back to index2019-09-22 What's Next?
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So, this morning, if you would please take your Bibles and turn to 2 Thessalonians. 00:00:15.080 |
And this passage, as a fair warning or disclaimer at the beginning of the sermon, if you've 00:00:25.400 |
heard me preach before, I typically like to give a very simplistic or I guess clear outline. 00:00:30.880 |
Point one, two, three, and then a conclusion. 00:00:34.640 |
This sermon's gonna feel a lot different in that I have many passages to walk through 00:00:39.920 |
So, just as a disclaimer first, we're gonna be turning to lots of passages together and 00:00:45.160 |
trying to get the thrust and the gist of the message. 00:00:50.080 |
What I'll do is read 2 Thessalonians 2 verses 1-7, we'll pray and jump into the message. 00:00:57.640 |
It says, "Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 00:01:05.120 |
and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure 00:01:09.820 |
or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that 00:01:18.320 |
That no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first 00:01:24.120 |
and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts 00:01:29.480 |
himself above every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the 00:01:35.680 |
temple of God, displaying himself as being God. 00:01:40.480 |
Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? 00:01:45.740 |
And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed, for the mystery 00:01:53.600 |
Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way." 00:01:58.880 |
Let's take a moment to go before the Lord and pray. 00:02:06.080 |
Lord, every week and God, during the week, we try together, Lord, to study your word. 00:02:13.840 |
We try to learn and we pray that you will cause that all to be fruitful. 00:02:19.840 |
God, we pray that your truth will truly impact our minds and our hearts, not simply teaching 00:02:26.440 |
us facts, but God, causing us to be understanding. 00:02:31.640 |
And what's more today, as we talk about and learn from your scripture about the coming 00:02:36.020 |
of the Lord, I pray, God, that you will cause us not only to know, but be ready. 00:02:41.360 |
I pray, Father, Lord, the posture of our entire bodies, our minds, and our hearts will be 00:02:47.760 |
directed, Lord, eagerly seeking the return of our Savior. 00:02:52.160 |
And I pray, Father, God, that everything that we're doing will be interpreted in that light. 00:03:04.280 |
The reason why this sermon is going to be a little bit different is because I pretty 00:03:07.640 |
much want to take you down my personal experience of walking through this passage. 00:03:15.640 |
And so, a lot of the reflections that I have, I want to share with you. 00:03:20.280 |
Now, in sharing with you how I got there, you know in our Bible study, midweek Bible 00:03:24.640 |
study, we've been studying Philippians chapter 1 and 2 so far. 00:03:29.160 |
A passage I'd like to reiterate and remind us of. 00:03:34.040 |
Apostle Paul says, "Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so 00:03:39.160 |
that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you're standing 00:03:43.760 |
firm in one spirit, one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel." 00:03:50.320 |
That is such a profound but often repeated command in the Bible, yes? 00:03:56.600 |
Almost every letter in the New Testament when Apostle Paul is teaching, he commands us to 00:04:00.800 |
live worthy of the gospel and desires us to rise. 00:04:05.400 |
To not just simply take the gift of God as something light and say, "Why, thank you." 00:04:12.880 |
And then to simply live as we were previously, but actually to have our lives be sanctified 00:04:20.040 |
Now, what's really interesting is in verse 28, this is from Philippians chapter 1, 28, 00:04:25.040 |
he says, "But in no way be alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction 00:04:35.780 |
My thought has been thinking and ruminating about that phrase. 00:04:40.960 |
He challenged us to a great height of living worthy of the gospel, and then he tells you, 00:04:45.800 |
"Don't be alarmed because you have opponents. 00:04:50.640 |
And he says, "This is a sign, a sign of a destruction for those who oppose you and a 00:04:57.960 |
So in our standing firm, striving, and trying to live the gospel, there is this element 00:05:04.040 |
of you understanding your current circumstance in light of the gospel you're living and making 00:05:10.240 |
sense of the fact that you're going to have opponents. 00:05:13.920 |
Accepting the fact that this living worthy is not easy at all, right? 00:05:18.920 |
As a matter of fact, you trying to live worthy is going to be hit with constant walls, not 00:05:24.040 |
just from your own flesh, but from the persecution that is around you, from those who hate God 00:05:31.240 |
And what's more, all of that is supposed to be seen by you. 00:05:34.280 |
You're supposed to see and be like, "That's right, this is happening. 00:05:36.520 |
This is a sign that you're supposed to see," right? 00:05:40.200 |
As opposed to, and we talked about this in Bible study, where oftentimes if we're hit 00:05:44.720 |
with suffering, something doesn't go right, like, "I'm trying to give you like the most 00:05:49.600 |
precious gift ever, the love of Jesus," and people just shove that back in your face, 00:06:01.120 |
There is this confusion sometimes, but Apostle Paul is challenging us, "Don't be alarmed." 00:06:05.640 |
And in order to build a context to how I got then to 2 Thessalonians, turn to chapter 1 00:06:13.460 |
And I'd like to read to you verse 3 through 5. 00:06:21.580 |
And as I kind of guide us, again, there is no clear 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 outline. 00:06:27.040 |
I'm going to just say, we're just going to move by the passages. 00:06:35.580 |
He says this, "We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren. 00:06:39.800 |
It's only fitting because your faith is greatly enlarged and the love of each one of you toward 00:06:46.960 |
Therefore we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance 00:06:52.480 |
and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endured." 00:07:00.820 |
And similarly to the Philippians, they're experiencing a ton of persecution and affliction. 00:07:07.080 |
Verse 5, "This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you will be considered 00:07:13.960 |
worthy of the kingdom of God for which indeed you are suffering." 00:07:19.680 |
There was kind of a corollary or at least a connection of thought there. 00:07:24.320 |
Our living the gospel and then receiving persecution and receiving hardship should be a sign for 00:07:31.800 |
Here, he's saying, "All of that persecution and affliction you endured, this is great 00:07:47.080 |
Verse 6 and forward, it says, "For after all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction 00:07:56.640 |
Have you guys read that and just paused for a second? 00:08:04.380 |
It's only right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you? 00:08:10.860 |
"And to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will 00:08:16.060 |
be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels and flaming fire, dealing out retribution 00:08:22.100 |
to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 00:08:28.180 |
These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from 00:08:32.780 |
the glory of his power when he comes to be glorified in his saints on that day and be 00:08:38.100 |
marveled at among all who have believed for our testimony to you is believed. 00:08:43.020 |
To this end also, we pray for you always that our God will count you worthy of your calling 00:08:48.260 |
and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power so that the name 00:08:53.040 |
of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you and you in him according to the grace of our 00:09:04.060 |
So with that passage, this is I want us to have our minds think about something here. 00:09:15.400 |
Because we should be thinking about what is coming in the future, in the years to come, 00:09:22.100 |
the next kind of timeline of God's plan of redemption, what's next? 00:09:28.700 |
And clearly, this is really sobering because this passage is reminding us, remember, Christ's 00:09:37.540 |
Christ is going to return in a fashion where it is dramatic. 00:09:40.820 |
I mean, I don't know what else words to use, but incredibly dramatic. 00:09:45.900 |
Mighty angels and flaming fire dealing out retribution, afflicting those who are against 00:09:57.820 |
But I would like us to take a moment here and now and to ask, first and foremost, I 00:10:04.100 |
have to start thinking, am I living with that kind of expectation? 00:10:12.740 |
That's a huge, huge frame of thought, mentality, perspective, you can call it a worldview that 00:10:23.940 |
Let me emphasize how important it is by giving us a silly example of driving. 00:10:29.700 |
You know how frustrating it is when the driver in front of you has no idea where they're 00:10:35.900 |
Of course, it's never you, it's the guy in front of you. 00:10:39.500 |
They're driving, maybe they're like distracted, they're on their phones, they look up, fork 00:10:48.300 |
And you have to swerve, and one time that actually happened to me, I had to go into 00:10:52.500 |
Sure enough, that guy ended up going, oh, they go this way, and then a cop pulled up 00:10:56.020 |
next to me and gave me a ticket for going into the construction zone. 00:11:01.620 |
If you're lost, don't slam on the brakes in the middle of the road, just go. 00:11:10.160 |
You know how frustrating it is when someone doesn't know where they're going, and because 00:11:14.140 |
of that, they can't do anything else but stop. 00:11:19.260 |
Other driving scenarios, if you yourself, you're getting directions from your navigator, 00:11:24.020 |
your passenger, and they're giving you directions, right? 00:11:27.100 |
And they're telling you, oh, turn here, turn there, everything's fine. 00:11:30.360 |
But they say something confusing like, oh, next turn, this one, go. 00:11:33.700 |
You're like, wait a minute, this one or the next one? 00:11:35.900 |
Because the next one's technically after this one. 00:11:42.420 |
Now you're all upset at each other, like, dude, can you be a little bit more clear? 00:11:50.540 |
The reason why I gave you this silly example is because if you do not know what's coming 00:11:55.900 |
up, oftentimes you're going too fast to stop, or you have to pump your brakes and you don't 00:12:01.540 |
know what you're doing, you're going to hurt the people behind you, or you're all confused 00:12:05.500 |
and you're going to get into a fight like, no, this is next, no, that's next, and then 00:12:10.580 |
All around bad scenario when we don't know what's coming up next. 00:12:15.060 |
So, if you're not prepared to do anything, can I say it's a fair assessment that living 00:12:20.980 |
here it is very difficult to keep thinking about what's next, right? 00:12:26.320 |
Living here, most likely, we're getting constantly distracted, not knowing, are we supposed to 00:12:35.000 |
Because let me ask you this really interesting question. 00:12:36.860 |
I just posed to you and read to you that the retribution of Jesus when he dishes out judgment 00:12:49.580 |
Is what's next on the table simply Christ is going to return and dish out retribution? 00:12:54.780 |
Well, that's really interesting thing to think about, and that's how we get to the next passage. 00:13:00.900 |
Please go over to chapter two, 2 Thessalonians 2, verse one through two, I'm sorry, one through 00:13:07.420 |
Again, original thought, thinking through all this stuff, what's next? 00:13:14.220 |
Am I aware of what's next and what's going to be happening? 00:13:18.780 |
Verse one through three of chapter two, sorry, I'm going to say 2 Thessalonians chapter two, 00:13:25.380 |
He says, "Now we request of you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus 00:13:29.420 |
Christ and our gathering together to him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure 00:13:35.180 |
or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that 00:13:44.260 |
That no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless apostasy comes first 00:13:50.140 |
and the man of lawlessness is revealed and the son of destruction." 00:13:57.420 |
Take a moment to think about that for a moment. 00:13:59.340 |
I asked you, is what's next Jesus is coming and he's going to dish out retribution? 00:14:04.940 |
And then it kind of makes it sound like maybe not. 00:14:12.380 |
Today we are not going to sit here and delineate every single dot on the timetable of God. 00:14:20.580 |
There are certain things we do know generally. 00:14:23.220 |
There are certain things that's good and proper for us to work through. 00:14:30.700 |
Is there a future judgment, the behemoth judgment? 00:14:35.260 |
All those things are good and godly to think through because it's in the Bible. 00:14:38.580 |
However, that's not my purpose in going through this passage today. 00:14:45.940 |
The scripture challenges every single one of us to know and be aware of the signs of 00:14:53.820 |
The scripture is telling us you need to be alert, not only alert but ready. 00:15:06.220 |
But it's a different kind of point more so, right? 00:15:08.620 |
And that's what I'm talking about here is these people were in some ways tempted to 00:15:13.220 |
be disturbed, tempted to be deceived, tempted to be shocked, and back in Philippians, alarmed. 00:15:25.980 |
If we're not understanding what's coming up, then we will be in a situation of, "This doesn't 00:15:38.620 |
All of a sudden, you're not really sure what you should say. 00:15:41.260 |
And then sometimes if it's really bad, then you'll start being like, "What are you doing?" 00:15:49.540 |
We want to listen carefully and learn what does God want us to know. 00:15:54.020 |
Now I told you that this was my devotion and I went through a lot of weird feelings about 00:16:00.980 |
Because I started to then ask myself the question, "Am I shocked in certain ways? 00:16:09.100 |
And the thing about it is, if you look closely, take a look again at verse 2. 00:16:15.140 |
And he explains why these people, the Thessalonians, were particularly confused. 00:16:21.300 |
He says, "Don't be quickly shaken from your composure and do not be disturbed either by 00:16:26.940 |
a spirit or message or letter, as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord 00:16:36.900 |
Basically, what happened was either by someone saying, "Oh, I think this letter is from Paul," 00:16:41.460 |
or, "I think I heard Paul say," or whatever it may be, they were being challenged with 00:16:49.140 |
Now, here and now, I have never had someone knock on my door, say, "Pastor Mark, I need 00:16:59.780 |
You know, like, no one has ever come and asked me, "Is this real? 00:17:04.220 |
No one, I don't think now, people don't really wrestle with that. 00:17:08.460 |
However, think about how, again, we're not cognizant of the Lord's return. 00:17:14.900 |
What was prominent in their time was that people would over-spiritualize the return 00:17:21.580 |
As a matter of fact, people would over-spiritualize even Jesus' first coming. 00:17:26.020 |
And what they would make of it is there's this general spirit of Jesus and a general 00:17:30.740 |
special knowledge of Jesus that's around you and it's in you, and you don't need to worry 00:17:43.340 |
It almost makes the literal coming of Jesus unnecessary. 00:17:47.740 |
It almost makes the literal return of Christ unwanted. 00:17:53.180 |
Because you're just generally living your spiritual thing now. 00:17:56.980 |
Could we be in danger of that kind of deception? 00:18:00.980 |
But what's more likely is that some people actually believe Jesus physically returned 00:18:06.660 |
because they were going through intense persecution. 00:18:19.140 |
Apostle Paul is teaching them that what is to be surrounding Jesus' next return is what? 00:18:30.740 |
And we're going to walk down the next portion of the passage, chapter 2, verse 4 through 00:18:36.780 |
So we're still at 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 4 through 12. 00:18:40.860 |
And he says, this man of lawlessness, "Who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called 00:18:46.780 |
God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying 00:18:52.980 |
Do you not remember while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? 00:18:56.380 |
And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. 00:19:05.660 |
Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. 00:19:09.980 |
Then that lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his 00:19:14.020 |
mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming. 00:19:17.980 |
That is the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power 00:19:22.820 |
and signs and false wonders, and with all deception of wickedness for those who perish 00:19:27.860 |
because they do not receive the love of truth, so as to be saved. 00:19:33.060 |
For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence, so that they will believe 00:19:37.220 |
what is false, in order that they all may be judged, who did not believe the truth, 00:19:47.980 |
I say wow because that's honestly really disturbing if you take a moment to think about it. 00:19:54.300 |
Can I take a moment to confess to you that when I was doing my devotions, my silly mind 00:20:00.260 |
went to the theological, the doctrinal, the "wait a minute, I believe in pre-tribulation 00:20:08.180 |
If you guys don't know what I'm referring to there, we're talking about this promise, 00:20:12.260 |
if you guys remember 1 Corinthians 15, "and the twinkle of an eye will all be changed." 00:20:17.580 |
1 Thessalonians chapter 4, you guys are fretting because your brothers have died before you? 00:20:25.780 |
Because Jesus is going to come, we're going to be caught up with him, right? 00:20:28.580 |
I believe that's going to happen before the great tribulation time. 00:20:32.500 |
Tribulation meaning the great time of testing and the wrath of God prophesied in Daniel. 00:20:37.620 |
Okay, all I'm saying is, I did that while I was doing my devotions and I got lost. 00:20:43.820 |
I was starting to think like, "Wait a minute, what is this?" 00:20:47.340 |
And I started thinking timeline, I started thinking like, "How does this fit with the 00:20:56.820 |
It's in the Bible, you should think about it. 00:20:59.500 |
But if you understood, and if I understood, sorry, that this is a huge chunk, a huge chunk 00:21:09.360 |
Chapter 1 and 2 together talking about how Christ is going to return. 00:21:13.500 |
Talking about how people are going to be deluded, deceptive, they'll not love the truth, rather 00:21:18.460 |
hate it, and then they're going to be judged by God for their unbelief. 00:21:25.100 |
God is not going to simply come to judge those horrible, heinous people, the murderers, and 00:21:30.660 |
the wicked rapists, and the traffickers, and they're going to be judged. 00:21:36.020 |
God is going to judge every single individual who does not place faith in Christ, who did 00:21:41.780 |
not heed the command, "This is my beloved Son who I'm well pleased, listen to Him." 00:21:46.580 |
Any individual who said, "No," they will be judged ultimately, fiercely. 00:21:53.820 |
And then I started to realize, and before that comes, there's going to be droves of 00:22:01.380 |
There's going to be masses of people who are going to, there's going to be an apostasy, 00:22:05.740 |
meaning they're going to look like Christians, they're going to play the game well, and they're 00:22:11.700 |
Why am I sitting here thinking, "Is this preacher?" 00:22:18.300 |
I mean I started thinking, "How would I feel if I'm on this pulpit, and half the people 00:22:23.740 |
in this room was like, 'I don't like the stuff you're saying. 00:22:30.140 |
What we see coming, which I believe is fast coming, is a time where there's going to be 00:22:39.580 |
incredible, incredible falsehood, hatred of truth. 00:22:46.060 |
People aren't going to listen to good reason. 00:22:53.200 |
Some people think that's only for the, you know, the end, end time. 00:22:58.860 |
Did you catch that he said the lawlessness is working now? 00:23:04.660 |
Did you catch that this mass apostasy, the fake Christians, whatever it was, is organized. 00:23:10.100 |
There's an individual who's supposed to be later on, he's going to exalt himself, and 00:23:19.380 |
See, what I'm focusing on is not just so much like what's the details of how this is going 00:23:23.180 |
to happen, but the fact that the general temperature of spirituality is going to be no love, no 00:23:28.260 |
truth, and a self-righteousness that's against God. 00:23:44.560 |
Please turn your Bible to 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 1 through 5. 00:23:51.220 |
Talking about, again, massive fruitlessness, massive frustrations, massive falsehood. 00:23:58.580 |
These are some, if you're thinking about driving, I'm going to keep using the driving analogy, 00:24:02.380 |
I mean, these are like warning signs of what's to come, you guys. 00:24:05.020 |
It's like, "Road may flood, rocks may slide, you may fall off and die." 00:24:10.100 |
I mean, these are the kind of signs that we're seeing in terms of the Bible passages. 00:24:18.660 |
But the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times, some will fall away from the faith 00:24:24.820 |
paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons by means of hypocrisy 00:24:30.020 |
of liars seared in their own consciences as with a branding iron. 00:24:35.300 |
Man, if you guys have ever talked to somebody who's so thick, so stubborn, so unyielding, 00:24:43.140 |
hearing this passage, it talks about many people who seem even far worse. 00:24:49.460 |
Okay, verse 3, "Men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has 00:24:54.740 |
created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth." 00:24:59.580 |
Turn again to another passage, 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 1 through 9. 00:25:11.340 |
Again, I know we're jumping from verse to verse. 00:25:19.260 |
You guys can also follow along in your Bibles. 00:25:23.260 |
Here it says, "Realize this, that in the last days, difficult times will come. 00:25:29.580 |
For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient 00:25:34.740 |
to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious, gossips, without 00:25:41.460 |
self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather 00:25:47.780 |
than lovers of God, holding a form of godliness, although they have denied its power, avoid 00:25:54.780 |
For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with 00:26:00.060 |
sins led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of 00:26:12.100 |
Because all those descriptions describe somebody who folds to a form of religion. 00:26:17.380 |
All of those descriptions describe an individual who perhaps attend church every Sunday. 00:26:30.740 |
There is, before the end time is coming, there is a season where the fullness of sin, the 00:26:41.380 |
stubbornness of man, it's going to prove itself. 00:26:46.380 |
It's literally going to reveal itself as, "Look how dead we are." 00:26:50.380 |
God has already described the state of mankind. 00:26:53.140 |
You are so dead in your trespasses, you have no life in you. 00:26:56.380 |
I can probe you with a cattle prod, electrocute you maybe, and you still won't respond. 00:27:04.780 |
And over the course of time, mankind is going to reveal itself like that. 00:27:13.420 |
And I confess to you, when I read this, I thought of it more of a theological concept. 00:27:19.700 |
But if you think about it, this is the generation that's to come. 00:27:29.500 |
So again, trying to be an open book about my own time and my devotion. 00:27:36.900 |
The passage, one of the reasons why I was describing this to us, because it's commanding 00:27:54.780 |
One of my bad reactions to listening to this, one of my bad reactions to seeing this also 00:28:12.180 |
Have you guys ever tried to help somebody who doesn't want your help? 00:28:16.860 |
Not only gives you the stiff arm, but tells you like, "You're unloving, you're judgmental, 00:28:22.900 |
If you've ever received that, you know how discouraging that is. 00:28:25.700 |
What's more, the frustration mounts up inside you. 00:28:29.540 |
Listen, look, what you're doing is A, what you're doing is B, put it together and it's 00:28:35.780 |
Like you try to show people, it doesn't work. 00:28:40.340 |
You get so frustrated and you start saying some, "I don't get it. 00:28:46.840 |
And then, you know, have you guys ever debated people on politics? 00:28:50.460 |
Oh man, the intensity of frustration just starts to peak. 00:28:55.580 |
People start to just mock each other like, "I don't understand what's wrong with these 00:29:01.740 |
They're just stupid and da, da, da, da, da, right? 00:29:05.540 |
You get into these debates, people start doing that kind of stuff. 00:29:09.800 |
And then I started realizing, "Mark, what are you doing? 00:29:17.900 |
Why are you responding to hardness of heart this way? 00:29:27.860 |
And then so now I want to confess another part to you. 00:29:33.500 |
I realized part of me, even as a pastor, I think like, it makes sense, right? 00:29:39.380 |
We teach the Bible, people cry, and we have a great time of fellowship. 00:29:48.060 |
Like I had a very simplistic, you have a bunch of people who are not growing, you get them 00:29:51.820 |
in a room, teach them the Bible and they grow. 00:29:58.680 |
I'm a young man trying to walk this life, raising my family, being involved in the church. 00:30:05.820 |
I'm supposed to, Scripture says, "Try to live a quiet life, work hard with your hands, and 00:30:11.060 |
as much as it depends on you, be at peace with everyone." 00:30:17.260 |
So yeah, that's what I'm going to try and do. 00:30:19.260 |
And as I do that, I'm going to watch my kids grow, I'm going to go off to college, I'm 00:30:22.700 |
going to leave them a nice little legacy of this and that, and then we're going to work, 00:30:27.100 |
labor in the church, it's going to be awesome. 00:30:38.140 |
And all of a sudden, when persecution comes, people don't listen, you know, my own kids 00:30:45.140 |
And all these things don't go right, all of a sudden, like, "What's going on?" 00:30:51.900 |
Brothers and sisters, I'm trying to challenge you by showing you my progress through this. 00:30:59.900 |
My heart had this high anticipation, "Your future is bright. 00:31:09.140 |
And then I read the Scripture, and it's like, "No, there are hard times ahead, and there's 00:31:15.140 |
going to be a mass drove of people who are going to leave the church. 00:31:40.460 |
It intensifies because if I was over here optimistically thinking everything is going 00:31:44.820 |
to be great, I just teach the Bible, everybody turns. 00:31:55.860 |
He says, and I hear some papers, so I'm going to give you a couple minutes to get over there. 00:32:01.380 |
Remember, I'm talking about your perspective of you having a clear picture of like, "This 00:32:08.020 |
is what's next, you guys, and I'm going to tell you why it's necessary." 00:32:11.980 |
This is what's next, you guys, and why it's necessary that you think that. 00:32:16.620 |
"The disciples say, 'Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when 00:32:23.760 |
And Jesus began to say to them, 'See to it that no one misleads you. 00:32:28.180 |
Many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he.'" 00:32:33.300 |
Many will come in my name and say, "I am he," and will mislead many. 00:32:37.980 |
"When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened. 00:32:43.380 |
But that is not yet the end, for nation will rise up against nation and kingdom against 00:32:52.540 |
So here it's talking about the natural disasters, right? 00:32:55.540 |
Here it's talking about wars, rumors of wars. 00:32:59.860 |
I mean, I'm not going to be one of those people that's like, "Oh my gosh, you guys, it's going 00:33:03.260 |
to happen now," because we had earthquakes, right? 00:33:09.180 |
Now the fact of the matter is, all of these things are still things that cause good and 00:33:14.180 |
godly Christians to still be like, "What is going on?" 00:33:17.540 |
I remember when there was disaster happening and many people died. 00:33:30.240 |
He describes and says, "These things are merely the beginning of birth pains. 00:33:34.780 |
But be on your guard, for they will deliver you to the courts. 00:33:38.460 |
You will be flogged in the synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings 00:33:44.620 |
The gospel must first be preached to all the nations. 00:33:48.020 |
When they arrest you and hand you over, do not worry beforehand what you are to say, 00:33:52.860 |
but say whatever is given to you at the hour, for it is not you who speak, but it is the 00:33:58.140 |
Brother will betray brother to death, and father his child, and children will rise up 00:34:03.060 |
against parents and have them be put to death. 00:34:09.900 |
But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved." 00:34:16.060 |
I'm going to live a godly life, preach the Bible, and everything's going to be peachy. 00:34:22.660 |
And then he says, "It's going to get to a degree, Mark. 00:34:26.380 |
Maybe you might not see it, but the generations next to you will see it. 00:34:31.460 |
They'll hate your guts to the degree they'll want to kill you, throw you in prison." 00:34:38.860 |
But I live in Lake Forest, and I live near Irvine. 00:34:46.860 |
And there was times I was like, "What do you mean by all that? 00:34:58.860 |
Because if I sit here and you're like, "Don't you dare live in a nice house!" 00:35:05.380 |
Praise the Lord that you're living where you're living. 00:35:11.420 |
But why is it that Orange County Christianity is so dangerous? 00:35:15.540 |
Is because once you believe this is normative, then everything outside of that is alarming 00:35:25.220 |
Is any part of this picture a potential reality for you? 00:35:33.340 |
Could you even imagine your life going down that way? 00:35:36.020 |
Or have you tried to keep the normative so strongly, you've tried every measure to make 00:35:46.260 |
That's the danger of Orange County Christianity. 00:35:49.300 |
But now, I want to then bring to you guys some points here of challenge and heart. 00:35:58.580 |
Why is it necessary that you and I accept this as what's coming next? 00:36:03.980 |
Why is it necessary that we see this, what could be a very depressing, very dire, very 00:36:08.620 |
sad state of affairs, where there's going to be hardship, persecution, suffering, and 00:36:19.860 |
Because practically speaking, when you see the dire need, that's when you're going to 00:36:32.300 |
For example, I know people have already talked about it. 00:36:35.860 |
I know you might have already thought about it to some degree. 00:36:39.460 |
Currently speaking, there are friends that I have who are on the fence. 00:36:46.860 |
And there's been this trend, it's something noble, like, "I got to really deconstruct 00:36:50.820 |
what I believe, my traditional beliefs, and I got to make sure," essentially they're doubting. 00:36:58.340 |
Just culturally, I was in a conservative church, and I happen to believe this." 00:37:02.060 |
And again, because of current affairs, there are famous musicians and artists who are denouncing 00:37:08.460 |
There are famous pastors who are denouncing their faith. 00:37:10.740 |
And then there's Christian community who are looking at it thinking, "Ah, you know what? 00:37:18.700 |
You got to convince me that this end isn't coming. 00:37:24.940 |
We just literally read there's going to be mass hardship leading up to a fullness of 00:37:29.620 |
sin so that when God judges, He is righteous and revealed to be glorified to judge sin 00:37:42.340 |
If I'm going to sit there and be like, "Yeah, you know, I guess I got to give these people 00:37:49.580 |
Then you got to convince me that that's not happening. 00:37:55.780 |
And that's why I feel the urgency to make sure whoever I talk to, "Do you know Jesus?" 00:38:05.780 |
Sometimes a youth group student, when I was in youth group, the new youth group student 00:38:08.100 |
come in and immediately I'd ask them like, "So who brought you to church? 00:38:17.140 |
I know I'm getting really up in your face really fast. 00:38:25.820 |
Some of us are so afraid of making things awkward, so afraid of like, "I don't have 00:38:30.540 |
So afraid of being up in their faces about it. 00:38:33.300 |
The only thing you have to know is, is this conversation worth it because of what's happening? 00:38:48.700 |
See if we don't know what's coming and we don't know what's before us, how are you even 00:38:55.540 |
You're just going to throw up your hands and say, "I don't know." 00:39:03.300 |
I felt like I was, you know, or God was pastoring me and thinking, "Mark, you have a lot of 00:39:10.020 |
assumptions in your mind and worldview that needs to change. 00:39:14.700 |
You really thought like, you know, you're just projecting out your life and your planning 00:39:24.020 |
But the reality is that the vast majority of what's to come is really, really sad. 00:39:31.420 |
And then the reality is, when you say really, really sad, we're talking about things like 00:39:35.260 |
father and son being against each other, mother and daughter being against each other. 00:39:40.540 |
This is the spiritual reality that Bible has already predicted. 00:39:44.900 |
And therefore, because it's so intense, you are going to need that much more courage and 00:39:50.700 |
strength and clarity to speak in this scenario. 00:39:56.300 |
Because what God is saying is clearly from now till the end, we are not going to be hitting 00:40:01.940 |
this amazing ministry where people in droves are going to listen to you. 00:40:07.180 |
You, like, I'm pretty confident I can say this to you, the vast majority of you, if 00:40:11.740 |
I were to give like a fair assessment, you know, 10 out of 10 times, how many times was 00:40:36.180 |
The scriptures of scripture, Apostle Paul warned us that a time will come, people will 00:40:42.900 |
They're going to want to have their ears tickled. 00:40:44.580 |
They'll accumulate people, teachers in accordance to their own desires, and they will turn away 00:40:49.120 |
their ears from the truth and will turn to myths. 00:40:55.100 |
I know that's a whole lot of fancy wishful thinking, but I love it." 00:41:03.180 |
It's because I realize like, man, if I base my ministry, not just as a pastor, but even 00:41:12.260 |
as a brother counseling another brother, if I base what I'm going to say on how people 00:41:22.460 |
The ministry that we have in the gospel and preaching the gospel of Christ, we have to 00:41:27.500 |
I already know the road ahead is going to be super hard. 00:41:30.300 |
As a matter of fact, probably nine out of ten times, I'm going to get the door in my 00:41:42.340 |
I remember this one time, I was out and then this other pastor, we were talking pastor 00:41:48.020 |
stuff and he was like, "You know, we should partner together. 00:41:51.040 |
My goal is to reach a million people for Jesus. 00:41:58.700 |
I was like, "Something about that is like, ah." 00:42:09.140 |
Listen, our ministry is not going to be because all of a sudden droves of people are listening 00:42:14.380 |
to me and everybody's like, "Yes, give me more." 00:42:22.020 |
Please turn your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 6, verse 8 through 13, and this has been the 00:42:27.380 |
What I just described to you now has been the case for generations. 00:42:36.340 |
Again, this is Isaiah chapter 6, verse 8 through 13. 00:42:41.340 |
Isaiah sees an amazing vision of God on the throne. 00:42:44.860 |
He's in control, train of His robe, filling the temple. 00:42:48.180 |
There might not be a king on the throne, but there is God on the throne, right? 00:42:54.540 |
In verse 8, this is what he says, "I heard a voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I 00:43:15.100 |
Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, their eyes dim. 00:43:20.180 |
Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their 00:43:35.260 |
Why in the world would God say, "And tell them you're not going to understand." 00:43:42.980 |
They're going to see, but they're never going to actually sense. 00:43:56.740 |
Because every single one of us, if you and I go out and we preach, if you and I counsel 00:44:03.880 |
and we speak, if you and I try to share and we get the door, we're going to be tempted 00:44:12.540 |
And many people in this generation, do you know what they said? 00:44:21.620 |
Even in counseling, I hear this all the time. 00:44:25.260 |
Yeah, I can't throw it at people, but that's all I've got really. 00:44:29.780 |
All I pretty much have, the power of His Word. 00:44:33.100 |
So in this generation, people are alarmed, people are dismayed, people are like, "Whoa, 00:44:41.540 |
Brothers and sisters, that's what I'm talking about. 00:44:46.580 |
If we're going to summarize the sermon today, my whole point is you have to see what's next 00:44:59.980 |
It requires you preemptively already knowing, "I have to be alert. 00:45:06.060 |
Because God has called me to preach in a time where everybody, not everybody, but the mass, 00:45:13.460 |
the masses will reject you until the time of His judgment. 00:45:19.920 |
And so in some kind of way, I want to conclude my thoughts here. 00:45:25.020 |
Man, God has told a long time ago Isaiah that this would be the case. 00:45:30.300 |
God has told Paul that this would be the case. 00:45:36.700 |
He warned them, "You're going to go, they're going to threaten you, they're going to judge 00:45:44.420 |
Or did you just somehow wish, "I want to live... 00:45:48.520 |
Over here, I want to live this godly Christian life, peace out with everybody, and I hope 00:45:56.740 |
And eventually, by the time I retire, I'm going to have the state of solid Christian, 00:46:04.220 |
My challenge to you is, bless the Lord if you can do that, but open your hands because 00:46:13.180 |
Now, as I say this, there was another moment in my devotion where I really felt like God 00:46:21.540 |
I started thinking like, "God, that's weird, isn't it? 00:46:27.660 |
You know all these people are going to reject you. 00:46:29.660 |
You know all these people are hardened of heart, like Scripture describes, and a stiff 00:46:36.860 |
And you've already sent your disciples, and you're going to send us now too?" 00:46:42.740 |
And then the Scripture is pretty much responding like, "Yes, but why?" 00:46:47.300 |
Turn in your Bibles to 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 1-5. 00:46:57.260 |
And well, the Scripture says, it's kind of like a weird command plus rationale behind 00:47:09.380 |
He says, "Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly 00:47:15.620 |
and be glorified just as I did also with you, and that we will be rescued from this perverse 00:47:24.020 |
For not all have faith, but the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from 00:47:32.260 |
We have confidence in the Lord concerning you that you are doing and will continue to 00:47:39.420 |
If you highlight, this is one to highlight, verse 5. 00:47:42.540 |
"May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of 00:47:50.940 |
I think one of the things I realized was I started to have this complaint like, honestly 00:47:54.860 |
speaking, why would anybody sign up and say, "Here I am, send me," if all of counseling 00:48:01.340 |
or all of preaching and all of evangelism is going to be met with a wall and people 00:48:15.380 |
And as I felt that way, I started to pray and I realized there is a bit of a complaint 00:48:19.540 |
in my heart like, "God, honestly speaking, there are more effective ways that this can 00:48:28.260 |
And then you realize it's not always about the end fruit. 00:48:37.060 |
God's glory is not dependent on the masses coming to Him. 00:48:41.220 |
God is glorified when He was willing to go chase one sheep when the 99 sheep wasn't really 00:48:50.260 |
Let's say if God went to preach Himself and everybody, everybody rejected Him. 00:49:00.780 |
He says, "Even though heaven and earth may pass away, my word stands forever." 00:49:08.880 |
And at the end of days, it's going to be that His perfect holiness, justice, and righteousness 00:49:16.140 |
And His love is shown here in that little statement in verse 5. 00:49:19.780 |
All it said was, "May the Lord direct your hearts into the steadfastness of Christ." 00:49:24.940 |
And I realize, oh my goodness, think about the perseverance of Christ. 00:49:33.460 |
Think about not wanting to sign up for a fruitless ministry. 00:49:49.900 |
I don't know because my family is going to think I'm weird. 00:49:53.580 |
Could Jesus not have ridiculed from His own family? 00:49:57.340 |
I don't know because my friendship is going to get all awkward. 00:50:01.420 |
What can I possibly say as an excuse for not signing up for the ministry of God, especially 00:50:11.120 |
And I realize part of all this, the vast majority of it is for the glory of God, but then another 00:50:17.460 |
part of it is for me to understand this has been the heart of my Savior. 00:50:25.140 |
Lord, we want to thank you so much for your grace. 00:50:31.780 |
Lord, Scripture has told us that you are a patient God who has stretched out your hand 00:50:40.260 |
of mercy to an obstinate people all day long. 00:50:45.820 |
And then to think, God, that even in this generation, when masses of people like fluff 00:50:51.140 |
more than your truth, and yet you still give us your word. 00:50:57.860 |
So Father, we thank you so much, and we pray that we will be alert, we will understand, 00:51:04.140 |
we will know and have the perspective of what's coming. 00:51:07.300 |
And God, we would not have our own picture of what our life should be.