Life is fleeting. The Bible says life is like a vapor that appears for a moment and then vanishes into thin air. Not only that, but we can't see into the future. We're blind to what lies ahead. Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl unveils what Scripture calls the believer's greatest hope.
A future so certain, so glorious, that it transforms how we face both living and dying. You see, when sound theology takes root in our hearts, fear gives way to confidence. Death loses its sting. and the brevity of life becomes beautiful. Yeah.
I hope you have your Bible with you, and if you have, please. Turn to the uh letter of first Thessalonians. Chapter 4. If you will. Paul's words to the people of First century Thessalonica.
Known as the Thessalonians, and here. Paul unveils what I'm calling the believer's greatest hope. As best I can interpret the scriptures. Paul writes here of the events that are Next in line in God's world program for the future.
Now, once you locate this, I want you to mark James chapter 4.
So, you might use the ribbon from your Bible if you have that, or maybe the worship folder and just tuck it in there. And James 4 will begin the message. At that spot, but first I want to Read the Last several verses of 1 Thessalonians. Four. I'm reading from the New American Standard Version of the Scriptures.
1 Thessalonians 4.13. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren. about those who are asleep.
so that you will not grieve as do the rest. who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, Even so, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain. until the coming of the Lord.
will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven. With a shout. With the voice of the archangel. And with the trumpet of God, And the dead in Christ will rise again.
First. Then we who are alive and remain, will be caught up together with them. in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall always be with the Lord. And therefore comfort one another.
With these words. Remarkable revelation regarding the event yet future. And he spells it out in such detail, he answers a number of our questions, and we look forward to hearing those answers from his word. You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the Bible on your own, be sure to check out the wide variety of helpful resources available at our online store.
Take a few minutes to browse through the options at insight.org/slash store. And now let's begin the study that Chuck titled Believers' Greatest Hope. Every new year we hang a new calendar on our kitchen wall. It's a calendar that has no marks on it. We take the old one off and it's filled with penciled in events and reminders And occasions that made that past year significant.
And you can leave through one month after another and do a lot of review over the way. Things were. It's a calendar full of memories. But the new one we place there is absolutely blank. Except for the special holidays that are printed in the calendar.
Everything is blank. And it remains to be filled in with. Events that have not yet occurred and Quite frankly, would in many cases. Never be expected.
So it is with the future. We simply do not know what it holds. In fact, we don't know what this afternoon holds. to say nothing of next week. Or next month.
There are days we wish we knew. There are other times we're glad we don't. Shakespeare gives these lines If you can look into the seeds of time, And say which grain will grow and which will not speak. Tell us. Which of the grains are going to grow?
Which ones Well not. You see, there are no prophets today. Who can tell you without error what the future holds. Oh, there once were. Those ancient seers Who not only would foretell the truth of God, they would be able, on occasion when necessary, to foretell.
This will occur at this particular time. Um That's exactly what would happen. Because the prophets of God spoke without error.
However, when the Word of God became a completed document, When all of the books were put together and all of the revelation was set forth in print. God removed from this earth those Who could speak ex cathedra? Those who could tell the future and assure you that this year. Such and such will happen, or five years from now, that will occur. We don't know.
what the future holds. Look, for example, into James chapter 4. Beginning at verse 13. I will tell you this is a passage I read every End of a year or at the beginning of a new year. Every year, I do this.
I either read it with my wife, Cynthia, or I'll read it alone.
Sometime with our family. James 4, 13 to Uh sixteen Provide for us a necessary reminder. As we face the uncertainty of the unknown. Listen to the words. Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow, We will go to such and such a city.
And spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit. Whoa, whoa, wait, wait. Do you hear that? We will do this. We will make a profit.
We will be engaged in business. These are the plans. This is what will occur. That's the presumption of verse 13. And the next verse begins with yet.
You do not know what your life is. will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor. That appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say.
Read closely. Concentrate. If the Lord wills. We will live. And also do this or that, but as it is.
You boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Those are words that make you stop and think. First of all, we read of the brevity of life. Your life is a vapor.
One of the renderings is: it's a puff of smoke. that appears Okay. and then vanishes away. Cynthia and I lived early on in our marriage, thanks to a tour of duty in the Marine Corps, in San Francisco before I was shipped overseas. When we were in San Francisco, where we had never lived before, we were able to.
learn some things about its surroundings. One of the fascinating things about that windy city is the fog. Which you can often see as it is encroaching on the city. First it covers the Pharaons. The islands out at sea in the Pacific And you can see that bank of thick fog moving toward you, and before long.
It covers the city.
Sometimes it is so thick you can hardly see the front of your car while you're driving. It's a good time to pull over. And not risk an accident. In California, they refer to the fog leaving as burning off. Ultimately, it burns off.
The heat of the sun, the day, perhaps the wind that picks up. blows it away. It's like life. We come to live forever, even though we know we will not on this earth live forever. And we are reminded in this passage, your life is but a bank of fog.
Meaning it comes envelops Our years And then we're gone. One of the blessings of being a minister of the gospel is that I get the privilege of facing death regularly. with people. Most likely, I deal with death more than any of the others of you. Either officiating at a funeral service or helping bereaved families or giving counsel to those.
who are dealing with the dying and being right there often when one breathes his or her last. It's a wonderful reminder of the brevity of life. When I put the new calendar on the kitchen wall in a few days. I'll remind myself that What is the verse? Verse fourteen: I do not know.
what my life will be like. Tomorrow. In fact, talk about being caught up short. Look at the reminder. Verse 15, instead, meaning instead of saying that.
We ought to say, if the Lord wills. We will live. And also do this. Or that. But then he reproves them because many in that day, as in today, Forgot that they don't know.
And so he says, as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Please observe what characterizes tomorrow. The words appear, and you cannot miss them in 14. You do not No.
To prove that, we can all do the same exercise. and had the same answer or similar answers. Think back two years ago. Can you even remember Christmas two years ago or the end of the year two years ago? Or if you will, a year ago.
Would you have ever guessed? What has transpired in these last twelve months? would have occurred. Or some things generally you would know, but I mean specifically, which is how we live our lives. We live them specifically.
You do not know what life will be like tomorrow. In fact, One of the versions reads, You are like a puff of smoke. You're like the morning fog. which appears and then blows away. If the Lord wills.
will still be alive. when we turn the last day of December of this next year. That may not be his will. Bill Bright, founder of uh Campus Crusade for Christ, as it was then called. lived many years in great marvelous abundant life.
God gave him and his wife right alongside Vonette. who outlived him and Bill was taken and Barnett lived on and Those of us who know the family loved her through all these years of. Missing her husband. And just in the last few days from this date of my preaching today, just hours ago, she breathed her last. Just a shade shy of 90 years of age.
And the Lord's will was that she not live to see. This next new year. No one knew. For sure when Her death would come. I thought my mother had many years.
Yeah. At a rather young age, she lay down for a nap as she was with my father in their little apartment. and she breathed her last while sleeping. on the sofa. And my dad, 15 years her senior.
outlived her nine more years. No one would have thought that. We all thought my dad would go first, being the older of the two, much older. You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.
So What can we say about this mystery? You and I do not know life beyond this earth. We've never gone through the jaws of death. My grandfather, God bless him. Lived a rich life.
L. O. Lundy was his name. He's a Justice of the Peace in the little town of El Campo, Texas, where I was born. Our family grew up for a few years before the Second World War.
My granddad used to say that he He looked forward to death. He wanted to have the whole nine yards. He didn't want to just go to be with the Lord. He wanted to Pass through the jaws of death. And step into the Lord's presence in his soul and spirit and have his body buried in and have that.
Resurrection comes, but I'm getting ahead of myself. That's our hope. You may not feel like that. The greatest fear in some of your lives, listening to me right now, is death. Or you may say, like one of the comedians, I don't fear death, I just don't want to be there when it happens.
You will be.
So, what can we say about you? What about my mother? who lived a rich, full life, albeit more brief than we expected. How about Vonette? How about Bill Bright?
They love the Lord, they live for the Lord, now they're gone. What can we say about them? You see, it was that issue that troubled the people of Thessalonica. They were concerned about The loved ones. Family members and friends who knew the Lord but died.
Are they going to miss their reward? What kind of future do they have? Will the Lord remember them? Turn from James 4 back to first. Thessalonians 4, where that question and others are answered in wonderful detail.
By the way, there is nothing, nothing like great theology to take away your fears. Nothing like it.
Some of you believe that, but your face doesn't reveal it right now. You're staring at me. This reminds me of my all-time favorite Peanuts cartoon. Charles Schultz draws the picture. Of Lucy and Lina standing in front of a big picture window, and it is pouring down rain.
Outside, and Lucy looks out there and And says in the next panel, boy, look at it, rain. What if it floods the whole world? Linus pushes aside his blanket and says, it will never do that. In the ninth chapter of Genesis, God promised Noah. that would never happen again and the sign of the promise is the rainbow.
Lucy, still looking out the window, said, Wow, you've taken a great load off my mind. And Linus responds, Sound theology has a way of doing that. Isn't that great?
Sound theology as a way of doing that. You think the kid doesn't think about anything but his blanket and the next meal? I'm going to tell you something. Lannis was never more right. You get this down clear in your mind, you get your theology straight, and your days of fearing death are over.
Your disturbance about those that you have lost to death. from this earth will will no longer be disturbing. Oh, you may grieve. As it should be, you're only human. But you have nothing to fear.
or worry about regarding them. How do I know?
Sound theology. out of 1 Thessalonians 4. Thirteen Yeah. Let's look at it together. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.
provides us with the believers' greatest hope. As a matter of fact, as best I can interpret scripture. which is my life. to interpret God's word uh fairly, accurately, and And honestly, Without going to extremes, without Reading into it something it's not saying. As best I can understand it, the very next event.
which is our greatest hope. on the horizon. is spelled out right here in In these last few verses of 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 4 Because they are so important. I want to urge you to concentrate. You don't sort of skate your way through sound theology.
You have to think. You have to remember what you just learned and then build on that as you would learning whatever discipline in the world of math. You build on what you learned before and you take it to the next step.
So it is here. There are two major concerns on Paul's mind when he writes to Thessalonians. In chapter 4. These are people he loved very much. And he knew that a number of them were concerned about, mainly about, Friends of theirs, family members of theirs, who knew the Lord, but they died.
They died. There's no question if we're living and the Lord returns, and there are these great things of the future. What about those that die? Are they going to miss out?
Now I want you to notice right away in verse 13. Two major concerns Paul has. First, we would not want you to be uninformed, brethren. Don't ever believe that ignorance is bliss. I don't know one benefit of ignorance.
It isn't bliss. You'll have your freedom taken from you if you live in ignorance. You will have people take advantage of you. You will have those who can abuse you. If you are ignorant of how to deal with it.
You will live in the fear of the unknown if you are ignorant of the future. The things that God has revealed.
Well, place a bookmark in your Bible because we're going to continue our study in 1 Thessalonians right here. Juxwindahl titled his message Believers' Greatest Hope. Stick with us because Chuck has prepared a closing comment about Joy coming up in just a moment. But first, all of us here at Insight for Living want to thank you for your generous feedback, given to us on our social media platforms, in the mail, and on our website. We read every single comment, and we deeply appreciate your prayers as well.
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Thursday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Believer's Greatest Hope, was copyrighted in 2015, 2016, and 2025, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2025 by Charles R. Swindahl, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
