Today’s message summary of April 12, 2015 from Pastor Gus Brown:
Scripture provides us with guidance as to how to prepare for the End Times. The day is coming, and it is up to us to open our eyes and believe that it will occur.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-6
About the times and the seasons: Brothers, you do not need anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the Day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. When they say, “Peace and security,” then sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains come on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers, are not in the dark, for this day to overtake you like a thief. For you are all sons of light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or the darkness. So then, we must not sleep, like the rest, but we must stay awake and be serious.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
In this world, we are searching for peace; yet, there is no real peace. Many people stir up trouble and difficulty. This lack of peace first began with John the Baptist giving an indication of the need for the coming of the Lord, who would be our true peace.
Today, people are looking for peace, but the stage has been set for what we are experiencing today with a breakdown of the moral fiber of our society. Where there is no morality, the emergence of the Antichrist will be a mere formality. He will proclaim to bring peace to the world, but He will merely promote himself and oppose everything that Christ stands for. There have been subtle changes over time that Satan has orchestrated.
God knows the time and the date as to when the End Times will occur. What is important to know is that Jesus IS coming again for His church. As believers, we should living for that day and that time. It is to be a way of life for every believer in Jesus Christ each day.
God does not want us to be sitting and waiting for His return–He wants us to be busy in the world doing what He has called us to do. He wants us to be a witness for Him before others.
With this knowledge, are you as busy for the Lord as you possibly can be?
We are to remain alert to the times that we live in, and we are to maintain self-control. The Holy Spirit will provide to us what we need.
1 Thessalonians 5:9-10
For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake our asleep, we will live together with Him.
This does not mean that there will not be suffering during the End Times, but it does mean that God will remain present before those who experience the end times and protect believers in Him for all of eternity.
Scripture tells is that the Antichrist is active; in fact, many antichrists have come.
1 John 2:18-19
Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard, “Antichrist is coming,” even now many antichrists have come. We know from this that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.
1 John 2:21-22
But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge. I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar, if not the one who denies that Jesus is the Messiah? This one is the antichrist: the one who denies the Father and the Son.
1 John 4:3
But every spirit who does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist; you have heard that he is coming, and he is already in the world now.
The main work of all of the antichrist is to deny Jesus. His main weapon is to deceive people and to make people believe lies (see Genesis 3; John 8:44).
2 John 1:7
Many deceivers have gone out into the world; they do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
1 John 5:19
We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.
Revelation 12:9
So the great dragon was thrown out–the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world. He was thrown to earth, and his angels with him.
Satan has set up many to be deceived–your sin and your transgressions will follow you, even though he will tell you that you can get away with them. If he is successful, he will keep you from a healthy, vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ.
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