The King Returns Series

You know that Zach Williams song that Billy just sang quickly became one of my favorite songs of all time the first time that I heard it. At the lowest point in my life, when I crashed and burned in ministry 14 years ago and hurt my family as much as they had ever been hurt Jesus never gave up on me, lifted me up from the ashes, carried my soul from death to life, and this story became my rescue story. I think that there are a lot of people sitting in a lot of churches today who like me are struggling to see the story as that. That is why we are doing this series that we are wrapping up today called Route 66. Before we jump back in and do that there’s something that we want you to know if you are brand new. It goes like this. We are privileged to have you with us and you are safe and welcome here regardless of how your story reads or what you believe. So special welcome and shout to you if you are brand new (and as always to all of our online friends old and new out there too.)

As we jump back into this journey through the 66 books of the Bible let’s review a little bit so we are all on the same page as we finish this up today. As you might imagine, we started with the beginning, in the beginning, with creation and talked about how God started creation with the end in mind, with us in mind. Creation itself points to how much each of us matter to God. Then we talked about the moment in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sin and all that that moment unleashed in the story. From that moment the story became a rescue story. God starts the rescue mission with one man Abraham and a chosen people Israel. Despite all of their sin, disobedience and mistakes we see God never giving up on them for the next 2000+ years until he finally sends a messiah, a king. The problem is that this king, Jesus, is not the kind of king anyone was expecting. His own people reject him and crucify him. In that moment this rescue story becomes the story of not just the people of Israel but each of us too. All people are now saved by grace through faith in Jesus and have direct access to God himself. Jesus is resurrected from the dead and before returning to be with his father hands the mission off to his followers primarily 12 imperfect people. The message of rescue is now for all nations. The church steps up beside Israel to be a shining light to all nations, to spread the message of the king, and to be known above everything else by the way the people in it love other people. That’s what life in this chapter of the story that we are living in today is supposed to be and what Pete talked about last week. We just sang it again today, if we’re going to be known for something let it be love.

Which brings us to today, the final chapter, the end of the story. Now, I said before that this part of the story is another place where we tend to get most confused. Not only that, it’s the place where us church people tend to get most weird too. So two things right out of the gate. We are not going to get strange and weird. We are not going to look for the antichrist under every rock, try to predict dates and times, and look for ways to find 666 with Hitler, current or former presidents, and famous people. We are also not going to agree on everything and that’s okay. It’s actually one of the things I love the most about this place. If you disagree that’s okay. We Christians seem to argue and divide over the dumbest stuff. So let’s just agree that we are all hopeless without Jesus and that we are all saved by grace through faith in Jesus and just talk about the rest. I don’t understand all this stuff. I mean Creation alone blows my mind. When I get to heaven I want to watch the movie. I have lots of questions...like God why cats? Even if you love cats you get the point. So here we sit in the church age, trying our best to spread the message of the king in the story and leading with love. What happens next? Let’s jump back in and see...

If you brought a Bible today we are going to start in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 today. If you don’t have a Bible they are back on the back tables that you can grab right now if you would like if you close or on you can always grab one on your way out. As always you can hit our app or the YouVersion app too. Or you can ignore all of that and read along with me on the screens. So here we go, 1 Thessalonians 4 starting with verse 13...