Blink of an Eye Week 1

The theme of this week and next week is this title, kind of the thought of blink of an eye. The blink of an eye. We'll see that verbiage here in 1 Corinthians 15. And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 51, but let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. Oh man, y'all didn't know we were gonna get secrets revealed in church today. Here's the secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed. It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye. There it is. When the trumpet is blown, for when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever, and we who are living will also be transformed. Amen, so Paul is talking about the return of Jesus to the earth, and that's what we're gonna talk about today and next week, Lord willing, unless the Lord who returns before next week, and then we'll talk about it in heaven, but that's what we're gonna talk about today, and when we talk about the return of Christ, come on, that should stir the church up. That should get somebody excited that Jesus could come back, that Jesus is coming back for his church, and that's what we're gonna talk about. The return of Jesus, actually, I don't know if you realize this, the return of Jesus is actually the second most mentioned topic in the entire Bible. It's mentioned 318 times in the New Testament alone,

and there are actually only four books in the New Testament that don't talk and mention the return of Jesus, which means 23 books of the New Testament do talk about the return. There's four books that don't, and of the four that don't talk about the return of Christ, three of those four are only single-chapter books, and so the bottom line is, one out of every 30 verses in the New Testament mentions some aspect of Jesus' return, and also, other than the doctrine of salvation, this is the most taught-on topic of the early church fathers, was the return of Christ. They believed that they were in the day of his return, and we can believe that now more than ever, and so I think maybe a couple weeks ago, Pastor Peter was preaching, he was talking, he mentioned the movie that was shown like when he was maybe a kid or a teenager, and it was, what was it called? Left Behind. Left Behind, yeah, the Left Behind movies, and he was like, oh, these old movies, but he was talking about how they're outdated, but more they really scared him, and when he was saying that, I always remember back to him, and I'm like, you wanna say outdated? Like, I always remember the movie that he showed when I was in youth group that scared us

into getting right with Jesus, like it was, I mean, it was about the rapture of the church, and it was a movie called A Thief in the Night. I just wonder if there's any old-school people that just wave at me and say, I remember A Thief in the Night. We're talking about night, this movie was made in 1972, okay, it's about as old as I am. By the time I watched it in youth group, it was already old, it was already like 12 or more years old, and so we were probably like poking a little fun at it at the beginning of watching it, but I'm gonna tell you, by the end of watching it, it doesn't matter how outdated it was, it still scared us straight, like we just still were like, okay, I'm ready to get right with Jesus because I don't wanna miss the rapture. Can I show you a little clip of it just to show you how much fun A Thief in the Night was back in 1972? All right, check this out, watch this. Sue, would you run next door and ask Mrs. Thompson if I could borrow a stick of butter? Okay. But you'll be sure to be here when I get back. Don't worry, sweeties, if I'm gone, you'll be gone too. Ooh, that's a sign, if I'm gone, you'll be gone too. Look at those clouds. I think that's the pastor. There's Sue again, going to get.

Get ready. Get ready. Look at those special effects. And I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell you, I think that's the pastor. I'm gonna tell you, I think that's the pastor. I'm gonna tell you, I think that's the pastor. And boom, rapture. Sue's stall. Sue made, oh yes, the pastor made it. I was hoping the pastor was gonna make it. An emergency like this one been contemplated. Airports have stopped all flights. In New York alone, three large jets reportedly have crashed, one at takeoff, killing an estimated 56 persons. In California, meanwhile, traffic on all major freeways has come to virtually a standstill due to pile-ups where drivers disappeared, leaving their vehicles to the mercy of passengers. That's right, I'm gonna have the alter call right now. Some of y'all were laughing a second ago, and all of a sudden you're like, I mean, actually, that would be kind of, all right. So it kind of creates some different like feelings, right, with this thought of the rapture of the church. And there's a lot of speculation about it. There's a lot of different opinions about it. People sometimes argue about different aspects of it and when and what's gonna happen at this time or that time. And so there's a lot of different debate,

a lot of different talk. And perhaps that's why sometimes maybe the church maybe doesn't talk about it as much because there are some unknowns and there are some things that maybe we don't understand. There is a lot of speculation. But let me say that today, I just wanna cover the things that we do know. What can we confidently be sure of when it comes to Jesus' return for us, when His return to the earth? And so I think the first thing that we can, I mean, truly be confident of is this, and it's simple. I'm gonna tell you right now, we know that Jesus is coming. He's coming again. We know that Jesus is coming back. And so Paul writes about this return of Christ in 1 Thessalonians 4. And so I just wanna read verses 15 through 18 in 1 Thessalonians chapter four. He says, according to the Lord's word. And that's, man, let's just highlight that. That's important. According to the Lord's word. So Paul's getting this from the Lord. We tell you that we who are still alive, we who are left until the coming of the Lord will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. There was some question about Christians that had died

and they were looking for the return of Christ and they had died. So in the church there in Thessalonica, there was some concern of like, what about them? They're gonna miss the rapture when Jesus comes back. And Paul's going, no, no, no. We're not gonna precede those who have fallen asleep for the Lord himself will come down from heaven. With a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. And after that, we who are still alive and are still left will be caught up. Just remember that phrase. We'll be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore, look at this. Encourage one another with these words. Encourage one another with these words. Today's gonna be an encouragement with the word of God. Now, like the biblical or the theological term for the study of the end times is a word called eschatology. And it's this big theological term and it just simply means that. It's studying kind of what happens in the end times. And so when you hear that maybe word eschatology or when you hear the phrase end times, it conjures up perhaps some different words and some different terms.

Things like the antichrist maybe comes to your mind or false prophet or tribulation or the rapture maybe or the second coming, millennial reign of Christ. Maybe some of you have heard that phrase or new heavens and new earth. I mean, the list goes on and on. But let me just tell you in 1 Thessalonians chapter four and in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul is talking about the rapture of the church. Now, there is some question about even that term rapture. And some of the question comes from the fact that if you were to take your version, whatever version you're using today, and maybe you're on your phone or a device, and if you did a search in your version, your translation of the Bible and you searched rapture, it would maybe pop up zero. So most of your Bibles aren't gonna have the word rapture in it, but rapture is absolutely a biblical concept, okay? It would be similar to this. The word trinity is not gonna be in most of your Bibles, but trinity is a biblical concept that would be God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, three in one, the trinity. And so like that, rapture is not found in the Bible. But then where did that term come from, this term rapture? Well, the Greek word that Paul uses that we just read that we are gonna be, we who are alive and remain are caught up,

some versions say are snatched away, that is a Greek word that Paul. all rights, they're called Harpazo. And Harpazo, when the early Greek New Testament was translated into Latin, all right, stay with me, I'm gonna teach a little bit here. When the Greek New Testament was translated into Latin, it's called the Vulgate, the word that was used for Harpazo was a Latin word, rapturo, okay? So you can get where we can get the word rapture now from, it's from that Latin word, rapturo. And so yes, the word is in our English Bible, but the concept of rapture is absolutely unequivocally biblical. And so there's also a false teaching around the rapture that maybe none of you even heard, but there was a man by the name of John Nelson Darby, a theologian back in the 1800s. And so he sometimes falsely gets credited for coming up with even the concept that there would be a rapture. And so there are some people who go, oh, the church didn't even think there was gonna, rapture wasn't even a thing until Darby comes up with it in 1830, 1840, or something like that, which is not true. Okay, the thing that Darby popularized was a pre-tribulation rapture, okay? So you're like, I'm term overload here. Okay, so pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, post-tribulation, that's next week, okay? We'll get to some of that next week

is where the rapture will land. But Darby was popularizing the thought that the rapture would happen before the seven-year tribulation, okay? And so that's what he's teaching. But well before Darby, there were ancient Greek writings from Christians way back to the fourth, fifth, and sixth century. One of the quotes from one of those writings back in the fourth through seventh century said, all the saints and elect of God are gathered together before the tribulation which is to come. So this is obviously predates Darby by just hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. And so when we talk about rapture, okay, what emotions does it stir up for you? Like, some of us probably have different emotions and different thoughts when we say rapture. Maybe you have different emotions and thoughts with how I say it, right? If I say it all mysterious, it puts anxiety and fear. But if I say it all cheerful and confident, you're like, yes, it puts a different emotion. But here's the thing, I can be talking about this same thing we can all be experiencing in our locations today. We can be experiencing this concept and this message on rapture but have different emotions around it as we're experiencing the same thing. I remember that Jamie and I, in 2014,

we went on a, got to go on a cruise and the first day of the cruise, January 4th, 2014, you're like, Pastor, why do you remember that day? Because it was a playoff game. The Chiefs, this is back when the Chiefs were not good, okay, the Chiefs that you think of now that you're like, ah, they win all the time. They did not win all the time back then, okay? They lost all the time. Every playoff we'd get in and then we'd lose out in the first round. So it was the first round of the playoffs, I think, that January 4th and we got on the ship and we were so glad that there was a place that we could watch, they were showing the game. It was this little lounge and so we all sat in this little lounge and we were watching the playoff game and we had our Chiefs gear on, there was a couple other Chiefs fans, we were glad of that and there were also some people with Colts gear, that's who we were playing that day. We were playing the Indianapolis Colts and so there were some Colts fans there and I put up with them. I mean, whatever, they were in the room too and we just, well, let me tell you, the first half was awesome. We were killing them, man, and so I was hearing that there was a Colts fan right behind us. He was sitting right behind us, he had a Colts jersey on

and I was hearing him whine and complain and get mad all during the first half because they were doing so bad and we were doing so awesome and I'm being, everything he said was just sweet music to my ears. I was just loving it. I was like, sit in it, man, like that's how this is and so he was so upset and he was so frustrated and I was just so happy. At halftime, it was 31-10, we felt confident, man, we were gonna finally win a playoff game and then the third quarter happens and they did pretty good in the third quarter and we're still holding it together and at the end of the third quarter, we still had a 10-point lead. It was 41-31 at the end of the third quarter. Going into the fourth quarter, 10-point lead, man, I still felt really good about it and all of a sudden, we started having players get injured and weird things started happening and then there was this one play that I still remember so vividly there in the fourth quarter. Andrew Luck lived up to his name, Luck. He threw a pass. And it was a horrible pass, and it bounced off of one of his own players' helmet, and it comes up in the air, and we're like, we're gonna get the ball back and win the game.

Back into his arms, he then runs and gets a touchdown on a pass that he throws, that he catches himself off of somebody's helmet. And it was at that point, I'm like, I think we are cursed. I don't know what's going on. This is, this is supernatural. I started praying, man. I'm like, God, you've got to do something here. And they end up coming back, and at the very end of the game, the Colts win the game by one point. Yeah, I know. Pray for your pastor, because your pastor hurts. It still hurts. I, I can still remember. But here's the worst part of the whole deal. So the Colts fan, remember that was him behind us? He started getting real happy there towards the end of the game. And we were kind of picking up our stuff to walk back, and the first day of the cruise, I was just like, well, this is going to be the worst cruise ever. And we're getting ready to walk back, and so I kind of turn and accidentally make eye contact with him. And I didn't even really want to, but we did. So then I kind of just nodded, and he goes, well, this is what he said. I still remember it so clear. He goes, well, I mean, it really was a good game. And I'm like, dude, read the room. It was not a, that was possibly the worst game in NFL history. What do you mean it was a, it really was a good game? Church, I can't even tell you what I wanted to do to him in that moment. And then as the Lord would have it, we ran into him probably 10 times during the cruise.

Like I saw that dude everywhere the whole week. Every time I saw it, it replayed in my mind. It really was a good game. So here's the thing. We were both experiencing the same exact game, and yet we had severely different emotions around it. And he's going, it's a good game. And I'm thinking, it's the worst game ever. So that can happen, right? We can have different emotions around the same event. So let me ask you again, what emotions surface when we talk about the rapture of the church? Maybe for some of you, if we talk about this for too long, it's going to stir up some fear, or some dread, or some anxiety, some anxiousness. Maybe for some, it's stirring up confusion because you're just like, I've never understood how this, all this stuff plays out. Or maybe it's stirring up some uneasiness for somebody. Maybe some discomfort. Maybe ambiguity, because you just, I'm just not sure. Maybe for some of us, the emotion you're feeling is indifference. Because you're like, I would hope this isn't the case. But maybe for some, it brings out kind of a feeling of mockery. And like it's just some big joke. And yet while all of that may be going on for some, there are some that as we talk about Jesus coming back for his church, there are some that it springs out this emotion of encouragement. It brings out this emotion of eager expectation because I'm even so, Lord, come quickly. For some of us, it's bringing up that. But how are Christians meant to feel about this? And what are Christians meant to do if, in fact, we are living closer to the Lord's return? If we are in the last of the last days, which I actually believe that we are, if we are, what are Christians supposed to do about that? Because I think sometimes the church gets a little bit confused or a little bit,

maybe they mean well, but sometimes we start to see things, we start to see some signs, or we start to see some things unfolding. And there's a part of some of us where we just want to kind of go, we want to fight against that stuff. So these biblical prophecies have been laid out and said, this is what's going to come in the end. And when we see these things start to come, we start to see moving towards like maybe a one world government that will come. Or we maybe, I mean, people look around always for the Antichrist and think that, I mean, pretty much every president that we've had for the last, I don't know, my lifetime for sure, have all been accused of being the Antichrist. And so we're always looking for that. And somebody would be like, oh, I'll take them out myself. Like we want to undo. And I'm going to tell you this, we're not called to undo what the Bible prophesies is going to happen. And so that's not our role in this, is to try to fight against these developments that are going to come. No, our goal in this is to, well, I mean, all of, let me say this, all of like biblical prophecy. And the reason why Paul writes what he writes here, it's not to stir up these emotions of fighting against a bunch of stuff. It's not to stir up emotions of fighting against one another. Sometimes these things can cause debates amongst people. Paul didn't write these things to stir up debate. He didn't write these things to satisfy some out of. control curiosity. No, Paul's purpose in writing these sections and biblical prophecy is never given to fuel speculative debates. The ultimate goal of eschatology is encouragement and comfort. That's what it should do for the church. It should be an encouragement and it should bring comfort knowing that even if I'm having maybe a rough day, a rough month, a rough year and a rough decade,

there is a blessed hope. Jesus is coming back for his church and I'm ready. Like that's what it's meant to stir up in us. So we can be certain of that Jesus is coming back. And then the second simple thing I want to say, we can be certain of, we can be certain of when Jesus is coming back. We know when Jesus is coming back. You're like, pastor, are you sure about that? Let's go to scripture and just, you'll see what I mean. Stay with me. Now brothers and sisters, this is now the second Thessalonians 4 chapter 5. So we just read the end of chapter 4. Now we're reading the beginning of chapter 5. It's one thought. Obviously we put the markers in there later. So this is one letter. So Paul continues in his letter. He says, he's just talked about the rapture and look what he says in verse 1. Now brothers and sisters, about times and dates, we don't need to write you. For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. There it is, pastor. See, I said we don't know when he's coming. Okay, let's keep going though. While people are saying peace and safety, destruction will come on them suddenly as labor pains on a pregnant woman and they will not escape. Okay, verse 4. But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness. So this day should not surprise you like a thief. It's a thief in the night for those that are not living for Jesus. But when brothers and sisters, this shouldn't come to us as a shock. Verse 5 says, you are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then let us not be like the others who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. Like in other words, we should know. Now some people perhaps have taken this too far. And like in 1988, there was a little book that was, well, that came out, I think, probably sometime in 87 or 88. Edgar Wisenant was the guy's name who wrote the book. He was a former, worked for NASA as a rocket scientist. And so he had done all this study of the Bible and all these mathematic things that he had found in the Bible. He came up with a book and it was called this, 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Happen in 1988. And I'm telling you, when this book came out, it took segments of the Christian world really by storm. And I mean, people were in it. I think I had a copy when I was a senior in high school or maybe over that summer after my senior year. And I think I had read a couple excerpts of it and stuff like that. I'm telling you, like our church didn't get heavy into it, the church I was attending, but there was an Assembly of God church that was closest to us right up the road. And I mean, they bought in big time. The book said that Jesus was going to come back during Rosh Hashanah of 1988, which was September 11th, 12th, or 13th. And so he had pinpointed that. He had all these reasons. I don't have time to

get into all the reasons why he thought, but with certainty that was going to happen. So he got out of it because he said, no one knows the day nor the hour, but I know a three day window that it's going to happen. That's basically what it was. And there were some churches, man, they bought in heavy. And there were people, there were people selling their houses and taking all that money and going and doing all these elaborate vacations and all this fun stuff before the Lord came back because they weren't going to need their mansion. They're going to live in their mansion in heaven after September 11th of 88. There were people that were running up their credit cards like crazy because they knew they were, they thought they were gonna have to pay their credit card debt. So they're running up their credit cards like crazy. There were people putting their pets to sleep because they were worried about their pets. I know. And putting their pets to sleep because they were worried about their pets, not having owners when they were raptured. And, uh, and then I remember when that week, it was a Sunday night when that week came and I was my, it was my first couple of weeks in Bible college. And, uh, I was with some of my new friends there at Bible college and we just were at a park and just doing, I don't remember what we're doing. We were playing catch or just doing some stuff. And I remember that night we were there, it was like a Sunday night and it was getting dark and the sky looked like red. And I remember thinking, Oh my gosh, this thing's real. Like guys, we should, I think we should probably pray right now. Like it was, it was kind of freaking me out a little bit. And then it didn't happen that first day, but the second day is still a possibility. And so obviously the three days came and went and And Jesus didn't rapture the church during those days in September of 88. So what do you do as an author when you write that book and all these people are reading it and doing it? What do you do as an author? You pivot. And he said, oh, wait, I found one more reason. And so it's now 89 reasons why Jesus is gonna rapture his church in 1989. And people bought that one too. They're like, he was just one off,

but we're still gonna do this. And then 89 comes and goes and Jesus doesn't rapture his church. And so then he started losing some popularity, as you might imagine. But I remember that during that whole season, being like a little bit uncertain of whether or not I wanted Jesus to come back that time. Wasn't that I wasn't ready. I felt like I was ready, but I was thinking about all the things that I hadn't got to do yet. You know, man, I haven't gotten to do a career and I haven't gotten to do my ministry stuff yet. And I haven't had to, you know, gotten a house yet. And I haven't gotten, we haven't had kids yet. And I haven't gotten married yet. And I think about it now and I'm like, it's just so immature of me to think that I'm gonna miss my little, like miss being a part of my little earthly wedding as I'm a part of the wedding of the bride and coming to the Lamb of God, right? Like that we're gonna be a part of the marriage supper of the Lamb. Like, of course, let me tell you this. When we are raptured, there's gonna be nothing on this earth that you miss. But books like this and things like this, it does create, I think, some extra cynicism

because people go, oh, y'all been saying that forever. You know, my grandparents said that, my great-grandparents. Peter actually talks about that cynicism and that that would be a part of this last day journey. So go to 2 Peter 3, or you see it there on the screen. He said, I wanna recall the words, I want you to recall the words of the Lord. I wanna recall the words, I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and by the commands given by our Lord and Savior through the apostles. Above all, you must understand that in the last days, scoffers will come. What are they gonna say? They're gonna be scoffing, following their own evil desires, and this is what they'll say. They'll say, where is this coming, he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation. So Peter says, yeah, there's gonna be people who mistakenly think that their little lifespan means something in the scope of eternity, but they're deliberately forgetting that long ago, God's word and the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of the water. By these waters, also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By that same word, the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day

of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. Okay, now look at verse eight, because this is really important, but do not forget this one thing. So Peter, he makes it like, we probably shouldn't forget anything we read in the Bible. He says, don't forget this. Dear friends, and he quotes Psalms. He says, with the Lord, a day is like 1,000 years and 1,000 years are like a day. And the Lord is not slow in keeping his promises and he continues. But I want us to think about that, that Peter is now talking eschatology, he's talking the end times, he's talking scoffers saying, oh, you've been saying this forever, and then he says, but remember this, a day is like 1,000 years. And there have been a lot of scholars, wise, conservative scholars, who have taken that one day equals 1,000 years to the Lord in his timeline. And many of the early Jewish church fathers taught that there is a correlation to that one day, 1,000 year connection. And of course, again, remember, remember, Paul said, brothers and sisters, you're not in the dark on this. Remember, Jesus said, you fool, you see signs of other things,

but you're missing the signs of the end times. So there is some understanding that we are to have. And so these early Jewish teachers and leaders, they taught of a 7,000 period of years that man's domination of the earth would last, it would last 7,000 years. It took a lot of it from even the days of creation. In other words, like on the fourth day of creation, God creates the sun. Well, 4,000 years after Adam, Jesus, roughly about that time, Jesus comes into the earth. Malachi calls Jesus the son of righteousness, S-U-N. So these correlations of maybe, what did God do on the seventh day? He rested, the seventh would be. an age. So let me show you the ages that these early church fathers taught, these early Jewish leaders taught, that there were... Actually, let's do it on the whiteboard. Because we love timelines. Oh, man. Some of y'all love end times timelines, and you watch this stuff all the time, and you love the timelines to get all intense, and, you know, then the millennial reign, and then this war is happening here, and then this is happening here, and guys, you know, there's good guys that teach a lot of that stuff. Some of you really get into all that. I'm not doing that today, partly because this is that once this event happens that I'm talking about, y'all know everything. Y'all know the timelines, okay? You'll be in good shape. So you'll find out that some of the stuff we thought was gonna happen, when it was gonna happen, maybe we weren't exactly right on. That's not the timeline. I'm gonna do a very, very simple timeline here, okay? So there is our timeline. There we go. And so this is what the early Jewish leaders taught. They said that these were different ages of man. So this was the, this first one, Age of Creation. And this was a 2,000 year time span. This is roughly from Adam to Abraham. The next age was the Age of the Law. Again, another 2,000 year span, and this would be from Abraham to Jesus. And Jesus then comes, and

he starts this new age, and this is, somebody asked me if I was gonna erase today, and I was like, well, if I mess up, I will. And so I did. Grace, this is the Age of Grace. This is the age that we're in now. Again, 2,000 years. So we're, if we're going seven days of creation, if that's one of the, one of the many signs that this could be something worth looking at, we got two days here, up to four days here, up to six days here, and then on the seventh day, this would be a 1,000 year reign here. And this is the kingdom. This is the Age of the Kingdom. This would be like the Millennial reign of Christ. This would be Satan and his hordes are, are locked up, and they can't wreak havoc on the earth anymore. And so those are the ages that the early church fathers taught. There are too many scriptures that I don't have time to even get into all of them that would kind of add some weight to this theory. Okay? And it is a, it is a theory, but scriptures like Matthew 17, Mark chapter 9, which say, now after six days, Jesus took Peter. It's kind of odd that he didn't even says after six days, but it does. After six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John, his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves, and he transfigured before them. Okay? When? On the seventh day, Jesus transfigures, has this moment of, of, of, of, of a different appearance. Okay? Moses on Mount Sinai, Exodus, Exodus 24. Now the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. And on the seventh day, he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. He, he called to Moses. Job chapter 5, he shall deliver you in six troubles. Yes, in seven, no evil should touch you. Now, again, I don't have time to add Hosea's prophecies about, when, when, that link up to, to Titus destroying Jerusalem in, in, in 70 CE, and, and if he put 2,000 years on that, it creates a window. Here's what we can, here's what we can confidently declare if, if this theory holds any weight at all. We can confidently declare that we are in the season, that we are in the generation where Jesus is coming back for his church. And I, and I actually do believe that. And, and that's, that's the, again, that's the purpose of why we would even study these things. It shouldn't, it's not to bring, uh, terror to anybody. It's not to, uh, create any kind of indifference or any kind of argument. No, this is to encourage us to know that he is coming back and we're in the days, we're in the last of the last days. When, uh, Jamie and I, we, we, we watched some TV, like we don't watch a ton of TV. I'd say we probably watched three or four episodes of something a week. Maybe we're usually just doing some different things and running around and whatever. But my wife's a little bit more of a night owl than I am. And so she kind of likes, uh, watching a little bit.

like so I'll be like 8 o'clock thinking like this would be we could do TV time and so then she should be doing some other things and whatever and and then she'll be like ready to go watching something at like 11 so it'd be like 11 o'clock really it's TV time now I'll be like man we can try but I'm gonna tell you right now I'm gonna be tired I mean this this episode better be very a lot of action because I mean I am and I turn into like a four-year-old I'm like too much quiet talking and I might just I start to kind of go to sleep I'll be fighting against us I'm just like you you were asleep and I'm like I'm sorry I'll try to wake back up and I'm catching kind of like some of the dialogue but not all of it and I'm trying to stay like alert to what's going on but then I fade out for parts and then when the show's over it's like I have these vague foggy memories of did something like that happen in this show I can't remember and what had happened during that time is I was just like the show that was supposed to capture my attention just instead just lulled me to sleep can I tell you this that is the exact state that the enemy would want you to do life in that you would just be lulled to sleep I mean the enemy is playing a lullaby across the church worldwide to go I let your guard down don't watch and pray listen it hasn't happened yet it's probably not gonna happen in your lifetime what's what are all those thoughts doing lulling you to sleep can I remind you what what Paul wrote in in first Thessalonians in verses 5 & 6 that we read a moment ago in chapter 5 he said you're all children of the light and children of the day and we do not belong to the night or to the darkness so let us not be like others who are asleep but let us be awake church I am calling you to be awake to the fact that Jesus could come before this service is over and I want you to be ready