The King is Coming

Hello, River Valley! My home church in the North. Man, oh man, I'm in. You know, I like you guys. Everybody stay standing. Uncle John's in the house. I gotta pray before I bring the word. I like you guys so much that one of my sons actually likes the Minnesota Vikings, even though I was raised in Michigan. How's that? Anyway, I love this church. You guys have been coming for decades and I have the utmost respect for your leaders. When I am asked by people all over the United States, who are the finest leaders that you've been around? In my top five, as always, he's actually top three, he's always Pastor Rob Ketterling. I just don't ever want this. I don't want you to forget this entire, all 11 campuses. I don't want you to forget what kind of a leader God has given you in Pastor Rob and Pastor Becca. I am just so grateful for them and I just thank God for your friendship. (audience applauding) That is why we want them on our board. We want his wisdom and his input into our board because God has given them a lot because he has sought God.

Amen. I know some of you don't know me, so I think the best way I can reduce myself this weekend is to show you people I love the most and that's my family. So here's a picture of my family coming up. As you can see, first of all, let me say Lisa Bevere. She and I have been married 44 years this year and she is my absolute best friend on planet Earth. I tell her constantly, "Baby, baby, "if you were single, I'd be so on your trail." I just am amazed I get to be a married to this amazing woman. We have four absolutely magnificent sons, four daughter-in-loves, and then we got our G-babies. You say, "Hey, what's in G, baby? "I'm way too young to be grandpa, so it's G-daddy "and G for short." And we've actually got two that were not pictured there. We just had our 10th one come just two months ago, Lily Jane. So we are just, I mean, the bigger my family gets, the more I realize how much G-d wanted a big, big family because he loves his family. Amen, amen. Tonight, or today, I'm going to share with you something that I'm very, very passionate about. And you'll see, but I do wanna say that the book I'm gonna be sharing with you, and I wish I had it with me. Oh, here it is, it's titled "The King is Coming." And I wanna say this, this is the 25th book

"God Has Had Me Right." There has been no book that has impacted me more than this book, personally. Last year, when I was writing this book, I came to breakfast several mornings, and I said, "Lisa, I'm so sorry, I'm so quiet. "I am so riveted by what the Holy Spirit showing me right now." And it's my prayer this weekend that the Spirit of God will do the same in you, or even more, because I know what has happened in my life as a result of what he's done in me after writing this book, and I wanna see it happen with you. So how many of you believe God can change your life forever in one service? Then put up your other hand, 'cause the Bible says we won't have it unless we ask. So let's believe for it, amen? Heavenly Father, I thank you for this church, for River Valley, Lord God, this church is making such a huge difference, not only in this city and state, but in this nation and around the world. Father, I'm asking tonight, today, as we come before your throne, the Holy Spirit you'll invade, all our sanctuaries, that you'll do what you love to do the most, and that has revealed Jesus in a way like we've never seen it before. As you do this, may we go from glory to glory, from faith to faith, for I decree that your kingdom is come. Your will shall be done in this place on earth as it is in heaven.

So I trust you for every word and every deed, and I thank you that we will be careful to give you all the praise, the glory, the honor, and the thanksgiving, and it's in Jesus mighty wonderful. Majestic, holy, awesome, magnificent name we pray, and everybody that agrees, shouts. Come on, give him praise for what he's gonna do. Amen, amen, amen, amen, you can be seated. All right, tonight I'm gonna open up, I'll keep saying tonight, today, I'm gonna open up with two words. They're Latin words, I don't wanna see if anybody knows these two Latin words. Aventus, Dominique, does anybody know what these words mean in Latin? Anybody, at all. It means, Aventus means the arrival or the coming, Dominique is the emperor or the king. So they were used in the Roman Empire before Jesus was born to announce that Caesar was coming into their city. The early church, the first three centuries, adopted these words to talk about the second coming of the king, and that is our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I wanna talk about, and this is what I'm gonna share with you tonight, is on the second coming of Jesus. How many of you believe he's coming back soon? Amen, without it out, amen. Now, I will tell you, I avoid, I'm not kidding, I did not preach.

One message until this year on the second coming of Jesus, except once last year. Not one message, why? People would ask me, they'd say, "Why don't you preach on the second coming of Jesus?" They'd say, "Hey, I'm not called to." And there was a reason I didn't want to. And the reason was I didn't like what I saw it produce. I saw when people preached on the second coming, Christians became lazy, they got an escape mentality, or they became argumentative. They were arguing pre-post, mid, all this other stuff. And I thought, "I don't want that, I don't want to see that." And so I avoided it. But then in 2021, the Spirit of God started dealing with me personally, and He started drawing me in. I really felt like I was supposed to dive in. And what I started seeing in me was different than what I expected. First of all, I became far more passionate about ministry and getting soul-sought. I found myself weeping in the mornings, crying out, "God, just give me the ability "to win souls to Jesus." My family started saying, "Dad, you've changed." I'm like, "What?" They said, "You're not getting upset as easily. "My wife started calling me your favorite husband." I said, "What in the world does that mean?" She said, "I like John 2.0 better than John 1.0."

And so what I realized is when eschatology, the study of End Times, is preached incorrectly, it creates a lazy attitude, an escape attitude. When it's preached or heard correctly, it creates an urgency because think about it. In a 5K race, when does the runner run the fastest? The last 100 meters. He's run 4,900 meters, but now he's running the fastest. They've proven this scientifically. They run the last 100 meters because they see the finish line. What I discovered is that the second coming of Jesus, now I haven't spent hundreds of hours, I've spent thousands of hours. The second coming of Jesus is the second most written about subject in the entire Bible. It is the second most written about subject by the church fathers of the first three centuries. One out of every 30 verses in the New Testament speaks of the second coming. That's 318 scriptures in the New Testament. If you look at the first coming of Jesus, there were 300 prophecies. If you look at the second coming of Jesus, there's over 2,400 prophecies. The seven year tribulation is the most written about time period in all of scripture, even more so than the three and a half years Jesus was here. So this is what started going through me when I started discovering this.

Number one, if God talks about it this much, why don't I talk about it? But more importantly, if God talks about it, what is his wisdom behind it? And so I was quite nervous because I never thought I'd write on this. And when the Holy Spirit really started dealing with me to write on it last year, I was like, "Oh my God." And I remember, I was a little apprehensive and so the Lord put in my heart, He said, "Son, go back and look at my first coming." Were there people that didn't get it right? Yes, were there people that got it right? Yes, find out the difference between those people. And so the obvious ones that didn't get his first coming right were the Pharisees. Now, before you throw stones at the Pharisees, can we talk about them for a minute to become a Pharisee? That's the pastors, ministers of the day. To become a Pharisee, you had to memorize the first five books in the Bible. Can you believe that? I mean, how many less ministers will we have today if we had to memorize and recite from memory? Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts. Okay, but even though they could do that, they couldn't recognize the Son of God when He was 30 years old and raising the dead. Then you have these people called the Essenes. Now you don't hear about the Essenes in the Bible,

although they're there. We discovered the community of the Essenes when they discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948. They were a group of people when they saw the corruption that was in the spiritual leadership in Israel. They went out into the desert and formed a community called Qumran. You've heard of the caves of Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. These were the people that protected the sacred writings of the Bible and of the ancient Jewish fathers. Now, the Essenes, this is quite amazing, predicted to the weak that Jesus would ride into a Jerusalem they predicted 150 years before Jesus was born. These guys were amazing. A lot of Bible scholars believe that John the Baptist was in a scene. If you look at it, he was in the deserts until the day of his manifestation, right? A lot of Bible scholars believe Mary, the mother of Jesus was in a scene, and most Bible scholars believe this guy named Simeon was in a scene. You say, "Who in the world is Simeon?" He's only found in one gospel, but it says in Luke 2, 25, it says there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon who was righteous, everybody say righteous, devout, and eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come.

Now, I wanna look at these three words that I've highlighted. This is all we get about this guy because let me set this up about Simeon. Mary and Joseph come into the temple. Now, you gotta understand, Joseph's probably in his early 20s. She's probably in her late teens. They got a 40 day old baby. Are you following me? Okay, and they come from another state. They come from Galilee, down to Judea. That'd be like they came from Wisconsin over to Minnesota and Minneapolis where the temple is. You got it? Now, they go into the temple. Now, if you go into a cathedral here in Minneapolis, on a Wednesday, there might be two people in the cathedral, not so with the temple. The temple was buildings, not one building, and every day there were crowds of people in the temple. This unknown couple comes in with a 40 day old baby. This guy Simeon does a B line right towards them, holds up the 40 day old baby and cries out the Messiah. Now, here are the people that can quote the first five books of the Bible from memory, and here's a guy who recognizes the Messiah, God manifests in the flesh when he's 40 days old. So what makes him different from these people? That's what I had to start finding out. And I only have these three words to go on.

He was righteous, he was devout, and he was waiting for the Messiah to come, right? Now, the word righteous means he acted out of a constitutionally just character. Let's put that in more modern terms. He took obedience to God seriously. He was a man who pursued godly living. Devout, the word devout is defined as one who takes the word of God seriously. It carries the meaning of the fear of the Lord. Now, the fear of the Lord is not to be scared of God, it's actually being terrified of being away from God. But the one that's so interesting to me is that he was eagerly waiting. Everybody say eagerly waiting. Now, the Greek word here is the Greek word prostectomy. This Greek word is defined as this to remain in a place of expectancy. So this man, these are the characteristics these are the characteristics that the Bible describes him as. If we look at what Jesus says to you and I in regard to his second coming, you're gonna see these three things mirrored. Because in Luke's gospel, the 12th chapter, Jesus tells you and I what to do for his second coming. Now, look at this. He says, stay dressed for action, keep your lamps burning, and you be like men who are eagerly waiting

for their master to come. Now, I added the word in eagerly. Why? Because it's the same Greek word, prostectomy. Okay? I wanna focus in on that one first. I did not realize until late last year, how many times we are told to be eager about the second coming of Jesus in the New Testament. If you look at Paul's letter to the Corinthian church, look what he says. He says, as you eagerly wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, look what Paul writes to the Hebrew believers. Or actually Timothy, Paul writes to Timothy and he says, the prize, which is the crown of righteousness, is not just for me, but all who are eagerly waiting for his appearing. If you look at the book of Hebrews chapter nine, it says, Christ will come again not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to those who are, everybody say it, eagerly waiting. Now, you've seen this, I've cut some out, but I want you to see how many times this appears. It appears many times in the New Testament. So the question I have is what causes eager expectation? Think about when you were a little kid and your parents put up the Christmas decorations. Okay, now I remember when I was five years old, my parents put up the Christmas decorations. I mean, my sister and I started talking nonstop about Christmas morning, open up all the gifts. We talked about it through the wall at night, we counted the days, I remember the week, we sometimes counted the hours, and I remember I hated Christmas Eve because I couldn't sleep.

I was so excited about what was happening next morning. So what creates eager expectation? It's when we get our sights fixed on something we're looking forward to that's going to happen in the future. It's going to happen in the future that has an happy anticipation. Are you seeing this? Think about this. Let me go to another one. Think about an engagement. Everybody, how many of you in here are married or engaged? Let me see your hands. So a lot of you are going to relate to this one, right? I remember when Lisa and I were engaged, it was a four month engagement, it was entirely too long. And I remember if you got around me in those four months, all I talk about is Lisa and the wedding day. I mean, it was for the longest months I have ever lived in my life because I was so excited. My sights were fixed on the day I was going to be married to her. Well, if you look at what Paul says to the Colossian church, it's quite amazing. He said, "Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights." Everybody say, "Sights." Set your sights on the realities of heaven and think about the things of heaven, not the things of the earth. What you set your sights on is what you're going to think about. I had my sight set on marrying Lisa in our wedding day. That's what I thought about. I was so eager about it. Are you seeing what I'm saying? Think about when you're driving a car, if your sight, where is your sights fixed? They're fixed on the road. Does that mean you don't look down at the dashboard once in a while? Sure you do. Do you look at the GPS quickly? Yeah, but your eyes go back to where they're set.

Do you look at the person riding in the passenger seat next to you? Do you look at the sights outside? You always go back to where your eyes are set. Think about winter around here. You guys get single digit temperatures all the time. If you leave your front door open, what happens? Your house temperature drops 20 degrees. How do you correct that? Just close the front door. The temperature goes back to where it's set, 70 degrees. So ask yourself this question. When your mind is not required at a task in front of you, you know, the pickleball shot you have to hit, the job you're doing, the final you're studying for in university, when your mind's not required on those things, where does it go? Does it go to World Cup? Does it go to how many likes that I have on my social media post yesterday? Does it go to how many followers do I have on social media? Does it go to this girl that I'm really interested in? Because your mind will go to where it's set when it's not required. Still with me? We're told to set our sights on the things above, on the realities of heaven, because that's what we'll think about when our mind's not required at a task in front of us. See, the Apostle Paul makes this statement. This is amazing. Philippians chapter 3 said, "For I've told you often before, and I'm going to say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose behavior shows they set their mind on earthly things." They're having a terrible time getting free from pornography. Why? Their sights are set on the things of this earth and their behavior shows it. When their mind is not required at task in front of them,

their mind goes to earthly things. But now look at the very next verse. He said, "But we are citizens of heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and we are," here we go again. Okay? Here it is again. "We are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior." See in America, Western Christianity, this is hard for us to comprehend, comprehend because we have so many places we can set our mind, our sights on. [BLANK_AUDIO] Still with me? All right, so why am I spending so much time on this? Why is eager expectation so important? Because John the Apostle who saw the book of Revelation writes in his letter, and this is quite amazing. He said when Christ appears, we will see him as he really is, now watch this, and all who have this, here it is again, eager expectation will purify themselves even as he is pure. Do you understand what John the Apostle just said to us? There is a power in setting our sights on his return and eagerly anticipated. There is a power that will give us the ability to purify ourselves even as Jesus is pure. So you're sitting there going, I can't get free from substance. I can't get free from this pornography. Is your behavior showing where your sights are set? Is your behavior showing that your mind are set on things in the earth? What is the opposite of being eager about Jesus' return, setting your sights on his return? The opposite is putting it off. Jesus talks about a second coming in Matthew chapter 24, spends a whole chapter talking about wars, rumors of wars, pestilence, earthquakes. There has been like 11 major earthquakes in the last 24 hours. I'm talking in real time. But then he comes to the end after he talks about the Son of Man appearing in the clouds in glory, and he says this. He tells a parable. He says, "If the servant thinks my master won't be back for a while." That is the opposite of eager expectation. What happens? He'll begin to beat his fellow servants and party and get drunk. What is Jesus saying? He's saying, "When you put off his second coming, you'll gravitate over to the desires of the flesh so easily." What does it mean? Beat the fellow servants. It means you refuse to forgive them. It means that

you begin to separate in the body of Christ. You begin to create groups and you'll have nothing to do with other groups. It means you begin to become a keyboard warrior on social media. It means you slander people. What does it mean party and get drunk? It means you start just yielding to the dictates of their flesh because your flesh has power now, because you don't have that power to purify yourself even as he is pure. The apostle Peter mirrors this. I remember Arden and I, we spent an entire year talking about Second Peter. I just felt like on the John Bevere podcast, our producers were like, "Well, can you talk about this and that?" I said, "No, I just want to talk about Second Peter." My producer thought it was going to take about six weeks. We spent an entire year on the podcast on Second Peter. It's only three chapters. I remember chapter one and two took nine months, right? I get to chapter three, and Peter says this most importantly. I'm like, I just spent nine months on one and two. What do you mean most importantly? Most importantly, listen to these words. Most importantly, I want to remind you that scoffers are going to come in the last days and you know what they're going to say? Where's the promise of his coming? Because ever since the father's fell asleep, everything remains the same as the beginning of creation. Hey, can I say something? Atheists and agnostics don't call church father's fathers. Atheists and agnostics do not call creation creation. They call it evolution. Peter isn't talking about people outside the church. He's talking about people inside the church. And he says, "Most importantly, I want to remind you that scoffers are coming in the last days saying..." Look, I want you to know, put that scripture up for me again. Do you notice I have dot, dot, dot? Oh, go back. Go back one frame. Most importantly, I want to remind you that scoffers will come in the last days, dot, dot, dot. You see the dot, dot, dot, dot? Can I show you what's in the dot, dot, dot? Now go too forward. Most importantly, I want to remind you that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing following their own sinful desire. See what happens when you put off his coming. Peter is saying, just like Jesus said, you begin to beat the fellow servants, you begin to party and get drunk. In other words, you're going to follow now your sinful desire so easily. Sure, it's quiet in his method, his church. Are you still here? Are you just listening real good right now? Is that what you're doing? Okay, so this is going to get you're going to see some things that listen, this has changed my life. I've been in ministry for over 40 years. This has changed my life. Okay. scoffers are going to come, right?

But then what does he say to you and I in verse eight? But beloved, do not forget this one thing. Now, isn't these interesting words? Most importantly, and then he says, hey, you, don't forget. This one thing, what thing are we not supposed to forget? The one day with the Lord is 1,000 of our years and 1,000 of our years is one day to God. Do you understand that? God, one day to God is 1,000 of our years. I mean, I got this engineering degree from Purdue, so I just thought, well, it's an hour to God. And I divided 1,000 years by 24. And I found out one hour to God is 42.6 years. So that means if you're 85 in here, you're two hours old. And most of you sitting in here aren't even an hour old yet. Are you seeing this? So now, I want to show you the urgency that the writers in the first century of the Bible had about Jesus' second coming. Watch this. Paul says in Philippians 4.5. Remember, the Lord is coming. Everybody say it. Come on, shout it. Say it. He's coming soon, right? Watch this. James, take courage for the coming of the Lord is. Everybody shout it. - Amen. - Okay.

Watch what Peter says. The end of the world is coming. - Soon. - Okay, I cut out about three-fourths of them. Can I show you what Jesus says? Jesus says three different places. It's actually four, but I only put three. I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have. In another place, he says, look. This is the book of Revelation. I'm coming soon. In another place, he writes, look, I'm coming soon, bringing my reward with me. Now, what is going on? Is God like deceiving us? Those are written back in the first century. We're in the 21st century. No, he's not deceiving us. He's protecting us. Man, when you understand this, you're gonna go crazy. He's protecting us. Okay, first of all, let's get rid of the deception. Okay, when Lisa and I were engaged for the last two months of our engagement, she had to fly up to Indiana and get the church and the historic home that we were having, the reception ready, took her two months working 40 hours a week, right? I had to stay in Dallas and work my job.

That two months literally seemed like two years. I mean, a day seemed like a week, a week seemed like a month and a month seemed like a year. It was so, it's the longest two months I've ever lived through. And I remember when we were two days away from me flying up there for the wedding, I'm on the phone with her and you know what I said to her? I'll see you soon, baby, because that two days was very soon compared to that two months we had just lived through. Well, a day with the Lord's a thousand years. You're only two hours old if you're 85 in here. When Jesus says I'm coming soon, He's not deceiving us, because two days can be very soon in the scope of eternity. Now, let me get to the more important aspect. Why does God do this with us? Because to us, 2,000 years has been a long time. We're in the 21st century, this was written in the 1st century. He's protecting us. What do I mean protecting us? Could it be that God knew that the eager anticipation of Jesus' return would protect the 12th century Christians from the forces of this world that are trying to pull people away? He knew it would protect the Christians in the 14th century. He's all into protecting us because the power, the pull of this world is so stinking strong. And He said, if you keep the urgency,

you don't begin to beat the male and the female servants because you do that when you put off His coming. Now, if God did that for the 12th century Christians, how much more now the 21st century when we know we're in the generation of His return? Remember, Jesus said, assuredly I saved you, that generation will not pass away until all these things are fulfilled. And that generation, He was talking about when Israel would come back. Think about it, they came back after being gone all over the world, spread out everywhere, all over the world for over 1800 years, they kept their customs, they kept their language and they kept their faith. No nation has ever done that. Jesus said that generation will not pass away until everything has come to pass, including Him coming in the clouds. How much more now should we be urgent and looking for His return? He did this to protect the 12th century church, but how much more us now in the 21st century? So Jesus says to us, "Stay dressed for action," now watch this, and keep your lamps burning. Now let's look at the second one, keep your lamps burning. After Jesus tells about a second coming in Matthew chapter 24, he tells that very short parable that I just showed you, but then he tells another parable and look what he says. The kingdom of heaven shall be like 10 virgins. Everybody say virgins? Say it a little louder.

Notice he doesn't say harlets, he doesn't say prostitutes. Who took their lamps, everybody say lamps. That speaks of light. Did Jesus ever say the agnostics you are the light of the world? He says to us, "You're the light of the world." All 10 of these girls have lamps. And what are they doing? They're going out to meet the bridegroom. So they're looking for a second coming. We're not talking about people that are atheists and agnostic. The witches are not looking for His coming, actually some of them are. Now watch what Jesus says, five of them were wise, five of them were fools. Do you know this has kept me up at night? I have asked myself, God, I've been up in the middle of the night, couldn't get to sleep because I said, "God, why wasn't it nine were wise and one was foolish? Why five and five?" I remember I preached a 10,000 people and I remember it was a powerful service. 8,000 people stood up repenting of their offense. And I remember when I walked back to my seat, one of the other ministers that was speaking in that conference looked at me and said, "God told me in prayer, 50 percent of the church is not ready for Jesus' return." I remember I spoke in a very large church, a pastor was older than me, a few years ago, and he looked at me with tears in the green room and he said, "John, God told me 50 percent of the church is not ready for a second coming." The only reason I bring those two ministers' words up is because it's exactly what Jesus said. He didn't say nine were wise and one was foolish, he said five were wise and five were foolish. At midnight, what is midnight? Midnight is when the sun is down there. You know what science says?

It's the darkest time of night. Gross darkness, the Bible says, is going to cover the people. Deep darkness is going to cover the people. At midnight, a cry was heard, "Behold, the bridegroom is coming, go out to meet him." And the foolish said to the wise, "Watch this." The foolish said to the wise, "Give us some of your oil for our lamps are going out." Notice their lamps don't go out at 10.15 at night. Their lamps aren't going out at 11.10 p.m., their lamps are going out right at the end. You ever wonder why Jesus is over and over and over? Do you endorse the end? My question is, who's the wise and who's the foolish? You know Paul tells us, "I didn't see this until last year." Look what Paul says in Ephesians 5, he says, "You can be sure." In other words, you can go to the bank on this, that no immoral, impure, greedy person will inherit the kingdom of Christ and God, don't be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins. Now look in the next statement, "Be careful how you live." You know what the Lord asked me? He said, "Son, did you see anywhere in the book of Revelation where I said to any of the seven churches, I know what you believe?" He said to every one of them, "I know what you do. I know your works." Believe me, what we believe is very important because it results in what we live. But the evidence that we truly are believers is we'll reflect it in our life. Don't be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins. Be careful how you live. Now look at this, don't live like fools, but live like those who are wise. Live like foolish virgins. Do you understand we're talking about people inside the church right now? There's no other way you can look at this.

Now notice he says, "Don't be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins." Why is he said it? Because Jude tells us in the last days, he said in his day, but especially in the last days, he said, "There are going to be people that creep into our churches unnoticed. Watch this, saying that God's marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives." I have a team member who went to a wedding a few months ago. It was a big wedding. When he went to the wedding, one of the groomsmen got to talk him with him, and the groomsmen found out that he worked for Messenger International for our ministry. The grooms got so excited. He was like, "Oh my gosh, I love John and Lisa Bavir." You're done, done, done, done, done, right? the wedding was and all the groomsmen. There were a lot of groomsmen, big wedding party. And the pastor looks at the groomsmen and says, "Tight, guys, have a great time. It's all covered by grace." Literally what he said. He said, "That night on the dance floor," he said, "that very groomsmen that he met before the wedding was so drunk he couldn't stand straight. Our team member went up to him, grabbed him, pulled him off the dance floor, literally brought him outside, get fresh air, and said, "What are you doing?" And he told him what the pastor shared with them. They creep in unnoticed saying, "God's marvelous grace allows us to live him more alive." Paul said, "Be careful how you live." In other words, be very careful what you believe because it's going to determine how you live. And if you believe that God's grace can cover me while I live just like the world, well guess what? You're a foolish virgin. I'm preaching better in some of you who are saying amen right now.

Are you still with me? Okay. Now, John the Apostle says four times in 60 verses this statement remain in fellowship with Jesus. Four times in 60 verses. My question is, who are the people that are remaining in fellowship with Jesus? He tells us in verse John 3, 24, if you could put it up, guys. Those who obey God's commandments remain in fellowship with him and he with them. Now, before you get nervous with commandments, let me just tell you, there are 612 commandments in the Old Testament. What are those commandments proved? They proved that we could never keep them and earn a relationship with God, right? But there's over 500 commandments in the New Testament. Remember Jesus said, "He who has my commandments and keeps them," that's the one who really loves me. Remember Jesus said, "Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations teaching them whatever I've commanded you." So what are commandments for in the New Testament to keep us in fellowship with him? Okay. Do you want to know why I don't commit adultery against Lisa? Lisa Bevere. You want to know why? Can you just imagine? If I'm sleeping with a couple of women in my neighborhood and she finds out about it, what happens? I'm in trouble. First of all, I'm dead. She's Sicilian. But what do I lose? You want to know why I don't commit adultery against her?

Because I don't want to lose those times when her heads are on the pillow and she shares an intimate secret of her heart that she will not share with anybody else. If I'm committing adultery with a couple of other women, I'm not even in that bed with her. I don't think my marriage is going to last very long. You want to know why I don't want to commit adultery with Jesus against Jesus? Excuse me. Why I don't want to commit adultery against Jesus? James said, "Hey, you're seeking to become a friendship friend with the world. You are an adulter." Because we're betrothed and betrothed is not engaged, it means we're actually married. It's just we're separated for a season. The reason I don't want to commit adultery against Jesus is because I don't want to ever lose the times when he speaks those words that I've never known before. When he shares with the intimate secrets of his heart, I don't want to ever lose that. There's nothing this world has that's greater than that to me. Now why is remaining in fellowship important? Watch this. 1 John 2, 28. And now dear children remain in fellowship with Christ and stop right there. Now dear children. Everybody say dear children. Okay, is he talking to atheists? Come on, help me. Is he talking to agnostics? No. And now dear children remain in fellowship with Christ so that when he returns, you'll be confident and not shrink back from him in shame. Two responses of believers when Jesus returns. Confidence in shame.

Why am I being so strong tonight? Because I don't want to see you ashamed when he appears. I want you confident. Let me give you an example. My dad never made more than $45,000 a year but he saved like crazy and invested like crazy so his kids go to the University of their choice. I chose Purdue University, out of state school, a lot of money. I remember I'm in the freshman engineering school in the mall. In the biggest lecture hall, there's about $3,500 of us in that lecture hall. We were all freshman engineers and the dean of engineering gets up in front of us and says, look to the person to your right, look to the person to your left. They won't be here at the end of this semester or at the end of this year. We will flunk 50% of you out this year. And he said, in the next year, we will flunk another 50% of you. So only one out of every four of you will be here at the end of next year. Can I tell you that put a healthy fear in me? I started studying for finals that week, and it was And let me tell you so, I worked my tail off. And you know what, when the end of the semester came and finals were over, I was confident. And I remember it took about 10 days for the report card to get to my house. And I remember when the report card came, I was confident. And I opened up the report card and it was better than I thought, I made the Dean's list. And I remember my dad said, son, can I see it? I handed to him, he was like, his face just lit up. Then I joined a fraternity and I wasn't saved. Well, that semester, I'm chasing girls, I'm going at four keggers a week,

I'm playing Frisbee football day long, and I'm not applying myself. The end of that semester, I was not confident. My report card came and when I opened it up, my lack of confidence was founded. My dad said, let me see it. And I remember when his face saw it, how his countenance fell, he just looked at me and said, you could have done better. I was so ashamed, I don't want you to be ashamed when he appears. I'd rather you hear this now. You see, so many people are fearful when it comes to the end times, you should never be fearful. Because it's not an event, it's the wedding of the ages. It's our groom waiting for his dad to say go get your girl, and it's a love sick bride waiting for a groom to appear in the sky. Can I finish with this? I don't know where the time goes, this is ridiculous, how fast time. Can I just give him a give me a gun so I can shoot that clock? Stay dressed for action. I'm going to tell you a scripture. The scripture, I can't stop thinking about it. Revelation 19, 7, and 8. Listen, the marriage of the lamb has come, and his bride has made herself. Didn't say God made her, she's made herself ready. OK, what is the most important thing that girls in those days had to do to prepare for their wedding

was to make their wedding dress? We go to bridal shops today, we have magazines, go to the bridal shop, they had to make it. And during the separation time, the groom and the bride were separated for a year. They were married, but they were separated. She would make her wedding gown for the night that he would come and steal her away. What's the wedding dress made out of next verse? And to her, it was granted to be a raid in fine linen, clean, and bright for the fine linen is the, watch this, righteous actions of the saints. You know, I wonder if the Western Church has enough material to make a bikini, let alone a wedding dress? Can I tell you I'm just going to end with this? Stay dressed for action, Jesus said. When I flew up to Indiana, I remember when I walked into that covenant Presbyterian Church, I was so amazed how beautiful Lisa made that church. I mean, I understood now why she was working 40 hours a week, that two months I was gone. I mean, the beautiful flowers on every single pew, the runner, the beautiful bouquet of flowers that were in the arts that we were going to be married under, I was like, oh my gosh, she's worked so hard. And I remember, it was so beautiful, but nothing touched what she did in that church as when she showed up at the back door with her dad. And she had that gown on. Oh my gosh, I have never seen anything so beautiful

in all my life, I lost it. I mean, she's walking down the aisle and her eyes are just gazed right at me with that love in her eyes. I'm losing, I'm like, I've never seen anything so beautiful. Now, can you imagine if I fly up to Indiana and I'm at that altar and she shows up in the back of the church with her dad and she's got an old dress on and a bunch of dirt and grime stains on it, it's all wrinkled up, she's got an unkept hair and no makeup on. What does that say to me? This day wasn't very important to her. It might be important today, but it wasn't two months ago. She didn't prepare. And when she comes down that aisle with that dirty old dress on, she's gonna be ashamed. Not only before me, but before all the witnesses. I don't want you ashamed. I want you ready. Aschatology, we either talk about dates and timelines or we don't even talk about it at all. It's about being ready. It's our wedding. And the bride has made herself ready. every eye closed. Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you for speaking to us.

I pray, Lord God, that people would, if my tone of my voice wasn't right, if the way I present it wasn't the best, I just pray they would hear your heart and what was said because I want everyone under the sound of my voice and all 11 campuses to prepare. I spent hours preparing for my finals at university. It only took about five minutes to find out where the final was. I just want them prepared. It's so Holy Spirit right now I'm asking you. Take the words that I've spoken, and please let them sink deep into our hearts and make us a people that are ready. With your heads bowed, your eyes closed. When a girl gets married, she's actually saying goodbye to about 3.9 billion guys. That's what she says on her wedding day. She's saying, "This is the man I'm giving my entire life to." She doesn't keep flirting with her old boyfriends, sleeping with them, giving phone numbers out to new guys. She doesn't do that. She makes the decision when she says yes when that wedding, little engagement box opens up and that rings there and she says yes. She's saying goodbye to 3.9 billion guys. When we say yes to Jesus, we say goodbye to everything that drove the nails through his hands. Everything. Are you still flirting with those things? Are you still sleeping with the very things that drove the nails through his hands? You're not a bride. You're not a bride, but he wants you to be as a bride. He longs for you to be as a bride. Does a bride make mistake the first week, the first year? Yes, she makes mistakes, but she doesn't flirt with other guys and sleep with other guys.

So many people in the Western church just think they can sleep with the very things that drove the nails through Jesus' hand, entertaining themselves with the very things that drove the nails through his hands. Spend their time courting these things. He's coming back for a church that's given herself to him the way he gave himself to her. So if you haven't done that, you can do it right now. I don't care what campus you're in. I'm telling you something. He's got his arms outstretched to you right now. He's already died for you. He's got a look of hope. When I opened up that little ring box and I got on one knee with Lisa, I was hoping she would say yes. I couldn't force her to say yes. She has a free will. He created you with a free will. He's hoping you'll say yes. So I want you to be honest, whether in this building or in our campuses. If you haven't done what that bride does, you can do it right now. I want to give you a chance to give your spirit, your soul, your body to him. I'm not asking you to be perfect in your behavior. I'm asking you to be perfect in how loyal you are to him. If that's you and you'd say, John, I want to give myself to him. I want Jesus. I want to give myself to his lordship. I want you to raise your hand up high right now. I want to put all over. And I'm at campus. Wow.

Look at all the hands that are going up in this building right here. Just put your hand up high. Just put them up high. A lot of young people got their hands lifted up. Anybody else? I want to make sure nobody's missed. If your hand's not raised as yourself, why isn't my hand raised? If you want to have it raised and it's not raised as yourself, why? Do you want to keep playing Russian roulette with your eternal soul? Do you want to be separated for the one that died for you forever and ever and ever? Is it really worth it? You're not promised tomorrow. Just put up your hand. Gosh, yes, I want to give him everything. All right. Can we all stand if your hand is up, if your hand is raised, just stand right there at your seat. If your hand is raised, stand up quickly in all of our campuses right now. Anybody else? I want to make sure. If your hand was raised, stand up quickly. Can we pray this with those people that are standing? Let's pray this prayer. They dear Lord God, thank you so much for giving your life to save me from what I condemn myself into. Forgive me for living my way. From this moment forward, I'm your bride. I give you my spirit, soul and body, everything I am, everything I have, Jesus, you are now my Lord, my King, and my eternal.