Staying Prepared for the Lord's Return

1. "Go 2020 is about a vision for us to go into the worlds. I bet right now, if I pause for a minute, many of you can tell me what the mission statement is of Lexington Park Baptist Church. Go ahead, write it down. I hope you've given you enough time. And now you can look down below. It's be disciples, make disciples. That's our mission statement. It's based off of Matthew 28, 19 and 20. God gives us the command, Christ does, to go. To go where? To go into the ends of the world. So Go 2020 is a promotion. It's a promotion effort to reach someone digitally during the month of May." [19:32] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "What an opportunity God has given us during this COVID-19 to share the gospel and to be prepared post-corona to continue to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Our church needs to continue to have this focus. So I hope you'll join me and you'll join others in this church. And I pray that everyone will participate in Go 2020. Join Go 2020 for a month of movement. Everyone can reach someone. And together, we can reach the world. Go pray. Go love. Go share. 2020." [20:06] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "The Bible tells us that we are to be cheerful givers and the Bible also tells us that we are to come with our first fruits and give to the Lord so I want to thank all of you for your faithfulness and I want to thank you for giving to the Lord about 250% increase in digital giving that we have in other words a lot of you during this time you've shifted you've learned to give digitally I want to thank you for being flexible and adaptable and making that adjustment again almost 250% increase in the amount not the amount of giving but the amount of people that have given digitally now we did go a little bit back this week so our giving was not as high and so we're at 95% on budget guys that is awesome still that is just so positive and I want to thank you I want to ask you to continue to give graciously generously and cheerfully and if you continue can continue to give even above and beyond that would be an awesome time to do that right now" [34:21] (57 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "So Jesus is making an analogy that we can see in real life and comparing it to his return. So we're going to look at this text today and look at some of the things Jesus is describing. And we need to ask ourselves, Are we prepared? Are we watching for these things? Are we looking for these things? When we answer the question of when and what, are we prepared for the when and the what? Are we prepared that Jesus can come at any time? And then, what are the signs? Are we looking for them? So let's look at what some of those things are today. We'll compare it to some real life situations. And we'll need to ask ourselves if we're ready. And I pray at the end of this, we'll all say we're prepared. That we're prepared for the Lord's return. We're excited about the Lord's return. We say, come Lord Jesus, come quickly." [50:09] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "So Jesus sets the stage here in this text. We learned last week, he's on the Mount of Olives. He's overlooking Jerusalem. You can see the temple, the temple mount, and the temple buildings. The disciples are in all of this. And that's why they were saying, you know, Jesus, isn't this where you're supposed to come back? And Jesus said, you see all these things? They're going to fall. My kingdom is not of this world. So when we set this stage, Jesus is letting them know, his kingdom was not that kingdom. His kingdom was not going to be ushered in maybe how they thought it was going to be ushered in. His kingdom, not of this world, was because it's of the heavenly kingdom. And the heavenly kingdom, we need heaven here on earth. That's the things we're supposed to pray for. So Jesus wants to see his kingdom spread here on his earth." [51:40] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "So Jesus has set the stage. The Messiah will come. He's painted this picture of what the signs will be. And he's letting them know that there's these characteristics. And I want to say that they're going to be present in every age. This is really important if you think about it. I don't think Jesus is just talking about one time period. As we go through the book, this chapter 24, you're going to see that Jesus is showing a bird's eye view, a historic view, if you will, looking down over all of history of how this is going to play out. And these things we're going to talk about this week and the weeks to come, these things will happen over history, over a time. Dispensations, if you will. They will happen. They will take place. And they will lead us into the birth pains." [52:32] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "So what He's talking about is natural disasters. So these famines and these earthquakes. And by the way there have been famines and earthquakes and natural disasters. Hurricanes. Tornadoes. All kinds of destructive powers throughout all of history. And Jesus is telling us they're going to continue to even get worse. Listen. Even though Jesus didn't use these words. I hope you give me a little liberty here. Even though He didn't say this. How about pandemics? How about plagues? How about viruses? How about stuff like that? Not just wars. Not just natural disasters. But diseases. They would call and fall upon human, mankind. And would destroy us. Jesus is saying these things will build. I'm not saying COVID-19 is a sign of the end times. But it's a part of the process. It's a part of the things that are leading there." [01:06:31] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "So I want to be back together with you too. But God has given us an opportunity to prepare ourselves for his coming back. Have you thought about that? Are you prepared? The signs are there. The deceptions are all around us. People misleading us about the messiah. People rejecting the gospel. We see famines and earthquakes and pandemics like today. We see wars and rumors of wars. We see everything Jesus has talked about continue to build over history. Growing stronger and stronger. And then someday the last verse is going to happen. Verse 8. All these events are the beginning of the labor pains. So what we've been is in a birthing, pregnancy if you will. Since Jesus ascended and the Holy Spirit is coming, we're waiting, expecting the messiah to come. And he tells us to be ready. He tells us to be prepared." [01:09:39] (63 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "So all of these, the false messiahs, the wars, the divisions among nations, the natural disasters. They are, are simply the beginning leading us to the labor pains. No one is exempt from any of these things from happening. We all will be exposed. Listen, the righteous and the unrighteous will be exposed to deception. The righteous and unrighteous will be exposed to natural disasters. The righteous and the unrighteous will be exposed to wars and rumors of wars. And all of these things will happen. The righteous and unrighteous will be in kingdoms that will be against each other. Nations that will be against each other. Think of example like the civil war. You had the south and the north. You had brothers on the other side. You had Christian brothers, not just physical brothers, fighting against each other. These type of divisions and these type of wars and things like this have affected the righteous and the unrighteous throughout all generations. Leading up to what Jesus says. The labor pains will begin." [01:10:29] (59 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "Are you ready? The question of what and when. The gospel of Matthew 24 and 25 begin to answer both of those questions. Are you looking for the signs? Jesus is telling us what they are. Are you preparing ourselves when the when happens? Whenever Jesus decides and gets the word to come back and he comes back for us. Are you ready? If you are ready, I want you to write down there when we get to Ben coming up and playing the final song. I want you to write, I am ready. I am ready. Are you ready? Are you prepared? I am ready. If you're out there listening and you're not a believer of Jesus Christ. You've not given Jesus your life yet. I want you to know you can't be ready. Did you hear me? You can't be ready. The only way you can be ready is to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. If you don't have that relationship, you can't be prepared. You can see all the signs without. We can see the world and we can see everything that's happening around us. And we can read this and we go, man, I can see those famines. Man, I can see these disasters. Man, I can see these wars. I can see the deception. But if you don't look within, you're not ready. You've got to look without to understand what's going on for the signs. But you must be ready within. If you don't know Jesus, you're not ready within." [01:13:33] (84 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)