Signs Of The End Series

Opener:

Good morning everyone! It is so nice to see every here this morning. We are excited to be back from vacation and I trust that you have had a blessed couple of weeks. We are excited to start a new series about end time events. These next couple of weeks will be really exciting.

The subject of the end times is a fascinating subject and really one that can go a lot of different directions. We are going to attempt to tackle some of the major questions surrounding this event . Also, I would like to preface this message with the fact that people have many different views on the end times. There are some that may not totally agree with the views presented in the next couple of weeks and I understand that.

While the when and how Jesus comes back may be in debate, the fact of the matter remains that He is coming back. Hallelujah! We can have a peace and joy just knowing that fact.

I shared a number of weeks ago on a Sunday night service about some of this material and it was one of our best bible studies. So I am really excited this morning to be talking about these end time events. Now if you have your bible, turn with me to the book of Matthew 24 and we are starting in verse three :

3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” 4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. 9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

I. Birth pains of the end times

A. End times birth pains

a. I can remember when my wife was about to give birth to our son.

b. It was no doubt a really exciting time and a nerve racking time. Fellow parents can relate, I am sure.

c. At the time, we were both working full time jobs until the end to her pregnancy when she started to slow down a bit at her work. At the same time, we had many discussion about what the next steps should be.

d. Do we both go back to full time work and send our child to child care? Do we have Charity stay at home and care for the baby? Does she work part time? Etc. A lot went into the decision no doubt.

e. At the end of the day, we decided that Charity would be a home making engineer and that she would home school our child.

f. This obviously was a big commitment on our part and one that we have been able to do until this day although it looks a different now.

g. Driving Charity to the hospital she was in pain, and I was nervous, she got up to her room and the OBYN doctor was a little frustrad because she was on vacation and told charity to go in while she was gone and charity had waited and so she was surprised that the baby was not delievered already. After all that Charity then had a c-section and healthy baby boy was delivered coming in at 7 lbs 8 ounces and 22 inches.

h. That little boy is now 14 and comes in over 200 lbs and close to 6ft tall! His feet could fit in my hand an now his feet are bigger than mine.

B. Signs of the end

a. That was the birth of our son, Jesus was talking about a little different kind of birth in the book of Matthew. This birth would be that of the end times. Jesus said this in Matthew 24. Let’s revisit that “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.