Go! And Be Ready: Living In The Last Days With Faith And Urgency Series

Go! And Be Ready: Living in the Last Days with Faith and Urgency

INTRODUCTION: A WAKE-UP CALL FOR OUR TIMES

We are not living in ordinary days.

The world feels heavy with uncertainty, like the calm before a storm. Many are asking, “Are we living in the last days?”

The Bible answers with clarity: Yes.

The last days began with the first coming of Jesus Christ and continue until His return.

That means we are living in the last days—the time between His resurrection and His return.

So the question is not simply “Are we in the last days?” but “Are you ready?”

Today, I want to take you deep into Scripture so that we do not merely observe the signs but prepare our hearts. I want to invite you to open your eyes, open your Bibles, and open your lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Let us begin by reading our anchor passage for today.

2 Timothy 3:1–5 (NLT): “You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!”

1. DIFFICULT TIMES AND DANGEROUS HEARTS

Paul is warning Timothy, his spiritual son in the faith, about the spiritual climate of the eschatais hemerais—Greek for “last days.” The phrase refers not just to the final moments before Christ returns, but to the entire age of the Church.

We see this echoed in Acts 2:17, where Peter quotes Joel:

Acts 2:17 (NLT): “‘‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.”

That outpouring began at Pentecost—so the last days are now.

Paul doesn’t merely warn about external circumstances, but about the internal condition of the human heart. This is not a list of crimes—it is a mirror for society.

The Greek word “philautos” means “lovers of self.” That’s where the danger begins—self-love displaces God-love.

When the throne of our hearts is occupied by ego, there’s no room left for the King of Kings.

Max Lucado wrote, “God never said that the journey would be easy, but He did say that the arrival would be worthwhile.”

That quote reminds us that though the last days are marked by chaos, we are moving toward glory. Are you focused on the chaos—or the coming King?

2. SIGNS OF THE TIMES: A WORLD GONE AWRY

Paul gives us 19 traits of people in the last days—each a symptom of a culture that has abandoned God.

Let’s examine three in particular:

A. “They will love pleasure rather than God”

This is hedonism—the elevation of feeling above faith.

Luke 17:26–30 (NLT): “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. In those days, the people enjoyed banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat and the flood came and destroyed them all.

“And the world will be as it was in the days of Lot. People went about their daily business—eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building— until the morning Lot left Sodom. Then fire and burning sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. Yes, it will be ‘business as usual’ right up to the day when the Son of Man is revealed.”

Jesus compares the last days to Noah’s and Lot’s times—days of moral apathy, indulgence, and blindness to coming judgment. People were too busy having fun to see the flood or fire coming.

John Piper wrote, “The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world.”

In the last days, we can get so comfortable in culture that we forget eternity.

Are you feasting on this world—or preparing for the wedding supper of the Lamb?

B. “They will act religious, but they will reject the power…”

Religion without transformation is hollow.

The Greek “morphosis eusebeias” means “an outward form of godliness.”

Matthew 7:21–23 (NLT): “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’