The Rapture

I do want to this morning tell you the story of Jesus, but we're going to jump to the end of the book to the last chapter of the story. So what we're going to do is talk about the coming of Christ this morning. I got to thinking yesterday that a lot of times we think of many things at the beginning of a new year. We may think of the past year things we wish will go differently this year and pray will be different this year. If you had a year of a lot of heartache and difficulty you may be thinking 2011, it's got to be a better year. I found myself thinking yesterday that 2011 it certainly can't be weather wise what it was last year. Were they calling for a milder January this year? Maybe at the first of the year you begin to think about the plans and dreams you have for your life. Maybe even things that you did not see accomplished last year that you would like to see accomplished this year. And so you may make resolutions or set goals or look at your life and evaluate spiritually where you are. And those are all wonderful things. You know one of the things that I think we should always be thinking about as we approach a new year is that this could be the year that the Lord comes back. I certainly hope it is. It could be the year that Christ returns. Now I got to thinking about that last night and thinking about what a wonderful time and trust that the Lord wants us to think about this this morning rather than the vision for the church will do that maybe in a couple of weeks. What it would be like for Jesus to come this year. I want to speak to you this morning from 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 on what I will call the rapture. The coming of Christ for his bride, his church. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 is probably the most extensive explanation that Paul gives. 1 Corinthians 15 rivals that. But 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 is probably the most extensive layout of the actual details of what we call the rapture. The rapture of the church is when Jesus comes back to snatch away, to catch up, his bride, the church. I certainly understand that there are many different views on the details of prophecy. And I will try to settle all of those this morning. But you know where I'm coming from. That I'm coming from a dispensational pre-millennial, pre-tribulational perspective of the fact that Jesus could come at any moment for his church, for his bride. And Paul's description of that in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 has a particular motivation behind it. There's a reason why Paul said what he said. It was because the Thessalonians evidently had been taught to expect the coming of Christ at any time. That he could come back at any time. And Paul had not had a lot of time with the Thessalonians. He tells us in the book of Acts, tells us, Luke tells us that he had been there three Sabbaths. How long he had been there in all? We're not real sure. But three Sabbaths, maybe a little over three weeks, Paul had been with them before he had to move on to the next town. So he'd not had a lot of time to instruct them, but evidently they knew enough to know that Jesus could come back at any time. But since Paul had told them that some time had passed, some of their loved ones had died, and they were very concerned. What's going to happen to our loved ones? What about them? You told us to expect Jesus coming at any time. Now they've died. Will they miss out on that coming? What will happen to them? And so they were confused. They had some questions about that. And so Paul writes this passage in 1 Thessalonians 4 to answer that concern. Look at verse 13. He says, brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep. Let me stop right there. I love that term, fall asleep. I often use this passage at grave sides, and I'll make a comment about this term. Paul's favorite term for the death of a believer is to fall asleep. Now that does not mean that the soul sleeps. It means that the body sleeps. Paul makes it very clear that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The person, the soul, the spirit, the real person goes to be with the Lord immediately, but the body simply goes to sleep. Paul uses that term because that's a beautiful term to describe the hope of the resurrection. Whenever you go to sleep, you expect to wake up again, right? You go to sleep on Saturday night, you expect to wake up again. You go to sleep during church, you expect to wake up again. Whenever you go to sleep, you do expect to wake up again. Paul uses this term to describe the body of a believer that is temporarily laid to rest. It goes to sleep. It's awaiting a time when it will awaken. I love this term because it has such hope of the resurrection in it. Paul says, I don't want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep or to grieve like the rest of men who have no hope. Please understand that Paul is not saying that we don't grieve. There have been those who have interpreted this verse to mean that we do not grieve like people who have no hope. Yes, believers do grieve. If you were here last week, you heard a very excellent presentation of what it means for even a believer to grieve the death of a loved one. We do grieve. There is sorrow. When you've spent much time with someone or even a small amount of time with someone who's a part of your family, a part of you, you're going to grieve. What Paul is saying in the context of the confusion and question of the Thessalonians is that it's not a hopeless grief. It's not a sorrow that has no end. It's not a sorrow that has no answers. We do know we have the hope of the resurrection. And so there is a hope that accompanies our grief. So we don't grieve like those that have no hope. Certainly we still grieve, but it's not a hopeless sorrow. Verse 14, Paul goes on to explain, we believe that Jesus died and rose again. And so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. He will bring with Him. That means He must be coming back. Paul will get to that in the moment. But He's going to bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. Whose bodies have fallen asleep. But the people whose bodies have fallen asleep are with Jesus. Right? He couldn't bring them with Him if they weren't with Him. So He's again expressing that hope that the person in Christ, the believer who has died is with Jesus and will be brought back with Jesus to be reunited with the body. Notice what Paul says in verse 15, according to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord will certainly not precede those who fall asleep. In other words, they are not left out of what I taught you about the coming of Christ. Paul is assuring the Thessalonian believers that their loved ones who have already died will not miss anything. We're not going to beat them in this thing that I'm talking about, the coming of Christ. We're not going to proceed them. They're going to be included too. So in verses 13 to 15, Paul is laying at rest. They're concerned. They're questions. They're sorrow over their loved ones not knowing what's happened to them and whether or not they'll be included in the coming of Christ. Now, having laid that background for what Paul is going to say, beginning in verse 16, Paul lays out step by step what will happen at the ratcheting, at the catching up of the bride of Christ. And there are five steps to what will happen. It all happens very quickly. But if we can slow down the action for a moment, as Paul does here, if we can put this in slow motion and freeze frame each frame of what happens in an instant, then we find five stages of an instantaneous event, the rapture of the church. The first event that happens is the return of Christ. For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven. With a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God. Now, that's the first thing that happens. The Lord Himself will come down from heaven. Several things, Paul says here, about the return of Christ. First of all, notice it is a bodily personal return. The Lord Himself will come. There have been many through the centuries who have denied the personal bodily coming of Jesus Christ. And those who deny the second coming of Christ, those who deny Christ coming back, have often reinterpreted the coming of Christ to mean, well, He comes to you when you get saved. And He comes to abide in your heart. Or He comes at death to take you to Himself. Well, certainly He does come to abide with us, to indwell us when we come to know Him. Certainly He will come in one sense for us at death. But that's not what Paul's talking about. He's talking about a literal physical bodily return. Jesus Himself will come back. I'm so glad that when Jesus gets ready to take us home, He will not send someone to take us home. He's coming Himself. You may recall if you've seen the first Chronicles of Narnia movie, how the three Pevans, the children are sent to a relative, kind of a distant relative's home during the height of the war, second world war in England. And as they are at this right train station, I didn't have a chance to practice that any for this message. At this train station, they're waiting for someone to come pick them up. And they are, they're hoping it's the person who is their relative. And it's not. It's someone who's been sent for them. And it's, there's a bit of a struggle in their own hearts. Didn't, didn't our relative care for us enough to come Himself? I'm so glad that Jesus is not sending an angel to get us and say, he's ready for you. Come on. He's coming Himself. Jesus Himself. It is a personal bodily return indicating Jesus personal interest in receiving His bride to Himself. You know, it would be, it would be an awful thing if on your wedding day, the groom said, you know, I really can't make it. I'm going to send the best man or one of my friends to, you know, receive the bride. And I'll meet you down at the restaurant where we were going to eat afterwards. Now, that probably would not go over too well. Jesus is not sending a representative He Himself is coming. Second thing He says about the return of Christ is what accompanies that return. Notice what accompanies it for the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a loud command. How much I knew what that was? I don't know what it is. I don't know what Jesus will command. I don't know what that shout will be. I have a couple ideas. I can't be dogmatic about this. But I just wonder if when Jesus returns there is a different command heard by different groups of people as Jesus shouts those who are in the grave may well hear something like what Lazarus heard when He was in the grave. Lazarus come forth. Jesus said with a loud voice, John 11 says, Lazarus come forth. Is it possible that every believer who has died in Christ will hear their own name called as Jesus shouts come forth? Each person will hear their own name. I think that's possible. I can't say that dogmatically. The Bible doesn't tell us what this command is. But it is possible when you think about what happened at Lazarus grave side that maybe something like that will happen. What about those of us who are still alive when Jesus returns? Is it possible that we will hear something like the apostle John heard as he still alive on this earth worshipping the Lord on the Lord's day and he hears the Lord say come up here. Is it possible that we will hear something like that? I can't be dogmatic about that. But it's quite possible that this command, this shout will be a very individual thing. We will hear our own name and we will be called to be with the Lord Jesus. So there is a command, a loud command, a shout that takes place. Notice also with the voice of the archangel. What is it that the angel will say? Again, we are left without the answer to that. We don't know. But could this be some kind of shout of rejoicing and victory over the fact that Jesus is now instituting that last phase of human history when his victory over Satan and all of Satan's demons will finally become evident and will be played out on the scene of human history? Could that be it? Could that be what the angels are so excited about? The time has finally come. What we've been waiting for for the ultimate victory of our Lord Jesus on this earth. The first part of that is now happening. Yippee. I don't know if they'll say yippee or yay or what, but maybe they will shout a shout of victory over Satan and his demons. Don't forget a large part of what the angels, good angels are doing during this age of the church and even in the Old Testament. There's a lot of spiritual warfare going on between good angels and Satan's demons and quite possibly this is in their minds the beginning of the end of the battle and they're excited about that. Whatever the archangel, one of the chief angels will shout, will say something, exclaim something, the voice of the archangel and then notice the third attendant to the coming of Christ and that is with the trumpet call of God. The trumpet call of God. Is that a literal trumpet? Will it sound like a trumpet? Is it a call of God, his own voice speaking from heaven that sounds like a clear burst of a trumpet? It again is hard to tell, although Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that the rapture will occur in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump. I've explained before, I think this bears repeating that in the Bible a trumpet blast was always in the ancient world. It was quite often a means of calling an assembly, a means of calling people together, particularly in the first century in the Roman army. There would be a series of trumpet blasts that would signal what the army was supposed to do when they were ready to get moving and move to a new location. There would typically in the Roman army be three trumpet blasts. The first one meaning pull up your tent stakes, pack up, get ready. The second meaning fall in line, getting formation and the third and final trumpet blast would be move out. If you're out, your formation you're ready to march, let's go. And could it be that the last trump, Paul speaking to people who would be well aware, culturally of that kind of signaling system of the movement, the outgoing of a large group of people, could it be that Paul is saying, you know, this trumpet will be the last one. And the last one means it's time to move out. It's time to go. You need to be ready. You see, all of us have hopefully already heard that first trumpet blasts pull up your tent pegs from this world. You know, your home is not here. You've got to be ready to go anytime. Hopefully we've heard that second trumpet blasts to get information. Let's get our lives with other believers where we are serving and living together and encouraging one another and sharing our lives with one another and a part of the body of Christ serving him. And then there's going to come that last trumpet. And when that one sounds, we're out of here. We're marching out. Could that be what the last trumpet is quite possibly. I don't think it has anything to do with the trumpets of revelation. Those are trumpets that are given by angels. This is the trumpet that's given by God, different trumpet. The trumpets in revelation are angelic announced judgments upon the earth. This has nothing to do with that. And so I think this is probably culturally that last trump, which says, let's go. Let's move out. We're ready to go. Jesus comes. He himself will issue a loud command. The archangel will rejoice at the beginning of the great victory, which is now taking place. And that trump will sound, which will mean we are gone. I again want to make clear that what I believe Paul is speaking of here is what many theologians call the rapture. Taken actually from the Latin word found in verse 17 caught up, which means to be snatched away the Latin word rapio, the theological word rapture, to be caught up, to be snatched away. I think this is a different event than the second coming. The second coming is when Jesus comes all the way to the earth, first coming, he came all the way to the earth, right? Second coming will come all the way to the earth. This coming we meet him in the air. This is something a little different. At the second coming, Jesus comes with his saints to the earth, but here he's coming for his saints to take them up. It's a little different. At the second coming, Jesus comes all the way to the earth to set up his earthly kingdom. Revelation 19 makes that clear. That kingdom, Revelation 20 will last for a thousand years and then be delivered up to the father, 1 Corinthians 15, to extend on through eternity. But at the rapture, he's coming not to set up his kingdom, he's calling his bride home. John 14, he said, I will come and receive you unto myself, that where I am there you may be also. So that's different than the second coming. We who call ourselves dispensationalists and pre-tribulation rapturous, so that kind of terminology, we believe that the rapture could happen at any time, that what we're seeing here could happen at any moment. And that will be followed by a seven-year time on this earth of judgment called the tribulation time. The end of that seven-year time is when Jesus comes all the way to the earth to set up his kingdom. But Paul seems to be speaking of here is something that precedes that tribulation time on this earth where Jesus comes and calls his bride up. The return of Christ, that's the first event. Second event on that particular time will be the resurrection of the dead. Okay, the return of Christ for 16, the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command with the voice of the Archangel with the trumpet call of God. Now notice, here's second step. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Second thing that happens at the rapture, when Jesus comes, the dead in Christ will rise first. Now notice if you will, the dead who are raised, it's the dead in Christ. That is a familiar term of Paul to refer to everybody who has trusted the Lord Jesus Christ and is a part of the church, his body of believers, his bride. I do not believe this involves Old Testament saints, Isaiah 26, Zachariah 12 and 13 seem to indicate Daniel 12, 1 and 2 seem to indicate that the Old Testament saints will be resurrected at the second coming when the kingdom is inaugurated. This is the church. These are the dead in Christ. Those who are spoken of in Paul's epistles as being in Christ, in him, part of his body, part of his bride. And those who have died since the beginning of the church in the book of Acts will be resurrected. Unsaid people are not a part of this resurrection. That happens later at the Great White Throne Judgment, Revelation 21, after the thousand year rule of Christ. So unsafe people are not a part of this resurrection. This is specifically for those who have died in Christ in this church age. If you have a loved one who knows Jesus or one who was covered by the mercy of God as I believe all those before the age of understanding the gospel. If you have a loved one who is now with the Lord, then they are included in this group. The dead in Christ will rise first. Those are the dead who will be raised. But I want you to think for just a moment about the raising of those dead. What will that be like? We're not given much information here. But we know that what is being spoken of is that moment when Jesus appears their bodies which have fallen asleep are resting temporarily. Their bodies will be resurrected from the grave where their bodies have been laid. Now that is a glorious thought and there's a lot that goes into that which Paul doesn't describe here, but he does in other places. In 1 Corinthians 15 he talks about corruptible must put on in corruption. In other words a body that is decaying, he says also mortal must put on immortality. The body that is decaying, a body that is dying must be changed into a body that never decays and never dies. So it is a new body, a resurrection body. The body that comes forth out of the grave is not the same body that went into it in the sense that it is now a resurrected body. Now there are lots of questions we have about what our resurrected bodies will be like and what we will be like in that time when we are with the Lord in heaven. I would just encourage you maybe some time to read the book Heaven, just simply entitled Heaven by Randy Alcorn. He spends about 50 pages talking about the resurrection body. The body that is in heaven, the body that is in heaven, is in heaven. Both the temporary body that people have to see now even though their physical body is in the grave, there seems to be a temporary body. The saints in heaven now have robes. They seem to be able to express and live life there in some kind of temporary body. Now in the concept, we know that it will be like Jesus body, so we know that it will be recognizable. You will be recognizable for who you are, minus any flaws because it will be a perfect body. A lot of people try to figure out all the details of what that body will be like and Randy Alcorn is book does a lot of suggesting which is very interesting but there are lots of things we don't know. We know that it will be like Jesus body, it will be perfect. Some people think, well, since it is like Jesus body, it will be age 33. Maybe we don't know that for sure. We know that it will be a perfect body. There are lots of questions that we have about that body that we will have to wait and see. We know that when Jesus after his resurrection walked on this earth, he didn't float above the earth, he walked on this earth, he ate, he interacted with his disciples, they knew who he was. I think we will experience all of those kinds of things in our resurrection body. Many have questions about what about our loved ones, what we know them. What if they died very young? Will they be 30, 33? Will we know them? Obviously we will know our loved ones. Remember on the Mount of Transfiguration, the disciples saw two men that had come back with Jesus to appear on that mountain, Moses and Elijah. They had never seen them before, but they immediately knew who they were. We will even know people we have never known before. When you get to heaven, you will instantly recognize the Apostle Paul. You will instantly recognize Isaiah. You will know who John was. I love what Moody said when someone said to him, will we know our loved ones in heaven? And he said, what do you mean? You think we are going to be dumb or there than we are here? Of course we will know our loved ones in heaven. Many wonder that resurrection body, what about if you had a child who died? Will you see them at the age they died? I really don't know. I do know Randy Alcorn has a very interesting suggestion in his book that God redeems all the lost years and that we will actually be able to see them at the time they were when they died and watched them grow to that perfect state. I don't know if that's right or not. It's an interesting possibility. All I do know is that we will understand and know and recognize our loved ones. The resurrection body will be recognizable. I will look like I look now at least somewhat. It will be perfected, which leaves a lot of room for change as it does with you too. But we will recognize each other. We will know each other. The dead in Christ will rise first. The return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, then notice the third event, the rapture of the living. The dead are raised and the next thing that happens, and we are free-shraming this, all this happens. Paul says in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, the last trump, but we are free-shraming it now. The next thing that will happen is the rapture of the living. Notice for 17. After that, in the sequence here, after the dead in Christ will rise, after that we who are still alive and our left will be caught up together with them with those of our loved ones who have been resurrected, who are already dead, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we be with the Lord forever. Immediately after the resurrection of those who have died, the rapture of the living will occur. A couple of things occur to me about this description of the rapture. First of all, Paul describes it as imminent. In other words, it can happen at any moment. Notice how he describes it. He says, after that, we who are still alive and are left. Now, I don't want to press this too far, but the fact that Paul says, we who are still alive and are left leads me to believe that Paul expected that the rapture could have occurred at any moment and he might still be alive when that happened. All the apostles who speak of the coming of Christ speak of it in those terms. It could happen at any moment. By the way, there are no signs that need to take place in world history for the rapture to occur. All of the signs of the coming of Christ are signs of His second coming, Matthew 24 and 25, make that very clear. Jesus talks about the signs that must take place before His brilliant spectacular glorious coming where He establishes history, as His covenant people, and establishes His kingdom. That's the second coming. All of the signs that the Bible speaks of take place in the tribulation. So please don't become a newspaper prophet. Please don't try to take your newspaper and read into the headlines things that have to happen. They're happening. So that means Jesus is coming back soon. We don't have to have anything happen. Jesus could come back at any moment. We who are alive and remain. It's imminent. It could happen at any time. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15 that it will happen in a moment. In the twinkling of an eye at the last Trump, it will happen so quickly. There will not be any warning signs. There will be warning signs of the second coming, but not of the rapture. It could happen at any moment. We who are alive and remain still left. The second thing that he says about this rapture is that it will be sudden. We'll be caught up together with them in the clouds. I mentioned the word caught up earlier. The word literally means to be forcibly removed, to be snatched away. Now this is not Jesus coming slowly descending as he went up in Acts chapter 1. Again, that's the second coming. Acts chapter 1 when Jesus ascended slowly into heaven. The disciples have just asked about when will he show his kingdom? When will he establish his kingdom on this earth? Jesus says not for you to know the times of the seasons and then all of a sudden he starts going up. And they watch him as he's going up. The angel comes and says, the same Jesus shall come in like manner as you have seen him go up into heaven. In the context, talk about the second coming. That will be gradual. That will be slow. He will appear and come slowly, not at the rapture. It happens suddenly. We are snatched up, caught up quickly to meet him in the air as he comes. So we who are alive and remain will be caught up. It will be sudden. Nothing has to happen before that takes place. It happens very quickly. The rapture of the living. Okay, we have the return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, those who are in Christ, the rapture of the living, the fourth stage of the rapture is the reunion of believers. Notice it, verse 17, after that we who are still alive and left will be caught up. Notice this, together with them. Who is the them? Back to verse 16, the dead in Christ that have already risen first will be caught up together with them. There will be a reunion in the clouds. There are some who believe the clouds are not literally white puffy things in the sky, but maybe clouds of believers like Hebrews 11, the cloud of witnesses. The term is used that way sometimes in the New Testament. And it is possible, and by the way, there are a lot of people who say, you know, Jesus can't come today, the sky is clear. Oh, no, no, no, no, that's not the purpose of Scripture to indicate that it has to be a day when there are little puffy white things in the sky for Jesus to come back. The clouds may well be the cloud of believers, those who have just been resurrected, and we will join them. We will be with them. Think about that for a moment. We will be with them forever, forever. What a reunion. There is to look forward to. There are no real family reunions here on this earth. You know that? There are always missing members, aren't there? There are no real family reunions here. We make an attempt to understand what heaven will be like, but we haven't reached it yet. We haven't gotten there yet. No real family reunions here. The older I get, the more I look forward to this family reunion. I have grandparents there, have a father there. I really miss him. Really miss him. Can't wait to sit down and talk with him again. The longer I live, the more I recognize. There is more there than there is here. And what a wonderful day that will be when we are reunited with our loved ones. Remember, that was the whole reason Paul wrote this passage. We have had some loved ones die. We will never see them again. We don't understand how you talk about the coming of Christ. Are they going to miss out? The whole purpose Paul wrote this was to assure them, yes, you will see them again. You will be with them again. You will be caught up together with them. In the clouds, what a reunion that will be. And then the fifth step is the reward of his presence. Notice how quickly the theme changes. In verse 17, we will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with who? The Lord forever. Does that mean I am going to immediately forget about my loved ones? No, not at all. We have plenty of time for that. We have an eternity for fellowship with them. Does it mean I am not going to get to talk to Moses and Paul and people like that? No, we have plenty of time for that. Does it mean I won't get to sit down with Spurgeon and Moody and others and pick their brains about what happened here, their stories? No, we will have plenty of time for that. And that will be a wonderful part of heaven. Most of the songs about heaven talk about the golden streets and all the glories of the beauty of that place that we will enjoy. Is it mean we are not going to recognize any of that and who and I at that? No, we will. We will. There will be plenty of time for that. But what this means is that the focus of heaven is not on those things. The real beauty of heaven is not the golden streets and the real glory of heaven is not being with our families again, even though that is incredibly wonderful. And we will enjoy that more thoroughly than we can even imagine here. But the focal point of heaven is the one who made all that possible. The one who died for you and for me. So that we could be there. So that we could be complete again and never be separated from our loved ones again. The one who died for us to make that possible. We will fall at his feet and rejoice in his presence and we will forever be with him with Christ. That is the focus of heaven to be with the Lord Jesus. We have something to look forward to. And maybe this year, maybe this year, it will happen. Maybe this month, maybe this week, maybe today, it will happen. Now I know that there are many who say, well, it has been almost 2000 years since Paul wrote this. Was he deluded? Was he deceived? Was he mistaken? Obviously not. We believe that these men wrote the truth as God gave it to them. But centuries have come and gone. Kingdoms have arisen and fallen. Why was something that was so expected 2000 years ago? Why hasn't it happened? And why didn't it happen last year? Why didn't it happen 10 years ago? Are we deceived? Are we deluded? Peter helps us answer that when he says in 2 Peter chapter 3. Don't be concerned about the Lord's long suffering, his waiting. The Lord is patient and he's waiting for people, giving people more opportunity to receive him and become a part of his family. God has all this figured out in his own timetable that's certain and said in his mind to us. It looks like a long time. But in the verse right before that when Peter said a day is with the Lord like 1000 years. Thousand years is like a day. Heaven doesn't have the same time frame as we do. Heaven doesn't measure time. God doesn't measure time like we do. Not in heaven. And so he's waiting. Yes, he's waiting. It hasn't happened for 2000 years. But heaven doesn't concern itself with time. Heaven concerns itself with a long suffering patient loving God who's giving us more opportunity to become a part of his family before he comes back. The question is have you accepted that offer that long suffering patient loving offer of one who died for you and is extending the offer to you again today? Will you not become a part of my family? I'm delaying my coming. It is at a time known to me. But I'm giving you more opportunity and every day that passes I'm extending my offer once again in my long suffering and patience and love for you to be saved. What are you going to do with that today? What are you going to do with that? Today could be the day when Jesus comes back but today could also be the day when you get ready for him to come back. And I trust. I hope that if you're not ready, if you do not know Christ that you'll trust Him as your Savior today and be ready for Him to come back. Would you pray with me, please?