Today on Bold Steps, Mark Jobe shows us how to live in the expectation of Christ's return.
Jesus has said, be ready because I could come at any moment, any time, any day. I believe that God tells us that because he wants us to live our life in constant readiness for the coming again of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Welcome to Bold Steps with pastor Mark Jobe. Mark is senior pastor of New Life Community Church and president of Moody Bible Institute here in Chicago. I'm Wayne Shepherd. Mark. Last week we began talking about the end times, and for some it can be a scary thought. But for the believer, when you look at the text, this should fill us with hope.
It really should fill us with great hope. And you know, people get fixated on when? When is it going to happen? And periodically, Wayne, I'm sure you've seen it happen. Someone will predict a time of day a year.
Just can't take that seriously.
And there's this big commotion over it. But obviously, Scripture is very clear that Jesus doesn't want us to know the exact time of his return. He leaves it open, I think, so that we would be ready. I mean, if you knew the time, you'd wait until the last minute and say, okay, now's my time. I still have a couple of days.
Yeah, there's some things he wants us to do in the meantime.
He does not only about the spreading of the gospel, but also living with the continual readiness for his return.
Well, the message title puts the question this way. How ready are you? Here's Mark Jobe.
I have five people in my family. And let me tell you, to get ready for an event when all of us have to get ready at the same time. There's only five, but it's not that easy. Those of you that have young girls in your household know. Oh, it's not that easy. You're fighting for the bathroom. I don't know what it's like in your household, but when I say, hey, we're leaving in 15 minutes, I still have kids in their pajamas telling me they're almost ready.
It's when I'm walking out the door saying, I'm getting in the car. Then I hear a scurrying a where's my jacket? I can't find my shoes. Hold on. Don't leave me. Because when I say, are you ready? People say, yeah, we're ready. But I know that doesn't quite mean they're ready. Anybody else experience that in their household or just me? Okay. I'm glad. Who? I thought I was the only one. In fact, I'm not going to mention any names of my children. But one day I said, are you ready?
I'm leaving in the car. And one of them ran out real fast. And when we got here, he told me he forgot his shoes. Thankfully, I had my gym bag in the back and his foot fit my shoes so he didn't have to walk in the church barefoot. But when we say we're ready, it doesn't always mean we're ready. When we say, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm ready. Many of us believe that we're more ready than we really are. And some of us here, I believe, sitting in your chair today, you are very unprepared for the
coming of Jesus Christ. And so this passage is all about preparing us. And I want you to notice how Jesus starts this passage. I'm going to begin reading in verse 36 of Matthew chapter 24. Jesus says, but about the day or the hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the father. As it was in the days of Noah. So will it be at the coming of the Son of Man?
For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field, one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at a hand mill.
One will be taken and the other left. Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this. If the owner of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. Word of the Lord. So here's what I want to
talk to you about today. I want to talk to you about three attitudes that you need to put on in order to be ready. How do I prepare for the day called the coming of the Lord? I believe that there's three key attitudes that this passage speaks about in order to be prepared for that day, that none of us know the time or the hour. Let's start with that. In fact, in Matthew chapter 24, verse 36, it says, but about the day or the hour? Who knows? Say it out loud. Who knows? No one knows. So
if no one knows. Stop guessing. So here's what I know. When I hear a prediction that in October of 2020, on the 12th, Jesus is coming again and it's in the billboards and someone is predicting it. Guess what? I know it's definitely not going to happen on that day because the Bible says no one knows, so if someone
predicts it, it's absolutely wrong. So I hope that you are trained enough and educated enough in this church to know that if someone is predicting a time, a date, a year, a month, that you know absolutely that that person is a false prophet or someone that has very little Bible education and knowledge, because the Bible tells us that no one knows except for the father. The angels in heaven don't know it. So if someone says, well, an angel came and told me the day and the time,
I'm going to say it wrong. The angels don't even know. In fact, it says something shocking. And it says the son who's the son that the son doesn't even know. Hold on a second. Wait a second. Now, this is a pretty amazing statement that the say that the son doesn't know because God is made up of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. They are 3 in 1. They've always existed as God the Father, son, and the Holy Spirit. They will exist into eternity past
that way. Jesus is not a created being. He's always existed with the father. And so as the father is omniscient, so the son is omniscient. So how can the son, who knows all things, not know the day that he's coming back? I believe there's a strategy in it. The Bible tells us that God in the Old Testament, He throws our sins as far as the East is from the West. And he remembers them no more. Have you read that passage? I love it. You mean what God
has forgiven you for? He doesn't. Next time around, bring it up again. He doesn't say. You know, three years ago, you fell and you blew it. And you come to him and say, Lord, could you forgive me again? And remember when I fell through yours? No. When did you fall? He remembers our sin no more. Does that mean that God has amnesia? Does that mean he has a faulty memory? Does that mean he doesn't know? No. It means he
chooses not to remember. So if God the Son chooses not to look at the date, it's not because he doesn't can't discover the date or know the date. He chooses to block the date out. when my wife and I were having our first child. We didn't want to know if it was a boy or a girl. And we went into the the specialist that did the sonogram. They put all that gooky yuck on her belly and kind of moved it around, and they discovered whether it was a boy or a girl. But we said, don't
tell us. And they had in an envelope the images that would dictate definitely boy or girl, but we chose not to open the envelope, not because we couldn't know, because we did not want to know. We had a strategy in it. We wanted to be surprised by it. The Son of Man has a strategy as well. Jesus is coming back, but it's so top secret. The day
and the time. Because I believe the reason that God did not reveal the day and the time, specifically the hour, although the father knows when it's going to happen, is that it would be A productive for you and I to know the exact day, time, and hour of his coming. Come on, think about it for a second. If it were extremely clear when Jesus was coming back, and you know that you had five years before the coming of Christ, what would that make you do? Oh, I know some
of you would say I got five. I don't have to get serious yet. I could still party. I could still do my thing because now I have four years. I still got four, now I got three. I don't have to get too serious now. Now I got to. Okay, I got one year. Now I got to start getting serious. Now I got to start going to church I got. Because if you knew the time, you would measure how well you're doing by how much time you have. And it would be counterproductive to your spiritual life if you
don't know the time. You don't know the date. But Jesus has said, be ready because I could come at any moment, at any time. We historically call that the imminent return of Christ. That means that at any moment, any time, any day, Jesus could come again. I believe that God tells us that because he wants us to live our life in constant readiness for the coming again of His Son, Jesus Christ. So here are the three attitudes that keep you ready. If you're taking notes, I
want you to write this down. Number one, you need to stay ready by living with an expectant and informed attitude about his imminent return. Expectant and informed. Expectant means that you you're ready. Like it could happen at any time. Informed means that you are not ignorant of the fact that Jesus is coming again. That you know about it. You know about the times. You know about the seasons.
You've read it in Scripture and so you are expectant, waiting for it to happen at any time and informed about what it would look like.
You're listening to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe, and today's message is titled How Ready are You? We'll pause for a moment before continuing with Mark's teaching. If you've been touched by our programs, we'd love to hear from you. Your testimony and questions, perhaps. Maybe prayer requests means so much to us, and we occasionally share them right here on the broadcast. And Mark, today I do want to
share one. This is a heartfelt prayer request from Trent, who wrote to us to say, please pray for me as a single parent father to a 16 going on 17 year old trying to navigate high school and liking herself. She is a bit of an edge and is struggling with identity issues. She's getting better, but I know God has more and something special specifically planned for her life.
My prayer is that she comes to realize that she is uniquely made for a purpose, and that she can live out that purpose in the strong name of Jesus. Trent says, thank you.
Yeah. So, Trent, let me just say, first of all, the fact that as a father, you care and are praying for her is already a big victory. But I want to just say this to you. Do not underestimate the power of the influence of a father speaking into the identity and destiny of your daughter. She may roll her eyes. You may think that she's not listening. You may think that her peers have much more influence than you do. But I want to say there's only one father.
There's only one voice. You have more influence than what you know. So keep that bridge of relationship strong and just help her walk her through this difficult, challenging time. Father, we pray for this young lady. God, that you have a purpose and a plan for. I pray in Jesus name that your Holy Spirit would remind her of who she really is, not the labels that have been placed upon her. I pray that you'd bring Christians into her life, others that will be able to speak to her God.
I pray that she would find a group that is helping her to walk towards God and not walk away from God. We pray for her along with her father in Jesus name, Amen. And by the way, uh, we also, if you are a parent and trying to speak into the life of your daughter, uh, our bold step gift this month is lies. Girls believe this is specifically for girls between the age of 8 to 12, but it tackles a lot of these issues about identity and how, as a mother or a father, you can speak into their lives.
Once again, the title is Lies Girls Believe. It is available on our website and we'll tell you more about it and hear from the author herself after today's message. But before we continue, we encourage you to take a moment today to send us a letter or message online and share your story, maybe a question or prayer request with us at Bold Steps. Just go to our website, Bold steps.org or give us a call and leave your message on a recorded line by dialing (312) 329-2011. That's (312) 329-2011.
Now let's get back to our message called How ready are you?
Notice what it tells us in verse 37, as it was in the days of Noah. So will it be at the coming of the Son of Man? How was it in the days of Noah before the flood? Well, if you read in the book of Genesis you'll discover several things. Do you remember that Noah Up lived in a time in which the world had become extremely ungodly. Violence. Chaos. Dysfunction. Godlessness had increased. In fact, it had gotten so bad that as God looked at the world, it said he
repented of making mankind. God looked at mankind, and his heart was sorry that he had made mankind, because so much of humanity had turned their back on God. But he found in Noah a righteous man. So most of society was godless. Some very few in society were godly. And by and large, most people did not believe that a flood was going to come, although most people were
heavily affected by this flood. Notice what Jesus says. he says, for in the days before the flood, people were eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered into the ark, and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Let's compare the days before the flood to the days before the coming of Jesus. Number one, look at this. God had told Noah that the flood
was coming to build an ark. No one knew the flood was coming about to happen, but did not know the day or the hour. God had told Noah, I'm going to bring a destruction upon humankind that Will has not been seen since the beginning of time. Most of the people on earth will be destroyed. It's coming. Warn people about it. But you don't know when it's going to happen or exactly how it's going to happen. Imagine, Noah. God said, so build an ark. Do you know how
big the ark was? About the size of a football field. Think about that. So here, Noah, imagine being his neighbor. Noah's laying wood in his backyard the size of a football field. A neighbor says to him. Hey, Noah. Hey. No. What are you building back there? A house, grain shed, building an ark. An ark. How big is it? About the size of a football field. Whoa! That's a big boat. How are you going to get it to water? Because there is no water anywhere close. Oh, no. The water
is going to come from heaven. Oh, really? Mhm. And why is the ark so big? I mean, you only have about ten people in your family. Oh we're going to put animals in it. Animals. How many Of any animals. Well, two of every kind, really. A floating zoo. Hey. And when exactly is this going to happen? Oh, I don't know, but it's going to happen. Ah, okay. It took Noah a hundred years to build the ark. By the time Noah was finished with part of the ark, the other
part was already a hundred years old. Think about that. That's quite a project. And you thought your basement was taken a long time. When the Ark was completed, most people thought Noah was a lunatic. A crazy man predicting the end of the world. Now, Jesus said that the people in the time of Noah did not know about the flood. But the Bible tells us that Noah was telling people about the flood. So if Noah was telling people about the flood, but the people did not know
about the flood, what was the problem? Noah was telling people, but people were not listening. How many of you know you can tell people things that they don't necessarily hear because they don't either believe it or want to, or want to hear it. The days before the coming of Christ will be like the days of Noah. There will be a remnant of people that talk about the coming of Christ, but most people will ignore the message of the coming of Christ. Most people would not believe that
there is a day like that that's coming. Most people will ignore the message. The great majority of humanity will be like it was in the days of Noah, where it says people were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage. Is there anything wrong with those things? No. It's simply saying that most people in the days of Noah were going about life as usual, not expecting that anything dramatic would happen. It will be like that before
the coming of Christ. Most people will be doing the usual things, completely oblivious to the fact that the Son of Man, the return of Christ, is about to happen.
Addressing the three key attitudes you need to have in order to get ready for the Lord's return, you're listening to Mark Jobe right here on Bold Steps. You can learn more about Mark and his ministry when you visit. Bold steps dot. Earlier in the program, we mentioned a very special book for parents of tween girls, and it's called Lies, Girls Believe and Mark. Right now we've got the author of this powerful book to sit down with us in the studio.
One of the most important things we can do for young girls is help them build their lives on truth.
That's true. Yes.
You know, I remember raising my one and only daughter and when she got into almost in the tween years. I was just so concerned because the pressures are amazing, insurmountable. It felt like and felt very protective. So I'm excited that our Bold Step gift this month tackles this vital topic.
It's written by Dana Gresh. It's called Lies Girls Believe, and it follows up some earlier writing you've done Dana for women, but you've lowered the age group here, haven't you?
Yeah, because the enemy has lowered the the the the target zone. Some of the things that today's 8 to 12 year old girls are grappling with. There are things that we didn't grapple with until we were in our well into our teens, 16, 17, 18 years old. And one of the things that's really concerning to me is how tweens, 8 to 12 year olds, that's the technical age group for tweens. They're like the guinea pigs in this gender experiment. They're really believing there's no difference between
boys and girls. They believe that I surveyed 1500 Church going tween girls to write this book. And I did 11 focus groups across the country to talk to their moms. And they believe there's not a big difference between girls and boys, and that is just one stepping stone away from this can be a fluid thing in my life. They also, if they do believe there's differences, they have a hard time believing that it's great to be a girl.
You know, they're like, well, you know, it's hard to be a girl because of the way our bodies work, or it's hard to be a girl because we don't have the same opportunities as boys, or it's hard to be a girl because I'm athletic and I can't shoot hoops with the guys, and that doesn't seem fair. So these are really important lies. When you look at the fact that going back to Genesis, God says in the image of God, he created us male and female. He created them. There are so many things about us that
are God like. Why doesn't he mention our ability to compose sonnets? Or the fact that we're going to defy gravity and fly to the moon and then land rockets again on on planet Earth one day? Why doesn't he mention that? No. He mentions maleness and femaleness. It matters. It's a conversation we've got to have, and we've got to have it accurately with our kids. And this book is just one tool to help you do that.
Boy, we could talk hours about this. And if you have a daughter, a granddaughter, uh, your son or daughter needs is raising a a girl. In today's society, we would love to put this book in your hands.
Yeah. What a great gift to pass on, Dana. Thank you.
My pleasure. Thank you for letting me be a part of your month.
Again, the title is Lies Girls Believe. We'd love to send you a copy with a gift of any amount to support the Ministry of Bold Steps, you can give and request the book by calling 800 D.L. Moody. That's (800) 356-6639 or give online at Bold steps.org. And when you commit to becoming a bold partner today by giving a financial gift of $30 or more each month, we'll send you a link for a For 50% off any book, DVD, or Bible study in the entire Moody Publishers online store.
So sign up today at boldsystems.org. And by the way, if you ever have trouble joining us for these daily messages, there are plenty of ways for you to catch up on your own time. Wherever you are with your phone or smart device, you can download the Bold Steps app or subscribe to the Bold Steps podcast to listen on the go. You can also hear Mark's program directly from our website. Bold Steps. That's all the time we have today.
I'm Wayne Shepherd, inviting you to join us again tomorrow when Mark continues his lesson on how to ready ourselves for the end times. Our message is called How Ready Are You? And it's coming up next on the Wednesday edition of Bold Steps with Mark Jobe. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.