I wanted to start my message today with a joke…

Picture a bunch of people working in an office building. Suddenly, they all start getting alerts on their phones, and on their computers: “Jesus is returning!” This is the Second Coming of Christ. They all go to their manager and ask:
“What should we do?” The manager thinks for a minute, and then says:
“Look busy!”

Jesus is coming back. That’s not a joke. But when he comes back, trying to look a certain way isn’t going to help. Trying to look busy or look productive, that won’t matter. Trying to look like we’re very religious, probably won’t help either.

I realize this is a very popular sermon subject

I was inspired by a guy on a street corner up by my house holding a sign that looked like this…

THE END IS NEAR

When you see someone with a sign like that, you naturally want to go talk to them, right? No! Probably not. You’re probably worried that they are going to try to talk to you. What does a sign like this tell you about the person holding it?

Whether it is someone on a street corner or a preacher, when their lead-in is “THE END IS NEAR” I’d be a little worried where it goes from there.
You’re probably in for some “REPENT, SINNERS! TURN FROM YOUR WICKED WAYS! THE JUDGEMENT IS AT HAND!” and maybe some old-fashioned fire and brimstone preaching.

So, I’m going to change this message slightly.

THE LORD IS NEAR

The Lord Jesus is coming back. And that is good news.

I don’t know when, but we are closer to his return today than we were yesterday.

MATTHEW 24:26 NIV “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

MATTHEW 24:42 NIV “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.”

Jesus said that even He didn’t know when He would return.

There have been a long, long list of people who have predicted that He is about to return, and so far they have all been wrong. We don’t know when Jesus will return. But we also don’t know what each day holds for us…

We should always be preparing, because we don’t know the day nor the hour,
and we live in some interesting times.

Wars, pandemics, the world is increasingly hostile to Christianity…

Whether Jesus’ return is imminent or not, God gives us resources to help us to be prepared and to help us in our daily Christian walk.

Today I’m going to talk about three powerful things that God gives us to help us grow in our faith, and to help us navigate through the interesting times in which we find ourselves.

We just finished the “Leadership on the Go” series. If I wanted to put this in a leadership context, I could say that leaders are very familiar with the tools at their disposal. They’re not just aware that they exist; they have practice using them so they can make effective use of them when they are needed. I am aware of lots of musical instruments, but if you handed me a guitar and told me we needed some worship music. It would probably take me a while to pick out “Jesus Loves Me.”

God gives us tools to help us; we need to be familiar with these tools and have practice using them, in order for them to actually benefit us and improve our lives.

I’m going to talk about three things today. You’re probably aware of all of them. But we might be under-utilizing them.

The first one is Chat GPT. – Just kidding.

THE WORD OF GOD

The first tool is the Word of God, the Bible. We’re all aware of the Bible, but how many of us would say we are familiar with the Bible?

I’m not going to ask for a show of hands, but how many of us have read the whole Bible? How many of are actively reading the Bible on a regular or daily basis?

If you answered “yes” to either of those questions, that’s great. If you answered “no” to both, that’s not great. But really, we need to be able to answer “yes” to both.

The Bible is God’s word. It teaches us about who God is, who we are, and who God calls us to be.

2 TIMOTHY 3:16 NIV All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,

2 TIMOTHY 3:17 NIV so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

The first part of our Vision here at Redemption Church is that we “Love God!”
If you love God, you should love His Word and want to hear what he has to say.

Hopefully, I don’t have to sell you on the fact that the Bible is good and it will bless your life if you read it. Amen?

But is it worth the time? Is it worth the trouble? Is God worth your time?

Again, we live in a time of fantastic technological advancement. The Bible is available to us ways that didn’t exist in the past. You can read the Bible on your phone. You can read it on your tablet. You can listen to it on your earbuds. You can listen to it while you’re driving… Or you could read the actual book.

Inconvenience is not an excuse.

As a parent, it is really frustrating when I see my kids struggling, and I give them something to help them out, and they say thanks and set it aside and go back to struggling. Don’t be like that with God. The Bible is for us, to bless us and help us, don’t neglect it.

But, it is up to you to get familiar with the Bible. Redemption Church can’t get you completely familiar with the whole Bible. We can help, but even if you had perfect attendance, it would take us years and years to cover all of the Bible.

But we are trying to help. We reference scripture in the messages each week. We had a series last year called “Long Story Short” where we went through several of the main stories in Old Testament. And we have a scripture memory verse each week. We used to put more of an emphasis on memorizing those verses; maybe we should go back to that. We just got new memory verses for August, but who remembers the memory verses for last month?

GALATIANS 6:9 NIV Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

GALATIANS 6:10 NIV Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

Reading and getting familiar with the Bible is big task, but don’t get weary. You will be rewarded if you don’t give up. And you will be rewarded for any effort you put into it.

Connect Group meetings help too. Our current Connect Group focus is great because we ask the Connect Group members to read the Bible and in the group they talk about what they read.

But we each need to put in some effort on our own time. Don’t let anything stand in your way. If you need a Bible app or an audio Bible, we will help you get one. If you need a Bible reading plan, we will help you find one. If you don’t know where to start, start with one of the Gospels. I like John, but Mark is good as well.

I also recommend you get familiar with the book version of the Bible. If you only read the Bible on the internet and through apps, you might not know how the book is organized. How long would it take you find Galatians 6:9 & 10?

In order to get familiar with the book, you need to own a copy. I have here today several different versions. If you don’t own one, or you know someone who needs one, feel free to take them.

It’s important to own and be familiar with the book, because your access to electronic versions of the Bible is fragile.

I didn’t charge my phone.  I don’t have wifi. The website is down. We just had the CroudStrike outage. Don’t let anything cut you off from the Word of God.

Open your Bible. Look up verses. Take notes. Highlight it. Read it and learn it.

The very best way to make sure you have access to the Word of God is to carry it with you. Not in your car or in your purse or your backpack, but in your mind and in your heart.

THE PEOPLE OF GOD

The second resource that God makes available to us are our brothers and sisters in Christ, the people of God.

Who are the people of God? We are.

You’re here in a church service on a Sunday afternoon. You’re probably one of the people of God.

If you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and you believe He died on the cross and rose again for your salvation, and you’re trying to live for Him and follow His commands and His teachings – then you are a Christian, you are part of the people of God.

And we are available to help and support each other. We can and should pray with one another and for one another. We should encourage one another. We should discuss our faith with one another. Not just here, in the church building on Sundays, but throughout the week.

That’s how it has been since the beginning of the church.

ACTS 2:42 NIV They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

ACTS 2:46 NIV Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,

And the writer of the book of Hebrews encourages us to continue

HEBREWS 10:24 NIV And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,

HEBREWS 10:25 NIV not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

“…all the more as you see the Day approaching.” What Day?

Here at Redemption Church we do that through our Connect Groups, as well as our other activities, like our service opportunities and game nights.

The in the early days of the church the people of God also gave what they could to meet one anothers’ needs. We should be willing to do that as well, to the extent that we are able. [recognition]

We spend time together. We pray together. We care for one another. We try to help each other grow in our faith. We serve one another. You know all this.

But if the THE PEOPLE OF GOD are a resource that is available to us, how are we under-utilizing that resource?

What if I told you that there are people of God that don’t go to Redemption Church?! People here in north Texas.

There might even be some in your neighborhood, and at your work or your school.

It seems obvious right. There are other Christians around us all the time. There are other Christians who live around us. Do you know them? Have you ever prayed with them?

Maybe you already do that. Maybe you have regular prayer breakfasts with your neighbors or your coworkers. If so, that’s awesome. Keep doing that. Maybe you can give us advice on how we can do that too. Because I don’t.

Why don’t we? Why is it awkward to talk about and practice our faith with Christians who come from a different denominational background?

Well, for one it might look like we’re recruiting. “At MY church we do this. And at MY church we believe this. It’s so great. I know you go to that other church, but maybe you should switch to MY church.”

That shouldn’t be our motivation. We are not competing with other churches.

Second, it can get awkward discussing faith with other Christians because we focus on the differences. “I believe this, but you believe that. Why don’t you believe this?”… [devolves into a fist fight]

Different denominations believe different things; some of those differences are important. But in most cases we agree on a lot more things than we disagree, and the things we agree about are more important.

The Bible says there is power in agreement. Is it possible that we could get into agreement about things like: Jesus died for us, Jesus is alive, Jesus is our Savior, and then pray together for each other, our families, and our communities?

There is no power in division. One of the more destructive things that the enemy did was to divide the church by convincing people our disagreements are more important than Christ’s mission to save people. We are less effective at almost everything when we operate as isolated camps and tribes, rather than recognizing that we’re ultimately on the same team and working together.

Jesus addressed this.

MARK 9:38 NIV “Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”

MARK 9:39 NIV “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me,”

MARK 9:40 NIV “for whoever is not against us is for us.”

Remember the second part of last month’s memory verse

GALATIANS 6:10 NIV Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

We Grow Faith and we Serve Others. Those shouldn’t be limited in who we apply them to.

If there is an emergency and the phones don’t work and the roads are blocked, wouldn’t it be beneficial to have people in your neighborhood, in your immediate area that you could gather with and pray?

Let us not forsake meeting together and encouraging one another – all the more as we see the Day approaching.

So we’ve talked about the Word of God and the People of God.

THE SPIRIT OF GOD

Now a third resource that God makes available to us is Himself, His Spirit.

God is three in one. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God.

God gives us the Holy Spirit to live in us and help us.

The Holy Spirit is called many different things including the Helper, the Counselor, the Comforter, and the Advocate.

JOHN 14:26 NIV But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

The Holy Spirt instructs us and reminds us of what we have learned from God’s Word.

The Holy Spirit guides us and convicts us. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us and helps us to pray.

And the Holy Spirit empowers us, giving us spiritual and supernatural gifts.

The Holy Spirit is a very big subject. If you want to learn more we can get together and talk about it after service. But does it sound like having the Holy Spirit living within you would be beneficial for your life? Do you think having God with you, living in you, would be helpful, no matter what situation you face? YES!!!

And the Holy Spirit is FOR YOU…

ACTS 2:38 NIV Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

ACTS 2:39 NIV The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

THE END IS NEAR

THE WORD OF GOD
THE PEOPLE OF GOD
THE SPIRIT OF GOD

The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, helps us with the other things we talked about. The Holy Spirit helps us to learn, remember, and apply the Word of God, the Bible. And the Holy Spirit helps us to connect with and minister to the people of God. We need the Holy Spirit living in us.

GOD IS NEAR

God is near to us. His Word is available to us. The church is the Body of Christ in the world, so our fellow Christians are all part of the Body of Christ. Whenever two or three of us gather together in Jesus’ name, He is there in our midst. The Holy Spirit is with us and lives in us. Let’s live like God is with us and make use of all that He has made available to us.

 

Call to Action

Make the Word of God a part of your life
 Get a Bible
 Make a plan to read the Bible regularly
 Talk about what you’re reading

Connect with the People of God
 Pray about who God wants you to connect with
 Pray with a neighbor this week
 When you meet someone new, ask if you can pray for them

Seek and Receive the Holy Spirit
 Repent and be Baptized
 Pray to receive the Holy Spirit
 Pray that God would renew His Spirit within you – to overflowing              Talk about having the Holy Spirit in your life

Pray and ask God how you can better use these resources that He has made available to us.