SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: All right, kids.
SPEAKER_00: You guys are dismissed to go to your class.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and a couple other things about camp.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if there's anybody that you know, if there's anybody that you happen to know that also uh might be able to scholarship expenditive I would also ask, I have a neighbor, uh friend of mine, who you know telling him and was like, yeah, I really involved with the campaign because if you ever know of kids who would like to go but can't afford it, let me know.
SPEAKER_00: And we've had that every single year, so I have somebody he actually will donate and send the contributor to camp.
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, if you even know what we would love to do is scholarship every single person who goes to camp.
SPEAKER_00: That would be about$80,000 for us to send every single kid and leader and everyone to go.
SPEAKER_00: Um we've done that as a church in the past.
SPEAKER_00: Um this year with moving and all this great beautiful equipment that James is talking about buying.
SPEAKER_00: Um we're not as a church able to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Um so that's where we're really asking.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're able to give, or if you just know somebody that you know is just like, hey, would you love to sponsor one kid to go?
SPEAKER_00: Just go ahead and uh do that.
SPEAKER_00: That would be great as we go.
SPEAKER_00: So that's also kind of bonus announcement the first.
SPEAKER_00: Bonus announcement the second.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's not really a bonus announcement, but some of you um may know this.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to share a prayer request for a dear friend of mine and a dear family of mine.
SPEAKER_00: Um, the uh Chad and Jordan Eisenhart are going through something.
SPEAKER_00: So Chad Eisenhart, he's somebody who's actually spoken at this church previously.
SPEAKER_00: He is somebody who used to run a Four Square disaster relief.
SPEAKER_00: And he's come in, he's preached several different times at this church.
SPEAKER_00: He then left that and took over his Tacoma YFC.
SPEAKER_00: Our kids are a part of Tacoma YFC, and they go to that.
SPEAKER_00: Well, anyway, uh his wife, Jordan, was just diagnosed with stage four colon cancer that has metastasized.
SPEAKER_00: Um she's 39, a marathon runner, and they have three young kids, and this is like days old.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so there's information that's on there.
SPEAKER_00: Um they're just it's just really hard as a family.
SPEAKER_00: You know, last week we were in this process of talking about Jesus' our healer, and it's just like, man, I just my heart is just in break for them and his family to hear that.
SPEAKER_00: So he's somebody who's close to me personally, close to this church.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I just like to pray.
SPEAKER_00: I have a sexism and I told him that our entire church will be praying for you.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to pray right now for Jordan as we looked up.
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, right now we just pray.
SPEAKER_00: Um God, I don't know what else to say, but just cancer just sinks.
SPEAKER_00: So, God, uh, we believe that you are a healer.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that you would just touch Jordan in the name of Jesus, that she would be one of those amazing stories, one of those testimonies of your healing power that comes.
SPEAKER_00: And we just pray for miraculous healing as she travels this week to go across the country to see doctors and all that other stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I just pray that those will just be wasted tickets.
SPEAKER_00: Uh because she just shows up there, there would just be nothing there, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So be near to the eyes of our family, be near to Jordan's family, um, be with the kids, be with everyone else.
SPEAKER_00: Uh in your name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we're finishing out this series uh where we're taking a look and uh at the different ways that Jesus, different um roles that he plays in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And these are also the different categories for our four-square movement.
SPEAKER_00: When we say that we're a four-square church, our denomination, we have these four different symbols, and these represent the different roles Jesus plays in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We started with the cross several weeks ago, that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that we needed saving, that we cannot get where we want to be on our own.
SPEAKER_00: That we were the very worst of our worst.
SPEAKER_00: No matter the worst thing you've ever done is that moment that Jesus said, I want to save you.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't stop there, he doesn't just save us and then leave us to our own devices, he then baptizes us in the Holy Spirit that we get access to God.
SPEAKER_00: We don't worship a far away God.
SPEAKER_00: It many times it feels like we do, but God is in our hearts, he's inside of us.
SPEAKER_00: And it's through Jesus uh baptizing and allowing the Holy Spirit to enter into our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And then lastly, we talked about Christ as our healer.
SPEAKER_00: That, you know, right now we believe in a God that heals.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm holding that close.
SPEAKER_00: I know the eyes and hearts are closed.
SPEAKER_00: Holding that close.
SPEAKER_00: Many of us have many things that where God has healed us, but we're also asking for continually healing.
SPEAKER_00: But even though he's our healer, there's a tension there still, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because while we believe that Jesus heals, while we believe that God can heal us, there are also times when we are not healed.
SPEAKER_00: And we live kind of in this area of awkwardness or tension and pain and anxiety and grief is real.
SPEAKER_00: We don't always understand why things don't work out the way that we hoped.
SPEAKER_00: And that tension brings us to where we're finishing up our series today, which is Christ as our coming king.
SPEAKER_00: This is the concept where we talk about how Jesus is already here, right?
SPEAKER_00: We experience it.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you, every single week, I experience Jesus and I experience the Holy Spirit, and I experience God when we spend time in worship.
SPEAKER_00: I'm always amazed, especially now like we're setting up and tearing down, and it's like clicking tables together.
SPEAKER_00: It's always amazing to me.
SPEAKER_00: Like you fit pieces of a puzzle, clicking tables and setting things up, but then immediately it turns into something very mundane and something very technical to all of a sudden the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: If it happens every week, I just want to tell James or Pat or people like, you did it again, like I'm amazed, but just Jesus is here, we can feel him, but yet he's not fully here yet.
SPEAKER_00: That there is an element of Jesus that will come in the future as well.
SPEAKER_00: One day Jesus will come again.
SPEAKER_00: One day all of this pain will be vanquished.
SPEAKER_00: One day all of this evil will be begun.
SPEAKER_00: The pain that we experience is temporary, and we will have that healing power.
SPEAKER_00: One day there'll be no more death, no more mourning, none of that.
SPEAKER_00: We have glimpses of it now, but we don't experience it fullness.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we mean when we say that the kingdom of God is now and not yet kind of too part of God's presence.
SPEAKER_00: The way that I really think about it is I like to think about the kingdom of God being now and not yet like an airport.
SPEAKER_00: Stay away with me.
SPEAKER_00: An airport.
SPEAKER_00: So you can imagine, let's say that I were to that I were to go and say, Ray, I'll tell you what, you've just been such a bust into my life, I'm gonna take you to Hawaii for a week.
SPEAKER_00: Full expenses pay, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's like great.
SPEAKER_00: We get on, we get everything ready.
SPEAKER_00: You want to make sure you get your you know your swimsuit, get your towel, you know, get the sunscreen for the beach and all that other stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Like if you're ready to go, get the, you know, I guess you don't have to get lazy, you can get lazy there.
SPEAKER_00: You can get the Hawaiian shirt, you get everything else there.
SPEAKER_00: And we land, we get there, we're in the airport, and all of a sudden, as we're walking off the airplane, I get to a section of the terminal and say, okay, sounds good.
SPEAKER_00: This is where we're staying for a week.
SPEAKER_00: You'd be like, what if we were in Hawaii?
SPEAKER_02: And I'd be like, we are in Hawaii.
SPEAKER_00: There would be glimpses of Hawaii in an airport.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00: Like there are glimpses, you may smell a little bit of like the sun in the ocean.
SPEAKER_00: You may see other people with like sunburns, and you're like, I don't know about that sunburn.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't know what you know what I mean.
SPEAKER_00: You may see the Indian coffee, but it's not really there.
SPEAKER_00: Technically, you're in Hawaii, but not really.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00: I've experienced like states like that where you'll go to an airport, and you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00: I've been to like Georgia before because I've been through a delay attack, but I've not really been to Georgia.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00: I think that to me is a helpful way to think about the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: We are like right now, like when you accept Jesus, we are walking in the airport and we are in the process of going to where one day in heaven where we will finally get to our destination.
SPEAKER_00: But while we're on this earth here, we're experiencing glimpses of it?
SPEAKER_00: Like I can go to a bar, I can get a Mai Tai at a bar in Hawaii.
SPEAKER_00: It's probably better than the one here in Tacoma, but not it's not the same as drinking it like on the beach.
SPEAKER_00: We live in that tension of that.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when we talk about the future, that he's our coming king, we're talking about things that have not happened yet.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible is a word for that.
SPEAKER_00: It's prophecy, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's talking about a prophetic, it's looking forward to the future.
SPEAKER_00: And we see that the Bible talks actually a lot about looking towards the future.
SPEAKER_00: We see it in the Old Testament, talking with they talk about the Messiah coming, right?
SPEAKER_00: We talked about that in the past that one day a Messiah will come, that somebody will come and wipe away every tear and do these amazing things.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus came.
SPEAKER_00: But even though there was all this prophecy about Messiah, not everyone recognized it because prophecy is something that's not always exactly super precise.
SPEAKER_00: You have pictures and words and you're trying to get the closest.
SPEAKER_00: So when we talk about coming king, and when we talk about this concept of prophecy and end times and everything else, it can get, for lack of a better word, just kind of weird.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00: It can just kind of get odd.
SPEAKER_00: We see prophecy and a lot of it in the book of Revelation, but we see it throughout the New Testament and the Old Testament as well.
SPEAKER_00: And we can get into a lot of this language and a lot of questions where we can say, okay, what does happen actually look like?
SPEAKER_00: Is it going to be like where we are handed a harp and a robe and we're on a cloud for you know our entire life?
SPEAKER_00: Or are we here on earth?
SPEAKER_00: What is hell?
SPEAKER_00: Is hell even real?
SPEAKER_00: Will it go on forever?
SPEAKER_00: What are some of these things like crap or anti-craft?
SPEAKER_00: You ever heard some of these terms before?
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, I'm not entirely sure I know what all that stuff is.
SPEAKER_00: And it can get just difficult.
SPEAKER_00: So, what I want to do is uh we're gonna spend a little bit of time this morning talking about some of that just to get some literacy when we talk about Jesus' coming king.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's important for us to know what some of those things are and what they are and everything else.
SPEAKER_00: But this is the most important part.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we're gonna skip to the end right here.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna skip to the very end, and then we're gonna go back.
SPEAKER_00: Um the most important part whenever you're talking about end times or revelation, the most important part is that Jesus will one day come again, and that the entire victory is in the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That right now we are in pain, that right now we are experiencing grief, but one day it will be that way.
SPEAKER_00: When we say Jesus is our coming king, that's what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: That one day Jesus will come, and that all this pain and all this difficulty to experience in life will be gone, that evil will be gone.
SPEAKER_00: When you look at the world, you're like, God, where are you?
SPEAKER_00: His answer is I'm coming, and one day it will be like that.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what your beliefs on the end of the day, everyone agrees on that.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the most important thing.
SPEAKER_00: I was talking to Larry earlier today, who made a really great point.
SPEAKER_00: I wish he would have told me this earlier, which I could put it up on a slide.
SPEAKER_00: Um but even in the book of Revelation, the very first sentence is that it's a revelation of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a revelation of the future, it's not a revelation of a beast or a dragon or all these antichrists.
SPEAKER_00: It's talking about the person in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so we'll go through some of the stuff as we go to.
SPEAKER_00: I always struggle with sermon that's really hard.
SPEAKER_00: Because you know, it's I'm kind of a nerd.
SPEAKER_00: I really like biblical languages.
SPEAKER_00: I like getting into the technical part, and there are some people who really like that, but then there are other people who do not like that at all.
SPEAKER_00: And then so I always kind of struggle with like how much do I learn about and really get into like the weeds and how much do I just talk about feelings and about how gay Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And then sometimes people are like, hey, I really love it when you're funny, and you know, so you try to be funny and everything else.
SPEAKER_00: It's really hard to try to get everything together, so I'm gonna do my best this morning uh as we talk about it.
SPEAKER_00: But kind of one of the first things that when we look at it, I'm gonna talk about some of these terms as we get into it, but one of the things you may have heard about is the rapture.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, that's a term that we actually see.
SPEAKER_00: And what exactly is that?
SPEAKER_00: The rapture doesn't happen in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: There is no description of the rapture, there's not the word rapture in the book of Revelation, it happens in Thessalonians.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a verse where we're talking about when Jesus comes, he will come with everybody who's died before.
SPEAKER_00: He will come down on earth.
SPEAKER_00: But what happens to everybody who's here when Jesus comes?
SPEAKER_00: Do we just miss out on entering into the new kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: No, what happens is that we got that Jesus will gather up everybody who's alive and will bring it so we all get to enter this new kingdom together.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what that means.
SPEAKER_00: Silent.
SPEAKER_00: This happens in uh Thessalonians, but Revelation doesn't talk about that.
SPEAKER_00: Another term we've heard, you've heard the term Antichrist before.
SPEAKER_00: Another term uh that's in there by John.
SPEAKER_00: He wrote Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: John did not write the term Antichrist in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: Uh this is again, people say that well, I think that there will be an Antichrist in some of that stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Uh even the term Antichrist is just simply someone who is against Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Which makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: What is this?
SPEAKER_00: Anti-against.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: If I have an anti-itch cream, I'm again I am against itching.
SPEAKER_00: I want to stop itching, so you put a cream on.
SPEAKER_00: An antichrist, as John says.
SPEAKER_00: John says there have been many antichrists who have come and who will come.
SPEAKER_00: So even the term anti-Christ is a little bit like somebody, anyone who is against Christ is an antichrist.
SPEAKER_00: And then it starts talking about other this language where you start seeing in Revelation where you start talking about uh some someone called a beast that actually comes who will deceive the nations.
SPEAKER_00: And this is not Satan, because Satan is described as a dragon, so some type of other person or something that will basically deceive.
SPEAKER_00: And this is sometimes talk about as a specific person, sometimes interpret this as a maybe like a group, like a large think of like an empire, that you show your allegiance to empire over Jesus, and you said you have the dragon, which is Satan, is described as a dragon, and he's doing different things that's there.
SPEAKER_00: And then you'll even hear you hear like the mark of the beast is another thing, where you have a mark of the beast with 666 and and all of this stuff where if you get says in there, if you get a tattoo or you have this mark, in order to have this mark, you are basically pledging allegiance to someone that is anti-Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And as you do that, you start talking about these terms, and even as I'm talking about it, I can see eyes are spinning, I just feel like you know, you're talking about all of these different terms that are all in different places.
SPEAKER_00: The point of me just trying to share all that stuff is to say there is not like one section where you read, let me just find out about the end times about what will happen in the future.
SPEAKER_01: It is a lot of different places throughout the old anti-testament.
SPEAKER_00: So I say all of that to basically kind of drive the point home that it's very difficult and confusing for us trying to figure out what's happening and what will happen.
SPEAKER_00: Which is why I say the most important part is that he's telling me that it's a testimony.
SPEAKER_00: Well, one thing uh getting into the nitty-gritty that I want to talk about, I'll stop nerding out after this, uh, promise, is that there's also revelation.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I think there's something that will help frame some of this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: There's many different views, you know, about end times and theology and all this different, how it all plays together.
SPEAKER_00: But as a gross generalization, there are kind of two main camps that people fall into.
SPEAKER_00: There's where they you have one group that takes a lot of things in Revelation more literally where they can, and then a group that takes things more figuratively, metaphorically where they can.
SPEAKER_00: Now, everyone takes things metaphorically, because there's like dragons, babies, and like bulls and all these things, but you have this one group.
SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest disagreements that you actually see in the Christian world is this idea in Revelation 20, which is a thousand-year millennium.
SPEAKER_00: In the book of Revelation, it talks about how Jesus will come again.
SPEAKER_00: He will come, he will take Satan, he will bind him up, and then he will go to an abyss for a thousand years and will reign for a thousand years.
SPEAKER_00: And then after that, the dragon will come out and there'll be another battle, like a second battle.
SPEAKER_00: The first one was just an appetite, there'll be a second battle that takes place, and that's when Satan then everything will finally be done.
SPEAKER_00: And I say all this to say is that there's different views of when that actually takes place.
SPEAKER_00: There are some who believe that it will take place in the future, that when Jesus comes again, he's actually going to come twice.
SPEAKER_00: Or he'll come once, but there'll be two separate battles.
SPEAKER_00: That's called like a pre-millennium view, meaning that Jesus will come, he will reign.
SPEAKER_00: And those who believe in that view, and it's been popularized, like you heard of like the left behind series, you heard of that.
SPEAKER_00: It became very popular in the 80s.
SPEAKER_00: It was before that, but it's very popular among Americans, especially with the left behind.
SPEAKER_00: Kind of Baptist Pentecostals have this view.
SPEAKER_00: And with this, you will a lot of the times see these are people who a lot of times will spend a lot of time getting into the nitty-gritty of all of the different things at the end of time.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, rapture happens, tribulation, beast, mark, and all this other stuff.
SPEAKER_00: You'll see very kind of wrapped up.
SPEAKER_00: Who will be looking a lot in what's going on because they believe that this stuff will happen in the future.
SPEAKER_00: And they'll believe that everything is going to move towards that.
SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of one flavor style of Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: There's this other type that's there that believes that this picture of the millennium is actually already currently happening, that we are in the reign of Jesus right now.
SPEAKER_00: And that this time in that Jesus reigns and Satan is in the dungeon is describing what takes place between when Jesus died on the cross and when he will come again.
SPEAKER_00: And that this is a little bit more figurative.
SPEAKER_00: And in the Revelation 20, it does say that Jesus will reign for a thousand years.
SPEAKER_00: But those who hold to the view that it's kind of in this picture now where Jesus is reigned on earth, but evil isn't fully vanquished yet, would say, well, you know, that thousand-year reign is a metaphorical thousand years.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, like if I were to kind of go to you and say, hey, I've told you a thousand times, right?
SPEAKER_00: I've preached a thousand sermons.
SPEAKER_00: I have not preached a thousand sermons.
SPEAKER_00: No matter how many times I yell at my kids, I've told them a thousand times.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the gunner told them a thousand times is the oldest.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Or if I if I were to say, imagine life a thousand years from now.
SPEAKER_00: You think about it like, so are you thinking about the year 3026 or 3052?
SPEAKER_00: You're like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just thinking about you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00: Like, it's this idea.
SPEAKER_00: I I say all this, I say all this to kind of go is that those who hold to that view when discussing things about coming kings and discussing Jesus and everything else, will kind of find this picture of a way of describing the now and not yet of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: I use the example of the airport, right, of the now and not yet.
SPEAKER_00: So people will actually use this picture of Satan currently now in chains as a metaphor for like Jesus has died on the cross and we have power and victory over sin and death now, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, amen.
SPEAKER_00: But Satan's still kind of hanging around, isn't he?
SPEAKER_00: And this picture of Satan around but in jail is kind of the Bible's way of kind of describing this now and not yet.
SPEAKER_00: Of explaining, well, how can we have power over sin and death, but yet he still exists?
SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, well, Satan is here, but he's just he's bound, but he's still alive.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way that like cartels, like we will arrest somebody, a member of a cartel, the big boss, but they still run everything from prison, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like they're not really they're not really there.
SPEAKER_00: Um Paul, he wrote a lot of the New Testament when he was in prison.
SPEAKER_00: He still got a lot of influence.
SPEAKER_00: Like he was not actually free.
SPEAKER_00: Um this is also the view of Catholics and Anglicans, Lutherans, kind of reformed traditions, when they view this.
SPEAKER_00: Um one thing I really appreciate about Foursware and about where we believe, um, in our view is that Jesus is the coming king, is that there's not an official stance on any of these issues as anything and get into it.
SPEAKER_00: When Foursquare says they make the main thing of anything, that Jesus is the coming king, that that is the most important part.
SPEAKER_00: We're rooted in a tradition that is kind of that first that premillennial, that all that stuff will happen in the future.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of our tradition where Pentecostalism started, but it's very broad and saying, hey, listen, if you make Jesus the most important part, that's good enough for us.
SPEAKER_00: And I actually really love that.
SPEAKER_00: I love that that we kind of focus on what is the most important part.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody actually But I think for me, my belief, I kind of lean towards a little bit towards that one, that Alight one.
SPEAKER_00: That this picture that I kind of read Revelation is much more of a symbolism.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and and a lot more, you know, it's kind of like we're talking about like dragons, and you're talking about like all this other language.
SPEAKER_00: It isn't a stretch for me to think that a thousand years is also symbolic of just a long period of time.
SPEAKER_00: Um the biggest concern that I see is whenever people and like people talk to me, it's like, hey, do you think it's a particular quite circuit?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, don't get that code back because the picture of the mark of the beast um have all those texts that came around.
SPEAKER_00: And you can get into this picture of this idea, but I think it takes the idea off the main thing, which is Jesus, will come again, and we get to focus on these other things that are not as important as the entire point, which is that Jesus wanted to come again.
SPEAKER_00: And it makes me think of the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees knew more about the Old Testament and more about the Messiah than anybody else, but when Jesus was sitting in front of their face, they missed him because they put this box about what they expected the Messiah to be like.
SPEAKER_00: And my biggest fear is no matter where you lean or I lean or anything else, that if we begin to box in God and that he will be this way in the future, that when we see Jesus, when we see God moving in our midst, that we miss it.
SPEAKER_00: And we miss the point of what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's incredibly important that all of us that we don't miss Jesus, that we don't box ourselves into anything.
SPEAKER_00: So I think when it comes to any of this stuff and nerding out on all of this, I think it's important for us to hold views with humility and hold views with an idea that we still make Jesus the main part of our lives, that we orient ourselves around him.
SPEAKER_00: So I went through all of that to hammer the point home that there are many different views and many different ways that we believe as Christians, that you can believe and look at it and everything else, that you have a little bit of literacy about it.
SPEAKER_00: Some people are already like, I checked out five minutes ago, and that's fine.
SPEAKER_00: Some people want to grab coffee with me and tell me why.
SPEAKER_00: And a heathen, because I believe what I believe in whatever else.
SPEAKER_00: The point is, all of us, I think the point is that all of us hold this loosely.
SPEAKER_00: And all of us are in a position where we say, okay, Jesus, while I don't know all of the details, I believe that you will work things out in the end for your glory.
SPEAKER_00: And this isn't the kind of way that life is too, right?
SPEAKER_00: This isn't life that way.
SPEAKER_00: Like I have spent so many times in life, I've said this often, I've said this a thousand times.
SPEAKER_00: Um I've said this often, but I'm actually so thankful that God doesn't answer all of my prayers the way I wanted him to answer them.
SPEAKER_00: My life would look very differently.
SPEAKER_00: I would be married to somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00: My second grade crush.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever you are.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you're doing well.
SPEAKER_00: She's also very thankful that we're not gonna be able to do that.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's also the way life works.
SPEAKER_00: That is we as we walk through this life, as we walk through things that we don't understand, and not everything is clear, but I love the fact that we know the ending of the story.
SPEAKER_00: I was watching a movie uh recently, actually with a view just yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: We were watching um X-Men.
SPEAKER_00: Wolverine.
SPEAKER_00: And uh spoiler alert, if you haven't seen this 20-year-old movie, close your ears.
SPEAKER_00: But uh it's a it's a prequel.
SPEAKER_00: So we see that this is where X where Wolverine, one of the X-Men, gets his powers, uh, and he's like in the process of getting this animating on the skin of the matter.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, he's in the process of doing this, so we know we've already seen the next three movies, we know that he lives, but it's really scary and kind of frightening.
SPEAKER_00: It's like I know that he's going to live, but this is also pretty intense, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like I think we do that a lot of the times where it's like we'll read it and you never see those types of movies or the stories are above, and but yeah, I don't know how we're gonna get to the where we're at where we're going to go.
SPEAKER_00: Like, however, we think it there is kind of gonna be crazy, and it can still be scary or exciting, and that's how we live our life.
SPEAKER_00: We know the end of the story, but in the middle of that, like Vivi, who saw this terrifying thing where he's freaking out, and then all of a sudden, like, hey, I know how this will end, but it's still a little terrifying at the moment.
SPEAKER_00: I'm still kind of a nightmare about seeing this dude in this tub.
SPEAKER_00: Um that should bring us hope.
SPEAKER_00: When we see Christ as king, when we know that he will be the king, it brings us hope.
SPEAKER_00: Um it's easy for us to get really discouraged when we see the rest of the world.
SPEAKER_00: It's very easy for me to really look at the pain and suffering of the world and everything around us, and for me to kind of get into the thinking and say, God, is this it?
SPEAKER_00: Is this your plan?
SPEAKER_00: How does this even seem to make sense?
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned before my friend uh Jordan Eisenheart.
SPEAKER_00: With this diagnosis of cancer, I look at it and I got a little healer.
SPEAKER_00: I just go, I don't understand why this has to happen.
SPEAKER_00: Having a view that this life that we live currently isn't the end brings just a little measure of hope.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't make the pain go away, it doesn't make the frustration, the anger, all of it go, but it gives us a little bit of like there is an end.
SPEAKER_00: And then you ever get like stuck in a job or a project or something, and you're just like, I just wanted it to be done.
SPEAKER_00: Like one day I know this will be over.
SPEAKER_00: I remember that happened to me where I was in a job that I really didn't like, and I was desperately looking for other jobs, and I was crying every day and having anxiety things left in my tears bringing.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, uh I just I was just having like a hard time at work, and it was, and then I got that other job.
SPEAKER_00: And I still had to go to work for those couple of weeks, but I knew that there was an ending.
SPEAKER_00: And the last couple of weeks was different.
SPEAKER_00: All the same stuff happened.
SPEAKER_00: All the same people were there, all the same that's that same boss was there.
SPEAKER_00: But knowing the ending changed the attitude of it.
SPEAKER_00: And that's as we go through life, knowing the ending, why I could have confidence in a little bit of measure of peace for my friend Jordan, who's going through this, is that right now we are walking off the plane, we are in an airport, and we're walking through, and we see a little bit of the fullness, but very quickly we're gonna get outside those doors, and we will be in the fullness of what we have.
SPEAKER_00: And we hold on to that.
SPEAKER_00: It brings a little bit of measure of hope that we have that we have that.
SPEAKER_00: When we see evil in the world, and say, God, why are you punishing evil people?
SPEAKER_00: Why are why isn't there more happening?
SPEAKER_00: It brings a little bit of hope that know that one day evil will be dispatched, that one day evil, that it will find the end.
SPEAKER_00: Biblical hope is not just wishful thinking.
SPEAKER_00: It's just not just like, hey, let's just stay positive, right?
SPEAKER_00: Let's just pretend like all the bad things aren't there.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00: Hear no evil, see no evil, seek no evil, like it just doesn't exist.
SPEAKER_00: And put on earmuffs and just turn a blind eye to the world.
SPEAKER_00: No, instead of looking at all of that stuff, it's saying, Yeah, I know that this is just temporary.
SPEAKER_00: I know that as we're going through that this will not be the end of the story.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just I hope that this gets better, it's I put in my trust in an actual person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm putting my hope and faith in an actual person.
SPEAKER_00: I want to read the end of the passage, Revelation 21.
SPEAKER_00: This to me is my favorite part of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: It's after all of the symbolism and craziness and all that other stuff that's hard.
SPEAKER_00: But there's this right here where it says, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
SPEAKER_00: For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a biolanguage nerd, so I'll insert here where it says no longer any sea.
SPEAKER_00: This is again a figurative metaphor.
SPEAKER_00: In those days, the sea was seen as a very chaotic place.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: If you're a sailor now, you've got like Doppler radar, you know what the weather's going to be like.
SPEAKER_00: Back then, you never knew if you were going out on the sea, if you'd never be coming back.
SPEAKER_00: So sea represented chaos, it represented uncertainty.
SPEAKER_00: So when it says here, basically he sees that there's no longer any sea.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying that there is in this place no more of this chaos, no more of this not knowing, no more of this not being sure of yourself.
SPEAKER_00: I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband.
SPEAKER_00: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Look, God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.
SPEAKER_00: They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and their God.
SPEAKER_00: He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
SPEAKER_00: There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.
SPEAKER_00: He who was seated on the throne said, I am making everything new.
SPEAKER_00: Then he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.
SPEAKER_00: He said to me, It is done.
SPEAKER_00: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
SPEAKER_00: To the thirsty I will give water without cost, from the spring of the water of life.
SPEAKER_00: I love that this is how the revelation, the last book of the Bible, ends.
SPEAKER_00: It's this view that Jesus is making all things new.
SPEAKER_00: In there's a movie called The Passion of the Christ where you see Jesus being crucified.
SPEAKER_00: Very brutal movie.
SPEAKER_00: Um I uh I always very emotional, I always cry up.
SPEAKER_00: Trying to laugh.
SPEAKER_00: I always cry up during this movie.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but there's one part of the movie that I always lose it on.
SPEAKER_01: And it's Jesus as he's suffering as he's going, and he's just in pain, he's on his way to the cross, and then he kind of sees his mother and says, Look, I look upon by making all things new.
SPEAKER_00: And then in the midst of Jesus' pain and suffering, he knew what he was doing.
SPEAKER_00: And in the midst of Jesus experiencing the hardest thing ever, he is in the process of doing something brand new.
SPEAKER_00: I love you.
SPEAKER_00: We all want to have you.
SPEAKER_01: I am waiting for the day when Jesus can wipe away every single one of the tears from each one of our eyes.
SPEAKER_00: I wish that that verse said, like, hey, I'm coming, and you don't have any tears for me to wipe away.
SPEAKER_00: This is assuming that those who follow Jesus, when we live this life, there are tears.
SPEAKER_01: Hold on a second.
SPEAKER_01: Just just just a bit.
SPEAKER_01: One day I'm gonna wipe all those tears.
SPEAKER_00: I'll wipe some of them now.
SPEAKER_00: The end of the story of Jesus is that he will be dwelling with the people again.
SPEAKER_00: And that gives us a measure of hope.
SPEAKER_00: As we end our sermon series on the person of Jesus, and as we focus in on this last part about the coming king, I would just really encourage all of us to not be afraid to ask the tough questions, not be afraid to wrestle with the uncertainty and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: But that we would also have a little bit of that measure of hope to.
SPEAKER_00: And it's helped for me.
SPEAKER_00: I think of that airport.
SPEAKER_00: I think of that idea of like not fully there yet.
SPEAKER_00: That we're in the process of crossing through.
SPEAKER_00: And it helps, it helps.
SPEAKER_00: When we experience pain or when we experience death.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go ahead and stand as we close.
SPEAKER_00: Right now, I thank you that we know the end of the story.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you that despite a world that lives in uncertainty, we can be certain of the ending.
SPEAKER_00: Which is that you are the beginning and you are the end.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that our hope would be in you, and that our hope wouldn't be found in circumstance.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope wouldn't be rooted in other people, other these fragile earthly kingdoms, or our hope wouldn't be rooted in how much sleep we've had, or how our job is, or whatever else, but that our hope would be rooted in you and you alone, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We look forward to that day where you will come again.
SPEAKER_00: We look forward to the day that we will be all together worshiping.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that in this time, as we're in the process of passing through that, that you would help us draw near to you.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the words of encouragement and always telling us the things that we need to know.
SPEAKER_00: In your name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I leave you with this blessing as you go.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord bless you and keep you.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, and the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his shalom.
SPEAKER_00: God bless.