Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Here He Comes, Ready or Not Msg 11 21

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Here He Comes, Ready or Not Msg 11 21 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: When I was growing up, my older brother and older
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Speaker 1: sister and I would, on occasion, experience an unusual time
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Speaker 1: of quietness. Sometime in a car, when we were with
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Speaker 1: our folks, sometime in our home. My mother would sometimes say,
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Speaker 1: just Stay quiet for a few moments. There's an angel
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Speaker 1: passing through. I thought of that as we sang together.
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Speaker 1: There's a wonderful Hebrew word that you wouldn't know because
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Speaker 1: we always use the word glory. It's a hard word
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Speaker 1: to define, isn't it? Perhaps it is a word limited
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Speaker 1: to our Christian vocabulary. How often do you read the
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Speaker 1: word glory? Outside of a Christmas carol or a Christian
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Speaker 1: piece of literature, the Hebrew word is kavod. Kavod, it
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Speaker 1: means heavy. Isn't that great? There's a sense of weight,
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Speaker 1: heavy weight connected with that word glory. I thought of
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Speaker 1: that also as we sang of his holiness. We are
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Speaker 1: to be holy as he is holy. Not pious. Not
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Speaker 1: phony holy. but pure, pure of thought, pure of tongue,
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Speaker 1: pure of motive, holy. Jesus often gathered his 12 disciples
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Speaker 1: for a few moments of quietness, And he took advantage
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Speaker 1: of those moments by teaching them, giving them insight they
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Speaker 1: would otherwise never have. And he chose unusual moments for that.
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Speaker 1: As we go through this gospel by Matthew, we find
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Speaker 1: him where we are today in the 24th chapter. Of
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Speaker 1: all places, sitting down on the.
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Speaker 1: Easy-flowing slope of a mountain called the Mount of Olives.
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Speaker 1: When you travel to Israel, you will visit the Mount
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Speaker 1: of Olives. There's a western slope, and after the crest,
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Speaker 1: the eastern. And he is moving from Jerusalem, which is
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Speaker 1: on the western side of the mount. He's on his
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Speaker 1: way to the little village of Bethany. which is on
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Speaker 1: the eastern side. And along the way, a conversation arises
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Speaker 1: spontaneously as the disciples ask about something regarding the future. Jesus,
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Speaker 1: realizing this is the moment, knowing his arrest, trials, and death,
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Speaker 1: will soon come. This is the moment he needs to
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Speaker 1: tell them about things in the future. So he sat
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Speaker 1: down and he taught them. It's called a discourse. Theologians
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Speaker 1: call Matthew 24 and 25 the Olivet discourse. On the
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Speaker 1: Mount of Olives, he taught them. Matthew covers it in
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Speaker 1: two chapters, and then it's over. When you read it,
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Speaker 1: it's intriguing, it's captivating, because it has to do with
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Speaker 1: the future, but it's brief, very brief. And he doesn't
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Speaker 1: answer all of our questions. He simply, like a good teacher,
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Speaker 1: lays out the facts and lets you wrestle with them.
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Speaker 1: Think about them. We're in the middle of that in
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Speaker 1: chapter 24. We're in the latter half of the chapter.
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Speaker 1: It's a long chapter, 51 verses. So we'll only take
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Speaker 1: a couple of excerpts for the sake of time. Be
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Speaker 1: sure you listen carefully to what Jesus said to his
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Speaker 1: disciples about the future. I'll be reading from the New
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Speaker 1: Living Translation because it is easier to understand for those
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Speaker 1: who are not well acquainted with their Bibles. My desire
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Speaker 1: is always to interest those who don't know a lot
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Speaker 1: about the Bible, even though I'm surrounded by many of
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Speaker 1: you who know a great deal. But we're going to
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Speaker 1: be reading excerpts from Matthew 24, if your Bible is open.
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Speaker 1: I'll begin reading at verse 29. Then we'll skip a
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Speaker 1: little section and read another few verses. If you have
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Speaker 1: your Bibles open, please stand together for the reading. Chapter 24,
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Speaker 1: verse 29. Immediately after the anguish of those days, the
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Speaker 1: sun will be darkened. The moon will give no light.
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Speaker 1: The stars will fall from the sky. And the powers
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Speaker 1: in the heavens will be shaken. And then at last,
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Speaker 1: the sign that the Son of Man is coming will
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Speaker 1: appear in the heavens. And there will be deep mourning
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Speaker 1: among all the peoples of the earth. And they will
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Speaker 1: see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of
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Speaker 1: heaven with power and great glory. And he will send
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Speaker 1: out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet.
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Speaker 1: And they will gather the chosen ones from all over
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Speaker 1: the world. from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.
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Speaker 1: Verse 37. When the Son of Man returns, it will
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Speaker 1: be like it was in Noah's day. In those days
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Speaker 1: before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties
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Speaker 1: and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat.
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Speaker 1: People didn't realize what was going to happen until the
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Speaker 1: flood came and swept them all away. That is the
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Speaker 1: way it will be when the Son of Man comes.
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Speaker 1: Two men will be working together in the field. One
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Speaker 1: will be taken, the other left. Left. Two women will
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Speaker 1: be grinding flour at the mill. One will be taken
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Speaker 1: and the other left. So you too must keep watch.
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Speaker 1: For you don't know when, for you don't know what
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Speaker 1: day your Lord is coming. Dear Father, with our Bibles
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Speaker 1: in our hands, as we stand to our feet, we
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Speaker 1: pause to give allegiance to you, our great God, worthy
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Speaker 1: of our deepest praise. We have sung that to you,
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Speaker 1: and now we say it. We lift up your name,
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Speaker 1: O God, above all other names and all other gods.
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Speaker 1: We acknowledge that your son is Emmanuel, God with us,
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Speaker 1: the God-man who came to his own and his own
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Speaker 1: refused him May our response be different. May we welcome you.
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Speaker 1: May we welcome your truth, though much of it is
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Speaker 1: beyond our comprehension. May we embrace what you have given us.
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Speaker 1: May we take by faith even those portions we cannot
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Speaker 1: explain with logical reasoning. May they remind us that you
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Speaker 1: are high and holy and above us and beyond us.
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Speaker 1: You are God incomprehensible, worthy of our heaviest words of glory.
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Speaker 1: And because that is true, we give without reluctance or reservation.
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Speaker 1: We give that others may be helped in hearing truth
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Speaker 1: and coming to terms with it. We give by faith
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Speaker 1: as we walk and not by sight. We will not
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Speaker 1: see those who will receive the benefits of these gifts,
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Speaker 1: but they are many. and they are scattered across this globe.
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Speaker 1: Bring encouragement to those who will be encouraged by these gifts.
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Speaker 1: Sustain this ministry, Father, by the generosity of your people.
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Speaker 1: And may we, without hesitation, continue to live your message,
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Speaker 1: even when the sermon has been forgotten. May we do
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Speaker 1: what is right. May we love what is kind. May
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Speaker 1: we walk humbly with you, our God. We pray this
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Speaker 1: in the name of Emmanuel, even Christ, your Son. Everyone said, Amen.
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Speaker 2: Amen.
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Speaker 1: The return of Christ never fails to create mixed emotions.
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Speaker 1: For those of us who anticipated, there is great comfort
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Speaker 1: and relief in the thought. Finally, the promises will be fulfilled.
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Speaker 1: At last, we'll be able to see the one we
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Speaker 1: have believed in by faith. and we will know him
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Speaker 1: as he is, just as he has always known us. However,
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Speaker 1: to those who are not ready for his return, the
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Speaker 1: spectrum is as broad as one extreme to the other.
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Speaker 1: There are those who fight against the thought and are
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Speaker 1: skeptical to the core, with even the idea that there
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Speaker 1: will one day be An end of the world and
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Speaker 1: a return of Jesus. All the way to the sort
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Speaker 1: of a passive indifference that might occur. What difference will
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Speaker 1: it make anyway? I have a friend who was a
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Speaker 1: skeptic before he was a believer. And during his years
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Speaker 1: of skepticism, he said, He sort of kept all religious
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Speaker 1: things at a distance, nice safe distance. He either didn't
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Speaker 1: think about them or if they surfaced, he would have
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Speaker 1: a quick comeback and then would pass it off with
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Speaker 1: little thought any further. He was hitchhiking across America a
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Speaker 1: number of years ago and clouds were forming and night
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Speaker 1: was falling. And he really did need a ride, not
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Speaker 1: only to get to where he wanted to go ultimately,
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Speaker 1: but to get in out of the rain. Just as
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Speaker 1: the sprinkles began to fall, a car pulled over and
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Speaker 1: a door flew open and the driver yelled, hop in.
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Speaker 1: And my friend was delighted. to get in before the rain.
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Speaker 1: As soon as he got in the rain, started pounding
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Speaker 1: on the car, he said. So he just sort of
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Speaker 1: settled into the seat and then was shocked to look
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Speaker 1: in front of him and to see a small card
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Speaker 1: that had been taped to the glove box right in
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Speaker 1: front of him. It read, warnings. In the event of
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Speaker 1: Christ's return, this driver will suddenly disappear, and this car
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Speaker 1: will self-destruct. At the bottom, in bright red, handwritten letters,
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Speaker 1: you better get ready, G-I-T, you better get ready. Well,
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Speaker 1: I asked him how he felt, rain falling, now pretty
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Speaker 1: close to nightfall, and he's in the car with this fanatic,
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Speaker 1: as he would call him, a guy about to exit
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Speaker 1: while he's driving. How'd that feel, I asked, and he said, well,
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Speaker 1: I didn't know whether to write my will, pray, or jump.
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Speaker 1: I really didn't know. So I said, well, what did
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Speaker 1: you do? He said, you're gonna laugh, but, so the
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Speaker 1: first thing I did was unlock my door. He said,
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Speaker 1: I don't know why. How would that help if suddenly
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Speaker 1: the whole thing went up in flames. But he said,
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Speaker 1: the other thing I remember is I engaged him in
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Speaker 1: constant conversation. Because I thought, Jesus won't interrupt our conversation
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Speaker 1: while we're talking. And he said, we talked about everything
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Speaker 1: you could imagine. The guy kept wanting to bring it
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Speaker 1: back to Jesus, and I kept wanting to stay away
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Speaker 1: from Jesus. But at least, he said, we were able
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Speaker 1: to talk. We were discussing nonsensical things just to keep talking.
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Speaker 1: Isn't it funny how superstitious people can be as the
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Speaker 1: spectrum runs from one extreme to the other? Here sits
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Speaker 1: a guy who couldn't wait for Jesus to come back.
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Speaker 1: Sitting next to him is a man who doesn't have
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Speaker 1: time to even think about it until he reads about
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Speaker 1: it from a card written in front of him. There
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Speaker 1: in that card. While I was going through these chapters
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Speaker 1: in Matthew 24 and 25, I began to think back
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Speaker 1: over a number of years that I've spent in passages
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Speaker 1: like this that deal with future things and climax with
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Speaker 1: the return of Christ. And I remember being taught carefully
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Speaker 1: by professors at a seminary that took these words seriously,
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Speaker 1: as they took all the words of the Bible seriously.
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Speaker 1: And I remember having explained to me how the Lord
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Speaker 1: would come in the clouds to receive us from the
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Speaker 1: earth as believers would be taken, leaving on the earth
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Speaker 1: only unbelievers to go through a terrible time of anguish
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Speaker 1: and tribulation. that would reach greater intensity toward the latter
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Speaker 1: half of that time and ultimately would wind up with
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Speaker 1: Jesus returning to the earth. There's a difference between his
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Speaker 1: coming in the clouds, often referred to as the rapture
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Speaker 1: of the church, which is the next event in the future,
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Speaker 1: and his coming to earth to judge the earth and
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Speaker 1: to set up his kingdom where he fulfills his promises
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Speaker 1: to Israel and carries out the events that are set
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Speaker 1: forth in prophetic passages like the one we're dealing with.
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Speaker 1: I also have lived long enough to have heard a
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Speaker 1: lot of foolish predictions, as many of you have. I've
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Speaker 1: heard people literally put dates when Christ would return. I
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Speaker 1: remember back in 1974, I was preaching, and I had
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Speaker 1: a pastor a number of miles away from where we
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Speaker 1: lived and where I was ministering, who had made an
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Speaker 1: announcement that on a certain date, Jesus would come. We'll
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Speaker 1: say May 20, 1975. And I remember waiting until May
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Speaker 1: 21 of 1975, and I wrote him. And I asked,
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Speaker 1: how you doing? Because he had predicted Jesus would come
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Speaker 1: on the 20th and obviously he didn't. And I wanted
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Speaker 1: to know his reaction. I never heard back from him.
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Speaker 1: And there are others I could have written and you
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Speaker 1: could have, who have made predictions. In fact, I did
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Speaker 1: some research and I came up with two pages of predictions.
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Speaker 1: where people determined Jesus would come all the way back
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Speaker 1: to AD 500 to January 1, 1000 to the year 1415.
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Speaker 1: Pope Innocent III in the Middle Ages took the number 618,
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Speaker 1: which is the year Islam was founded. And he added
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Speaker 1: the number 666, which is the number of the beast.
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Speaker 1: And that came up with 1284 as he claimed would
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Speaker 1: be the year Jesus would return. He didn't. And then
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Speaker 1: February 14, 1835, Joseph Smith made his prediction. He was wrong.
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Speaker 1: William Miller made a prediction between 1843, 1844. He was wrong.
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Speaker 1: Another guy, Joseph, I thought this one was interesting. Where
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Speaker 1: is this? Yeah, here it is. In 1998, which was
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Speaker 1: a good year for prophecies, since the number 666 times
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Speaker 1: 3 equals 1998, a psychic named Edgar Cayce taught that
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Speaker 1: a secret underground chamber would be discovered between the paws
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Speaker 1: of the great sphinx in Egypt and Within the chamber
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Speaker 1: would be documents about the history of the lost city
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Speaker 1: of Atlantis, and this new revelation would activate the second
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Speaker 1: coming of Jesus. It didn't. There was also no document.
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Speaker 1: Then the year 2000, remember Y2K? Oh my, how many
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Speaker 1: people predicted Jesus would come? He didn't even foul up
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Speaker 1: the computers. We went right on. And then Harold Camping
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Speaker 1: made his comments in 1994 and on and on and
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Speaker 1: on and on and on and on. It's like you've
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Speaker 1: never read Matthew 24, 36. Look, you read English, all
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Speaker 1: of you. You're able to read verse 36. Just the
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Speaker 1: first few verses. However, no one knows the day or
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Speaker 1: the hour when these things will happen, not even the angels.
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Speaker 1: Look at the words, no one knows. May I give
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Speaker 1: you a tip that kind of insults the intelligence of
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Speaker 1: any thinking person. If you're under the teaching of someone
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Speaker 1: setting dates, you're following a false teacher. Get out. Get
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Speaker 1: away from that teacher. He or she is dangerous. They'll
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Speaker 1: tell you other things that are fallacious. No one knows.
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Speaker 1: No one will ever know. That's what God says in
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Speaker 1: his word. Let's believe it. And there are details here
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Speaker 1: that are debatable. And if you study as I've studied it,
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Speaker 1: and I continue to study it, I keep coming across
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Speaker 1: the debatable issues. And I decided, not only do I
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Speaker 1: not want to do any kind of prophesying, which would
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Speaker 1: be ridiculous and wrong, I don't want to get into
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Speaker 1: any of the debatable stuff. Because I'm honest with you,
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Speaker 1: when Christ has a stand before him hear this, no
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Speaker 1: one will have to pass a theology exam. No one
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Speaker 1: will have to go through a Bible quiz. No one.
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Speaker 1: He'll not ask you how you handled Matthew 24 and 25.
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Speaker 1: That won't be the issue in eternity. The issue in
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Speaker 1: eternity will be what did you do in your life
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Speaker 1: with Christ? Did you trust him as your savior or
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Speaker 1: did you reject him? What did you do with Jesus?
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Speaker 1: If you trusted him, you're standing before the Lord comfortable, confident,
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Speaker 1: in the full assurance that it's the blood of Christ
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Speaker 1: that was given for you on the cross that forgave
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Speaker 1: you of your sins and opened the door to heaven
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Speaker 1: for you all by his grace, which you do not
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Speaker 1: deserve and will never be able to repay. That's why
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Speaker 1: you're there. If you're without Christ, as we will emphasize today,
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Speaker 1: your future is dreadful beyond imagination. No one is gifted
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Speaker 1: enough to describe how dreadful your future is. And you
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Speaker 1: are a fool. To live your life and die in unbelief.
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Speaker 1: I tell you to your face. Or if you're not here,
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Speaker 1: to your ears. I tell you, the most intelligent thing
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Speaker 1: you can do is to act by faith and believe
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Speaker 1: in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. And then
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Speaker 1: live a life that honors him. And I'll tell you,
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Speaker 1: you have before you the most marvelous future, not without
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Speaker 1: its problems, not without its surprises, not without the unexpected
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Speaker 1: things that happen to people regularly, but you will have
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Speaker 1: the inner assurance that if you died that night, you
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Speaker 1: would stand completely safe before your God. Now, in light
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Speaker 1: of that, I've decided to take a whole different tack.
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Speaker 1: What I want to do is simply provide you with
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Speaker 1: six or seven facts based on these two chapters. Just
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Speaker 1: several facts. Someone once wrote, everyone is entitled to his
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Speaker 1: or her own opinion, but no one is entitled to
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Speaker 1: his or her own facts. Facts are true, Whether you
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Speaker 1: believe them or accept them or not, they're facts. If
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Speaker 1: we believe God's word is God's word, there are several
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Speaker 1: things set forth here that you can count on as fact.
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Speaker 1: That's what to me is the most important thing we
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Speaker 1: can take from a message like this. Since he is coming,
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Speaker 1: ready or not, he is coming. We just don't know when.
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Speaker 1: So let me give you the facts as I see them.
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Speaker 1: And they will not be based on superstition or opinion.
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Speaker 1: They will be drawn from the scriptures. We can kind
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Speaker 1: of click them off. One, two, three, right down through seven.
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Speaker 1: I gave you an outline. I completed mine this morning.
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Speaker 1: You may want to go through yours as well to
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Speaker 1: complete it. It's up to you. Fact number one. His
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Speaker 1: delay will be lengthy. I rarely hear people talk about that.
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Speaker 1: But I find that that is set forth in these chapters.
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Speaker 1: And I think the lesson we learn from that, with
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Speaker 1: each fact, I'm going to give you a lesson that
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Speaker 1: I think we can take with us. The lesson we
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Speaker 1: learn is let's wait with patient anticipation. Let's wait. Because
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Speaker 1: his delay will be quite some time between when he
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Speaker 1: said it and when it would occur. In fact, we
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Speaker 1: know now it would be centuries. From the time Jesus
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Speaker 1: spoke these words in Matthew 24-25 until he returns for
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Speaker 1: his own will be centuries. Now we believe it's closer
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Speaker 1: than ever, of course. We believe it's imminent. Could be
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Speaker 1: at any moment he could come for us. And take
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Speaker 1: us to be with him, leaving unbelievers on this earth.
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Speaker 1: Look at 24, 36 again. No one knows the day
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Speaker 1: or hour when these things will happen. Not even the angels.
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Speaker 1: Look at 24, verse 30. And then at last, the
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Speaker 1: sign that the Son of Man is coming will appear.
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Speaker 1: At last. Sounds like time, doesn't it? When I read that,
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Speaker 1: I think of it, when we say to someone, you're
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Speaker 1: here at last, meaning you've waited a while, sometime a
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Speaker 1: long time. You're home from the war at last. You
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Speaker 1: made it home safely at last. There'll be a delay.
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Speaker 1: And the delay will be lengthy. But don't let the
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Speaker 1: length of the delay make you think it won't happen.
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Speaker 1: Peter writes about this, Check it out for yourself. 2
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Speaker 1: Peter 3 and verse 8. God's timing is totally different
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Speaker 1: from our timing. One day is as a thousand years
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Speaker 1: with the Lord. So the Lord. plan is just when
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Speaker 1: he's ready to send his son, he'll send him. Not until.
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Speaker 1: Here's the second fact. His return will be unexpected and sudden.
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Speaker 1: So the lesson we learned, don't get too comfortable. Don't
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Speaker 1: cling too tightly to anyone or anything. See 2437, my
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Speaker 1: Bible is open to that verse. When the Son of
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Speaker 1: Man returns, look at this. It'll be like it was
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Speaker 1: in Noah's day. In those days before the flood, people
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Speaker 1: were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings. right up to
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Speaker 1: the time Noah entered the ark. Why? Because they didn't
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Speaker 1: realize what was going to happen until. That's an eloquent statement.
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Speaker 1: You and I didn't realize 9-11 would occur until that morning.
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Speaker 1: And looking back, we remember exactly where we were and
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Speaker 1: what we were doing. Until then, it wasn't a blip
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Speaker 1: on our screen. Even among the bright minds in Washington, D.C.,
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Speaker 1: even among the military strategists, they talked vaguely of something
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Speaker 1: like that. No one predicted that day, that hour. Because
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Speaker 1: we've lived through 9-11, you'd think people would take this
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Speaker 1: kind of statement more seriously. His return will be unexpected
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Speaker 1: and sudden. We're at least expected. The people in Noah's
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Speaker 1: day felt the rainfall. Most don't realize it had never
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Speaker 1: rained until that moment on the earth. The earth was
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Speaker 1: watered by a divine appointment of dew that came on
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Speaker 1: the earth during the antediluvial civilization. Rain didn't come until then.
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Speaker 1: So they doubted it. They were skeptics. Noah built that
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Speaker 1: ark for those years and they poked fun at him
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Speaker 1: and looked at him critically and sarcastically. Nobody was ready,
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Speaker 1: and here he was with this massive ark, already believing God,
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Speaker 1: but it came unexpectedly and suddenly. Here's the third fact.
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Speaker 1: God's judgment will be irreversible. His judgment will be irreversible.
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Speaker 1: A lesson we learned from that? Learn to take him seriously.
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Speaker 1: God doesn't waffle and God doesn't stutter. Woven through the
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Speaker 1: verses of chapters 24 and 25 are words related to
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Speaker 1: being too late or not being ready or thinking there
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Speaker 1: would be another opportunity. When God arrives, he doesn't grade
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Speaker 1: on the curve. You won't be given a second chance
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Speaker 1: after you die. I've never lied to you and I
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Speaker 1: wouldn't start today. You have your opportunity to believe while
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Speaker 1: you're alive. Once you breathe your last, your opportunity is over.
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Speaker 1: God's judgment will be irreversible. Take him seriously. He keeps
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Speaker 1: his word. Fact number four, the truth will be revealed.
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Speaker 1: Look at 25, 11, and 12. Referring to these who
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Speaker 1: were ready for the wedding feast, then those who were
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Speaker 1: ready went in with him to the marriage feast and
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Speaker 1: the door was locked. Verse 11, later when the other
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Speaker 1: five bridesmaids returned, they were the ones who weren't ready.
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Speaker 1: They didn't have their lamps ready. They stood outside calling, Lord, Lord,
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Speaker 1: open the door for us. And he called back, believe me,
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Speaker 1: I don't know you. I don't know you. The truth
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Speaker 1: will be revealed. He will tell you he doesn't know
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Speaker 1: you if you've never trusted in his son. So learn
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Speaker 1: from this. There will be no place to hide and
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Speaker 1: there will be no way of escape. Those who didn't
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Speaker 1: get in the ark drown. There was no exception. You know,
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Speaker 1: currently it's possible to live a life of a hypocrite
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Speaker 1: and get away with it. Happens every day. Some of
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Speaker 1: you act one way in public, but you're altogether different
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Speaker 1: in private. You're a hypocrite. You carry your life out
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Speaker 1: as though it is this way so that people will
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Speaker 1: think better of you, but truth is, your own family
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Speaker 1: privately behind the scenes, maybe those who work with you,
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Speaker 1: they know the real truth. Your private life is something
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Speaker 1: you've not really allowed to to be invaded with the
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Speaker 1: truth of God. But in that day, there'll be no hypocrisy,
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Speaker 1: no phony baloney, no masks worn, all of that's ripped off.
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Speaker 1: The truth will be revealed. You'll be either in Christ
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Speaker 1: or out. Number five, each life will stand alone. 24
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Speaker 1: verses 40 and 41. We read that earlier. Two men
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Speaker 1: will be working together in the field. One will be taken,
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Speaker 1: that's taken to judgment, and the other will be left,
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Speaker 1: left for the pleasures and joys of the kingdom. Two
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Speaker 1: women will be grinding at the flour at the mill.
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Speaker 1: One will be taken to the judgment, the other will
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Speaker 1: be left to go into the kingdom and the joys
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Speaker 1: that the Lord has promised. For them, each person will
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Speaker 1: be individually accountable. That's the lesson we learned. Each life
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Speaker 1: will stand alone. You won't be able to stand behind
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Speaker 1: your wife or husband, your parents, or your family name.
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Speaker 1: You won't be able to claim your partner's faith in
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Speaker 1: your business world. It'll be all on your own. You'll
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Speaker 1: be accountable alone before God. One is taken, the other
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Speaker 1: is left. Please remember, this is the second advent of Christ.
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Speaker 1: This is not a reference to the rapture of the church,
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Speaker 1: which has taken place before then. Always keep those separate
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Speaker 1: in your minds. Let me get to fact number six.
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Speaker 1: The future of the faithful will be joyful. Of course. Why?
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Speaker 1: Because God's promises will be fulfilled. He will never forget
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Speaker 1: his own promises. Look at 24, 31. 24, verse 31.
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Speaker 1: He will send out his angels with the mighty blast
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Speaker 1: of a trumpet. They will gather his chosen ones from
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Speaker 1: all over the world, even the farthest ends of the earth.
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Speaker 1: He will leave no one out. His chosen ones He
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Speaker 1: will find and he will reward. Drop down to verse 46.
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Speaker 1: If the master returns and finds that the servant, he
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Speaker 1: has done a good job, then there will be a reward.
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Speaker 1: Listen to this. I tell you the truth, the master
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Speaker 1: will put that servant in charge of all he owns.
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Speaker 1: Beautiful words. Look at 25, 34. Then the king will
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Speaker 1: say to those on his right, come, blessed by my
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Speaker 1: father and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
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Speaker 1: creation of the world. For I was hungry and you
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Speaker 1: fed me. I was thirsty. You gave me drink. God's
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Speaker 1: promises will be fulfilled. He will never forget his own.
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Speaker 1: Let me say that to you who are faithfully serving Christ.
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Speaker 1: You may be helping one other person as their life
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Speaker 1: is lingering in an illness that is irreversible. And you
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Speaker 1: are there. You are taking care of them. You are
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Speaker 1: lovingly showing them compassion and mercy that will be rewarded.
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Speaker 1: Others of you teach a small group, maybe a group
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Speaker 1: of special needs children, who perhaps are not able to
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Speaker 1: say thank you for your faithfulness through the year, God
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Speaker 1: will never overlook one hour spent with them. Some teach
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Speaker 1: thousands of people and bless their lives. Some write books
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Speaker 1: and the books distribute and they help people grow in
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Speaker 1: the faith. God will reward all of those efforts because
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Speaker 1: he keeps his word by the way there's an old
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Speaker 1: song that used to be sung will there be any
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Speaker 1: stars any stars in my crown when at evening the
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Speaker 1: sun goes down we don't know of anything in the
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Speaker 1: scriptures that teach of stars in the crown Sounds pretty,
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Speaker 1: written by a songwriter with a little imagination, but we
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Speaker 1: don't know if stars and the crown, but we do
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Speaker 1: know of crowns. Five separate crowns are mentioned in the
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Speaker 1: New Testament. All five are based on specific acts of
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Speaker 1: faithfulness done for the glory of God. You will, if
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Speaker 1: you are faithfully serving him in any one of those,
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Speaker 1: you will be rewarded with crowns. And when we get
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Speaker 1: into glory and the crowns are handed out, we place
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Speaker 1: them at his feet in worship. I always loved that scene.
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Speaker 1: I wrote on that in seminary when we were required
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Speaker 1: to do our, what we called a baby thesis. In
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Speaker 1: the end of our second year, we were required to
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Speaker 1: write a small thesis. And I wrote on the crowns.
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Speaker 1: I remember writing about the crowns that I discovered in
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Speaker 1: the scriptures and found myself very motivated. There's a crown
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Speaker 1: for leading people to Christ. There's a crown for serving faithfully,
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Speaker 1: though under trial. There's a crown for resisting temptation. Repeatedly,
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Speaker 1: crowns for that. crowns that will be provided, and the
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Speaker 1: Lord will not forget. Right in the margin of your Bible,
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Speaker 1: Hebrews 6 verse 10, listen to it. God is not
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Speaker 1: unjust to forget your work and labor of love which
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Speaker 1: you have shown toward his name in that you have
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Speaker 1: ministered to the saints and continue to minister. Isn't that great?
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Speaker 1: You faithfully minister, God will not forget your work. There
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Speaker 1: will be a day When all of the curtains will
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Speaker 1: close and all of earth will have passed and God
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Speaker 1: will have you receiving rewards for your faithfulness. And I
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Speaker 1: think some of it will be beyond our ability on
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Speaker 1: this earth to comprehend. But it will happen. Now the
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Speaker 1: sad news is the flip side of that. The destiny
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Speaker 1: of the lost will be dreadful. That's a fact. You
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Speaker 1: read through this passage and you read of there being
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Speaker 1: weeping and gnashing of teeth, the last verse of chapter 24.
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Speaker 1: You read it again in chapter 25 in verse 30,
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Speaker 1: where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. In
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Speaker 1: verse 46, chapter 25, 46, they will go away into
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Speaker 1: eternal punishment The righteous will go into eternal life. What
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Speaker 1: we learn from that, changing that destination must happen during
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Speaker 1: your lifetime, not after it's over. Nothing in the word
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Speaker 1: of God even hints at a second chance after you die.
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Speaker 1: There is no purgatory. There is no such thing as
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Speaker 1: being prayed out of torment. There is no such thing
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Speaker 1: as lightening, lightening the pain of punishment. For a moment,
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Speaker 1: allow yourself to ponder the words eternal punishment. Beggar's description,
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Speaker 1: doesn't it? Your destiny is determined while you're living, not
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Speaker 1: after you've left. So this brings me to three questions
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Speaker 1: that only you can answer and only I can answer
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Speaker 1: for me. One begins with will I? The second begins
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Speaker 1: with do I? And the third one with am I?
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Speaker 1: The first is a question of decisiveness. The second is
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Speaker 1: a question of assurance. And the third, a question of faithfulness.
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Speaker 1: Question number one. Will I continue to ignore the truth
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Speaker 1: or will I respond to it today? Will I believe
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Speaker 1: what God has said about the future and about my
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Speaker 1: life and about eternity and about Christ and about his cross. Well,
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Speaker 1: I come to terms with that today. God is looking
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Speaker 1: for our being decisive. Here's the second, do I? Do
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Speaker 1: I know for sure that I'm ready to meet my master?
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Speaker 1: That I'm eternally secure? At any moment when I draw
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Speaker 1: my breath and it's my last breath, that I'm ready
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Speaker 1: to step into eternity and face my Lord clothed in
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Speaker 1: the righteousness of Christ. Am I sure of that? Do
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Speaker 1: I know that for sure? Only you can answer. For you.
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Speaker 1: I thought people in my lifetime knew the Lord only
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Speaker 1: to find out later when they told me the truth.
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Speaker 1: It had all been a sham until something occurred and
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Speaker 1: they were brought face to face with the reality of
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Speaker 1: eternity and then they gave their life to Christ. Today's
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Speaker 1: the day to take off the mask, to cast aside
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Speaker 1: the hypocrisy, come to terms with, do you know for sure?
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Speaker 1: And the third, am I living my life as if
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Speaker 1: he were to call me home this day? That's a
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Speaker 1: question regarding faithfulness. Again, I cannot answer for you. Only
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Speaker 1: you can answer that. I said earlier there'll be no
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Speaker 1: theological question, there'll be no Bible quiz as we step
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Speaker 1: before the Lord, but there will be the issue of
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Speaker 1: what have you done with my son, Jesus, when you
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Speaker 1: stand before the Father, your creator. how we responded to Christ,
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Speaker 1: why we were able to stand before him, and what
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Speaker 1: kind of life we lived as a result. That's it.
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Speaker 1: Bow your heads, please. With one another, let's bow before
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Speaker 1: the Lord. Let's sit quietly before him. Let the Lord
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Speaker 1: speak to each one of us. Are you absolutely certain
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Speaker 1: that Jesus Christ lives in your life? That you've claimed
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Speaker 1: him as your own Lord? That you've dethroned yourself and
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Speaker 1: you've enthroned him as the one who is to control
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Speaker 1: your life, take charge of your motive, cleanse you from sin,
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Speaker 1: prepare you for eternity. If not, take care of that
47:40
Speaker 1: right now. Right now. Don't put that off. We're here
47:51
Speaker 1: to help you on your journey from earth to heaven,
47:54
Speaker 1: and if we can do that, even in this matter
47:57
Speaker 1: of trusting in Christ, we'd love to do that. Our
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Speaker 1: ministry is always active and available. Individuals who will talk
48:06
Speaker 1: with you privately and intelligently and calmly to assist you
48:12
Speaker 1: in answering your question. You may prefer just to write
48:17
Speaker 1: us and get a hold of us and let us
48:19
Speaker 1: know your concern about your soul. We'll help you find
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Speaker 1: peace and a reason to go on. Let's pray. Thank you, Father,
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Speaker 1: for opening our eyes to what you have written in
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Speaker 1: your word. We ask not that all of our questions
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Speaker 1: be answered, but we do ask that there be a
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Speaker 1: peace within our lives because of Christ and his role
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Speaker 1: as our master. May we all search our hearts and
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Speaker 1: leave no question unanswered. no issue ignored as we think
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Speaker 1: about eternity. May it not frighten us, but may we
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Speaker 1: welcome the thought of standing before you, our God, clothed
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Speaker 1: in the righteousness of Jesus. It's in his name we
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Speaker 1: pray and for his glory alone everyone said.
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Speaker 2: Amen the preceding message here he comes ready or not
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Speaker 2: was copyrighted in 2017 and 2021 and the sound recording
49:38
Speaker 2: was copyrighted in 2021 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All
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Speaker 2: rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial
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Speaker 2: use is strictly prohibited.