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Lansing SDA Church

Wes Peppers

Reaching Up

It is a blessing to be here and thankful that we can open the word together.

And I feel like this is a very serious message that I'm going to share with you this morning.

And I just hope that you'll pray for me and hope that you'll pray for you.

And we're just going to join together those prayers just now.

I'm going to kneel and invite you to bow your heads wherever you're at as we ask the Lord's blessing.

Father, we thank you so much for this opportunity to be together, Lord.

And I'm thankful that we can just come together, open the word, and to just hear your voice speak this morning.

And as my voice speaks, I pray that your words would come forth, that they would be divinely inspired, that they would be divinely given from heaven, and Lord that you would just speak to us this morning and transform us.

And Lord, help us to long for the second coming of Jesus.

And may that desire in our hearts that only you can place there, May that drive our every decision every day.

So we ask for your blessing now, and we thank you, and we come in the precious name of Jesus.

I've spoken with a number of people in the last few weeks who have, in their own hearts, in their own lives, deeply sensed that the coming of Jesus is getting very close.

I don't know if you would agree with that.

In fact, 1 of my relatives, all the Adventists in my family are first generation Adventists.

I started with my uncle 20 years ago and his wife and then my 2 cousins and my 1 cousin's wife and then my cousin's wife's mother and then myself.

So we're all first-generation Adventists.

But 1 of my relatives, I won't tell you which 1, told me that there were some issues in their life that they had been struggling with, some certain programs that they had been watching, certain books they had been reading.

And she told me that she felt very strongly that the Lord was speaking to her, that she needed to remove those things from her life because they were not preparing her for heaven and that they were in fact pulling her away from heaven.

And so she wrestled with those things for quite some time.

And finally she surrendered them to the Lord.

And she said, now I'm clear of those things.

I have more time to read the Spirit of Prophecy and various things I had always wanted to do, thought I didn't have time.

I've had a number of people, and this is the last month, that have told me that they have had dreams about the second coming.

I've had a dream, I had a dream just a week ago about the second coming.

I'm not a prophet or the son of the prophet.

But I believe the Lord sometimes gives us those things to wake us up.

It's not the first time that's happened to me, maybe it's happened to you.

But I believe that we are imminently living upon the soon return of Jesus, and we often don't even realize how near it really is.

Now I could be preaching this same sermon 50 years from now, and if I am, it would still not negate the fact that Jesus really is still coming soon, because 50 years in the eyes of eternity is nothing.

And so this morning I want us to preach a sermon, a message and speak to you this morning about the second coming of Jesus.

In the book of Titus chapter 2, verse 13, The Bible tells us that we are looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

A very pointed question for you this morning.

Is it the blessed hope of your heart this morning?

The thought is the thought sweet to you that Jesus would come within the next 5 years?

I'm not saying He will, but is that a sweet thought to you, yes or no?

And so is that a sweet thought for you this morning?

And the glorious appearing of Jesus, If you knew that you could stand in the presence of Jesus today, would that be a sweet thought for you?

When the book of 1 Thessalonians, I'll invite you to turn there, this entire book actually goes through and it reveals different aspects about the Second Coming.

Now in the original writing of the Bible, of course we know that verses and chapters were not there, that it was just 1 book, But it's very interesting how in the book of 1 Thessalonians, Paul repeatedly talks about the second coming.

And in fact, in the book of Thessalonians, in each chapter, at the very end of the chapter, he talks about the soon return of Jesus.

And so what we're gonna do this morning is we're gonna go through the book of 1 Thessalonians and look at the end of each chapter and notice how it talks about, it gives us glimpses of the second coming of Jesus.

So in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, we're gonna begin in verse 5.

The Bible says, For Our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power.

Does the gospel have power this morning, yes or no?

Are you experiencing that power of the gospel in your life?

Are you experiencing the resurrection power of Christ in your heart, in your life, in your home, and your places of work.

It's my prayer this morning that you are.

And the Bible continues and it says, And in the Holy Spirit and such assurance as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.

And you became the followers of us and the Lord, having received the word with much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe.

For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place.

For your faith towards God has gone out so that we do not need to say anything." Imagine that if the faith of each 1 of us went out into the community and the community so knew us as a body of faith that the pastor wouldn't have to get up and say anything on Saturday.

And look at this, for they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from what?

From idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come." So, Paul here speaks and he says that these people received the Word with much what?

We live in a free country, but the time is coming when if you want to receive the word, it will be with much affliction.

That is already the case for many believers around the world.

People just a few months ago, some Christians were killed by Muslims for their faith, and at the death, when they had the sword to the neck, they declared their faith in Jesus Christ.

And because of their witness, because of their boldness, because of their courage, because of their faith in Christ, because they received the word in much affliction.

It led to others of those killers accepting Jesus as their Savior.

It's going to cost something to be a Christian very soon.

And so the Bible tells us that they received the word in much affliction, but that they also turned from their idols to serve the living God, and they were waiting for Jesus to return from heaven.

So Paul mentions the second coming at the end of chapter 1.

Point number 1, the hope of the second coming leads us to turn from what?

From idols to Christ alone for our hope and salvation, because He is the Living God.

Brothers and sisters today, idols run rampant in the world.

Idols run rampant in the church and idols are running rampant in many of our lives.

And the Bible tells us that when we keep the second coming of Jesus ever before us in our hearts.

When that is the thing that consumes our thoughts, it puts in us a desire to turn away from those idols to the living God.

How many of you want to be turning yourselves toward the living God today?

How many want to have that hope of Jesus in your hearts?

So the hope of the second coming of Jesus, it breaks the power of idols in our lives, because that becomes the reality and the centrality of our lives, the soon return of Jesus Christ.

I'll tell you friends, as Seventh-day Adventists, we have had this message for a hundred and 50 years.

But I fear that, especially in North America, that we are losing that vision of the soon return of Christ.

That our lives are becoming, beginning to become absorbed with other things.

And the Bible tells us very pointedly that anything we choose which is contrary to the truth of the Bible or places Jesus as second place in our lives and leads us astray from God's ideal becomes an idol in our lives.

Many times we are searching, we are chasing after the things of this world.

And Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 6, to seek ye first That good employment, right?

Seek ye first that higher education, right?

Seek ye first the sports and entertainment.

The kingdom of God and His righteousness.

And let me tell you, some people I talk to at various times, I'm not just talking about this church here, I'm just talking generally here.

People say, well, I don't have time to serve in the church.

Reaching Up

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