Stop Trying to Predict Jesus’ Return. Do This Instead.

that's over there by Africa somewhere and telling us it's coming our way? And I kind of hear it in my ear, but I kind of say, yeah, we'll see. Am I the only student who ever heard a teacher say, hey, there is a term paper, do a test on and I'm like, yeah, I hear that, but it's not today, right? We have a tendency as human beings to be aware of something without being prepared for it. It's not that we're not aware maybe that my blood pressure has creeped up a little bit. That may be my, my waistline, it's not that I'm not aware that the spark that was in my marriage just isn't quite, you know what I'm talking about, right? I'm aware of it, but I'm not really prepared to do anything about it. And the tendency is to wait, right, to where like the storm is 30 miles away and oh, we need to go to the store and get some supplies. One of the spouses like we're out of here, we're leaving, I'm going, I'm gone. The doctor tells you that like this is really, really, really serious. It's Thursday and your 10 page term papers do tomorrow morning and AI doesn't count. Oh snap, right? We specialize at times of being aware of something without being prepared for it. You can go back and watch last weekend, we talked all about awareness, Jesus said over and over and over, I'm coming back, you either have to just choose to ignore it and call Jesus a liar or you have to lean in and be aware that Jesus Christ, the second most frequently talked about topic in all the scriptures is Jesus says he's coming back again. We're about to celebrate in a couple months, the first time he comes like Christmas, you're not only aware of it, you're alerted to it, you'll begin shopping for it. But I want us this morning to become alert to the reality that Jesus Christ said he's coming again. So you've got your copy of God's Word. I want you to join me in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and then we'll go over and look at the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 24, checking out what we see in the scriptures. The Bible says this in verse 13, we do not, the apostle Paul's teaching to us, he, God, doesn't want us to be uninformed. He wants us to be very informed about what's happening in our life.

He goes on to talk about our loved ones. Maybe it was a spouse, maybe it's your parents, maybe it was a child that at some point passed away and has died. He wants you to be aware of what happens when a person takes their last breath here on earth and the comfort that we can have in that. If you let your eyes drop down to verse number 16, he goes on to explain this. He says, we declare to you by a word from the Lord. So this is not someone else's word. This is a word from God that we who are alive and are left, coming of the Lord. There's that phrase again that he's coming again. We'll not proceed those who have fallen asleep, those who have died. Now watch it. Here's the promise, verse 16, for the Lord himself, he's not delegating this to anybody else. The Lord Jesus himself will descend. He's in heaven right now. He will descend from heaven with a cry of a command and the voice of an archangel and with the sound of the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ. Our loved ones, someone who you knew has passed, you were at their funeral. The Bible says they will rise up first and then we who are still alive, we will leave and be caught up. And if you write in your Bible, I want you to circle that phrase, caught up and not to nerd out too much in the Greek language, you know, the Bible is not written in English. It's written in Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic. Here that phrase caught up, it's a Greek word harpizo, which literally means to snatch away, to grab, he will catch us up together in the clouds to meet the Lord. I'm your spiritual weatherman. And you're kind of watching me say something about something that's way over there off the coast of Africa. It's an unnamed storm. It's blue sky. The teacher has said, "Hey, the test will be November 8th. The papers do December 3rd. It's way off." And so I can see it in your eyes. I saw it this morning in 830. You kind of just glaze over like, "Oh, okay.

Here we go." Tell them all that any time stuff. Some of you maybe been around church for a while. You heard an evangelist. You heard a pastor. You heard your meemaw. You pop off. Talk about Jesus is coming back and you're like, "Yeah, that was like 10 years ago, 20 years ago. I mean, that was 60 years ago and he still hasn't come back yet." And it's easy for us to begin to be aware of something and then not live prepared for it. Scripture says Jesus is coming again. You've got to wrestle with that somewhere someplace somehow. You've got to decide, "One, do I really believe that he's coming?" And then if I say that he's coming again, how am I preparing for it? See, the return of Jesus is not an excuse to escape this world. It's motivation to change your corner of the world. To live boldly and rightly and to step into places and say, "I'm going to make it better because I'm a follower of Jesus. I'm leaning in and I'm going to make this space better and I'm going to make it brighter. I want people around me to taste the flavor of God. I want people to see that life is at its best when I'm at work in following Jesus. When I'm on a ball field following Jesus it is better. When I'm in the classroom, when I'm on vacation, wherever I am following Jesus is life at its best. If you let your eyes go back to the Bible in verse number 18, it says, "Therefore, as a result of all this, knowing that Jesus is coming again, there's this moment where those who we loved and died, they're going to rise up and they're going to be with Jesus and then we're going to be caught up and we're going to be with Jesus." And then he says, "Therefore, as a result of all of this, encourage one another with these words." This is encouraging. This is the advantage of being a follower of Jesus is that one day I will be with Christ, like the one that you prayed to or if you've not become a follower of Jesus, my prayers, before the end of today you will choose to follow after Jesus, that like there is coming a day right here, it's outlined that we will be with the Lord, we will be with Christ forever, the one that you have read about, the songs that we're just saying, right? The podcasters, the influencers that you follow who talk about Jesus, there's coming a day where we will be with Him. Say, second, you're going to be reunited with your loved one, like that person who made a decision for Jesus and you went through the pain and the hurt, you went through the funeral. Me just talking about right now, it brings up those emotions this afternoon, I will meet with a family, the Laurent family. Ron passed away and next Sunday will have his celebration of life. There's a day when we will be united with our loved ones, all because of who Jesus is. See for the believer, that goodbye, when that loved one takes your last breath,

it can be painful, but hear me, it's never permanent. You see, as Christ followers, it really isn't a goodbye, it's really a good night. It's good night, it's like you kiss your kids, good night, I'll see you in the morning. Good bye has a sense of, I'm not sure where you, but good night is a sense of real confidence. And the Bible says we will be transformed, right? Here, check this out, in Corinthians. Behold, I tell you a mystery. So first of all, let's all just pause for a second, particularly all the data geeks in the house. You want some piece of data, you want some proof, and that if you had this piece of data, you'd have this proof, and then you would believe more. That's just not true. We understand, he says, I'm telling you a mystery. We don't have all of the understandings, we don't have all the details, it's all unpacked, but we shall not all sleep, but sleep meaning die, but we all will be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and the dead will be raised in perishable and we will be changed. In this twinkling of an eye, this immortal body, it will be, this mortal body will be changed in morality. I will no longer hurt. I will no longer limp. We will no longer age. There'll be no brokenness. There'll be no decay. You know, in the end, if you let your eyes drift down in your Bible in 1 Corinthians 15, you come to verse 54 and the Bible says, oh, death, where's your sting? See, the difference between a bee and a housefly is the stinger. There are the reason that you're afraid of a bee is because of that sting. You remove the sting, the bee is just like a housefly. The Bible says right here in 1 Corinthians 15, oh, death, where is your sting?

You see, because of Jesus, that sting has been removed. Oh, grave, where's your victory? Death is not. Death's not the victor. Sin doesn't win. Satan doesn't win. Death doesn't win. The grave doesn't win. You need to hear me. Jesus wins. And to those of us who are in Christ, we win. This whole idea of the rapture, of us being caught up in heaven, it's not because God looks down on the earth and says, oh my goodness. Look how many problems are in the world. Look at all these geopolitical issues that are happening. We're losing. We need to go get our people. So it's the opposite. We are winning. We don't prepare because somehow we've lost. We prepare because we win in Christ. Jesus never commanded us to predict His return. He did command us to prepare for it. So that's what I wanna do. I wanna give you two steps, two moments that you can prepare for Him coming again. Now, you've got to wrestle with this. This is your one and only life.

You have to decide. Do I really believe that He is coming again? Or do I not? If not, then just pick up your phone and just go ahead and start scrolling. Look at see what the new college football rankings will be. I promise you, LLC will not be as high. And how about Gator fans? We are undefeated. Let's go, right? But if you do, if you do believe that Jesus Christ, the Bible says He's coming again, then how are you preparing? How are you moving from being aware, knowing about something to how it changes what you do? How you go to school? How you go to work? How do you manage your time? Here's the first big step that I want us to take this week is this. Be alert, be alert that you're not deceived. The problem that many of us have in this space this morning is not the disasters that are happening in the world. It's the personal deception that's happening in here. And I know right now what some of you are saying, "Yeah, yeah, that might be true for the person next to me, "behind me, in front of me." But that ain't happening in me. Here are the words of Jesus. Matthew 24 can turn back in your Bible in just a few pages.

Matthew 24, verse three. Jesus is sitting on the Mount of Olive. Some of you will be with me there in 27 when we go. Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives. The disciples came to Him privately. Yo, yo, yo, Jesus, tell us, they said, when will this happen? What will be the sign of your coming at the end of the age? The disciples are asking the question, well, how do we know? We wanna, many of us, we're asking the questions we wanna know about the future. I'm my way to hope this morning. Maybe you saw it on Mary Camp, but there's a psychic fair today. You can go just down the street in a psychic. Well, look at your hand. Everybody wants to know about the future. Some of you, right? You are cable news junkies. You got it on, I mean, it's speed dial, you watch it, you're trying to figure out what's happening in the world we wanna, we wanna know. That's not new. Human beings are always trying to figure out what's going on. And notice how Jesus answered in verse four. Jesus answered, "Watch out that no one deceives you." When Jesus is talking about his return, he doesn't say, "Watch out for the disasters."

That's what most of us, we're kinda looking out across the world and what's happening in the age. What's happening in the economy? Did you see the prices of oils and all these kind of different things? He said, watch out for deception. Watch out that no one deceives you. What Jesus is always warning about is the deception that can happen inside of you rather than all of the disasters that are happening around us. But this isn't new. Go all the way back to Genesis chapter 3. All the hell and the pain and the sorrow that you experience in life today is a result of deception. All of the hell and the pain and the sorrow and suffering-- however you would choose to define that this morning-- all the abuse, the crime, the terror-- is all rooted in the soil of deception. Adam and Eve are living in the garden. There is no sin. There is no cancer. There is no abuse. There's no bullying. There's no fraud. God says, you can enjoy everything in the garden. This one tree-- don't touch it. And Satan comes and says, yeah, I know God says that.

But is that really-- I mean, come on, girlfriend. I mean, come on. Is that really what he says? And he deceives. And they're not watching out and that deception comes into them. And it is now passed to every single human being alive today. The greatest in-times threat is not world events happening around you, but rather what you're willing to believe within you. Because what the adversary understands is this-- if he can change what you believe, he can change how you behave, your, and my behavior, is connected in the root of belief. To the businesswoman in the house and the businessmen. The culture that you're trying to build in your company. You want to change the culture. You want to change how your team shows up. You want to change how we interact with customers and clients. You change not the behavior. You change the belief. Coaches from MCYFL to high school to college to pros. You don't change the behavior that happens on the field. You change the belief that takes place in the locker room. And what Satan knows is if I can adjust how you believe about God, it will change how you behave in life. Notice what happens in 2 Thessalonians. This should be a proverbial wake-up call for us this morning. The Bible is describing this world leader that will step on the scene and deceive people.

This man will come, verse 9, to do the work of Satan with counterfeit power, signs, and miracles. He will use every kind of evil deception to fool those on their way to destruction. Watch this. Because they refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them. See, you think that the rejection of the truth of God, it's no big deal. You think, OK, I know God says that I should do this, but I'm not doing this now, but it's OK. Because they'll come a day. I will pivot. I will change my habits. And I will magically, mysteriously, what I know I should be doing, I will change, and I'll do what I'm supposed to be doing, or the reverse. I know God says that this shouldn't be the conduct, the character of my life. But right now, I'm doing it. And when the storm gets closer, I'll adjust my ways. I'll adjust my behavior. Now, think about that. You can't adjust the habit of eating ice cream and chocolate, but you are convinced that somehow you will magically adjust from doing something that you know God says you shouldn't do to all of a sudden magically that you said you will do it. See, rejecting the truth that God says in the word is the open door for deception in your life. When you choose to ignore what God's word says--

and I know you want to get along, you want to group hug, and says, you know God, I know God says-- but it's opening up the door for deception. They refused to lob the tree. Now notice verse number 11. So God, now this only time in scripture, so God will cause them to be greatly deceived. Some of your Bible says allow them to be greatly deceived and they will believe these lies. In other words, God says there comes a point where you continuing rejecting the truth makes deception increasingly believable. You begin to believe and lean into a lie to the point where you believe that lie. Deception becomes powerful when we want the lie more than we want the truth. And I would tell you the most troubling thing about deception is this. Deceive people don't know they're deceived. That's why alertness matters. That's why I'm talking about being alert and the antidote in times deception isn't knowing more prophecy. What's going on with Israel? What's happening with Iran? What's happening in the global economy? I mean, do you think this person, do you think this? No, no, no. An antidote is knowing the truth and the truth is Jesus.

Jesus says, I am the way, I am the truth. So you stay close to Jesus, you lean into his word daily. You let the spirit of God guide you and direct you and convict you and this is not the right. Trust God in going, you get into community where you're doing life with people who are following after Jesus. We choose to be alert. So that's your first step. Awareness, last week, you are aware about it. Alertness says, I'm alerted to it. I'm going to do something about it. And many of us, right? On your cell phone, you have an alert, particularly of a tornado. We have heard about stories of people in the middle of the night, right, where a tornado has come through. You're sound asleep. You don't know that it's coming, but there's an alert that all of a sudden your phone goes off and it wakes you up and you know you need to get to safety. That alert, you don't kind of listen to it and say, oh, that's some good information. I'm grateful for that. No, no, no, no. That alert moves you to action. Be alert. Here's the second thing I want you to write down as this is keep watch over your soul. Not your neighbor's soul, not someone else's soul,

but your soul, why? Because of what Jesus says. Just to remind you, look in Scripture's Matthew 24 and 36. Concerning that day, the hour that Jesus is coming, nobody knows. This is a part of the tension that's in this room. You don't know when it's coming, so it's easy to procrastinate it. I'll take care of that later. It's not happening today. Although he tells you it's imminent, he tells you that he is coming again. That's why we have to be alert. That's why we have to have a sense of watching over our soul. No one knows. Not even the angels of heaven, not even the sun. Jesus, only the heavenly Father knows, but there's coming a day. And then he explains it. Verse 37, "For as were in the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of man. For in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. Until the day Noah entered the ark." No, think about it. Like, Noah and his boys are building an ark, a boat. Like in those days, they're like, what's that? What do you mean there's gonna be rain? I don't know what's rain.

It seemed ridiculous. It didn't make any sense at all. And people walked by and they kind of after a few times, they're like, man, that old boy, you cray cray, right? It doesn't make no sense at all. Until Noah entered the ark. In many ways, what I'm talking about today, one of the reasons that it's like, really God, you want me to talk about the end times? I'm gonna stand up on a Sunday. You're all gonna look at me, even though the gators won and you're kind of like glossed over like, okay. There's no up there, he doesn't have a beard and he doesn't have a hammer and it's not a boat, but Mark's talking about something. It hasn't happened yet. I know maybe, supposedly, the Bible says, but you are just going on. Jesus is saying, that's exactly what it's gonna be like. People are gonna sit there and be like, come on. Come on, really? And notice what it says in verse 39. And they were unaware. They weren't alert. They weren't watching until the flood. rapture caught up talk, verse number 40. Then two men will be in the field. One will be taken and one will be left. Not to leave the ladies out, verse 41. Two women will be grinding at the meal. One will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake. Watch over your life for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. There's coming a moment. You're going to be at work

and you're going to be in the different cubicles and all of a sudden, bam, boom, person next to you gone. Now, I hope it's the opposite. You're gone person next to you still here, but just in case. And just maybe you're like, okay, Mark, I hear you. Later this week, if you go to your Bible, like you understand, my name is Mark. Hi, good to see you. You need to go to God's Word. God's Word guides you. God's Word directs you. That could be the saddest statistic in this gathering online this morning is how little we've actually spent time with God this week. You come and you want to trust a human being like a guy named Mark, you want to trust your online like spiritual guru. You want to talk? No, no, you go to God's Word. So this week, go to God's Word. I just pointed you to Matthew 24. I double dog dare you to look at Matthew chapter 25. Most of you don't have the courage to do it, do you? Triple dog dare you. This afternoon, look at Matthew 25. He gives you three more stories. He gives you the story of the 10 virgins. Five had prepared. Five didn't and the Bible calls them foolish. Which one are you, wise or foolish? And the reason they're called foolish is they're just going on with their life. They're totally unaware of the coming of the bridegroom. And then you'll see in that same chapter the parable of the talents. God gives five talents, five skill sets to one guy. He gives two talents, two skill sets to another person and to one he gives one talent. And the one who had five and the one who had two, he takes those skills and he deploys them. He raises the value of God's presence around him. The one he gave one to, he takes it and he buries it. And if you have courage, read what happens to the person who takes the skill sets that God has given them and doesn't use it to raise the interest, to raise the dividend, to raise the value of God around them. Let me ask you. Are you the five? Are you the two? Are you the one? And then he finishes that chapter outlining two groups of people. Jesus says, I'll have on one side of me sheep, on the other side of me, I'll have goats. And he says to the sheep, I'll look at him and say, hey, listen, I want you to know peeps. I want you to know, I'm very grateful for you. For you see, when I was naked, you clothed me. Yo, Jesus, we never saw you naked. I didn't go to Dillard's and shop for you and clothe you. When I was hungry, you fed me like, yeah, no, Jesus, I'm telling you. I mean, Chick-fil-A was closed that day. I didn't buy. I didn't buy for you at all. No, no, no. When I was in prison, yo, Jesus, you've never, ever been in prison. You came and visited me. And then Jesus said to the sheep, he says, yeah, here's the deal though. When you did it to the least of these, you did it to me. And he looks to another people group, consumers, a lot of church going folk,

showing up and saying, what can the music team do for me? What can the pastors say to kind of make me feel good about me? How will they do hope kids the way I want them to do hope kids? How will they make my, my teenagers do a certain thing? I mean, how, what will they do? And he says, hey, yo, to you guys like, yeah, hey, listen, when I was hungry, you know, fed me? When I was in prison, now you didn't visit me. When, when, when the church talked about raising money so that we could take this gospel message right now, there are men and women all across the state of Florida who are hearing God in God behind bars. Yeah, you never were a part of that. And he says to them, he said, it goes to part for me. And what's interesting when you go and look at the language, you know what their response to us when he said to these goats, hey, listen, get away from me, go depart. You're not a part of me? They said, Lord, Lord, people who don't know Jesus, who don't know about Jesus, don't say Lord, Lord. They, they get, yo, bro, man, come on, don't do me like that. But church going folk who think the high watermark is checking a box because you set your blessed assurance in place on a Sunday. That's what it means. He is saying here to us that we have to keep watch over our soul. For Jesus. Keep watch. Jesus never says, "Guess the date." He says, "Keep watch over your life." Don't just watch the world. We think, "Okay, we're going to watch Israel and watch what's happening in Iran and now the Houthis are doing this and what's going to happen in the midterm elections and what about AI and oh my God, did you see this latest thing? Can you believe in this state or do this and can you believe they passed a law about this and do you think the, "Yeah, my goodness, can you see how they're kind of attacking Christians?" Hello, note to self. Since day one, the world that you live in lives in opposition of Christ, your Savior. Like the purpose of the United States of America is not to get people to Jesus. Is that, are you okay with that? You vote, be a citizen, but like the Congressman, the Senators, the President, the Supreme Court

didn't wake up today and say, "All right, let's get to work, let's get people to Jesus." Is that, does that surprise you? You see as Christ followers, yes, we are in this world now, yes, I am a citizen of these United States, but what's happening around us never gets to determine and dictate who is in me because I've invited Christ to take over my life, the power and the presence of the resurrection, the Holy Spirit lives in me, he guides me, he directs me, he is preparing us. I'm just asking you this morning, is what you say you believe about Jesus, how you're choosing to live your life? Don't become so obsessed with watching the signs that you stop watching over your soul. I've given you an outline, you can take a picture of it. It's a starting place for this week. Don't one on each day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, now see you right back here next Sunday. Watch over your heart, what's pulling your affections from Jesus. Watch over your mind, what voices are shaping what you believe, what your habits, or your private decisions preparing you to meet Jesus. Watch over your relationships, who do you need to forgive? Who do you need to reconcile with? Watch over your assignment, the purpose that God has given you. How are you making your corner of the world the hardest place in the world to go to hell from and watch over your witness? That's why we really are having, we call it, you know, house party day on October 11th. It gives you an opportunity to leverage your one on my life to come and bring your friends and your coworkers and your neighbors and your fellow athletes, students to discover hope in Christ. Jesus never commanded us to predict His return. He commanded us to prepare for it. For those of us who belong to Jesus, the future isn't something to fear, it's something to anticipate.

That's why we have to live alert. Let me give you a scenario and I'll wind this down. If by chance, right, it's a scenario. Take by chance, you knew, for whatever reason God came and said, "I'm going to tell you that I'm coming back tonight." Jesus is coming back to, like you knew, not someday, not one day, but you knew tonight. Would you change anything? Would you forgive somebody? Would you maybe make a phone call? Would you apologize? Would you confess something? Would you turn something off that you're watching? Would you end something? Would you start something? You know, without a shadow doubt, He's coming back tonight. Would you pray differently? Would you hug your family? Would something you've been ignoring suddenly become incredibly important? Now here's the question, why wait? If knowing Jesus was coming tonight would change how you live today, you've just discovered of what needs to change today. 'Cause the danger is this. Jesus overly over and over and over talks about how we get spiritually sleepy, get apathetic. You're busy, you're successful, you're involved. I mean, a lot of things are happening, school, your sports team, you're raising kids, you're religious, you're posting Bible verses. I just read this from the U-version Bible app. All right, cool.

You're building a career, raising a family, signed up for the next event, race that's happening, you're planning the future, all those things are great, but spiritually asleep. See, the greatest danger in this room today is not Jesus' return unexpectedly, rather that you and I live on prepared. He told us he's coming back. And I'm with you, I get it. We hear these kind of messages all the time. The storm's coming, you need to change something, your health, you need to change something. The spouse, you and your spouse talk and things aren't how it was, and we get it, and then we have this, yeah, I'll do that someday. That's why this is the second most frequently topic throughout the Bible, not to create fear but faithfulness, not to become an obsession, but obedience to the one that's your savior, not speculation, but rather deep satisfaction that I'm following Jesus, not a date setting mindset, but rather a daily devoted life that's following after Jesus, not terrified, but man, I'm fulfilled, not hiding and kind of holding on and waiting, but rather leaning in and serving, making the world better and brighter around you. That's why Paul says, after he gives us this big idea about this moment that's coming, and Jesus is coming in the sky,

and he's coming back, and we're gonna meet him, and we're gonna be with Grandma and Grandpa in our lost love while we're all gonna be together, it's gonna be great, and all that can seem very sci-fi, and that's why he closes it with encourage. Therefore, as a result of this, encourage one another, these words. Thank you. Being together in this space today is really good. If you've never begun a relationship with Jesus, I'd like to invite you today to start following Jesus. It's not about your behavior. It's not about your church attendance. It's about the reality that Jesus is for you. God's not managed you. He's madly in love with you. Would you right now pray this prayer with me? Hey, God, it's me. I've sinned, and I know it, and I can't fix me. But today, I receive you, Jesus, as my savior. I believe that you died on that cross for me, and that you were buried for three days, and then you became alive again. And I invite you into my life to guide me and direct me all the rest of the days of my life. And with that prayer, my friend, welcome to God's family. I'd like to continue our friendship. If you would email me, [email protected]. I'll follow up with you, and together, we'll celebrate Jesus in your life.

Peace. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)