Alright, I want you to take your Bibles and meet me over in 2 Corinthians. We have a lot of Scripture we're going to look at tonight. I had to make sure that when I put this title, that Trent knew it was the actual title, and not me saying, I don't know, it's coming soon. I put it in the Google Drive that we shared, and I was like, hmm, is this clear? So I put a scripture reference next to it. This has kind of come from a memory that I have, and some of you might have this memory, some of you might not. But do you remember as a kid when you would watch those movies on VHS and DVD, there would always be a little commercial right before. And it would always say, coming soon to own on VHS and DVD. Do you remember that? And it always had that little catchy jingle. I actually looked it up on YouTube. It has over a million views. Just that little piece of nostalgia for us millennials has over a million views. Trent doesn't know this, we're gonna have a meeting tomorrow where we're gonna include that sound in all of our videos now. So he's gonna start tricking people into that. But as a kid, I didn't care about what was coming soon. I wanted to watch the movie that we just put into the DVD player. But now, as an adult, I am very much looking forward to what's next. Aren't you? Now, I think it's good to say that we enjoy each day as it comes for what it is. But I can't wait for some of the things that the future has in store. And tonight, I'd like to remind you of three things that are coming soon, and you don't have to go out and purchase them. It doesn't come with your monthly Netflix bill or Hulu Plus Live TV. By the way, it's gotten out of control, guys. You're paying as much as you did when you had cable. But these things are already reserved for us in the person of Christ and in the promises that he has given us. So I wanna give you three events. These are not the only ones. The rapture's not on here. You would say, well, certainly, we're looking forward to that. I think we all should be looking forward to that, but there's three specific things that I wanna look at with some chunk verses that I think should be an encouragement for us today. The first one is the judgment seat of Christ. Now, right off the bat, people are like, what, the judgment? Seat of Christ. We're looking forward to that. We should be. If we are faithful with each day that we're given, this is very much, in the Greek, a bima, seat, a rewarding stand. And there is an encouragement for us. And we can take it negatively or positively. I think we should take it positively because we see where the Lord desires to reward us. but it also gives us a lot of motivation behind our service today. I serve the Lord because of what he has done for me, and if he desires to reward me with something, I want him to be able to do that, don't you? I think we should. Look at 2 Corinthians 5.10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that's also understood as the bema seat, the rewarding stand, that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." Now right before this discussion, we see some encouragement. and a contrast between the very temporary nature of life today and the very permanent nature of eternal life. Look in verse one. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, if we all disappeared tonight, we have a building of God and house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. Who else has a promise like that? Nobody. Nobody does. Not one person, not one religion promises that. The closest you could get to something like this is the Eastern idea of reincarnation. And that's really dependent on how you live here, is going to determine how you come back in your next cycle. That's how the Buddhists view life. If you research into this, there are 72 different transformations that each individual is trying to accomplish to achieve Buddhahood. And then at that point, you're pretty much the cream of the crop. That's a very, very crafty way to send somebody to hell, thinking that at the end of this life, there's something better. You're going to come back and have another shot at it, and then you'll have only 71 and then 70. But we know the Scripture says it's appointed unto man to die once and then the judgment. That's the closest you can get to something beyond this. We are told, if it all ended tonight, if a nuclear bomb went off and we were dissolved tonight, We have a house prepared by the Lord. He first gave that promise in John chapter 14. That's a sweet chapter for me because as a kid I dealt with a lot of sadness and depression because my mother passed away when I was very young. There was very little feminine energy in our household. So my grandmother really stepped in until she passed when I was 14. She would always read to me John 14 one. Let not your heart be troubled. I believe Jesus is saying there, don't worry, don't fret. I go to prepare a place for you. You know the significance of the timing when he said that? He had just said a friend lays down his life for another. talking about how he's gonna go and die. Before he said that about a friend laying down his life, he went and changed into the apparel of a house servant and washed the feet of the disciples. Example after example. What did Peter say in Matthew chapter 16 when Jesus said he was going to go and be killed? Peter said, uh-uh-uh. I'll take care of that. What did Jesus say? Thanks, bro. And that's not what he said. The man who had just named Jesus the Christ, upon which the church is going to be built, then was told to get behind the Lord. He was in the position of Satan. He said, whoa, what a turn of events. The disciples were learning things. As Jesus taught, he was introducing new information in response to Israel's rejection of him, he started to reveal more and more. But there in John chapter 14, he says, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe in me also. I'll never forget those things as a kid. They gave me peace beyond what I could describe to you. It's not in a form of money. It's not in a form of a possession. It's in the fact that Jesus said, I don't have to be troubled. So I'm not going to be troubled. There are things that try to trouble me, to dislodge me, to unseat me, so to speak, but I always have something to go back to. Look at verse two. For in this we groan, y'all just heard, I didn't know my mic was on before we started, you heard one of these. Right? We groan, obviously I don't think that's talking about something verbal. The position of the body right now, we're affected by sin. You wanna know why you have all these problems? Sin. This is not how God designed it. In this, this temporary house, we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven. See, there's so many things that happen once you trust in Christ as your Savior. This is one of them. You have a new construction. You have a new body, a new resurrected body waiting for you at the rapture. If so, be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. That is the position of a person who does not have the proper covering, they're found exposed. We have a robe of righteousness. For we that are in this tabernacle, the temporary physical body now do groan, being burdened, I like that the apostle here is recognizing the difficulties of life. I am not the kind of person that likes to dismiss people's suffering. Suffering is real and God has a purpose in it. Study the life of Joseph. Study the early life of David. Study the end life of King Saul. The end life of David, there is purpose in suffering. I don't think we should just dismiss it because, well, everything's gonna be good in the end. God is teaching us through suffering. Look at the life of Job. Job enduring things that you and I would, I mean, you'd be breathless if some of these things happened to you. There's a purpose in them, there is a purpose in them. being burdened, verse four, not for that we would be unclothed, not just death itself, but be clothed upon, the physical manifestation of seeing the Lord in our new body. More on that part later. That mortality might be swallowed up of life. That's really an interesting way to describe something something positive swallowing up something negative. That's usually always used in a negative sense. Something negative taking in something positive. But the Lord here, well, the Holy Spirit in his inspiration speaking to us here is showing the complete contrast of what a Christian has compared to what a lost person has. We have something that overcomes death. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Where's your sting, death? Where's victory in the grave? It's nowhere, why? Because Christ has come back from the dead. Look here in verse eight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord, wherefore we leisure that somebody else may work. No, no. Wherefore we what? We labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. This is not your justification. This is, you are a faithful and productive disciple. Not every single believer will be a disciple. And as we learned from Judas, not every single disciple is a believer. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body, that temporary house we have now, According to that he had done, whether it be good or bad, and I don't think that bad is talking about sin. I think it's talking about things that have no value. You ever had that happen at work? You're working on a project, you're doing a lot of work, and then something comes down from up above, and then guess what? All that work you did, scrap it, doesn't matter. We just hit home for some of y'all tonight. You might have drove here in that position. I got a lot of these just a minute ago. I don't wanna waste time in my service to the Lord, do you? If we're only promised today, we gotta be found faithful today. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. We read a little bit more about this event that is certainly coming soon. I believe it happens after the rapture. 1 Corinthians 3, 13. Every man's work shall be made manifest, declared. For the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire. And the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. Now the sort, we didn't cover it, is in verse 12. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, notice, he hath built. I'm always amazed when there's people who say there's no work in the Christian life. You're not reading the New Testament. You're reading an idealized version of the Christian life where it's basically, hey, I don't have to do anything and you don't have to tell me. Well guess what, I'm not telling you, God told you. So there it is. If any man's work abide, remain, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. 16, know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? That is a wake-up call. That is a reminder. Christian, the position in which you're living your life, God sees you as the temple of him where the Holy Spirit is. Why would we allow a profane thing in the temple? We see how seriously Jesus took that. He didn't quietly say, may I speak to the manager? He went in and ridded the temple from these, not just lower quality, improper sacrifices. They were wrong. Boy, doesn't our world just love to change the definition of wrong and right? Everything is perspective, you know, depends. No, really, there's truth and there's error. Look how much danger it's causing today. Have you seen some of these heart-wrenching testimonies of people who transitioned from one gender to another and then de-transitioned? You never hear those stories, never. You know why? They don't go with the agenda. But in each one of those cases, they wish somebody would have told them the truth, the truth. People will look at you and me when we stand for the truth and say, that's not loving. The truth is love. And sometimes it's difficult. Why? Because we're going against it. But the choice is up to us. Do we stand in that harsh light and go, you know what, I'm wrong, I need to change, or I'm cruising for a very difficult time, or do we buckle down, And we rebel even harder. That choice is up to us, but the truth is love. The truth is definitely love. Another verse we're not gonna go to, but it similarly talks about this, is Romans 14. You can write that down, Romans 14, verses 10 through 12. So outside the judgment seat of Christ, I'm also looking forward to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Let's go to Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19, there's a lot of discussion today, a lot of discussion today about the end times. I'm reading a book right now, Trent knows, because there's days where I don't text Trent, there's days where I probably text him too much. but I'll text him and I'll text my buddy in Georgia. It's just this stuff I'm reading. Academic Christian thought sometimes is incredibly dangerous, especially when it's of the liberal variety. I'm not saying Democrat, I'm just saying the liberal variety. There's a very famous German thinker. I can't remember his last name, I remember his first name. Even if I did remember his last name, I'd probably butcher it. We'll go with Albert S. who in response to the liberal theology that everything Jesus spoke about was figurative, it wasn't literal, there's not really a kingdom, there's not really a second return of Christ, all these different things, Albert said, well, you know what, that's wrong. Jesus said everything that he said, he believed it. He believed it, that there was going to be a second coming, that he was going to come back, that there was gonna be cosmic signs, but Albert's conclusion was he was wrong. These are the people studying the Bible and telling you what's right and wrong. One of the biggest problems with the German theological mind in their time was they didn't take the Word of God as the Word of God. They had a problem with it. I was talking to Bob Gilbert about this. I'm like, how could something like this get published? How could a thought like this get published? People just blindly hear what they want to hear and then they follow it. There's a lot of discussion on the end times right now. The stuff with the digital ID, it's interesting. That now you can basically have anything you need in your phone. I don't know where Florida is on the digital ID side, but there's already, I think, 10 or 15, 10 or 11 states that have already gotten on board with it. Being able to implant a chip underneath your skin. That technology's here. I've been to theme parks. where your cup, right, your free refill cup, has a chip on the bottom. And when you slide it into the soda machine, it reads it. And it says, within two hours, this is gonna be no good. And you can't get your soda. I mean, the technology exists. I know, that's nowhere near as bad as the Mark of the Beast, right? I can't get unlimited soda, that's terrible, no. That's not the point, but all that technology is there. Facial ID tracking, all that stuff is there. So what do we do about it? What do we do about it? We look for the Lord to return. And this is something, my second point, that I'm looking forward to very much. Because I'll be able to experience this in a way I can never experience something here. Look in chapter 19, Revelation 19 in verse six. The destruction of Babylon just happened in Revelation 18 and part of 19. The smoke rose up forever and ever. It is completely destroyed. The Lord is getting ready to return and physically touch down on the Mount of Olives where we see this. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude. and as the voice of many waters. Now, I want you to stop for a second, because we don't really think this way, but this is a way to describe cheering. How many of you have been to a very full stadium before? Raise your hand. I've been once to a full stadium. And when the home team does something right, boy, you know it. There ain't no babies sleeping there. I'll never forget a game on TV. It had to be 2015, the last time the Blue Jays were good outside of this last run. Jose Bautista, he hit a home run way deep to left center field. And I mean, he hit it, and he took a look at it. He flipped the bat 8,000 feet into the sky. The camera that was recording the game was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. And the upper deck up there in Toronto was like, vroom, vroom, vroom. It was one of those things where you're just like, man, to be there. And every camera, people are like, wah, wah, wah, like they're losing their minds. When you heard that on TV, it gave you chills. I remember when the Rays had a huge play there at the Trop, when they had Kevin Kiermaier do a relay to Willie Adamas, who threw it to the catcher, and threw out Jose Altuve, who's the fastest guy on the base pass at the time. Tropicana Field was full, I know that's hard to believe, but it was full, and you could hear it through the radio. Dave Wills was on the call, and he heard it on the radio, and was just like, wow. That's the description here, many waters. It's a description of an emphatic cheer. I mean, we're talking like what we see in events today that gets us feeling a certain way. This is how John is describing it. And the voice of mighty thundering. So we have rushing water, thunderings, multitudes saying one thing. Alleluia for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. We're not talking about people going, woo, or yeah. They're saying something in unison together in agreement, emphatically. We have never, you don't hear stuff like this as much. Now maybe over in like the UK at soccer matches and stuff, you'll hear chants go on. John is describing this. They continue in verse seven. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him. For the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. That is the church, that is us. We are waiting for the Lord's return in heaven. I believe the judgment seat of Christ has already taken place. We are at the tail end of the tribulation at this time that we're reading. And the Lord is ready to come back to rule and to reign. And people are ready. And to her it was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. I got a study coming up soon about something in Revelation chapter four and chapter five, and it kind of is around this, so stay tuned for that. Verse nine, and he saith unto me, this is the angel that's talking to John, write, blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. Now that's to, I believe, the tribulation saint. Because at that point, whoever has survived through the seven years of tribulation up till this point has not taken the mark of the beast, has endured massive persecution, has accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, and so he is coming back, and that person, you're blessed. Jesus talks about the one who gets to be able to eat bread in the kingdom. He saith unto me, these are the true sayings of God, and here's the position of John. And I fell at his feet to worship him. Who? The angel. The one who just brought the, you see this huge stadium of people. Can we even call it a stadium? I think the biggest college football stadium is in Michigan there, and I think it's over 100,000 seats. Ohio State is cruising for something interesting this weekend, or whenever they play Michigan. We could see something like that and be amazed. Can you imagine an untold number of people in the heavens? Can you imagine going outside tonight and hearing that in the sky? You'd be fearful. You'd be fearful something is happening. And he said unto me, see thou do it not. Do not what? Worship me. The angel says, I am thy fellow servant. What a great reminder. We don't serve angels. Essentially, we are messengers as they are messengers, just with different responsibilities. I am thy fellow servant and thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. That is the test for every prophetic YouTube channel and author today. Do you espouse a correct gospel about Jesus Christ? Who do you say that Christ is? Most of the time, these amateur prophecy channels, they're just fear-mongering. They drop a little bit of fear for you, they give you a little bit of a cope with it, and then they say, come back, you know, subscribe for next week, and then you better be alive for them to hear next week. I'm looking forward to that event, the Merit Supper of the Lamb. And then finally, I'm looking forward to the end of our salvation. Look in 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. You know, I think it would be interesting tonight if you're just perusing through YouTube. Look up some of those stadium cheers. Just get the feeling there. Maybe wear some headphones and be like, wow. I can't wait. I cannot wait. 1 Peter 1. Starting in verse three, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a somewhat cool hope. No, a lively hope. In the note there, that is a living hope. By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Why are we made alive? Why do we have hope? Because Jesus rose from the dead, amen? You with me tonight? To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. Boy, that's the kind of reward I want. I bet you if I go to my mailbox tonight, I'll get a lot of temporary rewards, right? I called one for a free vent cleaning and it was a bait and switch. So glad my salvation is not that way. Who are kept by the power of God. By the way, you struggling with assurance? God's keeping you, it's his power, hello. What a great reminder. How many of you watched the show this past weekend? You need to watch it. If you haven't watched it, go watch it. It'll give you chills. It's a great show. I say that because of that statement right there. Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation to be revealed in the last time wherein you greatly, what? Rejoice. Though now for a season, and this is where if we were watching a play, the stage gets dark, the scary set pieces are moved in. Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, multiple temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. I believe at the rapture of the church, When the church is called up and out of the world, we stand before the Lord at the rewarding stand, and it will have been worth it all. This is exactly what Paul says in Romans 8. Now you either know that, right, and choose to live in a different position, or you know it and you live in the light of that truth. There's nothing that can take this away. In my opening, I talked about coming soon for you to own on VHS and DVD, you gotta buy it. I'm not buying any of this. These are freely given as a result of accepting who Jesus Christ is. That's a great deal. I don't even like putting it that way. But it really, we have been blessed, have we not? There are blessings in Christ. Whom having not seen, Jesus, ye love. In whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Now, I don't think this is every believer right now, my friends. I think believers love themselves a lot in today's culture, especially here in America, where we do not suffer much for our faith. Now, that suffering is increasing. I don't know if you read about the man who was on a college campus. I don't know anything except what I read, so I didn't go into it. but a guy who was just talking about Jesus, he was beaten up by some Muslim opposition, and the Christ proclaimer ended up getting arrested. There's a famous picture of him in handcuffs with his face beaten and bloodied. There is persecution happening in this world. Look over in the country of Africa and see the persecution of Christians. You remember years ago, the Coptic Christians who were beheaded by Muslim terrorists, that image of them looking out into the ocean before they were removed from this world, one by one. There is suffering, there is persecution. If you love the Lord, you're gonna be able to endure it well. Some of us will not endure it well. We're not looking forward. We're looking now, we're looking at ourselves. Look to the Lord. Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. The final phase of salvation when we are finally delivered from the very presence of sin. standing with the Lord as he is. Look in 1 John chapter three. Keep that image in your head, that final deliverance, that final salvation, which is guaranteed to all of us. We just saw it in 2 Corinthians chapter five. We've grown here, ah, but we've got a house that's much better, that's the promise. 1 John chapter three and verse one, some of my favorite verses. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now, now, now, not if, now are we the sons of God. That's who you are, church. You do a bunch of other things. Your job is what you do, but who you are is a child of God. Do you believe that? Or have you allowed the world to rob you and redefine you? And it doth not yet appear what we shall be, we're not experiencing it now, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, For we shall see him as he is, and every man that hath this hope, what hope? I've got my salvation. That hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. There's the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Mm. Sufficient. And we end here in 2 Timothy. Second Timothy, many scholars and commentators believe these are the last words penned by one of the greatest trophies of God's grace, the Apostle Paul. In Second Timothy chapter four, he says this in verse six, for I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. It's like he's waiting on a dock and he sees the ferry coming in. It's breaking through the fog, he hears the water breaking against the bow of the ship and he knows, my time is coming. And he's looking on his life and he's saying, in verse seven, I fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. And not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. Again, I think this is exclusive. I think the one who loves the Lord's appearing is the one who is looking for him in a pattern of faithfulness. Is that you? I can't answer that question, nor can I put my hand into your life and orchestrate the results for you. I can't do that. I wouldn't want to do that. It's not something that you catch like a cold. It doesn't hit you out of nowhere and all of a sudden, I have a desire to serve the Lord. It's a choice that you make. You can close your Bibles. It's a choice that we make. So just like when I was a kid and I would look at the coming soon and say, come on, I'm with it, I wanna watch whatever movie that was what I wanted to watch. I'm not in that position today. Those three, just those three things, they all motivate me. And recently, I've had those things on my mind. Recently they've been on my mind. And I wanna share them with you by way of reminder. No brilliance here coming from the pulpit or how I describe things. It's all the word of God, amen? If you're here tonight and you lack assurance, you're not sure that you're going to heaven, let me share with you how you can have assurance. This hand represents you and me. This represents sin. I put this on top of my hand because God's word says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. God loves us, he hates our sin. This sin separates us from him. You have to be sinless. No sin at all to get to heaven. Not a commitment today. What you did yesterday and before you made this commitment requires a payment. You have to have no sin at all. You keep the law in one point, or in every point and offend it in one, you're guilty of all. The wages of sin is death. Eternal separation from God and a literal fire burning hell. I want you to listen to the call this past week because there was a lady who came in, I mean at the very last minute she called. doing so many things to try and justify herself. Listen to the call. You hear the woman's desperation. We're not saved by any works. All of our righteousness according to Isaiah 64 6, filthy rags. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness for sin. God loves us and he has offered a payment for this sin. This hand represents Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. He is the capital L, Lamb. He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That's what Peter said. A lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yeah, boy, that's it. He rose again from the dead. Victory over sin and death and the grave. This has been paid for. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever turns, gives, commits, promises, no, no, whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Little bit of a spoiler alert, but on that call, late in the fourth quarter of the show, She said something that struck me deeply. I had to push away the mic to compose myself. She said, thank you for making it clear enough for me to be able to understand. She understood. I transferred her back to the screener queue to my brother-in-law, Jan. It's like we were on a baseball team. He was in the three hole and I was batting cleanup. Sent it to Jan, verified her information, got her some clear churches where she was. She was clear on her salvation. You say, well, how did she get clarity? She stopped the trusting in everything else, all her deeds and efforts, and solely put her faith in Christ alone. She believed that what he did is the only sufficient covering for her sin. Anyone can experience that assurance. You take God at his word, which is to believe on Jesus Christ, and you have everlasting life. Let's pray, shall we? Heads are bowed, eyes are closed, nobody looking around. If you're here tonight and that made sense to you, would you put your trust in Jesus right where you are? God will save you. You might feel joy, relief, but it's not based on a feeling, it's based on God's word. You have everlasting life. You've been passed from death unto life, and you'll never be brought into condemnation. If you're watching on the internet and you just trust it in Christ as your Savior, let us know, I'd like to pray for you. If you're here in the audience and you did trust Christ tonight, would you just slip your hand up and let me know? That doesn't save you, I just wanna pray for you. Anyone before we close? Heads are bowed, knives are closed, my friends. Those three things we talked about, they're coming soon. I pray they're an encouragement. And remember, as we're not gonna meet next week, be a blessing to somebody today. use that as an opportunity to plant seeds of the gospel. Father, we thank you for the time that we have together. Bring us back here safely on Sunday. Pray for Ranch tomorrow and all the events this weekend. And we are looking forward to the next event, which is the rapture. In Jesus' name we pray these things, amen.