“What’s Next? – The 2nd Coming” – Rev. 19:11-16

So, here’s the scene.  You go home after church tonight and change into your pj’s, pop some popcorn and sit down on the couch and turn on the TV.  You scroll through the stations until you see a movie you would like to watch.  It’s just coming on so this is perfect.  And it turns out to be really interesting.  You are glued to the tube, sitting on the edge of your seat.  It’s the guy in the white hat against the guy in the black hat.

Through the whole movie, the guy in the white hat has protected the pretty yellow-haired girl who, in return has made goo goo eyes at him back.  He has made good choices even when they were difficult.  He has remained honorable through the whole show.  All the while Mr. Black Hat has schemed and stolen and lied and been basically a big ol’ meanie-head.  And now it’s high noon and time for the showdown.

White hat walks out of the general store with the yellow-haired girl watching nervously through the window.  Black hat walks out of the saloon with a bottle of whiskey.  They start to walk towards each other with that suspenseful piano music playing in the background.  And all the sudden Mr. Black Hat pulls his six-gun and shoots Mr. White Hat right in the heart.  He grabs the girl and rides off on his horse.  The end.

How do you like that story?  Pretty horrible, huh?  Nobody makes a movie like that.  Nobody wants to see the good guy lose the girl, much less get killed.  What kind of justice is that?  It’s also why I don’t want to watch “Ol’ Yeller” ever again.  I’ll get misty-eyed just thinking about what happens to poor Yeller.  I don’t want to see that stuff.  Everybody roots for the good guy, right?  But now the good guy is dead and there is no way anything good can come from it.

Well, that is exactly how the disciples felt in John chapter 21.  Listen as I read starting in verse 2.  “Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. ³ “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.”

Let me stop there and just say this was a bad time for the disciples.  They had watched Jesus die on the cross and now He was gone and there was nothing else for them to do but what they had done before they had even met Him.  They went fishing.  But now they couldn’t even catch any fish.  This was just the worst.  All their lives they had been reading that Old Testament script about how the guy in the white hat was going to come and save them and then He did come but now He is dead.

But what they didn’t know was that it was the end of the movie but not the end of the story.  There was a sequel coming soon.  If it were a movie sequel they would be able to see that the guy in the white hat had been shot but the bullet was stopped by a Bible in his shirt pocket.  He gets up off the ground, finds the guy in the black hat, fights him and kills him and then takes the girl home and marries her and lives happily ever after.

And what is even better is that the disciples and all of us believers through the ages will have a part in the movie.  Did you know that?  You are going to be a part of the greatest epic that ever happens in the history of the world.  And the name of that sequel…is “The Second Coming.”  Let’s turn to the book of Revelation to see a trailer for that show.  And our narrator for this epic is the Apostle John, one of those who just happened to be with Peter when he went fishing.

Revelation 19:11-21 is the screenplay for how this show goes.  But I’ll warn you.  This is not rated G.  It has violence and mature themes.  Let’s read it.  I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. ¹² His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. ¹³ He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. ¹⁴ The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. ¹⁵ Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. ¹⁶ On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: king of kings and lord of lords. ¹⁷ And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, ¹⁸ so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.”   ¹⁹ Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. ²⁰ But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. ²¹ The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.

Now that’s how a story ought to end, right?  We have looked at the Rapture where Jesus snatches up His church in the air, in the twinkling of an eye.  And for some people that would be enough.  It would be enough that God takes all of His children to Heaven and just leaves Satan on earth with his minions to run wild.  But for all of you that crave justice, that wouldn’t be enough.

And we know that God is just.  We have all heard Romans 12:19 that says, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”  Well here you go.  Here’s justice.  Our setting is the Battle of Armageddon at the end of the Tribulation.  I once heard an end-times specialist talk about how things were going to end and how he closed his talk was to say, “If you want clues as to when it is coming, keep your eye on Israel.”

Here we have nations all over the world coming together to battle Israel and each other.  But in the middle of their fighting, they won’t miss what happens as Jesus comes back to earth to finish the fight.  And when He does He will come back visibly.  He will come back victoriously.  And He will come back with vengeance.  Let’s look again at verse 13.  It says who is coming back.  His name is the Word of God.

This isn’t the first time John calls Jesus the Word.  He starts his gospel with those words.  In John 1:1 he says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God and the word was with God.”  He says in verse 12 of Rev. 19 that His eyes are like blazing fire which symbolizes His all-seeing, all-knowing, all-revealing sight.  He has on His head many crowns.  In fact, He has every crown.  He is the King of the universe, the King of Zion, which is Israel, the King of every believer, the King and Husband of the church.  He is the King of kings.

He will not be mistaken or missed.  He is coming visibly with His robe dipped in blood; the blood He shed for us on the cross by which He offers us salvation; the blood of the believers which He is coming to avenge and the blood of His enemies which is as good as spilled right there on the battlefield.  All of which stains His robe royal red like the King that He is.

And He will come visibly riding a white horse.  This is not the colt on which He rode into Jerusalem the last time as one riding in peace.  This is a horse ridden in victory and He rides in holiness and purity.  And it says He rides it to make war.  What a horrible thought to be an enemy of God at this last day.  Isaiah 2:19 says, “People will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from the fearful presence of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth.”

He will come visibly and He will come victoriously.  Look at verse 14.  It says, “The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.”  Who are the armies of Heaven?  Well, there may be angels involved in this battle but John sees us.  He is talking about all the believers riding behind Jesus on white horses too.  But look how we are dressed.  In fine linen, white and clean.  Jesus has blood all over His but ours are spotless.

Now, I would like to think I was going to be riding that white horse into battle like John Wayne with the reins in my teeth and a sword in one hand and a machine gun in the other, blasting away at the bad guys with a bazooka and RPG’s but that’s not how it happens.  I said earlier that we will play a part in this epic but we are pretty much just extras at this point.

Jesus is the victor.  We are on His side but Jesus is the great warrior.  And look at verse 15 to see His weapon of choice.  Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.  Yes, the same Jesus Who was present at creation and spoke the universe into being and populated it with water, mountains, animals and even people just by speaking will end it all with His mouth.

When the U.S. attacked Iraq they said it would be shock and awe.  And it was pretty impressive.  But when the enemies of God look up and prepare to fight against the Lord, they will be shocked but I don’t know if they will have time to be awed because it will not last long.  Jesus doesn’t need our help.  He doesn’t need the help of the angels. 

We say often around here that “God’s got this.”  When you are scared, don’t worry.  God’s got this.  When your month exceeds your money, don’t worry.  God’s got this.  When your world seems to be crashing down around you, let not your hearts be troubled, be still and know He is God…God’s got this.  We say that because the same God that has plenty of power to overthrow all the powers of hell and every army on the planet all at the same time has all the power necessary to take care of you on this side of Heaven as well as the other side.

He is coming visibly.  He is coming victoriously.  And He is coming with vengeance.

 A despondent woman was walking along the beach when she saw a bottle on the sand. She picked it up and pulled out the cork. Whoosh! A big puff of smoke appeared. "You have released me from my prison," the genie told her. "To show my thanks, I grant you three wishes. But take care, for with each wish, your spouse will receive double of whatever you request."  "Why?" the woman asked. "That bum left me for another woman."  "That is how it is written," replied the genie.  The woman shrugged and then asked for a million dollars. There was a flash of light, and a million dollars appeared at her feet. At the same instant, in a far-off place, her wayward husband looked down to see twice that amount at his feet.  "And your second wish?"  "Genie, I want the world's most expensive diamond necklace." Another flash of light, and the woman was holding the precious treasure. And, in that distant place, her husband was looking for a gem broker to buy his latest bonanza.  "Genie, is it really true that my husband has two million dollars and more jewels than I do, and that he gets double of whatever I wish for?" The genie said it was indeed true. "Okay, genie, I'm ready for my last wish," the woman said. "Scare me half to death."   (Sermonillustrations.com)

Vengeance!  I saw an anonymous quote that said, “The divine wrath is slow indeed in vengeance, but it makes up for its tardiness by the severity of the punishment.”  The severity of God’s vengeance cannot be overstated here.  Because unless you are a bird, this day is going to end badly for you.  The first coming of Jesus brought forgiveness and grace but the second time He comes, He is coming to bring judgment and He is bringing it with a vengeance.

I told you this was not rated G.  It’s pretty graphic here.  In verse 15 he says, “He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.”  John also talks about seeing a winepress in chapter 14 of Revelation.  There he sees “The grapes were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress in a stream about 180 miles long and as high as a horse's bridle.”  NLT

He is comparing the wrath of God to a winepress where the blood flows like wine for 180 miles, which is about half the length of Israel.  So, why is Jesus so mad?  Why does He have to kill everybody and do it in a way that is so gruesome?  Is it because of how they treated Him at the cross?  Is this for spitting on Him and pulling out His beard and whipping Him nearly to death before nailing His hands and feet to the cross while He hung there naked until He died?

Is this just about getting revenge?  Is He saying, “Boy, you really messed with the wrong guy this time!”?  I can answer those questions with an emphatic, “No!”  No!  Because is any of that really any worse than any sin I have committed?  When I make the choice to lie, steal, gossip, lust or even worry, is that not the same thing as shaking my fist in the face of Almighty God and swearing that I know better than He does?

Every time I sin it is an offense to God.  It is one more thing holding Jesus on that cross.  I might as well be holding the hammer that drove the nails into His precious hands every time I sin.  But do you know what?  He has forgiven me.  He has forgiven you, too, when you accepted Him and His forgiveness.  And He would have forgiven any one of those who beat Him or mocked Him or killed Him if they had just repented and asked.

No, that is not why Jesus is so angry at His Second Coming.  His righteous anger burns for those who willfully rejected Him.  And they didn’t just do it once.  It was their lifestyle; their ongoing attitude of rebellion – a stubborn way of life that continually resists, rejects and insults the One who came to earth to die for them so He could provide the way for them to have eternal life with Him in Heaven.

But they rejected Him having been warned over and over and over again.  They wanted to live their own life.  They wanted to live life their own way and so God makes good on His warning and gives them what they have been asking for.  As believers and followers of Jesus we do not get what we deserve.  We get grace and mercy.  Unbelievers get justice.

Do you remember that passage in John 21 that I started reading earlier where the disciples had gone fishing but didn’t catch anything?  Let me read a little bit more.  Starting in verse 4.  “Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. 5 He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” “No,” they answered. 6 He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. 7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. 8 The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish.”

I love that story!  Can you imagine how Peter must have felt?  Can you imagine the grief, the shame that he was carrying around, knowing that he had denied Jesus 3 times and then abandoned Him?  But now Peter sees Him again and He is alive and he can’t wait to row to shore.  He jumps out and swims.

He swims because Peter knows that on that shore is forgiveness.  He knows that on that shore is the end of his guilt and shame and the beginning of an abundant life here on earth and he knows he is not guaranteed another breath and so he gets to Jesus as fast as he can.  And that’s just what Jesus was waiting for.

And that is what He is waiting for you to do today as well.  Why let your pride stop you any longer?  How has that worked out for you so far anyway?  Do it today.  Ask Jesus to be Lord of your life and to forgive you of your sins and change your life for all of eternity.  That’s what He is waiting for.

“What’s Next? – The Rapture” – 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

“It doesn’t get any better than this!”  Have you ever said those words?  Maybe you were with family or friends.  Maybe in the city or in nature or maybe you were sitting at the dinner table at my Mama’s house.  I would sure believe that!  I went over to Mom and Pop’s the other day and Mama made some homemade chocolate chip cookies. Hot out of the oven and with a big glass of milk and there is nothing better that I have ever put in my mouth.



What about you? What occasion might make you say, “It doesn’t get any better than this”?



A couple of years ago, I went with my two sisters and their husbands down to Port Aransas.  We rented a little place not far from the beach and we spent the days swimming and laying on the beach and eating good seafood.  It was so relaxing just watching the waves roll in.  Then in the evenings after dinner we would go back to the hotel and play board games or card games and we would give each other prizes for no good reason and every night we would end up laughing so hard at something or another.  You know, it was the kind of laughter where you can’t breathe and your side hurts and your head hurts and your saying, “Stop it.  Stop it.”



The older I get, the more I enjoy spending time with family and friends just doing nothing but laughing and joking and visiting.  That’s about as good as it gets with me right there.  We don’t have to be spending money.  We don’t have to drink alcohol or do drugs.  All we have to do is be together and we start having fun. Sometimes we have a party at the RV park or game night here at the church. I think about the night of encouragement we had a couple of weeks ago. There is always a lot of joy, happiness and laughter when we do those things.



You know, I think God is laughing right along with us at times like that.  I say that because in lots of places in the Bible, God is referred to as our Father and is there a better sound for a typical father to hear than his kids laughing?  Sure, God gets glory when we worship Him in church but I think He gets a kick out of watching His kids sing karaoke or play a game that makes them laugh.  He loves us and enjoys it when we are happy because He is a good God.



Now, while we live here on this old earth, God is not as concerned about our happiness as He is about our holiness.  Again, going back to our earthly fathers, does a good parent give his child everything that child wants to try to make him happy?  Of course not.  A parent’s goal is to raise children into fully developed adults capable of making good decisions on their own so that they live happily as adults.  God works in a similar fashion.



He allows or even causes difficult things to come into our lives so that, as James 1 says, we become mature and complete, not lacking anything.  But…can you imagine…when these trials and tests are over…and our work on this earth is done and we finally get to see Jesus and He welcomes us into Heaven with “Well done, my good and faithful servant!  I know it was hard, my precious one, but you did it and I am so proud of you!  Now, let me show you around.  You are going to love this!”



I’m not positive but I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a line over here that starts the chicken fried steak buffet with mashed potatoes, gravy and biscuits and all the other fixins.  Then over here is the Mexican food buffet and there’s the chocolate swimming pool and the…okay, I need to quit or we’ll spend all morning talking about food.



But when we get to Heaven that’s when we can truly say, “It doesn’t get any better than this.”  But from here, it seems like we are a long way off from that life sometimes, doesn’t it?  Sometimes it’s hard to imagine but God wants us to imagine it.  He gave us information about it in His Word and even commanded us to keep our hearts and minds set on things above.



If you were going on a trip to Hawaii, you would get there by plane, most likely.  I guess they might have a ship that you could get on somewhere but at some point, a plane will most likely be involved.  Well, similarly, if you are going to Heaven, did you know that there are two ways to get there?



Now, these two ways are only for those who have a ticket and our ticket is by grace and through faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  But once you have that ticket, there are two ways to get there.  Paul tells us about it in a beautiful passage in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.  This passage makes me happy.  It gets me excited so if I get a little loud or do a little happy dance, don’t be surprised.



1 Thessalonians is in between Colossians and obviously, 2 Thessalonians in the New Testament.  The church in Thessalonica had written Paul because they had some questions for him and he is writing this letter to answer some of those questions.  One of their concerns was about their loved ones who had died.  Paul had taught them that Jesus was going to come back and get them soon and so they expected it to be while they were all still alive but now some of them had died and they were worried that they had somehow missed the rapture that Paul had talked about.



So, let’s read Paul’s response to them as he describes the rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who fall asleep, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. ¹⁴ For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. ¹⁵ According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.



All over the Northeast, half a million Adventists -- disciples of New York evangelist William Miller -- awaited the rapture on April 3, 1843. Journalists had a field day. Reportedly some disciples were on mountaintops, hoping for a head start to heaven. Others were in graveyards, planning to ascend in union with their departed loved ones. Some high society ladies clustered together outside town to avoid entering God's holy kingdom amid the common herd.



It was to happen on April 3^rd but what do you think happened?  Nothing happened, of course.  April 4^th came and has come and gone many times since.  It’s foolish to try to guess the date when Matthew 24:36 says, ³⁶"But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”



We don’t know when and we don’t need to know when.  All we need to do is be expecting it.

Paul tells us there are two ways to get to Heaven; either through death or through the rapture.  Now, when I say the word “rapture” you may notice that this is not a word that Paul used.  We get the word “rapture” from the Greek word “harpazo” which means to snatch away. 



Some of you may remember playing jacks as a kid.  I remember you rolled the dice and bounced a ball and before the ball hit the ground you had to pick up a certain number of playing pieces and so you snatched those pieces off the ground real quick.  That’s “harpazo”.  That also makes me sound ancient, talking about playing jacks.  “Harpazo” is the same word used to describe a wolf snatching a sheep in John 10:12. In Acts 8:39 it speaks of Philip’s being snatched away from the Ethiopian eunuch.  It is a strong, almost violent act that is irresistible.



In verse 13, Paul says, “We don’t want you to be uninformed” and I think he is speaking for himself but also for God.  God doesn’t want us to be uninformed so He revealed some things to Paul so he could tell us.  In verse 15, it says, “According to the Lord’s word…” and I believe Paul has been given this directly from God in some way or another.  The Lord has given this to Paul to share with us.  He wants us to know and doesn’t want us to grieve.  So, Paul is saying it but he has the authority of God Himself.



Now, I want to get to the really good stuff.  This passage is used to comfort people at funerals all the time and it is perfect for that but that’s not our focus this morning.  Let me just tell you that we are also not focusing on all the Bible prophecy that is mentioned.  We went through a series on Bible prophecy in general a while back and we saw what happens to the unbelievers after the rapture but I’ll be honest.  Most of that stuff is not going to affect us as Christians.



In fact, most of the book of Revelation is not written to us nor will it affect us because I believe that the Bible clearly teaches that the rapture will happen before the Great Tribulation that is so prevalently talked about in Revelation.  We can argue about that later if you want to – and you can be wrong later if you want to - but this series is not meant to deal with all that.  This is meant to help us prepare for the trip.  So, if we are going to be prepared for the trip, we want to know how we’re going to get there.



Paul says in verse 16, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven.” At the rapture, Jesus is coming for us who are still alive.  He is not sending His angels or drawing a map and hoping we get there.  He’s coming to get us.  Now, don’t mistake the rapture for the Second Coming of Jesus.  That comes later.  You can tell the difference because at the rapture, Jesus meets us in the sky and at His Second Coming, He actually comes all the way back to earth with us behind Him but we will talk about that a little later on.



Since His ascension back into Heaven after His death, burial and resurrection, Jesus has been sitting at the right hand of God (Heb. 1:3) but when the Father says it is time, Jesus will leave Heaven with a loud shout; a command like He gave to Lazarus when Jesus stood at the tomb (John 11:43) and called Lazarus out.  When Jesus gives the command it will be like a military commander calling his troops to fall in.      



Now, I wish I could see this.  Can you imagine the scene?  The King of all kings, the Creator of the universe, God the Father is sitting on His throne and one day He is going to look to His right at His beloved Son, Jesus, and say, “It’s time!”  Then Jesus will stand up from His throne and say, “Michael!  Let’s go get my bride!”  Then the archangel will shout the command and a trumpet will echo over all the planets in the universe and at the sound of that trumpet, graves all over the world will burst open and the bodies of Christians that have already died will rise first with their glorified bodies joining with their glorified spirits to make them into the image of Christ. (John MacArthur, Jr. commentary)



1 John 3:2 says, “²Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”  Romans 8:38 says that nothing can separate us from the love of God, not even death.  So, those that have died will go first. 



Now, that’s another picture.  Can you imagine what that’s going to look like?  Some gardener is going to be weed eating around the graveyard and all of the sudden every casket holding a Christian is going to blast apart and the dirt and headstones will go flying leaving those graves empty with just the word of the Father.



Now, let me throw this in really quick.  I know some people are concerned because their loved one has been cremated or they were lost at sea or dismembered in an accident of some kind.  They worry that God won’t be able to put them all back together again at the rapture and I have to say that’s almost funny.  You mean to tell me that you don’t have a problem believing that God can restore to a glorious new body somebody that died naturally and whose body is now dust but since Aunt Becky lost her foot in a car crash, she’s gonna limp for all eternity?  C’mon.



I don’t know how but if God can speak the universe into existence, I’m pretty sure He has this little problem figured out as well.  Philippians 3:21 says, “God will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” and 1 Corinthians 15:52 says we will be changed “in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.”



We will be rescued from Satan and sin and temptation.  We will be snatched up out of this nasty old world and away from all the greedy and corrupt politicians, the impure and cowardly leaders, the hurt and the pain that so many live with every day physically, mentally and more.  Our lowly, weak and impure bodies will be transformed into glorious bodies in an instant.



Now, let me ask you a question.  How many of you have computers?  Now, on these computers, does there ever come up on the screen a notification that an app or a program or a system of some sort needs to be updated or upgraded?  Sure, those things happen all the time, right?  Now, do you ever wonder while you are downloading that update what the new system is going to look like?  Are you ever afraid that it might not be recognizable or that you aren’t going to be able to use it? 



No, not usually.  Most of the time those programs are updated and the changes are nice.  It may have some new features but the overall system is very familiar and easy to use.  Our glorified bodies will be very similar to getting a much-needed upgrade.  When we get our glorified and resurrected bodies, we will, no doubt, have some unexpected surprises but we will certainly recognize our new bodies as being ours.  (Randy Alcorn, Heaven, p. 116)



Do you know how I know this?  We’re told in scripture that our bodies will be like the glorified body of Jesus.  I read that verse in 1 John 3 that says, “But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him.”  We are also told in several places in scripture what His body was like.  After Jesus was resurrected, it says He appeared to hundreds of people and they all recognized Him.  Mary had a hard time at the tomb for a few minutes but even through her tears she finally took a good look and knew right then.



The disciples saw His scars.  They touched Him and He ate with them.  He called to them and they recognized His voice.  Yes, He walked through a closed and locked door in the upper room and that will be pretty cool if we are able to do that but we don’t know for sure.  We aren’t told explicitly that we will be able to walk through walls but if so, I bet after a few thousand years we will get used to even that.



1 Corinthians 15:49 says, “And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man”, (speaking of Adam) “so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.” (Speaking of Jesus) My point is that, while we don’t know everything about these cool and glorified new bodies we are going to get, they will be familiar to us and to others.



Now, with all that being said, “glorified bodies” is not the main focus of this passage.  The rapture, with all its power and glory is going to be great and awesome but bodies flying up and around is not the main point of this word from God through Paul.  Paul tells us at the end that these words should be encouraging and what does he say just before that?  The words at the end of verse 17 are the encouragement.  Look at them again with me, if you would.



“And so we will be with the Lord forever.”  Now, there’s your encouragement!  I don’t know about you but that makes a lot of people say “Amen!”  I don’t know everything about our glorified bodies or everything about what Heaven is going to be like.  We have some ideas and that’s good but this is the best news of all.  We will be with Jesus.  We will share as co-heirs with Him to all the good things Heaven has to offer.  That is truly when we will say, “It doesn’t get any better than this!”



I was driving around the other day sort of in the middle of nowhere when I saw something on the side of the road in the tall grass.  I couldn’t tell at first what it was but it was moving around and so I kept my eyes on it as I passed that spot.  When I got up to it, I saw that it was a young dog laying on his back scratching his back in the grass and just enjoying life to the fullest.



He jumped up about the time I got to him and tried to race me for a second, gave up on that and found something obviously incredible to sniff in the weeds.  It made me laugh at first how much this dog was obviously enjoying himself there on the side of the road with no plan and nobody else around him like only a puppy could do.



Now, being a preacher, everything I see is filed into my “Future Illustrations” file in the back of my mind and so that puppy illustrates so perfectly the typical unbeliever.  They are having fun, running free and wild with no plan for the future and no care about anything but right now and the fun they can have in this field of so-called dreams.



I’ve been there.  I’ve had fun running free and living easy.  The problem is that this is a mean and nasty world and it’s full of problems that hit all of us.  How much is peace and joy worth to you in this world, plus the assurance of eternal life in Heaven if we get hit by a car and die today?



Do you know for sure that if you died that you would go to Heaven?  The Bible, God’s Word, tells us plainly that all we have to do is believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and that no man comes to the Father but through Him. (John 14:6) That belief will be proven in our lives by changed lives that every day look more and more like Jesus.



Repent of your sins today.  Turn away from that lifestyle and ask Jesus to be Lord and Savior of your life today and to forgive you of all your sins and He will.  Today is the day of salvation.  Don’t wait.  We aren’t guaranteed another day. Let’s pray right now as the music plays.

“What’s Next? – The End Times” – 2 Timothy 3:1-5

Somebody tell me something that you are looking forward to. Is there something you do every year that is coming up? Maybe a vacation or an anniversary or something. If you didn’t have it on the calendar, what might remind you that it was coming up?

So, the Super Bowl is coming up pretty soon, right? Now, if you didn’t have a calendar and didn’t know when it was, what are some signs you might look for to know when it was coming? Would you look for colder weather? Would you see that the holidays are over and know it was coming soon? If you saw the Cowboys quit playing football, you would know the Super Bowl was coming up pretty soon, right? That just makes sense. 😊

In fact, a lot of big days get compared to the Super Bowl. Black Friday is the Super Bowl for retailers. Stuff like that. There is a lot of hype around the Super Bowl. It gets built up for weeks and weeks. It’s a major announcement when the half-time entertainment is announced. There are big celebrations for both teams when they find out they are going there. Even if you aren’t a football fan, you know when the Super Bowl is coming on TV. It’s hard to miss. It is the climax; the big day; the highlight; the denouement (as Mrs. Overman taught us) of the football season and people all over the world are looking forward to it.

But there is another day coming that I dare say is going to be bigger than the Super Bowl. It is coming soon although it is not on the calendar and never will be. It is a day that will change the whole world as we know it. It will completely change the way things are done and lives are lived. It is a day that has been predicted for thousands of years and I believe that day will come before I die. I really do, and yet there is not much hype about it and we need to be watching for it. What day am I talking about?

I am talking about the rapture. I’m talking about the day that Jesus comes to get His bride, the church, and takes us back to Heaven. Now, we are going to talk in more detail about that day next week, God willing. I say, “God willing” because it may just be His will for the rapture to happen this week; maybe even today; maybe even before I finish this sentence….

But today, I want to help us all get prepared for that day. I want us to be biblical in our observations about what is going on in this world and be able to see that we are in the “End Times.” Do you believe that? Do you believe we are in the end times? I ask because people have been claiming to be in the end times since, well, the day of Jesus’ resurrection.

I believe Paul thought Jesus was coming back in his lifetime. So, what makes you believe it? What are the signs? I hear people say that the world is going to get worse and worse and yet I read all the way back to the Old Testament and people were doing some pretty nasty stuff way back then. Do you know where they get the idea that the world is going to get worse? Well, one of the passages is in 2 Timothy chapter 3. The Timothys are in between some other “T” books; the books of Thessalonians and Titus in the New Testament. This book was not written BY Timothy but written TO Timothy by the Apostle Paul. Paul is encouraging young Timothy in what is probably Timothy’s first-time pastoring. Paul is passing on what he has learned in all his years of ministry and I can imagine young Timothy reading and re-reading over again this last letter that Paul ever wrote.

Paul is preparing Timothy for what to expect in his lifetime and I believe we can be prepared as well by reading again these same words. Let’s read 2 Timothy 3:1-5. But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God- 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

Now, don’t raise your hand or say anything but how many of you read through this and immediately thought of at least one person that fits this bill? I bet you anything you read about people that are lovers of themselves or lovers of money or without self-control and you thought, “Yep, that’s old Bob right there.” It’s actually not that hard to do. It’s easy to think of people in this world that are defined in this way.

But I’m going to read it again and this time I want you to make sure that YOU are not in this list. Oh, yea, it’s easy to think of others but Paul is not necessarily telling Timothy to watch out for unbelievers. Unbelievers always act this way. That’s just what the average non-Christian does. The problem for Timothy’s church and for Christ Fellowship is when someone who claims to be a born-again Christian has these traits. So let’s read it one more time to make sure we aren’t describing ourselves here. Let’s read it slowly. Starting in verse 2.

2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God- 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

Again, don’t reply out loud and don’t nudge your spouse but how did you do? The problem with looking at it like this is it is too easy to lie to yourself. It’s also too easy to compare yourself to old Bob and if Bob is still too good then you just keep finding other people to compare yourself to until you’re like, “Well, at least I’m not as proud, abusive or brutal as Hitler. So, there’s that.” The problem comes when you compare yourself to Jesus.

My dear family, if this is what the church is going to look like at the time of the rapture, I can’t believe Jesus has waited this long. Good grief, hold on because surely it will be any second! Now, I hear you. I’m being a little dramatic, right? I’m a little hasty because surely there are some prophecies that need to be fulfilled before Jesus can come back, right? Find me one.

This is really exciting stuff because it actually wasn’t that long ago when one of the last prophecies was actually fulfilled. Let me give you some background. Do you remember in Luke 19:41 where it says about Jesus, “But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. 'How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not recognize it when God visited you.'"?

Jesus prophesied there and in Luke 21 that Jerusalem would be destroyed and all Israel would be dispersed and that happened in about A.D. 70 when the Romans sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Jewish temple, sending most of the Jews into exile. It was also a fulfillment of the prophecy of Leviticus 26:32-33 that says, "I will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled. I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins."

That happened and Israel was not even a country. It ceased to even exist at all for nearly 2,500 years but was declared a new sovereign state by an act of the United Nations on May 14, 1948. My mom told me the other day that my granddad used to preach on how Israel would one day become a nation again. He didn’t know how but scripture said it and he believed it and it came true the same year my mother became a Christian, 1948.

It happened because it was prophesied to happen in places like Ezekiel 20:34, "I will bring you from the nations and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered -- with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath."  

Isaiah 43:5-6 says, "Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, `Give them up!' and to the south, `Do not hold them back.' Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth…"

I tell you all of that because that was the last of the prophesies that needed to be fulfilled according to scripture. Israel is a nation again and now Jesus is at the right hand of the throne of God the Father just waiting for Him to give the word and Jesus will come back to get us. So, what does it mean to you that His return is imminent? How does it, or better yet, how should it affect your life today?

Let me give you a few words from scripture about how the imminent return of Jesus should make us feel. You might want to write down these verses and go back later and read them thinking about the soon to come rapture. 1 John 3:1-2 tells us it ought to encourage us. See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Philippians 4:4 says, “Rejoice in the LORD always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The LORD is near. It should bring us joy knowing that Jesus will be here soon.

Philippians 3:20-21 says, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the LORD Jesus Christ, ²¹who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” We ought to be looking forward to that! You youngsters may not really appreciate this but us older folks should. We are going to get new and glorious bodies when He comes. I can’t wait!

Lastly, I could read all of Matthew 24 and 25 because there Jesus warns over and over again what life is going to be like just before the rapture. He says in chapter 24, verses 36-44, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. 42"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your LORD will come. 43But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

Okay, I have one more but let me first ask you a question. Suppose Walmart was having a big sale; I mean a really big sale. It’s a buy one – get 100 free sale or something like that. You would want to know about that, wouldn’t you? And your friend that works at Walmart knows you would want to know and so she calls you and tells you to get up there. It’s sale day. So, what do you do? I would expect you to go up there. But do you know what else I expect you to do? I expect you to call me! I want to know. I want to buy one, get 100. How selfish of you not to tell me about it. You don’t have to know everything about the sale. I don’t have to know when it started or even what aisle it’s on. I’ll find it when I get there. Just tell me what you know.

The very last words written in Mark’s gospel are these: “After the LORD Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. 20Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere.” (Mark 16:19-20) We know that He has just told them the Great Commission to go into all the world and make disciples and so that’s what they did. We know that they didn’t understand everything but what they knew, they shared. Their lives were changed and their futures were changed. How selfish it would have been for them not to tell other people what they knew.

This world and even the global church is getting worse and worse. If you don’t tell the people around you, who is going to? Especially your kids and grandkids. Who are you expecting to tell them about how to live and what the future holds? Are you waiting for the school districts to tell them? Are you waiting for politicians, TV, movies, radio? Because all that stuff is telling them, like it or not. But they aren’t telling them the truth. It’s up to you.

It’s up to you to start out telling them that Romans 3:23 says we are all sinners. Then tell them that Romans 6:23 says what we deserve for that sin is eternal death in Hell. That’s bad news. But the good news is found in places like John 3:16 that says that God sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross to pay for our sins and all we have to do is believe. That belief will be proven in our changed lives, lives that in themselves tell of Jesus coming back any minute now.

Are you ready? Are your loved ones ready? There is only one way to Heaven and that is through Jesus. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life and no man gets to the Father without Him. (John 14:6) Let’s bow our heads and close our eyes as the music plays and ask God what He wants you to do.

“For The Joy Set Before Him” – Hebrews 12:2

I took my dogs for a walk down to the boat ramp the other day and as we were walking down there, a man was in his boat at the dock talking to another man standing on the dock and I overheard the man in the boat say he had caught 25 crappie that day. As I got a little closer, I was just trying to make conversation and I asked the man, “So, what’s your secret?”

The man looked kind of leery at me as he eyed me up and down and thought about his answer. He finally just said, “Well, I work real hard.” And I knew that conversation was over. I wasn’t asking to know all his secrets and the exact location of the honey hole. Most fishermen are glad to tell you something about how they were successful and I wasn’t expecting lots of details but I guess he considered all of that none of my business.

His sentence wasn’t very helpful to me. Most people know if you want to be successful at much of anything that matters you have to work hard. I get it. I understand. I believe God blesses the work of our hands when we work hard. Colossians 3 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the LORD.”

But aren’t you glad that our salvation has nothing to do with how hard we work? We are saved by God’s grace. We get to go to Heaven, not because of our good deeds and hard work but because God doesn’t give us what we deserve. That’s grace and that’s great. I think we all understand that, at least to the best that we can. We accept it even if we don’t fully understand it. Thank you, Lord, for your grace that gets us to Heaven!

But what about in this life? What about while we are still here on this earth? In John 10:10 Jesus said He wants us to have a full and abundant life. How hard do we have to work to get that? How hard do we have to work to get peace in this life or even joy?

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., was a member of the U.S. Supreme Court for 30 years. His mind, wit and work earned him the unofficial title of "the greatest justice since John Marshall." At one point in his life, Justice Holmes explained his choice of a career by saying: "I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers." Today In The Word, June, 1988, p. 13.

I know a lot of busy, busy pastors and the busiest of them don’t seem to have the kind of joy I want so evidently joy doesn’t come from hard work. So, how do we get joy and how do we keep it? I believe scripture is clear that, like our salvation, joy is given to us by God’s grace. It is not something we earn.

Romans 15:13 says, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him.” You know that Galatians 5:22 says that part of the Fruit of the Spirit – the proof that you have Him in your heart – is joy. So, if we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us as Christians do, then why is it so hard to find and keep joy? Why do we struggle with it?

And everybody struggles with it. Even the great old saints struggled with joy. Job wished He had never been born (Job 3:11). David wished he could find a place to escape reality at times (Psalm 55:6-8). Jeremiah cried a “fountain of tears” (Jer. 9:1). And what about Mr. Wisdom, Solomon? Vanity! Vanity! All is vanity! (Ecc. 1:2)

One of my favorite characters in the Bible is Elijah. Good grief, he’s like superman or something. There are so many good stories about Elijah doing incredible things. Elijah just said the word and it didn’t rain for three years. Elijah was fed by ravens for a while and then fed by a widow whose jars of oil and flour wouldn’t run out. He brought a young boy back from death. But my favorite story is when Elijah called down fire from Heaven on Mount Carmel.

You know the story but go ahead and turn to 1 Kings 18 and I want to read just a small part of it. The people of Israel had a choice to make. They were trying to serve Jehova God and the false god Baal and that wasn’t working so Elijah comes up with a test. You sacrifice a bull to your god and I’ll sacrifice a bull to my God. Whichever one God accepts by fire, that’s the true God.

So, the prophets of Baal went first and they called on their god to answer by fire. They called and called and wept and prayed and beat themselves up all morning and into the afternoon and evening begging Baal to answer them. Of course, nothing happened. But then old Elijah has his turn and he builds an altar and puts a bull on it and then he has them soak it with water several times. They even built a trench and filled it with water. Now, turn to 1 Kings 18:36-39 and let’s be reminded of what happened.

At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: "LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37Answer me, LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again." 38Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. 39When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, "The LORD-he is God! The LORD-he is God!"

Wow! Now that’s a revival! Can you imagine? What an incredible day for Elijah and all of Israel. Can you imagine the joy they all had seeing God at work like that? Especially Elijah. He must have been ecstatic. Talk about a mountaintop experience, right? Now, this surely disproves what crazy old James wrote about in his book of the New Testament. In the book of James, between Hebrews and 1 Peter, James makes the crazy claim that Elijah was a man just like us. That’s what he says in James 5:17.

James was obviously delusional when he wrote this book. He is the same guy that starts off by saying we should consider our trials as pure joy (James 1:2) so we know he wasn’t right in the head. That’s impossible, right? When James says Elijah was a man like me, I am reminded of all the times I have called down fire from Heaven. Ah, those were good times. And it is always such a delight to bring a person back from the dead. And, just the other day I was walking toward the lake and I took off my cloak and slapped the water, it parted in two and I walked over to the Northside Marina over there. So, yea, Elijah and I are a lot alike.

Now, which sounds more ridiculous? Elijah being like me or me parting Lake Bridgeport? It’s hard to say until you read just a little further in 1 Kings. I hope you still have your Bibles open to 1 Kings because I want to read just a little more from chapter 19:1-5. This is the very next thing that happens with Elijah as he came down from Mount Carmel. Read 1 Kings 19:1-5 with me and see if Elijah doesn’t start to sound more like one of us.

Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, "May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them." 3Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4while he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, LORD," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors."

You’ve been there, haven’t you? It happens all the time with all of us. You aren’t out of church good when it happens. You leave church where you just saw blessings and miracles and healings and answered prayers and oh, God is so good. Praise His holy name! Then you see you have a flat tire or your wife says the wrong thing in the wrong way or maybe the restaurant you go to for lunch doesn’t have the ice cream you want and that is it! I can’t take it anymore! It’s just too much, God. Why me? Poor me! This is just the worst day ever.

There are a couple of things we all need to be reminded of. First, Satan hates you and he hates your church and he will attack you as soon as possible. Just expect it. Second, everything is harder when you are tired. You’ve heard it said that sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap. I’m a big believer in the Sunday nap. I recommend it and I recommend you not call me on Sunday afternoon between about 2 and 4 o’clock. Satan was attacking Elijah and he was exhausted. That accounts for a lot of this.

But sometimes there is more to it. Sometimes it’s just dealing with the attacks and the tiredness day in and day out and it starts to wear on you. That full and abundant life is more like dry and sparse and you are mentally and even spiritually tired and you no longer have that joy, joy, joy, joy down in your heart and it’s just hard.

I saw a tweet from a man not long ago that struck me. He said, “After 20 years, I had to take a break from being a local pastor because my soul was tired from constant output, my nerves were shot from constant criticism and my physical body was hurting from being a constant scapegoat. No nap was going to fix it.”

You ever been there? What do you do? Quit the ministry? Curl up in the fetal position? Cry? Die? Well, let me just tell you that if God has called you to a certain ministry, giving up is not an option. If God has called you to pastor…or to mother; if God has called you to teach…or clean toilets; if God has called you to sing in front of thousands or sing babies to sleep, giving up is not an option.

So, what do you do? Who do you look to for a model? Who is going to show you how to have joy again in this dark time of your life? Is it me? Oh, certainly not! Is it a leader of today; a politician? Mercy, no! Billy Graham? Franklin Graham? The Pope? What about Elijah? He’s in the Bible. He must be a good role model for finding joy again, right? No. No. No. Let’s see Him in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2.

The chapter before this one, Hebrews 11, is the “faith chapter” of the Bible and a lot of good and faithful people are mentioned there but the author of Hebrews is not mentioning them for them to be our guides and mentors to find joy. He says in chapter 12 verses 1-3, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Now, I know you are going through a very difficult time right now. Okay, I don’t really know that but I know that if you aren’t then you are about to. It’s just the way it is in this sin-sick world. But as you go through those difficult times you will find yourself searching for joy. And whatever you are going through does not compare to what Jesus was about to go through and He knew what it was and yet we read here that He had joy.

Adoniram Judson was a missionary imprisoned in a horrible Burmese jail for preaching the Gospel and a man that had heard him preach mocked him and said, “Well, Judson, what are your prospects now?” Judson answered, “My prospects are as bright as the promises of God!” Now, if one of the promises of God is that we can have joy in all difficulties then how do we do that?

Again, let’s use Jesus, not Judson, as our model. The first thing to know is that Jesus was being obedient. Without obedience, there is no joy. Oh sure, unbelievers can find a little joy every now and then like a blind pig finding an acorn but to have joy when your world is crashing down on you requires complete obedience to God. Jesus was being obedient to God the Father and was on His way to the worst kind of death imaginable and Hebrews says He had joy.

Jesus was also living out His purpose. The very reason that He came to earth was to die for us on the cross and in living out that purpose, Jesus, in His obedience, found joy. George Bernard Shaw may have been that blind pig with an acorn when he said, “This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one: the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap, and being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”

We spend so much time trying to make ourselves happy and expecting others to do the same that we miss joy. Do you know the difference between happiness and joy? We have talked about it lots of times here but I just recently found a really good definition of joy. Happiness we know. Happiness is when your circumstances are good. Everything is okay in your life and so you choose to be happy. But joy is different. Joy can be had no matter the circumstances and is really proven to be joy when your circumstances are difficult.

My concordance defines joy as “calm delight.” Can you picture that? Can you picture yourself having calm delight in the midst of whatever storm you are going through? Even better, can you picture Jesus having calm delight knowing He was headed to the cross to be tortured and die? How did He do that? First, He was obedient. He told the Father, “Not my will but yours.”  (Luke 22:42) Second, He was fulfilling His purpose. There is great joy to be had when you are doing what you are called to do or what you know you are supposed to do.

But there is one last thing about getting and keeping joy. You first have to be obedient. You need to be fulfilling your purpose but lastly, you have to choose it. And I mean you have to. Now, some people won’t choose to even be happy when their circumstances are good. That’s between them and their therapists. But you, as a Christian, have to choose joy. It is a gift from God. We don’t deserve it even when we are obedient but by His grace He gives it.

Romans 15:13 says, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him.” Now, God can give us joy but we have to take it. Elijah was being obedient and was fulfilling his purpose but he didn’t choose to take the gift of joy and I am going to tell you right now that is disobedience. It is a sin not to take up the gift of joy from God.

If I set a birthday present in front of you and you never open it, that is going to hurt my feelings. That would displease me. When God sets a gift in front of you and you don’t accept it, that displeases Him. He wants you to have joy and I am here to say that He wants you to have joy not just for your sake. He wants you to have joy because other people are watching you.

When Paul and Silas were thrown in jail in Acts 16:25 it says that about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Just like people were listening to them and watching them, people are listening and watching you to see if this whole Christianity thing is for real. They want to know if what you say in the good times matches up with what you do in the bad times.

When James – who come to find out was not a crazy person – says to consider it all pure joy when you face trials, do you realize that is a command? That is God speaking through James to give you an order. Consider it all joy! When Paul says in Philippians to rejoice always, that is not a suggestion. That is not a friend of yours saying, “Hey, you ought to maybe, kinda, sorta try a little bit of that joy.” No. That is God commanding you to realize that He is in control and He loves you and He wants you to have joy and so He is providing it for you. Be obedient and pick it up.

I am reminded of Greta. Greta was probably in her nineties and living in a nursing home. A disease had attacked her face and she had lost her eyesight completely and the skin and muscles of her face were distorted and broken and she always had some kind of bandage on it. She didn’t have any family to speak of and her savings would only allow her to stay at this run-down place where the food was poor and the service was less than great. She was hard of hearing and confined to a wheelchair and if anybody deserved to be bitter, it was her. But she chose not to.

When asked, she always said, “I’m fine. How are you? How can I be praying for you?” And then she would pray right then, right there. And partly because she was hard of hearing and I think partly because she wanted other people to know she had the privilege of going to the throne room of God, she would muster herself up and with a loud, clear voice she would humbly, yet boldly go to God in prayer for whoever she was talking to.

Greta never faked it. Sometimes she couldn’t help but show she was in pain. But in her voice you could hear her smile even if you couldn’t see it on her face. She had a relationship with God. She was obedient to God. She was fulfilling her purpose even in her old age and limited abilities. And Greta chose to have joy. She had calm delight knowing that God was in control and that He loved her and His will was perfect and His sovereignty is a blessing.

How about you? If you are like me, I dread Mondays. Sundays are my favorite days. I love our church and I love to worship here with my family. I am spiritually fed and filled up and every Sunday is better than the last. But then, every week(!) Monday comes and every week the height of the crest of one wave measures the depth of the trough of the next as MacLaren said.  Every Monday Satan attacks and if I am tired it’s easy to give in and lose my joy.

Helen Keller said, “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” We can overcome it and find and keep our joy. We can have calm delight on Mondays knowing our God is in control and He loves us. Just be obedient and choose to have joy like Jesus did. We have to because the rest of the world is watching.