Is this the Final Countdown? | October 12, 2025

Nice work.

Nice work.

That was, uh.

I was a first.

I think that's impressive.

That's impressive.

I've had a lot of fun with this whole,

uh, sermon classic rock sermon series,

mostly watching whatever these guys are

gonna come up with each week when we

piece together the psycho effort of, yeah.

Now that, that was, that was our White

Rock rendition of the final countdown,

which is, uh, very impressive guys.

Thank you.

Great time on worship.

I always love it, Austin.

I always love it when the, uh, 20-year-old

guys are running the soundboard.

My ears are still ringing back

there, but, uh, fun morning.

Proclaiming the goodness of God.

Uh, make a joyful noise.

Shout unto the Lord.

Right.

Good stuff.

Mia.

I was just thinking about this.

Welcome back from college for the weekend.

Good to have you.

But I was just thinking

about Chase because, uh, in

preparation for this message, um.

People ask me all the time, you know,

are we in the final countdown here?

Right.

And if you remember, chase our good buddy,

chase every day at school, walk in with

my backpack ready to start and chase,

be like, Mr. Wait, I was just wondering,

do you think we're in the last days?

Like every day, man, I was

like, bro, it is your last day.

If you ask me one more time, right?

Like, what is, what is going on?

You know, I get this question a lot

and people always want to talk about

are we, are we in the end times?

Are we, are we in the last days?

Is Jesus coming back, you

know, well soon, right?

And it's a great question.

It's probably an important question

that the church has been asking for a

while, and she'll probably keep asking

because, uh, it kind of keeps us maybe on

our toes being ready, paying attention.

But this morning I want to spend

a little time and I have no

idea how far we're gonna get.

I've, I've started doing

something in the last six months.

I spent a lot of time with the Lord

trying to, trying to put together

what I think he wants to say.

And then I just start

cutting it in half, right?

Because I know you guys are

gonna steal half the sermon time.

It's just how it works.

But, uh, we'll see how far we get today.

But I wanna unpack this

question a little bit.

You know, are we in the last days?

I wanna take you over

to Hebrews for a second.

We're gonna go a lot of places this

morning, but Hebrews chapter one,

verses one through two have a really

interesting statement in here.

This was written to the

church by the church.

Early in the life of the church of

Jesus Christ, Jesus has gone to heaven.

He said, go make disciples.

I'm coming back, gonna go make

a place, and I'm coming back.

And the early church

talked to each other a lot.

They said this, check this out.

In the past, God spoke to our ancestors

through the prophets at many times and

in various ways, but in these last days.

He has spoken to us by his son.

See, the early church believed

they were living in the last days.

They believed Jesus was coming soon

and it's been a couple thousand years,

but interesting that they thought

at any moment Jesus would appear.

And then how maybe lud

to sleep we've become.

That's a good question.

This, this passage reminds me of something

we did in our small groups, uh, over the

last, I think it was either last week

or the week before, talking about the

parable of the vineyard owner, right?

Who these people set up this vineyard,

uh, or they rented this vineyard and

the vineyard owners sent different

servants to collect right over and over,

and some got beat, some got killed.

All kinds of stuff happened to him.

Then ultimately, finally, as in

though the final countdown, he sent

his son and they mistreated him.

Scripture says, and killed him.

And that was the last messenger.

That was the last servant who came.

And it's interesting, the early church

recognized that the prophets had come,

the prophets had spoken, the prophets

had declared God's message to people.

And then ultimately, finally, God

sent his own son Jesus to come.

And in the last days, the church

began to form and is still forming.

Now if you think it's crazy, I want

you to know that even some of these

young dudes are thinking about this is,

uh, Josiah, queen and Forrest Frank.

I dunno if you've heard their new

song, Jesus is coming back soon.

It's a really good song.

Probably gonna play it at the end

of the service just as a heads up.

But even a younger generation is

recognizing that things are happening

that make you start to go, huh?

Huh?

Right.

Now listen.

Um, these are really fun sermons

to preach because nobody knows

when Jesus is coming back, right?

And it's been a big thing in

the recent month of September.

You heard a lot of people saying things

like, what is it the 26th, 27th, 28th?

Who knows?

They just keep throwing dates.

He's coming back.

Be ready.

Well, he is coming back

'cause he keeps his promises.

He is gonna return, but nobody

knows the day or the time or the

hour, not the angels in heaven.

Jesus said neither the son

himself, but just God the Father.

And when he says it's time, it's time.

And when he pulls that trigger

is go time and that's it, right?

And in comes Jesus to sweep

in and take his bride.

In fact, the church, I think over the

years has really sort of stayed away.

Maybe it's because we don't know.

Maybe it's because, uh, every time

we think we're wrong, but maybe it's

because the enemy wants us to sort of

fall asleep and stop paying attention.

A lot of people scoff at the

idea of Jesus ever coming back.

I mean, come on, right?

It's been 2000 years.

I don't know how you measure soon, right?

This is what I tell, like for when

Jamie was like, can you do some dishes?

And I was like, I'll do it soon.

I meant like thousands of years from

now I'll get those dishes, right?

I mean, I interpret soon to be

a long time, and it's biblical.

Let me show you, um, two Peter, chapter

three, verses three through 10 says this.

Above all, you must understand that

in the last days, there's that phrase

again, popping up in the New Testament

church, scoffers will come scoffing and

following their own evil desires, and

they'll say this, where is this coming?

He promised, ever since

our ancestors died, right?

Everything goes on as it has

since the beginning of time.

Same old, same old, same old, right?

I mean, come on.

Jesus is coming back.

I had a guy tell me one time, he was

a 65-year-old dude who grew up in

some pretty popular churches around.

He said, you know what?

This was weird 'cause I've

never heard a message about

Jesus coming back the second.

I've never heard it in church anytime in

the last 35 years of being a Christian.

I thought that kind of makes sense, right?

'cause nobody wants to talk about it.

Nobody knows what to say about it.

Maybe, but everybody just sort of, eh, I

don't really think it's gonna happen, man.

But guys, if you're

paying attention, whew.

Right?

Like, check this out.

But they deliberately, Peter says, forget

that long ago, by God's word, the word

of God, the heavens were created, right?

Came into being formed out of

water by water and by these waters.

Also the world that time

was deluged and destroyed.

The early church believed that Noah's

Ark wasn't a fairytale, just FYI right?

That it actually happened

as a consequence to sin.

You know, what was happening in the

days of Noah, as Jesus said, it'll

be in the days of the Son of Man,

just as it was in the days of Noah,

that people are eating and drinking.

And marrying and given in

marriage, which I'm a big fan of.

I'll be honest, this has

been the best birthday ever.

Jamie's birthday's tomorrow, and all

she wanted was a future daughter-in-law.

So we are set right?

We are set.

No, not, that's not all she wanted.

Okay.

Okay.

Um, I'm kinda excited

about marriage stuff.

It's pretty exciting and we should

be doing life right, but what's gonna

happen when Jesus returns is that

we're all gonna be busy doing life

and it's gonna catch us off guard.

The same word, the word of God, right?

Declares that heaven and earth

are reserved for fire, being

kept for the day of judgment

and destruction of the ungodly.

And don't forget man with the Lord.

A day is like a thousand years and a

thousand years, like a day God lives in

eternity and a thousand years, right?

It's just nothing for him.

The Lord is not slow in keeping his

promise as some understand slowness.

Instead, he's patient with you

not wanting anyone to perish, but

everyone to come to repentance.

God is not, how do I say this?

Like appropriately, God's not dumb.

He knows what he's doing.

He's not like screwing

this up in eternity.

Be like, oh crud, I was

supposed to come back.

I didn't come back yet.

I, it was supposed to be

soon and now it's 2000 years.

What am I gonna do?

I gotta reschedule things for the whole

re he knows what he's doing, he has

plan and purpose and it's way beyond us.

And for whatever reason,

it's not foolishness.

It's not a lack of planning.

It's not an A, DH, D God thing.

It's literally that he is being

patient and he is enduring.

And you know, if I was God and I saw

all the people who would come and

all the people who have come, and

I would have a heart for all those

people, I'd have a really hard time

pulling the trigger, probably myself.

Except I, I have an easier time 'cause

I'd just get mad like a human would.

But God's compassion and his mercy and

his loving kindness is so far beyond us.

But don't be foolish and believe

what the enemy wants to tell

you that Jesus isn't coming.

You don't have to be ready for his return.

It's a long way off.

Well, is it?

The only reason he hasn't come back is

because of his patient loving kindness.

But at some point in time, he's gonna

flip that switch and that'll be it, right?

Make no mistake, the day of the

Lord will come like a thief.

In the night when you least expect

it, the heavens will disappear.

When a roar right, the elements will

be destroyed by fire and the earth

and everything in it laid bare.

Scripture says, when the son

of man appears that all nations

will mourn for his coming.

I think the translation is, holy crap,

I didn't think this was gonna happen.

And that's where it's gonna be.

Right.

For those who don't know Christ,

are we in the final days?

Are we in the final countdown?

Listen, there's a bunch of brilliant

theologians who argue all kinds

of points of revelation, and

I totally can appreciate that.

I'm just gonna say this, the church of

Jesus Christ, the people who hung out

with Jesus, believed they were in the

last days, and that any moment Jesus could

return and they lived like it, so I'll bet

you, and you're probably so much smarter

than those guys who hung out with Jesus.

But I'll bet you there's wisdom in

living in the reality that Jesus is

coming back and he's coming back soon,

and we are seeing things happen, and

we are seeing things move and the

way God's spirit is being poured out

and sons and daughters prophesied.

There's some cool things

happening all around the world.

Pieces are moving around a chess

board that just connects some

dots that you're like, huh?

And Jesus said, you know, you don't

know the day of the hour, but you can

look at the fig tree and the leaves.

Right now, it's autumn, right?

Not talking about your girlfriend, Noah.

It's autumn and the leaves are

beginning to turn and change, right?

And we're like, huh, I'll

bet you winter's coming.

Right?

Some of us are in, you know, I don't

think it's gonna happen this year.

Right?

It's gonna come, right?

We can see the changing of the season.

We see the clouds build in the horizon.

We're like, oh, smells like rain.

Tastes like rain out

here, clouds everywhere.

It's dark, it's gonna rain, right?

Jesus said, you're gonna notice.

Just be honest, that's what it is, right?

If I knew the mom and dad were coming at

three o'clock and I was up at 10 o'clock

in the morning on a Saturday chilling

in high school, that gave me literally

four hours and 57 minutes to get whatever

done I wanted to, and three minutes to

be busy at work in the kitchen before mom

and dad showed up and to say, whew, mom,

I've been working so hard for five hours.

Which is a pretty hard

sell, let's be honest.

But if you saw me do dishes right,

James, you'd know maybe it takes a while.

But the reality is this, if we knew when

Jesus was coming, we'd all be ready.

We would be, but we wouldn't probably

be real ready until it was about time.

You know?

'cause we got other stuff we could

probably get away with and, and do.

And plenty of time to, plenty of

time to, to repent of our sin and to

get our lives where they need to be.

If we knew right.

Just maybe take a few

days off and not lock in.

Jesus isn't stupid.

He knows us and he knows that.

Uh, if we told us when he was coming

back, we'd be busy living sinful,

pagan, selfish lives until then.

But maybe we're busy doing that anyhow,

that's probably a thought, right?

Second Timothy chapter three.

Let's dive in here and take a look.

It says.

You should know this Timothy

that, oh look, in the last days

there will be difficult times.

Let's just zoom in here 'cause we're

gonna unpack this a little bit.

There will be difficult times, right?

There will be difficult times.

Look at this phrase.

This is an interesting

concept, difficult times.

Jesus says this in, uh, John 1633.

He says, I've told you these

things so that in me, you're

gonna have peace, right?

This world, you're gonna have trouble.

But take heart, I've overcome the world.

You know, that, uh, actually

this word is tribulation.

Uh, in the, in the Greek language is

tribulation that we're talking about.

Not just trouble.

We're gonna stub our toe.

Dang it.

It's gonna be a toughie.

No, it's.

Tribulation.

We're gonna have really hard, really

difficult, really painful times.

Now take heart.

'cause I've, I've

overcome the world, right?

And in James, it reminds us that blessed

is the one who perseveres under trial.

Right?

Who endures, who stands because they'll

receive the crown of life of the

Lord's promised to those who love him.

But make no mistake, there's gonna be

hard, hard, difficult times that come.

I don't know what your um, what

your revelation theology is.

Uh, I always love meeting people

who like get real hardcore

as a defining characteristic

of their spiritual identity.

That where they stand, you know, in

Revelation used to be like, you can

be people who were like, yeah, I'm a

five point Calvinist mid Triver, who

believes in, uh, predestination only?

Not really.

Okay.

I don't, what are you talking about, bro?

What?

Let's get into this, right?

But in the book of Revelation,

it's all about the end, right?

You know, the real bummer is.

It.

There's this idea of a rapture

where Jesus is gonna return and

take the bride and we're outta here.

Woo.

But ironically, in God's brilliant

approach to how he deals with

humanity, he doesn't actually tell

us where that fits in revelation.

Interesting.

Right?

And so we got old dudes who spent

80 years studying and living in the

bottom of a basement with dusty old

books who, who kind of come to the

conclusion, preread mid trip, post trip.

Actually, if you dunno what that

means, I just want you to know

teenagers, you guys are famous.

Your generation for

shortening words, right?

Like bet it's just like an

old, you know, nerdy redneck.

You betcha.

But you gotta say bet.

And it's cool.

And then you say Riz because it's like

charisma, but you're shortening it.

Here's the deal.

Old Bible theologians, old guys.

They took the word tribulation and

they turned it to Trib and they're

like, pre-trib, mid trip, post trip.

So you guys are just as cool as

like all the old Bible theologians.

I'm just saying.

Just know that it's not

new with your generation.

But here's the deal.

We have these people,

we have these people.

Hey man, that was fire.

And you know it, there's

these people, right?

Um, there's these people who've spent

their whole life arguing about whether

Jesus is gonna come before anything

happens in the Book of Revelation.

No tribulation, no hardship, no

difficulty, no tribulation, great

tribulation, tribulation, wrath,

tribulation, whatever it is.

They're gonna come at

the beginning, right?

Jesus is gonna show up.

We're out.

We have people who believe they're

gonna have to endure a period of

tribulation, but maybe not the great

tribulation and the wrath of God.

That's poured out on all sinfulness

and they're out mid trip.

And then we have people who believe, nope.

I can't see it.

We're just gonna endure the whole thing.

And whoever's left standing,

you're out post trip.

And here's the deal.

Uh, I don't really care at all other than

I think there's some wisdom as a follower

of Jesus, when Jesus says, you're gonna

face tribulation, be ready sometimes.

And listen, I'm all in favor of pre-trib.

I would love before it get hard that

God's like, Andy, why don't you come

on up here and hang out in paradise?

And I'm like, sounds like a good move.

Jesus.

I'll go with you.

Right?

A hundred percent.

If, if we get to vote,

that is my vote, right?

Uh, I've landed probably more and

more over the years, and maybe it's

the more I've grown up to say, uh,

I might have to endure hard stuff.

So I wanna at least be ready to

endure this mid trib reality.

And if I gotta deal with a lot of

tribulation, then God gets me outta here.

Okay.

And then quite honestly, I look

at the post trip and I'm like,

dude, y'all gonna be dead.

There's no way.

Right?

Church is just gonna be so beat up.

I can't see it, but okay, whatever.

Let's be ready to endure.

Either way, scripture's

full of this warning.

Hey America, you're not

gonna get out for free.

You don't get a get outta jail free card.

As a follower of Jesus where you

don't have to do hard things,

face hard things, Jesus going

rescue you from having to endure.

No.

All of the church, all the years

of, of the church in existence

for the last 2000 years has had to

stand and endure and persevere under

trial and difficulty and hardship.

So I don't mind if you're a

pre-trib guy, that's great.

I don't care.

Be ready.

And there's a benefit to that, right?

Like at any moment before it gets

hard, you better be paying attention.

'cause Jesus is gonna show up.

I think that'll preach too, right?

Maybe be ready is just the

message across the board.

Be ready to stand.

Be ready to go.

Just be ready because

Jesus is coming back.

There's gonna be hard and difficult

times when it's the season of his return.

Here's what the conditions of

the world are gonna look like.

Check this out.

People will be lovers

of themselves, right?

And lovers of their money

to love them selves.

Thankfully, we don't see that happening

in our culture where, uh, what do we

call that picture you take of yourself?

Just kidding.

I'm just kidding.

It's a selfie.

I know, right?

Everything's about me, right?

Self egocentrism.

The world revolves around me.

I'm the son in my universe.

Everything's about me, me,

me, me, my neighbor, the poor

people around me who need Jesus.

Sure.

If it fits within what my agenda

and what I want to do is all

about, absolutely I'm for it.

Right?

But that's still based on

me, me, me, me, me, me, me.

The world is gonna look like a whole

crazy place filled with selfishness.

I don't know if you see that.

If you don't, maybe you're

part of the problem.

I'm just saying, right.

Selfishness.

It's everywhere.

I love this phrase, and they're

gonna be lovers of their money.

Check this out.

Becca.

You wanna come help pronounce

this future daughter-in-law?

Didn't think so.

Okay, we're good.

Alright.

This word right here, uh,

Fila gurus sound like guru.

I'm talking to a baby

guru Ros gurus, right?

Like it's, uh, it's probably, I don't

wanna pronounce this right, Fila gurus

is actually made up of two words.

Check this out.

This is kind of, this is

kind of a cool concept.

It's made up of these two words, philos

and a gurus, and it means this friend

and silver, what an interesting word.

It literally means friend of silver.

Now I'm not talking about this

guy who some of you might know,

and this might date myself, right?

Uh, definitely a friend of silver.

He rode a horse named Silver.

Sorry, if you don't get that joke,

I thought that, raise your hand

if you get that joke, please.

I just want, oh yeah, let's go.

That's good.

That's good stuff.

Okay.

Do you know there's a distinction in the

Bible between being a friend of God and

being a friend of silver, that you are

loyal and loving towards your money versus

loving towards your heavenly Father.

Now, can you have any money?

Sure.

If you recognize it's all God's

anyhow and you're just a steward

of it and everyone wants to do with

it, he does and tells you and you're

like, got it, got it, got it, got it.

There's nothing wrong with

money, it's just the heart of

the person who possesses it.

Right.

My classes we, I was talking

about how we hold our hands open.

Towards God, right?

So whatever we have, he can take, right?

It's all his and what we do.

And we're stupid, but we're like, I'm

gonna hold my stuff, hold my money,

my possessions, and two things happen.

One, we don't realize we're

literally shaking our fist at God.

And two, do you know how hard it is for

God to put more things in that hand?

He can't.

'cause you got it closed and

you're shaking your fist at him.

We gotta be people who live

like this, that everything we

have, it's all his right money.

If we're a friend of

silver, then silver's what?

We hold tight.

We're a friend of God.

That's a whole different picture, right?

In the end days, in the last days

where things get the darkest people

are gonna be consumed with selfishness,

where they love themselves and they're

gonna be consumed with their love of

silver, gold possessions and stuff.

Thankfully we don't see

that in our culture, right?

Just kidding.

Alright.

They will be boastful and proud.

Hmm.

Arrogant, cocky, mouthy, disrespectful.

Sorry.

I was just reading a

list about American 2025.

Um, yeah, that's the reality, right?

That's who we've become as a place, right?

We are arrogant and we are proud,

and we are selfish and self.

I mean, we're just

consumed ourself so much.

We're defiant towards anybody else.

Like that's a picture of our attitude.

In fact, it seeps into our

attitude towards God, right?

That we are people who scoff at God

in our arrogance and in our pride.

We mock and we scoff The creator himself

we're like, I know better than you.

Get out of my way.

God, you don't even

know what you're doing.

I got this ridiculous.

I wanna do a little, uh,

Greek work here a minute.

This phrase scoffing at God.

I wanna see if we have any legit Greek

scholars in the house here today.

Check this out.

I'm gonna just put this word up here.

Just take a real good look.

Anybody know how to pronounce that?

Just what to say.

Bla famous Blas.

Famous Blas.

Famous scoffing at God is

literally the Greek word.

What?

Blasphemy.

Blasphemy.

Nice job.

Sixth grade crushes it.

Blasphemy, right?

Here's the the biblical description of

those who scoff, who mock who, whatever.

God blasphemous.

I don't know if we ever see

this in the world around us.

I sure do, but we literally are

people who live in defiance towards

God and God says, that's blasphemy.

That's pretty intense, right?

Oh, and it gets worse.

Man.

We're escalating.

Check this out.

What's the next phrase?

Disobedient to their parents.

Yeah.

Right.

Whoa.

So much for sixth grade.

Looking good on the front row.

That was just the last question, right?

Hey, check this out.

I've wrestled with this forever

'cause my dad made me memorize this.

Listen, these are the worst things, son.

No, I'm just kidding.

He didn't do that.

But should have.

Why in the world does God put

disobedient to parents right next to

blasphemy in where this culture's at?

Well, hey guys, lemme say

something really important to

you about obeying your parents.

It's one of the 10 commandments

that we honor our father and mother.

And if you can't honor your

parents who you see and you can't

respect your parents, who you see,

you will not honor and respect a

God you can't see, you will not.

And God teaches us that if we are people

who are defiant and disrespectful to our

parents, that's a pattern of behavior.

That will be how we engage with God.

That doesn't mean we like

everything our parents do.

It doesn't mean we're voting alongside

the punishments or the consequences.

Absolutely.

But people who are defiant

and disrespectful and

disobedient to their parents.

God puts on this list of some of

the worst attributes and how just

degrading the culture has become

that that's what they've arrived at.

Being people who disobey their parents.

It's kind of heavy stuff.

It actually matters to God that we obey

our parents, that we're respectful to

our parents, and ungrateful, ungrateful.

This kind of fascinates me.

You know what the

opposite of ungrateful is?

Grateful.

Grateful.

Yeah.

Only not grateful.

Grateful.

Full, right?

Full of gratitude, right?

Totally misspelled, but

totally full of gratitude and

thankfulness and appreciation.

Now, church, listen carefully.

This is important.

This is a list of things that the

world is starting to look like.

And it seeps into the church

of Jesus Christ, right?

Selfishness, the love of money,

arrogance, pride, scoffing, mocking

God, not obedient to our parents

or obedient to him and ungrateful.

And we have to be really

careful because this is what the

culture is going to look like.

And don't miss this.

When you're in a culture, you soak and you

marinate day after day in that same space.

And Jesus warns us as things get darker.

This is what it's gonna look like.

This is what you're gonna be around.

This is what you're gonna soak in.

Be very careful and very aware church.

And so I stumbled across this question

as I was thinking about this, because

for me, I look at all of these

things and maybe there's not a cure

for all of them within the church,

but I thought this was interesting.

How would being grateful

change that entire list?

Think about this.

How would it look different?

Maybe the world's gonna

do what it's gonna do.

Sounds like it is.

But as followers of Jesus Christ, what if?

What if instead of being selfish,

we approach things with gratitude.

How would gratitude

affect our selfishness?

Well, guess what?

When we're thankful and appreciative

for what we have and what God's doing,

and we begin to have eyes to see things

beyond ourselves, it affects how consumed

we are with our own agenda, our own

circumstances, even our own injustices.

'cause here's the thing, guys, you're

gonna live in a world where it hates you.

It's gonna be hard and difficult.

You're gonna get treated

like crap a lot of times.

And so you fight for your way, you fight

for your justice, you fight for your

position, or you approach with humility

and a recognition that we are called to

be people who love our neighbor as ourself

and give preference to one another.

And love and our own agenda gets out of

the way when we're living in gratitude

towards God for what he's done in us.

We don't get consumed with what we don't

have and what he's not doing for us.

We're too busy being thankful

for what he has done.

Loving their money.

This is about coveting and the Greek,

the word actually gets translated

sometimes as coveting for this phrase.

You know what coveting is?

I want what you have, or

I want what I don't have.

Do you know what gratitude is?

I'm thankful for what I do have and

when we're so busy being thankful

for what we do have, there's no

margin, there's no room, there's

no mental space for what we don't.

You don't get consumed with covetousness

and coveting what everybody else has.

When you're just full of

gratitude for what you have.

They don't even co-exist.

It's the antidote, boastful,

and proud arrogance.

How am I gonna shake my fist

in arrogance against the God?

I'm so thankful for what he's doing in

my life, and I'm so grateful and I trust

him because of my thankfulness and what

he's done and what he's gonna do, right.

And how about just disrespect for God

doesn't even, doesn't even compute, right?

God, thank you for all you're doing, but

I'm gonna scoff and I'm gonna mock you.

God, thank you for the ways

you're at working in my life.

Thank you for even the trials and the

hardships you're helping me walk through,

but I scoff at you in this moment.

It, it doesn't even make sense, right?

It's doesn't even part of

the same thought process.

You know how hard it is to be

disrespectful to your parents when you're

thankful that God gave you parents and

put you in a home and gave you opportunity

to do life with a roof over your head

and food in your stomach, and have an

opportunity to build and create, and

have life, and have families of your own.

One day when you're so consumed with how

thankful you are for the parents god's

given you, and that you have a family.

Maybe they're not perfect, I can

guarantee they're not if they're human

beings, but where somebody loves you

and cares about you, when you're so

consumed with that, do you have any

idea how hard it is to be disrespectful

and disobedient towards your parents?

It's virtually impossible.

Mom and dad, I'm very thankful for you

and I thank you for the ways you're

trying to help me grow and learn.

I'll tell you a little trick too.

Teenagers and young people and maybe

people who are 70 and living at home with

their parents, listen, here's the deal.

When you're grateful towards your parents,

it also disarms their sense of needing to

correct and redirect and come down hard

to get you to move in the right path.

When you're walking in obedience, you

don't experience a ton of consequences

and suffering and pain and anguish 'cause

your parents aren't trying to redirect

you towards walking in the right way.

So like, I'm no brilliant guy, but I

learned early on obey less spankings.

And then I got older and I was like, obey.

And I get to go do fun things with my

friends instead of be grounded, right?

Like it's just math, like one equals the

other, just it's the only math I got.

Right?

But just obey.

Seek to obey.

But if you do it in a heart of gratitude,

it disarms your parents' intensity.

It just does.

Try it without gratitude.

That works, right?

Hey, son, please do this.

You know what?

You guys suck and you never do anything

nice for me at all, and I hate my life.

Oh, well let's address this.

Right?

And you force your parents to bring

some, some heat to that, right?

Well, lemme tell you a little tiny secret

when you do that with God, it's the exact

same deal when you operate with gratitude.

Lord, thank you for what I'm walking

through, even though it's so hard, thanks

to the way you're molding and shaping me.

Do you know who's really motivated

to get you out of that and moved on

to the next step of something good?

You're heavenly Father who actually

loves you and likes you, right?

He's not trying to make

your life miserable.

He's trying to help you grow.

And that gratitude helps us step into

a place where we can grow, right?

I don't know that the secret sauce to

all of this is that the Church of Jesus

Christ lives with gratitude in our heart

so full that we can't do anything else.

But I'll tell you what, man, if

we take a shot at it, I'll bet you

it would be pretty revolutionary

to every area of our life.

'cause this is the world that

we're growing up in right now,

all of us, whatever stage we're

in, this is where we're at.

This world is getting darker and it's

gonna keep getting darker in these areas.

But the church of Jesus Christ is called

to shine and to look different, right?

There is a ton on this list

that I knew I would not get to.

So I've got smart and threw

a little TBD here, right?

Or TBC to be continued.

But I want to give you this little

charge Church, not only to be people

who walk in gratitude, but listen.

All of this conversation about the final

countdown, the last days, what's coming,

and the things I'm gonna talk about

next week that I'm super excited about,

and the things you're gonna hear in

your small group tonight and this week.

They're all really predicated on one

crazy intense concept to simply be ready.

Listen, you may be like, you know what?

I don't really believe

the end times are coming.

Okay?

Your end time is coming, man.

You just don't know when either could

walk out to the parking lot and have

a stroke and you're in eternity.

It could be your last day.

At any moment, we have to be people who

recognize the reality of the spiritual

life around us, what God is doing to

call outta sin and darkness into life.

He loves you.

And listen, we also know the truth

and the people that we love and do

life with, they're in this cesspool

of social mess, chasing after stuff in

the darkness, and we have the light.

So let's be ready to give an answer

for the hope that lies within us.

Let's be ready to stand in it when

it's hard and difficult, and let's be

ready to give an answer that's filled

with gratitude and thankfulness to our

heavenly Father, to the people around

us, and even to the circumstances

that beat us up a little bit.

Lord, thanks for what you're teaching.

Let's live with that kind of gratitude.

And I think we're gonna see not only

a church that's ready, but a church

that's excited and living in joy.

And what was the word Jesus said?

Peace.

He said Peace that you will not

be anxious of heart, but instead

you're gonna be peaceful in

your heart 'cause you're ready.

Father, thank you for

your word, for your truth.

Thank you for the chance

to be part of the church.

A church that for 2000 of years is, has

believed that at any moment you might

show up and we're here in the last days.

God the enemy wants to lure us

to sleep and the enemy wants

to lie to us about reality.

Help us stand in the truth

to be people who walk forward

with incredible gratitude.

And Lord, people who are ready for

whatever you call us to and impactful

to the world around us as well.

Thanks for your love for us.

And I pray you'd continue to speak

powerfully through your word next

week as we continue in these thoughts.

In Jesus' name, amen.