Good morning. Good morning. All right. Yeah, you're with me. Yeah. Okay. Would y'all stand? It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. A little cool, but it's a beautiful day in neighborhood. Yeah. Amen. As Mr. Rogers would say, would you be my neighbor? I had to say that again. I wanted to share with you what I shared with first service, you know, this neighborhood

thing. We want to welcome you to Calvary Chapel this morning. We want to welcome all of those who are joining us online. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for this opportunity to Lord, to come and worship you in song and to study your word. Father, we lift up all the teaching that will be going on the other end of the hall with those teaching the youngsters,

the nursery workers, that they look after those little ones, Lord Jesus, toddlers. We ask for your blessing on our ushers as they do what you do. You call them to do. We lift up the congregation, Lord, that we would just worship you in song, that we would relax, let go, and just sing, make a joyful noise unto the Lord. We come just as we are, Lord, warts and all. We're in perfect vessels. We're just, we,

we lose it. We screw up. And we thank you for dying on the cross for us. We thank you for your grace, God's riches and Christ's experience. Creation suddenly articulate with a thousand tongues to lift one, then from the Lord to sound. In the sky, Christ be magnified. Praise arise, Christ be magnified. Christ be magnified. From the altar of Christ be magnified. Christ be magnified.

And the saints, my heart will still be singing. My song will be... Lord, that is our desire, that you be magnified. We praise you right now, Lord. We just come as we are, looking to you, Lord. And so, Lord, you know the position, the place of our hearts right now. You know what is concerning to us. You know our every thought. And so, Lord, we're going to just come to you and be real before you.

Because we know we're not fooling you in any way. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Sing a new song to Him who sits on heaven's mercy seat. Sing that again. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Sing a new song. To Him who sits on heaven's mercy seat.

It's the Lord God who was and is and is to come.

Nation, I sing praise to the King of kings. You are my everything and I will... It is a blightening rose of thunder. I sing it on a strength and glory. I sing praise to the King of kings. Praise you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

You teach us. Be gilded to you to teach us to abide. And we know that oftentimes means that there are different things that we may face in life. It will encourage us experientially to learn how to abide. So, Lord, give us the grace to live out this Christian walk by faith, knowing that you are working in us both to will and do of your good pleasure. And that you allow certain things in our lives,

and they are for a purpose. And we can trust you in that, and we thank you, Lord. It will be a day. Would you all stand and join us?

When Jesus, I see His hands, His feet. My Savior on earth is free.

Body bound, drenched in tears. They laid Him down in Joseph's tomb. The entrance sealed. You, Messiah, you're the Son of God. Thank you for this opportunity to be together this morning. Now, as Pastor Ryan will be coming up to teach your word, would you anoint Him by the power of your Holy Spirit? And would you fill us afresh this morning with your Holy Spirit?

And we give you thanks. In Jesus' name. Good morning. If you could begin to locate your seat. Grab your bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. A handful of things to take note of. As always, on the left-hand side are the things that go on throughout the week. Places to get plugged into. So, if you're not plugged in somewhere, you might locate one of those. And see if you can get yourself plugged in. Grow a little bit more during the week.

Over in the middle section of your bulletin, some things to take note of. A reminder that this evening is intercessory prayer. Down at the other end of the hallway, praying about the things going on in the world, in the church, and within our nation. So, 6 o'clock, down at the other end of the hallway in the Agape room. This coming Wednesday, we're showing the 1916 Project.

If you don't know what that is, I showed the trailer last week. But, way too much going on to show the trailer again this week. So, you might just go to 1916project.com. And you can check out the trailer for that. But, please come join us for that. We will start at normal times, 7 o'clock. But, I did receive the link to that this week. And it does look like it's about an hour and 20 minutes.

So, we'll go just a little bit longer this Wednesday. So, take note of that. There is an Operation Christmas Child shoebox packing party. Next Sunday, November the 3rd. From 2 to 5 at the Palmer's house. So, take note of that. And if you have questions, you can talk to Joe Palmer. He's raising his hand right now, waving just like the... I almost called you a princess.

I was going to say like the princess he is. But, there's that Danielle like the princess she is. There it is. Too many visiting queens coming through yesterday. There's that princess right there. So, sorry about that, brother. Love you, man. Okay. And then, ladies, there's an event coming up for you. I'm going to have my lovely wife come up and share about that.

I'll make this quick. We have the Make It and Take It. It's November 2nd. But, the deadline to sign up is tomorrow. So, there's a QR code in there. If you don't do it today or tomorrow, you're out. So, you're going to make a sign. You get to sign up. You get to pick which one you want. It's $35 if you want to do it. They make it foolproof. Your sign will look nice.

You can't mess it up. So, it's a good time for fellowship and being together. Diane's going to share a little devotion. I think we're going to have some snacks and it'll be a fun time. So, scan the QR code or come find me if you're having trouble with that and I'll help you get signed up. That one's mine. Okay. It's got important things I need in it. Yeah. Agape fruits.

Agape fruits. Just a reminder that that starts up next month. And if you signed up to be volunteering with that, they are having a meeting next Sunday after church. They move the volunteer meeting to next Sunday after church. And then, also, a reminder that next week, we fall back. We change time. Okay? They give us back the hour that they so thoughtlessly robbed from us in the spring.

And you're going to come back feeling rested and refreshed. 99% of you, your phones are going to do that automatically for you. But for the other 1%, if you don't. You get to hang out with me while I finish my sermon prep. Okay? So, make sure that you fall back. And then, a reminder about Operation Christmas Child. And we have Philebox wearing something evil on top of his head.

I may be old, but I can still catch a blue and red bird.

All right. Sorry. Enough of that. Sorry. I have... Let me get my announcements going here. All right. For those in the hall, email. So, anyways. If... Operation Christmas Child. Operation Christmas Child. I'll get serious here. We have just a few weeks, right? Three weeks the shoe boxes are due. For those of you who haven't been procrastinating, please bring them and place them right there.

And so we can build a mountain of shoe boxes. Don't wait to start your shoe box, right? I mean, it's going to be here so fast. If you have a shoe box that's partially filled and you're wondering about some things to put in, please go see Joe and Danielle at the packing party. And that is when? Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next.

Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. Next. that evening and then come back on Sunday. So the church is providing transportation. We have 42 places. We need, please, as many of you want to show, we need to fill 42 seats, right? Go down

and it's a real blessing for those of you who have never been. The church goes down every year and we help pack chew boxes and prepare them to go into the truck overseas or to wherever they're going. And we get to go through the boxes and help them fix those up. And so see Jana about going down for that. It's a lot of fun and it's a great day there. So we need as many volunteers

as we can. And I think that's it, isn't it? Yep, I got it. Okay, thank you. Emo? Oh, no, Phil. Phil, I'm sorry. I just had to do that. Nothing but love around here. Okay, those are the things that are going on. Please make sure that your mobile device is silenced. But before we get into the word, there's going to be a couple of other things that we're going to do. The first thing is we have a baby dedication this morning. So Hinson family, come

on up here. This is Gage and Corinne and this is Hayes Ryan. See, I want to call him Ryan for his first name because it's a fantastic first name. And so that's what I want to do. Hi, big guy. How are you? Do you want to come see me? Well, it's okay. You can hang out with mom for just a minute and then maybe we will. So here at Calvary, we do not believe in infant baptism, but we do believe

in dedicating kids to the Lord. When Hannah, in the Old Testament, was unable to have a baby, she prayed to the Lord. She prayed, Lord, if you give me a son, I will dedicate him to you. And that's exactly what she did. And so that's what we want to do here today is we want to dedicate not only this little guy, but his family to the Lord because they want to raise him to know

Jesus and to follow him. Okay, come here, big guy. Let's see you. You want to come see me? All right. Yeah, I know.

Oh, I know. It's the lights, right? It's the lights for me, too. I get it. I get it. Well, let's pray. Father, we come before you and I just thank you for this family. Lord, I thank you for their desire to know and follow you. And Lord, I thank you for these wonderful kids that you've provided for them. And I thank you for this young man, Lord, for Hayes, Lord, that you have already given him,

Lord, a heart to know you. Father, you have given him wonderful parents that want to follow you. And so, Father, I just want to dedicate him to you now. And Lord, may you begin to instill in him a heart to know and love you. May you begin to instill in him an understanding of the fact that he has been fashioned and created by you on purpose for a purpose. And so, Lord, be with his family as

they raise him. And Lord, may they raise him to know and love you. And Father, we just thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Yay. You did so good.

Love you guys. That happens to my dress all the time, too. That's right. She's ready to preach. She's ready. Okay. And then, Jared, would you like to come up?

All right. Well, as most everybody knows, October is Pastor Appreciation Month. And may I just say that we have one very awesome and excellent pastor, right? Amen. We thank him and his family, you know, for all that they do for the body here at Calvary Chapel. And we have a short, long video here that we want to share this morning, right? First. Yeah. Okay. Video first.

Okay. Yeah. We're going to bring the Sunday school kids on in. This video is kind of an appreciation video from the Sunday school, the kids and the teachers.

Just come on in, find a spot. That works. I think that's everybody. We can go ahead and play the video. And for those watching online, just FYI, you won't be able to view this. So just an FYI.

He's a really big preacher. He doesn't use his own words. He just does it from the Bible. He preaches boldly. I love that he teaches about God and that he helps all the people to not be sad. His boldness. That he teaches about God. He teaches us about God. I love that he helps us find Jesus. I love how he's always bright and bubbly. With enforcement. I like that he kind of tells jokes a little bit. That he's like,

he always like helps you know about God and that he's always there. Helps you understand the Lord and what he does. That he preaches. Green eggs and ham. Pizza. Brownies. Dr. Pepper. Pizza.

Every two minutes. Three hours. Ten days a week.

For an hour. Three times. One time every day. Probably to 45 minutes. After you're baptized. Why do you like cheese? How do you do all this work? Can we get baptized? Okay. What is your favorite food? What is your favorite food? What is favorite food? What's your favorite food? So then they can know.

Jesus died on the cross. That we should love everyone no matter what. That to like respect everybody. I learned that Jesus died on the cross. He died on the cross for our sins and that whenever we need a God, he's always there. He's seen songs about Jesus. Pastor Ryan. Pastor Ryan. Pastor Ryan. Pastor Ryan. Pastor Ryan. Pastor Ryan. Pastor Allen and your wives, could you please step up onto the stage?

As you know, we are tremendously blessed as Jared already had said. Mary Ann. Mary Ann. There she is. Okay. We're right off the bat. Were you having second thoughts? Amen. Amen. Now, I think the young kids from the other end of the hall have something that they want to give to you real quick that they've been wanting to give to you. So this might take a second, Mary Ann.

Sorry. You want a chair? No. Okay. Well, I just thought. Sorry. It's okay. Thank you. You're welcome. My pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to give it to my children. Please, will you step up and hand Pastor Ryan his gift. Pastor Ryan likes Dr. Pepper so every kid gave Pastor Ryan a card with a Dr. Pepper wrapped around it. Thank you. So everybody needs to be on weight check as the next few weeks come along before Christmas

to see if he's gaining any weight. From all of this Dr. Pepper, he's going to drink. Thank you. You've got a couple more from the rear. I'm going to take two. oh what fun by the grace of god there are a lot of kids in this church um not where it used to be and it's wonderful pastor alan that's for you oh man that's like double cards that's what it was like for jesus and the disciples with the five loads that's right

anybody else want to bring up a dr pepper this is also for you and aaron we do there's a box over there there's a box of dr pepper callan that's awesome did you did you put him in there what a blessing these young people are and it's the future of god's church and sandra and myself are we kind of oversee not really we're just the responsible ones with children's ministry because everybody every one of the teachers um helps are every bit of an influence of him. And so that's what we try to impart into your children or what we learn in the sanctuary. So we want to pray over these pastors as they serve each and every day. And it's not nine to five Monday through Friday. It's 24-7. And you can't choose

when you want to go to work when you're a pastor. So we just want to thank these guys for all of their service, for staying in Arc City, a small town, and preaching the word when we know you guys could both go someplace else for a lot more money. So if everybody would raise your hands up and reach out to the pastors as we pray for them. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for these men that you have placed in a situation of overseeing your church.

Father, we just thank you for the fact that they can continue to allow you to use them for your words, allow them to teach your truth. And Father, that you equip them each and every day for what you have for them. So Father, as they continue to go forward from this day, Lord, may you continue to dwell in them with your Holy Spirit, Father, and lead and guide them in the ways that you want them to go. May they lift up your church.

Until such time as we are all caught up with you, Father. So when that time comes, help us to be servants and on fire for you and your word. Lord, guard them, cover them, help us to come alongside and lift them up each and every day. Father, we love them. We praise you. And it's in God's son's name, Jesus, that we pray. And all of God's children said, Amen.

Wow. That was pretty overwhelming. I just want to say thank you. And I put Kleenex in my pocket because I knew I was going to need them. In October of 2001, I was in a really, really low place of life. And I remember having a conversation with Alan's daughter, Jannie. And she said, what are you going to do now? And I said, I don't know. I used to want to go into ministry. But I don't know if I can anymore. I think God

might be done with me. And now here I am. So it's pretty cool what God's grace is able to do. So I'm just blessed. I mean, I get to have kids like Agent Corinne and all the other ones that I've worked with over the years that are now a part of my church. And now all the rest of you that are part of my church and all the family being here, extended family being here. And it's

just, it's a blessing. And I'm just so happy to be here. And I'm so happy to be here. And I'm so so thank you on behalf of both Alan and I for giving us the opportunity to pastor this church. So, all right. That being said, let's do what we're supposed to do here. Let's get into the word. So for our responsive reading this morning, we're going to be in Psalm 57.

Psalm 57. Looking at the New American Standard for this part, just so we sound the same. If you need a copy, there should be one in a row around you. And as you're turning to Psalm 57, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's word. I will read the odd verses. If you follow along with Pastor Alan in the even verses. Psalm 57, for the choir director,

set to Al-Tasheth, the midst of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave. Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, for my soul takes refuge in you. And in the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge until destruction passes by. I will cry to God, to God who accomplishes all things for me. He will send from heaven and save me. He reproaches him who tramples upon me, Selah. God will send forth his loving kindness and his

truth. My soul is among lions. I must lie among those who breathe forth fire, even the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword. Be exalted above the heavens, O God, and let your glory be above all the earth. They have prepared a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down. My heart is steadfast, O God. My heart is steadfast, and I will sing. Yes, I will sing praises.

Awake, my glory. Awake, harp and lyre. I will awaken the dawn. I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples. I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your loving kindness is great to the heavens and your truth to the clouds. And read verse 11 with me. Be exalted above the heavens, O God. Let your glory be above all the earth. And Father, we praise you for who you are, that you are our refuge and strength.

Lord, that you are our shelter. And Lord, you are our hope. And so, Father, as we spend time in your word this morning, I just pray that your Holy Spirit would move in our hearts and in our lives. Father, that you would give us ears to hear, eyes to see, and a heart to perceive exactly what your Spirit would want to speak this morning. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated.

And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. We started into the practical portion of 1 Thessalonians last week. And last week, we looked at some practical instructions on Christian living. But today, we come to really what is sort of the main context of what 1 Thessalonians seem to be known for.

And it's some end times things. And so, both the end of chapter 4 and the beginning of chapter 5 kind of deal with things to come. And so, we're going to look at some of the things that we're going to look at. And so, the title of the message is Living with Expectation. Living with Expectation. And so, we pick up in chapter 4 verse 13. And this is what it says.

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as those who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the name of Jesus. And so, we're going to look at some of the things that we're going to that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout and with the voice of the

archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so, we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another, with these words. And so, as we look at this section, he's going to first of all tell us that he doesn't want us to be uninformed. He's going to tell us what the word of the Lord on this is.

And then he's going to close with a word of comfort, a word of comfort. And so, as we begin into this, I want to just spend a few minutes giving just a little bit of background because what this deals with ultimately is the second coming of Christ. Paul had spent a great deal of time in the short time that he had in Thessalonica talking to them about the second coming of Christ. But we need to understand that this is a reality that we live with as believers in Jesus Christ.

There's a certain amount of controversy, maybe disagreement over some timing of the second coming of Christ, over the rapture, over some of those kinds of things. But there's one hard and fast truth that we need to know, and that's that Jesus is coming again. And that's a truth given throughout the New Testament. It's really a truth given throughout the entire Bible, but it's especially what's known in the New Testament. Jesus promised while he was on earth that he would come

back again. He promised. That he would return. As a matter of fact, when Jesus rose, ascended into heaven, and the disciples stood there watching him, as they watched him ascend into heaven, two angels were standing by and they said, why do you stand gazing into the heavens? This same Jesus who you have seen ascend, he will descend, he will come back in the exact same manner. This truth of the second coming of

Christ was preached by the apostles. As a matter of fact, one of the very first messages that Peter gave, he said, he said, repent, and that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, because he taught that God was coming at any point in time. And they lived with this. It's what the disciples preached. It's what we are instructed about in the epistles. As a matter of fact, all of the writers

of the epistles at some point in time addressed the second coming of Christ, whether it be John and his epistles, whether it be Paul and many of the Pauline epistles, whether it be Peter, even James and Jude, they all talk about this. The second coming of Christ, because it's what we are all looking forward to. There is a sense in which that is the one central theme that we're looking forward to in all of scripture. After all, in Revelation chapter 19, we see Jesus arrive on a white horse with a name tattooed on his thigh that says King of Kings and Lord of Lords, indicating that it's what we're looking forward to. As a

matter of fact, it was promised by Jesus. It was preached by the apostles. We were instructed on it in the epistles, and we see it unveiled. And so, as we approach this today, we need to understand that there is one central thing that we can all stand with, and that's that Jesus is coming again, because that is the theme of what Paul is presenting to them in this last section of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.

And so, he starts off by saying, But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as the rest who are asleep. You have no hope. The first thing he says is, I don't want you to be uninformed. We could throw another word in there. I don't want you to be ignorant. And can I just say, as a quick sidebar of personal application, I don't want you to be ignorant either.

I don't ever want you to take anything that I say, like, well, Pastor Ryan said. Like, I love what those little kids said, and I love that all of them are like, he teaches us about Jesus. I love that the one little dude was like, I love his bald head. Like, that's just awesome. I mean, I appreciate that. Somebody told me the other day, yesterday at Arcolala, they were like,

And they meant, I saw you in a hat the day before. Where's your hat today? And I was like, you're right. I need to cover this bald head so it doesn't burn. And she saw me first service, and she said, I felt so bad that I said that. I did not mean that as a bald joke. I'm like, look, you're going to have to come way harder than that if you're going to offend me with a bald joke, okay?

I worked with teenagers for 15 years. I mean, come on. But I don't want you to be ignorant. I want you to take everything that I say and say, is this really what it means? Is this really what God's word says? Okay. I want you to know it for yourself. I want you to understand and know what God's word has to say so that you can say, I believe it not because Ryan told me,

not because I heard it in a message on a Sunday, but because I read it for myself, I studied it for myself, and the Holy Spirit made it real in my life. I want you to have a real encounter with the real Jesus because you are not ignorant of these things. But the problem in the 21st century church is the same that it was when A.W. Tozer was writing Pursuit of God.

Too many Christians are content with hand-me-down messages. They don't want to learn it from the pastor. And you don't want to learn it for yourself. And so get into God's word for yourself so that you're not ignorant of what it has to say. He says, I don't want you to be uninformed brethren. And what he doesn't want them to be ignorant about is what happens to those who are asleep.

Now, he's not talking about people that are actually asleep, right? We're still early in the message. Everybody's still awake right now. And I said this first service, so I'm going to say it second service. There's this amazing thing on Instagram right now. Dexter has it. Our Instagram account. Arc City has it. And it's called Dexter Sleeps or Arc City Sleeps.

And it's the funnest thing I've seen on the internet right now. And basically what they do is they go around and take pictures of students sleeping. And then they post it on Instagram. And I'm like, oh, this is epic. And I'm just following all the pictures. I'm like, that's funny. That's funny. Mouth breather. That's funny. Right? It's just, it's hilarious.

So here's what I think we need to do. I think what I want you guys to do is when you see your neighbor start to fall asleep, I want you to just kind of take your phone and just kind of real casually just click a picture of him. Send that to me. I will see if I can figure out how to create a Calvary Chapel Sleeps Instagram page. And we'll just start posting those on the internet.

Right? It's going to be amazing. So if you show up on that, you're like, oh, but it's okay because it's funny. Right? That's not the kind of sleeping that he's talking about here. Right? He's talking about those who are, those who have died. Especially believers who have died. Because for the believer in Jesus Christ, death is not the end. Death is just the putting to sleep of this body because our soul that really belongs

to Jesus has gone home to be with him. But you see, Paul had spent a great deal of time telling them about the second coming of Christ. And there was still a little bit of misunderstanding. And they thought, oh no, what about the people that have died? They've missed the second coming. What's going to happen to them? And there was a great deal of concern that they had over this, which is fair.

Because he says, I don't want you to be uninformed so that you will not sorrow as the rest of the world who has no hope. Because brothers and sisters, the rest of the world, when they sorrow, it's because they have no hope. It's because they don't realize that this place is not it. They don't realize that there's a potential of outside of here. There's a potential of being in the presence of God.

And so they sorrow as if they have no hope. And trust me, I do a lot of funerals. And most of them that I do are for unbelievers. And the most sorrowful thing is to see someone weep at the graveside of an unbeliever, knowing that as much as I can tell them I don't know what happened in the last moments of his life, and so we will always hope in God's grace.

We will always hope in the fact that God saves all who call upon him. I know at the end of the day the potential is there that they're sitting there grieving over the fact that their loved one may not be where they want them to be. And they think they're gone forever. He says, I don't want you to grieve as those who have no hope. I want you to have the hope that there is in Jesus Christ.

And so in order to show them that, he goes on to say, this is what we believe. Notice what he says in verse 14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, I love this because in answering the question of what happens to those who have fallen asleep, he takes them back to the centrality of the gospel.

Because the gospel is to be at the center of everything that we do. It's to be in the center of every aspect of our hope, and ultimately every aspect of our lives. And that's what Paul so masterfully does, is he brings them back to the centrality of the gospel. He says, For if we believe, or better yet, since we believe that Jesus died. That's the first statement of the gospel, right?

Is that Jesus died for sinners like me. Is that Jesus died for sinners who were absolutely lost like I was. Jesus died to save the lost. And we have that hope. That's the first word of the gospel. And may I just say, I feel impressed upon to say this right now, if you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus is your Lord and Savior, I want you to know that even if you don't accept him,

he still loved you enough to die for you. And he still died for you even if you won't accept him. Even if you're still living in the guilt, even if you're still living in the shame, he still died for you because that's just how much he loves you. And I want you to know that. And all of your sins, all of those things can be put upon him at the cross with a simple statement of faith.

But you see, when Jesus died, he didn't stay dead. He rose again. When he rose again, he appeared to over 500 witnesses at one time when he spent those 40 days living on earth after he rose from the dead. And showed unequivocally, that he was alive in a brand new resurrected body. But that resurrection is not just a reality for who Jesus is, that resurrection is now a reality for who we are.

That resurrection is a reality for our lives today because in our lives today, we are associated with a living Savior who has now breathed new life into all of us that have our faith in Jesus. And now we live this resurrected life because of who Jesus is and now we live with hope because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That reality is the reality of who we are. Again, I fear that too many believers today live as if they're serving a dead Savior.

And your life lacks power, your life lacks joy, and your life lacks peace. Because while you believe that Jesus died, you have forgotten that he has risen again and he has overcome death and he has overcome the grave and he has overcome the world. And that same Jesus is the one who is dwelling inside of you. And that same life is the life that is coursing through you.

And because of that, we have hope. He says if we believe that Jesus died and that he rose again, we also believe God, middle of verse 14, will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. In other words, when he comes back, he's coming back with everyone, all of those who have died. Death is not the end, it's just the translation. Death is not the end, it's just a transition.

He says he will bring back with him all those who have died. And so we can know and we believe this. We believe that they're coming back with Jesus. And he goes on to explain what he means by this as he gives us this word from the Lord. He says in verse 15,

He starts off by saying, for this we say to you by the word of the Lord. What does he mean by that? He means that what he's about to say is a revelation that he received directly from the Lord. Most everything that we read in the New Testament is a fulfillment of what took place in the Old Testament. But the rapture, which is what we're about to talk about,

and we'll deal with the term and the controversy of the term in just a moment. What he's about to talk about is something that is distinctly New Testament. As a matter of fact, we don't see any mention of the rapture in the Old Testament at all. The closest that we get is an image that we're given in Noah, right? We see the second coming throughout the Old Testament,

but we don't see the rapture in the Old Testament. The closest we get is around the story of Noah, right? There's this beautiful story about a man named Enoch. And Enoch's name was a pretty specific name. It meant something along the lines of, when he dies, the judgment will come. And so Enoch was like, whoa, that guy's kind of got some serious business going on with his name, right?

Well, Enoch was one of the forefathers of Noah and was probably living at the same time as Noah. And we're given this testimony about Enoch. It says,

because God took him. The idea is he raptured him. He brought him into heaven. And when I was a little kid growing up in Christian school, I remember my kindergarten teacher telling us this story. She said it would be almost like this. It was like Enoch was walking with God, and one day God said, Enoch, we're a little bit closer to my house than we are yours.

Why don't you just come home with me? Isn't that a great picture? And that's kind of what took place. Well, what happened after Enoch was taken out? I believe Enoch presents a picture here. I believe Enoch presents a picture of the church there. What happened after Enoch was taken out? God announced judgment upon the earth through the flood. And how did he protect the nation of Israel

who Shem was the ancestor of? How did he protect the nation of Israel? He protected them in the ark as they went through the time of judgment. That represents the nation of Israel being preserved through the time of judgment. So while not mentioned, we do have an interesting picture of it, but it is a distinctly New Testament idea. And so Paul says, receive this by the word of the Lord.

And this is the word of the Lord that he had received. That we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. And I want to point something out to you. Paul is putting himself in the place of saying, I may be here when the Lord comes back. You see, that is called living with expectation. In theological terms,

it's called the doctrine of eminence. That we have this eminent belief that Jesus could come back at any point in time. And so that's the idea that every saint, since the ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven, has lived with. They believe that it could happen in their time. As a matter of fact, the early church absolutely believed it was going to happen in their time.

So much so that some people started saying, hey, what about this whole Jesus is coming back again? This whole thing hasn't happened yet, which is what prompted Peter to write, with the Lord, a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as a day. And so God's not slack concerning history. He's not slack concerning his promises, right? And so he believed this,

and he believed that he would be part of it. And he says, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. In other words, it won't happen without those who have already fallen asleep. He goes on further to explain. He says, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel,

and with the trumpet of God, the dead in Christ will rise first. I just love the scene that's created here, right? Like this victorious scene. Did you take note of the three things that are gonna happen? The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout. I don't know what he's gonna shout. And I bet you there's somebody that wrote a book about what they think he's gonna shout,

and they have no idea either. I have no idea what he's gonna shout, but it's gonna be an amazing shout of victory, right? I'm reminded of the times in the Old Testament where there's a shout of victory. Remember the time when the children of Israel took down the city of Jericho? And God told them, here's what I want you to do. I want you to go out for six days,

and I want you to march around the wall once. Don't say a word. Just walk around there quietly, right? So they walk around the wall six times. On the seventh day, he says, now, today, I want you to walk around the wall seven times, and on the seventh time around, I want you to shout. And when you shout, the walls are gonna fall down, and that's exactly what took place.

Isn't it amazing that what took down the walls? It was a shout of victory. I'm reminded of Gideon, right? And Gideon and his 300 men that surrounded an army exponentially larger than theirs, and they're like, and as they surrounded the enemy that was exponentially larger than theirs, those 300 men took their clay jars that had a light in it, and they broke it, and when they broke it, do you remember what they did?

They shouted, and when they shouted, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, and that shout struck fear into the heart of the enemy. Why? Because God is always proclaiming a shout of victory, and that's what takes place. The Lord will descend from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel. There's only one archangel that we read about in Scripture,

and that's Michael, so perhaps it's him, but the voice of the archangel is crying out, and then what happens is there is a trumpet of God. I don't know what this trumpet is gonna sound like. My guess is it will sound like the shofar that the priests always blew. That's the sound that we will hear, and as that sound of the trumpet is declared, it says, the dead in Christ will rise first.

Now this, I'm just full disclosure on Pastor Ryan's part here. This is where sometimes I get mildly fuzzy, okay? So, of course, according to Scripture, according to Paul's words, to be absent from the body is to be present with God. I've believed it for years. I've preached it for years. It is declared in Scripture. So the moment that your loved one passes from this earth,

there is no purgatory time. There's no waiting period. There's no soul sleep. You go directly into the presence of God. That's what we're told in Scripture. However, it does appear that there is a resurrection that will take place at the second coming of Christ, or what we'll call the rapture, the first portion of the second coming of Christ, in which the dead in Christ

will be raised and receive brand new bodies. So what will we be like in heaven until this point in time? I have no idea. That's where I get a little bit fuzzy. Will we just be souls cruising around? I doubt that, because that just doesn't seem to be the way God does things. I feel like there's gonna be some form of body that we'll be cruising around heaven in

until this point in time comes. But no matter what it is, there will come a time when this trumpet sounds that the dead in Christ will rise. That means that all those who have died over the centuries will be taken up to be with the Lord in their physical bodies and given that brand new body. Now, everybody always gets concerned, well, what about my loved one that died in a fire?

Can God gather their ashes together? What about those sailors that are lost at sea? Can God bring them back together? You name the issue that people have. Some people have major issues with cremation. They say it's cremation an okay thing to do because you're turning them back to dust. Well, I've got news for you, and I don't mean this rude at all. I'm just being honest.

God made man from dust the first time. I'm pretty sure he can do it again. So you don't need to worry about that. The form that your body is in, you don't need to worry about that because God is the God of creation. He's the God of life, and that's what he'll do at that point in time. And so he'll raise them up. But notice what happens when the dead in Christ rise first,

then what happens, verse 17, we who are alive and remain, that's all of us, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Now, I want to know what this is going to be like, right? This is where there's a lot of controversy. Everybody says, well, the word rapture's not in the Bible, so the rapture can't be anything that's presented.

I was actually just having a conversation with somebody this week, and they said, hey, I watched this YouTube video. It says the rapture's not in the Bible. You're right. The word rapture's not in the Bible ever, anywhere in the Bible. You know what else isn't in the Bible? The word Bible. It's nowhere in the Bible. I have no problem believing it, even though the Bible

isn't in the Bible, even though that word's not in there. See, the phrase caught up in the Greek is the word harpazo. Now, when the translators of the Septuagint, which was a Latin translation from the Greek, translated it into Latin, when they came to the word caught up, which means to violently catch up, they used a Latin word for that, which is rapturo, which is where we get our English word rapture from. And the idea behind the word is caught up.

So don't get, don't get, pardon the pun, don't get caught up with the language. Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't. That was terrible. Just take all the doctor peppers away. I don't even deserve them after that. The idea though, is to be caught up, to be violently removed. This is what we call the rapture.

And I wholeheartedly believe that this is what's gonna take place. I think it's different from the second coming. I think it takes place before the second coming of Christ. Partly, because do you notice where we are caught up to be with the Lord in? It says, it says right there, it says the air. We will be caught up chapter 19 is the second coming. And where does Jesus descend to? He comes to the earth. So I

believe that this is a different instance than the second coming of Christ. And I'll deal with the controversy again here in just a moment. But this is a separate thing, and it's something that we're looking forward to. And the longer that we see things take place in our world, the more that we go, oh man, things have to be getting close, right? So this is what he tells us is going to

happen. And so we shall always be with the Lord. I want you to look one other place in scripture that lends us just a little bit of understanding to this, and it's over in 1 Corinthians. I want you to look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and I want you to start in verse 50. I actually put the right verses on there this time. I'm not going to tell you to start earlier than that. 1 Corinthians

chapter 15, verse 50. I'll give you just a second to turn there. And this is what it says. I still hear a few pages turning and phones dropping. 1 Corinthians 15. 1550 says this.

Did you notice some similar language there? And then we will all be changed. That word changed is an important word because it means changed into a different form, to be transformed. And it talks about the fact that at that point in time, we will all be changed. You know what I always struggled with the most is it says in scripture that it's appointed to man once to die and after that, the judgment. I'm like, so Lord,

are we all just supposed to die? Because I don't just take any of this face value. I study it all out. I say, is this really what it is? Is this really what God's word says? Because I don't want to believe it just because somebody told me. So I've studied it out. I've studied it out for myself. Lord, it says this. Is this true? And then I came across this passage. It says, behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. And I was like, oh,

we shall not all sleep the sleep of death. Because in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, when the last trumpet sounds, the dead will be raised imperishable and we will all be changed. Brothers and sisters, that should bring us a great deal of comfort. It should bring us a great deal of hope. And we should live with that expectation that one day we will all be changed.

Back to 1 Thessalonians. Now, again, not everybody agrees with what I've just said this morning. Matter of fact, some of you sitting in here this morning may say, I don't think I agree with anything he just said. And I just want you to know, you're entitled to be wrong. It's okay. There's room for all of us in here, right? I'm just kidding. Because I've not always fully

believed this myself. I grew up being taught about the rapture. I went to a Bible college that taught the rapture. And so I finally started saying, okay, Lord, I want you to show me if this is real. I want you to show me if this is really what it is. And God mainly took me one place in scripture. And it's in Daniel chapter 9. I'm not going to have you turn there because we're running

out of time. But Daniel chapter 9, just write Daniel 9, 24 through 27. Daniel 9, 24 through 27. Because there's a lot of different views of things. There's a lot of different views of the rapture. Some people are pre-trib raptureless. Some people are mid-trib. Some people are pre-wrath. Some people are post-trib. Some people are pre-wrath. Some people are pre-wrath. Some people are pre-wrath.

Some people are partial rapturous. You know what that means? And I can't agree with this one at all. You know what that means? It means the good Christians get to go home and be with Jesus. And the Christians that live a little more fleshly life have to stay down here and get purified. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. If you believe that, that's the dumbest thing I've ever

heard in my life. Because that X's out grace. I don't deserve grace. You don't deserve grace. You could be doing way better in your walk than me. And we still need the same grace in our lives. Because no matter how good you're doing in your walk, you're still a sinner who's lost apart from Jesus Christ. So that one doesn't make sense to me at all. But everybody's got different opinions on that.

And then everybody has different opinions of Revelation. Some people believe that Revelation is allegory. Some people believe that Revelation already took place. Some people are like me and they believe that Revelation is literal other than the places where it indicates such. Where it says it was like. Because that's not only good literary form, but it's also good biblical exegesis.

And some people agree with me on that. And they think that we're still waiting for the book of Revelation to take place. Now, the reason why I feel like this starts in the book of Daniel chapter nine. Because in Daniel chapter nine, we're given what's called the 70 weeks prophecy. The 70 weeks prophecy says this. Daniel was given a prophecy that said, 70 weeks have been decreed for your

people to make an end of transgression and to bring about salvation. After 69 sets, of seven, or 69 weeks, the Messiah will be cut off. And he will be cut off not for himself. And also the temple will be destroyed. And after that, there will come a 70th week. And in the 70th week, a treaty will be signed to bring about peace. And when that treaty is signed to bring

about peace, the abomination of desolation will stand up in the temple halfway through that week and say, you should worship me. Now, I believe that we are still waiting for the book of Daniel to take place. We're still living between the 69 and 70th week of Daniel. It's almost universally accepted by both liberal and conservative scholars that when it talks about a set of seven, that when it says 69 weeks, that that indicates seven years. Almost universally accepted. And so,

69 sets of seven years brought us to the day that Jesus came riding into Jerusalem on the donkey. That he came riding into Jerusalem on the day of, on Palm Sunday. And when he came riding in, that fulfilled that. And he was cut off not for himself, speaking of the crucifixion of Jesus. Since then, we've been living in what I call, this is not a theological term, this is a Ryan term, a parenthetical statement in history.

Scripture refers to it as the times of the Gentiles. And I get that idea from Paul in the book of Romans chapter 12, when he says that blindness in part has come upon the nation of Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. In other words, the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. In other words, God set Israel on the shelf for a time. The reason why he set Israel on a shelf is

because they had rejected the Messiah, they had rejected God, and they had rejected his plan. And so he said, I will set you aside and make you jealous with another people. That people is the Gentiles, and they will compose what we call the church. The assembly of believers. And so God started sending out his spirit to all of the Gentile world. That's what he, that's what happened in the

book of Acts. You saw that. The transition from the spirit being poured, poured out upon the Jewish people to the spirit being poured out upon the Gentile people. And that will take place until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. And as much as I'm like, oh, could the last Gentile get saved so that we can go home? I also know I want as many people to come to Jesus as possible. And I'm just so excited at what's

going on. I know I'm running out of time. Please forgive me. The Sunday school teacher, they spent half the time in here. It doesn't matter. I'm so excited about what's happening right now. Do you know that there was another little revival? A thousand kids down at University of Florida came forward to receive Jesus. And I think several hundred of them got baptized this last week. Isn't

that, isn't that fantastic? I mean, it's just, it's happening all over the place right now. Why? Because time is getting close. And because God desires that none should perish, but that all should come to eternal life. He's pouring out his spirit because he wants as many people to get saved as possible. Because as much as we like to think that when the rapture happens, we can grab

the person to our right and our left and take them up with us. That can't happen. It's going to be an a moment and a twinkling of an eye. As much as I'd like to think that I could high five all of the people that have died in Christ on our way up, we won't be able to because it'll happen faster than we can imagine. So I want to reach as many people now as I can. Because I want as many people going

with me as possible, especially the people that I love the most. And so he says, he said, I forgot what I was talking about. I saw the Dr. Pepper. So that 70 week of, that 70th week of Daniel, we're waiting for. And I believe what we'll see. Start that 70th week is the rapture of the church. When the church is caught up, when the dead in Christ will rise, and then we who are alive and remain are taken out. And then all of a sudden,

not only do we have all the chaos that we have going on in the world right now, and there is chaos going on in the world right now, but you'll also have the chaos of so many people that just disappeared. And everybody's going to go, we need someone with a plan. We need someone that has some sort of a plan. And then an antichrist will rise up and they will say, I've got a plan. And Israel themselves will say, you'll be our Messiah. And God will once again begin to deal with the nation of Israel.

You see, the tribulation is important because it deals with Israel. Because it deals with his chosen people, who, by the way, he has not given up. Because that's the other view that I cannot go along with, is replacement theology. Replacement theology says that the church has replaced Israel. I'm not saying Israel is innocent at everything that they do, but I absolutely stand with them because I think it's their right to be a nation.

And God has brought them back together. One of the most miraculous things that you can imagine happening is a nation who was scattered all over the world that a man tried to destroy during the 30s and the 40s come back together as a nation because he tried to destroy them. Do you realize that? Do you realize the reason why the nation of Israel came back together? It's because of the Holocaust. And the Holocaust sparked a nationalistic passion within the Jewish people that they wanted to return to their homeland.

And so they started returning to their homeland. And then one thing leads to another. They become a nation. How does that happen? How does a nation form from people all over the world that had no idea who each other were? How does that take place? Well, the same way it took place the first time when God formed them through Abraham and he called a people who were not a people, his own people. Because that's what God does.

And God's not done with the nation of Israel. And if you believe that God has done with the nation of Israel, I want you to think about what's going to happen to you if you fail. Does that mean God's going to get rid of you too? Because it has to do with God's character and it has to do with his faithfulness. God will never stop being faithful, brothers and sisters.

And so he says, back to 1 Thessalonians. And so he says, listen, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And now we come to what we can all agree on. So we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. Listen, I know that anytime I talk to a group of people, they're like, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do.

And so I say, listen, we're not all going to agree on everything, especially when it comes to eschatology, especially when it comes to end time stuff. But the fact of the matter is we can all agree on one thing. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ here this morning, we can all agree on one thing. Jesus is coming back. Jesus is coming back. Whether it's my idea based on what I see in Scripture or whether I'm completely wrong, either way, Jesus is coming back.

And when he comes back, he will come back in power. When he comes back, he will not be the suffering servant. He will be the ruling Savior. When he comes back, he will be the one who will set things right, and he will come back riding on that white horse with that tattoo on his thigh that says King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and he will be bringing us with him.

Now, you and I are going to be riding the horse kind of like Napoleon Dynamite does at the end of that movie. We're going to be like, but Jesus is coming back, right? And we can comfort one another with these words because, listen, he gets back to the point of the whole thing. At the end of the day, we shall be with the Lord. Forever. We'll be with the Lord forever. Why does he write this? Does he write this because he wants to stir controversy about the end times?

No. Why did he write this section? Because he does not want us to be ignorant so that we will not mourn as those who have no hope. And brothers and sisters, we're living in an era with no hope. I continue to ask people the same question. How do you describe this generation? And the same words keep getting used. Hopeless. You know why? Because we're not telling everybody Jesus is coming back.

We know what the end of the world is. We know what the end of the world is. We know what the end of the world is. We know what the end of the world is. We know what the end of the game looks like. We know what the end of the story says. We've seen the end of the movie, and we know that Jesus is coming back. And he says, knowing that we're going to be with him always, comfort one another with those words.

You know what the word comfort means? We've seen it now for the fourth time in the book of 1 Thessalonians. It means to call to one side. It means to call to one side. And what that means is you, as the body of Christ, need to operate as the body of Christ, and you need to come alongside each other. You say, hey, don't forget, Jesus is coming back. I know today is a hard day. I know this is a hard thing.

I know that what you're going through is wearing you out, but Jesus is coming back, and we will be with him forever. This, too, shall pass. And brothers and sisters, that's what we need to do for each other, is we need to come alongside each other. Whether you agree on eschatology or not, whether you agree on some of these things or not, lay aside the differences, lay aside the frustrations, and start coming alongside.

Lay aside each other and say, this is going to end, and Jesus is coming back, and it will be forever. I am so, I'm so ready. I'm so ready to go home to be with the Lord. I'm so, I'm so ready to quit dealing with the things of this world. I think exhaustion is what, is the word that the Lord gave me this morning. First service, worship, I'm praying, I'm saying, Lord, what's, I've got to study,

but what's the message? What's the message you want? What's your people to hear this morning? And he said, they're exhausted. They're exhausted, and they need to know that they can be comforted with these words. So, so I'd like to invite the worship team to come up. And if everybody could stand.

I just, the Lord laid it on my heart this morning that I needed to do this. And so, so I just want to ask you, how are you doing this morning? And not the typical church, like, hey, how are you doing? Oh, great, right? Like, I saw like a... 1,000 people I knew this weekend, and I asked them all the same question. How you doing? Great, great, great, good, good to see you.

Right? I don't want it, I don't want it to be that answer. How are you doing this morning? Because I think some of you are exhausted. Like, some of you are worn out from the circumstances you're going through in your life right now, whether it be the people that you're around, whether it be because you've been a little bit torn down by the things of the world.

Some of you are exhausted because you're still grieving the loss of loved ones, and you're just having a really hard time letting go of it. And you're still holding on to that hurt, and you're just worn out by it. And some of you are worn out because you're going through medical things right now, and it's just, it's wearing you down. And you just, man, you just need to know this is going to end.

It's okay. Jesus is coming back. And so I just, if that's you this morning, if you're just exhausted, if you're worn out, if you feel beat down by this world, I know everybody's eyes are open, and that's not the way you're supposed to do this, but that's what I'm going to do. I just want you to put your hand in the air because I want to pray for you. If that's you this morning, if you're worn out, I just want you to put your hand up.

Man, praise God. I knew it's what was going on. The Lord laid it so heavy on my heart this morning. So let's just bow our heads and keep that hand up because I want to pray for you. If you can, physically, if you can. If you can't, that's fine. I just want to pray for you. Father, I just thank you for the people that are gathered here this morning. And Lord, you know their hearts.

You know their frustrations, their fears, their failures. You know where they're worn out. You know where they're exhausted. You know where life has taken its toll on them, where ministry has taken its, toll on them, where physical things have taken its toll on them, Lord. Father, only you can bring encouragement. And so, Lord, may you, by the power of your Holy Spirit,

come alongside them right now and remind them, Jesus is coming back. And we get to be with you forever. This isn't it. Lord, your word says to comfort each other with these words. And so, Lord, bring comfort to us with these words right now. And Lord, help us to go another week, another day, another month, another year, because we know that we have hope. Because we know that we have hope in Jesus.

Father, I thank you for who you are. I thank you for the time that we've had here in your word this morning. And Lord, may you bless each person. Each person that's here hearing your word. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. Jesus, Lord of heaven, grace that you have given us, the work, the sacrifice.

And bless each as we go out. We continue on just trusting you day by day, being real before you, looking to you, the author and finisher of our faith. In Jesus' name. Amen. Lord bless y'all. Before you guys leave, real quick, too, I wanted to just let y'all know there is cake and snacks in the Agape room for Pastor Appreciation. So swing by there and grab you something to eat before you leave.