Don Windmiller opens by observing that mankind has always been driven to seek something better — from smoke signals to Wi-Fi, from covered wagons to air-conditioned homes. But beneath all of that restless striving, he argues, is something far deeper: a God-given longing for eternity. As Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us, God "has set eternity in the hearts of men," and that longing finds its only true rest in Him. The patriarchs — Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — understood this instinctively. They lived as strangers and exiles, dwelling in tents, not because they had nowhere else to go, but because their hearts were anchored somewhere far greater than any earthly city could offer.

Windmiller draws out three movements from Hebrews 11:13-16: the patriarchs were strangers in their own land, they were actively seeking a homeland, and they set their sights on heaven as a better country. Their faith was not passive — it was a confident, forward-leaning trust in God's promise, even when that promise seemed impossible. They could have returned to Ur, to the comforts and familiar sins they had left behind, but they didn't, because as Windmiller puts it, "faith forgets what it left because it loves where it's going." In the same way, believers today are called not to drift back into old patterns of sin, but to press forward, kept secure in the hands of Christ who, as Philippians 1:6 promises, "will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."

The sermon closes with a stirring vision of heaven — not as a vague spiritual concept, but as a real, prepared city where God Himself will dwell with His people (Revelation 21:3). Windmiller invites every listener, whether long-time believer or someone who has never trusted Christ, to embrace this eternal hope. Quoting Jonathan Edwards, he reminds us that "the enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied" — and that everything else in this world, as beautiful as it may be, is only a shadow. The substance is God Himself.

Transcript
Mankind has always been with an explorer, an inventor mentality. We've always been looking for the better thing. It's incredible how God has given us these minds of imagination and ingenuity and the ability to make and create things, all of the things that we have in this world. God has provided the elements on this earth. Everything in this room has come from the earth that God has provided.
The ideas and the ingenuity has come from God that he has established in our own minds. From smoke signals to Wi fi, we've created things from candlelight to electric light, from covered wagons to station wagons. For those young people maybe not know exactly what that is, ask your parents. From stargazing to space exploration and space stations, from tents and scorching heats to high rises and houses with air conditioning, we are always looking for the better thing. This passage today In Hebrews 11:13-16 serves as a powerful reminder that the patriarchs, through the faith in God's promise, lived with heaven in mind as a better country.
I've entitled this; “A desire for a better Country”

"13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 And if they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, then they would have had the opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desired a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city." –

Hebrews 11:13-16 (ESV)

Let's pray together. Father, in heaven, we come before you and we acknowledge you as the Creator of all things, the giver of life, the sustainer of life. We thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming and dying on the cross for our sin and giving us eternal life, giving us a homeland, a permanent place to come and dwell and to live with you forever.
Lord, I pray as we look at your word this morning, that you will interpret it to us through your Holy Spirit, God, that you'll draw us close to you, to love you more deeply, Lord, in our lives on a daily basis. And we give you, Lord, this message. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Strangers, exiles, pilgrims, foreigners, we are all temporary residents in this world since the beginning of Adam and Eve's exile from the garden, from their separation from God because of sin. When they sinned, sin entered the world and thus death entered the world, and separation from God came about. And since that separation from God, mankind has been restless. We've seeking purpose, seeking something better. We've in fact been seeking God.

St. Augustine said, "you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in you."

To glorify God and to enjoy him forever is the purpose of life.

The writer of Ecclesiastes said in Ecclesiastes 3:11,
"he has made everything beautiful in its time, and he has also set eternity in the hearts of men. Yet they cannot fathom the work that God has done from the beginning to the end." -
God has placed within us a desire for him, a desire for eternity. Yet we don't understand it all.

It is God that reveals it to us. It is God who calls us to himself. Both the Old Testament patriarchs and those believers in Christ from the New Testament on find that the world is not enough. It's not our final home. So, in verse 13, I've called this first point.

1. Strangers in their own land

Vs 13 "these all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth." - Hebrews 11:13
These all died in faith. Who are these? Well, it refers back to verses 8 through 10 that Jay talked about last week. Let's take a look at it.

"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. By faith, he went to live in the land of promise, as a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to a city of that had foundations whose designer and builder is God." - Hebrews 11:8-10

Even though they didn't know exactly God's full plan, they believed the promise. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. They looked forward to the promise that God had given to them, a permanent home prepared for them by God. The word faith is the operative word here. Ben laid it out to us very clearly a couple of weeks ago in verse one.

Now, faith is the substance of the things that are hoped for, the assurance, the confidence of things that are hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.
So for the Patriarchs had confidence in God's promise, even before they were fulfilled, they believed it.

Faith is synonymous with trust and belief.

Romans 4, 18, 20, 21
"in hope he, (Abraham), believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations. And as he had been told, so shall your offspring be no Unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God. But he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he has promised" - Romans 4:18, 20-21
against all hope, against all visible and rational grounds of hope.

Jay gave it perfectly in his fourth point last week.

“Faith trust God when promises seem impossible.”

that's what faith does. It trusts God for the impossible.

Faith steps out and leaves a safe place called UR and goes to a foreign land.

Faith lays a son on an altar and ties him up and raises his knife to take his life, trusting that God will offer another sacrifice.

Faith delivers a child at the age of 100 and a wife at 90. As they're laughing in doubt.

Faith builds an ark 450ft long, 75ft wide, 45ft high. Over 120 years in a desert, expecting that God will deliver a global flood. That's what faith does.

So here in verses 13 to 16, all people who lived hadn't received the fulfillment of the promise, but they believed it. As they died in faith. They had the faith that God would fulfill his promise.

The word promise here means a declaration of something with the implication of obligation to fulfill it.
God had an obligation to fulfill this promise.

What was the promise?

Well, we've been teaching this throughout the study in Hebrews.

In Genesis 12:1 3 we see the promise.
"Now the Lord said to Abraham, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." - Genesis 12:1-3
God's promise…

His Promise of a special land. (Ultimately a heavenly one, a heavenly home.)

His promise to make Abram a great nation.

His promise to bless Abraham and his name would be great.

His Promise all the nations of the world would be blessed. Through Abram (later Abraham = Father of multitudes.)

And God’s Blessing…

God's redemptive plan through Jesus Christ and the promise of eternal life with God in heaven.
"He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit." - Galatians 3:14

That was the promise, the eternal life that we would have through Jesus Christ's death on the cross, his resurrection and it’s by His grace. We are saved through faith, by the grace of God.

The patriarch's faith wasn't anchored in the immediate.
It was in confident expectation. They believed that it was going to happen. They believed the promise that God's word would come true. And it gave them their peace. It gave them their hope.
So when Jacob in Genesis chapter 29 gives a prophetic swan song to his sons, the 12 sons who would be the 12 leaders of the tribes of Israel, he says in verse 18, he says,
"I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord." -
So, Jacob here was understanding that the promise was coming whether it would happen right now or not. He believed the promise that God would deliver and that there would be an eternal home for them. And they believed it. -
The patriarchs believed it. Those in the Old Testament that trusted God believed it by faith. They died resting in the promise of God's salvation,

And God is faithful. And the promise in His Word tells us about his faithfulness.
"Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, and he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments." - Deuteronomy 7:9

"Let's hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promised is faithful." - Hebrews 10:23

So, because of God's faithfulness he cannot lie. God has promised this eternal home through Jesus Christ. And the patriarchs, even though they didn't understand the whole promise, believed it because God gave it to them.

Dr. John Piper says…
"the reason God was righteous to pass over, that is to forgive the sins of the Old Testament saints and the sins that Jesus forgave during his lifetime while he was here on earth, was that God was looking to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. So just as our sins 2000 years ago are covered by the blood of Christ, so Abraham's sins were covered by the cross of Christ 2000 years before Christ existed. And so, it was with the saints in between.”

(Dr. John Piper)

So, it's all pointing to, and all as a result of the sacrifice of Christ for our sins once for all on the cross.

Romans 4:8, also in Genesis 16:6; Galatians 3:6; James 2:2
"Abraham believed God by faith, and it was counted to him as righteousness." - Romans 4:3

So, God gave him the righteousness of Christ because of Abraham's faith, believing in the promise, he didn't earn it. We don't earn it. We're not good enough. It's a gift that God gives us. It's a gift of grace.
Abraham believed in the promise of faith, just as we believe in faith. God gives us the righteousness of Christ, and we have his eternal life. We have this promised home in heaven because of Christ and his work on the cross. Hebrews 11:6 says,
"and without faith, it is impossible to please him. For whoever will draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek Him." - Hebrews 11:6

David Mathis, who is the executive editor of Desiring God, says this about faith. He says,
"faith leads to obedience. Faith takes God at his word. Faith considers the truthfulness and faithfulness of God and his goodness, and that God's plan is better. And faith leads us to act differently than we would without it." -Living faith, brothers and sisters… Living faith gives us dying faith.

We can rest in that.

So, they were strangers in their own land.

2. They were Seeking Homeland. In Hebrews 14 and 15

14 "for the people who speak thus, make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of the land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return." –

So, what are people talking about? They're talking about the patriarchs who believed by faith that there was a better land. They hadn't yet received the promise, but they acknowledged that they were strangers, pilgrims in their land, and they believed God's promise by faith.

Bruce Hunt has a website entitled “Precept Austin.”

Saying the motto of the patriarchs might have been something like this.
"Tents pinched in Canaan. Hearts anchored in heaven." –

Our tent is here in this world; our lives are temporary in this world. But our hearts (our souls) as believers in Jesus Christ, by faith are anchored in heaven. We have that eternal hope that we've been singing about, that God has given to us.
People of faith in the Old Testament were looking forward to God's plan, His plan of redemption, eternal home by trusting God. Even though they didn't understand or see the whole picture, we also believe in faith, don't we? We accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the redemption that he's provided for us on the cross. And we look forward Also to that eternal home, that same home that the patriarchs have and believed by faith.

"Though you have not seen him, you love Him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. For you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your soul" - 1 Peter 1:8-9

"But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ." - Philippians 3:20

Jesus said to his disciples…
"don't let your hearts be troubled. If you believe in God, believe also in me. In my father’s house there are many mansions. And if it were not so, I would have told you. But I will go and I will prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come and take you to be where I am." - John 14:1-3

Isn't that great at that moment that we take that last breath in this world as believers in Jesus Christ, trusting Him by faith, he takes us by the hand and brings us home. I like that.

Verse 15 says,
"if they had been thinking of that land which they had gone out of, they would have had opportunity to return." - Hebrews 11:15
Have you ever wanted to return to your homestead? The old homestead?

I was born and raised in Gary, Indiana. I won't sing it.
I love my family. I loved my upbringing. I love my friends, my school, my church. I loved it all. But I do not want to go back to Gary, Indiana. It wasn't until I went to college in Michigan that I understood that there were clear skies and you didn't have to breathe smoke. I didn't even know I was breathing smoke.
Abraham departure was not from a primitive homeland. In fact, Ur in the ancient world was a very advanced urban community, even had a royal cemetery. It was a vibrant center of commerce and culture producing scholars. But it also was a city deeply entrenched in pagan worship. Abram was a pagan.
Abram came from that kind of background. And God reached down and saved him. We're pagans before we know Christ is Savior. We're sinful people. And God reaches down and he draws us to himself, and he saves us and pulls us out of that. And God pulled Abram and pulled the patriarchs, Isaac and Jacob and all their families and all of those that believed him by faith, God pulled them out of that.
If they had been thinking about returning to the land, they had opportunity to do it. They could have gone back. I mean, they were staying in tents. They didn't have all of the niceties of UR, the food, the friends, the family, all the pleasures that they enjoyed, even pleasures that were not of God, things that were sinful pleasures. They could have gone back to that.

The preacher in Hebrews is reminding these Jewish believers that have trusted Christ as Savior and are being drawn back because of social pressures to some of the Old Testament sacrificial systems.
The preacher here in Hebrews is letting them know by the patriarchs, don't go back to that. It's empty.
It's not going to be beneficial to you. It's going to draw you away from the love and the hope that you have in Christ.

So, the patriarchs focus was on God's promise.

The desire to return is the same for all of us, right?
I mean, we can have a desire to return, to choose to go back to our old way of life, to some of the sinful patterns that can happen to us,

Except… for a deeper love for God and trusting in his promise. That love for God and trusting in his promise is the thing that keeps us from going back. Realize that going back is going to take us away from the love and the promises of God.

"Faith forgets what it left because it loves where it's going." - Precept Austin

We forget by faith what we're leaving because we love where we're going. We love the relationship that we have in God. We love the opportunity that we're going to live with him forever that we've been singing about.

Paul said…
"Brothers, I do not regard myself having laid hold of it yet. But one thing I do, I forget what lies behind. And reaching forward to what is ahead, I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, my Lord." - Philippians 3:13-14
It seems like whenever we draw closer to God and that love that we have for him, it seems like Satan just kind of digs right in and draws close to us as well. Right? Colossians 13:2 says,
"if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things of earth." - Colossians 3:1-2

So, every time we sense Satan is gnawing at us, drawing us away, I want to set my mind on Christ. And when we experience Christ because we desire the better thing, we don't really want to go back, do we? We don't want to fall back into those old patterns of pain and struggle and suffering. Abraham was careful also not to go back to Ur, even when he wanted a wife for his son Isaac. And he didn't want to send Isaac back, so he sent a servant back. He just didn't want to have that influence at all in his life.
So when we start to feel those influences in our life and slip back to them, realize the destruction that they make in our life, and seek the things of Christ, seek the higher things, the better things, because God is going to fulfill that great promise for us of eternal life.

John Gill says this. He says
"true believers may strangely go back again in some instances. (We do that, don't we?) But they shall not return finally and totally. For they are held and drawn with the cords of love. They are in the hands of Christ and are secure in the covenant of grace. They are returned to Christ in the effectual calling who will keep them. They are of the household of God." - John Gill

I mean, we have the tendency to go back, don't we? We still are sinners. We still have this sin nature. We still struggle. Paul talked about that in Romans. We struggle with that.
We're not perfect. We're sinful beings. However, we are kept in Christ. He draws us back because he owns us. We belong to Him. I Love John 6,
"The Father gives me, whoever the father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me I will never cast out... For I have come down from heaven, he says not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of the Father that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life. And I will raise him up on the last day" - John 6:37-40

when Christ saves us. He keeps us. Nothing can take us out of his hand. It's his work, not my work.
It's his security, not my security, not the things I do.

And the proof of faith lies in perseverance…

"For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold to the original confidence, firm to the end." - Hebrews 3:14

"Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promises is faithful." - Hebrews 10:23

The truth is, none of us can keep our own faith, right? None of us could follow Christ unless he's the one that does the work, unless he's the one who keeps us.

"And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." - Philippians 1:6
It's his work in us. He will complete it. I can rest on that.
It's not what I do that keeps my salvation, it's what he does.

So, I persevere in in Him. In His perseverance in me.

"The Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one." - 2 Thessalonians 3:3

It's Christ that will guard us. It's Christ that will keep us. It's Christ that saves us. It's Christ that will keep us from the evil one. And so, we persevere with that. That's our heart's desire.

And this affirms us, God's work, His faithfulness, is the basis of our confidence.

The third and last point…

3. “Setting our Sights on Heaven”

"But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city." - Hebrews 11:16

This word desire in Vine's dictionary says it literally means to stretch out one's hands or one's arms, expressing an eagerness, an eager desire.

Don't you love it when your grandkids, or maybe if you don't have grandkids, just that special person that you love, comes near and you open your arms and you want to embrace them. I see my little Harper and Avi come to visit and we're standing on the porch, and they jump out of the truck, and they come running to us with their arms stretched out. And we stretch our arms out and we embrace. That’s the best!

I mean, what a wonderful eager desire that we have for each other, for that love that we share with one another.
When I was studying this, I thought of Stephen. I thought of Stephen, who's preaching the Word, the Gospel of Christ. He is seized and brought to the Sanhedrin with false witnesses. In Acts 7 He Calls the Sanhedrin, stiff necked people, uncircumcised in your hearts and your ears. He said that you always resist the Holy Spirit, and you betrayed and murdered the Messiah.
They are furious, gritting their teeth. They wanted to kill him – they take up stones to stone him. And as they’re taking up stones, Stephen looks to heaven and heaven opens up and he sees Christ standing at the right hand of God. You remember when Christ ascended, he finished his work and he sat down. The work was finished, completed.
He sat at the right hand of God. But when Stephen was ready to be welcomed home, Jesus is standing, I can see with arms wide open. I love you, Stephen. Welcome home.

The people of faith desire something better. They desired a better country. This word is better. We've been talking about it throughout our study. In Hebrews we said that Christ was better in chapter one than the prophets, better than the angels in chapter two, chapter three, better than Moses, better than Joshua in chapter four, better than the high priest, better than Abraham, better than Melchizedek in chapter seven, better than the sacrifices.

And he has a better home for us, an eternal, heavenly home.
And it says that God wasn't ashamed of them. He wasn't ashamed of their love. Why? Because they desired God. They desired this better home. They had faith as pilgrims, believing what God had for them a promise. So, God responds with a divine pleasure that God loves us when we love him and we walk with him by faith. God loves that, it honors him, it pleases him.
And the opposite could be true, right? When we don't desire heaven, when we don't desire God, then God is ashamed.

Paul said in Romans 1:16,
"For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God, of salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."

And Jesus said in Matthew 10:32,
"so everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven."

So, when we have this love for Christ and for his work on the cross and accept that by faith he gives us his grace, and he is pleased and he is honored.

Charles Alcott said,
"through faith the patriarchs were willing to connect their whole life and that of their children with waiting at God's bidding for the fulfillment of the promise. Wandering and sojourning until God's own time should come, when he would grant a home in a Country for their own, for their whole families."

They were waiting on God. And God had prepared a city, a heavenly city. We sang about it. What a wonderful, glorious place. A place of perfect love. Sweet fellowship. No more sin, no more death, no more crying, no more pain. For the old order of things has passed away. Behold, all things have become new. That's what heaven is.

If we enjoy the earth that God has given us and all the relationships that he has here even though imperfect. We enjoy the beauty of the mountains and the sands of the seashore. Can you imagine what heaven is going to be? A perfect love, perfect city, perfect in every way.

And the best part, the best part. Scripture says God will be there.

"And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look, God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them and be their God." - Revelation 21:3

We'll be with God. We will see him and Christ.

Jonathan Edwards, in his sermon the Christian Pilgrim;
"God is the highest good of the reasonable creature, and the enjoyment of him is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven fully, to enjoy God is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Father, mothers, husbands, wives, children, or company of earthly friends are but a shadow. But the enjoyment of God is a substance." - Jonathan Edwards
Everything that we love here that God has given to us, all the beauty of earth, all of our relationships and families, and God wants us to enjoy that and to love them. But they are but a shadow because they're temporary. Everything in this world is going to rust and decay away. Relationships will end at death, but God and His love goes on forever. And He’s the substance of life. That's the real good of life here.

We're tent dwellers. This is a pretty big tent in front of you, but it will decay, it will die. But the real Don Windmiller, the soul of Don Windmiller, will live forever.

1 "for we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house to not made with hands, eternal in heaven. 6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith and not by Sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord." 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim too. To please him.” - 2 Corinthians 5:1,6-9

I want to please you, God. I want my love for you to be the greatest desire of my life.

So, it might lead us to ask the question, how am I conditioning my soul indifference to God or delighting in Him?

God is honored by those who desire him, that trust his word, which embrace his son.

"Whom have I in heaven, but you and earth have nothing I desire except you." - Psalm 73:25

I'm not perfect. I'm a sinful person. I sin, am distracted on a daily basis.

And the patriarchs weren't perfect either. They were sinful, but they had a heart for God. David, in all of his distractions and all of his sin, says he had a heart for God.
And so even in our sinfulness we remind ourselves that, I've got a heart for you, God. I love you. I want you to be the greatest desire of my life. Everything else is just but a shadow, but you're the substance.

For those that know Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, death is not the end. It's not something to fear. Last night I received a message from my executive secretary's daughter. When I passed in Florida, my executive secretary, Marcia, went to be home with the Lord two nights ago. Marcia was a great woman of God, a great friend of Peggy and me, and a great encourager of me as a pastor. She made me look good, a great saint in the Lord. And her daughter said. She said, Don, I was with mom all night long. We played hymns that she loved and ministered to her spirit. And she went so gently and so peacefully in the hands of Christ.
And I texted her back last night and I said, Heather, Marsha's home. Believers won't leave home. We went home. We went home.

Jesus said,
"Rejoice and be glad because. Because great is reward in heaven." - Matthew 5:12

So as Christ followers, we have connections, all of us that know Christ as savior. Those that Steve visited in that small church up north, those old folks and those Christian motorcycle guys, we all have this relationship with Christ.

· We Share in a Heavenly Calling (Hebrews 3:1)

· We Share in a Heavenly Inheritance (I Peter 1:4) (that God has kept for us by the Holy Spirit. It's his work. He Keeps it for us.)

· We Share in a Heavenly High Priest who Intercedes for us. (Hebrews 7:24)

· We Share now, (positionally), in a Heavenly Place (Ephesians 2:1-10) (we have it, it's here, it's ours, because God has given it to us in Christ by our faith and his grace.)

· We Share in a Heavenly Citizenship. (Philippians 3:20)

We share in that right now. All of us in this room, we share in these things together because of our faith in Jesus Christ. And he has saved us by grace through faith alone. So, in Hebrews 12, and we'll get to that in probably a few more weeks here.
We need to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of, of our faith.

Whether you're young or old, delighting in God is the greatest joy, is the only good. That really makes sense.

If you're young. I remember being young. I do remember being young at one time😊
And I remember, thinking, Lord, don't come back right now. I want to get married. I want to do this and that. I was pretty immature. But the truth of the matter is God wants me to have those things, wants me to have, you know, marriage, if it's his will.
He wants me to have kids if it's his will. He wants me to have a good job. He wants me to enjoy life and enjoy the mountains and enjoy the sunsets, enjoy the ocean. He wants me to enjoy those things. He gave them to us to enjoy.
But they are not the ultimate thing. They are only the shadows of things that God has given us. The substance is Him. Our dreams, our goals are all good things. But remember again what Edwards said, that we need to stay focused on the highest good, stay focused on God, because the enjoyment in him is the only happiness, the only true happiness which our souls can be satisfied.
Everything else in this world, as good as it is that God has given us, are just shadows. And we want to enjoy the substance. We want to delight and enjoy and love God as our first priority in our lives.

1. And maybe you’re here, maybe you're watching online, and you haven't had that relationship with God yet. He's not the substance in your life.
He's not the desire of your life. You haven't trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. It's not too late. The scripture says today is the day of salvation. Scripture also says it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment.
So trusting Christ as your Savior is not going to happen after your death. It has to happen now in this life. So, would you trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior now to have that assurance of this eternal hope that God has promised to the patriarchs, and he promises to us as we believe him by faith.

Pray with me.
Father, in Heaven, we thank you so much for revealing your love to us in your Son, Jesus Christ. We thank you for the promise of heaven and of eternal life in Christ. We thank you that by grace you give this to us. We don't earn it; we can't pay for it. But you give us this incredible gift of eternal life.
And so, Lord, we say, forgive us of our sin. We repent of our sin. We desire to know you, to love you, to walk with you, to live with you for all of eternity. So right now, Lord, I pray for those that would want to trust you as their Lord and Savior. Lord, you would do that by your grace, and we believe it by faith.
And we start this incredible journey right now, today, with you, headed towards Heaven. But while we're here in this world, Lord, we want to embrace you, we want to please you, we want to desire you above all things. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Sermons

Desiring a Better Country - Hebrews 11:13-16 - October 11, 2026 - Don Windmiller