Is This The End? - Louie Giglio

i've loved first peter we loved it so much that today we're gonna add on second peter and we're gonna wrap this series up unshakable i hate that and i know you do too and you're thinking wait a minute there's a lot in here we didn't get to cover well fortunately we get to read the word of god every day of our lives as much as we want you can dig in and let god peel back the layers on every single text but i've loved what we have covered in the way that god has shaped our lives and today we're really coming not only to the end of first and second peter but maybe we're coming to the end we're 39 days away something like that from new year's eve that's a crazy thought and the opportunity to ring out 2020. you know normally we're coming into new year's eve and we're ringing in the new year this year i'm excited about ringing out the old year this year and bringing in the new year we started the roaring 20s with a bang i mean literally with a bang we shot fireworks off the mercedes stadium but it in a lot of ways has turned out to be a bust and in the middle of it there have been incredible challenges fires like we haven't seen in our lifetime floods storms plagues and pestilence like we haven't seen in generations in fact i saw the other day an article online that said there have been 100 disasters in the globe since we went into quarantine that's floods hurricanes earthquakes fires that have affected 50 million people we are in the atlantic hurricane season still thank you very much and we're up to hurricane iota the ninth letter of the greek alphabet because we went through all the a to z names and then we started on greek letter names and so far we're up to the ninth one of those that's a generational occurrence and so when you see headlines like the one that was in npr the other day which said it caught my eye because of obviously one word you'll notice locusts are a plague of biblical scope in 2020 why and what are they exactly that was june 14th referencing the plagues of locusts that absolutely devastated the horn of africa nations like somalia kenya tanzania many of the surrounding countries but also places like south china coming across the middle east coming across asia and npr even says these these plagues are of biblical scope and so all of these occurrences beg the question are we living in the last days and peter speaks to this for us today and in case uh you don't want to build up tension and wait for a big resolving answer at the end i can give an answer from the word of god a resounding answer to the question are we living in the last days this the resounding answer from god's word is absolutely yes we are living in the last days now there's zero applause in the room and there were no gaps so nobody seemed really excited about that and no one seemed shocked about that so a very blase response to a pretty defining statement today so i'm not sure where to go from here but i guess i'll just go back to the word of god it says in chapter four just kidding first peter verse seven peter writes by the power of the holy spirit the end of all things is near so again if you have if you can get a hold of your bible at home go get it and open it so that you have it in your lap because we're gonna ping around into different texts today and i want you to be able to to move quickly but we're anchoring in verse seven the end of all things is near in other words we've talked in this book about the rule of the roman empire and the effect that that's having throughout asia minor where we've talked about the fact that believers are now living among pagans they're living next door to people who don't know about jesus maybe you haven't heard of the resurrection or don't want to believe it or accept it we're we're seeing a situation where there's pressure from without to be a follower of jesus in in your business and your neighborhood and your community among your friends and your family that some people are married to non-believers and that's creating tension some people are working alongside non-believers and that's creating tension we are believing in a king of kings that were under a rule of law and that creates a certain amount of tension and peter's saying oh with all of this the end is near all this is coming to a close and it's getting close therefore be clear-minded and self-controlled so that you can pray now that's an interesting combination of ideas that we're going to look at more carefully but the answer to the question are we living in the last days the word of god and the writer of this letter writing in 64 ish a.d is saying yes the end of all things is near personally that was true for peter if you fast forward over to chapter 1 of 2nd peter so just look across the page in verse 12. so i will always remind you of these things even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have i think it is right to refresh your memory as long as i live here we go in the tent of this body because i know peter is saying that i will what soon put it aside as our lord jesus christ has made clear to me and i will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things so for peter his mindset is the end is near his mindset is i am living in the last days but also the mentality of the believer was we're all living in the last days we've talked before about the emperor nero the one whom it said about in lore that he played his fiddle while rome was burning rome burned for nine days the city was completely destroyed and nero was the emperor in that moment says he was a distance away in his palace outside the city playing his fiddle while the whole city burned to the ground well unfortunately there were no fiddles in the time of nero but he was playing something people believe maybe his liar because that was an instrument available to him but nero created massive problems for believers the first time really that the powers of government really turn towards the people of faith in jesus reading in fox's book of martyrs it says this this persecution was general throughout the whole roman empire but it rather increased then diminished the spirit of christianity in the course of it speaking about the persecution that came with nero in the course of it saint paul and saint peter our guy were martyred to their names may be added erastus chamberlain of corinth aristarchus the macedonian entrophamus of ephesus converted by saint paul and a fellow laborer with him joseph commonly called barsabbas and ananias bishop of damascus each of the 70. so all of a sudden the tide has turned we're just 30 years downstream from the resurrection yet there's an enormous amount of persecution coming on the followers of jesus second peter tells us and the end of first peter that these believers are being scoffed at because of the choice of their way of life and following jesus and in addition they're being snuffed out by the persecution of rome and so people are sensing maybe this is the end and certainly we're living in the last days because if nero is going to torch believers at night to light the gardens for his parties then surely it can't get worse than this and so peter when he's writing back in chapter 4 verse 7 and he says the end of all things is near no one reading this letter would go oh i really want to bring that into question everybody was thinking absolutely it can't get worse than that so the answer is a resounding yes we are living in the last days according to the word of god the problem is i'm reading in my text in verse 7 the word near but i have the the opportunity and the perspective if you will of moving a long way downstream 2 000 years downstream and i'm looking back at the text now with the context of history human history and i'm going man i don't know about that word near they probably felt super close to the reader in 64 65 66 67 68 a.d but it doesn't feel as near in 2020 so how near are we and how can we say today we're living in the last days when the near is 2 000 years ago and we do that by turning the page into second peter chapter three and understanding end times math and i'd like to just pick up the whole text if i can beginning in verse one dear friends this is how my second letter this is now my second letter to you i've written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking i want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our lord and savior through your apostles first of all you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come scoffing and following their own evil desires they will say where is this coming he promised so he's answering his own question in the context of both of these letters they'll say where is this coming he promised ever since our fathers died everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation but they deliberately forget that long ago by god's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water by these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed by the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men now here comes our text but do not forget this one thing and what he doesn't want us to forget today is end times math do not forget this one thing dear friends with the lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day the lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness in other words don't look at this simply through the lens of the watch that's on your wrist he is patient with you not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance but the day of the lord will come like a thief the heavens will disappear with a roar the elements will be destroyed by fire and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare end times math says that 2020 is grueling as it is with its 100 disasters since quarantine with its fires and its floods and its storms and its pestilence and its plagues and its pandemics that in end times math 2020 lasted 86.4 seconds now some of you are saying i i would have been happier with 8.64 seconds we could be done already but in end times math the hardest year most of us probably will navigate in our lifetime lasted 86.4 seconds so we get perspective now that yes we are definitely living in the last days it's been two days since jesus was raised from the dead so we're in day three don't know how many days they're gonna be but we're in the third day right now and a lot of things happen on the third day so maybe it's all gonna happen on the third day meaning sometime in the thousand-year span that we're in jesus is coming and this world is going to end as we know it it's not going to be destroyed by a flood as in the days of noah because there's a promise that that won't happen again but it is going to be destroyed by fire according to the word of god and everything in it's going to be laid bare all the things we built all our accomplishments all of our pride all of our bastions of life on earth they're going away in a heartbeat like a fire roaring through northern california and then you see on the news the day later like metal frames where a school existed in a chimney where a multi-million dollar house existed and all of a sudden like a thief in the night things that we built and things that we depended on and things that we thought were going to bring us happiness they're gone in an instant imagine the entire earth being gone like that and only a chimney standing to say yeah it was great but it's gone and not only that the heavens as well so that god can as we see in first and second peter create a new heaven and a new earth we're gonna see this verse in a moment so if we are in fact living in the last days if we don't know when the 86.4 seconds is going to be up and jesus is going to appear how do we make sure a that we don't get lulled into this thinking like these scoffers where is the lord's appearing oh peter must have got it wrong the holy spirit must have been mistaken the end of all things is near i don't think so how do we not get lulled into that human i'm looking at my watch mentality and how do we live as though we're in end times math where a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years or like a day we're on day three right now how do we live with that view few things number one we live with patience patience is a virtue they say but no one likes it patience is a fruit of the spirit but none of us want to have anything to do with it we're not very patient with ourselves have you noticed that we're not very patient with god a lot of the time and we're certainly not patient with other people but patience is the working of the holy spirit when the holy spirit is involved one of the ways you're going to know he's involved is because patience is going to be in the story it's one of the fruits of the spirit and so god being the holy spirit father son and spirit operates in patience and he's going to need you to operate in patience because you're living in the last days and he's going to need you to be patient with him and his sovereign purpose and plan even though for you if you could get your hands on the levers today you might make it all work out on a different timeline and he's going to need me and you to humble ourselves into his patient plan trust me no one wants to pull the plug on an ungodly world more than a holy god but also no one understands the magnitude of what's going to go down the drain if he does than a holy god some of your co-workers are going down the drain some of your family members are going down the drain some nations by and large are going down the drain entire world viewpoints are going down the drain man's way of thinking is going down the drain all of man's pride is going down the drain all of ungodliness is going down the drain all of it is going down the drain and god knows that and so he's not eager today to in his sovereign power say i'm done with you guys i'm pulling the plug and where i hear believers all the time say man i just wish the lord would come the lord is saying man i don't want to pull this plug because when i do those three families that live in your cul-de-sac they're not going to be standing in the city of righteousness they're still scoffing at the savior and i he is saying god am a patient god and my patience right now is overwhelming my justice because i want to see everybody in the story this is what peter writes when he talks about the way that we should live he says in verse 8 do not forget this one thing with the lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day the lord is not slow in keeping his promise as some understand slowness he is can you say the word with me he is patient with you why not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance and so what this does for me knowing that i'm living in the last days is it highlights my desire to let the spirit of god form a spirit of patience in me because i have to have patience to understand that the pain has a purpose peter talked about the day that he was on the mount of transfiguration it's the way he sort of promises everything in second peter and peter talks about it this way he's in verse 16. i don't think we have the text or maybe it'll come up but let me read it for us if we don't he said we did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our lord jesus christ but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty for he jesus received honor and glory from god the father when the voice came to him from the majestic glory all caps that's the that's causing me to take a step back saying this is my son whom i love with him i am well pleased we ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain what happened jesus said to peter james and john come up with me on the mount once they were high on the mount the glory of god descended and they saw jesus and they saw moses and they saw elijah and they saw the glory of god and then they heard a voice from the majestic glory saying this is my son whom i love and the text says in the gospels they fell their faces to the ground when they heard the voice and jesus came over and said hey it's okay it's okay we're all gonna be okay and when they got up off of the ground that they looked and they only saw jesus so what happened in a moment god does what he occasionally does he connected the dots most often on this world the dots are not connected you don't know how your prayer this morning is changing eternity you can't see how it's all working you don't know how your worship today is changing the kingdom of god but it's happening you don't see how your gift today your generosity today is is working but trust me god's connecting the dots but on this day he connected the dots he said guys i know you're trying to figure all this out i know it's not all making sense right now so come up on the mountain i want to show you something a there's something called the glory of god and it will put you on your face b there's moses and there's elijah there's your boys right there he gave you the law he told you about the holiness of god he helped you see that no one could be righteous in and of himself he helped you see that no one can see god and live it he helps you understand that you can't do ten simple things in your own strength and elijah came with that that for foreboding sense of that there's going to be a sea change happening and the spirit of god is going to come on people and god's going to move miraculously through people god's got the power god's got the authority god's not afraid of anything you can bring all the prophets of baal and bring him to mount carmel but i'll show you fire coming down from heaven and elijah is going to outrun the chariot of ahab all the way down the road to jezreel i'm going to show you spirit power and i'm going to show you the need for a savior in the end they're going to go away and it's just going to be jesus so we don't we don't thank you moses thank you elijah but jesus does what he said he fulfills the law and he fulfills the prophets the law said there has to be a savior and the prophet said he's on the way but it's going to be a long time till he gets here hundreds of years before he gets here and then religion said in a way moses you didn't make it man and you're not going into the promised land and elijah you say there's this coming savior but he's not coming in your lifetime or your kid's lifetime or your grandkids lifetime or your great grandkids lifetime and all of a sudden god said let me show you grace moses come stand in the promised land elijah there he is right there and he connected the dots now you would think that would have been enough for peter that he would have gotten it all right after that but he still had a couple of bumps in the road even after god connected the dots but god's probably not connecting the dots for you like that today so you're living by faith patiently somehow god is using all this because he wants people to be saved so i'm going to adopt a spirit of patience in my life the second thing that's true of us when we get this end times math and we do believe i'm in the last days we do understand i'm living in the last days the second thing that happens to us is we get urgent so we're patient but we're also urgent you're like how can you be patient and be urgent at the same time i'm talking about being urgent not about things that last a minute or two but things that last forever we are really urgent right now about stuff that lasts a minute or two 86.4 seconds or so but god wants us to be urgent about the things that last forever today and he's encouraging us to get a spirit of urgency in our lives because we're reading over here that he comes like a thief he comes quickly that's what he said second peter 3 but the day of the lord will come like a thief so in end times liver and if i could be a little bold hey i believe jesus is coming soon kind of person you know how you know you're i believe jesus is coming soon person because you've shared the gospel with everybody in your company you know how you're in the in the company of i'm i'm one of the ones that believes jesus is coming soon because you've left a note on your mailbox it said if jesus comes i'm not 100 sure how the pets work out and we have a pet in the house i have a friend who does that because they believe jesus is coming soon if you're in that company i believe jesus is coming soon i believe it could be any day look what's happening the fires the floods the storms the pandemic the plagues all of this turmoil we're in i believe jesus is coming soon then everybody in your neighborhood is getting a short gospel presentation in their mailbox this christmas hi we're the johnsons you might not know us well we lift seven houses down on your street we just want to make sure everybody in the neighborhood knew that we're believers in jesus and i know i don't know where you're coming from and but we really do believe that there's an opportunity right now for everybody to put their faith in jesus to be forgiven to know grace to know his mercy to know his kindness to be born again to be brought to brand new life and in the event that we're living in that last moment or two we just didn't want jesus to come and for us not to have told you the good news that we've been sitting on seven doors down the third thing coming down to the end here that will be true of us if we're living in the last days is we'll be confident fear is a less than mentality you know how the little triangle goes that way that's the less than right lesser than and i believe satan is winning therefore i'm going to live in fear but peter is trying to encourage us satan is roaring but he's not winning so i'm going to live confidently in a greater than mentality meaning i'm not going to live in fear i'm going to live in confidence because i don't believe satan is winning more than i believe jesus is coming [Music] and then the last of these is that we would live congruently yes i use the word congruently in a sermon in other words [Music] we would get our focus on where we're going and we would make our lives match that even though we're not there yet that's what he said verse 11 second peter three since everything will be destroyed in this way what kind of people ought you to be you ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of god and speed it's coming verse 14 so then dear friends since you are looking forward to this make every effort to be found spotless blameless and at peace with him and bear in mind that our lord's patience means salvation [Music] i was flying to uh panama city florida a few years ago on a family vacation and family was already there i was flying by myself and it was one of those little smaller commuter size operations and we were all sitting packed in the gate area and like what happened going to panama city florida anytime from spring to fall the weather is going to bring you a delay nine times out of ten and so we've got this thunderstorm thing and the flight's been pushed back and then it got pushed back again then it got pushed back again and i'm not sure it's going to go and by now i could have gotten in a rent-a-car and driven down there and already been there by now practically but all this is going on and as i'm sitting in the gate i've been noticing the whole time there's one of these professional men's softball teams in the gate do you ever see them at the airport they all have like the shoulder bag or the duffel bag and they got all their bats and gloves and gear in there and they're all looking you know like they're just gonna go bash it out and they're on their way i guess to a softball tournament somewhere in the panhandle of florida and they're just sitting around we're all sitting around and you kind of now have sized up everybody in the gate area finally we get pretty good confirmation this flight's gonna go in 45 minutes and i can sense the things are stirring with them because i i've added up that they had a little bit of time to get there go drop their stuff at the hotel get rolling go to the complex get ready for the game have lunch whatever but all that's gone now and now it's like if the flight goes on time and we land and we get in the car and go as fast as we can we can get there in time to not have to forfeit our game situation that's what they're thinking and i know this by confirmation because at some point i see two of them come out of the men's room which is within eyesight down the concourse a little bit and they are fully in their softball uniforms so the word has trickled out when we get there we're going straight to the game get dressed and they have their uniforms in their bags and so these two dudes come out went in looking kind of normal you know came out with matching softball uniforms on it and came and sat down and that's happened over the next 15 minutes to the point where every minute or so two or three dudes are coming out of the men's room in full softball pants socks jerseys the hats the whole thing i don't think they put their batting gloves on and their eye black on but they were getting close and so now as we're boarding there's a men's softball team boarding and as we get on the plane there's you know a lady with a baby and there's a dude you know with some khakis on and there's a teenager with some jeans on and then there's like 20 of these softball dudes coming on it and they're all sitting down on the plane they've all got their matching uniforms on there and nobody's looking at them going man what is wrong with those people yo check out the softball team and they didn't feel in the slightest bit unnerved by it they were like what yeah yeah we're on king of the road that's our team name that's us king of the road here we come excuse me excuse me i'm in here i'm by the window what had happened they had added it all up we just have enough time to get where we're going and we want to be ready and not miss it when we get there so we need to change now and as we're changing now we couldn't care less about what anybody in the gate thinks about us because we're the kings of the road [Music] they weren't coming out of the men's room going you go that way i'll go this way hopefully nobody will see that we have our softball uniforms on i'm going to get down behind the seat i don't want people to realize that i'm different that i'm standing out that i don't look like everybody else he is saying listen if it's in times and you're living in the last days then you need to make sure that there is a congruency in your life and you need to get to that place where you are less concerned about what the world around you thinks about your behavior your point of view your lifestyle the way your family is moving it and you need to look forward and get ready you need to check the weather app and see what's it gonna be like on the last day i'll start packing accordingly because that's where i'm going the most encouraging thing of all was in that fox of martyrs description and i just want us to walk away today in faith not in fear fear wants the mic but jesus is the lord so it's like your five-year-old on their little beat box i got my mic i can push the button and sing in the living room that's fear [Music] jesus is lord [Music] and he's greater just back to the opening this persecution this gotta be the end of the day this nero fellow this we're gonna blame the fire of rome conveniently on the christians so a as nero i can get off the hook [Music] and that's just going to start an entire of unthinkable pain for people like peter [Music] this persecution was generally throughout the whole roman empire but it rather increased greater than diminished lesser the spirit of christianity the church grew the gospel went forward this word living today was written while nero was running the show as the most powerful person on the planet he who took his life outside of rome the only roman emperor to do so who now has just left us bullet points in history and quips about playing a liar as the city burned yet we're here today living in the power of the word of god breathed under the pages of god by the the men and women of god through the spirit of god with a church that has grown and prospered and spread and moved into every corner of the world and is doing so today the plug is still in but the gospel is still moving patience is still the play so that more and more people today can put their faith in jesus and repent from their ways and we're a part of that come on church we are a part of that today we are in a winning unshakable story today you

Channel: Passion City Church

Views: 654,444

Rating: 4.766592 out of 5

Keywords: Worship Matters, W2O2R2S2H2I2P

Id: 20gyWX_-BQw

Length: 40min 1sec (2401 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 23 2020