Pastor Wrinkle’s Corner: The End

Review:

1. Tell me what it mean in your own words to be born again

 

 

 

2.  Tell me why you would want to be baptized in the Holy Spirit

 

 

Tonight we are finishing up the Book of ___________________.

We are covering the __________________ part of the book or the part that has yet to happen.

In Your groups: Read Revelation 20:11- 22:21

Discuss what you think the end of time looks like. Who do you believe you will see there? Why?

 

 

 

Together:

In your small groups tonight you talked about the end of __________ and Heaven. Now we are going to talk about the judgment that leads up to the wonderful time in Heaven.

The judgment of Earth is yet to ______________ and we don;t really know when it will happen.

It takes seven years and is three ___________ of seven judgments.

It is all kicked off by the rapture of the church. Tell me in your own words what that is.

 

Then:

Seven seal judgments:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Seven Trumpet judgments:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Seven Bowl judgments:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

After this comes the ____________________ reign of Christ and then the Battle of ______________________ and then eternity.

This has been the story of God’s bargains with mankind.

Do you accept the bargain?

 

Psalm 36

Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.

Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O LORD, you preserve both man and beast. 

How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.

They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. Continue your love to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart.

Dear Readers, These were taken just after the string of thunderstorms that came through MA last week. How nature can bring such destruction and such beauty together I do not understand. It seems to be only another indicator of the “creation groaning in eager expectation for the revealing of the sons of God.”

 

Joseph Elon Lillie VI

My son has been writing poetry for a while and I really like some of his work. I asked him if he would let me use some of his material. Here is a recent poem of his.

A Poem on Optimism (in progress)

by Joe Lillie on Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at 8:26pm

 

 I see her standing there

I see a barren and lifeless tree 

Her locks fallen to the ground, still I do not frown

I see her as she used to be, and once again will be

A life producing tree

I see a cup unfilled a few drops may remain

But that amount of water will not quench thirst

I see the cup as she is, with the water she will contain

The water she shall hold will sustain

When I see myself as a man tired and without strength

I realize I have not lost my hope

With Christ I can do all things

Even with gravest fears, and loss I can cope

_____________________________________________

Remember optimism is not seeing a glass half filled to the brim as being half full, rather it is seeing the empty glass as being filled with potential.

_______________________________________________

Joseph Elon Lillie VI

Pastor Wrinkles Corner: To Be Caught Up

Let’s Review:

1. What does it mean when I say Jesus is Savior?

2. What does it mean when I say Jesus is Healer?

3. What does it mean when I say Jesus is the baptizer?

4. What does it mean when I say Jesus is the soon and coming king?

Tonight we are going to talk about _____________ more of Paul’s letters 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. These were letters written to the church in the Greek city of __________________.

In Your groups:

1. Paul said other churches talked about the Thessalonians in this way “They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.” 1 Thess. 1,9,10

What’s and idol? Why did the Thessalonians need to turn from them in order to get to God? Do we have idols today?

2.  1st Thessalonians 2: 19 says, “For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you?”

Paul also writes in 1st Thess. 3: 13 “May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.”

What coming of Jesus do you think Paul is talking about in these verses? What do you think that is going to look like?

Now Come together

Tonight we are speaking about the ______________ coming of Christ which the Bible speaks about in many places. Every ______________  but the very last in Thessalonians has a reference to this time in history.

You have already read three of them. Let’s look at the others.

“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, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” I Thess. 4:16,17

“for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.” I Thess. 5:2,3

 

“God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.” 2 Thess. 1: 6,7

“Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness [fn] is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.” 2 Thess 2:1-3

The church has given many names to the events described in these chapters: The _______________, the ______________ coming, the tribulation, the _____________ of the Lord.

These chapters do not refer to one event but a _____________ in history which is yet to happen. You see the verses we just read are about the _____________ of the world as we know it.

Do you think the world will come to an end?

How do you think it will happen?

The Bible says that first there will be removal from the ___________ of all God’s faithful ______________. This is called the Rapture of the church. see I Thess. 4

Then there will be a _______________ in which an evil _____________ will take over the earth and deceive the ______________. See 2 Thess. 2:1-3

Then Jesus will return to _______________ with all his _____________.

We will learn more about the second _____________ when we study _______________. For now we see that when Jesus _____________ he will judge the wicked with ____________.

To escape this judgment you must be part of the ______________. How do you make sure you are part of the rapture?

Let’s go back to question 1 you answered in your groups and look at that.

You must turn from your idols and turn to Jesus! What are your idols?

 

Passion: “The Whole World”

     The day after the fateful anointing at Bethany, Jesus proceeded up to Jerusalem. The Book of John tells us, “A huge crowd of Passover visitors took palm branches and went down the road to meet him. They shouted, “Praise God! Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hail to the King of Israel! Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, fulfilling the prophecy that said:’ Don’t be afraid, people of Israel. Look, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt’.”  John 12: 12-15 NLT

     The Bible says that the disciples didn’t realize at the time that they were even a part of prophetic fulfillment. It’s interesting to note that these men who had proclaimed Jesus Messiah did not realize that the Messiah would be hailed in Jerusalem while riding on a donkey’s colt.  So as they collected the donkey for their master no one put that strange set of circumstances together with the prophecy from Zechariah 9:9.

     Stranger still was the reaction of the Pharisees upon seeing Jesus ride into town.

“Then the Pharisees said to each other, ‘We’ve lost. Look, the whole world has gone after him’!” John 12:19 NLT

     Now there is a prophetic statement if I have ever heard one. They knew they had lost they even spoke the truth out loud. Yet they insisted on continuing to try to rid themselves of Jesus!

     It’s amazing how blind they were to the atmosphere of promise that swirled around them in ever-increasing thickness. It makes me wonder how blind we are to our own atmospheres of prophecy and promise. What are we missing as we live out our lives before Jesus?

     I look to the East and wonder how anyone can mistake the signs of the times. Jesus came into Jerusalem then as king and he is coming again! While the “whole world” did not really go after him then, next time ” every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil. 2:10,11 NLT

Let’s not miss this Once and Future King!

Like Men Of Issachar

    Well this has certainly been a long study. It has taken me far longer than I expected to complete this work. As I look at it I am stunned not by how much I have covered but by how much I have missed.

     The prophets are so expansive. They have  much to say regarding the days in which we live, much to say about the lives we lead and take for granted.

     To boil it down into a few sentences I have learned:

1. We are a people facing judgment.

2. Even the godly will be affected by judgment when their nations come under the hand of God’s fury.

3. That God works all things together for good when Christians trust Him.

4. Many Christians will fall away in the days ahead.

5. That trials have the potential to draw us closer to the Lord.

6. That the future of the sinner is fearful.

7. That the future of the Christian is beyond glorious!

    Much has change in my life since I began this study. I can say the judgment of God has begun to lap the shores of my personal island. Yet as I walk forward haltingly into the future God has prepared I am not dismayed. I am hopeful.

     “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” 2 Tim 1:12 KJV

      What have you committed into the hands of God?

       Where will you stand in the judgment to come?

Malachi: The Healing Wing

“But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings.  And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.” Mal 4:2

       The couple had come to me for gas money to get out-of-town. She was a widow and a member of our church. He was a wolf who had ruined her life and tempted this sister in the Lord  into a life of sin. Now he had convinced  her to spend her every last dime to rent a Uhaul to get them out-of-town to go who knows where.

     “I won’t help you.” I told them.

      “But I will help you sister. Say the word and I will have this man removed from the building. We will help you. Please don’t go with him.” I begged.

      “I love him.” She explained. “And I still love the Lord too. Pastor I can do both. Please help us to live our dream.”

      In the end she left with him. I heard several months later from her sister that she had died, away from family and friends alone and penniless.

     “What happened to this woman?” Many asked.

     On the outside she certainly exuded a love for the Lord. How could such a love be turned to sin so quickly?

      I have to tell you that while love for God will drive you to God, only the fear of God will drive you away from sin.  Proverbs 16:6 says, “Unfailing love and faithfulness cover sin; evil is avoided by fear of the LORD.” (NLT)

      I also want to point out that many of the promises in the Word are for those who “fear the Lord” not for those who “love the Lord”.

    I am working on my fear of the Lord. I know I love Jesus but I have questioned in my own heart do I reverence Him enough? I don’t think I do. I know I am part of a culture that does not. I am realizing I am still pretty attached to that culture.

      But I want to bask in the light of the Sun of Righteousness. I want to receive the healing that is in His wings. I long to reverence His greatness. To love what He loves and hate what He hates is my desire.

     Oh that His mercy would transform me to fear His name more, that I may be one of those freed in the promises of eternity!

     How do you practice the fear of the Lord?

           

Malachi: The Distinction

     Our community college just put in two wind turbines to generate electricity for the city. The mammoth constructions break Gardner’s skyline like giant steel dandelions gone to seed. Really they remind me of the enemy spaceships from War Of the Worlds .

     As the snow melts under the influence of the cold New England wind, many of these early spring days have been shrouded in thick fog that has the power to hide even these colossal  objects when they are right in front of us.

     It came to me as I was taking this picture that the wickedness of our present age is just like the icy Massachusetts fog.

     A friend of mine was recently defrauded of several hundred dollars by a person she trusted. My friend is now having trouble seeing God in the midst of this situation.

     Her words to me echoed the biblical writer Jeremiah.

     She asked me, “Why do wicked people get blessed, while people who serve God seem to always get the short end of the stick? It makes serving God seem pointless!”

     The prophet Malachi gives her this answer,

     “Then those who feared the LORD spoke with each other, and the LORD listened to what they said. In his presence, a scroll of remembrance was written to record the names of those who feared him and loved to think about him. “They will be my people,” says the LORD Almighty. “On the day when I act, they will be my own special treasure. I will spare them as a father spares an obedient and dutiful child. Then you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.” Mal. 3: 16-18 NLT

       In these last days the fog of wickedness is growing increasingly thick. Jesus said that these days were like the days of Noah. The wickedness that brought judgment then is about to bring it again.

    Our hope as Christians can never be for a fair shake in this world. We won’t get that. If that makes you mad talk to Bonhoeffer, Tenboom, or Mother Theresa. Christianity isn’t about our rights here; It’s about our reward THERE!

    The fog wickedness creates comes from that part of us that is still tied lovingly to this earth. We think that because people doing wrong in the world get blessed in the world that makes them the most blessed. We think that because people living for God in the world get kicked by the world that makes them the most cursed.

      We are failing to take into consideration the fact that the world is fallen into sin. It can never do anything but elevate wickedness and persecute righteousness. That failure to truly understand the nature of things creates a fog.

    We also forget that blessing in this world is as transitory as that morning mist that blocks our view on the way to work. Trapped in these “jars of clay” we call our bodies we think of 70 or 80 years as a long time. We long for that much blessing and begrudge the wicked who seem to “have it all” for their 70 or 80 year sojourn on the planet. The truth is 70 or 80 years is a blip and the wicked had better enjoy it because it’s all they get. Me I may struggle for  that same 70 or 80 years to serve God (and let’s be real most of us don’t struggle the entire time) but then I will enter into 70x70x70x80x80x80 years of blessing the wicked will know nothing of.

     We have to be very clear brothers and sisters in our minds about the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, so that we will not be pulled into ruin by the fog that is blinding so many.    How has the fog threatened to obscure God in your life?

Haggai: The Big God of Little Things

      “On October 17  of that same year, the LORD sent another message through the prophet Haggai. “Say this to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Jeshua  son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of God’s people there in the land: Is there anyone who can remember this house–the Temple–as it was before? In comparison, how does it look to you now? It must seem like nothing at all!” Haggai 2:2,3 NLT

      It is true, Christian; We serve the God who pasted the stars into Heaven; We serve the God who built the storehouses of the snow (let’s just say it He came up with snow); We serve the God who destroyed the world by flood and who parted the Red Sea; He is the God who caused the sun to stand still for a day and who caused the sun to go backwards; He is the God who killed all the first-born of Egypt and the God who raised His own Son from the dead.

     He is the God of all these tremendous acts and more. Why is it, then, that to us at moments He seems so amazingly underwhelming?

    I think I just heard a lot of hands slapping over open mouths. Some of you just said “I can’t believe He said that.”

     I’m just being real here. God is just not that awesome to most people. We know the stories. We believe them. Still, as C.S. Lewis said, most of us live our lives as practical atheists.

     It’s not that we don’t want to believe. It’s just that out believing God is really restricted by our ability to see what He is doing.

     God understood this about the Israelites. He knew what the new temple built under Zerubbabel would elicit as a reaction:

     “Really!? That’s it? I thought it’d be bigger.”

     “That’s the best we could do? Maybe I should worship Zeus His temple’s huge!”

    ” Last time I donate to a building project here.”

    How things looked greatly affected the Israelites faith and to them things looked…little. Some of them, like some us, suffered with the mindset “little temple little God”.

     That mindset is wrong!

     The truth is God is the big God of little things. He chooses at times to use things that are  weak, broken, little,  old, and poor. He proves Himself to be the God of great miracles precisely because the vessels He chooses to flow through are so utterly useless, helpless, and itty-bitty.

     As men and women of faith we have to stop relying on our human sight for understanding. We have to begin acknowledging that when things start looking smallish, when the battle seems to be going against us that is precisely when God is working.

     The Father gave the Israelites a little divine encouragement concerning their little temple in Jerusalem.

      “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD Almighty. The future glory of this Temple will be greater than its past glory, says the LORD Almighty. And in this place I will bring peace. I, the LORD Almighty, have spoken!” Haggai 2: 8,9 NLT

     I want to tell you Christian, if your dealing with a situation right now that seems a little less than what you had hoped, just know God is working. The future glory will be greater than you could imagine. You serve the big God of little things. Receive the little now and let Him make it much in His time.

    What investment in His kingdom are you waiting to see a return on?

Haggai: Head For the Hills

     In 538 B.C. Cyrus of Persia released the Israelites from their captivity in Babylon and commissioned them to rebuild Jerusalem and its temple in honor of the God of Heaven.

     Twenty years later the job still wasn’t done. The people had run into some roadblocks along the way; So  shortly after the foundation of the temple was laid they gave up and turned to building their own houses.

     Reasons abounded for the work stoppage: Civil unrest, oncoming winter, discouragement over the floor plan of the new temple, oh yeah and a direct order from the new emperor to cease and desist with the building.

     If you or I had been on the Temple Planning Commission no doubt our vote would have indefinitely tabled the work order too. We would have gone off with our brothers and built our houses, planted our gardens, and planned to live off the fat of the land.

      The only problem was God did not vote for a work stoppage. He waited for twenty years hoping the other fellows on the board would come around to his way of thinking. But failing that, the good Lord sent another prophet.

     Haggai walked onto the Jerusalem landscape in the second year of King Darius the Mede’s reign. His first words to Governor Zerubbabel came out something like this, “This is what the LORD Almighty says: The people are saying, `The time has not yet come to rebuild the LORD’s house–the Temple.’ ” So the LORD sent this message through the prophet Haggai: “Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins? This is what the LORD Almighty says: Consider how things are going for you! You have planted much but harvested little. You have food to eat, but not enough to fill you up. You have wine to drink, but not enough to satisfy your thirst. You have clothing to wear, but not enough to keep you warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes! “This is what the LORD Almighty says: Consider how things are going for you! Now go up into the hills, bring down timber, and rebuild my house. Then I will take pleasure in it and be honored, says the LORD.” Haggai 1: 2-8 NLT

     I am not sure but I think God probably arranged for the Temple Planning Commission to be at the scene of this prophetic utterance. Can’t you here it now?

     “But Lord the civil unrest it caused…”

      “There was so much disagreement over the plan!”

      “But God we have an order from the top…”

      No money, no time, no wood… I am sure the list went on and on. They had their list of why nots and we have ours. To both sets of lists God says “Head into the hills to get what you need.”

     The Psalmist writes to us ” I lift up my eyes to the hills– where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:1,2

      When you can’t figure it out down here on Earth look up. God always has a solution.
      Haggai told the Israelites that’s what they should have done in the first place. It could have saved them twenty years.

     I don’t know about you but I don’t have another twenty years to lose. I’m headin’ for the hills of Jesus as we speak to find my answers.

     What thing has God told you to do that seems impossible?