Should Christians get into prepping / How to prepare for the return of Jesus?

So let's open up to Matthew chapter 24 and tonight we're gonna look at some of the different ways that people prepare for the end times or the question how should

I how should we prepare for the return of Christ I mean this is application we went through the

Revelation series to get the information but how do we internalize it how do we respond how should we or how can we prepare for the

Lord's return I think the Bible has something to say about this now if you believe that the

Lord's return is drawing near which I do believe that I am convinced that the

Bible teaches the doctrine of imminency that the Lord could return at any time if you believe that it's gonna have it should have some effect on your life however there are

Christians more of the you know and I'm not putting anyone down I'm just saying this is how it plays out people of the post -millennial variety you know if you think the end times are always a thousand years away then it's probably you know out of sight out of mind and typically when you're on millennial yeah you don't really expect it to happen at any time so it's kind of out of sight out of mind but for churches like ours that are pre -millennial and we think that the return of Christ is imminent it should have some impact in how we live now who has heard of prepping prepping now

I'm not talking about like in a kitchen like the prep cook or something like that yeah prepping okay let me read this definition the practice it's the practice of making active preparations for a possible catastrophic disaster or emergency and certainly the the tribulation would be that right typically prepping is done by stockpiling food ammunition and other supplies okay so you remember

I've talked about that group back in the 1800s that thought the return of Christ was imminent remember in 1843 they sold all their possessions and they waited on top of a mountain and then when

Jesus didn't come back they said another day 1844 same thing and Jesus didn't return well it had an impact on them and that's the problem with setting dates but obviously we don't want to you know go overboard but there are some real ways that people prepare so prepping and the reason

I'm bringing this up this is becoming somewhat common for Christians that are post -trib you know they think that the rapture happens at the end of the tribulation so there's a lot of Christians who think that hey

I'm gonna have to try to survive the tribulation period so because of that a lot of Christians are now getting into prepping so they have a bunch of extra stuff on hand just in case you know the time comes in their lifetime on the other hand you probably run into more people that are not post -trib they're pre -trib right this church

I would consider myself pre -tribulation so I believe that the rapture happens what pre is before right we believe the rapture happens before the tribulation sometimes the accusation against us since we believe that the rapture is going to happen before and it could happen at any time sometimes people have accused us of just sort of giving up you know we think we're gonna get raptured out of here next week so we don't really plan for the future we don't really build anything because we have this escapist mentality we're just we're just gonna get taken out so you know what's the point and you know sometimes you've probably felt like this the world is getting so crazy life can be so difficult and you're like Lord just come back today so I don't have to deal with it anymore who's had that type of feeling all right somebody has

Larry so do folks that believe in the post -trib and are prepping do they believe what scripture says about the tribulation and things that happen in it like when you know the water supply is ruined and turned to blood and a third of mankind is killed and then great hail falls later on and kills another third and so yeah

I I think they do believe that and because all the water is going to be you know polluted that's why you got to stock it up in your basement see that so I they do actually believe that now we might think that that's you know

I don't know what you think but you might think it's silly to think that you could survive the Great Tribulation I mean people are going to survive so you know that that's how some people approach this they want to get into prepping some people do kind of give up like yeah

I'm just ready to go tomorrow and they don't plan for the future and I think that is unfortunate although I get the temptation but either way you know for us who are pre -trib even if we don't have to go through the tribulation we we realize there could be a disaster right war could break out it could be a natural disaster we might find ourselves living in difficult times whether it's the tribulation or not so I just wanted tonight talk about how we can apply some of these teachings you know how to prepare for the return of the

Lord on this side you know the post trip people some of them are getting into prepping and the reaction for some people is to fight you know some of them they have they have rifles they have ammunition you know hey if I find myself in the tribulation

I'm gonna fight back now you could argue is that the Christian thing to do some people say it is some people say it's not

I mentioned post -millennial people there's an idea called Christian nationalism where you know we're gonna take our country back and there's people talking about how

Christians should take up arms maybe you don't know anyone like that but that that type of talk is now becoming more common on our side

I would say that mainly we prepare by being ready ourselves like I need to make sure

I'm right with God and I want to evangelize I want to see other people get saved so as the return of Christ is drawing near evangelism would be probably our the thing that we would stress the most we don't want to give up though so as far as this issue about prepping we're gonna look at some verses in Matthew 24

I think it's probably a Christian Liberty issue of how to prepare you can decide for yourself how you approach that but there are some definite teachings of the

Bible that we want to look at so look at Matthew 24 we're gonna begin in verse 4 Jesus is answering a question about the end of the age or as some people would put at the end of the world what will be the signs that precede his coming in the end of the age so here's what

Jesus said he said take heed that no one deceives you for many will come in my name saying

I am the Christ and they will deceive many and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars but see that you are not troubled for all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there will be famines pestilences and earthquakes in various places all of these are what birth pangs or the beginning of sorrows so some translations will say birth pangs or labor pain so the idea is that some time is going to pass so when someone's going into labor what happens with the contract yeah they grow the contractions grow in frequency and intensity so what

Jesus is saying that these things war pestilence disease all this stuff it's going to grow with frequency and intensity so that's the sign that Jesus is about to come back when you see these things growing in that way there's also another sign of the end times based on second

Thessalonians chapter 2 the Apostle Paul talks about how before Jesus returns there's going to be what a great falling away from faith so we have to ask do we see these signs what do you think all right have we seen a great falling away from faith our wars pestilence disease natural disease are these things increasing

I think most people would say yes they are Marcus and again in verse 6 where it says but the end is not yet the end is at the end of the tribulation

I believe not the rapture because some of this is going to be happening during or during the tribulation

I don't think that the rapture is the end the end is the end of the tribulation sure okay so I think we're definitely seeing the falling away from faith these other things you can make the argument that the 20th century saw a massive increase in warfare it was the bloodiest century the world has ever seen right not just with two world wars but many other smaller conflicts so more people died from warfare and even disease and all that in the 20th century so I think you could argue yeah these things are increasing frequency and intensity just an article that was written last year in the

Washington Post the headline said a historic rise in global conflict deaths suggests a violent new era of course we've seen the war in Ukraine with Russia and Israel also in the book of Daniel chapter 12 verse 4 in the context of the last days the

Lord says to the Prophet Daniel he said but you Daniel shut up these words and seal the book until the time of the end many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase so this is some people see this as another sign that towards the end knowledge will increase well again without a doubt the 20th century saw knowledge increasing like no other century and just in the last 20 to well 10 years really that cell phone you have in your pocket more information is available to you than you know ninety nine point nine percent of people throughout world history so I think you can point to all these things and say yeah there's a real reason why and then the restoration of the nation of Israel in 1949 there are real reasons why people think that Christ's return is is really at the door right look at what

Jesus says in Matthew 24 verse 14 here's another evidence potentially he says and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all or to all nations and then the end will come so this has been understood by many people to mean that as soon as the gospel reaches every nation then the end will come okay so the end times will start once the gospel has been spread around the world back in you know 1650 had the gospel spread to every nation no in 1850 had the gospel spread every no but in the 20th century again that's when it happened and you could say that the gospel how many nations are on earth right now who knows yeah

I looked it up and according to the UN depending on how they classify you know what makes a nation anywhere from 192 to like 208 or you know that they're not exactly sure but yeah it looks like the gospel has reached every nation and people group maybe there's one or two tribes a few places that hasn't read but we're almost there so again just recently all these things are kind of lining up as signs that yes the end the return of Christ is drawing near one final argument that by itself this is not proof but I've always found this convincing myself that God works and spans of 2 ,000 years from Adam to Abraham was about 2 ,000 years from Abraham to Jesus was about 2 ,000 years and from Jesus to today is about 2 ,000 years and that's even more significant here's the the argument when you look at the seven days of creation remembering that to the

Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day right the Lord created the heavens and the earth he created everything and worked for six days and then the seventh day was a day of rest okay so the idea is that God has been working and the earth has seen war and and death and destruction for 6 ,000 years and the earth is about 6 ,000 years old so if Christ returns soon the

Millennium will be like a Sabbath rest so 1 ,000 years of rest on the earth can

I say that the Bible clearly teaches this maybe not but that would fit the pattern okay so if the

Lord did it that way that would make sense yeah so for all those reasons and others the point is again people have legitimate reasons to think that the coming of Christ is near so if a person believes that or whether they believe it or whether they think you know they're post -trib and they think there's some time seven years before it happens either way we want to be prepared if I believe this and Christ may come back at any time what am

I supposed to do about it let's turn to 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 because you know doctrine matters right some people say theology shapes practice so what you believe will determine how you behave so if you're pre -trib and you think

Jesus might come back this evening you know yeah you might not make preparations except for spiritual preparations you want to make sure you're right with God you want to you know not wait before you tell your neighbor about Jesus because you don't want to see him left behind or whatever and sort of the typical pre -trib mindset so we're not prepping and planning to go through the tribulation but we want to make sure that we did everything we could we were ready for Jesus to return look at 1st

Thessalonians 5 1 through 6 Paul writes but concerning the times and seasons brethren speaking about the day of the

Lord you have no need that I should write to you for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the

Lord 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 but you brethren are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief you are all sons of light and sons of the day we are not of the night nor of darkness therefore here's his conclusion let us not sleep as others do but let us watch and be sober now is

Paul saying like literally don't sleep you know when you go home tonight stay awake all night and watch but that's not really the point is it what's he saying you need to be ready like we need to actually be thinking about Jesus and his return all the time and you say well you know you preach on this a lot you talk about end times a lot well

I think we're supposed to I think that's what he's saying again there's other people who like literally never bring it up they never talk about it they never preach on it

I think this would rebuke such an idea so we're called to be ready we're called to be sober same thing does that mean hey don't get drunk tonight don't don't drink don't

I mean well he doesn't want you to do that either but again that's not really the point the point is we're to be level -headed you know we're supposed to be wise in our dealings so we need to be ready for the

Lord to return and again for the pre -trib mindset this is this is hopefully what we're doing and if you really believe that if you really believe

Jesus could come back like right now you want to make sure that you've got everything settled spiritually like you don't have all this time to waste and even if you're not pre -trib we all understand tomorrow is not guaranteed so we really should have that attitude either way however the post -tribulational mindset is a little different so again instead of the rapture happening this afternoon a person who believes believes in a post -trib rapture happens at the end of the tribulation for a person like that the rapture is always at least seven years away okay so Jesus coming back same thing come back in the clouds and to earth it's all one event to them he comes back takes everyone up and just comes right back down so in their mind that is always at least seven years away you understand why okay so what does that lead to well again it's becoming common for people who are post -trib to kind of have the mindset of a prepper and a lot of Christians are getting into prepping so this has been who's who knows

Christians that do this and they think that they're gonna live through the tribulation now we're out in Leverett you know just because you don't know anyone who does it doesn't mean it's not happening not because of that reason

God has not appointed us on the wrath and the tribulation is when his wrath is being poured out that's what the day of the

Lord is yes so prepping could be as simple as buying you know a rifle or two having your own garden raising chickens you know having plenty of ammo on hand water source canned food you know and ever since 2020 you remember the first few first of all there was y2k remember back there's a lot of people who kind of stored up for that just in case they thought all the computers were gonna crash and it's just becoming more common especially since 2020 you remember the first few days of the panic you went into a store and the lines were a mile long food and items were scarce or sold out and then you weren't even really supposed to leave your house anyway so after that and once once Christians especially saw how the government was you know trying to shut down churches but the liquor stores and pot shops were all open

I think that woke a lot of people up and they're like you know this can happen it's happening now and they figure it's probably gonna happen again at some point so it's good to be prepared and even if you are post -trib

I think it's a good idea to be prepared people moved out of the cities because if you're in a city or you're trapped and you remember what

Jesus said in Matthew 24 we'll look at it in a moment but you know when the middle of the tribulation occurs and the abomination of desolation happens he's like leave you know just head to the mountains so you don't want to be stuck in a city people take it to you know there's the minor prepping which some of you probably do and that's that's good some people take it more seriously there are people out there who have bomb shelters you know they go through training exercises they have enough weapons and ammo to arm a small army yeah and I think that type of thing is counterproductive for a

Christian this is just my opinion I support a person's right to do that but you know people like that tend to be a little paranoid maybe it's not the right word but here's the thing if you do that you might actually invite persecution because if you're really stocking up and storing up people notice and you might end up on like a government watch list or something so you might actually invite persecution to your doorstep who some people think if they see you doing that and you're a

Christian they're gonna worry that you're in some sort of doomsday cult right because that's a thing who remembers David Koresh back was a 90s 1995 something like that he they were a spit the

Branch Davidians were a spinoff of the Seventh -day Adventist Church and their teachings were heavy on end times which isn't necessarily bad but they took it to the extreme so they thought the end of the world was like right right there it's gonna happen soon so they all live together on a compound they stockpiled weapons and they believed and were taught by their leader that they were gonna play a role leading up to the

Battle of Armageddon so long story short they ended up on a government watch list the

FBI came in and whether the government set fire to the place or whether they did it it's still in question but but a hundred people died during that ordeal so you know taking it to the extreme

I think is is dangerous and you know I would just ask where where does faith fit into that like don't we believe that hey

I'm all for being prepared doing what you can but are we supposed to trust that God's gonna protect us

I don't know I I think that that takes it yeah it's a little dangerous

Marcus yeah he said he was the

Lamb of God which I which is Christ I mean in the book of Revelation he is the lamb but I think he made a distinction between Christ and the lamb that the lamb was going to be a

Christ -like figure to provoke the the end times or something

I it doesn't matter obviously none of it was true but that's one of the prophecies as many false

Christ's will arise yeah who are the false

Christ's that have arisen so crash okay the moonies right yep there another they the moonies actually had a spin -off where they have an

AR 15 church so they get together in a building and every to get into the church service you have to bring your

AR 15 it's kind of a weird thing I don't

I don't think so I don't know where they're out of but obviously a lot of false Christ's have risen up Jim whether Jim Jones claimed to be

Jesus or not I thought he did but there's always somebody and there's several people in the world right now who have massive followings who claim to be

Jesus so again that's on the the rise as well so yeah being prepared for a natural disaster

I think is good prepping is is good but we need to leave room for faith and trusting in God that he's going to protect us and to provide so Christians fight the idea that Christians are going to fight back or fight against the you know armies of Antichrist is you know misguided

I think at best so look at what Jesus says in Matthew 24 15 through 16

I believe in the right to self -defense but here's what

Jesus says therefore when you see the abomination of desolation so this is when in the middle of the tribulation everybody knows what's going on they recognize yes this is it

Jesus says in verse 16 let those who are in Judea grab their you stock up on weapons and fight back is that what he says now let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains so if you ever did you know if a person did find themselves in the tribulation

I mean fleeing is what you're told to do run hide go underground that's what

Christians typically have done throughout history and when this happens to Israel in Revelation 12

God prepares a special place for the Jews and the wilderness where he's going to protect them and I believe that even in this age before the end began

I believe that God protects us so is prepping biblical we're talking about prepping a little bit is it can you think of any biblical examples

I've only heard of one potential argument who can guess what it is

Joseph in Egypt because he prepped for seven years and he stored up food and you know that was different because God revealed to him that he should do that and I heard someone talking about this and like you know you wouldn't want this happening because Joseph technically was a government official and would you want the government to take so much percentage of your stuff to set it aside for seven years for the like you wouldn't trust the government to do that so I just I think that's probably not a great example so I long story short

I think it's a I think this is a Christian liberty issue if people want to get into that I think it's fine just you know don't don't take it overboard and certainly doomsday cults are they have their own their own problems but let's talk about let's get off that subject for a moment and just get on to you know again most of us are pre -trib there might be somebody here who's not but what should be our response what should you do to prepare for the

Lord's return that you tell me what you think you should do warn your friends warn your friends pray for your family keep yourself right with God yeah yeah

I mean this this is what I would want to do this is what you should expect but again even if we don't go into the tribulation you could find yourself in the middle of a national emergency so but here's the thing when

I read the Bible I see how everything's gonna start life is gonna be going on as normal and then everything is gonna change in a moment and isn't this kind of what we're experiencing you get up in the morning you just every day is kind of the the same in some ways life doesn't really yeah there's tragedies and things that change people's lives but in the the grand scheme of the world things don't change that much right yeah but but one day things are gonna change like for good so this is what we see in Matthew 24 look at verse 37

Jesus says but as the days of Noah were or as in the days of Noah were so also will the coming of the

Son of Man be for as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage till the day that Noah entered the ark and did not know until the flood came and took them all away so also will the coming of the

Son of Man be then two men and this is a debated passage whether he's talking about the rapture or the second advent seven years later but he says then two men will be in the field one will be taken and the other what left two women will be grinding at the mill one will be taken and the other left so if you're familiar with the left behind novels and I mean this is where they get the idea that Jesus is going to come and people are going to be raptured and then others are going to be left behind this is the passage they base base that on yeah

Marcus what is a disciple a disciple is a learner but to be a disciple of Christ what did

Jesus when he first chose his disciples what did he say he said follow me we need to follow the

Lord no if that means that he's you know where do you want me to go today this is why it's been particularly hard for me these days so Jesus is saying that yeah life's gonna go on then all of a sudden at once everything is gonna change now whether the rapture is what changes the world forever

I mean that's that's how I view it that's if the rapture did happen tonight

I mean that would that would change the world like nothing else ever could but here's the conclusion the

Lord comes to in verse 42 based on all of that he says watch therefore for you do not know what hour your

Lord is coming so the thing we see again and again is watch so this is why we need to think about and teach about and preach about and and and talk about the return of Christ this is the next big thing that happens in in Christian history so either way however you interpret that passage

Jesus seems to communicate the idea that things are gonna go down this way yes it's gonna be like the days of Noah the people no one knew what was happening no one knew what was coming nobody else even if they're told about they didn't believe it right they just thought all the world's gonna go on like this forever here's the here's the parallel as Christian everyone in this room you have that same knowledge that Noah had you know what's gonna happen

Noah prepared so he prepared by building a boat we prepare by praying and staying right with God staying in fellowship

I don't know what happens if you get backslidden and then the rapture happens while you're backslidden

I don't buy into this idea that well you're gonna get left behind I don't think so but here's what

I know for sure I don't want to be backslidden when the Lord returns so we know what's gonna happen no one even when we tell other people they don't believe us so it's like the same exact situation so here's what we need to do make sure we're right with God right now number one number two be ready constantly have this in your mind about Christ's return and then number three have a sense of urgency here's what

Jesus said I'll close with this he said in Luke 19 verse 13 he said occupy till I come you know this is the parable of the miners do business you know be busy with my work till I come and you remember that one guy who got the

Mina and he didn't do anything with it he just wrapped it up and buried it in the sand what did he say to him you lazy and wicked servant so in conclusion when

Jesus comes back if it is soon like soon soon I don't want that to be me