We all do! It's not, really, any fun to focus on this handout that list all the end- time events the Bible says we are moving toward. It's scary….it's un-nerving. Who, in their right mind, wants to focus on predictions of a church that is more and more hated and persecuted by society? Who wants to ponder a time the Bible calls the "Great Tribulation" when everything in the world seems to turn upside down and millions/billions of people die from disease, and war, and, even weird natural disasters? (It's all in this Bible)Who wants to think about a growing, overwhelming, hatred of Israel that finally causes the world to mass their armies, and surround Jerusalem for a monster battle? It is kind of enjoyable to think about Jesus returning a second time; bringing "Heaven's Armies" with him to defend His chosen people and city. (We didn't really talk about, it but the Bible says at the end of that Battle of Armageddon, it will take seven full months just to clean up the dead bodies of the world soldier's that came against Israel.)

However…when all that horrendous stuff comes to an end… Biblical prophecy takes a sharp turn toward "Pleasantville". The stuff we talked about here on Wednesday evening (the events of the "age to come") are a whole lot more enjoyable. We got so into the discussion Wednesday evening we almost forgot to go home.

Here's the thing… If you are a believer… I can predict with absolute, Biblical, certainty where you will be just minutes after the mother of all battles: the Battle of Armageddon... Remember the Bible says that Jesus will return for the second time as a warring Heavenly General, he will whip up on evil, and satan… in fact satan will be bound for a thousand years…. The same thousand years that Jesus Christ sets up an earthly rule from the city of Jerusalem. At some point before that happens this will happen:

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18  And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died. (Like our sister Dianne Rule this last week)

Whether you believe that Jesus will rapture the church just before the last turbulent seven years or whether you believe Christians will live through the horrors of the Great Tribulation isn't really the point, by the time we get to Jesus Second Coming. Whether you have died beforehand, died during the Tribulation, or are still alive when it is all over you will be:"caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then you will be with the Lord forever"…

And where is the Lord Jesus going to be for the next thousand years after the Battle of Armageddon? Right here on this earth reigning over the entire earth…from Jerusalem. Where will you be with your soul and risen, glorified body re-united??? With the Lord forever… reigning…

Revelation 20:4-6 Then I saw thrones, and the people sitting on them had been given the authority to judge…. They all came to life again, and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 This is the first resurrection. (The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years had ended.) 6 Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. For them the second death holds no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him a thousand years.

I have no idea what all that means but it has to be a whole lot better than this "hamster wheel" we are all living in now. Just before Dianne's casket was closed on Thursday evening, after the family viewing, I went up and touched her hands…there was, clearly, no earthly life left in her body… I woke Friday morning thinking of that and literally felt a sense of envy that she had gotten to graduate on to Heaven and I was still left here.

The Bible says: We are supposed to be living this life with an inner longing to move on to the next. Our participation in "this present age" is getting us ready for the "age to come."

There should be a growing desire, inside us, to get on to what is waiting on the other side.

Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,

That's a mental balancing act we all find ourselves living in. Society around us tells us that we should be wringing every bit of personal enjoyment and fulfillment out of this life. The person, who is truly alive, in this world, is the person who can grab life by the horns and squeeze every single drop of pleasure and self gratification out of every day.

The problem is: most of the people telling us that are those who think that this life is all there is. They are trying to wrestle every minute out of every day to provide them maximum satisfaction, because they believe that when they breathe their last ….their existence comes to an end.

That's not the message of the Bible. The Bible paints a vivid picture of those who truly live successfully in this life… as those who are using the valuable moments of this life to prepare their hearts and could for what they know is coming when this life is over.

I couldn't help but draw some comparisons over the last few days between these two women:

Anna Nicole Smith... died suddenly this week in south Florida, former Playboy playmate, she leaves a new baby that four different men are claiming to be the father of…many will fight over the fortune she leaves behind. The international media has followed her every antic. But from her home town: ""Anna Nicole is not somebody we consider one of our own, one of the great citizens we're proud of," said the Rev. Marcus Sheffield, pastor of First Baptist Church …"If people connect her with what Mexia is, I'm not proud of that."

Dianne Rule… died in South Florida this week. The paternity of all her kids is accounted for. There was no media coverage. But her home town said about her: and I quote…Diane was the epitome of GRACE…. Dianne enriched my life in so many ways… Kind, giving, compassionate, young at heart, perceptive, generous - all synonyms for Dianne. 

Both women faced God in eternity this week. Both lost consciousness-ness in this world and regained consciousness in the world to come. I can't pass judgment on Nicole Smith but I can on Dianne Rule.

She may have been a quiet, always smiling, unassuming woman in this life but when my Savior returns to conquer satan and evil on this world, Dianne will be part of the team coming back with Jesus to set up a thousand year reign…. She earned that prominent place by using this life to prepare for the next. If Nicole- Smith wasted this life by not preparing for the next life, she will have traded a hyped-up few years here… for a disastrous eternity.

Nicole-Smith flitted from properties in the US to property in the Bahamas living a life on Easy Street. Dianne Rule lived in modest comfort in a single home on a road named……Easy Street! Nicole-Smith managed to marry a billionaire just a few years before his death. Dianne married her boyhood sweetheart…who never quite made it to "billionare"….. even though his former employer "FPL" manages to extort vast sums of money out of each of us, each month.

Dianne had something that, it appears Smith did not….she had a "blessed hope". Dianne didn't have to "get it all" now because what she was really longing for was yet to come. Smith was nauseating in her thirst for adoration from her fans… Dianne was, ultimately, looking for the approval of the only One who really matters.

I was intrigued this last two weeks as I took another hard at the Prophets, in Scripture. These are the guys who warned us, all those years ago, of prophetic events that were to come. These guys like, Isaiah, Jeremiah, David, Zechariah, Zephaniah, Amos got the briefest snapshots into what would be coming in the centuries after they were gone. They predicted that Israel would fall away…they predicted that a Messiah would come the first time. They didn't quite understand… but they saw enough to warn us in Scripture. They saw the re-gathering of Israel into a nation. They saw the horrendous events of the tribulation. They even looked forward into the Millennium, the thousand year reign of Christ. They weren't going to get to see any of it.

But they constantly expresses a state of mental readiness a waiting for what God had promised He would surely bring to pass…They wrote in the most descriptive ways of what they also called "hope". As we look ahead toward what we read in Scripture it does not need to fill us with apprehension…In Fact, all the prophets asdvised us to have a different emotion.

Because they were writing in Hebrew they had a wealth of descriptive words to describe how they were looking toward the future. Let me show you:

1) WAITING HOPE— QAVAH: HOPE THAT RENEWS EXHAUSTED STRENGTH.

This word stemmed from the twisting of small weak individual strands into a large strong unbreakable rope. None of these prophets lived even until the Savior arrived in the world but they developed an inner expectancy that carried them to their end. They will be among the dead who will rise first… they will be among those reigning with Christ in the Millennium. But in their lifetime they had to develop a trust that rebounded every time it was battered by the events of life.

Isaiah 40:29-31 He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.
30 Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion.  31 But those who trust/hope in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. (NLT)

David gives us another word handle:

2) TRUSTING HOPE-- YACHAL: HOPE THAT PRODUCES GREAT ENDURANCE.

Psalm 31:24 Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart, All you who hope in the Lord.

3) CLINGING HOPE--BATACH: HOPE THAT INSPIRES DEEPER TRUST.

Psalm 56:3-4 But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. 4 I praise God for what he has promised. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me? (NLT)_

4) SHELTERING HOPE--CHASAH: HOPE THAT OFFERS SECURE REFUGE.

Conclusion: I encourage you to look ahead in hope, waiting hope… trusting hope… clinging hope… sheltering hope…

Let me take you clear to the other end of written prophesy. The tribulation is over. The thousand year reign of Christ is over. Satan has been banished to the lake of fire…. In fact at the Great White Throne Judgment all who reject Christ are sent into punishment with the evil one. Peter says:

2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire…

Then comes this:

Revelation 22:3 No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. 4 And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. 5 And there will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun— for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever.

That's what I'm talking about!