Wrath: The Justice of God - 1 Thessalonians 5, Revelation

Well, good morning.

Hey, if you have a copy of God's Word, please open it up.

Find the last book of the Bible.

It's called Revelation.

And no, I'm not kidding.

The book of Revelation.

If you would turn there to chapter one, we are continuing our series called Behold, I am coming soon.

It's a four-week series.

Our first week, we looked at what is often called the rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4.

Our second week, last week, we looked at the resurrection we still have yet before us when Christ returns and resurrects our bodies anew.

In 1 Corinthians 15, this morning we are talking about the wrath of God.

We'll start in Revelation, but I will just tell you, we will be all over the scriptures today.

Next week we'll conclude in Revelation 21 and 22 with the restoration God promises, the new Jerusalem, the new heavens, and new earth.

Our topic this morning is the wrath of God.

If you are a believer this morning, the coming return of Christ to bring the wrath that is being stored up should not be a source of concern, though it should bring consideration of how our walk with the Lord is.

Are we apathetic?

Are we sleeping?

The text would say.

If so, wake up and be sober.

Be alert.

It could be a cause for consideration, but it is also a cause for celebration.

As I will say later in the message this morning, Jesus is not returning like a thief for us.

He's returning like a father for us.

So let's talk about what the wrath of God is.

It's all over the scriptures, both in Old and New Testaments, is often put into a phrase called the day of the Lord, where he brings that wrath fully and finally.

Well, God's wrath, if you have notes, is his stored up righteous anger against those he's created who have opposed him and his people, ultimately culminating in his violent vengeance.

That was a long definition.

I'll repeat it.

God's wrath could be summarized or defined as his stored up right anger against those who he has created, who have opposed him and his people, ultimately culminating in his violent vengeance in a day called the day of the Lord.

You see, the Bible tells us that God is angry with mankind for taking the life he gave them and refusing to honor him and obey his instruction.

You know, God created the world and everything in it, including you and me.

And what did he say when he created us that day?

Very good.

Very good.

Where things went wrong in us and in our world is when we disobeyed God and denied his authority over us.

You see, God created us to enjoy him.

Our refusal to enjoy him is sin, and that God hates.

God created us to worship him.

Our obsession with the things he's created instead of him as the creator, that is sin, and God hates it.

God created us to love and serve one another, but because we've loved ourselves more than others and served ourselves by lusting after others and envying others and overpowering others, this is sin and God hates it.

God created us to give witness to him in our world.

Instead, we strive for the fame of our own name.

This is sin and God hates it.

God hates those who do wrong or cause harm in the world he created.

That is not my words, that is Psalm five.

And he can because he's God.

His hatred is holy.

Paul in Psalm 9 tells us what right does the pot have, the pot of clay, to say to its creator, the potter, I have no need of you.

The pot of clay has no form apart from its potter, nor place to argue its purpose.

So then we ask the question, okay, why has God not destroyed the world and everything in it?

If we have turned our eye, each to our own way, sinned against a holy God, defied him, denied him, why has he not destroyed us?

Because God is not only a God of justice, he is also a God of mercy.

Our God is merciful.

And so the Bible tells us, yes, that God will one day return, but he has delayed that return to give us time to repent of our evil.

And more than that, because there is just no one perfectly righteous deserving of anything other than his wrath, God in his great kindness has offered his son.

Jesus, who willingly took upon himself his father's full and final wrath to give life to those who don't deserve it, to pay the penalty for those who did.

And the Bible tells us that all who put their trust in Jesus the Son will not face the Father's wrath.

Jesus faced it in our place.

Condemned he stood.

Yet we know even with the warnings God has given us in his word and the offering God has provided through his son, there have been, there are, and there will continue to be people who continue in evil.

So right now, God's anger is storing up for those who continue to disobey him, for those who continue to deny his son, for those who continue to mock his order, love what is wrong, and persecute his people.

God's anger is stored up.

The Bible teaches us that God's wrath will end in the destruction of all who reject him and refuse the salvation he has brought through his son.

The Bible tells us that he will return not only to safely gather all those who come to his son, but to wage war against all who have come against him.

He is coming soon.

Revelation chapter one, if you would read it as I do, silently in your head, follow along.

Let's look at that return spoken of here.

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place.

He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

John to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings on earth.

Think about that written to seven real local churches in Asia Minor, who Caesar was overseeing, the real King, King Jesus.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen.

Verse 7, please pay attention, verse seven.

Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him, even so, amen.

Everybody will see Jesus when he returns.

Everybody, at his one triumphant return on the clouds, with the sound of a trumpet, at the voice of an archangel, at the call of command, that same rapture passage, 1 Thessalonians 4, the same passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 at our resurrection, the same passage in 1 Thessalonians 5, when he returns like a thief for those who are not ready for him.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

He will return, and for some it will be terrifying.

But it is also referred to not only as the rapture, the resurrection, but also it is the day of the Lord.

The day of the Lord is spoken of all throughout the Old Testament and in the New.

It's spoken of at length in Isaiah 65, right before we read about the promised new heavens and new earth.

The day of the Lord is described in Revelation chapter 18 as not only a destructive day, but when all the kings, Revelation chapter 6, run for the hills and it's silent.

Revelation 18 · chapter mention Revelation 6 · chapter mention

Everyone's trying to hide.

Who can stand at that great and awesome day?

The day of the Lord, if your note taker, is that future moment in history when God steps in to act decisively, bringing judgment against evil, rescuing his people, and receiving glory in a way no one can ignore.

That's the day of the Lord.

It's a day when everything hidden is exposed, when every wrong is addressed, and when every promise of God we believe by faith comes to our sight.

When he confronts evil, vindicates his people, and makes all things right under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, that grace, great and awesome day of the Lord.

The Apostle Paul speaks of this day, commenting how we are to think of it in 1 Thessalonians 5.

Now I want to make an interpretation of 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5 that I think will be helpful.

1 Thessalonians 4 is that rapture passage that everyone looks at where we're caught up with the Lord in the air that is at his return.

It's not silent, it's not quiet, it's not hidden, it's the loudest verse in the New Testament.

It is synonymous with 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

1 Thessalonians 5 · chapter mention

There is not a break in the text other than the break we made it to call it chapter 4 and chapter 5.

There's two different questions that Paul is addressing in the Thessalonican church.

In 1 Thessalonians 4, the question was, will my dead relatives miss out on all that God promised because they're in the grave?

And he assures them, no, they'll rise first.

Now, it's got to be like milliseconds, but they'll rise first.

They will not miss out on anything God has promised.

Be assured.

In 1 Thessalonians 5, it's the same event, but a different question.

The question in 1 Thessalonians 5 of the Thessalonican church is when is this going to happen?

And here's his comments.

1 Thessalonians 5.

If you want to turn there, you can, or it's on the screen.

Now concerning the times and seasons, brothers, you see, he's addressing the time of the same event you just spoke of, the rapture.

You have no need to have anything written to you.

It's like, thanks, Paul.

I would love to have something written to me.

You have no need.

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

Hold on.

I thought you said, Pastor, that it will not come like a thief in the night.

Well, not to us.

We're fully aware.

Follow the text.

While people are saying there is peace and there is 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 too surprise you like a thief.

For you are all children of light, children of the day.

We are not of the night or of the darkness.

So then 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 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.

So at the return of Christ, are we destined for wrath on that day?

No.

What then?

Salvation.

The Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, so that whether we are awake or are asleep, the same phrase about the rapture passage, we might live with him.

When he returns, those who have placed their faith and trust in him will be with him.

We will rise to meet him in the air with new resurrected bodies, safe from that day forward, enjoying his presence like we never have before.

So, verse 11, therefore, encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing.

So hear me, brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ.

This day, the coming day of the return of Christ, the day of the Lord in wrath should not surprise you.

You should be ready for it.

Ready for the day of the Lord, ready for the return of Jesus, Paul says.

Well, how can you be ready?

The scriptures help guide us so that we might be ready.

And that's what I want to talk about.

And that's why we will bounce around a little bit this morning.

I want to give you five encouragements this morning.

Five encouragements to keep you ready for the return of Jesus on the day of the Lord.

Five encouragements.

Number one, prepare to endure persecution.

You say, I thought you were encouraging us.

Yes.

In the Western Church, I think one of the ways, and I'm not wailing on the Western Church, I'm happy to be a part of the church in the West, but I think one of the ways the modern Western church has failed its congregants in the last 200 years, I say 200 years specifically, is how it has in large part kept from teaching the truth that endurance is necessary.

Oh, yes, we believe that all genuine believers in the Lord Jesus Christ will persevere to the end.

But did you catch that word?

Persevere.

By the Lord's grace and with his power from his spirit, we will persevere, but we must persevere.

The book of Revelation was written to seven real persecuted churches, and the call for every single one of them, before they would read what they were called to persevere was to persevere.

Every single letter to every single church in Asia Minor, Laodicea, Thyatira, Pergamum, Philadelphia, you name it, Ephesus, persevere, endure, to keep faith despite opposition.

Those seven churches originally written to were to see both the persecution to come and the wrath of God poured out not on them, but on the unbelieving world, before finally saying, Jesus wins.

He wins.

No contest.

I have often heard it from missiologists and missionaries on the field that the most requested book in the Bible for the persecuted church is the book of Revelation.

You might think, well, John sounds nice.

Why the book of Revelation?

Because churches enduring persecution, like the seven it was originally written to, need to hear what?

Jesus wins.

He wins.

He will vindicate his church, bring vengeance against his enemies, and will bring victory forever and ever for those who have put their place in faith, trust, and faith in Jesus Christ.

The three main views of the book of Revelation that have dominated church history up until the point of the 1800s, and I won't get into the nitty-gritty here, up into the 1800s, all unanimously taught that the church would endure persecution to come.

Yes, even what is written in the book of Revelation.

And maybe you push back and you say, well, the word church is not used in the book of Revelation past chapter three.

That's because he was addressing churches in the first two and three, first three chapters, chapter two and chapter three.

The rest of the word used throughout the new throughout the letter of Revelation is the word saints.

The word used that Paul uses after he uses the word church when he addresses the churches, he uses saints throughout his letters.

John hardly ever uses the word church in any of his letters, he uses the word saints.

And so the saints are spoken of, and they're called to endure.

Now, here's what that means and what it doesn't mean without doing a deep dive throughout the book of Revelation.

Because sometimes there's pushback again.

Hear me clearly.

What we see in the book of Revelation is two peoples under one God with one enemy.

You have the city of man, the world, the unbelieving world, and the city of God, the believing world, those Christians.

The world receives wrath from God.

The church does not receive wrath from God.

Not in the way the world does, but it receives persecution from the world because of the increase of plagues and wrath in Revelation.

The church will not face God's wrath because 2,000 years ago a lamb shed his blood on a wooden beam to save us from it.

So we think of the book of Revelation in its increasing plagues before full and final wrath, before singing on the other side, like we think of the book of Exodus.

God's people exiles in enemy-occupied territory.

Exiles like Peter tells us we are as we await eternity.

We live in the city of God, and they have their kings and they have their rulers, and we worship the Lord.

And God's desire is for the peace of his people and the worship of their voice.

And so he warns the city of man through the people of God, let my people go.

And we say, Come and and come and join us.

Serve the Lord.

Find salvation in his name.

Plagues increase, plagues increase, plagues increase, plagues increase upon the unbelieving world as persecution increases because favor is shown to God's people.

All before God says, I've had enough, my people will be freed.

By the blood of a lamb, spared the wrath of God, safely on the other side to sing, as we see in Revelation 19, where the people of God, through the wrath of God, saved, sing.

A similar song from Exodus 15 to Revelation 19.

I want you to think of the book of Revelation as the greater exodus from the old covenant.

We are God's people, exiles awaiting our glorious exodus to the promised land of eternity.

There will be plagues of wrath, cries for repentance, increased persecution, then one final plague that causes silence and the once singing world power right before God calls us, who He has protected, and we sing on the other side.

But you must hear me.

Hear and heed the message of revelation.

Endure as the churches were called then, so you too are called now.

Endure.

Fight for faith in your life.

Persevere.

He is with you.

He will fight for you.

He will keep you.

Number two.

Second encouragement.

Something I've already mentioned, but I want to make sure I address at length.

Trust that you will not face God's wrath.

The church will face the persecution of its enemies, but will not experience the wrath of God at his return or the plagues preceding it.

The reason we won't face the wrath of God is because Jesus already has in our place.

That is what happened 2,000 years ago at Calvary.

Jesus is not just demonstrating the love of God, he was dying in our place.

He took upon himself the punishment that was due sinners for their sin.

So that sinners who draw near to him in faith would not receive the punishment they're due, but given, but be given life that they don't deserve.

John, 1 John 4.10 says that Jesus was sent by God to be a propitiation for us, that is, an atoning sacrifice that appeased God's wrath.

Listen, quite simply, Jesus took God's wrath so that you don't have to.

That's really good news.

Jesus took God's wrath so you don't have to.

1 Thessalonians 5, again, verses 9 through 11.

God has not destined us for wrath, us as believers who've trusted in him, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ on that day who died for us.

Romans 8, verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:1

Do you await a day of condemnation?

No.

A day of celebration, a day of salvation.

So you might ask, okay, you know, how does this work at his return?

Well, I'm going to try to show you in the book of Revelation how this works.

Because you will be kept through the day of his coming.

Revelation chapter 6, verse 12 through 17, is one of many places that describe that full and final day of his wrath.

Revelation 6:12–17

The book of Revelation is somewhat cyclical in that it returns to itself multiple times.

You will read in one passage that the stars have fallen, and then you will read later on that a third of the sun, moon, and stars have lost their light.

And so you're thinking, oh, I thought they already fell.

Well, you're not wrong.

So how does that work?

Revelation is cyclical.

So it returns to itself multiple times to reinforce the truth that it says.

The day of the Lord happens, the full and final day, it seems like multiple times, where there's earthquakes and lightning and clouds, and then people running for the hills.

Many plagues have already come.

Revelation 6 recounts one of those instances of what the full and final wrath will look like in verse 12.

And it says, When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake.

The sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale.

The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

This is a picture of the very end.

Even though it's not the end of the book of Revelation.

Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks and of the mountains, calling to the mountains and to the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?

The implication, no one.

All before chapter seven.

Because chapter seven answers that question: who can stand?

And then it shows God's people marked sealed.

That God seals them and protects them.

In fact, in Revelation 9, where it explicitly mentions these like demons coming up out of the ground, these locusts, this picture of destruction, it says they can't touch those who are sealed.

Kind of sounds like the Israelites in Exodus who weren't touched by the plagues, yet did feel persecution.

Who call on Pharaoh to let God's people go, who gave Pharaoh an opportunity to repent in the end of Revelation chapter 9, they won't repent.

Revelation 9 · chapter mention

They won't repent.

In the book of Revelation, there are two groups of people those who believe in God, who are sealed through wrath, and unbelievers who are marked by the beast who receive God's wrath.

It's like in the days of Noah.

Matthew twenty four.

Like Noah and his family who were kept safe through God's wrath by his supernatural sealing of the door on the ark, we will be kept through the day of the Lord and the events associated with it because we have been sealed by God's Spirit.

You know, when you look at one of the works of God's Spirit in our life multiple times in the letters to the Thessalonians and the letters to the Ephesians, it is said, we are sealed until the day of redemption to receive an inheritance.

We are kept until his coming.

The difference is we're sealed by God's Spirit, and those who will not trust in God are marked by the beast.

I submit to you that the Spirit's sealing is the seal in Revelation 7.

You see, the hands of God that bring wrath will be the hands that carefully hold us through it.

John 10, I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of his hand.

He'll hold us.

Number three.

Well, let me just say a couple quick things.

I already said them.

I want to return to them.

Then I'll get to number three, I promise.

For the day, oh well, for the for the believer, the day of the Lord can be a day of consideration to cause us to question our walk with the Lord.

Are we walking with him?

But the day of the Lord for a believer, again, is a day of celebration.

He's coming to save us, to keep us, and to make all things new.

He is not coming like a thief.

He is coming like a father.

The day of the Lord is a good day for us.

Number three.

Witness before unbelievers.

Share the gospel with unbelievers.

There are many things that you and I will do in heaven.

We can only guess at all the things we'll be able to do.

Will we be able to fly?

I like to think so.

I don't know that.

It says nowhere that we'll be given wings.

Will we be able to jump really high like Spider-Man?

I don't know.

Maybe.

But there is one thing we will not do.

There's one thing we cannot do.

And that is share the gospel with the hope that someone comes to faith in Jesus Christ.

Why?

Because all in heaven will have heard the gospel and believed in Jesus Christ.

You have but a limited opportunity to get as many people as you can there with you on that day, empowered by God's Spirit who convicts as you share the gospel.

Oh, will you take every opportunity you can to bring as many people with you so that they are gathered around the throne in Revelation 7, singing, Salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb who sits upon the throne?

Will you make every effort to do what the end of Revelation tells you to do?

The bride says, Come.

All who are thirsty and hungry, come.

We want Revelation 7, the group of every tribe, tongue, people, nation, gather around God's throne to include everyone we know.

I've often encouraged student groups and speaking before them to say this: hey, you know a lot of people.

Don't give them opportunity on the last day standing before a holy God to say, hey, I knew this person, but I did not know Jesus.

Oh, that should not be said of us, right?

I really knew this person, but I really didn't know Jesus.

Take every opportunity you can, you have, but limited time.

Number four.

Know that evil has an expiration date.

Evil has an expiration date.

Revelation chapter six.

It's the fifth seal.

And there's another picture given to us.

It's of believers in heaven.

A picture is that they are slain under the altar.

They have died in Christ.

Many of them died for Christ.

And here's what they say.

We can imagine them saying it now.

O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?

Those in heaven may see the cries of Christians in North Korea, in China, in Yemen, in Somalia, in Nigeria, and they say to God on his throne, when will you avenge our blood and judge the persecutors?

You know how Jesus responds?

He says, wait and rest a little longer.

Believers who have died in Christ are resting, but they still await the day where evil will be vanquished and sin will be no more.

They rest in the presence of Christ, and yet they still see the pain and suffering in some part on the world.

And I do say, when we are given heaven's eyes, we will understand that cry for justice and vengeance in a way we may not see it now.

In a way our brothers and sisters in North Korea do understand it now.

When you have it good and your faith is not a cause for persecution, it's hard to cry out and understand cries for vengeance.

Oh, but our brothers in tough areas, they understand it.

Our believers in heaven, they understand it.

God's vengeance is right, even though it's hard for us to understand sometimes.

But I will say, we are not to ever take vengeance into our own hands.

That is something we take from the Lord if we were to try to take it.

Romans chapter 12, it says, never venge yourselves, but leave it to the Lord, for God says, Vengeance is mine, mine, I will repay.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Instead, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.

By so doing, you will heap burning coals on their head.

They will feel the weight of their continued persecution.

When I was a college student, I was studying biblical studies.

I went to a college in southwest Missouri, and I was studying biblical studies.

And of course, when you're studying biblical studies and you have roommates who are studying biblical studies, and they're going to be pastors one day, and you're reading theology, you're reading Germans from the 19th century, you're reading the patristics in the early church, you're kind of questioning, okay, what do I think about this and what do I think about that?

And maybe you think, oh, are Baptists like Anabaptists and we're in opposition to any sort of war or cries for justice?

Um, not that they don't cry for justice, but uh, you know, they're anti-war.

And or maybe we're, you know, Baptists that are like those early Puritans in the 17th century who, you know, who believe in just war theory.

How should we think about war?

And you think, I remember thinking as a college student, you know, I don't know.

I'm gonna say this to you guys and hopefully I can say it.

I know it's gonna probably go online in a little bit, but in college, I I used to think, you know, if someone was to come after my life, someone was to come after my just just supposing I'm in a different part of the world, I'm sharing the gospel, someone's to come after my life, and I was to defend myself, whatever weapon I use would be the weapon that takes their life and their opportunity from following Christ.

You question all these things in college, right?

How am I to think about that?

And then you give kids, and that changes fast.

Sure, maybe I can question theoretically in my own head, if you're hand, you know, head, if you're to come after me, you're taking my life, would I defend myself?

But if you come after my kids, I will not think for a second.

There's a reason I tell you that, because right before the full and final war we read about in Revelation, Revelation 18 says, In that city, which is the city of Babylon, the wicked city, in that city was found the blood of prophets and the blood of saints, and all who had been slain on the earth.

Right after that is the war to end all wars.

And God is essentially saying, You came after my kids.

I won't hesitate.

I gave you a chance.

Wrath is right, even if it's hard for us to understand it.

God is righteous, he will bring it.

So stay alert for his return.

Number five.

Stay alert for his return.

Every time Jesus talks about his return, there is a command, and that command is to stay alert.

Every time.

Matthew 24, Matthew 25, 1 Thessalonians 5, the beginning of the revelation, the end of Revelation, Mark 13.

Stay alert.

You see, in again in 1, or sorry, in Matthew chapter uh 24.

As was in Noah's day, there were many eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, but they were unaware until the flood came.

That's how it will be when the Son of Man returns.

Do not be unaware, stay awake.

You must be ready.

Are you alive?

Are you waiting for Christ's return?

Here's the command: stay awake.

Now, yes, we rest and we Sabbath and we rest in the Lord and we rest in Christ, but in essence, the word said is you can sleep when you're dead.

Stay awake.

Keep your eyes open for the Lord's return.

Not terrified, but ready.

But ready.

Don't be asleep when Jesus comes back.

Be ready.

How?

Serve Him, plead the widow's cause, care for the orphans, submit to your government, feed the homeless, worship with your church, raise godly kids, destroy godless ideologies who have set themselves against the knowledge of God.

Don't stop loving those who hate you.

Fight spiritual apathy and kill sin.

Kill it.

Just last week, I think it was last week, we were, many of us were helping uh one of our own move out of their apartment because a fire had had had their apartment had caught fire.

And as we're helping clean the apartment, well, before we're helping clean the apartment, if you were to walk into that apartment, it smelled like putrid, like smoke.

It was hard to breathe.

We were given like masks.

But as we stayed in there for quite some time, you kind of couldn't smell it anymore.

Whether you had a mask on or a mask off.

It just didn't stink anymore.

We had become so accustomed to the smell that it lost its stench.

Let me encourage you with a simple word.

Do not let sin be comfortable in your life where it doesn't stink anymore.

You can become so comfortable with sin where it just doesn't stink anymore.

Refuse to let sin lose its stench.

It should be stinky.

You should recognize it.

You should oppose it.

You should run from it.

You shouldn't be comfortable in it.

You should repent.

Be quick to repent and run to the Lord for mercy.

Don't let sin lose its stench.

So I tell you, Jesus is coming soon.

And I ask you, are you ready?

Yes, we should consider our faith, but we should also celebrate because he's coming like a father for us.

Would you pray with me?

God, we thank you for our time spent in your word.

We trust it will never return void.

We pray that you taught us this morning what we need to hear regarding your return.

Lord, as we sing a song and as we meet each other at the Lord's Supper table, Lord, increase our faith.

Lord, give us the joy that we once had if it is grown dull that we had at the moment we trusted in you.

Lord, help us to hunger and thirst for righteousness to be satisfied in your word with your spirit and with your people.

In your name we pray.

Amen.