First Baptist Family of Asheboro, NC

In Matthew 24 Jesus prepares his disciples for His sudden return at any moment.   Matthew 25 focuses on the importance of being prepared for Jesus’ return. Jesus speaks these words to His disciples and to us today.   The most important is to be ready for His return.   Jesus uses a parable, a wedding story.   Ancient weddings are an illustration of the Kingdom of Heaven.   A group of bridesmaids lit torches and led a procession at night through the town and this announced a wedding.   We are either ready or not ready for Jesus. This is what the Kingdom of God will be like.   There’s a need to prepare.   We need to get our hearts and our minds ready.   We are ready or we are not ready.   We are in Christ or we are not in Christ.   Jesus draws clear distinctions here.   We have given our life to Christ or not.   Verse 2:                    2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.  Some bridesmaids are making good choices and some of them are foolish.  

Keep watching.   Question:   When will the end be?   Jesus is coming to restore all things.   There will be no more dying and no more fear.   Jesus gives the disciples the hope of His return.   He wants them to have assurance.    “When are you doing to all these things?” the disciples wonder.   We do this with other things in our lives as well.   For example, when someone gets engaged we ask, “When’s the date?”   When someone is about to graduate we want to know the graduation date.   We want to have the details.   This is a natural curiosity.   We have the same questions the disciples had.   Answer: We do not know when Jesus will return .    There’s the answer!   It’s an important answer.   This is the most important future event of our lives, when Jesus answers the disciples in verse 36:                         36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.  Jesus says clearly that no one k

Several of our members at First Baptist Church are involved in prison & jail ministry ;  Rich Palumbo is one of those.  Some of our members are trained to visit regularly and check out a prisoner to bring to a church service.  Most Sundays we have prisoners worshiping among us.  It's a joy for us to share the Gospel with them and care for them. Here's a few experiences Rich Palumbo had recently in our local jail and another while on vacation with his wife.   If we look and pray for opportunities for God to use us we will find them: Questions Answered in Jail Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit our local county jail.   On that day, I met an older Hispanic man that asked me a question regarding signs and messages   from God.   His question centered on how to recognize his feelings as being prompted from God.   I showed him 1 Corinthians 13 and we went through the Love chapter. I asked him that if after reading that, he was to feel or sense that he

God has called us to be unleashed for the Gospel.   We ask questions like, “What is going on in the world?”   We wonder about current events. Jesus prepared his disciples about what’s coming next.   God tells us to be set free to share the Gospel.   There are 2 struggles: 1)       Excitement about the future – I don’t know about you, but I’m excited about flying cars!   2)       Other things remind us of the brokenness of our world.   Jesus wants you and I to know the truth.   In Matthew 24 Jesus is with his disciples.   He was teaching them and getting them ready for healing and traveling and crowds would come. But then Jesus started talking about the cost of following Him.   The true believers will remain.   They’re the ones who will turn the world upside down.   They’re responsible for taking the Gospel worldwide.   Church isn’t something we do right here in this building, it’s something that disrupts our lives and transforms our lives. Jesus has told them the temple wil