- Hey, there, I'm Adam Demetrichion, the lead pastor at Pathways Church in Appleton, Wisconsin. And this is our podcast. I hope this message inspires you, feeds your faith, and ultimately leads you into a growing relationship with Jesus. - This November, our nation will elect the next president of the United States, the leader of the free world, arguably the most powerful position on planet earth. And most likely it will be one of two individuals, one of two candidates, either Joe Biden or Donald Trump. Now imagine if your pick for the next president was elected to office, not for the next four years, but for the next 40 years. Many of you would be elated and others of you would be devastated. And vice versa, depending on who was elected to office. Now, we're not gathered here today to discuss politics. We're gathered here today to worship Jesus because we wanna learn about Jesus in order to be more like Jesus. And Jesus is the person, not a candidate, not for public office, but an eternal king that unites us. It's our common denominator in terms of how we live our lives and think about our world. It is because of Jesus which unites us as his followers. And by the way, because this is an election year as followers of Jesus Christ, can we be kind and discerning in our conversations about politics, especially on social media? Can we do that together? Amen? Okay, maybe not. I guess I'm pastoring this 10 a.m. service. All right, we're not doing that. All right, well, let's pray. Heavenly Father, no. So why do I bring this up? Because some of you are thinking, wow, that's an introduction. I guess we're gonna go there. Well, I bring this up because while a president serves for a term or two, one day, a king, the king, King Jesus will reign according to the Bible for a thousand years, which will serve as a prelude to all of eternity. His rule and reign for all of eternity. And every word, every decision, every signed executive order friends will be flawless. It will be perfect in every way. His words and his judgments will be complete and they will be wholly honoring to God our Father and to our benefit. And you know what? We're gonna experience perfect peace. We're gonna experience joy. We're gonna experience gladness like we can't even begin to comprehend. Now, if you've been tracking with us, we're in part five of a series called End Times. And the Bible teaches us that there are five major end time events. You have the second coming of Christ and then you have the tribulation and the millennium and the final judgment and the eternal state of humankind. We're gonna talk about that next weekend. Now, depending on your interpret approach, the approach that you take when it comes to End Times or the technical term of End Times, which is eschatology. Say eschatology. Eschatology is the study of last things, depending on how you understand last things, that's going to determine your destination because approach determines destination. Now, today I wanna focus on the millennium. A millennium is also known as the thousand year reign of Christ or the millennial kingdom. And guess what? This is very important. We will be with Jesus when he returns to initiate the millennium. If that's confusing to you, let me just kind of back up for a moment and let me set context around this End Time event known as the millennium. Now, we have selected the path toward a more literal approach to understanding scripture, reading the Bible at face value and sequentially looking at those events unfolding in human history. If you look up the screens, we have a slide that represents our position when it comes to End Times. At this point, based on what I have taught to you, this is very important. When we come to the conversation of a millennium today, you'll notice that there's the church age and then there is the rapture. That's the first event, the rapture that takes place. In other words, by the time we get to the millennium, Christians will not be on earth to that point. We're going to be raptured, meaning we're going to be taken to heaven where God is, where the Father is, according to John 14, one through three. And you might ask, well, what's going to be taking place on earth? Christians have left the building. We've left the building. So what's going to be happening on earth? Well, the tribulation. We looked at those particulars in weeks three and four where we discussed the tribulation of seven year periods where it's going to be initially a time of peace. And then all hell will break loose when the Antichrist and the false prophet team up to unleash evil in some unprecedented ways. After that seven year period, the millennial reign of Christ will begin. And do you know how the millennium starts? It begins with a battle. The millennium begins with a battle. The battle of Armageddon. Now, the mere word Armageddon conjures up all kinds of images that are associated with history's final battle. Why? Well, because maybe Hollywood or filmmakers or modern television depicts Armageddon in ways that are quite scary. However, all of these ways usually omit the key figure of the battle of Armageddon and his name is Jesus. Jesus at Armageddon when the millennial reign is initiated is going to burst through the clouds with great power, a grand and global entrance that is fitting only for the king of kings and the Lord of lords. Now, I don't have time to read the passage to you in Revelation chapter 19 verses 11 through 21. But I would highly recommend that in your chair or in your circle, your small group, that you access that passage of scripture and you read it on your own time. I've listed all the scriptures including this one on our mobile app. Make sure you download that. Go to this weekend message notes and you'll see the complete list. I have a ton of scripture and ideas in there for you to digest and to read over. But the point of the battle of Armageddon, if you read this passage, here's what you're going to find. You're gonna find a far different Jesus than what you and me are accustomed to. See the biblical Jesus, the one who is known as faithful and true in Revelation 19, he is far different than the one that we're accustomed to. He is not coming back in Revelation 19, writing a donkey, clothed as a humble Galilean to receive or to offer a kingdom or to reveal the father's love. He's not coming back to die for sinners. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, not this time. In Revelation 19, Jesus is coming back writing a white horse to establish his kingdom, to reveal himself and to bring wrath. The fury of God to punish the Antichrist, the false prophet and every human being, every nation, every sinner who has stood in opposition to Jesus in his ways. In fact, this passage of scripture describes Jesus as coming into humanity, into the earth and a sword that is coming out of his mouth. Writing on a white horse's eyes, ablaze, ready to unleash the wrath of God. Scripture says the birds will eat the flesh of sinners who have denied the lordship of Christ. In fact, in Revelation 19, an angel summons all the birds and says, get ready, flesh, blood is gonna be spilled. It's time for you to swoop down. We're not accustomed to this Jesus. This is savage Jesus. Question, why did we skip this description of Jesus? Why don't we include this in our portrait of who Jesus is? I often wonder why. Maybe because this Jesus isn't culturally relevant like, oh, I had a man, I'm adamant, I'm slowed down. That's bad for branding. Don't do that. Edit that out of your manuscript. That's not good. That's not appealing, that kind of Jesus or that kind of church. You might not want that. That's not gonna draw a crowd. Or maybe we are afraid of this Jesus. Do we want a God who is holy and just? A God who judges? Or would we rather serve a dysfunctional God? A God who enables our bad belief and our ugly behavior such that when we get what we deserve, we turn against that God and say to him, you know what, I blame you. That friends though, that is not the God of the Bible. That's not the Jesus of Revelation. That is not the Jesus who we love and serve. Galatians six, seven says this. Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. Whatever a person sows, so shall they reap. And from an eternal perspective, just so we're all clear, we all deserve hell. And friends, God doesn't send a person to hell. We send ourselves to hell because of our free will and our decisions and our addiction to sin. And so when we sin, God gives us what we rightly deserve. See, friends, I don't think you would want a God who would compromise his integrity and his boundary because what God does in relationship to our sin is he sets up a boundary and he says, "I can't have sin in my sight if I would. If I would overlook your sin without payment for your sin, I would cease to be God because I would forfeit my perfect nature and character." Does that make sense? There's a day coming, the day of the Lord as the Old Testament prophets named it when all will be set right and Jesus will come to execute judgments upon those who have consistently denied his love and grace and chose not to surrender him, to surrender to him. Sin must be punished. Sin cannot go unexcused. It cannot be unexcused by our Lord Jesus Christ and the time is in the millennium. The time is at the battle of Armageddon. And while this may be uncomfortable for you to hear and I promise you, it's uncomfortable for me to preach and to teach to you, I have a responsibility. And my responsibility is to share the whole Bible, the complete counsel of God with you so that you have a full description of who Jesus is so that you can live your lives accordingly to what this book says. Flip side, while that's really difficult to preach and to hear, here's the most wonderful truth for me to preach and for you to hear. Not only did God set a boundary so that our sin could not be in his presence, but God set a provision. And you know what that provision is? That provision is the sending of his son, Jesus Christ, who walked on this earth for 33 years and then willfully hung on a cross for your sin while you were at your lowest point. While Christ was there on the cross, he was thinking of you. He didn't kick you, he didn't spit on you. He said, I'm going to die for you. And the sinless, spotless, perfect lamb, the son of God, he spilled his blood so that you can be righteous in the Father's sight, not because of your good works, but because of his finished work on the cross for all of your sin when you receive and you accept his love and his grace and his truth and his beauty and his wonder and his goodness in your life. Oh man, we sang gratitude earlier. The thing that we can all be grateful for is that we're living in a time friends where we still can receive and accept the grace and the mercy of Jesus Christ. I don't know about you, but if you haven't accepted Jesus, if you don't know his grace and his love that he wants to lead you and transform your life, we're not talking perfection, we're talking progress. If you're ready for that kind of savior, then today later I'm going to give you an opportunity in my message to make that decision. Now, let's dig deeper. Let me give you some stats on the first coming of Christ when he came as a baby that we rehearse every single year during Christmas season and his second coming, both in the rapture as well as in the millennial reign of Christ. Let me give you some interesting information. Now, I told you in week one that the Old Testament gave over 300 predictions of Jesus arriving at earth. I gave you some information that 300 prophecies were given or a foretelling of Jesus coming to earth. What I didn't tell you is that roughly 220 of those prophecies are related to his second coming. In fact, 23 out of the 27 books of the New Testament talk about the second coming of Jesus Christ. And Jesus himself spoke 20 different times, roughly 20 times on his second coming, his return to earth. The most important one is found in his magnum opus in the Olivet Discourse in Matthew chapter 24 verse 27. Jesus says, "For as lightning that comes from the east "is visible even in the west, "so will be the coming of the Son of man. "Wherever there is a carcass, the vultures will gather." We heard about that in Revelation 19. Immediately, quote, immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky and heavenly bodies will be shaken. Jesus is quoting from Isaiah chapters 13, 24, and 34. This is gonna be a cladoclismic kind of events where the son of man, Jesus himself. And this is what it says in verse 30. Jesus says, "Then will appear the sign "of the Son of man in heaven. "And then all peoples of the earth will mourn." Why? Because they know Jesus ain't playing. They know he's coming back and this time, he's riding a horse with a legion of his followers coming with him and a sword is coming out of his mouth. And there's gonna be fire in his eyes. And the world, they see the son of man coming on clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Now what happens after Armageddon is the glorious reign of Christ, which is known as the millennium. Everybody say millennium. Let me take the mystery out of the word millennium. What's the definition? It's a Latin word, it actually comes from two words. The first word is mille, which means a thousand. And the second word is enem, enem means year. So it's literally a thousand years. Now the word millennium is found only six times in scripture. All six references are found in Revelation chapter 20. And I wanna share with you those six references in this passage. Look with me on the screens. It says this in Revelation chapter 20 verse two. He, meaning Jesus, sees the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil or Satan and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it over him to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time. So Jesus, sees the Satan, he throws them in, he seals for a thousand years until the enemy is released for a short time. Verse four, I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw souls and I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus. And because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or hands. They came to life and reign with Christ for a thousand years. What's John the revelator talking about? He's talking about those who were martyred, those who died for the sake of Christ during the tribulation. How do we know this? Because they didn't take the mark. They didn't receive the mark of the beast. They chose to stand with Christ. They lost their life. And so now they're resurrected and they serve and lead with us during this thousand years. Verse five, the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. We'll talk about the second resurrection. Next week as a part of heaven and hell and the eternal state of humankind. Verse six, blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years. And then here's the sixth and final reverence in verse seven. When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his present. So in summary, the millennium is a period of a thousand years when Jesus comes back to reign after the tribulation. And it's very important subject for us to look at in relationship to end times. Now, this is one of the most confusing parts of the five events. This is one of the most confusing parts of end time. So if you don't fully understand this and you walk out of this and you think, "Wow, that was really difficult to wrap my mind around." Welcome to what theologians and Bible scholars have been arguing for hundreds of years, okay? What I'm gonna do today though, is I'm not going to give you all the deep theological things in terms of what people say about the millennium. What I wanna do is point you to what God says about the millennium as referred to in his book, The Bible. If you wanna understand some of the theological background to the millennium, then I would point you to our mobile app. There are three different views on the millennium. There's post-millennialism, a millennialism. Some scholars believe that there is no millennial reign. And then there is pre-millennialism. If you're wondering, my position, my position is a pre-millennial position when we look at the thousand year reign. But what I wanna do with the time that remains is, I wanna talk about the purposes, three purposes of the millennium, and then I wanna look at a couple applications for you and for a male, okay? Here are the three purposes. The first one, if you're jotting notes, take this down, write this down. The first purpose of the millennium is to reward the people of God. How many of you like rewards? Yeah, who doesn't like a reward, great. Here, let me reward you with something. Well, there are countless scriptures throughout the Bible guaranteeing rewards for God's people who have served faithfully. There are all kinds of verses that I put on the mobile app for you, but let me just highlight a few. Matthew 16, 27, this is what the text tells us for the Son of Man, Jesus is going to come in His Father's glory with His angel and with His angels, and then He will reward each person according to what to what they have done. Our rewards are based on what we have done in this life. When will this happen during the thousand year reign of Christ? The Bible teaches that we will serve with the Lord here on earth as Christians during this millennial reign, but our service to the king during the millennial reign is based upon what we have done in this life with His grace and His truth. Now in the thousand year reign of Christ, Paul loses this in 1 Corinthians chapter six, that we will judge the world. We just read from Revelation 20 verse four, it says, "We will reign and rule with Christ during this thousand year time." What does that look like? I'm not exactly sure, I'm not exactly sure, but what I do know is what Jesus told us in relationship to our rewards. He said this in the story, the parable, it's an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. You remember the parable, the talents, when He said, "Here, you get this, you get this, you get this, you get this, you get this." What did you do with what I gave you? And this is what he says in Matthew 25, 23. He says, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness." See friends, there has to be a millennium so that we can live out our rewards. There has to be this thousand year reign so that you and I, we have the opportunity to receive and to live out those rewards. So the first purpose is to receive the rewards that Jesus has for us. The second purpose is this, to respond to the prophets' predictions. Now, I know I've given you a lot of content and you've been great listening audience today, but I wanna just, I want to lift out this truth based on scripture and how I understand scripture and what scholars and historians talk about. One of the primary purposes, if not the central purpose of this thousand year reign, because some of you might be asking, why did he even establish a thousand year reign? Why not just come back, just take care of business and heaven happens? Like, why do this just to confuse us? I mean, a thousand years it's like, and then Satan's released and then what, what, what? I could just like uncomplicate this for Jesus real quick. Here's how I would do it, okay? Well, you're not God. And see, what God has done is he has a specific plan for the nation of Israel and a specific plan for his church. And the church doesn't replace Israel. The church has a separate plan, and I believe that the second purpose of the Millennial reign of Christ is to help satisfy the prophets' predictions and prophecies around the nation of Israel. One of the main reasons, not just to live out of rewards, but also because we could live out of rewards in heaven. He could set a time there. So why does he have a thousand year reign? I believe the second purpose is the primary purpose so that Israel can receive the prophets' predictions and the prophets. You say, Adam, what are those predictions? Well, go to our mobile app, you'll check out a lot of verses, but let me just highlight one and let me set that one prediction in context of Jesus's rule and reign. Genesis 13, 14, this is the promise that God made to Abraham after a lot his nephew had departed. God said this, look around Abraham. Look, look where you are to the north and south and east and west, all the land you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. In other words, what God is saying to Abraham, what he's saying to the Jewish nation, the people he's saying, all of this will be yours, everything. Well, that hasn't been fulfilled. What is it fulfilled? Well, if you go to Psalm 72, verse 11, may all kings bow down to him to Jesus. And all nations serve him. That my friends is going to take place in the millennial reign of Christ. And then Genesis 13, 14 will be fulfilled in front of all of us. This is just one of the prophets predictions. All right, so the third purpose is really simple but profound. You've probably prayed this prayer before. You've probably prayed it a thousand times. Did you see what I did right there? A thousand times. Come on, people, I'm talking about the millennial where this is hard to be funny when you're talking about the thousand year, right? For some of you are thinking, I didn't even know that was in the Bible. That's my best humor today, all right? You've prayed this prayer probably a thousand times. If you grew up Lutheran or Catholic, you've recited it, you know it. The Lord's Prayer, our Father, you've said it by rote memorization and yet probably not too many times says somebody unpacked the beauty and the wonder and the splendor of this prayer. And what I'm gonna do today is just give you a brief, just one little nugget of the Lord's prayer. See, the third purpose is to receive the third purpose of the millennial reign of Christ is to receive the answer or a answer to the Lord's prayer. You think, what are you talking about Adam? Well, if you go back into your head and you begin to recite the Lord's prayer, you'll say something like our Father in heaven, how it would be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Has his kingdom come fully? No, it hasn't. Has it come in part? Yes, it has. How do I know this? The day you held your firstborn, that was a part of his kingdom. The day you exchanged and said to somebody, "I really love you and I care about you deeply." And you heard those words given back to you. That was a part of his kingdom. When someone forgave you and they didn't hold a grudge and released you, that's part of his kingdom. The moment that you were on vacation, you remember when your to-do list was set aside at least for 48 hours 'cause you took you three hours to sink in the vacation and then it took you 48 hours to get out of vacation mode, but you had a window when there was no to-do list. You weren't thinking about bills. You were just on the beach, you and your love bunny, your squish mellow and you saw that sunrise and you took a picture, that's a kingdom moment. But those are just moments of the kingdom. There is a time, those are glimpses. There's a time when his kingdom will come in full. When that thousand years is ushered in and we will finally have the response, the reception, the answer to the Lord's prayer. Can you imagine in your wildest dreams, what it would be like if all sin, all temptation, all rebellion was removed from planet Earth as we know it. All ungodliness and righteousness, it was just removed. What would that period be like? I think it'd be like three things. First of all, I think it'd be like a time of peace. A time of peace that would have experienced in nature, the Old Testament talks about the lion laying and playing with the lamb. Like they don't mix, but during the millennial reign, they're gonna be best buds. They're gonna be taking selfies together. What about when it comes peace, when it comes to all the nations and peoples on planet Earth, there'll be no war, no bombs, bullets, tanks, guns, no soldiers or sailors, ultimate peace, peace in our relationships. There's no bickering or arguing or texting or social media. Nobody's gonna care who the president is because the king will be on the throne. Oh, you got excited about that one, did you? Until then, you'll fight and bicker about politics, won't you? No, that's, sorry. Now I don't know where there'd be peace. There'd be prosperity. There'd be prosperity such that there'll be no need for you to think about paying your bills. Oh, man, somebody should be glad. If you logged in right now to join our online church family, you're probably really excited. Like what hit, no paying bills, yeah, no bills. We energies, poof gone. Honda, poof gone, don't have to pay that bill. Think about your bills, you'll never log on to Chase Bank. It'd be abundance of food, of water, of grace, love, of kindness, oh, man. Peace, relationally, prosperity, and then there'd be a time of purity. Sin will be dealt with. A holiness is brought to the land through the rule and reign of Jesus Christ. Like, you'll never have to think about people's motives. You'll never think about the king. Does he really love me? You'll know it, you'll see it, you'll experience it and it'll bring you so much personal joy that you'll think to yourself, man, I can't even begin. I can't even thank you enough, God, that I served and followed you in a world when people thought I was politically incorrect, when they thought I was a little crazy, when I gave up sacrificial things in order to invest in your mission, when I served, when I volunteer, when I prayed, every time I prayed, people thought, man, why are you praying? That stuff doesn't even work. And yet you did the work. You know why you did the work? 'Cause you were worth it. And you know why you're worth it? Because God created you in His image. And He said, "You are my child." Can you imagine a time like this is the millennial reign of Christ, friends? And guess what? Guess what? This is just a snippet of what heaven will be like were for all eternity, the king will reign. Oh, don't you just want to say the New Testament greeting? Meradapha, remember that one? Come quickly, Jesus. I would love for this to be my reality, wouldn't you? Well, as we close, let me share something that I found interesting. Think about it this way. Think about the two arrivals of Jesus. If we would set those in comparison in contrast with one another. See, the first time that Jesus came as a baby and grew to be a man, he came as our savior. The second time he's coming as our king. And when he establishes his millennium, it would be so much different than the first time. The first time he came in swaddling clothes. The second time he's coming with majestic purple. The first time he came as a weary traveler, the second time he will come as an untiring king. The first time he came as a lowly and dejected a man of sorrow who was acquainted with grief. Then he will be almighty, God anointed with the oil of gladness. Once he was beaten with a reed, then he will rule with a rod. Once soldiers mocked him and spat on him and they bowed in mockery to him. Then every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Once he received a crown of thorns that were shoved into his head as he hung on a cross for you, then he will receive a crown of gold. Once he was delivered, he delivered his spirit up in death. Then he will be alive forevermore. Once he was laid in a tomb, but then he will come and he will sit on a throne for all of eternity. Once he was despised and mocked and then he will come in eternal glory and his name is Jesus. And we will rule and reign and experience his peace and prosperity, his goodness and his purity for all ages to come. His name is Jesus. (audience applauding) Man, we gotta pay the air conditioning, Bill. I'm just joking. Hey, when you were a kid, you remember some commercials you watched? I was thinking about the commercials I watched as a kid this week. As I closed this message, I had a commercial that just came across my mind. It was an oil commercial. I don't know if you grew up with a dad, but my dad would change the oil in his car. I can't even do that today. It's so hard to find oil and all that stuff, everything. But he would change the oil. He'd get the ramps and he'd pull up an old Chevy Malibu or a Pontiac, this big old piece of steel and they'd slide under and he'd change the oil. And there was an oil commercial done by a company. I couldn't think of the company, so I googled it and the company was Fram. Fram oil filters. Remember those Fram oil filters? And the point of the commercial is that you could buy a Fram and you could pay me now, the guy would say, or he'd slide out from under the car and say, "Oh, you pay me later." Pay me now or pay me later. Well, Almighty God sets up a similar program for you and me. You know what Philippians chapter two says, "Look with me on the screens. "Here's what Paul writes. "He says that at the name of Jesus, "every knee should bow in heaven and on earth "and under earth." And verse 11, "And every tongue acknowledge it, "Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father." What does that say? It says that one day in the kingdom and at the great white throne judgment, every single knee of every single person will bow before Jesus Christ and profess that He is Lord. But when they do it at that time, there will be no hope that Jesus will be your Lord and your Savior. At that time, when we reach that point in the prophetic scheme of things, people will bow because now they realize and missed it. They'll realize that, oh, my neighbors and friends and the people at Pathways Church and other churches who lift up Jesus Christ, they were right and I was wrong. They're beyond hope. Now here's the pay me now or pay me later application. Paul says one day, "Every one will bow." You have no choice as to whether or not you're gonna bow. Your only choice is this. Will you bow now or will you bow later? But you will bow. And my question to you is, wouldn't it be better to bow now? Wouldn't it be better to surrender? Because let's face it, none of us really know how to lead our lives too well. We always run it into a wall. We always do something foolish. Pick your sin, pick your addiction, pick whatever it is. Our lives are unmanageable. We are powerless unless there is a divine source of life. His name is Jesus to resurrect and to give you power and grace and truth and community to live in freedom and love and not in bondage. Pay me now or pay me later. So what's the application? Well, if you don't know Jesus Christ, you have an opportunity to bow now. In a moment, I'll say a closing word of prayer and I would love for you to open your heart to God. But for many of us who are part of our online church family, you're in the room. The application is simply this. In light of what I just talked to you today about the millennial reign of Christ. And in light of how that's just the prelude to all of heaven, how are you living your life? Are you leveraging all the blessings? Are you grateful? Not because you're just, oh God, I'm so grateful 'cause I'm so blessed. Are you grateful because God, I am so blessed. And you know what? I wanna build my life on your love. Help me to see those around me. Help me to truly see my kids and my spouse. Help me to love my neighbors. And God, show me, reveal to me. How can I be the best at this? Not for earthly rewards. While those are a blessing, every earthly word gets, reward gets to be positioned to be an internal impact for someone else. You can leverage your life that way. You can make a difference. Are you? Do you want to? Are you so selfish on your kingdom that you forgot about his kingdom? And sometimes I don't think we talk about heaven enough because we're really not sure we wanna get there too fast. Let me enjoy all of this. And then I'll go there. Friends, all of this pales in comparison to what is there. The only thing that matters in this life is who do you get to influence so that they would bow and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior? 'Cause the only thing that passes from this life to the next are the souls of human beings. Do you bow with me for a word of closing prayer? Heavenly Father, I thank you for this time, this word that you have placed in my heart. Now I pray for every human being who has gathered here. Today, those who need to do some business with you, they need to bow and surrender and to make you the Lord of their lives. If you're here today and you wanna say, Adam, yes, I want to make that decision. I wanna receive the grace and the forgiveness and the mercy of Jesus. Then all you need to do is to reach out in faith and say, I receive you. I confess my sin and I receive you. If that's you here today or if you're online, tell somebody online, if you're in the room today and you wanna make that decision, would you just slip up your hand quietly in this moment? If you wanna make that decision today, you just slip up your hand, we'll acknowledge you and then we'll pray this prayer together. Anybody? Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Anybody else? Then let's go ahead and let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I just pray for every single individual, God today, we as believers, we wanna re-prioritize our lives in accordance to your word. God, we wanna live the maximum blessed life so that we can be a blessing. God, in light of the millennial reign and all of eternity, we wanna position ourselves in a way that would honor you and impact people. God, now I pray for individuals who are making decisions for you today. Church family, would you repeat this prayer after me so no one would pray alone. Heavenly Father, coming in my life, and save me from my sin, I confess my sin to you. I believe that you died from me on a cross that you were raised to life for my sin. So I receive you now in Jesus' name. Amen.
What hits you when you hear this phrase...END TIMES. Fear, excitement, confusion?
Jesus said, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.“ Matthew 24:36 NIV
If no one can possibly know...why even talk about End Times? Because while we don’t know the specifics, we do know there is an end to this age. We know the scriptures have relevancy and the potential to inform our worldview. So how do we live faithfully and expectantly knowing that we have a message and a mission? Listen in!
