Episode Transcript
[00:00:16] I want to pose a question for you.
[00:00:19] What?
[00:00:21] What is it that is scaring you right now?
[00:00:26] What's scaring you right now?
[00:00:30] What is causing fear or anxiety in the depths of your soul?
[00:00:37] Whatever it is that's unsettling for you right now, maybe it's job security.
[00:00:44] Maybe it's conflict at home or at work.
[00:00:48] Maybe it's financial uncertainty.
[00:00:52] Maybe it's the well being of your spouse or your family. Whatever it is that's scaring you, Whatever it is that's causing you fear.
[00:01:01] What I've come to learn is that much of our heightened anxieties stem from the unknown.
[00:01:09] The unknown. We worry about what we don't know because it's often outside of the realm of our control.
[00:01:18] We can't control the reactions of our spouses. We can't control how our co workers or bosses respond to our new ideas.
[00:01:27] We can't control our families or whether people approve of us. Nor can we control even our own suffering.
[00:01:36] We can't control our pain or accidents or tragedies or injuries or death.
[00:01:44] There's so much of the unknown that scares us.
[00:01:49] Even on a physical level. We're scared of what we cannot physically see. It's why we're afraid of the dark as kids or even adults. Right?
[00:01:59] A few years ago, I was on a road trip with a close friend of mine. We decided to take a road trip along the coast of Maine.
[00:02:08] And we're driving late at night, it's about 10 or 11 o'clock, and we're in this remote wooded area and it's just pitch dark outside. It's one of that, like you ever had, like been around so much darkness that you can feel it, that you can kind of like feel the darkness enveloping you. That's what it felt like. And so my friend kind of looks over at me, he's like, dude, it's really dark. And I'm like, I know, can we not like, talk about it? And he goes, let's see how dark it really is. So he slows the car down, not all the way, but like to like 15 miles an hour. And he turns all the lights off on the car.
[00:02:51] And at the first second you're like, whoa. But the second second you start to get nervous, you're like, whoa. Okay, okay, turn it back on, turn it back on. And so we turn the lights back on. And then he was like, let's do it again. And so I was like, ugh, stop. And so he turned the lights off again. And this time he turned him off for, like, five seconds. So, like, which. That's a really long time not to be in anything, like, driving on the road. And so we started, like, squealing like chipmunks. We were like.
[00:03:24] And thankfully nothing happened, right? Like, there was no, like, deer or anything that, like, jumped out in front of the car. Thankfully. It was just a ridiculous experiment. But there was genuine fear that we were experiencing because when the lights went off, we couldn't see anything. We had no idea where we were going. And there was a real tangible fear of the unknown. We didn't know what might pop out in front of us. So it was our inability to see that brought forth fear. The faith in the car was gone at that point.
[00:04:03] Now, when we talk about faith, especially in the Bible, there's many ways that the New Testament frames and defines faith. But Remember how Hebrews 11 opens? Hebrews 11:1. The author outlines the kind of faith that he's illustrating here. He says faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And this is the kind of faith the author of Hebrews is applying to Abraham in our text this morning.
[00:04:32] It's the kind of faith that journeys with God into the unknown, even when it's scary, even when it's risky, even though, like, this is going to cost Abraham the entire second half of his life to move away from everything that he knew. He had no idea where he was headed, but he followed God into the unknown.
[00:04:57] And what we're going to highlight from our text this morning is how this faith functions.
[00:05:05] Namely, what is it that this kind of faith that adventures into the unknown? What does it actually do?
[00:05:12] What does it look like to follow Jesus into the unknown? What are some things that we need to turn away from that are hindering us from walking by faith and not by sight?
[00:05:24] What does this faith do? And that's where our text in Abraham are going to guide us this morning. So, three verses, three points. The first point is this faith moves even when the destination is unclear.
[00:05:41] Faith moves even when the destination is unclear. Look at verse 8, Hebrews 11. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going.
[00:05:58] Now, the author is assuming that we know the story of Abraham. Okay? He's making an assumption on his audience. So whether you're here and you've never heard of Abraham before, or you grew up in church singing, Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had Father Abraham.
[00:06:16] Important to get acquainted with the Context of the story. So do me a favor, turn to Genesis chapter 12 in your Bibles if you have them or on your phones. Go to Genesis chapter 12, the very beginning of the passage, and we're going to get acquainted with the story of Abraham.
[00:06:38] Here's Genesis 12, verse one.
[00:06:42] Now, the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abraham went as the Lord told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.
[00:07:15] Now here's what we know about Abraham up at. At this point in the book of Genesis, we know that he was a descendant of Shem, okay? He was a descendant of who was a son of Noah.
[00:07:29] We know that Abraham was originally from the city of Ur of the Chaldeans, which was a well developed ancient pagan city in Mesopotamia, and that he had just moved north from that city up to Haran.
[00:07:45] And we know that he's been married to Sarah at this point of his life, but that they've been unable to have children. They were infertile.
[00:07:53] So when God calls Abraham, he's an elderly, childless man from a pagan background living in Haran. That's the context.
[00:08:04] But God comes to him and he says, go, move from the place you're in to a new place. Now, notice what God doesn't say here.
[00:08:17] He doesn't tell Abraham where this place is.
[00:08:22] Which for me, you know, it's kind of an important detail to leave out, right? The all knowing, all powerful God of the universe who created every square inch of air, sea and land, who's flooded the earth in judgment and now repopulates the world through the generations of Noah, who knows all things and knows where every place is, is asking Abraham to go somewhere, but he isn't telling him where.
[00:08:57] So just as the author of Hebrews describes it, he went out not knowing where he was going.
[00:09:05] Now, I'm the kind of person, many of you know this about me. I'm somebody who needs to know the plan, okay? So if you're going to present me with new information or a new idea or a new initiative, I need to know the why and the how, right? Why should I do this? Why should we do this? How Are you going to do this? How am I supposed to do that? I want the game plan. I want. I want to know, here's how we're going to go from A to B to C, right?
[00:09:38] But the older I get and the more that I walk with Jesus, the more that I realize that's just not how he operates.
[00:09:48] God doesn't give me the A to B to C. God's in the business of giving us the A to Z, right? It's just like we just sang. God is the alpha and the Omega. He knows the beginning from the end.
[00:10:03] He's initiating a rescue plan of humanity through Abraham that through him all the families of the earth will be blessed.
[00:10:13] So God's plans are wide and long in scope and it's bigger than our A to B to C desires.
[00:10:23] With God, there's always a greater plan even beyond that of Abraham.
[00:10:30] Like the true master plan of redemption is that God is going to reconcile all things, that he's going to make amends with all things through the person of Jesus Christ.
[00:10:42] That he's redeeming the fallen world from sin through the lineage of a family that will run from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to, to David and Solomon and eventually to the Messiah Jesus.
[00:10:57] And that this perfect Jesus, his sacrifice on the cross is going to pay the penalty for our sins in our place. And he's going to rise again, victorious over sin and death. And if we turn from our sins, if we repent and we trust in Jesus for salvation of alone, he will forgive us our sins and he'll give us a new heart and new desires. And one day every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. That is the master plan of redemption. That is the gospel.
[00:11:33] So we see, friends, that God's plan for the world is so much more vastly expansive than just our temporal plans, right?
[00:11:43] His plans are greater than our next job move or who we're supposed to marry or not marry, or where we're supposed to live or where our kids are supposed to go to school, what sports they play or don't play.
[00:11:55] Now, do those things matter to God? Of course they do. So we always want to pray for guidance, right?
[00:12:03] We want to entrust our future to God.
[00:12:06] But what I've come to learn, that God is not my college academic advisor.
[00:12:15] He's not. I'm not going to be able to go to him and have him tell me exactly what courses I need to take in order to get the degree.
[00:12:24] That's not his modus. Operandi because he sees far beyond our own plans.
[00:12:31] And the call of this plan for Abraham requires everything. Active faith.
[00:12:38] So when we talk about walking with God by faith, as we have been these last few weeks, we're talking about a faith that moves.
[00:12:46] It's not static, it doesn't sit still.
[00:12:50] It journeys with God actively.
[00:12:54] So whether you're here and you're a Christian in the room today, or you're not a Christian in the room today, God is calling all of us to live and walk by faith.
[00:13:04] If you're a non Christian, how do you walk by faith? What does it look like for you to step into the unknown? Simple. Believe and trust in the Lord Jesus for salvation.
[00:13:16] Put all your hopes, all your dreams, put the very destiny of your life into his hands and surrender to Him.
[00:13:27] Jesus said this is the work of God, that you believe in him, who he has sent, that you turn from your sin, that you ask to be forgiven, that you confess him as Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved.
[00:13:44] If you're not a Christian in the room, that is your number one priority this morning is to be reconciled to God in Christ.
[00:13:54] Now, if you're a believer, what does it look like for us to continually and actively trust the Lord?
[00:14:02] We trust in the character of God by obeying Him.
[00:14:07] The text says by faith. Abraham obeyed when he was called.
[00:14:13] So even when he didn't have the answers, even when he didn't know the game plan, he stepped out of his home and into the land of Canaan.
[00:14:22] Why?
[00:14:24] Because obeying God is better than staying to ourselves.
[00:14:29] So here's my question for us this morning.
[00:14:33] What is the Lord calling you to move toward?
[00:14:38] Maybe he's calling you to repent of a particular besetting sin.
[00:14:43] Maybe he's calling you to talk to that person and stop avoiding that conflict that you've been putting off.
[00:14:52] Or maybe, like Abraham, he's calling you to something new.
[00:14:56] A new position, a new location, maybe a literal move.
[00:15:03] How is God calling your faith to move this morning?
[00:15:09] What is he moving you toward or away from?
[00:15:14] And by the way, this is going to take some boldness for us to even ask this, right?
[00:15:20] For some of us, it may even involve taking a righteous risk.
[00:15:25] But the bottom line is like, maybe God's not even calling you to do a specific thing, but something that I'm certain of is that he is calling you to become someone.
[00:15:37] And becoming the person he's calling you to be involves putting off your old self and an active faith that Embraces the unknown even when the destination is unclear.
[00:15:49] Ultimately, friends, this means becoming more like Jesus, and we must constantly be shedding the cocoon of our former selves, of our past sins, and spreading the wings of faith. Right? Am I making sense?
[00:16:06] Becoming like Jesus involves walking with him actively. So that's the first point. Faith moves even when the destination is unclear, even when the plans are not clearly revealed to us. Number two. This is verse nine. Faith resides in the unfamiliar. Faith resides in the unfamiliar. Let's look at verse nine.
[00:16:29] By faith, he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.
[00:16:39] So Abraham, he steps out in faith into the unknown. But now in verse nine, his faith is going to reside in. In the unfamiliar. So this is the second movement of Abraham's faith. Okay? His faith doesn't just move out. It doesn't just go. But now it resides in the unfamiliar. It goes and it dwells somewhere.
[00:17:01] Listen to how Stephen In Acts chapter 7, he recounts this part of the story. It's always great when the Bible helps us interpret the Bible. This is from Acts 7. Five, he says, yet he, God, gave Abraham no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child.
[00:17:28] So in other words, Abraham was not given permanent possession of the promised land during his lifetime.
[00:17:35] Instead, Abraham lived as a sojourner. Okay, a sojourner. A sojourner is a person who resides in an unfamiliar place.
[00:17:46] That's who Abraham was. So he never owned a foot of the ground that God told him to go and live in. Like, can you even, like, wrap your head around that for a second? Like, to move your entire family into a land that God says will be in your family for generations, but you never actually get to see the property deed.
[00:18:08] That's like playing Monopoly and landing on all the properties but not buying anything because you think the banker's just going to give you them all in the end anyways. Right?
[00:18:20] Like, and by the way, don't ever play like that. If I'm playing with you in Monopoly, I'm going to ask you to leave. I'm a purist when it comes to Monopoly. Okay, we got to stop. We got to stop taking the cash on free parking, all right? That's not in the rule book. Anyway, the point is, Abraham never owned any part of this promised land, even though he was called to go and reside there. And notice the text Also describes his living conditions.
[00:18:51] It says they lived in tents. And I think this detail is significant because I think the author is trying to highlight a sentiment of uncomfortability.
[00:19:03] Sleeping in a tent is not comfortable. Okay. I've been camping many times. I think it's a lot of fun.
[00:19:09] But you're never going to convince me that laying on the ground on your back for multiple nights is snug and comfy. Okay. It's just not. All right. Camping's fun, but it's not a cozy thing.
[00:19:25] I've slept in a tent before, like in the rain. I was actually with Brad. We were on a little camping trip and we set the tent up wrong and this raining monsoon came in in the middle of the night. And I remember water just leaking onto my forehead and thinking like, I will never do this again, right? Like it's uncomfortable. But imagine living in a tent. Living in a tent in a foreign land is something as just another level altogether.
[00:19:59] Abraham and his family, by residing in the unfamiliar, I think we're pressing into the uncomfortable.
[00:20:08] And this is hard for us to really grasp because like, so much of our modern everyday lives are built around comfort and convenience and efficiency and ease, right? Like, the examples of this are obvious.
[00:20:23] We have smartphones, we have streaming, we have every kind of delivery service, instant access to whatever information we want in the palm of our hand. Even like in the scope of human civilization. Heating, air conditioning, indoor plumbing, electricity, all of these things are fairly new inventions in the history of humanity.
[00:20:48] And I think that these amazing societal innovations that were supposed to improve our quality of life life have an unfortunate shadow side for us.
[00:20:59] And I'm not just talking about like laziness. Like, it's like we're just. Because we're not doing as much manual labor as generations in the past has just made us more lazy. I think it actually goes deeper than that. I think what we're actually experiencing is a sharp aversion in our day and age to pain and discomfort.
[00:21:23] A sharp aversion to pain and discomfort, whether it be physically, emotionally, even spiritually.
[00:21:31] We've shifted as a society because in the past we used to be considered by anthropologists a guilt innocence culture. How many of you are familiar with that? Like honor, shame, fear, power. Y'all ever heard of that? You know what I'm talking about? Some of you do. So in the past, Western cultures were considered a guilt innocent culture in the sense that we were all about preserving our own self image. It was all about being moral and being righteous and showing the rest of the world, like keeping up with the Joneses. You know, like you wanted to always be right and not be wrong. You didn't want to be breaking the rules because there were consequences for that.
[00:22:19] But now anthropologists have identified this shift where instead of a guilt innocence paradigm, we've now gone to a pain pleasure paradigm. Like, if you look online when you're scrolling, what is it that gets the most engagement? It's people talking about, look at this new thing that I bought for my family that's made things so much better, so much easier. Look at how much money I'm making in this month by just sitting on my couch doing nothing. Or look at this Airbnb that I got. Or look at this restaurant, this cool new restaurant. Everything is about maximizing pleasure as much as we can and avoiding pain at all costs.
[00:23:03] That's where we are. And listen, I'm still trying to wrap my head around how much this paradigm is affecting us in ways that we don't even see. Like, I think that it's affecting the church, it's affecting this church. It's affecting, like the pastors, the way that we lead, the way that we make decisions, the way that we frame success and failure.
[00:23:31] Pastor Brad and I, we were at a conference this past Thursday, and the conference was led by Jim Essien, who's the pastor of the Paradox Church. Church, the church that planted this church.
[00:23:43] And his whole.
[00:23:45] He kind of preached all the messages, but his whole thesis was that he believed that leaders have settled into this idea of playing small, that we're leading from a place of self protection rather than missional conviction.
[00:24:05] And he challenged us to shift the way that we even think about leading. Meaning instead of asking ourselves what feels manageable, what if. Instead we asked, what does the mission of God require?
[00:24:20] Instead of asking ourselves, what if I fail? What if we asked, what does obedience compel me to do?
[00:24:28] Instead of asking, what might I lose? What if we asked, what? What does God desire?
[00:24:35] Do you see the shift there?
[00:24:37] When we come across a decision that feels risky, that feels like it might disrupt our own comfort, the focus is taken off of our own preferences, and instead it focuses on the mission and glory of God.
[00:24:51] And listen, this isn't to say that we don't care for our own emotional health, that we don't take part in healthy self care or restful rhythms to avoid burnout.
[00:25:04] But Jim, he made this great point. He says that like, in order to burn out, you actually have to burn first.
[00:25:13] So like, what? What are we burning for?
[00:25:17] Are we burning at all.
[00:25:20] Are we. Are we burning for the right things?
[00:25:24] And a lot of this, especially the more I considered Abraham and his willingness to step into the unknown and to reside in the unfamiliar is just convicting me to the core. Okay, So I need this just as much as you do. I'm in the audience with you because I like comfort. I like the status quo. I don't like change.
[00:25:49] But that's exactly the problem, isn't it? Right? I, Me, my.
[00:25:55] What about the mission?
[00:25:58] What about the Spirit of God? What about the assignment that God has given us? To make disciples of non believers, to love one another earnestly, to do as Paul says, nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others as more significant than myself, to practice the spiritual gifts, to practice the spiritual disciplines, on and on and on. We could go like, Can I just. Let me just be really honest a second. So I help oversee our groups here at the church, and some of you know this and some of you don't, but I've made a goal for us that by the end of 2025, I would like to launch and multiply two new groups by the end of 2025. I think that's smart, attainable, manageable. I think it's a good goal. And if we cooperate together with your help, and if we go together and do that, I think we could do it in our own power. I really do.
[00:27:02] But you know what? Like, what if we together walked by faith and sought the face of God and got a little bit desperate and a little bit needy and asked for the Spirit to move in us powerfully and boldly? Like, who's to say we couldn't have four, six, eight groups by the end of this year?
[00:27:28] Why couldn't he do that?
[00:27:32] I don't want to settle into playing small.
[00:27:36] Jesus says with men it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.
[00:27:43] What would it look like if I believed that?
[00:27:47] What would it look like if we believed that? Like, actually, what would happen in this church?
[00:27:54] What would happen in this city?
[00:28:00] So here's my.
[00:28:01] Do we need more community group leaders and hosts in this church? Quite frankly and honestly, yes, we do.
[00:28:09] And if you feel like God is calling you to that, come talk to me. Come talk to Pastor Matt.
[00:28:15] But sincerely, even if none of you do that, I would rather you get really honest with Jesus and ask him, lord, what do you really desire from me at this point in my life?
[00:28:28] What is at stake if I don't release this comfort to you?
[00:28:33] What do I need to let go of that's holding back the mission of God?
[00:28:39] Is it my money?
[00:28:41] My time?
[00:28:44] My possessions?
[00:28:47] Is it my lack of desire to share Jesus with that person?
[00:28:51] Is it my own dreams? Is it my own plans that are rubbing up against God's?
[00:29:00] Ultimately, what we're talking about here, friends, is declaring war against a life of complacency and comfort.
[00:29:10] Like, I truly believe there are no sidelines in the kingdom of God.
[00:29:15] There's no starting five in a bench.
[00:29:18] There isn't a JV or a varsity. It's us.
[00:29:23] We all get to play.
[00:29:26] We all have the spirit of God dwelling in us. We're all the priesthood of believers.
[00:29:34] This is our mission and this is our assignment. And we all have gifts that we need to equip one another and build the church up with.
[00:29:44] Nobody rides the bench.
[00:29:47] We're all in this together. We need one another.
[00:29:52] So how do we do this? How do we press into this idea of our faith residing in the unfamiliar? How do we get comfortable with the uncomfortable?
[00:30:03] The key word in verse nine, here is this word promise we talked about earlier. What God didn't say when he came to Abraham, how he didn't give him the game plan of where he was supposed to go. But what did he give him instead?
[00:30:17] He gave him his promises.
[00:30:20] Listen again to Genesis 12. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
[00:30:40] He's going with him.
[00:30:43] Abraham staked his life on the promises of God.
[00:30:50] What's amazing is that this promise is even more fully realized in the Gospel of Jesus. Paul speaks of this reality in Galatians 3. He's contrasting the law of God with the promises of God. And he uses Abraham as kind of the bridge example. He says, for if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise. But. But God gave it to Abraham by a promise. And then 3:21, he says, is the law contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not. For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin. Why? So that the promise by faith. By faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
[00:31:40] Friends, it is the promise of faith in Jesus that allows us to go forward into the unfamiliar.
[00:31:48] It is the promises of the gospel, the promises of the word of God, that allow us to be Risky for God.
[00:31:57] It's his promises that combat these fleshly objections that stir within us when we get nervous about stepping out in faith.
[00:32:10] So, like, let's play it out.
[00:32:13] What if I fail?
[00:32:17] Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as my Lord.
[00:32:25] What if it gets hard?
[00:32:28] He who began a good work in you will see it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.
[00:32:36] What if I'm just tired? What if I'm weary?
[00:32:41] Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
[00:32:52] What if I'm not worthy?
[00:32:56] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
[00:33:01] For in him we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
[00:33:08] For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
[00:33:39] That's the promise.
[00:33:43] The promises of God drive us to be faithful to the person of Jesus, even in the unfamiliar.
[00:33:52] So finally, point three, and this is where we'll close.
[00:33:56] Faith looks forward to the end, verse 10.
[00:34:00] For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
[00:34:08] A faith that moves when the destination is unidentified. A faith that resides in the unfamiliar is a faith that looks forward to the end.
[00:34:18] This is not a shallow faith. It's a faith with substance. We're looking to a city that has real foundations, real infrastructure, a bedrock of support.
[00:34:30] Abraham lived in a land that was never home for him. He was a camper in a foreign place.
[00:34:37] But his faith looked forward to what was to come. Not just a physical city, but a city filled with heirs of the promised Messiah.
[00:34:46] Paul says it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
[00:34:51] Now, this idea of looking forward, it's not as easy as it sounds. Because if I'm honest, our tendency, especially my tendency, is to romanticize the past.
[00:35:04] That's called nostalgia. And nostalgia, unchecked, can really paralyze us because it will completely hinder our faith from looking forward.
[00:35:14] Like, I'll give you an example. I don't think there was any time when nostalgia was more present when it was during COVID Right?
[00:35:24] We missed the lives that we had before, the disruptions of masking and social distancing and quarantine.
[00:35:31] Like in the midst of 2020 and like in the middle of the pandemic, it didn't feel like we had anything to look forward to. So instead of looking forward. What did we do? We looked back. We watched the Michael Jordan documentary.
[00:35:46] I dusted off my Nintendo 64 and played Ocarina of Time, rewatched all the Lord of the Rings. We yearned for what was behind us. But you know what's funny? Now that we're five years past the pandemic, if you can believe it, there's people online that are nostalgic for the lockdown.
[00:36:10] Like, we wanna go back to the lockdown. Like, oh, I just miss being inside and not working as much. And it just felt like things were easier back then.
[00:36:20] You see the cycle. It's this constant wanting to go back.
[00:36:26] But as believers, as those who walk by faith, our hearts should be oriented forward, not backward.
[00:36:34] Because what we have to anticipate is not the life that we once had, but the life that is to come.
[00:36:41] The city, the new heavens and the new earth will be transformed and have resurrected bodies. We'll hear new sounds and taste new food and live with all of God's people in an eternity that never fades.
[00:36:57] But most of all, friends, what we will look forward to the most is that we will see Jesus face to face.
[00:37:06] He will be our light.
[00:37:09] He will be our peace, our ultimate resting place.
[00:37:15] We will commune with him like we've never known any person ever before.
[00:37:21] God will unveil himself in all his brilliance and all his glory and in all his clarity for us to behold.
[00:37:30] We will have uninterrupted unity and union with Christ.
[00:37:36] That's the goal of this city, whose designer and builder is God.
[00:37:41] And it's why we can move out in our faith and dwell in the unfamiliar. Because the city and the reward that we're looking forward to is a greater treasure than we can possibly fathom.
[00:37:54] Jesus is our designer and our builder.
[00:37:58] And when we see him, it won't be by our efforts, but by the grace of God moving through us as we walk with him by faith to the end. Amen. Let's pray.
