Luke 12:32-40_Sermon_Dressed and Ready

h2_08_10_25_#7_Luke 12:36-46_Dressed and Ready

{ILS} Football Training Camp

• Feeling the heat and intensity

• Thinking about the complex instructions 

• Battling mental and physical fatigue

• In that moment, with all those factors - - - hyperspecific drills

{SCR} Luke 12:35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning 36 like servants 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. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. 

{MPT} Jesus requires a high level of intensity from himself and his followers

• What causes the level of intensity to rise or fall in an organization?

• The authority figure leaving the building or arriving at the building

• Why does Jesus routinely leave? 

• To eat with others & To reflect & to pray

• What does Jesus need when he leaves? 

• He gives the disciples everything, every responsibility

• The instruction he gives makes it clear

• And what two things can we learn from previous wedding stories

• The groom will arrive when it suits him

• The reception can go on for days 

{SCR} Luke 12:39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” 41 Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?”

{MPT} The significant challenge in this story is the element of surprise 

• We can spend hours, days, weeks planning for a moment

• But what if we get 

• no time

• no warning

• What if the moment is forced on us like a thief taking it?

*{SCR} Luke 12:41 Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?”

{MPT} Who are we talking about?   When are we talking about it?

• Consistent human tendency to 

• Limit the scope of concern

• Limit the time we are concerned?

• To preserve - who’s going? How long are we staying?

{SCR} Luke 12:42 The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? 43 It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. 44 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45 But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. 46 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of.

{MPT} Jesus is speaking to disciples, followers and the leaders he will confront

• In my absence, You lose focus and choose yourself or your motivations

{ILS} You never know what will happen

• But you know you must prepare.