Light on the Hill

Jane: What are we to be doing in these last days? Watch and pray. Here's Pastor James to explain.

James Kaddis: For as long as I can remember, one of the biggest frustrations of people that I often times work with is the lack of communication. Have a conversation. Tell me you see something. Something's wrong. Let me know. I want to be aware. Let's talk through together. Why? Because we're supposed to be watchful. And in that watchfulness, what are we supposed to be doing? We're supposed to be communicating. That's why Jesus tells the disciples, watch and pray. Why? Because we're in the last days. I think that's a fair statement to make to each and every single person today.

Each and every single one of us should be watching on a regular basis and pray. You don't know when the time is going to be. That's why he says watch and pray. You don't know what you're going to come across. You don't know what you're going to see.

Guest (Female): I have found that peace only comes from you. I have found that joy only comes from you. Cuz all I need is you.

Jane: Jesus is coming again. In these days leading up to it, the large majority of us are sleeping as if he's not. But today on Light on the Hill, we want to encourage you to be watchful and pray. Turn to Mark chapter 13 as we hear about the big sign of the second coming of Jesus. Here's Pastor James Kaddis.

James Kaddis: So funny how people will tell me, well, you know, I just do the the most secure thing. What's the most secure thing? Putting your money in a savings account? How secure is that going to be? Heck, let's just assume all your money that you save in the savings account stays the way it is and it doesn't burn like everything else in this world. Do you honestly think that the rate of inflation is going to actually be lower than the amount of money that you're keeping in your in your savings account? No way. You're going to lose that money at a more rapid pace than you do anything else with.

My whole point is this. It all comes and it goes. It's all momentary. It doesn't mean anything. But if there's one thing you want to invest in that can never be taken away from you, one thing you want to invest in that you know is never going to fall by the wayside, one thing you can invest in that's never going to go away even when the heavens and the earth expire, it's going to be the word of God. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not telling you to throw caution to the wind and then all of a sudden just be reckless and you know, throw your money away or not or not manage your money well or whatever.

Listen, you do that, you're actually slapping God right in the face. You're supposed to be taking the resources that God has given you and you're supposed to be multiplying them. You're supposed to be faithful with them and you're supposed to be doing all the right things God has asked you to do that. He's asked you to be a faithful steward with all that's been given. But the reality of it is your overwhelming investment should be in the one thing that will not perish. It should always be in the one thing that will never go away and that is the word of God and that's why Jesus is saying it.

He's describing a time in the world where everything is going to fail. Everything is going to perish. Everything is going to go away. But he's saying my word won't. You can bank on the fact that my word is true. You can bank on the fact that my word is real, that my word is not going anywhere. You can trust me. I'm your great provider. I am the one that will give you all that you need to do what I've called you to do. That's what he's reminding them of. Heaven and earth can pass away, but my word no it's not going to.

But look what he says in verse 32. This one is so near and dear to my heart. He says, but of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no not even the angels which are in heaven, neither the son but the father. And then that interesting. You're not going to know the day or the hour when the second coming happens. Now some people tell me what James wait wait wait wait wait. How can that be the case? We know exactly what the day and the hour will be if we understand the prophetic timeline given to us in places like the book of Daniel.

Like for example, we know what will cause the tribulation to commence. The tribulation commences when the peace treaty is made strong. We know that in Daniel chapter 9 verse 27. We also know that even if you didn't want to use that as your start date, based on Daniel chapter 9 verse 27, we also know when the commencement of the midpoint of the tribulation will be. That's when the Antichrist goes in the temple and demands to be worshipped. So we know the beginning of the tribulation. We know the beginning of the midpoint of the tribulation. There's no way we're going to get the day or the hour wrong.

Oh really? How about we talk about this for a second? When was the peace treaty actually made strong? Was it made strong when it was announced 5 months later? Or was it made strong when there was a backdoor agreement where the Antichrist shook hands with somebody in a room that nobody ever saw? When was it made strong? When they signed the official paperwork to make the agreement law? Or was it when they shook each other's hands while putting their initials on a piece of paper in a back room? When was it? Okay, fine. I get your point with that.

But James, we're going to definitely know when the Antichrist goes into the temple and demands to be worshipped. We'll know the day or the hour based on that. Oh really? Could it be that he set himself up as God before the whole world got to see him? Could it be that he steps into the Holy of Holies at a time unknown to anybody and then postures himself in a way where he regards himself as the replacement to Christ? Only then weeks or months or even a year later to say I am God? When is it going to be?

When is it going to happen? I have a feeling that there will be people who will be at the 6th year of the tribulation and think they're at the midpoint. Guaranteed. There will be people who will say that the tribulation hasn't started yet and it started 6 months prior. Why? Because they're never going to understand fully the minute details that only a few people know or understand. And the reality of it is Jesus says the angels aren't going to know. Not even he will know. Only the father knows when that day and when that hour will be.

Now why is that important to me? Why is that important to you? Because when you hear people come and tell you that they know when the day of the rapture is going to be, when you hear people come Listen, if the most discernable moment in Bible prophecy concerning the time that we're living today happens to be the second coming of Christ and no one still knows the day or the hour, what makes anybody think you can know the day of the tribulation? It's impossible. There's no way. It is literally impossible. It cannot happen. It can't happen.

It can't be. And Jesus is saying that for a reason. Why? Here's the reason. Verse 33. Take you heed. In other words, be careful. That should be a very important tool for us to use. Walk in sobriety. Walk carefully. Why? Because he wants us to watch and pray. For you know not when the time is. What does he say? Watch and pray. Why? Because you don't know when when it's going to happen. What does it mean to watch and what does it mean to pray? Well, pray is obvious, right? You you stay in communication with the Lord.

But here's the thing. Are you truly watching? Because watching means you keep yourself sober. Watching means you don't allow yourself to be given to any kind of sin because sin becomes the greatest and most quick inebriating variable that anybody can give themselves to. Sin will get you drunk faster than anything. Faster than alcohol, faster than drugs, faster than anything. Sin will cause you to lose your sobriety so fast that when you think you're watching, you have no idea what you're seeing. And that why he talks about walking in sobriety and that's why he talks about praying.

When you watch and when you pray, it's a very important thing like, Lord, what am I seeing? Can you guide me? Can you show me? You know, every person I've ever had work for me, whether it be in a Christian environment like a church or a secular environment, I don't know what it is. It's a disease. I always ask them. I say you have to communicate. Communication is important. I don't care what is going on, how much more of a burden you think it's going to be on me. I need you to communicate. You need to talk to me because when we communicate, we stay on task.

We watch things. We see things happening. Whatever you perceive as being an anomaly that might not be a big deal may be the very thing that saves the game. You got to keep an eye out. It's really important. I remember one day This is really interesting. I still remember where it is in Bell Gardens. I'm going down the South Valley of Gage in between two streets, Colmar and Salinger. And I'm with probably what might be one of the sharpest gang detectives I've ever been in a car with. The guy is every bit tactical, super aware, super sharp, knows everything there is to know about the streets that he patrols.

Nothing gets by him. He see things clearly. We go down this alley and he says um it's about 2:00 in the morning and he says, keep an eye out to your left. Anything that you see that even remotely feels like it's unusual, you need to tell me. You need to tell me. All right. I'm looking down the street. Don't really see anything that I perceive as being really unusual. Out of the corner of my eye, I see what looks like for just a second a little flash of light that looks like a little circle. But where I thought I saw it was against the wall of a garage.

I'm thinking uh that was just my that was my eyes. The moment I saw that, I didn't think anything of it. I see the officer that I'm with, the detective that I'm with go up another 4 or 5 ft. He looks at me and he says, get on the radio and call for as many units as you can. And mind you, he's saying it in a very different way. He's not saying it in like the in the most Christian way. You know, get on the radio and call for a backup right now. And what all I know is that you have to picture this.

The garage that I see, it's one of those open-ended garages that has those shelves that go above like the front of the car, like the apartment garages. It's like a shelf that you put up stuff and then the the car parks right below it. All I see is my partner getting out as fast as humanly possible with his weapon in his hand. Looks like he's talking to the garage and he says, if you make one move, I promise you you're dying tonight. I'm going to kill you. And And he looks like he's like like he's crazy.

He looks like he 's talking to a a parking stall is is what it looks like. And so he's very aggressive and he's telling me roll units code, meaning get people here, lights and sirens, get them over here. So sure enough, I know where I'm at. It doesn't make any sense. I don't see what he's seeing. I feel like a like a dummy cuz I don't know why he's asking for extra units to come out. And so I I just feel this overwhelming need to stay near the rifle because I don't know what I 'm looking at.

I have no idea what's going on. And sure enough, as I'm just staring at where he is at gunpoint and as all the other units are beginning to converge, I see him reach over and basically wrestle this guy down to the ground who we find out later is armed. We had no idea. So we arrest the guy. It's all good to go. The guy's got gun. He's got dope on him. He's got a gun, everything. He's back in the jail. He gets booked. And I'm still very dumbfounded. Like I'm shocked. Like I'm like what in the world did I just see?

Like it was literally it was 1 second all was good. We're whistling. The next second it's like over, right? I have no idea what happened. You know, you would think that I would have some observation capacity. So I asked them. I go, what in the world was that? How did you see that? How did you know it? Like how in the world were you able to discern? Now mind you, this is a guy who would regularly when I would ride with him, he would regularly say, hey, stay in the car here. And then he would take a sweater and like a hoodie and he would put it over himself to cover his gun, to cover his belt, to cover everything and he would hang in the trees at normal dope spots waiting for guys at night to pass dope and then jump out of the tree and arrest them.

That's that's how dedicated of a policeman he was. He always found work. He always found he always found righteous arrests. So I asked him. I say, how in the world did you see that? He's come on. So we get in the car. He said, let's go over to the alley. So we go over to the alley. He says, um okay, stop right here. So we stop. He says, I want you to look out and tell me if you see anything unusual. I'm like, no, I don't see anything unusual. He said, before we pulled up, I saw what looked like a little flash.

I'm thinking, oh wait, I thought I saw a little flash. But I had no idea what I was looking at. He says, look in the direction of the garage there. I said, okay. He says, do you see how there's one little tiny hole of light coming out of the back wall of that garage? Yeah. I do. He says, that's how I knew a guy was in there. How? About 3 years ago, we had a shooting. And as a result of that shooting I put a bullet hole in the top portion of that garage. He says, in this neighborhood nobody stores things in that open garage.

If you store something in that open garage, you're just asking for somebody to steal it cuz it'll get stolen within an hour. Nobody stores anything there. So when we came into the alley and I looked over and I noticed that there was no hole that was in that garage, I know for a fact it didn't get patched because 2 hours later I saw the hole. So I immediately knew that somebody saw us down the alley, had to have been hiding from us and jumped there to hide, which is why I drew down on him, pulled him out and recognized he had a gun and blah blah the rest was history.

Phenomenal observation skills. Phenomenal. Funny thing with that story is I saw what looked like a little hole of light. My partner always told me, when you see something, I don't care what you see. If it feels like an anomaly, even if you feel like all you doing is talking too much, you tell me what you see. Why? Because he was a whole lot better at me than being able to observe things like that and he could see things nobody could see. He was that good. Absolute I'm talking like about him like he's dead. You know, he's you know, he's that good.

He's phenomenal, sharp, really understands what he's doing, really smart guy, really smart. But the critical thing that I'm pulling from this is I could have had a hand in helping identify that dangerous gang member had I simply obeyed what had been asked of me. And that was It doesn't matter how much of an anomaly it feels like. You remain watchful and then you communicate when you see something that looks like an anomaly, whether or not it even feels critical to you. I think that 's what Jesus is saying here. Jesus is saying you need to be watchful.

Doesn't matter what you think you're seeing, what you think you might see or not see, you need to report what you see to me. Remain watchful and pray. Talk to me. As I said before, for as long as I can remember, one of the biggest frustrations of people that I often times work with is the lack of communication. Have a conversation. Tell me you see something. Something's wrong. Let me know. I want to be aware. Let's talk through together. Why? Because we're supposed to be watchful. And in that watchfulness, what are we supposed to be doing?

We're supposed to be communicating. That's why Jesus tells the disciples, watch and pray. Why? Because we're in the last days. I think that's a fair statement to make to each and every single person today. Each and every single one of us should be watching on a regular basis and pray. You don't know when the time is going to be. That 's why he says watch and pray. You don't know what you're going to come across. You don't know what you're going to see. Look what he says. For the son of man is as a man taking a far journey who left his house and gave authority to his servants and to every man his work and commanded the porter to watch.

Well, it's about to get heavy. Look what he says. Watch you therefore, for you know not when the master of the house cometh at even or at midnight or at the cock crowing or in the morning. Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all, watch. I love the picture that he's giving of the man who is the overseer of the home for the master who owns the home. You know, this is a very very important principle for us to get because in that culture and in that time the idea here is not too far off from the culture and the time in which we live today.

And that is if I am a man who has the affairs of my home being managed by people that I hire to manage for me. And I go away with the expectation that they manage the affairs of my home. I will always because of the relationship that I carry with them, I will always be expectant over the fact that they will be watching out for me for when I come home. I do not expect to have them sleeping when I walk into the house. I expect that they will be aware of the time that I'm coming and be prepared for the moment that I walk in.

When the master is at home and he's secure, well then by all means as the caretaker, go get your rest. But you don't rest while the master is out and about his business. I think the problem that we have right now is that we perceive ourselves to be in better shape when we are rested based on the world's perception of what rest should look like. We there's all this nonsense talk about balance balance. You got to find balance. You got to find That's a That's not even a biblical term. The idea here is that our master is away.

There's going to have come a point in time where he's coming back. The question that is being asked here is will we be found sleeping or will we be found watching and ready? I think more than ever we need to be people who make it a determination within the very inside of our hearts that we will not be those who sleep. That we will be those who are watching. That we will be those who are ready for whatever it is that the Lord has for us in the time and in the moment that we find ourselves.

Look you guys, Jesus said it. He said that greater things would happen in these last days than during the time that he was in. What he means by that is the scale by which these things would happen would be so much more consequential because of the time in which we're living. And the question that I would ask you is this, are you willing to continue to say I'm going to cruise and coast and do what's comfortable or am I going to go out on a limb and be the one who's watchful? Be the one who refuses to sleep because he knows his master is coming.

The question that I would ask you tonight is what are you doing? Are you the sleeper or are you the watcher? Are you the person not communicating or are you the person communicating? God has called us to be people who are aware of the time in which we are living. He's given us the signs. We see it. We see what's coming. We are watching the birth pains. We're seeing signs beginning to formulate that things may very well happen very soon that will lead to the infrastructure necessary in order for the world of the Antichrist to come forth.

That means Christ's return for his church is imminent. And we know that to be the case and it also means that the second coming is around the corner. So the question that I would ask you is this, are you prepared? I hope you are because being prepared means that you walk in complete and total closeness to God. You walk in direct obedience to the Lord. That you make priority the main thing. That you keep God at the center. In doing that, you'll find yourself very ready because when he returns, you will not be shaken because you were in slumber.

You will not be shaking because you didn't expect it. You will be filled with joy and peace and happiness because you will say in your mind, it's about time I've been waiting. And the question I would ask you is are you in that place? Are you saying it's about time I'm waiting? I'm ready. I'm there. God says the signs are around the corner. We're going to see that they're going to emerge. Are you ready? Are you watching and praying? I hope you are because if you are, great will be your reward. And how exciting will it be to understand and anticipate it all that God has for you?

You know, going back to that story about my friend, I never went down that alley again where I was not looking for that hole. Never. Ever. Why? Because I learned something. I learned a lot. But perhaps the most consequential part of all that I have learned over the years is that God is not done with us. And more important than any other time in human history, we have to be vigilant. We have to be ready. We have to be looking to the Lord because all these things are going to happen at any moment. And the question that I would ask is are you ready?

I hope the answer is yes. Amen. Father, we thank you, Lord, for your word. We thank you for the insight that your word brings, Lord. You really are good, Lord. You are faithful, father. Lord, we pray that you would give us a readiness for that time, for that moment that we would be excited about it, Lord, knowing and understanding that your purposes can be fulfilled so deeply in our openness to execute and put in front, Lord, what you've called us to. So, Lord, we love you and we thank you, Lord. We look to you. We ask that you would go before us now in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Jane: Thank you for joining us today for Light on the Hill. What you just heard is one part of a study in Mark's Gospel from Pastor James Kaddis. You can hear it again at lightonthehillradio.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Not long ago, Pastor James released his new book on the first half of Revelation. It's entitled The Last Book. He points out that Revelation isn't a book of fear, but rather a book of hope. Pastor James will help you understand the world we live in and current events through a biblical lens, preparing your heart for what lies ahead.

Get a copy by going to lightonthehillradio.com or through Amazon. We're so grateful for your support. Each donation that's sent in is an investment in what God is doing over the radio and internet. Lives are being impacted daily for the glory of God as a result. If you'd like to stand with us through providing either a one-time donation or ongoing monthly support, please visit lightonthehillradio.com While you're there, you can also send us an email. It would be great to hear from you and have you share the station you listen to as well. Just visit lightonthehillradio.com and then click on contact.

Pastor James, next time on Light on the Hill, you'll begin Mark chapter 14 and sharing a very effective tactic of the enemy. Will you give us a brief preview?

James Kaddis: Great question, Jane. That single tactic is wrapped up in the mechanics of distraction. And as I begin to look at Mark, specifically this section of Mark 14, we learn that the enemy will often times cause us to be distracted by fear, which creates an element of secrecy, which of course leads us into the mechanics of division that comes from misplaced priorities. And then it sort of culminates as we get into verse 10 and 11 through the burdens that happen when people do not walk through the doors that God has created for them. It really involves a system of betrayal that once you take a look at and recognize, it will shock you to see how obvious those tactics have become all wrapped up in one place.

It's going to be a very informative, very encouraging time as we jump into those verses.

Jane: That's coming up on the next Light on the Hill. Don't miss it. This program is listener supported and brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.

Guest (Female): I have found that peace only comes from you. I have found that joy only comes from you. Cuz all I need is you.