for our responsive reading this morning we are going to be in psalm 57 psalm 57 looking at the new american standard if you need a copy there should be one in a row around you and as you are turning to psalm 57 and as pastor allen is on his way up here if you would if you are able please stand in the honor of the reading of god's word i will read the odd verses if you will follow along with pastor allen and the even verses psalm 57 for the choir director set to all to chef the mishdom of david when he fled from saul in the cave be gracious to me oh god be gracious to me for my soul takes refuge in you you and in the shadow of your wings i will take refuge until destruction passes by i will cry to

god most high to god who accomplishes all things for me he he will send from heaven and save me he reproaches him who tramples upon me say la 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 oh god above the heavens let your glory be above all the earth they have prepared a net for my steps my soul is bowed down they dug a pit before me they themselves have fallen into the midst of it say la my heart is steadfast oh god my heart is steadfast 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 oh 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 oh god let your glory be above all the earth and father we come to you now and we thank you lord that you are our savior and we thank you lord that you are our savior and we thank you lord that you are our place of refuge lord you are not only our greatest place of refuge but lord you are our greatest place of hope and lord we look forward to seeing you one day and so father as we spend time in your word this morning i ask that you would prepare our hearts lord for what your

holy spirit wants to do father that you would give us eyes to see that you would give us ears to hear and lord that you would give us a heart that can understand what your holy spirit wants to minister to us this morning in jesus name amen you may be seated if you would open up in your bibles to the book of first thessalonians chapter four first thessalonians chapter four as we come to the next portion of the uh... practical part of first thessalonians we deal with what becomes an end times discussion because what starts as uh... an opportunity for him to inform them about a concern that they had had uh... turned into really one of the foundational sections of scripture that we have on in times and one of the foundational

sections of scripture that we have on uh... something that we refer to as the rapture which will get into uh... just a little bit more in so the title of this morning's message is living with expectation living with expectation so we start in verse thirteen of chapter four and it says this 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 have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and he rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord,

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. So we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. So Paul

here is going to begin to explain something that they had had a misunderstanding about. And so there's three things he's going to do. He's going to tell us about, he's going to say we don't want you to be informed. He's going to tell us what we believe. And then he's going to tell us a word from the Lord. He starts off by saying, I don't want you to be informed. Now, as we come into this section,

again, we're dealing with a subject that is a little bit controversial in the church today. And as a matter of fact, I am finding that end times events are becoming even more controversial as we get closer, I believe, to the end. And that's because I believe that Jesus is coming soon. Now, there is one subject that is completely, you can't miss it in the Bible. If you've missed the subject of the second coming of Christ,

then you've not really read the New Testament. Because everything in the New Testament speaks of the second coming of Christ. As a matter of fact, the Bible speaks of the second coming of Christ. It speaks of a time when he will come and he will establish a kingdom here on earth. Jesus had promised it when he said, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you,

I will receive you again unto myself. As a matter of fact, the very last thing that he told his disciples before he ascended into heaven is that they were to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit and then to go and be witnesses. And as he ascended into heaven, two angels were standing there and they said, why do you stand gazing into the sky? In the same way that you saw him ascend into heaven, he will return to you.

It was what the apostles preached. As a matter of fact, the very first, one of the very first sermons that Peter preached, he said, repent that times of refreshing may come in the presence of the Lord, because he was looking forward to that coming of Jesus Christ, that second coming of Christ. And the epistles, of course, instruct us on the second coming, whether it's the epistle that Peter wrote, whether it was the epistles that John wrote, whether it was the gospel accounts, whether it was the ones that Paul wrote, even Jude, all of them spoke of the second coming of Christ. And so it was something that was instructed in the epistles. But not only was it taught by or promised by Jesus, preached by the

apostles, instructed in the epistles, it is unveiled in Revelation. As we see at the very end of Revelation, Jesus returned with some sort of concave concourse of people coming with him, all surrounding him that appeared to be the church, us coming back with him. There is a second coming of Christ when he comes and returns to the earth to judge the living and the dead. And so this second coming of Christ is not, should not be a controversial subject, the controversy comes in is to, when does this happen? What precedes this second coming? And

different questions like that. And Paul deals with a little bit of that here in the book of first Thessalonians. Now it starts off with a concern that the people had. It starts off by saying, but we do not want you to be uninformed brethren, verse 13, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as the rest who have no hope. 1 Thessalonians 1.1-2.

1 Thessalonians 1.1-2. 1 Thessalonians 1.1-2. 1 Thessalonians 1.1-2. 1 Thessalonians 1.1-2. 1 Thessalonians 1.1-2. 1 Thessalonians 1.1-2. It seemed to be an aspect of them that was uninformed. They had been taught about the second coming of Christ. As a matter of fact, in the short amount of time that Paul had spent with the believers, he instructed them a great deal about the second coming of Christ. I believe one

of the reasons that he did that is not only because he lived with that expectation himself, but because the Thessalonian people dealt with a great deal of persecution, and he wanted them to understand this is not always how it's going to be. There is a second coming that you're looking forward to. There is a second coming that you're looking forward to. There is a second coming that you're looking forward to. Endure for the time because we know how it ends. But there had either

been some sort of false teaching or a false understanding that if saints had died, they would miss the second coming of Christ, that they would miss out on this glory that he had told them about because there was misunderstandings at that point in time about death. And so he said, we don't want you to be uninformed brethren. And I suppose now is a really good time for me to insert that one of the most important things that we can do as believers in Jesus Christ is not to allow ourselves to be uninformed. It's actually kind of interesting to see just how many times Paul says this throughout his writings, that he doesn't want us to be uninformed. He doesn't want us to be

ignorant of these things. And it's one thing when a first century church that didn't have the full canon of scripture to be able to rely upon found themselves ignorant. It's a whole other thing when we who have the full counsel of God, the full canon of scripture, find ourselves in a place where we find ourselves uninformed, find ourselves to be the people that don't know what God's word has to say. And so I just want to say, don't ever take anything that I say for face value.

Search it out for yourself. Search it out for yourself so you know what God's word has to say to make sure that something that I've said isn't wrong. I was listening to David Hawking teach on this and he said, I sometimes listen to the things I taught early in ministry and I think that guy had no idea what he was talking about. And I think that's the way it is. We're all just humans. We're all just people. And we're all just

seeking to understand to an even greater degree what God wants for us and what his plan is for not only our lives, but what his plan is for history. Don't allow yourself to be uninformed. Grab yourself a Bible and get into it and see what God's word has to say. Wrestle with scripture. Wrestle with your understanding. Debate with each other just a little bit. I think one of the healthiest things that I ever saw was a group of pastors this last

March sit on a stage to discuss a question that was a hot topic in the culture and they all had slightly different ideas about it and they discussed it in a civil way even though sometimes they disagreed. And I remember Ed Taylor saying, can we just stop for a minute and realize something? This is what's missing in the culture today and this is what's missing in the church today is healthy discussion about things that we disagree with. And I think that that's such an important thing for us to do as the body of Christ is to get into the culture of God and to God's word and find yourself going, I don't think I agree with that and it's God's word so clearly I'm wrong so show me where I'm wrong. Or getting into a group of people and saying, well he's got

a little different opinion than I do and maybe we should discuss that with each other. But he says, I don't want you to be uninformed brethren. And what he doesn't want them to be uninformed about is about those who are asleep. Now that doesn't mean the people that are sleeping currently right now. So far we're doing good. It's pretty early in the message so far. Matter of fact,

sidebar. There is these things on Instagram now that all of the schools are doing. Like Dexter has one, it's called Dexter Sleeps and Arc City has one, it's called Arc City Sleeps. And it's just taking pictures of kids that have fallen asleep in class. It is legitimately one of the best things on the internet right now. And I go through there and I just scroll through those pictures and we should

have a Calvary Sleeps, right? So here's your challenge. If you find a neighbor sleeping, go ahead and just click that thing and just send it to me. I will do what I can do or I'll have our social media people do what they can do and see if we can create a Calvary Chapel Sleeps account. It's going to be hilarious. We're going to love it. Anyway, he says, I don't want you

to be uninformed about those who are asleep. And of course he's speaking of death because for believers, that's what, that's what it is. These physical bodies just go to sleep. Who we really are goes home to be with the Lord, right? But again, they're a little bit concerned, a little bit confused. And he says, I don't want you to be, I want you to be uninformed about those who are

asleep. Why? So that you will not grieve as those who have no hope. So that you won't grieve like the rest of the world that has no hope. And brothers and sisters, grief is a hard thing. Even with hope, grief can be a really hard thing. But it can be so difficult to encourage someone that does not have the hope of knowing that their loved one, that they care about so much that has now passed

from this life. And they're unsure where they are and they're unsure what's happened and unsure what's going to happen to them in the future. He says, I don't want you to grieve like those who don't have any hope. I want you to have hope in your understanding. And so he goes on to explain what this hope is going to look like for believers and what the future looks like for believers,

both the living and the dead. And so he goes on to say, this is what we believe in verse 14. He says,

Now, as he talks about what we believe, he always brings it back to the same thing because we have to always come back to the same thing. Everything in our lives should always now be centered on the centrality and the truth of the gospel. And in his understanding of the hope that we have, not only for those who have died, but for those of us who are living today, he reminds us of the hope that we have. And he says, that the central hope that we have is the gospel. For if we believe or since we believe that Jesus

died, that's the heart of the gospel, right? Is that Jesus has died for our sins because of his great love that he had for us. He took upon himself all of the sin of humanity and was willing to die in our stead. And so if we believe that Jesus died and we believe that he rose again, I don't think you can too often repeat the truth of the fact that Jesus died.

That we serve a risen Savior. And when he rose from the dead and appeared to all of the people that he appeared to over those 40 days that he was on the earth, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is a risen Savior in a resurrected body and he ascended into heaven and he now sits at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for you and I. Sitting and resting because the work of redemption is complete. That reality is the work of redemption. And that reality is the work of

hope that we have. Because if we believe that he rose and we were united with him in his death, we are also united with him in his resurrection. Therefore you have resurrection life flowing through who you are. The resurrection life is the reality of who you are. And we should live in that reality. I think too many of us live like we're still only united with Jesus in his death

and not united with him in his resurrection. And our lives sometimes lack power, and our lives sometimes lack joy, and our lives sometimes lack peace because we forget that we have been made alive with Christ. And that resurrection life is now flowing through who we are. The outside me may be falling apart, but the inside of who I am is absolutely being made new in Christ because I am united with him in his resurrection. He says if we believe

that Jesus died and that we live with the reality of not only that he is alive, but that we live with him, but that we are alive because of him, notice what he says, then we also believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. In other words, they are not just lost in eternity. They are not just lost in the ground. They are not just lost at sea or whatever.

They are not just gone. He will bring them with him. Now I believe that when he says that, what he's talking about is when he returns the second time, we find that when Jesus returns, there's this entire group of people that come with him riding on horses, right? Jesus, now I don't know if y'all have ever seen the movie Napoleon Dynamite, but I want to tell you how I picture myself in riding the horse, right? Jesus comes back riding on a white steed, right? Like in,

it just in power and majesty and glory and just in all of his epicness. And then I picture Napoleon coming in riding on like the animal that he tamed. I tamed you a wild honeymoon stallion, right? Like that's how I pictured me coming in, looking like the doofus that I am, like coming alongside with Jesus. And I'm like, we're going to come too, Jesus. He's going to bring them with him. They're not just gone forever. He says, we know that if he is alive,

that he also is able to bring with him all those who have fallen asleep. And then he goes on to explain what he means by that. And this is where it gets a little controversial. Okay. So he starts talking to us about what the word of the Lord is. He says in verse, For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, 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, 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. He says, this I say to you by the word of the Lord. He starts to talk to them about this

phrase that's going to be really important. This phrase is caught up, caught up. It's a really important phrase he's going to use. And we're going to talk about why it's important in just a minute. But Paul says, this I'm telling you right now came from the word of the Lord. Now, what he means by that is that what he has received, is a revelation from Jesus Christ. I believe that that's exactly what he's saying at this

point in time. This is not something that is even really seen in the Old Testament. And really good Old Testament scholars will tell you that the rapture is not seen in the Old Testament. It is something that is very New Testament in nature. As a matter of fact, there's really only a couple of mild allusions to the rapture that would point this out. The second coming of Christ is seen throughout the Old Testament, but not the rapture itself.

The closest that we get are a couple of instances in the Old Testament. I think if there was to be an example or an allusion to it in the Old Testament, maybe Elijah and the fact that he was taken up in a pillar of fire or in a chariot of fire, right? He was taken. But I think that the greatest picture that we're given in the Old Testament is that of Enoch. Not even Noah,

I think it's Enoch. Because the name Enoch meant something along the lines of when he dies, the judgment is coming or something along those lines. And Noah, of course, is a great example of that. But I think that the greatest picture that we're given in the Old Testament, of course, was one of his descendants. Well, when Enoch was walking with God, because that was the testimony that he had, Enoch walked with God. And then we're told,

and he was not, because God took him. I remember when I was a little kid, the Bible teacher that we had in the Becca class that we took said, one day Enoch was walking with God and God said, we're a little closer to my house than we are to yours. Why don't you just come home with me? I remember hearing that when I was five years old and it still kind of stuck with me. That's a pretty good little statement. But you see, Enoch

was removed. He was taken out. And then came Noah who built the ark, who had to go through the judgment and he was sustained in the judgment. See, I believe that's a picture of the nation of Israel being sustained through the tribulation, even though there's a small remnant that remains. But Enoch was taken. That's the closest that you get, in my opinion, in the Old Testament to

anything that has to do with the rapture. So what he's about to say, he said, I received this from revelation from the Lord, a word from the Lord. And he goes on to say, this we say by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain, speaking of himself, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. Now I point this out because Paul lived with expectation. He thought he was going to perhaps be one of the ones who will be

caught up. He thought perhaps he would be in that group that would be caught up because every generation has lived with the anticipation, with the expectation that Jesus could come back at any point in time. In biblical theology, it's called the doctrine of eminence. The imminent return of Jesus could be at any point in time. And we are to live with that expectation because that expectation purifies us

and that expectation encourages us knowing that Jesus could come back at any point in time. He says, we who are alive and remain will not precede those who have died. What does he mean by that? Well, he goes on to explain it. He says, for the Lord himself, verse 16, That's just a fantastic thought, isn't it? I have, I have, I'm made of questions right now that are not necessarily answered everywhere in scripture. We have to understand this. There's a

certain number of things God reveals as much to us as he knows that we can handle. There's a certain amount of things he doesn't reveal to us. You know why? Because we couldn't handle it. If you don't believe me, read the book of Revelation. How many times has the angel of God revealed to us that we angel like picking John up in Revelation? He's like, stand up, son. It's going to be okay. Write

this down, right? Nope. Nope. Stand up. Write it down. Stand up. Write it. He just keeps saying it over and over again. Why? Because everything that he showed him was so much for him to handle. When God gave Daniel revelations about things that were going to happen, Daniel was just sick from it. Why? Because it was too much for us. I think there are certain things that we don't necessarily have

answers to because God goes, hey, they can't take this. Our little heads went, right? Like, great. Just lost half the church. Because I just blew your minds. But he does share some things with us. He says, there's going to come a time when the Lord himself will descend from heaven. And it says with a shout. I always want to know what that's going to sound like, right? Like, just this shout of victory that he's going

to shout. It kind of reminds me of something. Do you remember what happened when the children of Israel marched around Jericho? You remember what they did? They marched around. They were super quiet those first six days. And then on the... On the seventh day, they marched around seven times. And do you remember what they did at the very end? They shouted. And what happened when they shouted? The walls came down because it was

the shout of the Lord. I'm reminded of Gideon and his soldiers as the 300 surrounded the city. And they broke their jars and the lamp was there. And they shouted the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. It's kind of interesting how much that's used in the Bible. And now here he says, the Lord will descend from heaven with a shout. And with the voice of the Lord, the Lord will descend from heaven.

Now, the only archangel we read about in the Bible is Michael. So maybe it's going to be Michael. I don't know. But the voice of the archangel shouts out. And then the last trumpet. And I don't know what that trumpet's going to sound like, although I'm guessing it's going to sound a little bit like the shofar when the shofar blows. And we will hear that sound. And that's going to be one of the most

amazing times to hear that because we will know that's the shout of victory. That is the shout of power. And that means that God has finally won. And I want you to notice what happens next. Then we, or it says, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Now, full disclosure, there's some things about this I'm still fuzzy on. I'm just going to be honest with you about that.

There's some things on this I'm still mildly fuzzy on. Because I know that it tells us in scripture, Paul himself told us, that to be absent from the body is to be present with God. I don't believe that. I don't believe that. I don't believe that. I don't believe that. I don't believe that. I don't believe in soul sleep. I don't think scripture teaches soul sleep. I don't believe

in purgatory. I know scripture doesn't teach purgatory. I don't think there's some waiting period. I don't think that your loved one is sitting in a waiting room right now listening to sweet elevator music going, I wonder if today's going to be the day we get to go home, right? No. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The first time that this happened was

when Jesus rose, or when Jesus died. And all of Hades was cleared out, all the place of the dead, that holding place where they were until the death of Jesus. Was cleared out, and they went directly into the presence of the Lord. The question is, what will we be like in heaven until we receive our new bodies? I don't believe that we're just going to be like little souls floating around up there. I think we'll have some kind of a body. But we won't

receive the official new body that we'll have for eternity until this period of time happens. Because he says, the dead in Christ will rise first. A lot of people have issues with things like cremation, or what happens when you die. And I think that's a good thing. I think that's a good thing. What happens if your loved one's burned up in a fire, or they're lost at sea, or you name the

way that somebody died, and they say, oh no, is God going to be able to put them back together? What's that going to be like? Especially with the cremation issue, dealing with funerals a lot, people have that concern. But what if the body's just dust? What did he make you from the first time? Dust. God's a pretty good potter, right? And he doesn't care what kind of clay it is. I'm

pretty sure if he puts you together the first time, he can do it the second time. It says, the dead in Christ will rise first. And then, we who are alive and remain, that's us. It was Paul at that time, but it's us right now. We who are alive and remain will be caught up together to meet them in the air, and we'll high-five each other on the way. No, it's going

to happen so fast, we won't have time for that. That'd be pretty sweet, wouldn't it? Aunt Frances, right? You're just high-fiving everybody on the way up there. But we will be caught up. Now, again, this is where the controversy starts to come in. The word caught up is the Greek word harpazo, and it literally means a violent catching away. It's actually a pretty powerful word that's used there in the Greek.

Well, when the translators of the Septuagint translated it into the Latin, they used the Latin word rapturo, which means the same thing as caught up or harpazo, which is where we get our word rapture from. Because most people say, well, you know, rapture's not actually in the Bible. And I listened to a guy teach on this a few years ago, and he goes, you know the word Bible's not actually in the Bible. Kind of something to think about, right? The word

rapture's not in the Bible, and yet the theme is given to us right here. And I love when people explain this way. We'll deal with the controversy in just a moment. I love when people explain this with, well, that's not actually what that says. So what does it say exactly? If it doesn't say caught up, what does it say? And it's interesting to see what people have to say. But we will all

be caught up together with them in the clouds. To meet the Lord, here's location, location, location, right? Where are we going to meet the Lord? In the air. See, I believe that the second coming of Christ will have a two-fold fulfillment, the first being when he raptures us, the second being when he actually returns to earth. The reason why is because of location. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, we are caught up with him

in the air. In Revelation 19, when he returns, he returns to the earth. This is kind of one of the reasons why I believe that this has to be a rapture that he's speaking of here. We will be caught up. We will meet the Lord in the air, and here's the really important part, and we will always be with the Lord. 1 Corinthians 15 gives us a little bit of more color on this, so turn to 1 Corinthians 15 really quickly. If you hit Acts again like I did,

you went too far. 1 Corinthians 15, I want you to start in verse 50. 1 Corinthians 15, 50 says this,

changed, for this imperishable must put on imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? The sting of death

is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, it says the dead will be raised imperishable, but it says we will all be changed. That word changed means to change forms or to be transformed. It speaks of being transformed into a brand new body, and when will it happen? Well, we shall not all, did you take

note of the words there, sleep, but we will all be changed. See, I battled with this for a while because I'm like, how can the rapture happen? Because I know the scripture that says it has been appointed to man once to die and out to come. So, I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to go ahead and after that, the judgment. So, what does it mean for us if there's some sort of a rapture? How

do we make those happen? And I remember God making that bold in my mind when I read it, and it says, behold, I tell you a mystery, something that in the past was concealed and now in the New Testament has been revealed, and this is the mystery that we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, when the last trumpet sounds, when the dead in Christ will be raised imperishable, and we will all be changed. Brothers and sisters, there's so much hope in that. There is so much grace in that. There is so much

peace in that, and yet, this is incredibly controversial. Go back to 1 Thessalonians 4. Now, as I said that there is some controversy, so I'm going to spend just a few minutes talking about this. Not an incredible amount of time talking about this, but I'm going to spend just a little bit of time talking about this. We have to understand some things. First of all, there are

different views of the rapture. Some people even maybe agree with the aspect of this, but they disagree with the timing and the place. Personally, I am what's called a pre-tribulational rapturist. I believe that it will happen previous to the tribulation, that God will catch us up and will take us away, and I'll tell you why in just a moment, but there are some who are mid-trib. They

believe that it could happen in the middle of the year, and they believe that it could happen in the middle of the tribulation. There are some who are pre-wrath. In other words, before God's wrath really starts to get poured out, which if you read Revelation, you know, it's about the middle of the time. There are some who are, they believe in a partial rapture, which seems absolutely the opposite of the grace of God, because basically it means that the really good Christians get to get raptured, and the really bad Christians, I'm making this incredibly basic, but the not-so-good Christians have to stick around and get purified for a little while, which kind of feels the

opposite of God's grace to me. That's the one that I have the hardest time with, right? I'm like, can't, I don't know if I can go with you on that one. And then there's some who are post-trib. They believe that Christians will have to live through the tribulation, and then what's spoken of in 1 Thessalonians happens at the very end. The trumpet will sound, the dead in Christ will rise

first, we who are alive and remain will meet the Lord in the air, and then we'll come right back to earth, which also doesn't make a ton of sense to me, but I can still fellowship with you on that, right? Like, I can still be a brother to you on that. And so there's different views of the rapture. We need to understand that. And listen, in the body of Christ, that's okay. It's okay that we have different views of things.

There's also different views of the book of Revelation. There are some that believe that the book of Revelation is allegorical. There are some that believe that the book of Revelation has really already taken place within the Roman Empire. I have a hard time with that one. There are some like me who believe that the book of Revelation is literal unless otherwise

stated within the book of Revelation, which I believe is good biblical hermeneutics that you think is good. That you look for the symbolism, and when it appears to be symbolic, and it says it will be like, then you make it symbolic. And if it doesn't say that, then you know that it's a pretty literal thing that's going to take place. But listen, it's okay that we all have different views of these things. We can still fellowship with each other with different views. If you don't believe that

Jesus is coming again, I'm going to have a hard time with that one. And I'm going to have to question whether or not you really believe in Jesus and whether or not you really believe in the Bible. Because literally, if you took out the second coming of Christ, you're going to have a third of the Bible. Because that's how big of a subject it is throughout Scripture. If not more

than that, I've heard some numbers that are higher than that. But you know, I didn't have time to read it through this weekend all the way, cover to cover, to take note of all the verses. But it's a major subject in the Bible. The other one that I'm going to have a hard time fellowshipping with you on is if you believe that the church has replaced Israel. I really, really struggle with that.

Because if you believe that the church has replaced Israel, then you're throwing out the faithfulness of God. And then he's not a God who keeps his promises anymore. And you have to throw out so much Scripture for that. That one I'm going to have a hard time with as well. But listen, there's some different views of these things. And we can still fellowship with each other. But I want to tell you why I believe that there is a rapture

of the church. Just write this down. You don't need to go there. Write down, and I'm sure you've done it before, Daniel 9 verses 24 through 27. Daniel 9 verses 24 through 27. Daniel, receives this prophecy called the 70 weeks prophecy. And the angel comes and tells Daniel that there are 70 weeks decreed for your people to make an end of judgment and to be the end of

times. And he says there will be 69 sets of seven weeks, which almost universally, both liberal and conservative scholars agree that that means 69 sets of seven years that will take place until the coming of the Messiah. And then, at that time, the Messiah will be cut off, not for himself, but he will be cut off. And we find that to the day is when Jesus came riding into Jerusalem on the colt of a donkey and, of course, went through that very last seven days of his life. And then it tells us about a 70th week

that begins when a peace treaty is made with an individual. And when that peace treaty is made, that seems to start back up that prophetic, to start that 70th week. Well, that's what we've not seen take place yet. We've not seen that peace treaty. We've not seen that antichrist show up yet that brings about this peace that almost seems unreal. And we'll talk about this a little bit more next week when we talk about the day of the

Lord. But he'll seem to bring about this peace that just seems unreal. And everything just seems perfect until he announces that he needs to be worshiped as God and sets himself up as the, what Daniel calls the abomination of desolation. And he'll set himself up to be worshiped. And, of course, at that point in time, things will really go downhill. Now, that, I believe, is what we're waiting for. I believe that what we're living in

now is what is often referred to as the times of the Gentiles. And I kind of get that basically from Paul's teaching in Romans chapter 11 when he says that blindness in part has come upon the nation of Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles come in. Which, by the way, to allegorize what Paul says in Romans 9, 10, 11, and 12, he says, and say that that's not speaking of the nation of Israel. It's just a really, really poor handling of God's word. I actually read a thing this weekend, or no, I listened to David Hawking

talk about this this weekend. There's literally, I think it's the beginning of Romans chapter 11 that says, has God cast off his people the nation of Israel? Certainly not. And they say that that applies to the church. And I'm going, that's just bad biblical exegesis. Like, that's just an unfortunate handling of any type of literature, but especially biblical literature.

And so he goes on to say that blindness in part has come upon the nation of Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. That would indicate that we're living in a time right now when God is pouring out his spirit on the Gentiles, which we refer to as the church, that's us, that God is working with the church, but there's going to come a time when he is once again going to pour out his spirit on the children of Israel. He's going to once again deal with the children of Israel with the nation of Israel, which makes them coming back together as a nation the most fundamental thing that's taken place in the last century. Because so many people at one point in

time had to allegorize all of the promises that God made of the nation of Israel, because the nation of Israel didn't exist as a nation. And they're like, well, clearly that must have been the church. And then they went, oh, wait, they came back together. And it's like, everybody that loved Bible prophecy went, oh, who would have ever seen this coming? Well, God saw it coming.

If he can make them the first time out of nothing, which he did, he can make them the second time out of nothing. He can make them the second time out of nothing. He can make them the second time out of nothing, which he's done. He brought them back together as a nation. And so now we're seeing that there's going to come a time when God's going to once again deal with the nation of Israel.

But in order for him to do that, he will remove the church. He will remove the Gentile church, because he will be done with us for a time. And so he will once again begin to deal with the nation of Israel. That's what the great tribulation is all about. That's why it's called a time of Jacob's trouble. And it will be a time unlike anything else. And so that's why I believe that there has to be a rapture of the church, because right now the

Gentiles are who God is pouring out his spirit on. And in order for him to deal with the Jews once again, he will have to remove the church. And so I believe that that's a rapture being caught up together with them in the air. Now, again, I would like to point out, not everybody agrees with that. Matter of fact, there may be some of you sitting here this morning, and you're like, man, Ryan,

this is the one thing. I hate when you talk about it, because I just don't agree with you. And that's okay. You're entitled to be wrong. I'm just kidding. That's okay. I still love you anyway. And we can still fellowship with each other. Listen, I have really good friends that I went to Bible college with, and we were taught exactly the same, and we don't agree on this. But we do agree on a lot of things.

We agree on Jesus. And that brings me to the very last point of what he talks about here, because he told us about being caught up, and we've talked a little bit about the controversy, but brothers and sisters, what this passage of Scripture is really about is comfort. Do you remember how this section started? It didn't start off saying, let me tell you about the end times.

No, what did he say? I don't want you to be uninformed about those who have fallen asleep, so that you will not grieve as those who have no hope. Because you see, the one thing we can all, as born-again believers in Jesus Christ, the one thing we can all agree on is this. Always be with the Lord. So shall we always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. Therefore, comfort one another with these words.

Brothers and sisters, we need to understand the reality. We know how the game ends. We know how the story ends. And we know that the story ends with us being with the Lord forever. All of the things of this earth will fade away. All of the things of this earth will go away. Jesus is the one that will remain forever. I got to hear a young man give his testimony this week,

and he's still a little bit new in his faith. And I love listening to people new in their faith give their testimony, because he doesn't know all the right things to say just yet. But he said this. He said, sports failed me. Family failed me. Friends failed me. Everything failed me, except Jesus. Jesus. Never fails. He sat there and told a group of teenagers, and Jesus will never fail you.

Brothers and sisters, that's the point of this. Don't get wrapped up in the controversy. Don't get caught in the weeds. Remember the point. The point is that we will always be with the Lord. And those of you that are missing your loved ones that are gone, they're not gone forever if they died in Christ, because they will be with the Lord with you. And you will always be with the

Lord. Together, eternity. The time on this earth seems so long sometimes. But it's nothing but a blink of the eye in eternity. And we shall always be with the Lord. And I want you to notice what he says. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. This is about the fourth time we've seen this word comfort, or at least the Greek word, parakaleo, of comfort in this particular book.

And it means to call to one another. And it means to call to one another. And it means to call to one side. Now, I love this, because he's talking about those who are grieving, those who are struggling, those who are having a hard time in life. And what does he say we should do? Comfort one another with these words. Comfort one another with the words that one day we will always be with

the Lord. That the pain on this earth will not last forever. That the struggle on this earth will not last forever. That the difficulties of this life will not last forever. And listen, we need to come alongside one another and comfort one another. And we need to come alongside one another with those words. Because I know that as I sit talking to any group of people right now,

we are exhausted as a people. We are tired as a people. We are tired of political controversy. We are tired of how expensive everything is. We are tired of this earth feeling so hopeless. You are tired of grief and mourning the loss of the people that you love. Even though you know there's hope, it still hurts. And you're tired of that. You're tired of the struggle sometimes.

Against the evil that's in the world that sometimes feels like it's gaining more ground than the truth is. Which by the way, that's a lie of the enemy. And you're tired. And you need to be told, this is not the end. We have a hope beyond here. We know what the end of the game is. Now comfort one another with these words. Now I think that one of the greatest things that we can do

as the family of Christ in Calvary Chapel, of Arc City, is to just start comforting one another. Just start comforting one another with the truth that Jesus is coming again. Because whether I'm right or whether all of my other friends are right that have different views than I do, at the end of the day, we all agree on the same thing. Jesus is coming back. Jesus is coming back. And he's going to rule

and reign. And we won't have to have stupid elections. You won't get phone calls saying, have you been thinking about who you're going to vote for this week? You won't get emails and door hangers anymore. You won't have to deal with any of that. Because Jesus is coming back. And we should comfort one another with those words. Can I get the worship team to come on up?

Because I just want to have a moment of prayer for everybody. As they're coming up, I just sense, and I started sensing this during worship, that for both services, there are people that are just worn out from life. You're worn out maybe from grief. You're worn out from the struggle. You're just sensing the exhaustion of life. And listen, I'm going to do something kind of bold here for

a service. I'm going to make you take a step of faith. If you sense that exhaustion, if you're tired, if you're just like, man, I need to be reminded today that Jesus is coming back and this is not the end. I just want you to stand up because I just want to pray for you. I just want to pray for you to move in your heart and in your life. That kid's exhausted. He's like, is that guy ever

going to stop talking? I just want to pray for you. So Lord, I come before you and I just lift up these people that have stood up here this morning. And Lord, I just want to pray that you would move in their hearts and lives. Father, may they know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are coming back and that this is not it. May they know the comfort of the Holy Spirit. May they know the

comfort of the truth of your return. And Father, I just want to pray for you. I just want you to keep our eyes on you. Father, sometimes we can be just like Peter. Lord, we can be just like Peter. We've taken our eyes off of you because of the wind and the waves around us. And Lord, it is so great to know that you are simply one prayer of Lord, help away. And so Lord, for the people that

are standing right now, I just cry out, Lord, help. Lord, may they know your comfort. Lord, may they know your peace. May they know your hope. Father, as they are so exhausted, may you empower them through your Holy Spirit today. In Jesus' name, amen. Be blessed.

And look to you. In Jesus' name, amen.