This sermon emphasizes the importance of being fully surrendered to God, focusing on the need to be dead to the world and alive to the things of God. The title 'Dead Men See God' is explored in the context of discussing the rapture and Matthew 24. The sermon delves into the urgency of being prepared for Christ's return, highlighting the signs of the times and the need to be watchful. It stresses the concept of being dead to sin and the world to draw closer to God, urging believers to be vigilant in their spiritual walk and to starve sin to death.

I want to just encourage you this morning to just open your heart to being fully surrendered to God. And I often notice up on the PowerPoint, we sing about it, but we rarely apply it. And being dead to the world and being alive to the things of God. So with that said, the title of the sermon is Dead Men See God. Dead Men See God. And I'm going to talk about the rapture, believe it or not, this morning. And kind of tie that in with the Matthew 24. The rapture is an interesting concept because some people believe it doesn't really happen. Some people believe it's already happened. Some people believe it's coming soon. And I want to try to unpack a little bit of that, but I would probably need a couple hours. And I don't want to keep you here that long. So if you can turn, I'm sure you already are, Matthew 24, verse 32, then learn this parable from the fig tree. When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near at the door. Assuredly I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. So if you have not caught the last few weeks worth of messages, you might say, what is he talking about? All these things shall come to pass. Well we talked about, we actually opened in Matthew 24, when Jesus talked about the destruction of the temple. And they asked, when is going to be the sign of your coming? When is going to be the end of the age? And Jesus said, well, be prepared because dire times are coming. And don't be deceived. There will be false teachers, false prophets, there will be wars and rumors of wars, there will be pestilence. The earth and the heavens will be shaken. And he talked about the abomination of desolation, reader beware. When he stands in the holy place, flee, get out of Judea, and come down from the rooftop and just run and flee. So we talked about all of that. So now he's saying, he's bringing it all together. He's saying when you see all these things, know that it is near at the door. What? The coming, the second coming of Christ. He's returning for the church or for judgment, depending on what you believe. Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. Now, here's the interesting thing. That word, genia, I believe in the Greek language, meaning generation. This is the 10th time that Matthew uses this word. And every time he uses this word, he's talking about those living at the time of Christ. So that's the challenge that I spoke about a few weeks ago, is on this side of the debate, this generation means the generation in which Jesus was living, and all these things have already happened. And this side says, no, these things are coming. We haven't experienced those things. We are the generation. We are the group of people that are going to see all these things. And I don't have time to go over that again, because that would take a few hours. So I would encourage you to get those messages. I talked a lot about those things. But suffice it to say, here's what we need to remember, that times are not getting easier, they're getting more difficult, and we need to be ready. That's what Jesus is talking about. Learn from the fig tree. He says, learn from the fig tree. And that's what we're going to talk about here for the next 45 minutes or so. Now, no one knows the day or the hour, verse 36, but of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only. What day is that? When Christ returns. But as the days of Noah were, so also will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away. So also will be the coming of the Son of Man. So here we have this imagery of Jesus coming again, but at a time when nobody expects it. They're not ready, many people. That's why he would say, be ready, learn from the fig tree, are you prepared? Because the coming is going to be like in the days of Noah. People are eating and drinking, carrying on with their life, and they were marrying and given into marriage, and then suddenly, that day came upon them. And that's what Jesus is speaking about here. And I just want to encourage you, or remind you, that we are actually living on borrowed time. We are living on borrowed time. We don't know the day or the hour. Many people live as if they can get right with God right at the end. In other words, they want to enjoy the world, and then, I'll do it someday, Shane, really what they're saying is they enjoy the fleeting pleasures of this world, and they don't want to be in a right relationship with God. And let me tell you, one of the biggest lies the enemy is telling primarily to young people is that once you fully surrender your life to God, all the fun will be over. That's why many people don't want to do it. I know, I need to stop doing this, and stop doing this, I need to get my life, I know, but I'm just not ready to do that yet, Shane. I want to enjoy all this. Really enjoy? Do we really enjoy those things? As I talked about last night, the need for medication, they're calling it an epidemic. America being medicated because of all the fear and anxiety and depression, and so if everything's so fun, why are all these things being called an epidemic? Suicide rates increasing, fear, anxiety, all these things, but I'm enjoying life. Really, are you? See, the devil reminds you of the party, not the hangover. And I need to be real with people, that's what he does. He will tell us, and remember then, remember, he'll just show just a tiny sliver of what the flesh desires and not the cost of what that, caving into that will cost us. And that's a big lie right now. You don't need to get right with God, and I talk to believers, they are Christians, but they're very carnal, and what carnal is, and we all can be susceptible to this, is when we give into the world, and we look just like the world, and we don't want to have much to do with God except on Sunday. You can bother me about God on Sunday morning, but the rest of the week, leave me alone. And that person is usually very miserable, because they're caught between two worlds there. And full surrender to God will be the best thing you could ever do. And we're scared because, ah, he's going to make me give up that, or he's going to make me do this, and he's going to send me to Africa, and Uganda, on the backside of the desert, and I'll never be able to have it. Listen, wherever God sends you, the desire is there. God will give you the desires of your heart, because they're God-given desires. So when you fully surrender your life to God, now the creator of the universe has you, he's guiding you, he's directing you, he's filling you with his spirit, so you can wake up in the morning, there's so much joy and peace, you can't wait to put on worship, you can't wait to get into the word of God, you can't wait to do what he's called you to do, because you've surrendered your life. But when we fight against God, there's no joy, there's no peace, because we know what we need to be doing, but we're not doing it, and the devil keeps this elusive carrot, you know the carrot that you put in front of the horse, so the horse would keep walking to catch the carrot? And you never catch it, it's elusive. It reminds me, I wish I had the story, I'd read it to you verbatim, but I think it was in the 1920s, they called this person the human fly, and he would actually climb buildings, skyscrapers, and climb them, and reach this, and grab on this little crevice, and this little rock, but one day, one day, he was climbing, and he saw what appeared to be a solid rock on the edge of the building, he leaped up, grabbed it, and fell to his death. And it was, I think in the papers back in the, I don't even want to give the year, because I don't remember, but when they looked in his hand, all they found was like a froth from an old spider web, gray that looked like a rock. And that's exactly what the pull of the world does. If I could just, nope, and we fall. And that's, I just want to encourage you, because we are living on borrowed time. I guarantee I won't talk to this same group of people next week. New ones will be here, and some people will be gone. I have to shoot you straight. We are living on borrowed time. We're not even guaranteed getting out of this service, let alone tomorrow. That's why Jesus is saying, be ready, you don't know when I'm coming. You don't know. And I would just encourage you, get your heart right with God this morning. Then verse 40, then two men will be in the field. One will be taken, and the other left. The two women will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken, the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. Jesus apparently wants us to watch, doesn't he? But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. In a nutshell, a thief does not knock on the door and tell you when they're coming. They come, usually when is a house usually robbed? One in the morning or two in the morning until about four? And they stake out houses now and make sure there's no vehicles, nobody's home. They watch. A thief watches. We need to be watching as well. And how does a thief normally enter? Often through an open door, a cracked door, a window, some point of access. And that's the imagery also that we get throughout the New Testament that the thief comes to kill, to steal, and to destroy. And he's looking for that open door. He's looking for that access. And that's why I preach so hard against modern day entertainment. People sometimes are tired of hearing it, but I don't care. I'm going to preach it until the day I die. When we start as a church to glorify witchcraft and vampires and the occult and all these things that are dark and demonic and we allow that to entertain us and come in and influence our children on a daily basis, we are opening the door. It's a subtlety, but it's an open door. How else does the enemy get in? Does he get in while you're praying and fasting and worshiping God? No, sir. He'll run for cover on that day. But he's waiting for that open door through things on the website. Because what we allow into our mind influences us. And people think they can stay neutral. Oh, that's not going to affect me. Yes, it will. If you open your mind to it and you enjoy it and you allow that to come in and renew your mind according to the world, it will influence you. As much as we like to think we are the master of our own destiny and the captain of our own ship, we're not. We're controlled by what we allow into here. That's how God has created us. We allow the things of the world into our mind, we'll go that direction. But there's no other direction. It's like a robot being programmed, being renewed to go that direction. Or we feed our mind with the things of God, with the word, with worship, with those who build us up, not tear us down, with positive things. But yeah, there's positive things, there's negative things. I have no problem with that term. I think Paul told the church in Philippi, finally brethren, whatever things are good and pure and honest and noble and upright, meditate on these things. So whatever we choose to obey becomes our master in this area. But back to this, he's talking about one will be working and will be left and the other will be taken. I know many of you right now are thinking of Left Behind. That series, right? I don't know if that movie is quite accurate. So it's a good movie, I guess, if you'd rather watch that than, I'm trying to think of one, Deadpool. Right? Definitely choose Left Behind instead of Deadpool. But that's the imagery, is people will be taken up and another left. Now the question is, well who's going where? Is the one leaving the believer and the one staying the unbeliever, or is the one staying the believer and the one going the unbeliever? And you'll have as many opinions as people you ask. It's not straight across the board on this. Now we can look at Scripture, which to interpret Scripture, it's what you usually want to do. We call it, they call it hermeneutics in Bible study and looking at the Old Testament and all of Scripture. But if you just look in the immediate context, taken seems to be the negative if you cross reference it with verse 39, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away. Well we know what happened to those people when they were taken all away, that's not a good thing, they were killed and destroyed. But left seems to be in the negative. If you cross reference verse 31 that we read last week, when the angels come and they gather the elect from the four corners of the earth and they grab them, they take them, then that's more of a positive. In my opinion, if you look at Enoch, he was taken to see the Lord, Elijah was taken to see the Lord, Philip was caught up and taken and moved, Stephen looked up and was taken as he was being martyred, Jesus was risen and taken up into the right hand of the Father. So I have no problem with believing that those who are taken are taken to be with the Lord. Do I hold that position firmly? No, not at all. Just looking at all this, looking at, but also to be left, you can have some Scriptures in the Bible that being left is not a good thing. You're being left here, God has taken, and so there's ways that you can support each. Left could be, we're left here, we're not taken to judgment, we are left here believers. So it doesn't really, I don't think the point is, is it good to go up or good to stay here? The point is, you better be ready. You better be ready. Do we have a good relationship, the right relationship with the Lord? Are we ready? Are we prepared? So, I don't care if I'm taken, I don't care if I'm left, as long as God is with me. As long as He is on my side. Now, you know what, I should probably talk about this for a minute. I actually redid the sermon this morning early and brought in some new points. But we often talk about, are you ready? Yes, I'm ready, people say, oh yes, I'm ready. Well, what does it mean to be ready? Because you can ask a lot of people who have religion and not a relationship, and they're not ready. You can go through many churches in our valley this morning, some with big cathedrals and stained glass windows, and you ask the people, yeah, they're ready, but they're not ready. They think they are because they have religion. They went through the motions, but they're not truly ready. So what does ready mean? I looked at Oswald Chambers for this, if you have not read his devotional classic, My Utmost for Your Highest, or His Utmost for My Highest, one of those terms, I didn't bring it with me. It's an incredible devotional that you should read, you should study. Every single day it'll give you just a page of truth referencing the Bible. He says this, if I am in the habit of continually holding God's standard in front of me, my conscience will always direct me to God's perfect law and indicate what I should do. So in other words, if I'm in the habit of putting this before me and saying, Lord, Thy will be done, what is Your will? God direct me, guide me, I don't trust myself, but I trust You, and I trust Your Word, I'm putting this before me. He says, my conscience will always direct me to God's perfect law and indicate what I should do. The question then is, will I obey? That's how you know if you're ready. So, do we have God's standard in front of us? Are we ready? Now, of course, things fall in here, people, you know, even last night we had a good time of prayer afterwards, and they are ready because they're saved, but they're not ready because their lifestyle is not going in a good direction. And people might say, well, doesn't your lifestyle reflect your faith? It does. But often, the prodigal son will waver, the wayward daughter will stray from God, and God is pulling them back. That's what I love about God. You can be wrong with God last night and be right with God this morning. You can be out of His will and say, I'm so confused, I've done all these mistakes, but God, He just says, repent and return, come home. How simple is that? Thank God He doesn't say, pray for 10 years, or pray for a year and go to this holy city and fast and bow and do all these things, and then maybe I'll consider it. He says, no, if you're like David, oh, that the bones that you broke would rejoice, return to me the joy of my salvation, create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me. That's it. You can go from death to life, over and out, over a minute, just like that. Now, obviously, I'm talking about those who don't know the Lord, but also there's believers caught in sin. They're caught in depression. They're looking to Facebook rather than Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They're looking to the media instead of the Gospels. They're looking to all their ungodly friends instead of the truth. And that's why, many times, we are pulled astray, because the love of the world pulls us in that direction. So regardless of what, the taken or left, the whole point is watch. Watch and be ready. How? When we live according to God's standard. And people say, I don't want to follow a bunch of rules, and I say, neither do I. This isn't about following rules. These are guardrails through the canyons of life. It'd be like taking those guardrails off of 60th Street, Godey Pass, if you lived here a long time. Take off those guardrails, and just get a big old excavator out here, and trim off that whole 10-foot embankment, and just have the edge of the road go off. Yeah, now we're having fun, right? Now let's remove those stupid guardrails. Let's take away, let's just live life vicariously. Let's live in the fast lane, Shane. Who would do that? Nobody, because one little turn, and you're dead. But that's the same thing with the Word of God. It's not a bunch of rules and do's and don'ts, although it is, because it guides us, but it's here to guide us. And see, when I stay within that, the guardrails are safety and protection. I'm not losing fun, I'm missing death, by living within those. It's interesting, as in the days of Noah, Noah preached, but they didn't listen. Noah preached, but they didn't listen. I've actually had atheists tell me that if there is a God, they're going to be mad. Mad because, God, you never showed me. You didn't show me. You never showed me. And I say, no, that's not true. God's invisible attributes are clearly seen. Everywhere you look, it screams creator. Look at the birth of a child. Look at the human body. Look at everything, the sun, the moon, everything screams creator. Not only that, the Holy Spirit has been convicting you and convicting you and convicting you. That's why you're so mad. Because you're running from the conviction. Then you have the Word of God going forth. Then you have preaching. So there's no excuse. No excuse. And then what about the people, Shane, who've never heard from God? You ever hear that? Or never heard about God? That's not fair to them. Africa, or the jungles of South America. What about those people? And I say, well, all I know is that God is just. God is loving. God is righteous. And I've heard many stories, I'm sure you have too, where people, they're convicted. They're convicted. They know, when they go to Papua New Guinea and they translate the Bible, they talk to the people, spend years down there, and I think we actually, one of the mission groups we help is Whitecliffe here, translating the Bible. And they'll talk to the people, and they'll say, in their language, of course I don't know their language, but they'll say, oh, I know I can't take my neighbor's chicken. I know I can't take my neighbor's wife. Though they do it anyway. Oh, I know I can't take that, I know we shouldn't kill. See, how do you know that? You live here in a remote area, we just translated the Bible for you, and you already know this. Why? Because God's law is written on the heart of every person on this planet. That's why I believe there's no excuse. Because a person, like many Muslims are doing, they can say, I don't know what this is, I'm convicted that I'm not right. Like Cornelius, he prayed, and God said, I see your prayers, I see your heart, I'm sending one of the apostles to convert you. And if people cry out to God in Africa, in the jungles, I believe that God can give them a vision, a dream, show them who Christ was, and they can bow their knee to Christ. There's no excuse. There's no excuse. Should we get them the word? Absolutely. But it's not like people just live vicariously and they have no clue about anything, they just, they know. Who put that conviction in them? See, that's one atheist from, I don't know what their names are now, one of them recently passed away, another one, they're famous atheists, they cannot answer that question, why is every single human being convicted about right and wrong? Why? And if I could add to that, I would, that every single human being worships something. Everybody worships something. No, that's not right, I don't worship anything. You worship yourself. You worship the God of materialism. You worship the God of lust. See, we all give our heart and our affection, our time, our energies to something, that's worship. Everybody has that heartbeat of God. So the first point of application, in a long introduction, is this, death is separation from the body. So we're talking about, some believe of the rapture or the catching away or being caught up. The reason we have to die, the reason dead men see God, is because filth, I'm sorry, it is, but flesh and blood, Freudian slip, right, it is filth. First Corinthians, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. So flesh and blood, as good as we think we are, we cannot inherit the kingdom of God. This body is not gonna stand before God. It would probably evaporate. It's impossible. So what has to happen, when we die, death is the sensation of the body, but not life eternally. It's been said that we have a body, a soul, and a spirit, so I reside in a body. I have a soul, it's who I am, it's my intellect, it's my character, it's my nature, but I am spirit eternally. I'm going somewhere for the rest of eternity. And that's all death is. So that's why a believer, like for example, we talked, I talked last week with my mom, you know, just as she's getting older, and she's ready to go, and people can't understand that, like she could be here another 20 years, I don't know, I'm just saying, she's ready to go, her kids are raised, and where's that joy and that peace comes from, because she knows when the body dies, she's present with the Lord. So that's separation. That's all death is, is separation from the body to be present with the Lord, or to be eternally separated from God. That's why these are heavy-weighted matters. Now you know why people want to avoid them, don't you? Who wants to fake, just change, just tell me how rich I'm gonna be, tell me that the Lord loves me, tell me that I'm more than a conqueror, tell me I'm the head and not the tail, just tell me I'm a king's kid, but don't talk about any of that other stuff. Well Jesus did, often. So that's what has to happen, that's why when the Bible talks about the body being caught up, and I'm gonna read that in just a minute, it's because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. We have to have a different body to be in God's presence. The DNA, in my opinion, the DNA of Adam, that Adamic nature, theologians call it the Adamic nature, that DNA of Adam has to die in that grave. That's the body, the DNA of Adam dies in the grave. It's done. Now the body, the resurrected body, the spirit, can be with Christ, because of what Christ did, imputed righteousness. I take on the new body, the spirit, and that's getting complicated, I probably need a whole new sermon on what do we do until the resurrected bodies? Well, just hold tight, maybe I'll get there. But we, because of what Christ did, I can stand before God, whether it's spiritually until the resurrected bodies or with the resurrected bodies. The reason we can have fellowship with God is because of what Christ did on the cross. They call it imputed righteousness. I took on Christ's righteousness. And also part of that is propitiation. You'll read it three times, I believe, in the New Testament. It's a big term, it just means that Christ absorbed the wrath of God on the cross. And then because of that, I can stand before God redeemed and set free and cleansed. Now if that isn't a glorious truth, I don't know what is. If that doesn't give you goosebumps, I don't know what will. If that doesn't change the way you worship, nothing will. Because we sing the songs that he bore my sin, he took my place. And that's why the body has to be resurrected. Now on this debate, or on this whole thing of the body being resurrected, there's two sides of this as well. All the way over here, I don't know how far I can go before the mic cuts out, is this side that believes the resurrection of the body occurs at death. As soon as it happens, we get our new body, resurrection, that's it. The first Thessalonians I'm going to read doesn't really apply. Now the other end of the spectrum is way over here, they believe in soul sleep. Have you heard that term before? Soul sleep. It's where you just go night-night. That's what I tell my kids. Go night-night. Time to go night-night. Just go to sleep for a while. And when you have kids, you want them to go to sleep for a long while, right? So you can get things done. So you're just in a state of soul sleep, I don't know how long, a couple thousand years? So you have this huge pendulum swinging back and forth through these two extremes. But I believe what the Bible talks about is as soon as we leave here, Paul says to be absent in the body is to be present with Christ. However, I believe that, again according to scripture, there's a lot of different things, that at some point we get our resurrected bodies. Jesus walked through walls. They could touch him. It wasn't the same Jesus that walked on the earth. That physical body, I don't believe, it was a resurrected body. And like Christ, we will have that resurrected body in the future. So that's the first point of application. Death is separation from the body. Dead men see God, so we have to be separated from this body. First Corinthians 15.35, someone will ask, how are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come? They're asking Paul. So Paul says, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies. So there has to be death first, death of the old body. And he uses the analogy here of a seed. And are you aware that you don't plant the plant in the ground? You plant a seed, right? I'm hoping everybody knows that. You don't take a little broccoli bush, I didn't even know broccoli made bushes, but it does because we plant a whole bunch of broccoli seeds I forgot about. And we have all these, they're about this tall, just green things, they look like little broccolis at the end. And I come to find out I did that wrong, I should have cut them off and let them, you know, turn into big pieces of broccoli that you can actually eat. But we didn't plant that, we planted these tiny little seeds. And what happens is the seed actually dies. And then there's life. And that's the concept, Christ had to die. And then there's life. That's one reason we do baptisms. It's dying, it's showing death, burial, and resurrection. It's a picture of that. And we are having baptisms, if you're interested, on June 4th and 5th here in Lancaster. So Paul is answering the question, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies. So the body has to die first. The sin nature, the DNA of Adam dies. So then here's the common text for the rapture, 1 Thessalonians 4.13, brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind who have no hope. So he's saying here, don't be uninformed, there is hope. Those who have died, do not worry, they will see Christ just like you're going to see Him. 1 Thessalonians 4, if you want to read the whole chapter today. And then verse 14, for we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. So he's saying here, those who have died will rise again, and those who are alive will also see Him. It's both people, because obviously they thought once you died, oh no, you missed Christ coming. They missed out, we're so sad. What happened here, we thought He was coming again, these people have died, and Paul says don't worry, don't worry, it's just different stages of where you're at. Verse 15, according to the Lord's word, we will tell you, or we tell you that we who are still alive and who are left until the coming of the Lord will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. And after that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. There's your proof text for the rapture of the church. What he's saying here, if you take a literal reading of this, is that the dead who have died probably thousands of years ago, all the dead will begin to rise and those who are caught on the earth will not precede them, they will go up together and meet the Lord in the clouds. Now, I wish I could say everybody agrees with that verse or those verses, but they don't. They believe that that is imagery of what will happen in the end. Let me read N.T. Wright, I don't know if you know who he is, he's a bishop in England. He said this, Paul's mixed metaphors of trumpets blowing and the living being snatched into heaven to meet the Lord are not to be understood as literal truth, as the Left Behind series suggests, but as a vivid description of the great transformation of the present world of which he speaks elsewhere. So apparently, that can't be taken literally, it's more of a figurative language on what is going to happen. Now, with N.T. Wright on this, I don't agree. I believe that it's pretty straightforward, again, in my opinion, that the Lord will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first and after that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. I don't think he would go through all of that language and nuances of words and explanation if it was all figurative. He's trying to say something and he's not really saying. I don't believe that. I believe that this is going to happen at some point. I know people disagree, it's okay, because it's not, and when this happens, when is this going to happen? Did it already happen in A.D. 70 that we talked about? Is it going to happen before things get bad? And that's what a lot of people hope for, right? Now I hope that happens right before it gets tough, right before it gets difficult, I hope we're out of here. Well, that doesn't fly with the majority of the persecuted church and other parts of the world. They're being killed for their faith, they're being persecuted, they're being, I can't even tell you what's happening with ISIS and different groups, what they're doing, it's horrific, it's unbelievable. I never thought I would see a time in my life where these atrocities are taking place. So it's kind of foolish for us here in America to say, you know what, we're out of here when it gets bad. This text says we're out of here when it gets bad. No, it doesn't say that, it just says there will come a time when Christ returns, if you believe it literally, the dead will rise again and believers who are here will be caught up with Christ in the air. Now does that come soon, does it come after what many believe is the tribulation period, does it come in the mid-tribulation period? All we know is that you need to be ready. And the one reason why I like to show both sides or different sides is so that you are aware that there are other believers who believe different things and we shouldn't shoot each other because of it. Brother is shooting brother and sister is shooting sister because they just don't believe on the exact date or timing of something. And there's different views. All we know is that there is Christ is coming again, be prepared and it will be much better than you have ever dreamed because people are like, well I get to do this in heaven, well I get to, it sounds like, I just don't want to worship, they say, somebody actually told me I don't want to worship God in heaven all for eternity, that sounds boring. It's like, if that's the case you might want to check your heart because I truly don't think that you've been converted if you have that type of issue with heaven because all we know is it's going to be glorious, God will be there and there's tremendous peace and joy, no pain, no suffering, nothing to sit and say I don't want to worship God all of eternity means your heart's in the wrong spot. The word caught up, the words caught up are the Greek word, actually it's a Greek word harpazo, it means to snatch away. My being caught up in reading the Bible is a state of mind, it's not a physical movement some people would say and that's how they can say that being caught up is not really actually being caught up, it's like, you know I'm really caught up in the service right now, well I'm not going anywhere am I, it's a state of mind. So that's why they say that all this is really a state of what God's going to do with the world and the new heavens when he comes again. Why are most terrified about death, let's just be transparent for one minute here, why are most people terrified about death, about this text, about the rapture, about the catching away of the church, of heaven and hell, why are most people upset and worried and afraid and they don't want to talk about it. Now let me tell you up front and be honest, I'm not looking forward to death but I praise God I'm not fearful of it like I was when I was little, but why is that? The reason is this, most are terrified about death because they are not ready, they are not ready and so I don't want to just end a sermon like this on those types of notes, I want to let you know that there's tremendous hope, there's tremendous peace, you can be ready with God if you get your heart ready, you don't need to be terrified by death. I mean if we think this through, because most people don't want to die because of the pain right? Painful and they miss their family, but to be separated from the body in that instant you'll be present with Christ, immediately you'll be with your Savior and if you don't want that, you're not sure about that, I would encourage you to get your heart right today before God, all you have to say is Lord I've been riding my parents coattails, I've been just serving my own agenda, I've been going to church for a social gathering, I've been going to church to meet a future husband or spouse or wife, I've heard they go to church for all the wrong reasons, but today you can say Lord I'm surrendering my will, I'm surrendering my heart, I'm repenting of my sin and I'm turning my life completely over to you, I give you my life and you are ready, you are ready to meet your Savior because you've got the heart ready. So death is separation from the body, dead men seek God and the last point of application I'm going to close on this is death, we're talking about dead men seek God, I want to remind you also that death is separation from the world, death is separation from the world and this really is the point, I actually should have spent the majority of the time on this because this is where, this is what affects most Christians. When Paul talks about being dead to the world so you can be alive to the things of God, most people are not, they're alive to the world and dead to the things of God. They have not separated from the world, they love the world, the influence of the world. Now let me clarify that real quick, when Paul says, no Paul, one of the writers of the New Testament says all that's in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life, he who loves the world does not have the love of the Father in him and many people are like that doesn't make sense, well the world there is the word cosmos and that just means the world's mindset. So if a person loves the world's mindset, everything about the world, the way we spend money, our entertainment, everything about the world and nothing to do with God, if we love the world, we can't have the love of the Father in us, it's impossible, why don't you try when you get home mixing water and fire, just make a little fire and try to mix it with a gallon of water, what happens? One or the other is going to take over, whatever's stronger, you can have a burning raging house fire and try to throw a gallon of water in there, what's going to happen? Nothing at all or you can be up in the mountains camping, big huge campfire, throw all the logs into the lake, what's going to happen? Nothing right, the lake, whatever is greater is going to consume the other, so if we have all the love of the world and this is a real struggle for young adults, how do you know Shane because I was one? I know because we're carried about appearance and who likes us and our next, you know our husband or a wife and I'm talking about a wife right, but you know we love all these things about the world and we're so caught up in the world and we wonder why God is distant, why, what happened to my relationship with the Lord, it's because the world has came in and pulled you away from God, so that's why Paul says you must die to the world, oh I think Jesus said whoever dies to himself and carries his cross, that's what he's talking about, now let me bring that home a little bit more, Paul said in Romans 6.11, so you also must consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus, so you must consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus, now this is interesting, the Bible says I am dead to sin right, you're dead to sin and I read it, I'm dead to sin, sin has no power over me, I'm dead to it, I'm dead to the, and then I read, but then I say but why in the world is it so alive in me, have you ever thought that, if I'm dead to it, what's going on in here, this, wait a minute Paul, I don't understand, I don't understand, if I'm dead to sin, why is it alive, I mean I could go sin when we leave the service, couldn't you, all of us, there's something there, here's what's happening, James MacDonald gives a great analogy and I want to quote him on this, it means that because Christ died in our place, we are dead to the power of sin, it's as if we used to live in an apartment with an awful landlord who would burst in whenever he wanted to, but now we've moved to a new apartment with a new landlord, we have new locks, we owe the former landlord nothing, he can't get into our new apartment unless we open the apartment in, so here's what happens, I'm dead to sin, but I'm not dead to the influence, in other words, you name it, you fill in the blank, I won't fill in my blank for you, right, it's the same thing, I'm dead to you, you have no power over me, be quiet, it's calling me, come here, no, no, no, you're dead to me, wait a minute, that was kind of fun, wait a minute, I'm tired, I'm lonely, I'm mad, and you turn back to that influence and you open the door and you sin, and then you go home, you cry, oh Lord, I'm so sorry, I'm never going to do that, I'm never going to do that again, you are dead to me, sin, I'm still here, no, no, no, I'm dead, like patty cake, remember that game, patty cake, and you turn right around, you start playing patty cake with the devil, and you go, and you're like, that's right, I remember that, I remember that glimpse, that was fun, and then you sin, never going to do that again, I'm getting farther away this time, and what was that, you're still there, and see, that's how it works, so I'm dead to you, but the influence isn't dead, the influence keeps pulling me, now folks, why do you think I preach so often about prayer and brokenness and humility and in the word of God and fasting and all these things nobody likes to do, because that keeps you far away over here, how's the devil going to influence a man or woman who's spending hours in his word, hours praying, fasting, worshipping God, and they're filled with the spirit of God, they're going to be more dead to that than the person who's caught in their carnal nature, actually the person caught in their carnal nature lives right here, they just open the door, oh, it's you again, oh, it's you again, I'm convicted, that's bad, I don't like that, but it's you again, you just keep opening the door, and we get upset, that's why people get depressed many times, and please don't misunderstand what I'm about to say, but I often tell people who are struggling with depression, are you in the center of God's will, not all the time, gee, there's chemical imbalances, I know, I know, I know all about cognitive behavioral therapy, but many times, although not always, when we're outside of God's will, when we're doing things we know we shouldn't be doing, when we're not pleasing our Lord and Savior, we are very depressed, we are very depressed, you get a young Christian caught in sin, you go ask them why they're so depressed, because that's what sin does, see, here's the interesting thing, sin never stands still, it always grows, it either grows or it dwindles, and it all depends on whether you're starving it to death or you're feeding it, I mean this could be one of the most important parts of the sermon this morning, is what are you doing with that sin, are you feeding it or are you starving it, because once sin gets a root, it doesn't just stay there, it takes you down slowly, one step at a time, one wrong choice at a time, until you're at the end saying, how did I get here, that's why Paul says, reckon yourself, consider yourself dead to sin, it's a constant battle, I wish that battle was over on Sundays at least, come on, give me one day, it's that constant battle, I mean pastors battle with all the things everybody else does, I mean I've always had a problem with eating too much, well Shane that's little, well no, that can lead to other things too, it's the flesh, that's why fasting is so important, you starve the flesh, we just got an email from, I think it was Norway and one from Africa, watching the videos online on fasting, who said their lives have been radically changed and transformed, like why can't we get that in America, because you have to starve the flesh, I better get off that topic, you don't like that one, you know why we don't, because it hurts and it hits home, and it's hard, very hard, John Owen said, he's a Puritan author, he said grace changes the nature of man, but nothing changes the nature of sin, so grace changes me, but nothing changes the nature of sin, that influence, what happens, death is separation from the world, the more I die to self, the closer I get to God, and I wish I could really get this point across to all of you, the more you die to self, the closer you get to God, the more you put down your self-interest, the more you put down bitterness and self-centeredness and anger and lust, and you just die to self, Lord, I'm done with those things, I'm following you, you draw closer to Christ, the devil, the enemy robs you of joy by influencing you with bitterness, he robs you with peace by influencing you with fear, and he robs you of a strong, vibrant relationship with God by influencing you with lust and addiction, also as John Owen said, be killing sin, or sin be killing you, not real good English, but a powerful truth, think about it, be killing sin, or sin be killing you, why don't we talk about this from the pulpits much anymore, I don't understand, we need to hear about how heaven is sweet and hell is hot, we need to hear about how sin will deceive, because when you hear the truth about sin, you'll go home, I'll go home and we'll repent, we'll say, Lord, change me, help me, I don't want this cancer to keep growing, but if we don't address the cancer, it doesn't go away, and maybe it's just me, but I grew up in a lot of different churches, I went to many churches in this valley, just stopping by, and when we don't talk about what's destroying me, it doesn't help me, if all I go in and hear that God is love, and that we're going to go do all these wonderful things, and just be a trooper, and get through it, and you're a king's kid, and all these things that are true, but if that's all I ever hear, all I ever hear, then it'll never bring me to repentance, because there's nothing to repent from, I'm good with God, and what the word of God does, it goes to heart and it shows us sins that are not pleasing to God, there's, in this room, there's sins of bitterness, and anger, and unforgiveness, there's sins of lust so deep that people are so addicted, and there's such bondage, they don't know how to get out, there's sins of selfishness, oh my Lord, if God could just expose the pride and selfishness in this room, we would be in trouble, and God says, I want to remove those things so you can draw closer to me, I'm reading a book right now about the revival that hit Argentina in the 1950s, and the people were just, God's presence was so powerful that they would just be in confession of sin for an hour or two, I'm like, wow, what did they do, because it's not just, oh, they did this, I did that, it's confession, it's a broken heart, weeping and crying out to God, God, I need you, I need you to deliver me and set me free, and when the spirit of God revives your soul, you have, look at David, look at the Psalms, there's a heart on fire for God, and that's one of my concerns with the church today, is we've lost our zeal, we've lost our passion for the things of God, people actually come to church as if they're doing God a favor, put that on the checklist, I did that, really, is that what church has resulted in now, be careful, be careful, because the principle of sowing and reaping, the dead body is sown and we're reaped with a glorious body, it applies to all areas of life, we must first empty ourselves in order to be filled with the Holy Spirit, let me just repeat that, if you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, I'm not talking about weirdness or what you see on TV, I'm talking about genuinely filled with the Spirit of God, because that's where bondages are broken, that's where sin is crushed, that's where the Word of God becomes alive and worship is penetrating your heart, because you're filled with the Spirit, but in order to be filled, you must first be what? Empty, dead to self, and I think that would be a good way to end the sermon, the service too, is to, Lord, less of me and more of you, less of me and more of you and you've got to mean it, I remember I was also reading about the Welsh Revivals, 1904-1905 by Evan Roberts, it started by a prayer, with a prayer room of four or five people, and they prayed one simple prayer, one sentence, with a broken and contrite heart, they prayed, Lord, would you break us? And you can read the diaries, God's Spirit filled that room, they prayed all night and just weeping for their people, weeping for the church, and then they had prayer meetings and worship services every night, for weeks and months, when a humble heart finally says, Lord, Lord, break me, I want to be fully surrendered to you, be ready, because that's a victorious life that Christ spoke of. Let me just leave you with this sentence, final thought, you are either dead to the world and alive to the things of God, or dead to the things of God and alive to the world. You are either dead to the world and alive to the things of God, or alive to the world and God is dead to you. And I know I always, every time I talk on a topic like this, I run the risk of people not coming back. You know what I say? I say, I don't care anymore. You need to hear the truth, because the hound of heaven will not leave you. What I just said will haunt you all week long, if you're, in a good way, right, not ghosts and demons and all that, but I just want to tirade about ghosts and demons and things. But honestly, he's like, am I dead to the things of God? Because most people don't have the joy-filled, fulfilled life in Christ that the Bible talks about. People say, we need to get back to the New Testament church. Well, it first begins in here. If we just get back to the New Testament church, it begins in here. The New Testament church was on fire for God. They were filled with the Spirit.