When Jesus Doesn't Show

[0:00] God, thank you that you know us so well and so deeply. God, thank you that you know the highlights and you know the toughest stuff from the past year. God, you know the things that we're looking forward to as we look forward to a new year.

[0:12] And you know the things that some of us are really afraid of. God, thank you that you're with us here. God, just as you have over the past thousands of years, since the very beginning of creation when you spoke it into being, we pray that you'd speak to us again.

[0:26] That you'd give us more than just a morning of going through the motions, but that you would actually speak to every one of us, including myself, in a way that would change the rest of this year and the rest of our lives.

[0:37] For your glory and our good. In Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated. Back in June, I was coming back from a conference, and I got to combine a bit of vacation time into it.

[0:49] And so I arrived in Ottawa, so refreshed. It was an amazing conference out in Vancouver. I also had the opportunity to go surfing. It was great. I don't check luggage, so I got off the plane really quickly, and I was there waiting to be picked up.

[1:00] I had broken my phone for what was, I think, the third of four times different phones this year I broke. But that meant I couldn't get myself an Uber. But I had borrowed someone's phone, called up a friend the day before, and said, hey, I'm not going to be able to Uber home.

[1:13] Any chance? Before I even said it, they said, you know what? I'll be there. I'll pick you up. I said, well, you're not going to have to contact me if anything changes, because my phone is broken. So do you want me to call you tomorrow before I get on the plane to make sure everything's okay?

[1:24] And they said, I give you my word. I will be there. And so there I am with my carry-on. I'm waiting there. I'm feeling so refreshed. I'm so ready to get back to the office the very next day. And I'm waiting.

[1:35] And because I didn't check any luggage, I knew I'd probably be earlier than they thought. So it's fine that while everyone else was getting picked up, I'm just waiting. But that continued to go on. And so finally there's just a few of us, like the last kind of stragglers waiting to be picked up.

[1:48] And if you've ever been in that situation, you know that there's a bond that you form. You never say anything. We all see, like everyone else has been picked up, and you guys are waiting. Every one of them got picked up. And eventually more people came, and we're waiting, and everyone's getting picked up.

[2:01] And then there's a new bond that I have with my beloved abandoned brothers. But they all get picked up and leave. And eventually I go from being refreshed and ready to get to the office, grateful for my vacation, just filled with this gnawing anxiety.

[2:16] I don't know if my friends are going to come, but they gave me their word. And so as time went on, and this kept on happening, it went more than an hour. It got to two hours. I went from being there, like I thought, I can't step away from my post, because they might show up at any moment.

[2:29] They can't text me if they're here, so I just have to wait. But eventually, even though I was still waiting for them, I went in, I got myself some Tim Hortons. It was very late at night. It was the next day, actually, by that point.

[2:39] I'm waiting. It was a pretty rough experience. Finally, I just thought, something's wrong. Now, you probably would have clued in earlier than me. But anyway, I'm like, something's wrong. So I go in, I find car rental computer people, because who has numbers memorized in their phones, right?

[2:55] So I had to get online, find their number, borrow a phone, call the person, and they answer the phone with the most sleepy voice. I'm just still holding on to the last shred of hope, like, hey, are you going to see you soon?

[3:07] And they're like, no, I'm sick. I can't pick you up. And have a good night. And hung up. I was just like, they're like, feeling so abandoned and betrayed. And all the emotions you think I'd feel, I felt all of them and more.

[3:20] I share this story with you, not because it still agitates me. We worked it through the next day. We're good. But because this, I think, reflects the way that many of us relate to Jesus, with Jesus when he said he gave us his word, that he's coming back.

[3:34] He's actually coming back for us. You know, maybe it was easy for that first generation to be waiting for him to come back. Maybe by the second generation, the third, the fourth, the fifth, they're starting to have a bit of that, like, gnawing feeling.

[3:45] Is he coming back? But by the time we're in our day, it's been more than two, it's been about 2,000 years since Jesus said, I give you my word, I'm coming back. And it's easy for us to begin to just feel like, hey, maybe he's coming, but it's not going to be any time soon.

[3:59] Because, you know, if you look at the stats, like, if you do the numbers, those who thought he's not coming back in their lifetime have been right. Well, those who thought he's coming back right here, right now, have been wrong. Because people have come and lived and died, and Jesus hasn't come back.

[4:12] And so, if you're someone that doesn't identify as a Christian, and you kind of throw out the thing at Christians, and you know what, Christians say they believe all sorts of things, but they don't really believe the things they say they believe.

[4:23] The thing is that you're right. There's so many things in the Bible that we read and that we say we believe, but if you look at the way we live, if you listen to the way we talk, it doesn't seem like we really believe it.

[4:35] If you think about the way we make our plans, then we talk about the future, we don't tend to be talking as if there's a chance that Jesus might come back. I had some friends who had an outdoor wedding this past year, and the way they talked about it was very clear.

[4:48] We're going to do this if it's sunny. We're going to do that if it rains. You can tell that there's an expectation that the weather might change. But if you listen to the way we talk, we don't tend to have that kind of condition.

[4:58] We're going to do this if Jesus doesn't come back yet. We don't tend to really talk or think like that. I bring this up because Jesus actually, in Luke 12, what George just read, says that we're supposed to have our life shaped and defined and inspired and transformed by the expectation that Jesus is coming back, that we're not to let go of that expectation.

[5:18] And so in the passage that George just read in Luke 12, you'll see that there are all these different images that Jesus brings up, the reoccurring one that unites just about all of them, is that of servants who are waiting for their master to come home from a wedding.

[5:32] And so it says, verse 35, Luke chapter 12, stay dressed for action. The Hebrew actually says, gird up your loins. Or maybe today we'd say, roll up your sleeves. Be ready for action.

[5:44] 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. So he's saying you're supposed to be dressed for action.

[5:56] You're ready. The idea of girding up your loins or rolling up your sleeves is that even your clothes would reflect a readiness for action. You're not going to be tripped up by your long robe, like being all down there.

[6:07] And have your lamp burning is that image of you're going to have to continue to have that, tend to the oil of the lamp and be taking action so that they have the lamp up so they're able to see when the master's coming, they're able to open the door ready to serve him.

[6:21] So we're to be dressed for action. We're to keep our lamp burning. And we're to be like men who are eagerly waiting their master to come home so that they can serve him. The idea here is that you're able to be a faithful person.

[6:34] You're able to be ready for his return by holding on to that expectation. You'll see as we continue on after verse, in verse 41 and beyond, Jesus talks about the servants who are, because they're expecting their master to come home, they're faithfully serving.

[6:51] But then there's other ones who are like, you know what, the master isn't going to come home anytime soon. And so they just kind of relax. The idea is that by what we expect shapes the way we behave. What we expect shapes the way we behave.

[7:04] And Jesus is showing us here that the expectation, the great expectation that he might come at any moment, gives you a bit greater strength to be able to be faithful to all that you're called to be. Here's an example of how expectations help us find greater strength.

[7:17] This past summer, I went with a friend to a job interview he had in Kingston. I drove with him, I dropped him off where his interview was, and I walked down to the waterfront. It's really pretty. So I'm waiting and waiting. I'm looking at the time.

[7:28] Oh, he's going to come any minute. And I look up and I see a woman flagging to Christian music. If you've been to a more charismatic church where that's normal, you'll recognize what's going on. So I'm like, you know what?

[7:39] That's awesome. My friend's going to come around the corner at any moment. He probably should have been there already. So I'm just going to go and I'm going to flag. And he's going to come around and he's going to see me. I was serving as his pastor at camp.

[7:49] He's going to see me just flagging. He's a dignified guy older than his 60s. So it's going to be funny. So I go up there and I ask if I can flag. And the girl's like, yeah, here's some flags. And it was a worship techno music.

[8:01] So I go up there. You can see it right here. I go up there. I start flagging. And I thought I'd do this 30 seconds. He's going to come around the corner. It's really easy to flag. If you've been to a charismatic church like I grew up in, it's really easy to flag for at least 30 seconds.

[8:13] I'm going. I'm doing the stuff. And I'm going. I kid you not. I'm going. It goes into more than 30 seconds. It's like 10 minutes. And at this point, even though I identify as an athletic guy, like my arms start to kind of feel it.

[8:24] But I'm like, any second he's coming. So I'm going. Eventually, he didn't come. But this guy with the Pokemon hat shows up. This is a YouTube sensation. He joins us. This is a screenshot from a video of more than 40,000 views.

[8:36] I'm very embarrassed because I'm not that good at flagging. But I'm going. And I'm like, you know, I'm not going to stop. Even while they're filming, I'm like, I'm not going to stop. It was 40,000 views by the next day. I'm not going to stop. I'm just going to keep.

[8:47] And eventually, I kid you not, because I looked at the time to see when he's coming when I went up there. And then more than 40 minutes later, your old friend Daniel right here. I'm still going. And my arm's like shaking. But the thing that kept me going the whole time was the idea that it'd be funny if he saw me flagging.

[9:03] And second, at any moment, every time I thought, I'm going to give up now, I thought, he's going to come around the corner. He's going to come around the corner. He said he's going to be here by 7. It's now 735. He's going to go. And so I kept going all the way until he finally came.

[9:13] And he chuckled. Yes, I got my laugh. But the point is that I was able to find the strength for these small arms to do great things as I kept expecting him to come.

[9:24] And in a sense, though, Jesus isn't using YouTube as an analogy. In a sense, here, his analogy is servants who are faithful and who are diligent even as time goes on.

[9:35] And maybe there's servants around you going, you know what? He hasn't come for so long. He's not going to come for a while more. And they're chillaxing. But you are saying, no, as a servant of his, he might come any moment.

[9:45] I'm looking forward to him coming. I'm going to be faithful. He's going to find me. Not flagging. He's going to come across me being faithful. And so, Andrew, if you can put up the first point, I become more fully human as I embrace the expectation that Jesus may come back at any moment.

[10:00] The stuff that Jesus is talking about, the analogies of being ready for action and being found faithful and all this stuff, is talking about the stuff that we're really made for as human beings. It's January 1st, so there's likely some of us in the room who've made some New Year's resolutions.

[10:16] You know how hard it is to actually keep those things. People wait to New Year's because there's such a sense of it being fresh and we feel like it's a clean slate. And so we're going to promise ourself that we're going to do better this year.

[10:26] In a sense, we're going to be more fully human, more everything we were made for. Jesus is saying here that the way to actually be faithful, the way to be so everything that we should be, the way that we're going to be found faithful is by holding on to the belief.

[10:41] Even when it feels like it, how could it be true? It's been 2,000 years holding on to the belief at any moment. Even while I'd be preaching this sermon, Jesus might come back. And so one of the things I'm praying as I get ready for today and as we get ready as a church for this new year is to say, God, would you please help us to be a church?

[10:59] That when people interact with us, they're like, man, those people at Church of the Sive really believe that Jesus might come back today. They really believe in their planning and in their budgeting that Jesus might come back.

[11:10] And they want to be found faithful. They want Jesus to stumble across them being faithful, serving him and being all that it means to be human. But not only does Jesus use this positive analogies or in a sense the positive image of servants being faithful, as I mentioned, he also has a warning.

[11:29] So Peter asks, as Jesus is saying these things in verse 41, Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all? And the Lord, Jesus said, who then is this faithful and wise manager whom his master will set over his household to give them their portion of food at the proper time?

[11:41] 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 listen, 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, an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful.

[12:06] It continues on with these words of warning and promise. Note here, it really hit me. I always thought, just growing up, becoming across this passage, whatever, I always thought that Jesus is saying, those who expect me to come, they'll be faithful.

[12:21] And those who don't think I'm coming will not be faithful. But in this passage, and this is a sobering message that every one of us needs to hear, in this passage, Jesus is saying, both people expect him to come.

[12:35] Both believe he's coming back. Even if it's hard to believe, both believe the master's coming. But the ones who are faithful, the ones who receive blessing, are the ones who expect him to come at any moment.

[12:46] And those who are cut into pieces, who are unfaithful and are condemned, are those who think he's coming, but that it's not going to be for a while. They let go of that expectation.

[12:58] And so the second point, Andrew, if you can put it up, is letting go of this great expectation that Jesus is coming back at any moment makes me lethargic in my responsibilities, distracted from my priorities, and hurtful to the people I love.

[13:12] In fact, to take it one more, in this, it's not just hurtful to the people close to you. In this case, this kind of overseer of the other servants is just hurting people in proximity to him.

[13:24] Jesus is saying that this servant, not only you see that he lets go of his sense of urgency, he lets go of his being faithful, and then it continues to spiral down. So he starts doing things that aren't ethical, he's getting drunk, which he shouldn't be doing.

[13:37] So then it gets even worse that he begins actually hurting people, beating people that were in his care, that were close to him. I'll read it again. Letting go of this great expectation that Jesus might come back at any moment makes me lethargic in my responsibilities, distracted from my priorities, and hurtful to the people I love, hurtful to the people close to me.

[13:59] That's a sobering truth. And it actually kind of hurt me this week as I was looking at this passage because I had to preach it. I was looking at it and going, hmm, I honestly don't.

[14:11] I would identify as the people who are in the passage who expect Jesus to come, but don't have that urgency that he'd come at any moment. I look at my life. Are there ways that I'm not being as responsible as I should be?

[14:22] And to be honest, if I look at, I'm in pastor school seminary right now, if I look at the way I do my assignments, if I look at the way I relate to my friendships, if I look at different areas in my life, I can see areas that I'm not being as faithful as I should be.

[14:34] And I think part of it, if I'm taking what Jesus says seriously, part of it is that I'm not living with an expectation that Jesus might come back at any moment. We need to embrace that great expectation.

[14:45] Now, it's interesting that the analogy Jesus uses for how we should be found faithful, holding on, gripped by that good news that he might come back at any moment. What image does he use?

[14:55] Well, if I thought about the way that we'd probably expect, the image we'd expect him to use based on the way we think about stuff, typically as Christians in North America, is this image right here. Next one, Andrew. You got this?

[15:08] The hitchhiker? Yeah. We got this. Bam! That's the image. If you think about the way we tend to think about Jesus coming back, it's this image.

[15:18] We'd expect Jesus to say, expect me to come back at any moment. Just, you know, hold out your holy thumb and just stand there and just hold on to that belief and through the years just keep having your thumb out there, believing I'm going to be there.

[15:31] I'm going to come up. I'm going to pick you up in my heavenly chariot and we're going to go to heavenly land and we're going to have a great time. That's the way we tend to think about Jesus coming back. We just have to hold tight to our belief, stick out your holy thumb and just wait and wait.

[15:46] And he's going to come back. He's going to see that thumb. He's going to see that you still believe the Apostles' Creed. He's going to take you away in his heavenly chariot. But the analogy Jesus actually uses is that of a servant who's two things, doing two things.

[15:58] I guess this is four, doing two things. One, that they're ready for him to come back. They're ready for action, not just for him to come back. They're ready to serve. And two, that they're serving. They're ready to serve and they are serving.

[16:12] And it began to, as it worked through this, it started to think about it. Why, like, if all our expectations of what it looks like when Jesus comes back, why would we be ready for action? Because we tend to just think he's going to come, whisk us away, and we're just going to be there in his glory.

[16:25] But he's saying, no, be ready to serve. And don't just, like, be willing to serve. Be ready to serve. Gird up your loins. Roll up your sleeves. Be ready for action. It's the kind of imagery of, it would make sense if Jesus was saying, yeah, I'm going to peace out from Jerusalem.

[16:40] I'm going to get me an army. I'm going to come back. When you hear my bird call, you're going to recognize that. You're inside the city and you're going to take out your sword and we're going to take the city. You know, me from the outside, you from the inside. Like, there's a sense where he's going to be ready for action.

[16:54] And so you'd understand, okay, that means I should have a sharp sword. I should have it, you know, on me. All that kind of stuff. Because you're ready to do something. But when we think about what's it going to look like when Jesus comes back, and there's so many questions about what that would look like.

[17:05] We don't have answers to it. And that's okay. But we see that we're called to actually do something. We're called to be ready to serve. And in the meantime, we're to be faithfully serving.

[17:16] How does this make sense? Well, it's important for us always when we're reading the Bible, in our day-to-day, as well as at church, for us to be looking at the context. We read just a little section, but it's often part of a greater story or bigger monologue.

[17:28] Jesus has just been talking about the kingdom of heaven and seeking the kingdom of heaven and all that stuff, and then he talks about being ready for action. In fact, as I started flipping through more of the Gospels, I started seeing that it seems that the number one thing Jesus talks about is the kingdom of heaven.

[17:44] It's definitely one of the most common things he talks about. When you're trying to do an impression of someone, not only do you try to match their voice, but you try to say things like they actually commonly say. So if you're trying to do an impression of George and a bunch of us are in the office and someone's impressed, exactly that.

[17:58] We just try to laugh, just like he's doing right now. And everyone's like, oh, you're George, right? I find that people, and they're trying to make fun of me, will stand like this, put their arms out and be there, and be like, something like that, whatever. And I don't know what they say, but we hover things.

[18:11] If you look at the Gospels, this is just my speculation, that the disciples of Jesus, those who are around them, if they're chilling around, they're by the fire, whatever they're doing, and someone's like, guys, who am I, who am I?

[18:22] The kingdom of heaven, and before they even get to the next line, they're like, Jesus, you're trying to be Jesus, because he's always, you see him daydreaming about it. The kingdom of heaven, it's like a mustard seed. The kingdom of heaven is, he's speaking like that all the time, all the time.

[18:38] He's always speaking to him, and just before he says these words. And so when he's talking about being ready for his coming, in light of that being that he is the king, and that he's coming to complete, fulfill the fullness of the kingdom, it makes sense that there's a readiness for action.

[18:54] That we're not just being saved that our soul isn't thrown into hell, but that we're actually being rescued to a kingdom. They're being rescued to serve a great king.

[19:05] And just on that, you know that the command to subdue the earth, and to fill it, and to work the ground, all that stuff, comes before the curse. That's what we're made for in the Garden of Eden. And so we should rightly expect that when Jesus comes and makes the world right, that there's work for us to do.

[19:22] And he's saying, for us to do that work, we need to be getting ready now, and faithfully doing the work already. So Andrew, if you could put up the next point, try to summarize this by saying, there's work for me to do in this life, and in the world to come.

[19:36] There's work for me to do in this life, and in the world to come. It's really important for us to get that. That being a Christian is not just about believing a bunch of true statements about God and reality and ourselves, but it's actually about living life with Jesus.

[19:50] Five times in the Gospels, Jesus says, believe in me. More than 20 times, he says, follow me. If as a kid, you ever played follow the leader, or maybe some of you as an adult, you still love the game, no judgment. Follow the leader.

[20:01] You're actually, you're going somewhere. You're doing stuff. You're doing actions, and you're actually literally following and behaving like the person who you're following. And that's what Jesus is saying. For us to be faithful people, for us to be fully human, we're to be actually serving him, following him, living life like he was living, living life like he is living, even to this day, doing the work of God.

[20:25] Now, as we get to that, it'd be easy for this message to simply be a message that we can do better, we can fulfill our New Year's promises, we can be people who are faithfully shining his light and making a difference if we just hold on to that expectation that Jesus is coming back.

[20:41] We can be more moral. We can be inspirations to everyone around us if we just live life gripped by the expectation that Jesus is coming back any moment. But there's a problem there because, like I said and confessed to you a few minutes ago, even though I know that's true, I still struggle to actually hold on to that hope.

[20:59] And even when I hold on to that hope, I still find myself doing things that are not in line with that great expectation. And I have a feeling that you and I are more alike than you might want to admit that actually that's the case for so many of us.

[21:12] So you read this and like, okay, that's all well and good, Jesus, but you're saying that those who let go of that expectation get demolished. How is this good news? Well, two things.

[21:23] First, there's something really, really surprising and actually kind of odd about this. And that's found in verse 37. Jesus says, Blessed are those servants who the Master finds awake when he comes.

[21:37] Truly I say to you, he, the Master, Jesus, will dress himself for service and have them recline at table and he will come and serve them. Jesus, a few days later, illustrates this by actually doing that.

[21:51] He actually gets on his, he like, he gets on his knees and begins washing, cleaning his disciples' dirty, gucky feet. He becomes the servant of his servants, illustrating for us what he does for us.

[22:05] In that analogy of the servant that's waiting on them, he's cleaning them, he's feeding them, he's caring for them. And as I read this, it really hit me because New Year's is known to be one of the saddest times for people.

[22:18] Because there's a great expectation that everyone's having a party and a good time and all this stuff, but most people fail to make that awesome of a plan. And so you only have an expectation everyone else is having a good time, yourself are kind of feeling this emptiness inside.

[22:32] And that feeling of emptiness amidst all the expectation of parties and stuff is actually something not just that New Year's for us in 2016, 2017, but it's actually the way so many of us live our lives.

[22:42] Research shows because of, even more so because of social media and the busyness and the chaos and the noise of life in 2017. It's so easy for us to have an expectation.

[22:54] Everyone else is happy. Everyone else is living a Photoshop life. But there's this kind of nagging emptiness, this hunger for something more. Not just for those who don't identify as Christians, but even for many Christians.

[23:06] There's an emptiness that can nag at us. And if we're honest with ourselves, so much of the noise we bring into our life is a way to self-medicate that hunger, that emptiness, sometimes even that feeling of dirtiness and unworthiness.

[23:21] And Jesus is saying right here that He can feed us. That He is ready and He is able to feed us. To fill that emptiness. To clean us.

[23:33] And that He does so, not as a king throwing out scraps to His hungry people, but by being the king that becomes a servant of His people. It's just so unusual here. We live in a world that tends to feel like it's the survival of the fittest.

[23:47] That the most attractive kids in high school, the jocks, the nerds, all, whatever, they're good at academics or sports or this or that, they get ahead and those who are just average just kind of feel invisible. In a world where the biggest dog gets the bone.

[24:01] And Jesus is saying right here that He clearly is the, I feel wrong saying He's the biggest dog. He's so much more than that. He's the lion, right? He's the top of the food chain. He's the almighty.

[24:12] He's the most powerful. He's not just the one who gets the greatest marks. He invented marks. He's the inventor of the universe. This guy breathes stars into existence. And He's the one who humbly becomes a servant, gets on His knees, cleans the muck and the stink and the embarrassing stuff of His servants.

[24:32] He becomes a servant to the servants. It's one thing to become, like, if you become a helper, like an aide. I used to work in politics, so if you become an assistant to the prime minister, like, man, like, you might be a servant.

[24:46] You might feel like a slave. But there's actually something like, put out your chest. But a servant to servants, that's not something that people esteem. The one who's the top of the food chain humbles himself to become the lowest of the low.

[25:00] Why? Because he loves his servants so much. He loves the lowest of the low. He loves the invisible. He loves those of us who were actually really lonely last night. Those of us who kind of had a miserable Christmas.

[25:13] Those of us who, there's fear when we look forward to 2017. We're not doing life the way we should do. We've messed up. Jesus is speaking these words.

[25:25] This is the second element to this. Jesus is speaking these words on His way to die in Jerusalem. The second half of the Gospel of Luke is all since the end of Luke chapter 9.

[25:35] Jesus sets His face toward Jerusalem to die. And He and those with Him are walking to Jerusalem for Him to die. And all the different conversations Jesus has on His way to Jerusalem are in light of His pending death.

[25:48] And His resurrection. And so as we see these words and we read that, that Jesus is expecting us to be faithful, to be ready on all the stuff. And if you're willing to be honest with yourself that you have messed up, that you are a little more empty than you want to admit, that there's a hunger, a nagging hunger, that there's parts of your life where there's dirt, it's easy for us to be like, oh no.

[26:14] And it's okay to feel like that if it leads us to say, Jesus, I need help. Jesus, I have hunger. Jesus, I have emptiness. Jesus, I have dirt. And I need you to clean me.

[26:25] I need you to feed me. I need you to help. So Andrew, if you could put up the next point. Jesus is ready and able to forgive me, to forgive my failure, to fill my emptiness, and freshen my soul.

[26:39] I had to use refreshing rather than refresh, because if you see there's three F's. But I looked up freshen, and freshen can mean to strengthen, to make new, also to make more attractive.

[26:52] Be that as it may, Jesus is ready and able to forgive my failure, to fill my emptiness, and freshen my soul. That he's able to go into those places that no one else can go, to bring healing to scars we never thought possible.

[27:04] That he's able to clean the dirt that we've tried so hard. If you know the story of Macbeth, where Lady Macbeth is scrubbing, and scrubbing, and scrubbing, no matter how hard she scrubs, she can't get it off. And perhaps there's things in your life like that, where you've tried to forget it, you've tried to confess it, you've tried to, and Jesus is saying, hey, I'm able.

[27:21] I can wash you, I can cleanse you, and I can strengthen you, and help you, for all that you were born to be, for all that you were made to be. And so, as we look forward to this year, I really want to encourage us to be people who are able to, to hold on to that hope.

[27:38] One thing I forgot to mention. If we're honest with ourselves, and if you're someone that doesn't identify as a Christian, it can especially sound weird that, Christians believe Jesus is coming back.

[27:53] It can, it can sound like, like Jesus, you know, you know he lived 2,000 years ago, and now we're believing he's coming back. That sounds probably, to some, like, where people are saying, Elvis is still alive, or that the aliens are coming.

[28:06] In fact, there's a chance that there's more, some of you who believe that, it's more like the aliens exist, than Jesus is coming back. Like, people from 2,000 years ago, don't tend to come back, and say hello.

[28:17] But, the reason we're able, and the reason I think it's not just, uh, a possible to believe, but actually the most logical, the most reason, and the, the smartest thing. If you want to be, if you want to be intelligent about this, it's intelligent to believe Jesus is coming back.

[28:33] And he might come back at any moment. Why? Because like I said, Jesus, Jesus says these words on his way to die in Jerusalem. Jesus predicted about himself that he would die, and that he would come back to life.

[28:44] That's really hard to do. I find it hard to get out of bed in the morning. Jesus said he'd come back out of the grave. Okay? That sounds like crazy. He predicts the impossible, and then the best eyewitness accounts we have, as historians love seeing, like, people who actually saw some, like, primary sources when they were there, hostile sources, people who wanted him dead, who would then say, no, actually, he's come back to life.

[29:10] People who have everything to lose by saying that, yet they believe it. There's so, we have all these different types of eyewitness accounts that Jesus actually came back to life. The evidence shows that Jesus predicted the impossible, and then actually the impossible came true.

[29:25] And when someone is that good at predicting the future, when someone can come back from the dead just like they said they would, then when they say something else, that they're going to come back, even after so many years, they're going to come back, it's logical to trust them, because he's earned our trust by fulfilling the impossible before.

[29:42] And so the last point is that I can trust that Jesus is coming back, because he proved through his death and resurrection that he is trustworthy. And actually, it's very illogical.

[29:54] It's really silly to say that he's not going to come back when he did come back from the dead already, and he's also just the same way to predict that he's coming back. And so the most logical, the most smartest thing is expecting to come back at any moment.

[30:07] And he's saying that it's not just logic, but something that we need to do for the very health of the innermost parts of our lives, and for day-to-day actions. So I was chatting with my friend about this sermon, asked for his permission if I could share the story about the airport, and he said, you know what, mention, mention at the end that there's a difference between Jesus and me, that Jesus always keeps his word.

[30:29] We humans, we make mistakes sometimes. Sometimes we can't help it. We get sick. We can't get to the airport. But Jesus, he's coming back. He might even come back today. Would you stand with me? I want to invite you to say these words.

[30:42] I'll just read it first, and hopefully we can say them together. Dear Jesus, please forgive me for not living fully as a faithful servant. We'll read it again. I'll just read it aloud, so you have a chance to see what you're saying.

[30:53] Dear Jesus, please forgive me for not living fully as a faithful servant. I have not said things, and I have not done things that I should have. And I have said things, and done things that I shouldn't have. I am hungry, and I need you to feed me, to clean me, to save me, and to help me live this year and all my life, with the expectation that you're coming back at any moment.

[31:11] God, so if these words reflect your heart, let's say them together. Dear Jesus, please forgive me for not living fully as a faithful servant. I have not said things, and I have not done things that I should have, and I have said things, and done things that I shouldn't have.

[31:27] I am hungry, and I need you to feed me, to clean me, to save me, and to help me live this year and all my life, with the expectation that you're coming back at any moment.

[31:38] God, thank you so much that your love is steadfast, and that you always keep your word. God, again, you know how different ones of us have various hungers and needs, feelings of emptiness, different stuff, and we just so need you.

[31:53] God, would you come through for us? Would you answer to this prayer? And would you help us to be able to live this day and every day of our lives, with that great expectation that you're coming back?

[32:04] We ask you to come back soon. In Jesus' name, Amen.