In teaching on the last days, Christ said:
“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.” – Luke 21:34
The Greek word for “overcharged” is “baryon”, which means, “to weigh down, to overcharge.” We do not commonly use the term “overcharge” today, and certainly not as it is used in the King James Version. But I think we know what it means. I like this definition from Oxford Dictionary. “To put too much charge into a battery.
That’s a good metaphor. We must be careful not to overcharge our flesh and emotional system with stimuli from the world system. Getting addicted to stimuli that has the tendency to overcharge our fleshly emotional system while our spiritual system hardly receives any charge is a huge problem. In fact, we can become so addicted to emotional stimuli that God cannot interest us.
Christians are not immune from this phenomenon. In my opinion, they attempt to substitute genuine godly passion with the stimuli from the world system. It makes them feel alive when they are actually spiritual weak. I despise contention. I do not enjoy the calamity and I don’t need the adrenalin rush. Most of the time it is caused by people bumping into each other’s opinions. However, people get addicted to it. They thrive on the excitement and gravitate to wherever they can either cause or enjoin contention.
The affect and effect of carnal stimuli is much like eating sweets. Your body will feel happy and you will get a burst of energy, but it is not healthy. There is no good substitute for eating healthy and exercising. Likewise, there is no substitute for pray and feasting on God’s word. If one neglects those essential activities, he or she will be looking to the carnal supply for a substitute. It may not be contention, but it could be sports, shopping, TV, or something else. In moderation, those things may not be harmful. But we have to make certain that whatever overcharges our emotions is of God, not the world system or the flesh.
It you don’t understand or agree with me, then just try turning off the TV and Internet for a week. Try spending more time in prayer and reading/studying the word of God. Most professing Christians cannot do it. I can guarantee you that if you do it, you will become more interested in the things of God and less interested in the things of the world. Further, when you return to watching TV or going on the Internet, you will recognize the things to avoid, and limit your time there.
The point is, our emotional system belongs to God just as much as the rest of our body, our mind, and soul. We may fall into the mistake of believing that we are sovereign over that area. However, just as we should not stimulate our body or alter our minds with drugs or alcohol, we should not overcharge our emotional systems. Our emotion belongs to God. We should be careful to whom or what we give it to. I’m not being legalistic here, but simply saying that the things of God ought to be more interesting, more important, and more stimulating than what we are overcharging ourselves with in these dark and dangerous last days.
Right!
In fact, that is how we keep our lamps filled with oil!
Even feeding on what’s new in the apostasy can be a dangerous substitute for quality time in devotions, spending time with the Lord. Do we hate the apostasy more than we love Him? It is healthy to be aware of the dangers lurking in the apostate church. That will guard our souls from the snares. But we can get so fixed on what is wrong that we take our eyes off of Jesus and this results in a loss of the joy of our salvation. One day, all this will be over; the three A’s of the apostasy, the apocalypse, and armagedon. We will spend eternity with Jesus in a glorious heaven without any sin, heresy, evil, pain, illness, or death. Yet some seem as if by then, they will be at a loss of stimuli by the looks of it now. Yes, we need to be aware of the deceptions to remain on the straight and narrow which leads to Jesus. And we are living in exciting times! But what is the treasure?
Is it any form of stimulation, or is it the Lord?
There are many true Christians right now, in other parts of the world, who don’t have any form of entertainment. They probably aren’t getting updates on the apostasy either. They are stuck in a jail cell for their Christian faith. All they have is Jesus, the guiding of the Holy Spirit, what they retained from Bible study, and what songs are in their heart. And hopefully some bread and water and such. That can be any of us any day, and in the not too distant future I feel it will be. What will matter then? Some say, oh, the more reason to do all of those things now. But in God’s perspective they are nothing more than a frivolous waste of time that He gave us on this earth to be good stewards over. What does it matter if your favorite team wins, if you lose in the end as a result of caring about that?
We quote to the Lord this passage of Scripture almost every day. We start with verse 33 and continue through 36, where the text changes from prophetical to practical. “33 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. 34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and [so] that day come upon you unawares. 35 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” [Luk 21:33-36 KJV]
I published a verse by verse teaching on Luke 21:5-36 about 7 years ago and those last 4 verses have been ‘front and center’ in my life since that time. We start with verse 33 because that verse tells me just how VERY important it is to read and study God’s Word. This earth that I am standing on will one day “pass away” but His Words will not change or be demolished. They are in my heart and cannot be stolen. BUT I could stop paying attention to His prophetical plan. I still can start partying, getting drunk, and allowing the ‘cares of this world’ to lead me on the way ‘apostate’. I believe that is still possible! These verses say that those who reject the warning to stay away from that “overcharged” lifestyle will be trapped by the day of the Lord’s sudden onset.
I know that most do not agree that real Christians can be “left behind” on earth after the rapture. I believe that is what these verses are saying. LITERALLY ! Jesus is speaking to His disciples in this passage. He is warning them (and us) to stay firm in our faith, stay away from things that He knows will lead us into the arms of wolves and hirelings, and away from Him. These verses are about the very last of the ‘last days’. We are right ‘smack-a -dab’ in the very last days. Jesus says in verse 21:28 to watch for the signs to BEGIN to happen in Jerusalem. Those signs are this; the city will get surrounded by armies (muslim ones I believe). When we see that begin to happen “ONE LAST TIME”, Jesus tells us to look up for our redemption draweth nigh. I look at this Scripture in Luke (the Olivet discourse) as a “hint” about when His parousia will occur.
No man knows ‘the day or the hour’ but I truly believe that we can look at events on the world stage, especially Jerusalem, and match these occurrences up with prophetical Scripture and be Spiritually ready for His return. That is the template that we should ‘order our lives’ to.