1 Thessalonians 1, What Do You Do While Waiting in 2023?

First Thessalonians chapter 1 be reading the here the word of the Lord Paul Sivanus and Timothy to the church of the

Thessalonians and God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ grace to you and peace We give thanks to God always for all of you constantly mentioning you in our prayers

Remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love instead fastness of hope in our

Lord Jesus Christ for we know brothers loved by God that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you

Not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction

You know What kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake and you became imitators of us and of the

Lord? For you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit So that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia For not only has the word of the

Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia But your faith in God has gone forth everywhere so that we need not say anything for they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and How you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true

God and to wait for his Son from heaven Whom he raised from the dead Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Well, the new year is here and the media has been over the past week indulging in his routine year -in -review

Kind of things highlights of the year Biggest news story. I guess the Russian invasion of Ukraine the then the best of 2022 best of everything best books

I wish they'd say mine somehow they never do best movies It wasn't a great year for movies But Top Gun Maverick got a lot of attention everything everywhere and all at once which

I haven't seen is supposed to be good Menu is better than the glass onion. I don't care what

Rotten Tomatoes says best sports moments Wasn't Tom Brady coming out of retirement, but maybe

Argentina winning the World Cup Oh, we got we got Argentina fans here. Welcome to the

Argentinians There we go And so they did all this year -in -review kind of stuff and last night then they rang in the new year hopeful

Waiting on what's next? What are you waiting for in 2023? Some of you may be waiting a long term to retire 2023 will be the year to make progress toward that make enough money be financially secure

So you don't have to worry about work anymore some of us know people who are so focused on that that they can't make any time to seek the

Lord to come to church to Bring their children to church coming up in March It will be three years since a pandemic hit in which we close down schools and cut off other experiences like church for our children

Waiting for a virus to pass and at first I could understand that the need to wait I've kind of see what this is gonna happen what this is gonna be a lot down stay at home for a couple of weeks 15 days to slow the spread remember that but then as it went on indefinitely,

I thought this is horrible For the kids. I mean it's someone individually. They don't have any responsibility.

They want to be locked down sure for them. But what about For the children a study showed that this generation of children school children right now have lost a great deal of learning

Because of it because the schools are shut down in some places for over a year Some of them missed once -in -a -lifetime experiences of the end result of that For us here is only just recently like in the past month or so as Jim jr.

Bounced back And the children and some of the children of our own members who were at least occasionally coming to church.

They've gotten out of the habit We can just we can't Just wait for them to get back on the habit kind of hoping things will go back to normal Because which once a habit is broken you got to develop new habits

We can't just wait for them To come back. We've got to do something about it because their youth is flying by As youth always does and they are missing what we pledge in our

Church Covenant to instruct them in nurture in admonition meaning the teaching the correction of the

Lord a New Year's resolution for 2023 should be To get our children back in church

What are you waiting on? some Some of you you were here last year

That may sound familiar Like sometime last year if you can remember way back to last year

That I was also asking you What are you waiting on that ring a bell?

Sounded all familiar. I was asking what are you waiting on? Last year we saw that if we wait on the

Lord wait based on what he's done already Then he'll renew our strength we get strength while waiting so we can mount up with wings as eagles

This is all sound familiar sometime way back last year run and not be weary walk Endure the daily grind and not faint not get too tired to give up get depressed

That we can't go on anymore But what exactly are you waiting on and what do you do while waiting?

What resolutions are you waiting and working to bring to pass? Well, we see that here at first Thessalonians 1 in 10 parts one per verse

I racked my brain to how to outline this chapter and then it occurred to me

I'm just gonna go verse by verse one part per verse. Okay, we'll see how long it goes Well, what do you do while waiting first greet?

Paul begins the letter with greetings. This was the typical way to begin a letter in their day What we see here is the typical way a letter would start in their time

State who it is from Notice that although the letter is clearly from Paul Identifies himself as part of a team.

Oh, we Individualists ask well, who is this way you're talking about? But here he says the we includes

Sylvanus otherwise known as Silas and Timothy the young protege So he's waiting as part of a team

He's a group of believers part of a group of believers that he's attached to he's greeting a church So he says to the church the word church.

It really just means assembly the gathering of believers of Thessalonians of the Thessalonians So the gathering of believers who live in the city called

Thessalonica The believers from them from that city gather together and he's greeting them every one of the believers there is a member of this gathering and they come together to greet each other and to worship and to Hear the

Word of God sing psalms you spiritual gifts pray and encourage each other and probably sometimes they ate together, too

And this gathering of Greek believers is in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ What you do while waiting is you

Actually do what you're doing right at this moment You join with other believers who are also in God the

Father and the Lord Jesus and you greet them and so resolve To go to church to assemble in 2023 and congratulations, you've gotten off to a good start you're doing it you greet each other typically

In a letter the recipients would expect to hear greetings Otherwise like here Paul Savinas and Timothy to the

Church of Thessalonians to the fourth you expecting to hear greetings To you, but instead he says something else greetings is

Karen in Greek. He's playing on words He's playing on sounds making a little pun here instead of Karen Paul says caris playing on words

And the caris means grace and is derived from Cara Karen caress

Cara, which means joy Grace is that which causes joy? So it's not just greetings the typical way to begin a letter in their day

He puts a little twist in there a Christian twist. I'll just greetings Karen, but grace

Caris to you what you do while waiting is give not just greetings but grace which gives joy and peace and a

Hebrew piece would be Shalom you the usual Jewish greeting give grace and Shalom to each other the gathering the body that you are a part of The one you just resolve to join together with every

Lord's Day greet with grace What do you do while waiting second in verse 2

Thank Be grateful and express your gratitude With thanks we that's the team.

He's part of give. Thanks to God the one who gave always so continually

They are giving thanks to God for all of you for the church. Thank God for the church that you gather

With be thankful to God and affirming To your church to the church constantly as without ceasing don't stop doing it mentioning you in our

Prayers, that's why we have a Wednesday night prayer meeting to mention you in our prayers and we probably mentioned all of you in our prayers

Bobby even you Hayes bunch we probably Herbie has probably mentioned you in our prayers by name at some time in those prayer meetings

That's why we have that and if you can't make it you got to work or whatever Then please make sure to mention us discipline a time of your own when you can when you're praying mention us

Thankfully, thankfully, don't forget that part. Don't just don't call down curses on us, please in your prayers resolved to pray more and more thankfully for the church in 2023

What do you do while waiting? third in verse 3 remember

Paul is remembering before our God and Father three qualities of the Thessalonians and hopefully of you first your work of faith work produced by faith faith

Inspired work. That's what he's remembering. He's remembering the work That comes from their faith not just their profession of faith

But the but faith that shows up that you can see and the work that they're doing now some people like to claim that Paul and James Contradict each other that Paul teaches that salvation is but faith alone

Not by works and he does and that James says that faith without works is dead and he does say that But notice here that Paul is thanking

God for their work That is the fruit of their faith

Living faith in both Paul and James they agree living faith produces work

Just like good apple trees produce good apples We're saved through faith alone, but faith that saves is never alone.

It produces work Like prayer like thankfulness to God like being part of a church

I Get remember still in verse 3 Paul remembers before the father in verse 3 your labor of love your labor from love labor prompted by love and the word therefore labor very unusual word only occurs here in the entire

Bible and it means laborious toil involving weariness and fatigue

So just like faith produces work Love produces labor

And it produces a labor that will wear you out but If you wait on the

Lord Remember all the way back from last year. You can remember that far back You wait on the

Lord Wings his Eagles. Does it ring a bell at all? Paul said in 1st

Corinthians chapter 15 verse 10 for I have worked Harder than any of the other apostles yet.

It was not I but God who was working through me by his grace He worked harder because he loved

Third still in verse 3 Paul remembers before God the Father their steadfastness of hope

Just like faith inspires works and love motivates labor. So hope produces steadfastness in endurance perseverance

You keep going You keep running Running from temptation fleeing from the devil running after the

Lord You keep walking walking day in and day out at daily grind because You have hope

The hope is in our Lord Jesus Christ. So it's not just kind of an ambiguous positive mental attitude.

It's in Jesus he's the one you're waiting on you're hoping for you wait expectantly on him

Hopefully and so you continue your your strength is renewed and you don't collapse at exhaustion hope in Jesus gives you perseverance all the way through 2023 so resolve third resolution

Resolve to remember your faith That inspires work Your love that labors and your hope in Jesus That keeps you going.

What do you do while waiting? fourth in verse 4 No No To wait you need to know for we know he says what do you know?

brothers and sisters Loved by God. There's that corporateness again that Venus being part of a body know who your brothers and sisters are

That's what church membership does saying I know I'm part of you and you know, I'm part of you know that They are loved by God Commonly people they assume that God loves everyone

It's it's assumed that But we know from Romans chapter 9, but that's not so remember God hated

Esau Jacob. I love he saw I hated Meaning that God did not love him. Oh God gave him some blessings on earth

But God did not choose him to inherit the birthright to being among God's people to be one of the

Beloved He saw was not one of the Beloved So being loved by God here is a special phrase meaning love completely settled in the past by God's choice to love you

To be in covenant with you for known Predestined justified all that being loved by God is a special status

Know that there is a people your brothers and sisters who are loved by God and they are he says there verse 4 they are chosen

That's that specialness again. It's not for everybody. Not everyone's chosen. No who is

We know That he has chosen you

Do you know that? Do you know that there are? That there is a chosen people and that you are part of them

Resolve to know that in 2023 Well, what do you do while waiting fifth in verse 5 assure

He's continuing the sentence in verse 4. We know that he has chosen you

He's continuing the sentence One of the questions of what's called Calvinism is how do you know we know that he's chosen you how exactly okay people ask

Calvinist Well, how can you know you're saved by Calvinism? I mean what that gospel explained it in Romans God's salvation comes to those he has mercy on but some people ask that well then how do you know you're safe if it depends on God's decree

God's grace Can you know that you are saved? If you think salvation depends on your choice if it is a

Mike making the right decision that that it happens automatically if you make That decision. Well, then assurance of salvation is easy.

You know if you made the decision Then you can be assured in their way of thinking you understand you said the right words

They would say well you're saved don't ever doubt it Even if your life doesn't show any difference But if it's different than that if it as in Romans chapter 9 verse 16 salvation does not depend on man's desire or effort

But on God's mercy, in other words, it doesn't depend on what I choose. Then. How do you know if you're saved?

How can you have assurance? Well, he tells us here Two reasons how you can have insurance first how the gospel came

Second how it was received How the gospel came to you? we know

This is verse 5 we know that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you not only in word

But also in power at the Holy Spirit the gospel came not just kind of mindlessly You just repeat after me you or you sign your name

You say I believe this say you believe something say the right words and then you're saved not like that No, it came powerfully.

He says with power to change you Give you that That faith that produces works that love that produces labor that hope that produces steadfastness

To inspire all that in you it came in He says here in the

Holy Spirit the gospel came to you in the Holy Spirit as the Spirit Empowered the preaching or the teaching of the sharing your own parents sharing with you or something you read something you heard

The Spirit empowered that however, it came the Spirit was speaking through that That's one way you can know second

We can know that we're saved by how we received it. The gospel was received. He says with full conviction

I'm just apathetically You know, I'll go along with that. Sure. Why not? I'll say

I believe it I'll repeat the prayer It's after all, you know mom or dad

They want me to The preacher or the Sunday school teacher is manipulating me

You know, they're playing that just as I am behind Move music as he's making a

Emotional invitation putting the pressure on why not? Everyone else around me is doing it

Who knows might be true kind of attitude. I don't have anything to lose might as well say I believe it

No, you can be assured of salvation If suddenly the words that before they were boring all this gospel stuff this

Bible stuff is just boring It was dead. Suddenly it came alive. That's the Holy Spirit You received it with an overwhelming confidence that it is true

You know that you know So you can have assurance of your salvation your personal salvation if you have assurance of the truth of the gospel so resolve to bolster your confidence in the gospel in 2023 what do you do while waiting six in verse six?

imitate Continuing from the end of verse five. They've seen the example of a believer's life and Paul and Silas and Timothy and now they imitate them they follow their example as a way of imitating the

Lord and his team because Just like Paul and his team suffered for the word the gospel so the

Thessalonians Received it received the gospel and much affliction The word therefore affliction literally means are pressing a pressure like pressing grapes to get juice

Take some squeezing make some pressure These people that has alone Ian's were pressured

For having believed the gospel They're probably insulted for not worshiping the

Roman and Greek gods Maybe they were thrown out of their homes If they were children, they were dependents.

They're thrown out humiliated Insulted you join that Jewish sect

People with scorn at them the Romans accused Christians of being cannibals for talking about eating Christ's flesh and drinking his blood

They kind of overheard that and they what are they doing there in their meetings? They're eating each people They were accused of having orgies for having love feasts and say come on Let's have a love feast and they were of course would imagine all kinds of crazy things

Maybe some of you are pressured to put business money -making ahead of gathering with the church

This past year someone who lives near this building Accused you all you members here of being insane

For coming here. She claims to be a Christian but seems to use every weekend going on camping trips, but defames you as Being insane for coming to church here

But like Paul and Silas singing hymns at midnight after having been flogged for preaching the gospel the Thessalonians received the gospel not only

With affliction with being pressed and pressure with insults and scorn and rejection

But also he says with the joy of the

Holy Spirit Like James says they counted it all joy When they fell into trials when they were pressured the joy overcame the pressure resolve in 2023

To have joy in the Holy Spirit that lifts you above anything

That pressures you The seventh thing you do while waiting is in verse 7

Exemplify in verse 5. They knew what kind of people Paul and his team were at the end of verse 5 for your sake

That's what kind of people they were Paul and his team were As they were for the sake of the

Thessalonians to bring the gospel to you so that they the Thessalonians imitated

Them imitated Paul and his team in verse 6 and the result of that in verse 7 was that they exemplified the

Thessalonians exemplified That is they modeled they displayed for all the people of that country

Macedonia and Achaia what we now call Greece They demonstrated the Thessalonians demonstrated what it means to be a believer in Jesus Their life was a testimony to the gospel so that all people around them all the people of Greece they could see it exemplified in The lives of the

Thessalonian Christians the world needs churches that exemplify the gospel

I Told you about an insult that we suffered from someone in this area on the other hand when we were at the

Averitt new students orientation some lady there from another church came up to us and said she was sure that we

Held up well through the pandemic because we're such a lively church This is the reputation she had gotten from us

Mary and I repeatedly It's almost commonly now have people come up to us when we're out and about in Danville or Yancey Ville Greeting us and thanking us for our churches programs

Some of them are we're children with us early on for our programs are now grown up and we try to be imitators of the

Lord And we may not be successful in big numbers of members But I think we've been successful in exemplifying to the community what the body of Christ looks like so resolved in 2023 to help make covenant an example to exemplify

The body of Christ a thing you do while waiting in verse 8

You reverberate That's a great word isn't it? Just like saying that word reverberate They became an example.

That's only this became an example for all the people of Greece of the body of Christ so that First the word of the

Lord, that's the gospel Sounded forth it reverberated from you from Thessalonica because of their church the gospel came to them from the

Apostles from Paul and his team and Then because they received it in the power of the

Holy Spirit and it proves confidence in them that full conviction Confidence that is true because of that it echoed out from them

It reverberated like shouting hello in a canyon and it echoes back

Hello, hello So when the gospel comes to a people by the power of the

Spirit they receive it confidently Then they spread it to others it reverberates

Sounds forth into the community around them to the nation around them and then to the world here

Not only in Greece, but your faith and God has gone forth Everywhere It bounces off of you and it sounds out into the world

That's why here we host Jim jr For local kids Jim for youth and young adults and when we want our children to hear the gospel

So the faith doesn't end with us. It'll keep reverberating for generations down to our families

It's why we send money to Ethiopia and I hope hoping we can do more so that the word that came to us

Would then reverberate into the whole world? so resolve eighth resolution

Resolve in 2023 to do your part to make the

Word of God echo out First from you and to your family did

Caswell County and Danville and to the ends of the earth Nice while waiting you report

Calls others to report in verse 9 the news of the Thessalonians faith in God has spread

So that everyone knows it Others they have a reputation For their faith.

It's so widely known that Paul and his crew They don't have to tell others about the

Thessalonians Now when he goes back to his home base in Antioch or to the mother church in Jerusalem, he'll have to give reports

Maybe it's I guess they didn't have slides But whatever if something equivalent had to give reports the

Philippians what's what's going on there in Philippi the Corinthians and the Ephesians But he would have to tell him about the

Thessalonians because everyone had already heard about them already We need not say anything says at the end of verse 8 notice that the liveliness of their faith was common knowledge

Believers everywhere they go have already heard the report in verse 9 how eagerly the Thessalonians received

Paul and the others Otherwise the believers he's visiting wherever he goes would be telling Paul About the

Thessalonians a Paul. Did you hear about those people at those believers the church at Thessalonica? He go.

Oh, yeah I heard they rolled up the red carpet for you Paul. Yeah, they did

Boy, those Thessalonians really pulled out all the stops for you Paul. I don't know we here and Philippi or Corinth or Ephesus.

I don't know we can compete with them. They had a reputation for how generous They were and how earnest they were in their faith

They also had a reputation for turning away from idols Christians and other churches were reporting to Paul and that the

Thessalonians turned to God from idols To serve the living in the true

God really emphasizing God here Does he turn to God first from idols to serve the living and the true

God God at the beginning and the end of that? They were Greeks They were raised Greeks or so They were raised to worship

Zeus and Poseidon and Apollo and Artemis and Hermes and others and like anyone else They're proud of their culture and it was all part of their culture

Now they had to change and some of them were raised to worship the some of you here have been raised to worship other idols to worship the

Queen of Heaven or worship your ancestors or Maybe you worship the state the government you do whatever it says by example many are now taught to worship money to live for wealth

You know when kids see their parents certain to work on Sunday morning when they never can skip work But they can't skip church that sends a lesson that money is more important than God And some religious people tell us now that we can serve

God and mammon the Lord Jesus says we can't in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 5

Paul says that covetousness that is living for the thing For the wealth the bank account the cash the house the car the success

Whatever trinket it is that the world says that successful people must have living like that covetousness is

Idolatry, so we still have plenty of idolatry in this culture

Even if we rarely see people bowing to literal images in their hearts, they're bowing to the dollar to the house the car the next

I gadget Or even to the family or the relationship the

Thessalonians had a good reputation for having turned away from idols Do you

Well the report about them was it just that they had turned away from But what they've turned toward they turn toward the living and the true

God secular people whether atheists or not May have turned away from literal idols in our cultures

We have a lot of secular people that have turned away from literal idols course They worship money or whatever their worship their ego

But they have a turn They have it turned toward the living In contrast to the dead gods of the idolaters the dead statues of Zeus the dead ancestral tablet

They have turned toward The living God they have it turned toward the true in contrast to the fictional

You know the mythological gods of Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey Atheist mockers now say the

Lord is just another mythological God Like Greece's and we're silly people that still believe in an ancient

God But the living in the true God came in actual history at a time dated by a census

Right. Remember the Christmas story all that It's what is telling us he came in an actual time that you could date in an actual real town

Bethlehem and was seen and heard by people all around When even still around when

Paul wrote this letter about 80 50 So all these things happened with Jesus only like 20 years before Paul said 500 people saw

Jesus After he was raised and can attest to it and most of them are still alive He told the

Corinthians now we don't ask people to turn to miss we don't ask them to create cute feel -good stories

That didn't happen just got kind of motivating them. No Soon after we moved here in 2007

I went to a funeral a nearby funeral in which a preacher told a cute little story Told this story was the graveside of how an angel came down Looking for a soul to escort to heaven told it really well really effective storyteller good speaker angel came down from heaven looking for a soul to take and it goes like to this one person in this child or whatever sick on the sick bed and One person to another comes to a sick person and is told no this is not the one and then finally

Comes to the person is now deceased about to bury and is told this is the one This is what he's the one take him

That was supposed to be comforting. He told him us better than I just did So he sounded almost comforting in tone, but I was offended by that There's offended because it's fiction.

We don't serve a Fictional God We don't serve a

God. We just make up cute stories about like Homer did If it's just a good if it's a psychological trick

If it's a good gimmick to make people feel better at the moment. Our God is true and actually alive

Notice again how faith inspires works in verse 9 the report about them wasn't just that they have faith in the true

God Rather than the mythological one the report was that they serve the true

God To serve means to be subject to to obey to be devoted to He says when when the true

God says worship you worship when he says give you give

You serve him by doing what he says. So the report about them was that they were serving

God Not just talking about him We should have reputation

In other words people should be reporting about us That we've turned away From all the dead idols of our culture of money things pleasure relationships to serve to serve

Now just talk about the Lord so resolve ninth resolution in 1023 resolved to get a reputation

So that people report about you How eagerly you receive the

Word of God and you put it into practice that you serve the living and the true

God What do you do while waiting? Well the 10th

The last thing you do while waiting in verse 10 It's probably the hardest thing on the list.

I almost certainly it's the hardest thing on the list in verse 10 The last thing you do while waiting is wait

You've got to wait. Sorry hard to take isn't it? You got to wait while waiting the report about them was that they had turned from idols to God and in verse 10 to waiting for God's Son from heaven like last week, we've got to know what to wait on and What is accomplished?

Don't confuse the two Don't start talking about things that are accomplished is that we still got to wait on them.

It just confuses people that causes doubts Jesus was not born last week He doesn't suffer and die all over again in the

Lord's Supper every time we take it or a good Friday Is it resurrected again on Easter? All of that has been

Accomplished in fact, that's what we come together for on Sunday to remember what has been accomplished

It's the foundation of what we wait on joy to the world the

Lord has past tense come But we still have to wait on his second coming

There are things we have to wait on don't talk about it all as if it is all Accomplished and this is a large part of what the letters of the

Thessalonians are about Christ coming again Apparently despite all these good things that he says about the

Thessalonians about their great reputation They had some confusion among them about the second coming and so Paul wrote this letter to correct them and if we have if we have

Some confusion about it. This letter can correct us in verse 10.

We wait for his son God's Son from heaven

It's a lot there Notice first that we're not waiting on going to heaven

We're waiting on Who is coming from? heaven We're not waiting to be taken out of the world.

That's not our hope. That's not what we're waiting for to escape We are waiting on him who is right now

Putting all his enemies under his feet. He says that first Corinthians 15 He he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet

Suggesting that reigning and that putting enemies under his feet is going on right now We're waiting as he's putting those enemies under his feet

We're waiting on him to come here and finish the work that he's begun so that He'll make the nation's

There's all kinds of people that were told to make disciples of the nation's remember.

He'll make them prove Because he has authority in heaven all authority in heaven and on earth and so he will make them prove the glories of His righteousness and the wonders of his love

So we're waiting on him to come here So that he will no more

Let sins and sorrows grow. That's still some of that going on, too He is reigning and yet still sins and sorrows are growing on this in this time

But we're waiting for the time that he will come and he will stop that and no more Letting sins and sorrows grow nor thorns infest the ground

Because he comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found to our hope

That gives us perseverance is in what comes from heaven

Not are going to it Our hope is in him who comes from heaven

Not our going to heaven So we're waiting on him who

God raised passed from the dead not a myth Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come notice the present tense in that verb, but all the tenses

Jesus who? delivers present tense now delivers

Other words rescues. He's rescuing out. There's wrath to come

And we're not waiting for that we're hoping to get away from that Jesus is rescuing right at this moment rescuing the rescuing is going on now presently from God's wrath

That is coming in the future The wrath is future But the delivering is now

So this here in verse 10 isn't a promise of future deliverance But the statement of an ongoing present deliverance from a future wrath from the final judgment

Now some have used this claim and use this verse to claim that there's a future escape coming

But that's not what he says. It says that the rescuing is happening now Jesus is currently rescuing his people from a future

Judgment he's he's rescuing us from having to stand before the judgment seat and being condemned from being damned

He's rescuing us from that and that rescuing is going on at this very moment

You are here right now Being rescued from that wrath that is coming your faith inspired work your love

Motivated labor and your hope fueled Perseverance is how

Jesus is now rescuing you from God's wrath so resolved in 2023 to have that rescuing

Continue to go on in your life Notice again in verse 10 the future past and the present in that last verse the difference between what we wait on and What has already been accomplished?

We wait for what's coming Jesus coming from heaven. We can wait

Because God raised him from the dead That's accomplished. The resurrection is done for him the result

Between what's done in the past Jesus's resurrection and what will be done in the future.

It's coming from heaven is now We wait and as we wait

God will restore our strength So we can fly Can fly over the world we can run

Run from temptation flee from the devil we can walk daily with faith that inspires our work and love that prompts our labor and hope that energizes our perseverance in 2023 resolve to wait