Commitment to Truth

Cedrick Brown: Father, thank You so much for the finished work of Jesus. We thank You because it’s by Him and through Him, because of Him, we’re able to gather here today. God, I pray You just help me to encourage Your people as we continue to navigate 2nd Peter. Lord, we thank You for the transformational work that happened in Peter’s life, that You can inspire him to write these words to inspire us even here today in our day and time.

So, Father, please come and be with us through the power of Your Holy Spirit. I pray You speak to me and speak to us, that You remove all the hindrances and barriers that may come along with life and being distracted by life. Lord, we look forward to what You’re going to do in us together. In Jesus' name, Amen.

By the way, didn’t the young ladies do a great job leading worship? Yes. And thank God for Norby. He’s always sensitive to that. He’s like, "I don't want the moms doing anything." He said, "We’ve got to pray for some male vocalists so the guys can be up here singing." So, be praying for that as well. But that was a great gesture to just let all the moms sit and not serve.

As we continue in our sermon series, it is called "By the Book: Remembering to Keep Growing." It’s from 2nd Peter. As we’ve been navigating this, we’ve been understanding that Simon Peter, who at one time was a coward, was used by the Spirit of God to pen this book to inspire the church, to challenge the church to be the people of God that God has called and created and actually died for them to be.

Again, this once-coward denied Christ three times, but yet he is now used to inspire, remind, and stir the church to be whom God has called and created them to be. Now within the text, here you find in chapter one, verses 12 through 15, three of the foundational truths that were the springboard, if you will, to this letter to the church. Just real quickly, just as a reminder and also again a springboard into what we’re going to discuss today.

You look at verse 12. He states, "I will always be ready to remind you of these things." The word "remind" here means this: it is after hints of suggestions, he would then cause you to remember. It’s likened to this: if you have an important date in your household and you kind of hint, hint, hint, "Anniversary's coming," hint, hint, "My birthday's coming," hint, hint, "There's an important date coming." After a while, your hints begin to be maybe a little more firmer in its reminder.

So, you have Peter hinting over the text and what the church should be and what individuals in the church should look like and behave while they still remain on this earth. He begins to now more strongly remind the church in his second letter. Additionally, you also find in verse 12, he says these words, "Even though you already know them." So, he’s reminding the church of something that they already know.

This word "know," interestingly enough, means this: it is belonging to the household or the family, or more specifically, the household of God. So, for instance, there are certain things that your household does. There are certain things that in my household we do or we don’t do. They may be similar, but they’re not uniquely the same. So, what God is saying here in His Word, Peter is challenging the church and saying there are some things you should already know because you’re now related to the household of God.

You’re no longer walking in darkness. You’re no longer a sinner following after the works of darkness. You’ve now been saved and set free by the finished work of Jesus Christ. Now there are some principles by which you should live your life by and in. So, he’s saying to them that at the end of the day, because you now know, you now need to be strongly reminded.

Now, how do we know? Through the finished work of Jesus Christ, He imparts within us His Holy Spirit. It’s kind of like this: have you ever, when you came to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, there are certain things instinctively, inherently you now begin to say, "Maybe that's wrong. Maybe I shouldn't act that way. Maybe I shouldn't say that anymore"?

Or you begin to discern people around you that, "Maybe I shouldn't be with that person anymore," because something within you or the Spirit of God within you begins to warn you as relates to what now is no longer feasible for those who are part of the household of God. Now, as one continues to grow, you begin to model your life based upon the Word of God. You begin to know more clearly what's wrong and what's right. Again, coupled with the Spirit of God who lives within you, you’ll begin to know exactly how to conduct yourself based upon you being a part of this new household as God being your Father and having spiritual siblings, if you will, in the body of Christ.

So, again, Peter is saying, "I'm hinting towards these things. I'm reminding you of these things related to the household of God." Then you see in verse 13, the final transformational statement he makes here is this: "As long as I'm in this earthly dwelling, I'm now going to stir you up by way of reminder." So, you went from hinting to reminding to now stirring. You should know this, so now, because maybe you’re not living this way based upon the new household principles, I now have responsibility to stir you up.

The word "stir" here means this: it means to wake you up or to arouse from sleep. The reality is this: there are followers of Jesus Christ who get really, really comfortable. Especially if you’ve known Christ for a period of time, you know enough Bible that it is dangerous, if you will. Then now you get a little lazy, get a little sleepy in your faith, and then there's this need to stir you up.

This word "stir" also means this: it’s to agitate you as if the sea is agitated. So, let me kind of stitch this together. Let's say hypothetically that God has been quietly speaking to you about financial stewardship. Just like, "You probably shouldn't be spending as much as you spend. You probably start saving. You should probably, you don't need that. You've got ten of those already." Or, "You have enough of that. Maybe you should share it and give it away to someone else."

And He just hints, He hints, He hints. Let's say that you just ignore it. You ignore the hints. I’ve been there. You ignore the hints and you get it anyway. Let's say a week later you’re riding down the road and your car's now on a flat or your car breaks or something. Now you need that same amount of money that you just spent on what you wanted to spend on because you just wanted to spend on it.

To me, that’s kind of like God agitating things. He just agitates. He’s like, "Now, you know you should have been generous in this other area. But because you didn't listen to me, because you didn't listen to the smallness and the stillness and the quietness of my voice, I now need to speak a little louder." It goes from, again, "I'm going to suggest it" to "I need to remind you" to "now I need to stir you and wake you up out of your slumber."

That can be in any context of life. It could be based upon relationships that you choose not to love a person that God said, "You need to love them in spite of them." "Well, no, you don't understand. I'm not going to do that." Guess what God will do? He will agitate you by sending everybody and their mother to remind you of that person. You’ll go from job to job to job to job running away from an employer, and everywhere you go, that same characteristics of that employer will be right in front of you until you learn how to do what God tells you to do no matter who your employer is.

He’ll hint, suggest, remind, remind, remind, wake you out of your slumber. Have you ever been awakened out of a dead sleep? It’s kind of discombobulating. Last attempt is, "I just need to make life a little rough for you right now." He’ll do that right again in relationships. He says, "Get out of it, get out of it, get out of it. It's not healthy, it's not healthy." "Well, you know, God, maybe I can help them." God's like, "No, you're not ready to help them. You're not strong enough to help them. You're not equipped to help them." He just shakes it up, shakes it up, shakes it up, then it blows up.

In this sermon series, we’ve been aroused and reminded of a few things. The first has been this: we have everything we need. In other words, God has given us every single thing according to righteousness and good deeds through the power of His Holy Spirit, through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and the authority of His Word. There's no other thing that we need to survive on this earth with any people and in any position and place you’re in. There's nothing you need more to have a divinely inspired, wonderful relationship with Jesus. There's nothing else you need.

But then, secondly, we learned last week that there are false prophets and false teachers that will tell you that you need something else. Then today we’re going to dive into this third point: Christ is really returning. We’re going to end this series with, "Now, as we wait on Christ's return, how do we conduct ourselves?"

If you can now, open with me to 2nd Peter chapter three. We’re going to read through verses 1 through 10. There's about six points I'm going to try to dig into just to really understand that now that we know that Christ is really returning, there's some things that we need to remember about His glorious return. 2nd Peter chapter three, beginning at verse one, says this:

"This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder." Now, wherever I teach, I want to remind you of some theological and some hermeneutic principles. Hermeneutics is simply understanding and applying the Bible. In other words, just a tool and a methodology of how you understand and apply the Bible. So how would one know that this is 2nd Peter? I wasn’t there. Well, because he says here, this is his second time he’s writing. Define scripture with scripture. It’s the second time writing, which says there must be a letter that preceded it. Therefore, this book, this letter to the church is his second letter. Makes sense. Just a little small hermeneutic principle.

Verse two says: "That you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandments of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles. Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, 'Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.'"

Verse five: "For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by His word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance."

And lastly, verse 10 for today: "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up."

Now let's dig deeper into this. Again, we’re understanding now that since we can affirm that Christ is coming back, what are some things we need to remember until He returns? Here's the first that’s found in verses one and two: Remember the reliability of God's Word. God's Word is 100% reliable. Now, again, there's extracurricular material that supports the authenticity of the Bible, believe it or not. There were eyewitnesses that wrote about accounts that are also in the canonized Scripture. I don't want to get into that, but there's even extra material that you can read that's not even the Bible that supports the Bible and supports the Christ itself.

But here we find a couple of key words that help us in verse number two. He says, "Remember." Remember what? The words. "Remember" means to be mindful of the words, remind oneself of the words. Super important. In other words, this remembering is twofold: it is our responsibility to just flat out remember what has been written and what has been said and spoken by the prophets of old. But the other piece I think is probably the most necessary in our context, and it is this: to remind oneself of the words, because there's a time that we can begin to believe the word, but sometimes we don't believe it enough that we have to remind ourselves of it. You follow what I'm saying?

Or we’re quick to forget. We’ll sit under a sermon, or we’ll read a Proverb for the day, we’ll read some Psalms, we walk away, we hit real-life issues, and then we forget. But those are the times that we need to remind ourself or remind oneself. There's a portion of Scripture that it says, "I said to myself." So, there's times that you have to say to yourself, "This is what the Bible says, and I must remind myself of it and stick with it."

In other words, there are subject matters that are necessary for us to understand. That’s why if you look at the word "words" here, all right, so we understand what "remember" is. Remember being mindful of it, but then also remind yourself of what? The word "words" means here: it is the subject matter or the commands.

So, whenever you’re reading the Scriptures, there's subject matter. In other words, there's subject matter on relationships. There's subject matter on marriage. There's subject matter on child-rearing. There's subject matter on employee and employer relationship. There is subject matter on everything under the sun, everything under the sun. We need to be a people who understand subject matter. Why? It’s because we will live in this world and navigate life and there will be subject matter that appears on the news, and then our inclination is to just believe what's on CNN and on FOX News and whatever post we hear or see. You follow me? We need to be students of the subject matter.

If you don't know the subject matter, you find the subject matter that's in the Bible. You follow me? You wrestle through it and you study to show yourself approved unto God. But then there's the other piece that there's times at the end of the day that you just must do what God commands you to do. There's clear and distinct commands that are in the text that say you should not do or you should do this. Makes sense? And we just must be people who use the word and apply the word because the word of God is reliable. Does that make sense?

And that's why, listen to some information I want to give you. In God's Word, it itself talks about Christ's return. The Bible mentions the return of Christ over 300 times in the New Testament alone, appearing in 23 of the 27 books of the New Testament, which equates to roughly one out of every 30 verses. When including the Old Testament prophecies, some scholars estimate over 1500 to 2400 total references to Christ's return.

Now it gets better. The Scripture talks about Christ's first coming, His first advent, His first appearing on the earth as a child. It is said that His return is mentioned eight times more than His first appearing. Which says, if something is being spoken of over and over and over and over again, there's confidence and there's assurance and there's an urgency about what is being spoken over and over and over again.

Now, do you remember in Acts chapter one, verse 11, when Jesus was about to ascend to heaven and His disciples were gazing up at Him? Listen to what the angels also say about Christ's return: "They also said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.'"

And listen to what Jesus says about His return. Jesus refers to His own return about 21 times in the Gospel. So, as He’s teaching, He’s talking about, "Guess what? Even though you see Me, I'm going and I'm going to come again one day." Even while He was present on earth, 21 times He’s communicating in all of His teaching that one day He’s leaving and one day He’s coming back. Does that make sense?

Now, from 1st Peter chapter one, verse 25, when we first started this journey off, listen to what he says: "The word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word which was preached to you." So, in other words, the authenticity and the reliability and the infallibility of the Word of God is so that it endures forever. With you or without you, with me or without me, alive, dead, next generation, so forth and so on, the Word of God endures forever perpetually. It’s in season, it’s out of season. It’s timeless.

Number two, we find in verses three through four: Some will be skeptical, and there may be skeptics today in this room under the sound of my voice. "I don't get the reliability of all this Christ's return," and XYZ. Which means that Scripture also says that you’re going to be there and you’re going to mock. So, the Bible even affirms that, guess what? There's going to be people that rise up and they’re going to mock us about His return.

So, they will mock Christ's return. People will mock Christ's return. You may mock Christ's return. The word "mocking" from Merriam-Webster is described as ridicule. And here's the piece that you need to hold on to: to disappoint the hopes. Think about that for a minute. "Oh Jesus, come back. I can't wait to see Jesus, I can't wait to see Him face to face." And someone comes behind you and says, "Ah, that's fake. That's but a lie. Everybody's been waiting for Him to come from the very beginning He left."

Jude chapter one, verse 14 through 19. Think about this. Jude is a New Testament text, speaks of Enoch, which is an Old Testament prophet. He takes us all the way back to Adam, and then he stitches to the present day. Listen to what he says: "It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, 'Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.'"

Listen to how he starts describing: "These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage. But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, 'In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.' These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit." Underscore that: devoid of the Spirit. The Spirit of God is not present. "But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Spirit."

This is what we need to hold on to. Listen to what it says. Verse 21: "Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life." Why is that important? If you don't catch anything else when dealing with mockers, catch verse 21. Keep yourself in the love of God. Why is that important? You see it today. You know what happens to Christians? We in turn begin to mock back. We’re on social media, people like, "I don't believe in that," and then we start shooting jabs back. Someone tells you, maybe you live with a person, "Everything you believe, that’s just a lie."

The only way that we can prove that Christ is coming to those who don't believe He’s coming is: keep yourself in the love of God and continue to wait anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. New the first-century church, there was a way that they greeted each other. It was with one word: it was "Maranatha." This word Maranatha meant "come quickly, Lord."

So, keep in mind, first-century church, Christ leaves. First-century church is starting now to be established. From the very beginning when He left, they were saying, "Come quickly." In other words, "Come back, Lord. Come get us. Come take us away as You promised." You see what happens so much in the church today is this: we see what's happening on the news, we see what's happening in the world, we see what's happening in our communities, we even see some of the rough stuff that's happening in our own lives. And we hear statements like this: "I can't wait till Jesus comes back because, you know, everything, the earth's going to hell in a handbasket. Why don't He just take us all away? It's too rough out here. I'm ready to just go home to be with Jesus."

Maybe that's our modern way of saying, "Come quickly, Lord." But could it be that God is saying this to you and I: that we shouldn't say, "Lord, come get us," but maybe we should be saying, "God, keep us here until the gospel is preached in all the world"? You see, because He’s also gives a promise: "I'm not coming back until the gospel is preached to all people." See, simply saying, "God, get me out of this," it’s an easy way out. "Can you just destroy everything because You've done it before and You're going to do it again?" And we’re going to get into that.

Or could God be saying to you and I, our prayers and our conversations need to change? Could it be, "Lord, help us as a church, help us as an individual, help us as the church, spread the gospel of Jesus Christ so fast, so broadly to reach all nations and tribes and tongues and people who’ve never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then the end will come." Amen. And we’re going to get into the why as we continue.

So, Galatians chapter six, verse seven gives us a hope when people mock. He says, "Be not deceived. God is not mocked. What a man sows is what they will also reap." If someone is mocking the second coming of Christ, if someone is mocking your faith and belief in that, be not deceived. God is not mocked. What a man sows is what they will also reap.

Then number three, you find in verses five through seven: We need to remember, though, that though that people are going to mock us in the wait, what we need to hold on to is this: If it happened before, it will definitely happen again. How do we know? You see, there was this guy by the name of Noah. During his age, he was trying to tell people just like we’re trying to tell people, and nobody would hear him, nobody would listen. But guess what? God wiped it all out.

Then you fast forward to this place called Sodom and Gomorrah, right? And guess what? Same rhythm. "Okay, you don't want to listen. If I can find 50 righteous, if I can find 40, if I can find 30, if I can find 20, if I can find ten righteous people, I will not destroy this world." Couldn’t find them. Wiped them all out. So if our God is the same God yesterday, today, and forever, He has great patience, great tolerance, but He’s just.

It’s kind of like this: if you have five kids in your house, the rules are the rules. To child number one, two, three, four, five, the rules are the rules. But how the rules are executed, you follow me, based upon the child and based upon the urgency, it’s strategic for each child. Does that make sense? Which drives the child and the children in the house crazy because they think that somebody's getting away with something. If you understand, parents, what I'm talking about. If you have multiple children, "Well, why he get away with that? I can't believe it. Why am I always the one getting in trouble?" No, no, the rules, and you can tell them over again, "The rules are the rules. I'm not playing favorites. It's just because you’re the focus of attention, you think."

Right? So, likened to that, we have a perfect Father in God. The rules are the rules. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. What you sow is what you’re going to reap. And it goes on to say, if you sow in the flesh, you reap destruction. You sow in the spirit, you reap eternal things, right? So at the end of the day, it’s not because God is this mean, tyrant person, but it’s like, "I keep giving you chance after chance after chance. Matter of fact, I have to honor My Word that there's consequences for behavior."

So, that being said, if it happened before, you can rest assured it's eventually going to happen again. So when you look at that, you look at this verses five through six, you find a few things. It says that it escapes their notice. So please see this visual. You have these group of people just busy with life, busy with marriage, busy with family, busy trying to be found to be married, busy trying to get someone to marry you, busy with work, busy with life to any degree, it becomes hidden from their notice, becomes almost like a secret, almost like being totally unaware and without knowing. That's what this word "escapes" means. You can be there but miss it.

And it says that the world at that time—and the word "time" simply means the world then was destroyed—so therefore the world now will be destroyed. In Matthew chapter 24, verse 37 through 39, Jesus describes the people's awareness to the imminent destruction. This is fascinating. It says: "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark."

So, you could just imagine the ark door being closed by the hand of God. Boom! "Noah, can you throw me a life raft?" It’s like, no. But understand the further context. There was no time in history had it ever rained. No time in history has it ever rained. So, Noah by faith was like, "Hey everybody, there's this big storm coming. You better hop on in, you better get in." And they’re looking like, "What's this dude, he’s sun's, you know, chopping down all this wood, building this huge structure."

So you can just put yourself there, and it’s like, "Huh, come on. What in the world?" It’s like AI of their time. Seeing something constructed that you had nothing to do with, but now it's visually there, and you’re now like, "Is this real? Is it not? Should I respond to it? Should I not respond to it?" And it wasn’t until the door went boom! "Oh, can I, let me in, let me in." Until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them away.

And here's the difficult part: "So will the coming of the Son of Man be." Please understand, the Scripture says even the very elect may be deceived. And please understand the theological truth in all of this. The sin nature of man is the sin nature of man, and the sin nature of man then is the same sin nature of man today. So, the propensity to be in existence and having God construct an ark all around us, a pathway to salvation, is just as prominent as it was then as it is today. And the same inhibitions that we have to just get so caught up in life that we miss it then is still today. Because a sinner then is no different than a sinner now. Someone who's about their own agenda then is no different than a person about their own agenda today. Someone caught up in life's cycle then is no different than a person caught up in life cycle today. Therefore, we could miss it.

Our inherent sinful nature has not changed. So here's the caution that a follower of Jesus Christ needs to have: the response then can be the same response now if we’re not careful, if we’re not reminded of it, right? If we’re not awakened, if we’re not stirred, if we’re not a people who realizes that, "You know, I get it that this tempest that is raging in my life is to awaken me and to cause my eyes to open, my ears to open and understand that Maranatha, Jesus is coming." History provides proof. But history also provides this: It’s only going to happen when He wants it to happen.

It’s up to God's timing. Verse eight says that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day. I'm sure all of us experienced the thousand years feeling. In other words, "Okay God, okay, okay, a thousand years, okay, here, okay, You’re at 999, or you know, it's tracking towards the thousand." But what we also forget is God is not governed by time. In God's economy and God's context, there is no time. He also controls time. And that's because He’s sovereign. He’s in full control of all things at all times, if we like it or not.

And you may say, "Man, that's pretty, like." So, parents, do you know you’re sovereign in your context? Let one of your teenage kids come up to you and say, "Hey, I want to start driving." You will sovereignly tell them, "No." "Well, everybody else is driving, everybody, why can't I drive? You know, why not?" "You’re not old enough to drive. No."

Right? I mean, there's a level of sovereignty that's assigned to you as parents, or if you have your own job, I mean, own business, right? If you are in some form of management or whatever, there's a sovereignty that you have. There's things that stop at your desk and it’s your ultimate responsibility to make that decision. But God is all sovereign.

So, that being said, when you look at that, nothing is controlled. God is not controlled by time. So think about this. The word "like" here you find in verse number eight. Merriam-Webster defines it this way: the same as in appearance, character, and quality. So, one day with God in its appearance and quality and quantity and characteristic is the same way as a thousand years. So what should tell us that I should probably stick close to God's time? Because He says one day in my courts is like a thousand years elsewhere.

When you look at that, Psalm 90, verse four also says this: "For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday." Think about that. Like, wait a minute, a thousand years, I'm only in today. But he says a thousand years in Your sight is like the past. And he says, "And when it passes by, or as a watch in the night." Then Isaiah 38, verse eight. This is so cool. God literally reversed time. "Behold, I will cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps." So the sun's shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.

So, typically you walk, the shadow kind of is somewhere, right, depending on the direction of the sun. So, I did a little search on this. Listen: shadows move in the opposite direction of the sun, generally shifting from west to east throughout the day. So, what causes one's shadow to move backwards is the question. It’s when the sunlight or the sun or the light source moves. So, when you read the text in Isaiah 38, you know what God did? He moved the sun. God is not controlled by time. If He wants to, He can move the sun.

God's timing is always perfect in all His ways. Number five, last two points real quickly: God's timing is as such, and you may wonder why. If you look at verse number nine, it’s so that everyone would have an opportunity to respond. So God will slow time down, if you would, speed time up, if you would, or at the end of the day, He is controlling time so that everyone will have an opportunity to respond.

Not wishing for any to perish. The word "perish" simply means this for you and I: anyone to experience eternal misery in hell. Hell's not meant for us. It’s meant for Satan and his demons and those who choose not to follow. That's not God's first option. Hell is not God's first option. And people, you all need to know that and communicate the urgency of that, is that hell is not God's first option.

But our challenge is to understand that God wishes that nobody would perish but all would come to know Him as Lord and Savior, which says that we have an inherent responsibility as followers of Christ is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations and tribes and tongues and to all the world. Yes, even to your enemies. Most of us know John 3:16, right? "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life." But let's continue on and look at verse 17: "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him."

We have to shift the way we’re thinking, church. Sometimes we get too angry at the church. I mean, excuse me, the church gets too angry at the world. And the reality is Jesus ain’t as mad at them as He is the church. Then in John 10, verse 9 and 10, Jesus doubles down on anyone's opportunity to respond to the gospel. He says, "I am the door. If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved." That’s what He wants. But He’s the door. We cannot let our feelings get in the way of that fact.

There may be family members right now that you ain’t liking. There may be division in your home that's frustrating you. You know what the solution to it all? There's salvation. Why would Jesus says, "Pray for your enemies"? Just pray that He kills them all? Right? I mean, well, He did it for David. David prayed and said, "Wipe, matter of fact, kill that person, kill his whole family. Let nobody even survive." That may be what you feel, but that’s not what He came for.

Lastly, no matter the timing or the opportunity that Christ gives to everyone, He will still come and return like a thief in the night. So I was looking up what does the word "thief" mean in the Greek. The word "thief" in the Greek means "thief." So I was like, okay, well, what are some descriptions and characteristics of a thief? Here's a few: always comes unexpectedly, they come many times when people are asleep or distracted. A thief comes quietly and subtly, and they always come with a purpose. Here's one that we need to really hold on to is that a thief always exploits one's lack of preparation.

I shared earlier, I grew up in Compton, California, and there was a whole bunch of thieves there. I hate to say it. There's some thieves right down the street. There's some thieves, man, I grew up with, played with, and then they knew the Browns were going to church and was going to be there all day, like all day. And then inevitably would come back, that brand new TV—black and white TV, not dating myself, right?—was gone. And you find out, you start looking around the neighborhood, asking around, and it says, "Oh, I see, man, so-and-so." It's like, "Wait a minute, we were just playing together. You just came and robbed me."

It was crazy like that. It’s just like your neighbor robbing from you, people you’re playing with and you thought you were cool with coming into your house because they knew you’d be distracted. Now, that thievery taught me some things, not necessarily to be a thief, but it gave me wisdom on how to discern. Like, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, I can sense and discern, "Okay, I know what you're all about." But the temptation even in that is this: and sometimes thieves work in groups, right? One can, you could be so focused on one and the other one is robbing you. My point in saying all that is at the end of the day, we just will not know when He’s coming back.

My wife Lisa grew up in partially in Georgia, so she had a lot of innocence, still does, lot more innocence than me, I guess. Because, you know, she played at the creek or the cricked, whatever you want to call it, barefoot, jumping around, all this stuff. So when we got married, it’s like, "Don't wave at that person. Don't look at that person. You don't know what they're all about. Don't walk over there. Stay over here." And it caused so much conflict because I was protecting her. But she in her naivety was like, "Oh, everybody's my friend." You know, it's like, "Oh, baby, everybody's not your friend."

So again, naivety can cause you to be snuck up on. So I used to travel a lot when I was in business and I mean there were times I was in two or three hotels in a matter of a week. So, still today I do this because of this what I'm going to describe to you. So I probably was in hotel number three, the fire alarm went off. I get up and boom! Hit the wall, because I thought I was in the hotel room that I was previously in. In my head, I was so startled and I discombobulated and I just took off where I thought I was in the previous.

So still to this day, all right, where we stay, I turn that bathroom light on, I crack the door so when my eyes wake up—I mean, when I get up and if I'm startled—I can see exactly where I'm at in the room. Still to today because... keep that in mind. 1st Thessalonians chapter five, verse one through six affirms if we are sons and daughters of the light, we should know Christ is returning like a thief in the night.

"Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you." It’s kind of like what 1st Peter is saying. You should know this. This is part of the household. It’s part of household. This is old news to us. "For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. Church, we know this. You know full well while they are saying peace and safety, then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child and they will not escape."

Think about that for a minute. What are we so desperately looking for? And I'm saying "we," sinners or saints, church or non-church, we’re looking for peace and safety. "Oh politician, hey mayor, hey senator, hey congressman, hey life, be peaceful and safe for me." Caught up in it. If I'm not expecting someone else to bring me peace and safety, I'm going to bring peace and safety. I'm going to make sure food is on my table, so I'm going to work, work, work, work, work, work, work. And then a thief shows up and you’re not ready.

I'm going to be so glued to the TV making sure they’re making all the right decisions. I'm at meetings after meetings to make sure the council people are held accountable. I'm all caught up in the nonsense. I'm going to keep them accountable as a voter. Haven't we read the end of the book? It’s never going to be peaceful, never's going to be safe. Matter of fact, for the record, it never was peaceful, nor was it ever safe. Never was.

But verse four says: "But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night or of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober." And then in Revelation 16:15, here's the last verse. Describes how we should respond to Christ's sudden appearance: "Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes on, so that he would not walk about naked and men would not see his shame."

Church, we’ve got to stay awake and keep our clothes on. I know there have been times that when the kids were little, we knew we had to go somewhere early next morning. You ever did this, parents? "I'm going to bathe you, I'm going to dress you the night before." So we can get in that car and just go, right? I've even did that before. There's times early when I was traveling early in my career, I was like, "Oh man, five o'clock plane flight, I'm going to make sure I'm showered, shaved, dressed, so I get as much sleep as I can."

We’re not talking about physical clothes. Clothe yourself with righteousness. Stay awake, stay sober-minded, be focused, be vigilant. Don't get caught up in all the nonsense and the hype because we do not know when He’s coming back. So, stay awake and keep your clothes on. Stay awake and don't take your clothes off. Amen. So, what are we going to do? We’re going to stay awake and what? Keep our clothes on. Let's pray.

Father, we thank You so much because Jesus helps us stay awake through the power of His Holy Spirit. Jesus helps us stay clothed in righteousness. And Lord, I pray in the name of Jesus that that’s who we would always be as His church. Today, if you do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior but you want to know Him and you want to put your faith and trust in Him, I'd like to give you this opportunity.

Just an opportunity to acknowledge that you’re a sinner. In other words, that you’ve been living life on your own, doing your own thing, but now you realize that Christ came to die for you. He was buried for you. He rose again from the grave for you. If this is what you want, I’d like to lead you in a short prayer, and you can just pray after me:

Jesus, forgive me for I have sinned against You. Because up until this point, I’ve been trying to live my life my own way, my own thoughts, my own intentions. I’ve just been not believing. Matter of fact, I’ve been mocking You through my behavior. But today, Jesus, I ask You to forgive me of all of my sins and wash me clean because I now know that You came to die for me. You were buried for me, and You rose again from the grave just for me.

Jesus, please come into my heart, my life, to rule and to reign as my Lord and my risen Savior. Empower me to live for You all the days of my life.

But maybe you’ve prayed that prayer before, but maybe somehow you’ve gotten caught up in life. Again, the acute distraction is we can get so caught up in pleasing my children, my parents, my wife, my husband, my parents, pleasing my boss, pleasing my employees, pleasing everyone else around us instead of focusing on Christ and Christ alone. Then you just maybe examine your heart and say, "Yeah, I've gotten distracted, and if Christ could return, maybe I could even be remiss to respond to His return."

Are you conducting yourself as the days of Noah? Let's ask the Lord to forgive you. Lord, we thank You for Your forgiveness. We thank You for Your mercy. We thank You for Your Word and reminder and stirring. Thank You for the agitations of life that are assigned to us to ready us for Your return. Lord, we love You, we thank You, we bless Your holy name. In Jesus' name, we all say, Amen. Can we give the Lord a handclap?