WATCH!
Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: Watch! (Mark 13:35-37).
Here in this passage Jesus is preparing his followers of the end times. He tells a story of a man going on a journey (here He likens it to His own going away) who gives his servants work to do, and he expects them to do it. And he sets a doorkeeper to watch.
What is he to watch for? Is he to watch for the master’s return? That is the way this is usually interpreted in churches. But that is not the entire point, for he is to start watching as soon as the master leaves. He knows the master will not be back right away. What then is he to watch for? He is to watch so that no one can deceive him and gain entrance into the house and wreck and ruin and rob all the master has. So Jesus’ word is, Be alert; don’t go to sleep; watch! There are temptations and pressures that will assault you to make you think that it is all a lie, to make you give up and stop living like a Christian, stop walking in faith, stop believing the truth of God. Watch out for that. And in the meantime, do your work. Don’t let anything turn you aside. Don’t let anything derail you from being what God wants you to be in this day and age. This is the way you watch. We are not to be looking up into the sky all the time, waiting for His coming. That will happen when He is ready. We are to watch that we are not deceived.
So we need to wake up and smell the dangers of complacency and carelessness in our daily walk with God? Why must we be watchful, alert, and above all prayerful?
Pastor Travis