Core Training | The Promise and Perplexity of Eschatology

Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood

Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.

Thank you so much for tuning in to our podcast.

You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word

about important issues facing your life that can guide you

according to the Bible. Well, I just want to welcome

everybody to this session. And for those of you who are

listening online, I'd appreciate so much you listening to these

podcasts. I've appreciated the feedback

from this and then also our Walking in Prayer podcast.

We've been recording those almost weekly now.

Pastor Jordan and I recorded a a really fun one.

It'll be up in a few weeks to where we were talking about how

do we walk in the word? How do I pray Scripture into

people's lives, into my own life and into other people's lives as

part of my prayer life? And again, those are are helpful

if you're walking around the neighborhood or if you're

driving. You could listen to them while

you're driving or just in your quiet time at home to use to

help this kind of a guided prayer time.

So I hope that you'll check those out as well as this core

training. Let me give you a couple of

heads up. So our next session together,

next time we'll actually be talking about, I'm going to be

talking about the problem of evil.

Why does evil exist? Why do bad things happen?

What causes that? What allows that?

And so it's a question that a lot of people will have.

Who's to blame, who's not to blame, those kind of ideas.

Why did this person get healed and another person not get

healed? We're going to talk about some

of those things at our next time together.

And then in about two episodes from now, I'll be talking about

spiritual gifts and whether all the gifts still exist today or

whether some of them have ceased.

You call that cessationism or continuation ISM And was having

a good conversation earlier today about that.

And so those are coming up as well.

And, and, and hope that you'll, you'll be here for that.

So tonight we're going to talk about, you know, the, the fancy

word is eschatology, but the, the, the common word is the

second coming of Christ and some of the things that surround

that. One of my former administrative

assistants at the seminary, he and I were comparing the role of

a pastor to that if his father, his father is a high school

football coach And, and, and this is what we decided.

He we decided that people are extremely happy with you if you

run the exact plays they think you should at the exact moment

they think you should. And their child is the star

athlete and you win every game. Otherwise they have opinions

about every decision you make. They tell the coach about how

they ran a play once on Madden football on their Xbox or

watched an NFL game once, or how they played themselves back in

the day and and what worked while they're wearing their high

school leather jacket at 45 years of age.

So of course they know better than you could ever know as a

coach because there's no way even with your training and

experience that you could know what you're doing and might just

have some young players who need developing.

But, but if you do not abide by the booster club feedback, off

you go. And it's fascinating how most

never question or argue with their CPA or their doctor, but

with their pastor, I mean coach, they all know better.

So this is kind of one of those nights you just watch.

So we've been working through a series and the fancy words for

it are theological triage. In other words, how do we

prioritize our beliefs? There's some beliefs that we

must believe. If we don't believe certain

things, we're not a Christian. There's certain things we're not

going to heaven, certain things we wouldn't be saved.

And then you get into what we would call secondary levels or

tertiary third level areas to where some of those secondary

certainly divide denominations and can be very serious

disagreements and there can be real reasons for those

disagreements. And then you get down to the

some of the, the third level to where even in one church, you

could have people in the same small group, but they would have

different interpretations of, of difficult passages or, or

passages that have various options.

So how do I know which ones are the primaries?

Which ones are the secondaries and the tertiaries?

And, and what are some of the ways in which we can still have

different interpretations and get along.

So that's what we've been talking about.

If this is the first time you've joined us.

And ironically, one of the problems or just one of the

truths is often we tend to prioritize more time and energy

arguing about the secondary and the tertiary levels rather than

focusing upon the primaries. And that's often what divides

Christendom. Christianity gets divided by

these arguments that we have on these lower levels and and

fighting over tertiary issues, especially that third level is

unhelpful. But fighting over that third

level or tertiary issues while some simultaneously neglecting

the primary issues is is even worse.

And so we need to be careful because Christians divide over

several things and, and some of those are even the beginning of

time and the end of time, believe it or not.

And you might think that those are, are both primary issues and

there are primary issues involved in both of those.

But then there are also some subsets of, of secondary and

tertiary issues that often divide Christians.

And so the interpretation of the days of creation in Genesis 1,

and we're not talking about that tonight necessarily, but are

those literal days 24 hour periods or are they periods of

time, time and and etcetera. And then we can just say the

word Millennium in Revelation 20 and all kinds of disagreements

can start there. And so the, the interesting

truth about what's called protology, that's first things.

Creation protology is the name of that doctrine.

And one version or eschatology last things and don't let these

words throw you, is that they both contain significant primary

issues, but they also can contain tertiary issues.

And so we must believe certain things about both and, and, and

yet we can have different thoughts about both at the same

time depending upon what a part of it we're discussing.

And we're going to look at some of that tonight.

But tonight we're going to focus on end times.

We don't have time for both. We barely have time for an

overview of this. And so this is what we're going

to look at. One of the theologians that I've

quoted off and Gavin Ortland says this many evangelicals

focus more on the timing of the rapture, the identity of the

Antichrist, and the nature of the Millennium than they do on

the second coming of Christ, the final resurrection, or the final

judgement. All, in my view, first rank

doctrines. And so some would rather frankly

engage. And I'm not saying anybody I

know here at Inglewood, but some people I know and obviously

other places, but not here, but several other places that I've

been, would rather engage in a hot blooded debate over

interpretations of eschatology and then frankly go show the

gospel with their lost neighbor. So we need to be careful.

We need to begin by recognizing the true primary doctrine in

this area and then acknowledge the the large continuum, whether

you believe there's one or not, there is of secondary and

tertiary beliefs that many would hold.

So Jesus will return bodily, He will take his people home.

He will judge the nations and the lost.

Those are primary issues. And if and if you don't believe

in that, you're going to struggle with all of Scripture.

We have to believe those things. Another theologian, Christopher

Morgan I this is good. Listen to this.

He says the whole Bible, culminating in the end of the

story, exalts God himself, the creator, the sustainer, the

Redeemer, and now the consummator.

In the grand finale, God wins. And in all of this, he will

glorify himself. So the scriptural storyline thus

ends wonderfully with God on his throne, evil banished from his

eternal Kingdom, and all of us who are his children reigning

with him and resurrected bodies on the new earth.

And that's primary. We must believe that Jesus is

going to return and it's a physical return.

But the range and frankly, the hybrids, because there are a

bunch of them, the hybrids of secondary and tertiary beliefs

include things like views of the rapture, views of the

tribulation, views of the Millennium or the millennial

reign, the timing of the second coming versus a rapture, the

role of the church and the overall role and significance of

Israel. And we're going to talk about

define several of these issues as we walk through this tonight.

And some believe that their view must be the only view.

And they wear it kind of like that old high school leather

jacket and, and proudly display it.

And frankly, to be honest with you, and I've run into this in

many places, some have only heard one view.

They've never heard any alternatives.

All they've ever been taught is 1 perspective.

And so they assumed that that's the only one or that it's the

right one. So they dogmatically demanded to

be the one. And what's interesting is that

some of the views, listen to me, this important sentence that

some of the views held most dogmatically today in some

churches are actually very recent in church history and

were not the most prominent views in the early church.

And that will be difficult for some people to swallow who

believe there's only one view and that they're that view they

hold is the only view. When in fact, some of those

views are actually developed within the last century and a

half. And we're really not a part of

much early church history. So I want to focus again just to

make sure we're clear on a, on a couple of things to make sure

that we recognize that I'm very confident, extremely confident,

exceedingly confident, almost omnipotently competent,

confident that I'm not going to satisfy most or perhaps any of

you with one lesson on this subject.

OK? That's really not my goal

tonight, not for what we're doing in here.

Sometime down the road, we'll have to have another study.

I would prefer to actually do it as we study books of the Bible

and preach through books because I I want to be a biblical

literalist. I don't know how else to

describe it. And I want to present the, for

example, the Book of Revelation as the Book of Revelation

actually reveals itself. But tonight, I will do the best

I can to make all of you angry and and disagree with me.

And just remember, the e-mail address for those of you who are

listening or those of you listening online is

[email protected]. So get prepared to all be ready.

You ready, Get geared up, get all revved up to begin to tell

me what I should have said. As soon as we're done here, I

want to focus on some key concepts related to the end of

time. And, and then frankly, you, we

need to study, you need to study and we need to discuss this

doctor more in our small groups, additional sermons, additional

studies, perhaps an entire study just on that subject matter

where we can hit many of these angles.

And we'll, we'll do that down the road.

But let's talk about the primary doctrine again.

First, just to nail this down, let me quote from the Baptist

Faith in Message 2000, which again is a, is a doctrinal

summary that this church adopts officially.

And so this will tell you what where Inglewood is officially on

paper, and it states this about the end of time, God, in his own

time and in his own way, will bring the world to its

appropriate end. Now that sentence alone drives

some people crazy. According to his promise, Jesus

Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the

earth. The dead will be raised and

Christ will judge all men and righteousness.

The unrighteous will be consigned to hell, the place of

everlasting punishment. The righteous and their

resurrected and glorified bodies will receive the reward and will

dwell forever in heaven with the Lord.

So it's interesting to me though, because through the

years this phrase that God in his own time and in his own way

seems to really frustrate people.

And I have a file full of charts and predictions sent to me of

when Jesus is going to return. I have books that were written

on the why Jesus would return in a certain year.

And then when he didn't, I have a follow up book of why Jesus

didn't return in that year. That's no joke by the same

author. I thought that's a brilliant

financial marketing plan for publishing a book.

You could do that just about anytime you wanted to.

But it's always interesting to me, even though Jesus himself

said in Matthew 2436, but concerning that day and hour, no

one knows, just got a pregnant pause, not even the angels of

heaven nor the Son, but the Father only.

So I'm not sure why people still try to figure out a win.

And yet I've, I've been in classes and conferences and

conversations where people got it all mapped out and they know

exactly when, even though Jesus says, no, you don't, no one

does. So it's always interesting to

me. So the challenge of the Gospels

in the New Testament, don't misinterpret them.

The, the challenge and the, and the, and the message of the

gospels in the epistles is not one of prediction.

It never has been. It's one of obedience and

discipleship. It's believing he will return in

his time and we have a certain life to live until that occurs

or we die. And, and that's the message of

the New Testament. So the the job of the church,

our job is not prediction, our job is proclamation.

And we need to be careful about that.

It doesn't mean that it's not OK to talk about because we are

certainly studying God's Word together and we want to do that.

But you also have to remember the context of many of these

passages that we're going to read here in a minute, that in

the New Testament world, this pre Christian Pagan world of the

early church. Let me say that again, because I

believe today we live in what I refer to as a pre Christian post

post modern culture. And it's much more similar to

the pre Christian Pagan world that the early church lived in.

That's one of the differences of our culture compared to some of

the some of the generations that you some of you grew up in is we

now live in a world that's much more like a pre Christian world.

I don't ever use the phrase post Christian because Jesus will

always sit on his throne. There's no such thing as post

Christ, but there's a pre Christian.

They don't know, they don't care, they have no knowledge of

they're, they're focused on other things.

And, and, and, and so this is, this is not a Christian culture,

so to speak. And so we live in a post

postmodern, pre Christian or pre Christian postmodern culture.

And it's much similar to the New Testament pre Christian Pagan

world of the early church. But one of the key things you've

got to know about these passages is that the majority of the

people in this world of the early church did not believe in

or had no hope for life after death.

And so a lot of these passages that are talking about certain

things, this this audience that he's right, Paul's writing to

and some of these places had a very Pagan backgrounds and

surroundings. They had no hope, no knowledge

of any life after death concept. And so that shapes a little bit.

It was a very fatalistic, very works based, fear based, Pagan,

superstitious and religious world that the Gospels that the

gospel floods with this new message of peace and promise.

And it's one of the reasons it was so revolutionary.

And so this is a radical shift in worldview for many who

received this message, especially in the letters of

Paul. So Paul wrote, for example, and

there's a, a primary part of, of Scripture that we often go to in

the New Testament when we're talking about the second coming.

And that's the book of First Thessalonians.

And Paul writes to this church in Thessalonica to help these,

the the very first gatherings of these brand new Christians to

understand concepts of life after death, because that was

not their background at all. And you can't separate

Scripture. You can't remove Scripture from

its original context. If you want to have healthy and

accurate hermeneutics, if you want to have a healthy

interpretation of Scripture, you can't just radically remove it

from its original context. You've got to understand who

these first hearers were. And so this church had great,

you can understand this now had great concern for believers who

had died so that because they don't know what's going to

happen to him, because they don't understand life after

death. And so part of what Paul's

writing about when he talks about some of these second

coming passages is actually this encouragement about those of you

who've lost loved ones, right? And some of you will know some

of these verses. So will will they miss?

Will they miss his second coming, which which they also

believe would take place in their lifetime because they've

already died? The people who've already died,

if they already missed out, because as far as their

background was concerned, they're dead.

And so are they going to miss the the idea of the second

coming I'm hearing about? Because that could happen now?

I mean, in their world, it was like it was going to happen,

especially in Thessalonica. They thought it was going to

happen. In fact, they had a problem with

some of the Thessalonicans of quitting work and going kind of

sitting out there on the hillside and staring up to the

sky because they thought it was going to happen that day.

So we, and so we have the whole Bible to help us.

We have the whole Bible to help us understand, but they just

didn't, they didn't have all that.

So that's the true context of this passage, not some 21st

century attempted predictions. So we get, we need to be

careful. So listen to 1st Thessalonians

chapter 4, verse 13 and, and you'll see this, this will make

see how this verse really makes sense.

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about

those who are asleep or who are dead, but that you might not

grieve as others who do, who have no hope.

Now, I was sharing that passage with some folks who are here

today with us, who just lost a loved one.

They're here with us right now. I was sharing part of that.

We were talking about that concept today that we grieve.

But we get to do it with what hope.

Because we know we know right when believers die, what happens

but you can understand this is brand new to these people, man.

They've got no clue they're they're learning this for the

first time. This is discipleship point O1 as

they're just learning this right.

And so he says this, but I we do not want you to be uninformed

brothers about those who are asleep that you may not grieve

as others do who have no hope for since we believe that Jesus

died and rose again. Even so, through Jesus, God will

bring with him those who have fallen asleep and the man.

If that was the end of it, that would still be confusing.

For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who

are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not

precede those who have fallen asleep.

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry

of command, with the voice of an Archangel, and with the sound of

the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise

first, then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up

together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

And so we will always be with the Lord.

Therefore, encourage one another with these words.

I mean, what a radical thing for them to hear for the first time,

really. So let's just think through a

couple of things here. First, let's talk about the

comfort of Christ's coming. We don't want you to be

uninformed about this. We want you to be aware.

We don't want you to be ignorant.

We want you to have not all about what that about those

believers who have already died. That's the conversation here.

You have loved ones who believed in Jesus and they've died before

Jesus came back. What's going to happen?

So don't be like the pagans around you, or like you used to

be, who have no hope for the dead, for you and for us.

Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, there is hope.

A hope based totally upon the fact that what Christ has

already done for us and will also do for us when He returns.

So we have both the past hope and promise of the cross and the

resurrection. We have the future promise of

His return, both of which give us hope.

And those who have fallen asleep don't get into so sleep.

I don't have, I don't have 4 hours to talk about so sleep.

But this is not about so sleep. So sleep is not a good doctrine.

It's not an accurate doctrine. The rest of the Bible, and I'll

show you that in a minute, Testify.

In other words, it doesn't mean their soul just went to sleep at

death. In fact, Paul encouraged the

Corinthian church about this in Second Corinthians 5/8.

Yes, we are of good courage and would rather be away from the

body and at home with the Lord. So those believers who have died

are presently and instantly with the Lord.

The body may be waiting. The final state of the body, the

resurrected body, is not complete yet, but they are

because we're all going to receive new resurrected bodies,

which I'm excited about and thankful for.

I hate steps, but our soul, our spirit, who we really are is

immediately in the presence of God in a very real and real and

conscious way. So, so you someone may say with

a loving heart and mean will after you lose a loved one.

I'm sorry for your loss. And you're sitting there going,

well, I haven't lost her. I know exactly where she is,

right? I mean, I, you know, I

appreciate the sentiment. I'm not, you know, appreciate

the kindness they're trying to display.

I mean, what a comfort, what a difference that makes.

I was having this conversation this last week with someone else

who lost a loved one. And we were just talking about

the, the fact that over the years I've done 300 and

something funerals and, and, and I've done many, many funerals

for people who were not a member of the church, who had no

church, who were not saved. And, and this the difference in

a funeral where there is no salvific hope, there is no

thought of Christ versus a known believer who, you know, the

going home celebration of a, of a believer who's lived a life.

I mean, it's just such a stark contrast.

And why in the world you want to go through that like this when

you can go through it like a believer can?

You know, it's crazy. But Jesus is either is going to

come back and he's either going to come with us or for us.

Basically this passage says either he's going to he's going

to come for us or come with us. And it's not going to be subtle.

It's not going to be quiet, it's not going to be unnoticed again.

416 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry

of command, with the voice of an Archangel, with the sound of the

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

And I don't know about you, but I long to hear the powerful cry

of command from King Jesus. I'd love to hear what the voice

of an Archangel sounds like, and I'd love to hear how loud the

trumpet of God is. The other morning we woke up at

5:00 in the morning because they decided to pour semen into a new

house right next door to us, right outside my bedroom window.

And it, it's kind of shaking the walls and the, and the glass was

moving a little bit as they had a 2 cement trucks and a boom.

And it was not subtle. It was not, it was not, it woke

us up. I thought I was going to shake

me out of bed. I, I was about to look up to the

sky and, and look for Gabriel or Michael, you know, but anyway,

it was just the cement truck. So, so, so you got to remember

that this is not an imagery here.

Trumpets were used to declare war.

Trumpets were used to declare a special event.

They're also used, obviously, to announce the arrival of somebody

really important royalty. The king is coming and, and here

all three are going to take place war upon evil, incredibly

special event and the arrival of the king.

And then Paul also writes that the body and soul will reunite

in this new glorified way, this this resurrected body.

Listen to a couple of other passages as he writes to the

church at Philippi in Philippians 3, he says, but our

citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await A Savior, the

Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be

like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to

subject all things to himself. So we know that our resurrected

body is going to have a lot of similarities to the resurrected

glorified body of Christ. We know that and and again in

First Corinthians to that church he writes, he says in first in

chapter 15 I tell you this brothers, flesh and blood cannot

inherit the Kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the

imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery and

this is the themes, the theme verse for every church nursery.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a

moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet.

For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised

imperishable and we shall be changed.

And so we recognize that this is, this is a, this is a sudden,

this is an unexpected, this is a noticeable.

It's not going to be subtle. You're not going to wonder

whether or not the rapture took place or whether or not the

second coming took place. We're going to talk about the

difference in those two things and whether or not they are the

same thing in a minute. And I know somebody already has

opinions, [email protected].

We will be transformed in the in a moment, in the twinkling of an

eye, right? And it's going to be a glorious

resurrect. It's going to be a

metamorphosis, right? It's going to be, it's going to

be really, really something. Jon Patton or Peyton was a 19th

century missionary from Scotland.

And and there's a great quote by him because people in Scotland

were were telling me, you know, you don't you go, don't you go,

you're going to he was going to go preach to what were then

cannibals in some of the island Pacific nations.

And they said, you know, don't go there, don't go there.

You're going to get eaten by by the cannibals.

In fact, one will meaning church member moaned loudly in the

service. The cannibals, the cannibals,

you'll be eaten by the cannibals.

What an encouragement to the commissioning service of your

missionary. But without hesitation.

Peyton said this, he says, I confess to you that if I can

live and die serving my Lord Jesus Christ, it makes no

difference to me whether I'm eaten by cannibals or by worms.

For in that great day of resurrection, my body will rise

as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.

And so just to recognize what what's going to happen, that

miracle that takes place at that moment.

Well, Paul continues with the Thessalonians and 1st

Thessalonians 4 again, verse 17. Then we who are alive, who are

left, we'll be caught up together with them in the clouds

to meet the Lord in the air, And so we will always be with the

Lord. Therefore encourage one another

with these words and the idea of caught up here, your translation

might actually have different words there caught up means to

catch up quickly. It's not a subtle word and in

English sometimes just didn't have the punch of of you know,

Greek is a very descriptive, vivid language, which I think is

one of the at Christmas I'll probably preach about this.

The one of the reasons God chose to send Jesus at the time he did

because linguistically Koine Greek was just one of the

wonderful way to express so many things, because it just

describes things much more vividly.

Often we'll have one word in English for something and Greek

will have 20 words for the same thing.

And so one of the things that this means, it means to seize by

force. This is not a subtle thing.

This is not like I'm catching a softball out in right field

because I can't play anywhere else.

So they put me in right field. So it it, it, it means that

you're seizing something by force to claim, to move to a new

place, to rescue from danger is what this word can mean.

And so again, all of this is happening.

How quickly twinkling of an eye, faster than a faster than a

blink and the twinkling of an eye.

So Paul declares again, remember the context.

See, there's no need to worry for your beloved who've died.

There's nowhere for these believers who've passed away.

Don't worry about them. Be comfortable because Christ is

going to come and there's going to be this incredible, not only

resurrection and reunion and, and, and transformation that

takes place. So we can rest and, and be

assured and comforted by the idea of the second coming of

Christ. But secondly, let's talk about

the certainty of Christ's coming.

Then let's just nail this down and then we're going to get to

what you really want me to talk about.

Probably. But in First Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 5:1

chapter 5 verse 1, he says not concerning the times and the

seasons. Brothers, you have no need to

have anything written to you. We don't need to be consumed

about the timing of his coming. I promise you I'm not kidding.

I have all kinds of cool color-coded charts.

Every generation believes or has believed it would probably be

during their time here on Earth. I've heard that for decades upon

decades, you know, Jesus is going to return anytime.

Jesus is going to return anytime.

Jesus is going to return anytime.

And I would even say to you, there would have been moments in

history before I was alive to where I could have said, boy,

that seems like a time. Like you think about World War 2

and some of those moments you could really have thought, man,

this is it, isn't it? But the win is not the biggest

issue. I'm not saying it's a sin to

think about those things and to enjoy studying those things, but

that's not the biggest issue. Now listen, the bigger issue is

the why and the how. Those are more important.

So quit sending me charts. e-mail them to see

[email protected]. So First Thessalonians chapter

1 Thessalonians 5:2

5, verse 2. For you yourselves are fully

aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the

night. While people are saying there is

peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them

as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will

not escape. For you yourselves are fully

aware. Paul had, obviously, and this is

something you got to recognize. He had obviously already done

some teaching while he was there with them in Thessalonica.

So there's some things that he'd already told himself.

I've already told you this or she'd all be aware of some of

this already. Paul saying the day of the Lord,

This imagery is a very Old Testament image.

This is the image of a day of judgement.

The day of the Lord is a popular Hebraic phrase in the Old

Testament to where it's it represents judgement and that

day will be extremely unwelcomed by many.

In fact, listen to the Book of Revelation.

It says in Revelation 1615, behold, I am coming like a

thief. Blessed is the one who stays

awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go naked and be

seen exposed. It's going to be sudden.

You're not going to be able to escape it.

You're not going to be able to hide from it.

And for those who know him, it will be powerful.

And for those who do not know him, it's going to be painful.

In fact, listen to Matthew chapter 24.

Matthew 24 · chapter mention

But concerning that day and hour, no one knows.

I don't know how many times I got to say that out loud, but

because concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the

angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

So don't ask me when he's going to come back. 37 For as were the

days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and

drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day when Noah

entered the ark and they were unaware until the flood came and

swept them all away. So will be the coming of the Son

of Man. Then two men will be in the

field, one will be taken, one left.

Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken and

1:00 left. Now certainly there are signs,

and we can recognize certain signs that that life's going to

be moving along in a pretty sinfully normal way right before

the 2nd coming. But you think we what, what this

ought to do to us is because of the suddenness, because of the

normalcy of life, right? It's unexpected.

Part of what this ought to do is it ought to motivate us to share

the gospel with the lost people around us because this could

happen to them. And we, we have the

responsibility of helping them know the truth so that they can

avoid the painful part of this and they can enjoy the powerful

part of this, right? And so we need to be more

burdened about what they face at the end and then what they think

of us today. Because when they're saved, I

promise they'll thank you one day for that, right?

But let's get to #3 the classifications of Christ's

coming. And here's where the bulk of our

time will be spent. Because one of the things that

I'm learning is that some, and, and sometimes I use words that

need definitions. And so I want to make sure I, I,

I don't want to ever assume that people already know things.

Now, there are some of you in here.

And I know that because we've had conversations that, that

like to study eschatology and you know, all these terms and

you have, you have your, your, your clear interpretations of

some of these terms. I don't mean that in any

negative way whatsoever. You, you feel real certain about

your Bible study and that, and I'm not arguing with that, but

there are other people in this room who have no idea what these

terms mean, right? And so we want to make sure that

we're, we're including some definitions here so that

everybody's clear. When somebody says the word

Millennium or premillennialism or just dispensationalism, what

does, what does that mean? I hear these words.

I have no idea what that means, right?

So let's, let's help you. Let's make sure, let's clear

that up. So, so most of the secondary,

that second level and and third level discussions in

eschatology, they revolve around the when and the how and they

lead to this entire Dictionary of questions and terms and

positions. For example, this is a

rhetorical question. I don't need you holding up

signs with answers. Will Jesus return physically and

reign on the earth for 1000 years?

That would be a question. Will Christians go through a

seven-year tribulation? That would be a question that my

people might have. Will the second coming of Christ

occur at the same time believers meet Christ in the air during a

rapture? In other words, is the second

coming the rapture? Are they the same thing or not?

What does the nation of Israel have to do with end times?

These are the kinds of questions that often revolve around these

kinds of conversations. And in due time, I promise that

we'll come back and we're going to walk through some of these

details. I, I'm going to have to be a

little general tonight, as I warned you at the beginning,

because there are exceptions and hybrid beliefs to many of these

interpretations. I promise you, I know the

details and I assure you, but I want to remain a little more

focused on some primary issues for this session.

And I know that disappoints 95% of those of you who are

listening. And the other 5% don't know what

I just said. So that's great.

So let's just talk about some of these terms.

Let's talk about what the rapture is.

So this is actually a word for it's a Latin, it comes from

Latin, the word rapture, and it means to carry away.

It means to take away, to carry off.

That's what the word rapture means in Latin.

And it refers to the time when Jesus returns for his people.

Now, there are people, many people in fact, who don't

believe there's such a thing that the rapture isn't an event

by itself. So you just need to know that

you are sitting down in here. That's good.

Those of you listening online, sit down because I don't want

you to faint while you're walking or or driving.

Don't hit anybody. Most believe, most who believe

in a rapture believe it's described in some of these

passages we just read right? And so depending upon your view,

it can either be at the same time together with the second

coming, that's all one big thing, or they're actually two

different events that happen some time apart.

We're going to talk more about that, don't worry.

And so beliefs also range. Now see if you can follow this

for a minute because this will give you some of this language

that you might hear in second coming talk.

So it beliefs range from when it occurs, does it occur before the

great tribulation, which we'll define next?

Does it happen in the middle of the great tribulation or does it

happen after the great tribulation, Right?

So you have pre Trib, mid Trib and what would that last one be?

Post Trib, right? And so and you have Christians

in all three categories, You have scholars in all three

categories. OK.

And so all three of those, I'm not just saying that there are

people who believe this. So what is the great

tribulation? Well, the great Tribulation is a

time when great disasters take place and those who believe in

Christ are going to suffer great persecution.

So various views occur all over the place with the tribulation

at different times, that this will occur at different times.

Some believe it lasts for seven years because of what the Book

of Revelation would suggest to us in Revelation 7.

There are others who don't believe that.

Others believe it's symbolic or others believe it's already

happened. So there's actually an entire

sub doctrine called preterism that believes that most of the

prophecies about the end times actually took place in the 1st

century. That it was referring to Nero as

the Antichrist. That the Jewish war and

destruction of the temple in AD 70 by Rome is actually the

tribulation. So all this language that we

attribute to being in the future for some actually already took

place and they believe it already took place in the past.

So just be aware that these different views exist.

Others see the whole idea of the tribulation is more symbolic.

So it represents all of the persecution and all of the

suffering Christians have faced throughout church history so

that it really isn't a future seven-year period that you can

pinpoint in your newspapers and in the news media.

But it's actually something that is just from the very beginning

of Christianity, still going on today every time Christians are

persecuted, because I do assure you, Christians are being

persecuted today in great numbers.

In fact, more people are being martyred today than perhaps any

other time in recent history. Still others I'm not done,

sorry. Still others would say the Great

Tribulation is prior to the second Coming, and others say

it's at the end of the second coming.

So you'll have those who believe in what's called

premillennialism and post millennialism based upon what

the Millennium is, which is our next definition so that these

getting good. So you can be post Trib, mid

Trib, or a pre Trib, mid Trib, post Trib, and also pre pre

millennial or post millennial. Isn't that good?

We need T-shirts. We need T-shirts.

We just need to all wear labels so we can really have great

discussions together in the lobby.

So to best understand, and I do mean this part, to best

understand what the Bible teaches about the great

Tribulation, I really do advise you to study not just passages

about the end times, but to help you, you could study the

doctrine of suffering and persecution, which is a doctrine

in and of itself throughout Scripture and to see, and then

you'll be able to, I think tell better, is this the same thing?

Is this a different thing or not right?

And it kind of will help you with some of those views.

So are all passages referring to persecution or suffering about

the end of time? Or are some about what the

disciples alive at the time of Jesus would face in their own

lifetimes and or what the early church would experience during

his first, say, 2 centuries? And, and the answer is, you

know, in my mind, it's a both an and.

And it will help you to study the both an to kind of help

separate some of these things out because we sometimes

interpret things, I think to relate to us.

This is a a normal and we're going to have a host study on

this someday about how to interpret Scripture.

We're going to do some podcasting about that as well.

How do I study the Bible? Well, because one of our one of

our faulty interpretation problems or what we would refer

to as a faulty hermeneutic is that we often interpret

Scripture for us instead of in a, in a more objective way.

What does Scripture really say? And we often, we often are so

hard. We related to us so much or we

can also do that eschatologically where

everything's about something when it's not necessarily about

that. And so when they actually some

of these passages related to others in the past.

But that's not to say that current and future persecution

is yet to come and promised in Scripture as well.

So again, there's kind of a both ends.

You got to kind of work there. I'll move on.

So then what's the Millennium that was referred to pre

millennialism, post millennialism?

So the Millennium is 1000 year reign of Jesus on earth.

You'll see this in the Book of Revelation with a billion

different views, maybe not a billion, but several.

And these are some of the words that some of you might know or

you've heard of. Most of these have to do with

the way the Millennium works in relationship to the rapture or

the second coming or the tribulation and how all these

pieces kind of tie together. So one of those is called

dispensationalism. Now I know that some of you are

dispensationalist because you told me you are.

That's not a guess. And many of you were likely

raised in a church that believed in a very straightforward

dispensational premillennialism. Now that's a that's a there's

some some words, aren't they? For some of you, you're like,

what did he just? And so and what that teaches is

that the rapture's going to occur before or maybe midway

some of your mid Trib, but probably before the seven-year

great tribulation that the that most believers are getting

raptured out, then the tribulation hits.

That's a common, not always, but a common dispensational

premillennial view. You can also have dispensational

mid Trib premillennialism. Sorry, but the idea here is this

position also holds a very strong view of Israel right?

And sees the church as kind of an in between dispensation.

The word dispensation, the easiest way to describe it would

be a, an age of time, so a section of time.

So you have, you have this dispensation and this, for

example, you have the church age, which we're in right now

according to dispensationalism. So it's a, it's a, it's a period

of time. And for true dispensationalists,

God's working through Israel, you have this church age time

and then God's going to come back to Israel at the end of

time. So the view of Israel is very

important to dispensationalists, all right?

And some who hold this view have never heard any option because

it was the normative teaching where you grew up, and it was

probably the only way many of you were ever taught about the

second coming. Now, don't throw things at me.

E-mail [email protected]

because you need to be aware that that does not mean that

most of Christianity hosted this view, because it does not.

And this actually didn't become popular till about 1860.

And then it grew very rapidly in the very first part of the 20th

century. I'm not not, I'm not saying it's

wrong. I'm just saying that that's just

a historical truth, OK? So just recognize that that

wasn't always the view of the early church fathers and early

churches, right? And so beware.

So open yourself up to some both ends, maybe a little.

Another common view is what's called historical

premillennialism, which teaches that Jesus will return to earth

after a time of tribulation, but before the Millennium.

Most historical premillennialists, though not

all, because there's not an all in any of this.

You got to understand there are exceptions to every single slice

of this, but most historical premillennials believe that

Christians remain on earth through the tribulation, that we

actually go through the tribulation, and then Christ

comes back. And whether the tribulation is a

short intense period or it occurs over a long period of

time that's debated throughout church history, post

millennialism teaches that Christ will return to earth

after a Millennium time, 1000 year reign, when the

overwhelming majority of people throughout the world embrace the

gospel. So the world's going to be saved

and then he comes back. And after he's reigned in that

millennial reign, the great tribulation occurred either in

the 1st century or will be a brief time of persecution

immediately before the Millennium.

This view, although it's gaining ground today, frankly was

popular, but I'll be honest with you, World War One and World War

2 beat it out of most people because there's a, there's a

version of this view that says people are going to get better

and the world's going to get better.

And then Jesus comes and most people aren't buying into that

too much anymore, right? Although it's gaining ground

again. I'm millennialism.

This will really make some of you angry.

Teaches that there's no physical millennial reign whatsoever,

that the Millennium is right now, that the spiritual reign of

Jesus and his people, the Church, that is the millennial

reign and Jesus could return at any time.

Now, all of these views, if they're orthodox, believe that

Jesus is going to return. Again, that's a primary issue.

They believe in that. That's not the issue.

It's how and when and what the state of the Christians on earth

are going to be when he comes back.

Those are the different things. So in that view, the tribulation

is when Christians are persecuted, when wars take

place, when disasters happen. It's just the state of our

normal life that I'm going to talk more about next week or

next episode. So then you have the whole idea

of the second coming. Now you might think, well,

that's the same thing. Well, not to everybody.

So the second coming, depending upon what your view is about the

Rapture and the Millennium is, is this marks the final return

of Christ to reign and judge. But is that the same time the

rapture occurs? Is that all one thing or is it

two different things? Most dispensationalists would

believe it's two different things.

You have a rapture, you have some some leftover the either

the whole tribulation or part of the tribulation, you'll have A

and then you'll have a return in a millennial reign, etcetera, in

some order. And so, but for others, they

think it's all one thing. I, I've got a friend who passes

at church not far from here. They will not sing the song I'll

fly away. That's actually a conversation

he and I had not long ago. You also have pan millennialism,

which is where part of you wish you were tonight.

And that is it all pans out in the end.

And who really cares? That's not an official doctrine,

but it's probably the most popular one among some people.

So as I stated earlier, there are, these are extreme

summaries. I mean extreme summaries of

views with many subsets and hybrids.

I personally have never fit neatly into any category.

So I'm a hybrid in and of myself.

I have, I have pieces of more than one view that I tend to

hold to. And that's not because of my

study of, of books or anybody else's opinions.

It's because of the, my study, the Bible.

And so it's, it's, it's the literal readings that I walk

through that lead me to my conclusions.

And I promise we will come back to this and do some of that.

OK, So don't worry about some of the details.

And I know some of you are disappointed in me for not

spending an hour and a half and Daniel or Ezekiel and others are

probably disappointed I didn't spend time in the newspaper

because that's what some folks are doing all the time.

And I, and I, and I'm not, I'm not trying to mock that because

I, I, I'm not saying it should be an awareness.

I'm not saying, boy, look at this.

Could this be a sign of something that's a discussion

worth having? It's just don't let that be your

primary. Don't let that be your primary

source. You make sure you're in the

word. And in the meantime, we, we have

work to do. So as I stated earlier, most

secondary and tertiary discussions revolve around these

ideas of when and how. But let's make sure we go back

to the primary for a moment because that really is what we

need to emphasize. Delay this foundation, and then

we can dive into some of these other things at another time.

Doctor Mohler, Al Mohler, my friend and former boss, says

this. He says Christians who affirmed

the bodily, historical, and victorious return of the Lord

Jesus Christ may differ over timetable and sequence without

rupturing the fellowship of the church.

That's a good sentence. I mean it.

It's fine. For we can sit in the same small

group and somebody be a dispensationalist, somebody a

historical premillennialist, and have extremely lively

conversations and both of them still think the other one's

going to be in heaven. It's just they're going to say

you're going to be surprised when you get there how that

really works out. You know what I'm saying?

And so we affirm the bodily, historical, and victorious

return of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's primary.

We may differ on timetable and sequence.

Christians may find themselves in disagreement over any number

of issues related to the interpretation of difficult

texts or the understandings of matters of common disagreement.

Nevertheless, standing together on issues of more urgent

importance, believers are able to accept one another without

compromise. When you're on 3rd order issues

and that are in question, we always got to remember that

these kinds of things don't need to divide the church.

We need to have great discussion, great Bible study,

do the best we can to come to biblical conclusions and then

hug each other and and eat ice cream or something.

So let me just talk about the challenge of Christ coming.

So the primary doctrinal issue, obviously, that we've been

trying to point out tonight is that Jesus is returning for

those who believe in him and will judge those who do not.

And, and we must be living in such a way as to be ready.

I, I, I, we got to drive this home because regardless of how

and when you, you got to be ready before this happens, it's

too late after it happens in a sense.

And so when First Thessalonians 54, it says, but you are not in

darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.

Now they once were because they were pagans, but now you're not.

Now you're not in darkness anymore.

So this shouldn't, this shouldn't catch you.

This, this doesn't have to surprise you like a thief.

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

We are not of the night or of 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 or 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.

Boy, it sounds like almost Ephesians 6:00-ish, doesn't it?

With the armor of God. And so he challenges us that in

the word sober in this translation, in its original

version, it really means to be alert.

It means to be village vigilant. It's not just talking about

don't be drunk with alcohol or something, even though that

wouldn't obviously affect the state.

It's the idea of being vigilant and watchful.

I'm watching for this. I'm aware of this.

So it's I may not be spending all day long predicting and and

highlighting everything that I can find to try to figure out

when it's going to happen. That may not be my 100%

occupation, but at the same time, I'm not unaware either.

And I'm alert, I'm aware and I'm ready.

So we live in the light we can see and we're looking forward to

his return and and we do so by being equipped with faith, love,

hope and salvation, right. And then listen to the gospel.

Listen to Matthew 24 again. That whole chapter would be an

interesting one for you to read. Says Therefore stay awake, for

you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

But know this, that if the master of the house had known

and what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have

stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.

Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is

coming at an hour you did not expect.

So if you expect him right now, you're wrong.

It's kind of like, you know, it's, I often use the, the idea,

you know, because of my travels, I used to be gone all the time.

It's kind of like kind of like waiting for somebody at the

airport that's been gone for a long time.

Teresa is going to go visit our family in Oklahoma because our

grandson, our oldest grandson just graduated from Air Force

Tech school and he's getting ready to be deployed to South

Korea and he's going to be home for a few days.

And so Teresa is going to go back to see everybody to see

him. And so it'd be like, it'd be

like our grandson coming back from deployment, been gone for

years or something on to South Korea and Okinawa, which is

where he's going to be ending up.

But somebody been gone for a long time and you're standing

there at the airport in the old days, you can stand right by the

plane. You remember that, that they

messed that all up. And now you've got to stand way

out there, wherever that is out there in that area where you

can't go past the person or you're going to tase you or

something. So you're out there and you

know, people are holding up signs and think about, think

about, think about a spouse and their children waiting on the

the other spouse. And the little kids got signs

they made for daddy or mommy. And they're sitting there and

they're looking and they're straining their necks and they

just can't wait to even get a glimpse of their loved one.

And then as soon as you can, you go rush to meet him and you hug

them. That's the church waiting on the

bridegroom. So we're watching and we're

aware, so we embrace the certainty of Christ coming

because that's how we're saved through Him.

We love him and we can't wait to see Him.

And so First Thessalonians 59 says, for God has not destined

us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus

Christ who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep,

we might live with him. It doesn't matter if I'm alive

or dead when he comes back, it's going to be glorious.

Now I I think it'd be so cool to be alive.

I think it'd be so cool to see it and to hear it.

But but for those of us who believe death is also just

incredible doorway. What a promise.

So verse 11 goes on. He says, therefore, encourage

one another and build one another up just as you were

doing. So we keep encouraging the the

verbs here is a continuous action.

So keep on doing this, keep on encouraging, keep on edifying,

keep on building up. That's what we need to be doing

in the meantime. That's what we're doing in the

meantime. We're waiting, we're watching

and we keep on edifying. We keep on building, we keep on

encouraging. We're also going to keep on

reaching. So I, so I want us to be careful

that we don't lose our focus on times and, and necessarily on

the wind as much as, as the why and, and the the reality of its

truth. Revelation 33 says, remember

then what you've received and heard.

Keep it and repent. If you will not wake up, I will

come like a thief and you will not know at what hour I will

come against you. So you also have this challenge.

The King of Kings is coming and that's a fact.

And the question then becomes twofold, am I ready?

Am I ready for him to return right now?

Am I ready for that is my life? Am I saved?

Am I walking with him? Am I who I need to be and am I?

And then the second question, am I living in such a way that if

he were to come today, would it please him?

Would my life right now please him in the way that I'm living

for him? Peter writes about it.

Listen to second Peter 3. The Lord is not slow to fulfill

his promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards

you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should

reach repentance and we often will use that verse and that's

all you know he wants everybody to be saved, but listen to the

context. Keep going.

Verse 10 But the day of the Lord but but contrast.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the

heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies

will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that

are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus

to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives

of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the

coming of the day of God? Because of which the heavens

must be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly

bodies will melt as they burn. But according to his promise, we

are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which

righteousness dwells. This stuff's all temporary, and

we get ripped. We get awfully wrapped up in the

temporary right. For so perhaps instead of

worrying and fretting over what our life is like here now, we

need to be more focused and living obediently toward our

life. Then a favorite, you know it is.

Corey 10, Boom. Who if I've quoted 4265 times

since I've been in Inglewood at least a couple of times.

If you don't know her story, she survived the terrors of the Nazi

concentration camp during World War 2, lost much of her family,

she said. She shared this.

She says, look around and be distressed, look within, be

depressed, look at Jesus and be at rest.

Luke 19 says this. And they as they heard these

things, he proceeded to tell the parable because he was near to

Jerusalem and because they suppose that the Kingdom of God

was to appear immediately. And he said, therefore a

nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a Kingdom

and then return calling 10 of his servants.

He gave them 10 miners and said to them, engage in business

until I come. Another translation, which is my

favorite says Occupy till I come.

That's her job. It can.

It means to invest until he returns.

There's our job. We've got to share this with

other people. We've got to continue.

We're going to see five people baptized on Sunday.

We're going to see a statistical anomaly on Sunday in the fact

that there's going to be somebody over 80 years of old

age baptized on Sunday. You almost never see that and so

and then we're going to see a couple of younger couples and

it's just going to be a fun day and what we'll observe the

Lord's Supper. I think I get to preach for 45

seconds now. It'll be good.

It's going to be all fun. It's going to be great.

But but just the fact that we need to keep sharing and keep

sharing and keep sharing. I, I got to share the gospel

with somebody yesterday in my office.

And so the Lord's just providing opportunities.

You know, many of you know that I lived in the Philippines for a

while when I worked with the the mission board.

And, and because of that, Filipino lore and history are

something that I've read about. Some of you would know some of

these stories from World War 2 as well.

The most famous perhaps being that General Douglas MacArthur

who had to leave Correhidor Island when it was being

attacked by the Japanese as they advanced on Manila Bay.

And he went to Australia. And of course there's a famous

line by MacArthur. When he got to Australia, you

know, he, he got on the radio to back to the Filipinos and he

said, I shall return. And in October 20th, 1944, he

waded ashore in the Lathi Gulf. I've been to that place where he

walked ashore as American troops landed to retake the

Philippines. And then again he got on the

radio and he addressed the Filipino people.

I have returned. Listen to this I have returned.

We have come dedicated and commitment committed to the task

of destroying every vestige of enemy control over your daily

lives, and of restoring upon a foundation of indestructible

strength the liberties of your people.

The hour of your redemption is here.

That no heart be faint. Let every arm be steeled.

The guidance of divine God points the way.

And may we as a church see our spiritual warfare just as real

as our Great Commission fulfilment, and that we might

engage, we might invest and we might occupy until he returns.

But we've got a world to warn. We've got a world to help set

free. There's a world out there that

needs liberation and restoration.

They're broken, they don't know, and we've got to tell them.

So I pray that we'll take that very seriously as we ourselves

discuss, even debate, even argue a little bit about what, when,

and how. And we'll talk a whole lot more

about that down the road, I promise.

But also that we love one another, and we bind together

with the hope and the truth that Jesus will return for US one day

and take us home. And we'll be together forever in

a new state, in a resurrected, glorified, transformed state

with our Lord and with our loved ones who have gone on before us.

And he'll join us in that moment.

And I look forward to that time. So let's pray together.

Father, we thank you, Lord. Father, I thank you even for the

difficult details of certain doctrines.

And I know, Lord, that we really didn't dive deeply enough for

some here tonight. But Father, we'll get back to

that as we study your Word systematically, we study the the

books of the Old Testament and the Gospels in the Book of

Revelation together. We'll look at these things in

detail and talk about them as deeply as we possibly can.

In the meantime, Father, thank you for this overview, this

challenge to just give us hope. The fact that we don't have to

fear death, we don't have to fear eternity, but that Father,

we can know, we can be certain, we can be comforted that Lord,

you're going to return and you're going to take us home and

that we're going to be restored and transformed in a way that we

probably likely can't even imagine with our finite brains

here. But Lord, in such a glorious

way. And Father, we just thank you

for the promises. We thank you for the promises

that say things like like Jesus says that he goes to prepare a

place for us and that one day we will be with him there and to

think about our great intercessor preparing a perfect

place for us. And Father, I thank you, Lord,

for the many from every tribe and every tongue and every

nation that will be there. And the way we're going to

celebrate together in a great throne room to bring you

incredible glory as you fulfill your mission and you fulfill

your purpose. And we walk with you in a new

way. And father, I thank you for the

old friends that we'll see. I believe with all my heart.

The Bible indicates in many places that we're going to be

able to recognize and know each other.

We, we may look differently, we may be completely different, but

we're going to have a, a recognition of one another.

And father, the Bible just shows us that over and over again.

And so, Father, in that wonderful time to see relatives

and friends, Father, heroes, people, we've only read about

people from the Bible, Lord, to be able to, to see them and know

them and, and hear from them and walk with them, Lord.

But Father, far more important than that, far outweighing any

of that, Father, far, far greater, is to be able to be

there with you, to see the Lord Jesus, to see you in all your

glory, and to be able to worship you, to walk into, sing with

angels to your glory. Father, that ought to change the

way we live. That ought to change the way we

think. That ought to change the way we

hope that our way that change, that ought to change the way we

invest and engage. We need to occupy till you come

back. We have so much work to do, or

there are thousands and thousands and thousands of

people right around us who don't know any of this.

Don't believe any of this. And Father, we have it and we

know it. We have to authentically,

relationally share that with them, lovingly to them so that

they might come and join us to study your word, to worship you,

to pray, to serve so that we might be ready.

And Father, we're watching, we're hoping, we're expecting.

Lord, it would be great if you return tonight.

Be great if it happened tomorrow, but Lord, if we're

still here, that means that there are others we must tell,

and there's still a job to get done.

So Lord, as long as we're here, let us work.

Work to fulfill your mission. Thank you, Father, for these

truths. Thank you for the hope and

comfort it must have brought to those original brand new

believers in Thessalonica, and the very same hope and joy and

comfort it brings to us today. So, Father, thank you and bless

us. Please look forward to what's

happening this Sunday. And I pray, Father, if anybody's

listening to this and they don't have a church on, they'll come

to Inglewood and see what you're doing because you're doing

you're doing here at Inglewood. And we're just trying to stay

out of your way. And then and Father, be used by

you and bring you glory in Christ's name, Amen.

Thank you all so much. Thank you so much for listening

today. And I also hope that you'll go

to [email protected]

as well as our app and find many other resources that will bless

you and your families. Thank you once again.