Welcome to the Wilton Baptist Church, where we worship God, walk with others, and win people to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm Pastor Steve, and our congregation is pleased to share this message with you today, and we pray it'll be a blessing and encouragement to you. Blessings as you listen or watch. Ezekiel 48 and just recently a lot of you probably tuned in or you heard about the Olympics maybe you saw on social media the opening ceremony so they had these drag queen people reenacting Da Vinci's Last Supper. By the way Da Vinci's Last Supper is a rendering it didn't really look like that. They didn't pose for a painting back then. They were around a table, all around it. They weren't just on one side of it. So just so that you know, but it does symbolize something to most Christians. They kind of see that they know what it's depicting with the Last Supper in the upper room. So these drag queens and men trying to be women, women trying to be men are reenacting this and mocking Christianity. The next slide shows a pale horse, and apparently this was a mechanical metal horse. I thought it was, like, generated via AI or something, but I guess it's a real metal horse they had walking around or something. Does anyone know, is it physically real or just? AI or anything? I don't know. I just got some pictures about it. The pale horse. The pale horse is mentioned in Revelation. I thought that was very interesting. And they understood the symbolism of it as well. So here's the pale horse bringing in the flag. There's another picture of it from a different angle there. So it looks like it's real from that, not just something they imposed there. and uh... the olympic ceremonies was full of paganism and debauchery and sexual deviance these things were mocking christianity directly this one about the beast or this uh... this pale horse really kind of mocking the apocalypse and the things that are spoken of in revelation chapter six the pale horse brings in the the fourth of the sealed judgments and the pale horse is representing in revelation that he's going to kill one fourth of the world's population with famine and with war. And so there's just this open mocking of Christianity. And then I find it very interesting that pagan people or people who are against God, whoever organized all of this. And it's not the athletes. It's these other elite people who put together these ridiculous shows. But they're promoting something, an agenda against the Lord. Satan will do all that he can to make sure that God's word does not happen, especially since the end is not good for Satan. I mean, you can read to the end and see what happens to him. But I found it interesting, even a secular world and a world that is against God understands a little bit about Bible prophecy. And I would suggest to you Christians we should know a lot more. They don't really believe it will take place or happen or will try to circumvent or overcome what these things represent in the scripture. So here we are in Ezekiel 48. This is our last chapter, last message. I'll give you kind of a brief overview. Think about Ezekiel in his 25 years of exile. and in the first forty chapters of this book is equal uh... c has seen the lord and he saw this temple and how the lord had withdrawn himself from the people because of the sins that were committed in jerusalem and in the temple in particular And the Lord had met him there by the rivers just south of Babylon, by the Chabar River. And the Lord promised the exiles, there will be a new covenant one day, and I will deliver the people one day. And in the first 32 chapters, he has warning and warning, and there's impending judgment, and you will be carried away. And Ezekiel was slated to be a prophet. or a priest rather, a priest that is at age 30, but God carried him away, had the Babylonians carry him away, and then here he is, a prophet for the Lord there just south of Babylon. And the Lord gives hope then in the last half of the book so from chapters thirty three on after all the warning uh... job because of how they had abandoned the lord and fallen followed after uh... these don't get idols and just go back and some of the messages to remember that word i don't have to do with the donga he's done dvds they followed after these these false gods dot so i will judge you i will carry you away and these things will take place and a lot of these things took place in Ezekiel's lifetime. Now as the chapter concludes as the book concludes we find the Lord talking about a city. The first mention of a city in the Bible was Cain and his act of rebellion in Genesis chapter four. And here, the final city is the city of God. And so, you could frame some of the Bible from, here's what happened when Cain rebelled, Cain and Abel, think about them, and here's what happens when Jesus comes and sets everything right. There's a city. That ezekiel was talking about in chapter 48. We talked about the temple A few times ago and last time we had some messages about uh in chapter 47 46, etc But here we are concluding and there is a a city here and it's the city of jerusalem Where god will dwell. So let's look in our bibles I'll read a verse and have some more things to consider about this, uh the city so notice in verse the last verse of this book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel 48 verse 35. It's not on the screen. Just look at it in your book or tablets. It was round about 18,000 measures. He's talking about Jerusalem. He just described the 12 gates. They're named after the 12 tribes of Israel. And the name of the city from that day shall be the Lord is there. the lord is there what a name for that city after years of the hebrew people trusting the lord then abandoning the lord trusting the lord then clinging to idols trusting the lord following him and worshipping him there whether in the tabernacle earlier or in jerusalem later at the temple and then abandoning all of that for kamosh and bale and asteroth and all these other gods that we've discussed over the last several weeks and months the lord says that city that city will forever one day be known as The Lord is there. See, God lifted his hand of blessing. His presence was no longer evident during Ezekiel's time. He was, of course, far away. But those who were living in Jerusalem, they knew God has abandoned us here because we abandoned the Lord. But there is a promise that God gave Ezekiel that I will be your God one day and you will be my people. We've talked about how that's the epitome of the gospel. That's really the goal of the gospel, that God will be our God. And that we would be his people. We see that time and time again as we've gone through the book of Ezekiel So let's just go ahead and consider this city for just a moment present-day Jerusalem. I've been there I've walked around parts of the city. I didn't walk into the fourth quarter of the city, which is the Muslim quarter I walked through the rest of the place and But you'd have to get special permission on a very special day when everyone's happy to go into that part. So I didn't go in there. But I did walk across the wall and look down into the Muslim quarter of the city. It's divided into four different sections today. But the perimeter wall around old city present-day old city jerusalem is about two-and-a-half miles around it's exactly two point four nine seven miles long the average height of the walls are forty dollar about forty feet thirty nine feet a thickness is about eight feet there are thirty four watchtowers and only seven gates now in easy goal these verses here right above the text that we just read there are twelve gates pardon me, three on each side. But present-day Jerusalem is two and a half miles around. The perimeter of the millennial city of Jerusalem, notice our text, 18,000 measures, 18,000 measures is six miles. okay it's not the same city god does something totally different whenever he touches down on the mount of olives he changes the geography of the region the city is in large when jesus comes back and sets up his millennial kingdom and but we've already read it's gonna have walls as well as going to have uh... this is described as a fenced city that indicates safety and uh... blessing and then there's new jerusalem sometimes people equate the millennial jerusalem with Heavenly Jerusalem, but that's impossible because the New Jerusalem is much larger Revelation 21 16 says the city life for square the length is as the breath as large as the breath and he measured the city with the reed 12,000 furlongs the length and the breath and the heights are all equal so heavenly Jerusalem is actually cube-shaped And it's very large, absolutely very large of a city. New Jerusalem is 12,000 furlongs, according to Revelation, which would be 1,400 miles. 1,400 miles, and that's just one direction on one wall. And then it goes another direction that way, then another direction that way. 1,400, and back to make a full square, or a cube, and it shoots straight up into the air. 1,400 miles. That's massive. That's massive. That's heavenly Jerusalem. That's called the New Jerusalem whenever you study the scriptures. So Old City Jerusalem today, think about when you leave today in your car, if you turn left and drive north, you drive two and a half miles before the first intersection, red light. That's two and a half miles from our front door. That's Old City. That's Old City today. If you drive south, you take a right, you drive south and go into Saratoga Springs, that's six miles. That's the millennial kingdom, Jerusalem. Six miles to go to Saratoga Springs. If you were to drive from our church building's front door all the way to Miami, Florida, That's 1,400 miles. That's a big city. All the people of all time who've ever trusted Christ, looking forward to Christ or looking back at Christ will be there. All the angels, you just think about how beautiful, wonderful that place is. What an incredible thing the Lord tells us. This new city, Jerusalem, in heaven, the heavenly Jerusalem, has 12 gates, also has 12 foundations. This also differentiates from the millennial kingdom, Jerusalem. revelation twenty one twelve and they had a great so all great and hide twelve gates and at the gates twelve angels and the names written there on which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of israel as a similarity but it's not the same thing and on the east three gates on the north three gates on the south three gates on the west three gates and all of the city had twelve foundations and and then the names of the twelve apostles of the lamb and but the foundation has different precious jewels that are used to be part of that foundation of the 12 foundations of the apostle of the Lamb of God. So how is it that people have such differing understandings of eschatology? And I'll give you three ways that people look at what we're talking about, what we've looked at over the last several months, three prevailing views on the future. And everything I've taught you comes from one prevailing view. First off is amillennialism. Amillennialism. You can see this on the screen. The 1,000 year period should be taken metaphorically. So they don't take it literally. They would say it's not something that you believe word for word exactly what the Bible says. But the millennium then actually refers to what happens spiritually between Christ the first and second coming so the advent of Christ To the second advent of Christ when he'd come back the Lord they would say is conquered Satan and bound at the cross Whenever he defeated sin death and hell at the cross, of course And the saints can now proclaim the gospel. Christ reigns in heaven, and the saints reign with him as they submit their lives to him and evangelize the nations. And Christ's rule and the fulfillment of God's promises is primarily a spiritual reality. So you don't see the things that I just described, like real cities, real places, real walls, as authentic and real, but as metaphorically speaking. And so that's the amillennial view. Amillennialism could be concisely stated this way, things will get better until Jesus comes. They're not looking for a physical kingdom. They'll just say, well, the world will get better and better and better. And it eventually will recognize that Jesus has come, and it just gets better. So that's one view on millennialism. Number two is post-millennialism. Post-millennialism is characterized by the following views. Christ comes after the millennial period finishes. So there would be the tribulation and then the millennial kingdom would come. The millennial kingdom is distinct, or to them is distinct time period inaugurated by the church, which encompasses both spiritual and physical characteristics. The body of Christ will influence, that'd be the church, the entire world, culturally, politically, and economically, so that Christ will have dominion through the church. This will bring great physical prosperity to the world. Post-millennialism also states the church will have great effectiveness in evangelism, and a church will have deep spiritual maturity. The hegemony of the church will last a long time, but not necessarily a thousand years. They're still taking that millennium, which means a thousand, to metaphorically speak, and not really literal thousand years. Following this, a rebellion will ensue, and Christ will return to earth to judge and create a new heaven and a new earth. The church has replaced Israel and received its purposes and promises, and now claims the responsibility as a national priesthood to the rest of the world. That would be post-millennialism. And basically, you could summarize it this way. Jesus already came, and we're in the millennial kingdom. It's already happening. We're in it right now. Now, here's what happens when you take the Bible and you don't look at it in a literal way. Contextually what it really says you just think it's all just metaphor I mean if it says like and as and it's given a metaphor if it's not saying like and as and if it's not apparent that It's a demonstration of something then you can see how people get misled Here's here's a couple examples post-millennial theorists get caught up in things like this We're in a tribulation now And I've actually heard somebody say this, if Joe Biden resigns as president next month, that would be 42 months into his presidency. And so then that's kind of like in Revelation when the beast or the false prophet, the anti-Christ breaks his peace treaty with Israel because that's 42 months, that's three and a half years. And they'll speculate and they'll say things such as this. Maybe we're in the midpoint of the Tribulation and then the Millennial Kingdom. By the way, no U.S. president is the Antichrist. As best I could tell from the scripture, no U.S. president, there's always speculation, no matter which political side of the aisle they may be from. America, as we know it, will not be around during the Tribulation. as we know it. It's not mentioned in the scriptures, and we don't know exactly what will take place, but it's not like, oh, America comes to the day or America does this. It's not in the Bible. You don't see that. You see a lot of things happening in Europe. You see that Antichrist comes from Europe and what's part of what will become known as the revived Roman Empire. So I digress, it gets into a lot of other things, but just consider that. You'll hear people say different things about different presidents and things, but it's probably not them, as best you can tell from the scripture. Premillennialism, premillennialism, it has to do with this. It holds and takes a literal approach to the Bible. Premillennialism holds that Christ will return to inaugurate this time period called the Millennium. And since he's not come back yet, the Millennium cannot be equated with anything in the present. This is a future era which will fulfill the promises of Abraham for Israel and the world. The following events take place from the premillennial viewpoint. The tribulation saints will be raised to reign with him in Revelation 20 that mentions that. The lion will lay down with the lamb, Isaiah 11 mentions that. Satan will be bound a thousand years, Revelation 20 states that. The earth will be fruitful and resemble the old way the world was before the fall. We looked at that in Ezekiel, how that river of life restores things to even better that Ezekiel said people are starting to say, well, this is better than the Garden of Eden. The world will be changed during that time. And evil will exist on the earth during the millennial kingdom, but God will heavily restrict its effects and he rules with a rod of iron, the Bible tells us. And so this is how a premillennial view would take it. And what I've taught you is what our church holds to is a pre-millennial understanding of the scriptures. And I know people who believe all different ways, but think about church fathers such as Papias, Justin Martyr, Irena, and Tertullian. They held to pre-millennialism among many others as well. So we hold to a literal Bible interpretation and reading and that's how we come up to what I've been teaching you and what the Bible has described from Ezekiel Now a lot of information, right? What do we do with it? What do we do with this truth and these things that we've learned? What do we do until we wait for this while waiting for the Millennial Kingdom? Well, first off let's think about this. We need to serve the Lord while waiting for the future Serve the Lord while waiting for the future. Don't be a person that says, well, you know, I'll serve God tomorrow. You may not get tomorrow. I'll serve God when I get older, okay? There'll be a time when we get older where we can't do what we could have done. That's just a fact of life. We all deal with that. to different degrees and so don't wait until some something in your life to well then i'll serve the lord serve the lord while waiting for the future what do we do i'll give you three ideas from easy go himself in chapter three we find sharing we need to share the gospel we need to share the truth what we do while waiting for the millennial kingdom share notices passage behold I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads, as an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead. Fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house. Moreover, he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive unto thine heart, and hear with thine ears, and go and get thee to them of the captivity. What do we do with this? If we're going to share, we've got to receive God's Word for ourselves. I hope that you study the scripture. I hope that you're faithful in Bible study and in considering God's truth. I hope that you're faithful to our Bible studies. I hope that you're faithful to our Sunday morning worship to get God's word into your heart to receive it for yourself. And then we are to share God's word with others. And God tells Ezekiel, some people will hear it. That word is that wonderful Hebrew word, shema, or shema. And it means to hear with intent to act upon it. I'm going to hear it, not just in one ear and out the other, not just acoustically hear it, but I'm going to hear it, to live it, to apply it, to listen with intent to act. He says some people will hear what you say. and what you share. And then he says some people will forbear. Forbear means cease from listening. They'll stop listening to what you say. They'll mute you on that Facebook conversation. They'll avoid you whenever they see you around the workplace. Or they'll say, oh, my neighbor's out. I better go the other way. They'll cease from listening to what you say. They'll forbear, as the Bible says. Now, I want you to consider something. for just a moment, a study was done and it said this, that 95% of all Christians have never won someone to Jesus Christ. That's a pretty high statistic. Maybe you've trusted Christ, you believe the gospel for yourself. Have you shared that faith with somebody and has that someone trusted Jesus with their own faith? They believe the gospel for themselves. That's kind of a staggering thing to think about. How can we be messengers? How can we share the truth? If we don't share the truth, we won't see people saved. We won't see people come to faith in Christ. And so probably why that number's so high is a lot of Christians don't practice living their faith, sharing their faith, discussing their faith, talking about Jesus with other people. 80% of all Christians do not consistently witness for Christ. I mean, they don't even wear a t-shirt or anything, you know. There's all kinds of ways that you could share Christ. And just even speaking to someone, being available to talk to someone is a start. Less than 2% are involved in any form of evangelism, of actively sharing their faith. 71% do not give towards missions. That's a staggering number. They're not given towards missions, and I don't know what percentages are in our church. I don't look at that stuff, but you know every Christian should want to propagate The gospel to follow through what God told Ezekiel Share this message with others by the way that verse is in that section. That's the section of warning Judgment is coming tell the people before it's too late. We need to tell people before it's too late. Let's share We could say sharing is shining. Jesus spoke of it this way in Matthew 5. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick. And it giveth light unto all that are in the house. So let's share or shine God's word to others. Number two, stand. Stand, Ezekiel 22 is our next text, you may want to find it. Ezekiel 22, and I saw for a man among them, I should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. The walls of Jerusalem had fallen. There were gaps in the wall. Enemies could come in. They were left open to danger from without. And God says, I was looking for somebody to make up the hedge. It means to repair the walls. That word literally means to build up, to wall up. I need somebody to wall it up. to build up, to make up the hedge, to build a wall. He says, but I couldn't find anybody. In fact, I was also looking for someone to stand in the gap. So while the wall was being built, while the wall, there was a big gap there, and maybe someone wasn't restoring that wall. They were not yet building that wall. He said, I need somebody to stand in the gap to stand guard. to be proactive, to be protecting, perhaps watching and guarding while the wall is being repaired. So to stand in the gap means to take one's stand. Are there times in your life where you need to take a stand for Christ, a stand for the gospel, a stand for truth, a stand for righteousness? Absolutely. There are times. Will you stand like God tells Ezekiel to stand? The people were not willing to stand and do their part. God said, I was looking for somebody. But I found none. Can you say that last phrase with me? But I found none. Let's try it again. But I found none. Nobody said, I'll do it. Nobody said, I'd do it. Now, Ezekiel lived far away. He was over south of Babylon. He wasn't the guy to do it. Other people who lived there. You know, you can only affect your locality. your home, your family, your workplace, your schoolhouse, your location, where you are at. You can only affect that because you're in proximity there. Now, we don't have a wall to repair or a wall to build, but our lives and our land needs repairing. There's a lot of repair that's needed. You can see that. What can we do? Well, number one, know the truth. We need to know the truth. Truth is needed. We need to build a defense with truth. This is one reason that I've initiated something called Truth Defended. Truth Defended. A lot of you are already looking at our website. There's articles there about how to defend your faith. what the gospel is, there's other things that you'll find on it that's very helpful. We'll eventually have a podcast and things, but it's called truthdefended.org. You can go to that website and look at that. We'll have a truth defended conference later this year, and we'll talk about how do you respond to atheists. Pastor Rob's going to bring a message about that. I'll bring a message about how do you respond to a skeptic. A skeptic is basically a doubter. They're just like, oh, I don't know if it's any good. How do you answer culture? Culture, and we'll talk about that. We need to have an answer. We need to know the truth if we're going to give an answer. We need to know what's up. if we're going to help somebody, to know what's going on. And so, know the truth, build a defense, have a defense yourself from the scripture, 1 Peter 3, 15. It's that word. To give an answer, to give a response, to let someone know. of to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear not with bold arrogance and foolishness but here's the truth if you'd like to know here's what the bible says here's what this means you know and and i'd like for to share this with you so know the truth number two stand for truth He told Ezekiel, take a stand. Who's going to stand in that gap? Well, Colossians 4, 6 says, let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man. It's that word apologia again, to answer, to give a response. to give a knowledgeable response. A lot of people say, they say things in arguments or in defense of something that's Christian-related, and it's not true, it's not based on fact, or it's all emotionalism. That's not giving a response. That's not a real answer. And we'll try to help define that in our conference that we'll have later this year. But stand for truth. Take a stand. And finally, pray for truth. The Lord talks about, I could not find one before me. He says, I couldn't find someone before me. The word before means my face, in my face. I was looking, but there was no one in my face that was standing in the gap. or take up the hedge. So how do we get in the face of God? What do we do to do that? Well, we pray. That's beseeching the Lord. That's praying to the Lord. And while we're not physically building a wall, we can pray and ask for restoration of our lives and our land. One person said, as we're interceding in prayer, we stand tallest when we're on our knees. We stand tallest when we're on our knees. First Timothy 2 verses 1 through 4. I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. You have a lot to complain about, perhaps. You look at our nation, you have a lot to complain about. Like, oh, I can't believe this politician or that politician or this or that. Listen, it's all a mess. The only solution to this is Jesus. The only solution to the mess of your life is Jesus. It's a lot more than just, oh, this is apparent, or this is obvious to me, or this is what I think will work, or here's how I would fix it. It's none of those things. It's Christ. It's him. And so let's pray for our leaders. Make intercession for those in authority. And notice the response that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty. In a tumultuous year that this will be, for the remainder of the year, probably beyond, remember these verses. Remember these verses around election time and as people really let you know how dumb they are and how passionate they are about stupid stuff. Just remember these verses. Go back and read them a few times. I like this little poem. Though the foe, the right oppressed, keep on praying. Keep on praying. God is ever near to bless. Keep on praying. Let not fear your heart appall. Knots of evil can befall. Stronger is your God than all. Keep on praying. Pilgrim, have you grown weary? Keep on praying. God is still upon the throne. Keep on praying. He will hear your faithful cry. He is to help. His help is ever nigh. You shall conquer by and by. Keep on praying. Christian, has your faith grown weak? Keep on praying. Do the tears roll down your cheek? Keep on praying. Soon you nevermore will sigh. Tears no more shall dim your eye. Pray to him who's ever nigh. Keep on praying. So let's pray. Let's intercede on behalf of those around us. And finally, serve. Serve. One person wrote that a child is helpless and unable to reward the one who renders a favor or a service. So think about work that you do for a child, service that you do for a child. They can never repay you back for that. Jesus said, this is how we're to serve other people. We're not serving them to get something out of them or something in return. Nothing like that is expected. Jesus spoke of this in Luke when he talks about serving the little children. The apostles thought of the masses of people and let's set up the kingdom now. Let's rule masses of people now. And Jesus said the greatest thing you can do right now is serve this one with expectation of nothing in return. And that's how we should serve. Ezekiel 36 tells us, a new heart also will I give you. A new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in all my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them. and ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers and ye shall be my people and I will be your God. I love it. We've found that phrase many times. It's the result of the gospel that God is our God and that we are his people. When believing the gospel and being saved, the Christian is cleansed by Christ and given a new heart. At that moment, you confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. You confess your sin, you repent of having a works-based or being better than other people-based salvation. It's Jesus and Jesus alone. I believe he died shedding his blood for me and rose again. When you express that faith in Jesus Christ instantaneously, the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of you. And he does a marvelous work of changing you. And sometimes it's faster in other people's lives than others in our life. You don't compare with other people, but he starts to change you. He cleans up your life. He does something inside of you. And serving is part of that. He challenges us. He convicts us. Walking in God's Word is part of that. I want to walk and follow God's truth, keeping God's directions. He talks about this. You're going to walk in my statutes. You're going to keep my judgments, keeping God's directions. You're going to do my will, he says. You're going to do the things that I've told you to do. You're going to do them. So let me ask you, are you serving the Lord? Are you faithful with regular Bible study? I mean, how can we serve God if we don't know what the Bible says? You know, if we don't know what the scripture tells us about how to live, how can we do that? How can I serve God or go His way if I don't know His directions to go that way? Are you serving the Lord by seeking and doing His will? How can you serve God if you're not challenged and encouraged by other Christians at church? The Christian life is not meant to be an island. It's not like, hey, it's just me out here by myself. I'm the only one left. There's different prophets in the Bible that felt like that at times. That doesn't have to be you. There's many others. How can I serve God if I'm not challenged and encouraged in church services and in Bible studies and times that we pray together? People is plural in the passage that we read. The people will come. The people will return. The people will serve. Serving God includes our faithful and constant interaction and investment in other people. How are you investing in other people? In a few weeks, Back two Sundays from now, Lord willing, we'll have what we call a ministry Sunday. And we'll have a ministry fair. There'll be balloons around the outside perimeter of this room. There'll be people standing there with a clipboard. And they want all your information, everything about your life. No, I'm kidding. They want your phone number so they can text you and an email. And they want to know, like, are you willing to help out with Awana? Are you willing to help out with the grounds crew? And are you willing to help out with snow plowing and safety team and the media ministry? And we're looking for a social media director, so someone who's more creative than me can make nice things to put online. And we're going to ask for people to help out with stuff like that. And I'm going to ask you to volunteer for something. Find one of those things. And we'll talk about it more next week and then a lot in two weeks from now. Find one of those things. and do it. There'll be a prayer team, a prayer sign up if you can't do some of the other things like, hey, I'll be sure to pray for these things. and just commit to helping out, to serving here with us in this church. I conclude with two contrasting views, two contrasting worldviews about the future. The first one is from Marcus Aurelius Antonius, around 100 years after Jesus. He said this, every man's life lies within the present, for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain. The Christian looks at that differently. We look at the future differently. Billy Graham said this. He said, I've read the last page of the Bible. It'll be all right. I love that. It's going to be all right. God has it all figured out, whatever the future has in store, whatever God has in store in the future, let's be sure that we are serving the Lord while waiting for the future. The end result of the gospel is that God is our God and we are his people. And that's why Jesus came the first time. Jesus will come to the clouds, will meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. That's the rapture. And then following that will be the millennial kingdom. After seven years of tribulation, he'll come back riding on the white horse. He'll touch down eventually on the Mount of Olives and set up the millennial kingdom. And then a thousand years after that, Satan's release, there's one last rebellion. And then God creates a new heaven and a new earth. You can read about it in Revelation 21 and 22. And that's when he builds that city. That's from here to Miami. This is the future that we can look forward to as Christians, but while we wait. Let's serve the Lord. Let's serve together. Let's take some moments to answer these questions here on the screen and consider in this response time, who will I share God's word with? Is there somebody in your heart right now, somebody that you're concerned about, their soul, their eternity? Who will I share God's word with? Number two, I will stand with Jesus and truth. To do that, I need to study God's word. If I'm gonna stand for righteousness, if I'm gonna stand for the gospel, to stand for truth, I need to study the Bible. God, help me to study your word more. I will stand with Jesus and truth. Is there anybody like that? Help me to study the Bible. All right, let's have a good Bible study, personally and then together. And number three, Lord, I will find ways to serve you. There's ways that I can help. I want to be faithful to find ways to help. Maybe just one way. Lord, show me which one way I can serve. That's my prayer today. I want to serve you. I see some hands already. Are there others? God bless you. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Thank you. Thank you. Think about these decisions here for just a moment as we pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your truth and what an incredible future. you have in store for those who know you, who call you as our Savior and Lord. Help us to be bold and compassionate and kind and faithful to witness. Lord, let us study the scriptures to know how to stand and what to stand about as we share your truth with others. And Lord, let us all find ways that we can serve, ways that we can minister, not just in physical ways, but ministering to the relational, spiritual needs of those around us. Lord, just empower each Christian here to complete and to fulfill whatever you're calling them to do in this time. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.