know, people always want to get confused here and whatnot, but the church did not borrow, okay, from secular society, number one, right, for its holy days, okay? These are set by God himself, in fact. All right, now, maybe some of you would disagree with that, but that's okay.

I would say really have a conversation about that with somebody that really knows what's going on. And so it's not a matter of borrowing from the pagans or borrowing from secular society. The whole point is everybody knows something important is happening in the shifting seasons. So it's interesting that the pagans, they worship nature because they know the winter solstice is coming, right? Days are getting darker, and something's got to change.

Otherwise we end up in total darkness, which would be total death. But in fact. In fact, we turn all of a sudden. Somehow the seasons even point to this reality. And of course, it just so happens that Jesus actual birth, which we can also discuss in another setting at December 25, is, interestingly, in the darkest days of winter.

And that's not by accident, of course, that's by design. Because the light slips into the world in its darkest moment. And this teaches us, and this is what we celebrate. That's why we have lights and trees and green. Because in the face of darkness and death around us, even in nature, as your grass is dormant, the trees are doing their thing.

We still can proclaim in a place like this that there is life, there is light, there is God who has come to save us. Okay? So these are instructive for us, right? That's the whole point of this. And then we move on from that into epiphany, which is a season of light, and so on and so forth.

Okay? So not trying to just teach on the church year here, but the year is very theological, very biblical and instructive. Now, go back to your secular pagan calendar, if you will, but there's a reason why we follow this, one that is literally based on the great acts of God in time and space. And so I would welcome you to actually think about things that way rather than some other odd way. So again, happy New Year.

Say that once again. Hopefully it makes a little more sense. About why we would say that is because this is the first Sunday of Advent. Now, Advent itself, interestingly, begins with this Matthew chapter 24 text, which. Did that help you get ready for Christmas at all?

I mean, let's just be honest. Maybe you weren't listening, but if you were listening, it's basically Jesus talking about the end of time and people getting swept away. And he says, okay. And the church is saying to us, that's how you need to prepare. What?

How does that help us prepare? Well, it's because of this one simple principle. The first Sunday of Advent begins by looking at the second adventure. In other words, we're to start with the end in mind. You can say this way, we begin with the ending in mind.

You know, all great stories or movies or shows, they really begin that way, don't they? I mean, the great ones, not the cheap ones. You ever gotten into a show and then, you know, because it got popular, they tried to squeeze it out a couple more seasons, but. But they ended up messing up their ending because they had to change the ending because they wanted more money. And then the show just flops about season six and you're thinking, man, they really should have stopped at 4 because that was actually the original ending.

In fact, the author had in mind that ending from the beginning. But then because of greed, they pushed beyond it and it messes up the show. Anybody ever seen a show like that? Maybe I'm the only one, but I see a lot of them like that and I'm just immediately stop watching. It's over.

However, the good ones, they will end on a high note, won't they? They'll tithe. They'll put you in a place. You ever notice this, this tension where you're thinking, how in the world are they going to wrap this up? I remember this character from season one that just disappeared.

Where do they come into play? All of a sudden you start seeing things coming together, right? Yeah, that's the way it's going to be in the end. But you won't be able to guess. You ever notice how like the best shows, you can't guess.

Jesus telling us this is the best show is real life.

My story, his story is the best story. All other stories that somehow hit on his become hits, they become famous, they become great stories. If it does not Align to the greatest story of reality, which is the only story, his story, then it's a flop. That's why we always expect the good guys to come out winning, even with death involved. You think, there's no way this can be the end.

You ever had that feeling?

Of course you have, because that feeling is the feeling. It's this subjective phenomena that we all have. This can't be the end.

And, you know, I've seen it at funerals, and some people flat out lose hope. But we as Christians are told to not grieve as those who have no hope. Now, listen, brothers and sisters, this is a great word for us because I understand that at Christmas time, this whole season of Advent and Christmas, some of us, because we have lost much in our life in the sense of people that sometimes we too can look back and fall into depression, fall into loneliness, fall into anxiety and other things. I understand. That is a real thing that we can track psychologically.

Right. We know this happens around the holidays. Okay, but as Christians, could I just say, yes, look back, look back and remember, Certainly. But look forward, look forward. I.

It doesn't matter at what point you might slice your life and say, right there, this principle holds true. The best is yet to come.

The best is yet to come. In any circumstance, the best is yet to come for us Christians. Why? Because the story's not over. You stopped a season short.

You stopped an episode short. Keep watching, keep watching.

That's the whole point of Advent, right? It's like, hey, hey, listen, listen. Keep watch. Like, don't give up yet. The story has not concluded.

And because there's not an end yet, we know we're not at the end, which means good things are coming. Which means the best is yet to come, in fact, which is why the church says, look at this passage today, which has to do with the second coming of Christ, the second Advent, the end on the very first Sunday of Advent. So before we go to the manger, before we've got the shepherds and the angels and the wise men, okay, look on. Beyond that. Yes.

Part of Advent and Christmas is looking back. Absolutely. But it's also a simultaneous looking forward.

He came the first time undercover, okay? Under the COVID of flesh and blood. He looked like any average person. We sometimes really get this wrong in our mind when we think of Jesus. We think of him as entering the room.

And as soon as he enters, the angels are somehow in the background with a little halo. You know, his face is a little shiner. If you could just see, like, it's Just a little. No. Isaiah tells us plainly nothing about him drew people to his physical appearance.

Nothing. He was just ordinary looking and yet within extraordinary because he's God in the flesh.

And so the second time he comes, he's not slipping into the world. He's not coming undercover. He's coming with the whole calvary. And here's what the Bible says. Every eye will see him.

Every eye will see him. That means every eye that has ever existed will behold him in that moment. That is the end, by the way. What Jesus is talking about is not some temporary thing where he kind of halfway comes into the play and then back out again. Nope.

When he busts open the eastern sky, the. That's the final time. When he rins the heavens and comes down, that's it. The show's over. The play is over.

This is the final act. And we are told what happens after this. The general resurrection of the dead. Everyone that has ever existed will rise again, some to eternal destruction and some to eternal life. Dear brothers and sisters, keep watch, keep watching.

The show isn't over. And so I want to encourage some of you that are thinking of loved ones, maybe you would say, you know, my loved one died on that particular holy day of Christmas or Christmas, listen, I know that can be hard, but wouldn't they tell you, make it a day of celebration? If my pappy could come back right now and stand right here, he would 100% say to us today, like, don't be worried about me and destroying your life now thinking about me, there's nothing you can do to bring me back. Instead, let's move forward to a day when resurrection occurs and the body is glorified, to be able to be with God and with each other forever.

It's not that we can't think about our love. Absolutely. We look back, but keep looking forward. Okay? So Advent has us in two directions.

Remembering and looking forward. And so the key question here becomes this. What about the in between? Right? Because that's where we're all stuck, is the in between.

And it's interesting, isn't it, that most of the Bible, like, just open it up and point somewhere, is about waiting. They're waiting for something. You know what I mean? They're waiting for something. Like, let's go to Genesis.

And they're waiting. They've received a promise from Abraham, but they're waiting. And in fact, they have to wait for that promise to be well. Part well, that's like the fundamental promise is the Abrahamic promise. So it's still being fulfilled even to this very day.

But nevertheless, we've got all kinds of promises that are made that. That are sort of off of that one. And some of them, such as the land won't be seen for hundreds of years. The. They're waiting.

Moses, waiting. Even Joshua, once they get into the land, what are they doing again? They're waiting. Waiting around for what? I think of that Dr. Seuss book, you know, they're just always waiting.

You remember that part? I can't quote it by heart, but I used to read to my kids and get very enthusiastic with that kind of thing. We're just waiting and waiting and waiting. And who all just enjoys waiting? Okay, Like, I think we can all join in with the biblical characters and say in the Psalm of Lament, which.

There's more psalms of lament than any other type of psalm. Oh Lord, how long? That's okay to say, oh Lord, how long? I lost my loved one. I want to see them again.

And you know what? For us Christians, you absolutely will. But how long, oh Lord? Right, I feel it. How long, O Lord?

We can say that to God. It's literally a prayer in the Psalter over and over again. How long, O Lord? You keep moving through the prophets, right? Like, you just go through any point in the Old Testament.

They're waiting. They're waiting.

And then you get to the New Testament and you're like, finally, finally the wait is over. Right? Like finally he's going to come and he's going to do his thing. The Messiah. Messiah is finally here.

Like, we can pack this thing up where it's over and you find out. No, actually, no, it's not over. There's another kind of waiting. There's another kind of waiting. And so listen, we join many others.

In fact, all the saints of God were waiting for something and we joined them and we're waiting for Messiah. Yes, but not to come the way he came in the beginning, but rather right here. In fact, the way that Isaiah sees it. Did you catch that reading? We say this every single time we take communion, so it's very important to hear it once again.

They there's coming a day. I'll just summarize here. There's coming a day when they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Could I interpret that a little bit? They'll beat their AK47s into garden tools, their missiles.

They'll use them for housing. They'll take out the killing part and make them into something Productive. Something that grows new life. Nation will no longer lift up sword against nation or nuclear weapon against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore.

Lord Jesus, come. Yes, Lord Jesus, come. You have to be a hard at heart really to not want war in the world. I mean we are to be people of peace and not of war.

There's a day coming, dear friends, where that will be normal. That'll be the game that is being played. And then look at the psalm reading, same thing, day of peace within your walls. Now it's talking about Jerusalem, but what it's really talking about is the church.

Because in this very same path, you know, Cause some people get this confused, right? They're like, oh yeah, we have to somehow like as Christians, support the current nation of Israel because the Bible says so right now what the Bible says and what actually Jesus says here in 24 and then going on to 25, this is all of that discourse. He actually says Jerusalem's going to be done, the temple done. Those are symbols of a reality. And guess what?

In 70 AD, the temple was destroyed. Jerusalem was done. And from this point to this very moment right now, there are no sacrifices being made there. It is not the temple of God. In fact, it's actually run by Muslims right now.

What does this mean? Something political? Oh yeah, 100% it does that because there's only one kingdom, you remember from last week, right? There's only one king that's going to last forever, okay? And that kingdom is made of people who are in Christ.

And what are we told? People who are in Christ are like, they are the body of Christ. What is the body of Christ? Ta da. The church, right?

So today the, and this is what Paul says in so many words. The new Jerusalem is the church, the new Israel is the church. And so what it means then is if you bless the church, you will be blessed. That's what we're talking about now. It never was about ethnicity, it was about faith.

Now I know that's tough for some to swallow, especially if you've heard wrong things for most of your life on that matter. But it is the biblical trajectory and clearly taught in the New Testament. And so we don't have to be ugly with other nations. In fact, we're supposed to be reaching all nations for Christ.

And in fact there's so many Christians in all the nations of the world today that no matter where you land the map almost, there's some Christians there, which is fascinating. Iran Christians, right? North Korea Christians. So before we just go pushing the destruction button, right like you remember the Sons of Thunder wanted to do. Jesus, can we just blow these.

These people rejected you. They hate you. Just blow them up. Push the nuclear option. Jesus says, no, no, no thanks.

No thanks. I'm here to save. Now a day of judgment is coming, and this is very helpful for us because there's some nasty, evil people in the world. And here's the thing. We can look out into the world and say, there's nasty evil people out there.

But here's the more important question. What is nasty and evil in us? What in us gets peaked when we even see evil or we read about it? Whatever that is needs to be done away with. In fact, we need to lay it aside is the way the Scripture tells us in Romans 13, which happens to be our text for today.

So the danger, Jesus says, not knowing less about or like knowing more about the Second Coming. We don't need to know more. We have enough right here. All the timelines, all the predictions, throw them away. It's not the point.

Jesus specifically says, like, nobody knows. So why are we. Why are we still discussing this? So when we get caught up and tangled up in all these different things, which. Oh, man, if I had 20 minutes to go over some of these things, it'd be lovely to, like, just really challenge you in this way because there's so much misunderstanding.

I'll just pick one. The Left behind series, right, Sees, for instance, those left behind as the ones who are going to hell. But that's not what Jesus says here. In fact, he says the ones that are swept away, they're the ones that are judged. The ones that are taken are the ones that are judged.

The ones that remain are the ones that are saved. Didn't he say it was in, like, the days of Noah, it wasn't the ones that were swept away, right, that were saved. They were damned. They were swept away and destroyed. But instead it was the ones who remained.

Rather than being cheap and superficial, with some of our timelines and some of our understandings about the end of time, we need to read Jesus and the New Testament very carefully.

And what we'll find is kind of two things that are undeniable. He is coming back, and we don't know when. And we're not supposed to know when, and we're not supposed to try to predict. In fact, this is exactly what Jesus says. You won't know the day.

And Paul will back this up later and say, no one knows. Timeline's out the window. No reason for that. Instead, keep watch.

Here's the danger, Jesus. Pointing to is that we care less, that we're careless. In fact, that we just say, yeah, you know, probably never going to happen. We give up hope in waiting. No, we're supposed to have an active anticipation.

We're supposed to be waiting in ready position, you know, like athletes do. Right. They're not standing there. Well, unless you go to a T ball game. Right?

You ever seen them at T ball? My home plates over there. Here's what they're doing, you know, or right, or they're doing this, you know, or they're playing in the dirt.

No, we're supposed to be down and ready so that when the ball comes to us, we're ready to move. You know, it's interesting that athletes do a lot of waiting, don't they? You think about, like, football players, they wait all week, but their waiting is very active. They're watching film, they're preparing their mind, they're preparing their body, all for two or three hours. Listen, I get it.

Sometimes there's not a lot of action, but it's in the waiting where the preparation really matters.

Most. Good coaches will tell you, you know, it's the preparation that wins the game. It's not just getting out there and doing your thing without understanding, without teamwork, et cetera. We're the same way, brothers and sisters. Yes, we're waiting.

Yes, we're in the middle between his first coming and his second coming. But it's time to actively wait. And when our number is called, when he calls us to something new, we're ready to move this way or that because we're on toes, ready to go, ready position, and we got to keep each other ready. Don't you need help in staying ready, staying awake sometimes? I've done a lot of driving in my life, and there comes times where I get really tired, and, I mean, I'm just doing this number.

I'm, you know, trying to, like, do all these things to stay awake as I'm driving.

And Jessica Alden is no help at all.

And here's why. She's over there snoozing, you know, she trusts me enough, maybe too much. And sometimes I've had to wake her, like, Bev, hey, listen, I'm really struggling, and she just keeps bumping me, and it's annoying. You know what I mean? Like, you just, oh.

And then she bumps me again. It's like, but I need that. You ever needed someone annoying in your life, just go ahead and say amen, because you really do. Sometimes we need that annoying that annoying preacher that just keeps preaching about hope, keeps preaching about the best is yet to come. Until finally, one day in our dark winter, in the darkest of nights, that word comes to us and says, you know what?

The. The best is yet to come. And all of a sudden, it makes sense. Man, those moments are rare, yes, but it's all the preparation we've put in before that that all of a sudden comes together in that gracious moment.

So I hope you. You hear me, brothers and sisters today, sometimes in the ordinary, that's the most dangerous. When there's nothing big going on, that's the most dangerous time. You know, when you're going to the beach, down 65 between Montgomery and the beach, there's multiple signs. You seen these?

That will say, hey, don't go to sleep. This is an area where it's easy to go to sleep, pull over and take a nap. Don't sleep while you're driving, you know, which should make a lot of sense to us. But there's multiple signs that actually. Why?

Because on that stretch, there's not a lot of traffic. It's very straight, and you get relaxed, and you probably just stopped at, you know, Montgomery, got you something to eat, and now you're about to snooze. They're like, hey, pull over. Do what you gotta do. Because this is a dangerous place if you're on the edge of a cliff.

I've driven on the edge of a cliff before, and I'm talking about my. I'm white knuckling the steering wheel. You know what I'm talking about? Like, I mean, over here, imminent death. One wrong move, my wheel.

Something goes wrong, breaks out, we're just all dead. I'm like, I'm peaked. But not on a straight, easy road off into oblivion.

You see the point? Sometimes things are ordinary. We can go to sleep, and Jesus is saying, na, na, na, na, Listen, that's the time you got to stay awake, because that's the time when you least expect it. You least expect the end. You expect the end when you're literally on the precipice of it, not on the easy road.

Some of you are on the easy road. Things are going well for you right now. You got plenty of money, friends, whatever, family's doing fairly well.

You haven't thought about God in a minute.

You're definitely not giving yourself to him. You're not studying the scripture. You're not praying for others. It's just easy right now. Beware.

Wake up. Like, get up.

Paul gives us a few Things here, wake up in Romans 13, lay aside the darkness, and then put on the armor of light. And then finally he says, put on the Lord Jesus himself. So some of us need to lay aside some things in our life in order to stay awake.

We've consumed too much of the world, just like maybe that too much turkey. And now we're sleepy and we're sluggish and we're dozing off. When we need to be attentive, we need to wake up.

And sometimes point blank, you won't be able to do it yourself at all. Which is why God has given us each other. Isn't it a gift that he has given us each other? We don't have to do this alone. None of us have to do this alone.

And some of us, some of us, actually, here's the application for some of us. We need to make it a point to encourage someone this week. Like, what if part of laying aside your darkness is being so consumed with yourself that you really never think about someone else? You know, the best way to start thinking less about yourself and more about others is to have a prayer list with people's actual names on there. And I've got a list with just about everybody in this room on there, or either, probably your family.

And when I pray, certain things come to my mind, like, oh, man, I need to reach out. Or like, what if we did that for each other? And some of you do that now, but some of you don't at all. Like, you don't really pray that much at all. And some of you young people, you say, well, yeah, that's for like elite Christians.

No, it's not. It's for every Christian to pray for one another. And you know what would be really encouraging is to have younger people encouraging older people, and likewise older people encouraging younger people. And then some of us stuck in the middle, right? Maybe like late middle.

I know, right? It's hard to determine where I am now anymore. You know, I understand now why people are like, hey, you know, 50, not that bad, 60. Then they get up in there, step, it's not that bad. You know, I have people at Madison Vintage all the time tell me, you're a baby.

I'm like, don't feel like a baby. You know, But. But you know what? Those folks encourage me right in the middle now. They don't have, in our sense, a lot going on in their life.

Most of their concerns are health wise. Because when that's going bad, well, that dominates everything, doesn't it? But you know what? I Know some of them pray for me, and that means everything to me. I'm telling you, I need that sort of hidden, humble support.

But this week, reach out and say, I'm praying for you, like, or here in a minute. Just say, you know what? I want to pray for you. This. I don't even know your name.

Tell me your name. Tell me something going on. Let me pray for you. What a gift that would be. What a way to stay awake, right?

What a way to stay awake this week and to point somebody else to the fact that the best is yet to come. Let's just say that to somebody this week. Maybe at work, or maybe we're out to a restaurant and the server's not doing that great of God. You know what the best is yet to come for you. I don't know what all is going on in your life, but be as bold to say something like that to somebody.

You never know what a word might do for somebody, especially in a time when so many people are selfishly absorbed, like, serve me, do this for me. Any little thing helps. Now, like, here's the crazy thing about being a Christian in 2025, moving into 26. Little things are huge things now.

Like, if you just come to church regularly, that is a massive. We know that in America, that's not the normal case. Now, I'm not saying you're a better Christian than other people in previous generations, but it's just darker now. And so any amount of light is a lot of light. And our world needs the light of Christ.

Christ is asking us to stand up and be the light as we live in Him.

Okay, so we'll end with this. Advent remembers the first coming of Christ, and it looks forward to the second coming of Christ. But. But there's actually a third coming in a way for you. For me, it's kind of the most important one.

The other two are already set. Like it has happened. It will happen 100%. But this third one, it has to do with Christ coming to your heart. Is Christ king of your heart?

Has Christ made His landing into your life? If not, what better day than on the first day of the year? Right? You see the first Sunday of Advent to welcome him in.

Maybe you just need to be reminded today, and that's okay, too. Let's remember to keep watching. For he came and he lived and he died and he rose and he's coming again. Hallelujah. Praise be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who will see it through.

Amen.