Good-O-Meter

For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God...this video really helps paint a picture of how much we need Jesus...

Ready Or Not - Here I Come (Part 2)

As a soldier in the Army we were told to always be ready for surprise barracks inspections by the commander. We usually were but one time the commander decided to inspect at 2:00 AM in the morning after we had just completed maneuvers and shifts of fourteen hours a day for two weeks. We were unprepared and it seemed unfair for the commander to inspect at such an inconvenient and unexpected time so some soldiers complained but the commander just said, "You are to always be ready."

This is the same thing that Jesus is communicating to us; always be ready. Jesus may come when it is inconvenient. He may come when there are other things in your life that could consume your attention. He may come when you’re busy with relationship issues, business issues, or money issues. All these things must be taken care of but they must never cause take priority over our spiritual lives and service. We must all be careful to make sure that nothing in this life distract us from being prepared for Jesus return. He expects to find you ready whenever he comes even if it is in "the second or third watch of the night."

Jesus uses another analogy to emphasize one of the reasons we need to always be prepared; He will come suddenly- "like a thief." Thieves do not make announcements about when they will arrive. They do not RSVP. The only way to be prepared is to always be prepared because you can never know when they will show up.

As a former police officer I cannot tell you how many times I’ve responded to a home burglary only to find that the doors were left unlocked or that the alarm had been turned off in the house. When I would ask why the owners of the house did not lock their doors or turn on the alarm they would say things like, "I did not expect a thief to rob my house in the middle of the day!" Or "I thought it would be too cold out for a thief to be prowling around." Thieves come in the day and they come at night. They come in the cold, rain and the heat. Thieves do not come when you expect them to, so always be prepared.

Of course Jesus is no thief but he will come like one. He coming will be unannounced and suddenly he tells us "you must also be ready because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." Do not wait until later to get ready. This is one time when bad timing can really hurt you!

Jesus seems to especially emphasize the accountability of those in a leadership position. They are referred to as "managers" whose responsibility it is to give the other servants their "food allowance." This may be a reference to leaders faithfully feeding God’s flock with the word of God. If leaders do that faithfully and diligently they will be rewarded

Some people do not see ministry as an opportunity to serve others but rather as an opportunity to "fleece the flock" rather than feed it. They are described as foolish because they do not really expect Jesus to come at any moment and therefore they use their position abusively. They use their leadership position to pad their own bank account and look at others as people to be used and deceived rather than served. Certainly we have our share of such people in leadership positions today. Jesus will come on the day they do not expect and despite their Christian leadership position he will punish them severely. The Bible tells us he will "cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers." This is certainly a reference to being sent to hell, as the parallel passage in the Gospel of Matthew makes clear. The person being referred to here may not have been a true believer at any point in their life; certainly their character is not consistent with the true children of God.

Jesus is giving us a principle that is applicable to all Christians. We will all be held accountable for being ready by being faithful. Those who know the most about the Father’s will, i.e. Christian leaders, but do not do it will be punished more severely than those who are not in the same position or have the same understanding. As it says in James 3:1 "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers come because you know that we who teach we’ll be judged more strictly."

I expect more from my 16 year old than from my nine year old though they both will be punished or disciplined for doing wrong or failing to do right. The sixteen year old will receive a greater punishment based on her knowledge.

As children most of us played the game of “hide and seek” In this game we would say, "Ready or not here I come!” I believe that Jesus is announcing to us today , "Ready or not here he comes! "But this is not a game; it is a serious call for us to be ready and prepared for his return.

Are you ready?

See You Tonight @ 7

Ready Or Not - Here I Come (Part 1)

It is a common and wise practice in our society to prepare diligently for the most important or significant events in our lives. For example, we prepare for our wedding day with careful planning and rehearsals. We also prepare for retirement (if we are wise) with careful investments and savings. We prepare for natural disasters with the appropriate responses. These preparations are all prudent and good but it is rather ironic that we can be so careful about being prepared for these important events and not be ready or prepared for the most significant and life impacting event in history. I am, of course, referring to the return of Jesus Christ.

An event that is sometimes referred to in many ways: The Second Coming, The Rapture, The Second Advent, or the Parousia (which means arrival or presence.) Technically these terms do not all apply to the same exact event but I wanted you to be aware of them because people often use all of them to refer to Jesus coming in one fashion or another.

There are 260 chapters in the New Testament, and Christ’s return is mentioned no less than 318 times in those chapters. Statistically, one verse in twenty-five mentions the Lord’s return.

In fact the very last recorded word of Jesus are “I am coming soon!” (Revelation 22:20) It’s clear that Jesus return is a major topic in the Bible and as such should be a major concern for Christians.

This passage refers to the return of Jesus and the need to be prepared for that event. Now some of you are very familiar with what the Bible teaches about the return of Jesus but others may know little or nothing at all so I want to take a couple of minutes and share a little of what the Bible says about the return of Jesus.

It should be noted that all true Christians agree that Jesus will physically return and rein in power, but Christians do differ as to the timing and sequence of events regarding his return. At New life in Christ we hold to and teach the pretribulational and premillennial viewpoints. Do not be too concerned if these terms are unfamiliar to you. They simply mean that we believe the Bible teaches the following sequence of events concerning the Lord’s return. First we believe that the church, that is all true Christians, will be raptured (caught up) to meet the Lord Jesus in the air. Read 1Thessalonians 4: 16,17.

Now all orthodox Christians believe that this will take place but they differ about when it will take place. We believe that it will take place before the tribulation - hence we are pretribulational. The term tribulation usually refers to the last seven years of time, as we know it, when God will pour out judgment upon the whole Earth for their sins. These seven years are described in the Book of Revelation as a time of trouble and tragedy like has never been seen before. During this time a world leader will arise who is known in the Bible as the Antichrist. He will lead many astray so much so that people actually worship him.

At the end of the seven years and tribulations Jesus will return with his church. This is sort of like a stage two of the second coming. The first stage being the rapture of Christians. Jesus will destroy the Antichrist and set up his kingdom on earth to rule for 1000 years. This epoch of time is referred to as a millennium. Now we teach a premillennial viewpoint which means that we believe that Jesus literally comes back before (pre) the 1000 year reign. Some people believe that Jesus does not come back before the thousand year reign and some people believe that the millennium teaching is only figurative.

Any teaching on end time events is known as eschatology. You have just received a very short course in eschatology. I it was more helpful than confusing. I wanted you who may be unfamiliar with the Bible teachings on this subject to have some understanding before we dealt with today’s topic which deals with being prepared for the return of Jesus.

We Need To Always Be Prepared For Jesus Return Because It Will Be Sudden And Significant.

In other words, this is a life impacting, significant event that will happen so suddenly you will not be able to prepare later so you need to get ready now.

Most men laugh at the Ameritrade commercial on television where the lazy husband is reclining on the couch and his wife tells him to do one thing that day - establish an online investment account. He says, "Sure." Then he watches television and goes to sleep. He hears her car pull into the driveway and jumps up and runs to his computer. With a couple of clicks he’s signed up. He rushes back to the couch just as she enters. Her first question is, "Did you set up the account?" His indignant reply is "Of course!" Now maybe you can wait for the last possible second to establish an online account, but you cannot act that way with God.

You cannot wait for the last second and suddenly get your life in order. You will not here Jesus pull into the driveway. His return will be unexpected and sudden. Some people are like this man with their spiritual lives and service for Jesus Christ. They put off getting their lives in order and think that they can get ready or do their part right at the very end.

Jesus says that the proper and prepared servant will be so ready that that the moment the master knocks they can "immediately open the door for him." There was no last minute, mad scramble to get things ready.

In practical application to our lives this means that everything in our lives is always ready for Jesus. There is no sin that we have not repentant of. There is no active service our ministry that we always intended to do but never did. There is no apology we never made and no prayer we never said.

Jesus tells us that we can be prepared if we have the attitude "those servants whose master found them watching." Watching does not mean a literal looking up to the sky but rather it refers to an attitude of constant expectancy. The attitude that says that Jesus may come today so I am not going to leave anything undone and I am not going to have anything in my life that I would regret or be ashamed of if Jesus came today.

Are you prepared for Jesus return? Is everything in your life what it should be? We’ll Jesus be able to say to you "well done my good and faithful servant?"

Pastor Chuck Smith on NBC

Pastor Chuck talking to NBC about gay marrige and the Christian perspective on it...

Such a Beautiful Day...

And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, "Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?" And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"
(Mark 4:39-41)

Defining Discipleship (Part 2)

There is a commercial that has run on TV recently that has a man sitting in the chair at a tattoo parlor expressing his love to Donna by getting her name tattooed on his arm. Halfway through the procedure he asks how much it will cost - $50.00. He pulls out his cash, and says, “Oh, I only have $41” Cut to the couple on the sidewalk, Donna storming off, with the guy yelling after her, "I’ll get it fixed." Zoom into the tattoo which reads, "I love Don!”

That commercial shows the foolishness of considering the cost of something so irrevocable halfway through. One should consider and make sure one is willing to pay the cost prior to making the commitment. Jesus wants us ask ourselves, "Am I in this for the long haul?" Jesus is asking us, "Are you willing to follow me no matter what happens or what you’re required to give up?" There is only one way to truly follow Jesus!I. To be a disciple of Jesus you must be committed to him above everything else Unlike many people today, including many preachers who are only interested in large crowds, Jesus wasn’t interested in numbers. Large crowds didn’t impress him but what he wanted was totally committed people. Jesus doesn’t want crowds, he wants commitment! The condition of much of the church today indicates that we have many who are just part of the crowd and not true disciples. There are many who have not listened to Jesus and considered the cost.

That total commitment is lacking even though a profession of faith is present. This is why recent polls show little difference between the way the world lives and professed Christians live.For example, recent polls show that those who call themselves Christians are just as likely as non-Christians to have been divorced, bought a lottery ticket, watch MTV or have subscribed to cable television like HBO. Professed Christians are also just as likely to watch PG-13, R, and even X rated movies as non-Christians. Another example that demonstrates a lack of true commitment happened in Washington DC on Palm Sunday this year. The city had scheduled a marathon on Palm Sunday, which greatly interfered with normal traffic. The leaders of various churches were upset and made their feelings known in local papers. Many churches reported attendance down 50-70 % on that day. Why, was it not possible to get to church on that day? No, but the race did delay traffic about 15-30 minutes and many regular church attendees were by their own admission unwilling to take the extra time and fight the traffic to get to church. Such an attitude doesn’t seem fitting for true disciples who are supposed to be willing to give their lives to follow Jesus.

These kinds of things, moral compromise and half-hearted commitment, would not be happening if people really understood what was required of disciples and they had considered the cost as Jesus instructed.

Jesus makes clear the cost of following him. He says the disciple must be willing "to give up everything." Everything is a fairly inclusive word! Everything means everything! Everything means your cushy job, favorite hobby, most prized possessions, free time, money, goals and dreams, and more. Now we may not literally "give up everything" but Jesus is referring to an attitude of the heart in which these things don’t have priority over obeying Jesus in our lives. The Greek word translated as "give up" can also be translated as "say goodbye or renounce." In other words, Jesus says that we must be willing to renounce or forsake anything when it interferes with following him faithfully and completely.

Leadership magazine once ran a cartoon that showed a church building with a billboard in front that said: “The LITE CHURCH: 24% fewer commitments, home of the 7.5% tithe, 15 minute sermons, 45 minute worship service; we have only 8 commandments—your choice. We use just 3 spiritual laws and have an 800 year millennium. Everything you’ve wanted in a church … and less!”

This cartoon may present what people are looking for in a church but to follow Jesus one must be totally committed. I want you to understand what a Christian is as Jesus defined it. The question we need ask ourselves is not "Am I able to follow Jesus completely?" But rather "Am I willing to follow Jesus completely?" We are all human and sometimes we will fail in our commitment but the thing Jesus is confronting here is not our ability but our willingness to follow him with our whole hearts. For those of you who are not Christians you need to understand what following Jesus really means before you make that commitment. For the majority of you in here who are already Christians let this lesson be a reminder of what being a Christian and a disciple truly entails.