What the Lord’s Return Means to You | How to Spend Our Time While We Wait

You're listening to A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.

Visit our website and learn more about Harvest Partners at harvest.org. And we can grow impatient. Lord, come on, return. I'm so tired of this horrible world. Come for us, okay? Yes, but you have a job to do. We have a job to do.

We need to reach more people with the gospel. There's more souls to be saved. For many kids, as the days count down to the end of a school year, there's excitement. No more homework.

No more tests. I think Alice Cooper sang about that. But those final hours of the school year can go by so slowly. A lot of us feel that way about the return of Christ. We're excited to see our Savior, but we've been waiting a long time. Well, today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out the reasons for the wait and shows us what God would have us do with our extra time. Let's grab our Bibles now and turn to James chapter five.

James chapter five, and the title of my message is What the Lord's Return Means to You. I don't know if you heard this recently, the doomsday clock. You ever heard of the doomsday clock? Top scientists and security experts moved it to 90 seconds to midnight.

By the way, this is the closest this clock has ever been. And it's a reminder that even non-believers know we're living in scary times. Things are shifting. Things are moving quickly. Things are moving at a rapid pace, as the Bible said they would in the last days. Because Jesus compared it to labor pains when a woman is getting ready to deliver her child. The labor pains get closer and closer together until the baby is born. And that's how Jesus said it would be in the end times.

These events would compress and be closer. And doesn't it seem like that's happening right now? Every time you turn around, you're like, wait, what's going on? It's a simple message that everyone seems to be getting collectively.

Jesus is coming again. And I know that stresses people out. Not that Jesus is coming, but when we see so many things going wrong.

And they've even coined a phrase for it. It's called doomsday anxiety. Which includes, according to an article, the fear or worry about the end of the world or life as we know it. Symptoms include chronic nightmares, an underlying feeling of fear, an obsession with the news, or doom scrolling.

Doom scrolling through online media. So you get a buzz on your phone, you look at it, and you read something that startles you. And that causes you to be alarmed.

So what should we do? Well, the Bible says when you see these things beginning to happen, freak out, right? No, that's not what it says. Jesus said when you see these things begin to happen, look up for your redemption is drawing near. You know, it's really important for us as Christians to understand Bible prophecy. Bible prophecy is basically what the Bible says about the end times. And not only is it important for us to know about it, but there's a blessing attached to the person who studies Bible prophecy and specifically in the book of Revelation. It says blessed is the person who reads and hears the words of this prophecy and keeps the things that are written in it for the time is at hand. Now I know some would say, well, it's really hard to understand Bible prophecy. Well, I don't know that that's true because it's not God's desire to conceal, it's his desire to reveal. And to the point the very word revelation means the unveiling. And that's why Jesus, when speaking of the abomination of desolation in Matthew 24, he says let the reader understand.

Why? Because we need to understand these things and what they mean to us today and it should impact us in the way that we live. When we study Bible prophecy, it's not there to tantalize or entertain us. It should motivate us to personal godliness and bold evangelism. 1 John 3, 2 says, beloved, now we're the children of God. It's not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we will see him as he is. But then it goes on to say this, and everyone that has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. So if I understand Bible prophecy as I ought to, it will have a spiritually purifying effect on me. In other words, it will cause me to want to live a more godly life. You know some people love to study Bible prophecy. They're almost fanatical about it.

They bring out all their charts and here's what's going to happen next. And that's fine to have an interest in it, but some people think everything's a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Well maybe you're kind of going overboard, but then I look at some people, it's almost like their hobby to study Bible prophecy. But I see their life is falling apart or their marriage is unraveling or they're living immorally. And as far as I'm concerned, you're missing the point.

The point of the study of end times events is to cause us to want to live a more godly life. I heard about an old man that was out fishing and he heard a voice say to him, hey you, pick me up and kiss me and I'll turn into a beautiful princess. He said, who said that? Again he hears this voice, hey you, pick me up and kiss me and I'll turn into a beautiful princess. He hears it a third time and now he realizes it's a frog saying this to him. Hey, true story. And I am the old man in the story. This happened yesterday.

Not really. So the third time the frog says to the old man, pick me up and kiss me, I'll become a beautiful princess. He picks up the frog and puts it in his pocket. The frog says, I said kiss me and I'll become a beautiful princess. The old man said, at my age, I'd rather have a talking frog.

Kind of cool, right? See, he missed the point. And if we don't have this impact us in the way that we live, we too are missing the point. Okay, so here we have James now telling us how we should be impacted by end times events. How we should live as we wait for the return of the Lord. James 5, verse 7. Dear brothers and sisters, writes James, be patient as you wait for the Lord's return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring.

They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to reap. You too must be patient, take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near. Don't crumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged.

For look, the judge is standing at the door. For examples of patience and suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We give honor to those who endure under suffering. For instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him in the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy.

Stop there. How should we live as we await the Lord's return? Point number one, be patient. Be patient, verse 7. Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord's return. By the way, the word used here for patience is not speaking of a passive resignation, but rather an expectancy as one waits on the Lord. Sort of an excitement, living in a state of readiness. The Bible says, for those that look for Him, Christ shall appear the second time.

Look for Him. And so the idea here is looking forward to it, sort of like a kid on Christmas Eve. Remember when you were a little boy or girl and you were hoping your parents got you what you told them you wanted for Christmas?

And you ran down the stairs and there it was and you tore the package open? That's how we should be living as we await the Lord's return, with excitement, not some laissez-faire attitude. In fact, Paul in Romans 13, verse 11 says, Understanding the present time, the hour has come to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is nearly over, the day is almost here. And then Paul goes on to say this, So therefore, let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Right.

So, wake up and live a life that is honoring God. Notice the farmer waits. That's hard for us today. We don't like to wait for anything. By nature, I am an impatient person.

How about you? You know, I'm the person who, if I buy a pizza and I bring it home, one third of it will probably be gone, because I will eat it in the car. And it's not easy to eat pizza when you're driving.

That's not a good travel food, is it? But we like to get things now. We live in a time of instant gratification. Why wait to buy it?

Charge it. You don't have to go down to the mall and shop anymore. Just go to Amazon Prime. You might even get same-day delivery. Hungry? Call Uber Eats.

I heard about some kid that charged up $1,000 on Grubhub. So, all of a sudden, there's a knock on the door and all this food starts arriving. Package after package of food that Dad's thinking, what is going on? Why is this food coming? He thought his kid was playing with some game and he was on the Grubhub app, ordering, ordering, ordering, ordering.

So, watch your kids with those apps, right? But we have to be patient. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. It's a joy to hear when these studies have truly impacted lives.

Listen to these comments from our listeners. Hi, Pastor Greg. I started coming to your church when I was 28. I was on drugs at that time, but after hearing your messages, I never touched a drug again. I'm now 57 years old and am very thankful for you. Pastor Greg, your teaching of the Word of God totally changed the direction of my life. It's 30 years and counting now.

No turning back. Thank you. If you have a story to share, why not call us and give us all the details? Here's the number, 1-866-871-1144.

It's a special number for this purpose, 866-871-1144. Well, Pastor Greg is reinforcing the value of patience as we await the Lord's return. Glad you're joining us for today's message with what the Lord's return means to you. Sometimes it may seem to us as though God is late. You know, the people of Israel were impatient. It had been 400 years since they had heard from a single prophet. 400 years since they'd seen a miracle.

400 years and they had not had a single angelic appearance. But Galatians 5 says when the time was just right, God sent forth a son made of a woman born under the law to redeem those that are under the law. And Jesus, the Messiah, fulfilled prophecy and was born in the manger of Bethlehem. When the time is right. And when the time is right, the Messiah will return again. No one knows the day or the hour, the Bible says, but we need to wait patiently. And sometimes if it seems to you as though the Lord is late, here's this word for you from scripture, 1 Peter 3. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He's patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance. Why has Jesus not come back yet? He's waiting for more people to believe. And my prayer is that we will have a minimum of one more spiritual awakening before the Lord comes for his church. One more.

Maybe more. I think you can make a pretty good scriptural case for there being a spiritual awakening before the Lord's return. But that's what we should be praying for. That's why we've asked you all to be praying for revival and pray that God will send a spiritual awakening. It will come at the right moment.

Martin Luther once said, and he said this to me personally, not really. He said, quote, there are two days on my calendar. This day and that day. That day.

The day of the Lord. And we can grow impatient. Lord, come on. Return. I'm so tired of this horrible world. Come for us.

OK, yes. But you have a job to do. We have a job to do. We need to reach more people with the gospel. Is it possible that there is walking this earth the one person that Jesus is waiting for to believe before the rapture? You guys said rapture twice. What is a rapture?

I have no idea. I just like the word. No, the rapture is the event the Bible talks about. From the Greek, it's the Greek word harpazo, which means to be taken away quickly.

Latin translation rapturis. We get our word rapture from it. But the event of being caught up to meet the Lord is spoken of in 1 Thessalonians 4 when it says the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout. The dead in Christ arise first. And we which are alive and remaining will be caught up, harpazo, that word, together with them in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Therefore, comfort one another with these words. So what if the Lord is waiting for that one last person? And what if you somehow knew who that one last person was and they were sitting next to you in church?

Would you be tempted to turn to them and say, hello? Can we get on with this right now? Could you just accept Christ? Imagine if we led some people in prayer and we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Boom! We're in heaven. Okay. The Lord's waiting.

He's waiting. There's more souls to be saved. Have you ever seen that movie Schindler's List? Powerful film.

True story. Based on the life of Oskar Schindler who was a German businessman who hired some Jewish people. He saw some Nazis shoot one of the Jews in cold blood and he was deeply moved. And he decided to spend the rest of his life saving Jewish people from Nazis. He said, and he was played by Liam Neeson in the film. He said, I have a particular set of skills. No, that's a wrong movie.

Excuse me. That's from Taken. Another character he played.

Anyway. But Oskar Schindler played by Liam Neeson was having a conversation with his accountant Itzhak Stern. And he says in the film, I could have gotten more out.

I don't know. I could have gotten more. Stern says, Oskar, there are 1,100 people alive because of you. And Schindler replies, but I could have gotten one more person. And I didn't.

How powerful. Would we say that one day? Oh, man, I could have reached one more person. I could have shared my faith with one more person.

Why didn't I do that? This is the attitude we already have. Point number two. As much as possible, stand in unity with fellow Christians. As much as it's possible as we await the Lord's return, stand in unity with fellow Christians. Look at verse nine. Don't grumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. Look, the judge is standing at the door. Don't complain about other believers.

Go to them and try to help them. To grumble about means to groan within oneself. It's a description of a person with a bitter attitude who is always criticizing and complaining. Someone might say, I have this spiritual gift of criticism. No, you don't.

There's no gift like that. Well, I just see everything that's wrong. Well, that's part of the problem. Don't be that person. The problem with bitter people is they generally can't keep their bitterness to themselves. That's why the Bible warns about a root of bitterness springing up and defiling many. Don't be that person tearing others down. You have a disagreement with someone.

Go to them. Nowadays with social media, especially Twitter, people will just attack one another. Christians will attack one another without even understanding the other person's position. And this goes against what Jesus says. In Matthew 18, 15, when he says if another believer sins against you, go privately to them and point out the offense. And if they listen and confess, you've won that person back. Listen, never tear others down to lift yourself up.

Never make yourself look better at the expense of someone else. Oh, well, they don't do this, but I do it. Don't do that. The Bible actually says you should not engage in that.

Why? Point number three, be aware of the afterlife. Meaning you're going to be judged, verse nine. For look, the judge is standing at the door. Christians will be judged, but let's explain that. There are different judgments in the Bible. There's the great white throne judgment, spoken of in Revelation 20, where the small and the great stand before God.

And the books are open, and a book is open, which is the book of life. And we read, whoever does not have their name written in the book of life is cast into the lake of fire. That judgment is for non-believers only. No Christian will stand at the great white throne judgment.

I don't even think we'll be present at the great white throne judgment. But then there's another judgment the Bible speaks of called the judgment seat of Christ. And that's not a judgment as to whether or not you will get to heaven. As a matter of fact, that particular judgment takes place in heaven. And Paul writing about it in 2 Corinthians 5 says, We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. So, this is not are you going to get to heaven, you're in heaven. But this is about rewards. You see, rewards are going to be given in heaven.

You know, the Bible says, Your father who sees you in secret will one day reward you openly. And the Bible talks about different crowns that are given. There's a crown of life. There's a crown of rejoicing.

And other crowns listed in scripture that God will give out. So, here's when you will be rewarded. Think of sort of like the Oscars or the Emmys or the Grammys. You're receiving an award for what you did on earth. And we might be surprised by who some of these awards go to. We think, oh, you know, Billy Graham is going to get every award. Well, maybe he will.

But maybe we'll be up in heaven. And the award goes to Mod Frickenbinder. Who? Don't Google that name, I made it up. There is no Mod Frickenbinder.

It's sort of like Bobby Buskill. These are fictitious characters. Mod Frickenbinder.

Who is Mod Frickenbinder? Did she ever write a book? No. Was she in a Christian band? No. Was she some kind of a preacher?

No. Who was she? She was a faithful old lady that was immobilized in her home.

And stayed and prayed for people all around the world. And she was faithful to what God called her to do. And she'll be rewarded.

Because her father, who sees her in secret, will reward her openly. Listen, you will not be judged for what God has called me to do. I will not be judged for what God has called you to do. We will each be judged for what God has called us individually to do.

So live the way you ought to be living and make your life count. Well, Pastor Greg, we have a couple of special guests in the studio today. One is familiar to us, sitting to your left. But the other you need to introduce to our audience. She's the author of a new book we're making available.

Yes, I have next to me on each side two lovely ladies, my wife Kathy and Shannon Breen. And many of you probably know Shannon if you watch Fox News. Her program on the weekend is Fox News Sunday. And sometimes she's jokingly referred to as evil Shannon Breen by a certain Fox News personality named Greg Gutfeld.

And that's actually a backhanded compliment, because if you don't know this, you'll know it now. Shannon is not only an accomplished journalist, but she's a very strong Christian and has written a number of books. So, Shannon, now, is this what, your fourth book in this series?

This is. It's the third in this series, but my fourth overall. Okay, so tell me the titles of your other books. So, Finding the Bright Side is a personal collection of stories, high points and difficult things that my husband and I have been through. It's a lovely and wonderful Sheldon, but about our faith through all those things. But then we have Women of the Bible Speak, followed by Mothers and Daughters of the Bible Speak. And the brand new book is The Love Stories of the Bible Speak.

And it's amazing because you cover so much ground. We would think love stories more just the romantic stories, but it's really stories of romance, friendship and faith. Some of the people you talk about, Adam and Eve, Samson and Delilah, Mary and Joseph, Jonathan and David, Paul and his many friendships, you even talk about Job and his friends.

So, the overriding theme of your book is what? Well, what were we told that everything boils down to is loving God with all our heart, mind, spirit and soul. And we've got to love our neighbors as ourselves.

So, he models perfect agape love, meaning it's all consuming, it's unconditional, we can't ever earn it, we can't ever get away from it. And that's how we're called to love other people. So, I think in looking at these relationships in the Bible, we see the good ways that's portrayed, we see some negative ways. And I think we can always learn from both kinds of examples.

Give us an example of a good relationship and maybe what we might today call a toxic relationship. So, we have Mary and Joseph, I think is a good one. So often, and I've written in the past about from the perspective of Mary, I think so many of us look at the Christmas story in her life. But I thought, let's write about Joseph this time.

He is a man who is going along on this adventure. He was told by an angel what would happen. He had to be very selfless to say, I'm going to go ahead, I'm going to support Mary, I'm not going to shame her.

I'm going to raise this child who's really not mine, but I'm raising the savior of the world, the Messiah. And so, he and Mary were in this together. And he had to, Joseph, sacrifice his life to be a loving, strong husband and father in the situation he didn't choose for himself.

Yeah. You know, I've often thought that just as surely as God chose Mary to be the most privileged woman who ever lived, God also chose Joseph to be the earthly father figure of Jesus. And that's quite a thing. And he's sort of the unsung hero of the Christmas story because he had to live with the idea that his wife had been unfaithful to him. On one occasion, remember the Pharisees said to Jesus, at least we weren't born of fornication, implication.

Well, at least we weren't conceived out of wedlock. When in reality, Jesus was supernaturally conceived in the womb of Mary. But yet, here's Joseph who weathered through all of that and clearly was, I'm sure, a very good father figure. Yeah. And I just found so much in thinking about the idea of a blended family because Mary and Joseph had their own children after that.

That's true. I came from a broken family that we then ended up, I had a wonderful stepmother, stepfather, step-siblings. And so as those families come together and sometimes somebody, my stepfather was very much a father figure to me even though he wasn't my biological dad. I was blessed really to have two amazing fathers. So I encourage people to think about the blending of families and how we step in for different responsibilities just like Joseph did. Wow. So if you want to read more about this and other love stories and friendships of the Bible, for this month we're offering for your gift of any size this new book, brand new book by Shannon Bream titled The Love Stories of the Bible Speak.

Yeah, that's right. Not only would this be a welcome addition to your own collection of resources, what a great gift. It's a brand new book and we'll be glad to send it to you to thank you for partnering with us to bring these daily studies your way. We're completely listener supported.

We don't have any large organizations covering all the costs. Now it's listeners who appreciate Pastor Greg's insights and want to see them continue. So as you send your donation today, be sure to ask for The Love Stories of the Bible Speak by Shannon Bream. You can call us at 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24-7 phone number, 1-800-821-3300. Or write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514.

Or go online to Harvest.org. Well next time, Pastor Greg brings us more insight on how Jesus' return should affect the way we live while we wait. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie. This is the day, the day when life begins Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to Harvest.org. And to find out how to know God personally, go to Harvest.org and click on Know God.