SPEAKER_01: Well, let's turn our in our Bibles to Hebrews chapter six for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just gonna launch out from Hebrews and maybe go back there once or twice as we get into the message today.
SPEAKER_01: But we're gonna be talking about the importance of our walk with God and some elements that make for our success as we pursue God.
SPEAKER_01: And verses that resonate with me again and again, and I come back to them.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna start in Hebrews 6 and verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: And we know that the author to Hebrews he's dealing with people that are up against a lot of pressure to not continue following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know that it is normal through history for Christians to experience external pressure, trying to make them silent, as Greg was talking about earlier, trying to make them passive or trying to make them completely walk away from their faith?
SPEAKER_01: Because, as the Apostle Paul says, there's something out there that is trying to conform you to the world that's around you.
SPEAKER_01: And it takes a determined effort and pursuit of God to continually be transformed by God, by his word, by his spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And if you do not pursue God and personal transformation by the Spirit of God, then the natural tendency is you get pushed into a mold of conformity of everything that surrounds you.
SPEAKER_01: And we can feel that pressure pushing us in a direction that is not the will of God.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We feel that pull back.
SPEAKER_01: No, you shouldn't do that, you shouldn't say that, you shouldn't act like that.
SPEAKER_01: That's not normal.
SPEAKER_01: I'm here to tell you this morning, as your pastor, if the word of God commands it, it's normal.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And so in Hebrews chapter 6, we see the author writing to Jewish believers, and they're being pushed into this mold of Jewish conformity.
SPEAKER_01: Just give up Jesus, stop talking about all of that resurrection stuff and just get on with normal Jewish life.
SPEAKER_01: Don't rock the boat.
SPEAKER_01: You're creating problems.
SPEAKER_01: And if you go earlier in the chapter, you can see him talking about those who are starting to bow to that pressure.
SPEAKER_01: But I love verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: It says, though we speak this way, in a discouraging way, in a negative way, in a way that says that there are people who are walking away from the faith.
SPEAKER_01: Though we speak this way, yet in your case, say in my case, in your case, beloved, we are feel sure of better things.
SPEAKER_01: I sure hope that we can have some assurance this morning of better things for all of us.
SPEAKER_01: We are not those who will be conformed to the world, but we are those who will be transformed by the word of God, by the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_01: You know, as I was even worshiping this morning in this place, and I know you know Greg exhorted us and we needed it.
SPEAKER_01: It's quiet in here this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let the rain get inside, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are a little damp, a little drizzly, a little cold.
SPEAKER_01: You know, in El Salvador, they have a saying, are we made of sugar or not?
SPEAKER_01: In other words, where you melt out there in the rain.
SPEAKER_01: Like just get up and go.
SPEAKER_01: We are better, we we are feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know that with our salvation, there's a whole package of stuff that we are supposed to receive, we're supposed to live in, we're supposed to walk in.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just a prayer that we pray, it's not a one-time experience that we have.
SPEAKER_01: That's our entrance into a doorway that is opened up to the life of God, the kingdom of God, the promises of God, the commandments of God, all the things that are real life.
SPEAKER_01: We believe in those things that belong to salvation.
SPEAKER_01: For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the state saints as you still do.
SPEAKER_01: And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness.
SPEAKER_01: Ernesto.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't notice that until just now.
SPEAKER_01: I like that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna be bugging you about earnestness for the next three months, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_01: We desire each one of you to show the same earnestness, to have the full assurance of hope until the end.
SPEAKER_01: Say until the end.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know we're supposed to end stronger than we began?
SPEAKER_01: Most of us began our walk with Christ because of a crisis, because we hit a wall that we couldn't get through, and by the grace of God, that's what led us to the rock that's higher than we are.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And we called out and we said, God, I can't do it anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Forgive me, cleanse me, transform me.
SPEAKER_01: But we're supposed to end better than we begin.
SPEAKER_01: Some people have a you know, a honeymoon experience, they get saved, things are good, things are joyful, there's excitement, and that wears off, and they end up, you know, cold, apathetic, even bitter.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know that Christianity is not supposed to make you bitter?
SPEAKER_01: It's only making you bitter if you're doing it wrong.
SPEAKER_01: It's only making you disappointed if you're doing it wrong.
SPEAKER_01: It's only wearing you out if you're doing it wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We're supposed to end stronger, more joyful.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible talks about being transformed from glory to glory.
SPEAKER_01: Am I saying that we're not gonna be uh we're not gonna be disappointed or we're not gonna get tired?
SPEAKER_01: Well, yes, but that's not the defining thing of who we are.
SPEAKER_01: We're defined by Christ, we're defined by his victory, we're defined by the life-giving power of the Spirit of God, and if the same spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead lives in you, then it should quicken, aliven your mortal body.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, are you alive today?
SPEAKER_01: Are you awake today?
SPEAKER_01: You know that's not just a healing scripture, Lord, quicken my mortal body.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, make me alive.
SPEAKER_01: Make me alive in you.
SPEAKER_01: You know why we need revival and we talk about revivals and revival meetings and outpourings and all of these things?
SPEAKER_01: Because Christianity ceases to be real Christianity and it needs to come alive again.
SPEAKER_01: Our Christian lives become something subpar to what the Bible always expected us to live in, so we need to get alive again.
SPEAKER_01: So it says we're supposed to have full assurance of hope until the end so that you may not be sluggish.
SPEAKER_01: I love that word, such a great English word, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Sluggish.
SPEAKER_01: Like we could probably find a more, I don't know, abstract way of describing that, you know, feeling attitude, but the Bible is comparing some Christians to slugs.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, Pastor Brent thought that was funny at least.
SPEAKER_01: You know, a slug.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you, of all the creatures in God's good earth to be compared to, I don't want to be compared to a slug, right?
SPEAKER_01: Uh it's like at least snails have a cute little shell protection.
SPEAKER_01: You know, a slug is like a snail you pull out of its shell and it's just slime on the sidewalk, right?
SPEAKER_01: Sluggish, slow, you know, just not moving, not active, not lively.
SPEAKER_01: We are not supposed to be sluggish.
SPEAKER_01: We're not supposed to be sluggish people spiritually speaking.
SPEAKER_01: Sluggish.
SPEAKER_01: Was it a slug?
SPEAKER_01: Well, how would you say that?
SPEAKER_01: Were you slugging it to get to church today?
SPEAKER_01: Or were you like, praise God, it's Sunday morning, let's get to church and worship with the people of God?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I was gonna say this just a moment ago, but I am so grateful for Faith Alive, even on a quieter Sunday, and you are too quiet today.
SPEAKER_01: That, you know, to be in a room where most the people want to worship.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know that you can walk into a lot of churches and most people don't even want to be there?
SPEAKER_01: The people who are there who want to be there, who want to worship, who want to pray, who want to see God move are a small minority.
SPEAKER_01: And then there's all the other people that are there for whatever other reason.
SPEAKER_01: Thank God that it we have a majority.
SPEAKER_01: I would like to think that it's a hundred percent God, you know.
SPEAKER_01: But to be in a place, and I think that's what people love about Faith Alive.
SPEAKER_01: You know, more than just a great band, more than you know, good preaching, more than all the programs and activities.
SPEAKER_01: I think people are attracted to this ministry because there is a large majority of people who actually want to be here.
SPEAKER_01: Who aren't here because grandma pulled them here, who aren't here because their husband or wife dragged them here, who aren't just here because mom and dad dragged you here.
SPEAKER_01: Let the Lord speak to all the young folks, amen.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I mean, sometimes you need something to get you in the door, but hopefully that's not the only thing keeping you here.
SPEAKER_01: Not sluggish, that you may not be sluggish, but look at this.
SPEAKER_01: This is the key.
SPEAKER_01: This is really what unlocks this for us to be imitators of those who through what?
SPEAKER_01: Through faith and patience inherit the promises.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you want to inherit the promises of God?
SPEAKER_01: And that verse tells me something that inheritance is not automatic.
SPEAKER_01: Are you listening today?
SPEAKER_01: If inheritance were automatic, then you would just have to get saved and bam, everything would fall on you out of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: But this is saying you need to uh you need to avail yourselves, you need to apply yourselves in a couple of areas if you really want to have the promises being revealed, being received in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Say faith and patience.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I I can shout if I gotta shout.
SPEAKER_01: Are we good?
SPEAKER_01: We're moving?
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I could, I'd probably not speak for the next two days, but thank God.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if it's my mother's lungs I got.
SPEAKER_01: Uh my mother used to do a lot of singing, classically trained.
SPEAKER_01: She could sing to like 500 people without a mic.
SPEAKER_01: So my throat doesn't stand up after a while, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_01: Saskatchewan, you dry place you.
SPEAKER_01: But back to the word of God, it says that we would not be sluggish but be imitators who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
SPEAKER_01: Well, if we skip ahead a few chapters, you are all very aware that Hebrews chapter 11 has to do with what?
SPEAKER_01: Faith.
SPEAKER_01: But I think we lose sight of the fact that he is already, the author of Hebrews has already set us up that it is faith, and faith is essential, but what you begin in faith, you have to continue with patience.
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people get off to a strong start with faith, you know, especially a church like ours that has a strong faith heritage.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know that this place, this ministry was birthed out of the Word of Faith movement?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Lots of teaching, lots of focus on faith, on the faith obtaining the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes when the promises don't come as quickly as we expect them to, or want them to, then our patience runs out, and we forfeit inheritance that is still on the table.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: I really love this analogy that uh that uh a man of God who I was blessed to serve uh on the mission field many, many times, and I then had the opportunity to translate a book of his.
SPEAKER_01: And as I'm reading through it, the biggest takeaway I I got, and I don't know if it was his analogy or not, but he he talked about how there was this man sitting on a dock or something like that, a shoreline, and he had a line cast out and a floater, and he was describing, you know, the fishing experience.
SPEAKER_01: I've done some fishing, I'm not really a fisherman to get into the details.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but he's sitting there, and you know, you can tell he's got his tackle box, he's got his net, he's got his bucket, he's got everything there, and you know, the sun's just coming up, and his line's out, and he's watching and he's waiting.
SPEAKER_01: And then this younger guy comes over and sits next to him and watches out to the lake, and they don't really talk much or anything, they just kind of enjoying the quiet sunrise over the lake and all of the rest.
SPEAKER_01: And uh then a third person walks up and it's like, What you guys doing?
SPEAKER_01: And the young guy pipes up first, and he's like, We're fishing.
SPEAKER_01: And the old guy looks at the young guy, he's like, Well, I'm fishing, I don't know what you're doing.
SPEAKER_01: We're both sitting here.
SPEAKER_01: Our current activity looks kind of similar, but there was some activity that led up to the older guy.
SPEAKER_01: He got up earlier, he had got his tackle, he prepared the bait, he did all of these things, and he's sitting there waiting now for something to strike that line, and that young guy's sitting there, and he is just kind of posing, doing the same activity that the old guy's doing, and he's like calling that fishing.
SPEAKER_01: And you know that that's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: I can't remember how he applied it in the book now, but he basically used it as an illustration of the idea of faith and patience.
SPEAKER_01: That older man, he knew the principles of faith.
SPEAKER_01: He got up, he did the work, he he put his faith out there, and now he's waiting for something to happen.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, if he had just reeled it back in and walked home, he would miss out on that fish that's gonna hit that line.
SPEAKER_01: Because he's already put his faith out there, he is now patiently waiting for the fruit of his faith.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the young guy, he's just trying to imitate, but he's got things backwards, right?
SPEAKER_01: And I mean, that's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: Faith and patience are supposed to work together.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of Christian people that are just passive, that are just accepting whatever comes to their life like it's from God.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know that not everything is, you know, the perfect will of God, and you just have to take it lying down?
SPEAKER_01: Like you need to have active faith to see the promises fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: Because if the first time some something horrible happens to you and you just kind of put your hands up, I guess this was God's will for my life, and you don't activate faith, you don't step out and believe and seek God and say, God, why am I going through this?
SPEAKER_01: What does your word say?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna declare your promises, I'm gonna lay hold in the spirit to the things that your word has said.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna call those things which are not as though they are.
SPEAKER_01: And you begin to step out in those faith principles.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, then there comes a time when we don't necessarily see the answer now or tomorrow or even next week or however long, but we continue to stand in faith.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, patience is not simply passivity, it's not simply acceptance of whatever happens to you in life.
SPEAKER_01: Now, yes, I believe God is an amazing God, a God of wisdom, a God of grace, a God who will use any circumstance to teach us, to draw us closer to Himself.
SPEAKER_01: But that don't just take it on the chin and be like, well, it's gotta be this way, it's God's will.
SPEAKER_01: Hello.
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews chapter 11 teaches us a lot of interesting things about faith, and we don't have time for all of it today.
SPEAKER_01: But as I was thinking about this idea of how faith and patience work together actively, not passively, and I was praying, I was just reminded of the story of Abraham, and we'll see where we go today, because you know what pastor's gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna read the whole story of Abraham and get excited about every bit of it, and want to give it all to you in 25 minutes.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know Abraham's story is not exactly a small story?
SPEAKER_01: But you guys look like you could use some rapid fire stuff to wake you up anyway.
SPEAKER_01: So we need faith and patience to inherit the promises.
SPEAKER_01: And patience, look at that.
SPEAKER_01: Patience, if we go back to the verse we looked at first, we see that patience is not sluggishness.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Patience isn't slow and passive, it's not snail-like, slug-like.
SPEAKER_01: Patience is still active.
SPEAKER_01: By faith and patience, we inherit the promises.
SPEAKER_01: And notice what those first verses we read.
SPEAKER_01: This is talking to people that are actively working.
SPEAKER_01: God has not forgotten your work and your love for the saints.
SPEAKER_01: You see how much is packed in there?
SPEAKER_01: If you have faith and patience really at work in your life, your service to God and your love for the brethren will not be diminished.
SPEAKER_01: And again, it's in the waiting that we begin to be tempted so much to grow cold, to grow apathetic, to just put our hands up in the air and say, whatever happens must be God, and to just say, you know, all these different experiences happen to us.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know that if you're believing God for something, there's gonna be opportunity for discouragement?
SPEAKER_01: And again, just to fast forward into Abraham's story for a moment, Abraham reached a point in his own life, and Sarah, his wife, reached a point where when the promises of God were brought up, in other words, the things they were living in expectation for, they themselves were laughing about the possibility of it ever coming to pass.
SPEAKER_01: That tells you something about, you know, this the father of faith.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know Abraham is called the father of faith?
SPEAKER_01: A friend of God, all those good things.
SPEAKER_01: He reached a point in his faith journey that he laughed in God's face, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: Like, not off in the field one day, just like to discourage, like God's talking to him and saying, I'm gonna do this for you now.
SPEAKER_01: The time has finally come.
SPEAKER_01: And he laughs.
SPEAKER_01: That's pretty interesting to me.
SPEAKER_01: That we can reach that point and not just reach that point personally or you know, with other people, but where we can even laugh in the very face of the God who's saying that these things are gonna come to pass.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I just find it very, very interesting.
SPEAKER_01: Patience is an idol sitting, it's serving the saints, as we read in Hebrews chapter six.
SPEAKER_01: It's the work that God takes notice of.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it said there in Hebrews chapter six.
SPEAKER_01: And I love our older translations of the Bible, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: If you do a little word study on the Greek word patience that's used in Hebrews chapter six, by faith and patience, we inherit the promises of God.
SPEAKER_01: The majority of times that that word is used in the King James Bible, it's translated long suffering.
SPEAKER_01: Again, I love the English language, and that's just it's so expressive, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's like patience sometimes feels like suffering.
SPEAKER_01: You know, just ask your children to wait for something.
SPEAKER_01: They instantly collapse.
SPEAKER_01: Packing, cleaning, decluttering.
SPEAKER_01: I've gone to the dump twice and we're loading the truck, and it's still like, where did all this stuff come from?
SPEAKER_01: You know, I thought I threw a bunch of stuff out.
SPEAKER_01: I'm calling people with trucks.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't fit in the biggest U-Haul, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Come help us out.
SPEAKER_01: And so our kids, you know, they've been a little neglected the last couple of weeks, right, Seal?
SPEAKER_01: She looks at her mom.
SPEAKER_01: But they ask for things and they want them now, right?
SPEAKER_01: Especially the boys.
SPEAKER_01: I'll let you off the hook.
SPEAKER_01: And no patience, right?
SPEAKER_01: They are suffering.
SPEAKER_01: It's not even long that they have to suffer, but they feel like it is long.
SPEAKER_01: It's like we're gonna go.
SPEAKER_01: That was ten minutes ago.
SPEAKER_01: As I'm trying to do ten things.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I could share stories.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to read this passage to you before we continue with Abraham's story.
SPEAKER_01: You know this passage, but it's been a long time since I looked at kind of the whole paragraph, the whole chunk of that prophecy from Isaiah chapter 40.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know that a significant part of our walk with God involves waiting on God?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's not a popular message.
SPEAKER_01: We live in an instant gratification society, right?
SPEAKER_01: Go to the store, load your carts, put it in your Amazon basket, it's on your doorstep tomorrow, the next day.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we want things easy, fast, convenient now.
SPEAKER_01: It's cold, throw it in the microwave, everything, right?
SPEAKER_01: There's a quick solution for everything.
SPEAKER_01: So I would say that we are the generation that has to fight the most to really walk in godly patience and long suffering and waiting on God because it is so against our ingrained culture and way of being.
SPEAKER_01: Remember what I said before about the tendency to want to conform, to be pushed into the mold of your culture?
SPEAKER_01: We probably live in the culture that is the most opposed to patience that has ever existed in the history of humanity.
SPEAKER_01: So that means, and you know, it's easy to talk about let's fight for faith, let's fight for love, let's fight for joy.
SPEAKER_01: How about fighting for patience?
SPEAKER_01: That does not sound like a good time.
SPEAKER_01: If you invite me to your patience party, I don't know if I'm showing up.
SPEAKER_01: Like, it's just patience just doesn't excite us, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's a hard sell.
SPEAKER_01: It's like knock, knock, knock.
SPEAKER_01: I am here to sell you this wonderful virtue, this fruit of the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: I am here to sell you something that is going to change your life for the better.
SPEAKER_01: What are you offering today?
SPEAKER_01: I'm offering you patience, long suffering.
SPEAKER_01: I have come with the word of God to give you the ability to wait.
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
SPEAKER_01: I think we would get a lot of closed doors on our faces, wouldn't we?
SPEAKER_01: It's not a very good pitch, but it's God's word.
SPEAKER_01: It is a fruit of the spirit, it is something that we are supposed to have active, we're supposed to cultivate.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know fruit involves cultivating something?
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't just happen.
SPEAKER_01: If you've ever been involved in gardening, most some of you who are gardeners are very disappointed this weekend.
SPEAKER_01: Because this is the weekend, right?
SPEAKER_01: Like you look at the shopping centers, they all got the greenhouses set up, and all the green thumb folks are tearing their, you know, garments and line and sackcloth and ashes.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, this was the weekend to plant my garden.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I think it's just exhaustion.
SPEAKER_01: That's the only reason I am tired.
SPEAKER_01: I am funny today, okay?
SPEAKER_01: That's all that's the only reason this is happening.
SPEAKER_01: So we're talking about waiting on God.
SPEAKER_01: And I love this passage, and we all know the promise at the end of the passage, but I'm gonna start from Isaiah 40 all the way back in verse 27.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Why do you say, Oh God of Jacob, and speak, O Israel, my, or sorry, why do you say, Oh Jacob, and speak, O Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God.
SPEAKER_01: So God's challenging his people here, and he's saying, There are times, there are seasons where you don't see anything going on when the promises aren't appearing on your doorstep like in an Amazon Prime package that you asked for yesterday, and you're beginning to turn to God and say, Why is this hidden?
SPEAKER_01: Why isn't it obvious, God?
SPEAKER_01: You ever ask those questions?
SPEAKER_01: Like, why God doesn't just appear?
SPEAKER_01: Why he doesn't just you know show up in a cloud of glory on your doorstep every day?
SPEAKER_01: Why is my way hidden from the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Why is my right just disregarded by my God?
SPEAKER_01: God, I thought that this was your promise for me.
SPEAKER_01: I have rights.
SPEAKER_01: And we're rights people, aren't we, in Canada?
SPEAKER_01: We have our rights, and we've got our rights tribunals where we can go and complain if anybody infringes on our rights.
SPEAKER_01: And if that's not enough, we can go all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, right?
SPEAKER_01: You know, we have our rights.
SPEAKER_01: Well, this is somebody calling out to God.
SPEAKER_01: What about my spiritual rights?
SPEAKER_01: What about those promises that you talked about?
SPEAKER_01: What about your covenants, God?
SPEAKER_01: What about all those things that you said?
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know it's actually okay to do that?
SPEAKER_01: I'll just say this.
SPEAKER_01: You will need to do that at some point in your Christian life, or you will get bitter with God.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you just internalize your disappointment and you just harbor this dissatisfaction with not seeing what you expected to see, and you don't take it before God, then that will lead you down the path of discouragement, walking away.
SPEAKER_01: It didn't work out.
SPEAKER_01: You do need to go to God, and God is big enough to handle your complaints.
SPEAKER_01: Half the Psalms are complaints, and that's our worship book.
SPEAKER_01: There's a whole big book called Job, and I mean, not that everything that's said in the first 37 chapters of Job, you know, is exemplar to our Christian life, but still the idea is I'm gonna stand before God, and I'm gonna find out what's going on here.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 28.
SPEAKER_01: Have you not known, have you not heard the Lord is an everlasting God, the creators of the ends of the earth?
SPEAKER_01: It's so easy to lose sight of the God that we serve, that we worship, when we're just focused on the thing that we want from Him.
SPEAKER_01: And God begins to reorient us, and this is a constant struggle in our whole Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: We need to seek God first, his kingdom first, Jesus says, and all those other things that you're complaining about come as a byproduct.
SPEAKER_01: Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and what all these things will come.
SPEAKER_01: My my brain is so spanglish this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna start quoting the Bible in Spanish to you pretty soon.
SPEAKER_01: Swoon.
SPEAKER_01: What did I just say there?
SPEAKER_01: See what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Swoon, wrong word.
SPEAKER_01: Have you not known, have you not heard the Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth?
SPEAKER_01: He does not faint, nor grow weary.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I love that.
SPEAKER_01: Before he says anything about us not growing weary or growing faint, he says, why do we not grow weary and grow faint?
SPEAKER_01: Because we stand in the presence of a God who is eternal, who is everlasting, who has life to give us.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just a zap of blessing that comes our way every now and again.
SPEAKER_01: It's standing in the presence of God who doesn't grow weary or faint.
SPEAKER_01: Everything you and I need is in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: Everything we need is in the encounter with his spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Everything.
SPEAKER_01: And we get so distracted with the things that God can do and wants to do, and caught up in our process and our waiting that we pull away from the presence of God where everything we need is.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know that that's why we're only really satisfied in him?
SPEAKER_01: Because if we could explain him away, if we could ever reach the end of all that he is, then we would be looking for the next great thing.
SPEAKER_01: He is always the next great thing, the best thing.
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: If we get to Abraham today, I would be amazed.
SPEAKER_01: He gives power to the faint.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, just receive that this morning.
SPEAKER_01: He gives power to the faint, to him who has no might, he increases strength.
SPEAKER_01: Even youth shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted.
SPEAKER_01: But those, here it is, but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.
SPEAKER_01: Notice what it says.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't say that those who look for strength will renew their strength.
SPEAKER_01: It says that those who wait for the Lord will renew their strength.
SPEAKER_01: It's so close, but it's a mile and a half.
SPEAKER_01: It's leagues away.
SPEAKER_01: If you are just looking, I'm tired, I'm weary, the promise isn't here yet.
SPEAKER_01: I'm discouraged, God, and you're focused on that thing, you'll never find it.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, God does things sometimes, he knows who our limitations and he'll give us, you know, a break here and there.
SPEAKER_01: Thank God.
SPEAKER_01: Thank God, thank God that he's better than we deserve, right?
SPEAKER_01: But when we're focused on, I need strength, where's the strength?
SPEAKER_01: Why am I weak?
SPEAKER_01: Why is this happening to me?
SPEAKER_01: Why am I going through this again?
SPEAKER_01: Why, why, why?
SPEAKER_01: It says, What those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, this is the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about inheriting promises through faith and patience.
SPEAKER_01: Faith is amazing, faith is casting that line out, it's reaching out to God, but then there's the waiting.
SPEAKER_01: And in the waiting, we need to keep our focus on God.
SPEAKER_01: Because the waiting is the quiet, the waiting is the not exciting, the waiting is the regular, I gotta go to church again.
SPEAKER_01: The waiting is it's time to pray.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go to prayer again.
SPEAKER_01: The waiting is, you know, I'm not just gonna turn on the TV and chill.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna look to God, I'm gonna get in his word.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the kids are in bed.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna get into the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: I hope that we aren't a church that only expects encounters from God in these four walls.
SPEAKER_01: Because this church will never, ever, ever be what it's supposed to be if your only encounter with God is in these walls.
SPEAKER_01: We could be a good church, we could have good lives, we could be decent Christian people, but if we want to live and do what we are called to, then we need to be waiting for, and we need to be waiting on God in our homes, in our prayer closets, in our times with our children when they ask us those deep questions.
SPEAKER_01: And I've said this before, and I'll say it again.
SPEAKER_01: If we have the answers, great, give them answers.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't say, Great, let's get into the word of God and find answers together.
SPEAKER_01: Let's wait on God, let's seek Him.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, help us.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, help us to be a church that waits on the Lord, for the Lord, that finds our strength in the one who is eternal, who is the creator, the maker of heavens and earth, the one who is not weary and does not faint.
SPEAKER_01: Again, we're so good at memorizing that promise at the end, but that promise comes as a reflection of his nature.
SPEAKER_01: You will shake off the weariness, the faint-heartedness when you come into the presence of the one who can never weary or grow faint.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll say this don't lose your gratitude in the waiting.
SPEAKER_01: That's something that the enemy will try to steal from you.
SPEAKER_01: It's very easy to become ungrateful during the waiting, during the patience.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and I don't really want to get into the whole testimony today, or should I?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: You've obviously already heard that we moved into a new house.
SPEAKER_01: And uh I will share it because I shared it with a couple people the other day.
SPEAKER_01: It was five, six years ago we were looking for our pro previous house.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, when you're house shopping, you look at the numbers, right?
SPEAKER_01: You're like, okay, you go to the broker, the bank, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: These are the numbers, this was what you can afford.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if it's the ladies too or the men, especially if you're the one who handles most of the finances of the house.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I mean, we we do everything together, but I'm usually the one kind of looking at the details.
SPEAKER_01: And um it's easy to get caught up in oh, the market, and this is what we can afford, and is it gonna work?
SPEAKER_01: And is there any point, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because you're believing God for good things, you're believing God, you know, for for good things for not just yourself, but your family.
SPEAKER_01: And my wife and I's heart has always been to have a place not just for us and our family, but to receive, well, people like Ernesto, right?
SPEAKER_01: To come and and are servants of the Lord and they're gonna be a blessing as well, and that they can be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember, you know, you start to have those thoughts, those anxieties, those is this gonna work?
SPEAKER_01: Is there any point?
SPEAKER_01: And I just remember driving down the road one day, and uh and we were in that process, and you're looking at the numbers like, is there really even any point in moving?
SPEAKER_01: Like it's it's not that big of a difference.
SPEAKER_01: Like, why should I do this?
SPEAKER_01: And it was just, you know, I don't always have this as much as I would like to think I have, you know, God sit down in the driver's seat, the passenger seat with me all the time or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: But it kind of felt like that.
SPEAKER_01: It was just like all of a sudden, God's presence was so there in the car with me, and it was just like father to son in such a beautiful way.
SPEAKER_01: What do you want?
SPEAKER_01: Forget the numbers.
SPEAKER_01: I'm asking you, what do you want?
SPEAKER_01: And so I began to explain to God that this is what I see that would be good, the home that would be what our family needs to grow, what we need for people to come and enjoy, you know, everything that that's in my heart.
SPEAKER_01: This is the sort of house that I imagine.
SPEAKER_01: And it was just like God didn't say yes, he didn't say no, he didn't make a that was it.
SPEAKER_01: It was just it was that moment of encounter with God, like, I care about you, son, and I do want to give you the desires of your heart.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know that the house that we then got wasn't didn't line up to that description?
SPEAKER_01: We still had a beautiful place and we enjoyed it the last five and a half years, but it wasn't what I had told God.
SPEAKER_01: And I just say this to you as an encouragement because my wife and I were kind of comparing notes and thinking about this.
SPEAKER_01: You know, whenever we would think about our home, talk about our home, all we would ever say is our home is beautiful, we're grateful to God for our home, you know, and we made it work for all of the people.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know that we had a home that was about roughly 1,500 square feet, and at one point we had 15 people living in there?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's how our hospitality mentality goes, right?
SPEAKER_01: So 100 square feet per person.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, that's that's getting pretty tight.
SPEAKER_01: And but we never complained about it, never and I'd kind of forgotten about that experience until we walked into the place that we just bought, right?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I should have shared all this or not, but I think it illustrates something about faith and patience because I put my faith out there six years ago, but then I walked in gratitude with God, and I my line was out there, and I sat in gratitude, enjoying, you know, put it in the fishing analogy, every sunrise, every opportunity, every you know, we we were just grateful, loving, serving God.
SPEAKER_01: And when we walked into this place, we we went and saw one other house just to say we saw something else.
SPEAKER_01: But as soon as we walked in that door, God reminded me about the day he spoke to me in the car.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, This is it.
SPEAKER_01: This is what you described, and that was kind of the end of the debate.
SPEAKER_01: And I mean, I had am I saying that like I'm some hero of faith that should be in Hebrews chapter 11?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying that that God is real and he knows the desires of your hearts, and he wants to give you those things, but there are seasons of waiting, there are seasons of actively just continuing to serve.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord, not getting into disappointment, not getting into comparison, not getting into it's not fast enough.
SPEAKER_01: I want it to happen now.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Just continuing to wait on the Lord, to worship Him, to pray Him, to pray to Him, to enjoy His presence.
SPEAKER_01: Patience is a hard sell, but it's essential if you want to receive anything from God.
SPEAKER_01: Because if the enemy can get you to give up on your patience, then He will convince you that you never had faith in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: And then the next time you try and believe God for something, you'll be like, I don't even know how to do this.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what faith looks like, I don't know what it feels like.
SPEAKER_01: Because I was so convinced 10 years ago that I had faith for something and it never came to pass.
SPEAKER_01: Am I preaching to anybody today?
SPEAKER_01: If you lose your gratitude, your hope, your service, your zeal for the Lord in the waiting, then you will be robbed of your sense of what it even means to have faith.
SPEAKER_01: I've seen this happen in people's lives, and it's a tragedy.
SPEAKER_01: They stand in zeal and they but they're trying to make it happen now, and they suddenly get shifted towards seeking God for the promise instead of seeking the one in whom the promises are found.
SPEAKER_01: Seek him first.
SPEAKER_01: Seek him continually, seek him every morning, seek him every evening, seek him as you drive in the car, seek him on your weekends, seek him on your holidays, seek him in church, seek him on Thursday night as a people of God in this place, seek him with your family.
SPEAKER_01: And if we are people like that, then we you will start to cash in on inheritances in God's perfect time.
SPEAKER_01: Don't walk away from what you're believing God for because it hasn't happened yet.
SPEAKER_01: And we're back to what Reverend Mike preached about, and I preached about delay is not denial.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We'll have to save Abraham's story for another day.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe that was just for me.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that you are a God.
SPEAKER_01: Just think about this for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: The fact that we serve a God who wants to give us an inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we could serve a God that just said, buck up, live right, you filthy sinner, clean your act up, and then squeak into heaven.
SPEAKER_01: That could have been the God that we served, right?
SPEAKER_01: But we serve a God who wants to give us promises.
SPEAKER_01: That wants to give us an inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that beautiful?
SPEAKER_01: Like not just a God of righteousness requiring all of these things of us and giving enough so that we can be saved, but a God that says, now there's a whole kingdom to explore, to enjoy all my promises because of what Jesus has done are yes and amen.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, that's still true.
SPEAKER_01: It's still true that the promises of God are yes and amen because the blood of the cross, because he rose from the grave.
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, I'd be standing already if I were you.
SPEAKER_01: Let's stand up, let's be lively, let's seek the Lord today together.
SPEAKER_01: God, you are good.
SPEAKER_01: God, we love you.
SPEAKER_01: And God, I don't know how long it's been for my brothers and sisters, for the things that they have put their faith, they've cast their line out there for, and they're ready to pack up to go home.
SPEAKER_01: There's no fish, it's not worth it.
SPEAKER_01: Lord God, that you would show us the power of patience.
SPEAKER_01: Lord God, that you would show us how to wait on you, how to be renewed in the strength of the one whose strength never fails.
SPEAKER_01: How to receive, Lord God, the zeal of the house of God because that zeal was in you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I want to love you and worship you and honor you and lift you up no matter what my life looks like now.
SPEAKER_01: Lord God, I thank you.
SPEAKER_01: And I join my faith to the faith of my brothers and sisters in this place.
SPEAKER_01: And I come into agreements with their faith in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And we, Lord God, believe that your promises are yes and amen.
SPEAKER_01: Lord God, if there's healings that have not yet manifested in people's lives, Lord, we say they will come as we wait on the Lord, that there is no disease that can remain in your presence.
SPEAKER_00: Lord God, we declare today, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, help us to understand all that's going on to bring your promises to fulfillment in our lives, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I thank you, I worship you.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Lord, look, I I just encourage you this today to come up to this altar and say, God, I just want to wait on you, love on you.
SPEAKER_01: And I put all my life, all the things that I've been seeking to the side, and I say, I seek you.
SPEAKER_01: I seek you first, I seek your righteousness, I seek your kingdom, I seek your face, God.
SPEAKER_01: I seek your face.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Lord God, in your presence there is fullness of joy.
SPEAKER_01: Some people need their joy restored this morning.
SPEAKER_01: You lost your joy in the waiting.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Lord God, I ask you by your spirit to pour joy out on my brothers and sisters as your word declares, like an oil pour out that joy of glad that oil of gladness, Lord God, on your people.
SPEAKER_01: Lord God, gladness that puts a spring in our step to come to the house of God, to serve the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, gladness.
SPEAKER_01: Take all complaint out of our mouths, take all grumbling out of our hearts, out of our bones, Lord God, those things that are aging us, Lord, that are sapping our strength.
SPEAKER_01: We shed them off in the name of Jesus, Lord God, and let that youth, that strength, you will restore our youth.
SPEAKER_01: You promise.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And as we pray today, Lord, let that reality touch each and every one of my brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, renewing of youth, renewing of strength, arising up to higher heights.
SPEAKER_01: We declare, Lord God, that while we feel like we've been crawling on the earth, that we've been like that slug on the ground, that we will rise up with wings like eagles, and we will soar to higher heights in the name of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Lord God, we do not accept anything less.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, prayer warriors, let's pray for these people.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.