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Man, the title of my sermon this evening is The Young Man Who Fled Away Naked. The Young Man Who Fled Naked, this is a strange little anecdote or this little aside in Mark chapter 14. I'll tell you the real reason why I'm preaching this tonight, because every time I'm talking to my children about sermon ideas, they always tell me how I need to preach on this passage. And it's kind of become a joke in our house where they're just constantly saying, well, you know, there is that one part in Mark chapter 14 that you need to preach on. So tonight I'm just getting it done, getting it out of the way so we can all just kind of move on with our lives and move on to another topic. So here it is, kids, the young man who fled away naked. So to get a little context here, of course we just read the entire chapter, but the context will start in verse 43 where it says immediately, while he yet spake cometh Judas, one of the twelve, and with them a great multitude with swords and staves from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. So of course they're coming to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. It says in verse 46, they laid their hands on him and took him, and one of them that stood by drew a sword and smote a servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. Of course we know that this is Peter that is the one who did this, you know, from comparing scripture with scripture and other gospels, that Peter is the one who chopped off the ear, because Jesus is being arrested, they're taking him away, Peter decides to fight back, okay? But Jesus answered and said in verse 48, are you come out as against a thief with swords and with staves to take me? I was daily with you in the temple teaching and you took me not, but the scriptures must be fulfilled. So ultimately the Bible says in verse 50, they all forsook him and fled. Who are the they here? The disciples of Jesus. They all forsake him, they all end up fleeing. And then we begin the story that we're talking about tonight, verse 51, and there followed him a certain young man having a linen cloth cast about his naked body, and the young man laid hold on him, and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked. And they led Jesus away to the high priest and with him were assembled all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes. So who is this guy? Let's take this apart verse by verse and then I'm going to make some applications. But first of all, this is not one of the 12 disciples because we already know that all of his actual disciples, the apostles, the 12 disciples, they've already forsaken him and fled. If we were to compare this, for example, to Matthew, you don't have to turn there, but in Matthew 26 56 it says, but all this was done that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled, then all the disciples forsook him and fled. It's pretty much worded exactly like verses 49 and 50 of where we are here in Mark 14, but instead of just saying they all forsook him, it says, then all the disciples forsook him and fled. So it's a little clearer about who that is. So that helps us understand verse 50 that all the 12 disciples have fled. This is another guy. This is not one of the 12, okay? Now he seems to have started following Jesus after the disciples have fled. So they all forsook him and fled. They're leading Jesus away. They've arrested him. They're moving him, right? It says they took him in verse 46. Verse 53 is going to pick up again with them, you know, getting him over to the high priest. And so he was apparently alerted by the commotion because obviously this is quite a commotion when these soldiers come and they've got the swords, they've got staves and they come to arrest Jesus and there ends up being a fight. There ends up being a scuffle because Peter decides to get physical and pulls out a sword, chops off somebody's ear. So obviously there's a lot of noise, there's a lot of commotion, there are a lot of soldiers involved. This guy was probably alerted by that. He heard something, he comes over and he's following Jesus as Jesus is being led away to be tried and ultimately crucified. Now it says in verse 51, the reason I say he was probably alerted by the commotion is because he seems to have been in bed already asleep for the night and then he jumped out of bed to see what's going on and he's following Jesus. And here's why I say that. In verse 51 it says, there followed him a certain young man having a linen cloth cast about his naked body. Now why would this guy be out in public, why would he be outside totally naked but just with a linen cloth cast about his body? And the answer is that he's in bed for the night and he's wrapped in a linen cloth because he's wrapped in basically a bed sheet, okay? Now here's a little bit of proof for that. In Revelation chapter 16 verse 15 we have this verse, it says, Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame. Now you can see a connection between this and Mark 14. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, what this guy failed to do, okay, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. Now we need to stop for a moment and understand what does the word watch mean. When we say the word watch in 2023 we think of it as looking at someone or paying attention to something, watching something, or maybe being on the lookout or something. But actually the word watch in the Bible often means to stay awake, okay? That's why the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5, Therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober. So what's the opposite of sleeping in that verse? Watching. This is why we talk about the first, second, third, fourth watch of the night. Watch and pray, lest he, he's not saying for them to look at something specific. When he says watch and pray he means stay awake and pray. That's what he's referring to. And so when the Bible says blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, what it actually means is bless is he that stays awake and keeps his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame. This guy had not stayed awake, this guy is asleep in bed, that's why he's already undressed for the night, he's undressed, he's gotten into bed, for whatever reason he gets out of bed and instead of taking the time to get dressed he hurries over to the action simply just wrapping himself in a sheet. He just wraps himself in the bed sheet, what's going on out here? And goes out to investigate and then he's following Jesus and in the process of following Jesus what happens? Well the Bible says that the young men laid hold on him. Now who are these young men? This is just another word for the soldiers. The soldiers came and arrested Jesus and elsewhere in the Bible, soldiers are referred to as young men, elsewhere in Greek and Roman literature they're called young men because it's just a euphemism for soldiers. And so therefore the young men lay hold on him maybe just because they think, hey all the disciples got away but here's one, maybe this guy's a follower of Jesus, maybe we can arrest him too and haul him in as well. Well when they lay hold on this guy he would rather leave the sheet and run away naked than to be arrested. So he just kind of just, sort of like when you try to catch one of these blue-bellied lizards and these exist in Arizona, especially down in Tucson, I've seen them. I grew up seeing them in California, who knows what I'm talking about, blue-bellied lizards. And they will leave their tail with you, right? So if you grab them, if you don't grab their body but if you just grab them by the tail, they just disconnect their tail from their body and you're just left holding a tail with like a little bloody stub at the end and you're just kind of holding the tail, they discard the tail. You know that's kind of what this guy's doing is, you know, they grab him and their hand's kind of on the sheet so he just kind of slips out of the sheet and just darts away naked and leaves the sheet in their hand. They're left holding the sheet. Another similar story in the Bible is the story of Joseph where Potiphar's wife assaults him and she's trying to seduce him and trying to get him to commit adultery with her and she ends up grabbing him and he ends up again slipping out of his coat, of course he had clothing on underneath thankfully, but he slips out of his coat and she's left holding his garment. Okay, this guy's only wrapped in a linen sheet and so when he runs away, you know, he fled from them naked, the Bible says right in verse 52, he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked. So who was this guy? Well obviously it's very possible, it's very probable that he's just kind of a random guy. He's kind of a rando. But the problem with that is just why would this even be mentioned? Obviously it must have some spiritual significance, but still it's kind of an odd thing to be mentioned so there is a theory that's out there that says that maybe this was Mark himself. You know, sort of like John writes about himself in the book of John, just kind of calls himself that other disciple or another disciple or disciple whom Jesus loved, he remains anonymous. So you know, there's a theory, and obviously it's just a theory because you can't really prove it one way or another, that maybe this is Mark himself because then it would kind of explain why such a trivial occurrence would have been included in Mark's story. Because if it's about him, then it's a big deal to him because hey, I was there, man, and I went, you know, I did this, okay? And also we know that Mark is a character in the Bible who when we see him in the book of Acts is maybe a little bit immature, inexperienced, he ends up bailing out on a missions trip early, and then Paul is upset about it, and then Paul and Barnabas get in a big fight about it because Barnabas wants to take Mark on the next missions trip, but then Paul says, hey, he didn't finish with us, we need to leave him behind. But then later, later, Paul writes in 2 Timothy and says, take Mark and bring him with thee, for he's profitable to me for the ministry. So when he was young, Paul didn't really have a lot of respect for him, but then later Paul comes to respect him and comes to love him and appreciate him. And so, you know, this could be maybe a young and less mature Mark having a little bit of an embarrassing moment, and let's just kind of keep it anonymous and tell the story. It's possible, maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, but at the end of the day, though, this is the inspired Word of God, so the story is here for a reason, whether it seems trivial or not, it's included for some spiritual reason because all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine and so forth. So we can learn something from this. So what do we make of this strange incident in Mark 14? We'll flip over, if you would, to Ephesians chapter 6. And by the way, one of the things that really makes this interesting is that the Gospel of Mark has very little unique material in it when it comes to stories, okay? If you look at all the stories and the sermons and the preaching, the parables in the Gospel of Mark, literally like 97% of it is found in either Matthew or Luke. So between Matthew and Luke, you have most of the material from Mark, meaning that there's very little in Mark that is unique to Mark. Now Mark words things a little bit differently in a lot of places, and so there's a lot of great spiritual insight to be gained. It's not like the book of Mark is redundant because it's arranged in a special way and it has little different wording and nuances that yield a lot of spiritual insight. But as far as just entire stories or parables or sermons that are not found anywhere else, the Gospel of Mark has very little, right? If we're reading in John, there's a lot that's unique to John, there's a lot that's unique to Luke, there's a lot that's unique to Matthew. With Mark, it's a very small percentage of Mark that's unique, but this is one of those things that's only in Mark. This story's only in Mark. The story about the man being healed where Jesus spits on the ground and makes clay and puts it in the guy's eyes and he sees men as trees walking. That's another one of those rare things that's only in the book of Mark. And so what do we make of this little incident, these two little verses that are just kind of thrown in there, what do we make of it? Well one application, did I tell you to turn to Ephesians 6? One application that we could take from the story is that this young man was unprepared. He wasn't prepared, he wasn't ready. He didn't watch, he didn't keep his garments, and when the crucial moment came, not only did he flee in panic, but he fled away naked which is obviously embarrassing. He was not able to stand with Christ at this important hour. Now look at Ephesians chapter 6 verse 13, the Bible reads, Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Now what is the evil day? Well here's the thing, the evil day is going to be different for everyone. Because we're all going to go through different things in life and we don't know what life is going to throw at us. And whatever our evil day is, that day when maybe our worst fears come true or we go through the most difficult trial or the most difficult tribulation that we've ever faced, when that evil day comes, we want to be able to stand. Want to be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all, to stand. So therefore the Bible is saying, take unto you the whole armor of God so that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. Now here's the thing, we don't know what life is going to throw at us. And when the evil day comes, it's going to be too late to just all of a sudden put on the whole armor of God. So I'm just going through life and I'm kind of just sleeping spiritually. I have barely any walk with God at all. Just like a little thin sheet of a walk with God, a little thin linen sheet of a walk with God and I'm just kind of sleeping and I'm just lounging in my thin linen sheet, okay? And then all of a sudden something happens and it's like, oh man I've got to get spiritual real quick now. Time to get spiritual. Alright, time to get dressed, time to put on the whole, it's too late at that point. You're supposed to put on the armor of God now so that you're ready when the evil day comes and it's not like, oh I only have one second, here's a sheet, let's go. You don't want to face the devil wrapped in a sheet. It's not going to be enough. And so you don't just get spiritual really quick at the last minute. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians chapter number 5 verse 6, it says, therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night and they that be drunken are drunken in the night, but let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. So notice how this scripture that's telling us not to sleep as do others but to watch and to be sober, notice that it then rolls into talking about putting on the armor of God, putting on the breastplate of faith and love. Because Ephesians 6 is the armor of God passage, but 1 Thessalonians 5 that talks about being awake also says put on the breastplate of faith and love, put on the helmet of salvation. So it's kind of a parallel passage about the armor of God in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. And so think about it this way, let's say you're a young single dude and so maybe you're not necessarily taking your walk with God that spiritually right, or that seriously right now, but then all of a sudden when you're married and all of a sudden you have kids, you're going to think to yourself, oh wow, you know, I better start taking my Christianity a little more seriously. I'm the head of household here. I need to lead my wife, I need to lead my children, it's time for me to get serious about the things of God. Well, you know, you don't want to be playing catch up because you weren't ready, you weren't prepared and you went into that ordeal unprepared, okay? Or persecution or just whatever hardships and difficulties that life is going to throw at you. You've got to be ready. And it's not enough at the last second to just grab whatever and then face the enemy, face the devil and his minions, face tribulation, face persecution, face the challenges of life. No, because it takes actually years to prepare yourself to do right and serve God and be a solid Christian. You know, a baby Christian is not really going to do well in really difficult and challenging circumstances, right? You should be reading your Bible for years, right? Praying for years, going to church for years, building up yourselves in your most holy faith so that whatever life throws at you, you're ready in advance, okay? You've already put on the whole armor of God. He doesn't say, hey, when there's a fight, when there's a battle, put on the whole armor of God. He's telling you just put on the whole armor of God right now, today, so that when the evil day comes, you'll be able to stand. It's not something that you put on at a moment's notice. It's something that you just live in. You live in the whole armor of God, so you're always ready to go. Now obviously this is a metaphorical, it's a parable. Obviously we all go to sleep every night. Hopefully you sleep every night for six to eight hours and get your rest. But when the Bible is saying, hey, let's not sleep, let's stay awake, he's talking about spiritually, right? Where we're alert spiritually, we're taking things seriously, we're vigilant, we're sober, we're paying attention, we're prepared, we're dressed. You know, we've got on our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We got all the different pieces. Let's go through some of this armor here, it says in verse 14, stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth. Again, I don't want to just figure out what the truth is real quick because we're having a crisis. You know, I need to be constantly seeking truth, constantly studying the word of God, constantly examining the faith and the word of God and different doctrines so that I can know what's true and what's not true so that when the evil day comes, I'm already ready. I don't have to figure out, oh man, what does the Bible even say? I don't know. Let me read the whole Bible cover to cover real quick and figure this out. Now you need to just know, you say, well, which part of the Bible am I going to need to know? I don't know which part you're going to need. You better just study the whole thing. Some of you have just a little thin sheet of Bible knowledge. What you really need is a pair of pants and a shirt and a jacket and shoes and a hat and blood. You know, you need to have the whole armor of God, not just a little bit, but he says, have your loins girt about with truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. The preparation of the gospel of peace. You know, what about when that opportunity comes where a loved one comes to you and says, you know what? I don't know where I'm going to go when I die. Can you explain this to me? Can you help me out with this? And you're like, Oh, well, well, I mean, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, personal relationship. Uh, I don't know. You know, you want to be just ready to go where, Hey, you've been out soul winning. You've shared the gospel many times. And when someone asks you about what it takes to get to heaven, when a coworker asks you that, when a loved one asks you, you're ready to preach the gospel. You're already prepared because you've already been out faithfully doing it. And when that opportunity comes, when someone falls at your feet and says, sir, what must I do to be saved? You want to have a good answer. You know, we go out and go soul winning and we ask people if they know for sure they're going to heaven and a lot of times they'll say yes. And then, uh, sometimes what we'll say to them is, you know, well, what, what does it take to get to heaven or what do you believe a person has to do to go to heaven? Or if I wanted to go to heaven and I asked you how, what would you tell me? And sometimes they're just kind of at a loss and they, they can't really tell us. They don't really know and, and, and, and a lot of times it's just because they aren't saved of course, so that they don't know the answer because they're not saved. But then other people turn out to be saved, but they're just, they're just so not ready for that question. And they say, oh wow, you're really putting me on the spot here. And they're kind of taken aback and they have to kind of sit there and regroup and figure it out. And, but you know what? That's kind of a shame because we should be ready to just tell somebody how to be saved like that. Right? You know, I remember there was a saying when I was growing up, they said, you know, a pastor has to be ready to preach, pray or die at any moment. You know? And that's true. You know, and what they mean by that, preach, pray or die, it's kind of a joke because basically if you're a pastor, you can get called upon to preach at the last minute, you got to be ready to get up and preach. You got to have a sermon ready all the time. Preach, pray or die because a lot of times you'll be called on to pray. Like if I say, hey, brother so-and-so, would you lead us in prayer? You know, I mean, literally I've been in church before where someone got called on to pray and they just, they just, uh, they stammer instead of it and just said, I'm sorry, I, I'm not prepared. You know, which was obviously embarrassing, right? To say like, oh, sorry, I can't pray. You know, you don't want to be that guy, right? You want to be ready to preach, you want to be ready to pray. And then, you know, the joke is that it kind of escalates quickly, like preach, pray or die, you know, and obviously we should be ready to die for Christ at any moment, right? Be ready to sacrifice our lives for Christ. Obviously rarely are we going to be called upon to do so. Only once will it happen in our lives, probably, but, and probably less than that, probably zero times, but at the most once. You know, I only regret that I have but one life to lay down, you know, for Christ. But you know, we may end up dying for Christ, probably not, but we want to be ready so that if we're put in that position, we don't just deny Christ or something just to get out of it and just here, take this linen garment, I'm running away, you know, like this guy. And so the preparation of the gospel of peace, right? Be ready to win a soul to Christ at any moment. And that's not just for pastors, that's for everybody. You may not need to preach a sermon at any moment, but you know what? You do need to be ready to give the gospel at any moment. I don't care if you're a man, woman, boy or girl, because if somebody asks you about the gospel, you want to be able to give them the plan of salvation and not miss that opportunity because you don't know any verses, you haven't memorized any Bible verses about salvation, you don't know where to find them in the Bible, you start trying to explain it and you're stumbling because you've just never done it, right? Get some experience so that you'll have the preparation of the gospel of peace lest you be found barefoot in the day of battle. And so it says in verse 16, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. We need to be increasing our faith, building our faith, exercising our faith, so that when the time comes that we have to endure something really difficult, we have the faith to get through it and to stay true, stay faithful, and stay right with God. We want to be able to be like Job, and hopefully none of us will ever go through anything as extreme as Job, but we've got to be ready for whatever God throws at us, or whatever the devil throws at us, or whatever the world throws at us. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto, notice that word again, with all perseverance and supplication for all saints, and for me that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. So even while being persecuted, even while in jail, the Apostle Paul is saying, hey, I want to be witnessing to people, even while I'm in jail, I want to be preaching the gospel, I want to just be ready to be used by God in whatever situation, even if it's in jail, okay? I'm going to keep on winning souls. Romans chapter number one, if you would flip over there, Romans chapter number one, Romans chapter number one, while you're turning there I'll begin reading in verse 15, it says, so as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. As much as in me is, you know, there's a lot of preparation that goes into us spiritually as Christians, all the Bible reading that goes in, all of the sermons that go in, all of the church attendance that goes in, all the singing of hymns and praying and witnessing and all the different things that have gone in, he says, as much as in me is, I'm ready. I'm ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek. You see, not being ready is shameful, isn't it? Not being ready is shameful. What does the Bible say? Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. What's the Bible saying? You know, if you don't study to show yourself approved unto God, if you're not rightly dividing the word of truth, if you're not studied up, he says, you could be ashamed, right? A workman that doesn't need to be ashamed is the one who has studied to show himself approved. The one who has not studied, the one who has not put in the effort, the one who has not been faithfully serving God and putting on the whole armor of God every day, taking up the cross every day, reading his Bible every day, praying every day. You know, he's not going to be ready. He's not going to be prepared. And listen, if you're not prepared, it's shameful. It's embarrassing, right? I mean, if I got up on Sunday morning and it was a scheduled time that I'm supposed to preach and I get up here and I'm not prepared and I just got up here and I just had nothing to say and I just said, sorry, folks, I just don't have anything to say. And so I hope you've enjoyed the singing. I hope you enjoyed the Bible reading. Let's go ahead and have another song. We're just going to have extra fellowship because I'm sorry, I'm just not ready to preach. I just, I just didn't write a sermon. I just don't have anything. Now wouldn't that be a little bit shameful and embarrassing because isn't it my job to show up and be ready and have a sermon to preach? What if you showed up for a meeting at your job or something just totally unprepared and you don't have the notes that you're supposed to be talking about. You don't have the plans, you don't have the drawings, you don't have whatever you're supposed to have at your job, whatever it is that you do. I'm sure that there's a way that you could show up for your job unprepared, right? You show up at your job and you know, you're supposed to have a laptop and you didn't bring your laptop. You know, you show up at your job, you're supposed to be wearing a certain uniform and you just show up wrapped in a linen sheet, okay? No, you know, you show up, maybe you just show up in street clothes. You know, and it's funny because a lot of people have the same, millions and millions of people across the world, they have the same nightmares, they have the same dreams. Like who's ever had a dream where your teeth are crumbling in your mouth, your teeth are falling out and crumbling and I've had a dream hundreds of times. That's one of my most common recurring nightmares is just my teeth will start feeling loose and they'll just start coming out and crumbling and falling out and I wake up and I'm relieved that all my teeth are there. But if you Google that, millions of people are having that same dream, even just hands all over the building right now. I had this other dream, I'm not sure if this one is common to man, but I constantly have this dream where my jaw just locks up and it won't, it's just stuck and it won't move and it hurts. And so I know that I believe it's tetanus that is called lockjaw. So in the dream I think I have tetanus. This must be tetanus because my jaw feels kind of locked right now and it's called lockjaw. Who's ever had that dream? You had the jaw locking up dream? See what I'm saying? There's like six people that had that dream. Okay. But here's the thing, now let's get one that virtually everyone can get involved in. Who's had the dream where you show up to church or you show up to school or you show up somewhere else and you have no shoes on? See now we got a lot more people involved. I'm surprised by that it's only like 15 people because I thought everybody had that dream. I mean I've had that dream hundreds of times, you show up to church, it's like ah, and you're just in socks. Or I've had a dream where I show up and I'm supposed to preach and I'm just in like swim trunks and a t-shirt. And I'm just like ah, what do I do, right? I've had other dreams where I showed up and I didn't have the right clothes and I had to run home and get the clothes and I was like, I just couldn't get the right clothes. Like I'd get the clothes and I'd get the top done and then it's like oh, my shoes are gone. Then I put my shoes on and then I don't have a shirt and it was like no matter what I did I was just never ready. And it's a scary dream, it's a nightmare because it's embarrassing, right? Show up to school, no shoes. Or you just show up in a pair of shorts or something like just totally the wrong clothes for that particular situation, okay? Why? Because being unprepared, being undressed, it's shameful, it's embarrassing, right? If you show up and you're supposed to give a presentation or something and you're not prepared at your job, you could be humiliated in front of the boss, humiliated in front of clients, customers, other people. You know, it's embarrassing. Well, guess what? God wants us to be prepared spiritually so that we don't end up with egg on our face spiritually so we don't get caught with our pants down spiritually. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame. This young man in Mark chapter 14, who was he? We don't know. Why are you telling us about this guy, Mark? Is it because it's really you? We don't know, you know? Maybe so, maybe not. But no matter who it is, no matter why it's being told, it's a guy who was following Jesus. He's not one of the 12 disciples, but he's a young guy who wants to see what happens to Jesus. I mean, you could say maybe he's kind of a looky-loo or a rubber-necker or something, just gets out of bed trying to see what the actions, you know, out in the Garden of Gethsemane or whatever. But whatever the reason, he's following Jesus, so he pictures someone who's following Jesus, but they're unprepared. They're following Jesus, but they're unprepared. They're all of a sudden, oh, I'm going to follow Jesus now, but they hadn't been building up to that. There was no proper reasons, just kind of jump out of bed and go, put on a Superman cape of a linen sheet and go. That's not the way the Christian life is going to be effective of just, oh, something's happening. And there are other stories in the Bible like this too, like remember the story about the foolish virgins and the wise virgins that have the oil in their lamp versus the ones who don't have the oil in their lamp, and they're not ready. They're not prepared. They miss out. We need to be ready. We need to be prepared. And so I think that that's the number one application here. The one thing that we can be sure about this guy is he's not wearing the whole armor of God. You know, when you're not even wearing anything, I mean, here's the thing, if he would have been in swim trunks and a t-shirt, he's not wearing the whole armor. He's not ready to go to battle in swim trunks and a t-shirt, but that'd be better than what he's wearing. Okay? This guy is light years away from the whole armor of God because he's not even dressed. Okay? I mean, this guy would put Wal-Mart at 2 a.m. to shame. You know, people at Wal-Mart at 2 a.m. are more dressed than this guy. Okay. So I think that he pictures the follower of Christ who's not ready, he's not prepared, he's not wearing the whole armor of God, and just at the last minute when a crisis comes, all of a sudden it's like, okay, I'm going to go follow Jesus now. He just impulsively spur of the moment jumps in. The moral of the story is when a crisis is not happening, when it's not all going down with soldiers and staves and disciples fleeing and everything, when things are peaceful and calm, that's when you start following Jesus. Follow Jesus when things are cool in your life, prepare, put on the whole armor of God now when you're not in the evil day because when the evil day comes, it might be too late and you're left with just the linen sheet because that's all you've prepared. You know, quick, what do I grab? All you got is the linen sheet, right? When you should have been already awake, already eaten, already dressed, feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, breastplate of righteousness, you're read up on the Bible, your loins are girt about with truth, you've been faithful to church, faithfully reading your Bible, faithful in prayer, and you know what? You're ready for whatever life throws at you. You know, when I got married to my wife, she was a new believer. She'd only been saved for just a matter of weeks. And so she's a new believer. And so it was my job to disciple her and mentor her and teach her the word of God. Well, here's the thing, I wouldn't have really been prepared to do that if I were pretty new at these things myself and you know, she's looking to me for answers and guidance and counsel and I'm just kind of like, I don't know, I mean, I don't know, I mean, let's figure it out together, I guess. You know, it's a lot better that I was able to give her guidance and answers because I'd already been preparing for years. I'd already been reading my Bible, I'd already been in church, I'd already been studying, you know, or you know, going into the ministry, starting Faith Forward Baptist Church at age 24. Obviously I had to be prepared to do that. You know, Pastor Jimenez started Verity Baptist Church when he was also around like 24, 25 years old. I mean, he had to be prepared. I mean, he got married when he was 18 years old, okay? Obviously he had to be spiritually prepared because getting married is obviously a spiritual challenge, it's a responsibility, it takes maturity, it takes wisdom that comes from the Word of God. And so whenever that opportunity comes, whether it's an opportunity for ministry, whether it's an opportunity for marriage, whether it's an opportunity to disciple a friend or a cousin or a loved one and disciple them because they just got saved, or maybe an opportunity to win someone to Christ who's not saved, or maybe you just get hit with a horrible illness or you get hit with a financial problem or a relationship problem or you just get hit with persecution, trials, tribulations, whatever life throws at you, you don't want to get caught like this guy where you've been kind of just lackadaisical spiritually. And I think that's what it represents here. He's not awake, he's lackadaisical, he's asleep on the job, and so he's caught off guard, he's caught unawares, and he ends up being the butt of my kids' jokes for months leading up to this sermon. You know, he ends up being the laughing stock of the Anderson household, why I had to finally preach this sermon just to finally put this guy to bed, no pun intended, you know, he needs to just go back to bed, that's where he needs to go, okay. You know, why is he a laughing stock? Because it's like, dude, what are you doing in the Garden of Gethsemane or wherever you are without any clothes on? Why did you wrap yourself in a sheet to go out? It's bizarre. Now, look, I don't think most people in America would ever do this. You know, like let's say you're in a hotel and the fire alarm goes off, nobody's just going to wrap in a sheet, because I've been there when the fire alarm goes off and everybody kind of goes to the parking lot, everybody's dressed, nary a linen sheet to be seen in the whole crowd. Nobody's just like, well, I was in a hurry so I just wrapped in the sheet. But you know, in other countries, people do some strange things because, you know, America is normal and other countries are weird, amen. And so, you know, I remember being in Botswana and I kid you not, the house that we were staying, there were a bunch of people staying there. Some people were going to the grocery store. This lady has just taken a shower. You know how when you get out of a shower, you're wrapped in a towel? They're going to the grocery store. She's like, wait for me, I want to go too. Leaves the house wrapped in only a towel. Gets in the car, goes to the store and comes back like 45 minutes later. I kid you not. And I was just like, what? How are you going to the store? So then they got back and I was just like, I asked, I was like, what happened? What just happened? Like, what was that? And they're like, oh, no, no, she didn't go in the store. She just wanted to go on the car ride, you know, she didn't actually go in the store you know, in a towel. They're like, what do you think, she's just going to go to the store in a towel? And I'm thinking like, well, you know, I think it's kind of weird that you even got in the car and went to the store parking lot in a towel. So I guess I just thought you took it one step further and just went in the store. But I mean, doesn't that seem like a crazy thing to do? Doesn't that seem bizarre and weird? I thought it was crazy. But you know, different cultures do some so that's why I like this story is believable in light of people like that doing stuff like that in this world. I remember one time when I used to live like a mile away, one of my kids who shall remain unnamed, we lived just right down the street for many years. And you know, we had to run up to the church building to do something. And one of my kids jumped in the back of the car. And I'll give you a hint that it was one who was male, okay, hopped in the back of the car. And, you know, we get down here and we get out of the car and all of a sudden, okay, it was John. All right. He gave me the signal that it was okay to say who it was, you know. So Sullivan's off the hook here, okay. So it was John. So John, we get down here and, you know, I had to do something. I was doing something for work. And all of a sudden I look over and John has no shirt on. He's just in a pair of swim trunks, no shirt. And I'm just like, John, we have to go to the bank. Like what do you do? Like the church building is just one stop. Like why would you go to the church building in just a pair of swim trunks? Like where's your shirt? Like what are you doing? And so we're like, oh man, like what are we going to do? Like because I had to go straight to the bank and it was, we were in a big hurry. So I said, okay, well we got to grab the only garment that we got handy. Grab a baptismal garment. And so we grabbed him with a baptismal garment. He threw on that because I was in a big hurry. I had to go to the bank, make some wire transfer or something. He threw on a baptismal garment, zip that thing up, put his shorts on over it. And so we have a picture somewhere, because it was so funny, we eventually took a picture of him wearing shorts and the top is that green vinyl, like baptismal garment. And then I told him, I said, well, you know, okay, now let's go to Chipotle, you know. And he's like, Dad, no, please don't make me go to Chipotle in this garment, you know. And I was just kidding, we weren't really going to go to Chipotle. But I was like threatening him with Chipotle, which this is probably the only time in the history of our entire family when Chipotle was ever a threat. Usually Chipotle is a reward, not a threat. But it was a threat because he was so embarrassed lest he walk in a baptismal garment and they see his shame. You know, he didn't want to walk into Chipotle wearing this bizarre clothing, you know, because it looked bizarre with the shorts that he was wearing and stuff. You know, I mean a baptismal garment looks normal when you're getting baptized. But when you're just wearing it with street clothes, it's a little odd. So those are just a few anecdotes, some real life anecdotes. The, you know, African woman who went to the grocery store to towel, you know, John going to the bank in a baptismal garment, you know, you got to be ready, okay. And so obviously you don't know what's going to happen if you drive somewhere. You don't know if you're, what if your car breaks down? What if you have a blowout? What if you get in a car accident? What if you get pulled over or something? You know, you don't want to be in strange clothing or in, you know, not fully dressed or whatever. You need to just be ready for whatever life throws at you. But how much more important is it to be ready spiritually than to be ready physically? You know, you laugh at that crazy story of being in a foreign country and seeing somebody head to the store in a towel or a little kid not having the foresight to put a shirt on when they're leaving the house. But at the same time, that's what many people are doing spiritually. I mean, they're going through life wrapped in a linen sheet because they haven't read their Bible. They haven't prayed. They haven't taken the things of God seriously. And then when life hits them with something, all of a sudden they're scrambling, hey, I don't want to be scrambling. I want to just be ready to roll at any moment prepared. I don't know where my life's going to take me. You know, I hope that I never get arrested. I hope that I never, you know, get some horrible disease. I hope that I never have a financial catastrophe in my life. I hope I don't have catastrophic relationship problems in my life. I hope I don't. But you know what? I want to be ready for all of the above because who knows what's going to happen. You never know, do you? Well, how can I prepare for everything? Is it a bunch of storeable food? Is that what I need? More than anything, I need to just be prepared by walking with God, knowing my Bible, having that rock solid foundation of Christ in every area of life, putting on the whole armor of God, then when the arrows start coming in, I'm not like holding up a sheet and the arrows are just ripping through that sheet. It doesn't say above all taking the sheet of faith. It's above all taking the shield of faith, right? You don't want to have a paper thin sheet as your protection against all the wiles of the devil, all the fiery darts of the wicked. The fiery darts are going to rip through a linen sheet. You want to have some serious metallic armor going on. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this little story, this little aside in Mark chapter 14, Lord. And I pray that we would take this lesson from it tonight and be ready, be prepared, be sober, be vigilant, always be dressed and not even just dressed in clothing, but taking it a step further by putting on actual plated armor and a helmet and a shield and a sword and shoes. Help us to have the whole package, the whole armor of God and in Jesus name we pray.