Bible references: 2 Thes 1:5; Genesis 7:11; John 17:21-23; Isaiah 60:1-4;
When God appears from Heaven, his glory will appear through his saints. The windows of heaven will be opened. The glory of his saints will go up and His glory will come down. All the earth will know. His glory will be seen everywhere in His people. The nations of the earth will behold the glory of God.
John 17:21-23 - as His people, we have been given God's glory. Isaiah 60:1-4 We shall come to God's glory. Jesus died upon the cross to pay for your sin and to bring you to perfection. There is coming a time, when the saints will be taken out of the earth. It's then that the saints will be in authority; we will be in God's glory. Now we know affliction, but it's coming to an end.
Jesus can change us. 2 Thessalonians 1:5 - He is making us fit to share in his kingdom. At some point in history, the nations of the earth will give account to God for how they treated God's people.
Reference: Lazarus and the Rich Man
2 Thessalonians 1:10
We experience the judgement first. People tried to trick Jesus. They try to trick us now. Churches are a mixture of righteousness and sin; why? Because we are in it. From now until the Lord appears, the church will experience every form of testing. It's about how the Lord works in us, even in our testing. Purpose? Purified and in unified body - Church; the saints; those who call Jesus Christ Lord.
Isaiah 4:2-4; Zechariah 13:9 We, the Lords people will be refined like silver, and purified like gold.
2 Problems for the Church:
1. Great Tribulation
2. The hour of temptation
The hour of temptation- we need to be watching, waiting, connected to Christ. We need to be careful to not let having things, pleasure, money become what we follow after. Never before have we lived in a world where temptation is so prevalent. Because people have become lovers of pleasure instead of lovers of God, people get concerned about great Tribulation. But we need to be about God. Listen to Christ, draw to closer to him, go after the things of God. It's very easy to be deceived. We need to escape this trend, but go after God. Keep our focus right, otherwise we will be overcome. Jesus won't be Glorified in things, in the world; but in His saints.
We have two choices in life - one is we follow the Lord; the other is that we walk away.
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