A Tale of Two Destinies

ReCAST Church of Mattawan

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listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Felsick takes us through his series,

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Hope Rising, from the book of First Thessalonians. Let's listen in. Well, good morning.

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Good morning. Welcome to Recast Church. I'm Don Felsick. I'm the lead pastor here, and I am very grateful that God has brought us all together here this morning to worship him on this muggy summer

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Sunday morning. We have the privilege to worship him all week long, and I hope you take advantage of that.

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We hopefully are gathering together as a people who have been worshiping him in the things that we say, in the way that we work, in the way that we relate to family and friends, the way we battle sin and don't give up in that battle.

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But on Sunday mornings, we come together to be reminded that we are not alone in the worship of God.

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That's one of the fundamental reasons why God has given us the church, is to be together in community, connected with each other.

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We are not the only project that God has going.

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And sometimes we can feel like that, right? Sometimes you can feel like that. And at the same time, we gather together on a

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Sunday morning to remember that he has a lot of projects going, and we're part of a bigger picture. And others need us in their lives, and we need others in our lives.

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And look around, and you can see that in the gathering of God's people.

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We come together to realize that we are together in each other's lives, so that we can be a part of what

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God is doing in each other. In love, we serve each other. In love, we encourage one another.

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In love, we care for one another. And in our text this morning, we're going to be looking at a passage that ends with the command to encourage one another and build one another up.

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We are commanded to enter into relationship with others.

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That's more than just friending each other on Facebook. That's more than just following each other on Twitter.

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There's a reality to face -to -face connection that I fear our culture is losing, and the art of just general, like, doing life together.

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And we need to be reminded of this. It's more and more, I think, as our technological age advances, the value and the necessity of getting together and seeing one another and encouraging one another and building one another up and even being accountable with one another.

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But as we study this text this morning, we will see a very specific angle to the encouragement we're being told to give to one another.

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Last week, we talked about the fate of those who have died as followers of Jesus. But this week, now,

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Paul tackles the end times in general. Now, how many of you have some level of interest in end times?

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Like, that's just kind of, at least at some point, it's piqued your interest, and I understand that, and it has mine as well, especially going through a series in the book of Revelation, studying that.

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And we've obviously had some novels that were produced in the past couple decades that really heightened a level of interest.

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And then in the 80s, any pastor worth his weight in salt was preaching through the end times, right?

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Like, you had that whole, like, at some point in the 80s, does anybody remember a pastor going through a series on end times?

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I'm the only one. I was just my pastor then, but I just like to think everybody has my exact experience.

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But I think that was a pretty popular theme, 70s, 80s, back in that era, a big deal.

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His teaching on this subject, though, Paul addressing to the Thessalonians about the end times has a purpose to it.

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It is meant to be fuel for our encouragement and for our edification. You see, the things that Paul teaches about the end times here in our text that we're going to read here in just a moment and then walk through in the sermon later, these things that he's teaching are intended to have an impact on the way we live here and now, not just pie in the sky, not just future intrigue.

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You see, so often people research or study even passages like this because they talk about the end times out of curiosity.

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Like, it's out of curiosity and trying to form a timeline or something like that to try to figure out the ins and outs of when is

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Jesus coming back, how is it all going to come down and all of that. It's a sensational subject with all kinds of mystery and intrigue involved in it.

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But Paul here does quite the opposite in our text. If anything, we will see

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Paul water down the sensationalism instead of hype it up. He's going to literally water down the sensationalism and instead he highlights the routine, everyday, mundane implications of the great day of the

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Lord and the way that it's meant to impact our lives in the here and now.

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So let's open our Bibles, if you're not already there, to 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 1 to 11. Again, that's 1

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Thessalonians 5, 1 through 11. If you have a means to navigate there, if you have a device, you can check it out on your app or whatever.

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But if you don't have a Bible, Mike has some back here. And if you just raise your hand, we've got a couple down here that would like to have a copy of that.

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He's got it already open there, and so if anybody else...

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But we're going to be reading together 1 Thessalonians 5, 1 through 11, recast

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God's very words to us. This is what he desires to communicate. We have such a privilege in holding this book in our hands.

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This is the very written word of God. This is what he speaks and what he says.

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And so 1 Thessalonians 5, 1 through 11, follow along. Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.

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For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, there is peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman and they will not escape.

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But you, but you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.

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For you are all children of the light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.

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So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.

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But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.

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For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our

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Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with him.

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Therefore encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing.

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Let's pray. Father, I thank you for encouragement.

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I thank you for the reality of a destination changed. Father, many of us are very cognizant and aware of the destiny that we all deserve, and we specifically deserve, and yet through the death of Christ, our destiny has been altered and shifted to a glorious reality of not being in the darkness at the return of your

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Son, but being in the light and being children of the day. Father, you are here in this text declaring what is true of those who are your followers.

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And so, Father, I pray that you would help us to walk as children of the light, as children of the day, and not be sleeping, not be drunk, as the text says, in a metaphorical sense of the events around us and the things that are going on on a daily basis, but,

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Father, that we would walk sober and wise in this world, and be the light, be the salt to the world around us.

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Father, I recognize that there are people here that are hurting, and really, they're having a hard time even seeing outside of themselves because their circumstances and situations and frustrations in their family and at their workplace and financially and all different, a whole host of things that could be drawing down attention right now.

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Father, I pray that you would help us over this next hour, and I have to really focus our attention on you and on your glory and on your majesty, and let the things that concern us fade away in the light of this eternal hope that we have in you.

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Father, to a person in this room, please speak to us through your word. And as we have an opportunity to praise you in song this morning,

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Father, I pray that we would lift up our voices and that our voices would be combined together as a beautiful sound before your throne, recognizing that you are the one who is worthy, you are the one who has redeemed us, and all joy should be rendered unto you, and all thanks should be rendered unto you because of your great salvation given to us, and because you are worthy in Jesus' name.

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Well, again, thanks to the band for leading us in worship this morning. I'm just very grateful for their willingness to serve us with their talents and abilities and gifts, and I know it's their desire as well to just kind of fade into the background and let us really worship

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God, and so I just appreciate their heart in that. I would encourage you to get comfortable as much as possible during the next half an hour or so.

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Remember, there's more coffee, juice, or donuts while supplies last there, so take advantage of that. And then keep your

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Bibles open to 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 1 through 11. Again, that's going to be our text for the morning, and we're going to walk through that, so having that open, you'll see me reference different verses, and I'm going to just march through that with an explanation of that text so that God can speak to us through it in our understanding.

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But the Left Behind book series, how many of you are familiar with them, read at least one or two of those, or at least have heard of them?

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Yes? Okay, a lot of us. A book series in the late 90s that renewed a craze regarding the study of the apocalypse, the end times, the rapture, and all of the events that unfold there from a specific perspective of interpretation of Scripture.

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And the way that this all ends has been a fascinating concept to all people down through the ages, and even people without a

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Christian understanding still live in fear of the end of the world. Have any of you ever even, have you seen even things like that in the news?

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Have you seen like scientists like talking about how big our star's going to get, and how it's going to suck us in, or maybe a black hole's going to swing past our galaxy and take it in or something, or you know, you just every once in a while you hear something like that, right?

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Are you guys, are you tracking with me? So that kind of stuff happens even when it's not coming, again, from a

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Christian perspective. You know, will we global warm ourselves out of a home, okay, will we accidentally turn the thermostat too high and torch our house?

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Will the sun consume the earth? Will extraterrestrials come up against us only to be defeated by Will Smith?

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I mean, questions abound, right? They're everywhere. I don't know if that's the movie I was looking for, but yeah,

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Will Smith, Aliens, he seems to have some kind of connection there, I don't know if you've noticed, but questions abound about this kind of thing.

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And so we come to a text of Scripture that proposes to give us all a sufficient understanding of the end times.

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This text is going to suggest to you that found within these pages, now certainly Revelation comes later, it's going to be recorded as the last revealed book of the entire canon of Scripture, and certainly there's some details in there that we need to reconcile with this passage, and we walked through that last year, and hopefully you gained some traction in your understanding of Revelation.

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Hopefully it's not as scary of a book as it might have been to you beforehand. Hopefully you recognize it as a glorious book of the worship of the

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Lamb of God who is taking away the sins of the world. But this passage for this early church,

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Paul is saying he's giving a sufficient understanding in just a sentence or two. He's giving you what you really deep down need to know.

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Now Scripture's going to reveal more than that to us, but this would be sufficient if it's all that you knew to get by and to grow and to exceed in your walk with God.

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They have all they need to know, according to Paul saying the church in Thessalonica has all that they need to know.

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And he even uses the word they are fully aware of the most important and fundamental teaching that the church needs regarding what he calls times and seasons, which is also called the day of the

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Lord, which times and seasons is a Greek euphemism for the end of days or the end of time.

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Now I consider myself a student of the Bible. I hope that you do as well. Consider yourself also a student of the

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Bible. I've read it cover to cover a dozen times or so, probably more than that. I went to Bible college.

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I study it almost daily. I preach it. I pray it. I teach it. I say it. I spend a lot of time in the word of God.

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And I've always thought of 1 Thessalonians as that end times book about the rapture.

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I mean, if you had just said 1 Thessalonians, I'd be like, oh, so you're going to go into end times. You're going to dig into that. And I had that category in my mind before I ever came to preach this text this week about this specific passage of scripture.

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And then I studied it in depth and I dug into it and I let it run over my mind and immerse myself in this text from early on Monday morning until today.

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And I've been thinking about it and praying about it and studying it and writing a sermon about it. And I feel somewhat corrected in my understanding of the purpose of this text this week.

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So have you ever done that? Have you ever thought, oh, I know what this passage is about. I know what this is. And then you read it and you study it and you're like, oh,

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I might have been wrong for years. Like I might not have had it all down. Or even just according to the circumstances in your life, sometimes it hits you in a different place in a different time and you're like, oh, now

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I get it. It was confusing to me before, but now I'm beginning to understand it.

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This text is meant to encourage us and build us up.

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It's meant to encourage us and build us up. It is not here to primarily educate us in the way that the rapture is going to go down.

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That's not what it's here for. As a matter of fact, if anything, Paul is trying to divert our attention from all of the various nuanced questions that we have about the end times.

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How many of you have some questions about the end times? This is not the passage for it. And you might be, you might find yourself a little bit disappointed with how much detail

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Scripture in general is willing to give you. You have more questions than Scripture is willing to answer you on the way that it's going to go.

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And I think that's on purpose. I don't think it's that God was limited in His ability to tell us how it's all going to work.

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I think it wouldn't necessarily be to your benefit to know how it's all going to go down in the end.

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So Paul's trying to divert our attention from that sensationalism by what he says we need to know about the end.

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He is simplifying for the church the fundamental things that we need to know about the end of time. And we are being called here by faith to rest and trust in a very simple reality, a very simple understanding of what you and I need to know about the end of time.

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The fundamental reality is that there are two distinct destinies for all of humanity that are played out in these, in these verses.

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And the last day will reveal those two destinies. And Paul spells out the destiny of a world without Jesus in verses 1 through 3.

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And then he clarifies the destiny of those who have been saved through Jesus Christ in verses 4 through 11.

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So really, this passage is about destinies and being encouraged that if you are in Christ, your destiny has been changed, gloriously changed.

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So let's take off this first point here. Let's start with the destiny of those who choose to stay in darkness.

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They are even in our text called children of the darkness or children of the night. In verse 1,

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Paul signals that he is now addressing a new topic by introducing the phrase times and seasons.

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He commends them for their understanding about what we would call end times things. He says, you church, you've already got a significant understanding about this.

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Good job. You've got what you need. He says, I don't need to write to you anymore. But for the benefit of all readers, including us, he goes on to reiterate to them what they already fully know that we need to make sure we understand as well.

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But I want to pause for just a moment between verses 1 and 2 and point out that Paul is saying that they have the end times figured out.

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Does that ruffle anybody the wrong way? They've got it figured out. He's saying that to the church in Thessalonica.

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You've got it. You've got it figured out. They don't need any further teaching on this.

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Further, it may be unsatisfactory to many of us that Paul will sum up everything that they need to know about the end times in one sentence that stretches from verse 2 and then is illustrated in the second half of that sentence in verse 3.

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Paul was able to exhaust what they needed to know regarding end times in one sentence.

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And this implies that our extensive curiosity is not going to be satisfied. And it's probably even misguided that we have such a curiosity.

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Do we trust? There's a fundamental question that all of us need to answer this morning. Do we trust that Scripture is enough?

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Do we trust that what is revealed to us is enough? I think we often crave more.

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And God has allowed some things for us to remain a mystery. And we need to be settled in that.

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But look at what we're being told is fundamental regarding the end times. Let's study what is here. What he is saying. Look at verse 2 to see what the

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Thessalonians understood as the most important. And it is simply wrapped up in this statement. You do well to know this, church.

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You do well to know this recast. The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

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The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. There you go. There's your end times lesson for the day.

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Now we need to pull that out a little bit and come to understand it. But this is the fundamental teaching about the coming of Christ.

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It'll be like a thief in the night. Well in what way? The coming of Jesus will be a sudden surprise.

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It will not be expected. It could happen at any time. And it will come quite unannounced.

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Unannounced. How does a thief show up at someone's house? They send you a card and ask for, you know, what's a convenient time for you?

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Do they, you know, announce, you know, honk the horn on the way in? How do they show up?

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Quiet, with stealth, with surprise. What we need to know is quite simple.

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And wrapped up in this phrase, his return will be like a thief in the night. Wrapped up in all of that, the coming of the

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Son of Man will be like a thief in the night, is some fundamental things as we pick it apart to understand. He's coming back.

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How many of you know that that's fundamental? That's fundamental teaching that is important for all of us to understand.

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He is returning. And he's returning for his children. And it will be sudden.

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It will be surprising to all. And it will be relatively unannounced, as I said. You might plan for a thief, by the way.

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Some of you have. Some of you have, you know, in some ways. How many of you would say that maybe it's your job to be the last one to make sure that the doors are locked in your house at night?

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You planned for a thief. Why did you lock it? Why would you even bother to do so if you weren't thinking that something was possible?

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You know, you weren't thinking a monster was going to come through the door. I mean, if you're mature, right? You know, you weren't thinking about an alien invasion.

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You were thinking about a thief or someone who wanted to do harm to your family coming through the door. That's why you have locks on that, baby.

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You might even purchase a home security system, right? But nobody buys a home security system.

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This is the funniest thing, expecting to use it, planning the day that you're going to use it, right?

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You don't make a plan for that. You just buy it, you know, to cover your bases, right?

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But you don't have any anticipation. I mean, how many of you, that's the kind of thing that you hope never gets used, right?

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You buy it hoping that it never gets applied and never gets used. Nobody is ever,

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I don't know if you've ever noticed this. Nobody is ever unsurprised by a break -in. Nobody's ever like, yeah,

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I saw that coming. Even if you've got the security system, even if you plan for it, even if you lock the doors, you're still surprised every time it happens.

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And Paul goes on, all in the context, by the way, of defining the destiny of a world without Jesus.

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Remember, that's these first three verses, it's defining that understanding. He says, people will be saying at the time of the return of the

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Son of Man, peace and security. They've got their

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ADT system in place. They've got everything well sewn up, and they think everything is going just fine.

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Two thumbs up, peace and security, when sudden destruction comes upon them.

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Jesus says something similar himself in the gospel, saying that the end times will be like the days of Noah, when people were getting married and having celebrations.

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The imagery in the text, by the way, informs us a little bit about the life of Noah and his generation.

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They were living life, business as usual. It says having wedding celebrations.

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People were getting married. They were planning for the long haul. Things were going as normal. Their investments were going well.

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Everything was looking up. And one day, you know, I mean, there's ups and downs in routine life, joys and sorrows, celebrations, funerals going on every day.

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And one day the rain started and didn't stop until it was all wiped out.

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Because one day that first drop fell on everyday life, routine life.

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And one day the drop fell and didn't stop until everything was wiped out except for those on the ark.

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The illustration is stark. It should remind us of the echoes of our world, our culture, our country.

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But even more pointedly, when we see that cry, peace and security, it ought to convict us to some degree.

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Because how have we made that our cry? Peace and security.

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You hear it all over in the news. You hear it all over coming from our society, from our culture, from safe spaces, from all different kinds of things, the schools, you know, getting all kinds of new security systems and different things because of all the tragedies that have happened in our world.

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Working towards what? Peace and security. But lest we only look at the world or the systems of the world or the cultural institutions or things like that, let's take a moment to look at our own hearts regarding peace and security.

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How much of your life is used up trying to construct peace? Be honest.

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Be brutally honest with yourself. You're not, you're not, you know, you're not doing yourself a favor by tricking yourself into thinking, yeah,

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I'm all good on this, Don. I've got that, I've got that sewed up. How much of your life goes into your personal peace?

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How much energy goes into paper shacks, skim -coated veneer of security over your life?

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401ks, gated communities, concealed weapon training, overtime to make a little more,

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Dave Ramsey, financial tenacity so you can live like no one else.

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Peace, security, peace. And all of it works to attempt to control our future, to provide for ourselves.

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Who does all of this stuff take care of? Myself. But right here, my peace, my security.

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And the implication probably if we were to really, who would we, if somebody was watching our lives, where would others think our peace and security rests?

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Convicting. By the way, I'm not suggesting at all that you stop planning for the future.

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I'm not, I'm not deriding anybody in the room. I think it's probably pretty wise if you've used

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Dave Ramsey's stuff and if you've listened to him and I think he's got some very wise counsel and some good things to say.

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But I would suggest to you that this text this morning wants to correct anyone, any nation, any people who thinks that they can future proof their lives with enough savings, with enough life insurance or enough hard work or planning or determination.

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It will be at the point that most people feel most secure and most peaceful that the judge will break into all time and destruction will come upon those who have rejected him.

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The day will come to them like a thief in the night, like labor pains come upon a pregnant woman.

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How many of you know that even in that illustration there's some expectation that it's coming and yet it's still a surprise when it happens, right?

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You might have the bags packed, you might not, right? But even if you've got the bags packed and you're ready for that day, it's still like, oh, here we are.

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It's happening now. And once the labor pains, remembering that it's an illustration, once the labor pains of the end of time begin, they will not end until the birth of the new kingdom of King Jesus.

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Once those labor pains start, it will carry itself to completion.

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God will carry it to completion. And the text is abundantly clear.

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As clear as day, those who have opposed him will not escape that day.

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Please read these words for what they are in context. These are comforting words to a church that has endured significant persecution.

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They've endured beatings and quite likely some among them have even been killed at the hands of neighbors and mobs in their community who wanted to snuff out that new doctrine and that new teaching, that new church in Thessalonica.

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These are not words without context. This teaching about the destiny of those in opposition to Jesus come to a church that's been beset by wicked people.

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Sudden destruction. The great tribulation spoken of by various cycles of destruction and revelation comes after the return of Jesus Christ for his church.

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And great devastation will occur on this planet as God shakes the world to get our attention.

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And it will come like labor shows up one day. Everyone expects the labor to come, but always seems surprised when that day arrives.

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And that is the destiny of those who choose the darkness over the light.

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But second, we see the destination of those who are in with Jesus is quite different.

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And the rest of the text shows the end times from the perspective of those who are all in with Jesus Christ. And it's a different story altogether.

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Starting in verse 4, Paul shifts over to speaking to the Thessalonian church and about them.

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They are not in the darkness of sin. They are not in the darkness which represents rebellion or ignorance.

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For the church this day will not surprise us like a thief breaking in. I think we'll be surprised nonetheless, but I don't think it surprises us like a thief breaking in.

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Paul uses tons of interrelated metaphors here in our text. And thieves tend to break in under cover of darkness.

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But for the Christian, we do not receive the return of the king like one receives a thief.

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Jesus will not come to us like a thief. Jesus will come as one receives a king.

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There's an interesting problem, by the way, that needs to be resolved between verses 2 and 4, rather.

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Paul commends them for knowing that the return of Jesus will be sudden and surprising like a thief in the night.

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But now he tells them they need not be surprised. And the simple solution to this is that there are different types of surprises, aren't there?

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Can you know something's coming and still be surprised by it? We've kind of talked about that briefly already. Yeah, you can know it's coming.

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You can know that the labor and delivery is going to come upon a pregnant lady. And at the same time, it's like still a surprise when it happens.

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And you know it's coming. You even have a pretty good marker of the time. You can figure out relatively soon, give or take a couple of weeks.

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And so there's different types of surprises. There's the surprise that something is happening.

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And then there's the surprise that it is happening now. For the unbeliever, they will be surprised at the return of Jesus that it's even happening at all.

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They'll be shocked and stunned. A gape. Never saw that coming.

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Maybe some notion of having read the Left Behind series and thought it was a bunch of drivel. It's entertaining fiction or something like that.

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Maybe there would be some subtle understanding, but maybe not even the framework to understand what is happening.

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Maybe not even the framework of being able to process that. But for the believer,

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I still think we'll be surprised when it happens. Not surprised that it happens.

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Surprised when. We will not be surprised because the text tells us we are children of the light.

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We have been given the illumination of his word. That even now is teaching us this morning to be mindful that Jesus is indeed returning for us.

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We are not of the night. We are not of the darkness. We are children of the day. And where the return of Jesus for the unbeliever will be like the arrival of a thief to steal away their self -made kingdoms of authority, peace, and self -worship, and the security that they've tried to set around themselves.

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For the child of the light, for the child of the king, the arrival of the Son of God for us will be like the homecoming of a king into his rightful kingdom with joy and celebration and delight.

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It will look more like a great wedding reception under a tent in the middle of the day.

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That day will be light to those with Jesus and darkness to those who reject him.

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And so in verse 5, Paul explains our identity before he begins to issue any commands.

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This is fundamental. He tells us who we are first. And that because of a change that's happened in our hearts and because of a change of identity, then he tells us to respond and do things differently.

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First, he makes it clear that we are children of the day and children of the light.

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That is a title for anybody who is in with Christ, anybody who's had their sins washed away and forgiven by the blood of Jesus that was shed for them at the cross.

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You are a child of the day. I want you to think that's a great thing.

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Is that exciting? Some of you are sitting here right now. You might even have a hard time applying that title to yourself.

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Knowing the things you've said this week, knowing the places you've been, knowing the things that you've done, you might have a hard time believing it.

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But if you're in with Christ, it's true of you. And now the injunction is to live like it, right? It's not, oh,

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I can't be a child of the light because of the way I live, because my lifestyle's not good. No, it's because God has declared you a child of the light.

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Now he wants you to respond. Now he's given you his Holy Spirit to be convicted in your heart to know the good from the bad.

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And since we are children of the day, we should not sleep as others, but instead we should stay awake and be sober, the text tells us.

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Now, it might be hard to sort through Paul's use of metaphors here. He's not literally saying that you should forego sleep or sleep less or only get a couple of hours of sleep each night because the times are short and people might tell you all different kinds of things about that.

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But he is saying we should be watchful, mindful, careful, attentive in the way that we live and move and walk in this world.

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Because we are children of the light, because we know how this whole thing goes down, we should live according to that reality, that he is indeed returning for us and that there's an eternity out there beyond this life for those who are his.

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Our hope shouldn't be in earthly security. It should not be in weapons and missile shields in Alaska and 401ks, which are good things in and of themselves, but are not where our ultimate hope can lie.

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Or in our own ability to control our own destiny, as many of us are tempted to daily go into.

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But instead we should live as people of the light who know the King is coming back for us. And our security and peace rests in that, not in our ability to make ourselves safe.

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And our true security rests only in the one who loved us and gave himself for us. So you can see the contrast,

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I hope, between verses 6 and 7 here in the text. And I think everybody in this room knows a

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Christian who seems to be very well -meaning on the outside. As a matter of fact, I think it could be said that there are some, probably many of you know a non -Christian who acts better than a given

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Christian, right? And there's a lot of well -meaning people that are out there. But there's a fundamental rejection of the authority of Jesus on the inside from a child of the darkness.

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So when you say the word child of the night or child of the darkness, does that conjure up an image in your mind that's probably a little bit far cry from somebody that you know, that you work with in the office, that just, you know, gives to United Way and is pretty kind?

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Do you know what I'm talking about? I mean, is that the picture that you have in your mind when you think of child of the darkness?

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I mean, my goodness, we probably don't even like to think in those terms, right? Like, child of the darkness is one who has rejected the king.

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Flat out. Just rejected the king. And they might be doing really nice things in their own strength.

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They might be doing really nice things for themselves or for a whole host of motivations. I've talked with people who flat out say,

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I do kind things because it makes me feel good. Well, what if it doesn't make you feel good anymore?

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Then do you just stop? What if bad things make you feel good? Then you do that?

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There's no standard of morality and there's nothing in there that's really any deeper than my preferences.

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That's what they would say. It's a fundamental rejection of the authority of Jesus on the inside for a child of the darkness.

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They live and breathe and exist in the realm of sleep and drunkenness. And remember that we're still speaking metaphorically.

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It's not to say that everybody who you know that's not a believer is drunk half the time or something like that.

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Drunkenness is indeed declared to be a sin in Scripture. I want to clarify that. It's not merely metaphorical here.

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I mean, there is a sense in which other texts make it abundantly clear that you are not to drink to excess. It's no problem with having an alcoholic drink from time to time, but knowing your own limits is indeed the key.

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Obviously, if you're underage and you're listening to this, I did not just give you permission to drink. You need to follow your parents' rules and you need to follow the rules of this land.

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But here, drunkenness in our text is being used as a metaphor for general immorality, for a stupor about you, for a satisfaction with ignorance and foolishness and not being wise to the things that are true and real.

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Verse 7, by the way, is a general truism that is just kind of like maybe what a lot of your mamas used to say.

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Nothing good ever happens after midnight. Did any of your parents ever tell you that? Nothing good ever happens after midnight, and that's why your curfew is 10, 930, if you're listening to this and you're one of my...

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I'm just kidding. Nothing good ever happens after midnight, and those who live as children of the darkness live in a lack of knowledge and a lack of self -control.

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Take it as a truism. There are people who get drunk during the day. I don't know if you ever knew that. But this is saying generally the deeds of the darkness follow the darkness, and the night is when the real bad stuff comes out, right?

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By and large. But since we belong to the day, recast church, since we belong to the day, we are called to be sober.

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A sobriety for the children of the light requires that we remind ourselves of our standing with God, that we have already put on the flak jacket of faith and love.

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People don't wear breastplates anymore. It's a flak jacket. It's a bulletproof vest, if you will, of faith and love.

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And we've donned the helmet, put on the helmet of the hope of salvation. You have it on.

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If you're in with Christ, you have put those things on. Being saved takes for granted that you have a faith that believes, that you have a love that acts, that you have a hope that motivates you.

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You already have these things on in Christ. They're yours. So when summarizing what it means to be sober,

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Paul uses faith, love, and hope of salvation. These three are qualities that are to be exemplary in the follower of Christ.

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We are to trust God more. As children of the light, we are to trust Him more by faith, to believe what

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He says is true, to bank our lives on that. Second, we are to love

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God and others more. We are. I've said this many times, but the greatest command that God gives us, that Jesus has asked, what is the greatest?

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Good master, what is the greatest command? And He doesn't answer it with one. Remember the question.

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What is the greatest command? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

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Why does He answer with two when He's asked for one? Because I believe that the second modifies the first.

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How do you love God? Go off into the desert? Have a really long, quiet time for 20 years?

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Pray a lot and sing a lot on your own? Is that how you love God? You love

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God. You show me somebody who loves others as themselves, and I'll show you somebody who loves God.

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It's in the relationships that we show God our love for Him. So you have that love available to you in your heart through the recognition of Christ's sacrifice for you.

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Why do we love? How can we love? Because He first loved us.

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And then lastly, we live in the hope of salvation. We can endure hardships and live in joy, even when things aren't going our way, even when things are tough, because eternity is ours in Christ.

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The very nature of understanding these things, of these last two passages that we've been looking at in 1

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Thessalonians, is that by knowing that there's something out there beyond this, knowing that Christ is returning for you, that in that you place your hope and trust, that this life doesn't have to fulfill everything for you.

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It doesn't have to be everything. It doesn't promise to be everything. And you don't have to be disappointed when this life lets you down.

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And when things take a hard turn left, and everything goes south, and everything's crashing and burning around you in this life, you have hope for another one so much better than this, that the

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Christian doesn't have to scramble for every loose second and just suck the morrow carpe diem.

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That's not in the Bible. That's a pagan concept that ultimately is driven by suck the morrow out of this life because there's nothing else.

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How many of you know that if this is all that there is, man, you're wasting an hour and a half here this morning.

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Do you know what I'm saying? We should pity each other for being here if this is the only thing that there is.

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What a waste of time. But we have so much more to live for, don't we?

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And we can endure hardship because of the hope of salvation, because of the faith and trust that this isn't all there is.

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So much more available for us in Christ. And here comes a summary of our destiny as followers of Jesus, and it really serves as the main point of this entire text that gets so sensationalized here.

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God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Not wrath. Not wrath, but salvation. What a turn the gospel has made for you and me.

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In the gospel we have found nothing less than a shift in our destiny.

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A shift in our final destiny. What was once destined for wrath is now destined for salvation.

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We who were once enemies of God have been adopted as sons and daughters by Him.

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We who once were on the pathway of being eternal objects of His righteous wrath are now eternal objects of His delight and glory.

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The gospel changes destinies. Verses 9 and 10 show the hinge upon which these two destinies rest.

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Children of the light and day have been saved by the death of Jesus Christ. Children of the darkness and night have not been saved by the death of Jesus Christ.

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And He died for us so that whether we die or live, speaking to the church, we will one day live forever with Him.

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Reflecting back on the message last week, if you weren't here you can listen to that, about the destiny of those who have died in the

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Lord being reunited with those who are alive in the Lord to be with Him forever. That glorious breaking of the power of death.

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Right now the church is separated. Did you know that? The church is not united because there's this one huge wall in the middle.

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What's that wall? Death. There's some who are part of the church that are currently in heaven worshiping

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God and then there's us down here and we're divided. But the church will be united in Christ.

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Whether we currently live or die, we will one day always be forever with the

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Lord. And in light of verses 1 through 10, Paul tells the church, and really is telling us here this morning to encourage one another in light of all of this.

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Build one another up. Strengthen one another with the encouragement that our destinies have been changed forever.

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This text tells us very little about the details we may wonder about regarding the return of Christ. But it tells us more than we can handle.

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More than we can process in a lifetime. More than we can fathom about the turn of events that has been brought to anyone who has obtained salvation through Jesus Christ.

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We have been made children of the light. We have been saved by his death for us. And we will one day live with him forever.

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And this is what the church needs. This is what we need to know regarding the great day of the Lord. Regarding the times and seasons.

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He will come suddenly and surprisingly, but he is coming. And we should long for that day with anticipation.

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When I was young, I don't know, maybe high school, middle school, I somehow gathered from the church that I wanted to be careful how

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I lived. It's kind of a guilt thing that pastors, I think, probably well -meaning pastors, just threw out there to try to control people.

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And when I say control people, I think that there's a tendency in spiritual leadership to want to micromanage people.

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There's a tendency to want to throw out something that's gonna really stick with you and convict you and make you a better person.

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Which, by the way, the only thing I can throw out to you to make you a better person is the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the only thing I have to throw out to you.

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But we've got all these little tools that we would use. And so back in, I don't know, must have been the mid -80s or whatever,

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I heard this question and it stuck with me my entire life. And so I'm gonna throw it out to you. And I want you to think about it for just a second.

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What do you want to be doing when Jesus returns? I don't want to be hitting anybody.

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I don't want to be looking at pornography. I don't want to be sinning. I don't want to be doing anything. So the goal, right, was to live every second of your day as if Jesus would come back right now so that, oh no,

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I got caught, right? And that's the way I processed that as a kid. As if that's what this text is all about.

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Behave yourself, because you don't know when he's gonna walk through the door. Probably the thing that's the most misguided about that mindset is he's here.

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He's in the room with us. It doesn't take Jesus coming back with flesh and eyes to catch you doing what you're doing because he's with you every second of the day.

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That's not the motivation that this text is trying to push over on you. It's not trying to guilt you into, oh no, oh no, what if he comes back right now?

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What do I do? Anybody ever hear that question, by the way? A handful of us remember that question, that guilt that comes through questions like that.

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The problem with this question is that it turns what is meant to be a joyous anticipation for the church and the return of Christ to something fearful.

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The exact purpose of this text is to encourage one another with the words, he loves you and he's coming back for you.

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You're a child of the light and he loves you. And he's returning. Not, oh, he's returning.

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He loves you. He's coming back for you. If you're all in with Christ.

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Certainly it tells us to be awake, to be sober, and to be careful how we live, but on the basis of our position in Christ, because we're children of the light.

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What does light do? We are to be salt and light. When you think about it in those terms, what is the light to do?

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To shine in the darkness. You see how that might help if we're walking in the light, we shine the light, others see us, and maybe even might ask, why are you so joyful?

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The news doesn't look so joyful. Culture seems to be going in a rough direction right now.

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Things aren't all great at the business. There's layoffs. Why are you smiling? Why are you happy?

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I thought things weren't going well for you, but you're always so chipper. What's going on? The knowledge of his return, the knowledge of his judgment towards those in darkness should motivate us to live as light in a dark world.

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So as we come to communion this morning, please don't check out because I just said the word communion. Let me reflect on three types of people in the room right now.

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I guess that there's probably at least somebody in each one of these categories. Maybe there's more categories.

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You don't feel comfortable with me making categories. I'm the one preaching. I get to make the categories. Some of you are in the room and you don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

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Your life could be categorized by darkness and you know it more than anybody else. And as a matter of fact, others would probably look at your life and say there's quite a bit of light there, but you know your own heart.

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You know where you stand in regard to God and you know there's darkness in there. I'd encourage you this morning, if that's you, skip communion because in communion we're remembering

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Jesus' sacrifice for us. And if you don't believe Jesus' sacrifice for you, then that would be kind of senseless to go do that.

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And so I just encourage you to skip it, but take some time to reflect. Reflect on the song being played.

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Consider the reality that Jesus loved you enough to die on the cross in your place. And if you'd like to know more about receiving the forgiveness that Jesus Christ offers to you, please catch me after the service.

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I would love to talk with you. Dave up here would love to talk with you. I would love to just share the good news that you can be forgiven and become a child of the light.

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There's a second category. Some of you are in with Christ and you've been living in fear of his return because you're losing a battle with sin.

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You're slugging it out and it seems like you go a couple days and then you're back in and go a couple weeks and you're back in and it just seems like an ongoing battle and you're just in a place of darkness and fear that he might return while you're in this state.

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Well, I would encourage you to confess your sins. And upon confessing your sins, feel free to take communion.

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Remembering the sacrifice that Jesus made to bring you into his kingdom. And then seek help to bring your struggle to the light.

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That's a tough thing. It takes a lot of guts to bring your struggle to the light.

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Come awake with the help of others. Come to sobriety by refusing to live in the drunkenness of the darkness of the night.

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Maybe that's setting up a meeting with me to just, maybe you don't trust me. Maybe there's somebody else that you'd feel more comfortable sharing your story with or whatever and getting the help.

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And sometimes it's just the power of hidden sin being exposed to the light. Sometimes that is the thing that helps us to take the next step.

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Sometimes that's the thing that opens us up and cracks us open into humility, into a place of not going alone anymore because we need each other.

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Did you know that? We need help. There's nothing shameful about needing help. The shameful thing is sitting in the darkness alone.

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When you have so many people who love you and would be willing to walk with you. Lastly, some of you are honestly looking forward to his return.

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When I talk about his return, there's delight, there's joy in your heart. Don't check out, listen to me here at this last point.

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Some of you are encouraged by this message and even maybe uttered under your breath at some point during this message. Come quickly,

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Lord. Maybe you think that from time to time. Maybe you pray that from time to time. Come quickly,

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Lord Jesus. Come fix this. My request to you is two things this morning if you're in this latter category.

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Take communion with glad and humble hearts that he's loved you so much. He's given you so much grace.

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But secondly, take a concerted effort to share the encouragement that you have in your heart with others this week.

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Don't hoard your joy and your faith alone. Get together with somebody else. Maybe this week, maybe your schedule's tight this week and you'd go ahead and just take the initiative to call somebody and set something up two weeks, three weeks out.

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Somebody that you could meet and just spread the encouraging things that God has pressed on your heart and the encouraging things he's doing for you.

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And maybe together as a church, we can build others up with the hope that God has given to each one of us.

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Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for the encouragement of your word.

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That is for edification. That is the building of individual lives into a church.

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Father, that it is not building a building out on the church property.

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It is your word and hope and love and faith building us up as people together.

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So Father, I pray if there's anybody in this room who does not know the light but feels the darkness within and knows that they're not yet your child,

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Father, I pray that you would move in their hearts with conviction this morning, that they would recognize their need and in humility come and talk to someone about their need of salvation.

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But Father, for those who are in your kingdom, I recognize there's two possibilities. Some of us have been fearful of your return, knowing that we haven't lived for you and walked with you.

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Father, I pray that you would expose that in humility and help us to find the help and assistance that we need.

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And Father, for those who are delighting in you and are rejoicing, I pray that you would help us to be an encouragement to others, to be a genuine bringer of joy into the circumstances around us, not to hoard that for ourselves or to keep it in isolation, but Father, to express that great and glorious joy that is available through the salvation that we have and the knowledge that there is so much more than this life.

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Father, I pray that we would be spreaders of that good news all around our community, in our neighborhoods, in our workplace, and wherever we go, that people would see the light that we shine and recognize that that light is you.