All of us would like to know what our calling, our assignment from God is. We all want to serve the Lord Jesus and please Him but most of us don’t know where we should be or how we should do that.

Paul had a specific calling from the Lord. He figured out what it was.

We need victory. We love winners. I love to win! And I want to root for a winning team. Friends if we are with Jesus we will win in the end. We cannot lose with Jesus! Jesus always gives us the victory over life and over death! But why do we fail to have victory in our lives? Why does evil seem to be winning?

We are all looking for something to believe in. Bono sang in 1987 “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.” The world is looking for someone to believe in. We are all disappointed in people from time to time even those who we trust with all of our hearts can let us down sometimes.

But what would the world give to have someone who will never let us down, one who we can put our complete confidence in because He will never fail us. The world believes there is a leader coming like that. We know who he is. But he is going to fall woefully short. “What we want is a man of sufficient stature to hold the alliances of all people and to lift us out of the economic morass into which we are sinking. Send us such a man, and be he god or devil, we will receive him." These words are attributed to "Henry Spaak; former Premier of Belgium; early planner of The European Common Market; Secretary of NATO" Paul-Henri Spaak (1899-1972 played a major role in the founding of the EEC (later EU) and was Secretary-General of NATO from 1957 to 1961. One day the world will get their answer man. He is called in the Bible the man of sin. The Anti-christ who will give the world their answers. And they will blindly follow him. He will be charasmatic. He will be brave and intelligent. He will be the perfect opposite of Christ. He will be great for 42 months then he will show his true colors as a complete fraud and the embodiment of evil!

But one is coming who is not a fraud. He cannot sin. He cannot fail. He cannot fall short. He will exceed every expectation. He cannot disappoint in any way. We can have complete confidence in Him now and in the future.

Doom means the end is near. No hope it is coming. A Doomed man is someone who is going to be executed. The end is near. The end is near for the wicked false teachers. There is nothing more wicked than to take the blessed, glorious gospel of Christ, the hope of the world and teach something contrary to it. Peter was seeing the church harassed by false teachers and those who would water down, change or destroy their message. The result of false teaching affects everyone. It can affect a whole nation. See Judah as an example. Babylonian captivity. I think false teaching has affected our nation.

Matthew 24:42-44

We watch and wait for Christmas, other holidays, vacations and important events like weddings and retirements. We are always watching for something or someone. We watch for our children and grandchildren to call or visit. We wait for the mail to come.

But very few of us are watching for the Lord Jesus Christ. If someone promises you they are coming wouldn't you be watching for them?

We should be watching for the Lord's appearing.

We should Know that the Lord is returning

We Should be ready for His return.

One of the biggest problem Christians face if not the biggest…has been that of worry.

We worry about what people think. We worry about what has happened. We worry about will happen. We worry about what could happen.

We worry about our children. We worry about our parents.

We worry about our jobs. We worry about health.

We worry about retirement. We worry about money. Some worry about dying.

What we are really worried about is ourselves! We are the center of attention when we worry!

As someone has said, "99% of what we worry about never happens."

So what is the cure, the antidote for worry. It is found here in Philippians 4:1-7

Surveilance is Everywhere. Someone is almost always watching you. Of course we know the God sees everything we do.

9 For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; 10 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

Intro: There is a jewel of a passage hidden in plain sight here in 1 Thessalonians chapter one. The Thessalonians believed that Jesus could come at any moment. They anticipated His return and were always looking for Him. But this passage is about more than that. The Thessonlians were a changed people after meeting Jesus through the preaching of the apostle Paul. They turn from lifeless idols to the living God. They turned from looking for help from vain things to looking unto the Lord of Glory. But the thing they learned is what all of us need to learn today is waiting For Jesus.

2017 is past. We look to 2018 now. What will that year have for us? A lot of what will happen we have no control over. But we can control our attitude and our actions. If you want to have a great 2018 then look no further than to the word of God. This passage in Colossians has every thing we need to guide us to peace and joy in 2018. Again…we can’t control everything but we can control our reactions to everything.

Peter is warning his readers that this is the last days and how to live in light of that. I know, I know. Here you are again Jack warning about the last days….. Yes, I am but today it’s different. Instead of warning you….I am encouraging you….I am cheering you on to the finish line. Hebrews 12:1-2 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Soon we will see Him and be with Him for eternity as the bride of Christ. Let us live to love Him, be ready to meet Him, or die serving Him!