Children of Light (1Thessalonians 5:1-11)

First Thessalonians five verses one through eleven.

About the times and seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need anything to be written to you.

For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.

When they say peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the dark, for this day to surprise you like a thief.

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

We do not belong to the night or the darkness.

So then let us not sleep like the rest, but let us stay awake and be self-controlled.

For those who sleep sleep at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night.

But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, and put on the armor of faith and love, and a helmet of the hope of salvation.

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

Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing.

Let's pray.

Lord, thank you so much for Scripture.

Thank you that we're able to gather in this freedom here this morning, to open these Bibles, to study them so freely.

God, I pray that you would minister to us, that you would speak to us as we open your word, that you would accomplish everything that you desire in each one of us here this morning and for our church as a whole.

Lord, teach us, mold us, shape us, make us more and more like Jesus on a daily basis, we pray.

And use your word now as a scalpel to carve away our flesh and to grow us and to conform us and to shape us into the more and more into the image of Jesus Christ, we pray.

In Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated.

So as I mentioned last week, we talked a lot about in times.

And I just wanted to reiterate a few things because this really is a part two.

So if you weren't here and you missed that study, we talked about how studying in times is kind of like cilantro, if you remember.

Some people love cilantro, some people don't want anything to do with cilantro.

I met one person actually today that's kind of indifferent.

They could take it or leave it.

And it was the first person I think I've ever met that was like that.

And whether you love studying in times or you really don't like it, or maybe studying in times scares you, or maybe it's brand new to you and it just seems weird and kind of out there.

Paul told this church to be informed.

He told them this last week at the end of chapter four we saw.

And he said to be informed for themselves on what he said last week and on what he's about to say in our passage this week.

So Paul told this church to be informed.

And I want to tell our church, you need to be informed.

Not just know what I say, not just know what somebody else says or what somebody else said on a podcast or in a commentary or something like that.

Each one of us should be informed on these things and have a belief, not because we heard it from somebody else, but because we studied scripture.

And it's not bad to listen to other people or listen to what I say here today, but we each need to have our own belief for our own reasons, not just reiterate what our favorite Bible teacher happens to say.

So I want to see how many of you were paying attention last week.

What was Paul's purpose for writing this section?

To encourage one another.

Yes, to encourage one another.

And I want us to remember that again.

Look at what Paul, what we just read in verse 11.

It says, Therefore, having to do with everything that he's talked about so far, therefore, encourage one another.

But then this week he adds, and build each other up as you are already doing.

So I just want to talk a little bit about before we jump into verse 1, what does it look like to encourage one another and to build each other up regarding end times?

Well, I think this life, I know this life, is very short, especially in comparison to eternity.

When we're reading through the epistle of James, James 4.14, it says, You do not know what tomorrow will bring, what your life will be, for you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.

In the epistle of Peter, 1 Peter 5.10, Peter writes, The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered for a little while.

So here we have Peter, we have James, we see Paul doing this in 1 Thessalonians.

These three guys that are so familiar with suffering are saying, it's only for a little while.

It's only for a little bit.

But they're also all saying, but it's gonna be all worth it in the end.

It's gonna be all worth it.

These three guys are all writing to persecuted churches when they wrote these verses.

And they're encouraging them that life is short, they're encouraging them that Jesus is coming back, they're encouraging them to keep their eyes on what's to come in eternity with Christ as a source of encouragement and strength for them.

It's okay to look forward to the return of Jesus Christ.

Some people will say, yeah, but really that's just escapism.

You know, escapism is just people want to get out of this life and into eternity as fast as possible because they just don't like their current circumstance.

But Paul said, speaking in Philippians, he said, to live is Christ, to die is gain.

He saw dying as a gain.

He saw being with Jesus as a gain.

You know, it's possible to live for Christ, and also at the same time, you can't wait for his return.

And I think that is exactly what Paul is teaching throughout Thessalonians here.

He's saying, keep living a life of faith.

Keep abiding in Christ, keep living out your faith, and keep anticipating the return of Jesus Christ as if he could come back at any moment.

Because in the end, it's all going to be worth it.

And I really think this is just kind of the culmination of that in Thessalonians, what we see here this morning.

So, with all that, let's take a look at verse 1.

About the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need anything to be written to you.

You know, Paul had taught them so much when he was with them that they really shouldn't need this reminder.

This is all stuff that he's already told them, he's already talked to them about.

But he does it anyway, as a source of encouragement to stay on track.

And I think we all need that from time to time, don't we?

Where we know the truth, but sometimes we need that reminder.

Or maybe we know the truth and we should be encouraged, but we start to get discouraged and we need that reminder.

So today we read this reminder to him, but we don't have the original conversation that he had with this church.

You know, for instance, if I were to say to my wife right now, don't forget to pull out the chicken from the freezer by noon today.

You don't know what we had talked about in the past or what our plans were, but you know that we're probably gonna have chicken for dinner.

You know it's in the freezer, and you know that it needs to be thought out before we can do anything with it.

That's kind of what we're looking at here.

We're hearing a reminder from one side of a conversation that took place probably just a couple months before this.

So Paul starts out about the times and the seasons.

He already talked to them about all of these things.

But this phrase that we see right here, times and seasons, it's only used three times in all of Scripture, where it's those two words are combined like this.

And every single time it has to do with nations rising or nations falling, or both.

Times here, you know, simply means like what we think of time, just a long time, short time, you know, stuff like that.

But seasons is much broader, and it includes the nature of the time.

So the nature of what's taking place within that time period.

You know, we see it in Acts 1.7, and that at that point it's in regards to Jesus eventually restoring the kingdom of Israel.

And we see in Daniel 2 with this phrase one more time, when God gave the interpretation of the dream with the statue, if you're familiar with that, and those nations rising and falling.

And Daniel praised God when he got the interpretation for that dream.

He praised God and he said, He changes the times and seasons, he removes kings and he establishes kings.

You know, I wonder if this prophecy that's in Daniel was crossing Paul's mind when he was writing this.

You know, I also wonder if he had taught this to the Thessalonians, if he'd used this very term to remind them of this prophecy.

You know, if you're not familiar with that prophecy, Nebuchadnezzar, he's the king of Babylon.

He had a dream.

He totally freaked out having this dream.

All of his wise men couldn't tell him what the dream was or have any interpretation for him.

But it was about this statue.

And he saw the statue, and it was a head of gold and a chest of silver and a middle section of bronze, and it had legs like iron, and the feet were iron and clay that were mixed together, each representing a different kingdom.

Daniel ends up interpreting this dream, telling, first telling him the dream what the dream was without even knowing what it was, and then the interpretation.

And Daniel says in chapter 2, 44 through 45, he says, In the day of those kings, the God of the heavens will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not be left to another people.

It will crush all of these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself endure forever.

You saw a stone break off from the mountain without a hand touching it, and it crushed the iron, bronze, fire, clay, silver, and gold.

The great God was told the king, uh, the great God has told the king what will happen in the future.

So was Paul referring to this prophecy right here when he's writing to this church as a reminder to them of what they had talked about earlier.

We don't know.

But the language and only seeing this language three times in Scripture makes me think that he probably had.

We don't know for sure, but it's kind of fun to think about.

Look at verse two here.

For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.

When they say peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

They will not escape here makes me think there are those that will escape, personally.

When I read this, it's comparing and contrasting as we go through here.

And that they would specifically not escape the day of the Lord when we're talking about they, when we're talking about the world.

You know, in the Old Testament, we actually see that phrase a lot, the day of the Lord, typically referring to a day of judgment upon man, from God, upon man, against their rebellion, against their arrogance toward him.

And it's actually used a lot.

If you go through the Old Testament, you'll see that quite a bit.

And this phrase, the day of the Lord, usually depicts a period of time.

It doesn't typically talk about or depict a single 24-hour period, but a time period, a season of this, basically, and usually a time period where the Lord is judging Israel because of their sin and their arrogance and their disobedience specifically to him.

We as a church, we see this day of the Lord that's being spoken of in our passage here this morning in verse 2, as a future time where Jesus intervenes in history, where God pours out his wrath, where he refines Israel and he gives them a chance to recognize their Messiah finally.

And then at the end, he finally establishes his kingdom forever.

And Jesus said in Luke 17 that leading up to this time, this day of the Lord, that it'll be like before the rain came in Noah's time, where people, Jesus said, were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage like nothing was wrong, like nothing was coming in the future.

And then Jesus said that it would be like Sodom and Gomorrah as well, where people were eating and drinking and buying and selling and planting and building.

No clue that something was on the horizon that was gonna come and wipe them out.

And then here again, people will be saying peace and security before this day comes.

A false sense of peace and security, that is.

You know, another reason I told you um last week that instead of going into all of the different theologies of how the end times are gonna go, I'm just gonna be telling you what we believe and why we believe it.

And hopefully, if you want to find out all that other stuff, you can dig into that on your own.

But another reason that we believe that the rapture is at the beginning of the tribulation is that when you look at the true the tribulation described in Revelation 16 through 19, I don't think anybody during that time period in the world can say peace and security.

When you look at that that group of scripture in the middle of Revelation.

I mean, it's called the Tribulation and the Great Tribulation.

It has plagues and disaster and cosmic disturbances.

I just can't see how people can say peace and security before this day, unless it's actually the seven-year tribulation.

You know, and when we think about labor pains as we see right here in this verse, again, it should make us go back to the words of Jesus again.

Matthew 24, 4.

Jesus replied to them, and he said, Watch out that no one deceives you.

For many will come in my name, saying, I am the Messiah, and they will deceive many.

You're going to hear of wars and rumors of wars.

See that you are not alarmed, because these things must take place, but the end is not yet.

For nation will rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

All these events are the beginning of labor pains.

These things are gonna happen.

They have been, you know, since the beginning of history, but it doesn't mean the day of the Lord is here when those things are taking place.

This is the beginning of labor pains, it says.

And so I want us to think about the progression of those pains.

You know, if you're pregnant, you know that labor will come, even before it sets in.

It's just it's what's gonna happen, you know, at some point.

And then there's signs that labor may be close, having to do with the time of your pregnancy, but there's other things as well.

You know, I kind of see the beginning of labor pains as like Braxton Hicks.

Hopefully everybody knows what that is, you know.

Not the real thing, but it means that labor's coming.

Like it's starting to get close.

You know, I think the things that we see now in our world, as horrible as they seem, I think in the tribulation they're gonna be nothing compared to that time, to that day of the Lord.

Braxton Hicks in comparison.

And then the real labor sets in, right?

And I that I think is gonna be the onset of the tribulation, the onset of those seven years.

And once it goes, once the labor, actual labor, not the beginning of labor pains, but the actual labor starts, there's no going back after that.

You know, a woman will start with being very uncomfortable, you know, until the contractions get closer and stronger, and then they can't even speak through the contractions, which is about when the wife grabs the husband by the collar and says, You did this to me.

Which my wife didn't, but my aunt did that to my uncle, though.

I believe this is exactly what we see in Revelations, as the in revelation, as the tribulation goes on.

It just gets worse and worse and it intensifies and intensifies.

There's just more pain and suffering at the point that people will it says are trying to die and they can't, because it's gotten so horrible here on earth.

You know, I think Michelle probably had a couple of those Jesus take me now moments while she was going through the labor pains.

Until finally the woman gives birth.

And then there's joy, and then there's newness of life.

Just like the tribulation will end with Christ's return to establish his reign.

But remember and be encouraged.

Paul's not speaking to believers in verse 3.

When it says, when they say peace and security, sudden destruction will come upon them, and they will not escape.

Now Paul turns his attention back to Christ's followers.

Look at verse 4.

But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the dark for this day to surprise you like a thief.

Some translations will read, catch you as a thief, or overtake you as a thief.

All of these translations, I think I looked through seven or eight different translations, they all include the element of surprise, but then about half of them have this idea of Christians will not be included when you look into it in this day of the Lord.

So I want to show you the definition so you can see it for yourself and you know I'm not just making this up.

Surprise here in the Greek means to lay hold of, um, let's see here.

I think I, yeah, to lay hold of, to lay hold of so as to make one's own, to obtain, attain to, to seize upon, take possession of, of evils overtaking one of the uh let's see, of the last day overtaking the wicked with the destruction of a demon about to torment one.

So this is the Greek definition of this word that we have for surprise here in the English.

But do you see the element in this definition of being overtaken by that day of darkness?

So I think if we consider all these translations and we look, you know, at the definition behind the Greek, you get something along the lines of, but you brothers and sisters are not in the dark for this day to surprise you, for this day to catch you, for this day to overtake you like a thief.

And I think that's because we're already gone.

I really think we're gonna be raptured before all of this takes place.

Which leads us to verse five.

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

We do not belong to the night or the darkness.

We do not belong to it, and it will not overtake us.

In the Gospel of John chapter 1, verses 4 through 5, it says, In him speaking of Jesus, was life.

John 1:4–5

And that life was the light of men.

That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.

That's who we belong to in Jesus Christ.

We are children of light.

And as children of light, we won't be a part of this group that is surprised like a thief in the night.

So, how do we?

I think the question is, how do we make sure that we're not a part of this group that's going to be surprised?

How do we do this?

I think it's simple.

You live in the light, you walk in the light, you abide in the light, and you allow the light to shine through you.

Paul goes on, verse 6.

So then, let us not sleep like the rest, but let us stay awake and self-controlled.

If you're starting to non- Not off right now.

Let us stay awake.

Okay, Paul said, No, that's not what he means.

Sleep here is different from the word that we saw last week when he was talking about believers that had passed away.

This is a different word that we're looking at here.

Here, when used metaphorically, like it is, it means to yield to sloth and sin.

Or to be indifferent to one's salvation.

Much different meaning.

I think Paul's simply saying here, you guys have been saved, Vetzwonica.

Now live it out.

Don't get complacent, don't fall asleep in that way.

Don't be indifferent to these things like the rest of the world is.

When they say peace and security, don't get lulled to sleep by them saying that.

And then we have self-control here.

Some of your translations may say sober or even clear-headed right here.

And this really means having a calm and a collected spirit.

The church is hearing things in Thessalonica, and people were claiming to speak for Paul.

They were writing letters and saying this is from Paul.

People are claiming to speak for God through false prophecies and false words of wisdom and things like that.

And they were telling this church the day of the Lord has come.

The day of the Lord is upon us.

So Paul encourages them: hey, stay calm and collected.

Be sober, be clear-headed.

Don't get sucked into the drama of this world.

But at the same time, be ready for the return of Christ.

When Jesus was prepping his disciples for his return, it was the last week of his life.

We see that in Matthew 24 and 25.

He tells a parable right in the middle of all these things that he's telling them.

And he tells this parable about ten virgins waiting for their groom to come.

He said, five of the virgins were foolish, five of the virgins were wise.

They each had a lamp, but the foolish didn't bring extra oil with them.

They weren't ready for that extended time of waiting.

They weren't ready for their groom to come and get them at any moment.

And then it says that the groom was delayed.

And then all ten of the virgins fell asleep.

Now keep in mind, all ten physically fell asleep.

But in this parable, you see that five had metaphorically fallen asleep spiritually as well.

Kind of like we see in verse 6.

Then the groom, he finally shows up in the middle of the night.

All ten of them woke up, they prepped their lamps, but the five foolish virgins realized that they were not ready for his sudden return in the middle of the night.

They didn't bring enough oil.

But the wise did.

And they were ready for his return at any moment.

Even though he was delayed, they were still ready for it.

Which made them physically asleep, the wise virgins.

They were physically asleep, but they were metaphorically awake, spiritually awake.

And the foolish had to run off to try and buy some more oil at the last second.

But the thing is, by the time they got back, it was too late.

The wedding banquet was closed, and the master said, I do not know you.

This is a parable about living like Christ is coming back at any moment.

Living like we know tomorrow is not promised to us.

Not out of fear, like we talked about last week, but out of eager anticipation of being with him forever.

So Paul says, Don't sleep, Thessalonica.

Be awake, be self-controlled, be clear-headed, and be ready for the return of Christ.

Which, all this comparing and contrasting, look at the opposite of this in verse 7.

For those, so he's not talking to believers anymore, for those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night.

We can look at this both physically, I think, and metaphorically when we read verse 7.

And remember, the day of the Lord, we know this, it's coming like a thief in the night, when these are getting drunk and sleeping.

Look at verse 8.

But since we, so now he's back to the Christians, since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled and put on the armor of faith and love and a helmet of the hope of salvation.

Paul knows better than anyone that living in the light of Christ means battle.

We see it in Paul's life.

Physically, we see it spiritually.

This guy is constantly at battle.

So now he adds, put on your armor.

Get ready for that battle that you're gonna face being a Christian.

But he says to do it with faith, love, and the hope of salvation.

You know, something I don't think you'll ever hear an army sergeant say is, be ready for battle with love.

Right?

That just doesn't quite sound right, does it?

So let's explain this a bit, one at a time.

First, how faith protects us and how faith makes us battle ready.

You know, when we're trusting the Lord, when we're talking about a trust faith, not a salvation faith, but a trust faith in him.

This is what deflects doubts and lies, that faith.

Because the enemy wants to attack us with doubts and lies.

You know, when we go through something hard, Satan wants us to just start doubting God.

He wants us to start doubting God's love for us as well, or make us doubt that we're actually doing the right thing.

He wants to plant lies in us about God, about others as well.

He wants to plant lies in us about our own salvation anyway.

He tries to disarm us with lies like this by attacking our trust faith in God.

And it's the armor of faith, the armor of trusting God in every moment that's gonna protect us from that.

The next thing is love.

How does love protect us?

How does love make us battle ready?

Well, in 1 John 4.18, it says, There is no fear in love.

Instead, perfect love drives out fear because fear involves punishment.

It's the love of God, and it's the love for God, it's the love for one another that will drive away our fear of man and the fear of this world, and our fear of the enemy and what he can do.

And then lastly, he says, put on the hope of salvation.

You know, part of our hope is that we will not experience the wrath of God, as we're about to see here.

You know, I know some people that are even here who can struggle with the question of, am I really saved?

You know, you ask them, do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God?

And they say, Yes, absolutely.

Do you believe he died for our sins?

Yes, absolutely.

Do you believe that he rose again on the third day?

Yes.

Uh-huh.

Have you asked him to be the Lord of your life?

Yeah, 100%.

But you still struggle with whether you're saved or not?

Yes.

Yes, I do.

And it's just, you know, it doesn't really make sense.

They know all the verses, it's not about that.

You can't convince them that they're saved.

You can't convince them that they're sealed by the Holy Spirit.

It's just a struggle that they have in their life.

This is the lie of Satan.

He wants to steal the hope of salvation from people.

God wants us, he deeply wants us to have a hope in our salvation.

And that in Christ, we're not appointed to God's wrath.

We're his children.

He wants us to be in eternity with him forever.

He does not want us to doubt our salvation in that way.

And we need to wear that like hope.

We need to wear that like a helmet on our head where we know, you know what, I'm gonna take some hits.

I might get bounced around a little bit, but I'm protected.

I'm saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, and nothing can change that.

And when we have a helmet on, well, who's here has worn a helmet before at any point in your life?

Just you've had one on your head before.

It's probably all of us, I'm guessing.

When we have a helmet on, it actually gives us some extra confidence, doesn't it?

To do things that we probably wouldn't do otherwise.

Where we kind of know if something does go wrong, that it's still gonna be okay because I've got my noggin, you know, covered.

I played football and I did things with a helmet on that I never would have dreamt of attempting if I didn't have a helmet on.

You watch the difference between football and rugby, both violent, but the football players are doing things that the rugby players would never do because they don't have all the padding and stuff.

They have to approach things a little bit differently.

But a helmet gives confidence.

And God wants us to have our confidence in his salvation, that hope of that salvation.

Warren Wearsby says this.

I want to show you a quote from him.

This is in his commentary regarding what it looks like for somebody to live with the armor on.

He said that this guy hears the tragic news of the day, yet he does not lose heart.

He experiences the difficulty of life, but he does not give up.

He knows his future is secure in God's hands, so he lives each day creatively, calmly, and obediently.

Outlook determines outcome.

And when your outlook is the uplook, then your outcome is secure.

Why?

Because look at verse 9.

For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Salvation from what?

Wrath.

If you look up this word wrath in the Greek, it means anger.

It means like a violent emotion or anger exhibited in punishment specifically.

This is what Jesus saved us from.

And I believe it's all of God's wrath.

Romans 5, verses 8 through 9 says, but God proves his own love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8–9

How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath?

Same exact word right there in the Greek.

He said, And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath.

And then he goes on to comfort them.

You see, Jesus on the cross bore the full cup of God's wrath, wrath, in our place.

Yo.

We each deserved the full cup of God's wrath.

Each and every one of us.

That's why Jesus came.

He took on the full cup of God's wrath for each and every one of us that's willing to accept that free gift of salvation from God's wrath that He so freely offers because He fully paid for it already.

He fully absorbed that wrath for each and every one of us.

And yes, I absolutely think that He's speaking specifically about hell as well, but I think it's all of God's wrath that we're talking about when we look at these verses when we look back at Romans as well.

You know, Revelation 6 through 19, as we already mentioned, we see the devastation of the tribulation, and we see no mention of the church in all of those chapters.

Actually, from Revelation chapter 4, verse 1 through 22 13, there's no mention of the church whatsoever.

Completely absent for 18 chapters there in Revelation.

Again, another reason why we are pre-tribulation and definitely pre-wrath as well.

He goes on regarding Jesus, Paul does in verse 10.

He says, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.

Again, this is part of that hope that we have in our salvation.

The security that we have in our salvation.

Whether he returns or we die first, our future is forever with him.

And we can place our hope in that.

And now, the whole purpose that Paul is writing this, just like we ended with last week, verse 11.

Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing.

He's saying here, encourage each other with the hope of salvation.

Encourage each other that we have not been appointed to wrath, but Jesus has absorbed all of that for us and build each other up.

You know, this means that we're participating in each other's lives.

We can't build each other up otherwise, can we?

We have to be participating.

We have to get to know each other.

We need to know how to build each other up, and we can do it with the hope of salvation, with the hope that Jesus is coming back soon.

And notice at the end of 11 that they were already doing that, but this is another time where they needed this encouragement to continue in it even more.

You know, sometimes we're already doing something, but we just need that reminder.

And this is what's happening here, and for us here today as well.

I want to give you this reminder.

I want to give you this encouragement and building up this morning.

Ready?

Jesus is coming for you.

You have hope in an amazing future with Christ in heaven.

Your current trials and persecutions will soon be gone, like a vapor vanishing.

Along with the loneliness and the grief, along with sadness, along with pain, the worry, the fear, all of those things are soon going to be gone.

I want to encourage you that your sanctification here on earth will soon be done.

I want to encourage you that sin and the consequences of sin, whether it's the consequences of somebody sinning against us, the consequences of sin against ourselves, the consequences of our sin affecting other people, those are soon gonna be gone forever.

So put on faith, love, and hope, and now encourage each other and build each other up in the same way.

Will you please pray with me?

Lord, we thank you for your love.

That you love your people so much, that you love your church so much.

We thank you for your love, for the love of Jesus Christ, for the love of the Holy Spirit, for each and every one of us.

Lord, you desire that none should perish.

Lord, you desire that none would experience your wrath in any way.

So we thank you for the gift of Jesus Christ to make a way once we rebelled, once we turned our back on you as the human race, once we sinned against you and said, We know better.

That you made a way through your son Jesus, that we wouldn't have to experience the consequences of our sin, the eternal consequences of our sin.

We thank you that we can be forgiven, that we can be washed by the blood of Jesus Christ and cleansed from all of those things.

We get to look forward to a future where we don't have to worry about the consequences of our sin anymore.

We don't have to worry about persecution, loneliness, anger, fear, the things that we struggle with, whatever that might be.

We thank you that there is a hope in our salvation of what we get to experience.

But Lord, like Paul said, help us to not be escapists just wanting out, Lord, but to realize to live is Christ, to die is gain.

So, Lord, as we are on this earth for the appointed time that you have us here, help us to be faithful.

Help us to be a light to our community, to our neighbors.

Help us to encourage one another, build each other up.

Use us for your glory and for your kingdom, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.