When Is Jesus Coming Back? | Run To Win | Pastor Josh Howerton

Hey guys, thanks for checking out this Bible teaching every week really some podcasts that corresponds to the sermon. It's like a little bit of a deeper dive where we hit some things that didn't make it into the sermon, some theological concepts. We talk about things that are going on in our culture and how to think about them from a biblical perspective. We call that podcast Live Free. An episode releases every Monday that corresponds to the sermon. If you would like to check out Live Free, just go to the Lake Point YouTube channel and look for the podcast tab there. We'll see you at Live Free now. Enjoy this Bible teaching. Hey, hey man. Good morning. I like my... Isn't everybody rested? We got to fall back in Jesus' name today. All the parents. Okay, man. Here we go. Hey, if you guys got your Bible set over to Revelation 22, we're gonna talk about the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ today. It's gonna be awesome. It's gonna be awesome, okay? It's gonna be really good. It's gonna be really good. Today, we are in week three of a series we're just calling Run to Win. I've just naturally always been wired competitive and I love it because that's what the Apostle Paul tells us to do in how we live our lives. He's like, hey man, I want you to run the race of your life in such a way as to win the prize. So it's run to win. Now, the difference between just running and running a race is a race has a definite end. So what we're gonna do today with our Bibles open and our tinfoil hats on is talk about the end of the race when the Lord Jesus will crack the skies, come back and get us right again. Amen church. We're gonna, he's gonna come back and I want to talk about it today. Let me lead into it like this. I've got three kids and they're all watching right now. Hey kids and you are all terrible at hide and seek. That's what I want to talk about. I've got three kids and they all like to play hide and seek when they were growing up but they were, y'all were terrible at it. They were terrible at it and so if you've ever had kids like play hide and seek, they would hide in the same places. You know, they were just like Hudson was the worst of all three. Hudson would hide like this. This is kind of his deal and so it's like, so what I would do when I was playing hide and seek with them, watch, watch how I talk about this, is when we were playing hide and seek is I would begin to give a series of escalating signals that I was coming. I would begin to count one, two, three, four and as I was counting, I was giving again a series of escalating signals. I am about to come for you and then I'm going to get you and then whenever I was ready to come, what I would say, y'all parents, you can help me out, is I would shout throughout the house. I would shout ready or not, here I come. Now what Jesus has done for us in the Bible is he has given us a series of escalating symbols, escalating signs and what he's done is when you see these signs begin to be fulfilled in escalating sequence and escalating frequency, he's saying to us ready or not, here I come is what he's saying. Now there's going to be two types of people on that day. There are some people who you've spent your entire life hiding from the Lord. It's like I don't want to go there, I don't want to hear that, I don't want to be around those people, but what you need to understand is the Bible says where can I go from your presence or where can I flee from your spirit? If I go in the darkness, you will be a light to me. If I descend to the bottom of the ocean, you are there, so you can't hide from him because he's going to seek you. He is coming, but then there's others of us who just rested fresh in my heart this week who are, bro, we're not hiding. It's like come on, man, come home. I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready. And then there will come a moment when the Lord Jesus, he will crack the skies and he will come back. And as far as the east is from the west, every eye shall see him. And man, this week what he's going to do, the Bible says, is he will wipe away every tear from every eye. And when he comes back, every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord and he will make all things new. It doesn't say he will make all new things. It says that he will make all things new. And so this week, man, it's like I'm praying with church members who are dying of cancer and I'm praying for church members in their 20s who got put on hospice in the last two weeks. And Jan and I are out there in the lobby praying for children battling brain tumors. And some of you are in this spot where it's like your body is decaying, things are not working. Well, there's going to come a day if you are in Christ Jesus when he comes back, he will wipe away every tear. He will make all things new and kind of say this to you, you're not suffering from anything that a good resurrection will not fix. He's going to do that for you. And he'll do that for everybody that is in Christ. Okay. Now, what I want to do today is talk to you about that ready or not. Here he comes. Okay. And the entire sermon is this. Let me tell you it and then let me preach it. Jesus in Revelation 22, 12, it's one of the last things he says. He says, look, I am coming. That's point number one. And then he says I'm coming. He says soon. That's point number two. And then he says my reward, that's point number three is with me and I will give to each person according to what they have done. So let's talk about it. Point number one, the Bible has clearly stated that Jesus Christ is coming. Jesus Christ is coming. You need to know this. He's coming again. In John 14, three, Jesus looks out at a group of dudes that mark that down. That's really interesting. He looks out a group of dudes and he uses wedding terminology to describe his second coming. He says this in John 14, three, he says, I will come back and take you to be with me that you may also be where I am. See your Bibles. You may have sung it in children's choir as a kid that where I am there, you may also be is what he said. Now, here's what's really interesting is he looks out at a group of dudes and uses the wedding analogy for what he is going to do for them and cannot do that. It may feel a little out of place or as the kids say out of pocket. Watch out now. There you go. Watch out somebody. Keep you awake here. But it's not out of pocket. I got that from my buddy Ed Newton. Help me with the sermon. It's really helpful. It's not out of pocket because here's how this works. Jan and I, we got engaged and married within a span of about eight months in 2005. If we had gotten engaged in first century Judaism, here's what we're going to do. We're going to Bible nerd out for about the next two minutes. Are you okay with some Bible? We go for some Bible? Okay, let's do it, man. Let's get it. Let's Bible nerd out for a second. If we had gotten engaged in first century Judaism, what would have happened is I actually first would have gone to Jan is, I would have talked to Janet about the possibility of what was called betrothal. And then I would have gone to Jan is dad, Jan is dad. And I would have negotiated to pay what was called a bride price or a dowry in first century Judaism. They called it a Mohar and depending upon how valuable the potential bride was to the family from which she came, the value of the bride price could escalate. It could actually end up being costing the groom everything that he had. But if I negotiated that successfully with Jan is dad, then I would come back and we would enter into a state of what was called betrothal, similar, but not the same to modern day engagement, betrothal. Then once we had entered into that state, I would say something to Jana. I would say something like this. I would say, Hey, I'm going to leave you now. And then I'm going to go back to watch this to my father's house. And I'm going to go prepare a place for you so that where I am, there you may also eventually be. And I would have have, I would have left her and gone back to watch this, my father's house. Now, when I got there, I would have started swinging hammers and turner wrenches. And my goal would be to add on to my father's house so that eventually after the wedding took place, I could take my bride back to my father's house. In fact, I may have said something like this to her. I may have said, Hey, in my father's house, there are many rooms. I may have said something like that. And so then I would go and I would start swinging the hammers and turn in the wrenches and I would, I would go there. Now she would not have been given a specific date upon which I would return because actually I wouldn't even know the date when I would return, because I would be waiting for my father's approval of the addition I made to his house so that it was unknown to both her and me when I would return. Only the father would be able to know when I was going to come back. So because she wouldn't know the date, listen, she, my bride, would have been in a state of expectation and urgency. She would have had to stay ready for my unexpected return. Okay. Well then eventually, while I was doing the construction project, eventually when I thought it was done, I would go to my father and I'd be like, Hey, Dad, is this what I've done? Is this good enough for you? Does this pass muster for you? And then only when my father gave me approval, there would eventually come a day where he would say to me, Son, go get your bride. Now when he did that, there would be, it would be at an unexpected hour for my bride at an unexpected hour. When he said that, I would get all my bros, all my boys, all the rider dies. We gather in the middle of the city and in an unexpected hour, what I would do in first century Judaism is I would blow a loud trumpet in the middle of the city. In first century Judaism, it was called a shofar. I would blow this loud trumpet and that would symbol to both her and the city that I was coming back to get my bride. I would come back, I would get her and then I would whisk her off to the wedding and we would have a marriage supper. And after the marriage supper, we would be together forever. Are y'all picking up what I'm putting down? Okay. Now, check this out. If you're like, bro, I ain't picking up nothing. You're like, you're new to church. You don't know nothing about the Bible. You're like, bro, I ain't got nothing. Okay. Well, here's what you get. In the Bible, what you have is the church is called the bride of Christ. Now, I know how this works. We got some dudes over at Forniville. I ain't no bride. What are you talking about, bro? I ain't no bride. Okay. Well, that ain't... Listen, as the kids say, that's not zesty. That's awesome. Okay. That's as the kids say, because actually in this story, you are. You're the bride and Jesus in the Bible is called the groom or the husbandman, is what he's called. And what the Bible says is that when Jesus... Y'all, check this out. When Jesus came the first time and he went to the cross, what he was doing is he was redeeming his bride. He was paying the bride price when he went to the cross. He was paying the Mohar, the cost of his entire life. Check this out. And he was redeeming his bride from the family to which we belong. The Bible says, you are of your father, the devil. He was paying in one sense, the price to redeem us from the curse of the law. And then what he did is he left and he looked out at the church after his first coming and he said, I am going to prepare a place for you. And he's in heaven right now in some sense doing that. This is why he looked out of the church and he said, in my father's house, there are many rooms. And how many y'all know there will eventually come a day when he will crack the skies. The last trumpet shall sound. And in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, we will hear it. And he will come back and grab his bride and we'll go home with him forever. Amen. That's what's going to happen. Amen. That's what's going to happen. So what you need to understand is, listen, point number one, listen, man, it doesn't matter if you believe it. It doesn't matter if you believe in gravity. If you jump off a building, you're still going to splat. Jesus is coming back. Jesus is coming back now. Let me just pass through our church really quick on this. What'll happen sometimes is Christians will debate and divide over disputable things instead of uniting around the indisputable things. And here's what I mean about this. This is just 30 seconds for the theology nerds. Knowledge puffs up, love builds up. Okay. What some Christians will do is they'll debate and divide over the disputable. See, Christians, they like to fight and argue over the how, the order of events. This is the theology nerd section of the sermon. You'll, you'll get in your life group and have this big argument over, hey, man, so are you pre-mill or are you post-mill or are you I-mill? Are you a pre-trib rapture? Are you a mid-trib rapture? Are you a post-trib rapture? Or did you read some N.T. Wright and you don't believe in a rapture? Or are you, are you, are you not preterist? Are you a futurist? Are you a partial preterist? Or are you a full preterist? This is for the .01% of people know what I'm talking about. Full preterism is literally a heresy. Don't do that. So here's the deal is they'll, they'll debate and divide over the disputable. But the Bible says that knowledge puffs up, love builds up. Hey, Lake Point Church, we're not going to be a church where people get in life groups and they debate, fight and divide over the, the disputable. What we're going to do is we're going to unite over the indisputable. He's coming back. It's going to be awesome. That's what we're going to unite on. Okay. So we're going to do that. So that's point number one. Jesus coming back. Okay. Point number two, point number two. When is he going to come back? The answer is soon. He said that, look, I am coming. And I want you to actually say it out loud. Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God. So let's say it out loud. Look, I am coming. Soon is what he said. I'm coming soon. Now, let me, let me talk about this really quick, especially if you're newer to the faith, because I do not want you to be deceived. It just says soon. It says soon. It doesn't give you the second. This is really important. It says soon. It doesn't give you the second. So Jesus actually said in Matthew 24, he said that even Jesus does not know when he's going to come back. Let me read it to you. But about that day or hour, it says no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son. So Jesus doesn't even know, but only the father. Okay. So, hey, like one family, nobody knows. Here's why this is a big deal. When people are always trying to do this, they're writing books, they always got charts. These people always got charts, charts for days, these people. And they're always trying to get up under the thing. And here's the alphanumeric, you know, symbol in the Jewish, and so I figured out when Jesus come back, when I was in elementary school, a dude literally published a book, a NASA engineer, 88 reasons Jesus is going to return in 1988. The next year, this is not a joke. The next year he published 89 reasons Jesus is going to return in 1989. So here's the deal. You just know this. We just read the verse. Nobody knows. So, hey, Lake Point Church, if anybody ever claims to have figured out when he's going to come back, and they're telling you, and they're trying to convince you to like, get rid of your savings, and sell your house, and do this, and go here, they're lying to you. They're lying to you. In fact, I kind of think here's how it works. Even if somebody were to guess the actual day, I think God would go, well, then I'm changing it. Then I'm, because I don't want anybody getting glory but me, you know, then I'm gonna change it. Okay. So nobody knows the day or the hour. Now, here's the question. If you're new to the Bible, you may be gone, well, okay, but why? Why is there no date? Okay. Well, here's the reason. When I was younger, I'm so I've got a younger brother named Lee. Lee's one of my best friends. My younger brother Lee and I, we got to the age where my parents, they would start leaving us home alone. Okay. Which we were always excited about. And when they were going to leave us home alone, the question we always tried to ask in like a nonchalant way was, when are you going to come back? So, see, all right, you're leaving. How long we got? It's kind of, and we, you know, we were decent kids, but when they were gone, you know, it was like, you know, the house would look like hell. You know, we would mess everything up and call all the friends to come over and you get in all the snacks and all the things. But then there was two ways they would respond when we would ask when you come back. Sometimes they would give us a time, 7.30. Okay. And if they said 7.30, like I said, we live like hell until like eight minutes before and then we'd get everything, you know, all put back up. But sometimes they wouldn't give us a time. All they would say is won't be long. Won't be long soon. That's all they'd say. Now, can I, can I just tell you when they said soon, instead of giving us the second, we live a little different. We did, we did a little different in the words of the great theologian, Conor McGregor. If you know how this sentence ends, I need you all to help me out. If you, if you stay ready, you don't gotta, all right, that's it. If you, we could watch MMA together. If you knew the end of that, if you stay ready, you don't gotta get ready. And the reason that Jesus doesn't give a time, he just says soon is because he knows we were all born with the sin nature. And if he gave us a time, do you know what we would do? Is we would live like hell until like right beforehand. And then we'd all try to like clean our lives up like that. And we would miss our chance to move heaven and earth and actually get more people into heaven and empty hell. Do you understand that? So this is why he said that. So what he was going is he was trying to promote readiness and discourage idleness. This is why he did this. Okay. Now, what I want to do here, and this is the part of the sermon where I need to open bibles and tin full of hats on. What I want to do right here is what he did is his disciples said, okay, so you won't tell us the second. Will you at least give us like what would be the signs? You know, you're not going to be superstitious. Will you be a little superstitious? Kind of what they're doing. And what he did is he was, okay, I'm going to give you some signs. And when you see these things happen, then right as you see these things happen, you're going to know it's going to come really soon. Now, here's my analogy for this. And then we're going to run through these really quick. Jan and I, we got three kids, but we never did the pregnancy thing. All our kids are adopted. There's advantages to that. We tell our kids all the time, we picked you, they got stuck with their kids. So we say that all the time. There's advantages. And so we never did the pregnancy thing. But what I've heard is that in a pregnancy, Jesus throughout the New Testament, he uses, he uses pregnancy language. He talks about the birth pangs of his second coming. And in a pregnancy, you guys know this, there comes a moment in the pregnancy where signs begin to take place in the woman's body that the baby is coming soon. So then there's like all of a sudden contraction start and obviously not at this frequency. But at first, the slow, but then the closer and closer you get, they speed up and the faster they get, the more you know this is soon. Water's breaking, baby's coming. What Jesus did in the Bible is he gave us signs that would be contractions. When you see this, you wake up because this is soon. And this was really good for my spirit to study for like 12 hours this week. Can I just say something to you? Soon. Soon. So here's what I want to do. Ten foil hats on, Bible's open. I want to talk about these signs. Let's move through them really quick. And by the way, there's double the number that I could get in here that we got the rest we had time to hit on the podcast. I'm going to do just like six of them here and we got to go really fast. So here are the signs of his coming. Number one, number one, let's start in Daniel chapter 12. It says, but you Daniel shut up the words and seal the book. By the way, whenever you see that language in the Bible, shut up the words and seal the book. What that means is that the author of the Bible in that spot, he's going, what I'm getting ready to say next, I'm going to say in an intentionally vague way. So you won't understand the fulfillment of the prophecy happened until after it happened. So he's gone. That's what's going on right here. And he says, number one, until the time of the end, this is the second coming, the end of history, and he says, number one, many shall run to and fro. Number one, Jesus said right before his coming, there would be an increase in travel. Now, can I just point this out to you? Until about 130 years ago, the farthest that somebody could travel in a day was 20 to 30 miles. Fun fact, if you ride on, come back to me on the camera, there we go. If you come back, if you ride on highways in Texas that run along old roads, you're going to notice that all the gas stations are at 20 to 30 mile increments. There's a reason for that. That was the distance somebody could travel on horseback in a day. And so the little one horse towns, that's where they got put. Okay. Well, then the railroad road was invented. It changed that automobiles got invented. It changed that. But then in the 1960s are around there. That's when commercial air travel metastasized. And today you are living in the first generation in all of human history, where if I wanted to, I could walk off this stage, get my truck, drive to DFW, buy a plane ticket, and I could literally be anywhere on the globe before the end of this day. Jesus said right before I return, there will be an increase in travel. And I didn't even talk about Elon Musk and SpaceX. I didn't even get there. Okay. So that's number one. Okay. Contraction number one, contraction number two. He said right before he returns, there would be an increase in knowledge, an increase in knowledge. Let me finish the verse from Daniel 12. Many shall run to and fro. And it says, and knowledge shall increase right before the time of the end. Now, in 1982, there was a guy who started studying something called the knowledge doubling curve. And what he figured out is that until the year 1900, the amount of knowledge available to humankind would double every 100 years. By the end of World War II, the, it increased. By the end of World War II, the amount of knowledge available to all humankind was doubling about once every 25 years. Now, you today are living in what we literally call the information age. That's the age. That's what people who don't even believe Bible, they call this the information age. In 2022 and 2023, that's when AI metastasized and became publicly available to people and is just rapidly increasing in its capability. So, so a while ago, knowledge would double every 100 years. Then after World War II, every 25 years. Right now, the age in which you were living, the amount of knowledge available to humankind doubles on average every two months. Every two months, Jesus said right before he returns, there would be an increase in knowledge. Listen, ready or not, here he comes. Ready or not, here he comes. Contraction number three, Jesus said right before he returns. Now, it depends on your eschatological position. I'm broadening this real quick. The Bible seems to make clear that right before his return, there will be something like a one world economic system. Now, homework, go read Revelation 13, the entire chapter. We talk about a little more on the podcast. But this is what it says in two verses. It says it also talking about in Revelation 13, talking about the beast, which is a symbolic representation of what seems to be an anti-Christ figure. It causes all, so the whole world, both great and small, both rich and poor, both free and slave to be marked on the right hand and on the forehead. Now, that's the whole 666 thing. It's like that. By the way, this little 670 right there. But let me just, can I just say this? Hey, parents, can we all agree on something? Can we all agree? We, that joke needs to die. Can we all just say amen? Amen? Hey, my kids are watching. Hey, amen. We're going to kill that. We're going to kill that. Okay. But so this is the whole 666 thing. I'm going to talk about that here in a second. That's not like a tattoo on the forehead. Well, I'll explain what that is here in a second. It says so that watch this, no one can buy or sell. This is what it's saying will happen unless he has the mark so that the name of the beast, that is the name of the beast or the number of his name. Okay. Now, let me explain this really quick. So that said, there's going to, it seems like there will be a one world governance system that is also obviously tied to a one world economic system so that in that day, you will not be able to participate in commerce or an economy without taking some form of identification. Let me talk about that real quick. Now, let me do a little theology really quick and this can be a little nerdy. There's a lot of debate right now between in our world between globalism and nationalism. Now, when I say this, I'm not talking about what is uppermost in the affections of your heart. I'm talking about span of governance. That's what I'm talking about span of governance. Now, I want to point this out to you. There are only two times in the Bible that globalism is either attempted or enacted in Genesis 13 at the tower of Babel when humankind gathers together and unifies in rebellion against God to put itself in the place of God. That's in Genesis 13. Remember what God does when mankind tries to do globalism at the tower of Babel in Genesis 13, God immediately confuses their languages and scatters them into nations. This is one of the times in the Bible where nations, the concept of nations are birthed. The other time that globalism is attempted or enacted is right here in Revelation 13. Here's my point. There are only two times globalism is attempted or enacted in the Bible. Both times, Satan is the one doing it. Conversely, God scatters people into nations in Genesis 13 and then Acts chapter 17 says that God is the one who, quote, establishes nations and the boundaries of their dwelling places. Let's zoom out. Here's the big idea. In the Bible, Satan does globalism. God does nations. Satan is the one that does globalism in the Bible. God does nations. Why? Because God knows that all of us are born with what the Bible calls a sin nature. You and me were born sinners by both nature and choice. So what God knew is if mankind ever unites itself, it won't unite itself towards righteous purposes and goodness. God knew mankind will only unite itself in rebellion, violence, and wickedness against me. That's the only thing they'll ever unite on. So God established nations as a natural check and balance of us being able to unite in violence, wickedness, and rebellion against him. And then in Revelation 13, it says that Satan eventually unites, it seems, unites the world in a globalistic form of governance that also prohibits people from taking part in economic commerce unless they engage in the globalist. Now, here's a big idea. Right now, this is talking about a one world form of currency. Right now, over 130 countries are experimenting with something called CBDCs at East Dallas. They're like, CBDC, you talking about pop? Okay, I love East Dallas. I love East Dallas. That's a joke, man. All the campuses sin differently. I got to have fun with it. Everybody sin differently. CBDCs, that stands for Central Banking Digital Currencies. Now, a lot of people are like, oh, one world currency, that's Bitcoin. No, no, this is talking about something that's under the control of a government, something that's under the control of a government. 130 countries are doing that right now. This is why, by the way, Christians historically have all, listen to me, Christians historically have always been wary of governments, always. One way to read the Bible is that this is a little homework. I don't have time for this. One way to read the Bible is as a series of stories of God versus government. In fact, side note, I didn't say this in any other service. If you go back to the founding of our nation, the founders of our nation that were largely Christian men with Christian convictions, the reason they made our founding documents like they did, notice our founding documents in our nation, they're not about how to protect the government from the people. The founding documents of our nation made by Christian guys are about how to protect people from the government. Now, the reason for that is, check this out, man, the reason for that is Christians have always been wary of governments because we know how it ends. We know how this thing ends. This is why Christians, like, I cast a side eye, man, at organizations that are trying to exert global influence across all nations, organizations like WHO, World Health Organization, WEF, World Economic Forum, ESG, all these things. Right now, bro, literally, I watched a video this week, it's on a pod. I watched a video this week, the prime minister of the UK, Keir Starmer. I got my eye on you, bro. Keir Starmer, like, literally enacting in the EU what's called a digital ID where he's literally saying, you have to, I'm not joking, you need to take this digital mark, a digital form of identification, and he's literally saying on video, if you won't, you can't get a job or take place in, take part in our commerce. It's like, literally, if somebody went, how do I do a revelation 13? Oh, here's how I'll try this. This is what he's doing. So, man, this is why Christians historically have been wary of big, powerful governments. I'll just say this, I'm out on big government. I'm out. I'm out because we know how this thing ends. And can I just say this to you, Christians? Can I just say this to you? The same people who will laugh at you and mock you for believing in an all good, all powerful God, those same people think if they just made the government all powerful, it'd be all good. Insanity. Insanity. So, this is number one. You're seeing this right here. That's contraction number three. Contraction number four. Right before Jesus returns, it says there will be a rise in Christian persecution, Matthew 24.9. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and they will kill you. And you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake, Matthew 24.9. Lake Point Church, let me just say this. One of my great fears is I have not prepared you to be hated by this world for the name of Jesus Christ. Like you just, the Bible says friendship with the world is in Mati towards God. And if you ever have a decision, do I want the approval of God and to lose the approval of men? Or am I going for the approval of men? And if I have it, I will lose the approval of God. You do the, you do the, you do the first. You do, you do, okay. We understand this. But right before Jesus returns, a rise in Christian persecution. Now, some of you are like, yeah, man, brah, no, tell me about it. Somebody lit me up on Instagram this week. The persecution's tough. Okay. First of all, let me just say, I get my fair share of that. And it does, it's discouraging when it comes from the people of God. But, but, but I will say this. Here's what I'd say to you. No matter what you're experiencing, nothing compared to what our brothers and sisters in places like Nigeria are experiencing right now, nothing right now. Listen, man, did you know this in the last 100 years, but we have been largely protected from this by the blessing and mercy that we have in the United States for the last century. We have been largely protected from this. In the last 100 years, more Christians have been killed for their faith in the last 100 years than in every previous century combined. A rise in persecution right now in Nigeria, 72,000 Nigerian brothers and sisters slaughtered for their faith in Jesus Christ in since 2000, 72,000, 18,000 churches raised to the ground, rubble. I'm watching videos of men, women, children and infants slaughtered for their faith in Christ, bodies thrown in mass graves, the pastors of their churches knee-deep in their corpses, begging people on camera to care about what's happened to them. And listen, what I'm getting ready to say, not a political statement. I would say it no matter who was in office. Two days ago, President Trump was like, Hey, we're going to make sure Nigeria stops doing this. Thank you. Thank you. I would say that no matter who was in office. Thank you. Man, thank you. And then you're watching these videos. You're watching videos of these people, their churches burned to the ground. They show up the next day in the rubble offering hymns to God because they want to worship their King. Listen, bro, I love you. You didn't come last week because it was foggy. Man, it's like, like, how much does this matter to you? This is not a game. Do you understand this? This is not some game. And listen, I'm just going to say this, man. Like what they're saying about Nigeria is like, oh, it's just political infighting. It's just political infighting. No, no, no. Listen, and nobody wants to say what it is because it's a little taboo. It's not political infighting. It's radical, violent Islam. That's what it is. It's radical, violent Islam is what it is. And nobody wants to say it because it's like, Oh, man, if you say that, like you're not supposed to comment the Prophet Muhammad. Let me just say this. When Jesus returns, Muhammad will bend his knee to King Jesus in front of the entire world. He will bend his knee to King Jesus. So this is it, man. It says there will be a rise in Christian persecution. Number five, there will be a mass apostasy right before Jesus returns. I'll explain what that means. In 2 Thessalonians 2, 3, it says, let no one deceive you in any way because that day the return of Christ will not come until it says the falling away. And the Greek word that gets translated falling away is where we get the English word apostasy. That it says that will come first. Now, here's the difference between a lost person and an apostate person. Let's do a little theology. A lost person is somebody who has never been on Team Jesus. They've always been with the world against Team Jesus. An apostate person is somebody who at one time said, I'm on Team Jesus, then they left Team Jesus. And now they're siding with the world against Team Jesus. Bullets flying this way. Okay. That's an apostate person. Jesus says, the Apostle Paul says, right before Jesus returns, there'll be a mass apostasy. Now, in my generation, I'm what they call a geriatric millennial. Horse my feelings every time somebody says it. I'm what they call a 42. They call me a geriatric millennial. In my generation, now, in my generation, in Europe, the United States, in Canada, in my generation, more people have walked away from the faith in my generation in those areas than in any other time in church history. Now, I'm going to talk about it next week. There's little rumors of revival happening right now. Come on, somebody, do it again, Lord. Do it again, Lord. Do it again, Lord. Little rumors of revival. But we have seen that happen. And man, I just need to say this is right now, we live in a time where people will, the Bible predicts these times where people will not put up with sound teaching. They will not do it. They will hate it. They have itching ears. They will walk everywhere they go, just going, I need you to affirm and approve of what I'm doing. And they will not put up with clear Bible teaching. They won't do it. So right now, it's like our culture, it's culture versus Christ. Our culture is like, ah, discover yourself, discover yourself, discover yourself. The gospel is like, deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow him. Deny yourself is what it says. People say, man, things like, ah, but I was born this way. Yeah. And you can be born again another way. You can do that. Man, he can do that for you. That man, people, listen, people will walk in the lobby and literally they'll visit the church and they'll say, hey, you're not going to try to change me, are you? Yep. That's all. Why do you think we're all here? We're not getting up and missing NFL pregame just because we just wanted to walk here and sit here? Do you know why we're here? We're trying to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. We're all here to be changed. The whole goal is to be changed. That's the whole thing. And man, it's not just, it's not just individual Christians, it's churches. I have to say this. We are, we have an, this is an era, it's an age where sometimes, and not all, not all, listen to me, not all, I'm going to put in air quotes, that man, we have churches that are seeker sensitive churches and they become so sensitive to not offending quote unquote seekers that they've actually become insensitive to what offends the Holy Spirit. They care more about not offending people who hate God than they care about not offending the Holy Spirit. What offends the Holy Spirit is a refusal to honestly say what he has said in his word. This is what offends him. Now we have churches where it seems like everyone is welcomed by Jesus and everything is tolerated except the clear teaching of the word of God. I have to say this. We have churches, we have large churches in my city, in Dallas, Texas, who are painting pride flags on the stairs, on the steps into their churches. Synagogues of Satan is what Revelation 2 and 3 would say. You are cheering people on in a wide path that will lead them to hell is what you're doing. And Jesus said this, he said, I think he would say this to you. He would say, woe to you. It will be better for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day than you, because if they had seen and heard what you have seen and heard, if they had access to the revelation that you have access to, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes. Woe to you, synagogues of Satan. That's what he's saying right here. And what this is, is Jesus is predicting, he's saying, hey man, there's going to be a mass apostasy every time, man, and nobody's doing this here. I'm not talking about anybody doing this here. Like when I preach, I've just gotten used to like people, they get up and they walk out angrily while I'm preaching. I don't care. I don't care. Man, it's because, listen, man, because we are living in an era, man. Listen, we are living in an era. We are living in an era where it's like the only thing that's not okay is somebody opening their Bible and refusing to affirm or cheer something you're doing. And people will say, man, you're wrong for saying that. No, you're wrong. I'm not controversial. You're controversial before the king of the universe. It's not, man, I'm not the controversial one. You're the one that will stand before him in controversy. So people will say, man, I was born the wrong way in the wrong body. No, no, no, no, no. You were fearfully and wonderfully made. You should know that full well. You are loved by God, man. You are made in his image. He loves you. God loves you. He loves the real you. The real Jesus died on a real cross, the real you. And if you give him your life, he can really change it forever. Come on, somebody, man. That's our thing. That's our thing. Listen, we are not a bunch of good people telling bad people how to be good. We are a bunch of forgiven nobodies telling everybody how they can be redeemed by somebody that can save anybody. That's who we are. Okay. Now, last one, I got to finish this sermon. Last one, the gospel will be preached to all the nations before Jesus returns. This has not happened yet. This is Matthew 24 14. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come. Now, I'm not going to talk about this here. I'm going to tease something. You're going to hear about probably next year. I want Lake Point Church to be a part of finishing the task that Lord Jesus has given us to take the gospel to every nation in languages that it has never been heard before. So we're trying to figure out right now. You'll probably hear more about it next year. We're trying to figure out right now how we become a church that finds an unreached people group. We become the church that gets the gospel to somebody who has never heard it before because this is the commission that we've been giving. And we have to usher in the coming of the Lord Jesus in that way. Okay. That's awesome. Now, okay. Listen, I say all this to say those were six signs. Listen to me. I say all this to say this. Ready or not, here he comes. Ready or not, here he comes. Okay. Now, let me let me land a plane like this. Let me land a plane like this. Point number three, he will reward us for what we have done. He will reward us for what he has done. Jesus says, look, I am coming soon. My reward is with me. And I will give to each person, watch this according to what they have done. Listen, salvation is free. Rewards are earned. Salvation is a gift. Rewards come from work. Okay. So everyone, listen, everyone that goes to heaven, I don't fully understand this. It was actually awesome for me to study it for like 12 hours this week, get it into my spirit. Everybody that goes to heaven will not experience heaven in the same way. I don't know how it all works. There will be different degrees, the Bible says, of eternal wealth in glory in heaven, different degrees based on what we've done. There will be different degrees, it seems like the Bible saying, of fame, honor, and recognition in heaven based on what you've done. This is one I totally don't understand. It seems like the Bible says there will be different levels of access or proximity to the throne of the Father in some ways based on what you have done. This is why in the parable of the talents, remember there's a dude that just takes the one talent and sticks in the handkerchief and is like, I don't want to risk anything. So he does not listen, he does not turn, turn a profit on his life with the things God gave him for the glory of God and the good of people. He doesn't do that. And Jesus looks at that guy and he goes, you wicked and lazy servant. He gets in, but he gets no reward. But then Jesus looks at the dude who took the 10 talents and he leveraged his life, time, talent, treasure, and he turned 10 into 20. And Jesus looks at that guy. You remember what he says? He says, well done, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with a little. Now you will be entrusted with much. Enter into the joy of your master. Now can I just say this, man? I don't want to live, I'm reversing, I want to live in such a way that when I see Jesus, he goes, well done, well done. I don't want to live in such a way that when I stand before Jesus, he goes, well, yes, you're done. And the difference depends on how we live right now. So here's how you get those rewards. Anytime you are hated or persecuted or rejected for being on team Jesus or standing for truth and righteousness, put it in a bank. Anytime you have family members or friends who they cut you off or they distance themselves from you. Not because you were a jerk and you weren't very loving because of Jesus. Put it in a bank. Number two, anything done for the glory of God and the good of people that you do in secret that nobody else finds out about, put it in a bank. That's coming back to you. Anytime you give to or you bless people who can't do anything for you in return, Jesus says, great will be your reward in the kingdom of heaven. Put it in a bank. And then here's the big one. Anything you do that results in more people being in heaven for eternity. Put it in a bank. Put it in a bank. Okay. Now, you may all hear that and you're like, I'm out. Be really good if you just went ahead and came back to it. Be really awesome. What's he waiting for? Well, the Bible answers that. First Peter 3, 2 Peter 3, 9. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness. Instead, he's patient with you, not wishing that anyone should perish. Okay. Do you know what he's waiting for? If you're here and you don't know Jesus yet, you know what he's waiting for? He's waiting for you. He's waiting for your lost friends or for your prodigal son or your prodigal daughter. He's waiting for them. Every single day, he's waiting one more day to give one more person, one more chance to repent and believe the gospel and come home every day. And anything that you do that results in more people coming to him and being in heaven, put it in a bank. Now, I want you to see how what you right now are doing as a church is making that happen in the world right now. And I want you to see it in the story of one of our international partners that you're helping with. Check this out with me right now. I grew up right next to the garbage dump. I watched loved ones in my family pass away. My aunt lost her life to high blood pressure simply because there was no doctor. One pill could have saved her life. When I was just seven years old, some missionaries came and shared with us the message of salvation. I still remember the moment I accepted Jesus. That's when I first failed the calling to become a doctor. I told my father I wanted to be a doctor, but he told me we couldn't because we didn't have the money. That broke my heart. But I applied for a scholarship anyway. And I made it to college. I'm convinced God was preparing me for ministry. I was raised by my mother along with my sister. She did everything she could to provide for us. My uncle took me along to work with him where I was surrounded by adults battling addictions. I fell into the same trap of addiction until one day we were arrested for drug possession, seating there in a jail cell. I knew something had to change. One day I saw a banner that read God loves you, come and experience it, and I thought I've tried everything but I've never truly experienced God's love. Then I heard the message of salvation and I said this is exactly what I need to change my life. I stepped forward feeling the heavy weight of my sins. Taneel town and all I could say was here I am. My surrender my life, my will completely to God. And in that moment he forgave me and gave me a reason to live. I realized people desperately need to know Jesus and I felt called to do more. And so was she. That's how our journey together began. I have never forgotten the place where the Lord saved me. I would see men living on the streets and I knew that could have been me but now I could actually do something about it. Education is one powerful way we can bring change so children don't have to keep working in the dump. We want young people to be trained and rooted in the word of God so they can rise up to serve him in Guatemala. Through faith God has opened so many doors. And with Lake Point Church's generous support we're able to run more medical tests because finding peace in Jesus also brings healing and physical restoration. Everything we do and every resource we have is dedicated to reaching the souls a Christ gave his life for. That truth gives us the strength to keep going. We want our very bodies to be spent in service to God. Lake Point family can you help me honor some heroes in our midst come on man amen amen amen. Hey listen to me. Great will be your reward in the kingdom of heaven. Gloria adios. Gloria adios. Hey Lake Point family. These are just one of our 20 or so international partners serving in some of the hardest places in the world where they minister is literally one of the most impoverished places in the world. My wife Janna and my daughter Eliana were down there serving earlier and hundreds, thousands of children live right there in the garbage dump trying to look for food every day and they are right there the hands and feet of Jesus helping people with everything they got. You may not be aware until this moment but you are helping this happen. So what we are doing right now is from now to the end of the year we are receiving what we call our annual missions offering and this is the offering that goes to fund our 20-ish international partners like in Guatemala City. This is the offering that funds us planting 80 and counting churches in the hardest to reach cities in North America where the name of Christ is little revered and this is the offering that funds our more than 40 local partners serving the last, the lost, the least and the lonely in the DFW area and so I'm asking you to do what my family is doing right now. I'm asking you to pray and ask God what He would have you give above and beyond your normal giving, above your normal giving from now to the end of the year in the annual missions offering and let me just say 100% of that goes to that and in eternity none of us ever gonna regret that and so you can give to that in one of three ways actually first of all we help me thank them one more time thank you guys thank you all God bless you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you you can give that offering in a one of three ways there's a little envelope in front of you this is annual missions offering you put a gift in there number two you can write a check and in the subject climb just put AMO and we'll know that stands for annual missions offering or you can text the word give to the number 20411 and choose annual missions offering from that drop down and well obviously no 100% of that goes to that okay so begin praying about that I'm with you I'm with you now we're getting ready to receive our regular giving you can give to that in the buckets they come by in the boxes next to the doors on your way out where you can text the word give to the number 20411 but right now let's offer some worship both as we give and as we sing here we go