30th Mar 26 | 13:54
Studies by Book
Luke 21 34-38 WATCH AND PRAY VI 03 Luke 21 34-36 He will serve those who watch and pray
📖 Luke 21:34-38
*FRIEND OF GOD*
Wed23Jun2021 - *He will serve those who watch and pray* - _Luke 21:34-38_ - WATCH AND PRAY VI (03) – Bible reading: _Luke 12:35-37_
The Lord has been revealing the events that happen in the end times and we have received the exhortation to watch and pray. We have realised the need for us to offer ourselves to the Holy Spirit for He alone can truly empower and enable us to watch and pray.
_Luke 21:34-35 “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. (35) For *it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth*._
We have understood the end that is awaiting those who are rejecting God.
The following passage is the message that Apostle Paul spoke to a gentile audience in the city of Athens.
_Acts 17:26-31 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, (27) *so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him*, though He is not far from each one of us; (28) for *in Him we live and move and have our being*, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'_
_(29) Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising. (30) Truly, *these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent*, (31) because He has appointed a day on which *He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead*."_
For in Him we live and move and have our being. This is the message to the whole world. *Can any man survive without God*? God is the provider of all things for a man to exist in this world. Yet, man has the foolishness and arrogance to question the very existence of God, for without God man cannot exist.
Man has created his own gods, out of his imagination and desire. God, the Creator, had given man a very long rope, to repent, return and be restored to Him. The Lord is making known to man that he will now have to stand before Him in judgment.
The Lord has also made it clear that judgement will be by Jesus, who rose from the dead. All peoples, everywhere, stand to be judged before God, by Jesus.
The following passage is a terrifying warning for those who reject God.
_II Thessalonians 1:8-12 *in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ*. (9) These *shall be punished with everlasting destruction* from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, (10) *when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe*, because our testimony among you was believed._
Paul is once again exhorting and encouraging the church on how their life needs to be, *which is to watch and pray*.
_(11) Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you *worthy of this calling*, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, (12) that *the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him*, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ._
_Luke 21:36 *Watch therefore, and pray always* that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."_
This is the main thrust of the teaching of our Lord in _Luke 21_
_I Peter 4:7 But *the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers*._
_I Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour._
In these end times, the devil is even more aggressive and belligerent, doing all that is possible, to trouble the saints of God, for he knows his end and he is doing his best to weaken the faith of the believers in Christ.
_Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray, *lest you enter into temptation*. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."_
*The flesh in us is hostile towards God and it is only in the Spirit that we can overcome the lusts of the flesh*.
As much as each of us is watchful and prayerful, *we ought to also pray for one another in the body of Christ*, for we are a part of each other.
_Ephesians 6:18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end *with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints*—_
_Luke 12:35-37 “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; (36) and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. (37) *Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them*._
*The Lord Himself will serve those who have been watching and praying*.
*Thought to ponder*
```Will we watch and pray?```