you as we go to the Lord in prayer this morning. Brother Potts would you pray for us please. And you may be seen unless you celebrate a birthday. I know we have a few out there this morning. Come on in here and sing happy birthday. ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ Happy birthday God bless you ♪ Happy birthday to you You have an anniversary as well? Oh, okay. Amen. Well, it's good to be in the Lord's house today and have a little bit of liquid sunshine. It's nice. We need that. The only thing is I wish it was white. That would just, what? Come on, man. I was really tempted Friday night. I found out Estes Park was gonna get 91 inches of snow. If I could have found someone crazy, I would have gone to Estes Park. That would have been awesome. Brother Nathan, you're on speed dial next time. 91 inches, that would be totally awesome to witness. So anyhow, back to serious things. Deacon trustees meeting will be Wednesday night. Guys plan on that. Youth rally coming up on the 19th. We're going to have a special speaker with us next week, Brother Rick Russ. He's with a ministry that goes around to help plant churches. They helped plant the church that Brother Drinkard's pastoring now. And so we're looking forward to having him with us. Man camps coming up 26th through 27th. Registration $50 due today. Sign-up sheets there in the foyer. Triumph Youth Conference registration $80 due today. Both of those are on March 26th and 27th. One's in Joplin, the other one's down by Mount Vernon. Then Erica Foster is going to have a wedding shower on March the 25th at 7 o'clock here at the church. A lady's planned to attend that and she tells where she's registered. Lord's Supper, we're going to have Lord's Supper on Tuesday night the 30th at 7 o'clock. and will not have a Wednesday evening service that week. Ladies, retreat's coming up April 16th through the 17th at Riverside in St. Joe, Missouri. The cost for retreat's 35, not including the lodging. And then in our prayer area, I ask that you remember to pray for all these that are listed here. We have many out traveling, and so you pray for them. The Gilsons are not here today, because they both have colds. And so if you pray for them, pray for Brother Cole, on Facebook, Mrs. Beavers had posted his address and it's got to be just so-so. If you have Facebook and you can get to that, that'd be great. If not and you need that, you can see Brother Chuck or myself will try to help you get that address. It'd be nice if he got some cards from us, some encouragement. And then continue to pray for all the rest of those that are listed there in our prayer area. It's good to be in the Lord's house today. Have each one of you with us. Gonna have Brother Foster come back, lead us in another song, and then we'll get to our Sunday school time. Brother Foster. All right, I'll sing hymn number 55. When the roll is called up, your honor, the first and last verses. ♪ In the trumpet of the Lord shall sound ♪ ever more than ever Amen, at this time you can be dismissed to your Sunday school classes. All right, my class, we're still in lesson number seven. I had a few more printouts made in case someone needs one. Raise your hand, anyone? All right, Erica needs one by the pots. Oh, you need more? Okay. Y'all wanna do that? What the kids are doing? You woke up this morning? Oh boy. Lesson number seven, we are in. First Thessalonians, chapter number five. This has been an exciting lesson for me. We got into it a couple weeks ago. I'm looking forward to venturing into it again today, dealing with the subject of comforting one another. We need some comfort in these days, do we not? We need some comfort, and the only comfort that we can find is from the Word of God and from the truths of the Word of God. And building our lives upon those biblical truths are the things that give us a good foundation, a good solid standing so we can know when things come about in this world that we live in, we know where we stand in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we know what's taking place, and we know how the end times are playing out. We understand these things, and we look forward to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ as we see these things progressing, and we see these things coming about. And that's what Paul is dealing with here as he's discussing this with the Church of Thessalonica, and he's wanting them to understand how to encourage one another in the midst of a world That seems to be against God, a world that doesn't follow the Word of God, doesn't understand these things. We can comfort one another in some things that we find here in God's Word. So let's begin reading here in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 1. It says, But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness. that that day should overtake you as a thief. You are the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love. And for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. As children of light, as Paul is describing, we have some things that we understand and we know from a biblical perspective. We understand what God has planned and we understand what His purpose is for us. Now the world, they don't understand these things and they don't abide by these things. If they have a glimpse of these truths, they don't abide by them or they don't believe in them. Therefore, they come up with their own ideas and their own philosophies and their own course of action. And that's what we see going on all around us as people and men, they're making their own mind up and their own determination of how things should be rather than allowing the Word of God to be their absolute authority in their life. But as children of light, the Word of God is our absolute authority. It's where we find absolute truth, and it's what we are to follow. And as we follow God's Word, as we understand God's Word, we have some things that we can comfort one another in. So that's what we want to understand as we look through this lesson. And we got into a few things, and we only got a little bit into the first point, the believer's conviction. the believer's conviction. We need to understand some things from the Word of God and have a conviction about them. In other words, we're going to stand on them, we're going to be firm upon them, and we're not going to waver about what we know to be true from the Word of God. And God wants us to be settled in our heart about some things that would help us in this comfort area of our life. And the first thing that we got into was the imminent return of the Lord. So we comfort ourselves in knowing all that's going on around us, and we see the world that's turning from God and are actually going against God's Word and His principles and their ideologies, but we can find comfort in knowing that we have an imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's coming again, and He will set things straight, and He will get things in order, and we have comfort in knowing that God is still on the throne and He will take charge. And we went through the end time events. I will not go through all of them again today, If you want to briefly look at the chart behind me, you can see how these things play out. So we understand that when Jesus Christ calls us up in the air, that begins the tribulation period for seven years. Then we have the second coming where Jesus Christ comes on the white horse, and then He does set up His millennial reign, and He will set all things straight and all things in order. And then we see at the end of that the great white throne judgment, all those things playing out. So these are things that we know are coming. And we are looking forward to those things that are coming. And we comfort ourselves in knowing that Jesus Christ will come and He will rule and reign. And we have all these things that have yet to play out. And then at the end of all that, we have the new heaven and the new earth. I'm looking forward to that. Don't know what it's going to be like. We don't see much mentioned about it, but what is that new earth going to be like? Is it going to be similar to what we have now? I don't think so. But I think we will enjoy some things in this new earth, and we'll have the ability to just praise God for all of eternity and what He has created. So we look forward to those things, and we comfort ourselves in knowing. Don't you find comfort in that as you see things progressing in our society? This is what we often say to one another when we come to church. Aren't you thankful that the Lord is returning soon? Aren't you thankful that God is in control? Aren't you thankful that God is going to set all these things straight? These are the things we comfort ourselves in and we can find rest in knowing that God will set things in order. So, we have comfort in the imminent return of the Lord. But we also need to understand some things about our conviction is that the empty promise of world power, and again I get an amen there. We have a lot of empty promises by politicians and those leaders today are full of these things and we don't find our comfort in those. We don't find our security in those things. Besides the conviction of the Lord's imminent return, the believer is also convicted of the empty promise of world power. Verse 3 of our text says, For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then cometh sudden destruction, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. So when Christ takes the saints away, the world leaders will say, peace and safety. We know this to be the beginning of the tribulation. We see the Antichrist rise up and he seems to establish a sense of order and a sense of peace. He's going to act as though everything is fine. World leaders have made empty promises all throughout history. After World War I, Woodrow Wilson said, it was the war to end all wars. That is what every great kingdom from the Egyptian kingdom to the great kingdom has said, and these were large kingdoms, and they thought they had finally brought peace and they had the answers for the entire world. However, none of them succeeded. So, we see all these empires that have failed and we can look to those here. I don't have them listed out for you. Maybe they're in your notes. I don't know. We have great empires that have failed. The Egyptian Empire was 1570 to 1070 B.C. The Assyrian Empire from 911 to 609. The Babylonian, which you're probably familiar with Nebuchadnezzar, 605 to 539. The Persian from 539 to 330 B.C. The Greek with Alexander the Great from 330 to 63, and these are long reigns as you can see. The Roman from 63 BC to 476 AD. The Mongol with Genghis Khan 1206 to 1368 AD. The Ottoman with the Turkish 1299 to 1923 AD. the British from 1500 to 1960 AD, the French with Napoleon from 1804 to 1850, and the Austria-Hungarian from 1867 to 1918. So we see all these rise in powers in our history, and all of them sought to bring peace and safety to the world, but none of them were successful. World leaders are still saying peace and safety. Why do they say peace and safety? It's what the heart longs for. It's what we desire. We want security, we want to know that we are safe, and we want the world to be at peace. What do all the, one of these Miss Universe or whatever they've run for, I don't watch those things, but they always say, what do you want for the world? Well, I want world peace, that's what they always say. Everyone would like to have world peace. But verse three of our text tells us that the tribulation is a time of sudden destruction. Destruction in this verse means death or ruin, and it will come suddenly as a travail upon a woman with child. So here that word travail refers specifically to a woman in the pain of childbirth. And Jesus used the same word in Matthew 24, 8, translated sorrow, when He was referring to tribulation. Additionally, it is the Greek equivalent for the phrase, the time of Jacob's trouble in Jeremiah 30 and verse 7, which also speaks of the tribulation. So God warns us of sudden destruction. It is coming. But as we will see in the following verses that we'll look at here, He gives us the promise that we will be saved from the wrath to come. See, as biblical students, we understand that we are pre-tribbed. In other words, we're gonna be gone before the tribulation takes place, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have the believer's caution next, the believer's caution. We have the conviction. We understand the end times. We understand what God's plan is. And we understand that our security and our hope is not in world powers or world leaders. We are trusting God. So that's our conviction. We need to stand on those things. You need to stand firm on those things, especially in the times that we live in, knowing that your trust and your hope needs to be in God and God alone. The Believer's Caution. So the Bible gives us some cautionary advice, some things that we need to be cognizant of that would help us in this area of comfort. The Bible is clear that believers will not be part of the coming destruction. God tells the church of Philadelphia in Revelation 3.10 that because they have kept His word, He will preserve them from the wrath to come. So Revelation 3.10 says this, Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the earth, upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. While as believers we are spared from the wrath to come, we need to be ready for His return. We need to be prepared for the Lord's coming. God tells us that His imminent return tells us of it, and partly to give us comfort and partly to caution us to live circumspectly. In other words, we don't know when the hour is, so we should always be expectant of it and be ready and be prepared to meet the Lord. So to live circumspectly so that we will be prepared for His return. So He calls us to an awakening. We are to awake. In verses 6 and 7 of our text, God instructs us to remain alert. Be aware of what's going on. Awake to the things that are going on around us in our world. The word sleep in verse 6 means to drop off to sleep. to fall asleep, to yield to sloth. And when we are asleep, we are not aware of our surroundings. We're not cognizant of all that's going on. Believers are instructed to watch or to be vigilant and to keep awake for the Lord's return. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 34 reminds us here, awake to righteousness. So he's saying, be aware. Be aware of what you're doing. Be aware of how you're behaving. because the Lord could return at any moment. Awake to righteousness and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. So God calls us here to awake to righteousness and be alert and ready for his coming. We need to redeem the time and we need to live for the Lord Jesus Christ and share the good news of the glorious gospel with others. We're aware of the of North Korea and South Korea and the situation that goes on there with North Korea. But South Korea is a country that is highly vigilant and prepared for emergencies. At any moment, a war with North Korea could happen. And for this reason, South Koreans live in a state of constant vigilance. and are used to observing curfews and participating in emergency preparedness drills. In schools, students prepare for emergencies with evacuation drills. Maybe much like we, when I was in school, we used to have tornado drills and fire drills. We're preparing for something that could happen. It is this level of alertness to which God calls us in light of his return, not out of fear, but out of a desire to be ready. Be ready for the Lord's return. To be found faithful doing what God has called you to do when He returns. Not found in sin, but rather found in righteousness. Not only are we called to be alert, but also to remain temperate. And verse six tells us, let us be sober, which means to be temperate, circumspect, calm, and collected. When someone is drunk, they're unable to pay attention. They're unaware of their surroundings. As Christians, we need to be focused. We need to be watchful and be ready as we await for Christ's return. Mark 13, verse 34 says, Watch ye therefore, for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock crowing, or in the morning, lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. So we as believers, we need to examine our lives, and we need to see if we are truly living in the light of Christ's return. Are we prepared for Christ to return? Now understand, the times we're living in, it could be at any moment. And we certainly need to be ready for His return. If we have an unsaved friend or relative, we should tell them about the Lord Jesus Christ. They need to know and they need to understand that there's something far better for them and there's a heaven to gain and they need to understand that there's a hell for them if they do not accept Jesus Christ into their life. If we have a grudge against someone, we should forgive. If we are distracted by the world, we should get focused on eternity. So we need to wake up as Christians. Also, we need to prepare. The most important thing we need to be sure of before Christ's return is our salvation. It's the most important decision for every individual is to understand your standing with the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you saved? And if you are not saved, you are not prepared for His coming. Verse 8 instructs us as believers not only to be sober but also to put on the hope of salvation. Our preparation for Christ's return involves putting on the breastplate of His righteousness and the helmet of salvation. And that correlates with Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 14. It says, with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness. And take the helmet of salvation, verse 17, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." These are tools in our arsenal that we must use and that we must have on and make sure that we are prepared with these tools as we combat Satan and all that he is trying to do in this world. we need to make sure that we are prepared. Notice verse eight of our text says to put on foreign helmet, the hope of salvation. This hope means a confident expectation. We know because of our salvation that the Lord is coming. We know that He's coming for me and He's coming for you as believers. We do not have to doubt our salvation but can be confident that we are saved. Philippians 1.6 reminds us of this confidence. It says, which hath begun a good work in you," what will He do? He will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. God's desire is to continue to work through you as a saved individual until He comes. He wants to work through you and He wants to continue that good work that began at the moment of your salvation. So we can prepare for the Lord's return by being sure of our salvation and that we are spiritually awake and alive and living for the Lord. So these are some things that we need to make sure that we are alive to, that we are aware of, and this is the caution that God gives us through the pen of Paul as he's writing to the church at Thessalonica. And it's written to us today as members of Shawnee Mission Baptist Temple, we need to be cautioned, to be awake and to be prepared for the Lord's return. And then we finally see here the third point, the believer's comfort, the believer's comfort. Despite the impending doom of the end of the world and the coming tribulation, we as believers can draw comfort from God's word and God's promises that we will not experience the wrath to come. And we see here from the Word of God that we are preserved from wrath. Verse 9 tells us that God has not appointed us to wrath. The word appointed means to set, to place, to fix, to establish, or to ordain. So He has not set us on a course to experience the wrath that He's going to pour out on this world. God has not ordained that we should go through His wrath or judgment in the future. In 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse 10, we are given the assurance that Christ has delivered us from the impending wrath. He says here, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." Aren't you thankful that we do not have to go through the wrath of God? God has spared us from that, and God has given us a blessed salvation, and as a result of that salvation, He's sparing us from the wrath that He will pour out as a judgment of this sin-cursed world, and we as believers are gone, and we don't have to experience that. The next thing we see is that we are promised eternity with Him, and boy, I think we find greatest comfort here. knowing that all of eternity we're going to be able to spend with the One who gave His life for us, the One who paid so high a price, and we're going to spend eternity with Him. The believer's comfort is not only in the fact that He has saved us from the wrath to come, but also in this blessed promise of spending eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 9 of our text tells us, For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. The word obtain means to preserve, to possess, or purchase. And salvation here means a deliverance or safety. So we obtain our eternal salvation in Jesus Christ. And it's been purchased, it's been bought, and God owns it. And God is the one who is keeping our salvation. So it's a preserved possession of God, our salvation. Aren't you thankful that you are secure in Jesus Christ and the salvation that He offers us? God's plan is not for us to experience wrath. but to receive salvation. And He wants this for all mankind. His will is that all men would be saved. And we have been given salvation through Jesus Christ and will receive deliverance from the tribulation when we are raptured and glorified with Christ. Verse 10 in our text speaks of Christ who died for us. Jesus shed His blood on the cross and died for us so that we can be forgiven. and that we can escape from the suffering and judgment and spend eternity in heaven with Him. Verse 10 goes on to say that Christ died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with Him. And we know also that should we die before the rapture, we'll go directly into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5a gives us this hope. It says, We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. We have much comfort to find here this morning from the Word of God. And if you ever find yourself in a place where you're discouraged, or you think this world is just hopeless and you don't know what to, you can find confidence in, turn to the Word of God and find your hope once again, and find your comfort once again in the truth that we find here. Jesus has promised to prepare a place in heaven for us, and this is a comfort for us in knowing that we will live forever with the Lord when our earthly life ends. If you turn to Philippians 3 in verse 20, We find some comforting words here as we understand what God's plan is for us and what He has prepared for us. Philippians 3.20 says, For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall change our vile body, aren't you looking forward to that day, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." We could just pause there and consider all the things that we battle in this vile body, that sin nature, all those evil and wicked thoughts. Aren't you thankful that one day they'll all be gone? As we have that glorious body and we no longer have the sin nature, we will just be perfect eternally. Our conversation is in heaven is an interesting phrase that's used here. Our conversation is in heaven. What does that mean? It means that our lifestyle and our thoughts are already focused toward heaven. In other words, we know what our destiny is, we know what we've been saved from, and we know what God has given for us to do, and then we are living in such a way that we understand our purpose, and it changes our lifestyle, it changes our thoughts, and we begin to think. You know, if we would just be focused on the day-to-day and we would listen to the news and we would get bogged down with all of those things, we would be quite desperate to find hope. And we would often find ourselves discouraged. But how do we bring ourselves out of a place of discouragement is when we look up and we remember those heavenly things. We remember that this world is not my home. I'm just passing through. So my lifestyle, my thoughts, all my behavior needs to be focused on those things that await. And I need to make sure that I'm living for eternity. So in light of that, I need to consider what would God have me to do? Well, he's left me here to be an ambassador for him. I need to be sharing this good news so that other people might have the same hope that I have, that they would understand that there's something far better than this world, and there's something far better than any world power could give them. and they need Jesus Christ in their life. God promises those who trust in Him a new body, a new home, an everlasting life in heaven. In addition to this promise of eternal life, the Bible tells us that we can know for sure that we possess eternal salvation. 1 John 5 13. These things have I written unto you that you believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. Aren't you thankful that we can know that we possess salvation, that we have the Holy Spirit living within us? So we have this promise. The next thing we see is we are comforted by His truth. With the promise of eternity with the Lord, believers can be comforted by His truth. Verse 11 says, wherefore, comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. And this is so truthful, and we come together, and what do we often talk about? We talk about the goodness of the Lord, we talk about His promises, and how we can rest on those promises, and we look forward to when the Lord returns, and we look forward to heaven. All these things we comfort ourselves in. And God wants us to be comforting and edifying one another in these things. The word wherefore points to the previous verses. What is it there for? What has He said all this? What is the culmination of all these statements that He's made? It's saying because of what we just covered, comfort yourselves. Because we have been saved and spared from wrath to come, because we know that we are going to spend eternity with God, we can comfort and encourage one another with these truths. The word comfort comes from the Greek word, I don't even know how to say it, parakaleo, maybe I got close, which is also used for the Holy Spirit. It means to come alongside, to exhort and encourage, to strengthen. And that's what we are to be doing. Doesn't the Word of God call us? to edify one another. As we come together in this body, we are to build one another up. That's what the word edify means. And the way we build each other up is by sharing the truths from the Word of God. So as we come together, and we may have been worn down by the world this week, and we may be discouraged by the news that we hear, but when we come together, we encourage one another with the Word of God. Maybe you've read something in your devotion this week, and you encourage someone else with that truth. And that's what God wants us to do. We come alongside, and we exhort, and we encourage, and we strengthen. And that is what the Holy Spirit does for us. He comes alongside and encourages us, and He strengthens us as we read from the Word of God, as we spend time in prayer with God. All these things, the Holy Spirit comes alongside, and He's there encouraging us. He's saying, yes, these things are so. These things are true. Be comforted in your heart in knowing that God's Word is faithful. God instructs us to likewise come alongside one another to comfort each other in the power of His Spirit. So, if we know someone who might be going through a difficult time, we should be willing to go to that person and comfort them. share some biblical truth, offer words of encouragement. And this is what God commands us to do and what we are instructed to do from the word of God. So here are five ways in which we can comfort others. First of all is edify, which we've covered. It means to build up, to establish, to promote growth. That's what we are to be about. We're to be encouraging, helping others in their walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. Not discouraging, but encouraging, edifying. Reminding. We are to remind each other that we are to serve God, serve a God who comforts us and He cares for us. And all these things we do, and maybe you've been a recipient of, or you've given these words of encouragement, but we're reminded of how good God is. And we need to be reminded over and over of how good God is in our life. 2 Corinthians 1, 3, and 4 says, If you need comfort today, go to God, because He's the God of all comfort, who comforted us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. So as we receive the comfort of God, we're to turn around and then give that comfort to someone else. So we remind them of God's goodness. We are to pray. While we may not always be able to physically be present with someone, we can always pray for one another and how important it is that we lift up the concerns and the prayers of one another, especially as a body of the Lord Jesus Christ, caring for one another and carrying one another's burdens. Hebrews 13, 18 says, pray for us for we trust we have a good conscious in all things willing to live honestly. We need to pray for one another and that we would all Consider these things that we've read, that we would encourage one another to live in righteousness, but pray that we would have the ability and have the determination that we would use the Holy Spirit's power to overcome sin in our life, that we would remain pure, that we would follow the Lord Jesus Christ in all that we do. So many things that we need to pray for one another for. Pray for those that are going through difficult times and hard circumstances. We need to remember. We need to remember, we need to be mindful of the promises God has given us in His Word, including all those that we've looked at in this study regarding our salvation, the gift of eternal life, and the supply of our needs. We can help one another remember these things, thereby bringing comfort. And often as we're going through a hard time in our life, God brings to remembrance those things of how He's provided for us or how He brought us through a difficult trial. And we can use those then in turn with others that go through trials. maybe of the same circumstance, and we can tell them how God provided in the midst of our trial and how He comforted and how He provided. 2 Peter 1.4 says, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises. I love how the Word of God describes things and how He describes the Word of God here. He gives unto us exceeding great But not only are they exceeding great, but they're precious promises. And if you hold to the promises of the Word of God, you understand them to be just that. They're great and they are precious. And we need to consider them that way. That by these, you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Aren't you thankful for what God can do through His Word and through the salvation He offers to us? So we need to remember these things. We also need to give. Another way we can comfort others is by giving to their needs. We need to be willing to give to their needs. It could be a simple, thoughtful gesture. It could be offering a cup of coffee and getting together with them, or it might be giving financial need in their life. The Lord will lay on your heart, if you're open to Him, what is needed. Acts chapter 20 and verse 35 says, I have showed you all things, how that so laboring you ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. We need to be in a place where we can carry out these five areas of comfort. We need to be in a place where we are edifying We need to be cautious about those discouraging words that proceed out of our mouth and catch those words or those thoughts before they go out of our mouth and change those and think about how can I change this into a way that I could edify, that I could build someone up or encourage them to walk with the Lord. We need to be reminded of the God we serve. We need to be prayerful. We have much to pray about. We need to remember the promises of God and we need to be willing to give. So as we go through this life, we understand this life is full of challenges. It's full of trials. But as believers, we have the assurances of truth with which we can comfort one another. We often say this, but we, as believers, we go through a difficult trial or circumstance and we have the Lord's comfort alongside and we see the testimony of a Christian who is walking with the Lord and how they go through a trial and they give God all the glory and honor for what He's doing and what He's done. But then we see someone in the world who is living without Christ and all the heartache and the hurt that's there because they do not obtain or they do not have, possess the same hope that we have. So we need to understand that as we go through these trials and challenges, we have these assurances, and these assurances of truth are not only for our benefit, but they are a testimony to others that would see us go through these trials, and it would bring comfort to our hearts, and it would comfort them in knowing that there is something far greater that lives within us, and they need to know that same one that lives within us. So we take comfort in the promise of the Lord's imminent return, as we've mentioned. We rest in the hope that our earthly problems are only temporary and we will soon spend eternity with the Lord in heaven. As we see things deteriorating, as we see the continuation of moral decline and absolute truths being undermined in our society, I'm looking forward to that millennial reign. And I think more so even now, I'm looking forward to when Jesus Christ comes and sets all things in order as only He can. You know, the world is in such a mess today, I don't think that it's within the power of any man to set it straight. Only God is going to be able to set things straight at this point. Because we know the Lord may return at any moment, we endeavor to live with spiritual alertness and readiness to meet Him. I'm looking forward to meeting Him, are you? I'm looking forward to His return, and it's our challenge to be ready. God wants us to be ready, and it would behoove us to be ready, not only for us, but again, for others. They need to see Jesus Christ working in our life. They need Jesus in their life. Finally, knowing we are saved, heaven-bound, and promised eternal life, we comfort one another with these truths. We know this, a better day is coming for us who believe, but a far worse day is coming for those who don't. We find comfort in knowing where we're going to spend eternity, but think of all those that are lost today and where they're going to spend their eternity, and we need to be mindful of that and be willing to share. So as we find comfort in these things because of what we believe in, and this is the comfort that we have to give to one another in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have much to be thankful for today. We have much to comfort ourselves in. And as discouraged as we may get, we know this, that God is in control and God has a plan and these things may need to play out just as they're playing out to fit according to God's plan. So we need to trust Him, we need to follow Him and find comfort in the truths of the Word of God and what all He has in store for us. And knowing that that better day is coming. where we will not only rule and reign with the Lord Jesus Christ during the millennium, but we're going to spend all of eternity living in the presence of the Lord. Heavenly Father, we're so thankful today for these truths that we find. What an encouragement we find in the Word of God, and knowing that You are in control and that we can trust you fully with our lives. And I pray that as we've looked at these truths today, that we would take away those things that we need to do, those things that we need to purpose in our heart that we will do, that you've called us to do. And I pray that we would be awake, that we would be alert, and that we would be prepared for your return. And I pray that we would be found faithful to you as you do return, that we would be actively doing the work that you've called us to do and sharing the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ to all those that you would bring our way. Father, I pray that you would just bless this church, bless this body of Christ as we seek to follow you. And I pray that you would just grow us and help us to be more determined to follow you in these days ahead. And we'll thank you for it in Jesus' name, amen. All right, you have about 15 minutes and we'll meet right back in here for the worship hour.