So, this morning, if you would please take your Bibles and turn to 2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians. And this passage, as a fair warning or disclaimer at the beginning of the sermon, if you've heard me preach before, I typically like to give a very simplistic or I guess clear outline.

Point one, two, three, and then a conclusion. This sermon's gonna feel a lot different in that I have many passages to walk through together. So, just as a disclaimer first, we're gonna be turning to lots of passages together and trying to get the thrust and the gist of the message.

What I'll do is read 2 Thessalonians 2 verses 1-7, we'll pray and jump into the message. It says, "Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.

That no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed, for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way." Let's take a moment to go before the Lord and pray.

Our God, we want to thank you for your word. Lord, every week and God, during the week, we try together, Lord, to study your word. We try to learn and we pray that you will cause that all to be fruitful. God, we pray that your truth will truly impact our minds and our hearts, not simply teaching us facts, but God, causing us to be understanding.

And what's more today, as we talk about and learn from your scripture about the coming of the Lord, I pray, God, that you will cause us not only to know, but be ready. I pray, Father, Lord, the posture of our entire bodies, our minds, and our hearts will be directed, Lord, eagerly seeking the return of our Savior.

And I pray, Father, God, that everything that we're doing will be interpreted in that light. God, we thank you. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Okay. So, I want to... The reason why this sermon is going to be a little bit different is because I pretty much want to take you down my personal experience of walking through this passage.

I've been doing devotions in this passage. And so, a lot of the reflections that I have, I want to share with you. Now, in sharing with you how I got there, you know in our Bible study, midweek Bible study, we've been studying Philippians chapter 1 and 2 so far.

A passage I'd like to reiterate and remind us of. Just listen. Apostle Paul says, "Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you're standing firm in one spirit, one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel." Okay.

That is such a profound but often repeated command in the Bible, yes? Almost every letter in the New Testament when Apostle Paul is teaching, he commands us to live worthy of the gospel and desires us to rise. To not just simply take the gift of God as something light and say, "Why, thank you." And then to simply live as we were previously, but actually to have our lives be sanctified by this gospel, yes?

Now, what's really interesting is in verse 28, this is from Philippians chapter 1, 28, he says, "But in no way be alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you." Okay, pause right there. My thought has been thinking and ruminating about that phrase.

He challenged us to a great height of living worthy of the gospel, and then he tells you, "Don't be alarmed because you have opponents. Don't be alarmed because you're suffering." And he says, "This is a sign, a sign of a destruction for those who oppose you and a sign of salvation for you." So in our standing firm, striving, and trying to live the gospel, there is this element of you understanding your current circumstance in light of the gospel you're living and making sense of the fact that you're going to have opponents.

Accepting the fact that this living worthy is not easy at all, right? As a matter of fact, you trying to live worthy is going to be hit with constant walls, not just from your own flesh, but from the persecution that is around you, from those who hate God and the gospel.

And what's more, all of that is supposed to be seen by you. You're supposed to see and be like, "That's right, this is happening. This is a sign that you're supposed to see," right? As opposed to, and we talked about this in Bible study, where oftentimes if we're hit with suffering, something doesn't go right, like, "I'm trying to give you like the most precious gift ever, the love of Jesus," and people just shove that back in your face, you're confused.

You're thinking, "What's going on? What gives? Did I not do this right?" There is this confusion sometimes, but Apostle Paul is challenging us, "Don't be alarmed." And in order to build a context to how I got then to 2 Thessalonians, turn to chapter 1 of the 2 Thessalonians, please.

And I'd like to read to you verse 3 through 5. 2 Thessalonians 1, verse 3 through 5. And as I kind of guide us, again, there is no clear 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 outline. I'm going to just say, we're just going to move by the passages.

So here's the first passage. 2 Thessalonians 1, verses 3 through 5. He says this, "We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren. It's only fitting because your faith is greatly enlarged and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater. Therefore we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endured." So he's talking to the Thessalonians.

And similarly to the Philippians, they're experiencing a ton of persecution and affliction. But then take a look at this. Verse 5, "This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which indeed you are suffering." What am I saying?

There was kind of a corollary or at least a connection of thought there. Our living the gospel and then receiving persecution and receiving hardship should be a sign for us. Here, he's saying, "All of that persecution and affliction you endured, this is great and I'm praising you for it.

This is a plain indication." It's also a sign of what? Of God's righteous judgment. I'm going to read further down. Verse 6 and forward, it says, "For after all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you." Whoa. Have you guys read that and just paused for a second?

That sounds serious, right? It's only right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you? Well, let's keep reading. "And to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels and flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he comes to be glorified in his saints on that day and be marveled at among all who have believed for our testimony to you is believed. To this end also, we pray for you always that our God will count you worthy of your calling and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you and you in him according to the grace of our Lord and the Lord Jesus Christ." Okay.

So with that passage, this is I want us to have our minds think about something here. And the question is, what's next? I titled this sermon, "What's Next?" Because we should be thinking about what is coming in the future, in the years to come, the next kind of timeline of God's plan of redemption, what's next?

Okay? And clearly, this is really sobering because this passage is reminding us, remember, Christ's return. Christ is going to return in a fashion where it is dramatic. I mean, I don't know what else words to use, but incredibly dramatic. Mighty angels and flaming fire dealing out retribution, afflicting those who are against the gospel and against the people of God.

Wow. That's pretty profound stuff. But I would like us to take a moment here and now and to ask, first and foremost, I have to start thinking, am I living with that kind of expectation? Right? Am I perceiving that that is actually next? That's a huge, huge frame of thought, mentality, perspective, you can call it a worldview that we're going to be regularly challenged with.

And it's so important. Let me emphasize how important it is by giving us a silly example of driving. You know how frustrating it is when the driver in front of you has no idea where they're going. Yes? Of course, it's never you, it's the guy in front of you.

They're driving, maybe they're like distracted, they're on their phones, they look up, fork in the road, they don't know what to do. What do they normally do? They slam on the brakes. And you have to swerve, and one time that actually happened to me, I had to go into like a construction zone.

Sure enough, that guy ended up going, oh, they go this way, and then a cop pulled up next to me and gave me a ticket for going into the construction zone. Please don't ever do that, okay? If you're lost, don't slam on the brakes in the middle of the road, just go.

And then fully safely pull off. Why do I give you a silly example? You know how frustrating it is when someone doesn't know where they're going, and because of that, they can't do anything else but stop. Yes? Other driving scenarios, if you yourself, you're getting directions from your navigator, your passenger, and they're giving you directions, right?

And they're telling you, oh, turn here, turn there, everything's fine. But they say something confusing like, oh, next turn, this one, go. You're like, wait a minute, this one or the next one? Because the next one's technically after this one. But did you mean this one? And then it's like, there it goes, right?

You miss it. Now you're all upset at each other, like, dude, can you be a little bit more clear? If it's this, just say this. If it's next, say next. You guys have never had that? All right. The reason why I gave you this silly example is because if you do not know what's coming up, oftentimes you're going too fast to stop, or you have to pump your brakes and you don't know what you're doing, you're going to hurt the people behind you, or you're all confused and you're going to get into a fight like, no, this is next, no, that's next, and then you start pointing the finger at each other.

All around bad scenario when we don't know what's coming up next. So, if you're not prepared to do anything, can I say it's a fair assessment that living here it is very difficult to keep thinking about what's next, right? Living here, most likely, we're getting constantly distracted, not knowing, are we supposed to see this next?

Are we supposed to see that next? Because let me ask you this really interesting question. I just posed to you and read to you that the retribution of Jesus when he dishes out judgment is next. Is that true? Just challenged you, is that true? Is what's next on the table simply Christ is going to return and dish out retribution?

Well, that's really interesting thing to think about, and that's how we get to the next passage. Please go over to chapter two, 2 Thessalonians 2, verse one through two, I'm sorry, one through three. Again, original thought, thinking through all this stuff, what's next? And am I thinking about what's next?

Am I aware of what's next and what's going to be happening? Verse one through three of chapter two, sorry, I'm going to say 2 Thessalonians chapter two, verse one through three. He says, "Now we request of you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.

That no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed and the son of destruction." Okay. Take a moment to think about that for a moment. I asked you, is what's next Jesus is coming and he's going to dish out retribution?

And then it kind of makes it sound like maybe not. Now I want to give you just a forewarning. Today we are not going to sit here and delineate every single dot on the timetable of God. Why? Because we don't know. There are certain things we do know generally.

There are certain things that's good and proper for us to work through. Is there a tribulation to come? Is there a millennium to come? Is there a future judgment, the behemoth judgment? Is it going to happen? All those things are good and godly to think through because it's in the Bible.

However, that's not my purpose in going through this passage today. My purpose is I'm asking you to think. The scripture challenges every single one of us to know and be aware of the signs of the times. The scripture is telling us you need to be alert, not only alert but ready.

You need to be ready to make that turn. But a lot of times we're like, "Wait, what? Here now? This one?" Okay. But it's a different kind of point more so, right? And that's what I'm talking about here is these people were in some ways tempted to be disturbed, tempted to be deceived, tempted to be shocked, and back in Philippians, alarmed.

What in the world is going on? Is this right? And that's the contrast. If we're not understanding what's coming up, then we will be in a situation of, "This doesn't seem right. Am I doing the right thing?" And then there's doubt that comes. There is a pumping of the brakes.

All of a sudden, you're not really sure what you should say. And then sometimes if it's really bad, then you'll start being like, "What are you doing?" And we don't want to do that. We want to listen carefully and learn what does God want us to know. Now I told you that this was my devotion and I went through a lot of weird feelings about this.

Because I started to then ask myself the question, "Am I shocked in certain ways? Have I lost composure, confused, alarmed?" And the thing about it is, if you look closely, take a look again at verse 2. And he explains why these people, the Thessalonians, were particularly confused. This would be very confusing.

He says, "Don't be quickly shaken from your composure and do not be disturbed either by a spirit or message or letter, as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come." You see that? So what happened there? Basically, what happened was either by someone saying, "Oh, I think this letter is from Paul," or, "I think I heard Paul say," or whatever it may be, they were being challenged with this thought, "Jesus already came." Okay?

Now, here and now, I have never had someone knock on my door, say, "Pastor Mark, I need to talk to you." It's like, "Why?" "Oh my gosh." It's like, "What's going on? Jesus already came." You know, like, no one has ever come and asked me, "Is this real? Did that happen?" No one, I don't think now, people don't really wrestle with that.

However, think about how, again, we're not cognizant of the Lord's return. What was prominent in their time was that people would over-spiritualize the return of Jesus. As a matter of fact, people would over-spiritualize even Jesus' first coming. And what they would make of it is there's this general spirit of Jesus and a general special knowledge of Jesus that's around you and it's in you, and you don't need to worry about the physical stuff.

You guys know what I'm talking about, right? You guys have probably heard that before. A ton of teaching like that before. But what does that do to the future coming? It almost makes the literal coming of Jesus unnecessary. It almost makes the literal return of Christ unwanted. Why? Because you're just generally living your spiritual thing now.

Could we be in danger of that kind of deception? Yes. But what's more likely is that some people actually believe Jesus physically returned because they were going through intense persecution. We read that, right? Much persecution. All kinds of persecution. Much affliction. Well, Apostle Paul was teaching them. Apostle Paul is teaching them that what is to be surrounding Jesus' next return is what?

Intense persecution. So now I want us to think about this. And we're going to walk down the next portion of the passage, chapter 2, verse 4 through 12. So we're still at 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 4 through 12. And he says, this man of lawlessness, "Who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as God.

Do you not remember while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is what? Already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.

Then that lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming. That is the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all deception of wickedness for those who perish because they do not receive the love of truth, so as to be saved.

For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence, so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged, who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. Wow. I say wow because that's honestly really disturbing if you take a moment to think about it.

Can I take a moment to confess to you that when I was doing my devotions, my silly mind went to the theological, the doctrinal, the "wait a minute, I believe in pre-tribulation rapture." If you guys don't know what I'm referring to there, we're talking about this promise, if you guys remember 1 Corinthians 15, "and the twinkle of an eye will all be changed." 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, you guys are fretting because your brothers have died before you?

Do not fret, why? Because Jesus is going to come, we're going to be caught up with him, right? I believe that's going to happen before the great tribulation time. Tribulation meaning the great time of testing and the wrath of God prophesied in Daniel. Okay, all I'm saying is, I did that while I was doing my devotions and I got lost.

I was starting to think like, "Wait a minute, what is this?" And I started thinking timeline, I started thinking like, "How does this fit with the whole systematic theology?" That's not bad, it's not wrong. It's in the Bible, you should think about it. But if you understood, and if I understood, sorry, that this is a huge chunk, a huge chunk of Scripture.

Chapter 1 and 2 together talking about how Christ is going to return. Talking about how people are going to be deluded, deceptive, they'll not love the truth, rather hate it, and then they're going to be judged by God for their unbelief. God is not going to simply come to judge those horrible, heinous people, the murderers, and the wicked rapists, and the traffickers, and they're going to be judged.

God is going to judge every single individual who does not place faith in Christ, who did not heed the command, "This is my beloved Son who I'm well pleased, listen to Him." Any individual who said, "No," they will be judged ultimately, fiercely. And then I started to realize, and before that comes, there's going to be droves of it.

There's going to be masses of people who are going to, there's going to be an apostasy, meaning they're going to look like Christians, they're going to play the game well, and they're going to fall away. Why am I sitting here thinking, "Is this preacher?" I should be broken for the people.

I mean I started thinking, "How would I feel if I'm on this pulpit, and half the people in this room was like, 'I don't like the stuff you're saying. We're out,' and then you started leaving. How would I feel, right? I'll be broken." What we see coming, which I believe is fast coming, is a time where there's going to be incredible, incredible falsehood, hatred of truth.

People aren't going to listen to good reason. They're not going to want to hear it. That's what's actually coming. Some people think that's only for the, you know, the end, end time. Not now, but like the end time. Did you catch that he said the lawlessness is working now?

Did you catch that this mass apostasy, the fake Christians, whatever it was, is organized. There's an individual who's supposed to be later on, he's going to exalt himself, and droves of people are going to worship him. You think that's going to happen overnight? See, what I'm focusing on is not just so much like what's the details of how this is going to happen, but the fact that the general temperature of spirituality is going to be no love, no truth, and a self-righteousness that's against God.

And that breaks my heart to see. If I'm sober, I should be broken. And that's why I wanted to share with you. Do you understand what's next? Please turn your Bible to 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 1 through 5. Here is another Bible passage for us. Talking about, again, massive fruitlessness, massive frustrations, massive falsehood.

These are some, if you're thinking about driving, I'm going to keep using the driving analogy, I mean, these are like warning signs of what's to come, you guys. It's like, "Road may flood, rocks may slide, you may fall off and die." I mean, these are the kind of signs that we're seeing in terms of the Bible passages.

Again, 1 Timothy 4, verses 1 through 5. But the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times, some will fall away from the faith paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons by means of hypocrisy of liars seared in their own consciences as with a branding iron. Man, if you guys have ever talked to somebody who's so thick, so stubborn, so unyielding, hearing this passage, it talks about many people who seem even far worse.

They're like seared. Okay, verse 3, "Men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth." Turn again to another passage, 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 1 through 9. Okay, here's another passage. 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 1 through 9.

Again, I know we're jumping from verse to verse. Oh, awesome. Thank you, Sound Tech. You guys are doing a great job. You guys can also follow along in your Bibles. Here it says, "Realize this, that in the last days, difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious, gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding a form of godliness, although they have denied its power, avoid such men as these.

For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of truth." Wow. Do you know why that's shocking? Because all those descriptions describe somebody who folds to a form of religion.

All of those descriptions describe an individual who perhaps attend church every Sunday. Doesn't that disturb you? It should. Doesn't that also break your heart? It should. There is, before the end time is coming, there is a season where the fullness of sin, the stubbornness of man, it's going to prove itself.

It's literally going to reveal itself as, "Look how dead we are." God has already described the state of mankind. You are so dead in your trespasses, you have no life in you. I can probe you with a cattle prod, electrocute you maybe, and you still won't respond. Why? Because you're dead.

And over the course of time, mankind is going to reveal itself like that. That's what the scripture is saying. And that's heartbreaking. And I confess to you, when I read this, I thought of it more of a theological concept. But if you think about it, this is the generation that's to come.

Now I want to confess another thing. So again, trying to be an open book about my own time and my devotion. The passage, one of the reasons why I was describing this to us, because it's commanding us, "Don't be alarmed. Don't be so surprised." And I started to reflect, "Am I alarmed?

Am I surprised?" And I'm going to confess, yes. One of my bad reactions to listening to this, one of my bad reactions to seeing this also in real life, you know what it is? It's incredible frustration. What? And they call themselves Christian? How dare you? And the frustrations. Have you guys ever tried to help somebody who doesn't want your help?

Gives you the stiff arm? Not only gives you the stiff arm, but tells you like, "You're unloving, you're judgmental, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." If you've ever received that, you know how discouraging that is. What's more, the frustration mounts up inside you. Why won't you listen? Listen, look, what you're doing is A, what you're doing is B, put it together and it's sin.

Right? Like you try to show people, it doesn't work. And then what happens? You get so frustrated and you start saying some, "I don't get it. What's the problem? What's wrong?" And then, you know, have you guys ever debated people on politics? Oh man, the intensity of frustration just starts to peak.

People start to just mock each other like, "I don't understand what's wrong with these people." And then they start to really bag on them. They're just stupid and da, da, da, da, da, right? We start doing that. You get into these debates, people start doing that kind of stuff.

And then I started realizing, "Mark, what are you doing? Why are you responding to sin this way? Why are you responding to hardness of heart this way? Are you surprised?" And then it kind of revealed in my heart. And then so now I want to confess another part to you.

Oh man, open confession. I realized part of me, even as a pastor, I think like, it makes sense, right? We teach the Bible, people cry, and we have a great time of fellowship. It's supposed to work like that. I'm just being honest. Like I had a very simplistic, you have a bunch of people who are not growing, you get them in a room, teach them the Bible and they grow.

That's the way it's supposed to work. And then broaden that out, my life. I'm a young man trying to walk this life, raising my family, being involved in the church. I'm supposed to, Scripture says, "Try to live a quiet life, work hard with your hands, and as much as it depends on you, be at peace with everyone." You know that's in the Bible, right?

Romans 12, I think it's verse 8. So yeah, that's what I'm going to try and do. And as I do that, I'm going to watch my kids grow, I'm going to go off to college, I'm going to leave them a nice little legacy of this and that, and then we're going to work, labor in the church, it's going to be awesome.

But here's the problem. That's my picture, right? And all of a sudden, when persecution comes, people don't listen, you know, my own kids don't listen sometimes, right? And all these things don't go right, all of a sudden, like, "What's going on?" All of a sudden, I'm alarmed. Brothers and sisters, I'm trying to challenge you by showing you my progress through this.

I was over here when I was reading. My heart had this high anticipation, "Your future is bright. The future of our church is bright. Everything is bright." I was just an optimistic. And then I read the Scripture, and it's like, "No, there are hard times ahead, and there's going to be a mass drove of people who are going to leave the church.

Does that not break your heart?" And I repented, "God, that breaks my heart." Okay? But did you accept this? Do you understand and accept this truth? And then it intensifies. What do I mean by it intensifies? Take a look at this. Turn your Bibles to Mark chapter 13. It intensifies because if I was over here optimistically thinking everything is going to be great, I just teach the Bible, everybody turns.

And then the Bible tells you, "No. Remember the words of our Lord." Mark chapter 13. He says, and I hear some papers, so I'm going to give you a couple minutes to get over there. Remember, I'm talking about your perspective of you having a clear picture of like, "This is what's next, you guys, and I'm going to tell you why it's necessary." This is what's next, you guys, and why it's necessary that you think that.

Verse four. "The disciples say, 'Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled?' And Jesus began to say to them, 'See to it that no one misleads you. Many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he.'" Okay, I want you to just ignore that.

Many will come in my name and say, "I am he," and will mislead many. "When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened. Those things must take place. But that is not yet the end, for nation will rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

There will be earthquakes in various places. There will also be famines." So here it's talking about the natural disasters, right? Here it's talking about wars, rumors of wars. I mean, I'm not going to be one of those people that's like, "Oh my gosh, you guys, it's going to happen now," because we had earthquakes, right?

We did. We had some earthquakes and it scared us. Now the fact of the matter is, all of these things are still things that cause good and godly Christians to still be like, "What is going on?" I remember when there was disaster happening and many people died. People started wondering, "What's going on?

What gives? Isn't God sovereign? Isn't he in control? Doesn't he see? Doesn't he watch?" People are confused. Let me continue on. He describes and says, "These things are merely the beginning of birth pains. But be on your guard, for they will deliver you to the courts. You will be flogged in the synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake as a testimony to them.

The gospel must first be preached to all the nations. When they arrest you and hand you over, do not worry beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given to you at the hour, for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit. Brother will betray brother to death, and father his child, and children will rise up against parents and have them be put to death.

You will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved." I was here. I'm going to live a godly life, preach the Bible, and everything's going to be peachy. No, it's not. And then he says, "It's going to get to a degree, Mark.

Maybe you might not see it, but the generations next to you will see it. People will hate you. They'll hate your guts to the degree they'll want to kill you, throw you in prison." Huh? But I live in Lake Forest, and I live near Irvine. Now, you guys have heard that phrase, right?

Orange County Christianity. And there was times I was like, "What do you mean by all that? You know, Orange County Christianity. Just because we have peace and safety? That's not sinful. We should all thank God for it. Lord, thank you." Because if I sit here and you're like, "Don't you dare live in a nice house!" No, that's false too.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord that you're living where you're living. You have, you know, you have what you have. Honour God with it. But why is it that Orange County Christianity is so dangerous? Is because once you believe this is normative, then everything outside of that is alarming to you.

Right? Is any part of this picture a potential reality for you? Could it even be the case in your life? Could you even imagine your life going down that way? Or have you tried to keep the normative so strongly, you've tried every measure to make sure none of those threats are true?

Right? That's the danger of Orange County Christianity. But now, I want to then bring to you guys some points here of challenge and heart. Why is it necessary that you and I accept this as what's coming next? Why is it necessary that we see this, what could be a very depressing, very dire, very sad state of affairs, where there's going to be hardship, persecution, suffering, and mass apostasy?

Why is it necessary for us to think this? Because practically speaking, when you see the dire need, that's when you're going to actually preach. That's when you're going to have clarity. For example, I know people have already talked about it. I know you might have already thought about it to some degree.

Currently speaking, there are friends that I have who are on the fence. "Oh, I don't really know. I don't really know if I believe." And there's been this trend, it's something noble, like, "I got to really deconstruct what I believe, my traditional beliefs, and I got to make sure," essentially they're doubting.

"I don't know if this is all true. Just culturally, I was in a conservative church, and I happen to believe this." And again, because of current affairs, there are famous musicians and artists who are denouncing their faith. There are famous pastors who are denouncing their faith. And then there's Christian community who are looking at it thinking, "Ah, you know what?

You got to just kind of give them time." No. You got to convince me that this end isn't coming. You know what I'm saying? We just literally read there's going to be mass hardship leading up to a fullness of sin so that when God judges, He is righteous and revealed to be glorified to judge sin because it's so sinful.

And He's going to dish out retribution. If I'm going to sit there and be like, "Yeah, you know, I guess I got to give these people time, give these people some space. I don't know what to say to them." Then you got to convince me that that's not happening.

But it is. And that's why I feel the urgency to make sure whoever I talk to, "Do you know Jesus?" Right? Sometimes a youth group student, when I was in youth group, the new youth group student come in and immediately I'd ask them like, "So who brought you to church?

Did you ever have a moment of repentance?" And they're like, "Whoa." And I tell them, "I know. It's awkward. I know I'm getting really up in your face really fast. I get it. It's worth it. This conversation is worth it." Some of us are so afraid of making things awkward, so afraid of like, "I don't have a good transition." So afraid of being up in their faces about it.

The only thing you have to know is, is this conversation worth it because of what's happening? And that answer to us should be, "I see it. I've got to talk about it. Are we in the clear with God?" See if we don't know what's coming and we don't know what's before us, how are you even going to say anything?

You're just going to throw up your hands and say, "I don't know." Now what's more, understand this. I felt like I was, you know, or God was pastoring me and thinking, "Mark, you have a lot of assumptions in your mind and worldview that needs to change. You really thought like, you know, you're just projecting out your life and your planning and all this kind of stuff.

Great. If the Lord wills, fine." But the reality is that the vast majority of what's to come is really, really sad. And then the reality is, when you say really, really sad, we're talking about things like father and son being against each other, mother and daughter being against each other.

This is the spiritual reality that Bible has already predicted. Yes? And therefore, because it's so intense, you are going to need that much more courage and strength and clarity to speak in this scenario. Why? Because what God is saying is clearly from now till the end, we are not going to be hitting this amazing ministry where people in droves are going to listen to you.

You, like, I'm pretty confident I can say this to you, the vast majority of you, if I were to give like a fair assessment, you know, 10 out of 10 times, how many times was your evangelism successful? You're going to have a fruitless ministry. Right? Is that like too harsh for me to say?

Am I being super pessimistic? No, I'm not. God has already told us. Wide is the road. Narrow is the road to life. What's more? The scriptures of scripture, Apostle Paul warned us that a time will come, people will not endure sound doctrine. They're going to want to have their ears tickled.

They'll accumulate people, teachers in accordance to their own desires, and they will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn to myths. They will say, "I know that's true. I know that's a whole lot of fancy wishful thinking, but I love it." That's what's going to happen.

Why do I say this, guys? It's because I realize like, man, if I base my ministry, not just as a pastor, but even as a brother counseling another brother, if I base what I'm going to say on how people respond to me, I'm lost. What am I saying? The ministry that we have in the gospel and preaching the gospel of Christ, we have to be so convinced.

I already know the road ahead is going to be super hard. As a matter of fact, probably nine out of ten times, I'm going to get the door in my face, but yet I will preach. And we're going to need that. Why? Because that's the reality. I remember this one time, I was out and then this other pastor, we were talking pastor stuff and he was like, "You know, we should partner together.

My goal is to reach a million people for Jesus. Let's team up and do it." And I sat there. I didn't know what to say to him. I was like, "Something about that is like, ah." I wish I was reading in this passage. Are you going to force that?

Listen, our ministry is not going to be because all of a sudden droves of people are listening to me and everybody's like, "Yes, give me more." Why? Reality is the majority are going to reject. Please turn your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 6, verse 8 through 13, and this has been the case.

What I just described to you now has been the case for generations. For generations. Isaiah sees an amazing vision. Again, this is Isaiah chapter 6, verse 8 through 13. Isaiah sees an amazing vision of God on the throne. He's in control, train of His robe, filling the temple. There might not be a king on the throne, but there is God on the throne, right?

Such an encouraging vision. In verse 8, this is what he says, "I heard a voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send and who will go for us?' And then I said, 'Here I am, send me.'" Listen to God's reply. God replied, "Go and tell this people. Keep on listening, but do not perceive.

Keep on looking, but do not understand. Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, their eyes dim. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed." What? He said, "Here I am, send me to go preach." Why in the world would God say, "And tell them you're not going to understand." They're going to be dull.

They're going to see, but they're never going to actually sense. What in the world? And so look at his reply in verse 11. So then how long? Why? Because every single one of us, if you and I go out and we preach, if you and I counsel and we speak, if you and I try to share and we get the door, we're going to be tempted to give up.

We will be dismayed. And many people in this generation, do you know what they said? We're not doing the right thing. It's not working. We can't just put the Bible in their face. Even in counseling, I hear this all the time. You can't just throw Bible verses at people.

Yeah, I can't throw it at people, but that's all I've got really. All I pretty much have, the power of His Word. So in this generation, people are alarmed, people are dismayed, people are like, "Whoa, shocked that people aren't listening." So what do they do? They change their methodology.

"Maybe we should try something else." Brothers and sisters, that's what I'm talking about. If we're going to summarize the sermon today, my whole point is you have to see what's next because it requires so much strength. It requires that kind of dedication. It requires you preemptively already knowing, "I have to be alert.

I have to be sober." Why? Because God has called me to preach in a time where everybody, not everybody, but the mass, the masses will reject you until the time of His judgment. That's what I'm saying. And so in some kind of way, I want to conclude my thoughts here.

Man, God has told a long time ago Isaiah that this would be the case. God has told Paul that this would be the case. God has told... I mean, He's told all the disciples. He warned them, "You're going to go, they're going to threaten you, they're going to judge you." Are you already accepting of that?

Or did you just somehow wish, "I want to live... Over here, I want to live this godly Christian life, peace out with everybody, and I hope to just do this thing and go. And eventually, by the time I retire, I'm going to have the state of solid Christian, served at my church, and I'm good." My challenge to you is, bless the Lord if you can do that, but open your hands because He might put into your hands something more.

Yes? Now, as I say this, there was another moment in my devotion where I really felt like God was challenging my heart. What do I mean? I started thinking like, "God, that's weird, isn't it? You know all these people are going to reject you. You know all these people are hardened of heart, like Scripture describes, and a stiff neck, like they won't even move.

And you've already sent your disciples, and you're going to send us now too?" And then the Scripture is pretty much responding like, "Yes, but why?" Turn in your Bibles to 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 1-5. 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 1-5. And well, the Scripture says, it's kind of like a weird command plus rationale behind it that kind of answers quite a lot.

He says, "Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified just as I did also with you, and that we will be rescued from this perverse and evil man. For not all have faith, but the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.

We have confidence in the Lord concerning you that you are doing and will continue to do what we command." Now listen to this. If you highlight, this is one to highlight, verse 5. "May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ." I think one of the things I realized was I started to have this complaint like, honestly speaking, why would anybody sign up and say, "Here I am, send me," if all of counseling or all of preaching and all of evangelism is going to be met with a wall and people who reject you, who would sign up for that?

Right? That's a fair question to ask. And as I felt that way, I started to pray and I realized there is a bit of a complaint in my heart like, "God, honestly speaking, there are more effective ways that this can come out, right? There's more fruit to be born." And then you realize it's not always about the end fruit.

Why? God is going to be glorified either way. God's glory is not dependent on the masses coming to Him. God is glorified when He was willing to go chase one sheep when the 99 sheep wasn't really paying attention. Right? Let's say if God went to preach Himself and everybody, everybody rejected Him.

God would still be glorified. Why? He says, "Even though heaven and earth may pass away, my word stands forever." God stands just and true. And at the end of days, it's going to be that His perfect holiness, justice, and righteousness will be revealed, but so will His love. And His love is shown here in that little statement in verse 5.

All it said was, "May the Lord direct your hearts into the steadfastness of Christ." And I realize, oh my goodness, think about the perseverance of Christ. Think about not wanting to sign up for a fruitless ministry. Could you dare ever say that to Jesus? I don't want to sign up for this ministry.

People aren't listening. Could I pray that to the Lord? I don't know because my family is going to think I'm weird. Could Jesus not have ridiculed from His own family? I don't know because my friendship is going to get all awkward. What can I possibly say as an excuse for not signing up for the ministry of God, especially to the face of my Lord Jesus?

And I realize part of all this, the vast majority of it is for the glory of God, but then another part of it is for me to understand this has been the heart of my Savior. Let's pray. Lord, we want to thank you so much for your grace. Lord, Scripture has told us that you are a patient God who has stretched out your hand of mercy to an obstinate people all day long.

And then to think, God, that even in this generation, when masses of people like fluff more than your truth, and yet you still give us your word. What a grace of mercy that is. So Father, we thank you so much, and we pray that we will be alert, we will understand, we will know and have the perspective of what's coming.

And God, we would not have our own picture of what our life should be. We eagerly wait for you, Lord. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.