A Great Day | Dr. David Jeremiah

• “I’m getting a new body”
• Dr. Jeremiah’s message – “A Great Day”
• One last word from Dr. Jeremiah

You may feel limited, like you’ve gone as far as you can. Deep down, you know there are bigger things in you, but every circumstance says you’re stuck. God is saying, “Come out of your tent. Look up.” You’re focused on the natural. You have to change your perspective. You’re not limited by your background. You’re not at the mercy of who raised you, what you didn’t get, what looks impossible. Your Heavenly Father is about to breathe on your life in a new way. New doors are about to open. New gifts are about to come out; the greatness God put in you is about to show up.

Our new bodies will be incredibly suited for heaven and for eternity.
Paul says there’s a natural body, and he said there’s a spiritual body And what do he mean by that?
The basic difference between a natural body and a spiritual body is that the former body is suited for life on earth And the other body is suited for life in heaven.
In our current bodies, we couldn’t function in the realm of heaven. We’re not created for heaven.
We’re created for earth. We get to heaven. We’re gonna have to have something special to exist in heaven.
And god is going to give us a new real body like the ones we have now, but completely made over and transformed no longer governed by the appetites of the flesh.
Listen to this, but governed by the appetites of the spirit.
That is the hope we cling to as followers of Jesus Christ.
The rapture assures us that death is not the end of life It’s the beginning of a new existence in our new, perfect, glorious body.
Turn to your neighbor and say, I’m getting a new body. Amen.
In all of his mansions, there’s not room big enough for all of his awards.
Sir, Paul McCartney may go down in history as the greatest musician of all time.
A founding member of the Beatles and a man who became as the Guinness Book of Records puts it, the planet’s most honored composer and performer in music.
His fans know it’s been a rough ride for him.
Some of his hardest days were after the Beatles broke up.
I mean, What do you do after you’re in the Beatles? He went to a dark place.
He stayed in his Scottish home smoking pot and getting drunk, and he lost all hope After all, how do you follow the Beatles is there life after that kind of a ride?
Macartney’s turnaround started when the chords of a song came to him, one he’d worked on from time to time, and the music made him feel optimistic.
And he worked it into a song for his children. He called the song great day.
And the lyrics talked about a future day that was coming, And it was going to be a great day, and it would be here in a short time, and it was something to look forward to, something to celebrate.
Now, before you think, McCartney had a spiritual experience, he explained, I like the idea of a song saying that health is coming, and there’s a bright light on the horizon, I have got absolutely no evidence for this, but I’d like to believe it.
It helps to lift my spirits. He didn’t realize how close he was to the truth.
Because there is a great day coming, and it won’t be long, and there’s a bright light on the horizon, and we have plenty of evidence for it.
And we have biblical evidence, and boy, does it lift our spirits?
Jesus Christ is coming back, and he’s coming back soon.
Frankly, as you look out at the world today and you’re looking for answers and hope and solutions, that’s about the only one that you can really count on one day, Jesus is gonna come back and set this all straight.
And he will be the king of the earth, and there will be no craziness like we’re going through right now.
Can he get a witness to that?
Zephania 114 says the great day of the lord is near.
It is near and it hastens quickly.
The apostle Paul talked about it, and he said, which the lord, the righteous judge will give me on that day in his return?
Not to me only, but to all those looking forward to his coming back again.
It’s a great day that we’re looking forward to.
And this is a message about that day, a day of the rapture.
The exact date is already circled on god’s calendar. Did you know that? We aren’t privy to that.
We don’t know what day it is, but we know there is a day, and it’s already settled in the heart of god That day will come as surely as any day that’s marked on your calendar.
Now the rapture is an event in the impending future when all of us living or deceased, who have put our trust in Jesus Christ for salvation and eternal life, will be suddenly caught up from this earth into the heavens and will be reunited with loved ones who have preceded us in death.
Will be met by the lord himself who’s going to usher us into heaven, and we’re gonna live in perfect fellowship with him forever.
And the major truth concerning that coming is found in 3 passages in the Bible.
Uh, there’s a chapter in this new book that I’ve written called The Rule of III, And here are those 3 passages.
1st of all, John 14, secondly, 1st thessalonians 4, and thirdly, 1st Corinthians 15.
If you wanna know about the rapture, those are the 3 passages you need to know about.
John 14, first, that’s 4, and 1st Corinthians 15.
Now, John 14 presents our lord’s statement about the many mansions in heaven.
You know that in my father’s house or many mansions, And if it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again to receive you unto myself that where I am, There you may be also, according to the scripture, the return of the lord will be announced by 3 distinct and spectacular sounds.
He is coming back, but he won’t sneak in the town. He’s coming back with some announcements.
First of all, the sound of the lord’s command.
First thessalonian says, for the lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout.
The Greek word used to describe the lord shout is that of a command of a military leader who comes out of his tent and issues a command to his soldiers.
Scripture shows us a similar shout in the gospel of John.
Remember, when Jesus stood outside of the tomb of his friend Lazarus and he shouted Lazarus come forth.
It was a resurrection command.
And I’ve heard Bible students speculate on what might have happened if Jesus had failed to mention Lazarus’s name, all the dead in the ground would have come out and have been a resurrection day that day.
At the rapture, That’s exactly what’s gonna happen, friends.
Jesus will shout come forth, and he won’t name a single person.
But everyone who’s a believer who has gone into the grave will come out of their grave in the resurrection.
The sound of the lord’s command.
And then the Bible says, accompanying the sound of the lord’s command is the sound of Michael’s voice.
With the voice of the archangel, says the scripture.
Now, ringing out along with the lord’s command will be the thunderous voice of the archangel.
We know from scripture just who that is.
He is Michael, the only archangel named in the Bible, and the chief of all of the angels.
And then there’s the sound of the trumpet.
Now, Paul refers to this in Corinthians as the last trumpet When the rapture trumpet blows, the blast will surround the earth like an echo chamber reverberating into the soul of every ascending Christian.
It will be loud enough to wake up the dead, literally.
John Wallbard said the rapture trumpet will call all Christians to rise from the Earth to meet the lord in the air.
And from there, they will go to heaven just as Christ promised in John 14 3.
The last trumpet for the church may be analogous to the last trumpet used in the Roman army.
Soldiers were awakened by the first trumpet, in the morning, which served as their alarm clock.
And the second trumpet assembled them for instructions for the day, and the 3rd trumpet they marched off to their assignments.
So receiving solvations like hearing the first trumpet, god’s calling you to serve like hearing the second trumpet And the 3rd or last trumpet is calling you to heaven.
When you hear the last trump and the shout of the lord and the sound of Michael’s voice, the rapture is happening.
And you know, I believe I’ve said this, I’ve said this all along that I believe that I could be alive when the rapture happens.
I hope you believe that too. We’re supposed to believe that. I really believe it.
And every day that I get up and read the newspaper, I think it’s getting more true than it’s ever been.
I think he is getting ready to come back I can’t prove that. I don’t have any dates.
I’m not gonna do any crazy thing, like telling you I know when it’s gonna happen, but we are in the season.
We may not be at the moment, but we’re in the season. Are we not? The lord’s coming back.
And when he does, he’s going to announce this coming, his return, know, Winston Churchill has always been one of my favorite historic characters, and he incorporated the meaning of the trumpet into his funeral service.
I remember reading this is really cool.
He arranged for a trumpeter to sound the last post or taps, as we know it, from the highest reaches of St.
Paul’s Cathedral. The long, slow ballad echoed mournfully throughout the ancient church.
And the dirge was a ruthless reminder that Britain’s hero had finally been conquered by death.
As the last sorrowful note faded, a second trumpeter suddenly sounded revelly high from another gallery.
This too was arranged by Churchill, The great statesman wanted the somber call to sleep to be followed by a more triumphant call to arise.
For all who perished before the return of the lord, our lives will follow a similar pattern.
We will sleep, but at the rapture, the trumpet blast will be a reveily calling us to awaken and we’re going up.
So that’s the return. Now, notice the second part of all of this is the resurrection.
First Jesus is coming back, and then the second part is the resurrection.
First thessalonians 4 says this, we who are alive and remain until the coming of the lord will, by no means, proceed those who are asleep.
The dead in Christ will rise first.
When Christ descends from heaven with a shout, he will begin by summoning to himself, all of those who are asleep.
Now, that is not a description of the people at 11 o’clock in my church service. Although who are asleep.
This is the description of everybody who has died.
Paul’s terminology, those who are asleep, is a new testament language, that identifies Christians who have died.
Did you know that the Bible writers never used the word sleep to describe the death of an unbeliever?
Only Christians are allowed to use that term for their death. And it’s in the Bible.
Let me just show you where it is.
Johnny Levin says, These things he said, and after that, he said to them, our friend Lazarus sleeps.
Now, friends was Lazarus asleep? No.
The Bible says he’d been asleep for 4 days, if he was, and he and the Bible says he already started to smell bad.
He wasn’t just sleeping. He was dead, but sleep is the word that is used to describe it.
And then Stephen knelt down and cried out with a loud voice. Lord do not charge them with this sin.
And when he had said this, he fell asleep. He died. But the Bible says, Steven fell asleep.
And David, after he had served his own generation by the will of god fell asleep, and was buried with his fathers and saw corruption.
And Christ is risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
The concept of death is emphasized in the wonderful word that early Christians used for the places they put their loved ones when they die.
It was the Greek word, Coimetryon, and it’s a rest house for strangers.
It’s the word from which we get our English word cemetery, And in Paul’s day, this word was the word you used to describe a hotel or a motel.
We check-in expecting to spend an items sleep before we wake up in the morning refreshed and ready to go.
And that’s exactly the thought that Paul expressed in words such as koi Ma or Koymaterion, When Christians die, it’s like they are slumbering peacefully in a place of rest, ready to be awakened at the return of the lord.
And the words have great importance for them to convey the idea that for a Christian death is not a tragic finality, It’s a temporary sleep.
We go in the grave awaiting for that day when the call of the angel and the voice of the lord, and the trumpet of god’s gonna wake us up.
And the Bible teaches that those who are sleeping in Jesus will not be left out of the rapture.
Here’s what happened, y’all. Paul and his associate went to Thessalonica to teach, and they were only there for a very short time.
You can read about this in acts 17.
And so they had started to teach about the rapture and about the coming of the lord, but they had to leave before they were finished.
So the thessalonians, they were all jazzed up about Jesus coming back.
But they had already lost some of their parents. They had lost some of their loved ones, their siblings.
And there was no instructions about them. What about them? Are they gonna be left out of the rapture?
So when Paul wrote back to them, he said, I would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning those who are asleep, and he gives us all this information.
Because those who are asleep aren’t left out, they take preeminence over everybody else.
They go up first before anybody else is raptured. Somebody told me because they got 6 feet further to go.
Right? I don’t know if that’s true or not, but, anyway, if I’m still alive, listen to this, if I’m still alive when Jesus comes back, I will not go to heaven before my mom and dad who are in the graves in Cedarville, Ohio where they are buried, they’ll be caught up first, and then I will be caught up to be with them.
And then together, we’ll go into heaven. Won’t that be something? You know?
I I won’t I’ll get to see I’ll get to see the real heaven with my parents.
And do you know what we do when we see stuff that we really love. We high five people.
Don’t we? A lot of high five going on when we go to heaven. Amen?
Johnny Erickson Tada tells about the time her mother-in-law bought a grave for her at Forest Law Cemetery, but she wouldn’t sign the papers until Johnny and her husband inspected the lot and gave their approval.
One Sunday afternoon, Johnny Erickson and her husband Ken drove out to the cemetery and found the location of their gray sites in a section called murmuring Pines, and they listened to the sales representative as she spoke about what a good view it was where her feet would be, where her head would be so fucked.
Hey, you know, it makes no difference to people, but anyway, Johnny was a little disinterested in the presentation.
And a few minutes later, while the family conferred over the paperwork, Johnny said, I powered my wheelchair on top of my grave, and I turned to gaze at the range of mountains, a gust of wind, rippled the grass, and the pines above me did indeed murmur, a breeze tossed my hair, a profound piece settled over the scene and sent me.
It struck me. Listen to this.
I was sitting on the exact spot where my actual body would rise, should I die before crushed returns?
So we shouldn’t call those places aerial places, we should call them resurrection places.
We’re gonna we’re gonna go and put our loved one in the resurrection place.
She was, and she said it was so amazing to her when she thought about that, that she had a little worship service there, just thinking about, I’m I’m right now, at the place where one day, if I don’t make it until Jesus comes back, I’m gonna come out of this grave and go to be with him.
What a wonderful thought that is. One day, we’re gonna be resurrected to be with the lord.
Now I hope you’re tracking here. The first thing about the rapture is the return.
Jesus is coming back. And the second thing is the resurrection.
All those who have died, all those who are alive are gonna be caught up together to be with him.
Now, there’s one little thing that we have to talk about in the meantime, and that’s the redemption.
So let me read 1st Corinthians 15, which is one of the ancillary passages.
So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption. It is raised in incorruption.
It is sown in dishonor It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power.
It is sown in natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. Here is some wonderful news.
At some point in the future, you get to upgrade your body to one that is at top of the line in every respect.
You are gonna have, I call this, I call this particular thing, the Extreme Makeover.
We’re gonna all get an Extreme Makeover. Amen? As you get older, you appreciate that more.
Can I get a witness? Yeah. Because more things more things ain’t working that used to work. Right?
The rapture’s gonna spark this renaissance across the globe. Christians who have died will live again.
And not only in a spiritual sense, but physically too, the bodies of believers that are buried in the ground will come out of the ground they will be raised up are very bodies that we are living in right now.
And these bodies will be the same ones that went into the grave.
Though they will be transformed in profound ways.
Assuming that you and I pass away before the rapture, we are going to be resurrected on that day and that will be in essence an amazing thing.
But the resurrection body that comes out of the grave is gonna be a lot better than the one that went into the grave.
These words apply not only to those who will be resurrected at the rapture, but those of us who are alive are gonna get a new body too.
Before we get to heaven, we’re gonna be transformed, and the Bible says in a moment in the twinkling of an eye.
Everything that happens to a resurrected body gonna happen to a caught up to heaven body.
And specifically, I wanna tell you six things about this that will answer a bunch of your questions.
Number 1, our new bodies will be incapable of sickness or death.
Now that’s a hallelujah moment right there. Right.
How many of you know, our present bodies were out and they grow old, but our resurrection bodies will have no capacity for deterioration or decay.
Your new body will be designed for eternity. It will not be subject to accident, disease, aging, or death.
It will be pain free, and disease free it will never die. It will outlive the stars. Amen?
Number 1. And then the Bible teaches us that our new bodies will be identical to the body that Jesus had when he was resurrected.
The Bible says, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly await the savior, the lord Jesus Christ, now watch this, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conform to his glorious body according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself.
Now, what does that mean that we’re gonna have a body like Jesus?
How would you try to figure that out?
What kind of research would you do to find out what kind of body?
Well, If you could find some place that would tell you what Jesus’ body was like, you’d study Jesus’ body and say, if my body’s gonna be like his, here’s what body’s gonna be.
Guess what? The Bible has got a bunch of research about that.
During his post resurrection appearances, Jesus did a lot of things that tell us about our bodies.
Here’s one that’s gonna make half of you people just want to get up and dance. You ready?
Jesus 8. I’ve been asked if we will need to eat in heaven.
I don’t know if we’ll need to eat. But we certainly will enjoy eating.
And if you read about heaven, you know, stuff is planted up there along the river and uh, Jesus clearly ate with his disciples.
In fact, in John 21, we were told he actually prepared breakfast for his disciples, after he had been in the grave and had been resurrected.
When we get to heaven and when we get in our bodies, we’re gonna have bodies just like Jesus.
The body of Christ was touchable. It wasn’t some ghost like thing, you know, floating around.
That’s what I hear people think sometimes. Jesus is gonna be in some sort of, uh, apparition.
No, do you remember that Thomas, who had a hard time believing that Jesus was really risen from the dead, Jesus said to him, Thomas, reach here your finger and see my hands and reach your hand and put it into my side and do not be unbelieving but believing.
Bodies are tangible and touchable and huggable. When you get to heaven, you can hug each other.
Is that good? Yeah. Right. Now Here’s the third one.
This is probably the most asked question that I ever get about this.
Our new bodies will be identifiable by all who knew us on earth.
People ask me all the time, will people know me in heaven? Will my parents know me as their son?
Will I know my parents as my parents? Will I know my friends?
I’ve been friends with down here, the Bible is very clear in its answer to this question.
After the resurrection, Jesus knew his disciples, and they knew him.
They recognized the glorified Jesus as the very same one they had known before his death.
And they were so convinced of his identity that they all went to their death proclaiming the reality of the message of everlasting life.
This wasn’t just something they wanted to believe, something they hoped was true.
They knew it was so true that they were willing to give up their lives and proclaim the message they died because of their preaching about the resurrection.
So when you get to heaven, you’re gonna know everybody you’ve known down here.
It’s impossible for me to believe that our memories in heaven are gonna be worse than they are here.
You know, we all think about people.
You were you get in front of somebody and said, do you remember me?
And maybe you should remember them, but for all the world, you don’t remember them.
That’ll never happen to you in heaven.
You’ll always know the people You know when Moses and Elijah appeared out of heaven to stand with Christ on the mount of transfiguration, the disciples instinctively recognized Moses and Elijah as real people, they knew them.
And when Jesus described heaven in Matthew 811, listen to these words, And I say to you that many will come from East And West and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.
We’re gonna know people in heaven. So that’s good news.
Number 4, our new bodies will be a lumen and brilliance.
Now, I don’t know a lot about this, but I’m just gonna tell you what I’ve learned.
In Revelation 21, we’re told that the entire city of New Jerusalem will be luminescent In other words, brightly illuminated by the light that radiates from Christ.
The Bible says there will be no need for the sun or the moon in heaven because Jesus Christ will be all the light you will need.
He will light up heaven. Daniel 123 says that resurrected saints will shine like the brightness of the firmament.
Matthew 1343 says the righteous will shine forth as the son in the kingdom of their father.
The glory of the lord Jesus in his glorious body is a pattern for the glory we will have in our bodies.
When we are resurrected from the grave, we’re gonna shine. We’re gonna have a luminescence to us.
And then the Bible teaches us also that our new bodies will have infinite power. Paul writes about this.
He says, our bodies are sown in weakness. And they’re raised in power.
We will be buried in weakness.
How many of you know a dead body has no strength or power, can’t lift a finger But when we come out of the grave, we will have so much energy.
We’ll think a lightning bolt has supercharged us with electricity.
Our resurrection bodies will be incredible, full of enthusiastic power, capable of extraordinary functions.
And when you read about the lord Jesus after his resurrection, he could enter sealed rooms without ever going through the door.
You remember that? Been the same day at evening being the 1st day of the week when the doors were shut with the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews.
Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, peace be with you.
I don’t know what that all means, but I have a feeling that we won’t get caught in traffic in heaven.
I’m pretty sure of that. I think we can think where we wanna be and we’ll be there.
You won’t have to go through the agony that oftentimes is associated with travel.
And then finally, our new bodies will be incredibly suited for heaven and for eternity.
Paul says, There’s a natural body, and he said there’s a spiritual body.
And what did he mean by that?
The basic difference between a natural body and a spiritual body is that the former body is suited for life on earth and the other body is suited for life in heaven.
In our current bodies, we couldn’t function in the realm of heaven. We’re not created for heaven.
We’re created for earth. We get to heaven. We’re gonna have to have something special to exist in heaven.
And god is going to give us a new real body like the ones we have now.
But completely made over and transformed no longer governed by the appetites of the flesh.
Listen to this, but governed by the appetites of the spirit.
That is the hope we cling to as followers of Jesus Christ.
The rapture assures us that death is not the end of life.
It’s the beginning of a new existence in our new perfect, glorious body.
Turn to your neighbor and say, I’m getting a new body. Amen.
Okay. Now we’re moving through this.
Remember now here’s the here’s the here’s the outline. Here’s the structure.
First Jesus returns Then those who have died in Christ are resurrected, and then everybody has changed so that they’re ready to go to heaven.
We’ve already covered that now, comes the rapture itself.
Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the lord in the air.
And thus, we shall always be with the lord, therefore, comfort one another with these words.
The Bible says that in a nanosecond, the lord will call all believers to himself.
We will simply vanish from the earth No one who has confessed Christ as lord will be left behind.
One paragraph I read said this.
Millions of people from all parts of the earth fill a tingling sensation, pulse sighting through their bodies, they are all suddenly energized.
Those with physical deformities are healed, the blind suddenly see Here’s when I love wrinkles disappear on on the elderly as their youth is restored.
As these people mover at their physical transformation, they are lifted skyward.
Those in buildings pass right through the ceiling and roof without pain or damage.
Their flesh and bones seem to dematerialize defying all known laws of physics and biology.
As they travel heaven’s words, some of them see and greet those who have risen from their graves after a brief mystical union they all vanish from sight.
Here’s another one. Do you remember the book that was written back in the 70s?
Probably the first popular, prophecy book.
The first one I ever read was by Hall Lindsey, and it was called the late great planet Earth.
Anybody remember that? Few of you do.
Well, in his book, he’s trying to help us understand what’s gonna happen when the rapture takes place, and here’s his take on that.
He said, there I was driving down the freeway. And all of a sudden, the place went crazy.
Cars going in every direction, and not one of them had a driver I mean, it was wild.
I think we got an invasion from outer space.
And then he adds it was the last quarter of the championship game, and the other side was ahead our boys had the ball.
We made a touchdown and tied it up. The crowd went crazy.
Only one minute to go, and they fumbled our quarterback recovered.
He was about a yard from the goal when zap. No more quarterback. Completely gone. Just like that.
And then he added his third one. It was puzzling, very puzzling.
I was teaching my course in philosophy, religion, when all of a sudden, 3 of my students disappeared.
These students argued all the time, always trying to prove their point from the Bible.
And frankly, as their teacher, it’s no great loss that they’re not here anymore, but I do find this to period this disappearance very difficult to understand.
Harold Wilmington provides an illustration that I find especially helpful on this topic.
He said, a man’s cleaning out his garage, and he discovers a small box filled with a mixture of tiny iron nails, wooden splinters sawdust and pieces of paper.
Suppose that man wants to save the nails.
How could he quickly separate them from the wooden splinters If a magnet was available, the task would be quite simple.
He would simply position the magnet over the box immediately all of those objects possessing the same physical nature would be caught up to meet the magnet in the air.
And then he said, when Christ appears, he will not come, especially for black or white people, for Catholics or Protestant or Jews or gentiles, He’s common for people who possess the same nature that he does, and the magnet will pull them up to heaven no matter who they are.
Amen? So we got the return, the resurrection, the redemption, the rapture, and then the reunion.
It says in verse 17 in 1st thessalonians 4, then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the lord in the air, and thus, we shall always be with the lord.
There are actually 3 reunions. I’ve told you about them. The reunion of bodies and souls coming back together.
The reunion of dead believers with living believers and the reunion of all believers with their lord.
And thus, we shall always be with the lord. That’s the rapture. He’s coming back. We’re gonna be raised up.
We’re gonna have our bodies changed to be like the risen body of the lord Jesus.
And then we’re gonna meet our loved ones in the air.
And together, we’re going to go to heaven with Jesus Christ as our leader and guide.
Several years ago, Ruth Anna Metzger was asked to sing at a wedding in Seattle.
That’s where she lives. It was a very upscale wedding.
1 of the wealthiest families in the city had a daughter who was getting married and Ruth Anna considered it a great honor to be chosen to be the soloist.
And she was particularly excited because the wedding reception was to be held on the top of two floors of the Columbia Center, which is the tallest building in the northwest.
The whole event was very exclusive.
And Ruth Anna couldn’t help thinking about how much fun it would be to go there with Roy, her husband.
After the wedding, Ruth Anna and Roy drove to the beautiful facility and approached the reception desk, they watched, as the Mayor D, who was decked out in the blended tuxedo admitted and introduced the guests and ushered them toward the luscious hors d’oeuvres and exotic beverages.
About that time, the bride and groom approached a beautiful glass staircase leading to the top floor, and someone ceremoniously cut a satin ribbon draped across the bottom of the stairs and announced that the wedding feast was about to begin.
As Roy and Ruthanna approached the top of the stairs, The Mayor D asked him, may I have your name, please?
And she said, I am Ruth Anna Metzger, and this is my husband Roy.
And then Mader Dee searched through the listings in the book, and he looked again, he asked Ruthanna to spell her name, and he searched again.
Finally, he looked and said, I’m sorry, but your name isn’t here. Oh, there’s gotta be a mistake.
Ruth Anna said, I’m the singer. I sang for the wedding. And the man said it.
Doesn’t matter who you are or what you did, without your name in the book, you can’t come to the banquet and emotion to a waiter and said, show these people to the service elevator.
The Metzkers were unceremoniously ushered past all of the beautiful tables Layidan with shrimp and smoked salmon and carved ice.
They passed the orchestra, and the musicians were always splendid in white tuxedos, The Netskers were led past all the guests and the opulence of the moment, and the waiter took them to the service elevator, ushered them in, and pushed g for parking garage, and the messers were stunned to find themselves out on the street, driving home in silence, somewhere along the way, Roy looked over and asked, sweetheart, what happened?
She said, well, Roy, when the invitation arrived, I was very busy.
I never bothered to return without returning the RSVP.
Then as Ruthanna later recalled, she started to cry.
Not only because she had missed the most lavish bank which she’d ever been invited to, but because she suddenly had a small taste of what it would be like someday, for people as they stand before Christ and find their names missing from the lamb’s book of life.
And you see, for you to get your name in the land’s book of life, you have to make the reservation.
You have to respond to the invitation. You have to RSVP.
To god, you have to accept Jesus Christ as your savior.
And if you don’t do that, just like here, it won’t make any difference.
You know, in the Bible, there’s a picture of this where they come before the lord and say, Lord, haven’t we done wonderful works in your name?
Haven’t we done all of these wonderful things?
And Jesus will say to them, depart from me because I never knew you. Have you made your reservation?
Are you ready to go to heaven? Here’s what you must do.
You must confess your sin You must tell the lord that you know you have failed him and you’re a sinner.
You say, well, I’m not gonna do that. I’m not gonna humble.
If you won’t do that, you can’t be safe.
Because my dad used to say when he was a pastor, he said, you know, David, the hardest thing I have among my people, I have to get people lost before and get them saved.
Because some people don’t want to be lost.
Well, if you don’t know Jesus Christ, if you’ve never had your sins forgiven, the Bible says you are lost.
But you don’t have to stay that way.
Because if you will say, lord Jesus, I know I’m a sinner. I know I need to be saved.
Please come and forgive me of my sin, he will come and take up his residence within you, and you will be in heaven I will see you
program, here is Doctor Jeremiah.
You and I are privileged to stand on the cresting waves of prophecy.
To live in a time closer to the return of Jesus Christ than any other generation in the history of the world.
We sense the nearness of his return. We see the signs of the times.
If you know Jesus as your lord and savior, You can look at these signs and be hopeful instead of fearful.
But if you find yourself feeling anxious today, it just may be that you do not know the hope that only comes from having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
So I invite you to take your first step of faith today.
And to help you, Please allow me to send you 2 resources from Turning Point.
1 is a booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point, which will lead you into a hopeful future of knowing Christ.
And the second is my monthly devotional magazine turning points with articles and daily emotions to encourage your relationship with cry all year long.
I will gladly send these resources to you free of charge if you will simply contact us here at Turning Point today.
Next time on Turning Point.
Our task is to be looking for him to come at any moment and not looking for something to happen before that time, but just know it could happen.
Nothing has to happen before the rapture occurs. Can I get a witness to that?
Thank you for being with us today.
Join Doctor Jeremiah next time for his message at any moment here on Turning Point.