Skip to content Last Days Living - Part A Sep 11 · 26 min ...more
Last Days Living - Part A
September 11, 2025 · 26 min
Are you longing for Jesus to return? Tune is as Skip offers encouragement for the weary and persecuted—and reminds you that suffering won’t last forever.
Series Connect with Skip Heitzig Podcast September 11, 2025 · 26 min · Connect with Skip Heitzig Podcast
Are you longing for Jesus to return? Tune is as Skip offers encouragement for the weary and persecuted—and reminds you that suffering won’t last forever. ...more Show the full description Show less Are you longing for Jesus to return? Tune is as Skip offers encouragement for the weary and persecuted—and reminds you that suffering won’t last forever.
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Skip Heitzig ministers to over 15,000 people as senior pastor of Calvary Church in Albuquerque. He reaches out to thousands across the nation and throughout the
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0:01 This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Thanks for joining us for today's program. As we pause to remember the tragic events of September eleventh, we're reminded that in times of darkness and uncertainty,0:13 God's word is a steady light. That's why this month we're offering a free resource to help you engage with scripture in a fresh and meaningful way. It's called studying the bible, a simple 1 sheet0:25 download filled with practical guidance for your daily time in God's word. Download it now at connect with skip dot com when you sign up to receive Skip's weekly devotional, encouraging content delivered right to0:37 your inbox each week. Again, you can sign up and get your free resource at connect with skip dot com. Now let's turn to today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig.0:49 So when I was a kid, I was taught a prayer by my mom. And I bet a lot of you learned I bet we learned the same prayer, right? That simple but profound. Now1:01 I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. So that's the first prayer I learned to pray. And have you ever1:12 ever looked at the words a little more carefully? It's a lot to lay in a 5 year old. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.1:24 What's up with that? You're teaching a 5 year old to think about his impending death. But the older I get, I realize there1:36 is wisdom in having a child prepare, or at least think about, the inevitable, which is that we're1:48 all going to die. There is another inevitable event that is coming that we should also be prepared for. That2:00 is the coming of Christ. Jesus Christ is coming again. He said so. And ever2:12 since he left the first time, he left the promise that he would come a second time. But I know people will say, yeah, I've heard that for years. People have said that for years. Grandma2:24 used to say that. I've read that Christians in every generation have said that, and you would be correct. And I want to highlight that. 1 Christian leader said this, the last days are upon us.2:36 Weigh carefully the times. Look for him who is above all time, eternal and invisible. Now that sounds like it could have been said last week by2:48 some prophecy teacher on television. But no, it was spoken in 110 AD by Ignatius. This is 20 years after John3:00 wrote the book of Revelation. Here, this church leader is saying, we are in the last days. Then in 2 36 AD, the Bishop of3:12 Rome, Hippolytus, wrote that Christ was sure to return by 500 AD, sure to return. In the 1500s, Martin3:23 Luther wrote, we have reached the time of the white horse of the apocalypse. This world will not last any longer than 100 years.3:35 Then there was Christopher Columbus. A lot of people don't know that he was a Bible student, and he wrote a book on prophecy. And he said that the world would end in3:46 16 56. He said, and I quote, there is no doubt the world must end within 155 years.3:58 I'm glad they were wrong. I'm glad that we are still waiting for that event because we would not have been included otherwise, and yet we are. But a4:10 question every generation of Christians has asked is the question, are we living in the last days? Jesus' own disciples asked him4:22 when he said that he was coming, he said, tell us, what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?4:34 Well, after he gave the Olivet Discourse, which is the reference I made, Jesus went on to die on a cross, rise again from the4:46 dead, and ascend into heaven. And on the day when he ascended into heaven and his followers were with him, I'm guessing that the author of this book, James, was also on the Mount of4:57 Olives. Because we read that James was an unbeliever until the resurrection. After the resurrection, he believed. So more than likely, James, the author of the book, was with5:09 the followers of Christ when Jesus ascended into heaven, and they watched the event. And do you remember what the angel told them? The angel said, you men of Galilee, why do you stand5:21 gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus who was taken from you will so come again in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.5:33 Perhaps James, when he heard those words, said, when exactly will that be? Well, that takes us to James chapter 5. And we're going to read verse 7 and 85:45 together. And then we will spend our time just in these principally in these 2 verses. Verse 7, therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of5:57 the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also6:08 be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Now,6:20 in the paragraph before this, that is last week's message, James was addressing the rich, telling them to weep and to howl6:31 because judgment was coming upon them. They were oppressing the poor working man. They were withholding wages from him. Now James pivots. He6:43 shifts from speaking to the oppressors, and now he addresses those who are oppressed, the persecuted, the poor working man. That's the majority of James'6:55 audience. They were the blue collar, salt of the earth, working folks, and they were suffering. They were losing finances. They were being7:06 persecuted. And I've noticed something about the coming of the Lord and those of us who are suffering. Whenever we suffer the most, have you7:18 noticed that's when we want the Lord to come back the most? Nobody really wants the Lord to come back when it's like the night before your wedding. Boy, I hope Jesus comes back before I get married tomorrow. Nobody says7:30 that. Or I'm going on vacation to Hawaii. Boy, it'd be great if Jesus would show up so I don't have to go to Honolulu. No, we ache for7:42 his coming when things are not going well. Like we have a test on Friday, Jesus, come back soon. Or we're facing a medical procedure. It'd be great if the Lord would show up7:53 before that, I wouldn't have to go through that. So he is writing to these poor suffering believers. And I just want you to notice the word in verse 7, brethren.8:05 Therefore, be patient, brethren. So we have established that he's writing to Christian brothers and sisters. And this is an important word because he does not use it in the previous8:16 2 paragraphs. When he addresses the entrepreneur saying, I'm going to do this and do that, or he speaks in chapter 5 verses 1 through 6 of the rich8:28 oppressing group of people, he does not use the word brethren as if he is generally speaking to the unbelieving world. But here, he is speaking to8:39 believers, and he is trying to comfort them and encourage them in the thought of Christ's second coming. And let8:51 me just say, as a believer, you never have to be afraid to study prophecy. I hope you're not the kind of believer who says, no, I don't get into those matters of prophecy.9:03 It's sort of hard to unravel. I don't get it anyway. And why be confused? I just won't study it. Well, are some pastors who believe that. They don't even teach it because of those9:15 reasons. But I will say this, if you leave it out, you are leaving out a little more than 1 fourth of the entire Bible. 26 percent, we believe, of the9:26 Bible is predictive prophecy. It's there for a reason. You don't need to shy away from it. And the best way to think of prophecy is simply9:39 prophetic scripture is 1 little portion of a cardinal attribute of God, which is that God is omniscient. Omniscient means God knows9:50 everything. If God knows everything, he knows what's going to happen in the future. And he is able quite adequately to record that in10:02 writing, which he has in the Bible. What I'd like to do today, though, is looking at verse 7 and 8 together, is give you 3 ways to live10:13 victoriously in the last days. These are 3 brief summary statements that encapsulate verse 7 and 8. 3 ways to live victoriously10:25 in the last days. These are character traits that you can develop, and I would say you must develop. If you don't develop these 310:36 traits, you are going to be discouraged as time goes on. And they're very, very simple. Be ready, be patient,10:49 be strong. Be ready, be patient, be strong. Let's get into it. First, be ready. If you go to verse 7, tell me what is the first word11:01 in that verse? Okay, thank both of you for saying that, but let's all do it together. What's the first word that shows up? Therefore. Therefore. There you go. Therefore.11:13 Now, you know the rule whenever you find a therefore, you find out what it's there for. Right? That's the rule. Whenever there's a therefore, you want to find out what it's11:25 there for. And the reason it is there is the word is pointing you back to the previous thought. It is connecting you to the previous paragraph. And the11:36 previous paragraph was a warning to the rich, I would say the calloused rich that judgment was about to fall on them. Remember that? Look at verse 5. You11:48 have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury. You have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. Judgment is coming. And that warning is tied to12:00 a time signature. I also would like you to notice back in verse 3, your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like12:12 fire. You have heaped up treasure. And what does it say? In the last days. That's the time signature, the last days.12:24 According to James, we are living in the last days. In fact, according to James, he was living in the last days.12:32 This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we return to Skip's teaching, do you ever feel stuck when it comes to studying the bible? Pastor Skip's book, How to Study the Bible and Enjoy It, shows you how12:44 to go from feeling intimidated by scripture to engaging it with joy and confidence. This helpful book is yours when you give 50 dollars or more to help keep this Bible teaching ministry going strong12:56 around the world. Request your copy of how to study the Bible and enjoy it today at connect with skip dot com slash offer or call 809 2 2 18 88.13:08 Let's return now to today's message.13:11 So he says, therefore, based on what I just said about that, therefore. And then you'll notice in verse 7, he uses the term the13:23 coming of the Lord. Be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. And that phrase is used also in verse 8. You also be patient, establish your hearts, for the coming13:35 of the Lord is at hand. That means could happen at any moment. Now let's even skip ahead a verse. Look at the ninth verse. Do not13:47 grumble against 1 another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. So here is13:58 James telling his audience that they should be ready because Jesus could come back at any moment. It's at hand.14:10 He's at the door. Be ready. This is the most basic response to the truth of Jesus coming. First and foremost, we should be ready.14:22 I mean, if you know your relatives are coming over for dinner, do you want to get the house ready? If your husband's been away on business and he comes home,14:34 I'm guessing the wife is going to want to be ready. Or if the wife has been gone, the husband will want to ready himself and the house for that event. If you know workers are coming over to your house to14:46 fix something, you want to get it ready to have them come in. So if Jesus is coming back, in the very least, we should be ready for that event.14:58 So look with me at the word used twice here in verse 7 and 8 for that event. It is the word coming, the coming of the15:10 Lord. The word coming is 1 of the most important words used in the Bible to describe the second coming of Christ, not the rapture,15:22 the second coming. So the word used here is the word parousia, parousia. And parousia is 1 of the most important eschatological15:34 terms in the New Testament for the second coming. The word emphasizes the physical presence of Christ, the15:45 arrival of Christ. It literally means to be alongside of. So the coming of the Lord, as used by James, means the day when he actually15:57 shows up, not like, I feel the presence of Lord. No, he's with you, literally there, his actual coming. That coming16:09 will be the culmination of the time signature of verse 3, the last days. The culmination of the last days is the16:22 parousia, the coming, the second coming of Christ. Now, that little phrase last days used by James happens to be used 5 different times16:33 in the New Testament. Once by Luke in the book of Acts, once by Paul when he wrote to Timothy, once by James, once in the book of Hebrews, and once by Peter.16:45 Those 5 times have the same phrase, last days, the last days, the last days. In the Old Testament, there's a very similar phrase, but I'm16:57 guessing they're dealing with the same time signature. Isaiah the prophet, Jeremiah, Hosea, and Micah use the phrase the latter days.17:10 Daniel the prophet gives it 4 different titles, the end, the appointed time, the time of the end, the end of days. All of17:21 those are descriptors of the same thing, the last days. Okay. The question is, are we there yet?17:33 Are we in the last days? Are we? How many of you think we're in the last days? Show of hands, honest hands. How many of you don't think we're in the last days? Honest, show of hands. How many of you don't17:45 know? Good. I love that. Fair. Okay. Now, I would like to give you what I think is the biblical answer. Are we living in the last days? Yes, we are.17:57 But we've been in the last days for the last 2000 years. Now, let me explain that. Technically, the last days18:09 are the days between the first coming and the second coming. Why would I say that? How do I know that? Because a few times the New Testament says18:21 that. Once it's found in Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 and 2, the author says, God, who at various ways and in various times spoke in times past to our fathers by18:33 the prophets, listen, has in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things and through whom also he made the world.18:45 So the author says, we're there. We're in these last days. The other is probably more familiar to you. It's in the book of Acts, the day of Pentecost.18:57 Holy Spirit comes on the church. The disciples in the early church are speaking in tongues, but they're speaking in known languages so that the people in Jerusalem hear it. And they go, why are19:09 these Galileans speaking in the language of the Cappadocians, the Medes, the Parthians, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, those from Mesopotamia, etcetera. They're19:21 Galileans. How do they know our language? So they're trying to figure it out. And somebody in the crowd says, it's probably because they're drunk, which is like the dumbest thing to say because I19:33 don't know how you learn language proficiently the more drunk you are. But anyway, Peter stands up and he says, these men are not drunk19:44 as you suppose, seeing it's only the third hour of the day, 9 o'clock in the morning. Who gets drunk at 9 in the morning? Now, know there are some people that do. I've been on Delta Airlines where 7 in the morning a guy19:56 asked for a cocktail right off the bat. But we're talking about Jewish Jerusalem. Not going to happen. So Peter's right in saying, these men are not drunk as you suppose, seeing it's only 9 o'clock in the20:07 morning. But he says, this is that which was spoken of by the prophet who said, prophet Joel, in the last days,20:19 I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams. This is that fulfillment. So twice20:31 we are told in the New Testament that we are living in the last days, and the last days started then and will continue until the coming of Christ. So are we living in the last days?20:43 Absolutely, yes. But so was Christopher Columbus, and so was Martin Luther, and so was Ignatius of Antioch, and so was the apostle James.20:56 Now, I'm going to give you a little illustration I think will help. At least it'll help a little bit. If you're at home and the football game is on,21:07 and you wives say to your husband, honey, we got to go. We have that appointment like in 30 minutes, and we got to get in the car. We got to go. And he says to you as21:19 he's watching the football game, Okay, Okay, don't worry. I'll be there soon. It's the last quarter. Women, do not think that you're going to leave anytime soon.21:32 Because even though the football game is only 1 hour, technically, the game itself in reality lasts about 3, 3 and a half hours, NFL game. So we21:44 are in the last days, and last doesn't mean short. Last means final. It's the last event structure. There's21:56 nothing after that. That's the last epoch. So if you look at all of history, this will make a little bit more sense. We have different22:08 periods of history. We had the creation, then the fall, then we had the age of the patriarchs, covenant. We had the law, then we had the period of the kingdom, then the22:19 exile, then the return, then the last days. The New Testament era, the last days. We are in the22:31 final quarter. God does not have another play. God will not send another Messiah or prophet. We are in the last quarter. So the22:43 next event on the prophetic calendar is the coming of Christ for the church, which will then bring in a tribulation period and will culminate then22:54 thereafter with the second coming of Christ. So we're right in saying, we're in the last days, and Jesus is coming soon. If23:06 you've ever read CS Lewis's books, The Chronicles of Narnia now you can see the films. Books are way better. It's a series of 7 books. Third book23:18 in the series is called The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. And in that book, Aslan, this lion figure who represents Christ, is having a conversation with 1 of23:30 the kids. Her name is Lucy. And Aslan, the lion says to Lucy, do not look so sad. We shall meet soon again.23:43 Lucy said, please, Aslan, what do you call soon? His response was, I call all times soon. And then Aslan23:56 vanished instantly. I call all time soon. Yes, the church has been waiting 2000 years.24:09 But we are 2000 years closer now than we were then. I know that didn't help you much. But there is nothing left to be24:20 fulfilled in scripture. So we are really we're kind of waiting on borrowed time. The Lord can come back at any moment. There's no sign that has24:32 to be fulfilled for him to come back for us to kick in that final sequence of end days events. Thanks24:43 for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. On this day of remembrance of the events of nineeleven, we cling to the hope and truth found in God's word. And we'd love to send you Skip's book, How24:55 to Study the Bible and Enjoy It, a resource to help you dig into scripture with confidence and joy. It's our thanks for your generous gift of 50 dollars or more to help share this teaching ministry with others25:06 around the world. Call 809 2 2 18 88 or visit connect with skip dot com slash offer. And don't forget to sign up for Skip's weekly devotional and25:18 download your free 1 sheet studying the bible while you're there. Tune in next time for more from God's word here on connect with Skip Heitzig.25:49 Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.
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