Pastor Jon Burgess
January 26, 2020 - W2004

Life In The Last Chapter

The Issachar Anointing

Pastor Jon Burgess

January 25 & 26, 2020

Welcome, New Hope! I’ve been thinking about heaven; especially, in the light of talking about The Issachar Anointing series. Issachar was one of the tribes of Israel who knew how to discern the times and the seasons they were living in and were able to lead God’s people within them. As we draw to a close of this series, we want to understand the times that we’re living in. 

Certainly, living in the light of heaven, we are reminded that heaven should inform all of our thinking and decisions because heaven is actually our home—this isn’t our home! And we’ve heard our senior pastor, Wayne Cordeiro, say a lot that we are at the last chapter, probably, the end of the last chapter of this book that God’s been writing since creation. Maybe you’re wondering is that really true, are we really living in the end times, or is it just something that pastors say?

God wants us to know right off the bat that our time here on earth is not a waste of time; and as proof, He actually tells us how this whole thing will end in…

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 NIV: “¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

Maybe, one of the reasons so many Christians are discouraged instead of encouraged is that we aren’t living life in the light of heaven—the ever-present reality of the imminent return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! The unique characteristic of the New Testament church was that every waking moment of its members were lived as if Christ would return that very day! 

How many of us wake up that way, or live as if Christ could call us home at any moment, or He could return at any moment, as described in 1 Thessalonians? I’m hoping that we would be encouraged to think this way and live differently; that our lives will match the way that God has called us to live—Life In The Last Chapter! 

To keep my heart in alignment with Life In The Last Chapter, God’s been asking me for the last couple of years: “If you truly believed I were coming back soon, how would that change the way you spend your time?” That question is a wake-up call for me. 

1.       Time To Wake Up: Living With Eyes Wide Open

It’s a wake-up call. I know most of us don’t like alarms. And sometimes when God has a wake-up call to His church, it causes a reaction in our flesh:  stop that or let me sleep some more. The disciples had a wake-up call… 

Luke 21:7-9 NIV says: “⁷’Teacher,’ they asked, ‘when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?’ ⁸ He replied: ‘Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. ⁹ When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened (in Greek, terrified). These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.’”

It’s not about living afraid but living awake! It’s about being focused on the time that we’ve been given. In our image-rich hype false news culture, sometimes we just need to be reminded in a very clear, very obvious way that we are living in the end times! 

How many of you remember the wake?up call on Saturday morning, January 13th?  At 8:07, all of us living in the 808 were jarred awake with an alert on our phones that shook us!  It said:  "Emergency Alert:  Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii.  Seek immediate shelter.  This is not a drill."  The time between that first screenshot and the second screenshot was 38 minutes of sheer terror and panic!  

We'd all been watching on the news about North Korea and their missile testing, and though we didn't hear the alarm sounds on the island, we would've immediately tied it to the above text— certainly the government wouldn't make a mistake—it’s got to be true; right?  It's got to be true!

One of my sons said, "Dad, what's gonna happen?  What's gonna happen?"  I thought we’re on an island.  If there is a missile headed towards us, there is nowhere that we can hide! 

I looked the boys in the eyes, and I said, "So what's gonna happen, boys?  If this missile is coming and this is our last time here on earth, what's gonna happen next?"  And they looked at me, and said, "Oh, we're going to heaven."  I said, "Yes, we are."  And then, of course, 38 minutes later we get the follow?up text, "There was no missile threat or danger to the state of Hawaii.  Repeat false alarm."

And even though everyone was justifiably angry at this mistake, I actually looked at it as a blessing.  Because for 38 minutes, the entire state of Hawaii, got a sneak peek into what life would be like when we come to the end.  And, hopefully, in that 38 minutes everyone was able to ask themselves: “What's next?”  It was a gift, actually.  It was a wake?up call!

1 Thessalonians 5:2-4  NIV says: “…for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³ While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. ⁴ But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all children of the light and children of the day. ⁷For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. ⁸ But since we belong to the day, let us be sober…” 

In other words, Paul's saying you're not sleeping through this.  You're ready.  You're awake.  

2. To Show Up: Living With Hands Wide Open 

If we want to live with hands wide open, we must let go of excuses and reasons and begin to take seriously the fact that if God has saved us, it's so that others can be saved.  We must show up convinced that if Jesus has not come back yet, it's because there's still people He wants to save!

Luke 21:34-36 NIV says: ³⁴ “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down (literally means depressed) with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. ³⁵ For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. ³⁶ Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

The Titanic was an unsinkable ship; their confidence was clearly in the technology and stability of the ship.  The latest boats were stronger than ever and had watertight compartments, making them unlikely to require lifeboats at all.  The sea routes used were well?traveled, meaning that the likelihood of a collision was minimal, and the number of lifeboats were reduced from 64 to 20—so that the deck wouldn't be too cluttered!  The captain received a note saying to beware of icebergs; he took the note and put it in his pocket and didn't pay any attention to the warning! 

In the sinking of the Titanic, 1,517 people were killed; it should have been a fraction of that.  Even with only 20 lifeboats, hardly anyone had to die, if they were all filled to capacity!

I'm haunted by the quote of a survivor of the Titanic, Jack Thayer, who said, "The partly filled lifeboats standing by about a hundred yards away never came back!  Why on earth they never came back is a mystery.  How could any human being fail to heed those cries?"  And they had all kinds of good reasons: “Well, you know, we don't want to be capsized.” “If too many people get in, then we'll all die.”  What if while the ship sinks, it takes us down with it!” Logical reasons why there's just no room.  Half filled.  We have people rearranging deck chairs while the Titanic is going down! So, there's already too few lifeboats, and the remainder of the lifeboats weren't even full.  Only one boat went back.  I want to be that boat.

We have 290,000 people living within 5 miles of our Ministry Center, over a million people on this island alone, and most of them don't have a lifeboat yet, and are on a sinking ship!  Why are we still here if not to come after them with open hands, saying, “Come on in!  There's room!”  

Why has Jesus saved us, if not to go back and save others who are completely convinced their boat was never going down and now, they find themselves about to go under!  Who better to reach them than those that are already in the unsinkable lifeboat? Let's not live that way.  God's doing more than just giving us a note. We better make sure we don't just put the note in our pocket and ignore it and think we're unsinkable, that people are fine, what's the big deal? 

How can we make sure we’re ready when Jesus comes back, and we stand before the Son of Man knowing that we have no regrets, not because of our own righteousness but because of His! We know we’re spending eternity with Him. Jesus is saying, “Watch out or your hands will be clinging to things that the world says are so important—but if our hands are filled, we can’t reach out to anybody else! Let’s make room in our schedules and lives, and say “No,” to some things so we can say, “Yes,” to the right things—the things that actually matter in the scope of eternity!

God’s been asking me: “What if you believe in your heart that every need you came across that I had already made provision for, how would that change the way you pray?” If we say that we believe Jesus is the answer to every prayer, and what Jesus did on the cross covers every need, we would be unstoppable! We would literally look for excuses to pray for people! That’s the reason Life In The Last Chapter has us waking up, showing up, and speaking up! 

3. We Need To Speak Up: Living With Hearts Wide Open 

I love this because after Jesus had spent His entire time talking to His disciples about the signs of the end times, it gives us this little narrative on how Jesus lived his life—this is our blueprint. It’s so simple; yet so powerful. 

Luke 21:37-38 NIV says: “³⁷ Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives, ³⁸ and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple.”

People got up early to hear Jesus because Jesus stayed up late to hear the Father. If you want your heart wide open for those around you, get connected to His heart again. If we have a closed heart towards the people, it’s because we’ve forgotten God’s heart towards them. 

If you and I believe that God had already provided for everything that we need, that each one reaches one, it would change everything; then we would pray all the time no matter how silly we think we looked. So, I want to pray something over you…

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 NIV says: “²³ May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”

Now, this is a great relief because I’m not here preaching some kind of a works theology. He will do it. He will save our souls. You and I can’t earn our way into heaven by praying for more people or preaching to more people or trying to save more people. We don’t do it because we have to. We do it because we want to. Because he did it for us, we want to do it for others. 

Discussion Questions:

1.    How will you prepare yourself to be ready when the Lord comes?
2.    What will you do today to help others prepare for the Lord’s arrival?
3.    What experiences have helped you live with your eyes, hands and hearts wide open?
4.    How are you being more like Jesus today?
5.    What do you want your last chapter to look like?