We want to say hello to Portage and we want to say hello, happy weekend to everybody. All the radiators that are at home watching online and everybody who's here today in the Richland Campus, come on, let's put our hands together and greet those. We love you guys. So glad you're joining us today. And we're looking forward to some of the things that are coming down the road. A lot of you have been wondering what's going on with the prayer room downtown. Well, we want you to know that over the next couple, two to three weeks, we're hoping that it's gonna be on the sooner side of things. The prayer room is just about ready to open. It is being completed in the downtown city center and we cannot wait for you all to see it and to be a part of it. And so we've got some opportunities that are gonna be coming up during seek where you will be able to be a part of that. Also, we wanna say this to those of you who join us online. Number one, we are having live services at both of our campuses. So for those of you who have not yet come in person, obviously we're gonna continue to do what we're doing online and make that available for as long as you feel comfortable in that capacity. But also we wanna give you an opportunity and let you know that you're welcome to come to our live services. We have every other road that's kind of blocked off, but yet we still have some additional room at both of our campuses. And a lot of you have been asking what are our plans coming in September? Over the next couple of weeks, we're gonna roll that out. So pay attention to social media. So we begin to talk about things like children's ministry, services in the future and we'll be making some announcements. So stay tuned for that. And it's always good to be with you. It's always good to be in the house with a radiant church. So if you have your Bibles with you today, would you open them with me to James chapter five. This is our series entitled Revolutionary Faith. We're looking at the book of James, working our way through that this week. And next weekend, we will culminate this series. Next weekend, I'm gonna be talking out of James chapter five on the subject of fervent, effectual prayer, living lifestyles of prayer. This week, however, I've entitled the message waiting for our king, waiting for our king because I'm gonna talk about today, what does it look like for you and I as followers of Jesus to live lives that are radically devoted to him, for him, as we wait for him to return? Look with me at James five, beginning in verse number seven. It says, but be patient. How many know you can just stop right there. That's enough. That's the sermon for this weekend. Be patient because it's so difficult, especially like in times that we're living in. But James says, be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also be patient, establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord and behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. And you've heard of the steadfastness of Job and you've seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. But above all, my brothers, do not swear either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no so that you may not fall in the condemnation. So as I said, at the beginning of every message I preached in this series, James is written by the half-brother of Jesus. James, or James is the half-brother of Jesus. He's the leader of the early church in Jerusalem. He's a late convert. He did not believe in Jesus while Jesus was functioning in his earthly ministry, but it was after his death burial and at his resurrection when Jesus appeared to James and told him, I truly am the Messiah. Look, I have overcome the grave. I've overcome death that James actually believes. And he is promoted to a high status very quickly in the early church. And the book of James is him writing to early believers who are navigating how to live in very difficult times as followers of Jesus. And yet also at the same time, how to live expectantly for the return of the Lord. You have to imagine that in the first century, the very beginning of this church movement, there was an anticipation that everything was going to take place very quickly, very shortly. They did not know when Jesus was gonna return. Jesus said, no man knows the day nor the hour. But yet they probably, and we get the inference here from James and in Paul in his writings that there was an anticipation that it was not going to be very long before Jesus returned. And so the thing that the church had in the very beginning that I think the church over a course of time has actually lost is there was a sense of urgency about the hour in which they were living in that then affected the way that they lived their lives, how they lived out their faith and how they lived in community to one another. Because this expectation, this sense of urgency about the hour anticipating that Jesus could return actually drove them to live their lives differently. That's why James is writing to them. He's like, look, brothers, wait patiently for the return of the Lord. Wait patiently for Jesus to return. Live your lives in such a way. And in fact, conduct yourself in your relationships with one another in the church. Because how many know that as soon as you get more than two people in the same room and you begin to form a community, there's gonna be opportunity for friction, for difference of opinions, for conflict and all those wonderful things. They were not exempt from this in your early church. How many know that anytime you get people together, you're going to have problems. It's just a reality. You might say, well, I wanna go back to the book of Acts where the church was pure. Really? You wanna go back to the book of Acts where they fought over racial issues between Jew and Gentile. Nothing's changed. They fought over economic stuff. James talks about don't give special treatment to the wealthy and make the poor people sit in the back. They had economic financial issues because they had people like Ananias and Sapphira who are lying about their giving as other people are giving sacrificially. They had doctrinal issues. They had the Council of Jerusalem. They had people saying that Christians who were Gentiles now had to keep the law. And so you had false teaching. You had differencing of opinion. You had Peter and Paul who were at each other's, in each other's grill, debating and calling each other out. Everything in the early church was not like this nice, neat, clean little reality. It was a mess. And let me just tell you another way to spell church. M-E-S-S. Because as you remember from Sunday school, let me give you a little, here's a deep theological lesson about the church. Are you ready? Here you go. Here's the church. Here's the steeple. Open the door and see all the messy people. The church isn't buildings, the church is people and people are messy. And whenever you get people together, you're gonna have opportunity for conflict. James was helping them navigate that. Don't judge one another. Love one another. And live your lives in such a way that you're being patient in your waiting and in your endurance. In the words of the great theologian, Tom Petty, it's the waiting that's the hardest part. And waiting for the Lord is extremely difficult. Well, you know what, Pastor, it's been 2,000 years and Jesus is still not returned. Do we really still believe that? We absolutely believe that because the Bible is very clear. Jesus was very clear that where he was, he was going to prepare a place for us and he would come back for us that we might be with him. He was very clear in Matthew 24 about his return and the signs that would come in the times preceding his return. And although they thought it was gonna be in his lifetime in the first century era where the Bible was being written, it does not negate the promises that he will one day return because as it says in 2 Peter, in verse number nine of chapter three, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promises as some consider him to be slow. But in that same chapter in verse number three and four, it says, scoffers will come in the last days saying where is his coming? Where is his coming? Everything's the same as it's always been. Nothing's changed since the days of our fathers or let's put it in a modern vernacular. Nothing's changed since Jesus was here and the apostles thought he was gonna come in their lifetime. And you know what, there are people who even who are followers of Jesus in the church who basically given up this hope of the return of the Lord. They've given it up. They've said, well, you know, when Jesus said he was gonna return, what that meant was is that we're his body on the earth and we're gonna come into a realization that we are Jesus and the church in its maturity is actually the second coming of Jesus. Wrong answer. Acts chapter one, when Jesus ascended, the angels said to the disciples, this same Jesus whom you've seen depart will return in like manner. Jesus is coming back and the very fact that there are people who question and scoff at the return of Jesus back to the earth to reign in the rule is actually the fulfillment of prophecy that's 2000 years old. Now, if you were part of the end time study that I just did online, you know that we are living in unprecedented times. I truly believe with all of my heart that we are quickly approaching if we're not already in an era of time that Jesus spoke of when he talked about the beginning of sorrows or the birth pangs. Now, we don't know how long that's gonna be. We don't know how long it's gonna take. It could be 25 years. It could be 10 years. It could be 100 years. No man knows the day nor the hour, but Jesus did indeed say that we would know the seasons when you begin to see these things take place. And I can't go into a lot of right now. I'd love to like break down for like four hours if you guys could handle it and just like go through the things that I'm seeing that are happening in our day. But here's what I will say. If you see, if you are reading your Bible and you are looking at the landscape of what is taking place on the earth, you should be fully aware as a follower of Jesus that we are living in unprecedented times that history has never seen but prophets prophesied. We are living in those days.  Our attitude and our posture as people that are waiting for the Lord to return should be one not where we're exhausted, not one that we're fearful, but one where we're lifting up our countenance, we're lifting up our eyes and it changes the way that we live our lives.  I lived with the level of urgency that drove me to love him more, to know him more, to keep my eyes open, to witness more and to invest my life in the kingdom things because I wasn't looking at this world as my home. I was anticipating the return of the Lord and I was doing it, listen, patiently. That word patiently that James uses there is a word that means do not quit under intense pressure. That's what patience means. Do not quit under the intense pressure, brothers. What's the intense pressure of living in the world that we're living in that is anti the king and his kingdom? You see, what we see in the world today, beyond all the problems and beyond all the difficulties, even the best parts of the world that we're looking at that are saying we're gonna, if we do this, then we're gonna make our world better. If we could just get this person elected, then the world's gonna be better and we're gonna solve all of our problems and if we could do this, if we could reconcile this, then we're gonna create a utopian society. You know what the world is really trying to do? They're trying to build the kingdom without the king. We want the outcome of the messianic promises what God has promised his intentions are for the world which is the kingdom of God but yet the world wants it without the king. Maybe I should rephrase that. They actually want a king, they just don't want it to be Jesus. But yet we are people that have already bowed our knee to Jesus before the kingdom has actually come in its fullness. And so what that means is we are people in waiting. We're engaged. How many remember when you were engaged, those of you who are married, when you were engaged, you're looking forward to that wedding day, you're looking forward to that celebration, you're looking forward. Now in your heart, your commitment's already made but yet the day has not yet come.  I'm like, I gotta marry her before she changes her mind. And so in the eight months, everything that she was focused on was on that day. And so she was making preparations, picking out the music and the invitations and what kind of flowers and the dresses and what's the date and what are we gonna do for the reception and all of that work. Everything that she was doing in that time period was focused on that day. Can I just tell you our wedding day is when Jesus returns. But we are people who are in waiting. We're engaged. We're already betrothed. He's our bridegroom. We are his bride and we're waiting for the day when the veil is pulled back and the bride and the bridegroom see each other face to face and step into that eternal relationship. But what that means is right now as the bride and right now, if you're a guy right now going, I don't like being referenced as a bride. Well, it's just the reality. It's not a slam on your masculinity. It's talking about our posture and relationship to the Lord. And so in reality, everything that we are living our lives for right now on this world, waiting for that day to come, should be focused on that day, preparing ourselves, preparing our lives and preparing the church. Jesus is preparing his church to be without spot or without wrinkle for that day. That's why James says, be patient, brothers. Because listen, I want you to hear me when I say this. Our hope as Christians is not anchored to this world but to the one that Jesus will bring when he returns. This world is not our hope. His return is our hope. Jesus' return is our hope. Listen, Jesus is not just an avatar or a spiritually highly ascended master that we believe in his philosophy to make our life on this planet so much better. That is not who Jesus is. Jesus is the King. He's got a kingdom, that kingdom is coming and we are people in waiting. And our hope is not wrapped up in, I hope the world, I hope the politicians, I hope the United Nations, I hope our best technology and our greatest inventors can fix this world and bring in the kingdom. Now, we don't want the kingdom without the King. We are people who are looking unto Jesus. Titus two, verse 18, it says that we should renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age waiting for our blessed hope. What's the blessed hope? The appearing of the glory of our great God in savior Jesus Christ. Listen to me, there is gonna come a day when the same Jesus who died on the cross, the same Jesus that was buried in a tomb, the same Jesus that rose glorified and resurrected fully alive forevermore, the same Jesus that ascended off of the earth and right now is seated at the right hand of God the Father, waiting for a moment for him to turn to Jesus and say, it's time. Jesus is going to return from the heavens. He's gonna split open the eastern sky. He's gonna step back into history. And when he comes this time, he's not coming as a meek and mild. He's coming back as strong and wild on a stallion and his eyes will be like fire. He's not taking any polls. He's not gonna conduct a vote by male or in person. He's coming for a throne and he will rule in reign forever and ever as King of kings and Lord of lords. That day is coming church. That day is coming and it's coming soon. Jesus is coming soon. So what is our responsibility? What is our responsibility with that? Look at what James writes in verse number eight. He says, you also be patient. There it is again. Don't quit under the heat of the pressure. He says, be patient and look at this next part. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Establish your hearts. What's our responsibility? Our responsibility is to align our hearts with our hope. If the return of Jesus is our hope, then we have a responsibility, and this is what James is getting at, is we have a responsibility to align our hearts with the thing that is our hope. Not allow our hearts to get entangled in the things of this world, to get entangled in alternative hopes or entangled in alternative kingdoms or alternative philosophies or belief systems to not get anchored or tethered or rooted to any other thing, but to keep our eyes looking for his return and adjusting our lives and our hearts according to that hope. See, Jesus spoke about this very necessity when he was teaching on the last days. And it's interesting, Jesus said a lot about the last days. The thing that he spoke most passionately about though was not about kingdom rising up against kingdom and earthquakes and famines and pestilence, all the things that will be physiologically and geographical in the earth just prior to his return. That was not the thing that Jesus focused on most. What he focused on most passionately was about the heart of his followers. Listen to what Jesus said in Mark 13. He said, take heed, watch and pray. For you do not know when the time is. It's like a man going to a far country who left his house and gave authority to his servants and to each one of his work, commanded the doorkeeper to watch. And he says, watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming. Look at Matthew 24. Jesus said this, many will be offended. ESV says many will fall away. Talking about the last days.  Does that sound familiar to anybody? They're going to betray one another. Many will be offended and many will hate one another and many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. But listen to this. And because of lawlessness being increased, many will have their love grow cold. Now that word lawlessness is very interesting because if you look it up, it's translated in other places in the Bible as dissipation. You know, a month ago when I was on break, I looked up that word, I was doing a word study and I looked up that word in the original language in Greek. That word means when a society is being torn apart by violence and anarchy. Jesus said that when the love of many people grow cold in society because of the times that they are living in. Listen to me, Jesus predicted this stuff.  Hates nothing new. But he says it's going to be so pronounced that there's gonna be betrayal. There's gonna be a massive wave of hatred. There's going to be an offense. People are gonna get offended in their faith towards God so much so that they actually fall away from their faith. And he says it's going to be because of the rise of lawlessness and people not knowing how to respond to what's taking place. And he goes on and he says, and the love of many will grow cold. Notice what Jesus cares about the most. People's hearts, his followers' hearts. Don't get offended. How many know it's easy to get offended in our culture? If you haven't been offended in the last 30 days, you've probably been off social media. Even, think about this. Even though we've spent months of being quarantined, offense has still found ways into our homes because you can't quarantine your heart. And what it has produced and what Jesus said it is most dangerous in the life of a believer is that our love grows cold. Love for what? Love for one another, but our love for God. Our responsibility as people that are waiting on Jesus to return, whether it's 100 years, whether it's 150 years or whether it's a decade, I tend to believe that it's much nearer than we've ever imagined that it was, but nobody knows for sure. It doesn't matter though. What matters is that we realize I am a person in waiting. We are a people in waiting. And my responsibilities, I may not be able to change everybody else's heart, but I gotta guard my heart. I have to keep my heart pure from offense. I have to keep my heart from growing cold. And what does he say? He says, establish your heart. How do we establish our hearts? The word establish means fortify, strengthen the foundation so that it's permanently fixed. Establish your hearts. We don't want our hearts to be like the pontoon boat out in the lake that drops an anchor, but the wind comes along and it still kind of drags the anchor because it's not firmly fixed on the bottom of the lake. Now we wanna be fixed. We want deep foundations in the goodness of God, in the love of God, in community, in our expectations, so much so that it actually changes the way that we live our lives while we are in waiting. And the example that James gives to us is this. He says, learn from the farmer. Learn from the farmer who waits for the precious fruit of the earth and being patient about it until it receives the early in the latter rain. James uses as an example of what it means to live as somebody whose heart is firmly established in the hope of waiting for Jesus' return and all of its implications because when Jesus comes back, everything that's wrong is gonna be made right. He says, so here's what it means to establish your hearts in patience. Learn from the farmer. The type of farmer he's talking about is actually a grape farmer. It's a vineyard or a vinter. Somebody who is taking care of the vines of a vineyard. And if you study how a farmer takes care of the vines, you'll notice that the difference between very expensive wine or a farmer or a vineyard that prospers has everything to do with what the King James uses the word the husbandman and his skill of knowing when to prune, where to prune and to identify the season that he's in. You see, there's some seasons where it's intensely hot that the best grapes come out of. And the reason why is if you prune the vines properly in very, very hot seasons, what happens is the roots will actually go deeper into the ground in order to find water. And it will produce the pruning, if you do it right, will produce large clusters. Did you know that a vine farmer or a vineyard, there are some seasons where the fruit that is on the vine, he could pluck it and it would be an inferior product. But what he chooses to do is take the clusters of grapes off of the vine and actually lull them to rot on the soil because the nutrients from the grapes will actually bleed into the soil that will then go into the roots and make a superior grape in the next season. It's a skill set. And James says, if you want to wait, if you want to live your life in a way that produces the kind of fruit that Jesus wants you to produce in your life in the waiting, then you got to learn from the farmer. Well, what do we know about the farmer from this story? There's several different things. Number one is a farmer is unique because a farmer labors like it matters. It's interesting that there are several prophets in the Old Testament that God called to speak prophetically to the church that were farmers. And I think there's something about that. I think the reason why God called many farmers to be prophets like Amos and Elijah is because a farmer has something that not everybody has, which is a prophetic imagination. A farmer's able to look at land and not just see it for what it is, but he's able to see what it can be. And because he can see what it can be, he's willing to labor today like it matters. If you were to take me out and it doesn't have to be grapes, it could be any kind of farming. And we live in kind of a farming community, but it's interesting, you could take me out into a 10 acre parcel of land and go, what do you see out here? And I'd say, I see trees, I see rocks, I see hills. And you bring another guy who's skilled in agriculture and you can say, what do you see? And he says, I see a million dollars because if I clear the rocks and the stumps and the roots and I plow up this soil and I put the right seed in with the right sunshine and the right water and the right climate, I'll tell you what's gonna happen is I'll get 10 acres of corn that will then turn into 100 acres of corn and I'll sell it to Kellogg and I'll be a millionaire in five years. It's because of what he can see in the future that nobody else can see that causes him to labor today like it matters. A farmer works today, I don't know if you've realized this, farmers don't get paychecks. Nobody shows up to a farmer's house and says, hey, that was great, I worked 80 hours last week out there in the combine. Let me write you a check, there you go. Now farmer doesn't get paid until he cashes in the produce but he labors day in and day out. Farmers are some of the hardest working people on the planet. They are out there at eight, nine, 10 p.m. Farming with, they got those John Deere tractors that we all get stuck behind on M89 and they're out there with their big headlights in the middle of the night. Because they know that I gotta get this done now because in the future, if I don't work hard now there's not gonna be a harvest then. What we do today determines our harvest tomorrow. Why are we supposed to labor like it matters? Because Jesus is calling us to live our lives through a prophetic imagination. In other words, to constantly remind ourselves like I talked about last weekend, the eternal perspective. What I do today matters for eternity. What I'm laboring to do right now, I may not see it right now but it's got eternal consequences. So what do we learn from farmer number one? We learn that we're supposed to labor like it matters. C.T. Stud, who you may have never heard of. He was a missionary in the 1800s who came out of England. He was the Babe Ruth of Cricket. Cricket's like kind of a baseball game that the British colonies all play. It was vastly popular. C.T. Stud was this, basically, it was the best that there was who got radically saved, quit cricket and went into the mission field. Nobody can understand why he was willing to do that. He quit at the apex of his career and he wrote a poem. One of the lines is very well known. It was this, only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for the Lord will last. This was his statement. This is why he gave everything up. He was willing to labor on the mission field because he believed it mattered. He had an eternal perspective. Number two, you have to sow into your future. If we're gonna learn from the farmer, we have to sow into the future. What's the future? Sow into the kingdom of God. Whatever you believe most is true will be the thing that you sow into the easiest.  But you're not gonna do that if you think you'll be dead in two years. What you believe will be the thing that you prepare for. And if we believe that Jesus is coming soon, if we believe that eternity really matters and it's worth laboring for, then we will sow into that. But you can always tell by the things that are your future hope. And you can determine it by what you are sowing into today. What are you sowing into? I've heard it said like this, you wanna know what's really important to somebody. Don't listen to their words, look at their checkbook. And today it would be look at your bank account, look at your credit card thing. The things that are really important are the things that you invest into. What does a farmer think is important? His future, so what does he do? He sows into it. Think about what a farmer does, it's amazing. He goes out into the field, he's cashed all of his money to buy seed. He gives months and months and months of work without a paycheck by preparing the soil and then he takes the seed that represents all of his wealth and he puts it into the ground and he buries it and he waits. Why? Because he believes in the power of the seed, he believes in the power of sowing and reaping and he believes that by sowing today, sacrificing today it's preparing a harvest in the future. I wonder how many of us really believe that radically about the ability we have to sow, the things that God has put into our life into the kingdom of God because we're looking expectantly believing that that kingdom is truly coming. Listen, the kingdom of God is not just some ethereal, oh, really nice, a way of thinking and a way of living and someday when we die we're gonna go to heaven. The kingdom of God is coming.  Not just in heaven, on earth as it is in heaven. It's coming, are we sowing our lives into that eternal kingdom? Are we investing our time? Are we investing our spirit? Are we investing our relationships? Are we investing our dollars into those things? Jesus warned us in Luke 21. He said this, watch yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness in the cares of this life and that that day comes upon you suddenly. Galatians says, God will not be mocked, whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. If we sow to the flesh, we shall reap corruption, but if we sow to the spirit of the spirit, we will reap eternal life.  Let me give you the last two. Number three is this, what does a farmer do? He prays for the latter rain. It says right here in James, it says like the farmer who's looking for the early rains and the latter rains, what do we do as people that are waiting for the return of the Lord? Well, number one, we need to look expectantly, both at the former rains, which we see in Acts chapter two, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the early church and they became a catalytic movement that turned the world upside down, but now we also expectantly are waiting for the latter rain, the late rains. What does that mean? Well, listen, along with there going to be some very difficult times proceeding to coming of the Lord, there's also going to be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that the world has never seen before and the church and the people of God in the middle of incredible difficult times are going to receive power from on high that once again turns the church into a catalytic movement in the midst of the earth. And we're going to be a part of that. It's, listen, it's called the great and the terrible day of the Lord. It's terrible in some ways, but it's great because God's not going to be shown up. God's not going to let the devil have the final word in the hour in which we live. He's going to have the final word and it's going to be his latter rain, outpouring of the Holy Spirit, fulfillment of Joel to on his people in the day proceeding to coming of the Lord. What do we do with it? We're sowing today knowing that when that rain hits that's when the fruit begins to grow. Man, I'm believing for that. I'm believing for my kids and my grandchildren to see that day. I've read so many books about revival. I'd probably, I could choke an elephant with the books that I've read on revival and my prayer is constantly, God, I want to see that. God, I want to see that. God, I want to see that. I don't know whether I'm going to see it or whether it's going to be my kids or my grandkids. But I know this, when it happens, it's going to be worth writing about. And for eternity, it's going to be written in the annals of heaven. This is that, which was spoken by the prophet Joel. So we got to be looking for that. Are we looking for the rain? You know what's a bummer is when rain comes down upon ground, but it doesn't have any seed to fertilize. So sometimes it's like, God, why aren't you sending the rains of your Holy Spirit? Like we read about next to, he's like, not enough seed in the ground. You haven't prepared the soil yet. God's a master. You want to know what God's doing right now in the church? It's Hosea, break up the fellow ground so that I can send the rains of righteousness. God's not going to send the rains on hard packed down ground. He's saying, I want you to align your heart with your hope. I want you to break up the fellow ground. As soon as the church begins to break up the fellow ground, God's going to answer with rain. But in His grace and mercy, God's not going to waste the power of the Holy Spirit on a generation that's indifferent about it. Let me tell you something about who God is. God never shows up in an environment where he's tolerated. God shows up in a generation where he's celebrated and he's anticipated. God never, it is, he is so holy. He will never step in, dignify a room by stepping into it and people go, oh, hey, when Jesus steps in a room, all fall down. He is holy. And we need a revival of understanding of the holiness of God. Because when that happens, that's when the latter rains show up. What's the last thing? We have trust in the purposes of God. Look at what James says. He says, remain steadfast. You've heard of the steadfastness of Job and you've seen the purpose of the Lord and how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. Here's what I know, nothing is happening right now and nothing will happen as difficult and as challenging as the times preceding the Lord are going to be. Nothing is going to take place that is gonna get more attention than the compassion and the mercy of God. You wanna know why Jesus has waited 2,000 years to return? Cause I've had these conversations with people and oh, you know what, that's all fake. I don't believe that. And you know, if God was gonna come, he'd have come back by now.  Here he is telling us to be patient. But do you know who's been offended more than you have? Him. Think about it. When people swear they don't use your name. I've never heard anybody walk through a store going, week comings. You might try it, week comings. His name is taken in vain all the time.  How many times he sees the devil humiliate image bearers that he created to be sons and daughters of the living God. How many times people by the lies question and doubt him. Listen, if I was God, this whole planet would be in trouble. But listen to what the Bible says about him. 2 Peter 3, verse nine, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promises as some count slowness, but he's patient towards you. Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. See, I want you to hear me say this. You wanna know why God's waiting? Cause oftentimes my prayer is God, I don't understand why you're waiting. Come now. You know, the cry of the early church was one word, Marynatha, Lord Jesus come. In the midst of persecution, it was Lord Jesus come. But I'll promise you the reason why Jesus has not come is not because he's not able. It's not because he's afraid. It's not because he's forgotten. And it's not because he's indifferent or doesn't care. His patience is rooted because he sees eight billion people on the planet, many who have never heard the gospel. And because he hasn't seen his eternal purposes played out in the church the way that he wants to. Cause he says in Ephesians that he's going to display his manifold wisdom to the principalities and the powers and the whole world through his church. He's trying to get our attention. He's trying to get us to live urgently. Listen, he's trying to get us to be as patient as he is. If God can be patient with the brokenness of the world, then church we can be patient with the brokenness of the world. We can be expectant for the return of the Lord, but we can position our hearts and align our hearts with his purposes and trust him that he knows what's going on. When God's purposes intersect with our steadfast patience, that becomes an epicenter of revival. Be patient waiting for the return of the Lord. Wherever you're at, I just want you to join me. In fact, if you're in this room, would you stand with me? Even over at Portage, sure watching, would you stand right where you're at?  I want you to just listen to me. Jesus is coming soon. I have seen things take place in my lifetime that leave me beyond a shadow of a doubt that not only is Jesus returning, but we are quickly approaching that day. Will you be ready? Will you be ready? Has your heart become aligned with his purposes? Are you sowing into eternity? Are you laboring today for the harvest like it matters? Are you able to see on the horizons beyond the circumstances around you and see his goodness at work in the midst of the storm? Are you able to keep your heart from growing cold?  It's time for you to invite Jesus, the king, to come and let his kingdom come into your life today long before he ever breaks the eastern sky. Today is the day of salvation. Today, if you are far away from God and you know you need to get saved, you need to be born again to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and savior.  I want God's forgiveness.  I'm repenting for the way that I've been living as if he's never coming back and this world is all that there is today. I believe he's the resurrected savior. Jesus, save me, forgive me, come into my heart. I repent and I turn to you. If that's you, right now I want you to respond to Jesus. I'm gonna lead us in a prayer.  I'm about to count to three. And when I say three, if you know you need to get your life right with God today, I'm gonna ask you to respond by raising your hand and we're gonna pray a prayer even at home. Here we go, one, two, three, raise it and hold it up, you're not alone. I promise you, thank you, I see your hand. Who else? You know you need to get right with God. Thank you, thank you, young man, thank you, young man. This is your moment. If you've not raised it, raise it right now and I wanna include you in this prayer. God sees it, you can put your hands down.  Say, Heavenly Father, I come in Jesus' name and I believe and I confess that you are Lord of all.  Give me a new heart, give me a new spirit, give me a new desire to live for you. Open my eyes that I can see from an eternal perspective. I turn my back on my past and from this day forward, I'm living for you and I'm waiting for you to return. Thank you for loving me, saving me, in Jesus' name, amen. Listen to me, if you just prayed this prayer, it was the most important decision that you have ever made, welcome to the family of God. Come on, can we just welcome all of those and just pray that prayer? Can I ask you to do one more thing before we dismiss, if you would, to just bow your heads one more time and listen, there's nothing magical about bowing our heads, closing our eyes, but I'm gonna ask you to do it anyways and the reason why I ask you to do it is because it blocks out distractions. Sometimes we got too many things going on to really think, really hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. Right now I want more than anything for you to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit because we hear the spirit of this age all the time, but God speaks in a still small voice. And who I'm talking to right now is I'm talking to believers, talking to followers of Jesus. I'm gonna ask you this, if you tonight need, today you need the Holy Spirit to give you patient endurance, eternal perspective and a sense of urgency to live your life differently. I'm not talking about just praying a prayer and getting saved, I'm talking about living your life differently in light of Jesus' return. And tonight, wherever you're at, you're saying, that's me. I want today to be a bookend and I wanna begin to live differently anticipating, patiently waiting for the return of the Lord. I want it to affect the way that I think, I want it to affect the way that I invest my time, my resources, how I engage in my relationships and even how I live in this culture. And I've been wrestling with it, but today I want to be a change and I'm submitting to Jesus and I'm asking the Holy Spirit to do that. If that's you, if that's the desire of your heart, I just want you to raise your hand. He'll do it if we'll ask Him. Lord, today right now our hands raised up all over this room and I raise my hands, God, I want this more than anything. God, would you help us? Would you help us to be patient, firmly established in this conviction that you're returning or to keep our eyes up and to take heed, watch and pray. Lord, to live prayerful lives, to see through the lens of your kingdom and scripture, to take heed to ourselves and constantly remind ourselves, we're plowing, we're planting and we're waiting because one day our King is returning. What caused us to live like that in the midst of a culture that doesn't necessarily accept that, believe that or even think it's rational. It does not matter. We want to live counter-cultural, subversive lives where we declare our allegiance is to one King and one kingdom alone. His name is Jesus. Establish our hearts in that truth and that reality today in Jesus' name, amen, amen. I'm believing that for us. I'm believing that in the hour in which we live we can stand out as lights in the midst of darkness. People when they look at us are gonna see hope because Jesus is our blessed hope, amen. God bless you, have a fantastic weekend and we will see you next weekend. God bless you.