God speaks through music! Our incredible music team works hard every week to help us focus our hearts on God, usher us into His presence, and lead us as we worship Him! But that song in our heart does not have to stop playing on Sunday. Follow along throughout the week on FBC Forest Park Radio. Click the link below for our custom playlist.

Call to Worship

We offer a song of praise celebrating who God is and all He has done!

• Be Thou My Vision

Welcome and Announcements 

Visit The Leaf so you can keep us with all the things to know and our Church Calendar to see all that's happening at FBC Forest Park .

Prayer of Illumination 

We invite the Holy Spirit to minister to each of us as He intercedes on our behalf, corrects and encourages us in our relationship with The Father through The Son, and illuminates God’s word in our hearts through the reading and teaching of Scripture. 

Song of Adoration and Thanksgiving

We sing songs that extol God’s grace and truth, strengthen our faith, and encourage our love for Him and others. 

• If the Lord Builds the House

Reading of the Law

• Romans 15:9-11
• 9 He also came so that the Gentiles might give glory to God for his mercies to them. That is what the psalmist meant when he wrote:“For this, I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing praises to your name.” 10 And in another place it is written, “Rejoice with his people, you Gentiles.” 11 And yet again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles. Praise him, all you people of the earth.”

Confession of Sin - Song

God’s holiness exposes our corporate and individual sins. God's grace, displayed most prominently through Jesus’ death on the cross, invites us to be reunited with The Father through the regular confession of sin. Repentance is an invitation into His grace. 

• Goodness of God

Offering of Forgiveness and Reconciliation

We recognize our sins were forgiven by Christ’s death on the cross, and, therefore, we are called by God to forgive others who sin against us. We offer others our forgiveness and pray for reconciled relationships.

• Romans 15:7-8
• Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you, so that God will be given glory. 8 Remember that Christ came as a servant to the Jews[a] to show that God is true to the promises he made to their ancestors.

Offering of Forgiveness and Reconciliation - Song

• Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)

Personal Prayer

We pause to pray and reflect on all God has revealed to us through worship, the reading of His word, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We prayerfully respond with courage, honesty, and obedience.

Assurance of Pardon

God declares from his Word and through his Church that all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ are forgiven of their sins.

• Romans 15:13
• I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Family Prayer

We intercede before God on behalf of our church and our community. 

Scripture Reading and Sermon

God addresses His people through the reading and preaching of His word to edify believers and exhort all people to make sense of, make much of, and make use of the Good News of Jesus Christ. 

Offertory and Response 

We offer an opportunity for you to make public your decision to follow Jesus, your desire to be baptized, your interest in joining our church, or any other significant spiritual decision you have made during our service. 

We also give back to God recognizing He is the source of all things and blesses us through His providence and sovereignty. It is our honor to return our tithes and offerings to Him in recognition of His grace.

Doxology - Congregational Singing

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Praise Him all creatures here below.

Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts.

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Creed Pt. 9 “Who’s Kingdom are you Building”

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

Message

There's a popular clip of a football play running down the field to score a touchdown, and at the one-yard line, he throws the ball up in the air as a celebration, believing he scored a touchdown. However, he technically did not score the touchdown because he lost possession of the ball too early. Unfortunately for him, the other team noticed, caught the ball, and ran all the way down the field to score a touchdown.

• He ran all that way, thought he made it to the end but missed it without a chance to recover.

This represents how the end of times will be. Right now, in a sense, we all have a metaphorical football and touchdown to make. If you are not aware, Jesus proclaims that there will be a day when the life we know now and the world we know now will come to an end, and be made new by a better world that God will bring. Unfortunately, there will be many people who believe that they have made it to the end, but they will face the unfortunate reality that they have not made it. Today, as we walk through scripture, I think you’re gonna be surprised about who is there. 

Today, here is where we are in the Nicene Creed: 

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

My hope and prayer for us today is that we would grow a proper awareness of the end and that we would prepare and live our lives with that awareness.

So, for us to grow a proper awareness of the end, I want us to go to some places in scripture that open a window into the end of times, and these are called prophecies. 

1. A glimpse of the end of the end. 

As Christians, what is our end?

Jesus says to his disciples in John 14: 

2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

Last week, we talked about Jesus ascending into heaven to advocate for us as the Great High Priest. This week, I want us to see that another reason why Jesus ascended into heaven was to prepare a place for those who believe in him.

Here is what that place will look like. This is Revelation 21:1-5

At the end of the apocalyptic events portrayed in Revelation, Satan will be defeated once and those who believed in Jesus will have the glorious dwelling we can look forward to. An eternal dwelling place on this Earth, but with the fullness of God and no pain. However, there is another place where the majority of humanity will suffer in eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

Where will you be? And more importantly, why will you be there?

There are two ultimate kingdoms in this world: first, the Kingdom of God, and second, the kingdom of self or Satan. And today, I want you to consider whose kingdom you are building through the passages we will go through today. 

1. Be prepared 

Best believe that there is an end coming. Jesus says in Matthew 24:42-44…

• We will not know when exactly the end will come, but as the end comes, we will see the signs of it.
• Just like I shared earlier with the football player, your awareness, or lack of it, as it relates to the end times, will dictate how you will behave.

Many of you in this room have more days behind you than you do in front of you. I would imagine that many of you know that you're making sure your will is in order, that you’re spending time with the people you love, taking those trips you might have always wanted to take. You know that there is an end, and you’re making preparations.

Jesus calls all believers to live with this sort of mindset as it relates to his return.

1. What kingdom are you building?

Matthew 25

Matthew 25 is a chapter of parables. Parables are stories that teach an underlying message or truth. Today, we’re going to land on one of these parables, but I'll quickly summarize the first 2.

The first two parables Jesus shares here are the parable of the ten virgins and the parable of the talents. 

• The parable of the virgins tells of ten virgins, among whom 5 were wise and 5 were foolish. They each had a lamp and only half, the wise, had extra oil. When it came time for them to enter the wedding banquet, the foolish 5 went off to get more, came back, and missed the banquet.
• The parable of the talents tells of 3 men whom a master gave money; two of them took it and made more with it, and one hid his and was unfruitful. 

These parables can seem kind of random by themselves are potentially teaching another message than we may realize. But let’s go back to the context of this portion of scripture. Jesus is talking about the end times here. These parables serve as a picture of a greater message.

• The parable of the ten virgins is not about oil or being ready, ladies, for a man to come into your life. It’s about being prepared and on watch for the return of Christ.
• The parable of the talents is not an advocacy for capitalism or just financial wisdom. It’s about stewarding the time and resources given to us to advance the kingdom of God.

Jesus is saying, be on guard and make the best use of your days! This is where we make it to the parable of the sheep and the goats. Let’s read:

Matthew 25:31-46

This is a picture of judgment day. Every single person is going to stand before the Lord and give an account for their life.

We have two camps here: sheep and goats. The sheep were the righteous who cared for the least of these, and the goats were the ones who didn’t. Now, does this mean that the way to go to heaven is by if you take care of the oppressed and lowly? No. Here’s what this parable is saying: Your actions are a reflection of your heart. 

The sheep and the goat are not religious vs unreligous. It is the heart transformed by Jesus vs the heart not transformed by Jesus. The thing about goats and sheep is that they look very similar. The goats in this passage were religious, too. In fact, you can see this through the book of Matthew, where Jesus talks more about religious legalists than he does about atheists. Here’s my argument based on Jesus’ teaching:

• It is easier to go to hell sitting in a pew than in a bar.
• Worldly people, they’ll tell you the truth about their sin with no shame about it. This can make sharing the gospel easy because they see where they lack righteousness.
• Religious people, on the other hand, think that they have a relationship with God that they don’t have. This makes it harder for them to actually be saved.
• If you're sick but you believe you're not sick, then your sickness will kill you.
• Many of you are great people, here every Sunday, and tithing faithfully. But don’t be fooled into thinking that because you’ve gone to church all of your life, you have a relationship with Jesus.

• You may be asking, “How do I know where my heart is?”
• Show me where your time and money are going, and I’ll show you where your heart is.
• I really want you to encourage everyone in this room, especially those of you who have been in church your whole life, to do a personal audit. Is your time and money going towards building up your kingdom or the kingdom of God?

I want to tell you two stories that show the difference in how we use our time and money.

First, John Piper shares a story of him reading an article about a couple who retired, moved near the beach, and had decided to spend the rest of their days collecting seashells. He argued that this was a complete utter waste of life.

• In America, retirement tends to put people in the mindset that, “I’ve worked my whole life and now I get to sit back and focus on me.” Unfortunately, this idea gets brought into the church. You may retire from work, but you do not retire from working in the kingdom of God.

Next is this story:

• When I worked in communications at a church, I overheard a conversation an older lady, Ms. Sharlene, was having with one of the pastors. I’m not sure if this lady is still alive or not, but she walked very, very slow, could hardly speak well, and her motor skills were not as sharp. She was a very frail lady. You’d probably guess that she went into this pastor's office to talk about how something in the church wasn’t the way she thought it should be. However, she went to him to plead for guidance on how she could serve the Lord in her old age. She wanted to do ministry with sign language, but she physically could not do that anymore. She wanted to be in prayer outreaches, but it was hard for her to do so. Here is the lady, who's in her early 80s, pleading for guidance and yearning to serve the Lord, but broken that her physical ability is keeping her from doing so.
• Do you serve the Lord like that?

Part of the American dream is that you go to college, rack up student loans, spend the next ten to twenty years paying of your student loans; then you 2.5 kids, a nice house, and a golden retriever; finally, you get your kids through college, you boost up your IRAs and 401ks to retire, and then it’s chill time until your retirement savings are funding medical expenses. If this is all we’re living for, we’re building our own kingdom and not the kingdom of God.

In the next 10 to 20 years, economists are expecting the greatest transfer of wealth in history. They estimate that 124 trillion dollars worth of assets will be transferred from baby boomers to Gen X, millennials, and Gen Z.

• Here’s my fear. Even though this may be the greatest transfer of wealth in history, I’m worried that it may be the weakest spiritual transfer. Churches all across America are dying at the death of their members, and propetual Christian education has taken the place of discipling future generations. “Serge, are you saying that it's bad to work and make money?” No, I’m saying that it is bad to focus more efforts towards building wealth than building up the kingdom of God.
• Warming pews is not what Christ intended for his church. He intended for it to be a mission to expand his kingdom through discipleship. Right now, the time is right for it as the atheist movements of the early 2000’s have virtually died, Christianity is growing among Gen-Z, and young men, for the first time in history, are more religious than young women. Many of these young men are searching for mentors and people to be disicpled by. The harvest is plentiful but will the laborers rise up and harvest the field in preparation for judgment day?

What sets you apart as a righteous sheep is that your heart has been transformed by Jesus and you therefore go, make disciples, and expand the kingdom of God. 

There will be a day, as recorded in Matthew 7, where man people will say, “Lord, Lord, did we not cast out demons, and do many signs and wonders in your name?” Jesus will say, “Turn away from me because I never knew you.”

Let’s stand and read the Nicene Creed:

The Nicene Creed 

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. 

For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man. 

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. 

On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. 

We believe in one holy, catholic and apostolic Church. 

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. 

We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Now you may be thinking, “Wow, that was heavy-handed.” An alarm is not meant to be pleasant to hear; it’s meant to make you alert. I pray that today, you are aware that one day, Jesus will come back, and our goal as believers is to have as many people on the right side of his judgment. Time is running out; day by day, we get closer and closer to his return, and we need to make heaven crowded.

In Revelation 20, we see the day when, before the great white throne of Judgment, the Lamb's book of life will be opened, and those whose names are not found in that book will be thrown into hell. As Peter would say, how can these people be saved if we don’t preach the gospel to them?

I want to end by telling you about the best funeral I’ve ever been to. If you remember Harold Holt, he sat on my left, your right. He was an average man; he retired as a janitor. He did not have a crowd of 200 people at his funeral. But here’s the thing: the overwhelming theme of that funeral was that Harold told everyone he could about Jesus. One of his coworkers I believe, told in tears about how Harold discipled him. His children and grandchildren talked about how he would send them bible verses on a regular basis. I said, “This is what I want.”

In light of eternity and the coming of Jesus, that’s the only thing that matters. You can live in two ways: for your resume or for your obituary. When you die, what matters more is not how hard you worked and the various things you did to build up your resume. What matters is your obituary; what are people going to say about you when you die?

I’ve dreamed up what I want my obituary to say: That people knew I loved Jesus, that I told others about him, that my wife knew I loved her, and that my kids were drawn to me and did not resent me.

I want to be like Ms. Sharlene, pleading with the Lord to give me the strength to serve him. And I want to be like Harold Holt, where people say, “he loved Jesus and told others about him.”

What are people going to say about you when you die? More importantly, what will God say to you when you stand before his throne? Live and yearn for these words: “Well done thy good and faithful servant.”

I have decided 

• To prepare for Jesus' return by making disciples

Last week's giving:

• $7,899.00

Amount needed each week to make full budget of $676,572.00 by year end:

• $12,644.18

Total funds needed YTD:

• $278,171.96

Total giving received YTD:

• $125,950.56

Difference in funds needed vs funds received:

• -$152,221.40

Percentage of giving received vs. funds needed YTD:

• 45%

Our Faith Offering is designated giving specifically for missions over and above our normal tithes.

Last week's Faith Offering:

• $395.00

Total Faith Offering YTD:

• $5,355.00