Wars & Rumors of Wars: Part 2

Scott McFarland
06/12/22 - Sun AM Worship

Stay Awake

I’ll drink any coffee, but my favorite brand is Caribou Coffee. Their company has a motto: “Life is short. Stay awake for it.” I can confirm the need to stay awake as I make a fresh pot of coffee every morning while looking at this motto, just having crawled out of bed.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be looking at a difficult chapter in the gospels—Mark 13 (and its parallel, Matthew 24) contain some of the most mysterious sayings of Jesus in the gospels. The disciples want to know what the end of the world will be like. Jesus explains to them in these chapters the way things will go, and it’s hard to tell what exactly He’s talking about and when. At the end of Mark 13, there’s a warning to the disciples: “Stay awake.”

That command is as important then as it is now. Our world is rapidly changing, and it is important for us as believers to stay vigilant, stay awake. The danger of falling asleep is that we will miss important moments and become passive travelers of life’s path. The real danger, however, is that we will miss eternity. In the context of what Jesus is saying to his disciples, “stay awake” means continue to persist in the midst of difficulty, because the disciples don’t know when their master will return. Neither do we. Stay awake.

-Scott McFarland