The Positive Message of Peace

We are here to celebrate the blowing of trumpets. Let's go to Leviticus 23 and look at the instructions that ancient Israel was given about this day. It's actually, of all the holy days, it has the least amount of instructions involved, and yet it has such an important prophetic meaning that we find through the entire Old Testament and throughout the entire New Testament. And they are told in verse 23, Leviticus 23, then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the children of Israel, saying, in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. Now, that's not a lot of instructions. To understand the meaning of this day, we have to put together a lot of scriptures. But it's a blowing of trumpets. The Jewish publication, society publication of this in English translates it more succinctly as, a sacred occasion commemorated with loud blasts. Now, there were different trumpets that were blown on the Holy Days. There were silver trumpets. But this day is associated with the shofar, which you'll never see a jazz shofar player. I always try to blow the shofar on this day. And in the past, I've actually practiced where I could do all the sounds they do in the synagogue. Well, you know, they say trumpet players lose their lip. I tried to blow it last night, and I couldn't even do it. So I'm going to ask Mike Fusche to bring his shofar up, and I'm going to try to make a blast, and then he'll make... We'll have a dueling shofars, okay?

Mine was a bigger ram.

Okay, let's see if I can do this.

That duit... I used to do that. I'm going to try. I'm going to try for a loud blast.

Thank you, Mike. Appreciate it.

As you can see, depending on the animal, they make a little different sound, which is an interesting thing. So they blasted these loud blasts. There wasn't a tune played on these, and there was a meaning in these loud blasts that they gave. One of the reasons that they used the shofar, it was a lot of different reasons. They would blast it for assemblies and different things, but it was a call to war. When Israel went into battle, they blew the shofar. That was their call. They were marching off. They were charging. They were going to war. So the blasting of trumpets is associated with, throughout the Bible, the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord means the judgment of God. We find that there was a time when ancient Israel and then ancient Judah both suffered a Day of the Lord. He told them it was coming, and in both cases their nations were destroyed because they would not turn to God. Throughout the Old Testament, there is this incredible message about a future Day of the Lord, when God brings a judgment on all nations. It's an important time. It's an important lesson. It's important that we understand this. The Day of the Lord and the blowing of the shofar, and this blowing of the shofar is associated with that all throughout the Scripture. In Murfreesboro, last Sabbath, I read a number of Scriptures, including one from Zechariah. I'm going to read a little piece of that again today, because this is sort of the classic understanding of the Day of the Lord in the Old Testament. So let's go to the future Day of the Lord, the Day of the Lord that comes on the whole world. So let's go to Zechariah 14.

A lot of times on this day, we do read a lot of the Old Testament Scriptures. I'm going to do something a little different today. I'm going to look at a lot of New Testament Scriptures that talk about this day. So Zechariah 14, verse 1, Behold, the Day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst.

For I gather the nations the battle against Jerusalem. The city shall be taken, the house is rifled, and the women are avished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. So it's centered there around Jerusalem. That's why on this day, many times you'll hear a message about Armageddon. How the nations are gathered to do battle against the Lord, and they're gathered in Armageddon.

The battle doesn't take place there, but that's where they're gathered. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as he fights in the Day of Battle. And in that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem to the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley. Half of the mountain shall move toward the north, and half toward the south. So it shall come, if you read the rest of this, what it says is at this point then the Lord will stand on earth and establish the kingdom of God.

So this we know is Jesus Christ doing this. The Father sends him. He comes, and the whole New Testament talks about that Second Coming of Jesus Christ. So that Second Coming of Jesus Christ is the central view, the central point of this day with our understanding. We understand much more about the meaning of this day than the ancient Israelites would have. Because there's things we have in the New Testament that they didn't have. And it is also interesting that in the New Testament it's called the Day of the Lord, but it's also called the Day of Christ.

And you'll see that used, and when you read the passages it's always with the same context. It's always the same time period. Something we usually do on this day that I'm not going to spend a lot of time on is that we go through the various seals of Revelation. Seven seals of Revelation. The first four seals are called the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and they describe events that are going to happen before the Day of the Lord. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is terrible as that is. It's not the Day of the Lord.

It describes the events leading up to the Day of the Lord. And I have given sermons on this day where I show lots of slides about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and what's happening, and what that pictures. And then we get to the fifth seal, because there's these seven seals.

And what it is, it's a scroll. The imagery is a scroll, and it has different seals on it. And only Christ, according to Revelation, only Christ can break that. In other words, only Christ can break the seal and reveal what's happening. And as each seal is broken, the scroll is enrolled a little more. And it tells of events. Then he breaks the next seal, and it unrolls, and it's the next series of events. And so he breaks these seals one by one.

Verse 4, we tie right back in to Matthew 24. Once again, this is part of sermons that we give a lot. You may hear this afternoon, but I just give a little context here, because I'm going to shift the viewpoint a little bit today. So we go to Matthew 24, we look at that, we connect it to those four horsemen, we understand the events.

And that's leading up to the Day of the Lord. Then there's the fifth seal, that there's all kinds of signs in heaven. And people begin to understand that something catastrophic is happening, something supernatural is happening. And then we have the sixth seal. And I want to read the sixth seal to you. Let's go to Revelation 6. Because we usually don't spend a lot of time with this.

I'm sorry, let's start with the fifth seal. I want to go with the fifth seal and then the sixth seal. Because I want to show these two things here and center in on a message in both of them.

Now see, this is all imagery here. It doesn't mean they're awake in heaven. It means this is the message that God remembers of all the martyrs of all time. When will we, when will our time come when we are resurrected? When will we be avenged for being killed for you? And He says, just rest a little longer until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.

Now we don't like going through number five of the seals because it means that at the end time there are going to be Christians following God who are going to be killed. So we don't generally cover much of that one. And yet that's the point being made here. God is saying symbolically here to all who have died, you know, from Abel to Abraham and Sarah, all that have died all the way up through the church era, all those who have died following Him.

When will we be awakened? When? No, just sleep a little longer. You're not...so it's all symbolic because there's others who have to die. That's a little disconcerting. It's much more fun to talk about Jesus Christ coming back and punishing the world. And yet this is one of the messages here. So let's go now to the sixth seal.

I looked in the open the sixth seal and behold there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became like blood and the stars of heaven fell to earth as a fig tree drops as light figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.

Then the sky receded as a scroll. Now try to imagine this in your mind. There is a cataclysmic set of events happening that isn't now being caused by man. These are cosmic things that are happening. The whole earth is being affected by something terrible that the entire humanity is watching and interested in and scared by. The sky recedes as a scroll when it is rolled up. Every mountain and island has moved out of its place. I mean the earth is trembling. It's shaking. Everything is changing and they see something. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and into the rocks of the mountains.

And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. Now this is important. There is a general viewpoint among many Christians that God the Father is sort of angry.

God the Father punishes people. But Jesus, Jesus doesn't punish people. Jesus is too kind. I want you to understand the events of the day of the Lord are being, yes, God is doing it, but who is he doing it through? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is coming back to take control of the world, seize it from Satan, and the world is going to try to stop him. Humanity, a great deal of humanity is actually going to try to stop him.

And he is going to pour out his wrath. Now let me say, you and I cannot compare God's wrath to ours because we have a problem with our anger. Our anger gets out of control. Our anger many times is malicious. Our anger is based on wrong things. Our anger is based on because you did me wrong and I'm going to get back to you. What's happening here?

God's anger is against evil. We must understand how much he despises, and I use that word in its full meaning, evil. That's what makes the love of Christ and the love of the Father so amazing that Christ died for us when he despises what we are. But he wants to save us. And I don't think we'll truly understand the idea of conversion and repentance until we understand how much we are, as Paul said, the enemies of God.

In our natural state, he loves us and yet we're his enemies. Because he looks at us and says, I despise what's in you, but I love you and I'm willing to pay your legal price. He's not going to do away with his law, his legal system. Pay your legal price for you and then change you. And when we compromise with that, we're in a dangerous spiritual place because we're telling God, I like what you hate.

So we have to understand the enormity of what's happening here. And then verse 17, for the great day of his wrath has come and who is able to stand? Jesus Christ is coming back to stop the evil, the hatred, the murder, the wars, the injustice, the stealing, the adultery, the homosexuality. He's coming back to stop all of it. He's going to stop all of it because he says, it's enough. God the Father sends him and says, tell them it's enough.

And of course, if he doesn't do it at that time, according to what Jesus said in Matthew, no human beings would survive. We're literally under Satan's rulership going to destroy ourselves. There will be nothing left. Satan either wants us to be insane animals or he wants us dead.

That's the only two hopes he has for us. We just become insane animals or he kills us. And God says, and then sends Christ, it's enough. I will not lose them. I will not let that happen. It stops now. And he comes with anger towards Satan and he comes angry at what we've become. But he doesn't come to destroy humanity. He comes to save it. So yes, we look at this terrible gloom and doom and it's frightening.

How do you view the day of the Lord? Do you feel fear? I mean, every time we go through certain scriptures about the end time, I've had people say to me, it just frightens me. And it does. Anyone who really understands this, we're frightened by it. It frightens us to realize the reality of what this is going to be. But is that how our only response to this? Our only response is, I am frightened.

I am afraid. I don't want it to happen. I don't even want to hear sermons about it because it's so frightening. But it's the truth. Or, are you still struggling with sin? And I won't ask for a raise of hands of those who are still struggling with sin because it would be 100% of us, right? So in our struggle for sin, have we given up?

God is going to throw me away because I'm struggling with sin. God is going to do what to me? I have no value to God anymore because I'm still struggling with sin. If you're not struggling with sin, you need to really go before God and deal with that. If you're struggling with sin, you need to continue the struggle. Or sometimes, have you ever thought, you know, life is so good, I would sort of like, I'd like to sort of die.

You know, live my life and die, and then I can come up with a resurrection and I don't have to see all that. Now, people say that all the time. The older I get, there's a couple times I've thought that. All my life I've looked forward to this, it's like, well, dying isn't that bad.

You wake up and it's all gone, right? And these are all normal human reactions to this as we get this glimpse of the horror of what this world is going to become. And so we like to say, well, it's not my lifetime. I don't know what's going to happen, but somebody's going to be alive when it happens. And I don't know about you, but I felt my whole life, and believe my whole life, it's probably going to happen in my lifetime.

As I've said before, if it doesn't, the last thing I'm going to say to my grandchildren is, he's coming. You better be ready because he's coming. And if it's not in your lifetime, you better teach your kids, he's coming. Because we have to be ready for that. Because if you die tomorrow, he's coming. You may be asleep, but you wake up, right? And he's coming. So we need to be prepared for it.

So I'm going to look at in the New Testament now some of the passages that talk about the day of the Lord. And I want you to show the emphasis. Remember, especially Paul. We're going to read a lot of Paul's writings. Paul believed until late in his ministry that it was going to happen in his lifetime. Because he says it. Those of us are alive when he comes back, right? And then later it's like, oh no, it's beyond my life.

And he actually recognizes that and he tells people, it's beyond my lifetime. It's beyond us that's going to happen. All the disciples thought it was happening in their lifetime at the beginning. Remember when Jesus ascended to heaven? And they said, when are you going to set up the kingdom? What are you doing? You're supposed to set up the kingdom on earth right now. No, it's not time. They had no idea.

They did later. I mean, John, the last of them who wrote it all down in Revelation was like, whoa, this is a long time. There's a long time before that happens. But every generation of Christians is motivated to a certain degree by this may happen in my lifetime. And I can tell you in the course of human history, I can understand why in the Middle Ages people thought it was going to happen.

Between the bubonic plague and people killing each other, and between 25 and 30 percent of everybody in Europe died. And they thought, this is it. Revelation is being fulfilled.

Well, those who understand Revelation, the Catholic Church wouldn't let people read Revelation, so only a handful were able to even read it.

So how are we, as people, who look and say, this could happen in our lifetimes? And we should have that viewpoint. This could happen in our lifetimes. And you and I live in a world that could fall apart just like that. It's always so negative. That's reality. Anyone who has studied history knows we're at a crossroads worldwide. It's not just that we're so caught up in the United States. We're missing what's happening all over the world. I mean, how many, some of you probably know, I don't know when to raise a hand, but Poland shut off China's, there's a train system that runs all the way from central China into Europe and supplies Europe with a whole lot of its goods, electronic goods and things like that. And because Russia has been threatening Poland, because Belarus has been doing all kinds of military maneuvers right on their border, and because Russian drones have been coming over Poland, Poland has rebuilt its army in the last five years. It has one of the largest and probably most professional armies in all of Europe. And they said, we won't live in fear anymore, and they shut down the railroad system. It takes maybe a week, ten days to get goods from China into Europe. It takes 30 to 40 days and costs a lot more to send it by ship. China's going to watch their economy possibly collapse. And they said, you either tell the Russians, your ally, to stop it in Ukraine and stop threatening us, or we're shutting it down. And you think, oh, okay, it takes a little longer. No. Here's the scary thing. France and Germany, who usually tell Poland, stop it. Come on, get control of yourself. Haven't said a thing.

Now, that doesn't seem like much. That could turn into the Third World War within 72 hours. Now, I'm not saying it is. I'm not trying to scare anybody. I'm saying the world is in a place it hasn't been in since 1930s. It's not organized yet, but it's coming apart. In the 1930s, the world fell apart because of the Great Depression. It just fell apart. It's doing this now.

So, could it be the time? Oh, I know, as I get up every day and think, yeah, it could be. But then I live my life with joy because why. Now we're going to go on and look at what the New Testament says. Those of you who think it's going to happen in your lifetime, which they did, and every other generation probably, if Christians have, here's how you approach life. Not in fear, not in, well, I might as well not have children, might as well not have a good job. That's not our approach. Our approach is to live life the way God designed it to be lived as Christians. So let's look at what it says. 2 Thessalonians 2. We're going to look at a lot of writings from Paul here. Because remember, Paul struggled with this himself. That's what makes it so interesting to me.

This passage in 2 Thessalonians 2 talks about the man of sin. It's actually a prophecy about the beast and the false prophet. But I'm not going to read all that. I'm going to read what he says as he leads up to it. Because we get into the beast and the false prophet because, well, that's part of the day of the Lord. That's true. But here's how he introduces it. Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you're gathering together to Him, we ask you not to be soon shaken and minor troubled, neither by spirit or by word or by letter, as if it came from us, as though the day of Christ has come. He said, okay, the day of Christ doesn't happen yet. So let's not begin to live without joy, without peace, without long suffering, without gentleness and mercy and faith, the fruits of the Spirit. Let's not give those up. And he says, because the day of Christ hasn't come yet. When it happens, you will know it. You know, there are thousands and thousands of Protestants who believe that the rapture is happening today.

It's not going to happen. It's all over the YouTube, all over the Internet. You know, you can get 200,000 people to click on your YouTube show if you're saying the rapture is happening on September 23rd. Of course, some of them started to back off of it a little bit lately because, like, what if it doesn't happen? Well, I'm just guessing it's going to happen. So they started to back off, you know, two months ago it's happening. Now it's like, what could happen?

Everybody's waiting for this time period to happen. We will know it. It won't be hidden. When Christ comes back and there's a resurrection of the dead. Let's go to 1 Thessalonians 4. But you notice what he says? That we're not shaken in mind. Not shaken in mind. And remember, those people are suffering a whole lot more than you and I are. We're living in the most incredible time. No one kept us from coming here today. You're not in danger of a mob coming out here and dragging us out and stoning us. You're not in danger of the police coming up and taking us off to prison like these people were faced with all the time.

You and I have been given this blessing from God to live at this time and this place, and we have this opportunity.

Yes, we have to be aware of this. Yes, we have to be aware of what's going on in the world around us. Because this world's falling apart, and Satan and the demons are getting more and more active. This is going to happen. But what we have to do is keep remembering what Paul had to keep telling those people to remember when they thought it was going to happen in the next moment. I mean, they lived at the time of the beast. In their minds, I mean, the Roman Empire was there. He said, well, yeah, but there's different, you know, the Roman Empire falls and comes back and falls and comes back. You and I only know that because of the book of Revelation. And they didn't have the book of Revelation.

So we take things for granted. They did not know.

So Paul says to them in 1 Thessalonians 4, and there's something he tells him to do. I read this at a lot of funerals. There's something he tells him to do that you and I need to do.

He says, but I do not want you, this is verse 13, I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrows others who have no hope. So he's saying, okay, he's talking to people who have had lost, people who had died. All of us in this room have, if you're young enough and you haven't yet, it will happen. You're going to lose important people in your lives. You're going to face people, or the loss of someone you love very much, a friend, a family member.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. Now it's interesting, so much of the emphasis of Paul in a time when the world was a bad place to be a Christian, at that time his emphasis wasn't on Christ returning and, you know, all this violence and all the things that are going to happen. Now he talked about it. It's not like he ignored it. Peter talks about it.

John talks about it. But they all had a different emphasis, which was, you are going to be taken care of by God, even if you die. See, I don't like that message. I don't know about you. Maybe he's, oh yeah, good, I want to be a martyr. I don't like it. Their whole point was, you have to know who you are and why you were called and who called you and his purpose and the life he wants for you and the future he is promising you.

He promises you a future. And this world's just learning. This is a learning period to be prepared for that future. And we have to believe in that future. He says, for this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, while by no means proceed those who are asleep. A little hard to believe in the rapture when you think you proceed those people are asleep, right? Yeah, I get to go to heaven because asleep means you're not awake.

It means you're waiting your resurrection. So what he's saying here is those who are alive at Christ's return won't go up first. Those who are dead go up first. And everybody meets him in the air. For the Lord himself would descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God. The seven trumpets. The seventh seal consists of seven trumpets.

We talked about the seals, we only got to number six. The seventh seal is seven trumpets, and at the last trumpet, Christ returns. This is the feast of trumpets. Interesting, it's not one, it's more than one. That all those events that are the day of the Lord, towards the end of the tribulation, God intervenes.

And when he does, it's the day of the Lord. He's coming back to take his earth back by force. Christ came the first time not to take it by force. He comes back the second time to take it by force. For the Lord himself would descend, verse 16, once again, from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall be with the Lord always. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

He said, when you talk about the day of the Lord and the prophecies and all the things that are very important, we need to know. We can't hide from them. He says, but comfort each other with we know what God is doing. We don't know all the details. I can't. People come up all the time.

Is this fulfilling prophecy? I don't know. How do you interpret this? I don't know. I can give you ideas. I can tell you what I do know. The important thing is when it happens we'll know it because we know this. And his instructions to people is, yes, we will see death along the way. And yes, remember the sixth seal, or the fifth seal. The fifth seal is there will be people killed for following God at that time.

We say, why would that happen maybe to us because this happened to every generation of Christians from the beginning. Somebody dies in their service to God. I don't like that. It makes me want to retire from the ministry because then I don't even know who I am. But I can't, can I? So, we look at this, give each other hope. Yes, I understand. Yes, this is frightening. But no, I'm not going to go live in a cave.

I'm going to live my life in the world. I'm going to have a happy family life. I'm going to take care of myself. I'm going to be, you know, successful. That doesn't always mean rich. But I'm going to live a successful life, a happy life before God. I'm going to weather the bad times because there's going to be lots of bad times. That's what life is in this world. Because I know, and we comfort each other with, we know what the end of this is.

We know what He's doing. And we know Christ is coming back. And we know about the resurrection. Look at Hebrews 9.28.

Hebrews 9.28.

This is in the middle of a sentence. Well, let's go to verse 27 because it sort of completes the sentence here. And as is an appointment for men to die once, but after this, the judgment. There has to be a resurrection.

Sometimes it's hard to eagerly expect Jesus Christ when all you see is the bad in this world. We live in Satan's world. Everything in this world, nothing truly works, right? Nothing truly works, right? You get little bits and pieces of things that work. But nothing truly works. All governments fail. All organizations fail. All movements fail. Everything eventually fails. And everybody gets disillusioned. We can't be disillusioned because this isn't where we think the solutions happen. Now that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to help others and be part of a solution.

We are to try to help others and not just ourselves.

We are to try to help others and be kind to others as part of what Christ tells us.

But you can't solve it, can you? I mean, sometimes I look at homeless people and I just, I want to help them. Maybe I can help one person in front of me. I can't help them all. There's no solution to it. Christ's return is the only solution. So you help where you can. And that's all you can do. This is bigger than us. This is what it takes. And so he says here that we eagerly wait for His return. We eagerly wait for His salvation to be given to all.

So, are we eagerly waiting for Christ's return? Are we living this time in fear and hoping it doesn't happen in my lifetime and hoping that it doesn't interfere with what I want, my goals, my dreams?

Forgetting that what He brings is so much greater than anything we can come up with.

So much greater. But we lose that in our hurts and our pains. We lose that in our successes sometimes. We get so successful, we lose. Am I eagerly waiting? It's like the minister told me he was in Africa. I think I've told you this before. And he says, I will pray for you. It was one of the UCG churches. I can't remember the country. And he said, all the people said, oh no, we pray for you. You have so much, we don't know how you'll ever really obey God. He says, I came home a humbled man. Do we eagerly wait? It's hard to eagerly wait sometimes because we have so much. We have so much. And I'm not saying to go give it all up. I'm saying follow this. Eagerly wait. Believe in the greatness of what's going to happen, the greatness of God, and what Christ is going to do when He comes.

We have to have this humility. He talks about Christ being sacrificed. Our humility before Christ. I know all of you, many of you have talked to me about this every place I've ever lived. And I will say I've struggled with some of the same things. And that is, I'm so weak, I'm so small. How can God do this? Our faith isn't in ourselves, it can't be in ourselves. It can't be, if I'm just good enough, God will accept me because you can't be good enough. Now that's not saying we're not striving for Him to be good. What it is, we have to let God do the work in us. We submit to it. We're constantly submitting to what He says is right. What He says is good. We're not trying to earn it. We're trying to be developed into His child. When He comes back, He's coming back for those who eagerly wait. He's coming back for those who say, yes, change me. Yes, be with me. Yes, guide me. Yes, correct me. And yes, love me and take care of me too because I messed up a lot at the time. That is who the people He's coming for. So He's coming for the perfect. Well, if you're perfect, I guess He is. I just have never met anybody like that. If you think you're perfect, that's okay. Don't tell me. It'll just discourage me, right?

He's coming back for those who are saying, yes, I will pay the price to be what you want me to be. It's worth it. And I will live in anticipation of today, not giving up the anticipation of today, getting married, having children, having grandchildren, having a good job, having a nice car. If you have those things, that's great. And yet there are some of you here that don't have nice cars. There are some of you here that may not be married. There are some of you here that are struggling with your job. That's life, too. None of that, when you're at the top or at the bottom, is supposed to stop us from eagerly waiting for the events of the Day of the Lord. Not all the terrible events, but the fact that the only solution actually comes. And that's why there's this positive message in the New Testament over and over again. Just look at a couple more here from Paul. 1 Corinthians 1. Once again, I find Paul's viewpoint from a man who thought Christ was coming back in his lifetime to come to the realization he isn't, and how he lived his life in that time period of transitioning between yes and no, and understanding. And the remarkable positive approach he had to life because of this knowledge.

1 Corinthians 1, verse 4, I thank my God always concerning you, talking to the brethren at Corinth, the most rebellious, most dysfunctional church imaginable. It's just a mess.

He says, he thanks God because God had called them. He's talking about the day of the Lord, which is also called the day of Christ.

Our Lord. Now when you look at Corinth, there were people in that church who left the church, who left the fellowship, that turned her back on God. He's not talking to them. He's talking to those who are staying what they're doing. They're staying in a relationship with God, and they're eagerly waiting for his coming. Corinth was a very wealthy city. It wasn't like some churches or cities that were in poverty. Even the church in Smyrna, we know from Revelation, lived in abject poverty. The average church person there lived in abject poverty. Corinth was a pretty rich place. It was famous for its riches. He says to them, but they had their spiritual problems. But he says to them that if they just stay faithful, he will do what they need. He will give them what they lack. Do we believe that he's going to give us what we lack if we stay with him? That he will complete his work? The only way God won't complete his work in us is if we give up on him and we stop submitting to him. We stop following. We stop trying to love him. That's the greatest commandment to love God. We stop understanding who Jesus Christ is and giving entirely our life to him as our sacrifice and the one God is using. And we don't follow his spirit. God's spirit comes into us, his mind, and he leads us. And when we reject that, we can't eagerly wait for his return because that's not what's important to us anymore.

Our whole viewpoint of life becomes very myopic. And you know, that's normal for human beings to do this. What he's saying here is abnormal behavior. We're all myopic, right? We live every day in our little box. And what Paul keeps saying, expand that box, look at where God wants you to go. It's called the Day of the Lord. Oh, the terrible day, yes. Remember it's also the Day of Christ, and you live for that day of Christ. You live for him coming back because he's going to give you what God wants to give you.

That's hard to do. It's not easy with our little brains, living in our own little world. Philippians 1.6. These are all places where Paul brings this into a real clear context. Philippians 1.6. He's like, wow, you take the whole Day of the Lord, instead you want to talk about the fifth seal? The fifth seal? I like the seventh seal, the seven trumpets. And, you know, nah, we're just going to deal with persecution on the people of God, which happened in the past, and according to that will happen in the future. And the focal point that we have to have, whether we're persecuted or not, Philippians 1.6, breaking into the middle of a sentence here, but being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. You can put the Day of the Lord in here. He will complete this if we'll let him. He won't take away your free will.

That's the hardest thing. We resist God because of our own free will, and he won't take it away. He says you have to submit it to me, and that he will do the work. Until Christ comes back, as long as we're submitting and working and committed and constantly repentant, constantly letting God change us, he will do it until that day. You know why he doesn't say after that day? Because we'll be perfected. We will be changed into spirit beings. That's why.

One last section of Scripture. 1 Thessalonians 5.

Verse 1. But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, Paul says, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the Day of the Lord, so Day of the Lord, Day of Christ, interchangeable, so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them. As labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape, the world is going to get so bad, and then there's going to be a period where the beast and false prophet get control of the economy. And for a short period of time, it seems like the world is saved. They don't last very long. Even they collapse. And a world war begins that if Christ doesn't intervene, no one will survive. You, brethren, are not in darkness. And he wrote it to those people in Thessalonica, and it's just as important for us today. When we face these prophetic things that are going to happen, and quite possibly in our lifetime, I believe it. But, you know, if it's not, that's okay. It doesn't change anything. It doesn't change a thing. Because it's going to happen in God's time. He says, you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief. We shouldn't be surprised when we see the things happening. Why? Because he told us they would happen. You know, ever since I was a child, I've heard nothing but all kinds of speculation. Oh, this is the day of the Lord. This is causing the tribulation. This is doing that. This is doing this. And so far, none of it has. But the trends just keep getting worse and worse and worse. It keeps heading more and more towards this point. So I, you know, I talked about the thing happening in Poland. I'm not saying that's the beginning of the tribulation. I'm just saying it makes our entire world destabilized. And I don't know what happens next week. Maybe it'll sort of correct itself. That's okay. Something else will come along. It's going to continue to go in a certain direction. So it shouldn't take us by surprise. You are, verse 5, you are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. In other words, knowing these things keeps us spiritually centered. It's not wrong to have physical things. It's not wrong to love your physical life. God made us physical and He made physical life to be lived by us. But what He's saying is, don't get so myopic. Remember, you don't live in darkness and the world around you has a lot of darkness in it. There's some light. You know, not every person you meet is absolutely evil, right? There's some light here, but we have a great light that's been given to us.

And that's not so that we can just shine other people with that light. Oh, look how much light I have. It is to help us stay centered on God and on Christ and what's going to happen. He goes on, for those who sleep, sleep at night and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath. Let that sink in a minute. God didn't call you here to have Jesus punish you when He returns. Now, we give this up, He is going to punish us when He returns. But that's not why He called us. God called us not to suffer the wrath of Christ.

Now, we may suffer the wrath of Satan, but that's two different things. We will not suffer the wrath of Christ because we haven't been called for that.

For God did not appoint us to wrath, but what? But to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, in other words, whether we're alive when this happens or we die and we're resurrected when this happens, we should live together with Him. And once again, what does He say here? We've already read where He said this in another passage. Therefore, comfort each other and edify one another just as you're also doing.

There's going to be the sound of a spiritual shofar that announces Christ is coming. There will be seven, and at that seventh one, He's going to touch down on the Mount of Olives and the Day of the Lord. He's going to take over the world, and unfortunately, because of humanity under Satan's influence, it's going to be violent. And then what's He do? He removes Satan. Humanity now has a chance. Humanity has the opportunity to actually know God without that deception. God has called you to escape the wrath of the Lamb.

We look at the wrath of Satan. All the bad things are going to happen. Yeah, we may have to endure some of that. But that's not the point. You have been called to be saved from the wrath of the Lamb, to be accepted into the family of God at that time.

And that's why, even when we look at what this day pictures, it's not just to be all the bad, all the negative, all the horror of what's going to happen. Yes, we should look at it. But we're also to look at the promise that has been given to us if we would just submit so that He can complete the work He started in us. So I'm going to try to do one more blast. If I can't, Mike, you may have to come up. I'm going to have to practice next time.

Almost.