LifePoint Lebanon

Rescue Story - The Imminent Return of the King - Revelation 1:1-3

3 movements of this message:
-The Promise - What does the Bible say?
- The Purpose - Why does it say it?
- The Practice - What are we supposed to do?

The Promise

"Christ could come at any moment. I believe that with all my heart—not because of what I read in the newspapers, but because of what I read in Scripture."
-John MacArthur

What are the signs?

1)Deception- The Confusion of the Masses
The biggest culprit to the confusion of the masses is and has always been a broken relationship with God.

- The Rise of Progressive Christianity

Progressive Christianity denies the authority and truth of God’s Word in favor of a social Gospel that neither has the power to save, or the truth to set us free. In the guise of love, it distorts the truth and leads us away from the cross of Christ and to the most unloving end.

- The Open Embrace of Unbelief

The biggest reason for the decline of Christianity in the United States and the world is Christian Atheism.

"The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable"
.-Brennan Manning

We were created by God, and for God. Until we can embrace this truth we will always live in the deception that somehow God exists for us.

“...If we believe that God wants us happy above all else, rather than acknowledging that our role is to serve God, we wrongly believe that God exists to serve us. God becomes a a means to our end: happiness.”
-Craig Groeschel

When we live as if we, and all our wants and needs are central to the universe, we exist in a state of perpetual immaturity that blinds us to our need for repentance and salvation that God only awards to those who are humble enough to admit their need and cry out to God for mercy.

2) Disputes

3) Devastation

4) Deliverance to Evil

The Purpose

The church has always been called to live in expectation.

love God, love people, and teach people to love what Jesus loved.

The world is asking “What’s next?” But Heaven is asking “Who’s next?”--
-Tony Miller

The Purpose.

God has called us to watch for His return, not with popcorn and a fountain drink, but with our hand to the plow, working to both plant and harvest as long as we have light left to see.

“One of the illusions of life is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive one.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

So what do we do?
Get right with God.

So what do we do?
Get serious about putting your life under the Lordship of Christ.

So what do we do?
Get plugged in.