Would It Have Been Enough | Angela Henderson

Okay, you know what to do. Turn to your

neighbor and say, "It's a good time to

be here."

Yes, it is. Yes. God is so good. You

know, again, you're the only you we've

got, and we are so happy that God has

given us the opportunity to advance the

kingdom of God in you as well as with

you. And it's it's exciting to be a part

of the great things that are happening

in our world today. You know, sometimes

we look at the world and you know, there

might be at times fear that grips your

heart or uncertainties that enter into

your mind. But I wouldn't want to be

born in any other time than this. And

each one of us has been chosen for this

time. God knew way back in the beginning

before the world was ever created, he

knew you were coming. And he knew at

what day and what age that you would be

active um and involved in his kingdom.

And so again, we're very honored that we

have this opportunity to walk in this

together as a as a unit, as one, and see

great things happen on our earth in what

seems the most challenging times. Amen.

>> Amen.

>> Amen. Today, I'd like to just share a

little bit about the thought of would it

have been enough? Would it have been

enough? And so, we're going to be

looking in Hebrews chap 11. And I'm just

going to go ahead and read verses 1

through3.

And it says, "Now faith is the assurance

of things hoped for, the conviction of

things not seen. For by it the people of

old received their commenation.

By faith we understand that the universe

was created by the word of God so that

what is seen was not made out of things

that are visible."

And that word accommodation means an act

of praising or approval or entrusting

someone with something.

Look at your neighbor and say, "God's

entrusted you with something.

He has entrusted you with something."

And so they were they were people of old

who received accommodation.

They were representing a divine

approval. Turn to your neighbor and say,

"God approves of you."

Amen. And he does. Lord, we just thank

you for this wonderful opportunity

called today. Thank you for the

invitation that you gave us to enter

into it. Not everybody got it, but we

did because we're here. And so, Lord, we

won't take today lightly.

Thank you, Father, for giving us

something

that we can walk in.

And it's faith. And so, Lord, may we

exercise it well as we follow through

with the assignments that you've laid on

our heart as those of old did. And we're

here today as a witness because of that.

We thank you and we love you. Amen.

Um, the word Hebrew, I like this word.

Um, I looked it up and it actually means

one who is in transit, someone who

passes over or someone who flowers forth

or a deducer. That means like one who

kind of processes everything and one who

looks at something from all sides.

And so, friends, I think it's easy for

us to say that this earth is not our

home. We are just passing through as

those who are adopted into the family of

God. We are a part of Israel. Hebrews

were the children of Israel. And so we

are passing through. But a lot of times

we establish ourselves on this earth as

if this is where we're hanging out

forever. But this is not it. There is so

much more to this earth than what we

see. And as a part of our mentality and

our mindset of I got to make it big

while I'm here. I got to make a name for

myself. I got to make money. I got to do

this. I got to buy that. And I got to

have that. We put our faith and our hope

in a lot of things that will disappoint

us. Now, I don't know if there's anybody

in here that does this. Um, but I'm

going to make a confession. I will

scroll through my Facebook, you know,

and I'll find all these latest and

greatest ideas and products that'll say

they'll do this and they'll do that,

right? And I'm like, "Oh, I got that

problem. Oh, oh, yeah. Okay." And then

I'll start reading through like all the

reviews of what people have said. I'll

even watch their little videos, you

know, as they're saying, "This did that

for me and and and and this is what

happened in three weeks and and all this

kind of stuff." And I'm like, "Yeah,

okay." And so we're constantly getting

packages like delivered to the house.

Keith goes, "Angela, you're living your

best life right now. I guess there's no

retirement."

And so I'm just one of those people. If

if they say it's true, I'll give it a

try. Here, my latest and greatest is

some kind of beef fat tallow that you're

supposed to put on your face and it gets

rid of the wrinkles. I'll let you know

how it works in three weeks. Or maybe

you'll start seeing the results. Who

knows, you know? Um but anyway, but we

do that based on what we've read and

what we've heard. We'll give it a try.

It's like why not? And we'll invest all

that hardearned money into things that

end up in a drawer somewhere and

disappointment in our hearts

>> because it didn't work for me.

But how much more is this thing right

here that we call the word of God that

if we will just invest our time into it

and invest our lives in it, it will not

disappoint you.

It will not disappoint you. But often

what we hear from people is, I prayed,

God didn't answer my prayer.

It might work for you, but it don't work

for me. And so this book may end up in a

drawer somewhere and we might mark

disappointment on it. But what we need

to realize is that God's word is just

that. It's his word. It is his yes and

it is his amen. What he said he will do,

he will do. It will happen. It is a

guarantee.

And we have to begin to put our faith

and our trust in something that is more

stable than be fat. All right? That'll

help get rid of wrinkles. Keith goes,

"You're just like your mama."

I said, 'Well, at least I'm not putting

Preparation H on my face. Back in her

day, it was Preparation H gets rid of

wrinkles. I hadn't done that yet. Okay.

I said, "But I am my mother's daughter."

And so, so we will try all kinds of

things, but we need to put our faith in

God's work. So, word, so it will be

commended. We will be commended for

this. In other words, what the writer of

Hebrews is saying is that these are

people you need to follow their example.

Are you the type of person that other

people could look at and follow your

example and they get results? They get

the results they're looking for. Okay?

It might take more than three weeks for

the results to happen, but they're

living their lives knowing, I'm going to

get the results. And can people follow

that example that we set? Um I want to

take a few minutes and we're going to

kind of break this chapter down a little

bit. We're just going to focus on three

of the many people that um the writer of

Hebrews had given and written about

their lives, their story. Hebrews is

taking the Old Testament, the promises

that were made then, connecting it with

the New Testament of where they were

fulfilled, but still uniting both of

those as well as us in today's time to

carry us into the ultimate promise that

still has yet to come.

And will what we read in this book be

enough? Would it be enough to read this

and to believe in what we still have yet

to see? All right, so let's look at

we're going to break this down a little

bit. Let's go into uh where Hebrews 11:8

Hebrews 11:8

and we're going to read about Abraham.

By faith, Abraham obeyed

when he was called to go out to a place

that he was to receive as an

inheritance. And he went out not knowing

where he was going.

Now, how many of you whenever you're

getting ready to take a trip, the first

thing we do, again, we have such modern

convenience here, we'll grab our phone

and we will put the navigation system

on. We'll Google map it or whatever and

we'll listen to the directions

in a mile at the next light you will

turn right. Turn right. Okay. So it even

reiterates it over and over again. All

right. And so sometimes we'll argue with

it the GPS system thinking you don't

know where you're taking me because

sometimes it really doesn't. Okay. All

right. This is this is programmed by man

fallible mankind. Okay. So, it doesn't

always get it right and it'll take you

around in circles and in circles and in

circles and you know that place is

somewhere and it knows it's somewhere.

It just doesn't know how to get you

there. All right? But God's word knows

how to get us where we're going. All

right? Even if God doesn't fully tell us

where we're headed.

Abraham was willing to just uproot

collect his family and say, "We're

heading out to a promised land. Not

quite sure where this is. Um, but we're

going." And the story continues to say,

if you'll continue to read through this

um part of the chapter, that he entered

into a foreign land, being the promised

land, and they lived in tents. They

lived in tents and he was a very wealthy

man, but they lived in tents. Now, when

I was a little girl, my father was in

the Marine Corps, and he served for 10

years. He did not retire from the

Marines, but he served for 10 years. And

during that 10ear service, he fought in

a war called Vietnam. And um when he

came back from Vietnam, he stayed in the

service for a little bit longer. But

when it came time for reinlistment, he

felt like God was calling him to serve

in other means and other capacity. And

that was through full-time ministry. And

so we were at a South Carolina

Church of God camp meeting. Now, this

was a denomination. And my father had

already gotten out of the Marines. So we

had housing when we were on base and we

had military housing, but he had did not

reinlist and we were out and we and all

of our stuff went to Molden, South

Carolina for a week of family camp

meeting. And every day he would walk up

to the overseer's home, not his office,

but his home. Now, the overseer was over

all the denomination in the state of

South Carolina. And every day, he would

walk to that overseer's home and he

would say, "Hey, I'm George Cooper.

God's called me here. He's called me to

pastor. Do you have a church for me?"

And the overseer would say, "No, no,

brother. We don't have a church for

you." So, he would go back the next day

and he would say, "Hey, George Cooper,

I'm here. God's calling to this place.

Do you have a church for me? And the and

the overseer would say, "No." And he did

this every day. Every day while we were

at camp meeting, the final day of camp

meeting, we were actually camping out.

We had a couple of tents and my

grandparents, it was something that we

would do. And my grandparents would had

their camper. And the overseer comes

onto the campground looking for my dad.

and he says, "George, we have a place

for you if you'd like to go." And my dad

said, "I'll take it." He didn't he

didn't know where it was. He didn't wait

for him to say, you know, what what the

conditions were like. My dad just said,

"We'll take it." And so it was in North

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Anybody

familiar with North Myrtle Beach? All

right. Okay. A lot of sometimes people

know Myrtle Beach, but they don't know

North Myrtle Beach that well. They're

sister cities like Charleston and North

Charleston. So, it was North Myrtle

Beach. And when we pulled up to this

little cinder block church which had

been established six years prior, they

had five women and a handful of children

as their congregation and that was it.

And the husbands would not bring the

wives to church. Some of them did not

drive. So my dad would have to be the

church bus in our Ford station wagon and

go pick them up, minister to them, and

take them home.

But they also didn't have a home for the

minister and his family. And back in

those days they were called parsonages

which would be a house that would sit

beside the church and the family would

live in it. There was no housing aotment

to go and maybe purchase a home. We

didn't have a house that we sold prior

to coming because we were on base

housing. And so my dad did not retire.

So there wasn't like there was a lot of

money that he could just pull from in

order to get us something. But we did

have two military tents and a pop-up

camper.

And so it was beside that building that

my dad positioned those tents. One my

mom cooked in, the other one we kept our

stuff in. And the little camper we'd

sleep in. And it was just literally a

little pop-up camper. You'd walk in and

you either went to the left and fell on

a bed or you went to the right and fell

on a bed and that was it.

And so my mom and dad, what they would

do is they would um go inside the church

itself and they would sponge bath

regularly, but at the back of the

church, because we were surrounded by

woods, they throw a piece of plywood out

there and they'd bathe us kids out

there. And I'd say, "Mom, this is no way

for a Christian to have to take a bath.

This is no way. We ain't supposed to be

doing this." But this is what we did.

You just pulled up and you just went.

God said, "You're going. We don't know

where we're going, but this is where we

ended up at and we were in tents.

Friends, sometimes we have to just take

God at his word and we have to follow

him wherever he's leading us. And it

might not be where we thought. It might

not be the Taj Mahal that you end up in.

All right? It might not be full of

grander the way your eyes and your

vision sees it. But while we were there,

the Lord had just really anointed my

parents. They did some amazing things.

They have an apostolic ministry where

they build physically as well as in the

in the spirit. So they did a lot of

renovations where the church was

concerned. My dad worked another job so

he could buy a mobile home for us to be

able to live in. But that started just

the the beginning of a ministry where he

would go and he would build. Everywhere

he was sent to, he would build and he

would build and he would build and we

all survived it. I'm here. I'm alive and

well. I had my seventh birthday in one

of those tents. So, I'm 59 years old.

So, help me do the math. That was what,

52 years ago. Is that right? Am I right?

Hey, I'm getting better at this. Okay.

Yeah. So, 52 years ago, and my story is

still being written. And God is so

amazing in life. And so, do not let your

hearts be troubled at where he may be

sending you and what you may be walking

into. He knows the plans that he's made

for you to give you a future, to give

you a hope, not to destroy you, but to

actually help you be productive. And so,

God is doing great things. And so,

think about something that God has asked

you to do recently or maybe in the past

and now you're on the other side of it.

You passed through like Hebrews, you

didn't just hang out there, but you were

passing through.

If he did not do anything, anything else

for you, would that have been enough?

Turn to your neighbor and ask them,

would that have been enough?

All right, let's look at the next one.

We're going to go to Hebrews 11:23

Hebrews 11:23–25

through 25. By faith, Moses when he was

born was hidden for three months by his

parents because he saw or they saw that

the child was beautiful and they were

not afraid of the king's edict. By

faith, Moses when he was grown up

refused to be called the son of

Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to

be mistreated with the people of God

than to enjoy fleeting pleasures of sin.

So here there was an edict where all the

children were being killed because the

Israel was in slavery and they were just

producing and remapply and Pharaoh was

afraid that they were going to just

outnumber them and then overtake them by

some great big rebellion. So they just

started killing all the men and

children. But the parents of Moses saw

something special about their child. Now

I think every parent sees something

special about their child.

and we will do anything in our heart to

be able to guard them and to protect

them from any harm that's out there in

the world. And so they saw something

beautiful about him and so they hid him

for three months. Could you imagine

hiding a baby for three months? That is

a very vital time in the life of a

child. And their only communication is

that's all they know. And so, could you

imagine trying to keep this child secret

so that nobody would find him to harm

him or to hurt him?

But Pharaoh's daughter happened to find

him as he was being hidden in the bull

rushes over being watched over by his

sister Miriam. And so, she loved the

child and she gave the child an

opportunity to grow up with his

birthother, which she did not know was

his birth mother at the time. But she

allowed the child to go with Miriam to

go be taken to a woman who could nurse

him until he was older. and then bring

him into Pharaoh's home. And so Moses

grew up with wealth. He grew up with

education. He grew up with all the finer

things in life. But then God called him

to do something greater than that.

Friends, if we get caught up in this

world and its riches, your aspirations

are low, you're missing it. You're

missing it. It's not about that. Now, we

do need resources in order to be able to

accomplish the things that God has for

us. But our faith needs to be put not in

those things, but in the character of

who God is, who is the author and the

finisher of our faith, who will provide

for us if we just say, "Yes, I'll go.

Yes, I'll go. Yes, I'll go." But too

often we want to look at things in the

natural and say, "Ain't no way. No way

that's going to happen. That's

impossible." Nothing is impossible with

God, is it? nothing. Absolutely nothing.

All he's wanting for you to do is to say

yes. That's all he wants. And so Moses

went out and chose to live in the

wilderness with his people

until God again called him and said, "I

need you to come back.

I need you to come back now to what

you've left because

the children are crying out.

the children are crying out. Now, when

Moses had gone into that wilderness, he

discovered a little bit more about who

he really was. He wasn't the child or

the do or the son of Pharaoh's daughter,

but he was chosen to be a child of God.

He was chosen to be something greater,

to be a deliverer, to go and help set

captives free.

And the Lord told him, "My children are

crying out."

How many times do we have as adults,

and I'm I'm speaking to myself as well.

I didn't really know who I was as I was

entering into adulthood, and that's

probably normal for some natural, but

you know, I had a a knowledge of the

word, but I didn't really have a

relationship with the word. So, it

wasn't really that alive in me. I could

quote it, but I didn't understand what

it was that I was saying. And so, I

didn't know how to walk in it and and

and live it and and make it applicable.

And so, as I grew into adulthood, I

carried all the confusion and the

insecurities into from a from a child

and from um you know, growing up as a

teenager, which a lot that's normal, a

lot of things that we walk through, but

I carried it into my adult life. And so

at this time I started beginning to have

my own family, but I was still trying to

figure out who I was.

And I think I'm not probably not the

only one that's done that.

And so we get caught up in trying to

figure out who we are that we forget

about our responsibility of the ones

that we're bringing up.

And we expect that just because we're in

church or we place them in in a in a in

a ministry that they're getting it.

But where does ministry first begin? In

the home. It begins in the home.

It's always there. That is the

beginning. And as much as we want to

pride ourselves, oh, I'm a mama bear.

Don't you be messing with my kids or,

you know, daddy's going to get them for

that.

There's always something lacking if

Jesus is not truly the center and if

we're making ourselves the center

and we're trying to figure ourselves

out.

And so what happens is is that the enemy

comes in and he goes after the children

while we adults are trying to figure it

out, trying to get it together.

Who am I? What am I supposed to be

doing? My dreams, my aspirations.

And all along the children are just

trying, they're crying out.

And the enemy is coming in and trying to

help silence their cries.

In Moses's day as a babe, Pharaoh was

killing them. Friends, I want to tell

you, it's no different right now. It's

no different right now in these days.

Your children may be alive and well, but

the enemy is out here killing them. He's

out to kill, steal, and destroy while

we're still trying to get it together.

It's time to get it together, families.

It's time to get it together, parents.

It's time to know who you are. And it's

time to know what your responsibility is

where your children are concerned

because they are crying out. And you

know what they're doing in middle

school? They're bringing guns to school.

How do I know it? Because it happened at

my school two times in two weeks. Loaded

guns to school. And right after that,

the principal gets a phone call where a

student in our school shot his brother.

Listen, they're crying out. They're

crying out. But where are the parents?

Where are the families that will say, "I

will take responsibility. I will raise

this child. I will hide him from the

enemy. I will hide her from the enemy. I

will cover them." And one of the things

that really irritates me, and I'm sorry,

I don't want to be on a soap box, is

that when we come to people and say, "We

need help in kids church." That's not my

ministry. I wasn't called to do that.

Let me tell you something. If there's

breath in your body, you're called to

minister to kids. You're called to bring

them up in the ways of God. When my

children, when my kids walked out of the

ways of God, you know what I did? I

didn't sit around and feel sorry for

myself and say, "Oh, I got so many

problems, my child. What they're doing?

They're just breaking my heart. They're

just crushing me." No, that doesn't make

it any less true. They did. But you know

what? I did. I went to your kids and I

said, "Okay, I know mine's coming back.

I'm going to help you get yours, too.

Because if the enemyy's messing with

mine, oh my, he's messed with the wrong

MAMA BEAR. HE'S MESSED with the wrong

mama bear. AND THEY'RE ALL COMING IN.

ALL OF THEM ARE COMING IN. AND IT'S time

as a church that we realize the

importance of our children. They need

us. They need us. And we need to bring

them up. And we need to take time to get

off the pew and get into that church and

start raising them up and start bringing

them up. Listen, Jesus put priority on

the children.

>> Now, we all look at the scripture, oh,

suffer the little children to come into

me and forbid them not for such as the

kingdom of God. If you've never read it

before, it's in there. Look it up.

>> But he didn't come into this earth as an

adult.

>> He didn't

A lot of times we just think we're the

ones that got all the problems. We're

the ones that are having to find things

and seek things out. If he just only

cared about adults, he'd have just

showed up one day. But he did not. He

came in as a baby. As a baby, showing us

that every stage of life is a value to

God. It is important to God. Is it

important to you? If he never does

anything for you ever again, but maybe

he's blessed you with children, would

that have been enough for you to

believe? Would that have been enough for

you to believe?

Now, I'm going to step down. We're going

to go to Hebrews. Hebrews 11:31.

Hebrews 11:31

A woman named Rahab comes into the

picture. By faith, Rahab the prostitute

did not perish with those who were

disobedient because she had given a

friendly welcome to the spies.

It was time to go take the promised

land. Moses had died.

He was humbled and he was walked in

humility during his time and going back,

leaving a palace and going out into the

wilderness with people. But he had

passed on now.

And so now Joshua had been raised up.

And so they send sla um spies back into

Kaa to check it out.

And these spies happened to come across

a prostitute named Rahab.

And so they were being sought after. And

so she gave them shelter in her home.

And when it was time for them to leave,

she lowered them. As Joshua chapter 2

Joshua 2 · chapter mention

verse1 15 tells us, she lowered them

over the city wall for her house was a

part of that wall.

Her house was a part of that wall. And

the promise that they made to her

because she asked them, she says,

"Listen, we've heard about your God. We

have seen what he has been doing. And

people's hearts are melting with fear in

this place.

would you please spare me and my family?

Is there any way we can be spared from

what's getting ready to happen? And so

the spies told her, because you were

kind to us, if you will take this cord

and put it in the window, this will be a

sign. It was a scarlet cord. This will

be a sign that you will be protected.

Gather all your family into the house.

only those that are in your house will

be protected from what's getting ready

to happen. And so she did that. She went

out and she gathered her family. We

don't know who all was in her family. We

don't know um what all uh was there. You

know, she was a prostitute. We didn't

know if they even wanted to have

anything to do with her. If they even

believed that this was going to, you

know, happen. But whoever gathered in

her house was going to be spared.

Now remember, her house was a part of

the city wall.

And so as the children of Israel went

and they followed the commands of God

and they marched around for seven days

around that wall, six just one time

each. But on the seventh day, they

marched seven times around and they blew

the horns on that seventh time and the

walls began to shake.

Does anybody feel like your house is

shaking a little bit right now?

This earth is filled with all kinds of

trouble. God's told us that all kinds of

in this world you're going to have

trouble. But he says, "Take heart

because I have what? Overcome the

world." Yeah. And so we find ourselves

in that guarantee

that we can be safe even when the earth

in the world is shaking, when there's

issues, when there's trouble, when

there's all kinds of things that are

taking place.

I'll never forget when my oldest son was

uh three months old. I had a dream and

in my dream he was five years old and at

that in that dream at the age of five he

was being arrested

and I remember asking the police officer

can I go with him I'm his mother he's

just a baby and he said every child is

somebody's baby no you cannot go and so

when I woke up from that dream I

remember saying uh-uh not on my watch

this is never going to happen my child

this is he is not going to experience

that um arrest and jail has been

something that's ran in my family and so

I just said no it's going to break with

this he he is not going and so as a

mother I've always tried to guard and

protect and keep him safe and look out

for him sometimes even cover for him all

right when when things would happen

because he was not going to go to jail.

And so one day um we were living in

Goose Creek and I was coaching another

ministry in Monk's Corner um and I was

with this minister and and their his

wife and their staff, their team. And I

had been there all day Saturday. And

when I got through I noticed my phone

had just been blowed up. I mean

messages, calls, all kinds of stuff. I'm

like, my goodness, what is going on? And

so as I'm driving home, I begin to

listen to the messages and I'm like, my

heart just sinks. So I called Keith and

he said, 'Angela Zachary has just been

arrested.

And I thought, what? Now listen friends,

you can't make this stuff up. Here I am

trying to keep him out of jail. And who

pressed the charges? His sister.

I am not kidding. his sister.

And so anyway, we were parents and we

were like, "Okay, we've got two children

here." We told them we were going to

support them. We were here for both of

them. They had an an a an an argument.

They had something going on,

altercation, but we supported both of

them. And so I thought, "What happened?"

I had been praying. I had been binding.

I had been breaking curses. I had been

doing all kinds of things. I was trying

ever since he was three months old for

this moment not to become a reality and

it did.

Now I could have just looked at this and

said, "It doesn't work.

God doesn't hear my prayer." And forgot

everything else he had done for me up to

that moment, which is what some of us

have a tendency to do.

After all he's done, wouldn't that have

been enough? If he hadn't done anything

else, wouldn't that have been enough?

And I remember I had to speak that very,

this was on a Saturday. And I had to

speak that very next Sunday morning. And

we had made the choice and the decision

to let him spend the night to stay

there. And so I called up one of my

prophets. Her name is Stephanie. And I

said, "Stephanie, you need to really

pray for me and cover me. I'm speaking

today. And this is what happened last

night. And I'm okay, but I just need

extra strength and encouragement." I

tell you what, God will send them. God

will send the people to help lift you up

when your house is shaking, when the

foundation of your home is shaking.

And so I was covered in prayer that day.

And what was even more beautiful was

that the church that I was coaching at

that Saturday, the pastor happened to be

a guard in the Berkeley County Jail.

And he happened to be at work that

night. And he happened to go in and

said, "Hey, your boy's here. I'll look

out for him while he's here. So, he had

a captive audience to speak into Zach's

life that couldn't go anywhere. And he

spoke and he ministered to Zach all

night long. All night long. Something I

was trying to prevent from happening was

the very thing God said is going to

happen so I can position your son so he

can hear what he needs to hear so he can

find his way back to me.

But what we have a tendency to do when

things like that happen and our houses

are shaking is we have a tendency to

want to run outside of the house. Run

outside of the covering. Okay. I could

have said, "Oh, pastor, I can't preach

tomorrow because my son's in jail and

and I got to go and just stay at home

and cry and you know,

I just can't get up. I just can't make I

can't get up there on that stage. I

can't speak to the people today. I could

have done that. But when we come out of

the safety of the covering of the house,

we chance getting hit by a wall that's

falling and that's crashing. And as long

as we stay in the house, then we are

going to be fine. We may be shaken. The

foundations of our home may feel like

they're falling apart, but if we will

stay in the house, we will be saved. We

will be saved. We will be saved. We will

be saved. Friend, stay in the house.

Stay in the house. Don't get out of the

house when the world is shaking. A lot

of people want to say, "I'm done. I'm

leaving." Don't leave the house if

unless you want to get hit by the

bricks. Stay inside the house. Everybody

outside that house was killed.

Stay under the covering and the

protection of what the house brings.

That scarlet cord represented the blood

of Jesus. It was a representation. And

if you'll look in every story of the

Bible from Old Testament, you will see

Jesus. And that scarlet cord represented

the blood that he was shed that he would

be shedding for the remission of sin to

cover us to cover us. And so when I

mention the house, I'm not mentioning a

building. I'm mentioning a family of

God. The kingdom of God.

Not just a building, but the kingdom of

God. And you could go on and read for

yourself Hebrews 11 on through 32-40.

And you can find out all these amazing

people that lived for God and allowed

their faith to help see them through

difficult times and difficult

situations, but yet none of them got

what was promised.

They may have gotten a little thing here

and a little thing there, but the

ultimate promise

is that of restoration.

Because you see, your story is part of a

greater story. It's just not about you.

It's just not about me.

Angela lived and she did this and she

did that and then she died.

No, it's a part of what God is doing.

It's his story and we're a part of that

now. And his story is being manifested

in our lives from creation to the fall

to redemption. And now we're all waiting

for that restoration, that time when the

old what's happening now is gone and a

new creation is stepped into place and

God is taking us back to the original

plan he had to begin with where

everything is perfect.

For everything is perfect and our faith

is now being united with their faith

from back of days of old. And we are now

coming together to live in the moments

that are still to come. Romans 8 23-2.

And I'm wrapping up with this. And we

believers also groan.

W

even though we have the Holy Spirit

within us as a foretaste of the future

glory. For we long for our bodies to be

released from sin and suffering. And we

too wait with eager hope for the day

when God will give us our full rights as

his adopted children,

including the new bodies he has promised

us.

Then I can stop buying all that stuff on

Facebook.

We were given this hope when we were

saved.

If we already have something, we don't

need to hope for it. But we look forward

to something we don't yet have. We must

wait patiently and confidently.

If he doesn't do anything else for you,

would what he already has done and what

he has said in his word, would it be

enough to keep you holding on for the

ultimate promise?