If the end of the world were to come, how would the media report it? Well, somebody suggested that U.S. Today would simply read, "We're Dead." The Wall Street Journal would have as its headlines, "Dow Jones Plummets as the World Ends." The National Enquirer, "O.J. and Nicole Together Again." Microsoft Systems Journal, "Apple Loses Market Share." Victoria Secret Catalog, "Our Final Sale." Sports Illustrated, "Game Over." Rolling Stone, "The Grateful Dead Reunion Tour." Reader's Digest would simply say, "Bye." Discover Magazine may read, "How will the extinction of all life as we know affect the way we view the cosmos?" The TV Guide, "Death and Damnation- Nielson Ratings Soar." Ladies Home Journal, "Lose Ten Pounds by Judgment Day with Our New Armageddon Diet." And American Online might say, "System temporarily unavailable. Try calling back in 15 minutes."

We have been rediscovering our foundations in a rather lengthy series on what the Bible says about the nature of God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, how the trinity works, the nature of man, the fall, redemption, and the church. Tonight we take a bend in the road, and we look at "Last Things," "The Last Days." What theologians call eschatology.

We began our series with a creed if you remember back. The Nicene Creed crafted back in the year 325 A.D. to counteract these weird belief systems principally about the nature of Christ. And as the creed goes on to affirm what the church believed in historically about the Father, about Christ, it went on to say, He, Jesus, will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Eschatology. Eschatos means "final or last." It is the study of the last things, the future, the end of days, the end of the world. It includes a host of events, from the rapture of the church, to the tribulation period, all the way to the return of Jesus Christ.

Now, the end of the world has been a subject of concern for a long time. In fact, just about every chaotic period of history has had people say, "This is it. This is the end of the world." In A.D. 1000, the first millennium benchmark, people went crazy saying, "This is it. The end of the world is coming." Back in 1985, there's been a lot of these, but one notable one back in 1985 somebody put an article in a British newspaper that read thus, "The world is definitely coming to an end on December 11 at noon precisely." That was a Wednesday. As that date passed, on the 13th, which was a Friday, the editor of that paper decided to run the article again with a little p.s. that read, "We're still here." You remember back a couple years when people said, "January 1, 2000, the end of the world is going to come. The millennium bug is going to so affect the computer systems of the world. The banks will close, trains and planes will stop, the electricity grid will freeze, and the world will panic. And guess what? We're still here.

The theme of 2 Peter, all three chapters, is the last days. That's what the book has as its theme, the last days. What you ought to know is that Peter, while he writes this, is facing death. He knows that his own martyrdom is just around the corner, his last days are upon him. And so he turns the lens toward the future, the last days of humanity, the end of the world, when the world will end, how it will end, and what general things can be expected. And that's what we're going to look at tonight, five general things that can be expected.

There were three prisoners that were awaiting execution. As the first stood before the firing squad, he thought of any way he could to escape death. So as the gunmen had their guns pointed at him and were ready to pull the trigger, he shouted out, "Tornado!" And the gunmen looked around behind their back, and it gave him just enough time to jump over the wall and escape.

The second guy stood up and they raised their guns and were about ready to fire the bullet at him and he shouted, "Flood!" And they all turned back to see the water, and he jumped over the wall.

Well, the third guy was left, and he didn't know what he was going to say to cause a distraction. He thought of all sorts of natural catastrophes, and when they raised their guns ready to point at them, he said, "Fire!" And interestingly enough, that's in part how this present world will come to an end in judgment—fire.

Look ahead to chapter 3, and look at verse 10 as Peter writes, The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat, both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

But let's back off from that for a moment, and go back to chapter 1 and look at these, these general things about the last days that serve as indicators in part. First of all, the last days are spoken of prophetically throughout the Scripture. And if we would look at chapter 1 as Peter in verse 12 says, "And for this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are establish in the present truth. Yes, I think it is right as long as I am in this tent to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. Moreover, I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these after my decease. For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased." And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

And if you would look at the third chapter, a few verses there. Beloved, I now write to you this second letter, or epistle, in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord, our Lord and Savior. Knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days walking according to their own lusts.

The term last days is mentioned only five times in the New Testament. The term doesn't appear in the Old Testament like that, but it does appear in other forms. For instance, the prophet Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Hosea, and Micah all use the term the latter days, referring to the time of the end. Daniel calls that time the end, the appointed time, the time of the end, and the end of days, the last days. Now technically, the last days began at the first coming of Jesus Christ and continue all the way through to the second coming of Jesus Christ. Did you hear that? Technically, the last days began when Jesus came the first time and continue to the very second coming of Christ. How do we know that? Because the writer of Hebrews said, God, chapter 1, who had different times and in different ways spoke unto our fathers through the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by his son.

The time of Pentecost. Remember the disciples were there in the temple area, and some were speaking in tongues, and the crowd looked on and said, "These guys are nuts or they're drunk." And Peter stood up and said, "These men are not drunk as you supposed, but this is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel who said, 'In the last days I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and daughters will prophesy.'"

So, yes, we are in the last days, but so was Napoleon, and so was Martin Luther, and so were the Roman emperors. However, after having said that, it's obvious that a huge chunk of time like that, that covers 2000 years, that parts of it would be latter than others, that somehow in that big chunk of time called the last days where we don't know when Jesus is coming, that there's one part of it, the last part of the last days which bring us closer obviously to the coming of Christ than the rest. And when the disciples asked Jesus that question, What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age, you remember in all three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus gives a list of signs that they can look at, indicators that will tell them this is it. The last days are at their latter end.

Now if you go back and look at verse 16-19, which we just read, Peter is referring to an experience that he had with Jesus while he was on the earth. Do you remember what it was? He speaks of seeing Jesus in this glorious apparition on the holy mount. Sure, it's the Transfiguration. Peter, James, and John were with Jesus on this mountain, and Jesus was transfigured, luminescent, bright, in glory with Moses and Elijah. And Peter saw it, and Peter heard the father speak from heaven.

The Transfiguration is what is known in the film industry as a trailer, a preview of coming attractions, a highlight, where they take all the best part of the scenes and they show it for 30-60 seconds to get you to come to it. What Peter, James, and John see at the Transfiguration is a demonstration clip, if you will, a trailer of the event more fully described in Revelation 19 when Jesus comes in his bright glory to slay the wicked. And what Peter is saying here is this, "I saw with my eyes what the prophets predicted. What the Scripture predicted I saw. So my experience confirmed the words of the prophets." And his next thought is basically this, "If what the prophets predicted of the first coming of Jesus came true, then surely what they predicted of the second coming will also come true, and we ought to take heed to it.

Did you know that next to the subject of faith, no other subject in the Scripture is talked about more than the second coming of Jesus Christ? None. It's estimated that there are 1,845 verses that speak of his second return; whereas, there's about 330 direct prophecies or inferences about his first coming. One out of 30 verses in the Bible mention or deal with the end of time. In the New Testament alone, seven out of 10 chapters, 7 in 10 chapters refer to it, and all in all it is estimated that one quarter, ¼ of all Scripture is predictive of the last days.

Why? Why so much press about the last days? Simply because God, our creator, didn't make us for this world alone. God, our creator, made us with eternity in mind. That's where we're going to spend most of our time. Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes that God has set eternity in their hearts. So God made us to live forever. It only stands to reason that he would devote more press to what's coming rather than to just here and now. That's why.

If you live to be 70 years old, I've told you this before, all in all you would have spent 20 years of your life working, 20 years of your life sleeping, 7 years of your life playing, 5 years of your life getting dressed, 2 ½ years of your life just laying around in bed waiting to get up, and 5 months, 5 months tying your shoes. I say buy loafers.

Dunkin Matheson said, "Lord, stamp eternity on my eyeballs."

The last days are spoken of prophetically. A fourth of the Bible looks forward to it, and that's how we ought to live, with that in mind. That's where we're headed. That's where we're going to spend the majority of our time.

The second thing in general to notice is that the last days are focused "messianically". That is, they have a main subject, a main focus, and that's Christ. Same chapter, chapter 1 verse 16, We did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and the coming of your Lord Jesus Christ. We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory, "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased."

Now, do you remember the story? You remember the incident. We know that Peter, James, and John were there to see it. Jesus took them aside up to that area. And who else was there besides them and Jesus? Jesus appeared with Moses and Elijah. And do you remember Peter's reaction when he saw that? He said, "Lord, I got a great building plan. Why don't we construct three condiminiums," now I'm modernizing it a little bit, "three tabernacles. One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He puts them all on the same level. That's when the Father in heaven interrupts Peter. Good thing. Straightened out his theology. He said, This is my beloved son, shhhh. Listen to him." This is my beloved son. Listen to him. He'd been listening to them all his life, the prophets and the law. Now it's time to listen to him. In other words, the focus of the last days, the focus of the glory that Peter saw, the focus of all the prophetic stuff, the star of the stage of history is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And every time you read the Bible, you can see Jesus in it, Old or New Testament. There's a scarlet thread of redemption that runs through the whole Bible. It predicts him. It looks forward to him, either his redemption or his rule; but that is the focus of the Bible.

You remember in Revelation 19 when John sees an angel and falls down to worship, and the angel says, Get up, I'm just a man, I'm sorry, I'm just a messenger, an angel? He says, For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Did you get that? The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

All of the prophets as they look forward to the end of times, the main character is Jesus. And he unlocks all of the mysteries that we read about in the Old Testament. You go, "How does that all work?" It works when you put Jesus in it.

Every magician, probably every American who follows the news even not so ancient history knows the name Harry Houdini, one of the most famous magicians in American history, oh, about a century ago.

Well, when he was over in Paris, there was a local French magician who challenged Houdini saying, "Whatever Houdini does, I can do equally as well." And he said he would demonstrate it publicly. He demanded to be locked in a cage, and he even said that he would allow Houdini's special lock that he carried with him, his special lock to lock the cage, and that he would escape from it.

What Houdini didn't know for sure, but was true, was that an accomplice of the French magician found out the combination of Houdini's lock, which in those days on this lock wasn't numbers but letters, A to Z, five letter rolling combination. The accomplice had somehow found out what that was, so this guy thought, "You know, I am just going to have him memorize this, work it out, and get out."

Houdini suspected, and the night before changed the combination. And he sat back with his arms crossed, and he watched this guy make a fool of himself. The cage was locked. The magician tried and tried; couldn't get out. Finally, in desperation pleaded with Houdini to release him. Houdini released him. The crowd cheered, and then Houdini revealed to his competitor and the crowd the new combination he had put in the night before: F-R-A-U-D, fraud.

As you look in the Old Testament, and there's these mysterious prophecies, and we don't exactly know how it fits together. There is a five letter name combination that unlocks it: J-E-S-U-S. Works every time. Gets you out of every mysterious, prophetic mystery. He's the key to it all.

You remember that Jesus after his resurrection was incognito. They didn't know that it was Jesus. He's walking along the road with two guys on the road to Emmaus, two of his disciples, and they didn't recognize him. And he comes up and says, "Yeah, how come you guys are so sad," and they tell him, "Are you a stranger? Don't you know the things that have happened here in Jerusalem the last few days?"

Jesus goes, "What things?" So they just pour their heart out to him.

The Bible says this, and oh, I wish it would've been recorded on CD or tape. The Bible says in Luke 24, And beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expounded to them in all of the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Wow, what an honor. The first Bible study Jesus ever gave post resurrection was prophetic. He unlocked the Scriptures. Probably going back to Genesis 3 speaking of the seed of the woman and the coverings of skin; on into Exodus, the blood on the lintels and doorposts; the Levitical sacrifices; Isaiah 53; Psalm 22; the tabernacle. And they went, "Wow!" It doesn't say that, but I can only imagine.

So just as the planets of our galaxy all revolve around the sun, all events, all history, all nations revolve around God's son, Jesus Christ. He's the center.

A third thing to note is that it will be marked by apostasy. Look in chapter 2 now. Peter goes on to say there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you. Now I want you to read that carefully. False teachers among you, among you Christians, among the church, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies. The idea is to take a well established truth and inject it with just enough stuff as to corrupt it. Even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words for a long time. Their judgment has not been idle. Their destruction does not slumber.

Now, we're not going to read all of chapter 2, but the entire chapter is devoted to the marks, the message, and the judgment of false teachers who will rise up in the end of days and corrupt the essential truths of historic Christianity, denying the Lord who bought them. This will be the voice of the religious world. This will be a falling away from historic Christianity. There will be people in the church claiming to be Christians, but polluting the message.

Now keep a mark here and go left. Go back to 2 Timothy. When you find Hebrews, keep going. When you go to 1 Timothy, go to the right. 2 Timothy chapter 3. Notice how he writes about. But know this, that in the last days, this is Paul now affirming what Peter has said, In the last days, perilous times will come. Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unbelieving, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—sounds like newspapers from the last week—having a form of godliness, but denying its power. And from such people turn away.

In other words, there's going to be a marked tendency to drift away from the truth and replace the truth with deceptive ideas. It's a tendency, that according to the Bible, will continue all the way through into the tribulation period when emerges the great deceptor, the anti-Christ. And John writes about that, 1 John chapter 2. This is the last hour. As you have heard that anti-Christ is coming, and even now many anti-christs have come. That's how we know it is the last hour.

Well, what about these false teachers? Well, they're going to tamper with the person of Christ. Did you notice what Peter said back in chapter 2 where we started? They're going to deny the Lord who bought them, saying something about his identity that's false. Maybe he had in mind when he wrote this the Gnostics who were present in his age who denied the humanity of Christ. It was no doubt also prophetic of what happened around 300 that brought out the Nicene creed, the heresy of Arius who denied the deity of Christ like the Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, and others do today. Every single cult ever established has tampered with the person of Jesus Christ, a falling away.

A poll was taken of ministers. Now listen to this. These are ministers in Protestant denominations. The poll was sent out to 10,000 ministers. 7,700 replied back. It was published by the Jeffrey Haddon survey and was put in a magazine called Pulpit Helps.

Question number 1: Do you accept Jesus' physical resurrection as historic fact?

51% of the Methodists who took the poll said no. 35% United Presbyterians said no. 30% Episcopalians said no. 33% of American Baptists said no.

2nd question: Do you believe in the virgin birth?

60% of Methodists said no. 44% Episcopalians said no. 49% of Presbyterians said no. 34% of the Baptists said no. And 19% of American Lutherans said no.

These are all denial of historic, basic foundational truths that the church has always held to.

You know, before the 18th century, anyone who claimed to be a Christian would never dare to deny the truth of the Scripture. The Bible is the Bible. It's God's word. If you're a Christian you believe it. But then there was a shift in thinking. A group of elite intellectuals started espousing an idea of deism, the idea that God created the world and sort of stepped back from it, that the universe is a self perpetuating mechanism, and out of that sprang the "God is dead" theology. And around the 19th century this started infecting Christians. And in New England a group called Unitarians were the first ones in that era to blatantly in the churches deny the deity of Christ.

Now, same survey that I just mentioned, same survey. Here's a third question: Do you believe the Scriptures are inspired and are the inerrant word of God?

87% of the Methodists said no. These are ministers. 95% of Episcopalians said no. 82% of Presbyterians said no. 67% of American Baptists said no. 77% of American Lutherans said no. And 24% of Missouri Synod Lutherans said no.

This explains why they never preach from it. If you don't believe in it, why would you preach from it, except to find some little saying that is a happy, hug me, feel good pabulum.

One year ago July, a survey was taken of Church of England, and we seem to sort of follow those trends. Church of England pastors, the pastors, the clergy. It is reported that only ½ of them believe that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. Now, I'm sharing all of that with you to serve as a warning, as a warning for us organizationally, as a warning to you individually.

There is a truth I have noticed, and I have just pointed it out, that you can call spiritual entropy, a winding down, a slowing down, a loss of heat, a loss of energy. That what started can quickly diminish. What Jesus said to the church of Ephesus, You have left your first love. And that's why Hebrews 2 speaks so, so clearly to us when it says, Let us give the more earnest heed to the things that we have heard lest we drift away from them. That's why we need fellowship. That's why we need the word of God in our daily lives.

There's a fourth mark. The last days will be viewed skeptically. Look at chapter 3. We've looked at these verses, but, but let's quickly look at a couple more. Beloved, I now write to you the second epistle of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandments of us the apostles of our Lord and Savior. Knowing this first, scoffers will come in the last days walking according to their own lusts and saying, "Where's the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.

Now, just as apostasy, which we just covered, is the voice of the religious world, skepticism is the voice of the secular world. "Oh, my grandmother used to say, 'Jesus is coming.' Didn't come when she was alive. She's dead. Where is he? Everything continues the same. Nothing ever changes." This is known as uniformitarianism, by the way.

My first day in college zoology class, the first question out of my professor's mouth, first question, "Is anybody in my class a Christian, a born again Christian? Raise your hand." I'm looking around at everybody, going like this. I raised my hand. I think I must've been the only one. Maybe there was one more. The rest of the class was spent berating the idea of special creation, exinhilo creation, and touting the idea of long-term evolution, uniformitarianism, everything continues without interruption. Now, Peter says that's wrong, and here's why. Verse 5, For this they willingly forget that by the word of God the heavens were of old, the earth standing out of water and in water by which the world that then existed perished being flooded with water. He was a catastrophus. He believed that God spoke dramatically via catastrophes like creation, like the flood that covered the world. And he's saying these people who tout this, they are either forgetting or denying this fact. And there will come scoffers, he says, in the last days.

Do you think they scoffed at Noah? He's building a boat out there inland in Iraq. That's like having a yacht factory in Rio Rancho. And people would drive by and go, "Why?" They looked at Noah. "What are you doing, man?" but he had the promise of God.

There was a farmer who was visited by his city relatives. He was a religious man, the farmer was. The city relatives were skeptics. They were sophisticated. And as they gathered together for the family meal that night, the farmer bowed his head, and prayed, and thanked God. The sophisticated relative said, "Hoho. That's so old-fashioned. Anybody who's educated these days they don't pray before meals."

The farmer admitted that, "Yeah, it is a little bit old-fashioned, and I will admit," he said, "I have some on my farm who don't pray before their meals."

And the relative said, "Oh, I see, enlightenment has come to the farm, and who are these wise ones?"

And the farmer said, "My pigs. They just dig right in."

The scoffers will come. That's part of the mark, and more and more so.

Finally, I want you to look at verse 10. This is where we close tonight. The last days should be responded to obediently. This is where we come in, and this is where we end. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise. The elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, therefore, having said all that Peter said, follow it carefully, here's his application point. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the day of the Lord, because of which the heavens will be dissolved being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we according to his promise look for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Follow Peter's logical appeal. Here's the letter in a whole. If the Bible clearly predicts the last days, and if the Bible marks the last days as being times of apostasy and skepticism, then there must be out of the heart of true believers a very decisive response. And what should our response be? How do we respond to this world? How do we respond to the last days?

Well, not materialistically, because the world's going to be burned up. If you live materialistically, you're living for the wrong world. And not secularly. We shouldn't deny Jesus like these false teachers deny him, because he's the one who's coming. You don't want to bum him out.

So, I'm going to sum it all up what I think Peter is saying in this last area here, and that is this: The Bible's revelation of the world's consummation should evoke out of Christians a godly motivation. Did you get that? Once again, the Bible's revelation of the world's consummation, or destruction, should evoke a godly motivation.

Look at verse 11 as we close. What manner of persons ought you to be? Did you know the word manner here literally means "exotic or foreign, other worldly." What Peter is saying is that the world is not our home. And if the world is not our home, our conduct should be "other worldly." That's his point. If God has set eternity in our hearts, and he has; if we're going to spend the bulk of our existence in the next world, and we will; then there ought to be, as he says here, holy conduct and godliness.

Now I want to end by giving you three things to remember, just kind of boiling it down to three bullet points, three things for you to remember as end time, last day believers.

Number one. Be careful of spiritual entropy. Be careful. Watch yourself. The Bible warns us continually in the New Testament: slacking off, losing ground, cooling down our passion and fire, leaving our first love. So be careful of spiritual entropy.

Number two. Be confident in spiritual truth. The Bible reveals the future. Learn about it. And as you learn about it, and you get a feel for what's going on now, unfolding before your eyes, something will happen. As Jesus said, When you see these things begin to happen, look up, lift up your heads because your redemption draws near. As the world sort of goes to pot and gets worse and worse, it's not that we're throwing a party, but we look around and go, "Oh, I get it. That's spoken about in the Bible. Wow. Soon. Soon he will come." Your redemption draws nigh.

So be careful of spiritual entropy, be confident in spiritual truth, and third, be consistent, be consistent in spiritual activity. Be, be godly in a consistent manner in your life. Be consistent with your church. Don't be like one of the ones I meet every now and then, "Oh, oh yeah, I come every few months. Every Christmas and Easter you can depend on me. I'll be there." Be consistent in your commitment to the fellowship. Get involved. Get active. Activate your gifts. Let your heart grow. Be consistent in your relationships with your business dealings at work. Even if your boss is a jerk, be consistent. Even if you get sued in business, be consistent. Be consistent in your family; even if you're married to a spouse who is cold; even if personalities rub. Be consistent. Be godly.

Two weeks ago, one of the first things I did in Scotland was go to the boyhood home of the great missionary, David Livingstone, explorer and missionary in Africa. Gave up his life to do it. I stood there at his childhood home in Blantyre Works in Hamilton in Scotland. And I read all about him once again, and I was reminded that when he died he was buried in West Minster Abbey in London. And all of London turned out for a huge procession of this great and revered man who had given all.

People know of David Livingstone, but very few people know of Samuel Morrison. He was also a missionary to Africa, but he wasn't as famous. But he was as godly. As an old man he returned home. He didn't have any strength anymore to continue his mission work. He'd been in Africa 25 years by that time, and he was on a ship coming home. And on that ship there was also a very special guest. It was President Teddy Roosevelt returning also from Africa for only a three week hunting trip.

Well, you can guess what happened. They pulled into New York harbor, and bands, and balloons, and the press was there. Not welcoming the missionary but the president. The missionary got off the boat unnoticed. Couldn't even get a taxi. Everybody was welcoming the president home, and he started complaining secretly in his heart to the Lord. He said, "I've given you 25 years of my life, and I come home. Nobody notices me. No one's even there to greet me—no one from the mission board, no one from the church. President's three weeks in Africa. He comes home. He gets a parade."

And the veteran missionary said he heard as it were the Lord's voice speaking directly to his heart saying, "Samuel, you're not home yet. You're not home yet."

Be consistent. Be godly.

"Oh, but I'm not getting a reward."

You're not home yet, but one day you will be. So may God stamp eternity on our eyes.

Heavenly Father, though no one knows, you know. Though no one sees, you see. We're your people in these days, these last days, what seems to be the latter end of these last days. When as these things Jesus predicted were coming to pass, he said, Lift up your head, look up. Your redemption is nigh. It's close. So I pray we would take heart in the midst of a world that is marked by skepticism, and by so-called believers all around this country and this world, who everyday deny another major hallmark of the Christian faith, and fall into apostasy. May our response that is evoked from our hearts be one of godliness and holiness, living for the other world to which we are called. Lord, I can't help but pray for those who are here, but still living for this world. They're here, but they're not yours. They've heard, some for weeks and months, and they too are living in these last days. And Peter speaks also about their faith, as does Paul, as does John, as does Jesus. Lord, save them. Bring them home to you tonight, Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen.