The Christian Handbook - The End Times - King Jesus Returns

We've been in a series called the Christian Handbook Fundamentals of the Faith. We're

talking about what Christians believe because it affects what Christians do. Our beliefs or

or our beliefs should have, affect our behaviors. It should affect our actions.

It changes how we behave based on what we believe. I keep using

this example. I'm gonna keep saying it because it's a really great one.

You're only sitting in that chair because you believe the weight will hold you.

Our beliefs affect our actions. You're only sitting in that chair because you know

it's not going to collapse when you sit on it. If you thought about

collapse, you wouldn't be sitting in it, right. Our beliefs affect our

behaviors. And we for the last several weeks, we've been on the subtopic

of just the Gospel, because we're talking about fundamentals, right, and the

Gospel is pretty fundamental the Christian faith. Right, So we've been in this

subtopic talking about the Gospel, and we've talked through like what the gospel is,

the good News of Jesus Christ. We've talked about what it means to

believe in this good news, or how do we come to have faith and

believe that Jesus is the one who is sent by God to die for the

sins of those who believe in him, that God regenerates us or makes us

born against so that we can even see the Kingdom of God like he does

this work in our hearts. We've talked about that, we talked about why

Jesus had to die. That the payment for our sin, or the only

way to be forgiven is forgiven of our sin, is through bloodshed. Because

God created things, He created all things, and he also created things to

work the way he wants them to work. And so he says the payment

for sin is bloodshed, and that there is no animal that will fully satisfy

the sin debt of humanity. No, it had to be the death of

a human. Even though we had this substitutionary death, sacrificial death system in

the Old Testament, where they're consistently sacrificing animals, none of them will fully

satisfy. Good job being quiet, Grace, And look at that's my son.

Everyone give him a hand. He forgot as good he's on there.

That was a good job being quiet, dude. I'm proud of you.

No animal can fully satisfy the sin debt, right, it had to be

a human, but not just a human. It had to be a perfect,

sinless human that would satisfy the debt. Only Jesus, who has got

himself in the flesh, was perfect and sinless. If he wasn't perfect,

then someone would have had to die for him. If Jesus wasn't perfect,

then he would have been dying for his own sins. But he is perfect,

therefore he can die on our behalf. That's why he had to be

perfect. So Jesus was crucified and became the substitutionary sacrifice for everyone who would

turn and believe in him. Because all who call him the name of the

Lord will be saved. All who call him the name of the Lord will

be saved, which is amazing. And last week Pastor Jordan preached did a

great job and he talked about what it means for those who believe in Jesus.

So I want to look at John one verses twelve and thirteen. Yet

to all who did receive him speaking of Jesus, to those who believed in

his name, he gave the right to become children of God children born not

of natural descent, nor of human decision or of a husband's will, but

born of God. Those who believe in the name of Jesus have the right

to be called children of God. That's amazing that we are adopted into the

family of God. We are sons and daughters of God. I don't know

about you, but that blows my mind that the God who breathed out stars.

You know, big stars are right, They're massive, They're incredibly huge.

There's one star that is if you stuck Earth on a sidewalk next to

the Empire State building and then stacked another Empire State building on top of it.

That's how big Earth is in comparison to one of the other stars in

our galaxy. And God said, let there be light, and there was

light. And that's the God who adopts us into his family, the creator

of the universe. That blows my mind that he would would adopt us as

sons and daughters. That's amazing. And so all of that is what we've

been talking about up until this point, and that brings us today. What

do Christians believe or what does the Bible say about our future as children of

God? The Most High and also what does that what does the Bible say

about those who are not children of the Most High? And we're going to

break it up into kind of two parts, and this week will all be

about the short term future, or I called the short ish term future because

we're still we still got some time. And then next week will be about

the eternal future, the whole rest of forever. He guys, ready for

this, all right? Today's message is titled the End Times, King Jesus

Returns, The End Times, King Jesus Returns. Yes, we're talking about

eschatology today. Does anyone have raise your hand? You have no clue what

that means? That's okay, I had to look it up. It's literally

word that just means the study of the end times or the end of things.

And there is a lot of we're not going to go super duper deep

into this today, because you can go down a really deep hole when it

comes to eschatology or study of end times. And there's tons and tons of

debate in the church about the certain when certain events will take place, the

timeline of those, and certain things that have happened already, in certain things

that haven't happened already, but the word eschatology, just as the word that

means the study of end things. And so today we'll instead of talking about

a lot of the different potential ideas or timelines, we're going to talk about

is the things we can be certain of in the end times. Okay,

we're going to focus on the things that we know. And the first thing

we know is that Jesus is going to return. That's number one. We

know Jesus is going to return, and we're gonna talk about what that looks

like. Number two, what is he returning to do? Why? Because

we can be certain of what he is returning to do because Scripture super clear

on that. And one thing we can be certain certain of is this.

The beginning of the end starts with Jesus return. The beginning of the end

starts with Jesus return. So let's start with the first certainty, which is

that Jesus is going to return. We're gonna look at We're just going to

go through three quick verses, and the first ones in John fourteen, Do

not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in

me. This is Jesus talking to his disciples my father's house has many rooms.

If that were not so, what I've told you that I'm going there

to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place

for you, I will come back and take you to be with me,

that you also may be where I am. Jesus told the disciples that he

was going to prepare a place for them, but only that that he would

come back. He's like, I will come back for you, and I

will take you to this place. Look, let's look in first John chapter

three. See what great love the Father has lavished on us. That we

should be called children of God. Amen. And that is what we are.

The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know

him. Dear friends, Now we are children of God. And what we

will what we will be, has not yet been made known. But what

we know. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like

him, for we shall see him as he is. But we know that

when what Christ appears, Okay, he's coming back. He will come back

when Christ appears. And the last verse I want to look at there is

in Revelation twenty two. By the way, Revelation is not a super I

mean, it's sometimes confusing, book. But it's not a scary book.

So I definitely recommend you guys read it and then pray and ask Jesus to

explain it to you, because he's the one who wrote it. The Angel

said to me, these words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the

God who inspires the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things

that must soon take place. Look, I am coming soon. Blessed is

the one who keeps the words of the prophecy. Our prophecy written in the

scroll. So in the Revelations is the prophecy given to John. And that

is Jesus telling us that he is coming soon. Okay, that's the last

book in the Bible. For those who have been avoiding it, it's the

very last book of the Bible. But I think what knowing that Jesus is

coming soon should reignite our sense of urgency that he's returning like this should be

a sense of like, oh, okay, so I need to get ready

for something. Right. But the biggest thing I want us to take from

all of these verses that we just read is that Jesus is coming back.

But the Bible doesn't just tell us that Jesus is coming back. It also

tells us how he's going to come back. Okay, so we'll be able

to have an insight into how he's gonna come back, and we're gonna start

in Acts chapter one. After he said this, he was taken up before

their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. Speaking of

Jesus, they were looking intently up into the sky as he was going.

So they're standing there just staring in the sky intently, when suddenly two men

dressed in white stood beside them. Messengers of the Lord. Could be angels,

I don't know. They weren't scary. Usually when angels are referenced in

the scripture, people followed their knees in terror because of how crazy they look.

So messengers of the Lord, and maybe they just didn't look crazy as

angels, I'm not sure. Men of Galilee, they said, why do

you stand here looking into the sky. The same Jesus who has been taken

from you into heaven will come back in the same way you've seen him go

into heaven. The same Jesus that went up into heaven will come back the

same way when he returns. And the big idea I've kind of written it

like this. Yeah, the same Jesus who went up into heaven who will

return from heaven. So the same Jesus. And I'm kind of kind of

harping on that because it's no other Jesus. It is the same Jesus that

was there with them. It's the one who walked with them. It's the

one who taught, who taught them everything. It's the one they saw crucified

and raised from the dead. It's the same Jesus. And he's going to

return in the same way as he left. He went up into heaven and

he will come down from heaven. So that will help us. So if

somebody says, hey, Jesus came from the desert or from the forest,

it's not Jesus, because he comes from heaven. And when he returns,

not only will he come down from heaven, but also next slide, please,

Jesus will return and display his full authority and power. Okay, So

he's going to come from heaven and he's going to display his full authority and

power. He will show he has complete authority. And in the end of

the Book of Matthew, with the Great Commission, he says, all authority

in heaven on Earth has been given to me. Go there for right.

We sometimes brush right past that. No. Jesus has all authority on heaven

and on earth. He has it all complete authority. Let's look in Revelation

chapter nineteen. I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a

white horse, whose rider was called Faithful and True with justice. He judges

and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head

are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows

but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and

his name is the Word of God. The armies of Heaven were following him,

riding on white horses and dress in fine linen, white and clean.

Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the

nations. He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the wine

press of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. That is the most

metal line of scripture. Treads the wine press of the fury of the wrath

of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has the name

written King of Kings and Lord of lords. Who is this about Jesus?

This is about Jesus, and this is a little bit different than the first

time he came to earth when he was born of the virgin Mary as the

baby. Sometimes we feel like he I mean, you read scripture says he

grew in stature just as a human does because he's fully God and fully man,

which means somebody had to change his diapers like Jesus. That kind of

humility, someone who is going to return like that, There's no more,

no more display of humility than Jesus coming from his place of power and humbling

himself to becoming fully man as he's fully God. It's amazing. But this

time when he comes back, he's leading the armies of heaven and you're ready

to judge the world. And not only is he coming back like that,

no one is going to miss the second coming because next slide, but jesus

return will be witnessed by all. Everyone is going to see it. Everyone's

going to know will happen. And so I want to look at first Thessalonians

four unless see verses sixteen and seventeen, for the Lord himself will come down

from heaven. Okay, again, we're seeing we've already talked about this he's

coming back down the same way he left. He'll come down from heaven with

a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call

of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that,

we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them

in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will

be with the Lord forever. The Lord himself, Jesus is going to come

down from heaven and everybody's going to know it. Everybody will know it.

It's not a secret thing. It's not some hidden thing where he's gonna sneak

back. No, the whole world will know. In Jesus returns, he

will give it, says right there, a loud command, the voice of

the archangel and with the trumpet call of God. I wonder what that sounds

like, and for everyone to hear, it's got to be loud. But

here's the kicker. The dead in Christ will rise first. So there's going

to be zombies. I'm totally joking. That's a joke. But what does

that mean though? What does that really mean? And so now we're going

to shift gears a little bit and start talking about why Jesus is coming back

or what he's going to do when he does come back. And this verse

here in for Ssalonians is Paul talking specifically to the believers in Thessalonika is the

city, and he's telling them what will happen to them when Jesus comes back.

Because but there is a lot of other stuff kind of going on in

this passage. So what does it mean that the dead in Christ will rise?

First? Where are all the dead people? Now? What about those

who are dead who are not in Christ? Where are they at? And

if we die today, where would we go? Since we're still waiting for

Jesus to come back to judge the world. And we're going to talk a

lot more about that next week when we talk about the eternal future and the

long term things that happen after Jesus comes back. But the short term answer

is where are these people? They're either in heaven or hell. It's only

two places, Heaven or hell. Those who have rejected Jesus and refused to

believe in him are in hell, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth

and where the worm does not die. That's what scripture says. It's what

happened to the rich man in Luke sixteen. The time came when the beggar

died. The beggar's name is Lazarus. If you read a little bit earlier.

When the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side, the

rich man also died and was buried in Hades, where he was in torment.

He looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus. This is a

story, by the way, I should probably clarify that with Lazarus by his

side, so he called to him, Father, Abraham, have pity on

me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool

my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire. It's eighty degrees

outside. Just dip the tip of his finger and put it on my tongue.

I've never been that hot, I've never been that thirsty. I've never

been tormented like that or agony in this fire. Those who have died,

who have not put faith in Jesus are already experiencing the just punishment for their

sins in hell. And this is a sobering reality. Today is a little

heavy, and I'm going to remind us of that as it gets heavy.

That's the reality which should push us to a sense of urgency, which we'll

talk more about later, a sense of urgency to tell people the gospel.

But for those who have put faith in Jesus, it's like what Jesus said

to the thief on the cross next to him, he said, today,

you'll be with me in paradise. Or like Paul says in Second Corinthians five,

Therefore, we are always confident and know that as long as we are

at home in the body, okay, we're at home in the body,

we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by

sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away

from the body and at home with the Lord. So we made it our

goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away

from it. Okay, there's only two places a believer can be, either

in the body away from the Lord, or away from the body with the

Lord. Right now, it's only two places you can be. If we're

here in our bodies, then we aren't with Jesus. And if we're away

from our bodies, then we are with Jesus. So when we die,

we immediately go into either heaven or hell, peace or punishment. And when

Jesus comes back again, that peace or that punishment is only intensified. And

again we're gonna talk about that more in the Eternal But if you think about

it, heaven or hell is where we're at now after death, then it

either becomes more heaven or more hell. Okay, it just gets intensified when

Jesus comes back to judge. But we still haven't answered that question. What

do Paul Silence and Timothy either the ones who wrote Thessalonians, what do they

mean by the dead in Christ will rise? First? Well, if we

ever we're confused, what do we do? What's the first thing we do?

And we're confuse about a passage of scripture? We read more scripture,

we read the context. What does what does it say around it? So

we're gon we're gonna check the context of that passage, and we remember that

we're talking about what happens when Jesus returns. What is he returning to do?

So let's go back to the first Thessalonian's text, chapter four. We're

gonna start in verse thirteen, which when I sent all these notes over to

Patricia. I screwed him up and she fixed them for me. So great,

John, Patricia, Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to

be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve

like the rest of mankind who have no hope. Okay, when you put

faith in Jesus, we always talk about the hope we have. Well,

what is the hope, the hope that is in death or when Jesus returns

that we get excuse me, we get resurrected to our new bodies. Right,

we have a future hope of resurrection forgiveness of sins. It's this already

not yet kind of idea that we're already viewed as forgiven, but we're still

working out that that salvation with fear and trembling, Like Scripture says, right,

So it says idea that we have a future hope to cling to.

No matter what you walk through in life, we win in the end.

And so I would say this, like, if life is this long compared

to eternity that goes on forever, what's really real? It's the matrix.

Get out of it. Eternity is real. Set your minds on things above,

right, think about eternity. That's what we want to do. We

have a hope. Even if life on earth gets really bad, we have

a hope, for we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so

we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him

according to the Lord's word. We tell you that we who are still alive,

who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede

those who have fallen asleep, For the Lord himself will come down from heaven

with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet

call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that,

we who are still alive and are left will be caut up together with

them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the heir. And so we

will be with the Lord forever. Therefore, encourage one another with these words.

So we have some contexts there. So what does all that mean?

The writers are trying to help the believers in Thessalonika understand what happens to the

believers who have already died. Okay, so we first read it in the

context we're understanding he's speaking or they're speaking telling us what happens to people when

they die. Now, it's those who have already died, that they won't

be left behind because they have already died, that they will be raised to

experience the same thing that those who are still alive or going to experience.

They're not going to be forgotten. And we who are because the quote out

of it is we who are still live will certainly not precede those who have

fallen asleep. We don't go before them. We don't get to experience that

before them. And just as a side note, fallen asleep means dead,

it's not some form of purgatory or soul sleep is kind of a one.

Now, it's not this so you're sleeping waiting for the return of Jesus.

Those who are alive will not proceed those who have fallen asleep. Just means

that when Jesus comes back, that all the believers who are already dead who

are in heaven with Jesus now will be resurrected to their bodies. Before the

end of that verse, let's go back a little bit. I wasn't ready

for that. They will be resurrected before being right, We'll go back to

that. There we go. We'll be caught up together with them in the

clouds to meet the Lord. They're going to be raised to their bodies before

this happens, is what it's saying. That doesn't mean those who are still

alive get raised up first to get to hang out with the Lord before them.

No, we're all going to do it at the same time. Why

why I think it's because judgment happens all at the same time. But we'll

get to that later. That everyone will be Jesus will bring all the believers

up into the clouds to meet with the Lord in the air. And the

point that I want to kind of make out of this or draw out of

this, and one of the reasons that Jesus is returning is this is Jesus

is returning to raise all believers up to be with the Lord forever together.

All believers up, raise all believers up to be with the Lord forever together,

like we are going to be together. We get brought all brought up

before the Lord together. We get to experience the new heavens and the New

Earth together. No one gets to skip out on final judgment, even if

you already died. We will all be with the Lord forever together. You

guys hanging in there, is it too heavy? It's too heavy for you?

Think about the person's got to stand up here and say it. Okay,

say Jesus coming back. Say everyone will know and he gets here.

Okay. Now we're gonna keep talking about why he is coming back or what

he's going to do when he does. Let's look at Hebrews chapter nine,

Verses twenty seven and twenty eight. Just as people are destined to die once

and after that faced judgment, which we know to be true. So Christ

was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many, and he will appear

a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those

who are waiting for him. He will appear a second time further letting us

know like this is a consistent message in scripture, Jesus is coming back.

The first time Jesus came to earth, it was to bear our sins.

He came to live the perfects in this life and die in our place.

But the second time he appears, when he returns, it's to do this.

Jesus is returning to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

He's returning to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. That is

our future hope. That's what we're waiting for. And when he returns to

judge everyone, that we will be saved from the payment or from paying excuse

me, the paying the penalty for our sin for all eternity, because we've

trusted in Jesus for that salvation. To Jesus returning to bring salvation. But

that also means this Jesus is returning to bring judgment. And all these things

up here I'm putting they're all tied to the same thing. Jesus is returning.

I don't know if you notice the theme, like, that's the point

of today. Jesus is returning. And here's one of the reasons he's returning

to bring judgment. He is returning to bring judgment on everybody. And that's

not just everyone who is alive, because we've already talked about it a little

bit. Jesus is returning to judge the living and the dead. So let's

look at second Timothy four. In the presence of God and of Christ,

Jesus who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his

appearing and his kingdom. I give you this charge. It's kind of a

weird verse to grab and just read. If you read it, you're like,

what it feels like we're missing stuff before and after right, just because

we are missing stuff. I'm really kind of zoning in on this middle piece.

He will judge who the living and the dead, And this is this

is part of Paul telling Timothy kind of some stuff to do in Timothy.

But the main thing I wanted to pull out of here is that Jesus will

be the judge of the living and the dead. Everyone gets judge. Nobody

escapes that, even if you've already died. This means me. It means

you, That means you're dead, ancestors for all of time. That also

means angels, demons, Satan, everybody, everybody's judged. Look at Revelation

twenty. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on

it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was

no place for them. I mean, that's just crazy imagery to think about.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne.

The books were opened. Another book was opened, which was the Book

of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done. As

recorded in the books, the sea gave up the dead that were in it,

and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and

each person was judged according to what they had done. Even the dead are

raised to be judged. Everybody gets judged in the end. And like,

I feel like we kind of say the word judge, and a lot of

times we think, like, ah, just you think bad about me for

something I do. No, don't think about it in that sense. Think

about an actual judgment sense. Okay, what does a judge do. He

sits and he listens to what everybody says. Right, everyone makes their claim

to see if someone's guilty or innocent. Okay, well, here's the kicker.

All of that's already done, all of the argument has been done.

He knows who is innocent and he knows who is guilty. Why because he

asked Jesus. Jesus says, those who put faith in me, all who

look to the Son and believe, receive eternal life. So as the judge,

Jesus is saying innocent or guilty, which is a really heavy way to

think about it, but its truth. Jesus is the judge, and so

don't think about judging the superficial way we often think about judging somebody. No,

think about it in like a courtroom. Even the dead are raised to

be judged. And if you keep reading, or if you read right before

this in Revelation, you actually see how Satan is defeated and he's even judged,

which is pretty amazing. So he loses in the end for those who

are wondering, spoiler alert. But Jesus also talked about this in Matthew twenty

five in the parable of the Sheeps are the sheep and the goats. And

this is a bigger chunk of scripture, but I'm gonna go through it pretty

quick. When the Son of Man comes into his glory and all the angels

with him, he will sit on his glorious throne that sounds familiar. All

the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one

from another as a shepherd. Shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He

will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then

the king will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed

by my Father, take your inheritance the kingdom prepared for you since the creation

of the world. That's huge. For I was hungry and you gave me

something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.

I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you

clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in

prison and you came to visit me. Then the righteous will answer him,

Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and

give you something to drink. When did we see you a stranger and buy

you in, or needed clothing and clothe you. When did we see you

sick or in prison and go to visit you? The king will reply,

Truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of

these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. Then you will

say to those and is left apart from me, you who are cursed into

the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was

hungry and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty and you gave

me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not invite me,

and I needed clothes and you did not clothe me. I was sick

and in prison, and you did not looked after me. They also will

answer, Lord, when do we see you hungry or thirsty, or a

stranger, or needing clothes, or sick or in prison, and did not

help you? And he will reply, Truly, I tell you, whatever

you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not

do for me. Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the

righteous to eternal life. This is the picture of Jesus judgment of all people

in the end of things. When he sits on its great white throne,

he will separate everyone into two different groups, the wicked and the righteous.

And we know the only way to be seen as righteous by putting faith in

Jesus. Okay, so it's not by doing these things that makes you righteous.

But those who are righteous will do these things. But we need to

understand that there is a very real, imminent judgment that's coming, and those

who are goats will be sent into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and

his angels into eternal punishment, and the sheep will be sent into eternal life.

Can I have the band come up whether I'm doing that, please,

so those who believe in and trust in Jesus will be saved and in the

end that we save from eternal punishment for our sin and brought to eternal life.

It's heavy stuff, and I'm wondering why the heck the elders made me

preach this message just kidding. It's in the Bible. We need to know

it, right. It's only heavy because we want to talk about it very

often. But if we keep staying away from the heavier topics and scripture,

we don't understand the urgency, we don't understand the importance, we don't understand

the eternal sense of things. And because we have all the kids in here,

I think this is great for us to start having conversations our kids about

this. They're hearing this right now, not in a scary way, but

in an honest way. Right Grayson and I talk about in fact, not

on my phone, but there's such a great conversation. We went to the

drive in movie theaters, which, by the way, if you go now,

it ends at like three in the morning. And we went on a

weeknight, in o school night. It was terrible, so fun to go

to the movies. But Grayson and June are sitting in the back of the

truck and June's like, why did Jesus have to come? And then Grayson,

my seven year old's like to live the perfect life and die in our

place. Parenting career win. If you're wondering, probably one of the highlights

of my life that I'll ever have. It's incredible. We need to have

these conversations with our kids. Why train a kid up in the way they

should go and they will want depart from it even when they're old, Like,

this is what we do. We need to shepherd our children. So

if they're in here hearing this message, start having the conversation. Tell them

how to be right with God. Tell i'm your story doesn't have to be

over overly complicated. Tell them how to receive forgiveness and get to spend eternity

with Jesus. And I don't care if they're old kids, because Amanda super

young and just has old kids. It's weird. Do you know her kids

are just older than mine. So that's why I say that doesn't matter how

well they're still your kids. Believe in Jesus and trust him for your salvation,

tell them he died for their sins and they just need to turn and

believe. Okay, that was a completely huge side note. Were where we

at? We're okay, there's actually for the whole message today. There's a

pretty good summary that I probably, if I was smarter, would just picked

this text and preached through. But it's in Second Peter chapter three, and

it's the whole chapter, but it calmed down. It's only eighteen verses.

It is pretty simple. So we're gonna go through Second Peter Chapter three.

Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. Peter is writing

a letter. I've written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome

thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the

Holy prophets and the command given by your Lord and Savior through your apostles.

Above all, you must understand that in the last days, scoffers will come,

scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, where is

this coming? He promised, ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on

as it has since the beginning of creation. But they deliberately forgot that long

ago by God's word, the heavens came into being, and the earth was

formed out of water, and by water. By these waters, also the

world of that time was deluged and destroyed. That's the flood. And then

Jesus put the rainbow in the sky to promise he'd never destroy the earth by

flood again. By the same word, the present heavens and earth are reserved

for fire. So the present heavens we're talking about, not the heaven where

God is residing at the moment, at least far as I can study and

gather. It's the skies, space, the heavens, and the earth our

reserve for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the

ungodly. But do not forget this one thing, dear friends. With the

Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are

like a day, because he's outside of time. The Lord is not slow

in keeping his promise as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with

you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, the heavens will

disappear with a roar. The elements will be destroyed by fire, and the

earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be

destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You

ought to live holy and godly lives. As you look forward to the day

of God and speed it's coming. That means anticipating and be excited for this

future day. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens. Whoa

be excited about the destruction of the heavens? Let's keep reading. That day

will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will

melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise, we are looking

forward to a new heaven and a new Earth, or righteousness dwells. So,

then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make

every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with Him.

Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation. We go back. I

missed the last couple words. Just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you

with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all

his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things

that are hard to understand. That might be the under statement of the century.

Paul writes some really hard stuff to understand, which ignorant and unstable people

distort as they do the other scriptures. Right fellowship, which is awesome.

We worship God through what Word, through worship, through prayer, through the

sacraments, communion and baptism, and through fellowship. That's what we do when

we gather, so that we're built up to go. This is our big

party on Sunday. We come together and we party and just worship the lords.

Is amazing, and we get energized to go out into the world because

the world can be dark, but what are we supposed to be in that

dark world? The light saw light of the world. Right, let him

find us at work when he gets here. He's given us the most important

mission ever to tell the world the good news of Jesus. That Jesus lived

a perfect life and he died on the cross as the perfect sinless sacrifice that

fully satisfies God's payment for sin, fully satisfies it, which means you don't

have to do anything, you just accept it. You just accept that sacrifice.

And Jesus is going to return to judge everyone, and if they would

turn and believe in Jesus and trust him for salvation, they'll be considered righteous

and raised to eternal life. It's amazing. We have the best message.

And Second Corinthians five is kind of like, I don't know, it makes

it real, really specific for us. All this is from God. All

what everything we read before go read all of Second Corinthians five. All this

is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the

ministry of reconciliation. That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ,

not counting people's sins against them, and he has committed to us a message

of reconciliation. We are, therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making

his appeal through us. We implore you, on Christ's behalf, be reconciled

to God. God made him who had no sin, to be sin for

us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Him

who had no sin to be sin for us. According to God's standard,

Jesus didn't deserve to die. Every single one of the humans on this planet

does deserve to die. He who had no sin to be sin for us

when we were at enmity with God, I say, giving him the metaphorical

middle finger. That's where we are enemies of the Lord before Jesus saves us.

And he did that while we are still enemies. Christ died for us.

The one who is sinless was made sin for us, and we've been

given that ministry of reconciliation as if God were making his appeal through us.

We are to implore people to be reconciled to God. What does implore mean?

It basically means to beg them. I am begging you get right with

God. Jesus is coming back. I'm begging you to get right with God.

Like this isn't implore? How do you implore somebody the King of kings

and Lord of lords? That means every king you could ever think of.

He's over all of those kings, every lord you could ever think of.

I mean, we don't live in the land of lords and kings right now.

But just go back to what's the all the shows probampletely blank aunts,

I don't watch him whatever. All the lords, all the kings, he's

over all of them. He has all authority in heaven on earth has been

given to Jesus, and he's over all of them. He's the one who's

returning soon, and he's coming to judge the living and the dead. The

righteous to eternal life and peace with him, and the unrighteous to the eternal

fire prepared for the devil and his angels to eternal punishment. It's heavy stuff,

I told you, but it's true. It's what Christians believe about the

end times. We are certain that Jesus is returning, and we are certain

that he is returning to judge the living and the dead. So go tell

someone the good niece that Jesus saves and he doesn't have to be weird.

Just try it. Just be nice to somebody and just say it. Even

you kids in here, tell your friends they need to hear about Jesus too.

Can you guys stand your feet please, We're going to sing a song.

Well some elders on the side. If you guys need prayer for anything,

we would love to pray for you. We have If you can't prepare

to give, there's offering envelopes on the box out there. You can use

those. We also have the connect cards if you are maybe not comfortable going

up and getting prayer or you're feeling whatever. You can also write on the

card your prayer request will be praying for him this week. If you want

it to be a private prayer request, it only goes to the elders.

Make sure you write something on there say hey, can you please keep this

private or whatever, but we do pray for these every single week. I

would love to pray with you in person, but if you're kind of feeling

at uncomfortable with that or whatever, please use the connection card. So I'm

gonna pray, We're gonna worship, and then we're gonna get ready to eat

because that's like my second favorite thing on the planets to dolease eat food.

So God, we just thank you for today. God. We thank you

for your word. We think that you've given us the truth that the miss

reads of the Gospel have been revealed to us. Gods, as some of

the stuff or all of the stuff we talked about is kind of heavy.

God, I pray that you, by the power of your Holy Spirit,

you convict where we need to be convicted. You comfort where we need to

be comforted. But God, you drive us to action and obedience to you.

God, I pray that we have a hunger for your word, that

we always want to understand you more. We want to read our Bible more

to understand who you are, your attributes, who you've called us to be

in light of who you are. We find all that in scripture. So

God, give us a hunger for your word, hunger to please you,

to live in obedience to you. God. I pray that we understand the

depths of your gospel even greater now than we did before. That in view

of your mercy, that we understand your mercy and it drives us to do

exactly what your scripture tells to do, and that's to offer our bodies as

a living sacrifice wholly and pleasing to you. This is proper, This is

reasonable in view of your mercy. So God, please help us understand your

mercy even more, and then give us the boldness and courageousness to act as

your ambassadors, to be ministers a reconciliation, to tell people, to implore

them be reconciled to God that Jesus, who never sinned and was perfect,

is the perfect sacrifice to die on our behalf, and all it takes is

to believe in that message. So God, we're are ysing to be open

so we can see your kingdom. Please open our eyes. If our hearts

are hard towards you for any part of your gospel message or anything that has

to do with obedience, God, soften our heart, draw us closer to

yourself, and grow our affections for you that we truly love you and want

to please you. God. We just thank you for this time and your

word, and pray that the word is sealed in our hearts and you do

what you got to do in our hearts and then we don't resist it.

Thank you for all this, and Jesus name, everybody said, Amen, must worship