He's Coming | Rodrigo Vargas

God, we come into this place to raise up and hallelujah that you are the risen king and you reign in power and in glory and we are looking for you to show up here in this place, for you to come into this place and touch our lives to speak to us, Lord, to make us more like you, Lord. And we can do that with faith because you have won it all for us, for your church, for your people. And it was all for your glory, Lord. We thank you and we pray this in Jesus' mighty name and the church says, amen. Y'all sat down real quick. What's good, my beautiful people? My God, it's such a great Sunday. I got to tell you, I got a lot to cover, so you're going to be drinking from a fire hose today. So I want you right now, get your notebooks out, get your little iPads going, get everything ready. We're going to cover a lot. And if this is your first time, the first thing I want to tell you is I apologize in advance. Would you give me grace? Okay. The Lord gave me this word to deliver to you, but we also want you to know that you're not just an honored guest, you're an answered prayer and we're so joyful that you're here and we want you to know that this place, Union Houston, exists with the sole mission of connecting people to God with the gospel of Jesus. That gospel says, it does not matter what your past looks like, does not matter what you're struggling with right now, okay? Doesn't matter what doubts may weigh in your heart, Jesus loves you right where you are. And today the word's going to let you know that he loves you too much to leave you where you are. So he's going to make you better today, amen?

And this includes to every one of my brothers and sisters that are incarcerated and watching through the Pando app. Union, can you help me welcome our Union prison campus? We love you even though we can't see you. And we look forward for the day that you walk in through those doors. Now we've been, this is the last week of our rooted series, just so that you know, we've been building up to today. I want you to know. It's all about being established in Jesus. Last week, I kind of prepared you for this week. And I told you, we talked about being storm ready. But the storm is coming. But when your life is built on the rock, Jesus, word and the Holy Spirit, which we're going to need today, the word and the Holy Spirit. You will stand. However, this week, God gave me a word he would not, you ever have word God gives you and he won't leave you alone. He would not leave me alone. And he told me, look, the storm is not the end. The storm is not even the point. Jesus has already spoken what's on the other side of the storm. Let me read you the words that Jesus spoke on the night he was arrested and betrayed. John 14, one through three says, do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. My father's house has many rooms that if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me. That also may be where I am. I want you to hone in on the words. I will come back.

And so today I want to speak to you from the title. He's coming. He's coming. But if he arrived right now, not someday, not at the end of your life, but today in this place, would you be ready? Because church, family, visitors, guests, he's coming. Not as a baby, not as a lamb, but as a ruling and reigning, conquering, triumphant king. Today's word is not just about believing this truth. Today's word is also an urgent call to live like you believe it. So would you stand with me as we read the gospel today, Matthew chapter 24 verses 36 through 51, and Jesus says, but about that hour or day, no one knows not even the angels in heaven or the son, but only the father, as it was in the day. ease of noah so it will be at the coming of the son of man for in the days before the flood people were eating and drinking marrying and giving a marriage up to the day 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 men will be grinding with a handmail one will be taken and the other one 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 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 keep watch and be ready because the son of man will come at an hour when you do not expect it and who then is the faithful and wise servant whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time it will be good for the servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns truly i tell you he will put him in charge of all his possessions but suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself my master is staying away a long time and then he begins to beat his fellow servants and eat and drink with drunkards i believe that a lot of pastors are in that verse right now a lot of ministers youtube profits are in the place of they're beating the fellow servants by fleecing them a thousand dollar seeds four hundred dollar seminars paying for deliverances paying for healing i'm not throwing shade i am stating facts

yeah building palaces and not big people the master of the servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he was not aware of he will cut him to pieces and assign him to a place with hypocrites where there'll be weeping and gnashing of the teeth let's pray father god we thank you for today's word holy spirit we're going to need you we're going to need you to speak to us to create the urgency to clarify things to speak to us personally individually in the things that we need to prepare ourselves in jesus i pray all these things in your name but i ask you lord to help me deliver this word not just in a timely manner but in a precisely spiritual manner so that it may edify much fruit that i believe just like pastor susan said we are in a transitional phase but for us as the people of god we're not in a transition of turmoil we're in a transition of a better position of triumph we're here to win souls to enlarge your church to make more disciples and to see the gospel be preached in every corner with everything we do with everything we have with every resource and every possible moment lord so help us today and help me deliver this message that is timely relevant and most importantly powerful i pray this in jesus name and the people of god said amen amen you may be seated yesterday our family celebrated our daughters graduating from u of h wow yeah a beautiful day and i can assure you that our family the vargas household was not unprepared okay the food the family the house was ready because when the person being honored matters to you that you love them you prepare are you with me you get ready to be sure everything is in order to welcome those we love so let me ask you something jesus christ crucified buried resurrected reigning the one who was the one who is and the one who is to come is his family ready because he's coming there is no delay today's question isn't whether you believe that or not though today's question is are you ready now before we dive into it i want to give you one of the most staggering statistics in all of scripture 330 times jesus's return is referenced in the bible and 30 times. As a matter of fact one in every 25 verses directly references Christ's return. 1845 different biblical references to the Second Coming across both Testaments. 23 of the 27 books in the New Testament are about Jesus's return. 21 times Jesus himself claims and acknowledges and references and pronounces his return. 50 times in the New Testament we are exhorted to, you know what, be ready. And of the 333 prophecies about Christ, only 109

have been fulfilled in the First Coming. There are 224 yet to be fulfilled by His Second Coming. Jesus's return is the most dominant subject in the New Testament other than salvation. Only salvation is mentioned more than His return. The return of Jesus isn't a sidebar in the New Testament. Can I tell you it's the heartbeat of every book, of every author in the New Testament, and it resounds from the very lips of Jesus. In fact Jesus himself said, I want to summarize the Old Testament, I did not come into abolish but I came to fulfill the law and the prophets. Therefore the Old Testament, the entire thing, is about one thing, Jesus. So let's start where Jesus begins this passage. In the days of Noah, so it will be. In the days of Noah. Now why would Jesus refer this? Because it's important. The disciples asked, hey yo Yeshua, why are you coming back? Now they knew, he's telling them, they don't know he's gonna die. He's like, yo I gotta go and prepare this place. And they're like, okay well when you coming back for us? Right? Because some of them were anxious, some of them were troubled, some of them were burdened by uncertainty. Now I gotta tell you, okay this is gonna come up so I need you to make a mental reference. Some of them though needed more time. You might be wondering who? Well Judas needed more time. Judas needed more time to make more money before he could get right with Jesus. Peter needed more time to develop his leadership skills and and get away from being a coward to get it right. You see, they all were. And the rest of them, Thomas was worried about whether this was all true. Simon was worried about if his blade was ready to go to cut off Roman soldiers when Jesus would rule and reign. You see what I'm saying? And you know Matthew was very anxious about all the details that were going into all this. But Jesus didn't give them a date. He gave them a condition of the world to look for. That's what this verse says. Look, as in the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. It's not about predicting. Hey listen to me, okay? To all you apocalyptic book of revelations, end times, you know, you listen to Jack Hibbs and what's the other guy's name? The guy from John Hagee, is it right? In Dallas. These end time gurus, right? It's not about predicting the date, it's about

discerning the times. That's what Jesus is saying. He is calling us, here, heal me. He is calling us to be ready. He's calling us to readiness. He is calling us to preparedness. To understand what Jesus is actually saying, we got to first understand, what are the days of Noah? Well, yes, it was the days that Noah lived in. And many of you that, oh, I read that in Bible school, or I remember that from Sunday school, or you know, your Awana's little summer camp, right? Your Bible vacation school, right? Y'all know about Noah and the little animals and all that stuff. That's wonderful. But let me tell you a darker story. Some of you may be thinking, yeah, it was about wickedness. And wickedness was absolutely present. But Genesis six tells us that something completely, something completely that's overlooked is rather sobering, and it should peel back some layers as to how we see humanity. Humankind had begun to multiply. And when I say multiply, it wasn't just in numbers. It was in flesh-like behaviors. And the sons of God were literally sons of God, little gods, gods that were born of God. They rebelled against God. And they saw the women, and they said, Oh, my God, they look good. We should take them. and bake them baby mamas Now you might be wondering well, how can this be? I've never heard this well Psalms 82 if you read your Bible You will see that Psalms 82 Deuteronomy all account to the sons of God Psalms 82 says that God resides and he rules in a council of gods and The offspring of these gods that rebelled against God and slept with women are called Nephilim Now we can get into a whole sidebar which I it was one of my favorite subjects to talk about and I'm very versed On it, but we're not gonna talk about that. I'm gonna tell you what Nephilim really Did Nephilim was not God's design for mankind. That's what you need to do Humanity and because it wasn't God's design for mankind Humanity became corrupted. In fact, it It says wickedness had became great Now you might be all great. We use that word so flippantly, but in the Hebrew, it's like something rather Astounding Genesis 5 says every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all

the time Human intentions were corrupted. Now. Let me give you some it was the world was filled with sexual immorality It was murderous. It was indulgent in the flesh. It was mocking God and trying to be like God You know what that is all present right now in our world every last one of them Church we are in the days of Noah We are living in the days of Noah. Jesus is pointing to something far more convicting than just wickedness You know what he's pointing out at he's pointing out at the decent sense of taste Desensitization, I can't even say that word Desensitization, thank you. English is my second language Laughing at the desensitization whatever of the human soul The human soul became desensitized Oh They were eating they were drinking they were marrying nobody was alarmed nobody was watching nobody was getting ready Nobody was paying attention Life was just moving forward normal comfortable convenient unbothered and the flood came and took them all away Except Noah His family and what he put into the ark not because they were bad Here's the point It was because they were completely unprepared But what was to come and here's the key? They had never seen rain before What we're about to live through the earth has never seen before Before Covid a jack are you with me? Instead of asking noah these people instead of asking noah. Hey, you need some help. I got some hammers I got some nails, you know I got a circular saw like pass the rod. Let me go over there. Let me start cutting up some timber what you need You know what they did they made fun of them I know here go. Noah

Drinking his wine slinging that hammer You know what wrecks me about this passage if there was one man and one family that got ready This is important Because it was the family that got ready And they got ready for something. They had never seen before how With the word of god and obedience. Noah wasn't smarter than everybody else He was obedient he walked with god in fact genesis 6 9 says that he was righteous He was blameless and he was faithful. He was righteous. He was blameless and he was faithful Can I tell you our goal to be prepared to be ready is to be righteous? Is to be blameless and to be faithful because we are righteous in christ We are blameless because of christ and we are to be faithful to christ alone Which is a great song Like in the days of noah There was a corrupted world order There was a corrupted world order now. It's starting to resonate with you, huh? Genesis 11 12 says Now the earth was corrupt in god's sight and was full of violence first corrupt second corrupt. God saw how corrupt the earth become for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. The word corrupt in Hebrew is shakath and shakath means destroy, ruin, completely spoiled. It means something has been so thoroughly perverted from its original design that it no longer resembles what it was created to be. This is humanity right now. We are so thoroughly corrupted we don't resemble what we were created to be. We're witnessing happiness in real time not slowly but rather rapidly. God's design for humanity is being systematically redefined, dismantled. The sanctity of human life is being negotiated at the legislated levels. The UN pushing a one world religion, a one world government, a one world economic system and they are not hiding it. This is public. It's in your face. Matthew 24 says nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom. This is no longer a rumor. It's happening. Masculinity, men and women, confusion. I can't answer. If I answer the wrong thing I'm a bigot. I'm a racist. Murder is a health choice called abortion. Sexual immorality is a choice and is equality. If you speak up about it

hey you shouldn't be fornicating. Oh my god he's religious. No I'm faithful to the scriptures. The most dangerous part isn't the corruption though because those that are living like that they need Jesus. It's the normalcy you all have with it. You have no urgency to come alongside said fornicator and bring them closer to Jesus. That's what Jesus is saying. Life keeps moving. People keep eating. They keep drinking. They keep marrying. They keep giving themselves in marriage. They're scrolling. They're shopping. They're streaming completely unbothered while the world order collapses around them. The days of Noah aren't coming. They are here. And like in the days of Noah something never seen before is coming. E.T. was preparation. Encounters of the third kind was preparation. This goes all back all the way back to World War II. Don't go don't get me started. Don't get me started. Noah being righteous, being blameless and faithful heard the word of God obeyed and built something on earth and humanity had never seen what he was building it for. Noah was building a solution to a problem that hadn't yet arrived. Shouldn't we as the church today be building something to something that hasn't yet arrived? Something we have never seen before? Because he's coming. The question is not whether it's coming. The question is is your ark ready? Jesus coming second coming is a universal reality that every that not everyone is ready for. I want you to hear me clear about something. The return of Jesus is not a denominational position. It is not a theological preference. In fact I am so filled with so much words that I'm cutting things out but I want to invite y'all to stick through seeds. We're building up to something. In the fall we are going to launch into a two-month sermon series called The End and it will be about the end times and it will be the truth straight from the word of God with the Holy Spirit not to scare you but to prepare you. Are you with me? It's a promise made by Jesus by the set by himself in John 14 that night okay and if he said it that settles it for me. If he said it then I don't got to debate it. His return is true for everyone whether they're ready or not. The flood arrived unexpectedly and took everyone that was not in the ark listen to me it took everyone that wasn't in the ark nowhere in scriptures in genesis 6 does it ever say don't take anybody else with you nobody else asked noah can i help you and get in there because i believe what god

told you it was universal it was sudden it was undeniable and most importantly not everybody was ready matthew 24 38 through 39 for in the days of noah before the flood people were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage and on the day of noah entered the ark and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away normal life i'm telling you here hey young people okay some of you old folk too normal life is not an excuse nor is it permission normal life is not an excuse from spiritual unpreparedness the fact that you work a lot of hours man of god does not give you a hall pass to not read your word to not pray to not pray with your wife to not pray with your kids to not train your kids to not be a man of god normal life is not god's permission from stopping you from being prepared it is your main objective in life to be prepared as a spiritual priest of your house and some of y'all live in a house where the wife is the priestess and i don't mean to offend anyone but god is a god of order that priestess needs his priest to step up all right normal life is not permission your bank account is not permission the enemy's greatest weapon is the gift of comfortable living it is is it let me tell you something your big paychecks your blessings the nice car you got the nice things you give your wife and your kids sometimes has the very spiritual sedative that the enemy uses against you is the spiritual sleeping pill it is using your blessings as a blindfold not to see and watch and be ready for what's coming he has taken the enemy has taken what god gave you to steward for instance your family you should be training your family in godliness to be righteous to be blameless and to be faithful you should be using your career not to advance the ladder but to bring the kingdom of god into the marketplace can i get an amen you should be using your money not to stack up more paper not to build your bank account not to invest more stocks not to make more bitcoin but to invest it in building every brick on the kingdom of god for jesus is the cornerstone that holds it together are you with me you're supposed to use your resources for the kingdom community comfort and it's turned all these things into a distraction from the great commission i had this word come to me in my spirit this morning in my prayer time the great commission is the new covenant ark just like he told noah build this 300 cubits and 50 cubits he told us your 300 cubits and your 50 cubits is go make disciples baptize them and teach them everything i taught you

yet here we are eating drinking marriage not a sin not a sin but we get absorbed with our everyday life and we miss the most important thing in our life you ready for this it's not your wife it's not your kids it's your faith it's your faith jesus said that's exactly what how it will be when he returns now i'm not saying young people because i have some young people that are getting their college degrees like my daughter and they're like life has just begun i want to do this and i want to conquer and i want to climb mount everest and you know go to paris and kiss my honey on new year's eve on by the eiffel tower and they want to go to new york during christmas and do shopping maybe that's just my bucket list right but you have plans you know some of you update you have a little vision board and you got oh I'm gonna get a two-bedroom duplex in in the Heights when I get my hundred thousand all these kids graduating from college thing they don't get a hundred thousand dollar time job right away listen I don't know what rock you living on okay but they want your degree but most important you got to prove to them that you're a six-figure guy are you in but if you got Christ and you build Christ in you I'm gonna tell I'm gonna guarantee you that in a short time God will prove to them that you're a six-figure person I'm not saying guys guys young people listen to me young adults and want to be young adults y'all know who you are I'm not saying don't live life I'm saying live your life by living for him don't don't let normal life make you spiritually numb is what I'm trying to tell you our King is coming don't stop watching don't stop praying don't stop building don't stop believing don't stop sharing the gospel don't stop making disciple normal life is a gift but it isn't permission to go to sleep it's it's it's our opportunity to go to our connect groups which sign up start today to start serving I haven't served yet I'm not serving everything start serving just start giving to start praying and co-laboring with what Christ is building the new covenant art because we don't have much time and I'm gonna tell you straight we don't have much time we don't have as much time as we'd like to think there's this mindset not out of fear but of faith that we don't have the Apostles the early the early disciples the early church the church fathers all believed in the following okay waiting

for his return eagerly expecting his return they said things like the Lord is near he's coming soon go back and read Maranatha mentality Maranatha is a mentality Lord come there are over 30 verses in the epistles documented this fact and on the day of Pentecost when they received the fire of faith and began to pray preach and prophesy his return the word they used was repent it's funny how we want revival without repentance we want revival right but we don't want to live like he's coming right now if you want revival start living like he's coming right now Jesus says nothing about the day and time instead he says in verse 42 therefore keep watch you have a responsibility to keep watch that's your response I can't keep watch for you I'm keeping watch for me okay you got to keep watch I'm telling you the signs are close now Jesus again in the fall I'll go over some over these things I don't have time to go every single one of them but he gave us 12 signs in the verses before these verses in chapter 24 you can go read them yourself okay but watch what I'm saying to you it says you're going to recognize that some of these immediately but let me give you the 12 signs okay and there are 12 signs but only four remain to be fulfilled Jesus has to learn this lesson from the fig tree that when the season is ready when the leaves are tender the season is here right at the door he uses okay he was telling them to be ready now here are the eight signs that have already happened we are in the season of false prophets pastors teachers in Christ we're in the season of spiritual deception okay then we got signed to rulers and rumors of war we've talked about that we beat that one down to the ground right number three we've talked about it to nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom we've solidified that we get it Ukraine Russia you know we got Iran the US we got all these things going on for famines and earthquake famine is the greatest travesty on earth right now and the earthquakes are happening in places that never existed before okay sign 5 persecution of believers well wait a minute pastor hey look y'all are blessed y'all living in the US y'all don't get the telegrams from Iran like I do how they get arrested they get hung

publicly for acknowledging Jesus you don't know what it's like to be a Christian in India you don't know what it's like to be a Christian in Afghanistan these are places that we as a church your tithes and offering go to invest that you don't know what it's like our sister church cross central Dubai to worship on Sunday they can't put up a sign they can't have flyers they got a do word-of-mouth and underground like persecution here. In fact, I want to tell you something. Save up your money, go to one of the greatest cities in the world, it's called London. They don't have the best soccer teams in the world, but it's the greatest city in the world. The greatest team in England is in Manchester and they wear red. But I'm going to tell you something, that is a post-Christian world. The Muslims preach their gospel the way we did it in the 50s with Billy Graham and Jimmy Swaggart and all those guys. Sign 6, the great apostasy, the falling away. Now, this was already happening, but in 2020, deconstruction is what the cool Christians did. It's still happening and it's accelerated. In fact, Millennials, by and large, are the greatest ones that have deconstructed. There's worship leaders that have deconstructed. This is a movement. But you know what? There's a sign here that the Gen Zers are coming back to God faster, rapid rate, than ever before. I want to take them over the Millennials. Millennials, I'm sorry Millennials, I love y'all, but the Millennials that left and deconstructed, they're babies. They got participation trophies. You know? Sign 7, the gospel will be preached to all nations. Can we all admit that we can do that now? We can do that now, right? We can do that through Instagram, we can do that through TikTok. As a matter of fact, most of my stuff that I put out on Instagram and TikTok and YouTube is preaching the gospel, preaching the gospel. It can be almost, this is almost... And then sign 8, the abomination of desolation. Now, this isn't fully complete, but it has begun to become complete. This is where someone will stand in the holy place and have an abomination of the temple that will create desolation spoken through the prophet Daniel. Now, I'm going to tell you something. They've got the red heifers to begin the sacrifices. They need that temple. But with the tensions of Israel and Palestine, Al-Aqsa Mosque will not stand much longer. And once they build that temple, TikTok, TikTok. 8 are done, 4 are still coming. The earth is tribulating. Unprecedented tribulation will happen. They will have signs in the moon,

sun, stars, and still coming. Now, I say that sign, but I'm going to tell you something. Disclosure is very much part of that sign right there. Sign 11, the visible return of the son of man is still coming. And verse 12, the fig tree, the season is coming. Now, what you do with that window that I just gave you is everything. He gave us a silence for one reason. You know what? To be ready. Matthew 24 verse 44, he says, you also must be ready. How are you going to be ready? You got to keep watch. Jesus sends almost every section of 24 with the same word, not doctrine, not a formula, not theological position, one word. And you know what that word is? Watch. Matthew 24, 42, Mark 13, 33, Luke 21, 36, all three gospels use the exact same instruction, word with urgency, watch. Not once, not occasionally, not when things got bad enough that scare you back to church, but keep watch always. You've got to, watch this, watch the signs. Okay? You got to watch the signs. You got to, you got to watch these 12 signs. You got to watch the signs like it's a weather report and there's a hurricane coming our way and you got to be prepared accordingly. Are you with me? You got to watch what is happening in Israel, not take sides, watch what is happening in Israel. Taking sides is going to get you distracted. Watch what is happening with the global power structure. Don't get involved. Watch. Don't take sides because as we have just recently found out, we will run on no more new wars and eight months later, guess what we're in? A new war. People don't like to hear that. People like to be challenged in their politics, but you're participating in these signs when you start taking sides and your favorite president doesn't say something that doesn't go with scripture. Watch what is happening with technology. Watch what is happening with the church. False teaching, watered down gospel, a Jesus who makes no demands and asks for no repentance, a Christianity so comfortable it has forgotten about the cross and they're eating, drinking, and getting married, but then you got to watch yourself. You got to watch yourself. You watch the signs. Some of you are busy watching the signs and you're not watching yourself. You better watch yourself. You know, when your kid starts acting up, he starts, you better watch yourself. You know what he means. You know what we mean. I'm about to smack you. You better watch yourselves. This is personal. Because you can know all the signs.

You can know all the Bible verses. You can go to all the groups. You can feel like you are spiritually sharp and your soul completely unattended. In fact, Jesus says the following in Luke 21.34. Be careful for your hearts will be weighed down with carousing. Some of you are carousers. You open up Pornhub and you carouse with your genitals. And then you say, I just had a stressful week. You don't understand. I don't know why I do it. No, you do know why you do it. Because you still got sin in you. Some of us are drunk in this. For some of you are drunk not in alcohol. You're drunk in your pills. I'm going to take this pill because it heals my ADD. I'm going to take this pill because it heals my anxiety. You're drunk in your money. Every morning you get up. Let me see how much that Bitcoin went up. Drunk in yourself. Drunk in your own ideas. How can you tell you're drunk in your own ideas? I know some young people. They don't think they need a mentor. They don't think they need a mentor because life is good. Because they're making good money. Because they're paying their bills on time. Because they got a good relationship going. Because they got a good future. Because they got a degree.

Because they got things going on. You know what I can tell you is the enemy is setting up a trap for you. And if you don't watch yourself. Watch it. I'm going to show you in just a moment. He's setting up a trap for you. You're drunk in your own intelligence and willpower. And I'm going to tell you. Take it from me. God will humble your ass quicker than anything else in the world. Anxieties of life. That day will close on you suddenly. Like a trap. He's talking about us y'all. He's talking to us. He's talking to his people. Watch your heart. The trap isn't always obvious sin. Sometimes it's your anxiety. Sometimes it's your distractions. Sometimes it's your own plans instead of his plans. Sometimes it's the weight of normal everyday life. Pressing down on your chest. Until you're so spiritually exhausted. That you have nothing left for God. And for some of us. It's carousing. It's drunkenness. It's fornicating. It's getting high. It's lusting.

And the anxieties are the worries of life. All three can weigh your heart down to the point. Where you stop watching yourself. So watch yourself. Watch what you feed your mind. Watch what your mouth. Watch what your prayers life is like. Watch your faith. Keep watch over your soul. Jesus said watch as a posture. A posture to those who actually believe he's coming. He says you must also be ready. Not so you also be informed. Theologically accurate. You know blessed and highly favored. Be in one accord with one another. No, no, no. Those are things that are secondary. You got to be ready. The end times. This is not about having the end times. And I'm going to talk about it again. I'm going to tell you. Here's what I'm going to tell you. Your job. Your responsibility is to be ready. Y'all are so worried. Y'all are so worried about the crap in your life. If you don't understand. I've got this.

I've got that. You need to worry about being ready. I told you last week. But you know what? It doesn't stop. As a matter of fact. I told the devil. Listen. I'm going further in. Ten toes deep. And I'm coming because I'm going to be ready. And ready is not a belief. It's a condition. And the difference between believing. Is not enough. And the condition is everything. Right where you are right now. People have been in church their whole life. Believing every single word that I just preached. Believing that he's coming. Hoping that he's coming. Praying that he's coming. And I'm here to tell you. Here's the bad news. They are not ready. See there were five. There was ten virgins. Five wise and five foolish. And the five foolish. You know what you missed?

Their problem. They had lamps. They were expecting. They were waiting. They were not ready. They were not watching. They believed. we're not ready so here's the pastoral part of the sermon stop playing with Jesus you know who you are just stop playing with Jesus I've been sometimes oh pastor you're shooting slugs you're damn right I am I love you too much not to slug you from time to time stop playing with Jesus we are some of y'all are using and abusing the grace of God and I love you too listen I'm a loving pastor but I ain't a soft pastor I love you too much for you to be a soft Christian some of you are playing with the Lord Jesus you're not hostile to him you're not playing with Ouija boards and playing with tarot cards or reading your zodiac sign you ain't going to yoga you're just playing with him you're casual with him you're comfortable you come to church when it's comfortable when it's convenient when it fits your calendar you got one foot in the kingdom and one foot in the world right you you you miss church you put so much crap in your calendar and Christ is not on your calendar but you don't understand my baby cousin's baby mama got married I got invited to the wedding you hate that girl anyways why are you going to that wedding just say no I'm getting ready some of y'all come to church and I know this for a fact I tell my mentor I tell the guys that I mentor all the time like one of the things that how many of y'all hate religious church people come on raise your hand the whole church should be raising their hand and so why do y'all act like them sometimes and you know how you act like them right you're on Friday night you were smoking weed and jacking off and then when your mentor asked you hey how was your week oh bro blast bro I've been with the lord and I was like dang you've been with the lord what lord you talk about stop playing with the lord bro like I'm glad that that was that guy and not me because if that's me I'll be like hey look look hold up hold up you don't have to cut down on all that all that christianese tell me because I'm your pastor and I need to know what kind of bugs are digging in your ear tell me tell me what lustful thoughts you've been having tell me how you've been

struggling to believe something in god form tell me how you and your wife tussle over petty things sometimes I want to hear that because that's where I can help you I can't help you what you hide from me we all getting drunk and and then we come to church oh yeah this is great they're coming hey look and if you come to church hungover sometimes hey god bless you I still love you but stop playing with god listen stop playing with them showing up when it's convenient comfortable asking when it absent when it costs you calling them in the crisis but forgetting them on when life is good right playing church playing christ playing save you're playing yourself the question is you ready we sin and we charge it to grace right we compromise and we charge it to grace we stay in the thing we know we need to get out of but he's fine and he he does it so good hey y'all think I'm playing with y'all right but she's fine pastor you don't understand I just can't help myself keep my hands off of her grace right he's playing with jesus we put our repentance just because we have pride you charge it to grace we play all week show up on sunday and say god is good that's not grace that's abusing the very blood of jesus grace is unearned undeserved inexhaustible unmerited favor of god and it is the very reason we're standing here today standing here today without it we have nothing okay I'm not minimizing grace okay what I'm trying to tell you is grace is something we live by this is what verse 48 and 51 we're all about the guy said well my master's still a long way off some of y'all still think jesus is a long way off right that he still we still got time he starts beating he starts eating and drinking that's where some of y'all are going like you're doing things without having the accountability in your life this is not a story about an obvious sinner this is a story about someone who the master was coming and he decided the timeline was long enough to keep living however he wanted. I'm not preaching condemnation, I'm preaching to you urgency. Stop playing with Jesus, stop abusing his grace, start living in it so you can be ready and you don't have to get ready.

Here's the word I wanna leave you with, ringing in your ears. You cannot build an ark during the flood. Noah didn't build the ark when raindrops started. He built it when the sky was bright and blue for 120 years. He built it when the forecast looked normal. He built it when everyone around him thought he was crazy. Let them think we're crazy. He built it because God said so. Let us build it because God said so. When the flood came, Noah wasn't scrambling, he was ready. He didn't have to get ready and church, the time to prepare for what God is bringing to earth is before our very eyes and it will come before we see it coming. Readiness is not built on a storm, it's built through surrender. Living grace is choosing Jesus every day, killing your flesh, killing your sin, killing your pride, rejecting compromise, making prayer the oxygen of your life, making the word of God the bread of your life, not the emergency call you make, but when everything falls apart, but the first call you make when you wake up in the morning, it means your worship is not performance you give on Sunday, it means it's the way you live your life when you get up on Monday. Second Peter chapter three verse 11, since everything will be destroyed in this way,

what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed it's coming. Holy, godly, forward-facing, expected, ready, not perfect, ready. Ready is available to every single person in this place, today, right now, your decisional way. Readiness is not about your track record. Readiness is about your posture. Who are you submitted to? Who are you living for? And who are you building it for right now? Because the master's coming. The bridegroom's at the door. He's coming. The days of Noah are here. So is your spiritual arc ready? Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, they sleep at night. And those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. 1 Thessalonians chapter five, verse six through eight. This is the apostle Paul, 2,000 years ago. Let us edify, verse 10 says, let us edify one another, build the rock, build the church, build the new covenant ark.

Now let's break this hope. We started in Genesis with Noah, and his time in his world was corrupt, violent, spiritually deceived, moving forward completely unbothered. They were eating, they were drinking, they were laughing, they were getting married. And the man building something in his backyard that made no sense to anyone but God. And Jesus looked at his disciples and he referenced them. As in the days of Noah, they will be. Not coming, here. The corruption is here, the violence is here, the spiritual deception, life is moving forward. And we're unbothered by the judgment seat of Jesus. And just like in the days of Noah, I came to tell you, there is an ark being prepared, but this time the ark is not made of wood. It's made of two things, your soul and his church. Your soul and his church. Your soul is the most valuable thing to God. And his church is what he died for. The church is his temple. First Corinthians 13 tells us that we are the temple of the spirit of the living God. God you're not just a person waiting on Jesus return you are the dwelling place of God who is returning and the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead that filled the temple in Jerusalem that part of the Red Sea lives inside of us we are not meant to be spectators ladies and gentlemen we are meant to be participators carrying the very message of Christ and so the question that we

have to ask ourselves is does our body our life our daily choices reflect the one who lives in us does it display a temple filled with the Holy Spirit because the temple that has the Holy Spirit lives differently looks differently speaks differently thinks differently handles money differently treats people differently has urgency differently in response to enemies differently it walks through storms differently no one built an art because God told him to he built it with his hands with his resources one plaque at a time one hammering at a time while the crowd was laughing at him for years and God honored every swing of that hammer every act of obedience is a plank in your life every prayer is a plank every time you choose repentance you're putting a plank in your art you're building something with your life every single day the question is are you building your arc some of you have been fighting for so long you're not sure you have much strength left I'm here to propose to you that the enemy has distracted you from what's really important some of you have settled for managing your struggles instead of fully surrendering them to Jesus the enemy has weighed you down with anxieties and some of you I walked in this room today carrying the question if Jesus came back today am I really ready now to you today is really special because you may know the songs you may know those scriptures you've been around church but deep down you're not certain and that uncertainty has been sitting in your heart longer than you'd like to admit I want to speak to every single one of you today the same God who told Noah to build an ark and gave Noah instructions gave us instructions to build an ark and he didn't step away from us just like Noah he told them 300 here 500 here get this wood put this here Jesus left us the Holy Spirit so that we can be preparing for his return not someday not when your life gets together not when you figured out the Bible not when you pray like sister Edith and sister Chloe over here no no no right now because a surrender life built on one yes at a time does amazing things I'm a standing testimony of this one act of obedience at a time one step of repentance God saw Noah in a dry field faithfully swinging a hammer when nobody understood that and he sees

you right now in your struggle in your doubts in your weariness in your problems in your storm in your waiting in your expectancy and he's saying the same thing he said to Noah keep building I'm with you the days of Noah are here the signs are nearly complete but the King is coming and I'm telling you here today this is our call to get ready because inevitably he's coming would you stand with me we got prayer partners up here at the front he came to church and you got something weighing you down you need prayer they're here for you but right now I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes don't look around the room and I want to give you an opportunity an opportunity to take today serious that Jesus is the Son of God that he came to live and suffer and die for all your sins it doesn't matter what you've done listen to me you're watching on the tablet it doesn't matter what you did it doesn't matter what that judge says you deserve for what you did Jesus says it doesn't matter what you did if you believe in the name of Jesus you shall be saved and if you make that decision in your heart right now in this moment shall be saved but I'm gonna tell you it doesn't end there because on the third day After he was buried, he was risen back to life, which means that when you say yes to Jesus, you're risen back to life and you're filled with the Holy Spirit. And you can begin to build your spiritual art, awaiting his return. Let this be a salvation, receiving not just salvation, but a calling to be ready. If that's you and you want to give your life to Jesus, make day today memorable, would you shoot up your hand, shoot up your hand real quick, shoot up your hand, shoot up your hand,

shoot up your hand, shoot up your hand. Thank you, Jesus. Father God, we thank you. I leave you these people in your presence. I leave you these people with your spirit. Will you minister to them? For every person that comes to get prayer, Lord, meet them in their needs and their requests. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Come on, church, give God praise for the word of the Lord that has gone.