What ARE We Waiting For? You Don’t Know

Introduction:

Since I Don’t Know the Exact Timing of the Second Coming... (Matt 24:36-51)

  1. I must stop trying to figure out What Only God Knows . (Matthew 24:36)

    Deuteronomy 29:29 - The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

  2. I must stay awake and Be Ready . (Matthew 24:37-44)

    Ephesians 5:14 - for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."

  3. I must be faithful in carrying out My Assigned Tasks . (Matthew 24:45-51)

    John 14:15 - "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."

    John 15:10 - "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love."

    John 15:14 - "You are my friends if you do what I command you."

    Luke 6:46 - "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you?"

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 01:07-01:37

    Alright as you turn to Matthew chapter 24 verses 36 through 51. I want to conduct a quick poll Raise your hand if you are a planner you like to know your schedule ahead of time at the schedule your day week or month All right now raise your hand if you're more of a go-with-the-flow type of person isn't mine surprise I don't understand you people at all. I wish I could be relaxed and laid-back like you but I just can't. You know what common expression you'll never hear come out of my mouth? Surprise me.

    01:37-01:42

    I don't want to be surprised. If you want to ruin my birthday, throw me a surprise party.

    01:43-01:45

    Now don't do that just to ruin my birthday, please.

    01:46-01:59

    If I'm invited to hang out with my friends, I want to know where we're going, what we're doing, and how long we'll be there. If I hear any of this, we'll see where the night takes us, nonsense. The night's taking me back to my couch at home.

    02:00-02:06

    But do you know what all of us can agree on regardless of our personality types?

    02:06-02:17

    None of us are big fans of the time windows that we are given by contractors The dreaded internet providers or delivery services, you know what I'm talking about, right?

    02:18-02:29

    You order a fridge from Lowe's and they say hey, we'll be there tomorrow from 8 a.m. To 12 p.m Then they show up at 7 a.m. While you're still rocking your pajamas and brushing your teeth and it's really, really awkward.

    02:29-02:33

    Or Comcast or Verizon says, "Yeah, we'll come fix your internet connection.

    02:34-02:41

    We're coming on Monday from 9.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m." Isn't that obnoxious?

    02:42-02:47

    That's an entire date to reschedule to make sure you're home, hoping that the guy will actually show up.

    02:48-02:50

    4.30 hits and they're still not there.

    02:51-02:53

    You get a call, "Oh, I'm so sorry.

    02:53-02:58

    Our guy's caught up in another call." It always seems like they have one guy who's working for them, by the way.

    02:58-03:03

    And he can't be there again until next Monday from 9.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.

    03:03-03:08

    It's like, ah, he's gonna pull your hair out in frustration as you're stuck in this Groundhog's Day scenario.

    03:10-03:22

    And these time windows can be really frustrating because even the most relaxed among us wanna have some level of control over our schedules and not be bound by someone else's timetable.

    03:23-03:28

    Well, we're in the middle of our latest series, intentional hope, what are we waiting for?

    03:28-03:42

    Over this past month, we've been working through Matthew 24 in which Jesus clearly lays out the signs of his two-stage second coming, the rapture of his church, and his glorious reappearing following the tribulation.

    03:44-03:49

    We have to understand that God doesn't cater to the control freaks in the room.

    03:49-03:57

    He hasn't catered to the over planners of this world by giving exact dates and precise timestamps for these glorious events.

    03:57-04:08

    You can't flip through these chapters in Matthew or go to the book of Revelation and expect to find statements like, the rapture will happen on June 10th, 2027 at 5.56 PM.

    04:09-04:17

    Or Jesus will come back visibly from heaven to set up his kingdom on July 30th, 2034 at 11.47 AM.

    04:18-04:23

    Instead, the Lord gives time windows when these things will take place.

    04:23-04:27

    And he expects us to trust him with the exact details.

    04:28-04:36

    God doesn't take a poll, like I just did a few minutes ago, or put out a suggestion box for us to stop with our opinions and preferences.

    04:36-04:43

    He has a plan, and he is going to stick to it regardless of what you think or what I think.

    04:44-04:53

    And unlike Lowe's, Comcast, or Verizon, these divine timetables are not given because our God is unsure of when these things will happen.

    04:54-05:05

    He's not hedging his bets or giving himself some wiggle room just in case his perfect and inspired timetables will play out exactly as he predicted and promised.

    05:06-05:11

    There is a 0% chance of God showing up too early or too late.

    05:11-05:15

    He is going to arrive exactly on schedule.

    05:16-05:20

    So this morning, we're gonna dig into Matthew 24, verses 36 through 51.

    05:21-05:33

    And I hope that the teachings of Jesus about these divine time windows will increase our trust in him, our dedication to him, and our obedient efforts for him.

    05:34-05:35

    So let's spend a moment in prayer.

    05:36-05:40

    I ask that you pray for me, that I will faithfully represent what Christ has to say.

    05:41-05:46

    And I will pray for you, that you will diligently listen and apply what you learn.

    05:49-05:50

    Father, we thank you for your word.

    05:52-05:53

    We thank you for this time.

    05:53-05:55

    We have to come together as your people to hear it proclaimed.

    05:57-06:06

    Lord, I pray that I would be faithful in preaching your word and everyone sitting here today would be faithful in receiving it and submitting to it.

    06:07-06:09

    We thank you in advance for what you are going to do.

    06:10-06:12

    In the name of your son, Jesus Christ, amen.

    06:14-06:19

    So before we dig into the text this morning, I want to make an important clarification to avoid any confusion.

    06:20-06:34

    As Jesus is teaching in these verses, he is specifically speaking to the timing of the second phase of his coming, his visible and physical return, which will happen at the very end of the seven-year tribulation.

    06:35-06:42

    And men and women who come to Christ during that time period will have a general idea of when he is coming back.

    06:42-06:46

    But they will not be able to circle a specific day on the calendar.

    06:46-06:54

    They won't be able to pull out their smartphones and put on the reminder or put on an alarm and that will go off right when Jesus comes back.

    06:56-07:02

    In light of this reality, Jesus offers three important warnings to those living during the time of the tribulation.

    07:03-07:07

    I don't want all the Christians in the room to tune out and think, well, I guess this sermon isn't for me.

    07:07-07:08

    I'm not gonna be here.

    07:08-07:13

    I'll either be in heaven because I died, or I'll be in heaven because I was raptured away.

    07:13-07:14

    Time to tune out.

    07:14-07:21

    Well, don't pull out your comfy neck pillows just yet, or start daydreaming about what's for lunch at Pantera Bread, as Pastor Jeff calls it.

    07:22-07:31

    These three warnings also relate to followers of Christ now, as we await the blessed hope of the rapture.

    07:31-07:40

    Jesus offers general principles for living in anticipation of the second coming that we cannot afford to miss out on right now.

    07:41-07:48

    So on your outline, since I don't know the exact timing of the second coming, I must stop trying to figure out what only God knows.

    07:49-07:53

    I must stop trying to figure out what only God knows.

    07:56-08:00

    And Jesus kicks off this section with something that throws a lot of people off.

    08:00-08:12

    He says, "But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, "not even the angels of heaven, nor the son, "but the Father only." You may be thinking, "Wait a minute, Taylor.

    08:12-08:13

    "How is that possible?

    08:14-08:30

    "How could Jesus possibly not know "when his return will be?" Well, to understand this verse, we first have to understand the truth that Jesus willingly limited himself when he came to this world and took on a human nature.

    08:31-08:45

    Jesus knows all things, but during his earthly life and ministry, He chose not to access some of his divine and sovereign knowledge, even though it was constantly within his reach and he could grab a hold of it whenever he wanted to.

    08:46-08:49

    To be clear, Jesus never became less than God.

    08:49-08:51

    He never lost his divine power.

    08:51-08:55

    Jesus was and is fully God and fully man.

    08:56-08:57

    Well, how does this all work?

    08:58-09:01

    Are you ready for the most profound answer you'll ever hear?

    09:02-09:03

    I have no idea.

    09:03-09:05

    I really don't know.

    09:05-09:08

    There is an element of mystery here that we have to accept.

    09:09-09:17

    We have to understand that our puny and limited brains, even the smartest among us, cannot wrap our heads around this.

    09:19-09:24

    You'd be expecting my two-year-old daughter to understand the complexities of advanced calculus.

    09:25-09:31

    Sure, she can count to 20 in the cutest and most adorable way imaginable, but that's basically the limit.

    09:31-10:51

    Anything beyond that in the math department big stretch for Emmy. Do you know what a bigger stretch is? The creation expecting to know all that there is to know about the Creator. I love what Deuteronomy 29 29 says about this. "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. You have to be okay with not being that smart. You have to be okay with not knowing everything and having all the answers. God is God and you are not. As we read scripture it is very clear that the Lord doesn't give us any more information than what we need to know in order to lead a faithful and godly existence in this life. That's it. And this is certainly true when it comes to the end times. In verse 36, Jesus clearly and emphatically teaches that no mere human being, no angel can possibly know that day and hour when he will return. It's a complete waste of time and effort to even try. That day and hour is a secret thing that belongs to our God and to Him alone.

    10:53-11:06

    Sadly, so many pastors, so many theologians, so many Christian writers have completely embarrassed themselves by trying to guess and predict the exact year and even date of the rapture.

    11:08-11:23

    A former NASA engineer and Bible teacher named Edgar Wiseman wrote a book in 1988 called "88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988 and it sold over 4.5 million copies.

    11:24-11:26

    And listen to what he actually said about this.

    11:27-11:30

    Only if the Bible is in error, am I wrong.

    11:33-11:35

    That's a bold statement, isn't that the bold strategy?

    11:35-11:36

    How did that work out for him?

    11:37-11:43

    Well, since that was 36 years ago and all the Christians are still here, I would say it didn't go very well for him.

    11:44-11:46

    But Wiseman didn't apologize for repent.

    11:46-11:49

    He doubled down, dug in his heels and wrote another book.

    11:50-11:53

    89 reasons why he's coming back in 1989.

    11:54-11:56

    How did that go for him?

    11:56-11:57

    Again, not so great.

    11:58-12:00

    So he took a few years off to work on this gem.

    12:01-12:08

    23 reasons why a pre-tribulational rapture looks like it will occur on Rosh Hashanah 1993.

    12:10-12:12

    He kind of pulls back a bit.

    12:12-12:14

    It looks like, I'm not saying it's definitely gonna happen.

    12:15-12:15

    It looks like.

    12:16-12:21

    Despite this super cool title, this book didn't sell well for very obvious reasons.

    12:22-12:23

    Who remembers Harold Camping?

    12:24-12:25

    Anybody remember him?

    12:25-12:25

    Nobody?

    12:25-12:26

    All right, Darla.

    12:26-12:27

    Darla remembers.

    12:27-12:35

    He was a radio evangelist and teacher who wrongly predicted the timing of the rapture five different times.

    12:36-12:39

    You'd think after the second failed attempt, both these guys would be like, you know what?

    12:39-12:40

    I'm throwing in the towel.

    12:40-12:41

    I really stink at this.

    12:42-12:43

    I have a 0% batting average right now.

    12:45-12:50

    but there's always men and women coming out of the woodwork to predict what only God knows.

    12:51-12:54

    And these predictors can seem so knowledgeable.

    12:54-12:55

    They can seem so intelligent.

    12:55-12:58

    They can seem so credible and convincing.

    12:58-13:03

    They point to hidden numerology that they discovered after years of study.

    13:03-13:10

    They somehow unlock the original Hebrew and Greek of specific verses that no one has ever figured out before.

    13:12-13:17

    By the way, that's a really big red flag that should trigger your false and teaching antenna right off the bat.

    13:18-13:31

    You're telling me that some random guy in 2024 has figured out the real meaning of a biblical text that no one has understood or heard of before in 2000 years of church history.

    13:31-13:34

    That is sketchiness of the highest order.

    13:35-13:37

    Let me give you some free Bible advice.

    13:38-13:43

    When it comes to the Bible, if someone is trying to teach you something that is new, it ain't true.

    13:44-13:45

    Say that with me.

    13:45-13:47

    If it's new, it ain't true.

    13:47-13:49

    If it's new, it ain't true.

    13:50-14:04

    We serve an eternal God who has written an unchanging book that is filled with ancient truths that cannot and should not be rebooted or retooled to fit our own modern interpretations and opinions.

    14:05-14:11

    But it's so tempting to think that we can grab ahold of such important information on our own.

    14:11-14:17

    But ultimately, this is an appeal to our sinful egos, to our fallen flesh.

    14:19-14:26

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't trying to access secret information and become like God what got Adam in even trouble in the first place?

    14:27-14:31

    Maybe we should avoid walking in their footsteps when it comes to the word of God.

    14:32-14:40

    As Pastor Jeff has taught us many times, so many Christians fall for such ridiculous and goofy unbiblical teaching.

    14:40-14:45

    in every area of theology, but especially when it comes to eschatology, the end times.

    14:46-14:55

    Don't be fooled when you come across a charming teacher who is trying to teach you something that clearly contradicts the word of God.

    14:56-14:58

    We have to be discerning.

    14:58-15:10

    We have to be able to discern what is true and what is a lie, what is godly and what is demonic, what is Christ exalting and what is self exalting.

    15:11-15:20

    Please stick to what God has clearly revealed in His Word, rather than going off on a wild goose chase after information that is none of your business.

    15:23-15:34

    Since I don't know the exact timing of the second coming, secondly, I must stay awake and be ready. I must stay awake and be ready.

    15:38-15:40

    Let's read verses 37 through 39.

    15:42-15:45

    "For as for the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

    15:46-15:54

    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.

    15:54-15:57

    And they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away.

    15:58-16:09

    So will be the coming of the Son of Man." So as Jesus points us forward to the end, He also points us backwards to the beginning of our Bibles.

    16:10-16:17

    And He compares the time of the tribulation and His visible return to the story of Noah and the events of the flood.

    16:18-16:22

    During that time in human history, the world was like the Wild West.

    16:23-16:41

    Listen to how it's described in Genesis 6-5, "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thought of his heart was only on evil continually." So God commands Noah to build an ark so that he and his family can escape the wrath to come.

    16:42-16:54

    And as he built this ark for many, many, many, many decades, you have to think that people would stop by to ask, "Hey, what are you doing?" And then whenever he told them, they would mock him for it.

    16:54-17:02

    In 2 Peter, we're told that Noah was a preacher of righteousness, which means that he was warning his neighbors of what was coming.

    17:03-17:05

    But nobody listened to his warnings.

    17:06-17:09

    Instead, they had a business-as-usual attitude.

    17:10-17:16

    Stuff our faces, get drunk, get married, have kids, let's just keep on keeping on.

    17:16-17:20

    They laughed at the idea of divine judgment.

    17:21-17:24

    That there is a coming reckoning for their evil deeds.

    17:25-17:32

    And despite their sinful unbelief, the rains finally came and all these wicked men and women were washed away.

    17:34-17:37

    Did we really lose sight of how terrifying the flood must have been?

    17:37-17:40

    Because we all have the cutesy version stuck in our minds, right?

    17:41-17:50

    All those kids books where no one in this family are really happy, all the animals are smiling, there's a giraffe with a big smile sticking its head out the porthole of the ark, right?

    17:50-17:53

    but they don't show the carnage that happened before.

    17:53-18:01

    As the storms rage and the floodwaters rose, you don't see the bodies that must have been floating as the ark passed by.

    18:01-18:03

    This is a horrifying scene.

    18:05-18:13

    And Jesus tells us that a similar day of judgment is coming down the pike in verses 40 through 41.

    18:13-18:14

    Let's read that together.

    18:15-18:16

    "Then two men will be in the field.

    18:17-18:18

    "One will be taken and one will be left.

    18:19-18:28

    "Two women will be grinding at the mill, "one will be taken and one left." Many try to apply these verses to the rapture.

    18:29-18:33

    You know, one believer will be taken into heaven while the unbeliever will be left on the earth.

    18:34-18:43

    But if you pay attention to the context, if you pay attention to what Jesus is actually saying, the rapture is not in focus in this particular passage.

    18:44-18:51

    Jesus isn't talking about being taken away from judgment, He's talking about being taken away for judgment.

    18:52-18:59

    Similar to the time of the flood, the period of the tribulation will be a time of rampant wickedness, idolatry and destruction.

    19:00-19:10

    Like in the days of Noah, many men and women will experience warnings and signs of the coming judgment, but they will close their eyes to it and believe their own sinful delusions instead.

    19:11-19:29

    And on that day of Jesus' glorious appearing, Those who hate him and resist him will be taken away, will be swept away to experience eternal judgment, while those who love him and serve him will be left to experience the eternal joys of his kingdom.

    19:31-19:35

    You know, thankfully, Jesus doesn't just say, "Hey, yeah, it's gonna be rough.

    19:35-19:45

    Good luck with that." He gives two words of warning, two commands to avoid judgment in verses 42 through 44.

    19:45-19:51

    Jesus says, "Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know what day your Lord is coming.

    19:52-20:26

    But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake. It would not have left his house to be broken into. Therefore, you must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." So what are the commands of Jesus in these verses to stay awake and to be ready. Stay awake and be ready. And to reinforce these commands, he moves on from the flood analogy and goes to the thief analogy.

    20:27-21:16

    You know, I'm not a law enforcement expert by any stretch of the imagination. Maybe I should check with some of our police officers who are members here, but thieves aren't exactly known for giving people a complimentary heads up before they break into their house, right? That's pretty common knowledge, right? I think so. You can't expect to find a note like this on your door in your mailbox. To whom this may concern, I advise you to be absent from your home on the evening of May 5th, 2024, as I'll be climbing into the side window by the hedges to steal all of your high-ticket items and any loose cash I see lying around. I hope it doesn't inconvenience you too greatly. Your friendly neighborhood burglar. Bye You as the homeowner have to be vigilant and prepared for a home break-in because you have no idea when it could happen.

    21:17-21:22

    Buy an alarm system, get a big dog that barks at suspicious noises, have a plan for home defense.

    21:23-21:28

    Don't be caught off guard and found in a deep sleep when the worst happens or you will regret it.

    21:30-21:36

    During my sophomore year at Geneva College, I had to enroll in a pretty boring philosophy class that met at 8 a.m. in the morning.

    21:36-21:44

    And waking up before 8 a.m. in college It seems like it's like 3 a.m. right now. It's like 8 a.m. That sounds like the lap of luxury that I haven't experienced. I've had kids.

    21:46-21:52

    But this class also had assigned seating and I was assigned to sit right in front of the professor so I couldn't get away with anything.

    21:53-22:00

    And on top of all that, the class was really hot and humid, which none of us can relate to going to this church, right? Having a room that's hot and humid.

    22:02-23:14

    Also, this professor had a really boring and monotone voice and the topic wasn't exactly Thrilling and there was just one particular morning. I just couldn't I just couldn't stay awake My eyelids were so heavy. My head was bobbing up and down up and down. But again, he's right there I can't fall asleep. So I try every single trick in the book. I slap my face. I'm pinching myself and it's not working I had a big bruise on my leg. I forget why I'm gonna start pushing down on that as hard as I could Like stay awake It was extremely difficult to stay awake in an environment that was set up perfectly for me to nap And I was thinking this past week that staying awake and on guard is So difficult in a culture that is tirelessly trying to lull us to sleep so that we don't pay attention to what's happening around us Satan is doing a great job of keeping people comfy in their sinful slumber so that they do not wake up to their own brokenness and to the eternity that is awaiting them if they continue to reject Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

    23:15-23:40

    So many pop the sleeping pills of Satan's attractive lies. They listen to the soothed ambient noises of me-centered worldly teaching. They plug their ears and try to ignore the voice of reason, the voice of their guilty conscience, and the truth of God's word, they are content to be asleep and stay asleep because they don't want to face the emptiness within their own soul.

    23:41-23:43

    They don't want to think about eternity.

    23:44-23:45

    It's too overwhelming.

    23:45-23:46

    It is too terrifying.

    23:49-23:53

    And I would be a negligent pastor if I didn't ask, is this true of you?

    23:55-24:00

    Are you spiritually asleep right now in numbing yourself with the things of this world?

    24:00-24:05

    Are you completely unprepared for the day of judgment that is coming?

    24:05-24:08

    Are you totally unready for eternity?

    24:10-24:15

    I know this is morbid, but if you were to die today, are you confident about where you would end up?

    24:16-24:17

    Heaven or hell?

    24:18-24:21

    You can't roll the dice on forever and just hope for the best.

    24:22-24:24

    You are not guaranteed a long life.

    24:25-24:29

    You are not guaranteed next year, next week, tomorrow.

    24:29-24:32

    You're not even guaranteed the next minute or second.

    24:34-24:46

    A pastor once wrote, "The most dangerous of all delusions is that there is plenty of time." This is why the Bible is so emphatic that today is the day of salvation.

    24:47-24:49

    Not tomorrow, not when your schedule clears up.

    24:49-24:52

    No, right this very second, right now.

    24:54-24:58

    Prepare yourself for eternity by making the most important decision of your life.

    24:59-25:05

    Repent, turn away from your sin, and turn towards Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.

    25:06-25:14

    He is ready and willing to forgive you of your many sins if you simply come to Him in humility and submission.

    25:15-25:35

    Instead of snoring away, snoozing away in ignorance and rebellion, listen to what the Apostle Paul has to say in Ephesians 5, 14, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." You don't have to live in the darkness of your sin a moment longer.

    25:36-25:40

    You don't have to endure the eternal evening of separation from God.

    25:41-25:50

    You can wake up to a new day, to a new life in Jesus Christ that is filled with the light of his glory, his goodness, and his grace.

    25:52-26:01

    Finally, since I don't know the exact timing of the second coming, I must be faithful in carrying out my assigned tasks.

    26:04-26:07

    I must be faithful in carrying out my assigned tasks.

    26:10-26:12

    Let's read verses 45 through 51.

    26:13-26:21

    Jesus says, "Who then is the faithful and wise servant "whom his master has set over his household "to give them their food at the proper time?

    26:22-26:26

    "Blessed is that servant whom his master will find "so doing when he comes.

    26:26-26:30

    "Truly I say to you, "he will set him over all his possessions.

    26:31-26:49

    "But if that wicked servant says to himself, "my master is delayed and begins to beat his fellow servants "and eats and drinks with drunkards, "the master of that servant will come on a day "when he does not expect him, "and at an hour he does not know, "and will cut him in pieces "and put him with the hypocrites.

    26:50-26:54

    In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

    26:55-26:59

    So Jesus moves on to his final analogy of this section.

    26:59-27:06

    He puts you as the listener in the place of a slave who's been put in charge of the master's house.

    27:07-27:13

    It's your responsibility to make sure that everyone is well-fed and taken care of.

    27:13-27:14

    But there's a catch.

    27:15-27:20

    You have no idea when the master is coming back to check on you and to check on your work.

    27:22-27:24

    And there are two responses to this situation.

    27:25-27:35

    You can take this charge seriously because you know your master is a serious person and you have no idea when he's coming back, so you do exactly what he told you to do.

    27:36-27:40

    Or you can think to yourself, ah, my master's such a lazy jerk.

    27:40-27:44

    There's no way he's coming back anytime soon, so I'm gonna do things my way and have fun.

    27:45-27:51

    And this presumption leads to getting drunk with your friends and abusing your fellow servants.

    27:52-28:00

    And you convince yourself, it'll all be fine because I can get things back on track right before my master walks through the door.

    28:01-28:02

    I'll have enough time.

    28:04-28:12

    And these two wildly different responses lead to two wildly different destinations, blessing and damnation.

    28:13-28:23

    The faithful servant represents genuine believers who obediently complete their assigned task out of reverence and respect for their master.

    28:24-28:35

    While the wicked servant stands in for unbelievers who consistently refuse to submit to the master and foolishly believe that he's not coming back anytime soon.

    28:37-28:43

    And sadly, many wicked servants wrongly assume that they are faithful servants.

    28:44-29:01

    They may say if they love Jesus Christ, but there is no evidence of this love and how they treat other people and how they speak and how they act and how they react and how they spend their time and their money, involvement in the body of Christ at the lowest rung of their list of priorities.

    29:02-29:05

    They'll say things like, who has time to attend a worship service on a weekly basis?

    29:06-29:08

    Who has the time to volunteer consistently?

    29:09-29:14

    Why should I give my money to a church that seems like it's doing just fine without me?

    29:15-29:19

    Bible reading is a negotiable instead of a non-negotiable.

    29:19-29:23

    Prayer is a last resort and not a first stop.

    29:23-29:29

    Selflessly serving others rarely comes before selflessly serving myself.

    29:32-29:36

    The pursuit of holiness takes a backseat to the pursuit of pleasure.

    29:37-29:41

    In their minds, evangelism is for those super uber Christians, not for regular Christians like me.

    29:43-29:47

    Instead of making disciples, they make excuses.

    29:49-30:05

    At this point you may be thinking, "Ah, Taylor, I don't know about all this. This sounds really legalistic. It sounds like you're saying that we are saved by our good deeds and our obedience and not the grace of Christ. I'm actually not saying that at all. And let me explain what I am saying with this everyday example.

    30:06-30:13

    Imagine with me that over this next week, my wife has this list of chores that she wants me to complete, and I don't do a single one of them.

    30:14-30:17

    She says, "Taylor, can you please take out the trash?" I don't do it.

    30:17-30:20

    "Taylor, will you please empty the dishwasher "before I get home?

    30:20-30:22

    "That would be a big blessing." I don't do it.

    30:23-30:25

    "Taylor, there's a bunch of burned out light bulbs "around the house.

    30:25-30:29

    "Will you please go to Lowe's and change those out soon?" Eh, I don't do it.

    30:29-30:31

    Or she calls me, "Taylor, I can't get out "of this work meeting.

    30:32-30:33

    Please go pick up Sam from school.

    30:34-30:35

    That would really help me.

    30:35-30:37

    Eh, I don't feel like it today.

    30:37-30:38

    And not today.

    30:41-30:43

    Would Kate feel very loved at the end of this week?

    30:44-30:46

    Oh, but you're missing a key piece of information.

    30:47-30:51

    Every single time I don't follow through, I tell her how much she means to me.

    30:51-30:53

    I tell her how much I love her.

    30:54-30:55

    Isn't that good enough?

    30:56-30:57

    Won't she feel loved?

    31:00-31:05

    You can talk a big game as much as you want, but if you don't back up your words and your actions, your words are meaningless.

    31:07-31:13

    I prove the genuine nature of my love for my wife with my actions as well as my words.

    31:14-31:30

    In a similar way, the distinguishing feature of a genuine love for Christ is a genuine love for obeying his word, a genuine desire to follow his instructions to the letter and not to procrastinate, a genuine heart for his kingdom and his mission.

    31:31-31:35

    And if you don't believe me, believe the words of our Lord throughout the gospels.

    31:36-31:39

    John 14, 15, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.

    31:39-31:44

    John 15, 10, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.

    31:45-31:50

    John 15, 14, you are my friends if you do what I command you.

    31:51-31:56

    Luke 6, 46, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you.

    31:58-32:00

    Could Jesus be any clearer?

    32:01-32:04

    I'm gonna make it as simple as possible.

    32:04-32:11

    If you don't care very much about following Jesus' commands, then you don't care very much about Jesus at all.

    32:13-32:21

    If living in obedience to your heavenly master isn't on your radar, then it's very likely that Jesus isn't your master in the first place.

    32:23-32:28

    We are not saved by our obedience, but we are saved to obedience.

    32:28-32:35

    We are not saved by our faithfulness to the Lord, but we are saved to be faithful to the Lord.

    32:38-32:44

    Who's ever heard someone say, "Don't be so heavenly mind that you're of no earthly good." Who's ever heard that?

    32:44-32:50

    In other words, get your head out of the clouds, stop thinking so much about heaven, float back down to earth and be of use here.

    32:51-32:52

    What do we think about that statement?

    32:53-32:54

    Thumbs up or thumbs down?

    32:55-32:57

    It's a massive thumbs down for me.

    32:57-33:02

    I hate that statement and it makes me cringe every single time that I hear it.

    33:02-33:13

    You know, I've been in full-time ministry for almost 10 years now, and I have yet to meet the person who is so infatuated with the blessings and promises of heaven that they make no eternal impact now.

    33:14-33:18

    I've actually encountered the exact opposite a countless number of times.

    33:19-33:23

    People who are so earthly minded of no heavenly good.

    33:25-33:30

    People who are so fixated on the here and now, they don't even stop to consider the there and then.

    33:32-33:33

    What about you?

    33:34-33:39

    Are you so earthly minded that you're of no heavenly good?

    33:40-33:54

    Or is the reality of the second coming motivating you to trust the Lord right now, to stay awake and be ready right now, to be faithful to his word and to make disciples right now.

    33:56-34:05

    In both stages of his second coming, our Lord is returning at a time we do not know, at a time we do not expect.

    34:06-34:09

    You have no idea when these things will happen.

    34:11-34:28

    I hope and pray this undeniable truth will jolt us out of our lazy habits and will free us from the distractions that so often hold us back from being who God has called us to be and doing what He has commanded us to do.

    34:29-34:30

    Let's pray.

    34:32-34:52

    Father, we come to you and we admit that so often we can fall asleep in this life, that we can be lazy, that we can forget that we're here for a reason, that we are here to honor and glorify you by telling others about Christ, about making disciples.

    34:52-34:54

    Lord, that is why we're still here.

    34:56-35:12

    I pray that that mission would fill our minds and be at the front of our brains, Lord, that as we go about school, as we go about work, as we go about raising our kids, as we go about all the things that we do in life, that the purpose is to glorify you by making disciples.

    35:15-35:19

    And Lord, help us not to think, "Ah, I bet Jesus isn't coming back for a while.

    35:19-35:27

    "I can do what I want." Instead, Lord, let us believe that Jesus is coming soon, that we would do what He wants us to do.

    35:29-35:40

    I lift up every single person in this room where I pray for those who do not know you, that today would be the day of salvation, that they'd wake up from their sleep and come alive in Christ.

    35:41-35:49

    And for the rest of us, Lord, please shock us out of our complacency and get us ready for the awesome mission that you've entrusted to us.

    35:50-35:53

    We pray all this in the name of Jesus, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 24:36-51

  1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?

  2. Why do so many people try to guess/figure out the exact date/time of the rapture? Why is this unwise and unhelpful?

  3. What does it look like to “stay awake” and “be ready” in light of the second coming of Christ? How do you see yourself falling asleep spiritually right now?

  4. What tasks has the Lord assigned to us that we must be diligent in carrying out before He returns?

Breakout
Pray for one another.


Want more eschatology teaching?

Catch up on the previous verse by verse teaching through Revelation

Catch up on the previous verse by verse teaching through 2 Thessalonians

What ARE We Waiting For? Watch the Signs

Introduction:

3 Reasons to Believe History Is Going to Go Down as Jesus Said (Matthew 24:32-35):

  1. The Signs are still happening. (Matthew 24:32-33)
    • 184-280 - Three Kingdoms War (36-40 mil)
    • 755-763 - An Lushan Rebellion (13 mil)
    • 1206-1324 - Mongol Conquests (40-70 mil)
    • 1562-1598 - French Wars of Religion (2-4 mil)
    • 1616-1662 - Qing Dynasty Conquered Ming (25 mil)
    • 1803-1815 - Napoleonic Wars (3.5 - 6 mil)
    • 1850-1864 - Taiping Rebellion (20 mil)
    • 1914-1918 - WWI (17 mil)
    • 1939-1945 - WWII (60 - 85 mil)
    • 2001 – Today - War on Terror (1.3 - 2 million)

    2 Timothy 3:1-4 - But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God...

  2. Israel is still going strong. (Matthew 24:34)

    Matthew 23:33-36 - You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and dpersecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of gZechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between hthe sanctuary and ithe altar. Truly, I say to you, jall these things will come upon this generation.

  3. Jesus' Words still prevail. (Matthew 24:35)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 01:08-01:11

    Open up to Matthew chapter 24, are you there?

    01:13-01:16

    Our family moved to Chicago several years ago for training.

    01:16-01:22

    And before we moved, I have a good friend, his name's Nathaniel and he's a veterinarian.

    01:22-01:24

    He wanted to spend some time with our family.

    01:25-01:28

    And he said, we went to Living Treasures Park.

    01:30-01:36

    And at Living Treasures, if you've never been there, they have, you ever see these bird enclosures, You know what I'm talking about?

    01:36-01:46

    Where you go in, you know, you pay like $13 for a Dixie cup of seeds and you go in and you feed the pigeons or whatever.

    01:47-01:49

    They're not shy about coming up on you.

    01:49-01:50

    You know what I'm talking about?

    01:51-01:53

    The little feathered beggars, they just come up all on you.

    01:54-01:57

    And well, my wife, she doesn't love birds, okay?

    01:57-02:01

    You know, especially the birds that are just like all over you.

    02:02-02:05

    So she goes, well, you and Nathaniel take the boys in.

    02:06-02:08

    And I was just, yeah, that's no problem.

    02:08-02:09

    I like birds.

    02:10-02:13

    So we go in, and Cade was four at the time.

    02:14-02:16

    And you know how four-year-old boys are, right?

    02:18-02:20

    He's just kind of not paying attention.

    02:21-02:25

    And he was standing on top of one of the rocks that lined the path.

    02:25-02:29

    And he just kind of jumped and spun around and stomped on a bird.

    02:29-02:30

    (audience laughing)

    02:34-02:41

    The bird fluttered in feathers and then it stopped.

    02:43-02:49

    Then it suddenly had a red ring around its neck that wasn't there before.

    02:51-03:02

    Now I had to go tell the people that run the zoo that my kid killed one of their animals.

    03:04-03:10

    And it was even worse than that because when I went in, the lady that was working there, she knew me.

    03:10-03:19

    I didn't know who she was, but I walked in, she goes, "Oh, hey, Pastor Jeff." So now I have to go tell this lady that knows me as a pastor that I don't know that.

    03:21-03:35

    So I went and I said, "I don't know how to tell you this, but my son accidentally stepped on one of your birds and killed it.

    03:37-03:48

    And then she said, "Are you sure it's dead?" Now let's just pause here for a second and examine that question.

    03:49-03:51

    I'm not sure how she wanted me to answer that.

    03:53-03:58

    I'm not sure if she thought I had some kind a little stethoscope to pull out.

    04:00-04:16

    I'm not sure if she thought I was gonna give the bird like mouth to beak resuscitation, but I said, "Well, my best friend's a veterinarian "and he says the bird's dead.

    04:17-04:24

    "So that's what I'm going with." She was really cool about it.

    04:26-04:28

    the rest of the story sometime.

    04:28-04:29

    I know some of you guys know that story.

    04:34-04:35

    Sure, sure.

    04:38-04:47

    You know, that might be the question that you have these past few weeks as we've been going through these passages.

    04:49-04:49

    Are you sure?

    04:51-05:03

    Because let's be honest, Jesus laid out some pretty shocking predictions and you could be following along with us and reading this and hearing these sermons going, are you sure?

    05:04-05:05

    Are you sure?

    05:07-05:10

    I mean, is that really how it's going to go down?

    05:13-05:18

    Well, verses four through 14, we saw what we would say are the general signs.

    05:18-05:21

    Jesus called them birth pains.

    05:24-05:28

    You know, birth pains, they get more intense and closer together.

    05:29-05:31

    The closer you get to the actual birth.

    05:32-05:39

    Jesus talked about the birth pains, their spiritual deception, wars, famines, earthquakes, hatred, and the gospel goes out.

    05:39-05:49

    Jesus said, "These are the signs you're going to see in the future." And then Jesus got really specific in verses 15 through 28.

    05:50-05:51

    He talked about tribulation events.

    05:52-05:57

    He said, "Watch for the abomination of desolation." You know, there's going to be fleeing in Judah.

    05:57-05:58

    There's going to be false Christ.

    05:58-06:04

    And then as Pastor Taylor told us last week, there's going to be the return of the King.

    06:07-06:11

    And we could read all this and be like, hmm, are you sure?

    06:13-06:19

    I mean, how do we really know that this is how history is going to go down?

    06:21-06:27

    And if we can be honest here, which we always encourage in church, I think we've all struggled with doubt from time to time, haven't we?

    06:30-06:31

    Just honest questioning.

    06:32-06:43

    I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hand, but I bet you the number is pretty close to 100 % of people sitting here and listening to this that are like, I struggled with that.

    06:44-06:50

    I've struggled with this end of the world teaching type stuff.

    06:50-06:52

    Is it really going to go down that way?

    06:53-06:55

    We've questioned it on some level.

    06:56-06:59

    I'm not talking about blasphemous denial.

    06:59-07:01

    I'm not talking about that.

    07:01-07:03

    You know, seeing as I don't believe any of that.

    07:03-07:05

    I'm not talking about that.

    07:06-07:20

    Just talking about, even as believers sometimes, we're like, is that, all this stuff that we've been talking about, is that really, is that really, is that really how that's gonna happen?

    07:22-07:24

    Are you sure?

    07:26-07:32

    I think that's why we have the passage we're looking at today, is for those of us that have struggled with that.

    07:33-07:40

    So in your outline, three reasons to believe history is going to go down as Jesus said.

    07:41-07:42

    That's what we have here.

    07:44-07:48

    Like I really want to believe what Jesus said, but sometimes I struggle.

    07:49-07:50

    Can you give me some reason?

    07:50-07:51

    I'll give you three reasons.

    07:51-07:54

    Well, Jesus will give you three reasons.

    07:54-07:56

    I'm just gonna try to echo them today.

    07:57-07:59

    Three reasons to believe history is going to go down as Jesus said.

    08:00-08:01

    Number one, write this down.

    08:01-08:02

    The signs are still happening.

    08:02-08:05

    Look at verse 32.

    08:07-08:21

    Jesus said, "From the fig tree, learn its lesson." As soon as the branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.

    08:22-08:23

    So Jesus gives a little parable.

    08:26-08:33

    And it's not complicated, especially for the disciples, because where they lived, there were fig trees everywhere.

    08:34-08:37

    Okay, so this wasn't some concept that was lost on them.

    08:38-08:41

    They might've been looking at a fig tree while he said this.

    08:43-08:49

    Jesus points out with fig trees that the branch becomes tender and the leaves come out.

    08:50-08:51

    The disciples got that.

    08:51-08:58

    You know, the sap will swell to the end of the branch and it pushes the leaf out.

    08:58-09:03

    And everybody knew that that happened in spring.

    09:05-09:06

    That's just the way it was.

    09:08-09:18

    And because that happened in spring, Jesus said, well, obviously when that happens, you know that summer's near, right?

    09:20-09:28

    But Jesus says, learn it's lesson, learn and that word for learn means, Listen, you really got to get this.

    09:31-09:33

    Slow down and get this.

    09:34-09:38

    Signs tell you when a new season is coming.

    09:39-09:41

    That's the picture here, right?

    09:42-09:45

    Signs tell you when a new season is coming.

    09:46-09:47

    Look at verse 33.

    09:48-10:01

    Jesus says, "So also, when you see all these things, You know that he is near at the very gates.

    10:03-10:07

    All these things, like all what things?

    10:08-10:09

    All the things he was just talking about.

    10:10-10:13

    All of the birth pains he was just talking about.

    10:13-10:17

    All of the tribulation events he was just talking about.

    10:17-10:21

    All these things he was just mentioning and teaching.

    10:23-10:28

    Jesus very clearly told us what we should be watching.

    10:32-10:34

    And as we said, it's birth pains.

    10:36-10:42

    And these things that Jesus was talking about in this passage, the birth pains are happening.

    10:43-10:48

    They're getting closer and closer together, and they're getting more intense.

    10:49-10:51

    So let's talk about some birth pains.

    10:51-10:52

    Let's talk about some signs.

    10:53-10:56

    Do a little call back to some of these things.

    10:56-11:00

    Jesus said that there's going to be false Christs.

    11:01-11:02

    He said that in verse five.

    11:04-11:06

    Is that a sign that we're seeing?

    11:07-11:08

    False Christs.

    11:10-11:11

    I did some study on this.

    11:12-11:14

    There was a man, Silvio Giselle.

    11:15-11:17

    He lived from 1862 to 1930.

    11:17-11:20

    He was a German merchant and anarchist.

    11:21-11:24

    He said that he was the return of Jesus with new name.

    11:26-11:29

    I'm not buying that our Lord would return and adopt the name Silvio.

    11:35-11:36

    Nothing against the name Silvio.

    11:37-11:42

    I think it's a wonderful name, but it's not the name above all names that Jesus has.

    11:43-11:47

    I also read about Jose Luis de Jesus.

    11:49-11:51

    Well, now we're getting closer name-wise, I guess.

    11:51-11:53

    But he was an interesting guy.

    11:53-11:55

    Maybe some of you heard of him.

    11:55-12:00

    He claimed to be both the return of Jesus and the antichrist.

    12:01-12:02

    Don't ask me to explain that.

    12:03-12:04

    But he said he was both.

    12:05-12:12

    And his followers got 666 tattooed on themselves and on their children.

    12:14-12:20

    He died August 8th, 2013, and the church denies his death.

    12:22-12:26

    I read an article from, this was several years ago when I was studying these things.

    12:27-12:31

    The article mentioned some modern day Christs.

    12:32-12:34

    How about A.J. Miller and Mary Luck?

    12:36-12:40

    By the way, I think I need to insert here that no relation, okay?

    12:40-12:41

    A.J. Miller?

    12:43-12:44

    No relation.

    12:44-12:53

    AJ Miller, Mary Luck in Australia, he said he was the reincarnation of Jesus and she is the reincarnation of Mary Magdalene.

    12:53-13:03

    Same article talked about Sergei Anatolyevich Turov of Siberia also claimed like AJ Miller to be Jesus reincarnated.

    13:04-13:14

    And then the article went on to talk about Alvaro Thies from Brazil who claimed to be Jesus reincarnated.

    13:15-13:19

    And I read this article and I thought, wouldn't it be great to get these three guys in a room?

    13:23-13:30

    And okay, we can talk about, I don't know if there's mental illness going on here.

    13:31-13:34

    I don't know if it's intentional deception.

    13:35-13:37

    I don't know if it's just pure wickedness.

    13:37-13:39

    I'm not, I can't speak to the heart.

    13:43-13:45

    but throughout history, you can research this.

    13:45-13:57

    There have been so many false Christs and we can kind of point and laugh and roll our eyes, but we have this in our own neighborhoods, right?

    13:57-14:01

    The Mormon church representing Christ, they say.

    14:03-14:13

    The Jehovah's Witnesses, the Christian scientists, people that are saying, "We represent the Christ." when they don't.

    14:15-14:19

    So there's a sign, Jesus said, this sign's gonna happen and we're looking at it.

    14:20-14:23

    As Jesus said, we're seeing all these things.

    14:23-14:24

    He's at the very gates.

    14:24-14:29

    Jesus talked about false Christ, but he talked about wars and rumors of wars.

    14:29-14:35

    And we said a few weeks ago, you'd either be in a war or you'd be hearing about a war or both.

    14:35-14:40

    And is that a sign that we've seen?

    14:41-14:44

    We have this as a graphic for the screen here, 'cause there's a lot, I'm gonna fly through this.

    14:45-14:46

    You can look this up.

    14:46-14:48

    But just fly through history.

    14:48-14:50

    Here's some examples of what Jesus was talking about.

    14:51-15:02

    The Three Kingdoms War, oh, the parenthetical, the numbers in parentheses represent the approximate estimated death toll from these wars, by the way.

    15:03-15:07

    The Three Kingdoms War, 36 to 40 million people killed.

    15:07-15:09

    The An Lushan Rebellion, 13 million.

    15:09-15:14

    The Mongol conquests, they estimate killed 40 to 70 million people.

    15:14-15:17

    The French wars of religion, 2 to 4 million.

    15:18-15:24

    The Qing dynasty conquering the Ming dynasty, they're estimating 25 million people.

    15:27-15:30

    The Napoleonic Wars, 3 and 1/2 to 6 million.

    15:30-15:34

    The Taiping Rebellion, 20 million.

    15:34-15:37

    World War I, 17 million.

    15:37-15:41

    World War II, 60 to 85 million.

    15:41-15:49

    And in 2001 until today, the war on terror, do you know that people consider the war on terror is still happening right now?

    15:51-15:56

    And the best estimate on the war on terror has been 1.3 to 2 million people have died.

    15:59-16:03

    Jesus said with the birth pains, more and more, more intense, closer together.

    16:04-16:13

    And we said this a couple of weeks ago, Reminder, right now, right now, wars and rumors of wars, Ukraine and Russia, have you been paying attention?

    16:14-16:15

    Israel and Hamas.

    16:15-16:19

    Do you remember when I gave this sermon, like, what was that, three weeks ago, Taylor?

    16:20-16:27

    I said in the sermon something like, I'm hearing rumblings of problems with Iran, here's my shocked face, do you remember that?

    16:29-16:32

    A week later after I said that, Iran attacked Israel.

    16:34-16:36

    Like, "Wow, Jeff, you're a prophet." No.

    16:39-16:44

    No, I don't think that was a very staggering prediction.

    16:47-16:48

    We're seeing these things.

    16:51-16:52

    He's at the very gates.

    16:54-16:56

    Jesus talked about famines and earthquakes.

    16:57-16:59

    Just very quickly, you can study this, right?

    17:01-17:05

    But just looking at the last, I just looked at the last 20 years.

    17:07-17:09

    More and more closer together.

    17:10-17:12

    There's the tsunami in Indonesia, remember that?

    17:12-17:14

    2004 killed 200,000 people.

    17:15-17:19

    Earthquake in Haiti, 2010 killed 316,000 people.

    17:19-17:22

    In Japan, killed 20,000, that was 2011.

    17:23-17:28

    In Nepal, 2015, our church was involved in relief efforts there, killed 9,000 people.

    17:28-17:33

    Turkey, 2023, killed 50,000 people.

    17:33-17:36

    And then just three weeks ago, there was a major earthquake in Taiwan.

    17:38-17:40

    Oh, by the way, this is bonus content here.

    17:41-17:46

    Luke in his account of Jesus giving this discourse talks about pestilences.

    17:48-17:50

    Have we seen those signs for history?

    17:51-17:52

    Pestilences.

    17:53-18:02

    We can talk about the black deaths, banished flu, smallpox, yellow fever, polio, Asian flu, botulism, whooping cough, cholera, mumps, AIDS.

    18:04-18:20

    But have you noticed, I would say about the last 20 years, have you noticed that it just seems like every year there's a new disease that we're pushing the panic button over?

    18:20-18:21

    Have you noticed that?

    18:25-18:34

    SARS, West Nile, bird flu, swine flu, H1N1, Ebola, COVID every year.

    18:34-18:36

    It's like, hey, here's the thing to panic about.

    18:39-18:41

    We're seeing these things.

    18:43-18:46

    And Jesus said, he's at the very gates.

    18:50-18:56

    And then Jesus talked about in these general signs, He talked about people hatred.

    18:59-19:02

    Are you seeing people become more and more brutal?

    19:03-19:04

    More and more heartless?

    19:04-19:05

    Are you seeing it?

    19:06-19:07

    Or is it just me?

    19:10-19:13

    I mean, just me seeing it, not just me becoming more brutal.

    19:18-19:19

    Mass shootings.

    19:24-19:28

    You know, I remember the first one that I heard about.

    19:29-19:38

    I was in college and I remember sitting in the parking lot of the school, sitting in my car, just like, I was speechless.

    19:39-19:45

    I was just like, so like, I couldn't wrap my head around it.

    19:47-19:55

    And you fast forward to today, It just seems like a month can't go by that you don't hear about a few of them.

    19:57-20:04

    And we're almost getting desensitized to it because it's becoming more and more, just like Jesus said.

    20:11-20:15

    Racism, abortion, we talked about that a couple of weeks ago.

    20:15-20:27

    We live in a day where you can just get on your phone I can watch videos of violence and hatred, whether it's rioting and looting.

    20:28-20:33

    I saw a video that showed up on my, what do they call Twitter now?

    20:34-20:34

    X.

    20:35-20:38

    It came up on my feed.

    20:38-20:38

    I don't know why.

    20:38-20:43

    You know, they suggest videos for you, and I'm a little disturbed that they suggested this video for me.

    20:44-20:55

    but like it was a bunch of high school fighting and the one girl just grabbed the other one and was bashing her head on the sidewalk as she laid there lifeless.

    21:06-21:12

    This is where we are, but it's just as Jesus predicted.

    21:14-22:26

    Paul talks about that. I have other examples here. I can't, I'm not gonna be able to finish this sermon if I start that. So let me just tell you what Paul said about that. Second Timothy three, Paul wrote this a couple thousand years ago, but see if this sounds like what you're seeing today. Look at this, but understand this in the last days, there will come times of difficulty for people will be. See if this is an accurate description of where we are as a race. For people be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

    22:27-22:28

    (congregation laughing)

    22:30-22:33

    We're seeing all these things.

    22:34-22:42

    So we know, He is near at the very gates.

    22:45-22:52

    And not just the signs of the general events, and I could go on, but we have to move on.

    22:52-23:00

    Not just the signs of the general events, You know, Jesus gave some very specific events that are going to accompany the tribulation.

    23:01-23:03

    They're like, well, how do we see signs for that?

    23:03-23:04

    Because that hasn't happened yet.

    23:05-23:13

    And I would say that we are seeing signs of the stage being set for the tribulation.

    23:14-23:15

    Here's what I mean.

    23:15-23:19

    We know that the temple's going to exist during the tribulation.

    23:19-23:24

    And right now, there are plans to rebuild the temple.

    23:24-23:27

    The furnishings and the garments have been made.

    23:27-23:28

    They're just waiting.

    23:31-23:31

    Sign.

    23:33-23:34

    Oh, how about this one?

    23:34-23:42

    Revelation chapter 13 tells us that the Antichrist will make people take his mark, the mark of the beast.

    23:42-23:48

    And the Bible says that you're not gonna be able to buy or sell unless you have this mark.

    23:52-24:00

    you know, a generation or two ago, that seemed inconceivable, right?

    24:01-24:06

    Like how could somebody prevent buying and selling globally?

    24:06-24:07

    How could that happen?

    24:09-24:11

    And I have to wonder, what would your grandparents have thought?

    24:14-24:22

    If I would have sat down with my grandparents and said, "How do you think this is gonna happen?" They would have been like, "I have no idea how that can happen.

    24:22-24:37

    I don't think they believed it, but now we can see dozens of different ways that this is possible.

    24:39-24:44

    Now that we live in a digital age, you don't think that they could just shut your bank account off.

    24:45-24:46

    You take the mark.

    24:47-24:49

    We'll turn your bank account back on.

    24:52-24:54

    We're seeing these things.

    24:55-24:56

    He's at the very gates.

    24:58-25:03

    So first of all, learn the lesson from the fig tree.

    25:05-25:06

    There are signs.

    25:07-25:10

    We don't know exactly when he's coming back.

    25:10-25:14

    We don't know exactly when the tribulation is going to start.

    25:14-25:16

    You know, when the church will be raptured.

    25:16-25:21

    We don't know when all of these things are gonna happen and Pastor Taylor is gonna talk all about that next week.

    25:22-25:30

    But what we do know is there are signs that tell us that he's standing at the gate.

    25:33-25:49

    So if you want evidence that what Jesus said is true, turn on the news with Matthew 24 open and see if it's happening right before your eyes.

    25:51-25:56

    Three reasons to believe history is going to go down as Jesus said.

    25:56-25:58

    Number one, the signs are still happening.

    25:58-26:00

    Number two, Israel is still going strong.

    26:05-26:06

    Look at verse 34.

    26:09-26:25

    Jesus says, "Truly I say to you, "this generation will not pass away "until all these things take place." That is an extremely difficult verse in the New Testament.

    26:26-26:28

    I get a front load with that.

    26:29-26:33

    Do you know this verse has been credited with turning people atheists?

    26:34-26:39

    Because they're like, well, Jesus said he was coming back, like in that generation, and he didn't come back.

    26:39-26:41

    So Jesus was wrong, Jesus was wrong.

    26:41-26:48

    And people have grossly misunderstood what Jesus was actually saying here.

    26:50-26:59

    So I wanna share with you my best understanding after countless hours, especially this past week of reading and studying this.

    26:59-27:04

    And I wanna give you my best understanding of what's going on here.

    27:05-27:06

    All right.

    27:08-27:12

    Jesus said, first of all, let this phrase not pass away.

    27:12-27:13

    Okay, that's easy.

    27:13-27:16

    That just means come to an end or die.

    27:17-27:21

    He says, this generation will not pass away until all, and we know what all these things are.

    27:21-27:23

    He just talked about all these things.

    27:24-27:29

    The problem that people have is the phrase, this generation.

    27:30-27:31

    What's he talking about?

    27:31-27:33

    What is this generation?

    27:36-27:38

    And some people say, well, that's the disciples.

    27:38-27:40

    He's talking to the disciples.

    27:42-27:43

    But there's a problem with that, right?

    27:44-27:49

    Because the disciples didn't see all of these things that he just described.

    27:52-27:57

    Some people say, well, no, it's not like just the disciples, but like that first century, the people beyond.

    28:00-28:01

    There's a problem with that.

    28:02-28:11

    because so many theologians try to, they try to shoehorn everything Jesus said here into the first century.

    28:12-28:14

    Like all of this happened in the first century.

    28:15-28:17

    And I read this, I'm like, no, no, no.

    28:17-28:20

    In fact, it did not all happen in the first century.

    28:26-28:53

    Some people think, well, it just means the generation that's alive during the tribulation all these things take place and that makes sense I won't fight you on that too hard but I kind of struggle with that one because many people during the tribulation are going to die so they're not gonna see it all the way to the end and to see all these signs.

    28:59-29:01

    Like, well, what do you think it is?

    29:02-29:04

    I wanna share with you my best understanding.

    29:06-29:09

    I think Jesus here is talking about Israel, and here's why.

    29:10-29:18

    It's not because of the fig tree, because you go to the parallel account in Luke, Jesus talked about the fig tree, and he says in all the trees, I don't think it's that.

    29:20-29:27

    But turn back the page to Matthew chapter 23, versus, we're gonna look at verses 33 and throughout 36.

    29:27-29:33

    And I think we might have them on the screen too, if it's just too warm to turn that page.

    29:40-29:46

    Jesus is pronouncing the woes on the scribes and the Pharisees, the religious leaders of Israel.

    29:47-29:55

    Look at the, it says, Jesus said, "You serpents, you brood of vipers, "how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?

    29:58-30:30

    "Therefore, I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, "some of whom you will kill and crucify, "and some you will flog in your synagogues "and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Barakiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.

    30:32-30:40

    Truly I say to you, look at this, all these things will come upon this generation.

    30:44-30:45

    (pages rustling)

    30:46-30:53

    Looking at this passage here, this generation, Jesus is obviously condemning Israel's leaders.

    30:56-30:57

    What's going on here?

    30:57-31:00

    What's Jesus so...

    31:03-31:05

    What's he so angry about here?

    31:05-31:16

    Well, because Israel was the chosen nation that was supposed to teach the world what God is like.

    31:19-31:30

    So Israel not only failed in that, but Israel murdered the people that God sent to them.

    31:31-31:48

    So Israel, because of their rejection of God and their rejection of God's people, ultimately, especially, and specifically Jesus Christ, the Bible tells us, please listen to me very closely, I don't wanna be misunderstood here.

    31:49-31:55

    The Bible tells us that Israel is temporarily set aside during the church age.

    31:55-32:09

    But in the end, to the very last day, Israel is going to survive and have a mass revival.

    32:12-32:14

    That's Romans chapter 11.

    32:14-32:20

    We're not gonna read that now, but if you want some homework, read that because that's Paul's point.

    32:23-32:36

    So I believe getting back to Matthew 24 and verse 34, truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

    32:36-32:40

    I believe this generation, Jesus is still talking about Israel.

    32:42-32:51

    And I believe what Jesus is saying in this verse is this, to his disciples, Jesus is saying, watch this, Israel is going to make it all the way to the end.

    32:53-33:01

    That's a sign that Jesus' words will come to pass as he said.

    33:05-33:07

    And somebody here might be like, okay, hang on.

    33:07-33:10

    So you're saying that Jesus is like Israel is gonna make it all the way to the end.

    33:11-33:13

    What's so profound about that, Hefei?

    33:14-33:20

    Through 20 centuries, have you noticed what's happened with Israel through 20 centuries?

    33:22-33:28

    Dispersion, persecution, Holocaust, attacked as individuals, attacked as a nation.

    33:30-33:34

    One of the greatest proofs that the Bible is true.

    33:40-33:53

    One of the greatest proofs that Jesus' prophecy is being fulfilled to the letter has been the Jews and their ability to survive as an identifiable race.

    33:56-34:20

    Because Israel still stands, and you realize there's no other ancient nation that can really say that, right? What I mean is, when's the last time you met a Hittite? You're like, "I think my neighbor's a Hittite." No, she's not. When's the last time you ran into an Amorite?

    34:21-34:34

    Like, "My boss was an Amorite. I don't appreciate you saying that, Jeff. He It's like, oh, I'm pleased to meet you, by the way.

    34:34-34:37

    I'm 76% Jebusite.

    34:43-34:48

    But Israel, the Jews, they're still going strong.

    34:51-34:59

    Somehow this tiny nation is nestled right in the middle of the hotbed of all this violence, and they still stand and thrive.

    35:03-35:33

    I think that's what Jesus is talking about here. And if you disagree, you're still my brother or sister. But you can buy me Ruth's Chris and explain your view. I believe what Jesus is saying is this generation Israel that I just "rebuked in a temple, they will survive to the last day." And we have witnessed that throughout history, even until today.

    35:35-35:42

    Three reasons to believe history is going to go down, as Jesus said, number one, the signs are still happening.

    35:42-35:44

    Number two, Israel is still going strong.

    35:44-35:53

    And number three, last, and I would say strongest, saving the best for last as Jesus' words still prevail.

    35:57-36:06

    Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." Ah.

    36:09-36:12

    What's the most dependable thing that you know?

    36:13-36:18

    The most dependable thing that you know is heaven and earth.

    36:19-36:20

    Right?

    36:22-36:27

    More than anything else, those are the two things that you are most sure of, is heaven and earth.

    36:28-36:28

    Like, what do you mean?

    36:28-36:33

    What I mean is this, have you ever canceled a flight on a business trip?

    36:34-36:38

    Because you're like, Alex, I don't wanna fly because what if the plane takes up and the sky's not there?

    36:40-36:40

    What if it's gone?

    36:42-36:44

    Nobody's ever said that.

    36:45-36:53

    You've never laid awake at night going, What if I wake up tomorrow and I look out my window and the earth is gone?

    36:54-36:55

    What am I gonna do then?

    36:56-36:59

    I like the earth, that's where I keep all my stuff.

    36:59-37:00

    What am I gonna do?

    37:02-37:03

    You've never done that.

    37:08-37:12

    You're like, that's just a idiotic concept.

    37:14-38:42

    And I think it's the craziness of that point. Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away, but his words will not. His coming and all of this leading up to his coming is more certain than the most certain thing that you know of. More sure than all of these signs that we're watching in the news is the Word of Jesus Christ. More certain than the existence of the nation of Israel are the words of Jesus Christ. Jesus said in His ministry that He would be handed over to sinful men, and He was. Jesus said He would be crucified. And He was. Jesus said He would rise from the dead. And He did. Jesus has a spotless track record of making predictions. And here we see Jesus He says, "He is coming again." And you can write this down.

    38:44-38:44

    He will.

    38:46-38:47

    He will.

    38:49-38:51

    Do you believe God's word?

    38:52-38:53

    Do you believe the words of Jesus?

    38:56-39:01

    Because it's going to happen just as he said.

    39:02-39:07

    And what we have here are three good reasons to take it to the bank.

    39:09-39:11

    Don't try to dismiss it.

    39:12-39:14

    Don't try to explain it away.

    39:14-39:16

    And please don't put it off.

    39:18-39:19

    Get ready for it.

    39:20-39:20

    Let's pray.

    39:22-39:32

    Father in heaven, I just thank you for these signs that you've given us.

    39:32-39:45

    And we shouldn't, we shouldn't need them, but God, you know our weakness, that we could look at such spectacular teaching of Jesus and be like, wow, is that really, is that really how it's going down?

    39:45-39:47

    But God, you've given us all these signs.

    39:51-39:54

    Father, we thank you most of all for the sign of the word of God.

    39:55-39:57

    Jesus said his words will not pass away.

    39:57-40:15

    And 2000 years ago, we have a room full of people that made it a priority to come to examine and to study and to internalize and to apply the words of Jesus that He spoke.

    40:20-40:42

    So Father, I pray that we would be watchful and that the signs that we're seeing would increase our faith, they would increase our hope, They would increase our longing for the day that you come to make all things right, and you come to make all things new.

    40:44-40:46

    We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 24:32-35

  1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?

  2. What was Jesus' point about the fig tree (Matt 24:32-33)? Which signs seem the most obvious to you?

  3. What did Jesus mean by “this generation” (Matt 24:34)? If He is indeed referring to Israel, how is the existence of Israel strong proof that history will close as the Bible tells us?

Breakout
Pray for one another.


Want more eschatology teaching?

Catch up on the previous verse by verse teaching through Revelation

Catch up on the previous verse by verse teaching through 2 Thessalonians

What ARE We Waiting For? The Return of the King

Introduction:

The Return of the King:

  1. Will be Obviously Announced . (Matthew 24:29)

    Luke 21:25-26 - And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

  2. Will be Impossible to Ignore or Deny . (Matthew 24:30)

    Daniel 7:13-14 - I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

    Revelation 19:11-16 - Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and whe will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

    Philippians 2:10-11 - ...so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

  3. Will be a Glorious Celebration if You Love Him . (Matthew 24:31)

    Col 3:4 - When Christ who is your life happears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

    2 Tim 4:7-8 - I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 01:08-01:44

    We will be in Matthew 24 verses 29 through 31 this morning Matthew 24 verses 29 through 31 You know I was thinking this past week every single one of us Likes to receive a warm welcome from the people that we care about the most right whether it's coming home from a long hard day of work It's being picked up from the airport or going to a relative or friend's house It's encouraging to see their visible excitement in their eyes Yo, I love it whenever I get home and I'm enthusiastically greeted by my kids, Sam and Emmy.

    01:45-01:49

    Nothing makes me feel better than when they yell, "Dad, Dad!" Come over and hug me, give me kisses.

    01:49-01:51

    It's a fantastic time.

    01:51-01:53

    But that's not how it always is.

    01:54-01:57

    Sometimes I get home and it's like they didn't even notice I was gone.

    01:58-02:03

    Like, "Oh, I don't know who you are, but hey." And sometimes they let me down.

    02:04-02:10

    You know, there's one member of my family who never lets me down with their enthusiasm.

    02:10-02:16

    They are 100% maxed out with excitement every single time that I get home.

    02:16-02:19

    And that is my dog, Murdoch.

    02:19-02:20

    (audience laughing)

    02:24-02:28

    Whenever I get home, it's like he is shot out of a cannon directly at me.

    02:28-02:31

    He wags his tail so hard you think it's gonna fall off.

    02:31-02:37

    He brings me toys, he licks me, He walks over the door with his sign, hey, it's time to take me on a walk.

    02:38-02:41

    Murdoch is never meh or so-so about my arrival.

    02:42-02:44

    He is always ready to go.

    02:45-02:52

    And sometimes whenever I leave for evening meetings, my wife will send me videos and pictures of Murdoch being very upset.

    02:52-02:56

    He'll look out the window, hoping I only stepped out for a few seconds or minutes.

    02:56-03:00

    He'll pace around because he wants me to come back.

    03:00-03:08

    While I'm gone, Murdoch is eagerly and expectantly awaiting the return of his owner and master.

    03:08-03:11

    He cannot await for me to come back again.

    03:12-03:21

    I wanna ask you, can the same be said for you when it comes to the future return of your heavenly owner and master, Jesus Christ?

    03:22-03:31

    Are you fired up with passion about this biblical truth and promise, Or is your heart cold and indifferent to this blessed hope?

    03:33-03:41

    Can you agree with the Apostle John when he shouts out in Revelation, "Come Lord Jesus!" Or are you communicating a much different message with your lifestyle?

    03:42-03:45

    Are you communicating, "Eh, Lord Jesus, take your time.

    03:45-03:51

    "I got some things I wanna do, so don't rush." Are you expectant or are you apathetic?

    03:53-03:55

    We're in the middle of our series, Intentional Hope.

    03:55-03:57

    What are we waiting for?

    03:57-04:06

    Last week, Pastor Jeff unpacked the first stage of Jesus' second coming, which will be the rapture of the church into heaven before the seven year tribulation.

    04:07-04:16

    Christ will take his people away to keep them from experiencing the punishment and wrath of God that we poured out upon the world like never before.

    04:17-04:57

    This morning, we're gonna study Matthew 24, verses 29 through 31, which lays out the final phase of the second coming, the physical return Lord and King who will destroy his enemies and set up his kingdom on the earth. You know in reference to the second coming a pastor from hundreds of years ago once wrote there are only two days on my calendar this day and that day this day and that day and for the rest of this sermon I want to show you how that day should fill you with confident expectation and hope as you experience at the trials of life this day.

    04:57-05:02

    How that day should keep you from living in doubt and fear this day.

    05:02-05:10

    How that day should cause you to passionately and continually worship the Lord no matter what you experience this day.

    05:12-05:18

    So before we turn to our text for this morning, let's go to the Lord and ask for his help because we definitely need it.

    05:19-05:22

    Father, we thank you for who you are.

    05:23-05:26

    And we thank you for all that you do for us.

    05:27-05:30

    Lord, as we come to your word, Lord, may we come expectantly.

    05:31-05:33

    May we not come apathetically.

    05:34-05:38

    May we be excited about what you wanna teach us this morning.

    05:39-05:44

    Lord, I pray you would use my words and use your word to accomplish much.

    05:44-05:51

    Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit would preach a much better sermon in these people's hearts than I ever could with my mouth.

    05:52-05:54

    I thank you in advance for what you are going to do.

    05:55-05:56

    In Jesus' name, amen.

    05:58-06:00

    So outline for this morning, the return of the king.

    06:01-06:04

    Number one, the return of the king will be obviously announced.

    06:05-06:07

    Will be obviously announced.

    06:09-06:11

    So let's read verse 29 together.

    06:12-06:24

    Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

    06:25-06:29

    So the return of our King will be obviously announced.

    06:29-06:35

    According to Jesus, that day will follow those days of the tribulation.

    06:36-06:47

    As Pastor Jeff already taught us, these seven years will be filled with rampant wickedness, unspeakable tragedy, and more death than has ever been witnessed in the history of the world.

    06:48-06:51

    Remember the sequence of events that have been reinforced over the past few weeks.

    06:52-06:56

    The birthing pains of this current age are getting more and more intense and closer together.

    06:57-07:04

    At some point in the future, God's people who are alive on the earth will be rescued from the wrath to come.

    07:04-07:11

    And then God's restraining hand will be lifted as life becomes the worst it's ever been on this planet.

    07:12-07:16

    Then Jesus will return in his glorious fullness.

    07:18-07:25

    But this final return will be announced in the most intense and attention-grabbing way possible.

    07:26-07:30

    Jesus won't subtly drop an email in people's inboxes or mail them a letter.

    07:31-07:34

    He won't send you one of those alert messages that you got last week with the storm.

    07:36-07:39

    These signs will be powerful.

    07:40-07:42

    Listen again to what he says.

    07:42-07:50

    The sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from heaven and the power of the heavens will be shaken.

    07:52-07:55

    Does everyone remember the solar eclipse from two weeks ago?

    07:56-07:59

    Who got those funky glasses to go look at the solar eclipse?

    08:00-08:06

    Who drove all the way to Ohio or Erie to see the total eclipse instead of settling for the partial eclipse?

    08:07-08:09

    All right, Mike Wolski did.

    08:09-08:14

    I know Pastor Jeff and I were very disappointed by the partial eclipse that we saw in the parking lot.

    08:14-08:20

    But I was just so fascinated by the varied mixed bag response to this solar eclipse.

    08:21-08:27

    Some were terrified on this end of the spectrum, while others viewed it as a vacation day on this end of the spectrum.

    08:27-08:27

    Woo hoo!

    08:28-08:33

    Time to take the day off of work, take the kids out of school, let's go watch the solar eclipse.

    08:34-08:38

    What a wholesome and fun-filled day of family memories.

    08:40-08:50

    Well, let's just say this future darkening of the sun will not be filled with the same fun-filled family memories as we enjoyed on April 8th, 2024.

    08:51-08:59

    It will be like God is turning down the divine dimmer switch on the 35.73 octillion lumens of the sun.

    09:00-09:01

    That's right, I said octillion.

    09:02-09:04

    I didn't even know there was a number until this past week.

    09:04-09:06

    It has 27 zeros.

    09:07-09:11

    The moon will not give its light anymore and it'll be turned off.

    09:12-09:16

    The stars will lose their gravity and fall from their places in space.

    09:17-09:24

    As I read this verse over and over and over again, I was taken back to December 31st, 1999.

    09:26-09:29

    Who else remembers as Y2K was approaching?

    09:30-09:34

    Now, who's brave enough to admit that you were actually scared about Y2K?

    09:34-09:35

    Or a little bit nervous?

    09:35-09:38

    Pastor Jeff, okay, you're the only one who's brave enough to admit it.

    09:39-09:48

    So many people were convinced this turning of the calendar to the year 2000 would throw a massive wrench in our technological infrastructure that we couldn't recover from.

    09:48-09:53

    It would create a domino effect with power plants and international banking.

    09:54-09:57

    I remember that night like it was yesterday.

    09:58-10:01

    We went to a party at a friend's house.

    10:01-10:06

    As midnight approached, we turned on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve.

    10:07-10:17

    And I remember watching that ball drop, counting down 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

    10:18-10:22

    And before we could say Happy New Year's, the TV turned off, all the lights shut off too.

    10:23-10:36

    And people started screaming and yelling and asking panic questions, "What's going on? What happened? What happened?" Well, it turns out that some guy snuck down to the basement and turn the circuit breaker off at exactly at midnight.

    10:39-10:44

    And there was relieved laughter after people realized it was a joke, right?

    10:44-10:45

    People started laughing it off.

    10:47-10:52

    But one day, the lights are actually gonna go out and it won't be a joke.

    10:53-10:55

    It will not be a prank.

    10:56-11:00

    No one will be laughing it off or returning to business as usual.

    11:00-11:06

    These signs in the heavens will be a divine rolling out of the red carpet for Christ's return.

    11:06-11:14

    Everyone who sees this, will feel like the universe is being torn apart at the seams.

    11:15-11:17

    There will be shock and awe.

    11:17-11:21

    There will be terror as people are confounded by what's happening.

    11:23-11:26

    And this shocking scene is prophesied and described all throughout the Old Testament.

    11:27-11:32

    In places like, get ready to write these down really quick, Isaiah 13, verses six through 17.

    11:33-11:46

    Joel 2.2, Joel 2.31, Amos 5, 18 through 20, Zephaniah 1.15, and Zechariah 14, six through seven.

    11:46-11:48

    Bonus points if you were actually able to write all those down.

    11:48-11:52

    I don't have time to read them all right now, but go home and read them later.

    11:53-11:59

    In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus provides even more details of these cataclysmic warning signs.

    12:00-12:22

    He says, "There will be signs in sun and moon and stars "and on the earth, the stress of nations and perplexity "because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, "people fainting with fear and foreboding "of what is coming on the world." And this Greek word for fainting literally means to stop breathing or to die.

    12:23-12:32

    People will actually be scared to death as they witness Jesus Christ shaking this universe like a snow globe.

    12:34-12:40

    This verse highlights the absolute power and control that our God truly possesses.

    12:42-12:50

    Do you ever really stop to think about all that has to happen for life to continue and for your personal life to continue?

    12:51-13:01

    for you to inhale and exhale, to take your next breath, to eat your next meal, to have your heart beating, to have your blood flowing.

    13:02-13:06

    At this very moment, God is holding our bodies together.

    13:07-13:10

    He is keeping this universe going.

    13:11-13:14

    And to be clear, this isn't hard for him whatsoever.

    13:14-13:16

    He's not breaking a sweat doing this.

    13:16-13:20

    It's the easiest thing you could possibly imagine.

    13:21-13:37

    But one day, God will give those who denied his existence and never believed in him, a glimpse of what would happen if he chose to take his hand off of the creation that they foolishly thought came about by cosmic chance.

    13:38-13:45

    His divine authority will be on full display as he allows the universe to descend into controlled chaos.

    13:47-13:52

    All that Jesus created in the beginning will tremble at the end that he brings.

    13:55-13:58

    Secondly, the return of the king will be impossible to ignore.

    13:59-14:01

    Will be impossible to ignore.

    14:02-14:03

    Let's read verse 30.

    14:05-14:18

    Then will appear in the sign, I'm sorry, then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

    14:19-14:27

    So after all these obvious signs in space and on the earth, then will come the sign of the Son of Man.

    14:28-14:31

    You may be thinking, okay, well what in the world does that mean?

    14:31-14:35

    Well, scholars have debated about this and spitballed a few ideas.

    14:35-14:40

    Maybe it's a big cosmic banner that God unfurls across the atmosphere.

    14:40-15:16

    Maybe it's a gigantic cross that lights up the sky of July. Those are some interesting guesses but I think these guys are over complicating a very simple concept. And to show you how simple this really is let me point you back to my dog Murdoch. Now what are the early signs to Murdoch that I am coming back home? My wife will say dad's coming home and that gets the ball of excitement rolling in his mind. He hears the garage door opening and and then closing, he hears me opening and closing the door and then beeping it on my key fob.

    15:17-15:21

    These are warning signs that the big moment is coming soon.

    15:22-15:26

    But what is the final sign to Murdoch that I am actually home?

    15:28-15:33

    That's right, Bethany, when he actually sees me with his own two eyes.

    15:33-15:37

    And it's the same with the sign of the Son of Man.

    15:37-15:43

    If you look at the original Greek, It's crystal clear the sign of the Son of Man is the Son of Man himself.

    15:44-15:45

    And the Son of Man is who?

    15:46-15:48

    Jesus Christ.

    15:49-15:54

    The final sign of Jesus' coming is Jesus' physical and bodily return.

    15:54-15:56

    It's his appearance in the flesh.

    15:58-16:06

    In the midst of the darkness, the source of all light will burst on the scene like the biggest flash bulb or bolt of lightning that you've ever seen.

    16:08-16:15

    Jesus' description of the sign of the Son of Man is ripped out of this prophecy from Daniel chapter seven, verses 13 through 14.

    16:16-16:24

    And behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a Son of Man, and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him.

    16:24-16:31

    And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.

    16:33-16:40

    His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

    16:41-16:49

    After his resurrection, Jesus ascended to heaven on a cloud and we're told that he's coming back in the same exact way.

    16:51-17:01

    We're also told in this verse that every single human being on the earth at that time will not only see Jesus, but they will mourn at his coming.

    17:02-17:07

    Some will grieve that they are cut to the heart by their rebellion and wickedness.

    17:09-17:15

    The full weight of their sin will be exposed by the light of the majesty of Christ.

    17:15-17:22

    They will finally understand that they are a horrible sinner and Christ is a glorious savior.

    17:23-17:33

    They will repent and worship the king, while others will mourn in a selfish and ungodly way.

    17:33-17:35

    They will be sad for themselves.

    17:36-17:39

    They will not mourn because they lived in sin.

    17:39-17:42

    They will mourn because they were caught in their sin.

    17:43-17:48

    They are mourning because the bill for their rejection of Christ has finally come due.

    17:50-18:00

    At his return, many will mourn on their faces in humility while others will mourn in defiance with their arms crossed.

    18:03-18:14

    And I really wish we had the time to unpack Revelation chapter 19 in depth this morning because it provides a parallel account to what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 24, verse 30.

    18:15-18:22

    So let me quickly read and explain Revelation 19, verses 11 through 16, which provides some important details.

    18:23-18:25

    Then I saw heaven open, to behold a white horse.

    18:26-18:31

    The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.

    18:32-18:36

    His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems.

    18:37-18:40

    And he has a name written that no one else knows but himself.

    18:41-18:47

    He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the word of God.

    18:48-18:53

    In the armies of heaven are rain and fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.

    18:54-19:01

    From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.

    19:01-19:08

    He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty on his robe and on his thigh.

    19:08-19:13

    He has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

    19:15-19:24

    In this passage, Jesus absolutely crushes those who still refuse to repent and bow the knee to his rightful rule.

    19:25-19:29

    John's description of Christ in this passage is shocking and awesome.

    19:30-19:32

    His eyes are like a flame of fire.

    19:32-19:36

    No one can escape his sovereign sight and his divine judgment.

    19:37-19:43

    On his head are many crowns, which points to his supremacy and his sovereignty.

    19:44-19:52

    No earthly king, dictator, or government can possibly stand against the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

    19:54-20:00

    His robe is dipped in blood as he wages war on those who stubbornly reject and oppose him.

    20:02-20:09

    John tells us that Jesus will strike down the nations of this world with the power of his mouth like a cutting sword.

    20:10-20:13

    For those who hate Jesus, there will be no way of escape.

    20:14-20:16

    There will be no way out.

    20:17-20:24

    No one will be able to miss or dismiss the second coming as they did with the first coming.

    20:25-20:34

    Jesus first came in humility as a baby in a manger, but he is coming back again as a victorious warrior and a reigning king.

    20:35-20:43

    He rode into Jerusalem on a lowly donkey, but he is coming back again on a magnificent white horse dressed for battle.

    20:43-20:53

    He came to bear the wrath of God for sin upon the cross, but he is coming back again to pour out the wrath of God upon his enemies.

    20:55-20:59

    You know, I graduated from Eden Christian Academy in June 2009.

    21:00-21:04

    And for our commencement speech, they had a Pittsburgh Steelers speak.

    21:04-21:05

    Do you remember Daniel Sepulveda?

    21:07-21:09

    He was a punter for the Steelers, I think, for five seasons.

    21:09-21:11

    Again, I don't really know because I'm not a big sports guy.

    21:12-21:18

    But everybody-- my teachers, the principal, my classmates-- were so fired up.

    21:18-21:19

    And I was like, eh, whatever.

    21:20-21:22

    Again, nothing personally against the guy.

    21:22-21:24

    I just don't really care about the Steelers very much.

    21:24-21:26

    I'm sorry if that changes your opinion of me.

    21:27-21:29

    But I wasn't exactly frothing at the mouth with excitement.

    21:30-21:35

    So after Daniel Sepulveda gave his commencement speech, our names began to be called.

    21:36-21:39

    Now follow this complex sequence of events, okay?

    21:40-21:51

    You hear your name called, you go up, you shake the head of school's hand, you shake the principal's hand, you grab your diploma, snap a nice picture, and then go sit down with the rest of your friends.

    21:52-21:52

    Does that seem simple?

    21:53-21:55

    Does that seem hard to mess up?

    21:55-21:58

    Well, I managed to mess it up somehow.

    22:00-22:05

    I hear my name called, I go up, I go through the whole spiel, I sit back down and my friends are all over me.

    22:05-22:16

    They're like, "Dude, why'd you do that?" I was like, "What did I do, what did I do?" And they said, "You skipped Sepulveda, "you didn't shake his hand." And this moment is memorialized on film.

    22:17-22:21

    I didn't bring it with me to kind of lessen the embarrassment but it's like he was the invisible man to me.

    22:22-22:23

    I walked right past him.

    22:24-22:26

    You actually see him stick out his hand.

    22:26-22:39

    I pass him and he goes, "It looks very, very, very confused." I completely missed and dismissed a Pittsburgh Steeler.

    22:42-22:45

    As humiliating as that was, there wasn't that many consequences for this.

    22:45-22:55

    Beyond being ridiculed by my family and friends, which I'm very used to at this point in my If you know anything about me, I've done a lot of dumb things over the course of my life.

    22:56-22:59

    It's just a funny story that people like to throw in my face every once in a while.

    23:00-23:00

    No big deal, right?

    23:02-23:05

    But do you know what is a big deal?

    23:06-23:15

    Do you know what has eternal ramifications and consequences, missing and dismissing Jesus Christ in this life?

    23:16-23:19

    Acting as if he is nothing special and nobody of note.

    23:20-23:28

    reducing him to a made up fairy tale character, a social revolutionist who has cut down his prime, a religious pawn.

    23:31-23:36

    I beg you this morning, please do not miss or dismiss Jesus Christ.

    23:36-23:39

    Instead, see him and submit to him.

    23:40-23:51

    See him for who he really is, the creator who made you, the savior who can forgive you, and the only one who can lead you into true joy, peace and contentment.

    23:52-23:59

    Submit to him by letting go of your sin and laying it down at the foot of the cross.

    24:00-24:07

    Submit to him by laying aside your obsession with being in control of your life because you don't have any control of your life.

    24:08-24:15

    You're a terrible boss of your own life while he has a perfect track record as the Lord of all.

    24:17-24:32

    In Philippians chapter two, verses 10 through 11, the apostle Paul tells us that every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

    24:33-24:39

    You can willingly bow the knee this day and receive all the blessings that he has to offer.

    24:40-24:49

    Or you can be forced to bow the knee on that day and then be cast away from his loving presence Forever and ever and ever.

    24:50-24:59

    And again, I implore you to make that choice now, to make it before it is too late, before that choice is made for you.

    25:00-25:07

    Finally, the return of the king will be a glorious celebration if you love him.

    25:08-25:12

    Will be a glorious celebration if you love him.

    25:15-25:20

    None of us like missing out on memorable moments and events.

    25:20-25:23

    Maybe you missed a key milestone in one of your kids' lives.

    25:24-25:27

    His or hers first words, his or her first steps.

    25:27-25:30

    Maybe your favorite band came to Pittsburgh in concert and you couldn't be there.

    25:31-25:35

    Maybe your friend offered you stealer tickets, which wouldn't excite me, but maybe excites you.

    25:36-25:42

    But you couldn't be there because you had much more boring plans that you're not actually excited about, but you couldn't cancel.

    25:43-25:46

    Maybe your friends and family went on a fun trip without you.

    25:47-25:51

    And they come back with all these fun stories and inside jokes that you are now on the outside of.

    25:52-25:58

    And as they share these things, they see you're confused and blank-faced, and they say the thing that we all hate to hear, right?

    25:59-26:02

    Oh, I guess you just had to be there.

    26:02-26:04

    Oh, twisting of the knife in your side, right?

    26:04-26:06

    You just hate to hear that.

    26:07-26:11

    That feeling of missing out really sticks with you for a long time.

    26:13-26:22

    And sometimes we can feel that way about the historical events we read about in scripture, especially when it comes to the life and ministry of our Lord.

    26:23-26:26

    None of us were able to hear one of Jesus' sermons.

    26:27-26:30

    Not one of us saw him perform miracles.

    26:31-26:36

    None of us witnessed his arrest, his trial, his crucifixion.

    26:37-26:41

    Unlike the apostles, none of us saw him in his glorified body after he rose again.

    26:42-26:47

    None of us put our fingers in the nail marks or put our hand in the spear wound on his side.

    26:48-26:53

    None of us saw him ascend into heaven and promised that he is coming back again.

    26:53-26:57

    But guess what we will not miss out on?

    26:57-27:01

    His glorious return, his glorious reappearing.

    27:01-27:07

    We will all have that honor and privilege if we know and love him.

    27:09-27:12

    Remember that scene I described from Revelation chapter 19 a few minutes ago?

    27:13-27:19

    According to John in that chapter, Jesus will bring all the saints in heaven with him and we will have a front row seat.

    27:21-27:30

    And Paul backs this up in Colossians 3, 4, "When Christ, who is your life, appears, "then you will also appear with him in glory." Isn't that awesome?

    27:31-27:36

    We will be the cheering audience to the greatest event in human history by far.

    27:38-27:49

    And listen to what Jesus has to say about what will happen after this extremely easy and one-sided victory in verse 31 of chapter 24 of Matthew.

    27:50-27:58

    And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other.

    27:59-28:02

    This is a gathering in of the troops after battle.

    28:03-28:09

    The sounding of the trumpet in the ancient Jewish world signify that God's people had to assemble together.

    28:10-28:16

    This gathering in will include all the faithful men and women who came to Christ during the tribulation.

    28:17-28:23

    This will involve all the raptured or passed on saints who came with Christ from heaven.

    28:24-28:28

    If you are one of God's people, this includes you.

    28:29-28:31

    There is no possible way that you will be left out.

    28:32-28:39

    You will be a small yet cherished part of the redeemed people of God from every tribe, tongue, and nation.

    28:40-28:41

    Just picture that scene for a minute.

    28:42-28:53

    Old Testament believers like Noah, Abraham, David, Esther, Ruth, Daniel, New Testament saints like Peter, James, Paul, and Stephen.

    28:54-29:05

    Famous Christians that we've all heard about and unknown yet faithful followers of Christ who were never written about in the history books, but their names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

    29:06-29:16

    The over 70 million Christians who have been martyred for their faith throughout history, as well as for all the believers who will be martyred during the tribulation.

    29:17-29:32

    Believers from Africa, South America, Haiti, China, Thailand, India, the Middle East, and on and on and on I could go, not one son or daughter of God will be discluded or unaccounted for.

    29:33-29:40

    Every single believer will be invited in and drawn in by this trumpet call and by God's holy angels.

    29:42-29:50

    You know, moms, dads, grandmas and grandpas in this room know how precious and rare it is to have the entire family in one place together, right?

    29:51-29:57

    And you have to commemorate these special moments of the picture because you don't know if or when this will ever happen again.

    29:58-30:02

    On that day, the family of God will finally be all together.

    30:04-30:05

    We will be overcome with joy.

    30:07-30:13

    We'll celebrate as our Lord and King sets up his reign over all the earth.

    30:15-30:24

    We've all been to some fun parties and events in our day, but that day and that celebration will make them all look so lame and meaningless in comparison.

    30:26-30:28

    We have so much to look forward to, don't we?

    30:29-30:41

    These amazing truths must become spiritual fuel that empower us to persevere and keep going in the face of discouragements, in the face of challenges, in the face of setbacks.

    30:43-30:49

    Life can seem so pointless if you don't fix your eyes on the ending that God has in store.

    30:50-31:01

    Are you tired of turning on the news and being bombarded with story after story of sexual abuse, corruption, murder, war.

    31:03-31:12

    That day of justice, vengeance, and wrath should motivate us to have hope as we witness the injustices all around us.

    31:13-31:15

    The wicked will not get away with it.

    31:15-31:17

    There will be a reckoning.

    31:17-31:21

    There will be a final judgment from Almighty God.

    31:22-31:28

    Are you fed up with corrupt politicians who lie through their teeth and do abominable things in the eyes of God?

    31:30-31:39

    That day of King Jesus setting up his kingdom should cause us to have hope as we have to endure the election year we're about to go through, right?

    31:42-31:46

    We don't need to fear because we know who wins.

    31:46-31:50

    And to be clear, it's not Joe Biden, it's not Donald Trump.

    31:50-31:53

    Jesus Christ wins by a landslide.

    31:55-32:03

    Are you struggling to trust the Lord and to worship him and to thank him as you experience the trials of this life?

    32:04-32:19

    Broken relationships, marital issues, illness, isolation, financial woes, wayward children, devastating miscarriages, the sudden loss of a loved one, the betrayal of someone that you thought was a friend.

    32:20-32:31

    That day of fellowship and celebration should cause us to be joyful, to be thankful, to be worshipful right now, even when life hits us in the face.

    32:31-32:37

    Because what is waiting for us far exceeds anything we have to go through right now.

    32:40-32:48

    Last Sunday and this morning, Pastor Jeff and I have laid out what God's word has to say about the two-stage return of our King.

    32:49-32:55

    And these aren't just nebulous concepts that should confuse and scare us.

    32:56-33:02

    These aren't just theological doctrines that we should argue about and debate about on YouTube and social media.

    33:02-33:08

    These are firm and fixed realities that should comfort us, sustain us, and change us.

    33:10-33:17

    This inevitable future should alter how we think, should affect how we feel, and influence how we live.

    33:19-33:26

    I want to close by reading some of Paul's final written words in 2 Timothy chapter four, verses seven through eight.

    33:27-33:28

    Paul writes, "I have fought the good fight.

    33:29-33:30

    "I have finished the race.

    33:30-33:32

    "I have kept the faith.

    33:33-33:40

    "Henceforth there is laid up for me "the crown of righteousness, "which the Lord, the righteous judge, "will award to me on that day.

    33:41-34:19

    "And not only to me, "but also to all who have loved his appearing." Paul is convinced that he will experience the blessings of heaven and the rewards of living a faithful and obedient life. And he says it's not just me who will experience this, but every single person who truly loves and anticipates the return of Jesus Christ. A longing for the second coming of Christ is a defining marker of those who have truly been saved and transformed by the grace of our God.

    34:20-34:28

    How can you possibly say that you love someone with your entire heart, but you couldn't care less when they come back from an extended absence?

    34:29-34:37

    You should be counting down the years, the months, the weeks, the days, the minutes, the seconds, until they come back.

    34:39-34:43

    So let me re-ask you the question that I asked the beginning of this message.

    34:44-34:50

    When it comes to the return of our Lord, are you expectant or are you apathetic?

    34:51-34:55

    Do you love and cherish the future fact of Jesus appearing?

    34:57-35:04

    Do you fervently long and pray for his second coming or do you rarely give it a second thought?

    35:05-35:05

    Let's pray.

    35:07-35:10

    Father, we thank you for your word.

    35:11-35:28

    And we thank you that you don't just leave us to figure out this life on our own, but Lord, you've given us the beginning and the middle and the end of the story so that we can have hope, so that we can hold on, so that we can persevere, so that we can be faithful in sharing the message of Jesus Christ.

    35:29-35:36

    And Lord, I pray if there's anyone in this room who has not yet bowed the knee to Christ, Lord, that they wouldn't be able to resist today.

    35:37-35:42

    that for the very first time they would repent, turn away from their sin and turn to you.

    35:44-35:48

    Turn to your son, look unto him and be saved.

    35:49-36:11

    And for the rest of us, Lord, as we deal with discouragement, frustration, confusion, difficult situations at work and at home, that Lord, we would be rejuvenated, we would be revitalized, that Lord, we would view that day as just as real as the day that we're living right now.

    36:12-36:16

    And that would be the fuel that keeps us serving you and keeps us loving you.

    36:17-36:22

    We thank you and we praise you in the powerful name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 24:29-31

  1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?

  2. What do the signs announcing Jesus’ return teach us about God?

  3. Why do most people miss and dismiss Jesus in this life?

  4. Can you honestly say that you long for and eagerly anticipate the return of our Lord? How can we increase our expectation of His second coming?

Breakout
Pray for one another.


Want more eschatology teaching?

Catch up on the previous verse by verse teaching through Revelation

Catch up on the previous verse by verse teaching through 2 Thessalonians

What ARE We Waiting For? It's Going to Get Worse

Introduction:

What is the Rapture? - The rapture is the future event when Jesus Christ descends from heaven to gather his people, those who died and those living, to be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, to receive their glorified bodies and be kept from God's vengeance & judgment on unbelievers in the 7-year period known as the Tribulation (see Revelation 6-19).

Reasons to Believe in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture:

  1. It's the most Straightforward understanding of the biblical language.

    Revelation 3:10 - I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.

    1 Thessalonians 5:9 - For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ...

  2. We never see the Church in the tribulation in Revelation!
  3. God has a track record of Removing His people before He judges the wicked.

It's Going to Get Worse: How to Survive the Tribulation (Matthew 24:15-28):

  1. Watch for the Abomination . (Matthew 24:15)
  2. Be ready to Run . (Matthew 24:16-22)

    Revelation 6:9 - I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God...

    Revelation 12:11 - ...they loved not their lives even unto death.

    Revelation 13:7 - Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.

    Revelation 17:6 - And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

    Revelation 16:10 - The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness.

  3. Don't be Fooled . (Matthew 24:23-26)
  4. Keep your eyes to the Skies . (Matthew 24:27-28)

    Revelation 1:7 - Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 01:08-01:11

    We're going through this series, Intentional Hope.

    01:13-01:15

    Get intentional, that's our theme of the year.

    01:16-01:18

    This series is Intentional Hope.

    01:18-01:22

    What are we waiting for?

    01:23-01:30

    So for these next two months, we are looking at Matthew 24 and 25, the Olivet Discourse.

    01:30-01:37

    And this is Jesus laying out the events that lead to his second coming.

    01:38-01:42

    So what are we waiting for?

    01:45-01:46

    Matthew 24, are you there?

    01:46-01:47

    If you're still turning there.

    01:51-01:54

    Do you ever know somebody that's a story topper?

    01:56-01:57

    Do you know what I'm talking about?

    01:58-02:39

    That no matter what you have going on, they're going to come right over the top because theirs is a lot bigger or worse whatever. You know what I'm talking about? The storytopper? I worked with a storytopper in the 90s and his favorite phrase was, "You think that's bad?" And it didn't matter what you said. It just didn't matter. He's like, "Hey Jeff, how are you doing?" "Oh yeah, I'm kind of dragging today. I'm tired." "Oh, you think that's bad?" "I haven't slept in six days." I'm like, "Well, sorry to hear that. I guess I'm I'm just tired because I've been working a lot.

    02:39-02:40

    You think that's bad?

    02:42-02:44

    I put in 220 hours last week.

    02:48-02:52

    Okay, well, I've had to work a lot.

    02:52-02:57

    I've had to get as many hours as I could because I've just been kind of broke.

    02:57-03:00

    And, oh, you think that's bad?

    03:01-03:03

    I got 7 cents in my bank account.

    03:05-03:08

    And it just gets to the point with the story toppers that like, okay, you win.

    03:09-03:10

    Is that what you want?

    03:10-03:11

    You win.

    03:12-03:23

    Well, we're looking at a passage today that even my coworker from Walmart in the nineties, even he couldn't top this one.

    03:23-03:24

    Look at verse 21.

    03:25-03:26

    Quick preview here.

    03:27-03:49

    Jesus says, "For then there will be great tribulation such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be." Jesus is saying, "Here's something that's so bad.

    03:51-04:00

    It can't be topped." And he's talking about the tribulation in this chunk that we're looking at today.

    04:02-04:17

    Just as a quick review, remember we saw last week, the disciples said, "What's going to be the sign of the close of the age?" And Jesus gives the events, the signs leading to his second coming.

    04:17-04:18

    And we saw them last week, right?

    04:19-04:24

    Verses four through 14, deception, wars, famines, earthquakes, persecution.

    04:25-04:28

    Jesus said, "Those are birth pains." Right? You know how birth pains work.

    04:29-04:35

    They get closer together and they get more intense, closer together, more intense, closer together, more intense.

    04:36-04:37

    And then the baby comes.

    04:38-04:43

    And Jesus said, that's what's going to happen globally until he returns.

    04:43-04:46

    These events are gonna get closer together and more intense.

    04:46-04:48

    But look at verse 15, it's a shift.

    04:49-04:55

    Jesus says, so when you see, Jesus here is, there's a shift.

    04:55-05:02

    He's moving from general events that we saw last week and that we're watching on the news, have you noticed?

    05:03-05:08

    He's moving from the general events to very specific events.

    05:09-05:16

    And in this passage we're looking at today, Jesus is specifically talking about the tribulation.

    05:17-05:19

    So let's talk about the tribulation.

    05:19-05:20

    What is that?

    05:22-05:29

    Well, the tribulation is a future period, it's coming, of seven years.

    05:31-05:39

    If you go to Daniel chapter nine, we're not gonna do that today, I'm gonna give you the short version, but I encourage you to read it and reread it.

    05:39-05:47

    But Daniel chapter nine, Daniel prophesies 70 weeks of years.

    05:49-05:53

    And each day in this prophecy represents one year.

    05:54-05:58

    So one week would represent how many years?

    05:59-06:00

    Seven, right.

    06:02-06:03

    So do the math here.

    06:04-06:05

    Like, oh, math is hard.

    06:06-06:12

    But from the decree of the Persian King, Artaxerxes, he made this decree to rebuild Jerusalem.

    06:12-06:14

    This is all prophesied in Daniel nine.

    06:14-06:17

    But he made this decree to rebuild Jerusalem.

    06:18-06:25

    And then there were going to be 69 weeks, Daniel says, until an anointed one is cut off.

    06:28-06:29

    Well, what happened in history?

    06:29-06:37

    Well, the decree was made to rebuild Jerusalem and that's, there's 69 weeks, that's 483 years.

    06:37-06:45

    Do you know what happened exactly 483 years after the decree was made to rebuild Jerusalem?

    06:47-06:53

    It was prophesied that an anointed one would be cut off, and it takes you to the exact moment that Jesus Christ was crucified.

    06:56-07:00

    So this 483 years, the 69 weeks was fulfilled exactly.

    07:01-07:10

    But the 70th week, this one more period of seven years was to be beyond the other 69 weeks.

    07:11-07:13

    Like, well, where's the 70th week?

    07:15-07:17

    It's in the last book in your Bible.

    07:19-07:23

    Those seven years are fully described in the book of Revelation.

    07:25-07:29

    And those seven years are often called the Tribulation.

    07:29-07:35

    And Jesus in this passage is giving us the short version, the CliffsNotes version.

    07:38-07:39

    Do you guys know what CliffsNotes are?

    07:40-07:41

    Okay, some of you do.

    07:41-07:43

    All right, do they still have CliffsNotes?

    07:43-07:44

    Is that still a thing?

    07:44-07:50

    OK, sometimes I throw a reference out and it's just like, you know, never heard of it.

    07:50-07:51

    All right.

    07:52-07:53

    Jesus is giving the Kip Snow's version.

    07:54-07:57

    I guarantee you the Second Service will have no idea what that is.

    07:59-08:01

    There's a reason that you're up early in here.

    08:07-08:08

    Oh, wait, this one's being recorded.

    08:10-08:11

    I love them too.

    08:11-08:13

    And they have strengths that you don't.

    08:13-08:14

    (congregation laughing)

    08:17-08:31

    Well, before we get into this, you know, I'm always asked, always asked, and people always want reminded when we talk about the tribulation, is the church going to be here for the tribulation?

    08:33-08:35

    And the answer is no, we are not.

    08:37-08:39

    The church is going to be raptured.

    08:40-08:42

    You're like, what's the rapture?

    08:42-08:44

    Well, we're gonna spend a few moments talking about that.

    08:45-08:56

    Jesus doesn't address that because that's not really in the context of the questions that he's answering his disciples, but we find this all throughout the rest of the New Testament.

    08:56-09:00

    So I'm gonna give you the CliffsNotes version of this.

    09:01-09:02

    All right, so what is the rapture?

    09:02-09:38

    The rapture is the future event when Jesus Christ descends from heaven to gather his people, those who died and those alive at the time, to be caught up together, to meet the Lord in the air, to receive their glorified bodies, and to be kept from God's vengeance and judgment on unbelievers in the seven-year period known as the tribulation, as covered in Revelation chapter six through chapter 19.

    09:39-09:50

    So Christ is going to remove his church, the saved, before the tribulation.

    09:51-09:59

    And I know throughout church history, ideas become popular, and then they become unpopular.

    10:00-10:04

    And I don't think this is the popular view now, but I think it's the biblical view.

    10:04-10:08

    So I just want to just take a couple moments here on your outline.

    10:09-10:10

    There's many reasons.

    10:10-10:17

    There are many reasons that I believe that the church is going to be raptured out of the world before the tribulation.

    10:17-10:19

    I just want to give you a few of them.

    10:19-10:19

    All right.

    10:21-10:23

    So reasons I believe in a pre-tribulation rapture.

    10:25-10:30

    Letter A, it's the most straightforward understanding of the biblical language.

    10:32-10:35

    You're like, "What biblical language?" Look at Revelation 3 10.

    10:35-10:37

    This is what Jesus says to the church in Philadelphia.

    10:38-10:40

    Look at all these words here.

    10:40-11:01

    Jesus says, "I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth." Breaking that down, look at that phrase, the hour of trial that is coming.

    11:01-11:08

    Hour of trial, that's a definite period of time that is coming, it means it's yet future.

    11:10-11:24

    But you know, a lot of people debate the phrase where it says, "I will keep you from." Some people believe that that phrase means that Jesus is going to preserve his church through the tribulation.

    11:24-11:27

    But there's a couple problems with that view.

    11:27-11:29

    And one problem is the wording itself.

    11:29-11:38

    This phrase, keep you from, literally in the Greek means keep you out of or away from.

    11:38-11:47

    If Jesus wanted to say, I'm going to keep you through the tribulation, he could have used those words, but those aren't the words that he chose to use.

    11:47-11:55

    He used the words, I'm going to take you out from, away from this hour of trial.

    11:57-12:03

    But there's another problem with that view of Jesus preserving the church through the tribulation.

    12:03-12:11

    The other problem is this, followers of Christ during the tribulation will not be preserved.

    12:12-12:13

    They will be slaughtered.

    12:13-12:14

    We're gonna talk about that.

    12:16-12:19

    You see it in Revelation chapter six, Revelation chapter seven.

    12:19-12:28

    We'll talk about that more in a couple of minutes, but believers will be slaughtered.

    12:29-12:44

    during the tribulation. But notice also in this Revelation 310 it says that this hour of trial is coming on the whole world. It's on the whole world. It's global.

    12:44-12:48

    That's how we know this is a future event because that has not happened yet.

    12:48-12:57

    There has not been a global event like is being described in the book of of Revelation.

    12:59-13:04

    And then it says to try again, specific phrasing, those who dwell on the earth.

    13:04-13:14

    We saw this a few years ago, we went through the book of Revelation, but that phrase, those who dwell on the earth, that's a phrase used throughout the book of Revelation to describe unsaved people.

    13:15-13:17

    You see that over and over and over again in Revelation.

    13:18-13:20

    That phrase is never used to describe saved people.

    13:20-13:23

    That phrase is always attached to the unsaved.

    13:23-13:40

    And this verse is saying here, Revelation 3.10, that the purpose of the rapture and the believers, or the, excuse me, the unbelievers who are going to be staying on the earth to face the tribulation, they're going to be tested.

    13:41-13:52

    The unbelievers who are not raptured out are going to be tested, and they're either going to pass the test by repenting, or they're going to fail the test by refusing to repent.

    13:53-13:54

    And there are many examples of both of them.

    13:56-13:58

    those responses in the book of Revelation.

    13:58-14:00

    So what am I saying?

    14:00-14:10

    I'm saying this, I believe that Revelation 3.10 means exactly what it appears to me.

    14:11-14:17

    That Jesus promises to keep his church out of the future time of testing that's going to come on unbelievers.

    14:19-14:20

    That's what it says.

    14:21-14:28

    Oh, there's another verse too, just very quickly, that tells me that the church isn't gonna be here during the tribulation.

    14:29-14:33

    And that's 1 Thessalonians 5 9.

    14:33-14:46

    It says, "For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." Now, some people, when they read that verse, they think wrath, they think hell, but that verse is not talking about hell.

    14:47-14:57

    Because if you go to verse two in that chapter, the context of the whole chapter is the day of the Lord, the tribulation, the judgment on unbelievers on the earth.

    14:58-14:59

    That's the context.

    14:59-15:02

    And that's the wrath that he's talking about here.

    15:02-15:05

    Like you're not meant to experience God's wrath.

    15:06-15:07

    On the earth.

    15:11-15:12

    That's the wrath we're not destined for, so.

    15:14-15:17

    Letter A, it's the most straightforward understanding of biblical language.

    15:18-15:25

    Another reason I believe in a pre-tribulation rapture is this letter B, we never see the church in the tribulation in the book of Revelation.

    15:26-15:36

    I find that so interesting for people that think that the church is going to be here during the tribulation, because when you read Revelation, like chapter six through 19, it's describing the tribulation.

    15:36-15:38

    You don't see the church mentioned anywhere.

    15:38-15:44

    Not one time, not a passing comment, not a hyph, not a hyph, not a sniff, not a what have, nothing.

    15:45-15:49

    There's no mention whatsoever of the church during the tribulation.

    15:50-15:56

    And when you read Revelation, Revelation 2 and 3 is all about the church, right?

    15:56-15:57

    The church, the church, the church, the church.

    15:57-16:00

    I think in the first three chapters, the church is mentioned like 19 times.

    16:01-16:08

    And then all of a sudden you get to Revelation 6 and the tribulation is described and you don't see not one mention of the church.

    16:10-16:13

    You never see the church during a tribulation in Revelation.

    16:15-16:27

    And then the third reason that I believe that the rapture is going to happen before the tribulation is this, letter C.

    16:27-16:33

    God has a track record of removing his people before he judges the wicked.

    16:35-16:36

    Do a little Bible study.

    16:37-16:46

    Every time God is going to judge the wicked on the earth, the first thing he does is get his people out of there.

    16:48-16:50

    That's consistent throughout scripture.

    16:50-16:52

    Like remember the story of Noah?

    16:53-16:54

    It's like the whole story, right?

    16:55-16:59

    God's going to judge the earth with a flood, but what's the first thing he does?

    17:00-17:04

    He makes provision to get his people out of there, right?

    17:04-17:07

    What about Sodom and Gomorrah?

    17:08-17:14

    God says, "Hey, it's going to rain." And not like the rain we've had here, it's going to be a much hotter rain.

    17:15-17:22

    So Lot, "My people get out of there." God's removing his people before judgment.

    17:22-17:24

    What about Israel and Egypt during the plagues?

    17:25-17:26

    What did God do?

    17:26-17:27

    Separated his people.

    17:28-17:29

    This is gonna happen to Egypt.

    17:29-17:30

    This is not gonna happen to my people.

    17:31-17:33

    What about Israel through the wilderness?

    17:33-17:36

    There was rebellions like the Khoras rebellion.

    17:36-17:37

    What did God say?

    17:37-17:39

    Hey, get away from them, move.

    17:39-17:41

    I'm gonna judge them, not you.

    17:42-17:49

    God just has this track record that when he brings judgment on unbelievers, The first thing he does is remove his people.

    17:53-17:53

    Consistent.

    17:55-17:56

    Oh, P.S.

    17:56-17:58

    This is, I gotta say this.

    17:59-18:05

    Many of the arguments that I've heard against the pre-tribulation rapture really don't have much substance.

    18:07-18:16

    One of the biggest ones I've heard when you talk about a pre-trib rapture, one of the biggest arguments I've heard is people say this, Well, you know, the word rapture is not even in the Bible.

    18:17-18:21

    You believe in a rapture and the word rapture, it's not even in there.

    18:22-18:23

    You're right, it's not.

    18:25-18:26

    It's not.

    18:27-18:28

    You know why?

    18:29-18:31

    Because rapture is a Latin word.

    18:33-18:41

    And actually we have a word in the Bible, 1 Thessalonians 4, 17, harpazo, and it means the exact same thing as rapture.

    18:42-18:45

    Both words mean carry away, okay?

    18:45-18:47

    So the word rapture comes from a Latin word.

    18:48-18:49

    That's why it's not in the Bible.

    18:50-18:57

    But it means the same thing as the word used in 1 Thessalonians 4, 17.

    18:58-19:03

    Another argument I've heard against the rapture before the tribulation is this.

    19:03-19:09

    People have said, "Why would the church be exempt from suffering during a tribulation?" Have you ever heard that one?

    19:10-19:14

    Well, why would the church be exempt from suffering in the tribulation?

    19:14-19:15

    Do you wanna know the answer to that?

    19:17-19:22

    Because Jesus said the church will be exempt from suffering in the tribulation.

    19:22-19:24

    That's why, that's good enough for me.

    19:25-19:27

    I mean, if our Lord said it, I'm okay with that, are you?

    19:29-19:31

    All right, all right, we'll go with that then.

    19:32-19:52

    So many people are going to come to Christ during the tribulation, but when the judgment starts, God's going to separate his people from judgment on sinners by removing his church before the tribulation so that the church will not be the object of his wrath.

    19:54-20:00

    The promise is meant for the church exactly as Jesus said it.

    20:03-20:06

    That was a sermon for the church.

    20:08-20:23

    But now we're gonna shift gears because there are people sitting here or streaming this or listening to this later who are listening to these words, but they've not received Christ.

    20:25-20:29

    And the rapture is going to occur and they're still gonna be here.

    20:31-20:32

    Like, so what about those people?

    20:33-20:38

    What about the people that are hearing this but aren't believers in Christ.

    20:39-20:42

    Well, that's what we have here in the text.

    20:44-20:48

    And what was the longest introduction to a sermon ever?

    20:49-20:50

    Here it is.

    20:51-20:54

    On your outline, it's going to get worse.

    20:56-20:58

    Jesus here gives us a survival guide.

    20:59-21:07

    If you're still here, and all of these horrible events are going down, What should you do?

    21:08-21:09

    Well, Jesus lays it out for you.

    21:10-21:12

    This is how to survive the tribulation.

    21:14-21:22

    All right, so for the rest of this message, I'm going to speak specifically to those of you that are hearing this, but have not received Christ personally.

    21:23-21:33

    Those of you who maybe are church goers or you're friends of members of the church here, but you have not personally bowed the knee to Jesus Christ.

    21:33-21:38

    You have not personally received the gift of salvation that he offers.

    21:39-21:46

    You have not personally embraced this love that God has for you, that he spared not his own son, but gave him up for you.

    21:47-21:55

    If you have not done that, then the rest of this message is for you, and I'm talking to you specifically, all right?

    21:55-22:00

    So you're like, okay, well, what happens if I'm here during the tribulation and I'm not raptured?

    22:01-22:04

    Jesus tells you, number one, watch for the abomination.

    22:06-22:07

    Look at verse 15.

    22:07-22:08

    Watch for the abomination.

    22:09-22:14

    Again, Jesus shifting from the general events to the specific events.

    22:14-22:28

    Jesus says, "So when you see "the abomination of desolation spoken of "by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place," let the reader understand.

    22:29-22:30

    Stop there for a second.

    22:32-22:43

    Step one, if you're still here, listen, you need to look for this sign that's going to take the tribulation from bad to worse.

    22:43-22:48

    And Jesus says the sign is the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place.

    22:49-22:51

    Like what is that?

    22:51-22:52

    What does that mean?

    22:52-22:53

    Well, let's break it down.

    22:53-22:57

    Abomination, that's something that is repulsive to God.

    22:57-22:59

    Desolation, that word means ruin.

    23:01-23:03

    Like what's the holy place?

    23:03-23:04

    That refers to the temple.

    23:07-23:14

    And Jesus says, "Spoken of by the prophet Daniel." That's three times in Daniel, chapter seven, chapter nine, chapter 11.

    23:17-23:32

    Also note here that there's a parenthetical note in here for Matthew that says, "Let the reader understand." Matthew wrote this for future readers, which tells us it wasn't fulfilled in his day.

    23:32-23:34

    He was talking about something yet future.

    23:36-23:38

    But what is the abomination of desolation?

    23:38-23:41

    Well, this person has other names.

    23:41-23:43

    The Bible calls him the Antichrist.

    23:43-23:45

    The Bible calls him the beast.

    23:46-23:48

    The Bible calls him the lawless one.

    23:50-23:58

    He's a man who's going to be revealed soon, who's going to be demonically empowered.

    23:59-24:02

    Again, this church went through the books of Revelation.

    24:02-24:06

    We went through the book of 2 Thessalonians.

    24:06-24:11

    And if you're interested in more information, we covered a lot of this in those series and it's all on our website.

    24:12-24:13

    You can go and take a listen.

    24:13-24:16

    I'm just trying to give you the short version here because that's what our Lord did.

    24:18-24:19

    But who is the Antichrist?

    24:19-24:21

    Well, the short version is this.

    24:22-24:24

    He's Satan's version of Jesus.

    24:27-24:29

    He's this leader that's going to come on the scene.

    24:29-24:30

    He's going to be popular.

    24:31-24:32

    He's going to have authority.

    24:32-24:38

    He's even going to have the audacity to mimic the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

    24:40-24:44

    And he's going to be like worldwide popular.

    24:46-24:58

    The Bible says he's going to make a peace treaty with Israel But halfway through the tribulation, the Bible says he's going to show his true colors.

    24:59-25:00

    He's going to rule the world.

    25:00-25:01

    He's going to demand worship.

    25:01-25:04

    He's going to force people to receive his mark.

    25:04-25:08

    Whatever that mark is, you're not going to be able to buy or sell unless you have it.

    25:09-25:12

    And he's going to break his treaty with Israel.

    25:14-25:18

    That's what's being referred to here when it says he's standing in the holy place.

    25:19-25:23

    He's going to put his throne in the yet to be built temple.

    25:23-25:26

    And by the way, there's plans and furnishings.

    25:26-25:28

    Everything's ready to rebuild the temple.

    25:28-25:29

    It's coming people.

    25:34-25:36

    But then he's going to slaughter God's people.

    25:37-25:43

    Israel, people who come to faith in Jesus Christ during the tribulation.

    25:45-25:47

    If that's you, he's coming after you.

    25:49-25:55

    So step one in this little survival guide that Jesus gives us is to recognize this sign.

    25:55-26:03

    When you see this wicked leader setting up shop in God's temple, it's time.

    26:03-26:04

    It's time.

    26:06-26:13

    And you're like, "Time to what?" Number two, it's time to run.

    26:16-26:17

    Number two, be ready to run.

    26:19-26:20

    Look at verses 16 through 18.

    26:22-26:26

    It says, "Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

    26:27-26:45

    Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak." When you see the temple defiled by this blasphemous man.

    26:46-26:49

    Jews, run.

    26:51-26:54

    People who come to Christ during the tribulation, run.

    26:56-27:00

    Because countless Jews and Christians are going to be slaughtered.

    27:00-27:02

    Revelation is so clear about that.

    27:03-27:05

    Here's a shotgun blast of verses.

    27:05-27:13

    Revelation 6 says, "I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the Word of Christ.

    27:14-27:17

    Revelation 12, 11 says they loved not their lives, even unto death.

    27:18-27:24

    Revelation 13, 7 says, and it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.

    27:24-27:31

    Revelation 17, 6, and I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

    27:31-27:38

    Over and over in Revelation, it's clear during the tribulation, if you're one of God's people, they're coming after you.

    27:40-27:41

    That's not fear-mongering.

    27:41-27:42

    That's what the Bible says.

    27:44-28:09

    So listen, if you're still here after the rapture and you see the abomination of desolation, you see the blasphemous man setting up shop in God's temple, if you're still here, according to our Lord, listen, don't try to witness, don't try to stand your ground, don't try to appease them with cookies.

    28:10-28:29

    Jesus says, "Get out of there." Verse 19, he says, "And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days." Notice here, our Lord singling out pregnant women, why?

    28:30-28:33

    Because that's more than just about the running.

    28:33-28:43

    There's prophecy in the Old Testament that would indicate that what's coming is another mass murder of infants.

    28:44-28:45

    That's Satan's way, by the way.

    28:45-28:46

    That's what he does.

    28:47-28:52

    Is Satan loves to murder infants because they're helpless and they're innocent.

    28:53-28:55

    Right? Like remember Moses day?

    28:56-28:57

    What happened?

    28:58-29:02

    Kill all the male Jewish babies, right?

    29:02-29:04

    Oh, remember Jesus day?

    29:04-29:05

    What happened?

    29:07-29:07

    (pages rustling)

    29:08-29:09

    Kill all the babies.

    29:11-29:14

    Remember what's happening in our country right now?

    29:16-29:18

    That's from Satan, kill all the babies.

    29:21-29:30

    And I think that's what Jesus is pointing out here, that there's a very special attack that's going to be on the babies.

    29:32-29:34

    Horrific, terrific people.

    29:34-29:35

    Look at verse 20.

    29:36-29:45

    Jesus says, "Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath," meaning nothing, just pray that nothing gets in your way.

    29:45-29:49

    When it's time to run, you just pray that there's no obstacles.

    29:49-29:50

    Get out of there.

    29:52-29:56

    And then he says, "Is it really gonna be that bad?

    29:57-30:07

    For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.

    30:08-30:13

    There's never been a Holocaust like what's being described here, never in history.

    30:14-30:17

    Not the Nazis, not Al-Qaeda, not ISIS.

    30:19-30:21

    This is worse.

    30:21-30:25

    This is the worst.

    30:29-30:31

    Like, well, how bad is it?

    30:31-30:44

    Zechariah 13, eight says, "In the whole world declares the Lord, two thirds shall be cut off and perish and one third shall be left alive." According to Zechariah, two thirds of the Israelites will be slain.

    30:47-30:48

    That's how bad it's going to be.

    30:49-30:55

    Verse 22, Jesus says, "And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved.

    30:56-31:00

    But for the sake of the elect, Those days will be cut short.

    31:03-31:15

    I read something this week that really got me thinking about this verse because like cut short, we know that the tribulation seven years, right?

    31:17-31:20

    So it's not like God's going to, he already said that that's what it's gonna be.

    31:20-31:22

    It's not like God's gonna say, you know what?

    31:22-31:25

    We'll knock that down to two years.

    31:26-31:27

    What does he mean cut short?

    31:28-31:40

    I read this week one person suggested it means less sunlight, meaning the actual amount of time of daylight is going to be cut short.

    31:41-31:43

    And that's based on Revelation 16.10.

    31:44-32:05

    It says, "The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness." I'm not being dogmatic about this, but this is suggesting that maybe the amount of time during the day that there's sunlight, maybe that's been cut short so that as people are fleeing, they have darkness to help protect them.

    32:09-32:16

    Regardless, regardless, especially those in Judea, be ready to run.

    32:18-32:23

    Be ready to run. Number three, don't be fooled.

    32:25-32:30

    Don't be fooled. Like, man, didn't we talk about deception last week?

    32:30-32:34

    Yeah. And it's in the text we're talking about this week.

    32:34-32:38

    But that's Satan's thing. Satan is constantly trying to deceive you.

    32:39-32:51

    And here it is again. Look at verse 23. It says, And if anyone says to you, look, "Here's the Christ," or "There he is, do not believe it." What's going on here?

    32:51-32:52

    Well, here's what's going on.

    32:52-33:03

    If you're still here and you're listening to this message and okay, so the abomination of desolation, he's in the temple and you've run and you're hiding.

    33:05-33:06

    What's the next thing you're waiting for?

    33:07-33:08

    The return of the Lord, right?

    33:09-33:09

    I'll spoiler alert.

    33:11-33:13

    The return of the Lord, that's the next thing that's coming.

    33:13-33:17

    So you're hiding and you're like, "Okay, all right, I know what I'm waiting on now.

    33:17-33:27

    I know I'm waiting for the Lord to return." So what Jesus is talking about here is people are going to try to lure you out by saying, "Oh, he's here.

    33:27-33:33

    We found the Lord, he's here, come out." It's a trap, it's a trap.

    33:33-33:39

    You're hiding, you're watching people get slaughtered, you're vulnerable.

    33:41-33:42

    They're gonna try to trap you.

    33:42-33:44

    Jesus is saying, "Don't buy it.

    33:44-33:45

    Don't buy it, don't listen.

    33:47-33:48

    Look at verse 24.

    33:49-34:03

    He says, "For false Christ and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elects." Says they're going to deceive through miracles.

    34:03-34:04

    Like, "Hey, the Lord's here.

    34:04-34:06

    You should, oh, this is definitely the Lord.

    34:07-34:22

    You should see this amazing miracle that he can do." I've had people ask me, "Well, like with that, is it a real miracle or is it like a fake thing, like a sleight of hand thing?

    34:22-34:30

    Which is it?" It doesn't matter because the end game is the same.

    34:30-34:31

    It's the same point.

    34:31-34:32

    And the point is deception.

    34:36-34:38

    You can't fool the elect though.

    34:39-34:40

    That's what Jesus is saying here.

    34:40-34:50

    when he says, "To lead astray, if possible, even the elect." And some people are like, oh, does that mean like the elect can be fooled?

    34:51-34:54

    No, that's actually the opposite of what Jesus is actually saying here.

    34:54-34:59

    The elect can't be fooled, but people are gonna try to fool them.

    35:01-35:17

    Verse 25, Jesus said, "See, I have told you beforehand." So, if they say to you, "Look, he's in the wilderness," do not go out.

    35:19-35:24

    If they say, "Look, he's in the inner rooms," do not believe it.

    35:28-35:29

    They're going to try to trap you.

    35:30-35:31

    So Jesus says, "Don't be fooled.

    35:32-35:34

    Don't be fooled." Like man.

    35:38-35:41

    You're like, well, then how am I going to know, right?

    35:41-35:50

    I mean, if there's people out there doing these miracles and tricking all these people, how am I going to know when the real Lord actually does show up?

    35:50-35:51

    That's a great question.

    35:51-35:52

    That's a really good question.

    35:52-35:53

    Look at the next verse.

    35:54-36:00

    For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the West, so will the coming.

    36:01-36:04

    I'm sorry, so will be excuse me, coming of the son of man.

    36:06-36:08

    Wherever the corpses, there are the vultures will gather.

    36:11-36:15

    So number four. Keep your eyes to the skies.

    36:18-36:19

    Jesus return.

    36:20-36:24

    Listen, if you're if you miss the rapture and you're listening to this, you're like, well, how am I going to know?

    36:25-36:26

    How am I going to know when the Lord returns?

    36:26-36:28

    Oh, oh, you you will know.

    36:30-36:37

    "You will know for sure." You're like, "Well, how obvious is it gonna be?" Jesus uses two images here.

    36:37-36:38

    And the first one is lightning.

    36:39-36:39

    Lightning.

    36:41-36:43

    I don't have to explain this, do I?

    36:44-36:46

    Lightning lights up the whole sky, right?

    36:46-36:50

    So like you're standing outside looking over here and then lightning happens over here.

    36:51-36:52

    Hey, hey, there was lightning.

    36:52-36:57

    And you're like, "Oh, I missed it." No, you didn't miss it because it lights up the whole sky.

    36:57-36:59

    That's what Jesus is saying.

    36:59-37:00

    It's obvious to everyone.

    37:01-37:02

    That's what it says in Revelation 1, 7.

    37:03-37:10

    It says, "Behold, he's coming with the clouds and every eye will see him." You don't worry about it.

    37:11-37:12

    Is it Jesus?

    37:12-37:13

    Is it not Jesus?

    37:13-37:15

    Let me give you a little tip.

    37:15-37:17

    If you're not sure, then it's not Jesus.

    37:18-37:21

    Because when it is Jesus, you will be sure.

    37:23-37:24

    He gives another image.

    37:24-37:24

    There's lightning.

    37:25-37:29

    Another image is the image of the scavenger.

    37:31-37:43

    Jesus gives a little proverbial statement, "Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather." Jesus is saying that he's going to come as a vulture to a corpse.

    37:46-37:47

    Do you get the picture?

    37:48-37:49

    The picture is this.

    37:50-37:57

    is dead, look up. You can see, oh, there's a vulture circling, there's something dead.

    37:57-39:06

    I see it from the sky. When something's dead, look up. And when the world itself is dead, when this entire decaying planet is finally, because of the sin and wickedness and corruption and the evil that's going to be unleashed during the tribulation, when this world is finally dead, look up. Look up. When Jesus returns in judgment, when the world is corrupt and dead, from the skies will come our Lord." And you're like, "Man, that sounds horrific. According to Jesus, there's nothing worse." Like, "Man, that sounds awful." Go through the book of Revelation. It's way worse We're reading about it.

    39:09-39:12

    But when these events are actually happening, you're actually seeing the bloodshed.

    39:15-39:17

    It's way worse than you think it is.

    39:18-39:19

    Here's the thing, my friends.

    39:21-39:22

    You don't have to experience it.

    39:23-39:24

    You don't have to.

    39:27-39:36

    Jesus is going to take his people to heaven in the rapture before these terrible events take place.

    39:36-39:41

    And I just wanna ask you as I close, are you one of his people?

    39:45-39:54

    Because this passage describes the coming day of God's judgment, but today is the day of God's grace.

    39:55-39:59

    Today is the day that you can turn from your sin.

    40:01-40:13

    You can stop living for yourself and instead receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and allow Him to live through you.

    40:16-40:19

    I'd like you to bow your heads with me as the worship team makes their way forward.

    40:25-40:25

    I'd like you to bow your heads.

    40:25-40:28

    You know, the Bible says it's God's kindness that leads us to repentance.

    40:29-40:29

    And it is.

    40:32-40:47

    It's realizing that though we all deserve even a thousand tribulations, God loves us so much that he sent his Son to die, to take our sin away.

    40:48-40:51

    studied all that last month in pretty good detail.

    40:55-40:56

    That is the kindness of God.

    41:01-41:10

    Something else God uses to get our attention is prophecy like this that just lays out the reality.

    41:11-41:13

    I love how the Lord doesn't sugarcoat it.

    41:14-41:20

    He doesn't try to water it down.

    41:29-41:40

    He tells us exactly how it is, hoping that that's going to get somebody's attention as we hope it got yours today.

    41:42-41:45

    Father in heaven, we thank you for your grace.

    41:47-41:55

    There's not a one of us that deserve anything, but not only have you taken our sin away, you promised to take us away.

    41:57-42:04

    When you finally begin to close the curtain on this chapter of history on the earth.

    42:06-42:09

    And Father, I know there are some people here that have not received you.

    42:14-42:22

    And I pray, Father, that they would take a real hard look, because we're already seeing the birth pains.

    42:22-42:23

    We're seeing these things already happen.

    42:24-42:28

    We saw last night, again, Iran attacking Israel.

    42:31-42:32

    This isn't conceptual.

    42:32-42:37

    We're watching Your Word illustrated on the news.

    42:39-42:40

    and far worse is coming.

    42:42-42:55

    So Father, I pray for anyone here who has just been lukewarm or half interested, I pray that today's the day they come to themselves.

    42:59-43:01

    Bow the knee to Jesus Christ.

    43:06-43:07

    Become one of your people.

    43:11-43:12

    Father, we thank you.

    43:14-43:16

    We thank you for the truth of your word.

    43:19-43:21

    And we thank you for your love in Christ.

    43:22-43:24

    It's in Jesus' glorious name that we pray.

    43:25-43:25

    Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 24:15-28

  1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?

  2. What Biblical reasons do we have for believing Jesus will rapture His church before the Tribulation? Why will Jesus do this?

  3. Why do you think Jesus tells people to run instead of telling them to witness to their attackers or fight back (Matt 24:16-22)?

Breakout
Pray for one another.


Want more eschatology teaching?

Catch up on the previous verse by verse teaching through Revelation

Catch up on the previous verse by verse teaching through 2 Thessalonians

What ARE We Waiting For? It's Going to Get Bad

Introduction:

Deuteronomy 18:20-22 - And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

It's Going to Get Bad: How To Get Through Birth Pains (Matthew 24:1-14):

  1. See that you're not Deceived . (Matthew 24:4-5)
  2. See that you're not Alarmed . (Matthew 24:6-8)
  3. See that you're not Wavering . (Matthew 24:9-13)

AND SOME GOOD NEWS (Matthew 24:14):

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 01:08-01:10

    Matthew chapter 24, are you there?

    01:10-01:14

    Over the next two months, we will be looking at Matthew 24 and 25.

    01:15-01:19

    And this passage is known as the Olivet Discourse.

    01:20-01:27

    And in this passage, Jesus lays out events leading to his second coming.

    01:29-01:35

    So we're not just asking, what are we waiting for?

    01:36-01:41

    We're asking, what are we waiting for?

    01:43-01:44

    And there will be spoilers.

    01:45-01:45

    So let's pray.

    01:45-01:53

    I'm gonna ask if you would please just take a moment to pray for me, and I will pray for you, and then we'll get to God's word together.

    01:56-02:05

    Father, we're approaching a subject over the next couple of months that either don't know or don't wanna know, or they're all kinds of sideways about it, or they're all mixed up about it.

    02:06-02:12

    And I'm just asking, Father, that your word is clear.

    02:14-02:35

    And I'm asking, Father, for this church that we wouldn't come here with preconceived notions or ready to object to everything that your word says, but instead ready to hear what your word actually says.

    02:37-02:40

    So Father, glorify your name through your word.

    02:41-02:46

    But please ask this, Father, in Jesus' name.

    02:47-02:47

    Amen.

    02:48-02:51

    Matthew 24, let's look at verse one.

    02:51-03:03

    It says, "Jesus left the temple "and was going away when his disciples "came to point out to him the buildings of the temple." All right, I gotta be honest with you.

    03:03-03:04

    Let's just stop there for a second.

    03:04-03:05

    I gotta be honest with you.

    03:05-03:11

    Like, that verse always kind of bothered me because isn't that kind of weird?

    03:14-03:21

    And I never really did a deep dive on that until this week, that verse in particular, but isn't that kind of weird?

    03:21-03:23

    Look at what the verse says.

    03:24-03:34

    "Jesus left the temple and his disciples "came to point out to him the buildings of the temple." Nobody else thinks that's weird.

    03:35-03:40

    Like Jesus walks out of the temple and the disciples are like, "Hey, did you see the temple?"

    03:40-03:41

    (congregation laughing)

    03:42-03:57

    Jesus is like, "You mean the building "I just walked out of?" And in fact, when you go to the gospel of Mark, the verse, Mark chapter 13, it gives us a more specific description.

    03:57-04:01

    It says that the disciples were saying how wonderful the buildings are.

    04:03-04:05

    And that doesn't make it any less weird for me.

    04:05-04:13

    Jesus walks out of the temples and the disciples are like, "Hey, pretty wonderful, huh?" Like, what is going on there?

    04:14-04:19

    I think it's important for us, as we get to this passage, we have to understand what's at the scene here.

    04:20-04:22

    What in the world is going on?

    04:22-04:27

    Why are they pointing out to Jesus the building they just walked out of.

    04:29-04:30

    Here's why.

    04:31-04:42

    In Matthew chapter 23, the disciples just saw the Lord give scathing rebukes to the religious leaders.

    04:43-04:48

    They just watched Jesus light them up, up one side, down the other.

    04:50-04:54

    And then, Jesus laments over Jerusalem.

    04:55-04:57

    You know, Jerusalem, God's city.

    04:59-05:06

    I I fully believe that this conversation was them being uncomfortable.

    05:07-05:09

    It was kind of awkward. Could you imagine?

    05:09-05:14

    They just watched their pastor rebuke everybody else.

    05:14-05:17

    And they're just I think they walked out and they're like, so.

    05:20-05:30

    "Buildings are pretty, right?" I mean, obviously you had issues with what's inside the building, but the buildings are pretty.

    05:31-05:33

    Well, Jesus shocks them, look at verse two.

    05:34-05:37

    But he answered them, "You see all these, do you not?

    05:38-06:19

    "Truly I say to you, there will not be left here "one stone upon another that will not be thrown down." Wait, what? I mean, that had to have been a shocking statement from Jesus. He says, "It's all coming down." These buildings you're so impressed with, you're not going to see a stone on top of another. And then, for Matthew 24 and 25, Jesus goes on to lay out the future.

    06:21-06:24

    all the way up to the end time events.

    06:24-06:28

    That starts in verse four, and that takes us all the way to the end of chapter 25.

    06:30-06:41

    So here's a question, listen, I need you to dial in, because this is important, not just for this message, not just for this series, this is important for you as you read the whole Bible.

    06:41-06:43

    Okay, this is an important thing to understand.

    06:44-06:54

    The question is, why did Jesus give the temple prophecy before he talked about the more distant future?

    06:54-06:55

    Why did he do that?

    06:55-06:57

    What's all this stuff about the temple?

    06:58-06:59

    Let me show you what he's doing.

    07:00-07:07

    What Jesus is doing here is showing his credentials as a prophet.

    07:10-07:12

    What are the credentials of a prophet?

    07:12-07:14

    Well, Deuteronomy 18, look at this.

    07:14-07:15

    Here's just part of it.

    07:15-07:36

    Deuteronomy 18 says, "And if you say in your heart, "how may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?" When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken.

    07:37-07:43

    The prophet has spoken presumptuously, you need not be afraid of him.

    07:45-07:47

    Listen, this is so important, please, my friends.

    07:48-07:51

    This will so help your understanding of reading the Bible.

    07:51-07:56

    If you understand this principle, how prophecy works.

    07:56-08:02

    'Cause look, when it comes to predicting the future, you realize anybody can do that.

    08:04-08:07

    Anybody can walk around and say, here's what's gonna happen in the future.

    08:07-08:08

    Anybody can say that.

    08:09-08:10

    Let me tell you what's gonna happen in the future.

    08:11-08:15

    But the thing is, how do you know he's right?

    08:16-08:17

    He can say anything.

    08:19-08:20

    How do you know he's right?

    08:20-08:22

    How do you know he's a real prophet?

    08:22-08:25

    How do you know he's right at the time of him saying that if it's all future?

    08:26-08:30

    How can you verify what his future predictions are?

    08:30-08:31

    How can you verify if they're true?

    08:34-08:35

    Well, this is how prophecy works.

    08:35-08:36

    I'm gonna give you a dumb example.

    08:38-08:41

    You can probably think of a better one, but I'm gonna give you a dumb example just to illustrate this.

    08:42-08:45

    Like, what if I told you, okay, I'm a prophet.

    08:46-08:47

    I'm gonna give you a future prophecy.

    08:47-08:48

    You ready for this?

    08:49-08:52

    In the future, China is gonna take over Russia.

    08:53-08:54

    She's gonna take over the whole country.

    08:57-08:59

    How could you verify that?

    09:00-09:01

    How would you know if I'm a true prophet or not?

    09:02-09:03

    Because it's all in the future.

    09:04-09:06

    Oh yeah, trust me, I'm a prophet.

    09:08-09:10

    You can't verify that, right?

    09:10-09:14

    But, but, what if I did this?

    09:14-09:17

    What if I said, I'm going to lay out the future for you.

    09:17-09:24

    In the future, the Pittsburgh Pirates are going to win five World Series in a row.

    09:26-09:28

    And then China is going to take over Russia.

    09:31-09:44

    And then over the next five seasons, the Pirates win five World Series in a row, which obviously has to be the hand of God.

    09:47-09:56

    But you see the point, the verification of something that happened in the immediate authenticates what's happening long-term.

    09:57-09:57

    See what I'm saying?

    09:59-10:06

    That if the Pirates won those five World Series, you'd be like, hmm, maybe I need to take a look what he was saying about China invading Russia.

    10:10-10:12

    That's how prophecy works.

    10:12-10:15

    The prophets, you see this all through the Old Testament.

    10:16-10:20

    The prophets would give a prediction of something in the near future.

    10:21-10:27

    And if a prophet did that and it didn't come to pass, then you can just toss the rest of his stuff out.

    10:27-10:36

    But if what the prophet said about the near future did come to pass, then that prophet's authentic.

    10:36-10:46

    And you should probably take a really close look at the stuff that he's talking about further down the road in the future.

    10:49-10:50

    You get that?

    10:50-10:52

    It's authentication is what it is.

    10:53-10:57

    Oh, and Jesus was right, by the way, about the temple.

    10:58-10:59

    He was right.

    11:00-11:01

    You know what happened in about 40 years?

    11:03-11:05

    Roman siege over Jerusalem.

    11:06-11:13

    Long story short, you can look this up, but the Roman soldiers under Titus, big siege over the city of Jerusalem.

    11:13-11:18

    And it got to the point when they finally did break through and started destroying the cities.

    11:18-11:28

    Titus said, "Save the temple, don't touch the temple." But the soldiers were so angry at the Jews that they burned the temple down.

    11:29-11:32

    Well, the temple was actually overlaid with gold.

    11:34-11:49

    So sometime later, when they came through to pillage the remains of the city, they took big pry bars and pried apart the stones in the temple because the gold had melted in between the stones.

    11:49-11:52

    So they pried them all apart to get the gold that was in the middle.

    11:53-11:57

    And you see what they did was perfectly fulfill Jesus' words.

    11:57-12:03

    Jesus said exactly, "There's not going to be a stone on top of another." And they came and fulfilled that exactly as our Lord said.

    12:04-12:17

    And because that happened in the near future, perfect, perfect fulfillment, that gives us confidence that everything else Jesus talks about in these chapters that come further down the road are also going to come true.

    12:20-12:24

    So, it prompts some questions from the disciples.

    12:25-12:25

    Look at verse three.

    12:26-12:35

    It says, "As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, 'Tell us, when will these things be?

    12:37-12:44

    And what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?'" It's a three-part question.

    12:46-12:52

    And I feel like I need to insert all of you small group leaders that complain about me having three-part questions.

    12:53-12:54

    It's in the pattern of Scripture.

    12:56-12:59

    as our Lord preserved, as the disciples spoke, right?

    13:00-13:00

    Right, Murph?

    13:00-13:02

    There's just not a sliding scale.

    13:03-13:07

    You know, the disciples were like, "A scale of one to 10, Lord, how would you?" There's not that.

    13:08-13:12

    But the three-part question, yeah, it's kind of in there.

    13:13-13:15

    But there's three questions here.

    13:15-13:19

    One, they're like, "When?" Okay, okay, when's this happening?

    13:22-13:24

    Two, what's the sign of your coming?

    13:25-13:30

    And three, what's the sign of the close of the age?

    13:32-13:35

    See, I understand the disciples believed that Jesus is the Messiah.

    13:35-13:38

    At this point, they're like, yeah, you are the Christ.

    13:38-13:46

    And we know from our Old Testament scriptures, our law and prophets, we know that the Christ is going to establish a kingdom.

    13:47-13:50

    So can you please tell us, Lord, when that's going to happen?

    13:51-13:52

    But here's the thing.

    13:53-13:57

    In the Old Testament, can you see that from where you are?

    13:58-14:02

    Don't you regret not sitting in the front row if you can't?

    14:02-14:07

    In the Old Testament, it says that the Messiah would come and suffer and the Messiah would reign.

    14:08-14:12

    That's all it said, Messiah suffers, Messiah reigns, Messiah suffers, Messiah reigns.

    14:12-14:13

    We just did a whole series about this.

    14:14-14:15

    And then we're like one sermon about that.

    14:15-14:27

    But something you don't see in the Old Testament, it's not revealed until the New Testament, is there is a period of time between the suffering and the reigning of the Messiah.

    14:28-14:29

    There's a period of time.

    14:30-14:34

    The disciples didn't know that because you don't see that in the Old Testament.

    14:34-14:36

    It's not revealed until the New Testament.

    14:39-14:46

    The Old Testament says nothing about the church age, the days that we live in now.

    14:48-14:50

    Again, that comes up in the New Testament.

    14:50-15:05

    The disciples did not understand that Jesus was going to leave and that he was going to come back further down the road.

    15:06-15:10

    Again, this stuff is being revealed fresh, it's new.

    15:11-15:13

    You see that even in the book of Acts, right?

    15:13-15:16

    Acts chapter one, there, Jesus is about to ascend to heaven.

    15:16-15:17

    Remember what the disciples said?

    15:18-15:20

    They were like, "Lord, is it at this time that you're gonna restore the kingdom to Israel.

    15:21-15:25

    They still thought it was gonna be like right now, but it wasn't.

    15:26-15:35

    Jesus says, "Down the road, down the road." And those are the days that we live in now.

    15:36-15:48

    So in Matthew 24 and 25, Jesus is telling them what's going to happen between his first coming and his second coming, the church age, through the tribulation, all the way to revelation events.

    15:48-15:54

    So in Matthew 24, about 30 AD, you see what Jesus is doing.

    15:55-15:59

    He's laying out future prophetic history.

    15:59-16:01

    Jesus said, let me tell you about the temple.

    16:02-16:03

    We saw how that was fulfilled.

    16:03-16:05

    And then let me tell you what's next.

    16:06-16:11

    And then ultimately we're gonna talk about the seven year tribulation, which is yet future.

    16:13-16:14

    Talk about that next week.

    16:15-16:24

    But today, today, we are going to talk about how Jesus described today.

    16:27-16:37

    And like the temple prophecy, bless you, like the temple prophecy, he nailed it perfectly.

    16:40-16:41

    Look at verse eight.

    16:41-16:47

    Verse eight's kind of the verse to me that kind of is the undercurrent of this whole passage.

    16:48-16:58

    Verse eight says, "All these are but the beginning of the birth pains." Birth pains.

    17:00-17:02

    How does that typically work?

    17:02-17:09

    Typically, when a woman is pregnant and is going to give birth, how does that typically happen?

    17:11-17:14

    You know, I asked the first service and they acted like they had no idea.

    17:15-17:16

    Like, come on.

    17:17-17:18

    Have you been to our kids' ministry?

    17:19-17:25

    Or like the church of the little old woman that lived in a shoe, and you're all pretending you don't know how babies are made.

    17:28-17:30

    How do birth pains typically happen?

    17:32-17:37

    When it comes close to the time, it's, oh, labor pain, right?

    17:38-17:40

    Now, I'm speaking from secondhand experience.

    17:40-17:41

    (congregation laughing)

    17:45-17:47

    We live in a day where I probably had to say that.

    17:48-17:48

    (congregation laughing)

    17:51-17:54

    Oh, I had a little labor pain there.

    17:55-18:02

    And then they get closer and closer together and they get more intense.

    18:04-18:12

    And then you get to the point where they're really close together and they're really intense And we got to get to the hospital because what comes next?

    18:14-18:15

    Okay, the four of you that knew that.

    18:16-18:18

    The baby's coming, right?

    18:19-18:28

    Listen, that is the metaphor that our Lord selected so appropriate because here's, this is it through history.

    18:29-18:31

    As you go through history, there's going to be birth pains.

    18:31-18:33

    More and more closer together, more intense.

    18:34-18:35

    More and more closer together, more intense.

    18:35-18:37

    More and more closer together, more intense.

    18:37-18:50

    And then once you get here to the seven year tribulation, that's like when the woman's at the hospital, like, "Whoa, the baby's coming." And then, then, then he's coming, but he's not coming as a baby this time.

    18:53-18:53

    No, no, no.

    18:55-18:57

    That's how it is leading to the end.

    18:58-19:00

    More pains, closer together, more intense.

    19:00-19:03

    So it's gonna get bad.

    19:05-19:07

    on your outline, I want you to jot some things down.

    19:09-19:10

    How to get through birth pains.

    19:12-19:13

    How to get through birth pains.

    19:16-19:17

    Three things.

    19:19-19:20

    How to get through birth pains.

    19:20-19:21

    Number one, see that you're not deceived.

    19:23-19:24

    See that you're not deceived.

    19:26-19:26

    Look at verse four.

    19:27-19:29

    And Jesus answered them.

    19:30-19:31

    Okay, this is in response to their question.

    19:33-19:35

    And Jesus answered their three-part question.

    19:36-19:41

    Jesus answered them, "See that no one leads you astray.

    19:44-19:57

    "For many will come in my name saying, "I am the Christ, and they will lead many astray." See the warning?

    19:57-19:59

    See that no one leads you astray.

    20:01-20:03

    My friends, Jesus is warning us.

    20:04-20:14

    In these days in which we live, around every corner, someone is going to try to lead you astray.

    20:16-20:19

    Someone is going to try to deceive you.

    20:23-20:26

    And here Jesus talks about false Christs.

    20:26-20:29

    The Bible talks about antichrists.

    20:30-20:31

    1 John chapter two.

    20:31-20:34

    Now we talk about false Christ and antichrist.

    20:34-20:54

    Listen, we're not talking about people that are coming out denouncing the Lord, as much as we're talking about people that are coming out saying they are the Lord or they represent the Lord when they really don't.

    20:58-21:11

    My brothers and sisters, we are surrounded by these people that would say that they are the ones, they're the Christ or representing the Christ when they're leading people astray.

    21:12-21:18

    Cults like the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Christian scientists.

    21:20-21:28

    If you're like, really this leading people astray from the truth of God's word and the worship of Christ, like, is that really a thing?

    21:28-21:30

    Aren't you sensationalizing this, Pastor Jeff?

    21:30-21:33

    Take a drive up to Cranberry and check out the new Mormon temple.

    21:34-21:39

    There are so many people being led astray from the clear truth of God's word.

    21:41-21:47

    This is what Jesus is talking about, is going to be happening, and you're watching it right before your eyes.

    21:48-21:51

    Birth pains, birth pains, oh, oh, it's happening.

    21:52-22:03

    Closer together, more and more intense, And you are constantly bombarded with lies, things that will entice you away from the truth of God's word.

    22:04-22:07

    Like, yeah, yeah, them cults, am I right?

    22:07-22:08

    Not just them.

    22:09-22:21

    I'm talking about authentic looking churches or churches that used to be authentic, but have gotten away from the mission.

    22:24-22:34

    And now all of a sudden these churches that I imagine started because they wanted to proclaim the gospel and see people saved from their sin.

    22:34-22:36

    I imagine that's why they started.

    22:36-22:40

    But now we're waving rainbow flags and we're and we're scratching ears.

    22:41-22:42

    What?

    22:45-22:47

    Jesus says, see that no one leads you astray.

    22:49-22:54

    You have to know what God's word actually says.

    22:57-23:01

    And that's why we are walking through this text.

    23:02-23:10

    You can fact check me, everything that I say, is it representing what the word of God says?

    23:16-24:23

    That's why we preach God's word at this church verse by verse at Harvest Bible Chapel. Bible is our middle name, and that is the hill that I will die on. And I will go to the matter of this and have, and I'm sure I'll have to again. But whoever stands up here has to represent the Word of God clearly and accurately. Not a little spin, not a little twist, not a little inserting something else and I'm going to tell you my biggest concern for this church. Now hear me, I don't mean the church general, the church universal, the church across the street. This is the church that I love. You are the people that I love And I have a serious pastoral concern for this church, especially in light of what our Lord says.

    24:23-24:33

    And my concern is lack of discernment. So concerned, I have a whole series about this coming up.

    24:34-25:08

    Lack of discernment. That's my concern for this church, because people just gobble up unbiblical things. They just gobble it up. You're like, "Well, what kind of unbiblical things?" Please hear me. You've got to hear my heart on this. Things like end times fear-mongering. People gobble that up. Things like self -affirming, man-centered empowerment talks versus Jesus Christ as the center proclamation.

    25:09-25:20

    People gobble that up or some kind of weird Christian patriotism. America is the chosen nation.

    25:20-25:37

    America is the new Israel. USA! USA! USA! We are like Jesus to the world. People gobble up so much stuff that just is not biblical.

    25:40-25:41

    And I hear it all the time.

    25:42-25:54

    People say, "Oh, this podcaster I listen to said this." Or, "Oh, I saw this YouTube video proving that." Or, "You know, there's this preacher I follow who lives far away.

    25:55-25:59

    Listen to what he said." Oh, that's always a weird thing to me.

    25:59-26:05

    Do you realize the further away a preacher is from you, geographically, the more authority he has?

    26:06-26:07

    Did you ever notice that?

    26:09-26:11

    Like if a guy down the road says it, whatever.

    26:12-26:16

    But if the guy lives on the other side of the country, ooh, he must be an expert.

    26:19-26:22

    Maybe there's a lot of people like in California that think I'm an expert.

    26:28-26:31

    Listen, here's what matters.

    26:31-26:33

    What does the Bible say?

    26:33-26:35

    What does the Bible say?

    26:36-26:39

    I don't really care what the Mickey Mouse Podcaster says.

    26:40-26:41

    I care what God said.

    26:44-26:46

    I don't care what the YouTube video says.

    26:47-26:49

    I care what the scripture says.

    26:51-26:52

    And you know what the scripture says?

    26:53-26:53

    You know what it says?

    26:56-26:57

    See that no one leads you astray.

    26:59-27:00

    That's what Jesus said.

    27:02-27:06

    Listen, not everything calling itself Christian represents Christ.

    27:07-27:13

    And people, you've gotta know the Bible and you've gotta have discernment or you're gonna get suckered.

    27:15-27:16

    It's gonna get bad.

    27:18-27:19

    How to get through the birth pains.

    27:21-27:23

    Well, see that you're not deceived, number two.

    27:24-27:25

    See that you're not alarmed.

    27:27-27:28

    See that you're not alarmed.

    27:30-27:31

    Look at verse 6.

    27:33-27:37

    He says, "And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.

    27:39-27:40

    See that you are not alarmed.

    27:43-27:46

    For this must take place, but the end is not yet.

    27:46-28:18

    For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom." will be famines and earthquakes in various places. Stop there. Jesus said you're gonna hear about wars and rumors of wars. So we're, Jesus said in this age in which we live, you're either gonna be in a war or you're gonna hear about a war or both.

    28:20-28:25

    And it's birth pains, it's birth pains. Closer together, more intense.

    28:26-29:18

    It's happening. It's happening on a global scale. And by the way, when Jesus says, "You shall hear," the Greek tense is continual. What Jesus was saying was, "In this day, you're constantly going to be hearing about wars going on. Constantly." Have you noticed? Have this minute, you notice what's happening with Ukraine and Russia? Do you hear about that? Have you heard about what's happening in Haiti? I just read the other day rumblings about war with Iran. This is my shocked face. Israel and Hamas. It's Oh, and then he talks about famines and earthquakes.

    29:18-29:21

    Luke gives us a little more detail.

    29:21-29:26

    He adds pestilence, various places all over.

    29:26-29:31

    And we're gonna be talking about some of these manifestations of these signs here in a couple of weeks.

    29:34-29:35

    We'll talk more about that.

    29:35-29:37

    I have a whole thing about that.

    29:37-29:38

    We'll roll out.

    29:40-29:41

    Isn't it interesting?

    29:42-29:46

    Jesus says, "See that you're not alarmed." Because that's not the end yet.

    29:52-29:53

    That's kind of funny actually.

    29:55-30:12

    Jesus is like, okay, so nations are gonna be warring and the earth is gonna be shaking and people are gonna be dying of diseases and some people are gonna be dying because they don't have enough food and don't be alarmed about that.

    30:15-30:20

    I'm sorry, but this seems like the perfect time to panic.

    30:20-30:20

    To me.

    30:24-30:35

    And you're like, how can I turn on the news and see all of this stuff and not panic?

    30:37-30:39

    I mean, how am I supposed to be okay with this?

    30:43-30:48

    Well, Jesus tells us exactly how to not panic.

    30:49-30:49

    Look at verse eight.

    30:51-30:55

    All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.

    30:55-30:57

    Boom, there it is.

    30:57-31:08

    You will not be alarmed if you understand how birth pains work and what they result in.

    31:10-31:17

    If you get that, You're not going to be alarmed.

    31:19-31:19

    Nick, what do you mean?

    31:20-31:22

    Well, let's just pretend for a second.

    31:22-31:23

    Can we pretend?

    31:23-31:24

    Can we pretend here for a second?

    31:24-31:29

    Let's pretend that I don't know how a child is born.

    31:30-31:38

    Let's just pretend I'm ignorant of that whole process of how a child is born.

    31:41-31:41

    All right?

    31:43-31:52

    But we're here in church, and I'm standing up here, and you're sitting down there, and there's a dear woman in our church that is nine months pregnant.

    31:56-32:25

    And right this minute, during service, she goes, "Oh, oh." And I'm like, "What's the problem?" says she's having a birth pain and I'm like a birth pain now here oh what are we gonna do oh god why would you let this happen to this woman? This is terrible!

    32:28-32:33

    You would come up on the stage and you'd put your arm around me and you'd say Jefe?

    32:36-32:37

    This is not terrible.

    32:39-33:01

    This is expected. This is expected. But you realize this is how some people respond to the news. Whether you're watching it on TV or you're reading your news that gets sent to you on the emails. This is That's how some people respond.

    33:02-33:04

    "Oh, this is terrible, God!

    33:04-33:07

    "Why don't you do something about this?

    33:07-33:14

    "Why is this happening?" Jesus said, "This is how birth pains work.

    33:16-33:24

    "They get more intense and they get closer together "until the big events." Don't be alarmed, come on, man, don't be alarmed.

    33:32-33:41

    Aaron and I had a dear friend who, during COVID lockdowns, she's with the Lord now, she's having a good day.

    33:43-33:47

    And her breath, she's breathing the air of heaven right now.

    33:49-33:50

    She's having a good day.

    33:54-33:55

    But I felt so horrible for her.

    33:58-34:03

    Because during the COVID lockdowns, all she did was stay at home and watch CNN 24/7.

    34:05-34:10

    And the poor woman was panicked out of her mind, scared to death.

    34:12-34:23

    And it didn't really matter what Aaron and I said to her, because our voice was very small compared to the garbage it was being pumped into her from CNN.

    34:26-34:28

    This is exactly what Jesus is talking about.

    34:29-34:29

    Don't be alarmed.

    34:30-34:32

    Birth pains, it's birth pains.

    34:36-34:39

    So yes, yes, watch the news, absolutely.

    34:41-34:44

    If you're like me, maybe you get the news in the email.

    34:46-34:49

    And if you don't know what email is, you're either really young or really old.

    34:51-34:54

    But that's, yes, watch the news.

    34:54-34:58

    But listen, do it through a biblical filter.

    35:00-35:01

    See that you're not alarmed.

    35:03-35:05

    Listen, you're not meant to live in fear.

    35:08-35:10

    God did not intend for you to live in fear.

    35:11-35:13

    The Bible is crystal on that.

    35:14-35:17

    If you're a born again follower of Christ, you know what that means?

    35:18-35:19

    That means your sin's been taken away.

    35:20-35:24

    That means you have the promise of heaven through believing, receiving Jesus Christ.

    35:24-35:29

    You're a child of God and you are guaranteed that your best days are ahead of you.

    35:30-35:32

    You're not meant to live in fear.

    35:33-35:41

    You're meant to live in a humble confidence that your heavenly father has given you and will give you everything that you need.

    35:44-35:51

    So my friends, we should watch the news, seeing all these bad things that Jesus is talking about.

    35:51-35:53

    We should watch the news just seeing these as birth pains.

    35:54-36:06

    Again, I'm gonna talk about these signs in a couple of weeks but if you see it as our Lord described it, I get those emails, earthquake here, war happening here, disease happening here.

    36:06-36:12

    Just like Jesus said, just like he said.

    36:14-36:23

    And just as birth pains mean that the baby's coming, these events that he's talking about mean that our Lord is coming.

    36:26-36:32

    So see that you're not deceived and see that you're not alarmed.

    36:33-36:35

    And number three, see that you're not wavering.

    36:36-36:37

    See that you're not wavering.

    36:41-36:41

    Look at verse nine.

    36:44-37:10

    Jesus goes on, doesn't get any softer by the way, he says, "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake." Hating, arresting, killing God's people, That's nothing new.

    37:12-37:14

    That's always been a thing.

    37:15-37:17

    Read Fox's Book of Martyrs.

    37:19-37:21

    Oh, here's a not so fun fact for you.

    37:21-37:25

    Do you know which period of history saw the most persecution against Christians?

    37:26-37:27

    Do you know which century?

    37:28-37:30

    How about the last 100 years?

    37:32-37:32

    True.

    37:34-37:35

    It's birth pains.

    37:36-37:39

    It's happening closer together, more intense.

    37:41-37:45

    There's pregnant women in our church that have not enjoyed this sermon.

    37:47-37:56

    But notice Jesus said, "It's for my namesake." Okay, people hate you for Jesus' namesake, right?

    37:56-37:59

    If you identify with Jesus Christ, you are public enemy.

    38:02-38:03

    Why does the world hate Christ?

    38:04-38:05

    Oh, the world does, by the way, but why?

    38:06-38:07

    Why does the world hate Christ?

    38:07-38:10

    Because Christ will not affirm you in your sin.

    38:13-38:15

    Jesus Christ will not redefine your sin.

    38:16-38:18

    Jesus Christ calls sin, sin.

    38:19-38:26

    Jesus calls you to do things like deny yourself, the hardest thing possible to do.

    38:27-38:28

    Say no to yourself.

    38:28-38:29

    Jesus calls you to do that.

    38:29-38:32

    Jesus calls you to pick up your cross and follow him.

    38:32-38:41

    Jesus calls us to a lordship way of living where he is Lord over every area of my life.

    38:46-38:54

    So the world hates him and the world hates his people when we echo his message.

    38:55-38:57

    So my brothers and sisters, we can't waver in our walks.

    39:00-39:10

    We can't waver in our walks, not in our homes, not in our schools, not in our workplaces.

    39:13-39:15

    And God help us, not in our church.

    39:15-39:16

    We can't waver.

    39:17-39:18

    We can't waver.

    39:20-39:25

    And for you parents, for you parents, I just wanna challenge you.

    39:26-39:29

    How are you preparing your kids for verse nine?

    39:30-39:33

    How are you preparing your kids for that?

    39:34-39:39

    Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so, 100%.

    39:40-39:41

    But you know what else the Bible tells me so?

    39:43-39:49

    Is that those kids that you're raising to love Christ, the world's gonna hate them just because of that.

    39:49-39:51

    Are you preparing them for that?

    39:54-39:55

    We can't waver.

    39:56-39:56

    We can't waver.

    39:57-40:08

    Jesus promised an ever increasing manifestation of evil that's going to see people fall away from faith.

    40:11-40:23

    Some people are going to fall away from faith because of persecution as we just saw, but he goes on, look at verse 10, says that many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.

    40:29-40:31

    So many people fall away because of persecution.

    40:32-40:33

    Jesus talks about betrayal.

    40:34-40:43

    There are going to be people that you love and you trusted who will betray you, turn you in, sell you out.

    40:46-40:47

    It's the worst kind of pain.

    40:48-40:51

    Have you ever trusted someone who stabbed you in the back?

    40:54-40:55

    It's the worst kind of pain.

    40:57-40:58

    Some people fall away because of persecution.

    40:59-41:01

    Some people fall away because they're deceived.

    41:01-41:09

    Verse 11, look, Jesus says, and many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.

    41:11-41:14

    Again, church discernment, discernment.

    41:14-41:18

    You've got to know your Bibles and you've got to be unwavering on that.

    41:18-41:19

    What does the Bible say?

    41:23-41:25

    Some are going to fall away because of sin.

    41:26-41:26

    Look at verse 12.

    41:28-41:36

    Verse 12 says, "And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold." Love will grow cold.

    41:37-41:38

    Boy, that's not a hard sell, is it?

    41:40-41:41

    Have you noticed?

    41:42-41:43

    Have you been paying attention?

    41:45-41:47

    The love of people is gonna grow cold.

    41:47-41:51

    People are becoming more and more cold.

    41:53-41:58

    People are becoming more and more heartless, just completely heartless.

    42:00-42:03

    Again, in a couple of weeks, we're gonna be talking about some of these signs.

    42:06-42:10

    But here's one, if you're not convinced that people are becoming cold and heartless.

    42:10-42:15

    You know what I think is the most savage, heartless thing?

    42:18-42:29

    Is when a woman will march and scream and protest for the right to murder her own baby.

    42:31-42:33

    I can't think of anything more savage than that.

    42:35-42:40

    A woman screaming, demanding the right that she should be able to murder her baby.

    42:42-42:43

    And that's what's happening.

    42:46-42:47

    Love going cold.

    42:52-42:52

    Birth pains.

    42:54-42:57

    So many people waver and fall away.

    42:58-42:59

    We're seeing it.

    42:59-43:00

    We're seeing it.

    43:00-43:02

    People stop coming to church.

    43:02-43:03

    People stop serving.

    43:04-43:06

    People stop pursuing Christ.

    43:06-43:06

    We see it.

    43:09-43:17

    And at this point you're like, man, so people are falling away for all these repersecution and deception and sin.

    43:18-43:22

    Like how in the world would you know who actually is saved?

    43:23-43:25

    I'm glad you asked that because look at the next verse.

    43:27-43:30

    Jesus says, but the one who endures to the end will be saved.

    43:36-43:38

    The saved people endure.

    43:38-43:39

    The saved people won't waver.

    43:43-43:47

    You see persecution and deception and sin, those things show you.

    43:49-43:55

    They show you who is real because real believers will never fall away.

    43:57-43:57

    They won't.

    43:58-44:02

    If you're a true born again believer in Jesus Christ, you will not fall away.

    44:05-44:07

    And if you're just a pretender, you will.

    44:08-44:10

    If you're just a church goer, you will.

    44:11-44:14

    So let me ask you, what's gonna get you?

    44:15-44:16

    What's gonna get you?

    44:17-44:19

    What's going to make you fall away?

    44:20-44:21

    Is it persecution?

    44:22-44:23

    Is that gonna get you?

    44:24-44:31

    You're like, I'm committed, oh, until it gets hard, until people hate you, until people treat you differently because you said you love Jesus.

    44:32-44:34

    Oh, it's just too, it's just too hard.

    44:35-44:36

    Oh, it's just too hard.

    44:37-44:38

    Is that what's gonna get you?

    44:41-44:42

    Is that your testimony?

    44:42-44:44

    You wanna stand before the Lord someday?

    44:44-44:48

    Well, I wanna follow, Jim, but I got hard and I don't like doing hard things.

    44:49-44:49

    Really?

    44:51-44:52

    That's your testimony?

    44:53-44:54

    It just got too hard?

    44:54-44:56

    You didn't find Christ worth it?

    44:57-45:00

    You didn't find eternal life worth it?

    45:00-45:03

    You didn't find all the promises of heaven worth it?

    45:04-45:11

    "Why did you do so hard?" "Yeah, for like 15 minutes, it's hard." Really? Is that what got you?

    45:13-45:14

    Or maybe it's deception.

    45:15-45:17

    Is deception what's gonna get you?

    45:18-45:20

    Is that what's gonna make you fall away?

    45:21-45:32

    That you don't know your Bible well enough, that some jamoke's gonna come along and preach some garbage doctrine, and you're like, "Well, I guess I'll follow him." Because you don't know your Bible.

    45:32-45:33

    Is that what's gonna get you?

    45:37-45:38

    Really?

    45:38-45:40

    Is that gonna be your testimony on that day?

    45:40-45:47

    Yeah, Lord, thanks for writing your truth down, Lord, and thanks for putting it in all the hotel rooms I stayed at.

    45:49-45:50

    That was helpful.

    45:51-45:53

    But you know, I just didn't really spend the time to get to know what it said.

    45:54-45:56

    That's why I fell for that stupid stuff.

    45:57-45:58

    Was that what's gonna get you?

    46:02-46:03

    or maybe it's sin.

    46:04-46:05

    Is sin what's going to get you?

    46:08-46:16

    That you're going to find that your love for sin is hot, and your love for Jesus is cold.

    46:17-46:19

    Your love for God's people is cold.

    46:19-46:20

    Is that what's going to get you?

    46:22-46:23

    You just lost heart.

    46:25-46:31

    Don't really love Jesus as much as I thought I did, because I'm not willing to give up my sin.

    46:32-46:33

    Is that what it's gonna be for you?

    46:37-46:38

    See that you're not wavering.

    46:42-46:43

    Who's up for some good news?

    46:45-46:46

    Couple of you are?

    46:48-46:48

    Great.

    46:51-46:52

    Look at verse 14.

    46:55-47:06

    And the gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations.

    47:07-47:08

    And then the end will come.

    47:11-47:16

    You know, the Bible calls the gospel, the power of God.

    47:16-47:17

    Did you know that?

    47:17-47:20

    Romans 1 16, not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God.

    47:21-47:24

    Do you think there's anything on this planet that's going to stop the gospel?

    47:25-47:25

    Really?

    47:25-47:32

    You think these wars and earthquakes and viruses, You think all this stuff is going to stop the gospel?

    47:33-47:33

    Really?

    47:35-47:37

    Look, that's what Jesus says here.

    47:37-47:46

    Hey, the gospel of this gospel is going out in spite of all of...

    47:48-47:52

    Actually, let me rephrase that.

    47:53-47:57

    Because you know, sometimes the gospel doesn't go out in spite of all the bad things.

    47:58-48:03

    Sometimes the gospel goes out because of the bad things.

    48:05-48:07

    I get it, I'm ashamed to stand here and admit this to you.

    48:08-48:15

    But when you remember COVID, all that hysteria, I'm ashamed to admit I thought it was gonna sink the church.

    48:16-48:18

    How's our church gonna survive if nobody's allowed to be here?

    48:21-48:26

    They're locking the doors, they're not letting people, you know, we saw what was happening up North, pastors getting arrested.

    48:28-48:34

    I shamefully and faithlessly thought that COVID was gonna sink this church.

    48:36-48:36

    What's gonna happen?

    48:40-48:40

    Do you know what did happen?

    48:44-48:48

    Well, we got like the most brilliant minds in the world that work in our AV ministry.

    48:49-48:55

    So they got these high pollutant cameras and they got this high pollutant streaming equipment.

    48:56-48:57

    I don't even know what that stuff is called.

    48:59-49:03

    But COVID forced us to up our streaming game.

    49:04-49:05

    And do you know what happened as a result of that?

    49:07-49:10

    I get messages literally from all over the world.

    49:11-49:15

    Hey, Jeff, you don't know me, but I watch you every week.

    49:16-49:19

    We are so blessed by studying the Bible with you.

    49:20-49:28

    We're talking all over the United States and Ghana and Uganda and Japan and Thailand and, and, and, and.

    49:31-49:40

    I believe Satan was like, "Hey, watch how I stopped the gospel with COVID." And God's like, God's like, "Watch this, watch this.

    49:42-49:55

    I'll reach people that they never imagined would be reached through this." What a privilege, what a privilege to be a part of what God's doing.

    49:59-50:00

    It's gonna get bad.

    50:02-50:09

    You know, that's what I called this before the bulletins were printed and it was too late to change it.

    50:10-50:14

    But if I could change it, I'm not sure bad is the right word.

    50:15-50:17

    How about difficult?

    50:19-50:20

    That's a better word, isn't it?

    50:23-50:25

    And it is difficult.

    50:27-50:28

    Do you know what the church needs, though?

    50:28-50:29

    Do you know what this church needs?

    50:30-50:44

    This church needs born-again disciples of Jesus Christ who will not be deceived, who will not be alarmed, and who will not waver.

    50:46-50:50

    And I'm blessed to be a part of a church that has such people.

    50:51-50:52

    Are you one of them?

    50:54-50:54

    Are you one of them?

    50:57-50:59

    Are you serving Jesus Christ faithfully in his church?

    51:01-51:02

    What about giving?

    51:03-51:04

    Are you giving?

    51:04-51:08

    Are you investing in what God's doing?

    51:11-51:14

    We realized on Friday we close on a piece of property.

    51:16-51:20

    And we are putting a building on that property.

    51:22-51:23

    And we need the funds.

    51:23-51:24

    Are you investing in that?

    51:27-51:30

    And this isn't just a building on a piece of property.

    51:30-51:37

    This is an opportunity in the face of all of these difficult things that are coming.

    51:37-51:41

    We can raise a generation of kids will stand for Jesus Christ.

    51:44-51:55

    This is an opportunity where we can reach even more people in this community with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I have to ask you, what are you investing yourself in?

    51:56-52:11

    If you consider that not a worthy enough cause to invest in, what are you investing in? How are you spending God's money. We have a tremendous opportunity. Let's grab it.

    52:13-52:24

    Let's grab it. So thankful to be part of this church, to be part of the faithful who are serving and giving.

    52:25-52:27

    And if you're not on board though, you can step up.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 24:1-14

  1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?

  2. Some people believe all these events Jesus described (Matt 24:4-14) happened in the 1st century, and some people believe they are all in the future tribulation. What reason do we have to believe that these events take place during the “church age” (=now)?

  3. Jesus said when we see these signs, we should not be alarmed (Matt 24:6b). Do you get alarmed at the news? What’s the difference between “not really caring about what’s happening” to “not being alarmed”?

  4. Read Matt 24:9 again. If you are a parent: how are you preparing your children for this?

Breakout
Pray for one another.


Want more eschatology teaching?

Catch up on the previous verse by verse teaching through Revelation

Catch up on the previous verse by verse teaching through 2 Thessalonians