End Times, Rapture, so what?

"The last days are here... let our lot be genuine life in Jesus Christ. Do not let anything catch your eye besides Him."
- Ignatius (Bishop of Antioch, appointed by Peter, companion of John, arrested by the Roman government and thrown to wild beasts in the Colosseum)

If you find yourself obsessing over the news and sermons on the end times, maybe it's time to ask yourself, "so what?"

So what if it is the end times? What does that mean to me and my faith? So what should I be thinking? So what should I be doing?

So...

1. Do not be led astray!
   When the disciples asked Jesus when the tribulation would happen, the very first thing he says is, "See that no one leads you astray."
   Matthew 24:4

   How do you keep from being led astray? Read, study, and know God's word!

   The rest are the same in these times or the end times...

2. Love God
   "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." The Shema, Deuteronomy 6:4-7
3. Love your spouse
   "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

   Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body."
   Ephesians 5:22-33

4. Love your neighbor
   "'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?' And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.'" Greatest commandment, Matthew 22:36-40
5. Love to the end
   "But the one who endures to the end will be saved."
   Matthew 24:13
6. Proclaim the good news!
   "And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."
   Matthew 24:14

   "And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.'" The Great Commission, Matthew 28:18-20

The clear sign the end is near: The Abomination of Desolation

An "image" of the antichrist. someone (a person) that seems to accomplish signs and wonders. He will require that he be worshiped, and anyone that doesn't will be put to death. He will set himself up in the temple in Jerusalem.

Matthew 24:15-21, Revelation 13:15

The number of the beast (666) is not as mysterious as it's made out to be. 6 is less than perfection, 7 being the number associated with God and His holy perfection. 6 is simply a man, the creature created by the perfect and holy God.

Paul calls him "the man of lawlessness." Simply a man with seemingly great powers given by Satan. 2 Thessalonians 2:3-9

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction

Please listen to the resources below to learn more...