Okay, take out your calendars. Write down August 15th and 17th and 18th. Plan all your vacation around that and make sure you're back. Quizzers, we're going to have a man who has a tremendous voice but has memorized multiple books of the Bible and presents them as if the apostle was presenting them And he even does clinics to help you take what you've memorized and turn it into being able to present it with power and authority. And he will be here August 15th. We'll have a special night here. And then August 17th here in morning worship. And then Monday night, August 18th, he'll be doing the Book of Revelation. It takes about 15 minutes. But once you hear the Book of Revelation, 45 minutes, once you hear it as a whole, you go, wow. It's a tremendous book, tremendous hope. He set out in the 1970s to present the book of Revelation in every church in North America. We're at least one more on his list. So, hopefully you can schedule that time to be here. Two weeks from today, my family and I set out on a three-week ministry trip. We're gonna go help some friends who are launching a new ministry out in Oregon, and so we're gonna head across the country for that, and we'll appreciate your prayers for that, and we may have some more details from the kids next week of how you can be praying for them. But we really look forward to that, and I'm sure you're looking forward to it as well, three weeks without having to listen to me, so hey, right? This week, Have you ever had one of those times where you go, what a juxtaposition? How in the world, Lord? This week, I was invited a few weeks ago to a pastor's conference at a camp west of Traverse City, out in the woods. And went up there this week, and in a room, it was a select group of pastors. There was about 15 of us, averaging about 30 years of ministry. and seeking the Lord of how can we grow as leaders. What is it from God's word, other principles, and what have you learned? I'm seated next to a professor who's just getting ready to retire. He's been a part of my life almost 30 years. and just to reconnected. But then on the other side was a guy I used to play football with who's a pastor on the West Coast. And he flew out for this and just to share what God has done in our life and how God has grown us. But to be able to share together the guy that led it then knew me when I was in junior high. And he could testify to the marvelous grace of God in my life. You know, at junior high, there was a lot of people ready to be done with me. So on the way home, just, you know, soaking it all in. This is great. Wow, Lord, thank you for considering me faithful, calling me into the ministry. I stopped at my best man's house on the way home. His wife already had dinner, and we get to celebrate. We've known each other over 25 years and get to celebrate what God's doing in his life and in my life and how God's leading his ministry and doing some new changes. And it's like, wow, this is great. And the emotional feelings, the human emotional feelings, wow, it is so fantastic to be in ministry. Coming home thinking, Lord, how can I use this detailed action plan? How would I put this together to lead forward and what God has? I'm just so excited. So 24 hours later, in a three-hour meeting, I'm told, you're such a poor leader. You're a sinfully poor leader. Okay, Lord, the human emotions over there are now gone. The human emotions are, Lord, why in the world did you yank me off the West Coast to take me to Toledo? When your emotions are all over the place, people are praising you, people are ridiculing you, Where do you go? Where do you turn? Because if it's by emotions of the moment, we are like reeds in the wind, blown back and forth. If you are trying to decide what to believe based on emotions, we're unstable, tossed to and fro. What in the world is going on? That's why we have to come back to the certainty of the Word of God. As I touched on Easter, as we're sharing in 1 Corinthians 15, that our focus is not on the events of the hour. Because if our focus is on the events of the hour, we are going to be a total emotional wreck and mess. But if our emotions, our focus is on the eternal God of the universe and his plan for our lives, As one great author says, Paul was so fixed on heaven because he had been taken there and he had a vision of heaven. And because of his vision of heaven, he thought of heaven every day. It empowered his ministry. How about for you? Where are you this morning? Are you flitting? fleeting between opinions? Or is your faith confident on the revealed Word of God, who He is, what He's prepared for you in the future, that it's certain and He's leading you towards? Would you turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15? 1 Corinthians 15. wonderful chapter on the resurrection. We've only spent, what, four weeks? This is our fourth week in it, and we could have spent a whole lot more. In 1 Corinthians, we're studying that we're called to be saints together. The power of the body of Christ to be called to be saints together, and how much we need this to be reminded of with one another. I tell you this brothers, verse 50, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable. This mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Oh, dear Holy Father, how much we need to be reminded of the truth of your word. That, Lord, in our personal lives, Lord, in our country, this time in the world, how easy it is to be unsettled. Lord, may the truth of what you are going to accomplish, what you accomplished by raising Jesus from the dead, that our future is also just as certain. Lord, help us to keep it actively in mind. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Your body cannot inherit the kingdom of God. The perishable does not inherit the imperishable. Talked with my ministry friends about how many of these illustrations should I use. I got a few stories about the perishable. You don't want to hear them. These bodies, once you stop breathing, they become perishable really fast. Some of you are to the point of you see doctors on a weekly basis. Your body is perishing. It's beginning to waste away. This perishable body cannot inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery, something previously unrevealed. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. This, the old adage is, is the motto over every church nursery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. We will not all die. We will not all die, but we all shall be changed. We shall all be changed in a moment. In a moment. The Greek word there is the Greek word for Adam. At that point, that was the smallest that couldn't be divided. The smallest thing that can't be divided. In a moment. How quick is a moment? He describes it as in the twinkling of an eye. Two years ago, this past week, Caleb and Debbie Altman were to be married, and I was with Caleb backstage. His eyes were twinkling, but not quite like the moment that Debbie stepped to the back of the church with her father, and there was a gleam in his eye. It's just like that, right? And you've had those moments with somebody special that you love, that things are just right, and there's just a twinkle in your eye, and could you have described when it happened? No, it just, wow. That is how quick the coming of the Lord will be, and our transformation will be. If you were still alive, how quick the resurrection will be, and how quickly your transformation will be. I worked for 11 years total. at a funeral home that sat on a cemetery, and we looked out over the cemetery, and I always told my co-workers, we have the early warning system, that in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the last trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall all be changed. You got just a twinkling of an eye moment to get right with the Lord when you're sitting at a cemetery, and they all suddenly open. In the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, The trumpet will sound and the dead shall be raised imperishable and we shall be changed. If you study the Feasts of Israel, Jesus Christ was crucified as the Passover lamb on Passover. He was raised from the dead on the Feast of Firstfruits. The Holy Spirit was given to us to write the Word of God on our hearts on the Feast of Pentecost. There are fall feasts that haven't yet been fulfilled. There's the Feast of Trumpets. It's a warning leading up to the Day of Atonement. Get yourself right, get yourself right, get yourself right. Then there'll be the Day of Atonement. And then there will be the Feast of Tabernacles, dwelling with God. The Feast of Trumpets, the loud sounding trumpets that would call people to assembly, that would warn people of disaster. Wake up. Wake up. Get right with the Lord because there's the Day of Atonement. I believe this to be the trumpet will sound at the last trumpet. Which Feast of Trumpets? This year? Next year? Forty years from now? I don't know. But because Christ has fulfilled the feasts and prophecies of the Old Testament, I feel quite strongly that this is talking about the Feast of Trumpets. Some year. So if you need a calendar, you can go online be right with the Lord all the time because he says he can come at any moment. But here he says at the last trumpet, some September, some early October, is the Feast of Trumpets. He could come today. That's fine. I'm wrong. But on the last trumpet, the last warning sound, your time to get right with God is now. To the nation of Israel, The trumpet will sound. The dead will be raised imperishable. Wherever their bodies are, in whatever state of decomposition, their bodies will be raised and will be raised imperishable. If you have, this morning, the soul spirit of Richard Staley is in the presence of God. He had trusted Jesus Christ as his Savior. His soul spirit, Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. But Paul here very clearly says that one day Richard Staley's body will be raised. Thankfully to the city of the township of Springfield Township, his body is going to be raised from the Springfield Township Cemetery. It would be raised in an instant, and his body will be perfected. It would be raised imperishable, never to decay again, and be able to perfectly worship God and join with his soul spirit in an immortal body. So also with you. So then some of you are already distracted saying, what about the person eaten by a whale? What about the person that was cremated and scattered to the four winds? If God could create this world out of nothing, He's got it figured out. At the sound of the last trumpet, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall all be changed. This word here, changed, is not changed into something totally different, but changed into another of a similar kind. That's why in heaven, you're going to be able to recognize Ken Coutts. Some of you are going to run to him. Others of you that didn't get along with his football preferences, you'll maybe avoid him. No. There will be some recognition. We're going to be changed in a similar recognizable sort, but changed from perishable to imperishable, from mortal to immortal. Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 13. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others who have no hope. We grieve, but we don't grieve as others who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words. We believe that Jesus died and rose again. Even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. Richard, his soul spirit, My Father, His soul spirit, your loved one who died with personal faith in Jesus Christ, their soul spirit will come with Jesus. Their bodies will be raised and in the middle atmosphere, their soul spirit and their body will be rejoined, transformed into something to never perish again. They will go first. They will be raised first at that moment. Then we who are left until the coming of the Lord will not precede them. The Lord will come down with a command, the voice, the sound of the trumpet. The dead will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And coming back to 1 Corinthians, we will be changed. We will be transformed. Our lowly bodies, our immortal bodies, these bodies subject to death, will put on immortality. Back at 1 Corinthians 15. For the perishable body must put on the imperishable. This mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on imperishable, the mortal puts on immortality. then she'll come to pass the saying that is written. If you're over 50, if you're 70, you're probably quite aware that your body is mortal and perishing, right? And boy, in America, we do everything possible to fight it, right? We can pay some really big bucks to fight the perishable, to fight mortality. But unless the Lord comes, it's on our calendar. It's a part of the sin-cursed world. Some of you don't feel the effects of perishing yet. In fact, if you're 20-something or younger, you're fairly convinced that you're immortal. The way you drive, the way you jump off things, The activities you participate in, you're pretty sure you're going to live forever. I mean, this verse obviously wasn't written about you. We're all mortal. We're all susceptible to death. In a blink of an eye, you can be driving and it can be done. how sobering it was this week to see in the news an intersection I go through multiple times a week with my daughter, an intersection that she sometimes bicycles through, and to see a fellow pastor and his driver's ed student and their lives just like that. We are mortal. We are susceptible to death. and that susceptibility should humble us, should drive us to focus upon eternity, that whatever we are living for at this moment could instantly cease and stop. Are you living with eternity in view, with eternity on your mind, that what you're doing and what you're about has something that's going to last beyond your lifetime. We desperately need to be changed. If we're going to experience the presence of the Lord forever, we desperately need to be changed. We need to be changed from the perishable to the imperishable. We need to be changed from mortal to immortality. And there's not a self-help book written about it because you can't do it. All right, thank you. There's no fountain that you can go drink at. There's no mountain high enough that you can climb to that you can ever attain this in the moment. in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, suddenly, with a voice of the archangel, he will shout, he will say, come home, come home, and we'll be snatched off this earth, one way or the other, from the grave or from our feet, we'll be snatched off this earth, and at that moment, we'll be instantly changed. Never to perish, never to ever suffer death, ever again. And that's why Paul, he then breaks out and quotes two different Old Testament passages. And one writer says, it's just like he loses his mind here for a second. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? Death is swallowed up. It's devoured. One of the only other uses, there's only a couple uses of this word swallowed in the New Testament. One of them is in Hebrews talking about the Egyptian army. They followed the Israelites into the Red Sea and the Red Sea swallowed them up. Jesus Christ, in raising from the dead, He swallowed up death. It's been swallowed up in victory. It has been overcome. You can bank on it. Paul says, quoting Hosea, challenging, oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, yes, there are moments, oh, to sit across the desk from people that have experienced the death of a loved one unexpectedly, and oh, at the moment, it seems like death is won. And for the disciples, they saw their Savior, their Rabbi, The one that they had sold their life for, crucified and taken off that cross. At that moment, death seemed to win. It stung. It hurt. But on Sunday morning, Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, and whatever victory death had, it was swallowed up. It was gone. It was conquered in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yes, death has a sting to it. It hurts. It can hurt for a moment, and especially if you're not prepared for it. But here it says, death, where is your sting? One of the only other times that this word is used is talked about in Revelation, about the scorpion stinging. Death, yeah, it has a sting. The poison's been taken out of it. It hurts maybe just for a moment, but there's no poison there because Jesus Christ in his resurrection, his death resurrection, he took the poison out of the sting of death. The sting of death is sin. The power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God who allows us the privilege to earn the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. How beautiful that this word give is the exact same Greek word in John 3 16. For God so loved the world that he gave. God so loved the world that he gave. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. You maybe have hung around church all your life. You maybe think that just trying a little bit harder, you can somehow earn victory. You can somehow earn eternal life if just maybe you do a few more things right. Victory is given, totally undeserved, graced upon us when we rightly align ourselves with the death resurrection of Jesus Christ. When we stop trying to be good enough and we come to realize that all the wrong things we ever thought, said, did, intended to do that Jesus Christ, He endured the punishment, the curse that was rightfully ours for our sin, those things against the law that we had done. He endured that curse for you, for me. The curse of our sins was poured out upon Him. And he endured that on the cross. And when we come to the end of ourselves of trying to be good enough, of trying to get it figured out, of reading just one more book, maybe now I'll get it figured out and I'll get right with God. Stop. Come to the cross. Bow before the cross and say, Jesus, I give up. I cannot save myself. Thank you. Thank You for dying for me, for taking the curse my sins deserved. And thank You, God, for saying it was more than enough by raising Him from the dead. I'm done trying. I'm done striving. I throw myself in trust upon You. I want to turn from my sin, throw myself before you as my Savior and Lord. Please, Lord, forgive me for my sin." And at that moment, God doesn't just give you eternal life. He gives you victory. This is the word that we have a brand of shoes named after, Nike. Overcomers. It's the word overcomers in Revelations 2 and 3 about being overcomers. We are overcomers. but thanks be to God who gives us the victory, the overcoming victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, not through a church, not through religious activities, not through our best efforts, but through simple trusting faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and what he did on our behalf. God gives it to us lavishly, graciously, If you've trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are an overcomer. And how often we need the Holy Spirit to remind us of God's eternal perspective. You are an overcomer in Jesus Christ. Therefore, Therefore, my beloved brothers, who is Paul writing to? He's writing to Corinthians. Corinthians, who we've seen in other chapters, were what? I mean, they were a mess. And Paul says, the apostle Paul, he calls them beloved brothers. Therefore, beloved brothers, be steadfast, be immovable. Opinions come, opinions go. Feelings come, feelings go. Be steadfast. Center your mind around this eternal truth that in Jesus Christ, you have been given victory. You have been given as an overcomer. You have it. Set your roots down deep, as Paul says in Colossians, that you'd be grounded, as he says in Ephesians. The purpose of the church is that we would equip the saints for the work of the ministry, that we'd grow up into a full maturity, not tossed to and fro. Be steadfast, immovable. Not every wind of doctrine that comes along, oh, I want to fit in. No, be steadfast, immovable, because of the certainty of what Jesus Christ has done for you. but then always abounding in the work of the Lord. Wow. How easy it is to coast. How easy it is to coast in American Christianity. I'm saved. I got my ticket to heaven. I'm an overcomer. And I guess I'll use the rest of the moments to please myself. Oh, I'll dabble here or there. Abounding, super abounding in the work of the Lord. God, what else do you have for me to do? This time is short. My mortality is upon me. I'm perishing. I want to be used for God. Abounding in the work of the Lord. Lord, what do you have for my hands to do? What do you have for my feet to go? Who do you have to have me speak into their life? Abounding. What do you have? That I would see with eyes wide open the people that God has placed in my life, that God has placed me in their life, and I would abound, super abound, in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord Your labor is not in vain. If you go honestly before the Lord, Lord, what is it that you have for me to do? By the power of your Spirit, in cooperation with the body of Christ, what is it that you have me to do in the work of the Lord? That no matter what at the moment seems profitable or not, that if it's done in the Lord, your labor is not in vain. At this pastor's conference, I think actually we might have been the third largest church represented at this pastor's conference, and we talked about how the world evaluates success. It's all about numbers. How many have walked the aisles? How many have walked through the baptism? How many are doing this or that? And that's success. Some of the most honored people that we're going to see in heaven maybe worked a lifetime faithfully plowing, faithfully planting, faithfully watering, and they never got to see the harvest. So stop trying to compare yourself and whether your ministry is productive or not, go to the Lord. Go to the Lord. Have Him evaluate because only the Lord knows your heart, the intentions of your heart, and whether your labor or not is in vain. If you're doing it for Him, you're doing it with the resources He provides for His glory, It will not be in vain. Its productivity, its fruitfulness, its eternal benefit may not ever be seen until you get to 1 Corinthians 3 and the refining fire and you have ash to place at Jesus' feet, or you have gold, silver, and precious stones. Because you've labored, abounded in the work of the Lord, Because of His direction, you've labored and you've trusted eternal truths that this will not be in vain. If you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, I hope the eternal truths are sobering. You are mortal. You are perishing. And one day you will stand before the God of the universe and He will say, what did you do with my Jesus? Your rejection of Jesus in this lifetime is a rejection of Jesus forever. And you will die separated from God forever to endure punishment In hell. Forever. Or you can simply come in a trusting faith, accept Jesus Christ, that He died in your place. God raised Him from the dead. And in simple trusting faith, God gives you eternal life. God gives you victory over death. And when this life is over, your last breath on earth will become your first breath in His presence. And one day, whatever's left of your body will be raised and glorified to enjoy Him, to enjoy His presence and the glories forever. Are you living with eternity in view? Are you serving with eternity in view? Heavenly Father, we thank You so much for Your precious Word. We thank You so much for Your Son, Jesus. And we thank You so much for the victory that You lavish upon us through His death resurrection in simple, trusting faith. Lord, I pray if there's someone here that has never taken that step, they would do so this morning. That they experience the victory of not just for eternity, but the victory that we can live in in this life today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.