In Robert Hartley's sermon, 'Christ's Glorious Return,' the speaker discusses the significance and anticipation of Christ's second coming. Drawing from Titus 2:11-13 and other biblical references, Hartley emphasizes the certainty of Christ’s return, which is a foundational hope for Christians. The sermon distinguishes between Christ’s first coming as a humble savior and his second coming as a reigning king. Hartley explains that Christ's return will occur in two phases: first, the rapture, where believers will be taken up to meet Christ, and second, the revelation, where Christ will return to establish his kingdom on earth. The sermon addresses skepticism about the delay of Christ’s return, affirming that God's timing is perfect and that believers should live in readiness, continuing their responsibilities and duties as Christians. Hartley underscores that the return of Christ should inspire hope and diligent living, urging believers to live with the expectation that Christ could return at any moment.

This morning. Thank Brother David and the church for giving me an invitation to come. Always a blessing to be here with you folks. As I've said before and I say again, Lord allows me to come back. I'll probably say it again, this is kind of like a second home to me.

Been coming down here for a little while, filling in, and even when they was, church was without a pastor, they was gracious enough to invite me, every now and then to come and bring God's Word and church has been a blessing to me and pray that over the years and one way or another some word that I've said or just bless somebody or God's Word that we have used is bless somebody. This morning if you have your Bibles and like to follow along with me turn with me to the book of Titus. I want to read three verses there. I think after listening to Brother Barry and his message, I think this will kind of go along with it. There's a lot of things that I probably would have said that I won't say, because he's already said them.

But This morning as we look at God's Word, Titus chapter 2, I want to read verses 11 through 13 but our first study verse this morning will be 13. Here we see Paul speaking to the people here he says for the grace of God that bring us salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. And the reason why is this, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. But what do we do as Christian people? What do we do?

How are we to live? We've heard how we should live as church members. We have responsibility. First responsibility comes to God and we have responsibility to our brothers and sisters in Christ to assemble ourselves together in his house at the appointed times. But while we're waiting on Christ to come back in the time of my message this morning is Christ's glorious return.

This is what all Christian people should be looking forward to, to the return of Christ. You know, the second coming of Christ is the blessed hope that we have as Christian people. That's the blessed hope of the church, which the church is the people. We can see that. You know throughout the centuries, you know all back through church history, we can go and we can see and we know as we wait now That we as believers, we as Christians, we wait for Christ's return.

But we just don't sit down and quit. We're to be busy. We know what we're supposed to be doing. So as we think about Christ's glorious return, we think about the second coming of Christ. And if you read and you study and you Try to put it all together, you can go everywhere.

But what I have tried to do is try to stay as close to what the Bible teaches as I can and there's so much there, so much there for just a little short message. But try to hit some of the high points as we think about Christ returning, His coming back. You know, the first time Christ came, He came to Bethlehem. He came as a virgin-born baby. We know that He was despised.

He was rejected by men as God's Word teaches over in Isaiah 53 and 3. We know that he was arrested, he was ridiculed, and he was finally crucified. And we know that his death was a perfect sacrifice for our sins. But someday, this was when he came first. He came as a Savior for his people.

One day, maybe today, if we're lucky, but one day, he joined to come again. He's not going to experience all the mocking, all the humiliation that he experienced before. But when he comes back the next time, when he comes to this earth the next time, he's going to come as king. He's going to rule as king. He's going to set up his kingdom.

So that is the hope of God's people this morning. So is it your hope? Is that what you're living for with expectation of Christ coming? I'm sure that it is If you're a Christian people that is our hope. That's the hope that we have.

But it's been a long time, been over 2, 000 years, as we was promised that he would come. Where is he at? Where is he at? Why hadn't he come? The disciples, the Apostles, they lived in a way expecting him to come back at any moment.

But time has passed. Time has passed. But even before time was passed, we have recorded in the Bible that people were just walking. Where is he at? Where is he at?

The Apostle John, when he was writing there from the island of Patmos, he records this in Revelation 1 and 7, behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him and they also will experience him." Jesus himself declares that people will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Jesus promised that he will prepare a place for us and that he will come again. But where is he? Two thousand years. As I said, there are people, there are scoffers, even today, but this is nothing new.

It's nothing new. It was even said back in the early church, where is the promise of his coming? They recorded that in 2 Peter 3. You know, people are not willing to take the promises of God and accept them is true, it's real, that God will do what he says he will do. There are some people who don't accept that.

They don't believe that. They don't take his word seriously and not just about his coming again, they don't take it seriously about anything, the things that we've heard about so far today. They don't take it seriously. They don't take coming to church seriously. They don't take witnessing seriously.

They get caught up in the things of the world and that's the way so-called Christian people and I say so-called because I do not believe Christian people is going to live like the world. I believe that when we are born again, yes we still remain sinful but there is a change in our lives. Christian people cannot live and do as the world does. God will allow that. We have a desire to do that.

Yes, we sin but we don't make it a habit of sin. We sin, we pray, we ask God to forgive us that sin. We don't get up the next morning and go out and do the same thing. We don't do that as God's people, but yet we have Christian people that claim that they can do those things. They're not taking God's Word seriously.

So there are people today, where is he at? When I say, where is he at for 2000 years, I'm getting to a point when people scoff and make fun in life and say, where is your Christ at? Where is he at? He said he's coming, but where is he at? But you know, I have promises in the Bible and I believe the promises that God has made in his word.

The angels declared to Jesus as disciples when they saw him ascend back to heaven there is a recorded in Acts chapter 1. They said the same Jesus which is taken up from from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven. He's going to come back. The angels said he's going to come back. God has it in his word that he's going to come back.

But where is he? Well, the simple answer is that he's right where he's supposed to be. He's sitting right there at the right hand of God and he's making intercession for you and me. The world didn't tell God when to send his son into it the first time. The world's not going to tell God when to send him back.

He's gonna do it in his time. And we talk about we hear this word so many times and even in some of the songs that I wish it was and talked about Jesus terry no he's not going to carry when the time come when the hour come when a minute come he's going to come he's not going to tear well they're gonna be a lot of people wishing that he would Terry Lord just wait just another day and I'll be ready tomorrow. No, be ready today. Today is the day. Today is today.

And then the Apostle Paul also says that when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory." So the truth about the second coming of Jesus is clear and we need not try to explain it away. It's very clear in the Bible. So this morning I want to look at four things out of many many things. Just want to briefly mention four things about his coming back his glorious return. And number one, the certainty of it.

It is a fact. It is a fact. If the second coming of Jesus was mentioned just only one time in the Bible would that not be enough? Some people say and I've heard them it comes quite frequently well The Bible does not mention this but one time. I've heard that mentioned a lot, especially about the head covering women's wear in the church.

It just mentions it one time. It looked like if it had been that important it would have been mentioned somewhere else. Well, The second coming of Christ is mentioned over 300 times in God's Word in the New Testament. 300 times, over 300 times. 300 places refers to His coming back.

So let us be assured this morning and believe that the promises God has made God is able to deliver. Now you and I we can make a promise and something might come up. Something might stand in the way of us being able to fulfill that promise and then we have to go back and we have to start again. But brothers and sisters, Christ and God is not that way. God declared the end from the beginning.

He knows what's going to happen today. I don't know how he does it, he's just God. He knew before the beginning of this world, before he created anything, this day this old preacher standing here before you this morning, was going to be standing here this morning. That's how great God is. That's what God knows all, He sees all, and can do all.

If you know, we get to read in the Bible, you see places like where the Apostle Peter talks about time many many years ago way past 2, 000 years ago that God promised that the earth would be destroyed by a flood. We know that Noah he preached to the people while he preached 120 years. People didn't listen. But God told Noah, Noah's flood gonna come. He built you a boat.

He preached to these people And he did. But what did they do? They mocked him. They made fun of him. Laughed at him.

But what happened when the clouds came and the rain started? They climbed up on the hill trying to get away from the water. And when the hill wasn't high enough, what did they do? They climbed up on the mountains. But even that wasn't enough.

The water eventually covered the top of the mountain. And the whole generation of people, with the exception of Noah and his family was wiped out. God made that promise. They laughed didn't he? He's made other promises too.

He promised he would come back. So what Peter really tells us here as we read the story there and we can see another, we'll go back and read the Old Testament account too, what he's really saying that if God in the earlier days and days of Noah made a promise and if that promise came to pass it surely that his promise of the second coming of Jesus and the destruction of the earth will also come to pass. But you see today we have so many people that knows everything and they write books and put it in magazines and everything else and they'll make fun of this. They just try to want to forget about is coming back. They say this is always just symbolic, His return, or they'll try to excuse it away.

But what did those angels say that day when the disciples stood there looking up as he was ascending into heaven, he said the same Jesus is going to come back in the same way. He's going to come back without that promise. So that means they could see him when he left, the world's going to see him when he comes back. But there are some things about the second coming of Christ that people think that might be that, that's not. Like the second coming of Jesus is not Christ coming at conversion.

He does come to an individual at conversion where when he saves us he does come, his spirit enters us, it resides with us, it remains with us, and we can say that Christ lives in us because of that. But that is not Christ's second coming. The second coming of Jesus is not Christ coming to fellowship with his people when they are assembled together. Yet he does. You know we have his word.

He does come to fellowship with his people. He promised that were two or three are gathered together that he would be with us. But that again is not the second coming of Christ. Not the one that the Bible is teaching about. Second coming of Christ is not Christ coming for people when they die.

He does come to people when they die. What does Psalmist say, the 23rd Psalm? He will be with us He'll be there. It'll be our side. He will walk with us through down through the valley of the shadow of death as the psalm teaches.

None of us have to cross over to the other side alone. Christ will be there but that is not what the bible talks about when it talks about the second coming of Christ. And we can see in the teachings of 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 where it says in verse 16 of chapter 4, the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the trump of God and in Hebrews 9 28 we're told that Christ shall appear the second time. Second time is not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for it. Jesus came the first time to bear sins that's when he came and died on the cross at Calvary.

He has come a second time to bring a completion, if I can use that to complete our salvation. So, It's a certainty that he is coming. It's a certainty because the Bible says so, not because this old preacher says it, but because God's Word says it, he is coming back. The second thing we look at this morning, we talk about Christ's second coming to maybe help us understand and keep this as simple as I can for me is to look at this in two phases. The phases of Christ's coming.

But keep in mind, the coming of Christ's, the second coming of Christ is one great event that it happens in two phases and I'll try to explain that. Some scholars think that there will be an interval of time between the two stages. Others believe that the two primary purposes as far as coming will accomplish that essentially the same time. Now I don't know, I believe that, well I'll just share it with you in just a minute. When he first comes he's going to come back in the air.

First Thessalonians teaches chapter 4. He's going to come back to remove the church and we call that the rapture which the word rapture we know is not in the Bible but what it means is to snatch away. There's going to be a generation of Christians living that will never die In a split second and twinkle of an eye, living believers will be called up and removed from this earth. Those who died in Christ and those who are living for Christ when he comes will be called up to be with the Lord. All who have embraced Christ as Savior and have received the Holy Spirit and are continuing on the journey of faith in the service of Christ will suddenly be removed from earth and transported into the presence of God.

Lord's disciples will be called up into the air when Jesus comes and will go to be with him. And we are the Lord's disciples, or we should be. A disciple is a follower of Christ. That's the first phase, what we call the second coming of Christ. He does not come to the earth, he comes in the clouds, the trumpet sounds, as you all know the story.

The dead in Christ will be caught up and then those that of us that are alive, we will get a new body and we'll be caught up with him in the air and so shall we ever be. That's the first phase of his coming. And then after that, things gonna get bad for seven years. I'm a pre-trib. I believe that he's going to come and take his church away before, might say, the bottom falls out on this old world.

They're gonna be seven years of tribulation. Jesus is going to return after that seven years and he's gonna smite the nation. And the second phase of Christ's coming is often spoken of as the revelation phrase of his coming. The word revelation means unveiling. When Jesus comes in the second phase of his coming every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and all kindred of the earth shall well because of him." Revelation 1 7.

The grand climax of Bible prophecy is the coming of Jesus Christ to conquer his enemies to set up his kingdom and that's what he's going to do. After he comes in the air and he gathers his people with him, we're caught up in the air and we'll always be with him when he comes back, set up his kingdom and rule this world. We will come back with him. We will be with him. At the first phase was coming Christ was going to move the church.

You know, and that event is going to happen. The Bible teaches it's gonna be like a thief coming in the night. We don't know when he's coming but we're to be ready. You know, Jesus said we're to watch because we don't know when the master of the house coming. Now the second phase is coming, Christ will conquer his enemies.

Jesus scribes the same when he says then shall they see the Son of man coming in cloud with power and great glory. And he said behold when he cometh in clouds and ever I shall see him. You know we see that God's Word speaks of a thief in the night phrase. It talks about Christ coming. Then it also speaks of when he comes to gather his people to rapture the church, he's going to be as a thief and a knight.

Then when he comes back to earth with us, that all eyes will see him. Every eye shall see him. We have to understand this morning that you know Bible prophecies they're not arranged in like a one two three order it's not so easy to go and see all this just laid out boom boom boom. There's a reason for that too I believe. And when I say that you think about this give you an example.

Think about a Jewish student studying God's Word, studying the Scriptures, back in early times. They were looking forward to the Messiah's coming. Listen to these three little things that they say then. The Messiah was born in Bethlehem as the Word teaches, a town in the southern part of Palestine. You see that Bible tells you over in Micah 5 and 2.

And then he was called in Nazarene, a town in the northern part of Palestine and they would be called out of the land of Egypt, a country way down in Africa, as Hosea and Matthew says. So for them to that Jewish Bible student studying and anticipating these things, well he's gonna be a Nazarene, he's gonna be born in Bethlehem, then he's gonna come out of the land of Egypt. It might be a little confusing, but they would wonder how could all those statements possibly reconcile? But when Jesus came, but when Jesus claimed it was opposite, there was no contradiction at all, and that's the way it will be when it comes a second time. There's not one portion of scripture which neatly or really fills in all the detail and it may very well be the Lord's way of getting us to search.

Search his word, think about his word, study his word. It's there, but it ain't like one, two, three. It's not easy. Think about John the Baptist. He was a man of God.

Life's great prophet. Spirit-filled prophet. But even he who could not harmonize what he expected the Messiah to do, what he saw Jesus doing. So what did he do? He sent representatives Jesus who flatly asked him if he was Messiah.

So if John the Baptist, the man that he was, if he could fail to grasp and understand the significance of some of the prophets about Jesus, surely we should be cautious about announcing every detail related to prophets if we know all the answers, because I don't have all the answers. I know God's Word says it, I believe it. You don't have to say it but one time for me. One time's enough. The details surrounding the second coming of Christ they're difficult sometimes to sort out but there are some principles that are clear.

The book of Revelation for example depicts a vision of the glorified Christ and then a description of conditions that occur in the church throughout the church age. Then it talks about all the excruciating events that take place during the tribulation. We can see those things so we know these things are going to happen and the Apostle John was told to write down these things that Christ showed him. Things that would happen, the things that would take place, all the judgments that was going to come. The picture of tribulation and the suffering and the return of the king of kings in great power and glory.

So we can see that and we get a picture from his word of how he comes and he smites the nations and what he does and how he rules on earth for a thousand years and there's completely peace and then he unleashes the devil for a period of time and then we fight the last battle. Jesus wins that too. And we'll be right there with him. And the third thing I want to think about for briefly this morning is, mention it briefly, but the time of the Lord's return. It's been over 2, 000 years since God's word promise he's coming.

Well no one knows the exact hour of the return of Jesus Christ and Jesus stated that fact very clearly in Matthew. But down through the history people have ignored this truth and they set up dates for him to come you know try to gather together in different places I won't go into all details I read about some of the people and what they'd done and how crazy they was. They would go, you know, thousand years ago and well, a year, one thousand, a bunch of people gathered together and they made their trip and went up to Jerusalem, went up to the Mount of Olives and they thought that when he was coming back. I guess either they left or they died there waiting. Now he will come back there but he didn't come back when they thought he was because they didn't know when he was coming.

And you think about you know year 2000 when everything was being said, what was going to happen when we change over, all those things, and he was coming back and all that. No, he's still not here yet, but he is coming. There's just simply no way that we can tell when Jesus come back. We know from the Bible and through his words that there are certain signs that point to the return of Christ. You know if we study these it's kind of like us going somewhere we know we take a trip we don't know exactly where we're going.

So we read the road signs and it gives us information and tells us okay you're getting close to here you're close to there whatever this is what's up ahead. Well as we read and study God's Word and we look at all these things that happen before the end of time, we kind of get a little bit picture, a little bit better picture. You know, we see signs that's taking place on Earth. You know, the signs that we see really should make our hearts beat really fast when we look at the condition of the world the way it is today. You know, Just a brief recap of just saying some of the things about the condition of the world.

For example, the decay of moral standards, you know, that's on a global scale. There's no morals anymore in the world. Everywhere you go you see things you shouldn't see you don't want to see you shouldn't have to see no matter where you go out in the world you turn on your TV or whatever you see in things. I don't know what I'm talking about seeing things that we shouldn't see and there's the rise against Jerusalem forces coming against Jerusalem we see in that really right now. Did that matter to us?

Yes, it should matter. That's where it tells us these things are going to happen. We see all these cults out there that's deceiving millions. You see all these false preachers on TV that's deceiving millions. They're speaking with their mouth and they're holding their hand out, send it on in to me, call this number, pray this little prayer, everything gonna be all right.

Not gonna be all right. All the disturbances we see in all parts of the world, the violence that we see. All these things are evidence of the Lord's return and they keep mounting up every day, you know, more and more. While these things are completely fulfilled, Jesus may come back. But there's nothing left in the scriptures that we can find, or I can find, or I found any of that, nobody else find, it really knows God's words and I can count on.

There's nothing left. As far as his words concern, there's nothing holding him back. It's just God hadn't released him. God hadn't said go. He told him to come, first time, and he'll send him back.

Jesus even said it one time when he was walking here on this earth that they asked him, he said he didn't know. Son of man didn't know at the time. He was walking this earth as a son of man, yet though he was God himself. Somebody asked me the question one time, well Jesus didn't know when he was walking here on this earth, is there a son of man at the time that Christ will come back, does he know now? Absolutely, absolutely he knows when he's coming back.

Absolutely. There's nothing, Nothing needs to be fulfilled anymore prophecy before he comes back. Well then what kind of day would it be you reckon that he would choose to come? What kind of day? You know, well I believe that Jesus will return on ordinary day when people are just doing ordinary things.

The sinners are going to be sinning or the wicked will be practicing their ordinary sins. The followers of Jesus will be doing their ordinary things, serving him, hopefully. The only thing we know for sure about the move of our church is that it will be sudden, it will come at an unexpected moment. Jesus used the illustration like the flash of lightning, the breaking in of a thief and the unannounced return of a master when he talks about his coming again. But the challenge to believers is what?

It is for us to be ready. For us to be ready when he does come. Not because of today's trends, but because we don't know when Jesus is coming back. All we know for sure is that when he does come, it's gonna be sudden. It's gonna be sudden.

Then last point I want to look at this morning, as we see the glory of Christ coming. You know, it's gonna be a glorious time for those that are looking for him. It's gonna be a glorious time. The first phase of his Christ coming will be glorious as we see there in 1st Thessalonians 4 says that when our believing love was died we are not to grieve as others do. You have no hope.

That's what Paul wrote that to them to give them comfort because they were wondering, asking questions. Well if Christ comes what's going to happen to our loved ones? Paul said don't worry. He's going to take care of them. Matter of fact, they gonna come forth from the grave before you've taken care of if you're still alive.

He told them not to grieve as others do who have no hope. Told them that those dead in Christ will rise first and those that were alive at his coming will be caught up together with them in the clouds and that's the way they will be with the Lord. In the end of that paragraph says wherefore, comfort one another with these words. And those words, Those words there are a glorious promise. Believers will see Christ and be with him, and he will never be separated, and we will never be separated from his presence.

We should encourage each other with these words. In the second phase of his Christ coming, it's going to also be glorious too. You say, well I can see how it will be glorious when he comes and raptures the church and takes his people home with him and be with him forevermore. But when he comes back the second time, when he comes to earth to set up his kingdom here, and to rule on earth for a thousand years, how's that gonna be so glorious? It's gonna be glorious because we're gonna be with him.

You know this time you know he's gonna come as a thief in the night when he comes together us. Okay. But when he comes back to the earth and we come back with him, people's gonna see him. One day when he comes back and gathers his church, we are gathered together with him in the clouds, people are going to look around and worry so and so. Man's gonna turn around, where's my wife go?

Wife's gonna turn around, where's my husband? Where's my neighbor? These kind of thoughts. It's going to be as a thief in the night when they're not looking for him. But when he comes back to this earth, those that are here on this earth, they're going to see him coming.

They're going to see him coming then. He's going to come with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel Lord Jesus Christ. Bible says we can take comfort in the fact that one day everyone will stand before God and wrongs will be righted and evil will be terminated. Shutting our hearts leap when we read verses like where the angels told his disciples, why stand you here gazing? He's going to come back the same way.

Shutting our hearts leap. Knowing that it don't matter how long it's been, if it's five more thousand years, it don't make no difference. Not with God. It don't make any difference to us. All we're to do is to live and to be ready we live like we heard in our Sunday school if we live and and be the people we're supposed to be and do the thing we're supposed to do and watch just be ready be ready you know there's a little sign or a little motto you might call it that hangs on walls of some houses that says, perhaps today, perhaps today, and that's what he's talking about.

But do we? I'm guilty. I'm guilty. I don't think about every day of my life, is this today's gonna come? I don't think about that.

I can confess that to you because it don't cross my mind every day. I say my prayers, I try to study God's word. But some days I don't think about is this the day? But I should. Even though I don't think about it, I do know this.

I'm ready. I'm ready when He does come. You know, we must never forget that Jesus may come on any day. It may be today, it may be tomorrow, it may be next week, It may be far into the future, but it's not going to be announced. It's going to be sudden and unexpected.

So the truth about the return of Jesus Christ should constrain us to want to diligently live a life that's been purified. It should purify our life. We read in 1st John 3 that when Jesus appears it says this, we shall be like him or we shall see him as he is and every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. Apostle Peter looked at future events and said, seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you be in all holy conversation and godless? How should we live?

How should our lives be lived out while we're waiting on him? But until then, it's our duty, it's our responsibility to what we could say is to occupy, occupy until Jesus come. You see in the parable of the King's 10th service, we're told to do the business that needs to be done until Jesus comes back. Not to just sit down and quit, not be safe, satisfied, and sit down. While waiting for the coming of Jesus in glory, we must be diligent about doing the work which Jesus assigned us to do.

And we've heard that. We're to make disciples, baptize them, baptize new believers, and then teach them to follow. Again, baptize new believers, not unbelievers. So we must live our lives as though Jesus might return within the next hour. Yet we must move ahead and press on into the future as though he might not return in our entire lifetime.

We have to keep going. So today can you honestly say that the second coming of Jesus, is it your highest hope? Is it mine? Or do we secretly wish that he wouldn't come today because it might interfere with plans that we have tomorrow? See that's what we do as humans, we make plans for tomorrow and we're not even certain of today.

We have to be careful. So my thoughts is this, that's just a little brief introduction to the second coming of Christ. My belief is this, my thoughts are this, that if we'll be obedient to God's Word, if we'll live the life that God has called us to live. We don't have to worry about this. We can look forward to it, we can anticipate His coming, but to live and do and be who God has called us to be, that will take out the worry.

Christian people should not have to worry about if He's coming in the next two seconds, tomorrow or this afternoon before sunset. We shouldn't have to be worried about that. We shouldn't live in fear of that because you see Christ's glorious return, that is the Christians hope. Let us pray. Fathers we come before you.

Father we come thanking you Lord. Thanking you Father for your Word. Father as we look into your Word we can see and learn about you. Father, we can see the promises that you have gave to your people. And Father, as we study your Word, Lord, we can see that you are a faithful God, that we can trust in you, that you are faithful to your people, you love your people, you provide for your people, you protect your people.

And Father, we can also see in your Word that you have desire for us to come to you with our prayers and our supplications. And your word tells us that you hear our prayers and you will answer our prayers. And father, we are so thankful that we have the privilege, Lord, and it is a privilege to serve you, Lord, to be your servant, to be your slave. Father, we thank you for the salvation that you've provided through your Son Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on the cross. Father, we thank you for the work of the Holy Spirit, Father, as he abides with us to enlighten us of your word, Father, to bring us comfort.

Father, just so many blessings. Lord, all good things come from you. And Father, as we Have looked at your word this morning, Father. We talked about the second coming of your Son Jesus Christ. Lord, we know that it is a promise that you're going to keep.

So help each of us, Lord, live our lives. In anticipation of that coming, Lord, we'd heard to be busy. You've left your church work to do. Father I just pray that we would just all come together Father. Father I thank you for this day.

I thank you for this church and I pray your blessings will continue upon it Lord. Father I ask a special prayer upon their pastors is a way to stay Lord that you will give him traveling mercies that you will bring him back here safely to these people Lord that you will be with this church, Lord, this assembly, that you will bless each and every one. Father, they have been faithful to you, Lord, and Lord they know that you will be faithful to them. But Father, I pray your blessings upon them. For those that was on their prayer list, Lord, I pray for them, Lord, that you will meet each and every need.

Father, again, I just thank you for this day. Thank you for the privilege, Lord, that I have had to travel this way, Lord. Now, Father, as we leave and go our separate ways, Father, I ask that you will watch over us, that you will keep us safe. Father, again, we thank you so much and we praise you. We pray that all honor and glory will be given to you this day, Lord.

Forgive us, Lord, where we have failed you. I pray and ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.