First Thessalonians, 4:16-18

So I was out of town for three weeks, or three Sundays on travel. I had to listen to the recordings. But when I listened to the recording from last week, we left off, Roger left you the cliffhanger ending. It was just like, oh man! And he had to stop so you couldn't see what was going on with 16 through 18.

But he had actually suggested that everybody think of questions about sleeping in the Lord or being dead in the body but alive in Christ. So I wanted to, before we dug in this morning, open up the floor if anybody had thought of other questions and we'll look at that or think about that. And I'll direct all the questions to Roger. We'll do whatever we need to. But if anybody does have questions on that, I thought we might as well address those first. Unless, of course, nobody has any, in which case they will just get right on in.

And I'll take that as a no. This morning's passage is First Thessalonians 4, 16 through 18. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. And verse 18 is clipped off here because that's the way my morning's going. Therefore comfort one another with these words. Apologies that your handout is missing a verse there.

I want to take a quick look this morning. We're going to look at the practical chronology of the passage. He says to encourage one another with these things. I want to actually first take a look at the concept of encouraging one another with these things. Or comfort one another with these things. We have hope in the return of the Lord. And we've talked about this a little bit in some past classes.

The big thrust of this comforting one another is that we are, as believers, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, at least I shouldn't be a surprise to anybody, and as a believer indwelt by the Holy Spirit, you are going to be able to come along another believer indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is going to use you as an agent to come alongside and comfort somebody. You're going to be able to offer hope.

There are other passages in scripture where he says, weep with those who weep, and rejoice with those who rejoice. When you rejoice with somebody who's rejoicing, you can still rejoice in the hope of the Lord's return, but when somebody is suffering or having a tough time, which has never happened to Ollie Hills, but when you meet people from other churches, you can offer them hope. I'm sorry, I should be too sarcastic in my humor. When you meet other people who are suffering or dealing with the roughness of life, you have hope in the return of the Lord.

Verse 16 talks about the descent of Christ, and with that comes along some trumpets and archangels and a big shout. And then the dead in Christ will rise and that's those who were asleep. Everybody remembers that from last week when Roger was talking about those who were asleep.

And then followed by that a split second later. I want to go with a split second. Last weekend I was at a horse race and they had those photo finishes. You know it's like oh man the dead will rise first and it's that is the nose. I think the horses are trained to flare their nostrils. It's close. So I apologize. But the dead in Christ will rise and then in verse 17 those alive in Christ will rise to join him. So I wanted to tell you that we're going to go out of order that way you'd be prepared for out of order.

Therefore comfort one another with these words The first thing is that in verse 18 there's an attitude of service. When you comfort somebody with these words, there should be an attitude of service. What's the opposite of an attitude of service when you're trying to comfort somebody with these words and you're really not comforting? I'd rather be doing something else than this. Well, you may be saying that. could be gloating. There's any number of attitudes that are not an attitude of service and an attitude of graciousness and love so that when you come alongside it's a stick in the eye.

This morning I was trying to help Jessica and because of my voice I sounded more frustrated than I was. I wasn't frustrated at all. I was hoarse and I'm like, what? And she's like, what's the deal? I'm like, I'm six, sweetheart. I'm not trying to be a jerk, I promise.

But an attitude of service is going to come out, it's going to be seen, because everything else, when you're coming along to encourage, it's a kick in the shin, a stick in the eye, any number of descriptive words that are uncomfortable. I have been on the receiving end of many a correction, and I've been on the receiving end of very few comforting words. But when somebody does comfort me, I know it. When something tough is happening and somebody comes alongside and offers hope and encouragement, you know it.

You feel it. It's different. It's love. It's the work of the Holy Spirit. I cry sometimes. I do sometimes. I'll own up to that right off. I'm a pansy, I know. That's what you're saying. Well, that's what I do. And I feel like it's inappropriate, but it just happens. I think crying is an appropriate response. Yeah, Christ wept. He was the perfect man, so I say if Christ can cry, I can do it too.

But an attitude of service, along with that, you're being gracious, you're being loving, and that is radical difference from somebody who comes along and it's it's that warm embrace it's that friendly soft-spoken word of hey you know you're suffering you could I could not finish this sentence because the Lord's gonna return you know or whatever it is and and the suffering will be gone the other thing the word comfort there me in the Greek means to come alongside okay It's a gentle, gracious coming alongside instead of just a face-to-face whack over the head. The comforting is for the building up of the body. When you comfort up, it may be individual one-on-one, but it's for the building up of the body. So the impact that you have on one other person may impact the entire body of Christ. And as the entire body of Christ operates, we're gonna see if we're all growing together we're gonna identify, hey you know Brad's dealing with something.

I don't know what it is. Let's come up with a... Brad, what's a fake ailment you have that we can comfort you for? Because you're a creative guy. On the spot, just like that. He's having trouble at work. All right. See? Because I don't know of any actual problems that Brad's having because I don't know him well enough, apparently. But no, I could pick on Brad because he's a co-teacher. He signed up for this. Brian, what are you?

I'm just thinking about that. I forget what kind of commercial it is, but somebody sees somebody else doing something good for somebody. Oh, yeah, it's an insurance commercial. Yeah, and everybody's helping everybody. And really, The point of the commercial is that's abnormal. Especially if people don't have the Holy Spirit, that's really abnormal. And so, yeah, it's that same thing.

If I see Brad needs help, you know, and he's having trouble at work, somebody may say, hey, there's this job opportunity I found out. Somebody may say, hey, you know, here's an opportunity to grow with and learn from it. And sooner or later, Brad's got a line of people and he's like, man, you know, April needs to get home, Peter. But I'll see you next week.

You know, call me on the phone, send me an email. But we can help one another and we encourage one another in the body. So it helps across the body. And lastly, these words that we're comforting one another with, the whole concept of the return of the Lord, are focused on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's kind of hard to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ and not be encouraged.

When was the last time you thought about the wonderfulness of your salvation? I thought, man, that's lame. If you did, let me know because we probably need to talk about the gospel message again. But it's important to identify and recognize the value that's there. And then lastly, we're rejoicing in being the bride. Would somebody mind reading Revelation 19, 7 through 9? Out loud. That's what I meant. I was reading it out loud.

Blessed are they who are called into the marriage supper of the Lamb, and He says unto me, These are the true sayings of God. Alright. So, here you are being called up to be the Bride of Christ. How does it describe the Bride of Christ? Ready. Ready. Radiant. Beautiful.

That's pretty impressive in contrast to sometimes, often the way we're feeling when we need that encouragement. Hey, this is your destiny. This is where you've been predestined by God to be as the Bride of Christ. He did the whole job, yeah. He's made you bright and clean and radiant and beautiful because we look at ourselves and we don't, you know, in and of ourselves, we see the old man most of the time. We think, wow, you know, and we have to, you know, that's why the Lord gives us his word to remind us of who we are and what he's done for us, so it's neat. So going over this in here, it's obvious that you need to come alongside gently with an attitude of gracious love and service and rejoice with somebody and offer them encouragement and hope. Often that means looking back in your own life and seeing areas where you have suffered a similar scenario and saying, you know what, I have hurt too.

It may not be in the same way and that's okay. I've heard too. Let me encourage you. Let's both set our minds on things above. All right. Another element of this, and Roger touched on this last week, but I wanted to make sure that it was absolutely clear, is the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ. The return of the Lord will come at an unknown time. Okay? We don't know what it is.

In First Thessalonians 5.3, he describes it as a thief in the night. And that is the only time you're going to hear Christ referred to in a somewhat negative light. But the concept with the thief in the night is simply that the thief doesn't call and schedule a time.

Hey, I'm going to be in your neighborhood. About 8.30 I'm thinking, would you be downstairs watching TV and I'm going to go through your jewelry drawer, okay? Is that going to work for you? No? How about 9.30?

I can wait an hour. The return of the Lord is going to be a surprise, but it's imminent. Until we are joined with Him, in which case it will be past tense and it won't be imminent anymore. While we're here on this earth, it is imminent. It's any second. I pray that I don't get to finish this lesson because the Lord comes.

That would be okay with me. You guys would be like... His voice sounds nasty this morning. He's sick anyways. Yeah, the rapture. Yeah, that'd be good. And he's like, and he sings and it's in tune. It's a beautiful thing. Yeah, we'll all be okay. I know. We'll all be looking at the Lord and going, man...

We were noticing on the way here this morning the snowflakes landing on the window. And I was at red light so I could stop and look at it. And it was just beautiful, these little tiny shapes that are there. And I was thinking, that is going to be nothing in comparison to the glory and the beauty of our Lord. We're going to get to see Him, and it's imminent. I could be in the middle of looking at a snowflake and not get to finish. And it's important that we understand the sense of immediacy.

Does it affect your future plans? When you make plans, does it even show up on the radar? A lot of cell phones today have little calendars in it, and you can keep that. And you've got on your computer, you've got a calendar. And you might have a paper calendar. And you've got calendars everywhere.

And you make plans. I don't make plans. People say, hey, do you have time? I say, I'm going to talk to my wife. But if you make plans, you've got a calendar. It's on the radar. But the immediate return of the Lord is usually not part of my thought process. And I was thinking about that. I'm like, you know what? I'm going to make plans. But my hope isn't in those plans.

My hope, you know, great, I've got this next thing. It's exciting. It's going to happen. And the Lord will come, and that's way more exciting. But the imminent return should affect that. The other thing is that as we're waiting the immediate return of the Lord or the imminent return of the Lord, that's an opportunity to behold the Lord.

Could somebody please read 1 Corinthians 3.18 out loud again?

Let no one deceive himself, but anyone among you who seems to be wise at this age, let him become a fool, Is that 1st Corinthians 3.18?

Did I mean 2nd Corinthians 3.18? Oh, I missed an I. Let's try reading the right verse. I apologize. April, would you mind doing that again?

Only we use the right scripture address. This is why there's grace. that we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. So while we are waiting for the imminent return of the Lord, we are being transformed from glory to glory into the image of Christ. And then, when we are raptured away, or taken up if we happen to go to sleep in the Lord, then we're going to be fully and completely transformed in the image of Christ as his bride.

And that's pretty cool too. So even while we wait, we have that opportunity. Oh, that's the up-volume button. That's not the same. Alright, the descent of the Lord. Verse 16 talks about the descent of the Lord. He's going to come with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. Okay? All appear to be simultaneous and powerful. Okay?

It doesn't sound like he's going to be rotating that. I don't know if you've ever heard those cars go down the road and they've got like three horns and they go off. Usually it plays like La Cucaracha or something. Which is horrible. That is not an edifying song.

But the Lord is going to return with a shout. Now what's he shouting for? Yeah! Hey, that's my bride! That's an exciting thing. Can you imagine with me, if you will, for a moment, being Isaac. Isaac comes out, and he's coming out in the evening, and he looks out in the horizon, and there are some camels coming. And on the camels, he can identify the silhouette of a female. And he has been waiting for this mysterious bride. this bride that he has been waiting for and he's trusted his father for and his father sent a servant to gather the bride and suddenly she dismounts the camel and starts running across the field. Do you think that maybe Isaac shouted a little bit? They're here, they're here maybe or Well, I hope she looks good. Whatever Isaac said, I'm thinking Christ knows that we look good because he purified us and made us a perfect bride. But this shouting is not a big surprise.

Okay, when you're coming to get your bride, that's pretty exciting. I remember waiting for my bride and it was like the longest wait that I've ever experienced. I think the longest wait Jessica experienced was having babies, but for me it was waiting for her. And it was just, you know, finally she came in and I just remember thinking, oh man, you know, and I wanted to shout, but I thought that'd be inappropriate in the situation.

But the descent of the Lord is going to come with a shout. He's going to say, I'm here. We're going to know it. And in case you missed his shouting or the shouting in return of the Lord, there's going to be the voice of an archangel. We don't have any decibel readings on that, but I'm pretty sure it would break most of the equipment in the sound room. So when the voice of the Archangel comes to let us know that the Lord is here for us, it's enough to wake the dead. You're going to be awake from your rest if you're dead, and if you're alive, you'll hear it.

And then it's also with the trumpet of God. That's pretty powerful too, the God's trumpet. If anybody has ever made a perfect trumpet, it's God. And it's going to sound the horn to let us know that our groom is here and he's ready for us. The last thing I've got here is envision workers in a field who hear the trumpets of war and are drawn back in. Okay, you're going to respond immediately. In this case, when that trumpet is called, you're like, wow, I'm out in the fields. If there's enemies coming, I'm probably the first target. Because I'm either going to be a hostage or dead meat to let them know that they can win. So in this case, the descendant of the Lord is coming and it's going to be really noticeable.

You're not going to miss it. I always used to joke that if I couldn't find somebody, that maybe the rapture happened and I missed it. But the truth of the matter is that you're not going to miss it. You might be late if you're alive. You'll be seconds later than the sleeping people. And in fact, that's the next point there.

The dead in Christ will rise first. Is there any indication in scripture of a clue here? It doesn't say explicitly, but I'm pretty sure it's believers. The reason I think it's only believers is simply because there's no indication that the lost are going to have a really good clue of what's happening.

My sheep hear my voice. My sheep hear my voice? That's a good one. I should have thought of that first. But yeah, my sheep are my voice, that's good. So that's why Brian came today. The Lord sovereignly knew that Brian needed to contribute many things this morning. But yeah, the idea is that if everybody could hear it, then that might be some kind of clue to some kind of higher being from a pagan perspective.

And instead everybody disappears and they're just going to be disoriented. And I don't want to draw too much of my theology from the Left Behind series, so I'll stop there. I'm just kidding. The dead in Christ, those who are asleep, those who died as believers, also called asleep in verse 14. Remember, as Roger said, death is indicating separation from the body, not from God. When they die in Christ, they will be with Christ. They will be with God, even though they're not physically with him.

There's a whole bunch of theories as to how that works, but we're not going there today. If you want to explore that, you can, and then you can ask the elders all kinds of questions. But there's controversy with very little actual scripture indicating what happens while you're asleep in Christ, as long as you're with Christ in this passage, or in the upcoming passages. We're not going to worry with where you are. I'm pretty sure it's not Nebraska. There's not much in Montana, I hear, so maybe that's where they go.

The dead in Christ will be separated from the body, but not from God. You can call me Brian. I've been called worse by far. Yeah, Roger. I was just thinking that in the other passage it says we're absent from the body, present with the Lord. So wherever we are, we're with Him. So wherever He is, we are. Absolutely, yeah. And that's the point. Keep in mind, it's not like He's stashed in some place. We're with Him. We're with Him. But yeah, there's lots of theories as to what's going on there. But we're not exploring those because we have better things to do with our time.

The dead will be resurrected first, okay? That's obviously the point of this passage, or this verse here. When Paul is offering that up there, not only in verse 14 and 15 when Roger was talking last week, was it a big deal that, okay, what are happening to these people that are dying, that are believers, because they were expecting the return of the Lord before anybody died. And the Lord had a bigger number of believers in mind so he delayed and so they were worried about that and he says listen the dead are going to be risen first so they will be resurrected they will be risen And they're going to beat you.

So you don't have to be worried. You can be a little jealous. In a good way. It'll be holy and righteous jealousy. But we have this anticipation. And if we don't make it, we know that we get to beat everybody else. And that's all right. I don't think that it's going to be a take a number system though. So I think we'll be all right. I know. The seconds of a stopwatch don't really matter when they don't count. Yeah, it may not be that long. It's like when I play basketball, the points don't count, because it's pretty embarrassing.

No, it's when we see people rising from the dead, because we will be able to see. then we know our turn is coming really soon. Yeah, if we hear the shout in the trumpet, we may not, we'll be distracted. We'll see, oh, there's, oh, Jesus. And we're not gonna be worried about what time it is. Yeah, so it won't be a major priority. Moving on to the next slide here. It says we'll be caught up together. The clouds will be our destination. All right. These clouds will not be visible by Google Earth, so don't look for them ahead of time, okay? It's just, you're not going to find it. But we're going to meet the Lord in the clouds. There will be crowds in the clouds. I'm going to ask Dr. Seuss. The Lord's destination that will be earthly isn't until Revelation 24 says it's going to be on earth for a thousand years. But that's not what he's coming for. So his destination isn't some place here on the earth.

If he decides to do it in Nebraska, that's okay. That's why there's grace. God loves Nebraska too. He says, listen, it's like the... I'm sorry, is anybody from Nebraska here? I'm just kidding. I've always joked that if God had a ministry for me in Nebraska, he's going to have to provide a whale and a big fish and swallow me and take me there.

I hear there's a lot of corn there and I'm desperately allergic to corn. So, anyways, we're going to meet him in the clouds. Now, when you look at the clouds, again, this morning we had clouds in the sky, we've had snow. Do you look at the clouds and think anticipation? You know, my in-laws live in Washington State, where they have clouds all the time. And let me tell you, there's not anticipation for the clouds in Washington State. There's anticipation for the sunshine. But if you start to think of the clouds as an opportunity for your redeemer, your savior, and your bridegroom to come collect you, the clouds get a little bit more exciting.

Jack, as a pilot, did you look at the clouds with anticipation? He's smiling, I think the answer's no. He's thinking turbulence. It depends on where the cloud is. Yeah, it depends on which one it is. If it's right in front of you. That's one of my favorite far sides. What is a mountain goat doing in the clouds?

Can I tell an old joke? You can tell an old joke. It'll be new to my ears. There's this old grizzled captain and he's got a brand new co-pilot and they're flying into this Nebraska thunderstorm. and says, are you going to circumnavigate that cloud? And he says, heck no, I'm going around it. Well, that has a church joke there. Wow. See, there's a reference to Abraham. Wow. I didn't see that coming.

So the Lord's going to reign for a millennium in Revelation 24. It tells us that, but that's not why he's coming down the first time, or the second time. It's to greet his bride and collect his bride. And so when you look at the clouds next time, have a little encouragement and enjoyment in that, even if you feel like it's been raining for a while. Because those clouds may be your home, or your temporary home, a stepping stone on the way to your eternal home.

Okay, not a stone. That's a really bad word to describe clouds. When we were in college, many, many years ago, long, long before you were born, we used to, when we'd see the clouds, you know how sometimes the sun breaks through and you see those big rays, and we always called those rapture shoes. Rapture shoes, yeah.

When you see those beautiful clouds, that's when it's easier to think, I hope the Lord returns like that. Listen, He's going to be brighter than the sun anyway. It's going to be once without all the pollutants in it. The next part here, and I think this is important, we shall always be with the Lord. Once united with the Lord, we will not be separated from Him. The bride and groom are to be united and our condition and our position will be the same. Often when we talk about spiritual growth here at Holly Hills we will mention position and condition. We will talk about your position being secured in the heavenlies and perfected and identified with Christ.

But your condition is the one where, you know, when you stub your toe in the middle of the night, it's the one that says naughty things, you know. I'm sure you don't do it, but it's happened in other people's lives. And that's your condition. And we wrestle with our condition and our position not being united.

But when we're raptured away, those things are not going to be a problem anymore. You know, Roger mentioned last week, it was mentioned while Roger was teaching, and I want to say it was Bud, but I could be wrong, Um, about our, you know, these are our bodies and they're not going to be dealing with the same junk anymore.

You know, this little irritation I've got in my throat is going to be a non-issue. You know, I've got this weird, freaky parasite I've been dealing with for about a year. Non-issue. You know, my allergies to corn Nebraska will be a sweet, sweet state because I can go to anywhere there's corn and it won't bother me. But we're going to be united and we shall always be with the Lord. Now that's a really, really, really cool thing.

The first time Jessica and I were separated after I moved to Texas, her grandma was dying of cancer and she went to Florida by herself. And on several occasions I got in the shower and I just cried while I was taking a shower when I would get up in the morning because I missed my wife just terribly. I was separated from my wife, and that was just unacceptable. I thought, Lord, you can rapture me now because this hurts.

And the truth of the matter is that I will never, ever, ever be separated from the Lord. And that's a cool thing. Once we're raptured away, that separation is impossible, but it's also because our position is sealed, currently accurate, too. Okay? I'm sorry. That's going to be on the recording. Our condition and our position will be the same. Okay?

They're going to be there and we shall be with the Lord always. I've often tried to fathom infinity, eternity, the nature of being with the Lord forever. And I remember when I was younger I used to think, man, I hope we're going to get some new songs because I get tired of singing the same songs over and over. The truth of the matter is that we're going to be with the Lord forever, and it's not going to get boring.

You know, some people have talked about marriage. Oh, well, when you get married, doesn't it get boring after a while? No. You fall deeper in love, and you get to learn more and more about one another. Jack? Isn't this a resurrection under glory? Absolutely. Definitely a resurrection under glory.

We're going to be with the Lord physically, and His glory will be a very real thing in our lives that instead of like when we looked at 2nd Corinthians 3.18 where it talked about through the veil, there's going to be no veil. That radiating glory is going to be right there. There's not going to be the same nature of trying to constantly creep in between you and the Lord, constantly trying to steal your vision. It's going to be focused on Him. we will always be with the Lord. That's a very, very exciting thing.

The last slide we've got here is just kind of a summary of 1 Thessalonians 4, 14 through 18. The return of the Lord was a concern for the saints in Thessalonica. They wondered about those who had died, who had gone to sleep, and because they hadn't expected such a delay in the Lord's return. And this is Paul's letter of encouragement to let them know, There's nothing to worry about. It's going to be okay. The term sleep is a great illustration of the temporary nature of death on earth. It's a temporary separation from our bodies but it's not a separation from the Lord. The term sleep is really a useful word here.

It confused the snot out of somebody earlier this week. I was chatting with a buddy in Texas and he goes, so are drunk people not going to hit the rapture? I was like, what? And I hope he doesn't mind me using this. But later on in chapter 5, probably next week's verse, it talks about those who are awake and those who are asleep and those who are drunk and those who are sober. And he had gotten his lines crossed. And so there was sleeping drunk people not having the rapture and I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. And so once he had all his sections in order, it was great and he understood it. But sleep is actually a very good, accurate, and useful illustration for the temporary nature of death on earth.

And the believer is given an opportunity to encourage the body with the hope of Christ's return and their union with their Savior. That encouragement is something that I have seen more at Holly Hills than other churches that I've participated in. And that's not to say that it never happened, just in case somebody from another church I once went to has listened to this. But it's been a much more real part of the life of the body here. And it's been very real to see, through trials and suffering, the body grows. This is part of how the Lord uses the trials and suffering for growth, as he gives us the hope of the rapture. When the suffering comes along, somebody else who's been there done that, who understands their hope in Christ can come along and offer hope and encouragement when the trials happen.

And I've seen it over and over and over again. And that's pretty cool, because it's been a lot of youth and people in other classes, in case you're listening to the recording. That's all the notes I've got. Do we have any other questions or thoughts or concerns about what was said this morning?

I guess I was thinking about what is the significance of in the clouds? I know He ascended in the clouds, but if it weren't in there, I think if it weren't in the scripture, and it just said with them, to meet the Lord in the air, we want to go where? In the bird heaven or higher? So that kind of defines it where it is. So I thought that, I kept thinking about what does that mean?

It's interesting that the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to use that vocabulary. There's an exactness to it. It might have something to do with referring to when the Israelites were migrating to the promised land, that they followed the cloud, that's where God resided.

I hadn't even thought of that. I've not heard that before, but there may be a parallel there. That we would be with Him. Sure. The direction I was thinking about with that was simply that if he had said the heavens or in the air, it is kind of ambiguous and I think that's what you're trying to say. I'm sorry. I hadn't even thought about that.

The other place is the Lord shows up as a cloud in the temple with Solomon. So it is used as a point of God's presence in several occasions. Brian? I can't remember exactly why, but I think it has more to do with him actually not touching the earth. Yeah, well and that's, I tried to make that point, it's significant. He's not concerned with coming for the rain. Actually helps us to understand the second coming too. The chronology. He actually comes to the earth. Yeah. In the rapture he never actually touches the earth. Yeah, that's definitely true. Yeah. Doesn't it say that the heavens and earth will pass away?

At the end, later on, beyond this point. Chronologically, that's after. Actually, I'm not sure we get that or not. There's like a neat timeline in some of the other classes we have, which kind of shows you the rapture. It's a nice chart, yeah. Tribulation, thank you. And then wars return, and then the new heavens and new earth.

I like to draw. I don't draw straight lines though, so you have to forgive me for that. We'll just say now is here. That's an arrow. Can you see? See, I don't draw straight lines except for that one. And then we're going to put a question mark here because we don't know when the rapture is. I'm going to put rapture here just because I can.

Then immediately, well, I can read it from here. Let's try that again. We'll do bigger. Oh, that's the bell. No, I'm not saying I got five minutes. Well, I am saved, but not by the bell. Is that better if I do now? I'm going to put a question mark here. Oh, no. People will be running like this. Rapture, and we're going to have Roughly seven years. Not roughly, but that's the... You see that dot on the eye?

And then the return. And then this is a thousand years. And then the new heavens and the new earth. The cool thing is that going back here, and I'm going to put the cross because that's a good symbol of salvation. From this point on, for infinity, not separated.

And you can tell I use a computer all day to type. But throughout all of that, no matter where in this timeline things are, we are positionally identified with Christ. But there's a lot of stuff that goes on in here, and there's the revelation series that was done in the main service several years back. is on there and is probably the most in-depth teaching on Revelation I've ever heard, and I haven't listened to all of it yet, is up there to listen on hollyhillsbiblechurch.org, so that's there if you're interested. Any other questions or thoughts? I mean, that was, that's probably some of the best art I've ever done right there. Bud? I guess I had a little bit wrong in my moment.

Christ's rise mm-hmm which are alive or caught up together with him mm-hmm that would be with the Lord mm-hmm Meaning to be that we were caught up by the rapture Transported clear to the third heaven and where we reside until where we have the wedding feast with the lamb And then come back for the armageddon group to wage war with Christ, etc Oh, no. No, we're not waging war with Christ. I'm not. God's wrath will come down in the tribulation. And then when Christ comes to reign for the millennium, the thousand years in Revelation 20, we will come and reign with him.

We will co-reign, but we won't be waging war. It will. We will. Yeah, it'll be post post battle. Yeah. And it'll be an ambassador for that period of time. Oh, OK. I thought we'd be right. We go. Oh, well, he's going to meet us in the clouds. The impression is we're not going to stop in the clouds. Just think of it as like, you know, it's an escalator and you get off one escalator and get on the next one. It's not one that breaks, Brad, because I remember you had a broken escalator. Oh, no, we won't run on the escalators. We'll all go to space. So hopefully the rapture will happen any moment, and as much as I'm sure my dad's prepared for this next week's lesson, I wouldn't mind missing it due to the rapture.

But with that in mind, let's go ahead and we'll close and then we can discuss more things if there's further things to discuss. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this time in your word. Thank you for the hope and the encouragement and the life that your word brings in our lives. We just ask that you would help us to continue to await with anticipation the return that you have slated and the imminent return. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.