Today on Bold steps with Mark job, we're learning how to ready ourselves for the end of days.
The best way to get ready is to get up in the morning and say, Lord, my life today belongs to you. And whether I have a time chart or not, I want to live every day obeying you, loving you, and serving you. Because that's how I live. Ready for the end times.
Welcome to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe, president of Moody Bible Institute and the senior pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. I'm Wayne Shepherd. Today, as we conclude our series Beyond Now How we ready ourselves for the end Times, we're going to be discussing the key attitudes we need in order to prepare ourselves for the future. Mark started this message yesterday, so if you missed the first part, you can find the complete message online at
Bold Steps. But right now, let's jump into today's study from Mark. It's titled How Ready are You?
Every generation should expect that in their lifetime, Jesus could return whether it happens or not in their lifetime. We live with the imminent sense of the return of Christ. Sensing God today may be the day believers in the New Testament used to greet each other saying Maranatha, which means come, Lord Jesus. Why would they say that? Because they believed in the imminent return of Christ. Let me tell you why we don't expect and anticipate and look
forward to the coming of Christ. If you live your life in comfort, if there's relative safety, security, and economic prosperity, we tend to get enamored with this world, comfortable with our living. In fact, most people in America, Christians that I know don't necessarily look forward to the coming of Christ. If I were to say Jesus was coming Thursday, some of you would say, whoa, hold on, I had a quinceanera planned for next month. It's going to really mess up.
I already put the deposit down. Some of you would say I was about to retire in February. I mean, come on, after all these years of working, finally I was going to go and have some free time. And. Jesus, you're coming now. Some of you say, hey, I already put the down payment for our vacation in the Bahamas. It's already bought over orbits. And now, Jesus, you're going
to mess up my vacation plans. But if you go to a country where people are being persecuted, put in prison, tortured, suffering their belongings, taken away hiding because they, their wife has been kidnapped. That they're living without their possessions mere by for the mere fact that they're followers of Jesus.
They would say, yes, come, Lord Jesus. Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus. Secondly, Jesus tells us not only to live with a expectant and informed attitude about his imminent return, but to stay ready by living alert and watchful for his imminent return. Verse 42 says this therefore. And anytime you see the word therefore, you need to ask, what is it therefore right?
When you see the word therefore in Scripture, it means that it's building on the previous thought, because people will be taken away, because one person will be left behind and because Jesus will come unexpectedly. 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. In essence, what Jesus is saying is that although you do not know the day or the time or the hour or the month, you do need to live with an attitude of readiness, of watching and alertness. The opposite of ready is unready. The opposite of alert is sleepy. The opposite of watching is my eyes are closed. I'm unaware that something is happening.
I'm not seeing the signs of it. I'm not a watchman on the tower. I've fallen asleep behind the wall. And what Jesus is saying is that you need to live your life with a watchfulness, a readiness, an alertness that knows this is going to happen at any time. And we don't know when, when, exactly, but we're going
to live our life ready. A few years back, my my daughter was in high school and she wanted to do tutoring in a neighborhood in Chicago that was a pretty rough neighborhood for a 16 year old girl to be driving into. And so I sat down with her and I said, okay. I went with her the first time, and I said, you're going to go on your own, but you're going to drive through this neighborhood, and I'm going to tell you how to drive through that neighborhood.
So first of all, leave two car spaces ahead of you. Why? Because if you have to make a getaway, you can never get blocked in. Lock your windows. Be aware of who's around you. Don't leave your purse on your seat. Don't leave your cell phone on your seat. Make sure that if someone approaches you, you know what's happening. My. My wife didn't want me to let her drive to that place, but I let her drive. But I warned her.
I want you to be alert. You have to be careful because you're 16 years old and this is a tough neighborhood you're driving through. And so I want you to be alert. It's the same way. So she drove, and she said, dad, I was watching, looking in the mirror. Kept some space before I had my foot on the gas pedal, just in case I had to take off fast. Why? She was alert, watching, expecting. That's how we are to
live our life in Christ. We are to live our life with our foot on the gas pedal, waiting and expecting that the coming of Christ could be at any moment. we live in light of the imminent return of Christ. Some people that are real into Bible prophecy think that they figured it out and they say, well, I'm not worried yet because this prophecy has to happen or something has to happen in Israel. So I think we have some time. I don't think it's for you to tell us if we have time or not. My Bible says
live ready. And so we live with this expectation that Jesus could come at any time, any moment, any day. You keep ready. What does that mean? It means listen. The greatest way to keep ready. Is not to get five transformers in your house. Bottles of water and a bunker. And a time chart of the end days. Predicting. Yeah, it's about three months away. No, no, no, that's not
how you get ready. The best way to get ready is to get up in the morning, pull out your Bible and say, Lord, my life today belongs to you. I want to live with no unconfessed sin. I want to live in obedience to you. I want to live full of the Holy Spirit. And whether I have a time chart or not, I want to live every day in line with you, in obedience to you, obeying you, loving you, and serving you. Because that's how I live. Ready for the end times. See, I know people that
have charts but aren't living ready. I know people that have the whole outline of the end times figured out, but they're not living their personal life ready. You don't have to be an expert in prophecy to be ready for the coming of Christ. You don't have to know what the ten horns of revelation Mean to be ready for the coming of Christ. You don't have to have diagrammed and diagnosed the entire book of revelation and know what the dragon means and know who's coming from the
East and the south, the east or the West. You don't have to know all that to be ready. You have to determine, I'm going to live my life surrendered to the Son of God, full of the Holy Spirit. And and if he comes today, I'm ready because I'm living for him every day of my life. That's how you live. Ready for the coming of Christ.
You're listening to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe, and we'll return to our message shortly. Mark, do you know what I've been reflecting on lately? The incredible privilege we have as believers living in this particular moment in history. I love to study history, but never before have we had such powerful tools for sharing the gospel globally, instantly reaching people in remote villages. That happens through bold steps, doesn't it?
Or in closed countries, in crowded cities alike. But we have this unprecedented opportunity, and it comes with a tremendous responsibility, doesn't it?
You know, I heard recently that moody radio programming is, um, heard in 190 countries is what someone said. And, um, technology has allowed us to do that. And I'm amazed when suddenly we get a email from Eastern Europe of someone saying, hey, I haven't found a church yet, but I listened to Bold Steps recently. Someone told me that a doctor in Mexico had joined their church, and they got saved through bold steps. And I'm like, wow, this is amazing how seeds are just being shot throughout all
the world. We know specifically that there are people in closed countries right now that listen in secret, because it's dangerous for them to be caught listening to Christian radio. This is an amazing time to get the gospel out there. There are close to 9 billion people in the world, and there are millions and millions of people that have
very little gospel presence in their world. They are saturated with false religion, with heresies, with a lot of different ideology that does not allow Jesus Christ to come to the forefront. And so radio, podcasting, our technology as people can live stream, this is one of the ways that we get past the guards at the borders and we
through the airwaves. God has given us a beautiful gift to go past the guards, into the houses, into the homes, and right to into the bedrooms and kitchens of where people live, so that they are hearing the good message of Jesus like never before. And we are passionate about this. We know that there's a lot of other believers that are passionate as well, and we're saying, join us, please.
This is a powerful moment for us to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, especially as the world is being shaken in so many ways.
I believe there is some listening right now who are not just hearers of the word, but want to be active participants in spreading that word. So today could be your day to step into that calling by giving to bold steps. Just go to Bold Steps to make a gift or call 800 D.L. Moody. That's (800) 356-6639. Remember, your gift of any amount helps share God's Word with those
who need it most. Really, around the world, when you give any amount, we'll send you a special gift as our thanks and we'll take time to tell you about that just a little bit later here in the program today. But let's get back into the message from the book of Matthew. Mark will be laying out the final point in this second half of today's bold steps.
Number three. And lastly, stay ready by living faithful and Purposefully in light of his imminent return. Verse 45 says, who then is the faithful and wise servant? So now Jesus contrasts two people, the ready servant and the unprepared servant. One he calls faithful and wise, the other he calls wicked.
And he basically says, hey, imagine that there was a master that owned a a precinct and a household, and he leaves to go to a foreign country and he tells the manager in charge, hey, take care of my estate. I will be back. Take care of it the way I've trained you to take care of it. And so that manager, when he leaves, he runs the household on line with the purposes of his master. He takes care of the household as if his master was there. The owner of the household. He runs it, prepares it. The
house is clean. The the property's kept up. The employees are paid. The €4 swept the grounds are kept up well, because he knows that that's the way the owner of the household wants it. And he's been left in charge to manage the property. And when the owner returns, suddenly he comes back and he says, wow, well done. You've managed this property the way I would have had you manage it if I were present, he said. There's another manager, though.
The owner leaves. He waves goodbye and he turns around and says, party time. The boss is away. The children will play like some of you do at work, but he says, alright, the owner is gone. And so now he starts acting like, hey, I'm not going to run this house. So like my owner wants it to be run. I'm going to start. I'm going to start having people serve me and I'm going to have a party. And
it gets drunk and he parties in there. He uses people, abuses people, runs it, acts like he's the guy in charge, uses everything for himself, gets in the wine cellar, pulls out the oldest wine that he knows the owner would only have. He breaks it open, acts like it's his. He splurges, he uses, and then suddenly, when he's in the middle of his big party, the outside is unkept. People are in disarray. The other staff members feel abused and trampled down. Uh, the the the inside is like
one big party. And suddenly the owner of the household returns and says, hey, what's going on? Oh, I didn't think you were returning this quickly. That's how it will be with the coming of the Son of God. There are some people that understand about Christ that have heard the gospel, that have said, I'm going to live my life as though my life belongs to God. I'm purpose
with God. He's entrusted me with a mission and gifts and a vision, and I'm going to live my life using my gifts and my talents and my time and my treasure in line with the purposes of God. Because I know that my life belongs to God and everything that I am belongs to God. So I'm going to live my life as though God is my the Lord of my life. Others have heard about God and the gospel, but they determined to say, well, he's not coming soon.
I'm going to live my life for me, and I'm going to act as though I'm the owner of my life. Though every the talents that I have belong to me, the resources that I have belong to me. I'm going to have fun and party and do what I want. I'm going to act like I want treat people like I want because this is all about me, and then God shows up. The image that I have is a teacher that tells junior high students, here's your assignment. I'll be back in five minutes. Behave. And she walks out
of the classroom. The door closes. You know, there's always the one kid, right? He's the first to get up and look out the window. She's gone. He's the guy that gets everybody riled up. Pretty soon he gets up front, acts like the teacher jumps on her chair. He's on the desk doing a little dance. Gets everybody riled up
because they think, aha, she's not coming back. There's a couple of them that are doing their assignment, a couple of them that are still working on it, and the class goes wild because they think, oh, she's going to come back in about ten minutes, but she comes back in about four minutes and catches the dancer up on her desk. The Bible says basically, that's the way it's going to be with the coming of the Son of Man. So the question that Jesus stirs us with is, are
we ready? In fact, look at what he says at the end. It's pretty harsh what he says. It says the master of that servant comes in the day when he does not expect him, and at an hour that he is not aware, and he he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Wow, that's pretty severe. Weeping and gnashing of teeth, by the way, is always associated with a place of. Of judgment often
associated with hell itself. In other words, that that servant that's not living for God, that servant that's not following God, that servant that knows the message but hasn't embraced it. When the Son of Man appears and he's living for himself, then judgment comes upon that person. I want to close with this. I believe that God has called you and I in our generation to live, prepared and ready for the coming of our Christ. I just wonder. What would
be your reaction? If you found out that that day was two days from now. Some of you would say, come, Lord Jesus, I've been waiting for this day with such great anticipation and joy. I've told everybody I can about you. I'm living for you. I've walked in obedience. Oh, Lord, I'm not perfect. But I'm forgiven and living for you. God, I wait for that day with such glorious anticipation. Come, Lord Jesus. Others would be scrambling. Oh, Lord, not in
two days. I haven't told my friends, my relatives. I haven't shared the gospel. I'm not living the way I should be living. I'm afraid of that day coming. I'm afraid. What to expect and find when I meet you. Because I've been living my life kind of doing my own thing. Father. And. Whoa! No, don't come yet. Could you wait a month or two months? Not ready for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I believe God is raising a generation of men and women that are ready and willing to live with an end times mentality, a generation of men and women that are bold for the gospel of Jesus Christ and not ashamed to be a light in a world that's getting darker.
I believe that God is raising a generation of men and women that are living with readiness in their soul, expecting the imminent return of Jesus Christ, living in obedience to him, walking in a way that honors him, so that if Christ were to come back tomorrow, they would say, I live ready every day. So come, Lord Jesus. And I wonder which one of those you are if you're ready. If you anticipate it. If you say, pastor, there's so many things I need to get right before that happens.
So much I have to work on. People I have to forgive. Steps I need to take. Things in my life that I know God is displeased with. There's habits I need to release and people I need to forgive, and steps that I need to take and people I need to tell. I'm not ready. Now's the time. To get ready.
You're listening to our Bible teacher, Mark Jobe, and this is the daily radio program known as Bold Steps. You can revisit these messages online at Bold Steps. Org or by listening through the Bold Steps app or even the Bold Steps podcast. Encouraging and equipping you for the journey is what we're all about here, and we'd love for you to go to our website and explore the resources and tools that are available to you right now, like
our latest bold step gift. The tween years are formative for developing a girl's understanding of who God is and who she is in him. Lies Girls Believe by Dana Gresh is a book that addresses 20 dangerous lies that can take root during these crucial years. I'm a Christian because I go to church. God only loves me when I'm good. I don't need to tell anyone about my sin. These are just a few of the harmful lies that
young girls believe. Dana's book tackles these misconceptions head on, replacing them with biblical truth in a format that speaks directly to girls ages 7 to 12. This would make the perfect gift for any mom in your life this Mother's Day, who's dedicated to raising a daughter whose identity is rooted in Jesus and not defined by the culture. Request this transformative, bold step gift today and invest in
the spiritual future of the young girls you love. We'll send you a copy when you give any amount to bold steps. Just go online to Bold Steps. Org Give or call us at 800. D.L. Moody. That's (800) 356-6639. You can also send your gift and request the book in the mail by writing to us at bold steps 820
North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. And when you give a financial gift to support the work of this ministry, you become part of our Bold partners family who receive exclusive content from the desk of pastor Mark in a bi weekly basis. And if you give $30 or more each month, we'll also send you a link for 50% off any book, DVD, or Bible study in the entire Moody Publishers online store. You can sign up today at bird-stamps.org. Well, Mark,
it's that time again. Time for a new series. You've called it The Daughter Factor. What's coming up?
You know, with Mother's Day coming up, we're launching a brand new message called The Daughter Factor. I want you parents to know That the girls that you are raising, your daughters are strongly influenced by the words, the relationship, how you view them, what you say you are shaping the destiny of how they see themselves, their walk with God and their future. That is both a powerful responsibility,
but also it can be daunting. And so I want you to just understand, through the lens of Scripture, what it means to help your daughter understand who she is in God.
It's an important study coming up and we're looking forward to it. But for now, I'm Wayne Shepherd signing off, thanking Mark Jobe for that. And we'll see you again Thursday for another exciting episode of Bold Steps with Mark Joe. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.