John Bradshaw - The Second Coming
I'm glad you're able to join me today. We're going to gather around the Bible together, open it up, and expect that God will bless us. Let's pray as we begin.
Our Father in heaven, we're thankful for the opportunity to come to You through Your Word. Bless us, lead us by Your Spirit, and feed us on the bread of life. We pray with thanks in Jesus' name. Amen.
December the 7th, 1941, a day President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said would do what? That's right, would "live in infamy". Three hundred and fifty aircraft of the Empire of Japan attacked Hawaii, the territory of Hawaii, not yet one of the United States. All eight US Navy battleships in Pearl Harbor were damaged. Four of them were sunk, although three were later raised and returned to the war. Still other ships were sunk. One hundred and eighty-eight US aircraft were destroyed, and more than 2,400 Americans were killed, and almost 1,200 were wounded. And why? Japan was looking to control the Pacific. They'd invaded China. Japan was intending to control the entire Pacific down to Australia, which it had attacked numerous times, and New Zealand, in whose waters it had lurked.
Now, just hours after that dreadful attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan attacked the Philippines, which at the time was essentially a colony of the United States, following the United States' victory in the Spanish-American War. The US paid Spain $20 million as compensation for the Philippines. The Philippines is made up of more than 7,500 islands. Now, if that sounds like a lot, it's because it is. But for some perspective, only 11 of those islands are bigger than the island of Oahu in Hawaii. When Japan attacked the Philippines, everything changed. Life was considered pretty good in the Philippines up until then. And while the United States had a military presence there, it simply wasn't enough to counter the Japanese onslaught.
On December the 24th of that same year, General Douglas MacArthur moved his headquarters to Corregidor, a 2.12 square mile rock fortress in Manila Bay. Americans referred to it as "the Rock". Some called it "the Gibraltar of the East". But Corregidor was hammered from the air. MacArthur's headquarters on Corregidor was inside a system of tunnels on the island, the Malinta Tunnels. I've been in there. We filmed in there. Fascinating place. It served as a hospital; it served as a shelter; it served as a supply depot. It became very clear that in spite of this fortress, the Malinta Tunnels on the Island of Corregidor, victory was very unlikely in the Philippines. So then on March the 12th, 1942, General MacArthur and a small group of others were evacuated from the Philippines. The B-17 which transported MacArthur landed in Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory, and then he traveled by train to Melbourne.
Now, what's interesting is that in Australia, the railroad was comprised of two separate gauges. Some tracks were so wide, and some tracks were a little narrower or a little wider, and so what that meant was that MacArthur was going to have to change trains, which he did at a little place that I would be astonished if you've ever heard of: a place called Terowie. MacArthur changed trains at Terowie, which is about 140 miles northeast of the capital of South Australia, Adelaide. About 100, maybe a little bit more, people live there now.
I read that Terowie, get this, appears on most maps. But while the battle was raging back in the Philippines, MacArthur spoke words that entered history, that entered into history at Terowie. The assembled media came to MacArthur, and they said, uh, "General MacArthur, we would like a statement from you. Can you comment? You've left the Philippines. It seems like things are going badly. You're heading to Melbourne". They stopped in Terowie, knowing he would change trains there, and they said, "Would you give us a statement"? It's interesting that in Terowie, the, the railway station has long since been abandoned. There's a little low sort of a brick wall with a plaque on the wall commemorating the speech heard around the world.
General MacArthur spoke, and he said, "The President of the United States ordered me to break through the Japanese lines and proceed from Corregidor to Australia for the purpose, as I understand it, of organizing an American offensive against Japan, the primary purpose of which is the relief of the Philippines". And then General MacArthur said this. He said, "I came through and I shall return". "I came through, and I shall return". Famous words spoken by General Douglas MacArthur at a little, tiny place on the other side of the world. And what did he say? He said, "I came through, and I shall return". You know, Somebody else said something very much like that approximately 2,000 years ago.
Now, the Philippines suffered immensely under Japanese occupation. Thousands of servicemen, Filipino and American, were killed. Many thousands of civilians perished. Manila was virtually completely destroyed. And the American troops retreated to the Bataan Peninsula. There they were marched alongside Filipino captives to what's known today as Camp O'Donnell on what is referred to as the Bataan Death March. Let me tell you about the Bataan Death March. We took our It Is Written cameras to the Bataan, well, not so much to the Bataan Peninsula, but to the route of the Bataan Death March. We went to Camp O'Donnell, went to the little town of Capas, where the train station is that the servicemen were, uh, where they were processed and loaded onto boxcars.
Thousands of men died on the Bataan Death March. The cruelty they experienced is almost impossible to believe. But there was something that gave them hope. Something that gave them hope. As they were there in Camp O'Donnell, many of them dying, something gave them hope. As they were suffering from malaria and beriberi, something gave them hope. General MacArthur had made them a promise. And he wasn't one to break his promise. He said he would return, and they believed that he would return. In Camp O'Donnell, they believed. The American servicemen who were taken to Japan and forced into slavery working for large companies, there was a promise, they believed, and it gave them hope. MacArthur said that he would return. Again, the parallels are obvious, aren't they?
Jesus made a similar promise. He was in a battle-scarred, war-ravaged world when He said in around 31 AD, and we find these words in John chapter 14, when Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you". Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also". Jesus promised us: "I shall return". Now, what does the promise that Jesus made, what does that very promise mean to you? When you think of the Second Coming of Jesus, what do ya think? Maybe there are a raft of thoughts and emotions that wash through your mind. But perhaps you think, finally there won't be so much competing for my time.
I don't have time to do what matters most and the wisdom to know what matters most. You might think, eternity, family, and friends. You might think, eternity, the Second Coming of Jesus, no more sin. You might think, when Jesus comes back, the struggle is over. Maybe you look forward to a life without pressure, a life without pain, without hardship, without injustice, a life without illness. Isn't that wonderful? The Bible says in Revelation 21 and verse 4 that "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there [will] be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any pain: [because] the former things are passed away". Thank God! And if you are looking forward to the return of Jesus, that would be understandable.
There's an old hymn, the words that say, "O brother, be faithful! Soon Jesus will come, for whom we have waited so long". But I'd like to take the Bible and look with you at several things that the Second Coming of Jesus represents. So what are some of these things? I'm sure the list is almost inexhaustible. But we'll take a look at two or three or maybe four things that the Second Coming encourages us about. Number one: The Second Coming is our ultimate hope. It's then that the theory of faith becomes reality. It gets us through. Everything around us? Gone. The sin, gone. Injustice, gone. What keeps you going? What hope drives you forward?
In 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 14, it was Paul who wrote some fascinating words. He said, "Knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you". He's talking about meeting Jesus. Now, when is that coming? It happens at the Second Coming of Christ. And he continues: "For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal".
Now, you notice what Paul said? We look at the temporal, ah, but wait. We live in the temporal, and the temporal is difficult. I heard recently from a friend who updated me on his health. Not good news. With no clear path into the future. But he encouraged me. He's looking at the things which are not seen. He's looking at the things which are eternal. It seems like few days pass by that I hear of the passing of someone. Just recently, the death of a man I have known since I was 5 years old. A fine man. We heard yesterday my wife's uncle passed away. We loved him. A good guy. You can think of similar news that you've heard in recent times. What keeps you pressing forward? You could allow the sadness and the bad news to drag you down, but what keeps us pressing forward are the things which are not seen, the things which are eternal.
We thank God today and every day for the blessed hope. Jesus is coming back soon. On that day, the dead in Christ shall rise. On that day there will be no more death. Jesus is coming back, and "our light affliction, which is but for a moment," will be forgotten. Now, stop there for a moment. Let me consider this with you. "Our light affliction", this was written by the Apostle Paul. They stoned him with stones one day and dragged him out of the city and left his, what they thought was, dead body... I guess, to just remain there until the birds of the air were done with it. They stoned him, dragged him out of town, left him for dead, and after going through that, the Apostle Paul was able to say "our light affliction". How could he refer to something like that as a light affliction? Tell you why: because he was looking forward to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The Bible says Jesus is coming back soon. In light of the return of Jesus, we can afford to let small things be small, and we ought to let big things be big.
Now, let's think about this. People who are unkind? Small stuff. Hey, wait a minute. I wanna share a little story with you. I've told this story before. If you've heard me tell this story, then you just forgive me, and you just say "amen" anyway. But if you haven't, I want you to listen very carefully. People who are unkind, small stuff. Now, those feelings aren't small. Well, well, they really are; they just don't feel small at the time. I spoke to a couple of people; I was holding an evangelistic meeting, and I said to them, "So where do you go to church"? And they said, "You know something, we don't go to church". I said, "But you're church members, aren't you"? They said, "Yes, we are, but we don't go to church".
Well, they had my attention. I said, "So why is it that you are church members, and you don't go to church"? They said, "Well, we just got tired of all the mean and nasty people". I said, "Okay, and now you don't go back to church"? "No, we do not go back to church. We don't attend". I said, "Let me ask you a couple of questions, if I may". "Sure". "Do either of you do drugs"? And they said, "Do you mean prescription drugs or illegal drugs"? "No, no, illegal drugs. Are you drug users"? And they, they looked at each other like, what is he talking about? "No, we're not drug users". "So, do either of you have alcohol issues"? "No, no, no, pastor, no alcohol issues".
Now, you ought to be careful asking questions like this. You ought to know your crowd. I said to the two of them, I said, "So, are you unfaithful in your marriage? Is that what it is? You're running around? You've got boyfriends or girlfriends or whatever it might be"? They: "No, absolutely not. We have a happy marriage". I said, "Okay. I'm glad to hear it. But you know something? The devil loves people like you". And their eyes got big, and they said, "What could you mean"? I said, "You make his job easy. He didn't have to get you hooked on drugs. He didn't have to get you sidetracked getting drunk with alcohol. He didn't have to drag you into immorality. He just had to take you to church and sit you down next to somebody grumpy. And that was enough to cause you to say, 'We are not going back.'"
My brother, my sister, unkind people? Small stuff. And by the way, if you are an unkind person, that's not small stuff. That's big stuff. You need a change of heart. You want God to take away your heart of stone, your heart of unkindness and give you a heart of flesh, a heart of love. You don't want to be unkind to people at church. God looks on that very dimly. But if you are discouraged, if you're upset, if somebody didn't shake your hand or looked at you funny or parked in your parking spot or sat in your seat, you can let it go. Small stuff. The faithfulness of God? Big stuff. Financial losses, missed financial opportunities, small stuff. Knowing Jesus as your personal friend? Big stuff. You can afford in the light of the Second Coming to let the small be small and the big be big. Knowing Jesus is coming back, that ought to focus us on what matters. We shouldn't be playing with small stuff now.
I met a lady not so long ago who told me this. She, she, she kind of took the wind out of the sails of the conversation. We were talking about one thing and another, and she said, "Neil Armstrong was a close personal friend of mine". And I thought, well, that's pretty hard to top. I, I don't know how you can have a, a more illustrious close personal friend than Neil Armstrong. I mentioned it to a friend. I said, "I just met a lady who was a close personal friend of Neil Armstrong". And this friend of mine, who hasn't attended church in 40 years, said to me, "Does knowing God count"? I thought, that's right. We've got Friends in high places. Big stuff. There are things we need, and "my God shall supply all your need". There are times that are tough, and the Bible says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you". Big stuff. Jesus is coming back soon. What are you focusing on?
Now, point number two. The Second Coming of Jesus adds impetus to our mission. Jesus is coming back, and I believe He's coming back soon. Yet the population of the world continues to surge, 7.6 billion or so now, and growing rapidly. The church grows. Amen. Thank the Lord. That's good news. But it doesn't grow nearly as fast as the population of the world grows. Now, the Pew Research Center says that 63 percent of Americans are absolutely certain that God exists; 88 percent of Americans are absolutely certain or fairly certain or not too certain, but they do believe. However, 50 percent of younger millennials, that's people in their twenties, either don't know if they believe in God, or they don't they don't believe in God.
Isn't that a remarkable number? Fifty percent of young adults. The mission field is a mission field. The neighborhood around you, it's a mission field. The town in which you live, your county, your state, it is a mission field. You know, I believe in mission work. Even at It Is Written, we lead mission trips here and there and other places. But while there are numerous countries where precious few people have any kind of faith in God, there are people dying all around us, going to a Christ-less grave. There are mission fields overseas and mission fields over your back fence. The return of Jesus adds impetus to our calling. And, my friend, we have been called.
The Bible says in Matthew chapter 28, "Go therefore, make disciples of all nations". Jesus encouraged us with those words. The reason the church exists is to reach people who don't know Jesus. We are not here to consult our ease. We are not here to accumulate more and more stuff. Our primary goal for being on this earth is to share the good news of the gospel. The sinless Jesus died for the sins of the world. Jesus couldn't be bound by the grave, and He rose to heaven where He now intercedes for us with God. He dispenses grace and mercy to anyone who will come to Him. Jesus will give you hope and a new life, and Jesus is coming back soon to usher in eternity. This old world will be gone, and affliction shall not rise the second time. We have good news to share with this world.
In Luke chapter 19, Jesus shares a parable. Someone is leaving town; he calls his servants together, and he gives them pounds, he gives them money. He says, "Take these and occupy till I come. Do business with these". Jesus left this earth 2,000 years ago, and He says to us, "Do business with these, these talents, with these opportunities, with this capacity, with these gifts". Jesus says, "Occupy". He's coming back soon. It's got to focus us. Let me share this with you. A number of years ago, a, a man I consider to be a wise sort of a man, a mentor of sorts, spoke to me, and he said, "What I have learned, John, in my ministry is that a pulling horse doesn't kick. A pulling horse doesn't kick".
You know why we have churches that are coming apart? Because they're not pulling. We have churches where there's kicking and biting and devouring. Uh, hopefully, you know I mean that not literally, and I surely hope it's not literal. But that's because we're not pulling. We're not about our Father's business. Can I encourage you? Make mission your primary objective. When you look at the church budget, money apportioned to missions should not really be right down at the bottom. Oh, we throw a few hundred dollars at evangelism every year. We shouldn't do that. Think about mission. It seems as though we invent new things to argue about every day, and some of those things must be discussed, but they must not distract us from our mission.
What's the mission? To take the gospel of Jesus to every creature under heaven, to every person living within the, the boundaries of the church's reach. We've gotta take Jesus to our neighborhood, to our town, to our county, and to the world. We have a mission to share Jesus with others. How's that looking for you? And I don't simply mean, "Well, yeah, I, I agree with that," but how's it looking in actuality? Friend, when we wake up out of our slumber, when we get our working boots on, and we go into the field to work for Jesus, it will change us, and it will change our church, and if we believe that Jesus is coming back, if we believe what the Bible says about the subject, then we cannot be satisfied while the world around us is going down to a Christ-less grave, and yet we have Bibles and good books, and they're gathering dust on our bookcases. Every person that you encounter is somebody for whom Jesus died.
And now point number three: The return of Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of the prophecies of the Bible. Everything we believe as Christians finally adds up to the return of Jesus. The Bible speaks about a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, fulfilled before Jesus returns. The mark of the beast issue? Resolved when Jesus returns. Armageddon and the seven last plagues? Been and gone when Jesus returns. The United States' role in Bible prophecy will have been discharged. The latter rain will have fallen.
The challenges that will come to the church will have come and gone. Which suggests that if the Second Coming of Jesus is gonna happen soon, all of these other things are going to happen... when? Sooner! Think about what we believe, what the Bible says about the state of the dead. Jesus is coming back to raise the sleeping saints. Two thousand three hundred days, which represent years, a magnificent prophecy, it all points towards the return of Jesus. Without the return of Jesus, the prophecies are information. Add the return of Jesus, the prophecies are there for our transformation. The Second Coming of Jesus is the realization of the hope that we have as Christians.
And I'll give you a, a fourth point. The Second Coming, what does it mean? The promise of the Second Coming of Jesus speaks to us about personal preparation. Let me share a story with you. I may have shared it once or twice before. It's a good story. We were in Guatemala on a mission trip. And we actually went there to film in conjunction with a, with a mission trip that was going there because just a short time before, Volcán de Fuego, the "volcano of fire," had erupted. Now, this volcano belched a pyroclastic flow down the side of, well, the side of itself. This is ash and some enormous rocks. Super-heated gas and goodness knows what else flowed like a rapidly-moving glacier down the side of the volcano. When we were there at Volcán de Fuego in the town of San Miguel Los Lotes, south of Guatemala City, it was like we were walking on the surface of the moon. There was nothing visible at all.
I saw the occasional rooftop sticking up out of the, out of the...rubble, out of the ruin. One or maybe two. When we arrived, there were excavators digging down through the ash and the rock to clear the road. They were digging down what appeared to be 25 or 30 feet. The road had been covered up by 25, 20, 25, 30 feet of ash and rock and other volcanic matter. I spoke to, I interviewed a lady named Rosa Chacón. What Rosa said sobered me up. During our conversation, somebody mentioned that the town of San Miguel Los Lotes had a population of 15,000. I, I said to our translator, "Can't be right because we were there. There was nothing, just like the surface of the moon". But then somebody else said 12,500 people. They couldn't both be wrong, right? Twelve and a half might have been low; 15 might have been high. That means maybe 13.75 thousand people had lived there. Couldn't be. Couldn't be.
So I looked on the internet, I looked up San Miguel Los Lotes, and I saw before and after pictures. Oh my goodness. There had been somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 people living there. Rosa, whom I told you about a moment ago, Rosa was a volunteer with the government's emergency warning system. It was her role to go into town and warn people to get out, tell people they had to go. Now, Volcán de Fuego had been smoking and acting up since about 2002, so people by now were used to it. They'd had a drill, an official drill, an emergency let's-get-out-of-here drill about three months before. Rosa started going from door to door, knocking on the doors, "You've gotta get out! You've gotta get out! The volcano is about to erupt. Please leave"! And she was told by people again and again and again, she was told, "We're just gonna lock the door and wait this one out".
Can you believe it? And she would go to another place, and they said, "We'll just keep the door closed. We'll be okay". And she went to another place, in fact, someone went to a church. It was Sunday. Many churches. Somebody went to a church and said, "We have to warn you the volcano is erupting. The stuff is flowing towards us. Please get out now! Please leave"! And they said, "We will just pray that God will protect us". Even though God was in the throes of protecting them by sending someone to the church. "We'll just pray. God will work a miracle". Those people are still in church... You know what I mean. That church was buried. Those homes were buried. The government said that there was something like 100 dead and 200 missing.
The locals told us, "There are at least 1,700 people dead". At least 1,700. Why the disparity? Well, because if you went missing, someone would report that you were missing. Except in this volcanic eruption, not only did your family go missing, but you went missing, too. There was no one to report that you were gone. And so the numbers were very, very low, much lower than they should have been. I met a man who told me, "It was time to go, and I ran. And my father, I said to my father, 'Let's go, Dad. Don't even shut the door. Let's go, Dad! Let's go!'" And he said, "Yes, let's run," and they began to run. He said, "Son, wait. I want to go back and use the bathroom". He perished as a result.
You see, they had the opportunity to do something. They didn't do it. They had the opportunity to get out of there, but they didn't take that opportunity. They were warned, "The volcano is about to erupt," and they didn't act on the information that they had. Stunning, isn't it? We've been warned, although I don't like to think of it so much as a warning. We've been encouraged. Jesus is coming back. What are we going to do about that? Titus chapter 2, verse 11 says this, "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, godly in [this] present age, looking for the blessed hope and [the] glorious appearing of our great God and [our] Savior Jesus Christ".
Paul wrote to Titus, and he said Jesus is coming back, and so therefore be ready. Be ready. What did he say? He said we should deny "ungodliness and worldly lusts". We should "live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age". Jesus is coming back, and so be ready. The news of the Second Coming of Jesus, now, listen, it ought to give you hope. It was Jesus who said in the Gospel of Luke, "When these things begin to come to pass, lift up your heads and look up; because your redemption draws nigh". The return of Jesus ought to give us hope, and it ought to tell us that we want above all things to be ready. "Live soberly, righteously, godly". But there's somebody listening to me right now who says, "I'm not sober. I've tried, and I've failed. I'm not godly. I've tried, and I keep messing up. I'm not righteous. I do all I can. I pray, and I go to church, and I read my Bible, and it seems like I'm just not getting there. Pastor, you read these verses about being ready for the Second Coming of Jesus, and I'm discouraged".
Well, hear, my friend, I want you to be not discouraged. How can we be ready for the Second Coming of Jesus? Here's how. By claiming Jesus as our Lord and Savior right now. That's how. You claim Jesus as your own, and He comes into your life, and you are ready. "Well, what about from now on? Are you saying, 'once saved, always saved'"? Oh, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that when you take hold of the hand of Jesus, and you don't let it go, the assurance of everlasting life is yours. "What about my sin"? You grow. "What about my problems and hang-ups"? You give them to Jesus, and you take hold of His heart, and you grow. I'm almost certain that if you look back over your experience, you can see how you have grown. You are, you might not be what you ought to be, but you're not what you used to be.
So what does that mean? It means that you hang on to Jesus, and every day you say, "Lord Jesus, I wanna be dead to self today but alive unto Christ through Jesus Christ my Lord". You say, "Father in heaven, if You leave it to me, I will fail. But I cannot fail if You live Your life in me". You know, it was, the Bible says that "He who has begun a good work in you [is faithful to] perform it until the day of Jesus Christ". Can I say that again? "He who has begun a good work in you is faithful to perform it until the day of Jesus Christ". That's Philippians 1 and verse 6. "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do [for] His good pleasure". That's Philippians 2 and verse 13. Jesus is coming back soon. That's our hope. Believing that He's coming back soon, that, that'll get you through dark times. Because at the other side of whatever difficulty you're wrestling with is the return of Jesus. He is coming back soon.
The return of Jesus makes sense of what we believe. It adds impetus to our mission. It urges us to be ready. In other words, our knowledge of the Second Coming of Jesus encourages us to surrender our lives to Him unreservedly. And you can do that. "Ah, but, John, you don't know me. I'm weak". It's okay. God is strong. And the Bible says that His "strength is made perfect in weakness". If you're weak, God is about to do a great work in you. You might say, "John, you don't know me. I'm failed so many times". I'm sorry that you have. I'm sorry. But you know something, the dawn follows the dark. Morning comes right after the darkest period of the day. If you're in a dark place now spiritually, morally, ethically, if you take hold of the hand of Jesus, day is about to break on your experience. And the, the sky is gonna get bright, and the sun is gonna shine in your life and out of your heart. No, no, you can't afford to say, "I'm too bad. I can't do it. I can't make it".
You say, "Thank God for what Jesus will do". Jesus is coming back soon, and it will be said in that day, as Isaiah wrote in chapter 25 and verse 9, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us". Amen. He'll save you. He wants to. He's able to. He'll do it. He'll save your kids. He'll save your parents. He'll save your neighbors. Pray. Pray. This is what God does. This is what God can do. Jesus is coming back. What a great day! No more sin, no more death, no more sadness, no more sorrow, no more pain, no more reading glasses, no more walkers, no more wheelchairs, no more crutches, no more medication. Jesus is coming back. Oh, thank God, He's coming back. Are you ready? If you are, you can say "amen". If you're not so sure, you can say, "Lord, make me ready," and He'll do it right now. You say, "Lord, take my heart," and He'll take it right now. "Lord, I surrender," and He moves into your experience, right now. Come on, let's pray together. Can we?
Our Father in heaven, we thank You today. We thank You today for Jesus, who is our Lord and Savior, our soon coming Savior. We thank You today for a God who loves us enough that "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us". And so, our Father, keep us; do in us what we cannot do inside ourselves. Change us. We can't change ourselves. But we can believe. We believe Your promise is there for us. We believe that eternity is soon to be here. And we know that's for us. We believe in forgiveness. We know that's for us. We believe in a new heart. Thank You for a Jesus who gives us a new heart.
Friend, are you ready for the return of Jesus? Are you ready? It won't be long. If you're not, maybe you can raise your hand right where you are and say, "Lord, I wanna be ready". Lift up your hand. "Lord, I wanna be ready. Lord", no, no, hold on, let's change it. "Lord, I believe I'm ready because I'm taking hold of Your hand. That's what I want. Lord, I believe I'm ready. I'm hanging on to the hand of Jesus".
Lord, we thank You; we, we praise You. And we believe. In Jesus' name, please say with me, amen and amen.