Jesus is coming. BE READY OR ELSE!

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Welcome back to the Iron Saints Podcast with your host, Dan Willis.

Welcome back, saints. Here we are post-Easter. I hope everybody had an amazing Easter with their families and friends. Uh, we are going to get right back into it here in the hopes to finish Luke shortly. If you're new to the podcast, it's daily devotional, about 15 minutes at most. Uh, we're going to walk through a brief Part of scripture here, break it down a little bit, take something away to head into our day with, and then have a time of prayer. If you want to start at the beginning of this, we want to go back to you know the first episode and listen to Luke One. Please, I encourage you to do that so you can walk through the entire book with us. The plan is to finish Luke and then head into the book of Acts. So if you want to get the whole thing, you don't have to necessarily come along with us as the new episodes come out. You can go back to the beginning and start there and work your way through. But I leave that to you. If you want to just hop in right where we are, that's okay too. So today, we are going to head back to Luke 12. So please go grab your Bibles, grab yourself a coffee, hit pause if you have to. Otherwise, let's get down to it. As always, guys, I will be reading from the ESV. You're welcome to follow along in whatever preferred translation you have. I will always read out the passage just in case you are on the road or don't have a Bible handy. That way you know what the passage says instead of us just Referring to it. So, uh, let's get going here. Luke 12:35. Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch or in the third and finds them awake, blessed are those servants. But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Peter said, Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all? And the Lord said, who then is the faithful and wise manager whom his master will set over his household to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, my master is delayed in coming, and begins to beat the male and female servants and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will will receive a severe beating. The one who did not know and did what deserved Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more. All right, you couldn't ask for a better passage coming out of Easter. Are you ready? Are you keeping watch? Are you on guard? There's a lot of talk right now with the eclipse that's coming up. If you're in North America, you've heard a lot about it. There's an eclipse that's coming, a solar eclipse, and as always seems to happen with any of these celestial events, um, people start to get a little crazy in the head. There's a lot of folks out there right now decrying prophecy or end of times because of a solar eclipse, guys. Um, while it's true that scripture says there's no man that knows the day or hour, and why are you so anxious to know about the end when you've got enough to do today? Um, every time we see something like this, people start to light up with, it's the end, the end is nigh. Um, the reality is though, and what, what we're reading here today is you must always Always be ready for the end. And that doesn't mean you dwell on when is the end coming, but instead you're constantly doing the thing, the job that God gave you, and you're constantly on the lookout for Christ's return. If you knew that Christ was coming tomorrow, how much the harder would you be pushing to teach your family about him, to teach your wife about him, to be an example of him in the world, to share him with people? And probably conviction. If you know the deadline's there, if you know that it's coming any moment, people always tend to act a little bit faster, myself included. Those deadlines cause you to move. Oh, the end is tomorrow. I better get going. Better get those last moments in that I can to be a good Jesus fan, right? Like, it— this warning is, is pretty pointed. And the interesting part at the end of it is you almost get a twofer in one here where he tells about the feast. He tells that, you know, when the Lord comes, he'll return to his house and he'll prepare a table and a banquet for those that are prepared, those who have been doing the task they're supposed to do. But he also provides a caution on this one. Those that don't do as they're supposed to do, there's going to be— there's a discipline for that. There are repercussions to not doing the things that you know you're supposed to do and don't do. Now, he also addresses a little bit those that didn't know, right? What about those that never got shared the gospel with and didn't do the thing that they were supposed to do? Well, there's There's still a punishment, a very light punishment, but there's still a punishment there for them. And for me, this should act that much more the conviction of there are those out there that if we don't do our job, also get punished. And that's no good. That's not great. I don't feel great about that. I don't know that you guys would feel great about that either. So I figured this is a great way to start as we move towards Pentecost is Be mindful in your day. Be mindful in your day. We've been given the Great Commission. That's really the marching orders when he went away. How are you doing that? And I mean, take some time when the podcast ends here and pray about it and think about it, but seriously consider how are you actively fulfilling that commission? Going into the world. Baptizing the believers in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them the commandments that he has taught us. How are you doing with that? There's a lot of folks that I hear that say, okay, well, you know, I do it in my actions, and if I have to, I'll use my words. Okay, how's that going? Is that going the way that you want? You don't talk about Jesus with folks. You just act real nice to people. Is that working? There's some of us that talk too much, myself being more inclined to that crowd. You just talk too much. And sometimes your actions don't align with your words. Makes you look kind of hypocritical, right? Those are struggles that we have on both sides. Challenge yourself today though. Take a look at where you're at. What are you doing? Do you— if Christ was to come back today and evaluate and say, you know, were you awake? Were you a good and faithful worker? Did you do the thing I set you to do? Did you care for my house the way that I asked you to? Just consider, are you doing that right? If you're doing it right, great. I encourage you to keep doing what you're doing. If you're struggling, identify those things. Pray, lift them up to God, go to scripture, wrestle with them, overcome them. That's the challenge. Let's get down to prayer. So as I had mentioned last time, guys, prayer requests are going to be anonymous now. The ones that have been coming in have been Almost exclusively the request to be anonymous. So if if you guys do have prayer requests and you send them in, just know that they will always be anonymous. You can do that either on the website or through any of the social media channels. Please don't hesitate to do that. But for now, let's get down to it. Lord, thank you so much for the day. Thank you so much for having Easter. Good Friday, and and you are risen on Sunday. Thank you so much for all that you've accomplished. Thank you that you've given us a great commission that is clear, tells us what we're supposed to do. Thank you that it's not overburdensome; it's not more than we can bear. That you've given us the Holy Spirit to help us achieve this task. I pray for all the men out there that are struggling with their families right now, their wives. Their kids. I pray that they're able to turn to you, Lord, and find answers, that they're able to see a godly father, that they're able to see a godly husband and model you, Lord. I pray for those that are facing illness. Um, it can just devastate, Lord, when the body gets weak, when the body comes under fire, or somebody that you love is under fire. It just becomes So challenging. So I pray that your hand of healing would be on those that need it, Lord. Lord, I would lift up those of us who have recently lost someone close to us. To lose somebody as close as a wife is very challenging, Lord. And I just pray that— I pray that you're with this man. Comfort his heart. Give him the peace of knowing his wife is with you. Pray for him as he has to be a father to his children, um, that he has to strive to be the best dad he can be while at the same time keeping the, the teachings of his wife with his children. Lord, just bless the men that are listening today. I pray that they would challenge themselves, they would wrestle with you, Lord, wrestle as Jacob did until they find a blessing. Bless their day, bless their week, bless their walk. In your name we pray. Amen. All right, guys, that's it for today. We are going to be back to daily episodes, so keep your eyes and ears open for that, and I will catch you tomorrow with another episode. Take it easy.

Thank you for listening to the Iron Saints Podcast. If you are looking to share your prayer requests, check the description for social media or email to contact the show. Blessings on you all until next time.