The resources God has given us to live a thriving life are His Word, Spirit, and People.
Read God’s Word:
Revelation 19-22
Act 3: God’s New Covenant People
Scene 5: Christ’s Second Coming and Reign: God’s Future for the Kingdom
Background Information: Revelation 19-22
Scripture begins with “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” and finishes with “In the end God will recreate the heavens and the earth.” So, the end is not really the end, is it? When we think of Revelation, we think of end times, but that’s a wrong focus, isn’t it? We should think of the future in terms of new beginnings. As non-believers near the end of their lives, their vision narrows. The sum of their lives is mostly the past; their future appears to be finite, and there is very little left of it. For believers, as the end of this life nears, the horizon broadens. The past is finite, and the future is infinite. How should this perspective change the way you live day to day? How should this perspective change the way you prosper and the way you suffer? That is the purpose of the book of Revelation: to give us an eternal perspective as we live in this present age. But why is it so confusing? Maybe because we try to turn a book of worship into a road map. How are we to understand those one thousand years? Should we become premillennialists, postmillennialists, or amillennialists? Maybe you don’t even know what that means, and that is okay. I can assure you that ignorance regarding the technical terms for the future reign of Christ will not keep you from his glorious kingdom. It’s okay to have opinions about all this, and it’s okay if you don’t. What is necessary is to have confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and to have believed in your heart that God raised him from the dead. If you are born again, you will be fully ready for the new beginning that lies in front of you. This new beginning will include a new heaven, a new earth, and a resurrected body with which to enjoy it. The perfect symmetry of the golden New Jerusalem is modeled after the Most Holy place in the temple. You will live forever in an immense Holy of Holies filled with the glory of God. There will be no temple because God’s presence will be everywhere when heaven and earth become one. There is so much that we don’t understand about the Word of God, but thankfully, we don’t need exhaustive knowledge. We only need adequate knowledge. If you know this, you know plenty: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
John 3:16-18
Pray:
Praise God for…
Thank God for…
Confess your sins to God
Ask God to direct our worship service tomorrow as we celebrate his goodness in 2025. Ask God to speak through the message and pray for those who attend the service who have not trusted Jesus. Pray that they would turn to him in repentance and faith.
Ask God for… (what else concerns you?)
Reflect:
Write down one passage of scripture that stood out to you today.
Write down why this passage stood out to you.
Engage Community:
Text or call someone now and tell them…
– What you are praying for.
– What stood out from God’s word today.