Keep Your Lamps Burning
Some of you may know that my wife and I have a little two-year-old. He loves running around this Sanctuary like a crazy man, like many of the other children in this church, and it tires him out. And in the morning, when he’s in his crib, when he gets up in the morning, he will slowly kind of raise himself up, rub some tiredness out of his eyes, stretch a little bit, and then what he does is he sits and he stares at the door in his room.
He stares fixated at the door in his room because my little two-year-old knows that soon either mom or dad are going to come and rescue him from his crib of darkness, and that the night is almost over.
And that got me to thinking just about how often do I think about my own rescue? How often do I think about the renewal of all things when Jesus Christ, my Savior, will come back? Do I have the intentness of my two-year-old son watching at the door? Can I match the intentness of my two-year-old son, or do I get busy? Do I get distracted? Do I forget that Jesus’ return is coming?
Our Savior says in Luke 12, He tells us,
“Be dressed and ready for service. Keep your lamps burning like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks, they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose masters finds them watching when he comes.”
Cities Church, Jesus is coming back. Jesus is coming back. This is a reality more sure than gravity, more sure than any law of physics or nature that we know about. He is coming back, and it’s hard to believe sometimes as we get weighed down.
We get weighed down by the cares and the worries of this world, the distractions of life, the busyness. But the day is coming where evil will be dealt with finally. The day is coming when God Himself will dwell with us, when God will wipe every tear from our eyes, when God will put away the old order of things.
“There will be no more mourning, nor death, nor sickness, nor pain, for the old order of things will pass away” (Revelation 21)
That day is coming.
So Cities Church, I exhort you, take heart. Remember Christ’s return.
Often we fail at this. Often we fail because we get discouraged, because we get distracted. But let us seek forgiveness. Let us seek forgiveness of God for forgetting that we have this amazing hope. Let us seek His help in helping us to remember this rock-solid hope that we have that Jesus Christ is returning. And this leads us into a time of confession, so if you would bow your heads with me.
Prayer of Confesion
Lord, I thank you that you are coming back. Thank you that you are not leaving this world in its current state, and thank you that you're going to make everything new, including us. Forgive us now for living our lives without this in mind, and lead us now in this time of silent confession…