South Shore Pentecostal Church

J. Craig Ouellette: Welcome to the Apostolic Truth Radio program with Pastor Craig Ouellette, our radio ministry of South Shore Pentecostal Church, located in Whitman, Massachusetts. At a time when many Christians do not know what to believe, South Shore Pentecostal is honored to bring you clear biblical teaching on which you can confidently build your faith. Thank you for joining us.

J. Craig Ouellette: Say, be ready.

Guest: Be ready.

J. Craig Ouellette: Be ready. We're going to talk about being ready. We need to be ready. Amen. Hallelujah. Need to be ready to praise him.

Luke 12 and 37. Going to read those scriptures across there. The best thing you can ever do is realize you got you're broken and you need God's help. Don't compare yourselves to others, compare yourself to God.

See, a lot of times we're broken, but we look around and compare ourself to them, them, them, them. And say, well, I'm not as broken as them so I'm okay. I can make it through that. Wrong. Wrong. Amen. You got to be got to be God's way. You got to admit that there's parts that aren't right. And there are things that only God can fix. Only God can fix. Amen.

So, Luke 12:37, it says, Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you that he will gird himself and make them sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them. Skipping down to verse 40 there.

Be ye therefore ready also for the Son of Man cometh in an hour when you think not. Then said Peter unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us or even to all? And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household and give them their portion of meat in due season?

Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But and if that servant say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to beat the menservants and the maidens and to eat and to drink and to be drunken.

And the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him and at an hour when he's not aware, and will cut him asunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. So, there's a verse right there lets you know it's not once saved, always saved. Because he's right in there.

And he says, And that servant which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required. And if a man, and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. Amen.

Then another passage, in 2 Timothy chapter 4:1-5, going right across the screen up there. Amen. Paul exhorting, encouraging Timothy here. He says, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom. Preach or or proclaim the word. Be instant in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lusts or desires, shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in in all things, and endure afflictions. Do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

And then 1 Peter 3:15, a scripture that we say fairly often, but I think it's a very important scripture. Says be but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

You know, if you're living for God, it's not just I feel good. But you got a hope that God's going to get you beyond today. You got a hope that you're going God's going to help you get all the way through, and when you take your last breath, you're going to wake up with him in heaven. Amen.

This is part of the hope. So that's the hope that's in us. The hope's in us that when we see the Lord, we'll be accepted of him. We're not afraid of him. But we're ready to meet him. In fact, we'll be glad to meet him. Amen. Praise God.

So, we're going to talk about being ready, being prepared in a number of different ways here today. And this is one of the great themes in the Bible, being ready, being prepared. All right, one of the reasons we should come to church is to help us get prepared. It's not just because we are owe an obligation to God, but you should come because you want to be prepared to do what God wants you to do. Amen. You should come because you want to be prepared to meet him. Amen.

So, we want to be ready to hear or be prepared to respond. We want to be ready for his coming. A lot of people won't be. We want to be ready to serve or to work. We want to be ready to endure. We want to be ready to witness. Again, to me witnessing is very logical. If you like what God's done for you, certainly you want to share it with somebody else. Right? It doesn't doesn't take much.

I mean, we talk about everything else, you know, you like this, you go tell people. You like you went this place, you liked that, it's 10 pages of Facebook, and you know, and so you're telling everybody, but we ought to tell people about God if we like it. We got to tell the Lord. We ought to tell people about the Lord.

Ecclesiastes 5 and 1, it's on the screen there. It says, Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they do evil. So be ready to hear.

Sometimes we don't know what to do or we're not ready to do what we need to do because we didn't listen. We didn't hear the instructions. You know, if you're a manager, or you've ever been over somebody, you've seen many times, or, you know, even if you've taken instructions, where the boss told somebody to do something, or you were told to do something, you got halfway through it and you remembered, well, I'm not sure what they said. So you couldn't really accomplish what needed to be accomplished.

So when we come to the house of God, when we pray, when we worship, we need to be listening for the voice of God. Because God is going to instruct us. When when God shows up, he doesn't just show up just to make us feel good. Praise God that it does feel good. Amen.

He doesn't show up just to give us energy so that we leave with a smile, but he also comes to instruct us, to help us. Amen. Sometimes he's showing us what we need to do for the next week. Sometimes he's giving you strength for something that's going to happen. Sometimes he's giving you an understanding of some changes you need to make. God is there to speak to us. Amen.

And if we will listen, we can start to hear what it is that God is saying. When we're in church, we need to focus on church. So the danger of a cell phone is, if even if you're pulling it out for your Bible, all those other beeps are coming. They're all coming. Beep, beep. Message, message. Temptation to look. Temptation to see. You're better to bring your Bible, keep your phone muted in the purse or in your pocket or someplace. Amen.

Because it's a distraction. It's a distraction. And listen, the devil doesn't want you to hear. If you read if you read the parable about the four types of seed, four types of ground. The first one's by the wayside. And one one of the versions of it, and I don't know remember if it's Matthew, Mark or Luke that says it, but one of the versions tells us that when somebody is by the wayside and they hear the word, and they don't understand it, the devil comes, takes it away.

So, if the devil can distract you when God is trying to give you an instruction, I guarantee you he's going to do it. If the devil can get your mind on something else, so you don't hear what God is saying, he's going to do that. Amen. Praise God. And now now you made me think of a story. Or God did. Okay. God made me.

This happened down south someplace. I don't know the people personally, but I've heard the story. And there was a guy that came to church. He got in the church, and he got filled with the Holy Ghost, got saved. And then all of a sudden, he had other family members that weren't in the church. And what would happen is, they would ask him to go to go get the crawfish. It must have been Louisiana. Because you got the crawfish for their family get-together on Sunday.

So, he would miss Sunday morning service because they kept doing this every Sunday. Finally, he made up his mind, I'm not going to do that. And he started when he made his mind up, I'm not going to let the family distract me. He finally got in the church and started to get where he needed to be in God. The devil will send people, send things. He'll help them call you. They don't know. The thought comes to them and the impression. And they don't because they don't know that the devil's there.

They don't you don't necessarily feel evil when you get an impression or a thought from the devil. So, he'll send you somebody. He'll bring a song or something. He'll bring something up to try to distract you. Amen. So, when we're coming to church, we should be listening to God. Okay, we should be spending more time trying to listen to what God is saying.

God even speaks in the songs. A lot of times he's speaking in the lyrics, but some often times, once you get into the presence of God, God may talk to you about something that's got nothing to do with the lyrics of the song. God will take you into a dimension. Amen. And you all of a sudden, God is revealing and opening up things to you. You feel the presence of God.

So, the sacrifice of fools is referring to speaking without knowledge, prudence or discretion. If you read in the book of Proverbs, the fool is a person that's always ready to open their mouth, always wants to hear themself talking, is more wants to be be in the center of the conversation, is not willing to listen. It doesn't mean you don't have a time to say something, but we need to be willing to listen more than willing to speak. Amen.

So, the fool likes to hear his own voice. He thinks he knows more than others. But we should, the Bible says we need to be quick to hear and slow to speak. As one person said it, you got two ears and one mouth. Means you you listen twice as much. Okay? So we can tune our hearing to the Lord by praying and worshiping. Okay?

And sometimes you look around and say, I'm, you know, they'll have a hard time they're all getting in easy, but I'm having a hard time. You have to learn how to concentrate. You have to learn how to focus. You have to learn to to push things aside and and get into what God is got for you. You have to make your mind up. I know that God has got something for me, and I am going to have it.

And and if you're sincere about getting something from God, the preacher can be in the wrong book. The congregation can be on the wrong planet, and you can still get something from God. Amen. So, at church, when we're living for the Lord, we need to be ready to hear. Now, notice some of these examples. When Samuel is called of God, one of the things he needs to learn to do is to listen.

So, he hears the the voice, and he thinks it's the high priest Eli. And the third time he finally goes Eli realizes it's the Lord. And he says to Samuel that if he speaks again, say, speak Lord, your servant heareth. See, sometimes God's waiting for us to say, speak to me. I'll listen. Sometimes that's why God puts us in a solitary place by ourselves. Is because we're not listening, we're refusing to listen. And God is trying to talk to us. And because he loves us enough, he'll start removing the distractions to try to get us to the place where I've got to listen.

And again, sometimes because we're centered on ourselves, this is what sin does. Sin makes us self-centered. We look at our own self and our own problems. Okay, and and we don't want to do that because there's some things we don't like about ourselves. So we have all this commotion going on around us, so we don't have to think about how we feel. But when God's trying to reach us, he'll start to move things away until finally it's just you and him.

And he wants you to hear his voice because he wants to help us. Amen. Elijah, now he knew the voice of God. But still, when he needed an answer from God, after he was disappointed, after he done a great miracle, and he's running out of fear and feeling like giving up. Not to me, that's a story of encouragement. Because if Elijah can get discouraged, any of us can. Amen. And he recovered, so we can recover. Amen. Praise God. Amen.

So, Elijah is discouraged. There he is, and he's running. And God says, I'm going to speak to you. But he has to listen for the wee, still voice. It's not a loud thing. It's not this earth-shaking thing. You know, sometimes people are looking for, if God gives me this big miracle, I'll believe it. But so often, God is speaking a small thing, a wee, still voice to our heart. Amen. He's just trying to get us to hear that small voice. But I've got to be willing to hear.

You have to learn to tune out the noise of life. And focus in on what God is saying. Again, in Psalm 46 and 10, it says, Be still and know that I am God. A lot of times we're running around trying to fix everything, trying to do everything, trying to work it all out ourselves, doing everything we know how to do. And sometimes God says, just be still. Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I'll take care of the problem. Amen.

So, we have to learn to listen to God. A lot of times we God's speaking, but we miss his direction because we're not listening. And we end up in a place we don't want to be. And we wonder, how did I miss the turn? Same way you missed it in the car. You didn't listen to the Google voice. Amen. So, you didn't listen to the God voice. So, we miss the turn.

But David was successful in battle. Right? David was successful in battle. And when you look at David, he's not without faults, but he's successful in battle because he goes to the Lord. He doesn't just assume because I won that battle and this battle, and I'm a good fighter and I've killed Goliath, that I can just go out and fight. But when the Philistines come, Should I go up, Lord?

First time, Lord says, yeah, go up and I'll deliver them. So, he goes up and destroys them and wins and they flee. They come again. David doesn't just run out again. Now David says, Should I go up again? God says, this time, just wait, go around behind them until you hear the sound in the tops of the mulberry trees. David has learned to listen to God. He's learned to listen.

And so he goes around. And when he hears the sound in the tops of the the mulberry trees, and again, says in the translations if you look at that it's really the sound of angels marching in the tops of trees. This is what it really means. That means the angels have been released to do the fighting for him. Then he comes and he wins the battle. So, David knew how to hear. David knew how to listen.

When you we come to church, when you open your Bible, when you pray at home or at church or anyplace, listen, listen to what God is saying. Open your heart and and listen. A lot of times again, it's not this overpowering thing. Sometimes you do feel the presence of God, the anointing, especially when God is giving you a strong direction about something. But a lot of times it's just a small voice in your heart.

A lot of times we're we're praying and asking God, God, give me some direction, give me an answer. And you're walking through the kitchen or you're walking through your bedroom or you're walking out in the yard. And all of a sudden, a little thought comes to you, and it's God. And you go and look at that in the Bible, and you find out God starts to speak to you and give you what you need to know.

Can you say, praise the Lord? So, we need to be ready to hear. Ready to hear. We need to be ready to witness. Just because you got the Holy Ghost doesn't mean you automatically know how to witness. Now, some of us are more natural at it than others, but most of us, we need a lot of work. I mean, we we know the story. What we got to say is true, but how to present it? And and if you don't know how to listen, a lot of times you won't know how to witness. Because when you start to witness to somebody, if if you're listening and God's in it, God will start to tell you how to talk to them. So, you might have this whole story and the whole thing's good and all true, but God says, only give them this piece. That's right. This piece will come later, but right now just give them this piece.

We want to give them the whole thing. You get excited. You want to give them the whole thing. But when you listen to God, God will tell you. The Lord will tell you. Just go here. This is enough. This is all they need right now. Amen. And so, one of Jesus's last statements in the book of Acts. He says, You shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses.

Now, he's speaking to a group of disciples, not just the apostles. The Lord wants us to be witnesses. Do you believe that? God wants us to be witnesses. Amen. And we're supposed to witness about the salvation that we've received from the Lord. We're supposed to be able to talk about that. Peter said, we read read the scripture already, he said, Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, be ready always to give an answer of the reason of the hope that's in you with meekness and fear.

Okay? And so, in other words, sometimes we we come on like gangbusters, and we shouldn't. All right? Because we feel the unction of the Holy Ghost. Amen. With meekness and fear. Fear means it doesn't mean we're afraid of God, but we're we're conscious that they they may not have the capacity to receive everything that you know. Amen.

So, we need to prepare ourselves to answer. Just like you prepare to give a speech or talk in front of somebody, you need to prepare yourself to give an answer. And again, the answers are here in what God's done in your life, right? This coupled with what God's done in your life. But sometimes what God's done in our life if we don't if we don't anchor it in here, we may present it the wrong way.

So, we've got to got to anchor it in the Bible. God wants us to be witnesses. Amen. And so you need to prepare yourself to have an answer. Not just the answer, but the right attitude. Right? Amen. And so, one of the primary ways we witness, first of all, is how we live our lives. One of the primary ways that we witness is how we live our lives.

If you were swearing last week and the week before and cursing and all of a sudden, your workers and your friends knows notice you're not swearing and cursing anymore, you got their attention. What happened? What happened? They know that that doesn't just happen by accident. They know you didn't go away on some program and get a mind wash, because you've been going to work with them. What happened? All right, already you got a good title on the book. The book of your life. They want to read it.

What's the chapter that led to that? Amen. So, the Bible says that our lives are letters. They're epistles written of all men. The first place that we witness really is with our life. Your life is better than a tract. They'll receive a tract because they see God's changed your life. But they might not receive a tract, even though it's the truth, if they don't know who you are.

Now, I'm not saying don't try to pass tracts out. I'm just saying the fact of it, okay? They don't know who you are, even though you've got a good testimony, even though God has done something for you. They don't know who you are. So, your life. The way we live is the first place that witnessing starts. Amen. Your life will change.

The way you think, because you you're going to think different about life, you start to do things different. Because you think different, priorities change. And if you were bound in sin before in a real strong way, you're going to make sure I'm setting some boundaries up so I don't go back into that. So, all of a sudden, where you go changes, what you do changes, how you dress changes. What you identify with changes. Amen.

And so, our lives are the best witness we have is our lives around us. You want to be a witness to somebody, that that's why it says in 1 Peter chapter 3 there, verse 1, it says, Likewise you wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, in other words, they're not living for God, they also may be without the word, won by your conversation of the wives. In other words, the the godly wife gets the husband's attention.

And I'm going to say it works for men too. The godly husband gets the wife's attention. Amen. And so, our lives are a witness. Amen. And so, we live if you if you're saved, you're living with these elements in you, love, hope, faith, right? I mean, you have a little maybe maybe a little faith in God before you're saved, but when you get saved, your faith in God is like it goes up, right? Yeah, it overflows the tank, right. It's off the charts. It overflows the tank and your hope goes up. Your love, your faith, your hope goes up.

And because that's in you, you can look around and most people do not have much love and very little faith and hope. A lot of times that's why they're living the way they're living. They're grasping for things because they don't have hope. If I don't grab it, it's going to fall away. But when you get God in your life, you realize if I'm living God's way, I'll do what I need to do, but God's going to give me what I need. Hallelujah.

And so, 1 Corinthians 13:13, it says, these three abide, faith, hope and love. And 1 Thessalonians or faith, hope and charity. 1 Thessalonians 5 and 8 talks about the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of hope. So, that you have those three elements in our lives. Amen. Be ready to witness. Be ready to work. Work for God. Now, it doesn't mean run to the seminary. It doesn't mean you got to get a Bible online class. Okay, it doesn't mean those things. But be ready to do what you can do for the kingdom of God. Right?

If you if you're glad for what God's done, you should want to help build the kingdom. Amen. You should want to help be a part of the kingdom of God. Amen. So, the Lord saves us and places us into the body of Christ, which is his church. And we're placed in the body according to his purpose. So, 1 Corinthians 12:18 says, But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased him.

So, when you get saved and you're you want to decide you want to work for the Lord or do work for the Lord, you need to ask the Lord, where do you want me to be? What do you want me to do? And you don't have to strive to get to a position. If God wants you to be a pastor or prophet or something, God's going to manifest in you. And God's going to make others that are around you aware that that you've got giftings in these areas, and God is going to start to move a person into those positions. Amen.

But see, I've got to be able to listen to God. Right? I got to be able to hear God. And I got to have enough faith to do what God says to do. Now, faith does not mean comfort. For we walk by faith and not by sight. Remember Peter's eyes got him in trouble when he got out of the boat. If he closed his eyes and just said, Jesus is over there, he might have made it all the way.

So, we faith does not mean it's comfortable necessarily. But it means that we understand that God is asking us to do that, that it's good for us. It's good for God's purpose. Good for those that God is bringing in into our lives around us. That God is moving us, not just us. Again, when God deals with us, he's not just it's a body. So, he's not just dealing with just you.

It's not it's not my ministry, my my calling. It's what God is done for us. Yeah, it's my he's called me individually, but it's not for me. It's for everybody. I need it, but you need it too. Okay? And in the same way in our lives of in the church, we need each other. Your prayer life or lack of prayer life affects others around you. Right? Your thinking and my thinking affects not just me, but those around me.

So, God places us in the body according to his purpose. And the Bible lets us know we have a purpose before we are saved. So, again, 2 Timothy 1 and 9, it says, who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. What's that mean? That means before God ever created Adam and Eve, God saw all of humanity from Adam and Eve to the great white throne.

God's not bound in time. That's what makes him God. So, he's in the past, he's right here, and he's in the future. That's why he can take care of your past. Because he was there when you messed it up. He's right there right now with you, and he's going to be there in the future. God's not bound by time. We're bound by time. So, God can deal with our past. God can deal with our our future and our present. Amen.

So, God's got a purpose for us before we're even conceived. God knows what we need. God God is helping us. God's got a calling for us right now. So, before you got saved, God had a purpose for you. Amen. Before you got saved, God had a purpose for you. And when we get into the church, what we need to do is find God's purpose for us.

Again, it's not according to our works. So, it's not God doesn't look and say, well, they were good at this before they were saved, so that's where I'm putting them. It's got nothing to do with it. You'll find people that had great talents and they had an idea where they were going with life. And God saved them, and they put all that away, and they're doing something else. Many I've met some people that were they were on the NBA pro thing, ready to be drafted. God called them, and that was the end of that. That was the end of it. Personally met people like that.

So, just because I'm I can do something now, does not mean that's what God wants me to do. Amen. We're called to good works. So, what we're saying is, be prepared, be ready to do things for the kingdom of God. If if you feel like you if you feel like God is calling you in an area, start preparing yourself in that area. If you feel like God wants you to be at using a certain area, pray and ask God. And try to figure out, ask the Lord, what do you what do I need to do to accomplish that? Because we're called to do good works. We're not just called to be saved. We're not just called to come in here and have a great time in God, and although I love that's what we want.

God's given us a good time, so that when we can go out into the world, we can do something for him. The body. The body. Amen. Look over in Ephesians chapter 2. Verse 10. Part of it is up there, but we'll read this the whole thing. So, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Amen.

So, my my Christian living, if I'm going to be a Christian, it's it's I don't fulfill it just by going to church. I don't fulfill it just because I believe in Jesus and go to church. I don't fulfill it just because I believe in Jesus and go to church and read my Bible, or add prayer to that. But to fulfill that, I've got to be a Christian out there. I've got to be seeking God out there. If I got a secular job, I've got to be a Christian on my secular job. I've got to live in a way that that I can have an opportunity to witness to those that I work with. Amen.

And so, God's created me to good works. He's created you to good works. If we're we need to be ready to work for the kingdom of God. Amen. We read we read in Luke chapter 12, we read a little bit. There's going to be those that are saved, but they didn't do the will of the master. This is what Jesus said. So, in other words, they came into the church, but they didn't get ready to do the works that God wanted them to do, the job. Okay.

So, it's not talking about earning your salvation, but it's talking about doing what God has called us to do. Amen. And as Jesus said in another way, why do you call me, Lord, Lord, but don't do the things I say? If I'm going to say, praise the Lord, I need to obey the Lord. In the parable of the talents, notice, and this is how thinking is different in the world. He commends the servants for being faithful. He doesn't commend them for being successful or talented, but faithful.

The successful ones that got the commendation, took what God had given them and invested it the best they could. See, now in our world, oh, they're successful. Oh, they're talented. He didn't say in or in good and successful or good and talented person. He said, in or in good and faithful person. In other words, what do I do with what God gives me? And that includes my time. My time.

What do I do with what God has given me? My life, my breath, my time, my opportunities. What am I doing with those for God? Because we're going to be asked that when we stand before the Lord. Right, he gives them the talents. They're in the house, right? They're under the master. So, the idea is they're saved. They're in the church. He doesn't give us all the same things. He didn't say, well, I gave you two. I expected four. I gave you five. I expected 10. He says, well done, good and faithful servant. They took what they had and invested it the best they could.

So, God's going to expect the same thing of us. I got to be ready to work for God. Amen. The Lord will judge us if we know what to do, but we don't prepare ourselves to do it. All right? Luke 12:47, we'll read that. Luke 12:47 says, And that servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.

So, God expects us to take what he's given to us and try to invest it, try to take and do the will, the will that he's called us to do. Amen. So, we got to be ready to work. We got to be ready to work. We got to be ready to endure. Okay, the Lord Paul said to Timothy, he said, he says, I charge you, be instant in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort, longsuffering. And you might think, well, he's called to be an evangelist. And that's true. He did have that special calling. But every one of us is got that to some degree in our life. Every one of us is called to some degree to be ready to give an answer, to encourage, to sometimes rebuke. Amen. To give doctrine. Every one of us.

Even if you're not a pastor, you're not an elder. We're all have a responsibility for the word of God. You might not believe that, but I believe the Bible says that. We're called on to good works. Amen. So, Paul says, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. And why the why we need the longsuffering is sometimes people don't accept what you give them. Sometimes people will not endure sound teaching. They're going to reject it. Sometimes people are not going to like what God says. That doesn't mean we're off the hook. You still have to do what God says, even if others do not like it.

So, we've got to be ready to endure rejection. It's not fun. It's not good. We don't enjoy that. I'm not that's terrible. But you have to. There's going to be times when they're going to mock the right way. They're going to make fun of it. So, you have to be ready. Because the Lord the Bible says there, again, there's going to be a time where they will not endure sound doctrine. We're kind of living in the day like that today. People only want parts of the Bible. They want the part that makes them feel good. They got churches filled with other, you know, people because they make them feel good. And if that preacher got up and said what the Bible really said one time, half those people would leave.

So, we have to be ready. Enduring means we have seasons. There are seasons. Living for God's got seasons. It's important to understand seasons. There's going to be seasons of like overflowing. Okay? We don't know how long because God is the maker of the seasons. And so, it's it doesn't mean it's three months. Okay? And again, seasons are different in the world like like Brother Mark read this morning, it's spring down there south of the equator. And we're turning into winter. Okay? Same earth, but different seasons. Same thing with our Christian life. We can have different seasons in there. And that's why you need to get a hold of God when you feel him.

That's why you need when you've got God, when you feel God, and God's speaking to you, you need to reach for that, get a get a hold of that. Amen. Lay that up in your heart and your mind. Because when that dry season comes, when that night season comes, you can think back and say, I don't know where he is right now, but I know that I felt him on that day. I know that he's real. I know that I prayed through. I know I got the Holy Ghost. I know that God loves me. Amen.

And so, I remember what God has done. This is what David says, I remember those days of the presence of God. He talks about it. So, you lay up in the seasons in the good season, just like they lay up food for the winter, you lay up spiritual food for your drought season, your winter season. Hallelujah. And so we again, the Bible tells us all things work together for good to them that love God. To them who are called according to his purpose. Because God's in control of the seasons. He's allowing the seasons. They're there for a reason. We don't always understand the reasons at the time. Maybe some of them we never will till we get to heaven, but God is in control of the seasons.

And then finally, we need to be ready for the coming of the Lord. We need to be ready. The Bible's got many many warnings. We could spend weeks now just reading all the warnings about being prepared for the coming of the Lord. But one of the things that the Bible does let us understand is in spite of the warnings, there's going to be a lot of people caught off guard. Because it gives us an example of Noah. In the days of Noah, they're eating, they're drinking, they're marrying, they're giving in marriage. They're living their life. The day the flood comes to them is just another day, like any other day. It starts to rain. That's different. Okay? But they didn't realize that's not that's this is the end of their time.

Sodom and Gomorrah. God sends the angels. He's he brings out Lot. Even some of Lot's own sons-in-law don't believe him. Says they thought he was like mocking them. And then they're telling them there's going to be a judgment. Sometimes you're witnessing to people, and they think you're just pulling their leg so to speak. All right? But then the judgment came. Okay? So, the same thing is today. There's going to be a judgment of this world. We've got to be ready. I got to be ready for when the Lord comes. Amen.

We we don't know, you know, when the Lord's coming. And even if he doesn't come for the church today, he might come for you. He might come for me. The parable of the 10 virgins is a parable about saints being ready. Okay? The 10 virgins know the bridegroom's coming. Who's the bridegroom? It's Jesus. What's the wedding? The wedding is the church and the Lord. They know. All 10 of them know. He's coming. They got their lamps, but only five of them got enough oil in their lamp to make it through the night season. So, at midnight, there's a a knock. He's coming. They all get up, trim their lamps. But the foolish virgins say, realize, I don't have any oil to put in my lamp or there's not enough in here to make it.

So, they got to go buy. Go buy some. But the other virgins that are ready, when he comes by, they get up and go with him into the marriage supper. The door is closed. The foolish virgins come, and they knock on the door afterwards. They know where the door is, but the door is now shut. That's not Left Behind, is it? Left Behind says the door is still open. The series Left Behind by Tim LaHaye. You got all all these people after the Rapture, getting God and getting the Holy Ghost. Now, the door is going to be shut. The door is going to be shut. So, I got to have oil. That means in other words, I've got to have enough Holy Ghost in me. Amen. I might be able to fake it with my lamp in the daytime, but when the night comes, I better have some oil. Amen.

I might I might be able to look like I I'm ready, and I know, and I'm marching with everybody else, but I've got to have some oil in me when the night season comes. Amen. And that oil is the type of the Holy Ghost in our lives. Amen. So, the coming of the Lord, it says it's going to be like a thief. People are going to be caught unaware. 2 Thessalonians 5 and 2. I'm sorry, it's supposed to be 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians 5 and 2. Yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. In other words, thieves don't send you a text message, I'm coming to your house. They show up when you don't expect them. Amen.

So, this is the idea. 2 Peter 3 and 10. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. So, so we see it in Thessalonians, Paul's saying it. Peter is saying it. Revelation 16:15. Jesus is saying it. He said, Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watches and keeps his garments. Lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. Now, garments is talking about our spiritual life. Our spiritual walk. It's not it's not just talking about, do you have a robe on or not. Okay? But am I if I've got clothes on, and I got got a nice suit, and I go out and play in the mud, you're going to see my garments are spotted. Right?

So, now it's talking about, as I live in the world, my spiritual life. If I'm going to places where there's spiritual mud, I'm going to need to clean my garments. Amen. So, he says, Make sure you're watching. Make sure you're watching. Because he's coming as a thief. Amen. Watching and praying is essential for being ready. I'm going to tell you, you got to have prayer in your life. You've got to have a prayer life. You cannot rely on just going to church and having good services. You must have a personal prayer life. And that's going to include Bible reading. That's right. You must have that. Not not a good thing to have. You must have it if you're going to make it. You will not make it. I mean, that's that's like trying to to eat one meal and then go out and never eat again, or only eat once in a while.

You have enough strength to do your job for the week if you just eat on Sunday? That's physically. Spiritually, it's the same thing. You've got to go to the word of God, the bread of God. Amen. A lot of times we're we're sick because we want to choose our diet, what what we like. And so, we don't go a certain places in the Bible, but if you pray, God will send you some places, you'll get the right nutrients. You'll get the spiritual nutrients that you need. Amen. There's some books you wonder, why why they're in there? But you you wait long long enough around the Lord, and the Lord will show you why they're there. And there's good things in them, every one of them. Every one of those books has got something for you. Amen.

So, watch and pray that you enter not into temptation, because the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Amen. So, we're we're going to try to close this up right now. The virgins were watching, but only five were ready. Jesus said, watch. He told the church at Sardis, the church. He told the church at Sardis, they're a church. They're part of the church. They're born again believers. He tells them that if they didn't watch, he would come on them as a thief. The church he said that too. So, just because you're in the church doesn't mean you don't have to watch. You got to watch. Amen. So, Jesus could come today. Are you ready? Are you ready today if he comes for you? So, let's stand here this morning. Talking about being ready. Being ready to listen. Being ready to work. Being ready to witness. Being ready to endure. Being ready for his coming. Amen.

This altar is open here this morning. Amen. If you just want to search your heart and make sure, am I in the place that I need to be with God? Am I listening? Have I found out where I need to be? Am I preparing myself for what God wants me to prepare for? Amen. Are you listening to his voice? Are you working for the kingdom? Are you preparing yourself to be a witness? Listen, listen, when you go home, if you find out that you're doing something that wouldn't work at church in you, that's something you need to go to the altar for God. And ask God, change me inside. Help me. Do you have do you have enough oil in your lamp for the night season? Amen. Are you saved? Are you washed in the blood? Now, the Bible says our sins will find us out. We we can try to hide from God, but God knows them. And unless I go to the Lord and let him do the work in me that needs to be done. I obey what he says and get saved. Get born again. Get baptized. Get my sins washed away. My sins are going to catch up with me. When I take my last breath and I stand before God, my sins will catch up with me right there. Oh, let's start to praise him here right now. Lord God, we thank you, Jesus. We praise you, Lord God. Oh, we need you, Lord God. We want to be ready, Lord God. We thank you, Lord, that you're beckoning to us, Lord God, by your spirit and word, Lord God. We thank you, Lord God, for those that are seeking, Lord God. Oh, help us to empty ourselves out. Help us to open ourselves to you. Help us, Lord, to let the searchlight of your word look in our hearts and our minds, Lord God. To expose if there's anything that needs to be removed, Lord God. Oh, help us, Lord, to be ready here today, Lord God, meeting each and every one. Lord, we're not talking about being burdened with guilt, but being sincere in what you're asking of us, Lord God. Knowing, Lord God, that you love us. Lord, are we living in a way that we're a witness that you want us to be? Are we living in a way, Lord God, that permits us and helps us, Lord, to bring the word to others, Lord God? Oh, help us all, each one of us. Lord, is there thinking in us, Lord God, that needs to be changed? Are there attitudes, Lord God, that we've learned that need to be removed, Lord God? Is there things in us, Lord God, that we can't take care of, but you are able to deliver us, Lord God. Oh, we are praising you here today. Come on, give him a praise. Hallelujah. If you know what you're supposed to do, just thank him. Hallelujah. Come on. Hallelujah. Come on. God's got all that you need. He's got all you need. The Lord's got all you need. Jesus is able. Hallelujah. Come on. I feel the Lord here. He's talking to us. Hallelujah. Let him speak to you. Hallelujah. Let him move on you in faith. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, Lord, we praise you. Lord, we open up to you. Lord, we admit we can't fix ourselves, but you're able. We admit that we've been broken by life and sin, but you're able. Hallelujah. You're able, Lord, to keep what's committed unto you. You're able to put us back together the way you intended us to be, Lord God. Oh, we thank you, Lord God. Hallelujah. That you're able. Hallelujah. Lord, guide us into the place we need to be, so that you through us can reach others around us that need you, Lord God. Some are looking for truth, but they doubt where it's at. Hallelujah. Lord, let our lives be a light. Let our lives be a light in the darkness. Let our lives be an epistle read of all men. Let our lives be in a way that others see that there is a living God, a God that's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we think or that we ask. Hallelujah. Oh, energize us. Hallelujah. Break all the chains of the enemy. Break all the chains of sin. Cast down every imagination of the enemy in the name of Jesus. Hallelujah.

Tina Ouellette: Thank you for joining us today as we have studied the word on Apostolic Truth Radio. My name is Tina Ouellette, wife of Pastor Craig Ouellette of South Shore Pentecostal Church, located at 58 West Street in Whitman, Massachusetts. If you love praise and worship, you will love services at South Shore Pentecostal Church, and we invite you to come and worship with us. Sunday school for all ages begins at 10:00 a.m. and our Sunday evening service begins at 6:00 p.m. Adult Bible study and Children's Church is held on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. You can learn more about our church on our website at southshorepentecostal.com, or you may call us at 781-447-1668. If you have been blessed by this radio ministry, you can help support Apostolic Truth Radio via online giving through Venmo at SSPC Whitman. Write us today and request a free copy of today's message and join us for another broadcast of Apostolic Truth.