The Blessed Hope

Our Blessed Hope I John 3.1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. 2 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. 3 All who have this hope in Him purify themselves, just as He is pure. There has always been a lot of talk about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. As with His first appearing so with His second... I Peter 1. 10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when He predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. We have the Blessed Hope. It is of Christ’s Return. Christ will come. We do not know the day or the hour.(Only our Father in Heaven knows) We must always be ready. Let’s follow the scripture this morning... Our salvation, our preparation for that Day is rooted in the wonderful truth that... * God Loves Us He has lavished His Love on us. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5.8 The grace of our LORD was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. I Timothy 1.14 For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. John 3.16 God has loved us to the uttermost. Jesus showed the Disciples the full extent of His love. John 13.1 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for Him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. His death on the cross. We are now the children of God. We have been adopted. Romans 8.15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, "Abba, Father." John 1.12 Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. We belong to Jesus. God is our Father in Heaven. We honor our fathers today but they are ours for this time. God is our Father Forever! We, as His children, are under His care. We are under His Protection. We are loved by Him. He delights in us. He disciplines us for our good, that we might share in His Holiness. * We Do Not Know What We Shall Be Christ will soon appear. We shall be like Him. I Corinthians 15. 42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second Man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we[g] bear the image of the heavenly Man. 50 I declare to you, brothers that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 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. We will see Him. I Corinthians 13. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. I know Whom I Have Believed II Timothy 1.12 For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that Day. * We Have Hope Salvation is now and future. We have hope in a world that is in turmoil. Pastor Mauricio and Erica and I were riding home from Humberto Chavez’s Installation at the Bridge Church in Malverne, stuck in the traffic,surrounded by souls in need of Jesus. This is our mission field. Houses going up all over, people moving out of the city here. This is our time! Let’s look to the fields, let’s look to the LORD! Let’s see what God will do. We have hope when our own souls are being tested. Peace and Hope are given to us in times that try men’s souls. This has a purifying effect on us. Luke 19.11 We have work. We’ll Work Til Jesus Comes We desire to be found in Him when He comes. When we all get to Heaven. There is going to be a meeting in the air. Heaven’s Jubilee. I’ve got a Mansion