Oct 11, 2026 - What Are You Waiting For - Week 4 - Living While We Wait

In a world.

It's always in a world, right?

In a world filled with hatred, injustice, and suffering.

A new world is coming.

But now every act of mercy, forgiveness, justice is a sneak preview.

The world to come.

Coming soon.

Right?

So and scene.

Welcome in everyone.

My name is Jason, and I'm one of the pastors at Highland Christian Church.

And on behalf of our team, I just wanted to say thanks for taking some time to journey with us through the scripture.

Our hope is that these words would cause you to think carefully about this Jesus we proclaim and that you would choose to trust him in your day-to-day.

And as always, if you're in the Asheville area, whether you live here or you're visiting, we'd love for you to come join us at the corner of Livingston and Depot Street in person at the Dr.

Wesley Grant Senior Southside Center.

Our prayer is that God's words would equip you for every good work that He's prepared for you to do today.

So as I mentioned, this is the last week in a series we've been in looking at the world to come.

What does a Christ follower believe about the end times?

What does a Christ follower believe about where things are headed?

Uh heaven and hell and the conversation.

It's a lot to try and unpack, which is why we did it in four weeks.

But this is the final week as we have been talking about Christ's return and what will it look like?

And what will we experience?

And why can we anticipate it and not fear it and dread it as believers?

So the question we're going to be asking this morning, though, is how should we live while we wait?

It matters.

How we wait matters.

Christ's followers and God's people through history have been a waiting people.

And if you read through the Old Testament, you see waiting.

You see in the New Testament, you see waiting.

But ultimately, when God promises something, it's not in our timeline, it's in his.

So you see people waiting, you see God responding and stepping in, and you see it all through history.

Eventually, till the Messiah comes, Jesus shows up, right?

They waited a long time for Messiah.

He shows up.

And now the disciples are asking questions.

They're wondering, hey, when are you going to wrap this whole thing up?

What's it going to look like?

And he's like, hey, that's not for you to know.

The hour is not for you to know.

God knows.

It's your job to be ready.

What does it mean to be ready?

What does it mean to wait?

So to do that, I need you to imagine with me what it means to be in exile.

And many of us have never experienced that.

But maybe you have been in a foreign country for an extended amount of time.

Maybe you can imagine what it's like to have to leave the United States or leave your country of origin or where you're from, and you have to go to another place for an extended period of time.

You can survive wherever you are, right?

You're there.

Maybe there's some good things you begin to experience, but occasionally something reminds you of home.

If you've been overseas long enough and you're like, oh man, quarter pounder with cheese, right?

I know it's pretty basic, but I'm a very basic individual.

So to have something like that, to be able to step back into the States after eating bugs that I have eaten before, and having times of having to eat very little, or to be able to get down and go, this quarter pounder with cheese, as fake as it is, it doesn't matter.

It's amazing, right?

Like you have these moments of something that reminds you of home.

And maybe you actually meet somebody from the States, and maybe you've been there for a long time, and you're like, oh man, tell me what's up in Asheville.

What's going on there?

What's going on where I'm from?

Give me a report.

And suddenly there's this deep ache inside of you, and you're like, I just want to go home, man.

Like, I've been here a long time.

I just want to go home.

The Old Testament is actually filled with stories just like that.

Isaiah, the prophet, speaks directly to people who had walked that story out.

In fact, Israel had lost everything.

Everything.

Land, security, their place of worship, an identity, their homes.

But in Isaiah chapter 40, we see God tell Isaiah, Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

And in the midst of all their pain and all their struggle, Isaiah is able to begin describing what God's restoration is actually going to look like.

What is it going to look like for them in their hurt, in their pain, for a future?

They were created that in and God does this, and he creates a longing not just for a place, but for him in their people, in his people.

Most of the time, when people are exiled in the Old Testament, it's because of their loss of relationship with God.

And they feel that.

They feel that being away from him.

And what God does is he stirs in them this desire to be back with him.

And so as we talk about the world to come, it's not just the benefits of the future, it's the promise of his presence.

That's really where we want to go.

We don't want to be a people who are like, I'm just hungry for his stuff.

I'm just hungry for his stuff.

No, we're hungry for him.

We want to know him.

God's going to gather his people like a shepherd gathers his sheep.

The exhausted will receive strength, and those who wait on the Lord will run and not grow weary.

They will walk and not faint.

He's not just talking about stuff, he's talking about people.

People will be restored.

And we're living in a world where many of our deepest desires go unsatisfied.

Think about yourself.

Right?

We desire love without the fear of losing someone.

Right?

There are a lot of people who they're just like, you know what, I'm not going to get into a relationship because I fear rejection.

I'm just not going to jump into it because I'm going to reject, I'm going to reject them before I experience rejection.

We desire relationships without the fear of losing that relationship.

We desire beauty that doesn't fade.

I mean, good grief, right?

Bodies that don't wear out.

I mean, every Instagram right now, because it knows my age, is like showing me how to not be the weakest man on the block, right?

How to be stronger in every way possible.

Like that's what the Instagram algorithm is right now.

Relationships that experience no betrayal, right?

If you've ever been hurt in a relationship, you're like, I just, I'm not gonna go back, I'm not gonna have good friends.

I'm gonna put my head down, I'm just gonna work because I'm tired of the way people eventually treat me.

Right?

Justice without bribery, right?

I mean, you we're seriously in another political season.

And how many of us are so excited?

Right?

I like you sit there and go, I wish I could be, right?

Because who, but who can I trust?

Everything we do right now is built around distrust.

We don't do anything, or we don't vote for them because we don't trust them.

We don't vote for them because we don't trust them.

Right?

I mean, it's where we are.

But we long, we we long for justice systems to do what they're supposed to do.

Right?

Like we long to know that the people that we're gonna vote that are gonna be representing us, we want to know there ain't nothing corrupt about them.

We want to know those things.

There's a reason for that.

We want to work without being frustrated.

Like so many of us are like, I don't want to go to work.

Why?

Because I'm frustrated by my coworkers, by the feeling I have when I'm working.

We want to work, we want to produce, we want to be a part of creating in society, but we know all the downfalls that come with it.

There's longings in us.

We want joy without the nagging awareness that it's gonna end.

We want peace without another crisis waiting around the corner.

I don't know how many of you as believers have this like weird thought process.

You're like, everything's gone really good for the last month.

All right, God, when's the next bad thing gonna happen?

All right, how is that hopeful?

How is that showing the world, right?

So, this is this is us, this is what we do.

We long for these things.

And maybe those desires that we have aren't unrealistic.

Maybe they're what theologians call future memories.

Maybe it's a pointer forward to what we were made for, hints of where God is taking us.

The psalmist says this in Psalm 37:4, and I've seen this passage twisted in so many ways it's crazy.

Psalms 37:4

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart's desires.

This does not mean that God promises to satisfy every appetite you have developed living in this broken world.

Okay?

I need you to hear me say that.

Our desires actually need redemption.

What we long for, our affections, what we love actually needs to be transformed.

And how do sinful desires transform?

Delighting ourselves in the Lord.

The more, and we talked about this last week, those that I know that are fearful of the future of Christ's return, chances are you're not as sure about what Christ has done.

Right?

If you don't understand the message of the cross, his death, his resurrection, his life, his ascension, all the things that happened before his return, and how you can stand assured in those things, it's gonna be really hard to be excited about his return.

You're trembling, you're like, am I good?

Am I am I gonna survive?

Like, those aren't the questions.

The question is, where is my source of life?

And it's Christ.

And how do how does delighting our ourselves in the Lord change things?

It changes our desires.

When you see a beautiful mountain and you wish you could somehow just hold on to that moment, right?

We live in Asheville, like you look out and you're like, oh my gosh.

Like there have been some sunsets the last couple weeks that you're just going, oh my, that is unbelievable.

And you'd get out your dumb iPhone and you're like trying to take pictures of it, and then there's a bunch of pictures of sunsets on the internet, and it's just like, those are terrible.

They don't capture what we've just tried to see, but it's amazing because we're trying to tell the story about the amazing sunset.

Right?

When you're sitting around a table laughing with people, and then there's that one person who's like, hey everybody, let's do an USI, right?

Or you're like, you're just trying to capture it.

It's crazy.

Like, I don't ever, I don't know how people do that.

They just interrupt the time and they're like, hey, everybody, look this way, right?

You know, it's it's weird, but whatever.

But they're just trying to preserve the moment.

You're like, this is so good, I don't want it to end.

I want these meals and the laughter, and I want that feeling and to experience it, to know it, to remember it.

When injustice makes something inside you scream, this is not how it's supposed to be.

If you haven't wept over injustice lately, I don't know if you're actually watching.

But there's something in us that goes, This is not what things are supposed to be like.

How many funerals that I've had to go to and I've had to preach, and I've heard someone say this wasn't, this isn't, this isn't how it's supposed to end.

Right?

There's something about going to somebody's memorial of life, right, where they lived a long life, 80, 90, 100 years.

But then you go to a funeral, well, somebody's life was cut short, and everybody tries to make it a really positive experience, but everyone knows inside this is not how this should have ended.

There's a desire in us that do seem unfulfilled.

And maybe those are glimpses of home, maybe they're little reminders in the land of exile that we were made for another country, just like Abraham.

Just like in Hebrews 11, all those who by faith didn't get to experience everything God had for them because they were waiting on the country to come.

And this is important.

The world to come doesn't mean God finally teaches us, oh man, I can't wait to stop wanting love, beauty, laughter, relationship, creation, justice, and life.

No.

He actually restores the heart and then fulfills its redeemed desires.

He changes us.

Taking delight in the Lord transforms our heart's desires.

That's why the biblical world to come is both familiar to us and it seems so out of reach.

Right?

It seems like this is what we're meant for, but then we're like trying to pretend and it's an imagination thing where we're like, that seems too good to be true.

There is a tension.

It's not completely unlike this world.

Maybe the ache that we have is evidence of home.

And I'm not saying that, again, all the aches that we have for the world to come is not absolute proof of God's existence, but maybe we keep longing for those things because God wired us that way.

Like it's weird that all of us have this idea of a perfected paradise, world without injustice, world where work matters, like all the things.

Like we've got these things.

That's not that's not weird.

It's actually pretty normal because God wired us to experience those things.

But sin has turned things.

Right?

The prophets they envisioned a world like that to come where things are finally made whole.

And the prophets had promised that one day God's kingdom would come, but in Jesus' day, when he showed up, there was a continual disagreement about how this world to come was supposed to come.

There were two traditional views.

Some believe that the world to come would come through revolution.

Pray, pick up your sword, and go kill the bad guy, right?

But then there were others who were like, no, no, no, no, no, no.

The world to come will come by separating ourselves.

So we'll go to the mountains and we'll retreat and we'll no longer be a part of this world that God is going to destroy, right?

So there was revolution and there was separation.

But yet Jesus shows up and overturns all the strategies.

When people expected him to raise an army, he's like, repent.

Get your sword, repent.

You need to change how you think about the kingdom of God.

When they expected him to destroy Rome, what did he say?

Love your enemies.

When they expected him to strike back, what did he say?

Turn the other cheek.

When Pilate asked him if he was a king, Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world.

And this is where we all run, right?

We're like, it's a spiritual kingdom only.

It's just spiritual, it's just a matter of your soul, and that's all that matters to Jesus.

That statement, my kingdom is not of this world, does not mean his kingdom has nothing to do with this world.

It means it doesn't come the way the kingdoms of the world come.

Kingdoms of the world, earthly kingdoms, advance through force.

But Jesus brings his kingdom in an entirely different way.

He transforms people and invites them to what?

Live under the reign of the king.

That's why Jesus' first sermon wasn't fight harder.

It was repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

The kingdom wasn't something his followers would build by force.

It had arrived in the king himself.

God's reign had broken into history, and now people are invited to begin living under that reign now.

We don't wait till then.

Now, Jesus spent surprisingly little time describing every detail of the world to come, but instead he spent his time describing the kind of people who belong there.

The poor in spirit.

Those who can say, I don't have anything on my own.

The meek, strength under control.

That doesn't say the weak.

It says those who are strong are not using their strength for personal gain, but they are surrendered to the Lord.

Peacemakers.

We're troublemakers, guys, right?

He's like, nah, I want people who are willing to work towards peace.

And peace is not just the absence of conflict.

Peace is wholeness.

So to see somebody and be like, hey, I can see that you need X, Y, and Z.

Hey, go in peace.

I'm not fighting with you.

That's not what, that's not what Jesus is talking about.

Peace is wholeness.

People who are looking for ways to help people experience wholeness.

Those who hunger for righteousness, righteousness is right relationship with God.

Do you hunger to have a right relationship with God?

Is it part of your appetite?

Or are you like, my appetite is just sexual, drugs, parties, friends, popularity, fame, Instagram, social media?

Is that your is that your appetite?

Or do you have a hunger for right relationship with God?

That's what that's saying.

Jesus is like, those are the people of the kingdom.

People who hunger for that.

Those who show mercy, giving people what they do not deserve.

Do you love to show mercy?

Or are you so glad when people get theirs?

Right?

Those who become like little children in humble trust.

He kept overturning all of these expectations.

When Jesus says the kingdom of God is near, he's not simply saying, Hey, you better straighten up or you're not going to heaven.

Which is what we have whittled this beautiful picture of the world to come down to.

And I'm sorry if that's what you grew up with, but the scripture teaches so much more.

He's announcing that God's reign has begun and eternal life is found in surrendering to God's rule.

The opposite of God's kingdom is not earth.

Right?

Like so many people are like, there's the kingdom of God out there, and then there's earth.

And that's, I mean, you can tell that's our attitude.

That's the church's attitude much of the time.

The opposite of God's kingdom is every system ruled by pride and greed and violence, injustice, and ultimately self-interest.

That's the opposite of the kingdom of God.

Not earth.

The beautiful picture we get to see is Jesus inviting us to begin living under God's rule today while we wait for the world to come.

And that's why he speaks so often about feeding the hungry, welcoming strangers, clothing the poor, comforting mourners, visiting prisoners, making peace.

All of these things you do where?

Here.

That's why he said Jesus, Jesus was like, This is your prayer.

God, your kingdom come, your will be done.

Where?

On earth, as it is in heaven.

God, everything good and beautiful and pure and noble and true, what you have, we want it here.

And we're gonna be people who embody that.

Not because those deeds earn the kingdom.

I mean, again, we can run real quick to being like, well, I gotta do all those things so that I can be a part of the world to come.

That is not true, but because kingdom people begin living now the way the whole world will be then.

We become previews of the future.

So, if you like trailers, we're gonna try and do our best trailer voice for the coming preview.

All right, go ahead.

In a world, it's always in a world, right?

In a world filled with hatred, injustice, and suffering, a new world is coming.

But now every act of mercy, forgiveness, justice is a sneak preview.

The world to come, coming soon.

Right?

So and scene.

Sorry?

Like I don't know, I don't know how else to talk about it other than a preview of what is to come.

You and I get to be a part of that preview.

The future has started invading the present, and that changes how we wait.

This is what Jesus means in Matthew chapter six participation based on where our treasure is.

Don't store up treasures here on earth where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal, store your treasures in heaven where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.

Wherever your treasure is, there the what?

Desires of your heart will also be.

There's a

Transformed desire that happens, right?

Suppose you were moving to another country and you knew you could begin transferring those resources to wherever you're moving now, right?

Your favorite stuff that you have now, you actually need to go ahead and send it ahead to where you're moving.

Why wouldn't you do that right now?

You would.

Jesus says that's essentially possible with the world to come.

There are things we can do here that somehow matter there.

And I don't fully understand it.

I mean, I think anybody who says, I get how this works perfectly, is probably lying to you.

It is a mystery.

There is a tension, but sacrificial love and generosity and forgiveness, being hospitable to someone who cannot repay you, according to Scripture, none of that is ever wasted.

None of it.

The Apostle Paul spent so much time trying to help the church understand her beautiful physical kingdom future, right?

The new bodies, we read that.

We're like, oh my gosh, I can't wait till my body, my body mortal, is like clothed in immortality and no more aches and bones and legs and hurt and pain and all the things.

We're like, I cannot wait for that day.

And you know what Paul says at the end of that?

This is what he says in verse 58 of 1 Corinthians 15.

So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable.

Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

Like this wasn't just a Paul throwing some random encouragement in at the end of a long talk about the future of the believer.

Somehow knowing the future of the believer causes the church to go, we are strong and immovable, and we will work enthusiastically, because nothing we do for the Lord is ever useless.

And boy, wouldn't the enemy want you to think it's useless.

Wouldn't the enemy want to keep the church from doing anything because she thinks everything I do is too small?

But yet you have scripture that says nothing done for the Lord is ever useless.

Some things we do now somehow survive into the age that is coming.

That's why hope in the world to come shouldn't make Christians care less about this world.

It should make us care more.

We already know what God intends to do with his world.

So, what?

What does he intend to do?

He intends to repair what's broken.

So you know what we do?

Repair what we can.

So what do we do?

We comfort people now.

He intends to bring justice, so what do we do?

We pursue justice for others now.

He intends to bring peace.

So Jesus calls us to become peacemakers now.

He intends to destroy death and bring life, so wherever death and destruction have touched someone's life, kingdom, people bring life wherever they can.

This is a big picture vision of Genesis to Revelation.

And I hope that you can see that it's so much more than just going, well, I'm not gonna cuss.

That's what we've whittled Christianity down to.

You do know that, right?

We have whittled this beautiful, giant, glorious narrative down to, well, I'm just not gonna let anybody know I cuss.

I actually cuss all the time by myself, but like it's all about what we don't do.

And boy, wouldn't the enemy love to keep it at that.

Are there things that we do differently?

Absolutely.

But if our lives don't include this big, grand, glorious narrative from Genesis to Revelation, we are missing out on the full life that Jesus came to bring us.

You and I, we cannot bring the world to come.

Only God can do that.

But we can give people glimpses of it.

And as the band comes and we close our time, there is one other way we get to experience the world to come, and sometimes I don't think we talk about it enough as believers.

And it's simply to enjoy and even celebrate what is good.

Philippians chapter 4, Paul says this, and he's in prison, he's suffering.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

He says, And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.

Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable.

Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

So, again, when you stand on that mountain and you're overwhelmed by its beauty, thank God.

Just start thanking him.

When you're sitting around a table with people you love and everyone is laughing and enjoy it, be reminded that this is a future pointer to where things are headed.

When you're experiencing good food or music that doesn't degrade women or men or glorify violence, and you're listening to a song and it just grabs you, and the storytelling just makes you go, man, I really connect with that.

Enjoy it.

Thank God for it.

And friendships are life-giving, thank God for it.

When you see a piece of art and you're just like, that is mind-boggling.

I do not know how a human being was able to do that.

Thank God that we get to reflect a creative creator.

When you experience sacrificial love, someone sacrifices so that you will feel loved.

Celebrate it.

When you have the opportunity to sacrifice for someone else, say, God, thank you for giving me a chance to be like Jesus.

When you get to rest because you know all the work is not up to you.

Thank God that he said rest.

Don't be obsessed with finishing it all because it's on his shoulders.

These are not distractions from eternity, they're little preview windows of it.

This is what it means to think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

It's not just about your musical likes or choices, it's about what you fill your life with and how your desires are transformed.

The beauty of the world to come isn't simply that everything's going to be made new.

It's that we finally enjoy everything as God intended us to.

Like, it won't become an idol in our life.

It won't be something that we end up worshiping because we'll be like, oh, there's no way I'm worshiping that good thing.

God is right there.

I can see how good and beautiful and just and powerful He is.

But there's also something uniquely important about the life we live right now.

And it's an ancient rabbinic saying, and it's it can be confusing if you read it once, but then if you get twice and three times and four times in, but it's better is one hour of repentance and good deeds in this world than the whole life of the world to come.

And better is one hour of bliss in the world to come than the whole life of this world.

Hmm.

Like if you gotta read it a couple of times, and we'll we'll put it out there on Facebook and Instagram world.

One hour there will be better than experiencing everything we've ever experienced here.

But there's something you and I can experience here that we will not be able to experience there.

You and I can forgive someone who hurt us here.

You and I can feed someone who's hungry here.

You and I can comfort someone who's grieving here.

You can stand beside someone who's being mistreated here.

You can comfort someone who's grieving here.

We can repent here.

We can sacrifice and give things up here.

We can love someone when loving them costs us something.

We can share Christ's saving power with someone here.

So, in some respects, an hour of repentance in this world is so glorious because we won't be able to do it there.

We will have everything there.

There won't be hungry people in the world to come.

There won't be injustice or enemies in the world to come.

There sure won't be anyone who doesn't know about God's Son saving work there.

God will be present and every ounce of evil will be dealt with in total.

Now is the time to do it.

This is a no-fear urgency church.

This is a joy.

We get to be a part of doing work here that we won't have to do there.

And if this is where everything is headed, Peter's words in 2 Peter chapter 3, what kind of people should we be?

2 Peter 3 · chapter mention

But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God's righteousness.

And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.

And remember, our Lord's patience gives people time to be saved.

Peter's answer is essentially this start living now in light of then.

That's it.

Start living now in light of what's to come.

Become citizens of that better country before you get there.

That's how Christians wait.

We enjoy every glimpse of the world to come that God gives us now, and where we encounter something that doesn't belong in God's coming world, we do whatever is within our power and by his spirit to push against it.

That's why the church is here.

We don't have to wait to start living like it's on its way.

Highland, love, forgive, serve, repair, make peace, enjoy what is good, because the king is coming, and nothing done for him is ever.

We just wanted to say thank you for listening to the I'm the Christian Church podcast today.

And if you ever want to connect with us,