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While There is Still Time | Trenton Tombs | Oct. 04. 2026
**Opening
Lord Jesus, I want to pray that you touch every brother and sister’s heart today, God, that we can be reminded that we are not servants, God. We are sons and daughters, Lord. You call us friend, Jesus. You call us your friend. You call us your bride. And we are here, God, to make ourselves ready for this glorious wedding day, to be a bride that can grow from glory to glory, God. A bride that can understand that you are coming back for a spotless bride, one that has understood that there is a bridegroom to take care of her. So Lord, we pray that more than anything else that you can have your way today in this word and that God confidence is produced in us, God. That hope is produced in us, God. That expectation is produced in our hearts. Holy Spirit, I pray that as I speak today that you move me out of the way. I pray Holy Spirit that as the head of the church, you speak to our hearts today in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen. Hallelujah. Amen and amen.
All right, so Pastor Raphael is up in the mountain as well, serving our church, serving the brothers, and he gave me the privilege to share with you today. And we're going to have some slides. I want you guys to first put your phones on airplane mode. Amen. Like you're about to step into a movie theater. We silence our phones for a movie, but when the word of God comes, we get distracted. Come on, that doesn't make any sense. Let's silence our phones. You don't literally have to put it on airplane mode, but I want you to be focused. The reason I'm saying to do that is because I need you to use your Bibles today, and a lot of times our Bibles are on our phones. So let's make it a smartphone and use our Bible. Amen. It's only a smartphone when we open the Bible app. That's the only time it's really a smartphone.
**Confidence for the Day of Judgment**
So what we're going to talk about today is a topic that I've been studying for many years. And as I've studied over the years, I've realized that the goal of understanding the return of Christ is to produce confidence. Amen. Marcus, if you can put up, this is the only verse I did not give you, it is 1 John 4:17. While I was worshiping this morning with you guys, this was a verse that the Lord put on my heart. It says, "To have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is in this world, so are we." The verse before that tells you how you can have confidence. It says we love because we have first been loved. So what is so powerful about this is the Bible tells you to have expectation, to have confidence for the day of judgment. You know, just to set the record straight, if you've been born again, if you've put your trust in Jesus, fully received him as the Savior and Lord of your life, and the Holy Spirit now dwells inside of you, I got good news for you. You will never have to give an account for any sin you've ever committed. That's good news. Can someone say amen? Hallelujah. I know I don't have a British accent, but I want to hear amen, too. Hallelujah. And this is so powerful because it says love perfected in us, we may have confidence for the day of judgment. And why? This word judgment here is not talking about judgment in the sense of sin. It's talking about rewards for believers. Amen.
**Discerning the Times: The Days of Noah**
Now if you are not in Christ, today is the day to give your life to Jesus. Amen. And God wants us to have confidence for the day of judgment. And this is something so powerful. And Jesus teaches in Matthew 24, this is where we're going to be opening up a lot today, how to understand and discern the times. Can you poke your neighbor and say, "We need to discern the times." Amen. And in Matthew 24:37-39, Jesus teaches us that the return of Christ is going to be very similar to how it was in the days of Noah. This is what it says in verse 37: "For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark. And they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away. So will be the coming of the Son of Man." What is Jesus emphasizing? Jesus is emphasizing that people were in the routine. They were in their normal life, and judgment came unexpectedly for them.
**Living with Urgency in the Last Days**
What's amazing, though, is we know that God leads us from glory to glory, right? And Jesus himself instructs us on how to prepare for the end times, how to prepare for his return. And Jesus teaches us what to do. Now, just a few parallels between the days of Noah and the return of Christ, the end times that we're living in now. And how do you know you're living in the end times? Well, every single prophecy that needed to be fulfilled has already happened. We are in the last days, actually the last seconds. Apostle Peter says that at that time, they were in the last days, and that was 2,000 years ago. So we are living in the last generations before the return of Christ. That's a privilege. Shout amen. Come on. Jesus is counting on you. Amen. Jesus is counting on us. He's empowering his church. And the only way that we can really walk in our purpose is to understand the instructions that he gives. And something interesting about the flood. You know, I love to share the gospel with people, and oftentimes there's been a lot of atheists that will use this argument and say, "Well, why would God flood the earth? If God is good, why would he wipe people out of the earth?" Well, if you really take time to study Genesis, we're not going to get into all of it right now, but I'm going to give you a parallel of what's coming.
**Preserving the Bloodline of Christ**
If you think about this, in the times of Noah, there was this breed that was being born in Genesis 6. It says, "The sons of God slept with the daughters of men, and the Nephilim were born." Now, I'm not going to spend this morning speaking about giants with you, but it's in your Bible. You guys don't remember? David killed Goliath, right? He had a few brothers. If you want to know why David brought five stones, did you know Goliath had four brothers? David didn't think he was going to miss. He was just ready to wipe them all out. And sometimes God will put a giant in your life, and God will always give you everything you need to wipe out the giant in your life. Amen. So there were giants that came from this original act of sin and immorality in Genesis 6. And right after Genesis 6, God begins to have remorse over creation. Well, why was this even a thing? Why did the fallen angels from past eternity want to sleep with the daughters of men? Well, because only man can have dominion over the earth. In Genesis 1:26, God gave man dominion over the earth. So for the demonic to have real influence in the earth, they needed to possess people. That's why when you cast out a demon, you have authority in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth to cast out unclean spirits. Why? Because they are illegal spirits. Amen. And this is something interesting because the devil came into this Genesis 6 moment where the fallen angels began to sleep with humanity, and these Nephilim were born. And one of the reasons that this also was the strategy of the enemy was to corrupt, to defile the bloodline of Christ, the promised Messiah. Because the devil knew in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, we see the fall of man. And what happened? God promised the serpent that he would bruise the heel of the child, the promised child. So he thought, "I need to corrupt the bloodline." And that's one of the reasons why we see giants in the Old Testament. The devil tried to corrupt the bloodline of Christ, and this is why God flooded the earth. So as much as you may have been taught God is this angry tyrant God, that's a Luciferian philosophy. God is good. God flooding the earth actually preserved the bloodline of Christ. That's why it says that Noah found favor in the eyes of God. Thank you, pastor. And this is why Christ comes from all the way back to Noah's lineage. Amen.
**Modern Parallels and the Warning of AI**
Why is that important? That's just some fun facts of the day, right? But why is that important? Because I'm not going to go through all the statistics of what is being spoken about today, but I want to just challenge you to be aware and be conscious of what's going on today. I'll give you just a little summary of what's happening right now. There's a few owners and founders of different AI companies right now that are openly saying that they are expecting the possibility between 10%, if you ask one, or Elon Musk will say 20%, of AI growing so quickly and so out of control of human control that there is a 10 to 20% chance within the next 10 to 20 years that 10 to 20 percent of humanity will be wiped out. And now, is this to create fear? No, but it is to create urgency. Say urgency. Urgency. And what I think is interesting is the same way that the devil in the old covenant tried to contaminate the human race is the same way that we see now AI beginning to have chips being put in people's brains. And this same hybrid race is being formed. And the Bible says that the beast will be like a man, 666, which means completely man, man-made, right? And we see that AI is pushing towards this. You may say, "I love my AI. It gives me all the answers I need." That's not AI, my friend. That is called ChatGPT or Claude. AI is something far different that most of us have never had the access to yet, okay? AI is artificial intelligence that has its own will, okay? And it will be used to deceive many people in the last days.
**Point One: Guard the Truth**
So I want to focus on three points of how we can prepare ourselves for the return of Christ. And let's look at what Jesus says in Matthew 24. You guys with me? Hallelujah. So this is what it says in Matthew 24:3. It says this, Jesus is sitting on the Mount of Olives and the disciples came to him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" So Jesus could have said a million different things. What does he start with? He says this, the first instruction he says, "And Jesus answered them, 'See that no one leads you astray.'" This is the first instruction of Christ. This is where I want to start, is to understand that there will be a great deception. Amen. But who knows that we have the privilege to know the Word of God and abide in truth. Amen. I want you to look to your neighbor and say, "Guard the truth." We need to guard the truth. You know, we need to understand that God has entrusted us oracles and riches in His word, that who knows for sure how much longer we will have access to this amazing paper copy. I was on Instagram the other day, and one of these guys that I follow, he's a preacher, and he basically shared something that I thought was interesting. There was a post, and almost over 5,000 believers had re-shared it, and it was a verse that said, "Luke, na-na-na-na-na." And it was not a real verse. It was a fake verse. And people were sharing it. People were saying, "I love this verse. This verse, you know, changed my life." And it was not a real biblical verse. And what I thought was interesting—I know that this is something that seems maybe harmless—but when this could be taken... because there's a lot of countries where you're not allowed to have this, right? We're very privileged. When that's taken, how much of the word have we allowed to go into our hearts? To stand in truth, to guard the truth. That's why I'm going to be at my life group on Wednesday. Who else is going to be at their life group on Wednesday? Amen, because we need to guard the truth. We need to grow in truth. You know, the Bible says you can grow in grace, and Jesus was not only the personification of grace, but he was also the personification of truth. Jesus didn't just go around singing kumbaya. He went around loving people and also preaching the truth. Amen. And we need the truth. This is the first instruction of Christ. There is a danger that we need to be aware of, that there could be a deception coming. Not that there could, that there will be. And we need to be wise.
**Knowing the Shepherd's Voice**
If you can open up to John 10:27, this is what Jesus says. He says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand." Why do I like this verse? Because he's speaking about intimacy, knowing his voice. Amen. There could be a million kids running around the church building and screaming and crying, but I know my kids' voice. I know when my daughter or my son needs me because we have something so in tune as parents where we can recognize the voice of our children. And guess what? Jesus knows your voice. Amen. He knows your voice. He's the good shepherd. And we need this foundation built up as we approach the end times because what did Jesus say in verse 28? "They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand." So all we need to do is be sheep and follow Him. Amen. Hallelujah.
**The Parable of the Ten Virgins: Preparing for the Bridegroom**
So we need to know, how did Jesus teach about the return of Christ? I want to stay in this point, guard the truth, but I want to take you right now into the following chapter. I'm going to give you guys very quick summaries. We're going to speed read, but I want you to pay attention and try to get what I'm speaking about here. There are two parables that we see that Jesus breaks down the end times into. It's the parable of the ten virgins and the parable of the talents. Now we teach as a church, we believe that there will be a rapture coming. Amen. Why do we believe that? It's all over the Bible. Way back to Enoch's days. Something so interesting about Methuselah, who came before Noah. Methuselah was the one who lived the longest life out of everyone in the Bible. And Methuselah, his name meaning, means "God is patient." And you know if you get into the New Testament you'll see that God does not desire that anyone should perish, amen, but that all would come to repentance. So God desires the world to be saved, but that's why it says, how can they hear the gospel if we are not sent? How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. Amen. So yes, God wants people to be saved, but he empowers his church, as Chris shared this morning in Acts 1:8, that the Holy Spirit comes upon us to do the work of ministry. What is the difference between the Holy Spirit dwelling in you and upon you? The Holy Spirit dwells within you for your good. He dwells upon you for the good of the world. Amen. And God wants to use you in your family. God wants to use you in downtown Fort Myers. Come on, somebody. God wants to use you wherever you go. But we can only have this if we have urgency. We need to understand the end times. I don't know where my beautiful wife is. She's probably running around helping the kids or something. But I know that when I was getting prepared for my wedding day, it was the only thing on my mind, right? It was mainly her mind, which is why it was on my mind, right? She had a million things to do. I just paid for it, right? And Jesus, He calls us His bride. A wedding is something beautiful, it is something intimate. And that's where you see these ten virgins are taken, waiting for their bridegroom. Let's go into Matthew 25, and I'm going to read this very quickly. It says, "Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom." They didn't go to meet this harsh man. They went to meet their bridegroom. And just like me, even though I'm not perfect, Christ is perfect, I did whatever I needed to do to prepare so that my wife could have this beautiful day together with me. And Jesus is working on your behalf. You know, Romans 8:28, it's a very loved verse for most of us. It says that all things will work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to His purpose. All things will work together. Why is this important? Because Jesus is working on your behalf. Even when you may not see it, you say, "How could this work for me?" This is something that seems horrific. But guess what? He's such a good bridegroom. He's such a good husband that even when the wife is there not understanding, He is providing for you. He is taking care of you. He is protecting you. Amen. He is the perfect bridegroom. Hallelujah.
**The Difference Between the Wise and the Foolish**
But we need to make ourselves ready. This is something so beautiful. Five of them were foolish and five were wise, verse 2. This is pointing to something very interesting. I do not have time to talk about this, but if you have questions, please let me know. Okay, but I don't want to open a can of worms, but that's sometimes what we have to do when we read the Bible when we're talking about the return of Christ. It's not that I want to, but it's the Bible. So let me ask you, what is a virgin? A virgin is someone who's pure, who has not broken covenant. So a virgin is something that points to the church. Amen. How could someone in the world who is lost in darkness and completely separated from God be called a virgin? And I'm not trying to make anyone feel uncomfortable, but this is just the Bible. The virgins point to the church, okay? How could the world be wise if they don't even know who Jesus is? The Bible says that true wisdom is winning souls for eternity. So wisdom, biblically, is always likened to something that has eternal significance. And they don't have eternity. They're not saved. They don't have eternity with God yet. So we know that when you read Matthew 25, this is pointing to the church, to the global church. So 50 percent in this scenario will be foolish. And what does it say is the difference between the foolish and the wise? It says this in Matthew 25:3, "For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept." This is speaking about a believer who sleeps, which means that their life on earth ended, right? Because the apostle Paul says that we would not die, but we would become asleep. So this is also pointing to Christians. What's so powerful is there is a moment when they go to meet the bridegroom. And this is what I want to focus on with you right here. Verse 5, "But at midnight there was a cry, 'Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.' Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' But the wise answered, saying, 'Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.' And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready"—can you say ready? "Those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, lord, open to us.' But he answered, 'Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.' Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour." One more interesting thing. Who was Jesus speaking to? Was he speaking to the multitudes? Just out there with the 5,000, the same 5,000 that he multiplied the fish and the bread for? No. If you guys remember the first verse that we shared. He took his disciples privately and explained to them. So this is for the disciples. Amen. Who here is a disciple of Christ? Somebody say, "Amen!" Come on, we are disciples of Jesus. We are disciples of Christ. We have discernment. We will not be deceived. Because you came this Sunday, you will not be deceived. Amen. We get to guard the truth. Guard the truth. Now does this mean that those 50 percent, those five that were unwise, that they're not saved? Well, let's look at what was the other introduction to the conversation. He says, "Then the kingdom of heaven will be like." He's not speaking about heaven. He's speaking about the kingdom, okay? We're going to touch on it a little bit today. I don't want to talk about this and not give you some resources here, but you know this is why we have the spiritual maturity course. This is why we have LTC. Come on somebody. If that's not a teaser to get you in our courses, I don't know what will. But there's more. God wants us to grow in wisdom, to grow in revelation, from glory to glory. The kingdom of God is a thousand-year period where Christ will return, and he will reward the church for their obedience, their faithfulness. So these other virgins are saved. They just will not reign with Christ in the millennial kingdom. We're going to touch on that today. We're not going to go deep into that, but we will in the future. Amen.
**Growing Intimacy Through Attention**
So let's go now into the next parable. This first one, before we get into that, this first one speaks of intimacy. Okay, weddings and the husband and wife relationship is all pointing to intimacy, our relationship with Christ. Amen. And I believe that the Lord is going to lead you deeper into his heart. And that's really what we need. We need to know the heart of our bridegroom. Because intimacy, the way I like to look at it, intimacy grows through attention. What you set your mind on is what will grow in your heart. If you set your mind only on building a big business and retiring, and your whole purpose in life is just to get a paycheck, that's what you will have. You know? And it can be a snare sometimes because we do need to provide for our family. We do need to do these things. But just because we're doing things and being responsible and taking care of what we need to take care of, it does not mean that that needs to be where your heart's attention is. You can be working. You can be doing the things that you need to do as an employee, as an owner, as a husband, as a parent, as a wife, as a child, and still have your heart set on the return of Christ. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. So we need to understand that there is a bridegroom who's coming for his church.
**The Parable of the Talents: A Call to Faithfulness**
Let's go now into the second parable. I want to open up now into Matthew 25:14. This is the second parable that Jesus gives to prepare for the return of Christ. This one's a lot longer, so I'm going to summarize this. We're not going to read this whole one. This is also speaking to servants. The second parable is called the parable of the talents. What's interesting here is every single one of the people in this parable were given at least one talent. Now you may say, "Well, that doesn't sound like a lot," but a talent was a lump sum of money equivalent to one year's wage. It was a lot of money. He entrusted to them something. Now what's important to understand here is that God did not leave any of us empty-handed. God did not leave you empty-handed. You may think, "I don't know my talent. I don't know my gift." And this is why the first parable comes first. We know what we're called to do out of the intimate relationship that we have with Christ. God will speak to you, he will lead you, he will give you a prophetic direction for your life. Amen. And ultimately we all share the same great commission, which is to make disciples and preach the gospel to all of creation. Now this is what it says here in verse 14. "For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property." Now without going too deep into all the verses, Jesus already sets the foundation for this parable. It's his property, right? And this is something that can be very subtle in our hearts, you know. I have three beautiful kids, but they're more than my kids. They are the Lord's kids. Amen. It's good I put them in sports, but it's even better I live a godly life so they can want to serve the Lord. Amen. So the world may say, "Put them in this, put them in that," but I'm going to give my kids my legacy, pass down to them so that they can carry on serving the Lord and growing the kingdom of God. Because the world will try to imprint on you what is important. It's going to say you should do this with your time. You should do this with your money. You should do this with your energy. But the Lord wants you to understand that even our lives, our very lives, is a gift that He's given us to give back to Him. Amen. This is important to understand. And look at what it says in verse 21. "His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.'" So what is the Lord looking for here? He's looking for faithfulness. Say faithfulness. Faithfulness means that you don't have to have all the answers. Faithfulness means that you don't have to be charismatic. Faithfulness means that you can have your own personality, and God is going to use you as you are faithful to him. Amen. Faithfulness is sometimes something that cannot be judged, especially in this generation with social media where we think that God is rewarding us based on our followers, our subscribers, or retweets or whatever. God is not looking the same way that man looks. Man looks outside, God looks at the heart. Amen. We are a faithful church. God is calling us to be faithful. We may not have thousands, but God had 12 disciples. God entrusts things in seed form. And when you're faithful, as he says, over a little, he will entrust you with much. Hallelujah. Amen and amen. You guys good? So far so good. Amen.
**Rejoicing in Sufferings and the Comfort of the Holy Spirit**
So I want now to go into Romans chapter 5. We're going to read a couple of verses here. We're going to read Romans 5:1-5. It says this, "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Now, why is this important? Because there is sometimes this illusion of Christianity that, as believers, we will not face trials and tribulations. Now God wants you to be healthy, blessed. This is all true. But the devil doesn't, and we need to know how to stand in our identity. And this is the next warning that Christ gives. The first one, we guard the truth. Amen.
**Point Two: Abide in God's Love**
The second point is we abide in God's love. Let's go back into his instruction to his disciples. I want to read with you now Matthew 24:11-12. "And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold." Why is this important? Because the word that you see here is an English word called love, but in the Greek, there's different words for love. Now, the word that's used in this context is agape. Agape is also only available for Christians because agape is God's love. It's perfect love, right? You've read this in 1 Corinthians when you see that love is patient, kind, it does not seek its own interest. This is agape love, right? You can have all spiritual gifts, but without love you have nothing. So God gave us, as we saw before in Romans 5:5, that the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. So what is the warning here? What is the warning of Christ here? You know, one of the names that God gives the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, is the Comforter. He's the helper, but he's also the Comforter. Why would—think with me—why would he be called the Comforter if every situation, every trial, every tribulation that comes is comfortable? Trials and tribulations are not comfortable. That's why he's here to comfort us. Amen. And we need to learn as believers to walk in step with the Spirit, to be led by the Spirit. Pastor Giles has been inviting us to go downtown, and I have not been with him every single time. But let me tell you, these past two weekends, I have seen the Holy Spirit move in such a powerful way. Amen. And it is not comfortable right away. But before you know it, the atmosphere changes and the Holy Spirit comes, and then you have the comforter. And before you know it, you are bold. Amen. You're bold as a lion because you understand greater is He who's in us than He who's in the world. Yes, there are some demons out there, but let me tell you there's only one-third compared to the two-thirds of the angels. Amen. And the devil is a defeated foe. The devil is defeated. It says in Colossians that he has been disarmed. All of his authority has been taken from him, and Christ gave all authority to the church. But that's why point one, we need to guard the truth. We need to understand who we are. We are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah. So next time we do Maba, I know we're going to pack that place out and we're going to see more and more salvation. Amen. Hallelujah. And this is the warning that Christ gives. Do not allow your love to grow cold. Well, how could love grow cold? If you read this context here, what does Jesus do? He lists a lot of things that are going to happen. And what is the devil going to want people to think? The devil is going to want people to think that these things are happening because God is trying to destroy the world. No, the same way that that was the picture that was painted about the flood, that there's this angry evil God. He does not exist as God; he is called Lucifer. Okay, he deceives people into thinking that God is this angry tyrant. God already poured out his wrath on Christ. Amen. God is good, only good, always good, and nothing but good. God is love. Does this mean that there is not going to be a day of judgment? There is, but the judgment is for the antichrist and his army. And up until the very last moment, God has this open invitation: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart." The only time that you see Jesus describe himself is gentle and lowly. He's given a lot of names, a lot of titles, but this is how he describes himself. Gentle and lowly. There is a day of judgment that's coming to the earth, but not for the church, amen. Not for the church. We've already been hidden in Christ, and we need to proclaim the gospel, the good news of the gospel, until the return of Christ. This is why Jesus, he says in the New Testament, you see his apostles speaking through the Holy Spirit say that God does not desire that anyone should perish. This should give you boldness. If you want to see someone saved in your family, much more does our Heavenly Father want to see them saved. So when you open your mouth, you open your mouth boldly because you know that the Lord will speak through you. The Lord will use you. Amen. Hallelujah.
**Point Three: Carry the Gospel from Glory to Glory**
And this is leading us to our last point, is to understand that God is forming a glorious church. In 2 Corinthians 3:18 it says this, "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." So how are we being transformed? From worse to worse? Is the church going to go from worse to worse? No, we're going to go from glory to glory. Say glory to glory. But what do we do? What do we do? What do we do with our time? What do we do with our resources? Well, it sounds simple, but I believe that God is going to equip you in this upcoming season to learn how to be a proclaimer of the gospel. The gospel is simple. Jesus says to understand the kingdom of God, we need to be like children, but the world, it's been hit with so much religion. So much atheism, so much doubt, so much evil and deception that the enemy has come to try to captivate as many people as he can with a false reality. "Hey, just live your best life. All roads lead to heaven. Jesus is just a prophet. Jesus is actually just an angel." There's a lot of religion out there that is keeping people away from Christ. And we, I believe our church through great men of God like Pastor Giles and Pastor Raph, are going to teach us and equip us how to do the work of ministry. Amen. And what is the purpose of the fivefold ministry in the first place? It's not to have just some great men and women of God. It's for the church, the body of Christ, to be equipped. And this is why we are not a church with life groups. We are a church of life groups because we want people to understand the Bible's truth that you are a minister of the gospel. You may not use a pulpit, but guess what? Our life is a pulpit. This is just two hours a week, the service. But you can show people through your kindness, through your compassion, by lending an ear, praying for someone, asking them, "How can I pray for you?" Such a simple question, but it opens such a great door. Amen. How can I be praying for you? How can I pray for you? I want to encourage you, text someone today. If there's anything that I want you to do after this service, it's make yourself available for the Lord to use you. Amen. You don't need to go to Bible school. You don't need to have all the answers. It's those that are available for the Lord that will be used greatly in the end times. Amen.
**The Church Has the Final Word**
Well, if the Lord is leading us from glory to glory, what does that look like? Now, we're sometimes wired to think that as it gets darker, that the church is going to grow weaker. Now, this is also a Luciferian doctrine as well. This is all demonic. It's not true. It's not biblical. Can you turn off the lights real quick, Chris? All the lights? I just want you guys to see, there's still going to be windows, so there's still some light in here. But what does light do? Does light battle with the darkness? Do you see light struggling so hard to come against all the darkness out there? No, light just needs to be turned on—if you could turn it back on—and darkness will flee. And the Bible says we are one body with many members, and where there is a member, God wants us to reach out and help them and bring them back into the church. And this is something that's important as a believer, is for us to run our race together. Amen. There is no such thing as a lone ranger Christian. Unbiblical. There is no such thing. So open yourself up with your pastor, with your leader, with your spouse, pray and protect one another because we need to carry the gospel. This is the last point, is to carry the gospel. So the first one, guard the truth. The second one, abide in God's love. And finally, to carry the gospel, to be faithful. And this is what we see in that parable in Matthew 24, is to be faithful. Now, there is a very interesting wording that the Lord uses when he talks about the end. He says this. Let's go back to Matthew 24:12 so we can keep the context. "And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold," the agape of many. Many believers, unfortunately, are going to look at the circumstances happening in the world and, rather than heeding and taking heed to the warnings that Christ gave and realizing that this has to happen, they're going to say, "There is no God, because if God was really real, if Jesus really loved us, this would not be happening." No, he loves you so much that he tells you what is going to happen. So what is happening in the future will not deceive you, but it's to show you that the end is near. Amen. Look at what it says in Matthew 24:13. It says this, "But the one who endures to the end will be saved." And verse 14, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." So who has the final word? Is it the enemy or is it the church? It's the church. It's the church. The church has the final word. Once the gospel of the kingdom is preached to all nations, then the end will come.
**Loving His Appearing**
Let's stand to our feet. Let's pray. God is going to use our church and all the believers in this city to turn Southwest Florida upside down for the kingdom of God. Amen. I'm going to pray for you. There's one verse that I want to close on. If you can go to 2 Timothy 4:8. Let's see if the Holy Spirit is reminding me of the right verses, if I got that right. Hallelujah, amen. Let's look at this verse together. "Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness." We are not righteous because of what we do. We're righteous because of what Jesus did. I don't care what mistake you might have made. God does not see your sins. When you've given your life to Christ, the Bible says you are hidden in Christ, hidden in God. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ"—who here is in Christ? "He is a new creation." Not slowly, little by little, becoming a new creation. You are a new creature in Christ. So because of faith, we've been given the gift of righteousness. So it's not saying that we're righteous because of what we do, but because of what Christ has done. "...which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day." This is Apostle Paul teaching his young disciple Timothy, who became the pastor of this amazing explosive church called the Church of Ephesus. And he said, "And not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing." Now, there's these three points that we spoke about, guarding the truth, abiding in God's love, and preaching the gospel. Let me tell you the most important one. The one that ties all of them together is loving his appearing. And guys, I'm human. I'm just like any other man. I allow the things in my life to distract me from this. This is the most important instruction of all. It's to say, "Lord Jesus, I want you to come back. Lord Jesus, I need you to come back." Right now we're going to take communion. Pastor Giles is going to lead us in communion. If you guys can come forward, the ushers. What is communion? He's going to teach you right now. But Jesus said to do this until he returns, amen. Until he returns to not forsake the assembly of the saints, which is why we're here, and to not forget that he is coming back. Hallelujah.
**Closing Prayer**
Can I just pray and then we'll start the communion. Holy Spirit, thank you so much for your word. Your word never returns void, God. We are so grateful, God, that regardless of what's going on in the world, Lord, you've given us, God, signs of the end times, God. Not to paralyze your church, God, but to equip your church, to equip your bride, to teach us how to live our lives wisely. God, we saw in these two parables that true wisdom is to be a bride, to love you, Jesus, to abide in truth, God, to abide in your love, God, and to proclaim the gospel. And we pray, God, that we can be these wise virgins who get themselves ready for your return, Lord. We pray, God, that our hearts, God, are expectant of your return. We love you so much. You died for us, you gave it all for us, Jesus. And Lord, we declare that we are a church that is growing from glory to glory. And the gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed to Southwest Florida. The gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed to the United States. And the gospel of the kingdom will reach all nations, and then the end will come. And we will be with you forevermore. We thank you, Lord, for what you are doing in our life, God, and we make ourselves available for you, God. We ask God that you teach us, Lord. Anything that we were feeling, God, any fear from judgment, God, we place it at your feet because we are not servants, but children of God. There is no more judgment for us, God. Only reward. So God, we prepare for this glorious day to stand before you, and we know that you will say, God, "Well done, my good and faithful servant. Come enter the joy of your master," in Jesus' mighty name. And everyone said, amen! Come on, somebody.
