All right. Good morning, everybody. It’s great to see you this morning. So my name is Wes. I’m a pastoral assistant here at Red Village.
I help oversee the youth and college students and really enjoy doing that. So, yeah, we are going to be studying 1st Thessalonians 4, verses 13 through 18. So if you have a Bible, go ahead and open up there to 1 Thessalonians 4. And if you don’t, there’s actually Bibles in the pew that you can grab and open up to that passage. And so it’s been a little over a year since I last preached in First Thessalonians, and it’s my goal to actually preach through the entire book.
And so hopefully I’ll finish preaching through the end of first Thessalonians by the end of 2026, but we will see. And I thought that this passage, specifically today’s Palm Sunday, a week before Easter, I thought this would be a really helpful passage as a primer for helping us think about Easter Sunday and about Christ’s resurrection that we’ll celebrate next week. So I’m going to go ahead and read the verse verses 13 through 18, and then I’ll pray and ask that God would bless this time and we’ll dive into it. So here is what the word of the Lord says this morning, verse 13. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do, who have no hope.
For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. And then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words. So that’s God’s word for us today. Please pray with me.
Lord, we thank you that we can gather as one body in Christ to hear from you, God, we know that you speak through your word. So I pray, Lord, would you use me and the things that I say today to speak to your people, that we would meet with you and our hearts would rightly respond to what you are saying, and so bless this time, Lord. For your glory, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.
So before I start talking about just how glorious this passage is, because I’ve been very excited to preach this sermon, as everything that’s chalked in here, I am going to first tell you a story. So there I was. The year was 2006 to my best guess, and I was around the age of 10 years old. And what was I doing at the age of 10 years old? I was with my dad on an elk hunt in the Rocky Mountains of Idaho.
And just as I say that, I can hear in the room, people are like, how many times can this guy preach a sermon referencing elk? And the answer is a lot. And certainly one more. So there I was, the Rocky mountains of Idaho, 10 years old, in a town called Riggins, home of the best huckleberry milkshakes that I have ever had. And if you don’t know what a huckleberry milkshake is, you can Google that afterward.
But it was in the midday in the middle of September when the elk were in rut and I was with my dad in the mountains. And the elk are rutting in the midst of September, and so you can hear their bugles echoing throughout all of the mountains. And that afternoon, we hopped onto my dad’s old reliable Honda four wheeler that he had had for like 10 or 20 years, and we drove down an old logging road that we had not yet explored that weekend. And as we drove down this winding dirt road, a storm began to build in the west with dark thunderclouds that were headed our way. But regardless, we were on a mission to find the elk.
So we keep going. And my dad knowing the mountains well from hunting them all his life since he was a little boy, he got to a certain point on the trail and then shut off the four wheeler and told me to follow him and start walking. So we do that, start walking down this old logging road, and all of a sudden, the sound of bugling bulls begins to fill our ears up ahead. And so as that happens, my dad’s disposition kind of changes, and he gets a little slower as he begins to creep, knowing that the elk are up ahead and we don’t want to spook him and kind of tells me to go slow. And.
And so we’re kind of creeping up this road closer and closer to an opening meadow. And as we’re doing so, the thunder clouds in the west are just ever more so, just getting more and more intense. And you can kind of hear the thunder behind us. And so nothing could prepare us for what we were about to witness. As I remember, there were two different bull elk.
Each had, like a herd of female cows that, that they had, and they were both just like, buling at each other nonstop. It was just getting louder and louder as we’re getting closer and closer to this meadow. And there was one older herd bull with like a crackling old scream that would sound off. And then there was another younger herd bull with like a finer high pitched scream that would bugle in response. And so as we got closer, each bull was getting more and more aggressive and agitated.
These two herds of elk were getting closer and closer in proximity. And so 90% of the time when this happens, two bull elk will kind of come close. And then in order for the bull elk to protect their herd of cows, they’ll actually just decide to jump ship and just go over a different ridge and kind of avoid each other, because if they don’t do that, it means that they have to fight. And so in this circumstance, these bulls were very wound up and they were ready to fight one another. And so as we began to realize what was about to happen and we could see the elk, like, way in the distance, we begin to, like, pick up our pace to be able to get a closer look as what we were hoping would be like an elk fight.
And so as we realized that this is going to happen, we swiftly crept over, like, within about 100 yards of these two massive bull elk that were just like, just now kind of coming together. And we watched eagerly to see what was going to happen. And as we watched, both of these elk began to, like, tear up this gigantic pine tree that they were underneath. And as that’s happening, like, the storm is like, right over our heads, but it hasn’t started raining. And so it’s just like, kind of like all this anticipation is like, building to this moment when all of a sudden these two bulk just like, fly at each other and their antlers just crashed together in a very loud crash.
And as that happened, like, me and my dad are just, like, watching in awe, like, oh, my gosh, this is amazing. And my dad had this pair of binoculars that he would, like, give to me, and I would take a look at the elk, like, oh, my gosh. Wow, look at that. And then give it back to him and he would take a look. And so we’re just like, I mean, this is just amazing to see when you’re chasing elk.
And so moments after, like, they begin to clash and they’re Fighting. All of a sudden, there is a, like, bright flash of white light and then instantaneous thunder that just, like, echoes throughout this draw that we’re in. I mean, it was so loud. Like, it, like, puts you on your knees, and, like, you feel it shake the earth. So that happens.
We’re kind of, like, stunned. And then I guess we’re watching the elk. They just kind of stop, and then, like, they, like, look up into the sky, and they just bugle, like, as if it’s only making them more angry with this incoming storm. And so we’re just like, this is amazing as we’re watching this happen. And as that happens, they keep fighting.
And then the rain, like, begins to start to pour. And so as that had happened, it had felt like all of time had just, like, stood still between the battling elk crashing into each other and bugling and the thunder that was just kind of, like, scary and intense. Like, it was one of the most amazing experiences of my childhood, for sure. And so as it continued, like, to happen, the rain actually began to, like, come down with, like, great fury. And so we had to actually, like, move back and find some cover underneath the tree.
And so as we did that, the thunder, like, continued to boom really, really loudly. That, like, would shake you every time it would go off, and was just followed by, like, the flash of light, instantaneous thunder. And you kind of hear the mingled bugles of elk continue until the rain passed and the elk went up and over the next ridge, and the moment was over. Now, why do I tell you this story? Mainly because I can talk about elk.
No, that’s not true. The main reason I’m telling you this story is because there are moments in, I think, every person’s life where the ordinary is broken up by something extraordinary. Moments that seem to, like, stop all of time and just leave us in awe and in amazement for each person. That could be, like, many different things. It could be, like an emotional sports game with an incredible comeback or incredible finish.
It could be a natural phenomenon that occurs. It could be the birth of a child, or it could be an elk battle in the middle of Idaho, which is my preference. But moments like this, when things like this happen in life, it, like, reminds us that we are alive and that life is full of wonder and mystery that reflects the God who made it. So that being said, this passage of scripture that we are studying is describing one of the most phenomenal and perplexing moments in all of human history.
God, through his word, is giving us a glimpse into a holy moment that will be like, absolutely incredible to behold. So keep that in mind as we begin to work through this great passage. First Thessalonians was written to new believers in Thessalonica only a few months after Paul and Timothy’s sudden departure in order to avoid persecution. The church was very young and they didn’t have any leaders. And so therefore Paul wrote this letter to them to encourage the church and to remind them that sanctification in the midst of persecution was God’s will for their lives.
And over a year ago, we looked at this previous passage in 1st Thessalonians 4, where Paul instructed the Thessalonians to continue the good works that they were taught by doing so, more and more so he encouraged them, like, keep doing these things, like, don’t slow down. And one of the applications I gave was that sanctification is a continual process that that always holds one more ridge. We keep pushing ourselves in sanctification as God calls us and sanctifies us. So after making this exhortation, Paul now in our passage, transitions to another topic that he wanted to address concerning those who have fallen asleep and about the Lord’s Second coming. So evidently the Thessalonian believers were uninformed and they were confused about what was happening when a believer died and if that believer that died would experience the Lord’s second coming or not.
This likely means that there were some Thessalonian brothers and sisters who had probably died from the intense persecution and that the believers were grieving their death and they didn’t exactly know, like, how to process what had happened. So understanding this, let’s look at verses 13 and 14 a little more closely. It says, but we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others who do have no hope. Or since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. The first thing Paul indirectly addresses here is concerning the Thessalonians questions and concerns is the nature of a believer who has died.
Paul does not say that he’s going to inform the believers about those who have died. Rather, he says, I’m going to inform you about those who are asleep. So a believer who ceases to live physically is not dead in the same sense that an unbeliever dies and is considered dead. The intermediate state for the believer who has faith in Christ and who has physically died does not cease to live rather, because Christ lives, the believer who physically passes from this life also lives A believer who physically dies is absent from the body, but is present with the Lord as soon as they physically pass from this earth. And God’s word tells us to physically depart from the earth and be present with the Lord is actually far better than physically remaining alive on this earth.
The gospel of Matthew, 1st Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians and the Book of Acts all describe believers as being asleep when they have physically passed from this earth. And so through Jesus, death on the cross, death for the believer has been transformed into sleep. For their spirit and their soul do not remain asleep, but their spirit and soul is alive with Christ, and it is their body that remains asleep from what Paul is saying here until their resurrection. So physical death is merely a door to pass through into life that is truly life for the Christian. Their body will be resurrected and made new and will be woken up to become alive again, as we will see in our passage.
So since believers are not dead spiritually, Paul informs the Thessalonian believers here that they should not grieve as others do who have no hope. Now, Paul is not like saying here that believers should not grieve at all. Jesus himself grieved when John the Baptist was killed, and he grieved before Lazarus was raised from the dead with Martha and Mary. So like grieving those who have passed into the presence of Jesus, like it’s part of processing death in this life and it is okay and commended to do so. And Scripture.
So Paul’s not saying that. What he is saying is that grief that a believer experiences for another believer who has passed, it’s not the same grief as a non believer has. For a non believer, like the non believer who passes away, they are not asleep. Rather, they are both physically and spiritually dead, separated from God who is the source of life, the non believer immediately experiences a spiritual separation from God that cannot be crossed. For they did not acknowledge God while they had his breath of life in them.
The person who is not a believer in Christ has no hope of eternal life, no hope of being raised from the dead, and no hope of being reunited with God. Instead, the non believer will experience the just wrath of God, resulting in eternity spent apart from God. But this is not the case for the believer. The believer has real hope, for they are not dead, but are alive. Paul spells this out for us in verse 14.
For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again back to life, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. So since we believe in the Son of God who died and now rose again back to life. His people too will also experience being raised again from the dead. And since God’s people are united with Christ as they place their faith in him, they too must be resurrected from the dead, just as their Lord has been resurrected from the dead. Therefore, God will not leave his saints who have fallen asleep.
He will conform them to His Son’s image by raising them up from the grave. And because of this, when a believer passes from this earth, it is not goodbye, it is see you soon, for we will see our loved ones again who have placed their faith in Christ.
My first application from this text is when a beloved believer in your life passes on from this life. Grieve with hope to grieve with hope means to grieve in a way that takes your heart directly to God by trusting in his goodness and by trusting in his promises that he has given us through His Word. Grieving with hope means you continue coming to church on a regular basis. You continue to read God’s Word to fill you and sustain you and help you. You continue to pray to God, depending on him to help you each and every minute and hour.
You keep serving, you keep believing, you keep persevering, fixing your eyes on Christ who is holding you fast. We see the psalmist do this over and over again, where they grieve over the pain they feel, but then it doesn’t end there. They fully cast themselves upon the Lord, trusting in him above all else. The famous words of Psalm 42 says, why are you downcast, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. So even in the grief that we feel within our soul, the psalmist teaches us to put our hope in God and again praise Him. So that being said, I wanted to actually give you like four practical ways, four practical promises that those who are grieving the loss of a believer can reflect upon and really have as a hope for them to grieve with hope. And so the first promise is that Scripture gives us you will see your loved one again. It’s not goodbye, it really is.
See you soon. There is a great reunion ahead of God’s people where every tear will be wiped away and we will laugh and feast and worship the Lord with joy in our hearts, with our beloved family in Christ. So hang on to that promise that you will see your loved ones again who are in Christ. Second promise remember, the believer who has passed is with Jesus, which is far better than being on this earth. Jesus is the living Water that our souls are longing for and thirst for.
Our loved ones are at complete peace and complete satisfaction with their Lord and Savior who made them so. Do not worry about their current state. Today they are with the Lord in paradise. Third, when you reach heaven, you will never have to depart from your loved one again. The reunion that God is bringing, it’s going to last for eternity.
No more temporary goodbyes, only joy and fellowship in worshiping God forever together for eternity. The grief from separation that you feel now is only for a short while. But there is a day coming soon where our mourning will be turned into joy. Fourth and last promise. God has good works for you to do for his glory until the day when you see your loved one again.
Today, right now, God has you on earth with breath in your lungs for a reason. You’re not left behind. You are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which he prepared ahead of time in advance that you should walk in them even when those that we love pass on and their race is run. So take heart that God has purpose for your life before the day that you see your loved one again. And if you are here today grieving the loss of a loved believer, take heart that you can grieve with hope.
That being said, looking back to our text, Paul declares a word from the Lord to the Thessalonian believers and to us in verse 15, where he says, we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, we will not precede those who have fallen asleep. So the word from the Lord that Paul is referencing here, it is a sort of reference to what Jesus has taught about in the Gospel accounts. But it’s also more than that, because the things that Paul is saying are not directly found in a quotation from the Gospels. And so it’s likely that this word from the Lord is actually like a direct revelation to Paul from the Lord concerning the order of those who would be raised. So those who are alive, Paul is saying, and that are Christians.
They will not precede those who have fallen asleep when Jesus returns. And this was likely a concern for the Thessalonians that they had that Paul wanted to clear up. And it’s important to note that Paul in part had the expectation that, like the Lord, Jesus could come back to the earth during his lifetime and during the Thessalonians lifetime. Paul did not rule out this possibility, since he knew very well, as Jesus taught, nobody knows the hour when the Lord will come. Matthew 24:36 says, this is from the Lord.
But concerning that day and hour no one knows, even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father knows. And because nobody knows this day, Jesus taught that all believers are to be watchful and ready for the Lord’s coming by being faithful with what Christ calls us to do. So God’s people are to be wise by keeping our lamps burning by faith. And we’re supposed to keep plenty of oil, as the parable of the virgins tells us, as they are waiting for the bridegroom’s coming. In the same way we are to keep our lanterns lit and burning, for the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, and therefore all of God’s people must be ready for his return.
Now look with me at verses 16 through 17 as this gives us a glimpse into what this incredible day is going to look like. Verse 16. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven, and with a cry of command and with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And so we will always be with the Lord. Now don’t miss this. The content of these verses are like absolutely mind blowing, incredible. So I don’t want you to like miss how extraordinarily wild this description is because Christians, like often get more hung up on the timing of this event more than they do like the event itself. Some Christians think that this event is happening before tribulation, which would be the first of two appearances that Jesus will make in his coming, known as the Rapture, where God will remove his saints from the earth with the dead, that he resurrects.
And he will do this before the great time of testing and judgment begins in tribulation. Other Christians think that this event is describing Jesus second coming at the end of the great tribulation period in the day of the Lord, when Jesus will deliver final judgment to all the living and the dead and bring all things to finality. And then there’s other Christians that have different beliefs that are somewhat a mingle of those. And to be honest, like I’m not completely sure which of these two views I really believe both have strong biblical evidence and both have intelligent theologians backing each position. And that’s not to say that we shouldn’t try to wrestle with the scriptures and come to a place and convictions that we believe on these things.
I certainly will continue to do that. But that’s not what this passage is directly trying to communicate. What this passage is trying to communicate is verse 16, the Lord Himself will descend. Highlight circle, underline. Write that in your journal.
The Lord himself is going to descend upon earth. Jesus, the King of kings, the chief shepherd, the alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He’s gonna come. And where is he gonna descend from out of heaven? Heaven itself is going to open up in time and space.
And we will see with our eyes up in the sky, the King of glory descending. And it doesn’t stop there. Oh, no. Much more. Jesus appearing will come with three different unworldly sounds.
And the first that’s listed is a cry of command. So this cry of command, like, it could be coming from the voice of an archangel, which is listed here, but I think it’s more likely coming from Jesus himself, for Jesus himself has come for his people. And just as Jesus told Lazarus, who had been dead for three days, with a cry of command, Lazarus come out. In the same way, the Lord will cry out a command to his people and the dead in Christ, all who have died and whose bodies have remained asleep for generations, all the way back to Adam and Eve, they will hear the voice of their Lord, and they will respond. Accompanying the the mighty thundering command of Jesus will also be the voice of an archangel.
Now, an archangel is a leader of the heavenly hosts. The Bible doesn’t give us a ton of information about them, but we know that this angel will appear with Jesus along with many other angels, and this archangel’s voice will be heard with the Lord’s. And so, based on, like, other times that angels have spoken to mankind throughout scripture in the Old Testament, this will be an intense and unworldly voice that, like, grips the attention of those who hear it. And on top of the Lord’s voice and the archangel’s voice, the sound of a heavenly trumpet of God will be heard echoing throughout the entire earth. Now, to give you, like, an idea of what this may be like, listen to how the Israelites responded to the trumpet blast as the Lord descended upon Mount Sinai.
In the book of Exodus, this is what it says. On the morning of the third day, there was thunder and lightning, and with a thick cloud over the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, everyone in the camp trembled. And then later on in the passage, it says, and as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, and Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him. Later on, it says, the people said to Moses, you speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us. Lest we die, so to say the least.
Like for the Israelites, when they saw God descend upon the earth and heard like this heavenly trumpet blast and heard the voice of the Lord, it was so terrifying and intense that people thought that they might die. And I share these passages from Exodus because I want you to understand what Paul is describing here is like a very holy moment that will be monumental in all the history of mankind. When people see the heavens open up and the Lord Jesus descend in glory, and when they hear his life resurrecting command and the heavenly voice of the archangel and the blast of the sounding trumpet, I think it will feel like all of time is standing still. This will be by far the greatest thing that anyone has ever experienced on planet Earth. People’s hearts will begin to race with great wonder and fear.
The hairs on your arms will stand up. People will likely fall to their knees and cry out in praise or in fear. And when the dead saints are resurrected and given their new bodies, what words will we find among the living to describe what is happening? I think there will be none. There will be fear and shock and wonder and awe.
What is happening when Christ returns? This will be an extraordinarily holy and glorious day, and all of mankind will see it when the Lord returns to the earth that he has made. And so God’s Word gives us one more insight about this day. In verse 17 says, Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds and to meet with the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.
After the dead saints are raised first, the saints who are left alive on the earth will be caught up together as one body in the air to be with their descended king. First Corinthians 15 says, Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. So God’s Word is telling us that all of God’s people are going to be raised and they will be suddenly, like, caught up in the air to be with the Lord.
And the Word caught up. It’s actually like communicating, like snatched up, like, it happens quickly. And in an instant God will give his saints new, imperishable, glorified bodies. Just as Christ has been resurrected and given a heavenly, imperishable, glorified body, his bride will be given the same. My second application for you from this Passage and I think speaks perhaps most loudly.
Orient your life in light of this holy moment. For the one who has faith in Christ, this moment is not a hypothetical. This day is set in stone and it’s really going to happen. And it could quite honestly happen in your and my lifetime. Do not assume that this day isn’t going to happen in your lifetime.
It very well could. Nobody knows the day when this will occur, only our Father in heaven. We do not know. And therefore we must be ready and be eagerly expecting our Lord’s return. And a good way to like test and see if we are rightly orienting our lives in light of this future holy moment is to right now ask yourself, if Jesus returns today, would I be ready today?
Is your lamp burning? Are you living by faith? Are you abiding in Christ? Are you bearing fruit for the kingdom that you will be able to offer to him as glory and praise at his return? Or are you distracted by things of the earth bearing little fruit for Christ?
Would his return, like, actually catch you off guard more than be an eager thing that you’re waiting for? Are you serving the body of Christ in His church and actively building up the body of Christ with your gifts? Or is like church just something you kind of attend and come to when it’s convenient? If Jesus came today, have your neighbors heard the gospel? Have your co workers heard the gospel?
Have your lost family members heard the gospel? Do your children know the gospel? Like, are you ready for Jesus to call you away from this earth when he comes and your time on this earth will be done over? Or would his coming actually be like an interruption to your life and be an inconvenience to what you are doing on the earth? No doubt these questions I’m asking you, like, they’re hard and sobering questions that all of us as Christians are going to fall short on at times.
But if Jesus really could return at any minute, we certainly should be asking ourselves these questions and really considering what we are doing and if we are ready. So if you’re here and you actually don’t have faith in Jesus, you’re just kind of processing the claims of Christ and Christianity. Praise God, like that. You are here and you’re able to hear this message from God’s word. This is an extraordinary event, but it’s going to happen and Jesus is going to come and call an account.
He’s going to return to the earth. And when he does, those who have placed their faith in him as their Lord and Savior, they’ll be saved, be brought up to his side. But those who don’t have faith, they will go to the resurrection of judgment, is what the Gospel of John says. They will be separated from God for eternity, and they will experience the full wages of spiritual death. But at this moment, today, right now, that moment hasn’t come yet.
Which means God has graciously brought you here to hear about Jesus, death and resurrection and his coming, so that you could believe it, you could repent, turn away from your sin, and you could live for Jesus, who is the returning king and Lord of all the earth. You can still do that. There is yet time. And all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved, which is great and wonderful news for all of us here. For we all fall short.
And yet in the grace of Christ dying in our place, we too can be called his children and be called up to Himself when He returns. So today, if you believe, you too will reap the benefits of this holy day that is coming soon.
My last application from this passage is the exact words that Paul gives us in verse 18, which says, encourage one another with these the fact that Jesus is going to return and bring all of his people to be with him for all time, including those who have fallen asleep in Christ since the beginning of Adam and Eve. Like, for the Christian, this should be so encouraging and so comforting to know that Christ is going to return and he will be faithful to his people and bringing them to his side. Death will not reign over his people. We should never let this reality of this day slip from our minds. Therefore, encourage one another and comfort one another by reminding your brothers and sisters in Christ that Jesus is returning soon and next week is Easter weekend.
Like, this is an awesome time where we actually get to do that, where often there’s like a phrase where you say, he is risen, the other person says, he is risen indeed. Like, it’s so sweet to say that. Because it’s like, yes, Jesus is going to come for you and for me and for all his people. And we can encourage one another in that. And we shouldn’t just do that on Easter.
But I’m saying, like, let’s do that as a church all the time. In times where things are going well, let’s remind ourselves that Jesus is coming. And in times where we are at the bottom in the valley and things are hard, let us encourage one another as brothers and sisters in Christ that the Lord is coming soon and he will make all things right in his resurrection. When a believer passes from this life, let us encourage one another that we can grieve with great hope because Jesus is coming soon. May our words agree with the final words of the Book of Revelation that proclaim, amen.
Come, Lord Jesus, come. And we look forward to this great and holy day when Jesus will come and we will be with the Lord always. That being said, please pray with me.
Lord, we thank you for this mysterious, perplexing holy moment where you will return and God you will raise the dead who are in Christ, who are asleep, and God you will bring with yourself with your command and the archangel and God with the sound of the trumpet, all of your people to be with you for all time. Lord, I pray. Help our church help us as a body to be sober minded in this and to keep our lamps burning and lit. God, help us to live by faith, with expectation. And God, help us not to let the distractions of the world drown out this reality.
But Lord, keep it at the forefront of our minds. And Lord, help us to encourage one another. And I pray specifically for those who are grieving the loss of love believers, that they would find hope in your resurrection and in the coming of Christ, that we would grieve together in hope until that great day when you come. And Lord, I ask these things all in the mighty name of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.