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So in the last couple of weeks, we’ve if you have a Bible, we’re going to be in Genesis 12 and 13. Uh, the last couple of weeks, we examined first how God called Abraham out of the land of, er, uh, he and his family and and Abraham had a faithful response. He was faithful to that response. But then as you continue reading in chapter 12, you see that the wills quickly begin to fall off of God’s or Abraham’s, uh, uh, following God’s call. Um, they on their way, they come to a place called Haran, which is a was a place that was very comfortable to them. They had the same kind of cultural lifestyles as ur. And so they just kind of, you know, I think all of us have done that. We get to a place and you begin to justify, you know, maybe we’ll just hang out here for a while. And so even though he was called to the land of Canaan, so he was called out of ur to the land of Canaan, uh, he he and his family settled in her. And God graciously, uh, began to move on him and get him out of that and back to the to his call to the land of Canaan. Um, and as he was going into Canaan, he heard that there was a famine in the land, in the land of Canaan. And so with his eyes and with, you know, what he saw was the best thing to do.
He has a family and all these people looking to him to support for his support. He began to see, well, God called me to Canaan, but there’s a famine. So maybe we should just go to Egypt. And so. Abraham takes his family into Egypt. And there, uh, Abraham’s wife Sarah is there. She’s beautiful. And he begins to think, you know what? Pharaoh, the leader of Egypt, might think that, you know, you’re very attractive, Sarah. So maybe you should just tell him you’re my sister so my life will be spared. Not exactly the message to be preached on Valentine’s weekend, right? So a little lack of integrity there. And so they do that Pharaoh sees her. She’s beautiful. She brings him into the house. But graciously and mercifully, God continues to in spite of Abraham’s disobedience, he continues to work in his life. And and miraculously, as we found out last week, delivers him and his family from his bad the consequences of his poor choices. Right? God smites Pharaoh with all these different plagues and stuff and. Farrell starts looking around going, what’s going on? He ends up finding out that Abraham set this thing up about his wife, Sarah. And so he’s like, just leave. Go. Right. So God mercifully and gracefully delivered Abraham and his family out of the consequences. And then we pick up today at the beginning of Genesis chapter 13. Um, this is Abraham coming out of Egypt and going back to what he was originally called for, right? Taking his family to the land of Canaan.
And so we’ll pick up the verses here. In Genesis 13 one says, Then Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev. He, his wife, and all he had in lot with him. Lot’s his nephew Abraham was very rich in livestock, silver and gold. He went by stages from the Negev to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and AI, where his tent had formerly been, and so on his way he was in Iran. He had stopped in a place between Bethel, and I built an altar to the Lord in back in Genesis 12, and worshiped the Lord there. But he was in the wrong place. But he has gone back to where he originally started, before he left Haran and bypassed Canaan and went to Egypt instead, still turning away from God’s call to Canaan. So he went back to the place where he followed him, to the site where he had built the altar. And Abraham worshiped the Lord there. And it goes on to say, now lot, who was traveling with Abraham, also had flocks, herds, and tents, but the land was unable to support them as long as they stayed. Together, for they had so many possessions that they could not stay together. And there was quarreling between the herdsmen of Abraham’s livestock and the herdsmen of lot’s livestock.
Now lot, who was traveling with Abraham, also had flocks and herds. And then Abraham said to the lot, please let us not have quarreling between you and me and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, since we were we are relatives. Isn’t the whole land before you? Abraham asked lot. He says separate from me. If you go to the left, I will go to the right. If you go to the right, I will go to the left. So lot chose the entire Jordan Valley for himself. Then lot journeyed eastward and they separated from each other. Abraham lived in the land of Canaan. That’s where he belongs. But lot lived in the cities of the valley and set up his tent near Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were evil and sinning greatly against the Lord. After lot had separated from him, the Lord said to Abraham, look from the place where you are. Look north and south and east and west, for I will give you and your offspring forever all the land that you see. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth. That is a lot of offspring, so that if one could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted. So here’s this picture of God graciously and mercifully rescuing Abraham and his family out of Egypt due to Abraham’s poor choices and lack of integrity and all those things. And. Uh, delivering him to the land of Canaan.
And then we see there’s still issues and trials and tribulations going on in Abraham’s life, in spite of following God’s call. And so we can see that there. But I just want to back up a moment, and we want to try to apply these things to our own lives. Okay. And the first way I want to try to do that help you guys do that is just kind of give you a personal illustration of of what happened to me. I got the Lord, uh, uh, opened my eyes. Um, the gospel was preached. I recognized that in my own strength and my own righteousness, I was nothing for God. I could do nothing in my own to work my way to a relationship with God. And I had to trust and believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. That Jesus came, lived a perfect life, died on the cross for my sin, and on that cross God poured out his wrath for my sin and delivered me that I would get Christ’s righteousness instead. That was preached to me. And, uh, I often say it was kind of like a body slam that day back in 2004. Um, I had tried most of my young adulthood to pursue after God by trying to clean up my own act, doing the things that I thought I needed to do. So then he would accept me. And when the gospel is preached, I realized that that there was nothing I could do, that I just had to turn and place my faith and trust in Christ and his accomplished work on the cross.
Cross alone. And when that happened, I became very zealous. Most people who knew me back then would say overly zealous. You know what I mean? Um, one of the most amazing things that happened to me, because when that happens, the scriptures say that the Spirit of God comes in and and seals you to God and adopts you into his family and gives you a new heart. And so you’re made alive unto God. Your separation from God is now been joined back to him through the accomplished work of Christ. And when that happened, this book, this Bible that I’ve carried around, carried around all my life up until then. I could barely get through a chapter without falling asleep. Became alive. The words were just jumping out. It just was amazing. God, the spirit was just illuminating me to his truth. Everywhere I read and very early on in in my my walk after being saved, I think my pastor was preaching on Hebrews 11, but it got me focused in on Hebrews chapter 11. And a lot of people call this it might be in your Bible, the Hall of Faith of the chapter of Faith. It has a list of all these people who by faith follow God and did all these marvelous things for God.
And again, I was this overly zealous guy who had just been saved by the grace of Christ. And I said, I want to be that guy. I want to do great things for God. I want to be a man of faith. I want to be one of those guys. But the problem was, is I was thinking it was me who did it, and it was in my power and in my strength that I would get all this faith, that my faith, if I just worked hard enough, my faith would increase and I’d be this great person of faith. Just like these people that are listed in the Hall of Faith. And I was terribly wrong. As we examined the life of Abraham. I guess I didn’t read that. Did I? Go back? So here in Hebrews 11, this is the section that talks about Abraham’s great faith, this great person of faith. By faith Abraham went, he was called, obeyed, and went out to a place he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob coheirs of the same promise. So if you’re going to parachute into the New Testament and into Hebrews chapter 11, you see all these people of faith. What I was doing is I was parachuting in, and I did not know the Old Testament background of who Abraham was, his story and what he had gone through.
Because Abraham wasn’t this great man of faith, this super human being who was perfect, and all this righteousness we see in Genesis 12. He was far from that right. He had faults. He fell short. Guess what? He’s just like you and I. We all fall short. We all can’t follow God’s golf call perfectly in our own strength, on our own power. And so Hebrews 11 shows Abraham is this great man of faith. But we see through the scriptures that Abraham’s faith was grown in him not by his who he was, or his own righteousness, or his own intestinal fortitude. It was grown through looking to God and trusting in God’s promises through his trials and through his tribulations. That’s ultimately what Abraham’s growth Abraham’s faith grew out of. Learning to rely on God and His strength and his promises through the trials, instead of relying on our own strength and fortitude. And so how do we apply that to ourselves? That happened thousands of years ago. Is this really relevant for us today? Why we say it is? Because as we look into this scripture, we see several things that happened in the life of Abraham that caused his faith to grow. And so if we desire to have a great place to grow, have a greater faith grown in us, and a greater reliance on God in our own lives and our own walks with the Lord, it’s not in our own strength and our own power.
It’s just as Abraham is has done. He goes to the source of the power to grow in faith, and that is the Lord. So the first thing we see here, if we want to increase our faith, is we need to have a repentance, a life of repentance. So Genesis 13 three says, he went. That’s Abraham to the place between Bethel and AI, where his tent had formerly been, to the site where he had built the altar. And Abraham worshiped there, the Lord there. So it’s funny how the Lord miraculously delivers them out of Egypt. What does he do? He goes back. To where he went to the fork in the road. Right. He went there was on his road to his call to go into the land of Canaan. He had a fork in the road. He had a choice to make. Do I go where God has called me? Where there’s a famine? Or do I, by my own sight, make my own decision and go to the land of Egypt? He goes back to that fork in the road and he doesn’t go back. And he says, doesn’t say, I’m going to pick myself up by my own bootstraps. I’m going to do a better job, and I’m going to be stronger for my family. I’m going to increase my faith in God. What does he do? He goes and turns and worships the Lord there.
So, so important for us. So important for us that we have to understand that our increase in our faith and reliance on God is not out of our own power, but out of the strength of the Lord. And how we get that is as we turn our eyes and worship the Lord. It’s called repentance now. We could have a very serious theological debate on the true definition of repentance and what that truly means. Um, if you ask 50 people what the definition of repentance is, repentance is, you’re going to get 78 answers, right? It’s it’s it’s different. But if you just look at Scripture and allow and see what God is trying to do, what God desires from us, from his people, I think it’s reduced down very simply. He wants us, just like Abraham, to realize we’re in a spot in our lives where we can’t. Proceed without God. The choices we’ve made have put us in a terrible situation. What does Abraham do? He doesn’t try to clean himself up and do. He returns and just turns to the Lord. And that’s what repentance is, ultimately the most simple form. And the evangelical world concentrates. Repentance is usually in the, in the, the time of salvation where you’re walking one way, you’re living in the world. Maybe you’re. You don’t believe in God, or you have defined God in your own terms.
You’re living a world that just pleases you. And then suddenly someone who loves you gives you the gospel, and you’re encountered with the Christ who has come to save you because of your wretchedness. And you have fallen short of God’s ultimate law. And he lived that for you. And so you stop going in that direction and you turn to the foot of the cross. You turn to God and trust in Him and His accomplished work. And so the evangelical world has that form of repentance, pretty much nailed down. But what I’ve grown as I’ve grown in my walk with the Lord, I’ve seen that repentance is must be a continuous thing with us. Because although I’ve been given a new heart, I also have this old heart. And this old heart wants to wander from the Lord. It wants to do its own thing. It wants to be its own God. It wants to serve its own self. Am I the only one that has that right? I have a new heart that wants to follow after God. And so we have this fight going on. Paul mentions it in Romans seven of his the fight that was going on inside of him. And so what I need to do is have a continual attitude of repentance where I’m seeing that I’m choosing these things, doing these things. My my angry outbursts are my own way because I want peace in my house. I don’t want to be disturbed.
So I’ll just raise my voice a little bit. And all my kids know to go running. Right. But what I need to do, and that would be the simplest thing to do. And it works. But God gets no glory out of that because anger is not a fruit of God. What I need to do is have a continual attitude of repentance going. I’ve had a long day. I am really frustrated and upset right now. My kids are going crazy. But I choose to turn to God. Just a quick prayer. God help me serve my family the way you’ve called me to be. Help me answer. What the soft answer. A soft answer turns away wrath. Help me be, uh, serve my wife. As Christ says, serves the church and loves the church. Help me love those things. So my Christian walk is really this walk of continuous repentance, where I’m fighting the old way and I’m turning to God, and I’m not trying to do it in my own strength and my own power. I’m turning to God. And what I’m really doing in those times is I’m choosing to worship him. Am I not? I’m not my own God. I have a God who’s called me to serve my family. And so as I turn from doing it my own way and I turn to God as an act of worship, I serve my family. Does that make sense? That’s what worship is ultimately.
It’s turning from our doing it our own way. That’s what repentance is, turning from our own way and turning to God and allowing him to work through us. Joel, this Old Testament passage here, roughly 800 years after Abraham, he’s writing to the children of Israel who have at this point pretty much wandered and walked away and turned their back on God. And he’s writing, pleading with them, that there’s a sudden or certain destruction that’s going to come and that they must turn back to God. And this is just a beautiful passage when I think about repentance, this is where I where I go, because it ultimately sees shows what God desires from his people. Even now, this is the Lord’s declaration. Turn to me with all your heart. With fasting, weeping, and mourning. Tear your hearts, not just your clothes, right? The Old Testament traditions. When people got upset and there was something going on, they would rent their clothes, tear them. He’s like, quit, stop it with the outward stuff. Tear your hearts. God’s worried about the heart. God’s worried about what’s going on in the inside and why. And return to the Lord your God. Why? For he is gracious and compassionate. Slow to anger, rich and faithful love. He relents from sending disaster. If you’re a child of the God this morning, this is your father. This is your creator. He desires his people to turn to him in times of trials, not in their own strength, but turn and lean and trust in Him and His promises and then his power.
That’s the basic essence of repentance. Abraham. The second point here is Abraham turned right, went back to his place, his special place, his altar, where he would worship the Lord. Um, and he he did that. And that’s what God calls us to do as well. But we have to make sure we bring it into the New Testament context. Right back in the Old Testament, the Old Testament was full of places, special places set aside for the worship of the Lord, altars. Abraham as an example of the altar. Then later there’s the tabernacle and the temple, these special places that people would go to worship God. They also set aside certain holidays, special times of the year where people would really focus on worshiping God. Okay, but the New Testament, there’s a whole new reality going on. Right. All those things were foreshadows the things that were to come and the complete restoration of the kingdom in Jesus Christ. Those were just pointing towards something. And so the Messiah, Christ arrives on the scene. And he begins to demonstrate his kingdom and to teach of his kingdom and all those wonderful things that the New Testament Gospels have for us, his teachings while he was walking here on earth. There’s a specific circumstance in John four where Christ is walking through the land of Samaria.
And if you know the Old Testament history, the Samaritans and the Jews were always they were like they were kind of related, and they were always battling back before one the other one thought, you know, they were better than the other. And so there was this constant battle going on. And so Jesus is walking through this time, through this foreign land of Samaria, and he encounters a woman at the well, and they begin to talk about the Messiah that was to come. And this is a whole nother sermon. So I’ll have to be quick. But, um, basically she she asked Jesus. She goes, hey, look, all Samaritans, we worship Jesus on this special place up here on the mountain. You Jews, you guys worship down in the in the in the in the temple, down in Jerusalem when the Messiah comes, where where are we going to worship him? And Jesus tells them and tells us. It’s not about a place anymore. A certain special place or a certain special time. He says to her, but an hour is coming and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth. Yes, the father wants such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. No longer. The New Testament has progressively revealed that God no longer desires his people to go to a special place to worship him.
It’s what happens when we’re saved is we’re sealed by the Holy Spirit, and we’re told that we are now the temple of the Holy Spirit, that God Himself dwells within the hearts of his believers. And that’s a key imperative that we need to understand for us to be able to worship in spirit and in truth. And the context of that is John chapter three, where Nicodemus comes to Jesus says, we know you’re from God. How can we have a relationship with God? Basically, and very, very much paraphrasing here, he says, you must be born again. Those are the things that are born of the flesh is flesh, but those things which are born of the spirit, the spirit, the spirit must make you alive to God. You must be born again. That’s the context in which John chapter four is speaking of. We have to be born of the Spirit of God before we can ever worship in spirit and in truth. But when that happens, that new heart, God desires us. He says in the Old Testament, I will put my law in their heart and they will worship in that regard. This new heart desires to seek after God, and we desire to do it with our wholeness and fullness. And so it’s not about a special place or a special time, but it’s about a body of work, of worship. John Piper writes this true worship comes only from spirits made alive and sensitive by the quickening of the Spirit of God.
God’s spirit ignites and energizes our spirit. It’s being born again. And it’s great definition here. So the essence of true worship is not external but internal. It’s not about a place where you go. It’s not about a, you know, homage that you go to, to go and worship. It’s internal. It’s about your heart, all of your heart. Right. Thou shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, heart and head, emotions and thought, spirit and truth. Whether we’re talking all of life as worship, Romans 12 one or corporate gatherings for worship. So we’ve met here today and we’ve worshiped, we’ve done worshiping, we’ve sang worship songs, right? We’re worshiping our God and Creator. We’re now opened up God’s Word, and we’re expounding, hopefully God’s Word, and we’re worshiping him in that regard. But what Christ is saying here in John four is, is that the whole entire life, because God, the spirit as well as the believer, it should be a life of worship. It’s not about a special place or a time of year. It’s about every aspect of life. Romans 12 one. That’s Paul, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. It’s about a life of worship. Not just these times. It’s. Uh, New Testament declares it’s good to meet together, edify each other, build one another, sing songs, hymns, spiritual songs.
All these things that we’re doing today are great and important and needful. But we also need to be cognizant that because of what Christ has done and the spirit living within us, that he desires all of our life to be a life of worship. And so those times when I choose not to be angry towards my kids, but choose instead to speak with the soft answer and to serve them and put my own issues aside. I’m ultimately worshiping God. In spirit and in truth. Truth also very important, right? God’s revealed word. We can’t just have emotion. We must have it filtered through God’s revealed revelation found in the canonized scriptures. Jared Wilson. I love this all the Christian life is worshiped whether the Christian be in prayer, study, work, meals, conversation, love and romance, or even sleep. Huh? I don’t know how you can worship God sleeping, but apparently he can. But look at this. This is great. What if we treated life? So this is a question to all of us. What if we treated life from the momentous occasions to mundane ones, as opportunities to respond to who God is and what he has done? What would our life? How would it be different? And the amazing thing is, is that’s what originally we were created for. And as you look at the Garden of Eden, God walked with Adam and Eve.
It was relationship. Adam and Eve were completely dependent on God for everything. That’s how we were created. And so if we are in in accordance with how we were created, guess what happens? The fruits of the spirit begin to be manifest. That joy that you always want in your life, the peace that you desire in your family, those things, those attributes, the fruits of the spirit will be manifested as we look to God and, uh, cooperate with him as he desires to walk with us, as we, uh, turn our lives over for a life of worship. What if we treat a life from the momentous occasions to the mundane ones, as opportunities to respond to who God is and what he has done? We have an opportunity to worship God through our lives, every moments of our lives. The third point here is learn to trust in God’s plan and promises. So we see that Abraham fell drastically short of God’s call, but God graciously and mercifully saved him from those consequences got Abraham back. Abraham repented and went back to where he should have went and followed God’s call. He worshiped God. He looked to God for power and strength. And we see a very different Abraham in Genesis 13. But we also have a contrast here with the with lot. Lot is his nephew. They’re together. Remember? Their herdsmen were fighting back and forth. So he says Abraham says, why don’t we split up? You got we got to separate.
Now the first thing we see is that Abraham was the oldest. He was the elder. He had the right to choose. He could have said, lot, you’re going this direction. I’m going this direction. But he didn’t. Why? Because he was now trusting in God and God’s sovereignty. He had done his own, made his own choices, done his own thing. In Genesis 12 and it led to disastrous circumstances. He was now worshipping God, looking to God and allowing God to work those things out. He was trusting in God and His promises. At this point he said, Lord, you choose. And so we have a contrast here. What does Lotte do? Lotte looked out and saw that the entire Jordan Valley was far. Xoar was well watered everywhere. So instead of considering what God has said, or considering or finding, um, wisdom and going to Abraham and says, what do you think I should do? You know, I want to be godly in this choice. The scriptures declared that he started looking around and saying, what’s the best with my own physical eyes, that I can see what’s going to satisfy me the quickest? So we are a contrast here. God or lot looking up with his own eyes. And he sees he picks the land that looks the best, right? In that valley is the city of Sodom. And as we follow this story out with Lotte, we know that that choice to reside there.
Led to destruction and disastrous circumstances for he and his family. But look at the contrast. Abraham completely trusted in God and his sovereignty, relying on God that God had promised him what God had promised him. He looks to to God and look at his what happens to him? The Lord said to Abraham, look from this place where you are looking north and south, east and west, for I will give you and your offspring forever the land that you see. And he goes on to say, I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth. As we follow this story along, we understand that the Abrahamic Covenant comes and out of Abraham comes the Messiah, the Christ. And the gospel that flows from him, that all who place their faith and trust in Jesus Christ will be adopted. And Adam added into God’s kingdom. And Abraham descendants will be as the dust of the earth. It’s amazing. As Abraham trusts in God and his promises, he relies on him. And so we see two very different stories lot in his own power. Our own strength looks out, sees what’s best for him at that particular time, leads to destruction. Abraham instead relies on God, relies on God’s promises, and Abraham’s lineage continues today. Through local New Testament churches such as this one. So I did something very. The my main era when I first got saved and went to heavens.
Hebrews 11 and said I wanted to have a lot of faith. I wanted to be one of those guys. I wanted to be on fire for the Lord. I wanted to be this great man of God. With all this faith is that I stopped reading. I just stopped at the end of chapter 11. Because if I want to went to Hebrews 12, I would have seen the source in which our faith can grow. He says, therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses whose the large cloud of witnesses, all those people in chapter 11, all those people who were. Not adding up where it had problems just like us, but continued to and allowed God trials and circumstances in their life to grow. Their faith in God ultimately ended up getting their names written down in the New Testament because of their faith, because of not who they were, but because of the person and people or the person that they were placing their faith in. And that is God. So they are a cloud of witnesses. We need to look to him, look to them, look to Abraham to see that yes, we may not be perfect, but as we look to God and rely on Him and His promises, it is he who will increase our faith. It goes on. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and run with endurance the race that lies before us.
And here it is, keeping our eyes on Jesus. The source and perfecter of our faith. Our Savior is the victor. He is our superhero. He is our conqueror. Christ came and has vanquished the our sin problem. He has overcome it. And as the writer of Hebrews says, we are to look to him because he’s the source and the perfecter of our faith. Your translation might say, he’s the author and perfecter of our faith. It is Christ who authors your faith. It is Christ who perfects your faith. And as we look to the life of Abraham, we see that God doesn’t just give us a bunch of faith, but he allows trials and circumstances in our life to, as we look to him and trust in him to increase our faith. Just as Abraham did. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. It’s just an amazing thing to know that as we look to him, as we look to our victor, as we keep our eyes on him, he’s the one that gives us the grace, the ability to increase our faith and trust in him. And so we’re all posed with certain circumstances and trials and tribulations in our life. And so the question has to come is when we enter into those trials and circumstances, it’s really easy to keep our eyes on Jesus. I think all of us would admit when the sun’s out and there’s no storms in life, right? Everything’s happy.
The bank account has money in it. Everything’s good. Right? I’m a good Christian, then. But when the storms come. When the storms come. My natural tendency is to take my eyes off of the author and perfecter of my faith and trust in my own strength and my own power. And so as we look to the story of Abraham, we see how important it is. To look to Jesus as the author and perfecter of our faith. The ironic thing is, is during those times when there’s no storms in life, if we’re not changing our paradigm, the way we look at life as a means of my life should be all about the worship of God through my actions. And as I choose to follow God and trust in him instead of pleasing my own self, I’m actually worshiping God. And I’m doing these things because I love them, because this is what he’s done for me, all these great things. If we’re not doing that and pursuing that and the storms come, we’re not rooted. Right. If we’re pursuing those things and seeking God and keeping our eyes on Jesus during the times of where there’s really no trials or circumstances, we’re rooting ourselves. We’re gaining a greater glimpse of of Christ. We’re increasing our faith in him. And then when the trials and circumstances come, we can’t be blown away because we’re rooted and grounded in the promises and the power of God.
This is my favorite, one of my favorite promises. This is Christ. Just before he’s getting ready to ascend into the heavens, to sit at the right hand of the father, to be our great High priest, forever making intercession for us. As Hebrews says, the disciples are starting to understand what’s going on. And so they’re starting to get worried. And he’s like, hey, your heart must not be troubled. Believe God, believe also in me. In my father’s house are many dwelling places. If not, I would have told you I’m going away to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you to myself. So that where I am, you may be also. Our faith and keeping our eyes on Jesus isn’t about making this life better. It’s about putting our faith and hope on the life to come in Christ, our eternity and dwelling place with him. Will there be no more sorrow? No more tears. No more death. This eternal existence where God will be among us and he will be our God, and we will be his people. That’s what we hope for. That’s what we look to Jesus for, to give us the grace to get through the trials and tribulations so that our faith may increase. And as we trust in him, his power and his promises. That they may be real in us as we look for his return. And. What he’s purchased for us through his wonderful gift given to us on the cross.