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00:37 Amen. Glory to God. Thank you for joining us today.
00:40 Welcome to the cafe. Hope you’re having a wonderful day. Hopefully you have a coffee, some tea, maybe some iced tea, iced coffee as the weather warms up.
00:48 It’s your choice. Amen. I just thank you for joining me today.
00:52 Hopefully you do have your Bible with you or if you’re driving that’s okay. Just keep your eyes on the road. Amen.
00:58 I’ll read it for you. Today we’re getting into the book of John. I love preaching from the book of John.
01:05 It’s a wonderful book. Amen. There’s so much to it and there’s a lot of that red letter text.
01:11 There’s a lot of Jesus Christ Himself speaking in the book of John and I hope that when you read that red letter text you say to yourself, these are the words of God. I better pay attention. You know, I do that.
01:22 When I’m reading it, I say, whoa. You know, I’ll read it once as I’ve just in context of Scripture. I’ll read it again and I’ll say, whoa, these are the words of God.
01:33 Let me really make sure I understand what God Himself is speaking through these words. And of course the entire Bible is Holy Spirit inspired and the Bible is the living word and so we approach it with reverence and fear and we pray for Holy Spirit discernment. Certainly these words from Christ really go a long way.
01:52 John 14 is amazing and we’re here looking at the blessed hope, amen, Jesus and the rapture and our focus is John 14 :3- 4 but what we could do here is go through the first four verses. John 14 : 1, let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me.
02:17 In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also.
02:34 And whither I go ye know and the way ye know. Okay and he says here in John 14 the latter part of verse 3, I will come again and receiveyou unto myself that where I am there ye may be also.
02:48 So Christ is coming again to receive us unto himself and I love the Lord had me spend seven years in a wonderful church, Glory Mount Baptist Church, they’ve since merged with another church and I grew a lot spiritually there and the preacher would always focus on, preacher Michael wrote, would always focus on the two comings of Jesus
03:11 and how He’s gonna come in the cloud and he’s not gonna put His foot on the ground and then when He puts his foot on the ground that’s the battle of Armageddon that’s that’s the end Amen and He’s coming with his army but he will speak and it’ll be over but he really helped me understand or delineate the idea between when Christ comes to take his church home and when Christ comes as King and judge to judge the world and his enemies
03:39 and so I hope I pass that on here today that there are two comings of Christ and the one that we’re looking at is the one where He takes His church home which is referred to often as the rapture and just to be clear I believe and everything that I’ve studied over the years in the Bible points to a pre-tribulation rapture
03:56 what they call a pre-trib rapture or the idea that the church is taken home prior to the tribulation period and so we see here in 1 Thessalonians 4 :13-18 a brief description of the rapture but I would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning them which are asleep that you sorrow not even as others which have no hope so asleep here would be those that people would view as dead
04:23 through if we believe that Jesus died and rose again okay so if you’ve been saved you believe on the crucifixion and the resurrection even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with them that’s 1 Thessalonians4 :14
04:37 for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first
04:54 then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord wherefore comfort one another with these words and so Paul is comforting the Church of Thessalonica in this epistle by saying look you got to see what’s coming it’s gonna be wonderful and isn’t it interesting
05:18 in John in John 14 we see here in verse 1 of John 14 Jesus says let not yourheart be troubled you believe in God believe also in me so Christ is saying be comforted don’t be troubled Paul is saying be comforted don’t be troubled and what is it that should comfort us two things one those that have already passed on those that are asleep as Paul puts it as we would say deceased Amen
05:45 those folks will rise their bodies will rise from the grave Amen as for Thessalonians 4:13-18 tells us that Christ will come in the sky again this is the second coming of Christ He’s in the sky he is calling his church home He is not his foots not touching the ground he’s not engaging in the battle yet
06:05 because we believe there’s a seven-year period to come after the rapture and that is called the trip Great Tribulation period and so He’s calling his church home and the dead in Christ rise first and then we which are alive and remain you see how Paul writes this we which are alive and remain that’s verse 17 of first Thessalonians 4
06:28 we which are alive and remain think about that he thought the rapture was coming in his time he’s saying we us he said look Christ is coming I’m thinking I’m gonna be here and we which are alive and remain we should be caught up together with them in the clouds or you know so there the dead in Christ you’re gonna rise first and then we’re alive we remain we’re here we’re here but here’s Christ he’s in the air the Trump sound Amen
06:51 the shout has occurred it’s time to go to be with Him well we’re gonna rise up with him we’re gonna go ahead and rise up in the air with Him and by the way this is the right disposition or attitude to have in these last days
07:02 I mean if Paul thought it was coming in his time surely this many years later thousands of years later we should absolutely believe it is coming in our time Amen
07:12 we should not play games and we should believe that one day and I’ll tell you I won’t get into all the details but there was a heck of a lightning storm maybe six months ago and you can ask my wife I was praying with my kids and I mean this lightning was complete there was no thunder and there was all this lightning and I can I totally believed that was it Amen
07:32 and my wife was she you know she was looking at me and I’m praying with the kids and you know and the next day got up and it’s an okay Lord you didn’t come but I didn’t apologize I don’t think for believing that he would come because we are to believe that He’s gonna come
07:49 and oh how the signs show it more and more every single global sign shows the end times I heard a message recently on love worth finding by Adrian Rogers a wonderful radio ministry has been a blessing to me all my years of studying the scriptures here since I moved to North Carolina I’ll say that’s when I started hearing it
08:10 and they’re mentioning the price of barley or wheat would be like a day’s wage and this was part of the end times coming to fruition you look at inflation you look at fuel prices and already people are talking about equating a day’s wage with how much it would fill a tank of gas per se or something else
08:28 you see you just I think it was yesterday the day before in China the sky was blood-red and everyone wonder why was the sky blood-red I could go on and on let me tell you it is the end times Christ is coming soon and when he comes his church is gonna come with Him Amen
08:42 and we should take comfort in that I love this right here verse 17 then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord
08:57 whoo I’m ready Amen are you ready oh it’s being exciting day to be with the Lord forever because that means as I understand it we get our resurrected body we shed this mortal body my mortal body is like a it’s out of whack Amen
09:13 I got a I got issues with allergies and sleep and all other kinds of problems I’m ready to go Amen I am ready to go I’m feeling extra allergic today if you don’t hear it in my voice when the Lord comes back I get the resurrected body I get to see Jesus Amen
09:29 I get to see Him face to face no longer do what my prayers go up to heaven and I’m praying this and that and the Holy Spirit’s uttering things I can’t say now I am with the Lord Amen I could just say okay Lord Jesus tell me you know tell me about this you know tell me about the ground I want to know about how things grew in the Garden of Eden and you know my sister-in-law wants to know where’s there were dinosaurs or where were they at you know everything like just I know that sounds silly but I will be praising and worshiping Him
09:59 but also Lord willing be able to pick his brain and just ask him all the questions we’ve ever had and see all the saints of God and enjoy fellowship with the Lord and enjoy victory enjoy the Lord’s judgment remember the Bible says that he is the judge and oh what a day that will be when He can come back and judge all the wickedness in this world and all the confusion who’s the author of confusion the devil
10:21 and he sowed so much confusion in the world and sadly in the church and so we’ll be able to be with the Lord and have that peace that comfort and that’s why Paul is saying wherefore comfort one another with these words you know we are to comfort each other with the words of the scripture here that’s why I believe the Lord has called me to preach this message
10:40 that’s why I believe in John 14 :1 Christ himself says let not your heart be troubled I mean think about it what are you dealing with today that isn’t quelled or calmed by the idea of an eternity with Christ in heaven what are you dealing with today that doesn’t just become insignificant when we think on our eternal life with Christ in heaven
11:05 and again there’s a lot of ways you can take this you can look at the rapture and look at the idea of having that glorified body amen having again no illness no problems no suffering no sin Amen
11:20 I like to follow the rules I guess that’s what happened when the Lord saved me I didn’t I got rid of that rebellious streak and I just want to you know be by the book as much as I can Amen
I developed that trait I suppose when God saved me and I prayed to the Lord Lord don’t let me sin in heaven and I’ve come to understand through my Bible study that it’s impossible to sin in heaven in fact if you could sin in heaven you wouldn’t be in heaven Amen heaven is free from sin there’s scripture on this all of the the sin deceit lies all of it will not go into God’s heaven and so when we are with the Lord when we are called up in the rapture Amen all of that sin departs us all of that fleshly nature departs us
11:57 we can literally cannot mess it up amen and then on top of that we receive a reward we receive a heavenly reward for what we did here on earth for the of God not for the love of man not for publicity not for any gain but what we did by the work into the Holy Spirit for the Lord we receive a reward for that and then here in John 14 the scripture tells us that Christ Himself is preparing a place for us
12:23 so if it wasn’t good enough to shed this mortal sickly sinful body to shed this flesh and to shed all the problems all of the problems of this world to shed all of those if it wasn’t enough to do that it wasn’t enough to see the Lord of Glory face-to-face if it wasn’t enough to get your resurrected body if it wasn’t enough to be with all the Saints of all time because remember the dead in Christ are rising first if that all that wasn’t enough
12:49 oh there’s a mansion for you and Jesus Himself prepared it for you come on now that should get you excited that should have you screaming hallelujah or at least shouting it that should have you not worrying about today
13:05God doesn’t want us to worry friend and we live in such a worry worry I don’t know as a worryful but a very we live in such a very broken and sad place where worry is just everywhere and sadness is everywhere
13:23 and and and and failures and and problems and frustrations just seem to surround us and God here through Jesus Christ His only begotten is speaking a truth that is so powerful it sets you free from the worries and cares of this world whatever it is that’s on your heart today whatever worry you have give it to God in prayer repeat back John 14
13:44 that Christ Himself says let not your heart be troubled rejoice as Paul mentions in Thessalonians that we will be called up in the air that we will be comforted we should be comforted by this truth that we will be with Christ for an eternity rejoice in that have joy over that share that with others that’s what Paul says comfort each other with these words rejoice because Christ is good and he is good is eternal I’m so thankful for that today
14:12 I thank you for listening take care God bless and Amen