The Best Is Yet To Come

INTRODUCTION — A SIGNAL FROM FAR AWAY

Forty-five years ago, NASA launched a space probe the size of a small table—Pioneer 10. Its mission was modest: fly past Jupiter, take a few photographs, and send them home. At the time, nothing built by human hands had ever gone beyond Mars. The plan sounded ambitious, maybe even unrealistic.

But Pioneer didn’t just pass Jupiter.

It kept going.

One billion miles… it slipped past Saturn.

Two billion… it drifted beyond Uranus.

Then Neptune. Then Pluto.

Then beyond the reach of our own solar system.

It was designed to last three years.

But for thirty—even when it was more than eight billion miles from Earth—Pioneer kept sending back a signal. A tiny whisper of data, crossing a universe of darkness, saying:

“I’m still here.”

“I’m still on course.”

“I’m still moving forward.”

There’s something about that image that stirs me. Because in a way, Pioneer 10 is a picture of the gospel. A signal from Someone who seems far away… a promise made so long ago… a voice that keeps speaking across time and distance:

“I’m still here.

I’m still faithful.

I’m still coming.”

And this morning, we’re going to talk about that promise.

Not with fear.

Not with charts.

Not with anxious speculations.

But with hope.

Because the message today is simple:

The best is yet to come.

THE TOPICS PEOPLE FEAR MOST

There are topics that make church members nervous—

death, judgment, hell, the time of trouble.

They’re heavy themes. They trigger anxiety.

But they all orbit around one central truth: the second coming of Jesus.

Whether you’re talking about last-day events, the end of suffering, the resurrection, or the final judgment—everything points toward the Blessed Hope.

Yet we look at our world and sometimes think:

“It feels out of control.”

“Everything is collapsing.”

“How much worse can it get?”

We suffer from end-time information overload—

wars ? pestilences ? disasters ? moral decline ? political chaos.

And when Sabbath comes?

Many of us just want to sit in our pew, breathe deeply, and hear something that lifts the heart instead of tightening the chest.

Something true.

Something steady.

Something that gives comfort.

Something that reminds us that Jesus has not abandoned this world.

So today we return to a promise that has held Adventists together for more than 180 years.

THE NAME IN OUR IDENTITY

Our topic this morning has to do with the word “Advent.”

It’s right there in our name.

Seventh-day Adventist.

Advent means:

“The coming of Someone so important that His arrival changes the world.”

The pioneers believed it.

Our grandparents believed it.

Our parents believed it.

Every generation thought they might be the last.

So here we are in 2025, asking questions that Christians have whispered for centuries:

“Is Jesus’ return still near?”

“Why hasn’t He come yet?”

“Has something changed?”

“Should we tone down the urgency?”

“Is there an identity crisis in the church?”

But beneath all those questions lies a deeper one:

How much does the Second Coming still shape the way we live?

Because if we really believe He’s coming again,

then that belief must translate into:

How we love people

How we forgive

How we repent

How we treat the church

How we pursue Jesus daily

Which leads us to the verse that anchors this entire message:

THE PROMISE AND THE DELAY — 2 PETER 3:9

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish…”

Let’s unpack that.

“The Lord is not slack.”

He hasn’t forgotten.

He hasn’t gotten distracted.

He hasn’t changed His mind.

“As some count slackness.”

In other words, your definition of delay is not heaven’s definition of delay.

You and I think delay is inactivity.

God thinks delay is mercy.

“Longsuffering toward us.”

Not toward the world.

Toward the church.

Toward us.

Peter wasn’t writing this to pagans or unbelievers.

He was writing to believers—people who were tempted to get tired of waiting, who were losing the sharp edge of expectation.

Heaven is saying:

“I’m waiting—not because you are patient with Me…

but because I am patient with you.”

This is not a God dragging His feet.

This is a Father refusing to shut the door while one more son or daughter might walk in.

A Father who counts every tear, every prayer, every struggle, every soul.

He delays because His heart won’t allow Him to leave one willing person behind.

REPENTANCE IS NOT FOR “THEM”—IT’S FOR US

Peter says the reason for the delay is that God wants:

“…all to come to repentance.”

When we hear that word, we instinctively think:

“The world needs to repent.”

“The culture needs to repent.”

“Those people over there need to repent.”

But the text is speaking to the church.