"A Glimpse of Something Better" | Isaiah 65:17-25 | Charlie Houck | Mesa Church San Diego

What if the reason you don't feel like you need a way back is because you haven't gotten a good enough look at what you're missing? Charlie Houck opens with the movie The Family Man — a man who thinks he has everything until he gets a glimpse of another life, and suddenly he would give up all his wealth to keep it. That's the question this sermon asks: what would it take for you to say "I don't want to lose that"?Drawing from Isaiah 65 and across the entire book of Isaiah, Charlie paints a sweeping picture of the new heavens and the new earth God is preparing. He walks through every category of brokenness this world carries — death, sickness, oppression, war, futile work, estranged families, spiritual distance — and shows, from Isaiah's own words, exactly what God plans to do with each one. No more infants who don't survive. No more children taught to evade drones in wartime. No more work that someone else takes. No more families scattered by estrangement and divorce. Before you can even call out to God, he will already have answered.Charlie also tackles two lies the enemy uses to keep people from finding the way back: "I don't need it — my life is pretty good," and "I'm too broken — there's no way back for me." Speaking from his own experience of losing his infant son Malachi, he shows how Isaiah 65:20 became a personal lifeline, and how God's plan for restoration isn't generic — it's specific enough to address every particular pain you've ever named.But none of it comes without Jesus. The new creation, the restored cosmos, the healed families — it all flows only through the blood of the cross. Jesus is the shoot from the stump of Jesse, the one who stepped into our broken world, worked a broken job, and loved us enough to become the perfect sacrifice. He is the way back — and there is no brokenness stronger than his blood poured out for you.Mesa Church | San Diego, CAmesachurch.org