In addition to all the families in and beyond our church who are grieving, I'm sure if you follow the news, you're aware of this tragedy out in Kansas City. I've never asked you to pray for a football team before, but the Kansas City Chiefs family suffered a murder-suicide yesterday. A tragic death of a mother of a three-month-old child and then the father, took murdered her and then took his own life right before his coach's eyes. And I can't I can't imagine what kind of grief and trauma that that may be. I don't know all the particulars of it but I know you could pray for those families who are grieving today. And then during the week with as we prepared for the services and all. I got a note that Zig Ziglar had passed. Now, he's with the Lord, I know. I've met him a couple of times. He didn't know me well, but I got to hear him a few times. I got some of his books and I often listen to his inspirational talks. In 1979, he was the Sunday school teacher for the auditorium class at First Baptist Church in Dallas. He was a faithful member there for many years. And when he signed my book, See You at the Top, that's his book, his life verse then was Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. So I know he, through his testimony and through the years, his faithfulness through the years, he did know the Lord. But he was always a great encourager of people. A lot of his stories you would recognize. Some he recycled. One he borrowed from Brother Hensley. And he used a lot of inspirational things, a lot of encouraging things. And one of the testimonies of his life, he was married, as he called her, the redhead. He was married to the redhead for 65 years. They had a wonderful marriage and a testimony. So I thought, there's death and it comes at all times and occasions. Expecting last Sunday when I asked you to pray for all these people, we were praying for Edson, we were praying for Darlene Irvin, we were praying for Sean Hudson, and some of you were praying for Ward Wiseman, I knew the family. And we didn't know that God would call all those people home. this past week. And so, lift them up to the Lord and be ready. You don't know what your life may present. In 1 Thessalonians 5, verse number 1, Paul has just given the Thessalonians one of those golden texts I read it at the graveside this week for Sister Irvin. I often do read it, 1 Thessalonians 4, because we're to comfort one another with the words of 1 Thessalonians 4. But then he goes on in chapter 5. He says, verse 1, 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 prevail 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. Ye are all 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 a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has 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." Now notice the parallel between verse 11 of chapter 5 and verse 18 of chapter 4. Chapter 18, verse 4 says, Wherefore, comfort one another with these words, and the words are The instructions about what happens to the saints who have died, their bodies are placed in the ground, their souls and spirit already with the Lord and Lord Jesus is coming back and the dead in Christ, their bodies are going to be raised. We're going to be caught up with them in the rapture and so we'll ever be with the Lord. And Paul says, comfort one another with these words. In other words, How do you comfort one another? How do you comfort Christians in death? Well, that's how you do it. You talk about the resurrection, you talk about the rapture, you talk about the second coming of Christ. That's how you comfort each other. But then in verse 11 of chapter five, he says, wherefore, comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also ye do. Here, similar comfort, chapter four, comfort in chapter five. This is how you comfort one another if you live. If death comes, this is how you comfort one another. But what if we go on? What about the people who go on? What about the struggles we face now? He says, well, these are the things you need to know now. And they should comfort you. They should calm you. They should give you some equilibrium. We don't have to. We're not like Chicken Little. We're not running around moaning and groaning that the sky is falling. That's not to say that Chicken Little didn't get hit in the head. She did. I don't know if she was a cheat. See, I guess she was. I don't know if she's the little red hen that baked the bread. I'm not sure. I get those mixed up. None of y'all know about the Little Red Hen anyway, so never mind. So I'm not sure if Chicken Little and Little Red Hen is the same person, but she did get hit in the head. I'm just saying that. That is, Chicken Little did. And running around and thinking the sky is falling. Now, you have some things hit you in the head, too. You have some hurts and some heartaches. Maybe not the hurts and heartaches that are sweeping through the Urban family, or the heartache that's sweeping through the Barada family, or the First Baptist Church of Messina. Maybe not that grief, maybe so, maybe more, maybe not the grief that's sweeping through Valerie's heart and little Zach's heart and grieving like that, but some heartache, some hurt. And and then on top of all that, or in addition to all that, things that the Apostle Paul says, there is all kinds of uncertainties in the world today. There is the uncertainty of political unrest and economic distress and the what what will happen. Talk of fiscal cliffs and the very language of it is is meant to strike fear that into people that well there's this cliff and that doesn't sound good. And we're about to go over the cliff. That doesn't sound good either. And and the worst problem is is Nobody knows much what to do about it. Nobody really understands. I can help them if they ask me, but they're not asking me what to do. But the language of it is what I'm talking about is the language of disaster. The language of disaster. And the reason they use the language of disaster is because generally that gets people's attention and generally that does upset people and generally that does motivate people. Although, it's really hard to track and follow these politicians, because at the press conference, it's disasters coming, and then after the press conference, you know, it's off to whatever they do, to the country club or to their routine or whatever, and it's like, is there a disaster coming or not? Should we get in the bunker or what? For Washington, it seems life is usual, you know, just which means they who created the disaster seem to feel like they're going to escape it. But I tell you what might be best if all the members of all the political parties, if we just stop paying them for a while till we sort it all out, that maybe would get their attention. But I don't know that that's going to happen. But it would certainly be a place to start. Say, well, that'd just be a drop in the bucket. Yeah, but it'd make me feel a lot better. It make me feel a lot better and that's nobody's interested in that. But this disaster, this language of disaster, Paul says of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you. And I think Paul will write the second letter to the Thessalonians to expand on this, that they really need to understand that all of us are living in the last days. We always have been in the last days. We always. Since Christ ascended back to heaven, the period of time between the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ are the last days. Now, I know we want to think that we're in the very last of the last days and some generation is finally going to get to say that. And, you know, when it's all said and done, they're going to say, hey, we were last. I don't know what kind of consolation that's going to be, but sort of like, you know, We were the last generation of the very last of the last of the last days. I don't really think we should be preoccupied with that. I don't think we should be obsessing about that. I think we should be aware that we're we're in the last days. What does that mean? We're in those The times of the Gentiles, we're in that time when God is preaching the gospel through us to the whole world, and he is grafting Gentiles into the family tree, spiritual family tree of God. And someday that time is going to be complete. The fullness of the Gentiles will come in, Paul told the Romans, and then God's going to turn his attention back to saving Israel spiritually, not just saving Israel politically or militarily, but saving Jews spiritually. I think that's one of the expectations we will have in the tribulation when it comes, but not now talking too much about that. But my point is we are in the last days. There has from the time of Christ, the first coming, I wouldn't want to of bore you with the list of disasters and difficulties that the world has seen. Well, not just the Jewish people with the destruction of Jerusalem in 8070, but with all the wars and rumors of wars and all the upheaval in the world. And yet at the same time, people think, but look at all the progress we've made. Look at all the you know, population growth and the westward migration and the people that came from and moved up into Europe and then on to the Americas and all that's happened. over the last 2,000 years. And we're sort of torn sometimes. We say, well, you know, we're in these last days and it's times of trouble, but we look around and in some ways we see progress. We see, well, honestly, the standard of living, at least for Americans, is much better than it's been in previous generations in some ways. Maybe not for everyone, I understand that, and I know a third world nations, the struggle, and don't even understand the benefits that we have here. Sometimes makes them very jealous and very, and maybe they have a cause for that. I don't know. I think most of them need to look closer to home for the solution to their problems. And they need more democracy. They need more, you know, access to their own I don't understand why the Middle East people would not want to benefit from their resources, but that's another question as well. My point being this, we live in a world that's this, there's this tension between progress, we see in some ways medical progress and sometimes technological progress. We can do some things that nobody ever thought we would be able to do. Technically, and you know, from the standpoint of of flight and whatever we do is amazing. And so sometimes Christians are lulled to sleep, especially Christians in the Western world are lulled to sleep because they think, well, things are good and getting better. And we're going to figure out all these problems. We're going to cure all the illnesses. We're going to solve all the political problems and we're going to figure out economics. Good luck with that. And it's all going to be better. Now, the problem is, in many ways, the world has made no progress at all. The disasters that befall us, both natural and manmade, continue unabated. The wars and the rumors of wars that Jesus warned about are everywhere constant. We were some of us remember the the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain that collapsed. And that was a very real event. And we witnessed From our standpoint, Christian standpoint, we witnessed open doors for the gospel in Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union itself. Missionaries and ministries having freedoms in former Soviet bloc countries that we never dreamed possible in our lifetime. And that that seems to be progress and we saw the benefits of that and the blessings of that. And yet at the same time Christianity in the West Christianity in Europe and Christianity in America especially have has cooled has grown. I don't know if there's a period of time in America since the 1700s when Christianity in these United States is in as desperate a state as it is right now. It is as at one time self-satisfied and yet clueless about what its real ministry is. Most modern Christianity is obsessed with entertainment and keeping people happy and making people feel comfortable about themselves and comfortable with Christianity. And as though we were selling soap or, you know, or shampoo or something, it's like, well, try Jesus. He makes your hair bouncy or whatever. You know, no, that would be the shampoo, I guess. And just selling Christianity as though it's some marketable commodity. And it won't ruffle your life at all. It won't it won't really affect How you live your life, you can go on and do whatever you want to do. And so we're torn. Paul says we shouldn't be ignorant of the times and the seasons. What what is he emphasizing here? Well, the times and the seasons are God's appointments. We know, for example, we live in the times of the Gentiles. We know that God has got a worldwide commission for the gospel that is still in effect. Jesus is still saying, go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. Go into all the world and teach all the nations, baptize those that believe and then disciple them into New Testament churches. That commission is still in effect. We know the times and the seasons. We know what's on the schedule. Now, what some of us want to know, we want to know when the next earthquake will take place. or when the next disaster will take place, or when the next political event will take place. We don't really need to know those things. God has not seen fit to give us crystal balls about those things. I'd like to know what's going to happen in China, or what's going to happen in Iran, or what's going to happen in the United States. He says that I don't need to tell you about the times and the seasons. You should understand the times and the seasons. You should grasp it. You should know you really shouldn't be sitting around worrying. And let me preach this to you and to me, what is God doing in the world? You and I should know exactly what God's doing in the world. We know what God's doing. Now, I'm not talking about understanding the sovereign dispositions of When death comes or when this disaster comes, I believe those all are in the sovereign disposition of God. But what I'm talking about, what is God doing in the world? God is preaching the gospel through us to those. And to some, it's the savor of life and to some it's the savor of death. We don't have to sit and say, I don't understand what God's doing. Yes, you should. If you're a Christian, why? Why? It's a I don't understand all the You know, slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. But I do know what God is doing in the world. God is preaching the gospel through us to others. He's doing his work. He's doing the work of the age of grace. We don't have to wonder, well, you know, it's worse than it's ever been. Well, not exactly, maybe as bad as it's ever been in some ways, some men wax worse and worse, some cultures. I never thought I would live to see the day when America, when the United States would become as callous to the gospel as it is. I don't mean the gospel is still not the power of God, but I know 40 years ago, Brother Frank Schwartz and other missionaries to England and to Europe warned and said, you know, America is headed the same way. America is headed the same path of rejecting the gospel. I never thought I'd live in an America where a Muslim philosophy would be more tolerated and respected than Christian philosophy. I never thought. I didn't see that coming. I didn't expect that. But that's where we are. But Paul says, you don't have to have me lecture you about times and seasons. The good news is that the gospel is the power of God. We are not dependent upon any man-made authority or man-made power to unleash the gospel in people's lives. If ever there were any example of that, communist China would be living proof that the gospel is not hindered by political oppression. It is hampered to the extent that individuals are put in prison and individuals die. But communist China has been unable to suppress the gospel of Jesus Christ. They've totally failed. Totally failed. You say, well, they killed this guy. Yeah, I know. And they killed his family and they locked this guy up. I know. I know. I'm not making light of that. We should be praying for those people. But you know what Communist China has failed to do? They have failed to suppress the gospel. They just can't. You know why? Because it's the power of God. They just can't. They can't stop it. You say, but I'd like to know, how could we get the Chinese government to stop doing that? Well, there are things you can try, and I'm not saying Communist China will never know freedom of religion. They may. I never say never. After I witnessed the fall of the Soviet Union, I'm looking for the door to swing open in Cuba any day now, wider than it is. I wouldn't be surprised If communist China someday has more religious liberty than the United States does, I never thought I'd say that. But I do know this, I don't have to be lectured about the times and the seasons. If you're a pessimist about the work of the gospel, you don't understand what God is doing in the world. And yet I feel many Christians are. I think many Christians are sitting around wringing their hands and saying, oh, it's the end of the world, the sky is falling. And Paul says, you know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. Now, he's not saying that Jesus is a thief. He uses this imagery of the thief because he says in verse four, he says, you're not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief. In other words, we know Jesus is coming back. We know this. He said, well, but I need to know when. You don't need to know when you just need to know that he's coming back. That's all you need to know. He said, well, if I knew when he was coming back, why? Well, then I would be I would get busy doing what he wants me to do if I knew when he was coming back. No, I'll tell you exactly what you would do. If I told you of a fact that the Lord is coming back the day after tomorrow, you'd say, See, that gives me today and tomorrow to do whatever I want to do. That's exactly what human nature would do. Oh, he's not coming back till noon Tuesday. That means I've got till 1155 on Tuesday to do whatever I want to do. He says, oh, no, no, no. I would get busy serving the Lord. Really? Not really. You don't really understand human nature. Human nature, if it knew the day, the hour, would calculate to the minute how close could I, how long can I serve myself before I have to get right with God? OK, good to know. I've got till 1155 Tuesday. No wonder God doesn't tell us when he's coming back. It wouldn't make any difference to most of us if he did tell us when he was coming back. Those of us who didn't live that way, we would say like, oh, I just don't believe that. I just don't believe that. I don't believe. I think he told us that because, well, in other words, we don't need to know when Jesus is coming back. We just need to know that he is coming back. If you could settle that debate in your mind, if you could get it clear in your head, Jesus is coming back. You see, most Christians problem is not that we don't know when he's coming back. We don't really believe that he is coming back. It's a little bit like people who don't think that it's a point on the man wants to die. Now, maybe you've got that clear in your mind. Maybe you've witnessed enough. Maybe, you know, you maybe you know enough about life to say, well, you need to be prepared because you don't know what a day or hour will bring forth. You don't know what what your appointment with death is. I do know this. You have one. It's appointed and the man wants to die. I don't know when that is. I don't want to know when that is. I don't know what I don't want to know when yours is. I don't want to know when mine is. But I do know I have that appointment and that knowledge should affect the way I live, because after that appointment comes a judgment. Now, I don't mean to sound pompous or proud, but I'm ready for that judgment. You say, well, no, Jesus paid it all for me. I'm ready for that judgment. Now you say, well, that's the judgment seat of Christ for the believer. And I understand that. But I'm telling you, if you're not living now, Like you think God wants you to live, you need to start living now like God wants you to live, because it's a point on the man wants to die. So he says, I don't have to lecture you about times and seasons because you know that the day of the Lord, it'll come unexpectedly. It'll become it'll be coming as a thief in the night. Now, there's some analogies about this thief in the night that sometimes we miss. Number one, you need to always be prepared for the thief in the night. In other words. I don't mean to scare you or anything, but I'm saying. Lock your door. Before you go to bed. And at least be that much. I know some of you lived in towns and places here. I never locked my door. I locked. Every door I got. If I remember it. But usually somebody does. More than once, I've gotten up and thinking, I didn't know the garage door was open. Sometimes the garage door goes down. It doesn't go all the way down. It comes back up. I'm thinking, well, the car is still in there. No harm's done. Maybe there's still some of the stuff we don't need. That could happen. I don't know if that happened. But it's like, the reason you lock the door at night is because, well, you want to be secure. Because a thief could come. In other words, the coming of the thief is not unexpected. Thieves are to be expected. Yeah, that's that's part of the kind of world we live in. That's why you have those car alarms that nobody listens to because somebody a thief could come. It's not it's not unexpected. It's not like, oh, I didn't know there was such a thing as a thief washer. We all know about thieves. We know about people stealing things. So when he says the Lord's coming, it's like a thief in the night. It's not that it's unexpected. It's just that we don't know when. If we don't know when it's going to happen, but it's going to happen, it's going to happen, he says, for when they shall say peace and safety. Then sudden destruction comes upon them as travail upon a woman. And he uses another illustration here of a woman going into childbirth. Now, if I'm talking to the dads now, because childbirth is hard on men, I mean, it's a it I don't know how to explain it. I know the ladies, I'm just aggravating them right now, but it's hard on us because, I mean, you know, we Well, it's just physically and emotionally draining. My point is, as I watched my wife go through childbirth, the number one thing I thanked God for was that I was not a woman. That kind of pain. But I do know this. In each delivery, there was like this moment when everything was fine. And sometimes, you know, I'd worry about it's like, well, do you feel like doing this? You feel like walking over here? And and, you know, after about the third pregnancy, I realized she's amazing. If she says she can do it, she can do it. Yeah, you know, we want you want to go here and do this and and she would be great with child. And I'm thinking she's fine. But there was always that moment. And you fathers know what I'm talking about. There is that moment when. Sudden travail, it's time and it was either time, time to go to the hospital or time to. And I mean, that's, you know, we got your your bag packed and everything like that ready to go. And I remember when Lisa, we were expecting Lisa, we had this. We lived in Indiana, and I just knew we were going to go back to Christ Hospital for her. That was the plan. And have that baby delivered at Christ Hospital. And I just knew that malaria was going to fail on me. Why? Because it usually failed twice a day. Didn't want to start. Start, wouldn't run. It was in December and I'm thinking, I know what's going to be. It's going to be like a blizzard. It'll be 40 below and the car won't start. That's what's going to happen. I knew that's what's going to happen because and I don't know when it was going to happen. But you know what I did? I made some plans. I bought some stuff. The day that I bought me an electric dipstick. put in that car. Did that help? Well, it made me feel better. I'm thinking, this will make it easier to start. I had a battery charger thing that I was ready. What could happen? I was ready. Turns out, I didn't have to use any of that stuff. Which is probably because my wife was praying about it, you know, and then the need to, you know, the Lord provided. But I was ready, you know, because I knew the moment was coming. I just didn't know when. And he uses that illustration of Jesus coming back. It's you have a woman great with child, you know, that moment's coming. And you don't know exactly when, but you're closer than you might think. And he says, that's the way the coming of the Lord is going to be. Now, what is the message then about comforting each other with these words? Some of us will look at that and say, well, you know, the coming of the Lord, it terrifies me. I mean, isn't it? And then there's the tribulation and all those other things that happen. Well, he says in verse 11 of chapter five, we're supposed to comfort each other with this understanding of the times and the seasons and how we're living now, because Jesus is coming back. He says, comfort each other with that. The second coming of Christ is supposed to be a comfort to us, not not a terror to us. If you're terrified about the Lord coming back, you're looking at it wrongly. You're not understanding what it means. Now, that might mean because you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal savior. If if you don't know Christ as your savior, the coming of the Lord is not going to be peace and safety for you. It's it's going to be a time of trouble and destruction. But if you know Christ, your savior, the second coming of Christ is not a terror to us. It's going to be a deliverance. It's going to be it's going to be a good thing. It's going to be the best Christmas you ever had, if if Jesus came back during during this season and you there, I never thought the Lord would come back during these days. But you won't be caught up with the Lord and say, oh, no, I miss Christmas. Oh, no, I missed my job promotion. Oh, no, I didn't get to do. You won't have any regrets as a Christian. It'll be a good thing. It'll be a delightful thing, he says. He says, comfort each other with these words. Let me close with this appeal. Comfort yourselves together, he says, in verse 11 of chapter five and comfort one another. Number one, realize there's great comfort in the second coming of Christ. Find it. Whatever you know about eschatology, whatever you know about Jesus coming back, find out that it's the most comforting doctrine in the Bible. It even explains where our loved ones are there with the Lord and he's going to raise their bodies up when he comes back, comfort each other, comfort each other with the second coming of Christ, comfort each other. So there's great comfort in it. Number two, it's something you're supposed to do for others. The second coming of Christ isn't something for you to go climb in some closet and say, well, I need to figure out this, I need to draw me some charts, I need to decipher everything I can about the second coming of Christ, I need to be an expert on the second coming of Christ because I want to know all the details. Good. But you know what you're supposed to do with the comfort of the of the second coming, you're supposed to comfort others. Now, how do you do that? Well, you have to talk to them. You have to be with them. You have to fellowship with them. You have to encourage them when they're down. You have to let them encourage you when you're down. You have to you have to share this truth. This this this is your blessing to share and be shared. It's a comforting doctrine, but it's also a a ministry. Who are you comforting with the second coming of Christ? If you can't not, if you cannot right now think of some people that you're trying to encourage and comfort because Jesus is coming back. You need to use this doctrine to comfort one another. So a preacher, that's your job. No, it's your job to do your job. You're supposed to be comfortable. You say, well, I'm miserable. Well, you need to be comforted with this doctrine. Because you see, this doctrine trumps every problem you got. You say, well, you don't know how big my problem is. Doesn't matter what can what cannot be trumped or made better by the second coming of Christ. If you're a Christian, if you're a child of God, say, well, I'm going to be sad, but but he's going to wipe away all your tears. There's not a problem, there's not a difficulty economic, physically, socially. Even spiritually think, well, I struggle so much with this old sin nature. I'm so miserable because I want to serve God and I don't serve God like I should. Good news. When you get raptured, you get rid of that old sin nature. That problem is going to be solved one of these days. Now, so it's a great comfort. It's something we do for one another. And then thirdly, he says in verse 11, it's what builds us up. It's what It's not just an anesthetic. It's not just a pain reliever. It's not just a palliative care where it says, well, we don't want you to suffer. It's what it it builds spiritual muscles. It builds spiritual strength, this doctrine, because God is working all things after the counsel of his own will. And Jesus is coming again. First, John says that if you really have that hope, It does cause us to purify our lives. It is a blessed hope. It is an expectation that changes things. It builds us up. It is a great doctrine, the second coming of Christ. Let's bow our heads. Father, I pray you bless the doctrine of Jesus' return. It is the most comforting doctrine in all the Bible for a Christian. The first time Jesus came and he paid my sin debt. Secured for me heaven and a home there. Eternal life. And Jesus is coming again. And to receive me to him. And he comforts me with that promise. I should be comforting others. And we should be getting stronger and more courageous. And more spiritually mature because Jesus is coming. Again, help us to understand the reality of it, understand the blessing of it and understand the ministry of it. If someone here doesn't know Christ, I pray that this morning when we stand, they would slip to the end of the road and they would come and say, I need to be sure that I'm trusting Christ and Christ alone. I want to be sure that I'm ready for death, that I'm ready for the second coming. I agree with God that I'm a sinner. I agree with God that Jesus paid it all on the cross. Help that one to come. Help some to come who need to know about salvation or need to have assurance of their salvation. Help that one to come who needs to be baptized or to follow you in church membership or rededicating a life or home. Maybe there's a couple that need to come. Get the glory of this service in Jesus name. Amen. Let's stand.