- Well, good morning, it is good to be with all of you. Kids if you're in the room right now, what I'm gonna ask for you to do is you can get on our website and you can download a sermon page that is designed just for you. So go ahead and pull that down, and I'm gonna ask for you to do two things this morning as I talk. First, there's a little window on that sheet where you can begin to draw a picture that we're gonna talk about in our service today. So the message and I'm gonna give is gonna give you an opportunity to draw a picture, and here's the picture I want you to draw. It is the picture of Jesus Christ coming to your house. However you want that to look, you can ask your mom and dad for ideas, but that's the first picture. The second picture I want you to draw, and it doesn't have to be in that little box 'cause it's kind of tiny, you can actually use a separate sheet of paper and I want you to draw a picture frame, and in that frame, I want you to draw a picture of you or your family serving someone this week. And I realized we can't always get out and see people because of some of the information that's been given to us to be careful about who we're around and to limit and make sure we practice health practices and being socially distant from one another. And I realized that that's out there kids but you can still draw a picture of you serving someone and then maybe it's a picture of you and your family praying together around the dinner table in the midst of this time, praying for others and helping them grow. So those are the two pictures. Now, moms and dads, here's what I want you to do. I want you to grab your Bible, and if you are a single adult and you're worshiping with us or you're with your spouse, whatever that looks like, if you are an adult, student, kids, grab your Bibles and the first passage I want you to go to is First Thessalonians chapter four and I want you to locate verse 13, that's the passage we're gonna land in. Now many of the verses that we're gonna talk about today we're gonna show up on the screen and we're gonna have a chance to talk about them and interact with them, but right now just go ahead and open up your Bible to be a couple of passages we're gonna go to. My son who is serving out at North Coast Church as well as with Josh McDowell Ministries, just posted a video devotional for the students that he serves out at North Coast Church for the high school students. And as he was sharing his devotion, he was communicating that he takes out his prayer journal and he begins to write down on one entire page all the things that he is thankful for. And it was a great devotion for the students and it's a great word for all of us to begin to give thanks for the things that God has given to us, especially because we're isolated, we're practicing social distance, kids, you can get out and talk with friends, but you gotta stay by six feet away from them and all that kind of stuff. But we still be thankful for opportunities that God has given to us and also to serve others as kids are gonna be drawing in the picture, but also to remember what we're thankful for. And one of the things that I'm thankful for is my family. This is a picture that you can see on the screen right now of my whole family, except there's one that's coming 'cause there's a couple of years old, we've got a new grandson that's gonna be here in a couple of weeks and we are so looking forward to that. But this is a picture of my family out on the East Coast and right behind us are the Blue Ridge Mountains. Now in order for us to get out to this location, which is right by where my in-laws live, we have to drive through some hills and valleys. And it really is a wonderful metaphor of life because life consists of good times and bad times, hills and valleys, and quite frankly, we're in one of those low spots right now with this COVID-19. But once we got out there and we took this wonderful picture, you can actually see if you got real close that it's at sunset, one of the light just to be perfect. And it really reminds me as well that you know, life does come to an end, that life is temporary, this is not our home. But I want you to remember as we live life with the ups and downs in the hills and the valleys and that life does come to an end here on this planet, it's not our home, it's only a little blip on God's eternal screen, I want you to understand that with every sunset there's also a new day coming, the dawn of a sunrise. When I think about the massive story that God has laid before us from Genesis to Revelation, and I begin to think about how paradise was lost in the book of Genesis because sin entered into the world and how Jesus Christ came and He died on a cross for our sin 'cause God put together this massive story to redeem us, to enter into a relationship with us again so that we could enjoy Him forever. And then I began to think of how He ends the story in the book of Revelation, it was paradise lost and then it's paradise restored as He gives us a new sunrise, a new day, a new heaven and a new earth for those that have trusted Christ the Savior and Lord. In the New Testament, it actually describes that when Jesus Christ comes again, it's like His light breaks through the darkness and it's like this massive sunrise as His glory becomes evident and we get to enjoy Him forever. Well, we are in this series on the essentials of our faith and we're gonna be there just two more weeks, but it is in this week and next week that we're gonna talk about how God ends the story. And what I want you to think about is this morning, you know, as we live our lives, as this picture represents through the ups and the downs, as we realize that life is temporary, I want you to remember that Jesus Christ is coming again. I want you to remember if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, that that great truth actually frames how we live our life on this planet. It frames how we go through the highs and the lows, it frames the relationships, it frames how we live our lives, which we're gonna talk about next week, but today we're gonna begin to talk about how this great truth of the return of Jesus Christ frames everything. And we're gonna begin with this wonderful, wonderful truth that the return of Christ is certain. You can write this down, these are some facts that come up about the second coming of Jesus Christ that the New Testament talks about. The second coming of Jesus is mentioned over 300 times, 300 times just in the New Testament. That's one out of every 13 verses. It can almost be said that no other doctrine is mentioned so frequently as the return of Jesus Christ. After the resurrection of Jesus, Peter had been restored and Jesus was having a conversation with him. And when they were having that conversation, Peter began to look around Him and he saw John who wrote the Gospel of John. And John writes down these words in John chapter 21:21 to 22. He says, when Peter saw Him, he said to Jesus, "Lord, "what about this man?" Referring to John. He said, Jesus said to him, "If it's my will that he remain until I come." Those are Jesus' words that He's coming again until I come. What does that to you? You follow me. I love this verse because it describes that Jesus is coming again, but it also points us towards how we should be living our lives. Now in Acts chapter one, Jesus talked with the disciples about the kingdom of God, and He told them that the Holy spirit was gonna come and empower them to be His witnesses on earth and as they watched Jesus ascended to heaven, there was an angel to remind them of the task before us, to remind them that it is the second coming of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit living within us that should frame everything we do in this life, the ups and the downs, keep that metaphor in mind, and it was the angel who said here in Acts chapter one verse 11, "Men of Galilee, "why do you stand looking into heaven?" Don't look there. "This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven "will come in the same way." He's coming, you can be assured of it. So in the meantime He's coming again as you saw him go into heaven. And in the meantime, you need to go back to Jerusalem and you need to begin to live the kind of life so that others can find hope in Him. And then when we go to the final book in the New Testament, the book of Revelation. These are Jesus' words, in Revelation chapter 22 verse 20, when He says, "He who testifies to these things says, "surely I am coming soon." Amen, come Lord Jesus. The return of Jesus Christ is certain. Well, the return of Christ will be sudden, it'll be personal, it'll be visible, and it'll be physical. Jesus Christ physically rose from the grave, and now He's coming back physically for those that know Him and for the world to see. I love Revelation chapter one verse seven, it says, behold He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will notice, see Him, see Him because He's got a physical body and He's coming back. Even those who pierced Him and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him even so. Amen. Because as we're gonna see in just a few moments, there's judgment to come as well, but this verse is really important to everyone as we consider the return of Christ. He says in Matthew 25:13 again, these are Jesus's words. "Watch therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour." And we're gonna return to this one next week because we don't know the day and the hour and therefore that informs how we should be living our life today. Now He's gonna come back physically, He's gonna come back in a visible way, it's personal, it's sudden, He's coming back first for the church. Those of us that know Christ the Savior and Lord, I've already asked you to go to First Thessalonians chapter four, locate verse 13, let me read down through verse 18, it informs us in terms of how we should be looking at what happens in our lives today and about those who have already gone before us and died. And this passage is gonna remind us that if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you've already gone into His presence but then it is Paul that begins to inform us what happens. You see the believers that he was writing to, they were fairly new Christians or followers of Jesus, and they were worried about the people that they had loved that had already died and they didn't know what was gonna happen to them. And so Paul comes along and he writes this passage to inform them. And he says, but we do not want you to be uninformed brothers about those who are asleep, and that's a reference in the New Testament oftentimes to those who have trusted Christ the Savior and died physically on this earth. So when it's referring to they have fallen asleep, it refers to believers. He says, we don't want you to be uninformed about them, that you may not grieve as others do, who have no hope for since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. For this, we declare to you by a word from the Lord that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep for the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an arch angel and with the sound of the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ, those are followers of Jesus Christ. The dead in Christ will rise first and then we who are alive, who haven't died yet, who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord, therefore encourage one another with these words. I believe that this passage is talking about the rapture of the church of Jesus Christ, that we will be caught up together. And it says that those that have died are already in the presence of the Lord, they'll be reunited with a physical resurrected body, our body, if we're alive, when Jesus Christ comes in the clouds for his church to rapture us up to be with Him, then our bodies will be changed. You will not physically set foot on this planet yet that's coming in just a few years, but you're gonna rapture us up and we're gonna be with Him and that is just prior to an event called the tribulation period. Seven years of horrific judgment and it's described in Matthew 24 and 25, it's described at the end of Daniel chapter nine, it's described in Revelation chapter four all the way through chapter 19, and that is what is referred to as a tribulation and even a great tribulation towards the second half. But the church of Jesus Christ is not destined for wrath. First Thessalonians 5:19 says this, for God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the best way for me to do this, and I'm not gonna spend a lot of time here, 'cause that's not really the purpose of today's message, but I don't want you to be confused about the second coming of Jesus Christ, and this chart will come back again, so write down as much as you can and then just a few moments, I'll pull it back up. But I want you to see that right now we are over here in the church age. That's this time we live in right now where people can come to Christ the Savior. However, the verses we just read in First Thessalonians chapter four starting in verse 13 talk about what I believe is the rapture. That's what we just talked about, how we will be given a resurrected body joined with Jesus, and then those verses that I pointed you to, those passages described the seven year tribulation period. We're not destined for that. And then at the end of that we return with Jesus Christ. He sets up a thousand year reign called the millennial kingdom and whereby he's ruling on this planet and then right here you have a little throne and that's the great white throne judgment, and that is going to be a time of judgment for those that don't know Christ the Savior and Lord. We'll talk about that in just a minute. And then there's the eternal state which is the creation of the new heaven and the new earth. Now before we jump into this part right here, I wanna ask this question because it's being asked right now in the midst of this pandemic, are we close? Are we close to this time when the rapture is gonna take place? Are we right there and there are some different views on this. Some people put the rapture here, which I do some do in the middle, some do at the end. My point isn't to go through all the different views. I just wanted to let you know that even here at Rock Point within our denomination, there are some differences in how we look at it, but we all agree in the glorious return of Jesus Christ and we don't divide over this because it's not an essential in trusting Christ the Savior and Lord. But I believe that this is the best possible view as I've looked at the scriptures and that's why I'm bringing it up to you and a lot of people are asking right now, are we close to this point in time because of the pandemic we're in? Well, we don't know, I just gave you a verse where it said that we don't know the day or the hour. Joel Rosenberg has written a wonderful paper. You can access it on joelrosenberg.com or joshuafund.com and he's done a ton of research on pandemics and plagues that are described in the Bible and how they might or might not lead up to the second coming of Jesus Christ. We just don't know, there's been plagues that have destroyed thousands of lives, even back in the second, third, or fourth century when there was a black plague that went through the Roman empire and people left the cities and you know what? It was the Christians that actually moved back into the cities to care for the sick, Christians were behind starting hospitals. My point is this, we don't know when Jesus is coming again and that's why that truth should frame how we live our lives today, how we should care for one another, how we should get busy in living a life that pleases God, living differently and loving radically. We're gonna come back to that this next week. Now after we come back, Jesus is gonna set up his millennial kingdom. He comes back for his church and He also comes back to establish His millennial kingdom on earth. I want you to go from first Thessalonians over to the book of Revelation. We're gonna look at a couple of passages there, it's at the end of your Bible, so it's easy to get to, go to revelation chapter 20 and I want you to locate verse four. In chapter 20 Jesus is beginning to lay out for us as He reveals it to John, how He's gonna reign on earth and it's mentioned that He is gonna reign a thousand years. If you look at verse four he says, "Then I saw thrones and seated on them" and this is John describing what he saw were those to whom the authority to judge was committed and also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God. They're gonna be persecuted for their faith during the tribulation period. And those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands and they came to life and reigned. Here's what I want you to focus on, that all the imagery that's used there, they came to life and reigned with Christ for a 1000 years. That's the millennial kingdom of Christ. Let's move on because the return of Christ brings judgment as we said, for both unbelievers and also rewards for believers. In Hebrews chapter nine verse 27, it says, and just as it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment. What this says is we only have one life to live, as I said, and that's why our life needs to be framed with the second coming of Jesus Christ. There is no such thing as reincarnation, there's no second chance, there's nothing called purgatory that's mentioned in the Bible. When you die, that's the life you have, and now you stand before judgment, and that's gonna come both for believers and nonbelievers. And that's why I wanted this chart up here. Right here, we're beginning to talk about what that judgment looks like for non believers. We'll get there in a second, but we first wanna start with what it looks like for, we'll come eventually to believers. But right now we're gonna start with what this means for unbelievers. What does this look like? Well, you're already in Revelation chapter 20, I want you now to go to verse 11. Verse 11 of Revelation chapter 20. Here's what it says about that great white throne judgment that is gonna take place. He says, then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it from his presence, earth and sky fled away and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead great and small standing before the throne and books were opened. And then another book was opened, which is the book of life and the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done, and the sea gave up their dead who were in it, death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them and they were judged each one of them according to what they had done, and then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire, and if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. It's a unbelievable horrific scene, but it's what happens to somebody who hasn't trusted Christ the Savior and Lord, they get thrown into the lake of fire. We oftentimes use the reference of hell. It's one of the great motivators for why we need to be sharing Jesus Christ because I don't want my friends and family and neighbors or anybody to experience this. And for a believer, it means that those of us that have trusted Christ the Savior and Lord, we are actually not gonna be judged at that great white throne judgment that I talked about. We're actually gonna experience a judgment at the beginning when we're raptured up to be with Him, and it's not a judgment on us as individuals, it's actually a judgment on our works. And here's the beauty and the wonder of it all. As a follower of Jesus Christ is therefore no condemnation for those who are found in Christ Jesus. John 3:16, kids, you probably know this verse. It says that if we've trusted Christ the Savior and Lord, we shall never perish. In other words, we're gonna be with Him for all eternity. However, the works that we perform, whether or not we lived a faithful life or not a faithful life will be rewarded. And if we live a life whereby we honor God and our motives are right and our actions are right, the Bible says that we're going to experience some rewards. In Second Corinthians 5:10, it says this, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that's even us as believers, but again, notice so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. And that means it's gonna be a judgment to give us rewards for what we've done. Now go left from the book of Revelation. We had mentioned I was gonna have you turn to a few passages in your Bible and I want you to go to First Corinthians, go to First Corinthians and then I want you to locate chapter three. First Corinthians chapter three and then verse 12. First Corinthians three, verse 12. It's here that it is described what happens to those things we do in this life. And again, the second coming should frame all of this. Here's the reason why. Notice what Paul says, now, if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest for the day will disclose it because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward and if anyone's work is burned up, he'll suffer loss though he himself will be saved but only as through fire. What Paul is talking about here is that the works that we perform in this life, on this planet, they're like wood and hay and straw and then all these precious stones. If you subject fire to those things, the stones are gonna last specifically gold will that's for sure, but the other stuff is gonna be burned up. When I worked at a camp during the summer when I was in college, in high school, we had a massive fire that burned down our entire Morton buildings, it's where we stored some hay, but we also stored cars and all of our farm equipment and all kinds of different things and that massive fire was so hot that it actually melted the glass inside of the Morton building. You see, when heat is turned up to a high degree, it will actually remove the impurities that are found within gold. When you find gold, oftentimes and almost in every case, there are impurities that are found within that gold. And that's why individuals who refine gold actually subject it to heat so that the impurities are removed, and that's the image that he's talking about here, is I live a life that's faithful to God as the light of Jesus Christ shines on it as a follower of His, then rewards will be given for those acts that I have performed in faithfulness. While the return of Christ also brings renewal, restoration and a final redemption. You know, this world is not our home and it's not perfect, and the crisis that we're going through right now, the struggles that we might be having, the sickness that people have, it really reminds us that this world is not our home, but there's a great world that's coming. Second Peter 3:13 says, but according to His promise, we are waiting for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. That day is coming and even our bodies and all of creation are looking forward to it. That's why Paul says in Romans 8:23, he says, and not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit, those of us that have trusted Christ the Savior, Lord, he says, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies when we are given a new body to be like Jesus Christ. John who followed Jesus when he was here on the planet, wrote this short little book at the end of your New Testament. He says in chapter three verse two, beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, Jesus Christ add His second coming, we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is. Everything is renewed and that includes the salvation that's coming to us. One of the verses that we looked at a couple of weeks ago and these essentials of our faith regarding our salvation and what Jesus Christ has done for us, says He entered once for all into the Holy places. That's heaven, where there's a real physical temple, you can't see it, not by means of the blood of goats and calves by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. It was Jesus Christ to enter the cross, rose from the grave and now comes before the Father, offering His death in payment for your sin and my sin. And if we're willing to receive that free gift, we are transformed. And in just a few verses later, he says, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time as the second coming not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly, eagerly, that's you and me waiting for Him. But now while we are waiting for Him, that's the key phrase here. Life is not perfect. Life is full of troubles and difficulties. The matter of fact, when we enter into a crisis, it reminds us of how life really is, and it is the second coming of Jesus Christ that should frame our current life, that should frame our current perspective. CS Lewis had a wonderful quote and I wanna read it for you. He says this, "The great thing if one can "is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things "as interruptions of one's own or real life. "The truth is of course that what one calls, "interruptions are precisely one's real life." That's important. "The life God is sending one day by day "and what one calls one's real life "is a phantom of one's own imagination." And you catch what he said. We oftentimes think that life is full of comfort and wonder, and we get lured into thinking that life is supposed to be happy and joyous all the time, especially in our Western culture. But it is this pandemic that reminds us precisely that life is full of troubles and hills and valleys. And it reminds us of how life really, really is. And it is only when we consider the second coming of Jesus Christ, do we begin to understand that the return of Christ provides hope, hope in the midst of troubled times. Now you're already in First Corinthians, and I want you to go to a passage over in the Gospel of John just to the left, so it won't take you much time to get there. And I want you to go to the Gospel of John and locate verse one of chapter 14. So John 14 verse one, and I want us to connect now the return of Jesus Christ with the troubles that enter into our heart. And you know, Jesus Christ spoke directly into this very issue. And He said in John chapter 14 verse one He said, "Let not your hearts be troubled. "Believe in God, believe also in me, "in my father's house are many rooms "and if it were not so, would I have told you "that I go to prepare a place for you? "And if I go and prepare a place for you, "I will come again." He's talking about the second coming. "I will come again and I'll take you to myself, "that where I am, you may be also. "And you know the way to where I'm going." Thomas said to Him, "Lord, where do, "we do not know where you are going, "how can we know the way?" And Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, "and the life, no one comes to the father except through me." You notice what He's saying here, that I'm the way, the truth, and the life. If you come to know me as savior and Lord, then even in the midst of the troubles, in the troubles, He says in verse one, "Let not your heart be troubled." In the midst of this crisis, let not your heart be troubled, in the midst of suffering, in the midst of persecution, let not your heart be troubled and the solution is He says it in verse one, believe in God, believe also in me that I'm the way, the truth, and the life and everything that we do in this life should be framed by the second coming of Jesus Christ. And so I've got four sides to this frame that I wanna point you to as we wrap things up. And the first one is this, He secures my future, there's a hope out there so I can have real joy, joy in knowing that Christ is coming again. Luke chapter 10 verse 20, Jesus said, "To rejoice that your name as a follower of Jesus Christ "was written in the book of life." As we read in Revelation chapter 20. There's judgment that comes to those and not, but those of you that have trusted Him, we have a secure future and we can rejoice and that's the first side of this frame, that frames what goes on in this life in the midst of the trouble. I know it's a temporary life that, yeah, it's a sunset because we're not meant to live forever on this planet with this body. He's gonna deliver us and He's gonna give us a new world that we look forward to a new life that begins. Some of you know the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was part of the resistance movement is a great theologian in Germany during the Holocaust when the Nazis took over and tried to rule the world, and right towards the end, almost right at the end of world war two, the Gestapo came to him because he was captured, he was put into prison and they were coming to him to take him to the scaffold, and right before he left, he turned to his friend and he said these words, he said, "This is the end." And what he meant was, this is the end of this life. This is the sunset of my life on this planet. But then he added this phrase, "For me, the beginning of life." That's the hope, the hope that we have, that Christ is coming again. And next He promises His presence so that I can have his peace in the midst of these times. Next week we're gonna come back to this subject of living in light of the second coming and what that means for my life and how I live today and again, it'll frame everything we do, and then the following week we're going to celebrate Easter together even though we're not gonna physically be here, we're gonna have a chance to celebrate it with one another over the internet but I also want you to know that the following week we're gonna begin this incredible study in the book of Philippians. Paul was in prison in the book of Philippians. And Paul has a lot to tell us about being content when you're confined and isolated and then how to even pray in the midst of a crisis. And he says this, Philippians four, six and seven, do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, with thanksgiving. Remember my son was talking to high school students and saying, in your devotion this week, just take a sheet of paper and write down all the things that you're thankful for. Let your request then bring to Him the troubles that are on your heart be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus because you're trusting in Him. You're walking according to His ways. And the third side of this frame is this, He transforms my life so that I can trust Him now in this moment. And it's in the crisis times of our lives that God stretches us and He causes us to grow. And that's why I love James chapter one verse two through four. It says, count it all joy my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness or endurance have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. It's the crises of our lives that oftentimes reveal what's going on in our heart. Yeah, we're fearful, yeah, there's times when we're afraid. But Jesus says, don't be afraid, you don't have to be fearful. You know, the emotion is not wrong, It's what we do with it. And oftentimes in moments like these where perhaps you're struggling financially, maybe you've lost your job, we wanna know about that here at Rock Point Church 'cause we care about you and we wanna help you out as best as we possibly can. And you might begin to wonder how you're gonna keep your house even or what's gonna happen into the future. He tells us that we need to cast all our cares upon Him because He cares for us. And in the moment of those crises, oftentimes it reveals maybe what we're clinging to, maybe we've been focusing too much on the material things of this life, and it's this crisis that's stripping those idols away from our hearts so that we can turn and trust Him and depend upon Him for everything. And then finally, the fourth part of this, as it frames our life in the here and now, He uses me to serve others so I can reflect on Him. If I know my eternity is secure, I now can focus on serving others so that I can be on mission with the message of hope in Jesus Christ. And we're gonna come back to that next week. So let me just give you a few short things here. You know this week, look for someone or think and begin to pray about someone that you can encourage. Maybe you send a card to a neighbor, maybe it's beginning to list five names of people that God has laid on your heart that you can begin to pray for, that you can encourage by phone call or by a letter of some sort. Kids, maybe it's calling your friends and doing a big group game. Maybe you don't even know your neighbor, here I'd encourage you to put gloves on, go over to the house, ring the doorbell, step back six feet and just say hi and introduce yourself. I went across my yard a couple of days ago, I saw my neighbor and I began to ask him how he's doing. You know what I found out? He's having surgery this week. And it was an opportunity for me to pray for him, it was an opportunity for me to point him towards heaven. My wife went out and shopped for our daughter who's expecting here in a couple of weeks. We can use the opportunities before us even though the we're limited to serve. And next week we'll come back and we'll talk about how we live differently and love radically. We need to be ready and I hope you are. I hope you're ready for the return of Christ, I hope you have acknowledged your sin and turn and put your trust and faith in Jesus Christ the Savior and Lord willing to follow Him and then let him guide you as we anticipate His coming so that we can live in light of that. And kids I want you to take your pictures out this week and I want you to show them to your mom and dad, and if you'll post them online and then tag us at rockpoint.church, our staff is gonna look at those pictures and we're gonna randomly select one of them as one that we think is the best, okay, so you're gonna have to do your homework here and then we're gonna send you a price. So pastor Wendy has promised us that that's gonna happen so we're saying it on the airwaves, we're committed and so tag us and we'll begin to evaluate that. And then for the rest of us around the dinner table, around the lunch table, wherever you might be, I want you to spend some time this week, pull out that sermon page, kids, explain to your parents what you've written down and then moms and dads in your small groups as a family, whatever that might be if you're using Zoom in your small groups, then I want you to begin to think about how our story fits into God's grand story. And how the second coming frames everything that we do in this life and encourages us to trust Him, depend upon Him, and find peace and then ultimately serve others. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time today, encourage our hearts this week as we spend time talking as a family and thinking about the fact that you're coming again and may that drive everything in our lives in terms of how we live. We look forward to being back together next week, in Jesus name. Amen.