Now is the time to prepare spiritually for the unexpected.

Family Camp 2012

<p>Now is the time to prepare spiritually for the unexpected.</p>

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Restoration International

Tom Waters

Prepare for the Unexpected

And I just want to welcome each of you here today.

It is such a delight to see so many people, to see this auditorium getting full, less space around the room.

And I want to welcome those of you that have the opportunity to be here with us today on the live stream.

We wish you could be right here with us but we're glad that you can be with us at least by the Internet.

And that choir song, wasn't that beautiful?

Those of you that come to camp meeting regularly hear me say some of these kinds of things regularly, and that is, I am always moved by the young people.

We have such a vast army of young people here at this camp.

You see the line, the lines of young people along the sides of the auditorium today?

And I get, sometimes I get a bit emotional because I watch these young people grow up and many of them that I've watched grow up over many years as our young people have grown up and some of them, it's amazing from 1 year to the next they're almost unrecognizable As they grow up But we're thankful for you young people were thankful for the song that you sang this morning For us and it was very very beautiful because we do need to cast our care upon our Savior, because He loves us.

And you know, when we respond to His love, 1 of the other things that I love that happens in my heart many times is, I feel such a love for you today and I hope it comes through to your heart from the Holy Spirit.

Because as I pray for you and I don't know all of you obviously and I don't have the opportunity to speak to all of you, but as I'm out early in the morning with the Lord, I have you on my heart and I love you.

I love you because Jesus loves you and I love you because his love is working in my heart.

You know, and as Skip was praying up here this morning that the Holy Spirit would move on your heart.

I'm praying while he's praying that the Holy Spirit won't just move on your hearts as I speak today, but that the Holy Spirit will bring this message to my heart today.

Because 1 of the greatest blessings that we experience in Restoration International is the message is not just for you.

We don't just go around giving a message for you.

We go around sharing what's on our hearts, that God is working in us.

We're going around the world, around the country, around the world, some parts of the world, sharing a message that is changing our hearts.

And what a joy it is to see God changing lives.

We were in Australia this January, and after the first series of meetings, and I can't tell you the whole story, but there were 2 marriages, 2 couples, 2 families at that first camp that were, it was their last opportunity as far as they were concerned.

They had given up hope on their home, on their marriage.

And they just had come to the point that they felt it was better to just go somewhere else.

But you know, there's power, life-changing power in Jesus Christ.

And I tell you today, he has changed those marriages and that is the greatest reward we can have in the Ministry of Restoration International.

When we don't get paid, that's more than enough payment.

It is, because I said to my wife, it would be enough if we ended right here.

It would have been worth the whole experience to see the work of Christ.

And to be able to look out, and often at various camp meetings around the country, We can look out as we're up here sharing a message and see families in the congregation who no 1 else knows what they've been through, but we've had the privilege of being able to enter in a little bit into a need and to see the life-changing power of God.

And nobody ever had to know that that family was almost destroyed.

But today I can tell you that as I talk about being prepared for the unexpected, I know today in this congregation there are people, and I'm not just guessing statistically because of the number of people that are here, but I can tell you today I know there are people in this congregation who are hurting deeply, who are experiencing the pain of suffering physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually.

And I believe that God, before you leave this camp meeting, maybe nothing will change in your circumstances physically or emotionally, but your ability to go through what you're going through will be stronger and more secure than when you came here to these meetings because Jesus does have the solution to every problem.

And I want to begin this message today by saying that the most important preparedness that we can have to be prepared for the unexpected is to have a connection today with a living Savior who loves us more than we can understand, who loves us enough that he says, I love you with an everlasting love, and therefore I'm continuing to draw you.

And today the preparation that we need for the unexpected above everything else is to be connected to that living Savior.

And so by default that means that if there's anything today that the Lord brings to our minds, our minds, that is keeping us from that free and complete surrender to Jesus Christ, this is our opportunity to move forward by faith.

Let nothing be between us and our Savior.

Because whatever we go through, however unexpected it may be, however traumatic it may be, it is coming through the hand of a loving Father in heaven, who makes no mistake.

He didn't let anything that any of us are experiencing in this room today come through because he was looking the other way.

The devil knows what you're going through, the devil knows what we are going through, and the devil is determined to destroy you.

The devil is determined to discourage you and to discourage me, but the Lord is determined to love us with an everlasting love and is determined to draw us to Him over and over and over again.

We don't just need a theoretical Savior that we can quote about the blood of our Savior.

We need to know today and have the security today that we are accepting Him as our personal Savior and that there's nothing that we're holding on to that is more important than that connection with that Savior.

We will then be the most deeply prepared that we can be for anything unexpected that will happen to us the rest of this day and as we leave this camp meeting.

If you have your Bibles I'd like you to open them to Mark the 13th chapter and we're going to look at verses 35 to 37 because I want to warn us about an unexpected event that is really an expected event but when it happens it will be unexpected and it will not be something that will be announced to us ahead of time except as we read these verses.

Watch ye therefore, for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even or at midnight or at the cock crowing or in the morning.

In verse 36, lest coming suddenly he find you, find me, what?

And 37 says, "...and I say unto you, what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch." Jesus is asking us to watch for something.

He wants us to be prepared for an event that is going to happen but when it happens it's not going to be known that it's happening now.

Do you know what event these verses are referring to?

These verses are not referring to the coming of Jesus Christ in the clouds of heaven.

These verses are referring to the close of probation.

When Jesus makes the declaration, let him that is righteous be righteous still, let him that is filthy be filthy still.

When Jesus makes the declaration that closes probation, it will be to us a silent event.

Just like the close of probation for the children of Israel, when Jesus stood there on the Mount of Olives and he said, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that stonest the prophets.

Oh, how I would have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not.' And then he said those painful words as he wept, Your house is left unto you desolate.

Did anyone know that that day a decision of judgment had been made?

This silent event is an event that we must be prepared for, friends.

How can we be prepared for an event that we don't know the day that it's going to happen, we won't hear an announcement that it has happened, and life will apparently continue on as it has been continuing on, how are we prepared for such an event?

Jesus said, watch, lest coming suddenly I find you, what?

When Jesus said to his disciples, the very night of His betrayal, the very night of His arrest, as He is there in the Garden of Gethsemane And he says to his disciples, Watch and pray.

He came back and he said, Oh Peter, could you not watch with me for 1 hour?

Why did he ask his disciples to watch and to pray?

Because Jesus knew that an event that he had told them was going to happen, and that they didn't understand was going to happen, was about to happen beginning that night.

Men who had walked with their friend, their redeemer, their Savior.

Men who that night said boldly, we won't, we won't forsake you.

We, friends, living where we live today, living in the time that we live in today.

And this is not sensationalism, because that's not what Restoration International is about.

This is about heart preparation, friends.

We need to watch and we need to pray, And we need to be ready.

And the only way we can be ready continually is to be surrendered fully.

Surrendered fully to Christ and allowing nothing to separate us from our God.

And if something does separate us, that we are willing to admit it, address it, and move on.

And that we can be clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

That we can know as we sit here today that there is nothing that we are holding on to, Nothing that would keep the cleansing blood of Christ that has been shed for us to cover us.

Nothing that we are saying, I'm going to hold on to this and do it my way.

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Prepare for the Unexpected

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