Say Hey By Faith

Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.

I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. Be sure to subscribe so we can get you these new sermons every week. I hope you're blessed today. Our year end offering will be amazing. I hope that all of you will participate. We ask each family that's participating to choose a word that reflects what you're believing God for in this season of your life, and then I usually pick a word for our whole church.

And this year is going to be really simple.

Our word that we're gathering around for this offering is the word trust. Touch your neighbors, say I trust in God. Come on, tell them again, say I trust in God. So we'll call it our trust offering, not like a trust fund or something like that.

But in a way it is. In a way it is is because it's.

Us believing that our God, our Jehovah Jirah, has stored up for us everything that we will ever need is in his hand. How many have a testimony that all you have needed his hand has provided.

I trust in God.

Oh yeah, tell your neighbor, I'm not so sure about you. I don't know if I can trust you, but I trust in God, and I think it will be amazing. So I trust in God. And that's kind of the subject I'll preach around for the next few weeks as we've moved this year to a close, and today I'm excited to journey with you into the scripture.

We're excited to see, well, God will speak to you today, y'all.

I was running out the house and this is the only Bible I could I could find close by it. I didn't feel like going back downstairs and getting the regular ones, so I got this big.

Boy today, big boy Bible.

Not to beat the devil half to death with this Bible today, I believe.

It all right.

In Hebrews chapter eleven, there is a scripture that leads to a scripture that leads to a scripture that I never thought about before today. But I want to share it with you because I think it's gonna help us to trust in God for where he's taking us.

Hebrews chapter eleven, Verse six.

I thought about only reading a few of these verses, but they're all so good I figured they would be offended if we left them out. So we're gonna need to do verses six through sixteen? Can you handle that all right? Did you wear your elastic waistband today? For this word that I'm gonna get you fat?

Off of.

Hebrews eleven verse and without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that He exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him by faith. Noah, when warned about things not yet seen and holy fear, built an arc to save his family. By his faith. He condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

By faith.

Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

You don't have that much faith, do you. I don't think I do. Didn't know where he was going, but he went by faith.

He made his home in the Promised Land, like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise, For he was looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect.

And builder is God.

And by faith, even Sarah, who was past child bearing age was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man and he as good as dead, came descendants, as numerous as the stars in the sky, and as countless as the sand on the seashore. All these people were still living by faith.

When they died.

They did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.

People who say such things.

Show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were looking for a better country. Somebody say, I'm believing for a better one. I'm believing for a better one, a heavenly one. Yeah yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their god, for he has prepared a city for them. Go back

You gotta do it.

You gotta look at your neighbor, all right, look at the other one, the other neighbor. Hey, Now, why did you do that? Why did you say hey? You don't know how they're gonna respond. You did it because I said so, for no other reason, right, I said, say hey, you said hey. Okay, that's our lesson today. How to say hey by faith? Say hey by faith one more time. On your way to your seat, tell your neighbor, hey, you may be seated online.

Just put it in the thing.

Put hey with the thing, the moji, and say hey, let us know where you're from. Hey, everybody say hey back to everybody online, everybody on YouTube.

Just put a hay in the chat.

Hey, Blakeney, Hey, Lake Norman, Hey, everybody pull up my phone real quick, get in the YouTube comments and see who's saying hey to us today from.

All over the world.

I believe, by faith that they're saying hey all over the world, don't you don't you amen? So anyway, y'all, I think our phones have changed our relationship with faith.

Honestly, you agree? And what I mean by that isn't just that your phone is listening to you?

And because why why did I just talk about it three minutes ago and now it's all up in my phone?

If the phone isn't listening to me, why did I.

Talk to somebody about a tonal gym the other day and there was tonal stuff on my phone? There has never been tonal advertisements on my phone until three minutes after I set it to a friend.

So why I don't trust my phone.

I don't trust Steve Jobs and he hadn't been alive in several years, and I still don't trust him. I think he's listening to me from somewhere right now, preaching this message.

I don't trust any of it.

Okay, but that's not what I mean about the relationship with our phone. I mean, there was a time where if somebody called you on the phone, it took faith to pick up the phone because you didn't know who was on the other end of the phone. How many remember, Yeah, it took faith before on the eighth Day when God made caller id, it would take faith to pick up on the phone because you didn't know who it was.

Because you're a liar.

Now, my mom did something one time that really takes the cake. And I didn't ask her permission to tell this, and I'm going to tell it to you to open my sermon, because it's a good little story to set up my premise. My mom had this one friend who would call a certain time most every week, and when it was around that time, within that window that that friend would call, my mom would make me answer the phone because she did not particularly enjoy talking to this friend.

Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

But when miss Martha call, I always knew when she said is your mom there, that I had to.

Check with my mom before I said yes.

And so one day the phone rang around that time and she said pick it up, and I picked it up and I said, hell up and uh and I said, oh, hey, miss Martha. And I looked at my mom to see what's the move, because now she knows this, Miss Martha, it's her move. And she's over there going and I'm like, what do I tell her? She said, it is your mom there, and she mouths to me, tell her I'm in the shower. So I said, miss Martha, she's in the shower. And then Miss Martha threw a curveball. She said,

He's in the shower too. She snatched that phone. Hey Martha here. Anyway, we would take faith to pick up the.

Phone because it might be Martha, it might be Ed McMahon calling you to tell you you want a million dollars. But it doesn't take faith anymore because I know exactly who this is. So I get to make a conscious decision do I want to enter into this particular conversation.

It takes faith. This is what I'm trying to get you to see. It takes faith to.

Enter into a conversation when you are not sure who you will be conversing with. Should you choose to accept the call? Shout amen, somebody? It takes faith. It takes a certain amount of faith. And I know that a lot of times we forget this, but even to say that God is calling me to do something, it takes a certain amount of faith to know that this is really God on the other line.

Because what if it sounds like God, but it's really just my ambition. What if it is kind.

Of like God, but I'm not sure if really it's just me being delusional. What if while I'm preaching today, something leaps in your spirit while I'm talking, and you believe that it's God's will for you to hear that and act on it. Because the starting place of faith is the word of God. Write that down somewhere where you can remember it later this week when you're like, well, I don't know if I should do this or not. Well, the starting place of faith is the Word of God.

Of God, the starting place of faith. I say that backwards the start okay, the.

Starting place of faith is the Word of God. In fact, the author of Hebrews wants you to know that you can't even come to God to begin with without faith verse success, and without faith, it is impossible to please God. Anyone who comes to him must believe.

It does not say.

That the prerequisite for coming to God is that he who comes to God must behave a certain way, but to believe a certain thing. I was talking to a guy the other day who said, I need to get right with God. I said, and what do you think it will take for you to get right with God? And he said, well, I need to change some things in my life. And I said, indeed you may, and indeed I do too. But the starting place of your

It begins with belief.

Every fear you're experiencing in your life today begins with belief.

Of faith. That you will ever take. Every step you will.

Make in the direction of God's will for your life will begin with belief, or it won't be sustainable. If it does not start with faith, it will not be sustainable. Any New Year's resolution that doesn't start with faith depends on you. If it depends on you, when you run out of strength, you run out of stamina. Any goal that I established in my life, now, look, this is

And now they've come into a.

Different relationship through Jesus, whereby we no longer come in through our.

Works, but through our faith.

He says, anyone who comes to God must believe that He exists.

And I know that you won't admit.

This, because when you come to church, you put on your holiest face and you pretend like you have no idea what I'm talking about when I say stuff like this, But sometimes it takes faith just to pray, because you wonder is anybody even really listening?

And does this matter?

That's why we can't sometimes pray for thirteen seconds without losing our train of thought, because after thirteen seconds, I'm.

Like, am I crazy? Am I do?

I just have an imaginary friend, a grown up version called God?

And is he really listening? If he is really listening? And then what did my friend died last year?

He says, without faith, it is impossible to please God.

And not only is it.

Impossible to please God, but it's impossible to even.

Come to him.

Now, I show you this because I love it in detail of a scripture, and you might have skimmed over this.

And I don't want you to. It says, without faith.

It is impossible to please God because he who comes to God. So when you come to God, you don't come to God because you were really good today and He wants to hear from you because you.

Did really good today.

You don't come to God because you got something to brag about and you want him to give you a gold star for everything you did for him that day. You don't come to God bringing him a list of reasons that he should use you in, showing him your resume for how valuable you would be for his kingdom. You don't come to God because wow, if he could really get hold of your life, then he could really

Tell him.

You can't make me doubt him. I know too much.

About him.

As a matter of fact, God is real to me. God is realer to me than you are to me, because you're in a body and.

You're a person, and you're sitting.

Next to me, and you might be here one day and not hear the next. But God is real to me because he is the one who was and is.

I feel like preaching today. Y'all help me pace.

My message, but just high five three people say he's real.

He's real.

So I come to God with the confidence that when I roll over and see Holly in the morning, I say hey, and I say hey to her because her head is next to mine. I say hey because I see her. When I turn to God, I have to say hey, somebody say hey to somebody I can't see.

And not only can I not.

See him, sometimes I can't feel him. Will you be real with me for fifteen seconds so I can start this sermon today. It takes faith to start praying to God. It takes faith to start declare. It takes faith to believe that your sins are forgiven when you still feel the guilt of Him. Because I can sing Jesus paid it all. But it takes faith for me to say that, because I'm carrying it with me and I still feel a debt for the things that I did.

But He's real. I believe that we believe this.

The writer of Hebrews is saying to the church that they're all new. They're all new to this, and so they're in between a place of working their way to God and believing in the God that they can't see.

And he knows that they need encouragement.

So he says, first of all, anyone who comes to God must believe that he exists or that he's real. And that second thing, give me verse six again, that he is a rewarder of those who earnestly seek him.

He is a rewarder.

Now, if you believe that he's real, but don't believe he's a rewarder, you won't pick up the phone when he calls, because you'll be suspicious about what he wants. And you'll be sitting over there silently like my mom going and we'll be saying, we'll give your life to God. And but what is he gonna make me do if I do give your life to God? Well, where is he gonna make me?

Am? I gonna have to go? We're gonna I talked to God one time.

This guy has so much money, and he thought that God wanted his money.

And I thought that was funny.

I thought that was hilarious, that God has a need and he's gonna tell you about it.

So I'm trying to explaining about the streets.

Of gold and heaven. I was like, they pave what we save. They paved the streets in heaven with what we save up down here. And he was so concerned. He was so concerned what God was gonna make him give up because he didn't understand yet. He was starting to believe that God is real, but he didn't see God as a rewarder.

He saw the Lord as a liability.

And sometimes we are afraid to take the step that God is calling us to take.

And accept his call because of what it might cost.

Into this premise and the tension. I would like to talk to you about saying hey by faith, about the fact that a relationship with God does not begin the moment that you get your act together, but the moment that you throw yourself on the mercy of God and say, just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me, O Lamb of God, I come. That is the faith that it takes to enter into the presence of God. And when God prompts your heart, as he's prompting.

Many of you today.

To get right with Him, it is not a righteousness that you go for. It is a righteousness that is ingrafted in you and gifted to you from.

Time to time.

I think I need to say these things because when we say faith, we mean a lot of different things.

For some faith.

It has come to me nothing more than an optimistic outlook. Well, if that's your take on faith, it won't take much to undo it, because when things don't turn out like they looked in your mind, in your life, you will abandon your faith. On the other hand, for some, faith is a classification. They'll say it in a political sense.

Now much what he does something so good.

He says, I know that what you're going through is new to you. I know that this trusting in the righteousness of Jesus.

Now this is the gospel in one sentence, he died Jesus.

Jesus died as if he sinned, so I can live as if I didn't.

I love that when God showed it to me like that, because.

I think if we're going to say we're putting our faith in something, we ought to know what we're believing. And what I'm believing isn't just that the situation is going to turn out or turn around or make me happy or be everything I wanted it to be.

But what I'm believing is.

That Jesus died as if he sinned, so that I could live as if I didn't. He died as if he deserved to die, so I could live like I could never deserve to live in his grace. He died like a criminal so I could be called a child of God.

That's what we believe. And so it begins with this.

We come to God and we believe that he exists, and we believe that He is a rewarder of them that seek him. So this week, when you don't feel worthy to come to God, just remember he died so you could live as if you never sin so you could pray as if you never sin, so you could come.

Boldly in his face and tell him what you need in.

The time of your trouble, so that you can move forward from your past and not be stuck back in it, and not drag around a shame that he broke two thousand years ago. This is what we believe. Somebody shout, I believe by faith. And so the next time the devil tells you you can't come to God and starts putting condemnation in your face, remember Romans eight one. There is therefore now.

No condemnation for.

Those who are in Christ Jesus. Then zilch zero zip nana.

When the devil tries to condemn.

You tell him, hey, devil, I appreciate what you're saying. I probably did do something wrong. I know I did stuff wrong. I can add some stuff to the list, but I got the faith to say, hey, devil is paid for in full. All right.

Let me run a pole.

How many of you the devil's been eating you up over.

Something this week? All right?

Do you have faith?

Did he die for you? Was his blood enough for you?

Did he satisfy the righteous requirements of the law in his body? Did the spotless Lamb of God lay down his life for you.

You got faith.

You believe that you got the faith to say, hey, devil.

I hear your voice.

But it is silence in the face of a greater voice, a greater grace, a greater coming at us.

Come.

He does something so good. He goes, I know this is new to you. How many of you live in God's way? Is new to you. I just want to see a show of hands. Yeah, it's just really you want to talk to you, sir, about can go home? Let's just stay here together for a minute.

And really, if you didn't raise your hand, you.

Haven't spoken with God lately, because it will always feel new to you if you are going forward. The only way for you to stop feeling that feeling off.

And the writer describes it in a very particular way. He goes, Abraham.

Remember, Abraham was the guy who got this all started. He was called the Father of faith, the father of many nations.

That's what God calls him. That's not what he was.

He didn't have a single son when God called him that, and he was seventy five when God called him. The Bible says about Abraham and verse number eight put it back up on the screen.

This is the verse that I thought was so annoyted.

It might break a yoke, and it might scare a devil, and it might bring somebody's heart back to a place a beating again, and said by faith Abraham when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went.

The more I studied this word, the better.

It got, because it actually is connected. Where it says by faith Abraham when called to go to a.

Place he would later receive.

It literally is juxtaposed in the grammar that it's written in in the Letter to the Hebrews as an immediate response. So what it means is that as he was being called, he went as soon as he was being called. So now you can measure your spirituality in inverse proportion the time that God tells you to do something, however long it takes you to do it.

That's how immature you are in your relationship with Him. And I've got a lot of growing up to do.

So I need this word because look at it again, he was called to go to a place he would later receive, So he's not going to get it right away.

He obeyed and went.

And this part will probably trip you up, even though he didn't know where he was going. Going without knowing? That is faith, isn't it answering and not even knowing? Is this really God? Is this really going to happen? At this point in the sermon, there are usually about ten reckless people who just used this as an excuse to quit your job and move to Canada.

That's not the essence of the text, though, is it. Because it is not about a geographical location change. It is actually about staying in faith.

Now, look, if we celebrate this text on the first level, is good Abraham?

He went without.

Knowing?

That is that is worthy of our admiration that he did that. So the writer of Hebrew says, I know this is new for you. Let me call one of your familiar characters that you know so well, that actually is the hero of this entire faith system that you are coming from, And let me use it to juxtapose against what you now have in Jesus, that is the new and living way opened by his covenant. He says, Hey, Abraham, show us how to do it. Exhibit a exhibit Abraham, as he gives us this this case study.

In faith. He says, by faith, Abraham.

Was called to go somewhere he did not know, and he obeyed and went by faith. Put the scripture back up one more time, because I don't think we're done with it yet. It said he didn't know where he was going. And don't we love to celebrate when someone goes to something new. I don't really enjoy weddings.

Whatever. I really like him. I want to come back in like seven years and have the big party. But I know that's mean in.

Everything, because that's like pessimistic or something like that.

Right, I just can't get too happy right yet, for y'all, I.

See everybody else's In many ways, I feel like I have a very dark heart, and I'm probably I'm probably confessing a very deep character flaw to you. But I would be much happier for you, Like I would love to show up at your twenty fifth thing. I would love then the longer it goes, the happier I could be for you, and the more inspired I can be

It is worthy to celebrate that you left.

A life of sin when you take a step of faith. It is worthy of celebrating that you have now stepped out into the unknown. And that's wonderful. And if God tells you to go start a business, I'll clap for you. But I'll clap for you, and I'll be happy for you, but not as happy for you as I can be when you call me in three years, five years and you say it's been a recession. But I stuck with it in the recession. And God showed me strategies for this business in the recession.

And we had to lay some people off and we had to.

Change a business model and that was really rough. And I had an ulcer and I asked the doctor to prescribe something for it, and it took three different medications, and I had a hard time knowing when to be home versus when to be at the office.

But here I am.

I'm still staying and standing and believing. And rains flew and winds came and the house stood firm. What I'm trying to say is that stepping out faith is great.

So is staying faith. So is staying faith.

Because in all the years I read about Abraham, I celebrated that he had the faith to go. He obeyed and went, And that's wonderful that he went. Here's all God told him, I'm gonna bless you. I'm gonna make you a great nation. All the nations of the earth will be blessed through you. You're gonna have descendants as numerous. I gotta calmed down, I gotta come down. He said, I'm gonna bless you. You're gonna have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, the sand in the seashore.

Come on in.

So when I read that by faith, he obeyed and went, and it was followed by by faith he made his home in the Promised Land. Like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived intense. See, here's what I want to tell you. It's possible to arrive at your promise and live in a tent. It's this feeling of I'm here. But this is way different than how it sounded when I left. Anybody there, I'm here. Remember when you were in seventh grade and all you wanted was your driver's license?

You're driving?

Where are you going? What you're going to do when you get there? Now, two things happen. He got there without knowing where there was. That in his self is complicated. I've heard people say things and I don't mean to pick on it. I'm sure I've said something like this, if I could just have clarity from God, clarity from God, and if he would just confirm his word to me, and I am waiting for confirmation is what I'm waiting for. Okay, confirmation comes after commitment.

Mike drop, I gotta tell y'all where the good parts of the sermon is.

Because you're confused about it, that's the good part of the sermon. He obeyed ask God was calling him like it wasn't even complete yet. It wasn't even a destination yet. It was just something that got moved bye. But then he got there hundreds of miles with hundreds of people, with a caravan full of people that he's responsible for.

And he lived in tents.

Have you ever had God bring you to a promise and then make you pitch a tent.

It's like he brings you. Should we start passing out caffeine in the communion cups at the door.

He brings you to a place, He brings you to a moment, he brings you to a relationship, he brings.

You to a stage of life.

He brings you to your anointing, he brings you into the area of your giftedness and you know this is it, but then you think, is this it? I could understand if he lived in a tent for a week while the apartment least was going through. I could understand if he lived there for six months while he found the best school district in Canaan.

Abraham lived in tents the entire time he was in the Promised Land.

So what I'm trying to say is you might be a pilgrim in something that God called you.

To possess, and just.

Because it doesn't feel stable doesn't.

Mean it's not secure. Whoever is for You're.

Gonna get it deep because I got it deep. Because there's times where I questioned God and my faith gets low.

Did you really say to do this?

Did you really say to forgive them sometimes even.

When I get up here, God?

Did you really tell me to preach this just because I don't feel it in the moment. Just because it's foreign doesn't mean it isn't yours.

So here's what I.

Want you to declare by faith. Say it's mine.

It's mine.

Now that sounds selfish because we're not supposed to talk in church about what we have and what God gave us. It's supposed to be all about him, but he said, I will bless you, he said I will make you, he said.

I will guide you.

And it's not really Him that we doubt, it's us. You ever had to hold on to the truth living in a tent. You ever had to suffer from clinical depression and show up smiling at an office building. You ever had your kid's not doing well, but you had to be there for somebody else's kid. Have you, then you've lived intents. It is being somewhere you're supposed to be. Say I'm supposed to be here, I'm supposed to be here. It's being somewhere you're supposed to be, but the accommodations

Check this out.

It said that faith not only is it about our salvation, but there is a situational faith as well.

Uh huh.

And it is a faith that defies all contradictions and outward circumstances, but looks entirely to God and his promises alone. It is a faith that defies all contradictions and outward circumstances, but looks entirely to God and his promises alone.

One said.

Faith is living as if God's power for the present is real and his promise.

For the future is secure. That's faith saving. Faith.

He died as if he sinned so I could live as if I didn't. Faith is living as if I'm gonna say this again. Faith is living as if who am I preaching to right now? Faith is going forward as if you knew where you were going, and then going home and wondering am I there because you're living

Those mistakes again.

Faith is showing up to church as if you knew God had a word for you, even though you secretly wonder is he talking to someone else. Faith is picking up your tent and moving even though you don't know how far you'll have to go. Faith is making your home enjoy even though sorrow may last for the night. Faith is giving God praise for who he is when you can't even see what he's doing. Faith is reaching on your inside reserves and pulling from your experience to say, Hey, God,

Faith will step out on four letters. Faith will jump out.

The boat and say, God, hold me up.

By your righteous right hand.

If you had not been on my side, my enemies would have swallowed me alive.

So here I am God. Hey, God, is your man verdict? And I need you now? And I don't deserve it, but I receive it man.

I claim it by faith. What do you need from God today? Claim it by faith? What do you need him to do in your body?

Claim it? Bye? Faith?

If what do you need him to carry you through? Claim it bye Faith? Clap those hands.

If you've got a claim by faith. I don't have what you think I need.

Oh, fath faith, faith, faith, faith, faith, Father, blessing the name of Jesus, bless her right now. Everybody shall faith by faith? Say by faith by faith? So how are you coming to God? After everything you've done by faith? How are you really believing that God is going to redeem the years when you're the.

One who wasted them by faith? By faith? And here's what I love.

He had to show up as a stranger to something God gave him. Have you ever had to show up as a stranger to something God gave you? I had a friend invite me over the other day and nobody knew I was coming. I was invited by my friend, but I was treated as a stranger by the people who had to let me in the door. They had no idea who I was. I waited, and I waited because I knew when my friend finds out I'm here, I'm gonna walk right past all these people who don't

So he showed up as a stranger to a place God gave him.

Is that not what Jesus did for us, who came to his own and his own received him.

Not.

He showed up in the earth.

That he created, was rejected by the humans that he fashioned, was crucified by the ones he came to save. But because he showed up as a stranger, I could come to him as his child. How many are grateful for access. Just because it feels foreign doesn't mean it isn't yours. When you've heard a long time healing feels for it, it doesn't mean you won't be healed. You just might have to live in a tent. A tent is an interesting image because the New Testament also calls our mortal

We're burden because we're living intents. I don't know if you're getting this or not. Help me. Are you getting this?

I want to help you. You're living in a tent. It doesn't mean you're not in the promise. You're just living in the tent. It takes faith to say hey, It takes faith to welcome something into your life that you've never had before.

And so often we are glorifying the goodbye.

But we're not saying hello to the promise. Imagine Abraham walking through Canaan. Nobody knows who he is. He's living like a nomad, but he's the father of many nations. Can I prophesy this to you. You're bigger than what you're living in the bondage the dysfunction. Abraham was the most famous person that the writer of Hebrews could bring up to illustrate faith.

But he showed up like a stranger.

It takes faith to show up like a stranger.

You think Abraham walked in Canaan and they were all like, Oh, you're Abraham, take over.

This is great. He had to show up.

In a tent.

That's a stranger.

I see you coming into your promise. I see you coming into your wholeness. I see you coming into the next season of your life, but you're coming in as a stranger.

Stay.

Stay.

Faith feels foreign. Stay joy feels foreign. Stay peace feels foreign when all you've known is storms.

Is stay.

Because if you can stay in faith, watch what Abraham does.

Oh you're gonna love this mishe hollie, this so does. I just appreached to her, y'all.

Look what he did.

In verse thirteen of Hebrews, Chapter eleven, all these people.

Were still living by faith.

When they died, they did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. I see you welcoming your dream from a distance. I see you welcoming your prodigal child coming back home from a distance. You can't really see it yet, spell it yet, touch it yet, but it's coming from the distance. And they admitted that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.

And WA's what they did.

Not only did they welcome it from a distance. For verse fourteen, people who say such things show that they.

Are looking for a country of their own.

So they saw it in the distance, and they had the faith to say.

Hey, hey, joy, hey peace, Hey new beginning, Hey redemption.

I welcome you.

I'm not walking in it yet, I'm still living in this tent for a.

Little bit, but I welcome you.

Will you welcome the Holy Spirit in your life in this season. You're living in a tent, but you're not your body. Some of you are living in a very very hard situation, but you are not this situation. You are bigger than what you've been living in. You're walking as a nomad, but there are nations in you, purpose.

In you, glory in you. I'm bigger than what I'm living in. So come on and say, hey, my faith.

I see it in the distance, I feel it. Sometimes I get a glimpse of it. Sometimes I get a little bit of freedom. Then I go back, I get a little bit of relief. Then I come back. Welcome it in. Don't just believe in it, believe it in. Don't just believe in what he did.

On the cross.

Believe it in until it permeates you, until you.

Know I am what he says I am.

With everyone standing, there is an anointing on this word. There is say, heavy anointing on this word. I don't know who it was for. I don't know what you are living in. I don't know what tent you are disappointed by. I don't know exactly what God has called you to do or be.

But I know this.

If you will welcome it, you can walk in it.

It begins with you saying yes to God and to agree with.

Him concerning what he sees you to be. Abraham believed and so became. What might you become if you believe? If you didn't go back to what you came from, but said, hey, by faith, okay, God, this is a new thing for me. But people who talk this way are looking forward to a city with foundations whose builder and maker is God. And since the starting point is faith, I would like to invite you right now to pray a prayer. This prayer is specifically for all of you

Right now.

If the desire of your heart is to believe in Jesus and turn from your old way of life and give him your everything. I assure you that he exists and that he is a rewarder of them who will diligently seek him all over this church and online. I want you to repeat this prayer after me. We're praying all together out loud for the benefit of those who are coming to God in this moment. Say, Heavenly Father, I am a sinner in need of a savior, and I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God

I even said three.

Welcome God, bless you. We receive you with open arms. God receives you with open arms. This church receives you with open arms. Congratulations on your new beginning. Congratulations for all of those who just place their faith in Christ.

First of all, let's clap our hands one more time.

For them, it sounds like I plan this announcement with my message. But if you'll stop by the tent on your way out, there's a Bible we'd like to give you.

Stop by the tent. Touch three. People say stop by the tim.

Because what nobody knew was in that tent was the father of many nations. Say, hey, by faith, this is not a dating seminar, but I believe there are some things that God is bringing into your life that you are welcoming from a distance, and it may take a while, but don't let the tent fool you. By faith, it shall be Clap those hands one more time, everybody who.

Receives it, Thanks for joining us today. We pray that God has spoken to you in a unique and powerful way through the message. Well, we are in our year in offering season as a church where we get the opportunity to reflect back on all the ways that God has been faithful to our ministry this year, but also to look ahead at what we're believing God for in