So let's now stand for the reading of God's Holy Word, found in the book of First Thessalonians, and then in the book of First Corinthians, First Thessalonians, chapter 1, verses 9 and 10. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his son from heaven, who may raise from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come, and from First Corinthians 11. For I receive from the Lord what I also delivered to you, the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body which is for you, do this in remembrance of me, in the same way also he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me, where as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Please be seated. Father, we do thank you for your Holy Word, and we ask Holy Spirit that right now you would open our eyes and our ears, our minds and our heart to receive it, especially as we prepare it to come to this table, we ask that you would transform us because of who Jesus is, what he has accomplished and what he's doing now is we ask in Jesus name, amen. And if you minutes we're going to come forward and we're going to partake of the elements, the body and the blood of our Savior Jesus Christ, and we come to this text in Thessalonians where we see this group of people and it tells us that they're waiting for the Lord. I want to remind you who these people are. This is one of the first letters that Paul wrote. It's a very small gathering of people. They were pagan Greeks. They were faithful Jews worshipping in the synagogue and some prominent women are also mentioned in Acts 17. It's something that happened to these people. They had heard the good news of Jesus Christ. What is the good news? The good news is that mankind, because of the work of Christ, can be saved for all eternity because of the death of Jesus on the cross, that he died but he rose from the dead, and that he was sended into heaven where he reigns now as our king, and for all who trust in Jesus their sins are forgiven, and for all eternity they have the assurance of knowing that will be in His presence. This message called the gospel came to this group of people in Word, in power, and in the Holy Spirit, in many of these people believed, not all of them. So those who believed had the promise of being free from the wrath of God, the judgment of God. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for those who did not believe, then there is no such protection. When Christ returns the Word of God says that every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. There are those who will do it with the great delight that he's here, he's come again, and those who have already died will see the wonder of this event, and their bodies will be resurrected into heaven, and glorious, just the glorious way that we can barely even imagine. And then there are those who have not believed, who will spend eternity separated from God. Many people don't necessarily believe that. They don't want to face that, but that's what the Word of God says. And today if you come to this church and you're not sure about all those things, we're so glad that you're here because this is the most important stuff that we could be thinking about. Many of us have made up our mind without really thinking much about these things, but for this little church in Thessalonica, these people that are receiving this letter believed in Jesus. They believe that Jesus was the way, the truth, and the life. And so something happened, something powerful happened. They were worshiping idols. They were worshiping idols like they talked about two weeks ago, and then they turned. And it doesn't say they turned from idols, it says they turned to God. And in turning to God, of course, they turned from the idols, and they were saved. They were overwhelmed with the power and the beauty, and the sense of God, in other words, God makes sense, His Word made sense. This is the way of life. And so they turned towards God. This is that they served God. So they turned and they served. And now it says that they wait. And it's easy to think that waiting is passive. Turning is an action, serving is an action, but waiting is just kind of being still and waiting. That's not it at all. There is a waiting described here that has this eager expectation that the same person Jesus, who came as a baby, walked on this earth, died on the cross, rose from the dead after walking on the earth again several days, ascended into heaven and reigns now as our king, that promise, the Word of God promises that he is going to return. We don't know when he's going to return. We simply know, as the Bible says, he will come like a thief in the night. All I know is that when anybody predicts that this is the exact time that Jesus is going to come, you can be confident knowing that that's not the exact time Jesus is going to come, because the Word of God says only the Father knows. So we don't know, but he is going to come. I believe that when the apostles and the prophets wrote about this event, and they wrote about the second coming of Christ, I believe that many thought it was going to happen in their lifetime. And so in this letter of First Thessalonians at the end of each chapter, you need to read it, it's pretty amazing. Paul gives a reference to the return of Christ. So at the end of chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, he gives a reference to the end now. This is important. The verses in our Bibles and chapters are not inspired. Paul didn't write chapter 1, verse 1, chapter 3, verse 2. That was added later to help us find passages. But what it tells us is that the theme of this return, his return of Christ's return was so important that Paul continued to add it through the letter, encouraging these new Christians to be ever-waiting full of expectation that Christ is going to return. He's going to, his word says, I don't know when. But as a pastor, I don't think there is a week that goes by, when someone doesn't say to me, if they're a Christian, I just can't wait for Christ to return. I can't wait. And I'm like, but tell me why. And usually they talk about some painful experience that they are having or going through, or just recently went through. Or it's possible they're talking about the expectation of a pleasure that they can barely even imagine. This morning for a few minutes, before we come to the table, I want to talk about those two things. I believe that it's the experience of pain and the expectation of pleasure that causes us to long for eternity, causes us to long for home. So let's talk about the experience of pain. Every person that you just greeted, the greeting of peace, you shook their hands, introduced yourself to them for the first time, every person that you met, and all of the people here that you didn't meet, every one of us, right now, is going through some amount, some reality of pain. For some of you, it's physical pain. You have a sickness or a disease. You've been diagnosed with something or you're afraid you're about to be diagnosed with something. There is real physical pain in your body. Every one of us in this room is experiencing some sort of pain. If we aren't physically feeling pain, we know somebody that is. It could be a child or a parent. And when we experience pain, what do we want? More pain? No, we want the pain to go away as quickly as possible. And we're almost going to do anything in order for that to happen. For summers ago, I was with Doug Horn, one of our elders, and Doug had his boat. And my family was on his boat, all of us except for the baby. He was only a few months old, two young to start skiing by a couple of months. So we got in the boat and we went out for a ride. He was going to teach our younger kids how to ski, and then the boat broke down. So we had to get towed back in. It was a little painful, little dull. When we got close to the deck, Doug said, Mark would you hop out to help bring the boat in? Of course I will. I shouldn't have any problem. I'm extremely athletic. So I got on the back of the boat and I began to stretch my leg out for the dock. And when I did, my left leg slipped, and my foot came down on the wood dock. And my arm came down on the dock. And it looked like I died. I mean, it was an ugly fall. The most painful part was my pride. So I jumped out of the three feet of water and said, I'm okay. I'm fine. This is the gash right here. But then I realized something doesn't feel right on my foot in the mud. And so I simply raised my foot up out of the water. And there my toe, well, let's just say it wasn't really good. It was dangling, severed nearly to being completely off. I know some of you are about to faint. So quickly, draw back in and fan yourself. My wife saw it and nearly collapsed. I saw it. I didn't hurt yet. I said, I think I need to go to the hospital. But I had to crawl out of the water on a ladder onto the dock. And then remember who I'm with for you all that know Doug Horn. Not captain compassion. Doug starts to make jokes. And I'm like, my foot, my toes about to fall off. So we get in the car. And we have to drive to the hospital. Doug, where are you taking me? Well, the nearest hospital is Gun Barrel City. That's exactly where you want to go. When you need sutures, he will me into the emergency room. And the doctor looked at my toe and said, wow, you almost lost it. He said, I know. Can you fix it as well? You're probably never going to feel it again. Your nerves are all severed. They may grow back, but it's probably possible they won't. And they haven't. It's done wonders for my golf game, though. So anyway, that's another story. I wanted nothing but relief. I wanted the pain to go away now. And it hurt. That's physical pain. You've all had it. Some of you, much worse, some of you not so bad. Some of you, the pain is just hearing the story. Pain is real. And when we have it, we want it to go away. But often the worst pain in our life is not physical. It's emotional, a relational, or spiritual. It's a pain that you once stood here right on this floor or in a church like this. And the doors opened and your bride came down and you made vows. And now you just can't even begin to imagine the wreck your marriage is in. And there's great pain. And you want that pain to go away. The brokenness in her that's there. You both probably won't relieve. And you're not sure what to do. Others of you actually feel the pain of loneliness and that you haven't found the man you want to be married to or the woman you want to be married to. And there's real pain in that loneliness. Others of you, if pain is apparent or as a grandparent and seeing a child wander away, they don't seem to be coming back. Sometimes the pain is not necessarily relational, but it's very emotional. For whatever reason, the way you're wired, there seems to be seasons of despair that can last a long time. And that depression can come over you, anxiety and stress of being in school, of trying to fit in and trying to accomplish and move forward is it's overwhelming. Nobody really seems to understand your life. And you try to hide it, try to mask the pain. The pain's real. You want it to go away. The greater the pain, they're experiencing. The greater the longing is for the relief. And I think one of the reasons that people say to me weekly, I'm ready for Christ to return is because they want relief from the experience of pain. They want it to be gone. And they know if they're a Christian that God's word tells us that there will be a time and a place when there is no more pain. But here's the reality. Jesus never promised to take away our pain the sight of heaven. No way in the Bible does it say that. He just promises to give us himself and the midst of it. But those who trust in Jesus, there is a day coming, either when he calls you home or when he returns that your pain will be gone for all eternity. And because of that reality, people long for heaven. But it's not just pain that causes us to long for heaven. It's all the also the expectation of pleasure. I want you to think for a moment right now, what pleasure are you most excited about pursuing in your life? What do you look forward to that is a pleasure that you truly long for? As children, you know, pleasure is often centered on a birthday or a holiday. You can't wait for that day when they get to open packages and they celebrate with toys. The anticipation of something new, we don't really outgrow that do we? The toys just become bigger, more expensive, more sophisticated. One day it's playing with a car. The other day it's driving a car, but it's still a toy. For some of us, the pleasure is centered on a trip or vacation. There's some place in this world you want to go, maybe with your spouse, maybe with your family, something you want to experience. Maybe there's an accomplishment that you're pursuing, graduation from college or grad school or high school. Maybe there is a job and you're pursuing it. Maybe there is a promotion that awaits and there's a day coming when that will be a reality and you anticipate that pleasure of being affirmed and encouraged. But our most significant pleasures center on being with other people. If you think about it, the greatest pleasures of your life usually involve those that you love the most. So the young man and the young woman set a date and that date arrives and with great expectation of pleasure, the groom waits as the door is open and is bright and all of her glory comes down. The great expectation that they're going to be married and they're going to have a great marriage is very real. And then if the Lord blesses and they conceive children, a date is set, the due date. And it probably won't be on the due date, it might, but it'll be close. And then there's this pleasure expected that their baby will be born. Now we hate to wait so much so that technology gives us all kinds of glimpses. You know you used to be able to have an ultrasound. Well now you can get the 3D ultrasound. You can go even further and have that 3D ultrasound made into some kind of something that looks like a child in the womb and you could hold it, but it's not the real child. You can know the sex, but you can be tricked. All kinds of things can be seen, but it's not the same. You still have to wait for that day when you will hear the child cry. And it's a good sound. When you will hold the child, your daughter, your son, and there's pleasure. And it's incredible. Your baby is born. Then years later you'll be waiting again for your baby to come home for the Christmas break of their freshman year. And you won't go to wait to see him come through the door in the 15 minutes they give you before they go out to all the other people. They give them pleasure. It will be truly amazing. So often our pleasure is centered on other people. It's a child hearing that his grandparents are coming and asking day after days the day-to-day or the grandparents anticipating what will be like to spend time with our little ones. And so it is this expectation of pleasure and this experience of pain that often caused people to say, I'm ready for Christ to return. Here's why. One day when he returns or he calls us home, the pain is no more. And on that day, there will be pleasure revealed to us that it's beyond our ability to even imagine. It's going to be for God's people, those who've trusted Jesus. And it will be lasting. It will last for all eternity. We can't even measure that. Like the people that tell me they're ready for Christ to return. When we go through seasons like we have in this community over the last month and a half, I say it too. It's heavy. There's been a lot of loss. Young parents have died. Young children have died. Old parents have died. Older siblings have died. And when it goes through a community, you see it all over north of here, the purple ribbons and the signs that say, be strong and courageous. It's because of the evidence of pain, the reality of pain. And so like the people who say it to me, I too say, come Lord Jesus, come quickly. But one time, just outside this church, right there in that corner at Wyclef and O'Connor, I said it to a man. I said, I'm just so ready for Jesus to return. This man had been a Christian about a year. You know he said to me, not me. I'm not ready. I've never heard that before. I said, well, how come? Think about what always. He says, Mark, I'm a brand new Christian. All of my friends are lost. If they don't hear about Jesus, they're going to spend eternity separated from God in hell. I don't want that. I was like, that's an amazing perspective, Don. Thank you for reminding me of that. He said, you're welcome. Now, will you come talk to all of them? For a couple of years, me and David Newman and John Bateman had that privilege. They've seen some pretty amazing things happen as we told him about Jesus. You know, even though they weren't Christians, they still talked about the experience of pain. They also talked about the expectation of a day when there would be no more pain. Here's the deal. If you believe in something other than Jesus and you believe that that's what's eventually going to annihilate the pain, what's your proof for that? Is it just your thoughts? I want to really challenge you to listen to what Jesus said, start there. Jesus said, I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. He's the only way. He's either right or he was a liar. He's the right or he was a liar and he was crazy. You need to think about that. And if you've believed this day that Jesus is the way the truth and the life, that you have the promise of all that I've said this day, your pain will be no more. Your pleasure will be beyond anything you could imagine. But if you've not trusted in Jesus, it's not true of you at this point. The pain will continue in ways we can't even imagine for all eternity separated from God. His wrath, you're not covered from it. And that's what the people here heard from Paul. In first Thessalonians, Paul said this, they wait for his son from heaven. That's Jesus who he raised from the dead. And then he says, who delivers us from the wrath to come. Well, let me say one thing about this. God, the Father's son and Holy Spirit, they're holy set apart. Nothing is like them. They created a world. The world was perfect. But then there was the fall. Was sin entered the world? God intensely hates sin. But because he loves his people and wants to save his people, he provided a way for us to have life. But his wrath, which is just and perfect and righteous, had to be satisfied. And the one to satisfy that wrath was the one born Jesus, a baby, who grew. And he walked on this earth for 33 years, 100% man, 100% God, he never sinned. He was perfect. He had to be perfect. But then at the right time, the Lord called him to go to the cross to take on the Father's wrath. This is what that meant. It meant that he would satisfy the Father's wrath. That which you and I deserve as sinners, he was going to take for us who trust in Christ. And so on that day, when Jesus was in the garden praying, he said, Lord, if it, I will take this cup from me, if you were willing, that cup that Jesus was called to bear as the cup of God's perfect wrath. It's the intensity of God's stored up wrath about to be poured on Jesus for the sins, the sins of this world. And so Jesus, with great pain, prays, take this cup from me. Not by will be done, but yours. And this is what happened to Jesus in that moment. The internal pain was so great that his body physically sweat drops of blood. He was anticipating the pain he was going to receive both in the physical sense but also in the spiritual sense. Because on the cross is Jesus hung their dying in his humanity. He didn't know how long this was going to take. It wasn't just a matter of minutes that Jesus was on the cross. He was on the cross for hours. And the pain is beyond anything that we can really imagine as his hands and feet were staked into the wood as he rose up on those nails trying to breathe. And then eventually when the time had come, when the perfect wrath of God had been perfectly poured out on his son, Jesus cried out. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me, covered with this wrath? God the Father intensely poured it out. Jesus was essentially praying Psalm 22, essentially saying how much longer he knew that he wouldn't be abandoned for eternity, but the pain was great. And then the pain came to an end. And just before it did, Jesus said, it is finished. The wrath of God, the Father, is satisfied. And so Paul could preach this verse, Jesus, who was raised from the dead, who delivers us from the wrath to come. He did it. He did it. And so this table that we're about to come forward and partake of is a table. It's a table of pain. And it's a table of pleasure. It's a table of pain and a table of pleasure that points to a promise. A promise that one day those who are in Christ will have no more pain. And those who are in Christ will have pleasure beyond what they can even imagine. It is a table of a promise that that promise is a person and the person is Jesus. And when we come to the table, Jesus is mysteriously present in this bread and in this cup, his body and his blood. This table is meant to encourage believers the day that he's going to return. It's going to encourage us to remember what he went through so that we might have life for all eternity. And it is a table for you to come and feast. This is not a table for perfect people. It's a table for people who are in the perfect righteousness of Jesus. It's not a table for people who spiritually had a pretty good week. And those who didn't have a very good week shouldn't come. It is a table for God's people. But let me warn you, if you are not a Christian, if you've not professed faith in Jesus. And the Word of God tells you not to come forward, not to partake, unless you would eat and drink judgment on yourself. So I encourage you, if you're not a believer yet, to stay in your seat unless the Lord's calling you to himself now. And if he is calm, come to Jesus. But if not today, consider these elements in what they mean and consider the state of your own soul. This morning as we come to the table, not sure it will direct you. You'll come to the center of the aisle. Simply come forward. You'll receive the cup and the bread. Take them right then, the bread and the cup. If you're in the balcony, come forward and just get in one of the aisles, it doesn't matter. After you're finished with the cup, you'll return up the opposite aisle back to your seat. While you're waiting, seeing, open your hymnal and sing along these great hymns that are present and pray. This morning we have one added element. If you were in a place where you deeply desire prayer, maybe it's a prayer for some of the pain that I've mentioned or something I haven't. On each side, in each corner, there'll be two or three elders and pastors ready to pray with you. Simply come up to us and share with us your prayer need. It will pray right then. Nobody's going to be staring or watching. It's calm that we might pray with you. Pray for your marriage. Pray for your loneliness. Pray for addictions. Maybe this is the time you want prayer for salvation. Come, we'll pray for you. When we're finished, the body will come back together and sing and closing hymn with our eyes lifted up in order to be blessed. Brothers and sisters, this meal is for you. For those who are in Christ, it's calm and celebrate this with us. Let's prepare now to go to the day.