Do I Have to Fear God's Judgment?:
- Get the FACTS . (1 Thes 5:1-4)
- Know the DIFFERENCE . (1 Thes 5:4-10)
- Encourage the CHURCH . (1 Thes 5:11)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!
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And here's what I want you to do this morning.
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We never do this, but we're gonna do it this morning.
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Kind of hold your place there, 1 Thessalonians chapter five.
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And I want you to flip over to the book of Revelation in chapter 10.
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I'm gonna show you something before we look at this passage of God's word together.
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Revelation chapter 10.
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Now how many people here, by show of hands, everybody participate, how many people here love ice cream?
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Wow, is there anybody here that doesn't like ice cream?
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We love ice cream.
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We're not giving any out today, okay?
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But let me tell you, I love ice cream.
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I can sit down and eat a half gallon of ice cream at a time.
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I love ice cream.
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Anybody else with me on that?
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Like, yeah, like I'm not done until the spoon is scraping the bottom of the carton kind of thing, right?
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I see some people pointing, yeah, yeah.
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But here's the thing about ice cream.
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I love it while I'm eating it.
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And then about an hour later, I am like, why in the world did I eat that?
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I am so sick.
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Ice cream gives me a horrible stomach ache.
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It gives me horrible migraines.
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And I just feel overall, head to toe, completely miserable an hour after I eat ice cream, which is why I don't eat it that often.
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I love it, but it makes me a little sick.
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Like, why are you telling us this?
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Well, look at Revelation chapter 10.
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In the book of Revelation, the Lord was revealing to the apostle John the way the end of the world's going to play out when Christ returns, and he's talking about God's judgment's being poured onto the earth.
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So if you can imagine being John for a second, here's John who hung out with Jesus for his ministry and he had the apostle of love, and now all of a sudden the Lord is revealing to him, here's what judgment is going to look like in the last days.
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How did John even react to that?
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But I want you to see Revelation chapter 10, verse eight.
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John encounters this angel that says, then the voice that I heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, go take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.
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So I went to the angel and told him, excuse me, to give me the little scroll.
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And he said to me, take and eat it.
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It will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.
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And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it.
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It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter.
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And I was told, you must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.
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And what in the world's going on there?
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Well, what you see is a very graphic description of the type of reaction that we should have, church, the type of reaction that we should have when we consider God's judgment.
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And in the passage in 1 Thessalonians we're looking at today, we're going to be talking about God's judgment.
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And before service, I was talking with Paul and Carrie.
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I said, yeah, this is the kind of passage I would rather not preach.
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I would rather avoid this.
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And Carrie just smiled and said, but that's not what we do.
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And she's right.
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We don't skip the parts of the Bible that we're uncomfortable with and we don't like.
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We preach the Bible verse by verse at Harvest Bible Chapel, but I have to tell you, when we consider God's judgment, it's like the ice cream.
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Or we can say biblically, it's like the scroll that John ate.
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Because there's a sense in which it's very sweet, and there's a sense in which it's very bitter.
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Do you understand that?
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It's very sweet in the sense, when we consider that Christ is going to return and judge, there's a sweetness because we say, you know what, someday everything's gonna be made right.
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All of the injustices and all of the hurt and all of the wrong things of the world, all of the horrible, sinful things in the world, Christ is going to come and eliminate that.
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So that's sweet, right?
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And there's a sweetness about that.
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But then when we stop and think, what else that means.
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That means there are going to be countless people who have rejected the grace of God that are going to be cast into a godless eternity.
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You see, that's the bitter part.
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It's like, man, God's judgment is great, but God's judgment, it makes me feel a little squeamish in my stomach when I think that the people that have mocked the Lord are heading to a most horrifying, undescribable existence because they've rejected the grace that God wants to give. We go back to 1st Thessalonians and in chapters 4 and 5, Paul has been talking about death and end time stuff because the Thessalonian church was, they were worried.
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Like, well, what happens when we die?
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And you know, Jesus said that he was gonna come back for us and like, when's that gonna be?
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And how's that gonna, what's gonna happen there?
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And you know, there's this resurrection thing and when's that gonna happen?
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And one of the big questions for the Thessalonians was like, what about grandma?
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Like, grandma died and like, where's she?
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You know, is she like, you know, sleeping or is she like in hell or like, where's grandma at?
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And in 1 Thessalonians chapter four, Paul talks about the rapture, the day's coming that Christ is going to take his people out of the world.
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Jesus talked about that in John chapter 14 and 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul talked about that.
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But the next question that we're going to cover today, Paul covers in 1 Thessalonians chapter five, is this question, what about judgment?
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What about judgment?
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Because the truth is, as much as we enjoy talking about the blessing of salvation and heaven and our eternal destiny, the Bible also teaches that God is a God of judgment.
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So what about that?
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When will that happen?
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Are we going to be here, is God going to judge me?
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On your outline, if you're taking notes, first of all, do I have to fear God's judgment?
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Do I have to fear God's judgment?
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I wanna tell you this morning, if you're sitting here, you have not received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
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If you have not received the gift of his grace that he so freely gives, his love for you and his mercy for you, the gift of taking your sin away and pronouncing you not guilty.
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If you haven't received Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you do.
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have to fear God's judgment.
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But I think the other side of that is what the church misses just as much.
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That's this.
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If you've received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you've been born again, listen, a lot of people don't believe this, we're going to see it from his word today.
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You never have to fear God's judgment.
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You never have to fear God's judgment.
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Okay?
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A friend of mine put it this way one time.
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He said this and it always stuck with me.
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He said, "If you're a Christian, this life on the earth is the only taste of hell that you will ever have." He said, "But I'm going to tell you, if you're not a Christian, if you haven't received Christ as your Lord and Savior, this life on earth is the only taste of heaven that you're ever going to have." And that's true.
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Now do I have to fear God's judgment?
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If you're a born-again believer, the answer is no.
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And just very simply in your outline, first of all, number one, let's get the facts.
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Let's get the facts.
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Look at verses one through four with me.
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Paul says, "Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.
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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. Let's stop there for a second, get the facts, jot these things down. First of all, when? That's the first thing Paul talks about.
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We talk about God's judgment when when's God's judgment? We don't know Okay Jesus said he himself didn't know in Mark chapter 13 verse 32 and here the Apostle Paul reminds us that you know Everything that you need to know. Okay, we can sit around, you know for the rest of the week You know, I wonder when it's going to happen I wonder when this I wonder when that and Jesus only response to that was I don't know only the Father knows that okay So that's when.
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Secondly, what.
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Paul says, "For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord," that phrase, "the day of the Lord," underline that in your Bibles.
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What is the day of the Lord?
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When you see that in your Bible, that is a very specific thing.
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And here's a definition for you.
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I got this from John F. Walvoord.
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I love this definition.
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It's short, it's concise, but it covers it.
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What is the day of the Lord?
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He says, "The day of the Lord is a period of time "in which God will deal with wicked men "directly and dramatically in fearful judgment." I'm gonna read that again.
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What's the day of the Lord?
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It's a period of time in which God will deal with wicked men directly and dramatically in fearful judgment.
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The fear of the Lord, or the, excuse me, the day of the Lord is mentioned four times in the New Testament.
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Acts chapter 2, verse 20, 2 Thessalonians 2, 2, 2 Peter 3, 10, and this passage we're looking at today.
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You're like, well, is it in the Old Testament?
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Yeah, we don't have time to cover the scriptures in the Old Testament that speaks of the day of the Lord.
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You see it all through Isaiah and the book of Joel and the book of Zephaniah over and over and over. God's word tells us about the day of the Lord.
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And here's the thing about the day of the Lord in every reference.
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It's always a negative thing.
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OK, it's not the day of salvation, glorification of saints, handing out rewards. It never speaks of that.
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The day of the Lord is always spoken of in negative terms.
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It's always describing the fury of God being poured out on the people that have rejected his grace.
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Always directed at the wicked.
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That's when and that's what.
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And Paul really spends the section here talking about how.
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Here's the how.
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How will the day of the Lord show up?
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Keep in mind at this point, to give you the context, he just spoke about the rapture in chapter 4.
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So the church isn't in view here.
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We're going to talk about that in a second.
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But how is it going to show up?
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He says, "The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night." Jesus used that phrase over and over and over in the Gospels.
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John used it in Revelation 16, 15.
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The day of the Lord is like a thief in the night.
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What does that mean?
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Obviously, it means unexpected, right?
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Unexpected.
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If somebody's going to rob your house, they're not going to call you that morning and say, "Hey, are you going to be home at 11 tonight?
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I was thinking about breaking in and helping myself to your stuff as 11 tonight good for you. Well that work obviously Not right Can you come back tomorrow?
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A thief in the night. It's unexpected What's that like well just drop this reference down you can turn to look at it, but Matthew 24 verse 36 Jesus said it was going to be like the days of Noah That was Jesus picture for the end times. He says like the days of Noah over the days of Noah like okay Here are the days of Noah Noah's building an ark in the middle of his yard He's building this enormous boat in the middle of his yard and the Bible says that Noah was a preacher of righteousness Okay, so for like 120 years Noah's building this enormous ship in his yard. It wasn't what you doing Noah That's going to judge the world And your only way of escape is to get on this box with me And he's building this and he's telling people about the Lord and people people laugh people thought he was in it what kind of a moron builds a boat in the middle of their yard and So what were people doing people do what people do?
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you know business as usual while judgment was being proclaimed and then When the rains came the Bible says that God shut the door and it was too late for the people that had mocked before.
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And Jesus said, "That's what today, "the Lord's going to be like." People are gonna go about their business, they're going to think this idea of judgment is funny, it's so stupid, you stupid little Christians, they're gonna mock.
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And the day's gonna come that God's going to shut the door and say, "I gave you opportunity after opportunity "after opportunity, and in the hardness of your heart, "you have chosen to close your ears to the word of God." Eventually, God says, "Your time's up.
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Your time's up." So it's like a thief.
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He says the day of the Lord is also like a pregnant woman.
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You gotta love Paul because he was pretty bold.
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You know, those are two illustrations that really don't have much to do with each other, right?
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Like, it's like a thief and a pregnant woman.
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Like, in what other category could you put those two things together, right?
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I would never tell a pregnant woman that she's like a thief.
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But he says it's like a pregnant woman.
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Why?
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He says the labor pains.
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I'm not going to pretend I know what labor pains are like.
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There are a lot of people in this room that do know what labor pains are like.
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And I can only tell you from second-hand experience and speaking with people that have been through that, this word picture that Paul's giving here.
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With labor pains, the level of frequency increases and the level of intensity increases, right?
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Ladies, am I right on that?
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They get closer together, but they get more intense, right?
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Am I right on that?
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Okay.
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When you read the book of Revelation, that's exactly what happens.
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When God's judging the earth, he starts in judgment being poured out, judgment being poured out.
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You get to the seal judgments, the trumpet judgments, the bowl judgments.
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With all the judgments in Revelation, they get more intense, closer together, more intense, closer together, to the point that when you get to those bowl judgments in Revelation, God is just pelting the earth his judgment back to back, back to back, just annihilating the earth, judging the people that have rejected him, ushering in the new things that Christ has promised.
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The labor pains, they increase in level of frequency, and they increase in the level of intensity.
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There's something else about labor pains.
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Labor pains bring you to an inevitable event, right?
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they bring you to an inevitable event.
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Meaning, when those labor pains are getting more and more and intense, more intense, more intense, that pregnant lady can't say, you know what?
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This is really hurting.
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Can we put this off for a couple months?
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What's the doctor gonna say?
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Doctor's gonna say, that baby's coming, ready or not.
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That baby is coming.
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You know what, I changed my mind.
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There is no changing your mind at this point.
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That baby's coming.
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I decided I didn't want to go through it, but it's too late.
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That's how it is with God's judgment.
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Listen, it's inevitable.
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When God starts pouring his judgment out on the earth, the ultimate fulfillment of that is inevitable.
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Like a pregnant woman giving birth.
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We can read these things, and we can study the book of Revelation, and just try to imagine the horror.
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The question is, well, am I gonna be here for that?
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And you certainly are not.
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Look at the next verse, okay?
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Like, verse three, he says, "They will not escape." You know, there's people running around, there's nothing to worry about, peace, peace, isn't that what he said, right?
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You know, there's peace and security, nobody panic.
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That's what the world's gonna be saying while God's pouring out his judgment.
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Nobody panic, just having a few environmental issues, nobody panic.
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understatement. He says they will not escape.
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Look at verse four. He says, but you.
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Those are like the two biggest words in the passage, he's talking about God's judgment and the wicked are not going to escape.
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And then he says, but you church, but you meaning.
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This doesn't apply to you.
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Look at this, he says, but you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.
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It's but you versus them in verse 3.
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We are not part of this judgment.
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The day of the Lord is not for you.
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Paul just taught the rapture.
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I know this is a hotly debated subject, but one of the things I'd like to challenge you with is this.
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In the book of Revelation, Revelation chapters 2 and 3, the church, the church, the church, the church, the church, the church, the church, over and over.
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Revelation 2 and 3, it's all about the church, all four to five, a place in heaven.
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And then when God's judgment is being poured out in Revelation six through 19, the church isn't mentioned at all.
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So for the people that believe the church is going to be here to endure the tribulation, my question is why was Jesus like all about stuff for the church in Revelation two and three, and then the church isn't even mentioned in the rest of Revelation two, he gets to chapter 19.
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Where's the church?
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I believe where the church is, what Paul was talking about in first Thessalonians four, as Jesus promised, he was going to come and deliver his people.
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No mention of the church, so get the facts.
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Secondly, know the difference.
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Know the difference, picking up in verse four, he says, he uses a lot of word pictures here, so hang in there with me, okay?
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He says, "But you are not in darkness, brothers, "for that day to surprise you like a thief, for you are all children of light, children of the day.
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We are not of the night or of the darkness.
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Son, let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
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For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.
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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.
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To know the difference, and it's obvious in verses four and eight, Paul's giving a list of contrasts, dark, light, sleep, awake, drunk, sober, and it's obvious that he's using these things as symbols.
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So just quickly, if you wanna jot some notes down, we could do like a whole sermon on every one of these.
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That's certainly not Paul's intention here, That's not our intention today.
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We just want to get the gist of what he's saying here.
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He's making a contrast between God's people in the world.
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First of all, darkness and light.
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The Bible speaks of darkness.
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Talking about sin, what did Jesus say to Nicodemus in John, Chapter three, men love the darkness because what their deeds were evil, darkness is associated with sin.
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Light is associated with salvation.
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Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." He is the light that enlightens every man, John chapter one.
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Then Paul here is saying, "You are not night people, "you are day people, church." Secondly, a second contrast here, sleep and awake.
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Sleep and awake, what's the contrast there?
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Contrast there is oblivious versus aware.
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That's the contrast.
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You see, when we talk about God's judgment, as God's people, we are aware.
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We can see the signs.
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Can you see the signs?
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Pick up a newspaper, turn on the news.
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Do you see the signs?
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Do you see the stuff that's happening in the Middle East right now?
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Do you see the stuff that's happening in Israel right now?
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Do you see how?
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Do you ever fear God's judgment? Has this passage changed your outlook?
What are the differences Paul uses to contrast God's people / the world? Explain what they mean.
In verse 11, Paul said this section is to encourage one another. How does this teaching on the Day of the Lord encourage believers? How does it encourage you personally?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another
Children's Questions:
Explain to your kids what the "Day of the Lord" means. Why is God going to punish those who have rejected Him?
Explain why believers in Jesus should not fear punishment from God. (Hint: God punished Jesus for my sins, so He is not going to punish me, too!)