5: Expecting His Return (Camp Cherokee 2024)

Funny Article Titles

Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says. No kiddin’ - you have to be an expert to figure that out?

Miners Refuse to Work after Death (Can you blame ‘em?)

Kids Make Nutritious Snacks (Maybe if you’re a cannibal! Why don’t Canimals eat clowns? Because they tase FUNNY)

Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half (I’m pretty sure that’s a cruel and unusual punishment.)

Man Struck By Lightning Faces Battery Charge - I bet he could charge several of ‘em!

Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors - I didn’t know doctors grew so tall!

Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft - I wonder if he gave them a countdown first, FIVE…FOUR….THREE…TWO…ONE…BLAST OUT!!!

Turn to someone and tell them - “You are valuable, made in the image of God.”

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As a pastor, I am in a never-ending cycle of counseling people, serving alongside folks, and preparing to teach others. Don’t get me wrong - I love it! But it never stops!

So, this week I continued most of my normal work week BUT…I made A BUNCH of time to PREPARE for this week - to prepare for YOU - because I actually believed YOU were going to SHOW UP!

But, imagine if you found out that I just threw some stuff together last minute and decided to WING IT - you would rightly think - Jackie doesn’t think this Camp Cherokee week was really worth his time or effort.

That’s what I think a lot of Christians are acting like - “Jesus is going to RETURN but I’m not going to PREPARE like it’s really going to happen. We’ll just WING IT and hope for the best.”

Tonight we are going to conclude this Camp Cherokee week by talking about the importance of

EXPECTING HIS RETURN.

KINGDOM CITIZENS recognize that Jesus is KING of the KINGdom - The Promised Savior - the Suffering Servant who gave His life for theirs. What kind of LOVE is THAT!!!!

The first followers of Jesus were forever impacted by spending several powerful days with their Risen King, but one day as they went on one of their normal hikes up the Mt of Olives (Acts 1:12) Jesus didn’t come back with them. Instead, He told them to wait for the coming of the Spirit Who would empower them to carry the message of Jesus all over the known world. And then, suddenly, visibly, Jesus ascended into heaven.

Those who WATCHED as Jesus ascended into the clouds, saw two angels who looked like men tell them these words:

Acts 1:11b (NIV) This same Jesus, Who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.”

And you know what!? The 1st followers of Jesus actually started living like Jesus was returning.

BIG QUESTION: Are we LIVING like He’s RETURNING?

The first followers of Jesus didn’t know WHEN He would, but they knew THAT He WOULD.

Now, I know we can’t circle the date on the calendar, but we can trust the promise that Jesus WILL return - maybe before you and I die. Either way, within a few short years either…Jesus will return OR you will close your eyes on this side of eternity with Jesus in heaven OR without Jesus in hell.

First, let’s look at the encouraging reasons to be EXPECTING HIS RETURN.

Seeing Jesus & knowing we are FULLY FORGIVEN!

Colossians 1:21–23a (NIV) Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.

1 John 3:2 (NIV) Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

Seeing our loved ones who LOVE Jesus!

1 Thessalonians 4:16–18 (NIV) 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. 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. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Dream about Grandaddy - “You know what this means, Jesus is coming back!”

Sin Nature Done Away With!

1 Corinthians 15:51–53 (NIV) Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

No more hospitals or funerals! No more sickness and no more sin!

Revelation 21:3–5 (NIV) And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”

But, sadly, this WON’T be true from everyone.

Those who don’t trust & follow Jesus WILL be judged for their sin.

2 Thessalonians 1:6–10 (NIV)

v6-8 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

v9-10 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.

And, as we will see in today’s teaching, according to Jesus…

BIG TRUTH: The Master returns to bless His servants…and doom the Disobedient

Does that concern you at all…for YOU…OR…for OTHERS?

Our church started singing a song last year that I had never heard, called “Come Jesus come” - looking forward to the return of Jesus - and I really have trouble singing it. Don’t get me wrong. I WANT Jesus to come back - just not yet - because I want my family & friends to KNOW Jesus. I don’t want them to be punished forever.

PRAY for them to follow Jesus.

SHOW them what it looks like to follow Jesus. If there isn’t any difference then we won’t make one.

SHARE Jesus with them.

So, with all this in mind, what if we actually started LIVING like we we are to be Expecting His Return?

People who actually believe Jesus will return should ACT like Jesus is returning. So, here’s the BIG QUESTION for us tonight.

BIG QUESTION: Are we LIVING like He’s RETURNING?

What would our world be like if everyone who called Jesus “Lord” started living like He was returning?

Would we LOVE more graciously than we do now? Wouldn’t we be more likely to love the unlovable, even forgiving our enemies? And how about how we love one another?

Would we SERVE more purposefully than we do now? Wouldn’t we take the time out of our schedules to serve others? I don’t know about you, but I WANT Jesus to find me serving Him by serving others when He returns, rather than just serving myself.

And would we OBEY more passionately than we do now? Obeying Jesus is much easier if we actually believe He sees all we do! If we really believed that Jesus was returning THIS WEEK, I would think that our daily decisions - like what we look at with our eyes, what comes out of our mouths, what our hands touch, and where our feet walk - would be much more focused on obedience and purity.

And would we SHARE more consistently than we do now?

How many of you are GRATEFUL for the people who have shared & showed Jesus to you?

Sharing Jesus with others can be scary, but you know what’s MORE scary than that? If that person died TONIGHT, and you didn’t take the opportunities God gave you to share with them.

Whether Jesus Returns BEFORE you die OR you DIE before He returns…you will stand before the Master.

We asked you to answer this earlier today: If Jesus returned today, would I be Excited or Ashamed? If you KNEW that Jesus was returning the end of this week, what CHANGES would you need to make in your life?

Let’s answer that by answering 3 questions:

1) Are you forgiven? Are you certain that you would be with the Lord Jesus if we breathed your last at midnight?

I was 16 years old, walking through my school hall asking, “For real, what would happen if I died today?”....My mom.

The Lord directed me to THIS PASSAGE:

Romans 10:9 (CSB) If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

STOP TRUSTING YOU and start TRUSTING HIM.

2) Are you livin’ forgiven?

Is there any difference in how you live & talk compared to your non-Christian friends? If you’re going to make a difference, there’s got to be ONE.

3) Are you telling others how THEY can be forgiven?

Terry Durden’s story

This is Terry - a former infantryman in the US Army, the guy who came to fix my ADT stuff - twice,

One day I was at church and I get a text and that Terry was going to church with his daughter.

A few weeks later Terry called and told me he got baptized and is now plugged into a local church in about 1.5 hours from me.

When he comes near my town he looks me up and we get together to eat.

On my way up here - this guy who thought he was too bad to be forgiven, this guy who not only is now leading his family, plugged in his local church, & following Jesus, is sharing his faith with other men in his situation.

I have a guy out here and he is in the same situation I was with my faith when

I first met you and we’re talking about it and we’re slowly talking and I told him all about you and how God put you in my life through my job and how, God had us meet several times because of a bad keypad and how you brought Jesus back into my life by really wanting to try and put my faith in God and now that I’m just been busted wide open with the spirit of God I want to share that with him he is a Trucker and I told him about [2 teachings where] you talked about how we met and how I was just as big military guy and I was actually a big teddy bear, and you know how you really saw the tears coming into my eyes when you spoke about God to me and how I was not too far from God’s grace and God’s love and I want to send him those so he can see that God does work and you’re not too far from God no matter what you’ve done in your life.

Terry is LIVING like He’s Returning - are YOU?

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Discussion Questions

“Whether Jesus Returns BEFORE you die OR you DIE before He returns…you will stand before the Master.” Answer this: If Jesus returned today, would I be Excited or Ashamed? Explain. If you KNEW that Jesus was returning the end of this week, what CHANGES would you need to make in your life?

Read 1 Peter 1:13-16. What HOPE are we to set our minds on/be thinking about? Give examples of what these adjectives look like in real life: alert, sober, obedient, not conformed, holy.

How does obeying/disobeying Jesus demonstrate that we believe He WILL return - or not?

Read 2 Thessalonians 1:6–10. Discuss what the return of Jesus will be like for those who follow Jesus & those who ~don’t. How does this encourage you or concern you?

“Good works don’t save us, but they demonstrate who really is saved.” Do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer.

Share any ‘aha’ moments in today’s study - what you learned or how you were challenged. What’s God want YOU to do with what we studied today?

How can we pray for you? (Leaders: Share your desire to talk with any individual student who needs time to ask questions or talk further.)

Day 5 Intro

Discussion Questions

If Jesus returned today, would I be Excited or Ashamed? Explain. If you KNEW that Jesus was returning the end of this week, what CHANGES would you need to make in your life?

Read 1 Peter 1:13-16. What HOPE are we to set our minds on/be thinking about? Give examples of what these adjectives look like in real life: alert, sober, obedient, not conformed, holy.

How does obeying/disobeying Jesus demonstrate that we believe He WILL return - or not?

If Jesus was returning this week, whose soul would you be concerned for? What would you do about it?

Share some practical ways you might start that conversation and some reasons why it’s difficult for you to initiate spiritual conversations with others.