[0:00] All right, if you'll join me back in Luke chapter number 17. I guess it's been a couple years ago that Tyler and Lydia got married. At their rehearsal dinner the night before their wedding, they called upon Chase, his brother, the prey.
[0:14] I'll never forget this prayer. It started off like most prayers. And then Chase prayed that the Lord would come back and that he would come back quickly. And you should have saw Tyler's face. He thought, I'm never calling on my brother to pray again the day before my wedding.
[0:28] And Chase thought it was great to consider that Jesus would have come back before Tyler got married. And it was great. But it ought to be something that is part of our prayers.
[0:39] It ought to be something that is part of our conversation. A couple weeks ago we were sitting around some of us men around the fire on a men's getaway. And as I told you, we talked about all kinds of things.
[0:50] We set David DuVoy straight on a few areas doctrinally that we felt like he needed to hear from us about. And then we talked about Jesus returning. And what we had decided and what we said is that the return of Christ is such an important part of our lives.
[1:06] The coming kingdom is such an important part of our lives that it shouldn't just be spoken about on Sunday mornings when we come to that passage. It should be heard in our prayers. It ought to be heard in our four-year discussions.
[1:19] It ought to be heard in our planning meetings. It creates an urgency to the things that we do. Those people that we want to talk to, that we keep putting it off, it ought to be a factor in our decision making.
[1:31] The teaching of his second coming. We need or we should have a paradigm shift in the way that we think compared to the way that the rest of the world would think. Because we view our earthly existence as a brief pilgrimage designed to prepare us for eternity.
[1:47] Today we say, how are you doing? But very soon we won't be saying that anymore. And so we live knowing that, that this life is a vapor, that it is brief, and we prepare for the one to come.
[1:57] There's three dominant worldviews in the world that you could have. One is the ultimate reality. The universe is an impersonal product of time and chance. Humanism, atheism, naturalism.
[2:09] This is all there is. The here and now, what I see, what I can gain, what I can enjoy. There is no life to come. There's no greater meaning. That's a common worldview that we see often. Another one is, it's spiritual.
[2:21] Ultimate reality is not material, it's spiritual. It's a spiritual agent. That is, all that there is. Pantheism, New Age movement, and where people would say there's something, but we don't know what it is.
[2:33] There's no connection with them. If a person tells me, I'm spiritual, but I'm not religious, I would say, well, I'm going to need you to define that before I agree with you. Because you may be saying that there is no way to know God, that there's no book to know God.
[2:47] There's no teaching. There's no doctrine. There's nothing. That God is this tree or God is this sun, that everything is just spiritual. But the Christian worldview, the one that we're blessed to have from God's Word, that distinguishes between creation and the Creator.
[3:03] Where the ultimate reality is an infinite, intelligent, a personal being. We believe that this personal God has decisively revealed Himself in the person and the work of Jesus Christ.
[3:15] And one day, He will return to rule and reign. We see the world differently. We are blessed to see the world differently. That there is a God, and the God is infinite, intelligent, personal, and loves us and made Himself known.
[3:31] He revealed Himself to us, and that one day, His Son, Jesus, will come as the judge, and He will rule and reign for all eternity. So I have three truths for you today.
[3:43] And that's if you'll put those up for me in the back today. First one right here is that you will not miss it when it comes. You will not miss the kingdom when it comes.
[3:56] Secondly, you will not understand the coming kingdom if you do not understand the cross. And then thirdly in this passage, I believe we will see you will not be ready for the kingdom if you are clinging to this world.
[4:09] So let's pick up again at verse number 20. So how did we get on this topic? How from what we were just at are we now talking about a coming kingdom? How are we talking about the nature of the coming of that kingdom?
[4:19] Well, verse 20, the Pharisees demanded this question of Him. When will the kingdom come? And so it's a logical question. He's been preaching about the coming kingdom.
[4:29] It's been said over and over again. So it's a fair question for them to ask. And Jesus has been teaching about this new way of life, where you would forgive people as they over and over again.
[4:41] He just spoke about the unprofitable servant. He just brought healing the people. So it's a natural question that they will ask, as I said before, not knowing what's motivating them. And Jesus responded to their questions in two ways in verse number 20.
[4:56] And He said this in 21. He says that you will not be able to tell by observation that the coming has happened right now. And that He told them that the kingdom was in their midst, that if the kingdom was there among them.
[5:10] So this topic of a kingdom and a king, as us that grew up in America, it's kind of foreign to us. I could have Grant come up here. He knows what it's like to be under the rule and reign of a queen or a monarch, okay?
[5:23] But the rest of us, you know, our country was started as a revolution from a king. We don't have a very good understanding of what that was like. But this kingdom is such a critical aspect of Bible teaching that God is presented as a king and who rules over a kingdom.
[5:41] And they misunderstood it. The Pharisees are misunderstanding. There's two realms to this kingdom. There's the material or the physical one, and there's also the spiritual one. And they really understood the material one.
[5:52] They tried on a number of occasions to set Him up and now to be the king. And that was not what He came to earth to do, right? He came to live a perfect life and to die in their place, and He prevented this from happening.
[6:04] But this spiritual kingdom is one that they don't understand. And He is the king over both domains. The first one by creation, He spoke the world into existence. And the second one by recreation, by the revelation of God's Word.
[6:18] And so this leads to questions that they're asking all through the gospel records, like, what is the kingdom like? Could you help us? Do you help us understand what it's like? We can't get our head around it.
[6:29] One of Brother John's favorite jokes in the Bible Institute is, explain the Trinity and give two examples of it, all right? Something like that. There is no equal to it. And so these people hear about the kingdom, and they're like, just give us, you know, let's help us see what this is like.
[6:44] And so He explains it to them. In the book of Matthew, you have about seven parables in a row. But in Luke, not long ago, we looked at two of them. In Luke 13, verses 18 and 19, turn back a few pages, and you'll see an answer to the question, what is this kingdom like?
[6:58] It says, It's as a seed that would grow, and it would be universal.
[7:19] The whole universe at the culmination is seen here. The next thing, He talked about bread and leaven, how it spread. But the kingdom is going to be universal, not regional, not territorial.
[7:30] He is the king of all the universe. It's also gradual. We focus on the fact that it's a mustard seed, but just think for a moment the fact, just the word seed, which you understand that that's given.
[7:40] The kingdom of God will not come as a prefabricated home. Rather, it spreads progressively as the Son in Heaven sends the Spirit to prepare His people for this place. You could say it like this, Look, I began with the spiritual kingdom in the hearts, which is now realized, and it expands, and it moves, and it becomes greater and greater, until one day it will cover the whole earth and the millennial glory when Christ comes to reign.
[8:05] Though not perfect, here's an earthly example that some of you would know more about than others if you served in the military. But in Iraq, there's an area, a four-mile square area.
[8:15] They called it a Little Americum or the Green Zone. It's a strip there on the Tigris River, and it was declared, This is sovereign country, as an embassy would be.
[8:27] But then it would spread out. See, you and I are fellow workers for the kingdom, Colossians 4.11. And Jesus, which is called Justice, who are of the circumcision, these only are my fellow workers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me.
[8:44] Fellow workers of the kingdom. We're in the kingdom. We preach the kingdom. It's all about the kingdom. So we are part of this expanding spiritual kingdom.
[8:55] Those Pharisees wanted to see by observation, and he says, This is a work that I'm doing. I'm here in your midst. God is doing a spiritual work. And these Pharisees were missing out on it because they wanted to see a throne on earth.
[9:07] They wanted to see a kingdom that would take over by force, that he was creating a spiritual kingdom in the hearts of men. And so now as he shifts his attention to the disciples, it's not a chronological order, but it speaks about the nature of this coming kingdom.
[9:23] He said, And let me give you a summation of what I've already read to you, to the disciples. There's a day coming that you will desire to see the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.
[9:33] How many of you feel that? There's a day in which you will desire. Jesus is there with the disciples, and he says, There's going to be a day that you will desire my return, that I will not be here. And that's where we're living in this church age.
[9:45] We desire for his return. And people will say to you, Look there or look here. Do not go out or follow them. They will knock on Sean Chapel's door, and they will say, The kingdom has come.
[9:58] Let me show you where it's at, how you can be part of it. And he's going to say, No, I'm not going to look here. I'm going to look there. I'm going to look right here in God's Word, right? They're going to create confusion about the matter.
[10:09] And as lightning shows up in the sky, goes from one side to another, it's going to be obvious that the Son of Man in his day. But first, before that comes, He must suffer and be rejected, he tells them.
[10:22] As in the days of Noah, they were eating and they were drinking, but then they went into the flood. They were just living lives. It's not speaking anything negatively about what they were doing, except for the fact they were avoiding the fact that there was a coming judgment.
[10:35] They were just living their lives like it was just any other day. Then it goes to Lot. It doesn't focus on his sin there, but it talks about how Lot was brought out of this condemnation that was coming upon Sodom and Gomorrah.
[10:47] The people are living their days as if nothing was going to happen, as if there was no coming flood, as if there was no coming judgment. But on that day when it comes, those that are on their housetops shouldn't leave and try to go down and get something.
[11:01] It's time to go. If you're in a field, don't gather anything up. Just leave. Remember Lot's wife? Remember what she did? Remember how she turned back and looked in that moment?
[11:12] Whoever seeks to preserve their life will lose it, but who will lose it will keep it. The same night there'll be two people laying in a bed or two ladies working together. One will be taken and one will be left behind.
[11:24] Then they say, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Where the corpse is, birds are going together, that the eagles will fly around, that when the time comes, there's going to be an immediate response.
[11:36] So three things. You will not miss it. You will not understand if you don't understand the cross, and you will not be ready for it for clinging to this world. Verse number 23. And they shall say to you, See here or see there, go not after them, nor follow them.
[11:51] It will not be something hidden that we need to look for. Sorry, I've been mentioned today by Sean concerning Jehovah's Witnesses, many predictions throughout time that people had made and tried to convince people that the kingdom had come.
[12:06] But J.F. Rutherford, who seceded Charles Russell, the president of the Watchtower Association, he predicted that the millennium would come in 1914, then 1917, then in 1925, and when nothing was changing, he then decided that biblical figures like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and David would be resurrected as princes, and they bought a home in California for when that would happen, and they said that it had happened, and that he had come, and that the kingdom had now come upon this earth, but only a slight group of people and an apartment in Brooklyn knew that he had come.
[12:43] Listen, all right? That's not how it's going to happen, people, all right? And if you've ever been to Brooklyn, you know that's not the best place for it to show up, all right? And so there it said, the spiritual kingdom, and that's what's being told, is that you need somebody that would say, they would say, see here or see there, that they're trying to make some kind of decoder ring of how this is going to happen, some kind of secret knowledge that would be given, and what you're going to need is you're going to need this group of people that can explain it to you.
[13:11] That's always where religion's been at its worst, right? Where people stand between you and God, where you're going to need them, where you're dependent on them. If you don't have the secret knowledge or the software that they're running on their computer, or if you don't have access to something, that you're going to miss it.
[13:25] But he said unto them, no, it has lightning in the sky. Everybody's going to have access to it. Everybody's going to know it. It's not going to be argued as if it happened. It won't just come to a select group of people in Brooklyn or upper Manhattan or anything like that meeting together.
[13:39] It will be unmistakable. Like verse number 26, as in the days of Noah, it shall in the days of the Son of Man. No newscaster had to say it's raining. Nobody in Sodom and Gomorrah had to say it's raining fire and brimstone.
[13:53] I have been praying for those who lost homes in Florida. Family members have lost their lives. But something that sometimes the news will do is they want to be sensational, right? And so you'll see a broadcaster and he acts like the wind's blowing him over, but there's somebody walking in the background.
[14:09] Have you ever seen one of those? Because they really want to hype it up and they'll tell you. There'll be no need for that. When this day comes, there'll be no need for anybody to have to convince you or to tell you that you will know that the kingdom has come.
[14:22] And then importantly, you won't understand this event if you do not understand the cross. So today we won't say this, but in that day when they said, what is preventing this from happening? When is this going to come?
[14:33] Verse number 25, he said, but first he must suffer many things and be rejected of this generation. First, Jesus Christ is going to suffer and be rejected.
[14:44] And we can understand this and we are blessed that we do. The beginning of Revelation, Revelation 1 verse 3, it says, blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand.
[15:01] Now we are blessed people to know this. We are blessed people to have heard it, to have explained to us. And that childhood pastor, Brother Larry Lockston, he preached on a Sunday night where I heard the gospel.
[15:14] Though it had been preached to me other times, but it was on that Sunday night that I heard it and understood and I fell on their conviction and I accepted Jesus Christ. But he didn't stop there.
[15:24] He kept telling me about Jesus. He kept telling me that Jesus has a plan for this world and that Jesus will rule and reign. And I was blessed to have learned that as you are blessed to have learned it as well.
[15:36] One day he will return to rule in the way, in the reign. But we do not know the day. Luke 12, 40 says, be you therefore ready also for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when you think not.
[15:47] Which leads me to ask this, wonder this, why would the Lord do that? Why would he want us to think that it will happen at any moment? It could happen at any moment, but there's a time in which he will come.
[15:58] That it says, not revealed to him, but the Father would know. What is the value in believing that he may come and us not knowing? 1 John 3, 3 says this, and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure.
[16:14] The thoughts about the Lord returning and his kingdom coming, it should have a sanctifying effect in our lives. It should bring hope to us.
[16:25] It's something that we ought to be thinking about. It's something that we should meditate upon. And then when will Jesus come? Without the cross, the coming of the King and Judge is not good news at all.
[16:39] If Jesus Christ would have not died for us and died in our place, the thought of him coming would most certainly not be good news. And he said in verse number 25, but first he must suffer many things and be rejected of this generation.
[16:53] So two things. First, there has to be suffering and rejection. His coming is delayed by his suffering and by the rejection of this. This is an important issue in our understanding of end times, of eschatology, of Christ's return.
[17:09] Jesus cannot return until Israel's rejection ends. Look with me in Acts chapter number 3, verse 18 and 19. This is a message being preached in the book of Acts where they are going to use the same wording, speaking about the same truth that was given by Jesus in Luke chapter number 17.
[17:27] It says this, but those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
[17:39] That suffering that was necessary, that the kingdom isn't going to be set up, that I must first suffer, that happened on the cross. That's what's being said in the book of Acts is that that was necessary, that the Lord would not set up the kingdom until after the cross.
[17:53] And we say thankful, we are thankful for that because if he had not died in our place, then there would be no place for us in that. That has happened. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.
[18:08] He has suffered, but now it's time for you to repent, to be converted, to have your sins blotted out for the time is going to come that those of us that have done that, there is a time of refreshing when the presence of the Lord is going to come, when he will return.
[18:21] So the kingdom cannot come until Israel believes. But what I'm not saying in here today is that we are waiting for the salvation of Israel, then Jesus comes.
[18:32] The rapture of the church comes first and we'll be caught up to be with the Lord in the air. That's what the Bible teaches, that those of us that have been saved during this time, that we are part of what is called the church age, that just like in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, that they will be brought out before judgment comes.
[18:52] You and I are going to be brought out of this world, a taking up called a rapture, some would refer to it as. Then he goes on to further speak about this where it says, you will not be ready if you're clinging to this world.
[19:05] Noah, the Bible, we saw what the beginning of Revelation says, but what is the end of Revelation when the last verse is there it says in Revelation 22, 20, he which testifies these things says, surely I come quickly, amen, even so come Lord Jesus.
[19:23] I would ask you today, could you pray that? Would that be part of your prayer? Could you say that with sincerity? Could you say that in your prayer? Surely, Lord come quickly, even so come Lord Jesus.
[19:35] That day is going to reveal the hearts of man. Remember Lot's wife, verse 32, whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.
[19:46] God will deliver the godly from the coming day of judgment. If you will turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Peter 2, chapter number 2, verse 4 through 9, it speaks of his ability to deliver the godly.
[20:00] It starts off in verse number 4 like this, for if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into the chains of darkness to be reserved under judgment.
[20:12] And he spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the worldly of the ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in the ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly, and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, for that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous so from day to day with their unlawful deeds.
[20:44] Verse number 9, the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust until the day of judgment to be punished. God, as he has before, knows how to deliver us, his children, from this time of tribulation that is coming for those seven years that are going to come.
[21:03] He knows. If you're not in a life group, I'd encourage you to get in one this morning. David, if I understand correctly, was speaking in his life group about being sealed. And yesterday, we were having a conversation about how he and I would have not known that about Lot.
[21:17] We would have not known that he was vexed with that. We would not know that he was a righteous man dwelling among them. But God is able to know. God is able to separate us. He knows in here who are sealed by him, who belong to them.
[21:30] And he's able to deliver us out of this world before this time that is going to come a tribulation of 70 or seven years of strong tribulation here on this earth.
[21:43] And he says, whoever tried to keep his life by going back for his good will lose it. Verse 31, in that day, he shall, which shall be upon the housetop and his stuff in the house.
[21:54] Let him not come down to take it away. He that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. And then connecting that to Lot's wife. She looked back. Her value system, her affections, what she was looking at was given into that city that was going to be destroyed.
[22:11] And so when Jesus comes on that day, his coming will disclose where people's hearts are. His coming will be the great revealer of those that he will save, the godly and the righteous, and those that will enter into that tribulation.
[22:27] Most people think the world exists to fulfill them so that they can find their satisfaction, their fulfillment, their purpose, their place to be all that they can be. And in churches, often erroneously teach that if they haven't found it already, then Jesus will help you find it.
[22:47] Are you looking for something in life? Are you not completely satisfied? Do you not have the joy and the pleasure that you know is available to you? Here, meet Jesus. He will take you on a tour of this world and he will help you find it.
[22:59] That is not the message of the gospel. Jesus would say, in me, you find all satisfaction. In me, you should put all your affections and trust. There's no reason that, there's a reason that 85% of America professes to be evangelical.
[23:15] They profess to know the gospel because they're happy to have a Jesus that will help them find their place in this world. In our life group this morning with high schoolers, I said it's as if we have different seasons in life and when things are, every season has blessings and it has burdens.
[23:32] There's great things about being teenagers, right? You don't worry about laundry, next meals, paying bills, a lot of great things. But there's also burdens of that season. You're in a season right now that's great. It has blessings and it has burdens.
[23:45] Many people look to Jesus as if he's a cruise, a guide on a cruise boat who's supposed to take us around and say, well, the buffet is open 24 hours a day and then this is going to happen at this time and anytime there's any kind of hardship they say, this is not what I signed up for.
[24:02] I did not know that there was going to be a tribulation in here because they're not looking to him to be satisfied. Charles Spurgeon in remarking about this passage, he remembered a further tragedy regarding Lot's wife.
[24:14] She almost made it. Doom befell her at the gates of Zor. Oh, if I must be damned to let it be with the mass of the ungodly, having always been one of them, but to get up to the very gates of heaven to Paris there would be the most awful thing.
[24:30] We don't almost make it into heaven in the fact that we worked pretty, we were pretty good but we're just a little bit, should have been a little bit better or we did a whole lot of good if we'd done just a little bit more. What was happening with Lot's wife is that that turning of that moment was revealing in her heart and then that's what's being said here is that when he comes there should be nothing more that we should be excited about than to be in his kingdom be with him.
[24:53] This should matter to us because we desire this day. Verse 22, and he said in the disciples, the days will come when you shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man and you shall not see it.
[25:04] You should desire the days of the Lord. We should desire to be with him. Richard Baxter in his commentary makes a very strong statement. He says, the believer prizes heaven above the world.
[25:16] The unbeliever prizes heaven only over hell. To the ungodly, there is nothing that seems more desirable than this world and therefore he only chooses heaven over hell but not heaven over this world and therefore he will not have heaven upon such choice.
[25:36] Many of us in here would say, I would choose heaven over hell, but often times would we choose heaven over this world? Do we really desire to see our Lord return? See, this is not primarily about us escaping this world but it's about Jesus receiving the glory that he deserves.
[25:54] That country church I grew up in, there's a picture that came out in the 70s of a rapture scene in New York and it was pretty horrific and it was fascinating and I would look at it and I would play that through my mind and so the rapture to me as a kid was something that I feared and I was fascinated by him but the second coming is about Christ.
[26:13] It's about his glory and his honor and it's about the end of sin and the beginning of righteousness and that's why we long for it. John 17, Jesus is speaking to the Father in a prayer and he says in verse number one and he says, these words speak Jesus lifting up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come glorify thy son that thy son also may glorify thee.
[26:36] The noun in verse number 24 it says this, Father, I will that they also whom thou have given me be with me where I am. Father, I want them to be with me and what is the purpose?
[26:48] That they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. We long for the second coming.
[27:00] We long for the time that the church will be taken out for the end of that tribulation period, for that reign of Christ and for the end of all days because we want to see the glory of Christ made manifest.
[27:13] It's not about us. It's about him and our desire to see him glorified and it's always been. Psalm 96, 8, give unto the Lord the glory that is due unto his name.
[27:25] So why do I want to see a second coming and why would I pray that he would come back? Yes, life is hard but that isn't the primary reason. The reason I want to see the Lord come back is he deserves to be worshipped by all of mankind.
[27:40] He deserves to sit upon the throne. And then we get down to the ending verse here which is, that is, where that which is right for judgment is present, there will also the judgment will take place.
[27:54] Verse 37, And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.
[28:04] You've pictured this before. Happens quite often here outside of the church around this curve here. Oftentimes we will have a road kiln and from the top of the hill we can see the birds swarming around whatever is there.
[28:17] I don't like it when birds swarming around the church. I'll shoot them off, all right? It's not a good omen. We had birds around this church today. But over the road over here we'll see birds that are flying around.
[28:29] And so some wonder if the conditions are ready in the present day for this revelation of Jesus, both in delivering his people and judgment upon a world that rejects him.
[28:40] We may say this with some confidence. The Bible describes certain political, economic, spiritual, social, and military characteristics regarding what the world will be like before his return.
[28:52] And it is fair to say that the conditions exist today and that the stage is set. He can return. All the conditions are necessary which is this.
[29:03] Did he suffer? Yes, the cross has been happening. When he takes us out there will be a great salvation coming from every tribe of Israel. 144,000 of them they will come and they will be believing people in that and then after that the kingdom will come but we'll be taken out before that time.
[29:21] And so when we're talking about the second coming we're talking about something that must happen. The promises of God demand it. The teaching of Jesus demands it. The word of the spirit demands it.
[29:32] The plan for his church demands it. The future of Israel demands it. The corruption of this world demands it. The destruction of Satan demands it. But most importantly vindication and exaltation of Jesus Christ demands it.
[29:48] Verse 22 And he said unto the disciples the days will come when you shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man and you shall not see it. We look for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for his church in which we've taken out before all this even begins.
[30:04] And if you're in Christ that is your blessed hope. We want God to be glorified and we wait for that day. So I ask you in here in your prayers can you say surely come quickly?
[30:17] Do we talk to our children about it? Do we live with a desire for that? His name being exalted above all other names if that's really at our heart then we should be able to say this is what we want more than anything.
[30:31] The men do a wonderful job in sharing an offering devotion. In regards to the giving we have a question is can God be trusted? And when it comes to our prayer life we ask ourselves are we truly dependent on God to do are we recognizing how great the need is and how dependent we are on God?
[30:52] So if giving would talk to us about our trust and if our prayer would talk to us about our dependence on him our desire to see him return would tell us a whole lot about the fact if we believe that his word is true.
[31:04] If we believe that this world is all there is that there is or is there a world to come? Is there a kingdom to come? And so we should ask ourselves why is it that we don't think about that?
[31:16] Why is it would we not want that to happen? Are we more interested in life than we have to live here in the now? Or do we desire for the day to come where he will be his glory be manifested where he will be known?
[31:29] Let's pray together. Heavenly Father I thank you for your word. Lord we know we live in a time as it's been true even before this time that the stage is set that your son had died upon a cross and that he was suffered and that the rejection time Lord will come to an end that at any moment Lord you could take us out just like you took a lot out of that Lord you know who is your own.
[31:56] And so Father we pray the day for sinners that they would be warned carefully warned today about what there is that come with every head bowed and every eye closed and you continue to pray there in your seat if you're in here today or you're watching online I want you to know that this is historically a fact the coming it is going to happen as sure as anything that there's nothing preventing him from coming he's already suffered upon the cross and the next thing the end of that rejection is going to come after he removes those believing people and he knows who is sealed for that day he is able to know that I'm not able to know that but he knows that so I want to ask you today are you prepared for that the thoughts of the Lord returning does it bring you great fear or great comfort prophecy is supposed to bring us great comfort if you don't have peace in your life in that make this the day that you understand about what it means to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ that you would know that in heaven there's a place prepared for you that you could be excited about a coming king that is coming the judge and the believer in here our Jesus has the right to be glorified he has the right to be honored he has endured enough shames at the hands of sinners and he has been rejected and so could we cry out today and say
[33:19] Lord surely come quickly we desire to see you glorified there's nothing in this world that we put above our desire to see and be with you our families and our friends and our kids they should know that we put nothing in this world of greater value than sitting at your feet and knowing him only father I pray the day for those who may not know you would I pray that the day would be the day of salvation that they would not put it off knowing that just like as in the days of Noah or in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah Lord that at any moment judgment could come upon this earth the day would be of salvation father I pray for my brothers and sisters that they would examine their hearts that allow you to examine their heart help us see what it is that keeps us from looking to your glorious return what is it in this world Lord that has grabbed a hold of us and entangled us and that has distracted us or make us people that have our face towards heaven looking for your glorious return in Jesus name I pray
[34:23] Amen