Episode 1598: Signs and Times

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Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 1,598 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

Robert Bass: I'm Robert Bass. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to find your life's purpose is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the Inspired Stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Maderer

Scott Maderer: brings about that time. It is active. It's not passive. It's growing and being and doing, not just sitting back and letting it happen. That is bringing the [00:01:00] kingdom. To Earth as it is in heaven. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling.

In the inspired Stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself. Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about Isaiah chapter two verses one through five, and Matthew chapter 24, verses 36 through 44. I talk about how we aren't good at waiting, but are called to wait. And I also talk about how we all too often put our trust in the wrong things and hold on tight, keeping us from [00:02:00] receiving something even better.

Isaiah chapter two, verses one through five says the word that Isaiah son of Amaz saw concerning Judea and Jerusalem. In days to come, the mountains of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of all mountains and shall be raised above the hills. All the nations shall stream to it. Many people shall come and say, come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and we may walk his pass for out of Zion shall go forth instruction and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between the nations and shall arbitrate for many peoples, they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into ping pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore. Oh, house of Jacob, come let us walk in the light of the Lord in Matthew [00:03:00] chapter 24 verses 36 through 44 says.

But about that day, an hour, no one knows neither the angels of heaven nor the son, but only the father for as the days of Noah were so will be the coming of the son of man for as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark.

And they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away. So too will be the coming of the son of man. Then two will be in the field, one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together. One will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake. Therefore, for you to not know on what day your Lord is coming.

But understand this, if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would've stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour. You do not [00:04:00] expect. Let's face it, we aren't really good at waiting, whether it's cultural here in the Western world or whether it's just human.

We don't seem to be created well for waiting. I would say it's often worse in the developed world and in the western world and other developed nations. I have been to places where and cultures where waiting is something that they seem to be better at than I am. And many of the people I know are. I think a lot of times we're the hurry up generation.

We're the people that want everything and we want it right now. Fast food, is it fast enough? So we have drive through windows. They should really be drive by windows, but whatever we've got prepackaged meals, we've got microwaves. We don't like standing in line. In fact, often if you're at the grocery store and your line seems to be moving [00:05:00] slower, you jump over to the next line hoping it's gonna go faster.

Even though a lot of times the line you were in then starts to move and you're behind. And that seems to be our spirit. And in many ways, that's why Advent is such a difficult season. This season is about waiting. And that's why each advent seems to be a wrestling bout between advent this poor quiet season and the cultural juggernaut that we call Christmas.

I would say that most of us, a lot of times if we admit it, all we're doing is trying to hold back the tide that brings Christmas crashing into our lives with inevitability. And why bother fighting it? Most people love Christmas. Personally, I've got a struggle with Christmas. There's a lot of things in my [00:06:00] past and my history that make it a difficult season for me.

But I think Christmas is a season that we can get behind in many ways. We may begrudge the commercialization, we may look at how things happen. But at the same time, Christmas is an event that transforms parts of the world, parts of our nation, into a season where they begin to rethink what they do and maybe even put aside time and energy for others and think about others before they think about themselves.

I get it. We don't always get the true meaning of Christmas. We don't always get the true spirit of Christmas. There's commercialization, there's all of these different theologies, and Jesus is the reason for the season. And what does incarnation mean and what is the mystery behind Christmas? And we get all of these things smed up and messed [00:07:00] up and confused in our head and our heart.

Often Christmas brings disappointment because expectations are misplaced and yet still. There's a certain magic around Christmas. There's a certain time and money and energy thing that happens at Christmas that makes us see the world a little different. But looking at all of that, advent is not just about waiting for Christmas.

It's not just a countdown clock. Till when Christmas shows up. Advent is also meant to be a reminder that we're headed somewhere. We have a destination as a people, and are we there yet is the question that seems to be asking. And we even have to have [00:08:00] some sort of implication that we know where there is.

We have to have a vision of where we're heading. So at the beginning of advent, these passages today is a little bit of a, Hey, let's look at the map and see where we're going. The passage from Isaiah is a statement of, are we there yet? Think about it. Are we seeing people beat their swords into plow shares their spears and the pruning?

Hooks. Ha. Have we seen the ending of war? Have we seen the joining together of nations? I would say probably not. That may be another reason that we all seem to wanna rush to Christmas. Christmas is predictable, but Advent is not. Yes. Maybe everything at your Christmas doesn't work out perfect. It doesn't look like something out of a [00:09:00] magazine or a Christmas TV show, and yet at the same time, Christmas still shows up and Christmas will come and there is something about it, but this vision that Isaiah is talking about of peace and community and kingdom.

What Jesus is calling for, what Jesus seems to be so keen on if we admit it, it's not only are we not there yet, but we seem to be a long way from being there. And in fact, sometimes it seems like we're getting further away, not closer. And the journey there seems fraught with danger and disaster and fear and anger, and hatred and harm.

Look at the gospel reading

of the day and the hour. No one knows [00:10:00] when are we gonna get there? We don't know when is it gonna happen. We don't know. Are we even on the correct route? We don't know that either. We want to know. Yeah, but Jesus says, we can't really know. At least we can't know the destination. And in fact, there seems to be an implication that our preoccupation with wanting to know is the wrong question.

Blasphemy. It's asking the wrong thing because if you had known you would've been doing the wrong thing. If the owner of the house hadn't known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would've stayed of wake. He wouldn't have let it happen. Now we're comparing Jesus's return to a thief in the night, and maybe that gives you some pause, but if you think about it, what he's saying is the return of the son is a good thing.

Not an easy thing, but a good thing. And yet, sometimes we're inclined to try to stop it from coming. [00:11:00] That may seem sensible, but it really isn't. If you had all of the information, if you knew the full game plan, you would still likely do the wrong thing, the very thing that would keep it from happening. We sometimes act not in our own best interests.

We want the kingdom to come, right? Don't we pray that every week thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Don't we mean it? Yeah, we do, but sometimes we still. Put our trust in the wrong things. We protect, we value, and we place our trust in the things that seem to matter, not the things that do matter.

We wanna hold onto our house. But in the kingdom, the house doesn't matter. We wanna hold onto our place in society, but in the kingdom, that doesn't matter. We wanna hold onto our money and our stuff and our family and our friends, and all of these things, many of which are even [00:12:00] good things, but they won't matter any more.

When the true Christmas come, when the sun returns, he takes away the things of this world. And if you're attached to your things, that doesn't sound very good. And often we stay up late at night trying to hold on to those very things. But what Jesus is reminding us of is that's not our mission. That's not what we're doing.

That's not what we're supposed to be doing, that we're not called to stay up all night protecting our stuff or our status, or our politics, or our belief or our belonging, or a sense of superiority or anything else. All of that stuff is secondary. If we're not really there to preserve our way of life, then what are we supposed to be doing?

Two men are working in a field. Two women are grinding cord. We're supposed to be living. We are called to provide for our families. We're [00:13:00] called to create a sense of home in our world, but we're also called to keep watch. Which means we're supposed to open up our hands and hold onto things a little more loosely.

The ones who were taken, the ones that are gathered into the community of faith are to be remembered and they're to remember they're the sign that we have a destination and we aren't there yet. In the days to come. In the later days, you hear different translations. Someday it will happen, and someday is always within reach.

It's always within the realm of possibility. We can always move closer to someday. The mountain of the Lord will be established. God will teach. God will lead. God will judge. These are things Isaiah says, God will do. [00:14:00] And there are things we are called to do. We will invite, we will go to the mountain. We will beat swords into plowshares and spears, into pruning hooks.

That's something we are supposed to do, not God. We do it and it's part of what we do in as walking in the way of the Lord. Blessed are the peace makers, not peace wishers or peace Hopers. And yet, I don't know about you. I don't see many of us, even those of us who believe and have faith beating swords into Plowshares at this point.

We've maybe put them aside, but we keep them handy just in case we need them. What if somebody attacks us? What if we are hurt? We can still rely on our own strength, our own pride, our own stuff, but God's saying we have to give that up. The Lord [00:15:00] is the highest priority. The Lord is supposed to be on the highest mountain, supposed to be in the center, supposed to be the direction and the vision and the peak of our existence, not just in Advent, not just in Christmas, but in every day of our life.

And God and us together in relationship in speaking and listening and teaching and learning and coming and hoping those actions of community and relationship is what brings about that time. It's active. It's not passive. It's growing and being and doing, not just sitting back and letting it happen That.

Is bringing the kingdom to earth as it is in heaven. Thanks for listening.[00:16:00]

Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to facebook.com/inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there.

Until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the [00:17:00] world.