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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 You're listening to Waters Church podcast, where faith meets real life. Where 1 church, many locations, and 1 mission, to see lives changed by Jesus. No matter where you're listening from, you0:12 are a part of Waters Church family. Now let's dive into today's message from our pastor.0:20 Take out your notes. They look like this. I wanna talk to you on faith in the waiting. Faith in the waiting. Was it the great theologian0:32 Tom Petty who said the waiting is the hardest part? Is that the guy who said it? Have I got that right? Sometimes I get my 19 eighties and seventies stars mixed up.0:44 Gotta love Tom Petty. Here we go. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 8, keeping your bibles open, Abraham. Now before we talk about Abraham, I wanna talk about an interesting0:56 lady, named Florence Chadwick. This is her. She was a swimmer back in the early part of the 20th century, grew up in San Diego. At age 6, she just fell in love with1:08 swimming, and she just discovered that she had a natural gift for open water swimming. And at age 10, she swam across the mouth of San Diego Bay 1 mile long at1:20 age 10. I was playing with He Man at age 10. Anybody imagine swimming a mile in open water? At age 11, she was beating high school students1:32 in regional competition, and she just grew from there. She actually starred in a movie. She entertained the troops in World War 2 with aquatic performances and organized, aquatic dances.1:44 And then in the 19 fifties, she started taking on great challenges. She's the 1st woman in history to swim swim across the English Channel both ways. Both ways. And then in 19 52, in July of that1:56 year, she took on her hardest challenge ever, the shark infested waters of Catalina Channel. Catalina is a little island off the coast of San Diego, about 21 miles out, infested with sharks and other dangerous,2:09 marine life. And she set out from the shores of San Diego, 21 miles of open water swimming. She was accompanied by 2 safety boats with armed men with2:20 rifles in their hands who, on a regular basis, had to shoot away the sharks that were coming and swarming around her. She was at mile 20 of 21, and dense fog2:32 settled in over Catalina Island, and she couldn't see it anymore. And she struggled and tried, and she ran out of gas. And she raised her hand to get pulled out of the water at mile2:43 20.5. She was 0.5 mile away from the shore, and she didn't make it. They pulled her out the shore. They asked her what happened. She said, I don't wanna make excuses for myself, but if I2:55 could have seen the land, I know I could have made it. I I don't know if I'm talking to anybody who knows how it feels to not know what the heck God is3:07 doing in your life, to not know what the land looks like. Anybody ever have some faith in the fog? And and and this is what she is a picture of for you and for3:19 me and for Abraham. Faith in the fog. There's the fog of fear. How am I gonna pay the bills? How am I gonna raise the kids? How how am I gonna make ends meet? How am3:31 gonna ever retire? Am I ever gonna have to am I ever gonna get the chance to stop working? How how am I gonna press through this very difficult situation, sad situation, pressing3:42 situation? The fog comes just like in nature. The fog comes in our spiritual lives as well. Am I talking to anybody? The fog of financial3:54 stress, the fog of confusion. If you turn on the television and just watch the news for any minute number of minutes, you're gonna see a culture that doesn't know its left hand from its right, doesn't know what's good4:06 and what's wrong and what's right. The fog of confusion in our young people, the fog of family or friends from your old life dragging you backwards and not forwards. Or how about just the fog of4:17 distraction where I find that the enemy, if he can't get me sinful, he'll get me busy. He'll get me just going all kinds of ways, doing all kinds of nice and good things that keep me distracted from4:29 God's ultimate plan for my life. And today, we're gonna look at a guy who knew what it was like to live in the fog of uncertainty. If you've ever been in a season where you have no idea what God is doing,4:42 look at Abraham. In fact, Abraham is the father of faith. The bible says that. He's the father of faith. He's the picture of what faithfulness looks like. And he had to live in fog many, many seasons of his4:53 life. In fact, Galatians chapter 3 says this, that everybody who believes is a son or a daughter of Abraham. Abraham's descendants are not the natural born Jewish people, not in the new5:05 covenant. In the new covenant, Abraham's descendants are you and I, people who believe on the true son of Abraham, Jesus Christ. And he models for us faith in the fog,5:17 faith in the seasons where we can't see the shore where God is leading us. And here's what I think about when it comes to the model of faith in Abraham's life that is important for you and for me.5:29 Write this down at the top of your notes. This 1st fill in the blank. Want you to fill in the Abraham models faith that goes beyond the 1st step. Faith that goes beyond the 1st step. Anybody can start something. Not5:40 everybody can complete something. Everybody everybody know this? You can start the schooling. It's another thing to complete the schooling. You can start the5:52 business. It's another thing to continue the business. You can start the marriage. How many know it's another thing to continue the marriage? How6:04 many know that's extra grace required many times? Yes? Anybody can have a child. It's another thing to raise the child. As I'm learning, it's another thing to put that child through6:16 college. Come on, somebody. How do you do when it's beyond the 1st step? That's what this is a picture of. And and for those of you in Water Church and you're new to the faith, and and there's a lot of you,6:28 recently baptized, recently saved. It's 1 thing to get saved. It's another thing to stay saved. Come on, somebody. To know that there's some ups and some downs. There's some challenges.6:40 And a lot of the Christian life, and we don't like to admit this as pastors, but we need to, a lot of the Christian life is messy, filled with messy seasons6:52 where we blow it ourselves, where we don't always live up to our own expectations, never mind God's expectations. And Abraham is a pitcher of faith in the waiting. 3 points, and then we're done. Write this7:04 down. Point number 1, faith in the waiting understands that obedience is more important than outcome. Obedience is more important than outcome. Let me show you where I get this point from Genesis7:16 I'm sorry. From Hebrews chapter 11 verse 8, the 1st verse in our text. Abraham what did he do? What's the verb? Obeyed. Abraham 1st, what? Obeyed. We think about7:28 the calling. God called Abraham, but the faith went into action when he obeyed the calling. And then this line, and he went out.7:40 Underline this with me so I know you're gonna remember it later. Not knowing where he was going, he had a foggy pitcher in front of him. He couldn't see the shore, but7:52 he obeyed. Can I tell you to learn this principle now before life really jacks you up later? Obey God when you don't know the outcome of your obedience.8:04 We just see, we we we can't play this game with the Lord. I know a lot of people want to do this, but you can't because God has a funny way of being God. He's in charge. You're8:15 not. And and and sometimes we do this. Lord, I'll obey you if if the things align the way I want them to. Lord, I'll follow you if I8:27 know it's gonna work out. Lord, I'll make the right decision if I understand that there's a blessing in it for me. Friends, that's not the way faith works. Faith operates not on8:39 what we will get out of it, but on who is commanding us to do it. Amen, somebody. Do you know why you obey beyond the outcome? Because it's about who you're obeying.8:51 It's not about what you're doing as much as who you're obeying. In fact, this is a principle for faith that I need you to write down, and and it's so important for us to walk in obedience because faith must be rooted9:03 in who we follow, not where we're going. You know why you wanna obey God? Because he's God. Do you know why you you wanna put him 1st? Because he is the 1st and the9:15 last. You know why you wanna trust him over the opinions of culture? Because culture shifts his opinions based on what's going on and what's happening. God never changes. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's9:26 the eternal 1. He's the author. He's the finisher. He's the 1 who created you. He's the manufacturer of your body. He understands how you work, and his word is timeless, and his word is9:38 flawless. And I obey God for my own benefit because I know he's the 1 who made me in his image for his purposes. By the way, he's the 1 that didn't just make me. He's the 1 who loves me.9:50 He's the 1 who sent his son to die for me. He's the 1 who rose again for me, and he's the 1 who's coming back for me. Come on, somebody. Why do I obey10:02 God? Because there's no 1 better, there's no 1 more important than to obey the 1 who made me and died for me. And this is a principle. Look, what about if you just obeyed God where you are10:14 today? You know what Abraham had to do? He had to leave where he was. Now the scripture tells us this. In Joshua 24, the scripture tells us that Terah, Abraham's father,10:26 left Ur of the Chaldees where they served look at the last 3 words. They served what? Other gods. You know what Abraham was before God called him? An idol worshiper. He was a pagan.10:38 He lived in a place called Ur of the Chaldees. I actually have a map here that gives us the trajectory of Abraham. He lived in a place called Ur of the Chaldees, right over here, which is in modern day Iraq.10:51 God called him when he was here. In Ur of the Chaldees, they they found remains of a ziggurat, this kind of pyramid structure where there was 3 rooms at the top, and and there was evidence of human sacrifice in that11:03 ziggurat temple. Abraham could very potentially have been a person who worshiped false gods during human sacrificial offerings, and11:14 God called him, called him out of that lifestyle, called him out of that world. Here's the point. Don't worry about what God calls you out of. Worry about what God has called you11:26 into. Because God does not need you to fix your life up to start working in you. God does not need you to come clean 1st. He'll clean you up with his11:37 precious word. God doesn't need you to fix your life. He says, just give me your life, and I'll fix it in my way, in my time. But we know a couple things about11:49 Abraham's obedience, and we know it from a couple other passages. Indulge me for a moment as I show you from 2 other passages, notably in Acts chapter 7 when Stephen speaks about Abraham's, life of12:01 faith. And and he and describes it like this. He says in verse 2 of acts 7, the god of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia. Now notice this12:13 line. Before he lived in where? Haran. Now look now I I want you to see this. When you get to Genesis go back to Genesis, that is. Go to the 11th12:24 chapter. At the end of the 11th chapter, here's how obedience the what what what what what Hebrews described as Abraham obeyed when12:36 he was called is a little bit more complicated than that. Let me show you. From Genesis chapter 11 verse 31, it says, Terah, Abraham's son, took Abram, that was his name12:48 before God changed it, took Abram his son and Lot, the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarah his daughter, and his son Abram's wife. And they went forth, how?13:01 Together from Ur of the Chaldeans. Now you gotta know something about the call that came to Abraham. The call is recorded for us in Genesis13:12 12. And a lot of texts have this, the Lord had they put a little little explanation. The Lord had said to Abram, go from your country13:25 and your kindred, those would be your relatives, and your, what? Father's house to the land that I will show you. But again, just13:37 going back 1 chapter to the end of the chapter, how did he leave his his country? He didn't do the leaving. His father did the leaving. Some of you maybe never saw13:49 this before. His father was the 1 who actually led the way in his 1st step of obedience, and right away, we see the complicated picture that scripture presents of Abraham's obedience.14:01 He doesn't make a clean break with his father, does he? His father comes along. His father instigates it. And he also brings along this guy. Anybody know who this guy is? Lot? Lot is the14:13 crazy cousin that is always a mess in your life. And some of you, we all we all know. We all have 1 of those people in our life. You know what I'm talking about. If you don't have 1 of those people in your14:25 life, you are the crazy cousin for somebody else. God help you. But Lot's gonna cause Abram all kinds of problems, all kinds of trouble, and Abraham brings them. All that to14:37 say this. Sometimes obedience is messy. Sometimes when we are following the lord, we're not doing it exactly how he said we should do it. But what I14:49 love I love about Hebrews chapter 11 is that Abraham still gets the credit for obeying God even when he started out with15:00 kind of a halfway obedience about the call that God placed on his life. Does this help anybody? Is this helping anybody who's who's15:12 obeyed, but it's been messy along the way? You obeyed, but there were some complications. You obeyed, but not fully. And I gotta tell you, I understand you because I've been there myself.15:24 And here's the lesson that Abraham gives us. You can obey today. See, write this down. Forget yesterday. Obey today. That's the15:36 picture that we get here in this text. And and and he does this not knowing where he was go he wasn't worried about the outcome. Lord, if I if I start tithing, will I be blessed?15:48 Yes. You will, but you're not gonna know how. Lord Lord, if I'm if I, cut off this fan this friend who's just a bad influence on my life, will you give me other friends? Good chance16:00 he will. But don't obey for the outcome. Obey because he's God, and he knows what's good for you. And this is the principle of faith that so many people forget in the fog. When you're in the16:12 fog and going through seasons where you don't understand what God is doing, just obey today. Somebody say, obey today. Do what God is asking you to do today. And you say, I've made some mistakes16:23 in the past. Forget the past. Focus on today. Focus on what's going on now. Look forward, not backward, because the enemy wants to get you thinking about all your mistakes from the16:35 past. The enemy wants to think you're damaged goods. I I I I I I I think about the people that God has brought into our church, and and they could get up here and they could tell you stories that would make your jaw hit16:47 the floor of where they come up from and and what God has brought them out of. But but but our God is not a a backwards looking God. Our god is a forward looking god. Our god is focused on16:59 what he's doing today in your life, and I think it is good news for somebody who's got a whole bunch of baggage in the past. God's not worried about that. He's doing something new in your life today.17:12 Obey today. Forget yesterday. Here's number 2 from Abraham's life. Discomfort does not mean I'm in the wrong place. Faith in the waiting says, alright. I'm17:23 uncomfortable. Okay? That doesn't mean you're necessarily in the bad place. Okay? This is this is a life of faith. I'm about to blow up some theology some bad theology in some people's lives in just a moment, but let me17:34 explain this 1st before I get there. Verse 9, it says, by faith, he went to live in the land of promise. Somebody say promise.17:43 Promise.17:44 But notice the next descriptor of the same land as in a foreign land. So it's the land of promise, and it's a land foreign to17:56 him. Understand the life of faith, Christians. Understand this. As you walk in obedience to God, there's gonna be some measure of strangeness to it.18:09 There's gonna be some measure of discomfort. Where do I get discomfort? Well, look at how he lived in it. He lived in a land of promise living in what? Tents. Tents. And18:20 he didn't just have a living in tense situation for him and his wife. No. No. No. He lived with his son Isaac in tents and his grandson18:32 Jacob in tents. Now now there is a subset of the American population of people who, when they choose18:44 to go on vacation, they go camping. And my question to those people is, why? You know that hotels18:55 exist. Have you seen these places? They're beautiful. They're clean. They even come and pick everything up while you're gone for the day. My question is why would we go live in tents?19:07 Tents are very uncomfortable. People are like, I like to be in touch with nature. I can be in touch with nature when I'm not sleeping. Anybody with me on that? I'll go see the nature when I'm awake and when I'm sleeping.19:18 Give me a comfortable mattress and a nice blanket. And and and my point here is is that Abraham's life was a life of camping, and it's 1 thing to camp with you and your wife when19:30 you're young and in love. He had to camp with his son Isaac, And when he was really old, he had to camp with his grandson Jacob. It's who goes camping with their grandkids? Crazy people. That's19:41 who. But it's a life of uncomfortable reality. It's a life of discomfort. And here's the point. Just because you're discomforted right now doesn't mean you're in the wrong place. He19:53 was exactly where he needed to be. He was right where God wanted him. And it was a foreign place, and it was an uncomfortable place. I want to blow up some bad theology in some people's hearts today20:05 because here's what you do with making decisions. And I understand the sentiment, but it might not be biblical. Here's what we do. Well, I didn't feel peace about20:17 it, so I didn't do it. Your sense of peace is a terrible indicator of whether or not it's God's will for your life.20:29 I'm gonna show you from scripture. Moses was called to lead the people of Israel through the wilderness for 40 years. Along those 40 years, they complained about him. They backstabbed him.20:41 They talked evil about him. They rebelled against him. They undermined his authority. Even his brother and sister, Aaron and Miriam, at 1 point questioned whether or not he was really called of god. How20:53 many know that's an uncomfortable situation? He did it for 40 years, and he was right where God wanted him. Daniel goes to the lion's den. He was right where God wanted him.21:04 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego went to the fiery furnace. They were right where God wanted him. And most notably, Jesus Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane, right where God wanted him, and he was sweating drops of21:16 blood. And at that moment, he was were he was nervous. He was he was overwhelmed with the thought of the cross, and yet he was right where God wanted him. He didn't have21:28 external peace in that moment, but he was right where God wanted him. And sometimes when we obey God, we're gonna go through seasons where we're not comfortable, and there's no peace, but we're right where God wants21:39 us. You can't measure obedience by how you by the peace that you feel. Now now now listen. Let me give you a qualifier here for your own sake. You can have internal21:51 peace and still wrestle with external frustration. You can have internal peace and still wrestle with anxious situations. The scripture says in Colossians, let22:03 the peace of God reign and rule in your heart. But what I'm trying to say is don't measure obedience by whether or not you feel peace about it. Measure obedience by what22:15 God has said in his word and whether you're doing it or not. I'm I'm I'm really thankful to report this about our church. This is good news, good testimony. A couple of months ago, I challenged people, you're living22:26 together, you're playing house, you're not married, and on top of it, some of you got kids. And those kids need mom and dad, not boyfriend and girlfriend. Is that alright to preach truth?22:38 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I challenge the church, and I our our pastors have told me, we've had a spate of fast weddings going on where they just got a couple people, couple friends, they came to our22:50 sanctuary. We said, amen, amen, amen. There you go. You're married. Go and make more babies. God bless you. We got 5 people that have 5 couples that have done that, and then 6 other couples that were dating, not living23:01 together, and they've gotten married in the last couple of months. Praise god for obedience. But I bet if we'd asked all of those people who were living together, are you at peace with the situation that you're23:13 in right now? Oh, yeah. It's peaceful. I'd rather this. This feels more at home. I don't know how it's gonna work out with them. What if they what if it doesn't work out? What if they change? Okay. Spoiler alert. They23:23 will change. And the person that you married is not the person that you will be married to. And all the long time obedient all the long time married people are laughing right now because they know exactly what I'm23:34 talking about. And that's life. That you cannot you cannot base obedience today on what you expect tomorrow.23:45 Obedience is about faith in the God who tells and communicates with you what he wants for your life. Let me explain to you how long Abraham23:57 had to live in tents, because he lived there in the land of promise in tents. When the Lord called him, he was 75 years old. He lived 75 years in Ur of the24:08 Chaldees. Anybody know how long he lived? He lived 175 years in total. That means that Abraham lived in tents for 10024:20 years. That's 1 long stinking camping trip with his son and his grandson. The scripture says back in acts chapter 2 verse 5, look what24:32 it says. Stephen says, and God gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length. He for 100 years, he walked in a foreign land and believed God's promises, and he never saw it as his land. In24:44 fact, a very sad reality about Abraham is that the only plot of land the only plot of land that that that Genesis tells us he ever owned was when his wife Sarah died.24:56 This is about at age 150. His wife Sarah died, and he went to the people who lived in the land, and he said, in verse 4 of Genesis 23, I'm a sojourner and foreigner among you. Give me property among you for25:08 a burying place that I might bury the dead. And he ends up paying 400 shekels of silver for a burial ground for his wife, Sarah. And all the commentators say this, 400 shekels for a grave25:20 was way overpriced. He got fleeced on the price for the land. And, it's all just to say, listen, he was taken advantage of in the very land that was to be his.25:33 It was uncomfortable. It wasn't perfect. And that's the only plot. When he died, the only plot a land he had was a grave. Can I tell you something? Here's a little principle for you. At the end of your life,25:45 the only place you're gonna occupy is a grave. But if you've got Christ in your heart, there's a home in heaven waiting for you. And and that's why I say, don't get too25:57 tied up to this world. Don't get all worked into what's going on in this culture. You can't take it with you, and it's all impermanent by nature. And there's always gonna26:08 be in the life of a Christian, there's always gonna be way down deep underneath all of your superficialities, a little bit of uncomfortable reality about life. Anybody know what I'm talking about?26:21 Some of you are like, when is life finally gonna feel like it's it's where it should be? Answer, when Jesus comes back. When when am I gonna finally feel like totally at home? Answer, when Jesus comes26:33 back. And that's always gonna be the reality for the person who knows that this life is not the end. Romans chapter 8 talks about the groaning of creation. Look at it.26:45 Romans chapter 8 verse 22. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth until now. What does that mean? Groaning creation. It means hurricanes in Florida, blizzards in New England,26:57 tornadoes in the Midwest, earthquakes in California, flash floods as we saw just this past week in Asia. This is the reality of a groaning creation testifying to us that27:09 things are not as they should be. And Paul goes on, and he says, and not only creation, verse 23, but who? We ourselves. What do we do? We groan inwardly as we await27:21 the adoption of son as sons, the redemption of our what? Our bodies. Not only does creation groan, our bodies groan. And I am preaching my 1st Sunday as a27:33 50 year old man, and I can testify to you, the body is groaning a little bit more today than last week. And this is a testimony. This is not the end. The good news is I'm getting a new body. Anybody know what27:45 I'm talking about? I'm getting a new resurrection body that I have hope in because this life is not the end. Romans chapter 8 24, it says, we hope in this. Hope that's not seen is hope27:56 that's that we don't touch right now. We don't we don't hope for what we see. We hope for what we don't see with patience. CS Lewis testified to this in in his book, Mere Christianity, which outside of the28:08 bible, if there's 1 other book you should read, it is mere Christianity. CS Lewis, a former atheist who became 1 of the most dogmatic defenders of the faith in the last century. He's wrote he28:20 wrote these words. He said, if I find in myself, a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I am made for another28:32 world. What's he talking about? There's always gonna be this little nagging discontent here on this planet, And that is a testimony to the fact that you're not28:44 home yet. Philippians chapter 3. I love how Paul says this, to the church in Philippi, and he talks about our citizenship, Philippians 3 20, is in28:56 heaven, and we await a savior, the Lord Jesus, from there who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself. In the New Living29:07 Translation, he says it like this, that we eagerly are waiting for Jesus to return. Why? Because we are citizens of what? Heaven. I mean, I'm talking to29:19 a crowd of people that are in Florida. And what I know about Florida is that whenever you ask people where they're from, it's always someplace else. And so you come to Florida because it's29:31 what? It's where you wanted to go. And some of you know this firsthand, that just because you geographically relocated, it didn't solve all your problems. It didn't fix all29:43 your issues. It's still a nagging desire to be at home. That home is in heaven. Number 3, write this down. Faith in the waiting understands that God's29:55 design will outshine my discomfort along the way. Nagging discomfort as I obey? Father, I did what you wanted me to do. I'm still uncomfortable. Yeah. I get that. There's30:07 gonna be some seasons of uncomfortable reality. There's gonna be some nagging discomfort until Jesus comes again. But the good news is Jesus is coming again. And and and and so here's what the,30:19 here's what Abraham models for us in verse in verse 10. He lived in tents for 100 years. Why? Because he was looking forward to the city that has foundations whose30:30 designer and builder is God. He wasn't tied to where he was even in the promised land. He knew that there was a city beyond the promised land that was gonna come from the Lord and not from30:42 men. And think about this. Abraham, for all of his faith and all of his troubles, in all the ways that he had ups and downs, and even the messy obedience that we talked about30:54 earlier, he was actually looking for something beyond this life. He wasn't actually looking for the promised land. He knew that the promised land was just a sign31:06 of a heavenly home, the true promise. And scripture records this in Revelation 21 for you and for me. Revelation 21, John describes a new heaven,31:18 a new earth. For the old heaven and the old earth passed away, the sea was no more. And then verse 2, and I saw the holy, what, the holy31:29 city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride for heaven for for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling of man is with God, and he will dwell31:41 with them, and he will be as their and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their god. Have you ever put this together? The same city that Abraham was looking forward31:53 to is the city you and I are looking forward to. He's he's the symbol of living beyond the circumstances32:05 of our fog riddled life. So I talked about Florence Chadwick, who failed in July of 19 52 to32:17 finish the swim of the Catalina Channel. She she failed 0.5 mile away from the shore. 2 months later, she tried again, and she's jumped into those cold icy waters, even colder32:29 in September than in July. Shark infested waters, accompanying accompanying boats with rifled armed men on them shooting away the sharks, And this time, she made it all the way32:41 to the shore. In spite of the fact that the fog, people testified, was even more dense that day than the 1st time she tried. And they asked her, what was the difference?32:53 How did you make it across the channel this time as opposed to just 2 months ago? Her answer was, I just kept a picture of the shore in my mind. I33:04 just kept a picture of the shore in my mind. Can I ask you a question? Is a picture of heaven's shores in your mind? That's what we're33:16 called to focus on. Forgetting what is behind, straining toward what is ahead. There is33:27 nothing in this life you get to keep. The only place that you will occupy is a grave, or if you so33:39 choose, a little urn. The only true inheritance that you can have guaranteed to you is a home that God prepares for you.33:52 Sermon in a sentence. Faith in the waiting does 3 things. Obeys God through the discomfort of the present because it34:04 is focused on a perfect future. And I do mean perfect. I do mean for you to write that word down because I know I know some of you like, perfect future? Really? Yeah. Not the 1 you34:16 create, the 1 God creates. Messy obedience along the way, uncomfortable circumstances in the now,34:27 perfect glorious future for eternity in heaven. If you ask me, that's a that's a good deal. That's a good deal. How do I get34:39 it? Faith in Jesus Christ. Surrendering your life to the 1 who gave it to you. And I wanna give you a chance at every location to surrender your life to Jesus. I want you to bow your heads and34:51 close your eyes for a few moments. Why do I ask you to do that? Because this is a personal decision between you and God Almighty, not me, not the other people around you, but the Lord. And I wanna35:03 give you a chance to say yes to the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings to surrender your life to him. Heads bowed and eyes closed. If if you know you need Jesus at every location today,35:17 I want you to pray a simple prayer after me. It's a simple prayer to say yes to Jesus. And we say the prayer because the scripture says, if you35:29 confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. That's Romans 10 verse 9. And Jesus said, by your words you will be condemned and by your words you will35:40 be justified. We speak confession to God. And this moment is an opportunity for someone at every location to say yes to Jesus. Heads about35:52 eyes closed. Alright. Here we go. If that's you, say this prayer after me. Say it quiet, but but say it from your mouth. Say, heavenly father, forgive me of my sins. Today, I36:04 place my faith in Jesus Christ. I believe he died for me. I believe he rose again,36:16 and I put my trust in him. Jesus is Lord.36:25 Thanks for listening to Waters Church podcast. To learn more, connect with us, or to visit a campus near you, head over to Waters Church dot org. We can't wait to see what God will do in your life this week, and join us36:36 again next week for more life changing messages from Waters Church.
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Guest Message - Pastor Geyser Pastor Tim Hatch
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