Main Idea: Be encouraged and motivated to faithful obedience by Jesus’ imminent return.
JESUS WILL RESTORE THE DEAD TO LIFE
Those who died believing in Jesus are with Jesus right now.
Jesus will bring them with Him to Earth when He returns.
They’ll receive their glorified bodies first, then the living will.
JESUS WILL RESTORE THE LIGHT OF HIS LIFE TO OUR SIN-DARKENED WORLD
Jesus’ sudden return will upend this world’s nations & systems.
We are to live today like we will in His kingdom, with His ethics.
SERMON TRANSCRIPT (AUTO-TRANSCRIBED BY APPLE PODCASTS)
Turn over to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. We are, okay, I know I apologize for this every time.
I don't necessarily have to apologize, but I'm going to. They have to take off my jacket. I'm not like trying to just be as casual as possible, but I'm, it was a little bit warmer than I anticipated it being.
And so I can either sweat like a sinner in church, or I can take off my thick, which, amen. That's all we have represented here in this room. Not you guys, me, but not you guys.
You guys are fine. Let's take just a second for review. We're going to ask questions this time.
Okay, who wrote the book of 1st Thessalonians? Shout it out. All right, I heard very quiet Pauls.
You are correct. And also it comes by way of Silas, also called Silvanus is another version of his name and Timothy. And these men, they planted a church in the port city of Thessalonica.
They're in kind of the Macedonia, Greece region of the world. And can anyone remember how many weeks were Paul and Silas and Timothy there in the city? Okay, I'm hearing very quiet threes.
Yes, Mike's putting his hand up with a three gold star for Mike. It was three weeks that they were there. And they were run out of town because of religious jealousy from a group of kind of the Old Testament believers who rejected Jesus as Messiah.
And so they were run out of town. And as a result, Paul was really nervous about the faith of these young believers. And he wanted to make sure that they were okay, that they were still Christians, even though it had been such a short time.
And so it says when he could no longer stand it in chapter three, he sent Timothy to go check on them. And Timothy brought back wonderful news that despite the persecution, they were still following the Lord, loving Jesus.
They had gotten rid of their idols that they had once worshiped and served.
And they were an example to everyone in the area that wherever Paul and Silas and Timothy were going, they were hearing news about, oh, is that what happened to the Thessalonians? And I love that testimony that they have.
And so Paul has been going through, putting some finishing touches on their walk with the Lord to say, all right, we gave you guys the basics, we gave you guys the gospel, we gave you guys even as we read over the past couple of weeks, some ways in
which they are supposed to love one another, care for one another. And then in today's passage, he talks to them a little bit about Jesus' return and the impact that that has even on those that were in Thessalonica that had believed in Jesus but had
since died. Could have been due to old age or sickness, disease, could have been due to the persecution like Paul and Silas and Timothy had been experiencing, but there were brothers and sisters in the Lord that had died.
And so Paul in today's passage tells them, as I'm putting some finishing touches on your guys' faith, I want you to know that Jesus will bring restoration and life.
And the main thought that we're going to see for today is this, is that we ought to be encouraged and motivated to faithful obedience by Jesus' eminent return. Encouraged and motivated to faithful obedience by Jesus' eminent return.
Eminent is that he could come at any time. It's that song that we sing, even so come quickly, Lord Jesus. They're taken from the end of the Book of Revelation and what John said there.
So, let's pray together and dive into what the Lord has for us today. I will also say this. I fully recognize that it is a very rainy Sunday morning.
It's a little bit darker because, you know, there's not the bright sun coming through. There's a nice little lull of rain.
If you fall asleep, I want you to know that we are told in Psalm 3 that the Lord is the one who gives his beloved sleep, and there is no better place to take a nap than in the House of God with the people of God.
I'm not encouraging you to do it, necessarily, but if the sound of my voice isn't so grating that it keeps you up and you fall asleep because you're tired, I get it, and I'm thankful that the Lord has you here with us this morning.
I just wanted to mention that. Let's pray and ask for God to work in us today. God, thank you for your goodness to us.
Lord, thank you for the grace that we have in Christ Jesus.
Lord, we pray that as we look at the fact that you are going to return to judge the living and the dead, Lord, may we be so grateful for the Cross of Calvary, that Lord, we the condemned, the guilty, are declared righteous.
Lord, on the Cross, you said, it is finished, not it is partially done, not, well, I gave them a good shot. Lord, it is finished.
And so Lord, we pray that you would help us, even as we come face to face with the fact that the King is returning to claim his throne. Lord, may it not fill our hearts with dread for those of us that have called on Christ as Savior.
Lord, for those that do not yet know you as Savior, that they have never bent the knee to King Jesus. Lord, I pray that there would be a holy fear and reverence to know that that day of judgment is coming.
And Lord, there is no judgment, there's no condemnation, a declaration of guilt and punishment for those that have placed their faith in Christ.
Lord, you're not looking for the perfect, you are looking for those who will repent of sin and believe in Jesus. And so Lord, on the basis of Christ's work, we're not our own. We come before you today, and we ask that you would speak to our hearts.
We love you and pray all of this in your name. Amen.
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Hope for Believers
All right, I'm not going to lie, guys, I'm so looking forward to this message. This is a phenomenal portion of scripture. And so let's dive right into it now in verse number 13.
I encourage you to follow along in your Bible. You can look at the screens. The passage is also on the back of your sermon handout that you received in your bulletin this morning.
We want to give you as many ways as humanly possible to be able to see what the Lord has. It says this in verse number 13.
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest who have no hope. This phrasing of asleep, this is those that are dead.
This is a way that Jesus in the gospel accounts talked about those that died believing in the Lord, believing in Jesus, that the assumption is, if you are asleep, you're going to wake back up.
And that was certainly Jesus' confident expectation as God incarnate, knowing that death is not the end for the child of God. Instead, there is coming a wonderful resurrection day.
So he says, about those that have died, I don't want you to grieve like people that have no hope. As a pastor, I've been able to do many, many funeral services for people.
It's actually one of the most ennobling things that I ever get to sit in on or to be a part of in recognizing when someone has passed from this life and gone to the next.
I have been at funerals of people that were almost forgotten by all but just a small handful of people. I've been in funeral services with a couple of thousand people there.
There is a stark difference between a funeral for a child of God that everyone knows exactly where they are and people that don't know really about the Lord, don't know about God. The way that we grieve is fundamentally different.
And what Paul tells the Thessalonian believers and tells us today is that when we have loved ones that die in the Lord, we have hope. We have grief, certainly. And he doesn't say, don't grieve.
He says, don't grieve like the rest who have no hope. There's a different kind of grieving.
I think even of Jesus in John 11, as he weeps at the tomb of Lazarus, and that same God who wept in that moment and a few moments later would raise Lazarus from the dead, certainly does not condemn our tears and our grief at the loss of our loved
ones. So he says, I want you to have hope. He says, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, pause right there, if you're here today, do you believe that Jesus died and rose again?
I hope that each one of us here, that that would be our firm hearted declaration. That is the Christian faith. It is not that Jesus is merely a good teacher.
It's not that he was a role model. It's not that he was just the picture of how evil humanity is, that we would take such a great guy and kill him. The gospel message is that Jesus died and rose again.
He says in the same way, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. I want to want us to draw attention to this. Jesus, when he returns, is bringing our loved ones to us.
They are with him right now. I love what we are told throughout scripture that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. In John 14, we are told that Jesus goes to prepare a place for us so that where he is, there we may be also.
And what a joy that the moment that we close our eyes on this side of eternity, our eyes will awaken to see the Lord. I love there's an old Fanny Crosby hymn that talks about like the difficulty of life.
And then she says, But just think about stepping on shore and finding it heaven, of touching a hand and finding it gods, of breathing new air and finding it celestial, of waking up in glory and finding it home.
Man, if Randy was feeling well today, I would be like, listen, you're playing that at the end of everything. I love that hymn. It's a fantastic one.
But Jesus is going to bring with him those that have fallen asleep. I also want us to notice this today. The anticipation, the assumption of both Paul and the Thessalonian believers was about physical resurrection, not just cloud eternity.
So you've probably heard people before, or you've seen a Tom and Jerry cartoon.
And when people think about heaven, they're going, okay, we're all on clouds, and we've got like harps and stuff and robes, and we're just centering around Jesus, and that's eternity, that's heaven, that's everything that we've got going for us.
Some of you introverts might think, okay, heaven is where I don't have to talk to anyone anymore. I just have like my mansion over the hilltop, and the rest of you guys can do whatever you want to do. I'm staying put, I'm a homebody.
That's not what scripture teaches at all.
Instead, what we are told is that as God, with Adam and Eve in the beginning, made them from the dirt, and gave them new life, and gave them a stewardship, that is also what awaits us in the new heaven and the new earth, the skies and the land, that
what God began in creation, He will bring back to fulfillment. When you read through the end of Revelation, what you find is the heaven, new Jerusalem, the place where God resides, has come down and is now with man, and that He will live with his
people. So realize, even as you enjoy things in the here and now, I know we have some people that love going out on boats, we have people that love doing some hunting and some fishing, I know we have people that enjoy walking around in nature, people
that love swimming, all sorts of different things that you guys enjoy. Those are good gifts to you from our heavenly father, that certainly as Jesus resurrected walking this earth, kind of taunted the fishermen as they were unsuccessful for most of
the night there in John 20 and 21, that we too will be able to enjoy the fullness of God's creation forever and always. And I look forward to that day, where it's not just cloud eternity, though we know in the right here and now, if heaven forbid, I
get a heart attack and I'm down right here on the platform, thankfully we have several people who know nursing stuff and you can call 9-1-1 for me. Don't have too much caffeine in the morning, guys. Not a good plan.
As we look forward to that day, oh, sorry, I was saying, if I die, I'm with the Lord and my body will not at that moment be with the Lord. It will not be a resurrection body that is laying on the ground.
And as I am in heaven, if I were to pass today, I would not yet have my resurrection body, but in that day of the happy resurrection, there is coming a day where I no longer have to deal with my sins and my imperfections that I have, and neither will
you. Instead, we look forward to our body becoming like Jesus' body. He is the first fruits showing us what this particular crop will look like. And you can read 1 Corinthians 15 to hear a little bit more about that.
In verse number 15, he says, then for this, we say this to you by a word from the Lord. So this isn't just Paul's opinion. This isn't just a hypothesis.
This is the declaration of God himself. We who are still alive at the Lord's coming will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
If you will, we are not getting a better deal when Jesus returns than those that have died in Christ, because in the moment that they are gone from us, they are with the Lord. And so they are with him and they are with him for longer.
Then he says this, For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel's voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. There will be no mistaking the day that Jesus returns.
It will be a day where, if you will, the conquering king comes back to rescue his people from the brokenness that we experience every day in our world and in ourselves.
And on that wonderful day, when he sounds the horn, you can think about it even when you were a kid, and your favorite parent or guardian, they were on a trip, and you hear their car pull up in the driveway, or you meet them at the airport, and you
see them round that corner. Think about the excitement that you have in that moment to be able to see that loved one. What a joy that it will be one day to, as we sang, did we sing it yet?
The skies be rolled back as a scroll, the trump shall resound. No, I sang it yesterday at a pastor's retreat. The song is, sorry, I have too many things running through my head.
You guys are like, yeah, we can tell. It is well with my soul, the very last verse of it, and Lord haste the day. May the day quickly be here when my faith shall be made sight.
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll, the trumpet shall sound and the Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well with my soul. I can't wait for that day when we get to see our Lord together.
Physical resurrection is the result of Jesus' return. I love there, the dead in Christ will rise first. In the order of things, the dead are the ones that get their resurrection bodies first, and then we get ours after.
He says, then we who are still alive, who remain until the coming of the Lord will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.
See, the dead are the first to rise, but we rise at the same time. We're not going to have to be like, oh, well, you know, there's a grandma self for me, or many of us remember Dale Goins.
We're not going to be like, oh, okay, enjoy, you know, whatever amount of time that they get before we also go. You know, they rise first, but we rise with them at the same time. And I love this promise.
So we will always be with the Lord. I want you to think of the best memories that you have with your most beloved one. For some of you could be a spouse, it could be a sibling, could be one of your kids, could be a friend.
Think of having unlimited time to enjoy with that person, where you never have to say goodbye. You never really have to like go to work and leave them. You never have to experience the sorrow of death and separation ever again.
We will always be with the Lord. And the Lord is that friend who sticks closer than a brother.
He is the one who tells us in Ephesians chapter two that he has all of his spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that he wants to lavish on us for all eternity. It will be a wonderful day.
Then we're told in verse number 18, what's the point of hearing about the return of Jesus for the Christian? Therefore, encourage one another with these words.
The point of hearing about Jesus' return isn't inherently to make us scared or nervous or try to read a book of 88 reasons why Jesus will return in 1988. The point of Jesus' return is not, can I put it on a timetable?
It's, I know that my king is coming back and he is going to make right everything in this world that has been made wrong, including that chief enemy that we have, death itself.
The point of eschatology, the study of end times of the last things of Jesus' return, the point of it is the comfort of Jesus' restoration of our broken world.
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Live in Light
Then in chapter five and verse number one, Paul adjusts a little bit to say, all right, that's the good end for the children of God. But then he says, here are going to be the consequences of Jesus' return on our world.
He says, about the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you don't need anything to be written to you. He says, for you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.
Here he is echoing the statements that Jesus made in the Gospels and that the apostles would have then taught to the various Christians that when Jesus returns, it's not that he's setting up a calendar date or an appointment, it is coming quickly.
And it is happening in a time when no one would quite anticipate it. He says, when they say, peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them like labor pains on a pregnant woman and they will not escape.
After this phrasing, peace and security, these were slogans of the early Roman Empire.
And here though, they assumed that in their military might and in the way that they governed the Roman Empire, that they brought peace, freedom and security to their new empire.
What they tell the people of Rome, what they told the people in Greece and Macedonia and Israel was, you should be glad that we are here and we are making your life better.
However, the way that they ruled was not bending the knee to King Jesus, not following his kingdom ethics. They ruled by their own determination of right and wrong.
If you will, going back to the Garden of Eden, it is God has laid out for us in his word what is right and what is good. And Rome and every other world empire has always said, has God said, don't do this, that or the other?
And this world's systems have over and over again taken that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that they determine on their own what is ultimately right and wrong. The world in the day that Jesus returns will think themselves safe.
They will not think that they are under any danger, certainly not from heaven coming down to earth. And just destruction will await them. Here the way that Paul explains this, he says, it's going to be like labor pains on a pregnant woman.
That you know if you are pregnant that there is going to come a day when you are going to have this baby. You do not know exactly when it might be. You might have a general idea.
But in that moment when labor pains start rolling, you know, oh, it's time. And so it will be on that day of judgment that there will be those clear signs. You can read about them in the Book of Revelation.
You can read about them in Matthew 24 and Mark 13 and several other places. But on that day, this world systems will come to an end. He says, but you brothers and sisters are not in the dark for this day to surprise you like a thief.
So he's been talking about the day of the Lord. This is when Jesus returns and he says, you are the day people. You are not the night people.
You're not in the dark. If you know Jesus, the day of the Lord is a great day. He says, for you are all children of light and children of the day.
We do not belong to the night or the darkness. You can think even of what Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter 3. He says, light has come into the world and the world did not receive it.
Men did not love the light. They loved the darkness because their deeds were evil. He says, for this reason, the son of man, Jesus, came into the world so that it would be manifest who are the children of light and the children of darkness.
The linchpin is not, are you perfect? Are you acting better today than Bryon or Jim or Peggy? That's not what is going to determine our fates on the day of judgment.
It will be, what have we done with the light of the world, Jesus Christ? He says, so then let us not sleep like the rest, but let us stay awake and be self-controlled.
He says this, you can act like you're one of the night people, in the dark, rejecting God. He says, don't act like the dying world. Act like you are in God's light.
He says, stay awake. I want you to be attentive to what is occurring all around you. Be attentive to what is good and what is right.
And then he says, be self-controlled. Realizing that Jesus can return, that ought to affect the way that we live our lives.
We should never want to be acting and behaving in such a way that should our Lord come in that moment, well, we may be children of light, but in that moment, we were acting like children of darkness.
And so Paul encourages them, I want you to act like children of light. Now, remember again, the whole point of everything that we're going to be talking about is the comfort, the encouragement to faithful obedience.
So even as I say this about, we ought to be self-controlled, we ought to be walking with the Lord.
Please, as I'm preaching, don't hear like, oh man, I should have just like this crippling fear that at any moment if Jesus comes back, what if I'm walking in the darkness? And then what if I'm not really a child of God?
That is not the point of this passage. The point of the passage is look to Jesus, walk in his light. It is not your relationship with God being determined by your good works.
But he says, let us stay awake and let us be self-controlled. He says, for those who sleep, sleep at night and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. There is a reason that the phrase is, it's five o'clock somewhere.
If you're going to drink, it's great if you don't have to do stuff. You don't have to interact with people. And here Paul is encouraging the Thessalonians, I don't want you to any longer act like you're not one of the Jesus people.
He says, the time to act like a non-Jesus person was before you knew the Lord, not after. And I think even of my own life, how many times that I have failed in that, I choose sin instead of choosing the Jesus way.
And then he says this in verse number eight, but since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled and put on the armor of faith and love and a helmet of the hope of salvation.
He says here, you're in a spiritual battle against the forces of darkness. Now, the forces of darkness are not Westmore or President Trump or whoever your favorite or least favorite politician is. Those are not our soul's enemies.
We have an enemy of the soul. His name is Satan. We're told in Ephesians 6 that we do not fight against flesh and blood.
That's people. Instead, we fight against the principalities and powers, the spiritual forces of darkness and wickedness against spiritual evil in high places.
And what we are called to do is through the light of the gospel of sharing Jesus' love and message. We transform a world, not through physical violence like Rome.
We follow the way of Jesus, and we win heart after heart with the light of the gospel of Jesus, encouraging people to walk in the light of the kingdom ethics of Christ Jesus.
If we're Christians, we ought to seriously love and walk with God through faith, love and hope. Those are those words that showed up in chapter 1, where Paul says, I'm so thankful that you guys have these.
In chapter 3, he says, I'm praying for you guys to have more of these. And then here now in chapter 5, he says, here's what you need to keep on putting on.
Faith, your belief, your consistent belief and behavior in the Lord Jesus, love the care that you have both for God and for one another, and hope that you are looking forward to that day.
That there's not a dread about your future, because if you live, you can make an impact for the kingdom of God. And if you die, you will be with the Lord. And if Jesus returns before we die, then we get to be with him forever.
The Christian life ought to be defined by hope. Then he says this, for God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. I love this, that your destination was set by God for rescue and forgiveness and salvation.
If you will, you're the kid getting put on a train going to a specific spot.
And the person that put you on the train, God the Father, he placed you into Jesus Christ, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, you are being taken into not condemnation, not tribulation or God's wrath. You are being taken to heaven.
You are being taken to him.
In those moments, as I love, I think we sang the song before the throne of God above last week, when Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see him there who made an end to all my sin.
And because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free. For God the just is satisfied to look on him and to pardon me. In the moments when your heart condemns you, God is greater than your heart, as John the Apostle tells us.
And then it says, Jesus died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. If you're living, wonderful, Jesus is living, and you can be with him forever. If you die, Jesus died, and you can be with him forever.
He is our example in every way, in life and in death. Then he says, therefore, encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing.
It says, because of this day of the Lord that is coming, the night that is coming for this world and its systems, with the wonderful day of resurrection and restoration for all of God's people.
He says, encourage one another, build each other up with this, encourage each other to walk, not as children of the night, but children of the day. There on your handout today, there's just two points as we close out, things to think through.
First, I want to comfort you with the fact that Jesus will restore the dead to life. His first truth is that those who died believing in Jesus are with Jesus right now.
Can I ask you, who are you looking forward to being reunited with on that day when Jesus returns? And can I ask you, who in your life still needs to hear that gospel message?
If you know the gospel, if you have come to know the Lord, share it with someone else. You don't have to have all the answers. Just tell them what happened to you.
Then Jesus will bring them with him to earth when he returns. I loved this quote by Matthew Henry. He says, they then are with God and are better where they are than they were here.
And when God comes, he will bring them with him. The doctrine of the resurrection and the second coming of Christ is a great antidote against the fear of death and inordinate sorrow for the death of our Christian friends.
And this doctrine we have a full assurance of because we believe that Jesus died and rose again. If it happened before, it can certainly happen again. If Jesus rose from the dead, then certainly our loved ones can as well.
And then they will receive their glorified bodies first, and then the living will. One author said, God did not allow Jesus' body to remain in the grave, and he will not allow their loved ones' bodies to remain in the grave either.
What greater hope could we have as followers of Christ than to know that one day we will always be with the Lord?
Can I encourage you, whether you are young, and you might have 60, 70 years ahead of you, if you're maybe a little bit older, and the possibility of death seems a lot nearer to you, do not fear going into that moment where you come face to face with
your Savior. Make sure you're good with Jesus first. Call on him as your Lord and Savior.
But once you've done that, know that it is nothing but well, as Paul would say, I has not seen neither as ear heard nor has entered into the heart of man what the Lord has prepared for those that love him.
And secondly, and lastly today, Jesus will restore the light of his life to our sin darkened world. He will restore the light of his life. First is that Jesus' sudden return will upend this world's nations and systems.
As you read through all of the Old Testament prophets, this is the continual drum beat that they are sounding.
If you read through Daniel 7 and you see the nations of this world, they're typified as beasts that trample and destroy humanity over and over again.
In a thousand different ways, sometimes the rich, sometimes the poor, sometimes the believers, sometimes those that haven't believed. Our world's systems, countries and governments only know how to do what is wrong.
And on that day, Jesus, that rock cut out by God, will come and destroy the idol that humanity has made of our governments and our nations. If you will, that picture of Nebuchadnezzar as the great ruler of Babylon and the big statue dedicated to him.
And in Nebuchadnezzar's dream from the Lord, he saw this rock cut out by God come and destroy the idol. That is what is going to happen on the day that Jesus returns.
He's not going to work with America and Britain and the EU and the United Nations and Iran and Russia and Australia. He is going to come and he will be the sovereign, the king of kings and Lord of lords.
He will not share his glory or his honor or his reign with any of this world's systems. So I want to encourage you today, do not live for this world.
Do not waste your time propping up politicians or parties that will be destroyed at the coming of Jesus. Instead, declare the kingdom of God and his righteousness as that is all that will last. It's not to say do not be involved in the tasks.
May we be salt and light to a world that needs to hear the kingdom ethics of Jesus. And we can utilize those even through our votes and different things like that. It's not to say avoid it, but do not become partisan.
Do not become someone that sells out so far to a specific party or a specific person that will only in the day of judgment be destroyed. I love the line from Martin Luther's hymn, A Mighty Fortress.
That word above all earthly powers, that word no thanks to them abides, the spirit and the gifts are ours through him who with us sides. So let goods and kindred go this mortal life also. The body they may kill, God's truth abideth still.
His kingdom is forever. And then lastly, we are to live today like we will in his kingdom with his ethics. Well, what are these ethics of the kingdom of God?
Well, you can read Matthew five through seven. Those are of you who are in our Tabernacle Talk podcast.
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We've been going over that for a few months, but I thought a great summary of it was in Galatians chapter five. He says, now the works of the flesh are obvious. This is the not Jesus ethics.
Sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar.
I am warning you about these things that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
May we pursue these as our ethics. This is what we want both in our lives, in the lives of our politicians. May we pursue these because this is God's way, His path that will last forever.
Because Jesus will return. He could return at any moment. I love that laughter, by the way.
One of my favorite sounds in the world is when Evelyn laughs. That's neither here nor there. Guys, stop.
Because Jesus could return, we should have such vibrant hope. At any moment, everything could be made right. And may that prompt us to start living right, right now, that when Jesus comes back, it doesn't have to be like a total remake of it.
He will totally remake us. But we can at least begin living like we will when he returns. Today Jesus will bring restoration and life.
So be encouraged and motivated to faithful obedience by Jesus' eminent return.
