ADVENT: The Second Advent

This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

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Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you have a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.

1 Thessalonians 4 · chapter mention

First Thessalonians chapter 4.

1 Thessalonians 4 · chapter mention

And we are during this Advent season, the four Sundays leading up to Christmas are known as Advent on the church calendar, which means Advent is a word, a Latin word just means coming or arrival.

And so we're we're focusing on the characters of Advent.

And I want on this second Sunday of Advent, I want to focus on one of the characters, one of the figures of Advent that we don't talk about that much, and that's the returning Jesus.

And I want to just read from the Bible what the Bible says.

First Thessalonians chapter 4.

1 Thessalonians 4 · chapter mention

I'll start reading in verse 13.

And the Bible says this it says, but we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers.

Now, by the way, let me give you the context for who we're reading about and from.

This is a church at Thessalonica, and by way of background, this was a very tired congregation.

They were pretty beat up, pretty persecuted, afflicted.

Some of their members had died, and people came and said, Hey, those people had died.

They referred to as somewhere asleep.

Hey, they they died.

Those people, they're not gonna go to heaven because they weren't around when Jesus returns.

And by the way, they were told he's coming back any day now, next Tuesday.

You don't know of a culture where people keep predicting when Jesus is gonna come back, do you?

By the way, you got 12 days.

The minds said to tell you that.

And so people quit their jobs and they just sat around and just waited for for Jesus to come back.

And so it's to this group of people that Paul writes to kind of clarify what this was about.

So let's start over in verse 13.

He says, But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first, and then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

And so we will always be with the Lord.

Now let me just stop right there and just kind of say this is an established uh fact in the Bible.

Christianity, as Christians, we believe because the Bible teaches that on a day when no man knows, that Jesus Christ, who lived the, who was born of a virgin, he lived a sinless life, he suffered under Pontius Pilate, he was crucified, he was buried, he rose again on the third day, just like he said he would.

He appeared uh to over 500 people, and he's ascended back into heaven.

And one day that no man knows, not even he himself, he's gonna come back, and he's gonna those who are alive are gonna be caught up with him in the air, and those who have died, the Bible refers to as falling asleep, they're gonna be raised first, the dead in Christ will rise first, so the Baptists will be at the front of the line.

Amen?

No?

Okay, anyway, uh, and and so let's just kind of say, let's just be can we just agree that that isn't that that that that that is the truth, that is an established fact.

And if you agree with that, would you just say amen?

Amen.

And if you don't agree with that, as I told the first service, you should get busy being the most ruthless, selfish, maniacal, self-centered person that anybody knows.

And here's why.

Because there's no consequence for you living your life like you do.

If there is no second coming, if there is no great day of reckoning, or as they say in some traditions, on that great getting up morning, if there's no God in this world who, by the way, when he comes back, he's not coming in a manger.

Revelation 19 says that he's coming riding a white horse, and the armies of heaven are dressed in white, riding behind him.

So if you die before Jesus comes back, you get a front row seat to history.

That's what the Bible says.

He comes back, he's not coming back with a little basket of rose petals like a flower, like a ring bear in a wedding, you know.

The Bible says that he has a sharp sword coming out of his mouth with wish to strike down the nations.

He treads the winepress of the wrath and the fury of God Almighty.

Jesus comes back and announces, say hello to my little friend.

That's just the way it's gonna be.

And so during Advent, we should probably start kind of getting ready because it's hard for us to get around.

Last week was kind of awkward for people, and it's kind of like, well, I mean, how are we looking forward to Jesus being born?

He's already born.

Memo to you guys.

Have you not read the book?

So this is one of those things that we look forward to.

Matter of fact, the Bible says we look forward to it and we speed its coming by how we live.

So, see, see, because this is an established fact and we agree upon that, amen?

So, so, so, so what?

When you read things in the Bible, you should not out of not out of disrespect, but out of preparation say, okay, so what does that mean for me?

Paul keeps writing.

And he says in verse 18, therefore, encourage one another with these words.

What words?

Chapter 5, verse 1.

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you who have no need, you have no need to worry, uh, to have anything written to you.

For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

While people are saying there's peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief, for you are all children of the light, children of the day.

We are not of the night or of the darkness, so let us not sleep as others do.

But let us keep awake and be sober, for those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk get drunk are drunk at night.

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.

For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with Him.

Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing.

There's three things the text says to us as we kind of think about on this second Sunday of Advent, we think about the second Advent, the second coming of Christ.

We kind of get ready.

By the way, have you ever noticed when you talk about the second coming, it's kind of a downer for most people?

I mean, can you imagine being at a Christmas party uh this next week and somebody say, Hey, Bill, how was your week?

Great.

Heard a sermon on Sunday about the second coming?

Awesome.

And people be like, okay, never mind.

I just, he says, hey, so so what do we do?

So what do we do?

Therefore, he says, encourage one another with these words.

I want to encourage you with three things uh uh uh about this from the text.

The first thing he says is that, hey, how do we live?

If this is really real, what do we do?

He says, number one, stay awake.

Stay awake.

Look at uh chapter 5, verse 6.

Paul says, so then let us not sleep, and in those next three words, as others do.

Let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober for those who sleep, sleep at night, those who get drunk or drunk at night.

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober.

By the way, your Christianity is most on display when you are when everybody else is doing something else, and you have to make the choice to do what you know to be the right thing.

Because the Bible says, hey, let's not fall asleep as others do.

Now, if you've read much of the Bible, and if you haven't, that's okay.

Jesus says the same thing.

Don't turn there, but back in Matthew chapter 24, people have always been curious about when Jesus is gonna come back.

Matthew 24 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 24, about verse 3, some people walked up to Jesus and they said, Hey, tell us when will be the end of the age and what will be the sign of your coming?

Matthew 24 · chapter mention

Translation, when is this all gonna go down?

When's the world gonna end?

And Jesus gives this long answer.

Do you love getting a asking a short question and getting a long answer?

Jesus says, Hey, there'll be wars and rumors of wars, there'll be earthquakes in different places, and this is just the beginning of birth pains, okay?

Nation will rise against nation, you'll be hated by all men on account of me, and this is just the beginning.

It's gonna get worse than this, Jesus says.

In other words, you're gonna be in situations that are so overwhelming, you're gonna think, it couldn't possibly get worse.

And Jesus says, yes, it does.

And then he says this, and the love of most.

He said, people will turn and betray and hate one another, and then he says this, and the love of most will grow cold.

You know where your love grows cold?

Your love grows cold.

Your love for God and your and your passion and your priority of spiritual things and church and worship and all that stuff, it grows cold in the transitions of life, like adolescence.

Jesus is interesting, and you make little stuff out of popsicle sticks, and it's all cute, and it's stories, and then you get to be about 12, and your friends get a cell phone, and your parents are undiscerning, let you get on Facebook and you realize, whoo, there's a crazy world out here.

And in that transition, you gotta kind of make a choice.

Do I really believe this?

Is this my faith?

Because you kind of fall asleep and you begin to do as everybody else does, or as Paul writes in Thessalonians, as others do.

Another transition you gotta be careful of is marriage.

Marriage.

I mean, you go into marriage and you get to you think, hey, I want to get married, and the longer you're not married, the easier it is for your standard to get lower and lower and lower and lower.

And then you get married and you have kids and you think, hey, we need to get these kids in church.

And not a bad idea.

But don't just get your kids in church for your kids, because your kids pick up on that.

If you come to church and you live disconnected from what what happens here, your kids realize, hey, my dad's a Ford salesman that drives a Chevy.

Something's wrong with this.

He didn't believe this stuff.

Another transition that'll get you is empty nest.

Why?

That's where you that's where it's easy to look around and you become, you fall asleep.

And the Bible says, stay awake.

Why?

Because you think, hey, we've worked hard, we've sacrificed, we got our kids raised, we got them off at college, now we get to do what we want to do.

Retirement is another transition that'll get you.

It's easy to fall asleep.

You see what you really believe when you have the opportunity and the resources.

Remember when you were so broke you couldn't do dumb stuff?

Remember that?

That was a good time, wasn't it?

It answered a lot of questions.

You were like, hey, we should get crazy and go to Vegas and just play dice and play blackjack and just be wild out there on the strip.

And we got$8.62 and are checking account.

Never mind.

But if you play your cards right, you retire, you got a little bling bling.

All of a sudden, oh, we ain't got to go to church.

We've been going to church for 33 years.

We stored up enough good stuff.

Let somebody else volunteer in that nursery.

We've done our time.

You fall asleep.

Now, by the way, if you notice, look at but look at verse 8.

He says, But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love.

See that?

That's past tense.

Having done this.

See, what what what allows you to stay awake and to finish well and to kind of believe, hey, hey, hey, this stuff is really real.

And so I'm going to live like the rest of my life is not our determination.

And no, no, no.

It's that, hey, we have having, because we've put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, we tried on different helmets, but the one helmet that fits the most and sustains all the way to the end is the hope of salvation.

He says, Hey, you want to see who really knows God translation?

See who's just keep on keeping on when everybody else is going off the deep end.

When everybody else is saying, Well, I'm going to take a break from church.

Well, you know, we got our kids raised and we're going to go do what we want to do.

They're falling asleep all around us, beloved.

And the Bible says to you and I, stay awake.

The second thing it says is, hey, you've got to believe God's intentions.

You got to believe God's intentions.

Look at verse 9.

For God is not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with Him.

In other words, whether you're living or dead doesn't change how God feels about you.

These people have been infected with a false doctrine and teaching around that.

For God, look at verse 9 again, is not destined us for wrath.

When I say you've got to believe God's good intentions, maybe it'll help you.

Did you see the news this past week?

The story was going around about the cup I was had the news on.

Wasn't really paying attention because I'm just sick of hearing about the physical cliff.

I'm just like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

They should play that in the grocery store.

It's Muzac, and we could just shop to it.

Yeah, physical cliff, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Hey, how about you all get on the bus and go over the cliff together?

We'll just start over.

The president and Congress, all of you get on the bus.

We'll send some hardworking, honest people up there, all right?

I think we'd be just fine.

But I digress.

Anyway, back to the serving.

What do you mean?

The news was on, and I heard this something about a love letter written 22 years ago.

And I kind of focused in because they said Pensacola, Florida.

And I was like, oh, my wife's in Pensacola.

You mean she had a boyfriend before she met me?

She better not be out there catting around.

And so I turned up the volume, and sure enough, in the sixth grade, a little boy wrote a love letter to a little girl.

And everyone's like, Can you believe after 22 years?

And here was the big story.

Because at their wedding, that's right, they got married.

They had the picture framed, and it was there for all their guests to see because they were in the sixth grade.

And then well, I'll read the letter to you.

I think the guy's name is Trevor.

And apparently this girl had options, and the boy knew, because he names this kid in here.

Here's the letter.

He wrote this as a sixth grade.

How'd you like to have your name?

There's some man out there in the world kind of going to his wife and kids.

Yeah, I'm that guy in that letter right there.

Our dad's famous.

I'm going to take him to show and tell now.

Sixth grade boy wrote this 22 years ago.

Dear Kathy, I still like you and I still want to go with, I still want you to go with me.

Remember when you called it going with me?

You ain't saying to your wife today, hey, let you go with me.

I ain't going nowhere.

It's Sunday.

I'm napping.

I'm going to watch Sweet Genius back to back to back to back.

Get some Christmas idea.

I still like you.

And I still want you to go with me.

I know Brad likes you.

Please decide who you're going to go with.

Think hard and let me know your decision.

I'll be standing at the end of the hall and the beginning of the other hall.

Meet me there as soon as school is out, and you can tell me.

Sincerely, Trevor.

Trevor went to the University of Florida.

Because by the way, they got together and then it lasted two weeks and they broke up.

He gave her a$40 little ring he had saved his money and bought.

And in sixth grade,$40 might as well be$40,000.

And it made him so angry he got the ring back and went into the pond behind his house and threw the ring in the pond.

Crazy old girl.

And he went to the University of Florida.

She went to East Carolina.

And then he moved to New Orleans and Hurricane Rita hit, and he moved back to Pensacola.

She ended up back in Pensacola.

They were like, hey, hey, hey.

Walking on the beach one night, he just leaned in and kissed her.

I've been on that beach and make you do crazy things.

He leaned in and kissed her, and they get married and they start talking, and she's like, I got that letter.

She whips that bad boy out.

And everyone's like, Oh, can you believe a romance that lasted for 22 years despite the fact that they were separated and blah, blah, blah.

And at that point, I just snapped and talked back to the TV.

22 years ain't nothing.

Can you imagine a romance that lasted 2200 years?

See, when I say believe God's intentions towards you, what I mean is in verse 9, for God is not destined us for wrath.

I was got together my neighbor, grilled steaks, makes these great steaks.

He said, Hey, we're having people over.

I'm gonna grill steaks.

You want to come over?

Absolutely.

So I go over there, and there were little kids there, like one-year-old, kind of toddler where they walk like monkeys, you know, they're kind of walking around like this.

One of them came out, he had another on but a diaper, and he had a riding crub in his hand.

I was like, last time I had nothing on but a diaper and a riding crub.

I spent 72 hours in county jail, but anyway, kid was running around, whoa! And every once in a while that kid would get sideways and get a little out of sorts, and he'd walk over to his mom or his dad and do like this.

And one thing I noticed, none of the parents ever said, nah, nah, get away from me.

Yet some of you think God's that way towards you.

Every time, I mean, that mom would be eating, talking on the phone, rocking the baby with a foot, and she'd reach down and get that hip and pick that kid up and throw him on it and walk around.

I was like, she's like an occupus, you got nine arms up in here.

And I just watched it.

I just watched the whole thing, and I just thought, every time the mom or the dad made room.

Why would I tell you that?

Because sometimes you come to your heavenly father like this, and you you you need to be clear about his intentions towards you.

He's not destined you for wrath.

God did not establish a relationship with you just to punish you, just to be like the little boy in the Christmas story.

Put his foot on, you climb up the slide and he put his foot on your head and goes, ho, ho, ho! Matter of fact, he wrote you a letter.

And all through this letter, he says the same thing over and over and over.

And for 2,200 years, he's been saying the same thing.

Oh, longer than that, actually, because the letter starts back in the Old Testament.

You say, What do you mean?

Well, if you went back to Genesis, you could start in the very beginning, chapter two, he told Adam and Eve in the garden, hey, you're free to eat of any tree in the garden.

But of this one tree, don't it?

Can you imagine taking your kids to Walmart today and saying, hey, you can have anything in this store for Christmas.

You just can't have a calculator.

They're like, okay.

They're not going to run back to the calculators and go, hey, you got that Texas Internet TI-84 that I can do calculus on when I'm a senior.

What?

They got a wagon train of shopping carts coming out of there.

They blew it.

God could have said, hey, that's it.

You're just getting rashed now.

Instead, he says in Genesis chapter 12, verse 1, to Abram, our spiritual forefather.

Genesis 12:1

He says, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to a land that I'll show you.

I'll make of you a great nation.

I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse.

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

God says, Hey, let's just start off from square one so you can be clear about my intentions.

Because I'm going to be clear about my intentions.

I will bless you to such a degree, such an overwhelming, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing.

Open up the windows of heaven because we can't contain it all.

We've got to pour some on you down there on the earth.

I will bless you.

And it will be so much you can't get it all in your pockets and in the pores of your skin that it'll come through you and through you, all the nations, all the ethne, all the people groups, all the families of the world will be blessed.

And by the way, you are now blessing.

You now own five water wells in Africa that you were paying to maintain because everyone's drilling water wells, and that's a great thing.

But within three to five years, 80% of those wells are non-functional.

Either they cave in or part breaks,$10 park, nobody can do it.

And so Wade, our missions and outreach pasture, and I got together with a guy, and he said, I was in youth ministry and I wasn't making any money.

My father-in-law sells fracking pumps.

I don't even know what a fracking pump is, but I like saying it.

I'd like to say that for a living.

What do you do?

I sell fracking pumps.

And he's like, Well, and so I said, My father-in-law called me and said, Hey, you're not gonna make any money in youth ministry.

Come to work for me and you make$200,000 a year.

Oh, what are you talking about, Willis?

He said, So I did.

And in doing that, I found my ministry.

He said, Neil, we have four teams all over Africa, and they're finding these wells, and there's these engineers at Texas Instruments in Richardson who go to a church that's on board with this project, and they're developing a chip by which they can monitor these wells from a computer and say, this one's at like 60% capacity, this one's at 90%, this one's at 15.

We need to send a team there.

But what they do is for three years they maintain the wells.

Not for a lifetime.

They said, We'll go fix them, and we bring villagers with us, and we teach them how to fix the well, and we share the gospel, and we disciple those that are already Christians.

And into three years, the village can all fix any component of the well, and then we move on to another well.

And I say, How much is it?

And he said, Well, it's this much for a year.

I said, put us down for five.

So there's five villages in Africa for the next three years that are gonna have constant and sustainable water, clean drinking water because of what you do.

Merry Christmas.

So when you walk by and you put something in those boxes by the doors, you give your tithe and go above that, some of you can give an offering.

It doesn't just sit around here.

I tell you that.

So when people come up to you, dark skinned, beautiful boys and girls, and say, Hey, I got clean drinking water and didn't die of things that my cousin died of.

My mom and dad heard the gospel, and I'm in heaven because of what you and your church did.

I want you to have a frame of reference for it so you're not going, Oh.

Well, go, what?

What?

I don't know.

I just went to church and just, I was just tithed.

That's just something I just chose to do.

And no, no, see, see, see, see, it matters.

See, God's in, he says, hey, my intentions are to bless you to such a degree that the blessing, you can't contain it.

It has to spill over from you and go to other places.

And so some of the blessing that you all bring into this place has already gone to bless people, uh, another nation, another family in the world, another ethnic, another people group.

He doesn't stop there.

He says in Jeremiah 29, by the way, they're in captivity.

They didn't believe God, they didn't take God at his word, they doubted God's intentions towards them.

They said, I know, but if you know, then why are you saying but?

I know, but, but, but.

And God raised up Babylon and they took him into captivity, made him indentured servants.

And in the context of captivity, God says, Thus says the Lord, when 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil to give you a future and a hope.

See, the blessing of God, the intention of God is not, is not not halted because of your circumstance.

You go into the New Testament and he says in Ephesians chapter 2, he says, Hey, we were by nature objects of wrath, and we we all lived a certain way that we're ashamed of.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

And then he gets to verse 5 and says, This, but God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he has loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses.

By the way, anybody can love you when you're doing good.

God loved you when you were incapable of doing good.

Do you realize that?

Hello.

See, because if you don't, you think that somehow you're earning the love of God.

You're not earning the love of God.

I'm not earning the love of God.

There's never been a day in my life where I've deserved to be loved of God.

That's why when I read in the Bible and he says in Ephesians 2, even when we're dead, see, because of this great love with which he loved us, even when we're dead in our trespasses, what that means, that's not a word you think of.

We're dead in our trespasses.

What does that mean?

We are spiritually, look at me, spiritually incapable of changing the choices that we make.

We knew there was a right, but we preferred the wrong, and that's just who we were.

Do you remember when you were that way?

Hello.

You should remember.

You should be able to reach over and touch that and go, Yeah, I remember that.

I don't want to go back there, but I remember that.

God loved you then.

That's why he says, with this great love, that he's loved us together with Christ.

He says, in Ephesians 2, talking about God's intentions, he said he made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Did you get that last phrase?

That in the coming ages, this lifetime is not long enough for God to demonstrate all his goodness towards you.

That's why you've got to go somewhere where you can live forever.

Because he's never gonna run out.

Did you hear what I just said?

In the coming ages, I'm gonna have a frame of reference for that.

They don't have calendars printed up that far in advance.

That's what the Bible says.

Ephesians chapter 2, verse 6 and 7.

Ephesians 2:6

So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace.

How's he gonna do that?

In kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

The reason I say that is because we don't have a means by which we can grasp how good God wants to be to us.

However, what we do have is a means to measure how bad we've all been.

That seems to be all we're able to talk about.

But I just want to say, hey, when he writes, because the people in Thessalonica Thessalonica were like, I don't know.

And he says, hey, God's not destined us for wrath.

God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thirdly and finally, what he says to us is, hey, you do this together.

You do it together.

Look at verse 11.

He says, Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing.

Let me stop right there and just breathe that in.

Therefore, because of this, encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing.

For most of us in this room, the missing element in your faith is sitting around you right now.

Let me say that again.

For most of us in this room, the missing element to your faith is sitting around you right now, and it's the others.

They're the others of the one another's.

It's the people sitting around you.

It's not the guy up here.

It's not me.

It's the people around you.

Because most of you, you come and this is about all you can take of me.

You're kind of like, huh, okay, that's good.

Last week he kind of got off the reservation, talked about lovers and wine.

Creepy.

Don't ever do that again.

Hey, if you'll sign your emails, I can write back to you.

Okay?

Works better that way.

Just want you to know.

And I wasn't trying to be inappropriate, and I'll own that.

Maybe I should have used a different analogy, but some of you are like, oh my Lord.

I was like, relax.

But anyway, I digress.

No, the people around you, the people that are right here.

It's one of the things.

You say, What do you mean?

I don't know what you mean.

Well, look at verse 12.

Because this is kind of what they do.

He says, What do you mean?

Encourage one another and build one another up.

Verse 12, we ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

Be at peace among yourselves.

In other words, hey, you don't need you need to have respect for your pastors, okay?

That means Lance and Wade and Clyde and Jerry and the people that stand before you.

That we're not perfect, but but we're not a bunch of goofballs who fell off a wood truck out here in front of the church and stumbled in and said, Y'all hiring?

He says, Hey, be at peace with them.

In other words, if you're frustrated with me, don't go tell somebody else.

That ain't helping anybody.

No, you be at peace with them.

You man up or lady up and go to them and say, hey, you know what?

Because that's how it happens.

He goes on.

Verse 14, he says, and we urge you, brothers, admonish the idol, encourage the faint-hearted, and help the weak.

Be patient with them all.

Hear that again.

Because some of you got these kind of people in your life.

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idol.

That's the people that had said, hey, Jesus is coming next Tuesday.

I'm gonna quit my job.

I'm gonna go buy a new truck, not make a payment.

Just drive it around until Jesus comes.

Encourage the faint-hearted.

He said, What do you mean?

It's the person in your community group.

When they start sharing, internally, you just roll your eyes like, please, let me guess.

You're gonna say the same thing you said two weeks ago.

You say the same thing every time.

Just move on.

The Bible says, encourage those people.

Encourage those people.

Finally, it says, help the weak.

Be patient with them all.

Help the weak.

Verse 15, see that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

Let me read that again.

See, see that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another.

That's believer to believer.

And then, and to everyone.

And you say, Well, what do you mean, do good?

I mean, I ain't bought doing good is not as hard as you think it is.

Now, by the way, someone called me a couple weeks ago and said, Hey, uh, my husband and I had kind of been talking, and we want to pay someone's mortgage for the month of December just to bless them.

I was like, Bless the Lord.

My mortgage is with Chase C H A.

Thank you for calling.

No, and I said, you know what?

I got a phone.

I said, let me think about that.

I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of people.

Hung up the phone, and when I didn't, I couldn't hear the Lord, I called my wife because their voice sounds a lot alike.

And she said, You know somebody?

Because my wife's around people.

See, you got to be around people to know people.

You can't just show up and stare at the back of their head out there and then leave and think, I went to church.

No, you didn't.

You came and had an experience.

That's why some of you went to a really big church for a long time and just left angry.

Because you never connected anywhere.

Called my wife and she gave me a name.

I was like, oh, absolutely, that's perfect.

And I was tempted to go.

I was just gonna say that.

If I thought a little bit longer, I'm sure.

Some of you are like, well, I can't do that.

Hey, doing good, that's good, but that's not all involved.

Like this week, all of us can do good.

This week I'm having uh coffee with a pastor at Starbucks over in town center, and we're talking each other out of quitting, and we're just kind of.

And I got this anonymous email.

I mean, do your people sign your emails?

No, they don't sign their emails.

No, he was wanting to quit.

I was fine.

I got thick skin.

Uh and we're talking, and this have you ever been in a room where the woman walks in that's so beautiful you can't help but stare at her?

And you're just kind of like, Did I just make it awkward by the way?

Y'all are like, no.

I mean, the door opens, and I mean, this strikingly beautiful woman walks in, and I was like, Oh, I probably, man, that is a beautiful woman right there.

And Lord, you did really good when you made that woman right there.

I'm just saying.

I'm not doing anything inappropriate, I'm just saying, what a friend we have in Jesus.

She orders at the front counter, me and my preacher friend are sitting there.

She walks around to wait for the beverage to come out.

And I was like, and the Lord said, Tell her she's beautiful.

And I was like, ah, that's creepy.

I love you and everything, but that's creepy.

Matter of fact, I'm gonna glance over there, and if she's looking at me, I'll kind of maybe say something, but uh, she's probably not looking.

And I got talking, listen to my friend.

I glanced over and she's looking right at me.

I was like, she might be hot for my chili.

Well, I don't want to make her stumble.

What are we doing here?

And I'm listening to this guy plather on about his church and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And I was like, that was just coincidence.

I glanced back over, and she's looking over there.

And I was like, Oh no, say I don't do that, God.

And God's like, tell her she's beautiful, and so I was like, okay.

And so I glanced over.

She's still looking.

And I was kind of like, I know it's probably hard to look away, but I got a ring on, okay?

I don't want to give you false hope.

So I said, excuse me, could you come here?

And she's like, Me?

You ever kind of be staring at somebody and they catch you staring?

I caught her staring.

So I said, Come over here.

And she's like, Oh, okay.

And she comes over and I said, Me and my friend, we're just sitting here talking, and we I just want you to know, we want you to know we're in agreement on this, even though he doesn't know it.

You are a beautiful woman.

And her eyes filled up with tears, and she said, Oh my gosh.

And I said, I'm serious.

She goes, You're kidding.

I said, No, I'm serious.

You are beautiful.

And I just feel like I was supposed to tell you that.

She said, Well, today's my 71st birthday.

Didn't go where you thought it was going, did it?

Telling you, y'all gonna have your place in the lake of fire unless you learn to do better.

I mean, she was dressed to the nines, had on a red Christmas jacket and some black and white houndstooth pants, and she was like, Well, I don't, I mean, it's my 71st birthday.

And I said, And you're beautiful.

Go home and tell your husband, hey, I'm 71, and my nails are done, and my hair's looking good, and I'm fierce.

Take me out to dinner, I look so good.

She's blinking back tears, and my friend's like, I was in the middle of telling you.

Shut up.

I said, I want to interrupt your dad, I just want to tell you that.

And she walked away, just doing this.

I said, just beautiful.

Absolutely beautiful.

See, doing good doesn't cost you anything.

Think about how you do good this week.

He says, hey, do good to one another and to everyone.

Verse 16, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances.

Look at me, beloved, not for all circumstances, because some hard things are gonna happen in this lifetime.

And he said, Hey, you hadn't got to act like some smiling cult member, oh, I just thank God for this.

No, in this.

In all those kind of people that do that, they don't read the Bible, okay?

That's not Christianity.

They just, oh man, thank you, Lord.

I got cancer.

No, you're a liar.

Okay.

Because I'm getting on a plane this afternoon and flying to Kansas City, spend a couple days with my friend Joey.

He preached here.

He's got kidney cancer.

It's not good.

He said, Hey, for Christmas, I'm gonna come see you.

Well, that would be great.

That's how he talks nowadays.

Sounds like a robot.

Sorry, it takes me a long time to talk.

So, Joy, what do you want to do when I come?

I'll do, I'll be your driver.

You can't drive.

I said, Joy, how's your cancer doing?

Well, I blacked out at a red light the other day and woke up ten minutes later, and people were all around my car staring.

Yeah?

He goes, I told him I just took a nap.

I said, What do you want to do?

He goes, I want to go eat barbecue every day.

Sign me up.

What I'm not gonna do is I'm not gonna say, Hey, let's just thank the Lord for this.

The Bible says, in, get your prepositions right.

In all things.

And look at me, beloved.

We're almost done.

Sometimes it's gonna be so painful that you're gonna have to just say, God, in the midst of this, I give you thanks for what you're doing.

I can't see what you're doing.

How are you gonna get me out of this?

I just, I just, I can't see it, but I'm gonna give you thanks now, and I'm gonna understand why down the road.

Why?

Because I trust your intentions towards me.

It's not to do you harm, it's to bless you, it's to provide for you.

It's not destined you to wrath.

He says, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances.

Why?

For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.

Gratitude.

Not just, oh, fatalism, but gratitude.

It's the will of God that you and I be thankful people.

Do not quench the spirit, do not despise prophecies, but test everything.

Hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil.

Paul writes to these people, and he writes to you and I and says, Hey, by the way, don't lose sight of the fact that he's coming again.

And in the meantime, what do you do?

Well, what what what you do is you just abstain.

You just get up off of me.

I don't have anything to do with that.

Why?

Because I want to spend my time doing good because Jesus could crack the Eastern sky at any moment.

And I want to be ready.

I don't want to fall asleep.

I don't want to get lethargic.

I don't want to just check out and kind of go, hey, I've done my part.

Hey, I've retired.

I've done this.

Hey, nothing wrong with retiring.

Great.

When you retire, you got more time to volunteer at your church.

And take trips.

Absolutely.

Take trips.

Go on an Alaskan cruise.

Go wherever you want to go.

Go to Hawaii.

I highly recommend it.

It's beautiful.

What am I saying?

I'm saying stay awake.

Don't doubt for a minute God's intentions towards you.

He's not established a relationship with you to do you harm.

Or to just say, hey, I'm going to spend eternity just beating the snot out of you.

That's not God.

But finally, you do it together.

The people.

One of the greatest sources of transformation, sanctification, helping you become who the Bible says you are, is the people you're sitting around right now.

Just don't sit and sing around strangers.

Because it helps you to be shaped by people if you know them.

So let's start by knowing each other, okay?

Hold your hands out.

Your good God is fitting you for heaven even as you stand here this morning.

He's speaking words of illumination and revelation.

And also words of just plain good common sense.

Because he wants you to understand him.

Because when you understand him, you represent him clearly, and the world needs to see him.

Depart now.

Connect with each other.

And together, you're the body of Christ.

You're the full, wide angle image of how tasty God really is.

Depart and be who the Bible says you are.

In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.

Meet each other.