Duane Hopkins – Be Ready – 2013

The thought that we’ve been singing about has been on my mind for quite a while recently, and that is of being ready. There are a few verses in Matthew 24 starting with verse 42 where Jesus says, ‘Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come; 43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. 44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. 45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? 46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing’ … but this 44th verse … ‘Therefore be ye also ready’. One of our old brothers – he’s long dead now – used to remind us over and over again that this verse does not say “get ready”, it says, “be ready”. And there is a world of difference between a person that is trying to get ready and a person that is ready. Here Jesus said, “Now you be ready, because you don’t know the day or the hour when the Son of man is coming”.

I was just wondering now, could we honestly say that we are ready? Are we ready? We’re living our lives and we know that there are a lot of things that need to be taken care of. But I remember someone asked one of our friends one time – a lady, “Do you think you’re ready if the Lord were to come back, would you be ready and glad to see Him?” “Well yes”, she said, “I think so, I think I would”. And I think she was right! She said, “I know I’m glad when the workers come, and I’m always glad when some of the friends come, even if they come unexpectedly, I am always glad to see them when they come. My house may not be what I’d like to have it be, but I’m always glad when they come, and I believe that if Jesus comes” she said, “my life is not what I’d like it to be, but I’m working at it. My home isn’t like I’d like it to be, but I’m working at it, and,” she said, “yes, I think I’d be ready” … and I really think so too. I thought that was a very mature answer.

We talk about our unworthiness, and I don’t know whether we really mean that sometimes … I know we don’t mean it. But like Dennis was telling us this morning, Jesus didn’t focus on our unworthiness; that was not what He was focusing on. He said, “You be ready, you be ready”. And I realized long ago that the salvation of our souls depends on people who take seriously what Jesus says … really take it seriously, He said, “Be ready, don’t try to get ready next week or next month”, or think, “I’m going to do better in the future sometime. No, He said, “You be ready, because you don’t know … you don’t know”.

There is something about us that we all understand how far short we come. We understand that we are not what we ought to be, but if we’re working on it, and if we’re striving to have a life that is orderly, then we won’t need to be ashamed at His coming. I think of a lady that I knew many, many years; she’s long dead now. We used to go and visit her sometimes – she was a neighbour of ours. We used to visit before I was in the Work, and we visited her afterward too, a fairly young woman. Her house was always kind of a mess, and I don’t mean it badly; it was disorderly. She had six children under 14 years old, and she didn’t have any conveniences to speak of in the home; but every time we went there, she never apologized for her house, she never apologized for anything, she sat down and we could visit with her … mature! She wasn’t all the time trying to put this or that in order, we could go there any time, and she’d sit down, make a cup of coffee, we would even have a few homemade cookies. She was ready. Although she was not expecting anyone, she was ready. She was not complaining about the looks of her house or trying to put it in order like a lot of people do; she just could sit down and enjoy a little fellowship … I think that is one thing about being ready.

This 24th chapter of Matthew talks about being ready for the Lord’s coming. I was also reading the 25th chapter, and we all know that one very well about the ten virgins … five of them were ready and five were not ready. I then started looking through all the Scriptures, also going through the Concordance to find a lot of things about being ready, and also trying to find different aspects about being ready; why some people are ready, and why sometimes we are not ready. In that 25th chapter where it talks about the ten virgins, they all had their lamps, and they apparently all had a good testimony and all had a good record. But, five of them had oil in their vessels with their lamps, and five did not. Now you know what a lamp would be without any oil! You could polish that lamp all you like and it could be very, very beautiful, but when the sun went down and it got dark, you’d have the same shadows just like any other piece of furniture. But if you had a little oil in that lamp, you could have some light.

Now I don’t know what you think about that oil. I know what the lamp is – that’s like our profession, that’s like this way of God that we love, that’s like this way of God that we talk about, and we appreciate so very much! But what is that oil that is in the vessel? I know you’ll say, “Well, that is the Holy Spirit”. Well, I’m not going to argue that, but I don’t think that is what it is talking about.

You know, those five foolish virgins that day, they had in their pockets the money, they knew where to buy it, they knew where to go, and they knew they needed it. But they were just careless, just negligent, unwilling, a little rebellious maybe? Somebody probably told them, “You need some oil, you’ll have to get oil”. But, “I know what I’m doing, I know, there’s plenty of time”. We’ve heard that all too often; maybe we’ve thought it all too often and practiced it all too often. I think what He’s talking about – that oil in the vessel is willingness and obedience, because that is what made those others ready. They were willing, they were obedient, and when the door was open, those that were ready went in, and those that were not ready did not go in. Now, right at the time to enter in, at midnight, they went to buy oil. They knew where to get it, they had the money in their pockets to buy it with, they knew they needed it, and they knew where to go and they went and found some oil, but when they came back, the door was shut … and that door was shut forever! They never did get in!

So now, to be ready – it is wonderful to have a love for God which is all important. It’s necessary to have some wisdom and some understanding which is very important too, but when it comes to being willing and obedient, it is most important; and they just didn’t have it. I think if they had had the Holy Spirit, and they had gone with the Holy Spirit, He would have let them in, because the Holy Spirit was the porter; that’s what opened the door. I think there was something in their hearts, that maybe for years they were kind of drifting along, just drifting along, just like a lot of us do – just drifting along – satisfied to be in the company, but not really willing in our own hearts and in our own spirits, to cultivate that kind of righteousness. And like we’ve heard so much already, to deny ourselves and to sacrifice our own interests and our own desires – sure! And more than that – our own rights, that we could glorify God. But as for these people, five of them did that, and those five entered in when that shout came, ‘Behold, the Bridegroom cometh’. They all began to trim their lamps; – very good. And when the door was opened, five of them went in, and five of them with no oil in their vessels, no willingness in their hearts, never entered in. Now they were willing, yes sure! Now they were willing, just like every person that stands on the threshold of eternity – they are going to be willing for whatever it costs, but it is all too late.

One man told me one time, “I’m not stubborn, no, I’m not stubborn. If there is a God, I’ll be willing to serve, and if I die and I find out there is a heaven and a God, I’ll be willing to serve; I’m not stubborn, I just don’t believe this story. But, well, when it comes to the day, I’ll be willing to serve”. No, that’s not sufficient. The Lord is looking for men and women that serve by faith, believe the story, and are willing to stand for right and truth in a world of opposition and darkness. We’re looking for people that have faith in their hearts, and that’s what makes us ready. And these people, five of them, were not ready.

We read in that 26th chapter of Matthew about another aspect of being ready. You remember this was when Jesus was in the garden and praying, and He said there in the 41st verse of that chapter, ‘Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak’. Now you remember what happened there? In the previous verse, Jesus went away and He prayed, ‘O my Father, if it could be possible, let this cup pass from me’ … He did not want to suffer, and He did not want to die, but He said, “Only if it is possible, but nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done”. There was something in the heart of Jesus, in His flesh, in His nature, in His humanity, that did not want to go to the cross. He did not want to suffer, He did not want to be spat on, He did not want to be crowned with thorns. Of course He didn’t! But there was something in His spirit that conquered every human thought, and He said, “Not my will but thine be done” … three times … He was praying in the garden, and His disciples were sleeping there.

Now I’ve mentioned this before – you know I think we all criticize Peter, and we find a lot of fault with him because of what he did in denying his Master. Yes, sure he did. I know he did But you know what Jesus said that day? He said to Peter, ‘The spirit indeed is willing’. I wonder if He could say that of us? And then He said, ‘But the flesh is weak’. And we don’t deny that, we’ve proven that all too often. But He said, ‘The spirit is willing’. And I wondered whether God could say of me that every day of my life ‘the spirit is willing’. I don’t think so. You know, many, many of our mistakes and blunders are because the spirit was not willing. But He said, “That’s not true of Peter”. He said, “I know you, Peter, I can depend on you and I trust you”. And even though he made his mistakes, and even though he had his failures, the Lord trusted him. It wasn’t very hard to correct him either. One day He just turned and looked at him, and that is all that it took, and Peter went out and wept bitterly. Sure, criticize Peter all you like! I respect him highly. But you know what? He wasn’t ready! That day, he was not ready, because he had not been praying; when the opportunity was given, he had been sleeping. And just a little while later he drew a sword and cut off a man’s ear. I expect he was trying to cut off his head. But he drew the sword to defend himself and to defend the Lord. But Jesus said, “Put the sword up, you don’t fight spiritual battles with carnal weapons, it just isn’t done”. And then of course he forsook Him and fled; they all did.

He wasn’t ready. He wasn’t ready because he had not been praying that day. And when he hadn’t been praying he had come to a crisis and he had to meet the emergency, and he wasn’t ready. And you know a lot of times you and I have failed in our service too. No one failed just at the time of the emergency, but we’ve failed in preparing ourselves before the emergency ever came, and the end result of that was, it was a failure. Maybe we have not always failed, we can make some failures, but we’ve not always failed. We’re not excusing them, we’re not justifying them, but they’re not always fatal if we rise up, and can do as Peter did. He went out and he wept bitterly over that mistake and he never made it again. That’s victory in one sense, although it was a pretty bad defeat.

Then there are some others; I thought of a lot of others, in fact. In Mark 9 there was another time when those disciples were not ready. You remember this was the time that Jesus took Peter, James and John and went up the mountain, and was transfigured before them. And when He came down the mountain, there was a man who had his son there that had an evil spirit. He came to Jesus and he said, “If you can do anything to help us, please help us”. He was desperate about his son. Jesus then cast out the devil, and afterward, the disciples came to Him and said in the 28th verse, ‘Why couldn’t we cast him out?’ And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting. Now Jesus did not have time to pray, and He surely did not have time to fast at that moment. So how is it that He was ready and able to cast out the devil when the disciples weren’t? It was because He had been praying, and He had been fasting before, and now when the emergency arose and the situation presented itself, He was ready. He was ready! If you and I wait until the emergency comes and the crisis is at hand – well, we won’t be able to meet it either. But if we have been daily preparing ourselves by praying, seeking after God, and fasting, we will be ready.

Fasting. What does that mean? It means denying ourselves, even of things that are legitimate and right, then we can honour and glorify God. Do you know what it is to deny ourselves even by fasting? Fasting wasn’t just denying ourselves of bad things; fasting in the literal sense is going without food. So how long can you do that? But this fasting is denying ourselves of legitimate and correct and right things, so that we might be in a better position before God, and we could be a help to people in their need. So these disciples weren’t ready, but Jesus was. I found it amazing when I thought of this, because here He came down there, as it says from verse 16, ‘And he asked the scribes, What question ye with them? And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit. Then the last part of verse 18, ‘and I spake unto thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not’. He said, “What are you discussing?” They said, “Well here’s a need, a desperate need, and the disciples can’t seem to meet that need”. “No”, He said, “this kind goes ‘by prayer and fasting’”. A lot of times there are experiences where we will find things that we’re not able to help, and the Lord could have helped them, maybe. But we can’t seem to. A lot of times it’s because we weren’t prepared, we weren’t ready!

I know that this verse that we read in Matthew 24 is not about being ready for the final day, for the final judgment. But I thought of a lot of times when Jesus wanted people to be ready, just to meet some present need, and sometimes they were ready, and sometimes they were not. Yesterday we heard from 1st Samuel 25 about Abigail. She was ready and she didn’t get ready overnight. She had no idea of what was going to happen. But day by day and week by week she had been preparing, preparing, preparing, and then when an emergency came, and it was a pretty desperate situation – there were 400 angry soldiers, and every one of them skillful with the sword, and every one of them with murder in their heart; everyone wanting to destroy that whole household. Every man at least would have heard this: “Destroy them all”. And Abigail heard that and she had to act and react instantly; she didn’t have time to get ready then. She had no time to get ready … she was ready! And therefore she took all that food and everything and she went out to meet David. And do you know what she had? She had food alright. She had all the food with her that she could assemble quickly, but she had an understanding in her heart, she had compassion in her own soul, and she had a knowledge that the rest of them didn’t seem to have. She knew that David was going to be king. She believed that story! Maybe a whole lot of others didn’t? She believed the story that he was going to be king someday, and when she came in humility … that was another thing she had. And she didn’t just get that overnight either. In humility, she came and bowed down before David, and pleaded with him to accept this gift. And she said, “I’ll take the blame for all of this thing with my ungodly husband. Let the blame fall on me, but,” she said, “Don’t go and avenge yourself with your own hands, don’t do that, because you are only going to put a blot on your testimony that will be a sore spot for the rest of your day”. She pleaded with him not to do it, and he accepted that. She was ready! She was ready to meet an emergency that just fell on her suddenly!

You know emergencies can be tragic sometimes … they can be tragic if we’re not ready. But an emergency may not be such a big crisis if we are ready! She was ready! She had it all in her storehouse. I think of a verse right now in Proverbs 5 verse 15, where it says, ‘Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. It is wonderful to have a well of water that springs up unto everlasting life. But sometimes it’s nice to just have a little water in the cistern. And I think that is what this lady had … what Abigail had that day. She took out of her storehouse, she took out of her ‘cistern’, maybe all the things she’d laid up for months to come for her own household. She took it out of her own storehouse, she had it at hand, and it met a wonderful need and saved David from making an awful blunder – because she was ready, just because she was ready!

I can think of a lot of others too, and maybe we will mention them if we have time – some of the others that were ready when the things came. But in this particular case, the disciples just weren’t ready, they weren’t ready. But then when Jesus came, He was ready, because He had been preparing beforehand … praying and fasting.

I was also looking in that 5th chapter of Luke’s gospel, when Jesus came there. You remember those disciples had come out of their boats and were washing their nets, and Jesus spoke to the multitude. Then He said to Peter in the 4th verse, “Thrust out a little way from the shore and let down your net”. I think He said ‘Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets’. Do you know what Peter answered? He said, ‘Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing’. Do you know what he said next? ‘Nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net’. I think I’ve quoted many, many times, ‘Nevertheless at thy word we will let down the net’. No, he didn’t say, “We will”, he said, “We’ve toiled all night long and we’ve taken nothing. And now I’m hungry and I’m tired and I’m discouraged, and I’ve got my nets washed, and I’m going to go home and to bed. But nevertheless, at thy word, I don’t know what the rest of them are going to do, I don’t have any idea, but I will let down the net”. I like that personal conviction. I think every one of us needs to have a personal conviction! I don’t know what you others are going to do; I don’t know what sacrifice they are willing to make; I don’t know how willing they are to go a little further; It doesn’t matter, he said, ‘at thy word, I will let down the net’. And when he let down the net, he had a multitude of fishes. He then called for his friends, and they came, when the fish were already in the net. And they did it because he said, ‘I will let down the net’. “I will obey, I will cooperate though I don’t think it is worth the effort. ‘We have toiled all night’, I’m tired, I’m hungry, I’m discouraged, it doesn’t matter – at thy word, I will let down the net’”. I’d like to have that attitude; I’d like to be able to keep that attitude that it doesn’t matter. It does not matter what others think or say or do, “at thy word, as far as I’m concerned, I will obey”. And I’m sure of this, that if we have that attitude and we have that spirit, we’ll find that there is ‘a great multitude of fishes’ to be caught. Or there is a blessing in it, and there will be something that speaks to our own soul, and feeds our brethren. There was ‘a great multitude of fishes’, and he had to call the others to help him to drag them in, just because he had said, ‘at thy word I will let down the net’. I love that, and I’d like to know how to keep that as a goal for my own conduct in my own life.

I thought of another one in that 10th chapter of Luke’s gospel, we heard about that yesterday and we know that story well. Just what it means there we don’t perhaps understand so well. That man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among the thieves. He was beaten, he was robbed and he was left half dead. Beaten and robbed and left half dead. Jesus was trying to explain to a religious Pharisee … who is your neighbour? In the 29th verse the man said, ‘And who is my neighbour?’ He had to justify himself. Jesus said, ‘A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him left half dead’. Along came a priest. I don’t know what that priest had in his mind, I have no idea. He might have been with his fellowman, and he might have felt, “Well I can’t do anything about it, and if I do, I won’t be able to function as a priest, I won’t be able to do my duties today”. I really don’t know what he thought. He might have thought like a lot of other religious people, “If he’s already robbed, there’s nothing in it for me”. I really don’t know. But I do know this: he didn’t do anything; he passed by on the other side.

Then the Levite – and he was supposed to be a religious man. Maybe he had compassion but he didn’t have anything on him to do anything for that poor man, so he went on. And then there came a certain Samaritan, and that certain Samaritan, in his journey – a man despised and rejected by the Jews, also looked down on by the religious Pharisees, but that was a man who was ready. You know, that was an emergency; that was a crisis that he had not been planning on. This came on him suddenly, he hadn’t been planning on this at all, and when he stopped, he had five things with him that enabled him to save that man’s life. Do you know what was the first one he had? Compassion! Compassion! He looked on that man with compassion. He didn’t look on that man saying, “Come on, I’ve gone this road I don’t know how many times, and I’ve never been robbed”. I’ve heard that so many times. We look at people, and they make some blunders and mistakes, and self-righteously we say, “Oh I don’t know why that is such a big temptation to that man, I’ve gone down that road so many times and nobody ever robbed me”. Sure! But the next time you go down that road, you might get robbed too! He didn’t think anything like that; it didn’t enter his mind. He saw that man in his need and he had compassion. And I hope that in my heart, when we see people in their need, instead of being critical, instead of blaming them for where they find themselves, we could have a little compassion. I could tell you about some people I know, who are not where they are today because of their own decisions. I hope we never ever get to the point that we are so critical that we could not hold out a hand to help someone.

He had compassion. That was the first thing he had. When he looked at the man with compassion, he got down off of his animal, and he got his saddlebags, and took out oil and wine and bandages. Now how did he happen to have oil and wine and bandages, when he had no idea that there was going to be that man in need? He had it because he took it with him that morning before he left home. You know, that is a wonderful lesson to me. We don’t know what is coming our way tomorrow, we don’t know, but if we’re ready, we could meet the need. The priest wasn’t ready; the Levite wasn’t ready, but this man was ready. He was ready for an unexpected emergency, an unexpected crisis. So he got down off his animal and poured in the oil – I suppose because it soothed the wounds? He then poured in the wine – probably poured in the wine to disinfect the wounds. He might have put some of it into his mouth to kind of give him a little strength; probably did. And then he put on the bandages. Then he put him on his own beast, and he walked to take him to the inn. And he took care of him all night long. He lost a day’s work and a night’s sleep. Why? Because he saw a man in his need and he had compassion. After that, he had one more thing that day that was necessary, he had the money in his pocket. He said, “I’ll pay the bill, and not only do I pay the bill tonight, but if he owes you anything in the future, I’ll pay that too”.

I know that Jesus, when coming into the world, found you and He found me, and also a lot of other people, beaten and robbed and half dead. Beaten by the experiences of life, beaten by the things all around us. Robbed of our innocence and robbed of our purity; robbed of our hope and robbed of a lot of things that the world would rob us of if we give it a chance. But then He said, “I’ll pay the bill”. And on the middle cross of Calvary, He paid the bill for your sins, for my sins, and the sins of all the world. And you know what He said more than that? We partook of those emblems this morning. Why? Because of saying, “I’ve fallen victim again, and I’ve erred, and I’ve gone astray; but the blood of Jesus Christ will cover that sin too, as long as I’m repentant”. He said, “I’ll pay it again and again and again”. But you know, the story in it for me, is that you must be ready. He was trying to tell the man, “This is the way, this is the way that you treat the neighbour”. And who is the neighbour? That Samaritan never knew that neighbour before, he’d never laid eyes on him before, he didn’t know who he was. But he was willing to lose a night’s sleep and a day’s work, and then he was also willing to pay the bill, because he had compassion in his heart. I’d like to know how to keep that. And I’m sure of this: if we have true compassion in our hearts, and true compassion in our spirit, (there’s a lot of needy and downtrodden and downcast) – if we have compassion in our spirit, we’ll be doing something about having those few bandages and a little wine and a little oil, and maybe enough to pay the bill of the person who can’t pay for themselves. That’s five things the man had, and I admire the man and I appreciate what he did because he had that compassion in his heart and the other things in his saddlebag.

There are others, there are a lot of others; I don’t suppose we can mention many more, but I just think of people that are ready, that are ready. You know, we talk about prayer, we talk about the need to pray. I read a little story that I like. There was a captain on a ship, up on the north coast above Scotland, in an area where the waters are pretty bad, and he had a sturdy boat. And that particular trip he had a bunch of these – they call them artists. They were a bunch of actors and a bunch of entertainers, these artists. But he invited them, as the custom was, to the captain’s table to eat. The captain bowed his head, gave thanks for the meal and they laughed at him. They mocked him, they scorned him and they made quite a show of it! But the captain was alright, he didn’t fuss about it.

A few days later, they ran into a terrible storm; a terrible storm. And finally, this same group of people sent a message to the captain and said, “Are we going to survive this?” The captain sent a message back saying, “I don’t know; this is a good ship and we’re doing all we can, but the sea is very strong. I don’t know”. So after a while when things got worse, they sent another message, saying, “Please, I think you need to come and pray with us”. He sent a message back and said, “I pray in the calm – during the storm, I attend to my ship”. Why could he say that? Because he was ready. “I pray in the calm when there’s no emergency”, and then he said, “I attend to my ship when there comes a storm”. And I think that is a marvelous thing that we could probably take to heart ourselves. That if we were more diligent in prayer when everything is calm and there’s no struggle, when there’s no trouble, there’s no problems, no great problems, then when the storms of life do come, and they do come – we’ll be ready to meet them. You know it is alright to pray in the storm. I’m not criticizing people when they pray in the storm, but I’m saying if we wait until the storm comes, probably we’ve waited too long. But if we learn what it is to pray in the calm, we’ll be ready to meet the storm.

I’d like to just mention another one that was very, very outstanding, and that was Daniel and his three friends. Daniel, in the 8th verse of the 1st chapter of this book, ‘purposed in his heart’ when he was just a lad. I don’t know how old he was, but I have my doubts if he was more than twelve or fourteen years old. Maybe I’m wrong – I shouldn’t be speculating. But he was young anyway. And he purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor the wine which the king drank. Now that would have been very, very appealing to young men, and the multitude of those young Jewish captives were partaking of that, but Daniel said, “No, I can’t do that, I just can’t do that; I know that’s not right, I can’t do that”.

I remember a young lad – before I was in the Work – I was a little older than he. I was visiting him one time and he was talking about something … “Well”, he said, “I know what it is to face children that are doing this, doing that”, he said, “but I can’t do that. I’m fifteen years old, but I can’t do that”. He then said, “My father is the elder of the church and we have the meeting in our home, and,” … he wasn’t criticizing the others, but he said, “I can’t do that”. He had purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself, even though others were doing it. I don’t know what they were doing, but they were doing something; they were playing here and there, playing around, and he said, “I can’t do that because my father is the elder of the church and we have the meeting in our home”. It was no wonder to me that that boy grew up to have a meeting in his home, to be the elder of his church. It was no wonder to me that his children have grown up to have meetings in their homes, and also no wonder that some of the grandchildren are in the Work today. It was no wonder to me, because in his early youth, he said, “I can’t do that, I can’t defile myself”. It was the same thing that Daniel said in his day, and it has been said over and over again in our day.

Well, then you know the story. There came a time in his experience when it was, “You do what I say, or it is the lion’s den”. When he heard that, and he knew the thing was signed already – there’s nobody daring to make a request of any god or any man except to the king for thirty days – he went into his house, he opened the windows just like he’d always done, and he prayed three times a day. He didn’t pray any more, he didn’t pray any less, he was just as prepared as when he was a child. And that carried right on through for the rest of his days.

You know sometimes people say, “We have to decide every morning if we’re going to serve God today, or if we’re not going to serve God”. I don’t know what kind of a decision you made in the beginning. You have to decide over and over every day. You might not want to be faithful today, or you might want to serve God. I don’t know what kind of a decision you must have made in the beginning. If a person made this purpose in their heart in the beginning, no matter what it means or what it costs, “I’m here to serve and worship God”, it’ll save us an awful lot of decisions in the future. This doesn’t mean we won’t fail, it doesn’t mean we won’t stumble; but if we purpose this, “I’m going to conquer myself in every way”, and I know what it is to stumble -but that kind of a purpose in the beginning, carried right on through the rest of his days.

In Daniel chapter 3 we read of those three friends of his that his decision influenced. There came a day when the king built that great image of gold, and everybody had to bow down when they heard the music, and “If they don’t dance to our music” he says, “they’re going to the fiery furnace”. And there came that report that these three men are not doing that. And the king was wroth, you will remember, and he then told them “If you are ready to dance to our music, alright, if not, you’re going to the fiery furnace”. I love what they said in verse 16, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer in this matter’. “We’re not even careful!” … ‘If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee O king, we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up’. They were ready to die for this cause. “We’re not even careful to answer in this matter”! They had a lot to lose, they would have had a high position in the country – they had a lot to lose. But they said, “I’d rather lose everything that this king has ever given me than lose my favour with God”. Actually, they didn’t have a lot to lose, they had a lot to gain. And they went into the fiery furnace, and they came out alive.

Do you know what I think was the greatest victory after coming out of that furnace? Verse 27 says, ‘nor the smell of fire had passed on them’. Not even the smell of smoke, not even the smell of fire, was on their garments. You know, sometimes we come through a struggle and we come through with victory, but there’s an awful lot of smoke in our garments. A little bit of pride, a little bit of superiority, a little bit of boasting about the struggle and about the victory. I’m sure, they didn’t have that. Not even the smell of smoke was on their garments, and that is a marvelous victory to me, all because they were ready. They were ready to meet an emergency before the emergency ever came.

I hope that we could take this seriously. In that 24th chapter of Matthew, verse 44, Jesus said, ‘Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh’. We know in that same chapter from verse 46 He said, ‘Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing’. It says he gave him the responsibility to give the bread to the servants, ‘to give them meat in due season’. ‘Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing’. Verse 48, ‘But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite’ or beat ‘his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him’. He’s given him authority, he’s given him a place, and you know, I’ve been beaten more with words than I ever have been with sticks. People can beat us with words, and we need to be careful how we treat one another because we will have to give account on the day of judgment. I’d like to think that we are careful and that we are diligent about what we’re doing so that we are ready for the Lord’s coming. Ready for the emergency, ready for the crisis, ready to serve, and ready to worship. And if needs be, ready to die for this eternal cause of Christ.