2 Thessalonians 2:1-2

Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, 2 that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.

Father,

The return of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our being gathered together to You with Him, should be the longing of our hearts. Forgive us for minimizing this great reality, and for being led astray by cares, distractions, and unfounded ideas, such that we do not rightly apprehend the importance and imminence of Christ’s return.

We praise you that you have not left us to our own apprehensions of this important truth, but that you have provided us with clear teaching. We praise you that your revelation is not merely for our doctrinal inquiry, but that you have purposed it for the anchoring of our composure and our outlook.

Through the opening of your Word in this coming hour, shape us as a Body that understands and applies these doctrines relating to your second advent. By your Spirit, press these truths into the remotest corners of our public and private lives, and may our emotions, our thoughts, our fellowship, our evangelism, our worship, and our engagement in the world be directed by these truths.

Grant us ears to hear and faithful hearts to delight in your Word, we pray. Encourage and sustain Bret in this momentous labor of opening your Word to us, and in both the preaching and the hearing today, may your Word be exalted above all other voices.

This we pray in the name of our returning Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,

Amen.