2025-03-28 Defiance Series: Surprised by His Coming Part 2

On the next Moody Presents with Dr. Mark Jobe he'll get you thinking about the urgency of the end times and how you and I need to be ready.  It's a compelling look at 1st Thessalonians that will serve as a good reminder to...be ready!

Become part of our Advance Team: http://moodyradio.org/donateto/moodypresents/partners

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

S1 (00:01):
Today on Moody Presents with Mark Jobe. How to avoid
spiritual slumber as we await Jesus return.

S2 (00:09):
If you have a laundry list of things that you
need to do, if you knew that Jesus Christ was
coming again next week, then I'm going to tell you something.
You are not ready.

S1 (00:25):
Welcome to Moody Presents with Mark Jobe. If you're new, welcome.
Our Bible teacher is the senior pastor of New Life
Community Church in Chicago and president of Moody Bible Institute.
You know, looking around at all the events happening in
our world today, you might well think the end times
are upon us. And as we move forward, Mark will

(00:46):
be taking us to the book of First Thessalonians to
share ways we really can know when Christ might return.
We're learning how to not be lulled to sleep by
the comforts and distractions of this world, and our message
is called Surprised by his coming. If you've missed any
of the previous messages in this series, you can catch
up online at Moody Presents. That's Moody presents. All right.

(01:11):
Now here's pastor Mark to get us started.

S2 (01:15):
It's like a parent that leaves the teenager in charge
of the house, and the teenager wants to have some
friends over. Hello. And so the teen says, hey, mom,
when exactly will you be getting home? And the mom
and the mom says, don't worry, I'll let you know
right before I come, but just know that I'm coming back.

(01:39):
You see, if the team would know the time, he'd
plan his party right? To have everything cleaned up. But
if the mom doesn't give him an exact time, then
she could show up right in the middle of his party.
And that's exactly what Jesus says. He avoids the question
of when I will come, but he answers the question
of how we should live. And the question of how

(02:01):
we should live. He says, I don't want you to
be spiritually asleep. Notice what he says. He says, but
you brothers are not in darkness. Verse five, you are
sons of the light and sons of the day. So
then we do not belong to the night, nor to

(02:22):
the darkness. So then let us not be like others
who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled.
You see, a lot of this world is sleeping spiritually. Remember,
he's talking to believers and he's basically saying, there's a
lot of believers, even in the churches, that consider themselves Christians,

(02:44):
that are spiritually asleep. Now, what does it mean to
be spiritually asleep? Well, it means that you're not alert.
You're not active. You've kind of allowed yourself to be
lured into a nap by the lullabies of this world.
And so you're not looking at what God is saying.

(03:07):
You're not active in what God is doing. You're just
taking a nap while a major event is occurring. How
do you and I sleep? We fall asleep when we
become consumed with the things of this world, and we
forget about the bigger spiritual things. How do we fall asleep?
We fall asleep when we allow ourselves to get caught
up in carnality and sinful practices, and we forget that

(03:30):
life is short. Eternity is long. How do we fall asleep?
We fall asleep when we become insensitive to the voice
of God, the promptings of the spirit. We're no longer
are we. No longer do we see what God is
doing when someone falls asleep. How many heavy sleepers do
we have in this place? All right, some of you,
when you fall asleep, I mean, an earthquake could happen.

(03:52):
And you would. You would not even know. Someone could
pick you up in the couch and move you to
another room, and you'd still be sound asleep. Why? Because
a sleeping person that sleeps well does not know what's
happening around them. Paul says, some of you Christians are
in a spiritual slumber. You don't know what's happening around
you because you've fallen asleep spiritually. So he says, wake up.

(04:18):
What should characterize you is alertness and self-control. I don't
know if you've ever driven late at night, after a
long day where your body's tired and you're on the expressway,
and the hum of your car and the blasting of
the heat is just telling you, this is a great

(04:40):
time for a nap. And in your mind you say, no, no, no,
this is not a good time for a nap. I'm
driving here. But your body tells you just close your
eyelids for a minute. They get heavier and heavier. You
stare out the front window. Blankly. You don't speed up.

(05:06):
You don't slow down. You're sort of in a trance.
And your body says, now rest. Oh, has that ever
happened to you? You fight it, but it's saying rest.
And then before you know it, you're jolted awake because
you hear the air as your tires hit the side
of the road and the indentation in the in the

(05:27):
pavement and the side of the road that's meant to
wake people up. And that's happened to me. And a
jolt of adrenaline surges through your body as you think, wow,
that was close. Well, I know that when that's happened
to me, I do anything that I can to stay awake.
I'll roll down the window in the middle of a
frigid Chicago winter and let that cold air just wake

(05:51):
me up. I'll stop at a Starbucks and pay four
bucks for a double espresso. I'll even go to those extreme.
I'll turn on my sons, my 17 year old screamo
music just to keep me awake. Man, I've slapped myself
in the face. I'll do whatever it takes to stay
awake because I know if I fall asleep, it could

(06:12):
be disastrous. That's the same exhortation that the Spirit of
God is telling to the church. God is saying to
the church, do whatever it takes to stay awake because
you're slumbering, and your sleep could be disastrous. It'll lure
you to sleep, but you need to stay awake. This
is not the season and the time to fall spiritually asleep.

(06:36):
So he says to us, do not be like others
who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled.
It means we're aware of what's happening around us. We're
practicing the disciplines of staying awake. This takes effort to
stay awake. He says, for those who sleep, sleep at

(06:56):
night and those who get drunk get drunk at night.
But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled.
You and I belong to the day. What? What Paul
is telling us is we're not children of darkness. If
you are in the dark, you'd fall asleep. You'd get drunk.
Those are the behaviors of those that are in the dark.
But we are children of light, so that's not our behavior.

(07:19):
We act differently than the world around us, acts because
we're waiting for the coming of Jesus Christ. Number three,
Paul tells us, you prepare by getting ready for spiritual battle.
In verse eight he says, but since we belong to

(07:40):
the day, let us be self-controlled. Now he starts using
military language, putting on faith and love as a breastplate,
and hope of salvation as a helmet. What's he telling us?
I believe that what Paul is telling us is that
the closer we come to the coming of Jesus Christ.

(08:02):
The more we have to take on a battle mentality,
because the intensity of the spiritual fight will increase. There
will be casualties like never before. Spiritual casualties. The Bible
says that in the end times, many will be deceived
away from God. The Bible says that in the end

(08:24):
times the heart of many will grow cold. It tells
us that there will be teachers that will teach what
our itching ears want to hear and lead us astray.
The Bible says that many their hearts will turn against
their parents and turn against God, that they will be
deceivers and darkness. In other words, that the closer we
come to the coming of Christ, the more people will

(08:46):
have to fight for their soul and battle for their
spiritual existence, because it will get harder. Listen to me.
Not easier. How do we fight? We fight with the
threefold weapon. These are the three things mentioned by Paul

(09:08):
in Corinthians. They're the three things mentioned in first Thessalonians.
A couple of times. Three things mentioned in several of
the epistles. Faith, hope and love. We need more of those.
What is faith? Faith is the substance of things hoped for,

(09:28):
the evidence of things not seen. It tells us in
Hebrews that without faith it is impossible to please God,
because we must first of all believe that he is,
and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently
seek him. You cannot please God without faith. Faith is saying,
I believe even though I cannot see. Faith is saying,

(09:49):
I believe the promises of God, even though my circumstances
may tell me one thing, I believe that God's Word
is more real than my circumstances. Faith is saying, Yeah,
that I believe that life is short, but eternity is long.
You see, if you don't maintain your faith, you will
become discouraged and sidetracked and fall asleep and enamored with

(10:13):
this world. Faith challenges you to continue to believe, to
continue to go forward. Faith reminds you that you cannot
live for the things that your eyes can see and
your hands can touch. But there's something that is untangible
that we need to be living for. That's what our
faith tells us. Faith. Hope. He starts in this passage.

(10:39):
He puts faith and love first. Love is the attitude
that you and I need to have towards other people
in our life. Faith has to do with God our
relationship with God. Love has to do with what God
has done in us and overflows to the people around us.
It's the attitude that you have towards people that hurt you.
It's the releasing that you show and the forgiveness that

(11:02):
you have in your relationships. Listen, I think one of
the areas that many of us will be unprepared for
when Jesus Christ comes again. He'll find some of us hating.
Let me say that again. I believe that Jesus Christ
will come and find some of us hating bitter towards

(11:25):
an ex spouse, resentful towards someone that hurt us. Bottled
up with unresolved relational issues. Do you really want God

(11:46):
to find you that way? Because if he finds you
full of bitterness and anger and unforgiveness, he has found
you unready. Faith and love are the breastplates that guard
our vital organs. The last thing that he mentions is hope. Oh,
I love the word hope. You know what hope is?

(12:08):
Hope is the expectation of a better future based on
the promises of God. Hope reminds me that although life
may be tough, my suffering now does not define my
eternal existence. That I may suffer for a time. But
glory is coming. Hope reminds me that injustice may exist

(12:33):
on this world today, but a day will come where
God will make all things just. Hope reminds me that
my body may be wracked with sickness now, but it
will not be wracked with sickness forever. Because one day
I will be given a glorified body. Yeah. Hope reminds
me of that. Hope reminds me that I may struggle

(12:56):
with sin now and battle with carnality. But this will
not be forever. One day I will be glorified and
made into the image of Jesus, and there will be
no sin and struggle in my life anymore. That day
will be over. Hope reminds me that for now, I
may go through bouts of loneliness, but there one day
will all be so connected with God that loneliness will

(13:17):
only be a shadow of my past that I will
never experience again.

S1 (13:26):
You're listening to Moody Presents with Mark Jobe. Our message
surprised by his coming. And if you'd like to hear
all of this again, be sure to visit us online
at Moody Presents. Did you know that you can also
listen to this program on your mobile device? Just download
the Moody Radio mobile app. It's free, it's quick and convenient,
and it's just one of the ways that we're making

(13:48):
it easy for you to listen whenever and wherever. Search
for Moody Radio at Google Play or the App Store.
Let me take a few seconds now to tell you
about a great resource that we would love to offer
you for a gift of any size. It's called your
future self will. Thank you. Secrets to self control from
the Bible and brain science. We'll send you a copy

(14:09):
of your future self will thank you for your gift
of any amount in support of Moody presents you can
give online at Moody Presents. Moody presents org. All right,
let's get back to today's message as pastor Mark shows
us how to be encouraging and uplifting while we wait
for the Lord to return.

S2 (14:33):
Now, I want to tell you something. I believe that
the the more you suffer in this life, the harder
it is. And I know some of you have had
a hard life. The more we suffer in this life,
the sweeter the coming of Jesus becomes comes to us.

(14:53):
You see, I believe that one of the greatest challenges
with America and the churches in America Ah. Is that
our prosperity and materialism and comfort and well-being has taken
away the urgency and desire for the coming of Christ.
But places like China, where they're experiencing persecution, where people

(15:18):
may be in jail for sharing the gospel, or places
in Africa where people are being slaughtered because of their
faith or living in abject poverty. They long for the
coming of Christ because this life is not full of comfort.
They long for the day that Jesus Christ will come again.
They understand. Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus. There are believers all

(15:44):
over the world that long for the coming of Jesus Christ.
And to be honest with you, most of us here
in America, yeah, we like the coming of Jesus Christ,
but a lot of us would prefer if Jesus would
just wait a little bit. We're not saying, come, Lord Jesus.
Now we're kind of saying God. Well, you know, could

(16:06):
you wait after my daughter's quinceanera before you come? Could we?
We put a lot of money into that Jesus. Or,
you know, we got a vacation planned. If you could
just wait after that, that would be nice. Or, hey,
I got a wedding or my cousin's expecting a baby.
If you could wait a little bit. And it would
be nice if you timed it that way, because sometimes
we do not know the agony of soul, the suffering

(16:28):
of spirit that the suffering of believers that say, come,
Lord Jesus, we long for your appearing now. Now, I'm
not praying for persecution on us. I'm not asking for suffering,
but I am praying that God would create such an
urgency in our spirit and a desire for him that

(16:48):
even without physical suffering, we'd be saying, come, Lord Jesus, come.
I long for your return. I pray that God would
stir our hearts in that way. And he says, For
God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to
receive salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, for he died

(17:09):
so that whether we are awake or asleep, this is
talking about physically alive or dead. That we may live
together with him. And then he wraps it up with
verse 11 and comes to my final point. You prepare
for the coming of Jesus Christ by encouraging and building

(17:33):
others up. Notice what he says in verse 11, therefore
encourage one another and build each other up, just as
in fact you are doing. Why is that? Well, I
believe that one of the greatest challenges of the end
times will be discouragement, that there's going to be so

(17:53):
much temptation, so many people falling away, so much worldly
Influence that the church needs to increase its intensity of
encouragement and relationship. Hebrews chapter ten verse 25 speaks to that.

(18:13):
Now you may have heard this verse before by a
pastor that was trying to encourage you not to miss
a church service on Sunday. But I think there's deeper
implications to this verse. The writer of Hebrews says, let
us not give up meeting together, as some are in
the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another. Why?

(18:39):
All the more as you see the day approaching. What
is he talking about? The day referred to in Scripture.
This is not a minor event. This is a big event.
It's called the day. What day is it? The day
of the coming of Christ. And what Paul is saying

(18:59):
is this listen, you need to encourage each other more
because the closer you come to the coming of Christ,
the more the church needs to be intense and intentional
about their relationships, because many people will become discouraged with
trials and deception and sin. Listen. Think about it for
a second. Think about your own heart. How easy it

(19:22):
is to get discouraged in a bad week. Have two
bad weeks in a row, and some of us are
ready to walk away from God and to give up
and to give into temptation. That is why the church
needs to be even more intentional and powerful about saying,
we will encourage one another. We will get involved in
each other's lives. We will build each others up. Oh,

(19:47):
I know some of you are saying in the back
of your mind you're saying, well, pastor, you sent me
and God have our own little thing going. I like
to come to church that much? I just like to
go to nature. Leaves are turning colors. I'm out in
nature and just breathing in the God atmosphere. And God

(20:12):
speaks to my soul. And I just get so much
out of it. So nature is my church. Well, listen
to me. I'm glad you like nature. I'm glad you
hug a tree once in a while. But I've never
heard a bush rebuke you because you're starting to slip

(20:36):
into sin. I've never seen a tree reach out with
its branches and pray over your soul that needs prayer. Uh, no.
I've never seen it. I've never seen a branch help
you out when you're struggling and give you a hand.
I've never seen that. Because nature. Television, Electronics is no

(21:00):
substitute for the people of God. You cannot make it
in these end days unless you are integrated. Unless you
are fellowshipping. Unless you are pushing in to the people
of God and the Church of God, in the end,
days will become even more indispensable than it has been.
The fellowship of the brethren, the encouragement, the praying, the

(21:23):
being involved in a small group. These are not optional
to your survival. These will be central to you making
it in God, so that when Jesus comes, he finds
us ready. The question I really want to ask you today. Is,

(21:43):
are you ready? Suppose that Jesus was coming a week
from today and you knew he was. Would you get frantic?
I got a lot of things I need to make, right?
And I got a whole list of 20 people I
still need to talk to. Write letters of forgiveness, payback,

(22:07):
a few things that I've stolen. Take that extra tool
back to the site. Job site? Say, I don't want that.
Ask repentance over some things in my heart. Get rid
of some shady videos in my house. I mean, seriously,

(22:30):
if you knew that Jesus was coming back a week
from today, would you have to do house cleaning? Would
you have to do heart cleaning? Would you have to repent?
Would you have to say, hey, I've been thinking about
getting baptized forever, but I just haven't taken that step.
I've been thinking about really giving myself to God, but
I haven't. I've been thinking really about a lot of things.
I just haven't done them. The question I ask, are

(22:53):
you ready? Because here's the point. If you have a
laundry list of things that you need to do if
you knew that Jesus Christ was coming again next week,
then I'm going to tell you something. You are not ready.
You're not living the way God wants you to live.
You're not living ready. If you're living ready, you would say,

(23:16):
if Jesus Christ comes again, I'm going to do whatever
I was planning to do next week because I'm in
the center of God's will, living for him. My heart's clean,
loving him. I'm not going to change one thing. I
don't have a bunch of things I have to get right.
I'm just going to keep pressing forward and he will
find me ready because I'm living my life ready now.

S1 (23:43):
Thank you, pastor Mark. You've been listening to Moody Presents
featuring the Bible teaching of Mark job. You know, few
people have more impact on this non-profit ministry than those
who have chosen to partner with us each month. As
a moody Presents Advanced team member, you're helping us reach
listeners all across the country with Mark's unique and fresh

(24:04):
take on the gospel. And we're hearing from people, you know,
in Texas and California, South Carolina, Illinois and everywhere in between.
And every comment, every letter we receive confirms that God
is working through this program and the lives of his people.
So if you'd like to help us share the life
transforming power of the gospel, visit us online at Moody
Presents Dot to give a generous financial gift today. You

(24:28):
can also call us at 800, 400, 7022 800, 400, 7022.
And when you give a gift of any amount today,
we'll say thanks for your contribution by sending you a
copy of your future self Will. Thank you. Secrets to
Self-control from the Bible and Brain Science. As pastor Mark

(24:51):
Jobe steps up to the mic here, I'm just reflecting
on the fact that this has been such an insightful,
engaging message. But Mark, I wonder if you'd give us
a little sneak peek into where we're headed next as
we talk about relationships. I think I've heard you say
before that relationships are so critical that they're key to
our survival, right?

S2 (25:09):
You know, we're talking about what it means to prepare
for the coming of the Lord Jesus. We live with
the imminent return of Christ in mind. Right? And sometimes
we don't think about this, but one of the most
important aspects of preparing is our relationships. And the apostle
Paul jumps into that right away and says, hey, you
need to take care of your relationships. Live at peace

(25:31):
with other people because two things last forever the Word
of God and people.

S1 (25:36):
Thanks, Mark. Always great to connect. Appreciate you stopping by.
Next week, pastor Mark shows us how we can keep
our relationships on track as we prepare for Jesus coming.
It's all part of our Defiance Series. Moody presents is
a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.