If You Stay Ready, You A'int Got To Get Ready

February 15, 2026

Rev. Jada Jackson

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

In God. I don't know if you do, but I know I sure do. I trust in God, the one who never fails. Good morning, Christ community. Good morning, Christ community. I honor God this morning. I thank God for Himself. And I thank Him for His Son, Jesus Christ. I thank Him for His precious Holy Ghost that allows us to live right, to do right, to be right. I honor my pastor this morning, the Reverend Dr. Terrence Archery and his lovely wife, Lisa Archery. They are away. He is preaching his friend's anniversary, Pastor Kevin Hawkins. So that's where he is. Everything all right. And he'll be back next week. He's just helping out a friend. All right. I uh I welcome those who are online. Thank you. Those who are online watching, we thank you so much for tuning in because we know that you have opportunity to tune in to many other places, and we thank you that this Christ community is the place that you've chosen, whether you're watching today, tomorrow, next week, or next year. Thank you so much for choosing us. And then to all of you, my brothers and sisters here in the room, thank you so much. Because again, you too have many, a lot of y'all past many churches getting here. So I thank you that this is the place that you have found to be this morning in the building. All right. Let me catch my breath, and we're gonna get into it. Our scripture for today comes from 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 8 through 11. Now I'm gonna trick y'all today because I'm not doing the King James Version. Come on, come on. I'm an old school girl trying to do some new school moves, okay? All right. So we're gonna come out the message Bible today, okay? Come on, come on. All right, 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 8 through 11 out of the message Bible, and it reads this way keep a cool head, stay alert. The devil is poised to pounce and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Keep your guard up. You're not the only ones plunged into these hard times. It's the same with Christians all over the world. So keep a firm grip on the faith. The suffering won't last forever. It won't be long before this generous God, who has great plans for us in Christ, eternal and glorious plans they are, will have you put together and on your feet for good. He gets the last word. Yes, he does. Amen. That is the word of the God, word of God, even out of the message Bible. Pastor has given us a theme for this year: God's people handling God's business. But my topic for today is if you stay ready, y'all know that you ain't gotta get ready. If you stay ready, you ain't gotta get ready. Now I'm not gonna tell you to look at your name, but I'm gonna tell you to tell yourself. If you stay ready self, you ain't got to get ready. The phrase, if you stay ready, you ain't gotta get ready, is widely attributed to the rapper Sugar Free, along with producer DJ Quick in the 1997 song by the same name, if you stay ready. Did you know that, Rich? It's a popular, timeless addict and hip-hop culture highlighting the importance of being consistently prepared. Celebrity Will Smith, motivational speaker Eric Thomas, and even that cute man on Chicago PD, Kevin Edwater, says if you stay ready, you ain't got to get ready. So, as Christians, God is not calling us to live and walk haphazardly through life. He is calling us to live focused, disciplined lives on ready. Our scripture today comes from 1 Peter. The book of 1 Peter serves as a pastoral letter urging scattered Christians to stand firm in their new identity, find hope in their salvation, and respond to persecution with dignity, demonstrating the transformative power of the gospel. Now we find in chapter 5, Peter is giving instructions basically to the whole church. First, he starts out with the elders, the leaders, the small group leaders, the transformation leaders, the men of men making a man leaders, all of the leaders that you ought to lead with care. You ought to lead with love, you ought to lead with Christ-likeness. You don't lead with power. You ain't got you ain't on no power trip. If God gives you the call to lead, you lead with Christ-likeness. And then he speaks to those who are being led. He calls it the young ones, but the other, all of the rest of us, then you live the same way your leaders live. You live in Christ-likeness, you live in love and care. And then he says, for all of us to be humble, to submit ourselves unto the mighty hand of God, and he's going to exalt all of us in due time. The King James says, in due season. He's going to exalt everybody. If you submit and be humble, he's going to exalt us and due season. And then he says we can carry all of our anxieties unto him because he cares for us. Now we're in verse 8. Verse 8, part A says, keep a cool head, stay alert, keep up your guard. Peter is saying to get on ready, be on ready, and stay on ready. Because there's a real devil out there that's trying to get you. So in order to stay ready so you don't have to be get ready, get ready so stay ready so you don't have to get ready. You first of all have to be committed to spiritual readiness. That's my first point. Be committed to spiritual readiness. Spiritual readiness refers to the state of being prepared and equipped to face spiritual challenges, engage in spiritual warfare, and fulfill one's divine calling. It involves a vigilant and proactive approach to one's faith, ensuring that your heart, mind, and spirit are aligned with God's will. This readiness is crucial for us as believers as we navigate the complexities of life. Y'all know life be life, right? So as we as we navigate these complexities of life, we have to be committed to spiritual readiness. And then we strive to live in accordance with the biblical principles. Readiness builds resilience. You have the ability, y'all, you're gonna bend, but you don't break. Times gonna get hard and you're gonna lean around, but you are not gonna utterly fall. A ready mind doesn't just react to difficulties. When stuff happens, you ain't all wigging out and crashing out and about to go off and all the things that we do. Amen. A ready mind doesn't react. It actively finds ways to adapt. Because you really don't have to crash out every time somebody says something to you. You really don't have to crash out every time you don't get your way. You can have a ready mind and you can adapt and learn from the struggle. And then you get to emerge out even stronger. So, how do we start engaging in this spiritual readiness? Pastor preached last week. I don't know how many were here, or you look watched it online, but he preached a powerful, powerful word on the power of God's word. Some of y'all were here. It was a powerful, and if you didn't hear it or you don't remember it, you know sometimes people say, How was church today? Oh, it was good. What did the preacher preach about? Oh, I don't remember. So if you don't really recall what he preached about, go listen to it again. Because it was a powerful word on the power of God's word. Y'all remember at the end he started talking about his soundbar and how he was gonna connect his TV to the soundbar? And that first he went about on doing it the way he thought he should do it. He had it in his mind. He knew what he was doing, so he knew how to connect the soundbar, but he connected the soundbar and it didn't work. And then after that, he tried to connect the soundbar, and so he went to ChatGBT. Now, you know, y'all, we used to love Dr. Google, but we done find Google, and now we didn't hide ChatGBT, and ChatGBT tell us everything from how to live, how to cook, how to write papers, who we're supposed to date, what's wrong with us. So he went to ChatGBT, and Chat BGBT didn't know either. So then he ended up having to go to the manufacturer of the soundball. So if you want to know how to live with spiritual readiness, you need to go to the manual. You need to go to the one who created you, the one who knew you before you were created in your mother's womb, the one who knows everything about you and loves you anyway, then the one who knows what you're gonna do before you even do it, the one that knows where you're gonna end up before you even land. You gotta be committed to the manual. You need to read the manual, you need to study the manual. Now, you know, reading and studying is so much easier now today. We used to back in the day before we had all these phones and stuff, you had to get up, get the Bible, get the strong concordance, get all the things. Now you can just turn over and flip the phone off. So it's not that hard anymore. But you gotta read the Bible, you gotta study the Bible, and then there's one other thing that we don't always like. Now, yesterday was the National Day of Love, and some of y'all was out eating steak and lobster, and you was getting your teddy bears and your uh uh roses and all your things, and that's beautiful. But I I heard, I believe it was Lisa saying that obedience is God's love language. So God wants us to be obedient to the word, not just read it, not just studying, but live the word, and that's the way we are committed, excuse me, to spiritual readiness. Okay, we want to also be committed to spending time in prayer and communion with God. Because how do you get to know somebody if you don't spend time with them? There's a lot of people in this church. I know your name, I see you say, Hey, hey, but I don't really know you because I haven't spent no time with you. There are some of us who say we know God, but we don't spend no time with him. We don't spend no time in the Bible, we don't spend no time praying, we don't spend no time just sitting in his presence. And and prayer is not y'all just a honeydew list. Y'all, y'all know that honeydew list. Uh-huh. You you know, uh, can you do this and will you do this? And can you pick up that? And when you come back, will you step this and do this and do this? And that's how we approach prayer sometimes. God, I need this. And when you get through with that, I need this. And when you're finished with that, I'm looking for a man. And when you're finished with that, I really do want a wife. And when you're finished with that, I need a new car too. And when you're finished with that, my house is ragged, and I wouldn't would like a new one. And that's how we approach prayer. But God wants us to sit in his presence, get to know him, get to know his posture, get to know who he is, get to know what he even what he wants from you. And it's not so he can love you no more. A lot of times we do stuff for folks, and we're folks because we think we want them to love us more. God can't love you no more because in Romans 5, 8, he said, God commended his love towards us that while we was yet sinning, he died, Christ died for us. So when you were still on the strobe, he died for you. When you were swinging crack, he died for you. When you was lying and cheating, he died for you. And he can't love you no more than he did when Christ died on the cross. But what he's asking you to do is live a life for him, for his kingdom to show up here in the earth, for people to know that it is a reality and serving a God that's real and that's true, that you can give like him, forgive like him, love like him. Again, life is life, and not here in these streets. So you want to stay ready, so you ain't got to get ready. Spiritual readiness gets of gets us rid of the ratchetness and replaces us, replaces it with righteousness. Oh, I'm gonna say that again. I'm gonna say it again for those in the back. Hey, y'all in the back. Spiritual readiness gets us rid of ratchetness and replaces it with righteousness. Number two, if you want to stay ready so you don't have to get ready, you have to know your opponent. Verse A B, the B part said, the devil is poised to pounce and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Now I am gonna read the King James on this one. Uh it says, Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walks around seeing who he may devour. It is the word. Church, the devil is real. There is a real devil out here, and his assignment is to take out the people of God. And sometimes we act like we don't know that. Sometimes we act like we don't realize that there is an assignment on our lives. So we're so busy with stuff that's just, I want to say it better, but I'm gonna say it like this: just petty. We're just so so so caught up in stuff that's petty that really don't mean nothing. We don't have no power to fight in the heavens like we ought to, because we fight one another. Oh, okay, y'all, y'all, uh-huh. So so sometimes the devil keeps keeps us napping because he frustrates us. Because we can't get our way. He makes us tired because of all the things we have to do. And yes, we do have a lot of things to do. He makes us confused. I don't know what my life is supposed to be like. I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. And so he just loves you to sleep so he can just sit back and he really don't have to do much because you're doing all the work. He's infiltrating you while you just be rocking by baby in a treetop. Oh my. We don't have no power because we so tired. And then here's here here is one. Now, here is one. That here is one. All right, y'all ready? Now, now, uh, you came to church today, and you were smiling and waving at me, and I just looked. I ain't say nothing. I just looked. So now you done figured out in your mind that I'm I don't like you, I'm mad at you, I got something against you, I uh uh uh I must be talking about you because I'm I didn't wave at you. Wait, wait, yeah, let me tell you something. And this this really is the truth. Do y'all know that I'm blind and one eye can't see like the other? Did y'all know that I had three calls and five texts before I ever got out the bed to get ready to come to church? Did you know that I was late for church because I had a wardrobe malfunction? Did you know that there was traffic on 635? So I was late. Did you know the time I got here, people started asking me a bunch of questions. I didn't know if there was enough people shit to serve on campus. Did you know any of that? No, you just said I didn't speak to you, so now you upset, and now you talking about me, and now and now you created this marriage that this is the person that I am, and all you know, last month, last year at uh, at uh, what was it, at Watch Night? I don't believe she spoke to me then. And that ain't all. You've created this narrative about me, but now you go to lunch with your friends, and you're gonna tell your friends about how I didn't speak to you. And I I know she saw me. How could she miss me in this big old red jacket? Uh-uh, I she not she said, she said, oh baby, I'm sorry I didn't see you, forgive me. But that ain't what she meant. She saw me. And now your friends done joined in the party. Well, you know, she does be acting funny. She, she, you know, I you know, I believe about two years ago I said something to her, and she didn't even speak back to me. So now the devil done pounced. He done loaded you to sleep, rockabah, baby, in the treetop, and now he done pounced in this situation, and now he is causing strife and division amongst the sister and the brethren. This don't just happen in church, it happens in families, it happens in workspaces, it happens in relationships, so now the devil done jumped in and caused all this havoc amongst his uh amongst God's people, so now they are rendered inoperative. Cause we petty. Cause we petty. We create the narratives, we run with them. You don't even you don't even take time to find out if nothing's true. The scriptures say, if you got alt with your brother, leave your gift at the altar. I don't care how good you sing, I don't care how good you pray, I don't care how good you preach, I don't care what you got. If you got alt with your brother, leave it at the altar. Go to your brother and reconcile. So we won't have all of this amongst us. And then you the devil just sitting back saying, Thank you. I didn't have to do much with this one. Thank you. I didn't even have to break a sweat on this, thank you. Ephesians 6, 12 through 18, in the good news Bible says, For we are not fighting against human beings. For we are not fighting against human beings, for we are not fighting against human beings, but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of the dark age. So put on God's armor now. Then, when the evil day comes, you will be able to resist the enemy's attacks, and after fighting to the end, you will still hold your ground. So stand ready. With truth as a belt tied around your waist, and righteousness as a breast as your breastplate, and as your shoes, the readiness to announce the good news of peace. At all times, carry faith as a shield, for with it you will be able to put out all the burning arrows of the arrow shot by the evil one, and accept salvation as a helmet and the word of God as a sword, which speak which the spirit gives you. Do all this in prayer, asking God's help. Pray on every occasion as the Spirit leads. For this reason, keep alert and never give up. Pray always for all God's people. Because if you stay ready, you ain't got to get ready. Amen. And then my final point, and I'm gonna let y'all go. Go for y'all who didn't celebrate Valentine's Day today. Yesterday, you celebrated today. My final point is trust in God. My Savior. The one who never fails. Family, God is not the God of last minute scrambling. That's our God. That's what we do down here. But in the heavenly realm, God has a long-term plan to bless our lives. He situated it the day we were born. God is not a God of last minute scrambling. That's what we do. We're trying to figure it out. We don't know what we're gonna do. God ain't that ain't God. God knows what He's doing. So when the door opens, when the opportunity arises, when the breakthrough knocks, you want to be found ready. I'm gonna close with this. Genesis chapter 6. You'll find the story of Noah. Now long story short, you read it when you get home. Most of us know the story, but if you don't, that's okay. Go read it when you get home. God was gonna cause devastation on the land because of wickedness. And the people was just hard-headed and wouldn't do nothing to win. So he commissioned Noah to build the ark, a big boat. Now, Noah was gonna build, he commissioned Noah to build this boat at a time where people, it is recorded, had not ever seen rain before. Now mist had come up out the ground, but the way we know rain from the sky and in deluge had never happened before. So he commissioned Noah to build a boat. And Noah labored for decades on a massive ship in a land that had not ever seen rain. Trusting God's word over the lack of physical evidence, visible evidence. Aye, the scripture didn't really say, but I can imagine as Noah was gathering all the gopher wood and all the things that God had commanded him to do to build the ark, I can imagine people were laughing at Noah. I can imagine they were making fun of Noah. I can imagine they was chilling, they was maxing and relaxing, say, look at this fool. We ain't never seen no rain. What is he doing? Do we even know what and who is this God and what we got going on? Noah was listening and preparing while everybody else was chilling. Everybody was chilling while Noah was building. Church, sometimes God will call you to prepare for something that hasn't even shown up yet. God will call you to build an ark in a place where it has not yet rained. It's not always clear while God will put something in your heart to do, but God will call you to build a place, build a place that has not where build an ark where it has not yet rained. And you're gonna look different like Noah. You're gonna look a little crazy. People gonna talk about you, you're gonna look a little strange, you're gonna look a little off, you're gonna look like you really don't know what you're doing, like you're doing too much. Like, like why why why you gotta do all that while you prepare? Why you why why why why you gotta go to Wednesday uh midday, and then you gotta go to talk through the Bible, and then you gotta come on first Wednesday, and then you gotta go to make it of a man, and then you gotta go to go to uh uh uh the men's brief and be on the women's prayer line. Why you it don't take all that? Why why you gotta go back to school? You gotta go job. You you you you you make a good service. Why you gotta go back to school? Why why you gotta do that? God is building something in you where in a place where it ain't no rain yet. And one of the things I found out about us as Christians, which really kind of baffles me, I've been saved over 40 years now, and I I only hear it in church. Uh now I'm not one of these people, so I'm not a Greek, so I'm not an AKA or a Delta or Zeta Phi Beta or any of those other things. But but you don't never you don't never hear none of them say, Why you gotta be AKA in so much? Why you gotta be delta in so much? Why you gotta cue dog so much? But it was only in the church where we try to get ahead, when we try to level up, where we try to serve God more, when we try to be committed to spiritual readiness, that we always get some opposition. Why you gotta be so holy? Ain't that what I supposed to be? Don't the Bible say, be ye holy, for I am holy? And if you're a Christian, ought you all to be Christ like? Don't you won't don't you all don't you supposed to be trying to level up? Don't you supposed to be committed to spiritual readiness? Don't you supposed to be ready for the the opponent of the devil? Don't you supposed to be on ready so stay ready so you ain't got to get ready? Don't you supposed to be trying to trade that wretchedness for righteousness? Ain't that what you're supposed to be doing? And then when you're doing all your preparation, and when the storms come, and when the tide shifts, and the season change, and you done done your preparation so you can stand. And though you might bend, you ain't gonna break. They gonna wish they had been preparing too. Just keep on chilling, keep on doing what you've been doing. Because I stayed ready so I didn't have to get ready. Family, stay awake, stay prepared. Now is the time to get ready. Now is the time to stand ready. Now is the time to live ready. Because when you are ready, no enemy can block you, no storm can stop you, no delay can deter you. So you so walk like you ready, pray like you ready, love like you ready, dream like you ready, talk like you ready, live like you ready, stay ready already, be ready already. Because eyes have not seen, nor ears have not heard, neither has it entered into the hearts of men what God has prepared for them that love him. And if you stay ready, you ain't gotta get ready. Amen.

unknown 30:02

Thank you, Lord.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

Father, thank you so much for this word. We ask that you would hide it in our hearts. Father, we pray that it will take root and produce fruit, that we will live our lives already. Because we know that we live in a perverse and an evil world, and we want to be able to stand, knowing that you are our God and you have created us, and that we will do and be who you have called us to do and be. In Christ's name we amen.